coComments related to ahynes1

I am not a big fan of horror f

2009-06-09T23:17:40.433+02:00

I am not a big fan of horror films, so I probably won't go see this one. However, I heard a review of it the other day, including an interview with the director. From the interview, it sounded pretty interesting. Thanks for adding your take on the film.

I just followed you on Twitter

2009-06-09T22:08:43.415+02:00

I just followed you on Twitter. I'm http://twitter.com/ahynes1 And, I followed your blog on Facebbok too, although I can't figure out why my picture isn't showing up. You can follow my blog on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/orient_lodge/ Aldon

Sending prayers and positive t

2009-06-06T00:51:12.739+02:00

Sending prayers and positive thoughts from the U.S.

Magpie in particular is a good

2009-05-15T14:29:21.184+02:00

Magpie in particular is a good way to lose followers. Whenever anyone I am following sends out a tweet on Magpie, I immediately unfollow.

It is good to see that Phirate

2009-05-15T13:39:02.773+02:00

It is good to see that Phirate stepped in to provide an explanation. However, the explanation does not match the observed behavior. If it were simply a disconnection as Phirate suggests, then we would not have seen people properly recording dropped cards, only to see those credits disappear afterwards.

One more data point. My popul

2009-05-15T02:32:28.737+02:00

One more data point. My popularity seems to have dropped in an amount similar to the number of cards dropped on me that seem to have disappeared. This has resulted in me following several places in the overall standings, which indicates to me that not everyone has been affected the same way (or we all would have dropped in a similar manner).

My current calculation is that

2009-05-15T01:27:36.981+02:00

My current calculation is that I've lost around 450 drops that I've did over the past couple of days and approximately that many cards dropped on me. The ads that I'm running are completely screwed up. I was supposed to have over 15 ads scheduled for today. It has now dropped to 9 and I still have ads scheduled for 12th that are still running. While I understand that problems will happen, what is very disconcerting is that there has been no comment from EC management.

Additional note: I had over 1

2009-05-15T01:22:51.047+02:00

Additional note: I had over 15 ads scheduled to be running today. (As a general rule, I schedule at least 15 ads every day). All of a sudden, I'm down to 9 ads scheduled to be running today, but I still have ads running from the 12th. No explanations have been received yet as to why half a dozen ads I had scheduled today have disappeared.

I'm having lots of similar pro

2009-05-15T00:16:50.758+02:00

I'm having lots of similar problems. I stepped away from the computer and the EntreCard bar said I had dropped 100 cards (which seems particularly low given my dropping habits). When I came back a little later, it had dropped to 5 cards dropped. Looking at transactions, it shows that I received a drop at 11:04 yesterday, and then no drops until today at 17:38 This at least gives some view about the data that has been lost, since during that time I dropped cards and the drops do not show up. Another aspect of the problem is that the ads that are currently running are ads that are listed to have run on the 11th and the 12th. In spite of all of this, I'm only seeing a small drop off in traffic as reported via Google Analytics

Thanks for posting the clip.

2009-05-07T20:47:50.186+02:00

Thanks for posting the clip. I added it as a favorite and may end up using it in an upcoming blog post.

I'm on many Ning networks and

2009-05-03T15:11:21.286+02:00

I'm on many Ning networks and it is a good platform. However, I haven't established a Ning network yet. One group I'm on, however, had a discussion about concerns about how Ning uses the data it gathers. They encouraged people to consider elgg. Elgg is open source software similar to Ning, except that being open source, you can run it on your own site, control the data you see fit, and modify it however you want. Like Ning, I haven't found any real need to do much with elgg yet. However, I did set up a simple elgg site which you are welcome to check out: Aldon's elgg site (Note, since this is a test site, it might disappear at any point. However, I would love feedback.)

I look forward to seeing your

2009-04-21T23:24:44.973+02:00

I look forward to seeing your site when it is ready. I've spent a lot of time thinking about different aspects of what makes systems like this work or fail and would be glad to share ideas. Also, I just finished reading Tara Hunt's new book, The Whuffie Factor. I mention this blog post in my review.

I have a slightly older Canon,

2009-04-20T19:39:51.227+02:00

I have a slightly older Canon, the SD 1000. It is actually the third one that I've had. There is a neat program that you can get, if you're really geeky, called the Canon Hackers Development Kit or CHDK. You install it on the SD card for your camera, and you get all kinds of interesting new features. I run it on my camera, and have a blog post about it at http://www.orient-lodge.com/node/3217 If you try it out, let me know what you think.

I suspect that if you are look

2009-04-19T17:46:19.260+02:00

I suspect that if you are looking at EntreCard as anything but a source of additional traffic, you are likely to disappointed. Personally, I don't think getting paid 1000 to 3000 credits (the equivalent of $1 to $3) for writing a 200 word blog post is particularly compelling. I value my writing much more than that. As to the traffic, yes, it does have a high bounce rate. People look at the front page and then move on. As a general rule, I don't mind that. I want my regular readers to find what they want when they visit, so a high bounce rate is actually a good thing. What is more important is time on site. EntreCard readers tend to spend very little time on my site. The skim my articles and move on. I would rather have readers that become more engaged, the way my readers do from Facebook or Twitter. The other thing to keep in mind, is that when people frequently see the same blog, providing it isn't overkill, they are more likely to pay attention to it and people who have often skimmed my blog have eventually become regular readers. So, I find EntreCard of some value for attracting new readers. However, we must recognize what Lobo said. EntreCard is one of the worst run organizations I have ever come across. Use them as long as they are useful, but expect them to do additional dumb things that will drive away good readers and writers. My two cents.....

