This week’s ASMW is a cool cat from the folk group (have you noticed a pattern in my music yet?) at Amie Street. Kane Sole has a good down home feel with some amazing harmonica work on his tracks and lyrics that speak for themselves. Every track on Spend is worth a listen, but I particullarly like the title track itself. Listen to the chords and the lyrics.
Why Amie St. Wednesday? Music is in everyones lives. It surrounds us even when we don.t it. This is a way to discover new artist, and share the artist that you enjoy listening to on AmieStreet.com. If you enjoy the music please support the artist. Amie St. Music Wednesday has no affiliation with AmieStreet.com and the opinion about the music and/or artist is the that of the postie.
Consider the Ante upped!! Last week I announced the Amazon.com Gift Card Give away! for the person who has the highest number of productive comments (so far Sabrina is waaaaay out in front) through Halloween. I’ve decided to go a step farther! For any BLOG who posts a link to the original post using this: http://delusionsofgrandeur.org/2007/10/19/win-a-halloween-treat/ url and leaves a trackback here, you’ll not only be linked to from one of the coolest sites around, but I’ll pick one of the sites to review. We’re not talking about a 50 word, “hey this site rocks” type review with a link or two. We’re talkin a full blown, “I like this site because…” type review. I’ll look at your theme, I’ll look at your content and I’ll make suggestions and stuff as well. Mind you, I’m not John chow but then again I’m no slouch either. I’ve been online and designing/coding sites since 1994 (god those sites sucked) so i like to think I know a little bit. Anywho, link back to the original post and win.
Alarmingly, there’s an overwhelming number of people who are saying they’re going to vote for Hillary Clinton on the basis that she’s female and that alone. While I think its good that there is a woman running for the highest office, I consider it a huge mistake to vote for her solely because she’s female. Anyone who has listened to her ideas or knows anything about her policy making skills would not have to think twice before punching someone else’s name on the Ballot. Voting for someone strictly based on sex, race, religion is always a bad idea. Not only that, but if I stood up and said , or if Neal Boortz proclaimed on his talk show that the only reason he was voting for someone was because that person was a man, we’d be crucified.
In my on going effort to enlighten the world as to why voting for Hillary is a bad idea, I wanted to present you with more information. Emmett Tyrrell has a good post on Seven things to know about the Clintons. Some of the stuff I had heard before (like Hillary’s temper when it comes to State troopers or the Secret Service). Some I hadn’t (like the fact that Bill has earned somewhere in the neighborhood of $43 million dollars for speaking engagements since he left office, more than any other president. EVER) and some that are down right disturbing (did you know that for every failed policy of the clintons while Bill was in the White house, there is one from when he was Governor of Arkansas?)
If you’re even slightly considering voting for Hillary Clinton, there are two things I’d ask you to do before you step foot in to a voting booth. Research the senator from New York. Make sure you know her policies, stances and her ideology. Understand what her ideas are and how they are wrong for America. Do your research. Don’t vote for her because she’s a woman or you’d like to see Bill back in the Whitehouse. And second, watch this video clip, over and over and over. Then tell me she’s sincere…
Two guys I know are trying to start their own media business based around racing. They travel almost every weekend to different events around the country to film, photograph and record the events and they’re doing a pretty good job of it (check out joeyredmond.com and www.wreckedmagazine.com). One minor glitch in their plan is that their office currently consists of some space leased from the parent of one of their other friends. They were also using a cheaper VoIP provider that went out of business leaving them stranded with out phones in the office. What to do??
I’m fairly certain that with Packet8 Virtual Office they wouldn’t have had that issue. Not only that but their organization would have a more professional front as well with an automated attendant, call forwarding (so they’d never miss a call), Outlook and Fax integration and multiple lines going to multiple locations. Plus, its a hosted solution so they wouldn’t have to worry about the install or upkeep of equipment. The cool thing about Business VoIP services through packet8 is that they have plans for every size business. Compared to the cost of traditional phone service (hardware, setup, installation, service, support) the offerings from Packet8 are pretty cost effective and can reduce your bottom line.
One of the cool things is that right now you can also referrer friends, family and other business to packet8 and receive points towards amazon.com giftcards. Need one line or ten Packet8 has what you need.
Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of Ubuntu Studio 7.10 alternate i386 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org.
Posted by mcangeli (Who am I?) on October 23rd, 2007 | 2 Comments » | Aside
Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of wifiway-0.8 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org.
Posted by mcangeli (Who am I?) on October 23rd, 2007 | Comments Off | Aside
Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of wifislan-3.1 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org.
