Statcounter.com

I thought I should tell everyone about www.statcounter.com

I use the statcounter service to capture web statistics. I can watch traffic in real time. I can tell where visitors came from, I can tell what they searched for to find this site. This is all valuable information if you're trying to build a useful website.

I've used standalone stat packages in the past such as Webtrends and webalizer and wusage - but Statcounter beats them all. It's free, invisible to most of my visitors, and easy to use.

Does anyone out there use a package they like better? Please post a comment to tell me about it.

How to install floating or laminate flooring

Okay - Laminate flooring is one of the best and most cost effective products available for home improvement. If you are looking to make a dramatic improvement to a room and you don't have much money or experience with tools or anything beyond painting - laminate flooring is the way to go.

Laminate flooring is sometimes called click flooring or floating flooring. A standard project is super simple... You yank up all the existing flooring and expose the subfloor (generally plywood or chipboard), lay down the special underpad, then snap together your flooring material until the floor is completely covered.

Tools required:
- Table saw to cut down the length of your laminate boards.
- A circular saw or mitre saw
- The special laminate knocking block they sell in the building supply stores (technically not required, but well worth it).
- A rubber mallet (a regular hammer will also work).
- A prybar like the one shown here http://www.tool-net.co.uk/data/index.php?ToolID=311035

It never hurts to attend one of those free workshops that building supply stores hold. Laminate flooring is big business for them, so a laminate flooring workshop is held almost every week.

Anyhow, here's the basic process...
Terms I will use:
- The female edge.. the laminate material's grooved edge
- The male edge.. the laminate material's tongued edge.

Generally speaking, you will want to start along the longest straight wall of your room. The first row of laminate is super easy. With female edges towards the wall, start in the corner and snap the pieces at the short edge all the way to the far wall... (knock the short edges together using your knocking block and mallet). Unless you have a very odd room, your final piece will not fit. Measure carefully and use your mitre or circular saw to cut a piece down to size. BE CAREFUL... make sure you cut the piece so that the short female edge is on the piece you are going to use and not the scrap piece. If you cut it the other way around (with the male edge on the piece that has been measure to size) the whole piece is scrap... The newly cut end piece may need to be snapped into place with your prybar. Use a piece of thick cardboard to protect your wall from damage when using the prybar.

Okay.. So you've completed your first strip. If you stare at it and squint, you can already imagine how the whole room will look. The laminate piece should be staggered (like bricks on a brick wall). So you start your next strip by cutting down a piece of laminate. I suggest cutting the piece in roughly in half, because the piece with the short female edge may be used later in the job to complete a row. Place your first piece of your second row down, with the cut edge towards the wall, bring it up to the first piece of your first row and lift it slightly to match up the tongue and groove, push it down and bingo, you've made your first "click" (this may take some practice). Now, use your knocking block and mallet or hammer to carefully knock this newly laid piece to match up with the short edge from the first row.

Wow... We're almost there. It's about to get super easy. Next, lay a full piece of laminate down, click it to its neighbouring long row, then knock it to lock to its short edge neighbour.

Now... it's basically a process of repeating this process until you have your room completed. The final row is tricky because your have to measure the required width carefully and cut the final pieces along their lengths, then use a prybar to snap them into place. Strong potential to mess up on this final row, so take your time.

Other important tips...The edges of your laminate pieces are important. Handle the material carefully. If an edge is damaged, the piece is basically toast. You may be able to use these scraps as edge pieces or to complete rows (by cutting off the damaged edge). Because your completed project will be nice and uniform, that broken edge you ignore will be very noticeable.

Use quarter round to finish all the edges... This will hide all the rough edges of your project.

Questions, corrections, or tips? Please post a comment!

Email to Blogger doesn't work

An update on the email-to-blogger option. Yesterday it worked instantly. Today: 15 minutes so far.. no sign of my post about whopissedyouoff.com.

Hmmm... I get the feeling that, with Google involved, these blogger bugs will get sorted out. I will remain patient. Give them another 6 months - it'll be feature rich and error free (relatively).

NOTE: This entry eventually posted manually after waiting 48 hours for the email to blogger function to work...

Has someone pissed you off?

A friend of mine runs this site designed for venting and generally telling people what you think. You should check it out when you get a chance. Lots of members and some entertaining conversations. Plus - a nice picture of Eva Longoria today. http://www.whopissedyouoff.com/

The trouble with blogger

I use blogger.com from the good folks at Google to maintain this site. While very convenient and generally well designed, I have run into a number of issues that have frustrated me greatly.

I have my blogger account setup to FTP my blog to my hosting provider. So when I add a blog entry (what I call articles) through Blogger.com through their form, I should just have to hit the publish button – then it “publishes” the content to my webserver. This is where things often go awry. The “Your files are being published” screen will often hang at some percentage (lower than 100%)… It’ll keep reloading for ever – stuck at 60% (or 23% or 80%). At this point, anything you entered into the blogger form is lost (generally speaking).