That is great. I love it!

2009-04-15T18:52:09.092+02:00

That is great. I love it!

I also think your widget is a

2009-04-10T23:12:05.013+02:00

I also think your widget is a good representation of your blog. It stands out. There are more than a few widgets of scantily clad women. While that might get some people's attention, it does little to differentiate. If anything, I'd think about changing the layout of the blog. If you look at my widget, I've tried to set it up so it matches the layout of my blog. The font type and color are the same on my widget as on the title of by blog. I have the same shade of red on the sides of my widget as I do on my blog. I even try to get other sites, like Twitter and so one to match this look and feel, and I've made business cards with the same look and feel. It is part of my personal brand. You might think about how you further your personal brand. Great post.

I've been watching this closel

2009-04-06T16:06:22.595+02:00

I've been watching this closely, and haven't completely decided my reaction. I expect it will shift over time. Initially, I was approving all paid ads. However, since it does nothing for me, and hurts the advertisers that I care about, I've now changed my strategy and only approve paid ads for blogs that I read regularly and enjoy. (Yes, I approved the ad for this site). Likewise, I look at the EntreCard Link. As a general rule, again with the exceptions noted above, I do not click on paid ads. They are a generally a waste of my time to visit. With that, instead of chaining off of ads, which is how I used to do a lot of my surfing, I'm now surfing off my inbox, which further decreases the value of EntreCard ads. I have noted that my traffic from Adgitize ads have now exceeded my traffic from EntreCard Ads http://www.adgitize.com/?affid=342 So, I may start shifting more of my focus there. I will do some analysis of the ads as we move forward, but I'm figuring, I'll give it a few days to settle. Aldon

I am impressed with the stimul

2009-02-27T21:33:39.754+01:00

I am impressed with the stimulus package. I believe it has been constructed better than I feared it would be. My biggest concern is what sort of oversight we have. I think it is up to all of us to make sure the money is spent wisely. One site that I like is Stimulus Watch http://www.stimuluswatch.org You can comment about pros and cons of proposed projects. Other comments: For cons, you list the size of the bill and will it be enough. It sort of reminds me of an old joke. Two elderly people are at a resort in the Catskills. One comments about how bad the food is. The other agrees and complains about how small the portions are. Final thought: How do we know when we are out of a recession? I would guess that it has to do with when our GDP starts growing again. However, that is a trailing indicator, and better indicators are probably consumer confidence and new factory orders.

As a quick heads up. When I v

2009-02-10T02:53:38.775+01:00

As a quick heads up. When I visited your site today, I got a message from McAfee saying that your site has the Exploit-IFrame.gen.c trojan on it. I've tried to look a little bit more closely to see if I can say where the trojan is, but I don't have much more for details. However, I would encourage you to check closely to make sure that you don't have any trojans on your website. Aldon

It isn't as bad where I am, bu

2009-02-04T17:38:51.442+01:00

It isn't as bad where I am, but the storms have been incessant. My WW picture is of my daughter sitting on a snowbank waiting for the bus.

I'll add my voice to those say

2009-01-28T16:28:31.897+01:00

I'll add my voice to those saying you should own your own domain. I figure approximately $10 a year is worth it. As to hosting, that is a different issue. What you might want to do is look at getting your own domain and getting it to redirect to your blogger site.

I checked my blog. I was also

2009-01-26T21:02:50.651+01:00

I checked my blog. I was also at 97%. What I found more interesting was that I reached 97% in the first four degrees of separation. There were only 4 blogs that were five degrees away, and none showed up as six degrees away. What I also find interesting is that in a quick sample, no one seems to get over 746 blogs or 97%. I'm guessing those last 22 blogs just aren't connected. I'm also curious if there is any nice programatic way to get to some of the data so I can create some graphs.

I enjoyed reading your post ab

2009-01-26T01:49:15.541+01:00

I enjoyed reading your post about making hard cider. We decided to give it a try this year and made two batches, one was five gallons and the second was six gallons. We drank a lot of it and given a lot of it away. In our case, there is a local cider mill that is good for buying fresh bulk cider. We used a cider yeast. In the second batch we used a Belgian ale yeast. Both batches we had a second fermentation to clarify the cider, but in both cases we bottled some after the first fermentation. You can read more about our experiences at http://www.orient-lodge.com/Cider Next year, we might make even more batches. I do agree, that hard times call for hard cider, and I like the way it ties back to our countries history.

I've already unfollowed severa

2008-12-07T21:22:00.713+01:00

I've already unfollowed several people that have added Magpie. If you want to make money off of Twitter, there are much better ways. I'm currently using ad.vu, which I've been pleased with. It is unobtrusive. I haven't tried twittad yet, but it looks okay as well. You can read more of my thoughts on this at The Advertising Conversation on Twitter

Okay... Let's see what this ca

2008-09-23T04:55:02.188+02:00

Okay... Let's see what this can do