Posted by mcangeli (Who am I?) on October 23rd, 2007 | Comments Off | Aside
So it appears that mere mortals (by that I mean, you and I) are not alone in the blogosphere any more. According to an article on FoxNews.com a couple of members of The Whitehouse Cabinet are now blogging (Chertoff, head of homeland security and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt). Its nice to think that they have stuff to get off their chests but should public officials really be blogging about stuff that happens at work? According to the article Chertoff attacked the New York Times Editorial Staff saying:
the newspaper’s editorial staff “hyperventilates” about the department’s effort to arrest gangs and get illegal aliens off the street
Whether or not thats the case, a government official (appointed or not) should not be venting in any kind of public forum such as that. Yes, I know about the First Amendment and how its his “right” but still. Today he’s talking about the NYT Ed staff, tomorrow he could be talking about the Russian Premier or Hugo Chavez. Figures in public office have always had to be a little more careful with what they say and who they say it to. But thats what I think I want to know what you think. Should Government Officials blog like the rest of us??
Every once in a bluemoon I come across some web trinket that I think could help change the way people use websites. On one of my other sites, I have an IRC chatroom online with a javascript page setup so members can log in and chat directly from the site. There are a couple of solid members who are in the chat room most of the time in case anyone has any questions or needs any help with something. I’m rarely in the IRC chat room these days so I’m looking for other ways to help members on the site. Thats when I stumbled across the perfect live support solution.
A cool, hosted service for support chat from LiveHuman.com. A simple line of code added to my site and I’m off and running. When I’m in the room, the message on my site lets my members know I’m available for help, when I’m not, the online equivalent of a closed sign is up. Its pretty cool. The “face” time opportunities have been increased on my site and now my members feel that if they need anything all they have to do is ask where as before a request could sit for a week in the boards before I’d get to it. Its pretty good and like I said it was easy to implement as well.
The only down side to the service is that its not free. They have plans starting at $13 a month per operator on your site, but that allows for an unlimited number of member/user connections. Its a pretty cool service. Chats are logged and retained for two months and you can even edit the styling of the chat window to suit your site. You also get all kinds of useful information from the chat as well, user location, pages visited and more. In all its a pretty good way for a site or company looking to expand their support options in an inexpensive manner.
Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of Mythbuntu 7.10 Release Final - i386 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org.This release is based upon Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon).
Posted by mcangeli (Who am I?) on October 22nd, 2007 | Comments Off | Aside
Well, its official… Chuck Norris just solidified who I am voting for in the upcoming primary and I think this can do nothing but good for the candidate in question. Norris is official going to Support Mike Huckabee, the one candidate who’s stood out to me from the start.
According to Norris:
“Mike is also a respected and fearless leader, and he does not cower to the cries of any majority or minority,” Norris added. “He doesn’t abandon his values for what’s expedient. Like our Founding Fathers, he’s not afraid to stand up for a Creator and against secularist beliefs.”
If chuck norris’ fists say vote for huckabee, then you better vote for Huckabee or Walker Texas Ranger will make you eat some of CD’s cookin…
One of the first trips Amy and I took together was down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in what would have been my Junior year of college. It was an easy trip and one I’d made with friends before (I had a friend in school who lived in Kenner just outside of New Orleans Parish). This trip was cool because Amy’s Grandparents live there. Her grandfather has passed on but we still like to go and visit her grandmother even with all the devastation that occurred in the aftermath of Katrina. I like going to places like City Park, St. Charles St, Rue Burbon and other places and just taking in the culture. Even with everything that has happened there, N.O. is still full of spark, culture and history that make it as fun as ever to visit.
One of the things that I haven’t done there yet is one of the New Orleans Tours. They have some pretty cool tours too. Grave yards, restraunts and other cool places. We did one in Savannah, which was neat (got to see the house from the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and some other interesting things and I think a tour like the Cemetery and Gris Gris tour would be a cool one to do. Amy has taken me around and shown me what she can, but there’s still so much to do there (like a swamp tour to see some live gators) and the girls are getting to ages where they’ll like tours like that as well. (the last time we took grace on a tour… it wasn’t fun…).
I think we’re going to see if we can make it down there this year for Mardi Gras but we neve know. It may end up being a last minute thing again.
There was a Republican Debate this past weekend (collective gasp - “There was? How come we didn’t know about it?”) which would have been a surprise to anyone watching the GOP field this political season. One of the major problems is that instead of coming out with programs or ideas of their own, they all are (with the exception of maybe Huckabee or Paul) going after Senator Clinton instead.
If the candidates for the GOP nomination would focus on actually running in their own primary instead of running in the democratic primary they might actually get something accomplished. Instead this bicker about who is least like Hillary and who is more conservative than who is getting to be silly and old in a time when we care more about what they are going to do for the country then what they have done to screw things up so far.
I thought Thompson might be good for the race, however, he’s turning out to be a severe disappointment and my money is still on Huckabee. If he can raise a little more awareness and actually let people know he’s in the race, we might (and I do mean might) have a candidate worth nominating. Its a shame newt won’t run.