The reason? My theory is that blogger is very popular and when you try to publish in the evening (the busy time).. their servers are just overloaded. I only run into this problem at night.

So.. I write all my articles/blog entries in my word processor, save them, the paste the into the form before hitting the publish button. If it all goes wrong - not the end of the world. I just try again later.

Blogger allows you to submit entries by email. I tried before - a long time ago - and it failed... The entries never showed up. So this is a re-attempt.

Review - Call of Duty, Finest Hour - XBOX

The reviews for Activision's Call of Duty, Finest Hour have been widely positive. This is not a positive review.

I hated this game. It sucked so much that I didn't finish it... and I'm big on finishing games. It' a boring rehash of previous Call of Duty titles.. and this xbox version is particularly bad.
The save points are way too far apart. You can be the biggest hero... saving all your mates, making it past hordes of bad guys... then you die and find yourself alllll the way back at the start of the level. Oh man that's irritating.

Want to customize your controls? Forget it. You can select from some preset configurations.... You can invert your Y-axis... but forget about changing anything else... Did I mention how much this game sucks? I was searching for reasons to stop playing. My daughter wanted to watch Scoobie Doo... "Do you want to watch it on the big screen? Nahh, I'm not using it."

Details Details:

Good Points
-You get to play as a Brit, an American, and a Russian.

Bad Points
-Extremely linear gameplay
-Mysterious invisible walls confine you to a very limited gameplay area.
-Poor graphics compared to similar Xbox titles.
-Distant savepoints.
-Backward AI that can be easily messed up. Try blocking the path of a character you are protecting...
-Arcade-style predictability.

Ways to make a quick buck.

See also: Ways to Make a Quick Buck by Web Publishing
AND: Our sister site, freemoneymakingadvice.com

Getting rich quick is something we would all like to do. It's why we play the lottery. It's why we love game shows and reality TV programs that give everyday people the chance to dig themselves out of obscurity – and possibly out of debt.

The truth is... Very few people actually get rich quick – and most people who do get rich quick don't win any contests... Most of them work very hard and can tolerate a great deal of risk. They jump head first into business opportunities that have all sorts of “stay away” warning signs – then they risk it all again.

The real key to getting a little bit ahead in life (paying your bills more easily, etc) is to take advantage of all the small opportunities you find. This article, and those in the series to follow will detail specific opportunities as well as the general philosophy of this approach.

Putting yourself in the right frame of mind.
You are tired. You have a full-time job, you have kids to entertain/watch/chase/etc, you want to spend time with your spouse, you aren't appreciated at work unless you put in extra hours, the house needs work, and by the time the kids are in bed you just want to sit in front of the TV and escape for a few hours. This down-time is important for your psychological well-being. So where are you going to find the time to start that business you always wanted to start? Your summer vacation? Weekends? You're looking for a large chunk of time to get your business underway... and that's the problem.

The scenario outlined above may not exactly match your lfe situation... But the central point – that you feel overwhelmed with “stuff” already and can't imagine how you could possibly generate some sort of secondary income. The infamous “time is money” concept can be considered from the other perspective... Where money is time. What you actually seek is more time... to make more money, to make more time.. with the underlying goal of having more time for yourself and your family. Quite the paradox.

You need to stop thinking about starting a business. Businesses are complex and difficult to manage. They take 110% of your time and they don't make money (generally speaking) for years after they are founded.

First things first. A penny saved is a penny earned. Take some time to review your finances and make sure you understand where every bit of money comes from and where it goes. Think you know already? Check again... This is a healthy exercise. Now – within reason, cut out the unnecessary spending. I won't get into the philosophy of a penny saved is a penny earned.... It's pretty straightforward.

Now.. Go on the great passive opportunity hunt. You are going to be more like a spider than a lion. From this point forward, a chance to make a quick $10 is something you will take advantage of. Once you master the art of not missing an opportunity, you'll find that $20 here, $10 there, and another $15 over there really starts to add up.

Obviously, $10 here and there isn't going to change your world. This is the first step in changing your frame of mind. Your risk tolerance will slowly but surely grow and your confidence about making extra money will increase. These two elements are major motivators. You will begin to become more active about making extra money. These are the most important steps in overcoming the money vs time paradox.

How to select a host for your domain

There are three components to any basic website. The site content (html and image files), the domain name, and a host for your site content. This article will guide you through the process of selecting a webhost.

Webhosts span the full range from respectable to downright dirty... The bad ones will trick you into giving away your domain - or even use the information you provide to steal your identity. Most companies are fine – don't let us spook you out too much. Follow our guidelines for selecting a host and you should do fine.

Many hosting companies are actually resellers. They have a website of their own which they use to “front” some other company's services. Using a reseller as a host poses many problems. They don't have physical access to the servers (the computers that host the webspace). There is an added delay on most customer service requests as they must contact the actual host, resolve the issue, and get back to you. Avoid resellers.

