DuncsWeb

One of the great things about the program “Windows Live Writer” (which is what I use to make these posts) is that it will scan your blog for the theme and then allows you to type and have it look as if you were typing directly on the theme of your blog.

With my theme with Wordpress self-hosted, the writer ended up like this:

As you can see everything is white (my text is white on the page so no text would show up when typing) as Windows Live Writer 2009 was not detecting the theme properly. However, When clicking preview I saw this:

Solution:

1. >> Locate the following: “C:\Users\**yourusername**\AppData\Roaming\Windows Live Writer\blogtemplates\**numbers&letters**\”
3. >> Open up “index.html”. You will find that it is blank.
5. >> Edit “index[1].html” and search for the following : "<LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=file:///”
7. >> Copy the entire link beginning “file:///”
9. >> Close “index[1].html” and edit “index.html”.
11. >> search for the following : "<LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=file:///”
13. >> Paste the link you copied inside the “href=file:///”

You should now see that the background (or style sheet) will be the same as your blog’s template.

Sorted. Any comments?

Just a quick update, for those that don’t know, an IRC channel has just been created for DuncsWeb.

You can find the chat HERE

Currently, DuncsWeb.com has been receiving around 700 views per day, and going against what I said when I created the site, I have decided to add advertising to the site.

Why?

In some recent research into some people’s Adsense earnings I have discovered that they are receiving a lot more cash than I am (especially on YouTube). These people seem to get lots of money for not doing a lot (I’m talking about Fred on YouTube receiving six figures from Adsense and WhatStyleIsToNickel receiving £500 a month).

The reason for this is because they are receiving much more views than I am on their videos. So I am looking for more ways to get more earnings into Adsense so I can put the money back into the website and the channel.

I hate ads! and so do you?

This is true, I hate obtrusive ads that like to blink or flash at you while you are trying to read a piece of content. My intention on DuncsWeb is to not have these types of ads showing, and to have them carefully placed so you know where they are.

So what do these ads look like?

The main aim here is to integrate the ads as much as possible with the website, so the user is not distracted when they are viewing the content. I have matched the colours as much as possible with the colour scheme of DuncsWeb, and set Adsense to only display links, so it looks like the ads are part of the sidebar.

I think having it this way is effective in generating a small amount of revenue without annoying the end user.

I use an ad-blocker

Ad-Blockers are very common and effective in getting rid of the advertisements on websites (I know this because I use one myself).

****I have no issues with any visitors to DuncsWeb using an Ad-Blocker.****

A lot of people who visit DuncsWeb look for a specific piece of content, pass through without clicking anything else on the site, or figuring out what it is, and go (Some of you nice people like to comment on my content). Having ads on the site on every page that loads means I can have a small return on the visits from these one-hit-wonders.

I want to make money with ads!

If you own your domain (e.g not hosted on things like Freewebs, Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr etc.) and your site follows Google’s Adsense Guidelines there should be no reason why not to have Advertisements on your site to help you generate a small amount of revenue.

Simply head to the Adsense Homepage and sign up for an account, where your website will be reviewed for its content, and then (if accepted) you can put a vast amount of types of ads on your Homepage.

Do you use Adsense? Has it been effective for you? What do you think about Ads on DuncsWeb?

For those too lazy to watch the video:

1) Right Click –> Save as… on the following link: MSN.txt (or click and copy the text)

2) Replace the text with your own at the beginning BEFORE the funny looking characters

3) Replace the emoticons AFTER the funny looking characters

4) Bask in glory that you stand out more than everyone else on your contacts list.

Any more suggestions? Leave a comment

For those that don’t know, I’m a big fan of watches with an edge, not the regular ones that give the time in analogue or digital format.

Back in the day I used to own a “TV Remote Control Watch” (which is still for sale HERE) which was a great purchase for fast-forwarding the geography videos we were forced to watch without anyone noticing.

Nothings changed, I still look for watches that have some sort of edge to them (but not to the extreme of a Phone Watch) and when I came across the Fossil Big Tic line of watches, I had to have one.