The sales people at the printing company I work for are always trying to find new leads, new customers and new revenue streams for the company (it benefits everyone right?). One of the things I’ve been looking at is CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to help make their jobs easier. AIMpromote appears to be one of the leaders in the CRM field and they even offer a free 14 day trial. Plus they’ve recently launched some new features to make things even better.
Traverse City, MI October 19th 2007 – AIMpromote, provider of lead management and customer relationship management software, has launched a significant upgrade to their CRM offering. The newly added white-label CRM software feature enhances the value that lead aggregators can offer to their lead purchasing customers. The enhanced reselling functionality provides an intuitive interface to completely manage the selling of a privately labeled CRM as their own.
Lead aggregators operate in the highly competitive B2B space, and need ways to add value to their offerings. Michael Myles, President and CEO of AIMpromote said “The significant added value provided by the AIMpromote white-label customer relationship software gives lead aggregators a way to differentiate themselves in what has become a highly commoditized market.” He went on to say that “this product also provides an easy way to leverage existing client bases to more rapidly increase sales.”
The close tie-in between the selling of leads and the powerful sales management functionality of the AIMpromote customer relationship software enables the end-users of the system to easily purchase leads that are then available to be worked directly in the system. There is no importing necessary. Billing is also consolidated, providing an easy way for the end-user to manage their funds and billing profile. The system has been designed from the ground-up to offer high levels of customizability and advanced functionality for everyone involved, while requiring little investment in time.
The CRM reselling and lead sales functions functionality includes the ability for lead aggregators and CRM software resellers to completely customize pricing, including setup fees, discounts, and free trials. This flexibility empowers the resellers of the system to enhance their profit margins as they see fit. The CRM reselling system allows lead aggregators and consultants the ability to brand their system with their own logo and contact information. Integrated Authorize.Net payment processing gives an interface to take credit cards automatically, and have the funds deposited directly into their bank accounts. The advanced accounting and reporting pages in the AIMpromote system give a top-down view of the business as a whole, as well as for each individual account.
The tiered approach that AIMpromote has taken to the reselling of their powerful customer relationship management software gives even the end-user clients the ability to also resell the system. The billing and accounting system automatically takes care of everything for them, even automatically setting up accounts. “The ease of use and flexibility of the AIMpromote CRM for those providing business-to-business consultation services and those selling leads has created an opportunity to significantly improve the bottom line, with very little time or expense,” said Matt Wolfe, Vice President of Operations for AIMpromote. Wolfe added, “The service and functionality of the system is unique in that customers are supported through an integrated support ticket system by their parent account. The end-users of the system will never know that the service they are using is being resold, or that the company from which they are licensing the software are not the actual manufacturers of the software. To them, it won’t be AIMpromote at all, it will be ‘ABC Software Company CRM’, or whatever name the company reselling the software chooses.”
About AIMpromote
AIMpromote leads the market in growth and technology for on-demand lead management and CRM reselling solutions. AIMpromotes enterprise lead management software empowers companies in any industry to more effectively generate, delegate, and report on leads and the teams that manage them. AIMpromote is the only solution that integrates detailed web analytics with sales and marketing analytics to provide a complete closed-loop view of the sales process. The AIMpromote lead management software offers a completely customized solution that can be tailored to fit any organization’s customer acquisition workflow. The unique combination of having the most functionality, and the lowest total cost of ownership, AIMpromote is the most cost effective solution for improving close rates and marketing efficiency.
Ok, that last one isn’t too suprising considering their go at it last year. However, the fact that it was the Rockies vs. The Diamond Backs and the Indians vs. the Red Sox… What the hell has happened to MLB? None of the heavy teams (except the red sox) were even contenders this year in the play offs (well, the Phillies were I believe weren’t they?) Where were the Yankees? (Wait, they were out after the first round of play offs). What about the Braves? (Oh, right, they were above 500, but still 3 or 4 games out of the play offs). WTF has happened to MLB?
Also, who gives a shite if Dumbledore is/was gay? Does it really matter? In the article, rowling talks about his love of Gellert Grindelwald. As thats the only reference to Dumbledore ever being “attracted” to anyone else, I really have to question if he was gay or if JK was just trying to stir the muck and sell more books.
The article I liked was the Man killed in monkey attack. It was ‘a senior government official’ in India who was attacked at his home and he actually died from injuries from a fall. Apparently the monkeys are a problem in New Delhi, where the local religion believes they’re a rendition of a god. Its a little odd but if people would stop feeding the monkey’s they’d go away. Of course a .22 calibre rifle would take care of the issue as well…
If there’s one thing Amy and I need to do more of its relax. She’s always after me to give her back massages, foot rubs and anything that will help her relax (she bought me a couples spa package last Christmas as a way to get herself more spa time…). The problem is that I give decent massages but I don’t know the correct technique to give a good massage and to give a long massage (my massages last about 5 minutes). I’m considering investing in a good video guide like the Hand Reflexology Video available from VideoShelf. I think it’d be a good way for us to get some quality us time in.
