George Files

It’s been a while since I posted here but I have been working on several things all at the same time.

Bhavesh is giving away a personal copy of his premium theme - WP Remix. He is in a good mood for Christmas.

For those of you who are new to CMS (Content Management System) particulary Wordpress, I encourage you to take a look at this theme. I would not even consider it as just a WP Theme but I consider it a ‘platform’. There are several page variation in this theme that is worthwhile for novice and experience WP users. I am a big fan of Brian Gardner’s Revolution Theme but WP Remix basically gave you all possible page options imaginable to create your website. It’s taking a step towards fully customized website that does not make your website ‘bloggish’

Back during the hey days of the dotcom era, every kid on the block want to be a MSCE (Microsoft Certified Engineer).  They get into the training and get the paper to show their employers and voila, they make roughly between $35 to $100 per hour.  But are they really ‘IT engineers’?  Then at some point in time, they decided that they could earn the same amount the consultants are paying them to do the work they do?

Unfortunately, not everyone is cut to be a consultant.  You’re most of the time, on your own.  Yes you can work on your own time, be your own boss.  But majority of the people who decided to go to this business found out that there’s more to it. 

I was at TechRepublic’s website and I read an article by Erik Eckel on the challenges of being a consultant.  Not to mention the challenge of making sure your spouse understood why you’re playing in front of the computer doing ‘research’ and not washing the dishes.

You can check out the article here.

Wow.  We are getting some beating here.  We’re getting triple digit temperatures that is not particularly normal in California.  News showed that there are at least 90 deaths as a result of the  heat wave.  Power outages in some areas and flash flood warning in areas where there is high humidity.

I, for one, tries not to consume unnecessary electricity but I would not blame anyone right now for powering up their ACs.  It was quite a field day in the freeway with an unusually good flow of traffic particularly Saturday.  I guess no one really wants to get out.

Just a note of warning.  If you plan to go outside on this hot days, please protect yourself and try to cool down your body temperature.  The last thing you want is a heatstroke.  For those who live in multi story homes, try to stay downstairs as hot air elevates.

Also, let’s not forget that we’re not the only one feeling the heat, our pets do too.  Make sure you get them adequate cooling or water.  My wife put an electric fan for our American Eskie, Jack.  Lucky!

I try to use this blog as much as possible for tech issues but I could not help but comment on this particular judge.  Look at what this judge is doing to this Korean folks who is just trying to make a decent living here in America.  Roy Pearson, a District of Columbia administrative law judge, is suing this couple for $54 million for a missing pair of pants.

Mr. Roy Pearson, LEAVE THOSE 2 KOREANS.  It is already senseless to hear a lady win a case against McDonalds for a hot coffee.  But a pair of pants for $54 million.  I just hope he does not give out his email address.  Believe me, this is going to become a spammer’s delight.  And better yet, make sure he does not set foot on a Korean soil.  He might get sued for making the Korean soil dirty.  I’m already thinking of trying to mix up a Kimchi with a cupful of habanero pepper on it, and offer it as a gift to Mr. Pearson for his contribution to the justice system in America.

Read the MS-NBC article here.

There is a Google Pagerank checker that I discovered while browsing through one of the forums.  The sites name is SmartPageRank.Com.

It shows you pagerank result on 26 Google Datacenters, the validity of your pagerank, and get notified too by email when the PR changes.

The analysis also includes among others the age of domain, traffice rank from Alexa, if it is included in the DMOZ or Yahoo directory, backlinks analysis, and a link code to use on your website if you want to show your page rank on your web page.  This site is particularly useful for those people in the domain aftermarket.

Check it out.

Are you an Adsense publisher?  Are you having success with your placement of ads.  Here is a webinar by Google on Adsense Optimization.  It is interesting to find out that their study showed that an ad size of 336×280 has brought a significant amount of revenue for the publisher.  I believe this has something to do with the way we read.  We typically read from left to right, and browse from top left.  So the concentration of reads shows that the top left area as the most clicked area and the middle part right below the fold from the header as a good target area.

I will be trying on this technique on another website and I’ll see if there are any good results.  Hopefully good and phenomenal.  

One way to create exposure on the internet is to create backlinks.  There are several strategies of website linking but the simplest one is one-way linking.  I found a webmaster that offers one-way linking for Free!  Yup!  The magic word - free.  Anyway, check what they have to offer and you may get a free linking for your website and start that exposure going! 

For Medical Billers working on the new format of medical claim forms, Medi-CAL (California Medicaid Program) has released a tutorial on how to use the current forms properly.  The tutorial is based on 4 parts and is available here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. 

Came across this feed from PCWorld via MSN regarding free security programs that you can use for your home.  Anything free is good but it is hard to assess for most users which program does a good job aside from being free.  This article shows a list of programs and you can decide which one you could take.  Read the whole article here.

Sony announced today that it is going to slashed the price of PlayStation 3 by $100.  Unlike its predecessor, Sony Corp could not get a momentum going with its sales of PS3.

The announcement coincides with the E3 Summit at Santa Monica, California.  With this version of Playstation, Sony decided to provide a high definition DVD player which brought the cost of the unit considerably higher.

I think it just makes perfect sense right now.  Microsoft mentioned that it has set aside $1 Billion to extend the warranty on the XBox 360s 3-RedLight-Syndrome defect.  This should give them a little push. 

Let’s see what Nintendo will come up this time.