Originally I wanted the Black Leather Fossil Big Tic JR8122 but found that the cuff behind the strap was not removable, and when I saw it in the shop, it looked a bit ugly. Then I was browsing Amazon and discovered the Fossil Gents Trend at a lower price and a better look than the previous model, and had my eye on but never bought for a long time, until I received it as a present for my Birthday.

As you can see, it looks much like a regular watch, but the seconds scroll in the background. Thats  about it really, but I thought it would be a very nice watch to wear.

What watch do you wear? leave a comment

One thing I love to do when I’m not talking about technology is talk about things that happened a long time ago, and I love sharing experiences with anyone who can also remember the times (so this post is for folks who live in the UK, although other people are welcome to share their own)

While talking with my girlfriend, I decided to make a Playlist on YouTube of the videos of various programmes I watched as a kid/teen.

Use the left and right buttons to cycle through the playlist, or click to head straight to YouTube

Do you have any to add to the Playlist?

One of the many great things about the Social Networking Site Twitter.com is the extensibility through its API. Not only can humans tweet babble about what they are doing, but scripts can post things to profiles. “ReTweet Bots” publish things a human would tweet about to their own profile, thus gathering information on a specific subject that is happening at a lot of places.

How much different is this to Twitter Search? Not much, other than you can subscribe (follow) the results (bot) so you are updated in your personal timeline. The bot is doing some self promotion also as you will inevitably click its tweet to see others (as it has mentioned you), and possibly visit the related website.

If you have been on Twitter a fair amount of time, you may find yourself surprised to be retweeted by one of these bots.

Here is a list of retweet bots discovered by myself and other users on twitter (List will be updated as your suggestions come in):

Currently Tweeting:

@Apollo13bot – Retweets when you say “Houston, we have a problem!”
@AllTheCheeses – ReTweets if you mention “cheeses”, mmm food..
@thedreamstream – ReTweets if you mention “dreamed”, zzZ.
@drunk_bot – ReTweets if you mention “drunk”, perfect to share those nights out.
@howtotweets – ReTweets if you mention “how to”, great if you want to help tweeple.
@LilAdele87 – ReTweets if you mention “Bored” and says “You should follow @funtimetweets then”  @RandomRTBot – ReTweets something completely random from the timeline.
@Shutupmeg – ReTweets if you mention “shut up”, great for those who like to vent anger.
@Tea_robot - ReTweets if you mention “tea”, very British!
@TX_Rangers – ReTweets if you mention “Texas Rangers”, for those who like baseball.
@UbuntuTweets – ReTweets if you mention “Ubuntu”, great for the Linux folk!

and my own @wish_bot – ReTweets if you mention “I wish”, one day it will come true!
A reader “Kjekse” has created @ftwbot - ReTweets if you mention “ftw”, raise your fist to the sky!

Stopped Working:

@wootboot - ReTweets people who say “woot” (Last Tweet Aug 7th 2009)
@NoteRobot – ReTweets people who say “Note To Self” (Last Tweet July 29th 2009)

Leave a comment with links and I will update in due course.

This competition has now closed!

Congratulations to @MatthewAuld and @ DanieltheDuude for being winners of Free TuneUp 2009!

I have teamed up with the guys at TuneUp to allow 2 lucky people a FREE copy of the latest TuneUp Utilities 2009 (worth £29.95/$49.95!)

What You Need To Do:

The mission, if you choose to accept it, is to send a tweet containing the following:

• #duncsweb
• TuneUp Utilities Free *or* TuneUp Free *or* Free TuneUp Utilities
• http://bit.ly/sMdH7

Your Tweet MUST contain the above 3 things, spelled correctly (copy and paste if you need to). Make it eyecatching (funny/creative) as the best one will be selected as a winner. You may tweet more than once, but tweet spammers WILL NOT BE SELECTED. The tweet will be picked from any time between the opening and closing of the contest.