Thats right. You too can win great prizes from Blog about Your Blog (hows that for a name?). They’ve teamed up with Bidvertiser to give away around $200 cash and a couple of reviews. Its easy too, all you have to do is subscribe to their rss feed and let them know you did. Couldn’t be easier could it? You could even put that money towards Chrysler 300 accessories or your troll doll collection.
You can also earn more chances to win by blogging about BAYB and bidvertiser. For more information check out the bidvertiser promo
Posted by mcangeli (Who am I?) on October 19th, 2007 | 1 Comment » | Aside
Hillary Clinton has released a new ad in Iowa where she calls Bush’s economic reforms a trap door for Middle Class families to fall through. As I sat there and read the article and watched the ad (which has no facts in it what so ever) it occured to me that you hear the Left talking all the time about the Middle Class. They talk about helping the middle class with handouts. They create plans and programs that appeal to this supposed “middle class” but they never really do anything to help the middle class become the upper class.
It appears from where I sit (which according to most econ professors is the Upper Middle Class) it looks like the democrats aren’t as concerned with helping the “Middle Class” achieve more in life as they are with keeping the middle class happy and complacent through programs (like national health care, social security, baby bonds and more) which lead people to depend on the government more. They (the democrats) talk about how we’d benefit from a national health care plan (never mind the fact that its not working in Canada or in England) or they promise $5,000 savings bonds for every child born in the US (forget about those who have already been born…) or how we need this or that (like a museum commemorating woodstock). When asked about how they’d pay for these programs they respond by saying they’d raise taxes on the rich (which seldom works).
In her ad, Clinton says its time for a change in economic policies as well as other policies and for once I do agree with her. It is time for a change but not one towards larger government reach and higher taxes. No, we need the opposite. We need less taxes and less government control. We need less meddling by people who claim they know whats better for our well being than we do. Its time for a change from traditional politics of Right Vs. Left.
In the formation and operation of every great country there’s a natural ebb and flow cycle. The last one in the United States started after the great depression and its been building to a tipping point. Its time for the cycle to renew itself (like a fiery phoenix). What this country needs is a good revolution right now. We need a way to gut the political system of the bad and rebuild it with good but until the citizens of the US regain that rugged individualism of the old west I’m afraid it really won’t happen.
Anyone who has ever tried to host and run a wordpress, movable type or typepad blog on their own knows how frustrating it can get. Kernel upgrades, mysql issues, php resources. Where to go and who to turn to can be a big question when it comes to hosting. Fortunately there are hosts out there that specialize in blog hosting.
Whether its a movable type, wordpress, joomla, drupal or other platform that you’re looking to host, aqhost most likely has a plan to fit your needs. Some of their Wordpress Hosting plans are fairly inexpensive for a future (or current) blogger looking to run things on their own domains. With plans starting at $6.99 a month you can be up and running with everything you need. Wordpress, mysql, fantastico, php and more. Plus its easy to move up from there if you feel the need.
There are several hosts out there offering custom blog hosting packages geared towards bloggers. We recommend that you take your time and research.. Find the company thats best for you (what works for me won’t work for everyone…). When you have a blog running, let us know, we’d love to link to you.
Posted by mcangeli (Who am I?) on October 19th, 2007 | 1 Comment » | Aside
In order to boost participation here at Delusions Of Grandeur, we (and by we, I mean me) are having a contest for the rest of the month. In the 12 or so days that are left, the visitor with the most GOOD (which is entirely subjective and up to me) comments will receive a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com on November 1st (so you have through midnight on October 31st). All you have to do to win is visit the site often and make good comments (by good comments, I mean more than “good post” type comments). Should be easy enough. No?
There’s a really good article on improving your About Page and its importance in increasing the credibility (and there by increasing the readership) of your blog.
The article had several good points such as adding a picture to the about page:
I know it seems odd, but if the blog is about you, or one specific product, for example the Nintendo Wii, it doesn’t hurt to put up a picture of yourself or that product. When it is your picture you are putting up, the image can help you in creating branding
It makes sense. Its like adding nice cabinet hardware to your kitchen cabinets to spice it up. Plus, the photo on your about page helps your readers view you more as a real person as opposed to some mind numbing twat who rants about the jackass at the stop light this morning (or your boss’s pointless requests).
Some of the other suggestions include stating a purpose, writing with power (feeling), infusing your personality to the about page. It shouldn’t be a resume. If people want that, give them a link to your CV (thats for you brits), instead make it fun and interesting. Also, its a good place to provide a list of some of your better or more popular posts.
If done right, the About Page can be one of your best traffic boosting pages.
mcangeli
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