How to tell a reseller from a real web host.
Resellers can be very slick. Don't expect the resellers to identify themselves as such. They will dress their site up with stock photographs of servers and “facilities”. Many people say you can spot a reseller because they don't have their own reseller program. This is true of only the most green resellers. Experienced resellers know that the key to their low-margin business lies in volume... and affiliate or reseller programs are a powerful way to increase your sales force.
So the truth is, there aren't any easy ways to tell a reseller from a the real deal. We suggest asking the company directly: Are you a reseller? Where are your servers located?

Our best tip: Use Google and search for “HostName Complaints”. Then read the results you find. For example: At Thirdsite.com, we use WestHost to host this site (and all our partner sites). So, when we were considering WestHost, we googled “WestHost complaints” (quote marks omitted). The results? A bunch of sites extoling the virtues of WestHost, and one site (the first result) where someone is complaining about a WestHost customer (not WestHost).
Contrast that with the results from a host we have used in the past (not for this site).. Globat.

Let's see what we get when we Google “Globat Complaints”. Real complaints! Serious ones... like unexplained downtime, unanswered service requests, unreachable mail servers... All nightmares for someone who wants their site to be online 24/7.

Generally speaking – you get what you pay for. If all you want is a simple place to stick pictures of your family... Consider using a blog or online album service.

Be wary of web host ranking sites... Most are complete fabrications designed to generate referral revenue... You will note that the top rated hosts are almost always either paying for their high rating directly, or offering massive referral fees to the site that delivers them customers.

There are a great number of highly reputable, professionally run hosting companies.. You just need to do some detective work to ensure that you are dealing with one of them before you sign up. Please post your comments on this entry to submit your experiences.

Setting up a website – Advice on buying domain names

A domain name is very important if you want to draw people to your website. You'll want to pick something easy to remember and spell. So... Think long and hard, consult your family, colleagues, and friends. When you come up with a shortlist, go to a reputable registrar's website. Good options are Register.com, Network Solutions, and Godaddy. These sites will all have domain name search fields on their main page. Just plug in your desired domain and hit the search button to see if it's available.

If it is available, you will be offered the option to buy it. Typically you will be offered lower annual rates if you purchase the domain for several years. Expect to pay anywhere from $8 to $30 a year. At Thirdsite.com, we have used Network Solutions and Register.com in the past... But after recently discovering Godaddy – we'll be using them from now on. Much cheaper and still well respected.

Buying the domain will involve providing your real name, company name (if applicable), and other personal details. You will need to provide a credit card for payment. Don't worry – if you are using a reputable registrar, your credit card information is safe. Your personal details however (name, address, phone number, etc) will be made available to anyone who is interested. Many registrars now offer an added fee privacy service $8+/per year) which will hide your details from the prying eyes of spammers and other bad people.

Once you purchase your domain, there may be some confirmation emails sent to you to verify that you have provided a real email address. Once you have confirmed your identity – you own the domain.

IPOD 20Gb - Review and Tips

We bought our 20Gb iPod shortly after we bought a green iPod-mini and were shocked to find that our music collection almost exceeded its 5GB capacity. We returned the iPod-mini to our local FutureShop and bought the 20Gb model for about $400CDN.

Design really sets Apple products apart. Nothing better to dispel buyer's remorse than a slick box and a shiny product. iPod has the industrial design prize in the bag.

Also in our iPod package, the iTrip FM transmitter ($55 CDN). This is a piece of junk with almost no range. I was very excited about the FM transmitter for car trips. It barely has the range to reach the FM antenna from inside our Honda Odyssey. Using a standard tape deck insert (under $10 and WalMart), we were able to hook the iPod up to the car stereo and were very pleased with the sound.

Some general notes about iPods... They are the best digital music players on the market today in terms of design. But - they are very pricey and they basically lock you in to buying your music from iTunes. You can't buy music from Napster and install it on your iPod (you can, but it involves some hacking to get around the barriers).

Another point... The iPod is designed for use with one computer. We have two computers and our MP3 collection is (was) spread between the two systems. There are third party packages that help you get around the one-iPod one-computer problem, but Apple's iPod software patches often disable this functionality... So we advise against trying. Just move all your music to one computer.

In the iTunes software.. You will want to spend some time fixing the info in your music files. MP3s you have downloaded from P2P networks (Kazaa, etc) are not tagged in a standard way. For example, you might download a copy of Billy Jean, with “Michael Jackson” listed as the album, not the Artist. In other cases songs may be tagged with the right info in the right fields, but typos or slight variations will mess stuff up down the road. So you'll want to spend the time necessary to standardize all your MP3 tags. This way you can take proper advantage of the iPod's built-in playlist software. The iPod will allow you to play all the songs you have from the same artist, from the same album, from the same year, etc... But if your info is messed up, you'll have (for example) a list of songs for Michael Jackson, and another list for songs by Jackson, Michael.

If you really want to enjoy your iPod, make playlists of your own.. You can make playlists to fit possible moods or situations. Maybe you want a high energy mix of songs to get you psyched on your way to school or work or maybe you want a more calming mix for the evening. The more playlists you make, the easier it will be to take advantage of your iPod.