For example:

“#duncsweb I want Free TuneUp Utilities because My Computer is super slow! http://bit.ly/sMdH7″

“I would love TuneUp Utilities Free from #duncsweb because the software is awesome! http://bit.ly/sMdH7″

Further Conditions:

• You MUST be subscribed to My YouTube Channel
• You MUST be following DuncsWeb on The Twitter Page

If you have been chosen as one of the winners, you will be asked to provide your YouTube Channel which will then be checked for the above conditions (your twitter page will also be checked). If BOTH conditions are not met, the Competition Prize will be given to somebody else, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Why must these conditions be met? I need to know that you are interested in the content I create, not just interested in winning a prize!

The next winner will be announced on the DuncsWeb Twitter Page on the 23rd August 2009 @ 9PM GMT (Check here for your local time).

If you are the winner, and you have met the above conditions, I will DM you requesting an E-Mail address where you would like to receive the Software (which will then be passed on to a Staff Member of TuneUp who will then send you an Electronic Copy of TuneUp Utilities 2009 with Access Code).

GOOD LUCK!

I received the following Question from YouTube from 818coolguy (I’ve broken it up to answer specific parts):

“HEY MAN I HAVE A QUEATION IVE BEEN USEING WINDOWS ALL MY LIFE AND WELL IM GOING TO NEED A MAC LATER ON IN MY CARRIER SO IM THINKING OF BUYING A IMAC BUT IM TRYING TO GET AS MUCH INFORMATION AS I CAN THE BOOT CAMP THING THAT ALLOWS ME TO HAVE WINDOWS RUNING ON IT CORRECT IS IT GOING TO DECRESS SPEED TREMENDESLY OR NOT REALLY”

Correct, Boot Camp will allow you to run Windows on your iMac, and Apple have made it very easy to do (Head to Applications –> Utilities –> Boot Camp Assistant and run through the Wizard, make sure you have your Windows Setup CD/DVD in the Drive). Once completed, you will be able to hold the command key on your keyboard when your computer starts and select the OS you would like to start.

The great thing about Boot Camp is that you can run Windows Natively on the System (i.e exposing the hardware inside to the Windows OS, not Virtually like with VMWare Fusion & Parallels, more on that later), so you will have all the juice of your system powering Windows (and therefore it will not “Decress Speed Temendesly”)

“ALSO I HAVE ALOT OF WINDOWS PROGRAMS AND I DONT WANNA GET THEM FOR MAC SO THEN I CAN JUST INSTALL THEM THERE INSTEAD OF DOWNLOADING THEM OR BUYING THEM AGAIN IN A MAC VERSION CORRECT”

This is the point where you have to ask yourself “Will I just be using Windows Programs on my mac?", and if the answer is Yes, do you really need one (this is the situation that led me to sell mine)?

If the answer is No, then you have two options:

1. 1) Use Boot Camp and reboot into Windows whenever you need to do something. If its working with a specific file, you will have to use a USB key, Online Storage or consider some Mounting Software like MacDrive to access your OSX files. This can be a hassle if you are working with things already in OSX
2. 2) Use VMWare Fusion or Parallels (Note that VMWare Fusion has the capability to Virtualise your Boot Camp Partition, therefore running it inside a Window). Here you can run full Operating Systems you install inside Mac OSX, and then run everything inside that Window. If you are looking for free Virtual Software try VirtualBox, but note that these programs will not be as fast as running Windows natively, and use Virtual Hardware.

In a lot of cases you should be able to find the mac equivalent of software, but if you are hardcore on the Windows OS, you may find life easier using the above options.

“ALSO WHAT ABOUT VIRUSES I KNOW THAT ITS HARD TO GET THEM ON MAC BUT KNOW RUNING WINDOWS DOSE THAT CHANGE ANYTHING ????”

In both cases (Using Boot Camp & Virtual Machines), if the machine has access to the OSX files (such as with MacDrive or with Shared Folders inside a VM), then there is a potential of an infection. HOWEVER (and this is a BIG HOWEVER), it is highly unlikely that you will get such a thing, as OSX is known for its lack of Malware & Viruses, and with Windows Coding being different to OSX, it is highly unlikely anything found on Windows will transfer over to the Mac Side.

Something to add here? Leave a comment.