Looks like good ol’ Twitter is down again at least partially… getting a 500 server error when logging in.  For the so called “a listers” of the web this must be a nightmare…. not being able to spam to their thousands of followers and brag about daily events of their lives…. it must be awful.

Twitter twitter… a spam service disguised as a hipster message service for the uber elite… LOL.  Oh well, once you really get into the guts of the service you will see that is is more like being invited to a party full of self absorbed a-holes that know only a few words such as “I, Me, million, billion” and a few other words.  A great tool indeed, but these “a listers” need to get a grip.  Can you imagine if the TRUE a listers such as Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos acted like this?  They don’t… they are on a whole other level of universe and don’t have to prove anything.  They just take action and the results speak for themselves.

And this my half drunk 2 cents of the day for ya!

Just wanted to make a quick note to anyone out there experimenting with writing plugins for WordPress. I made a simple little plugin and for a long time now I’ve been trying to figure out why the visual rich editor in WordPress quit working after I activated the plugin. I searched around Google and found nothing, so I decided to look at the Hello Dolly plugin and compare my code to it. I looked at the bottom of the Hello Dolly plugin and noticed one thing - there were no line breaks after the final line of code. It simply ends like:

?>

So, if you’re struggling to figure out why the visual rich editor quit working for you, check to see if you have line breaks at the end of your code. I’m not 100% positive is this is what causes the bug, but removing them has solved the problem for me. Give it a try…

I wonder what would happen if you wrote a blog post discussing various other blog posts you have seen throughout the day?  Would you get trackbacks and a nice boost in traffic?  This is assuming your post is somewhat relevant to what you’re talking about, right?  I dunno, but let’s see what happens.

One post that first comes to mind is a post on Abundance Highway where Suzie wonders if it is a good or bad idea to have a blog with an abundance of different topics.  Hmm… this blog is sort of like that and I’ve wondered this myself.  Problogger Darren Rowse left a massive comment on her blog and basically says that you will get plenty of search traffic, but may irritate your readers.  Personally, the search traffic is all I care about… for now… :)  Darren’s comment should make you realize that if you write a detailed and relevant comment on another blog it makes other readers happy and will probably bring you a bunch of new subscribers at the same time.

Google stock was up today, but don’t be fooled.  Countless adsense publishers are reporting drastic declines in revenue of at least 50% or more.  I predict they may have enough to show a good first quarter, but their second quarter report will not be so good.  I think they will be laying off people this summer and have a stock price of around $200 or less.  How low do you think it will go?  Meanwhile, Microsoft and Yahoo are still in talks.  Whoopdee doo.  The Internet sure is getting lame.

Yes, gas prices are still high.  Good thing I didn’t buy an SUV last year! 

Well, not much else going on and this is getting pretty boring.  Time to get to some “real blogging”… I’ll post again here in a few months.  haha

Well, as of this weekend, I’ve officially been eliminated from winning in the fantasy football league I’m in for the 2007 season. I’m fairly satisfied though as I did make the playoffs (barely - by 2 points) and will be in the toilet bowl this weekend. While fantasy football is still fresh in my mind, I would like to make some notes about this season that I can hopefully use to draft and play better for the 2008 fantasy football season. So… here goes in no particular order.

#1 - Definitely do a lot of mock drafts. The online mock draft sites I used in 2007 helped a lot. Although some where buggy, they still made my real draft go a lot smoother. Hopefully some of the bugs will be eliminated and/or improvements will be made for 2008.

#2 - Consider drinking coffee during the draft. Sure, it’s fun to get drunk during the draft, but this will probably hurt your draft results. Drink coffee and celebrate AFTER the draft.

#3 - Buy a draft kit. The one I got off Yahoo was pretty helpful. I’m sure there are other ones out there, but that one seemed to be good enough.

#4 - Try to guess how other team members will draft and plan accordingly.

#5 - Consider a shocking strategy such as drafting the two top WR WR’s. This could start a run on WR’s and leave plenty of RB’s for you to draft next.

#6 - If Tom Brady is available and it is your turn, get him.

#7 - Get RB’s on teams that are weak on passing offense

#8 - Get WR’s that are on a team with a studly quarterback such as Tom Brady or Tony Romo…and perhaps get one on the same team for the double point effect.

#9 - Get up to date on who’s injured… and who’s not

#10 - Follow football stuff during the off season

#11 - Don’t worry too much about kickers

#12 - Consider getting a good defense early… but if you miss out, don’t sweat it too much

#13 - Don’t trade early in the season

#14 - Initiate trades with newbies in the league early… try to scam em’

#15 - So far in 2007, the top point producers were all quarterbacks and not running backs

#16 - Some studly RB’s might not pay off until late in the season

#17 - RB’s get injured a lot… draft RB’s that are next in line to start

#18 - Another strategy to consider would be WR RB. then again, you might wanna do WR, RB. Or… how about QB WR.

#19 - Make defensive moves. If someone gets Tom Brady before you, try to get Randy Moss next!

#20 - If a player did well in one year, it doesn’t mean they will the following year. And vice versa

#21 - Get highlighters to mark who has been taken, who hasn’t, etc.

#22 - Make a plan for who you think you will draft. I think this is called target drafting.

That’s about all for now. Here are some of the hot players of 2007…let’s do the top 10 starting with best first.
Quarterbacks:

Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Peyton Manning, Derek Anderson, Brett Farve, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Matt Hasslebeck, Carson Palmer and Jon Kitna

Running Backs:

LaDainian Tomlinson, Brian Westbrook, Adrian Peterson (slightly banged up), Joseph Addai, Willis McGahee, Jamal Lewis, Maurice Jones-Drew, Marion Barber, Clinton Portis, Earnest Graham.

Wide Receivers:

Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Braylon Edwards, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Wes Welker, Reggie Wayne, Nate Burleson, Larry Fitzgerald, Chad Johnson, Marques Colston

Tight Ends:

Antonio Gates, Jason Witten, Tony Gonzalez, Kellen Winslow, Chris Cooley, Dallas Clark, Heath Miller, Donald Lee, Jeremy Shockey, Owen Daniels

Kickers:

Mason Crosby, Nick Folk, Kris Brown, Rob Bironas, Stephen Gostkowski, Jason Hanson, Josh Brown, Robbie Gould, Shayne Graham, Phil Dawson

Defense:

Minnesota, Seattle, San Diego, New England, Green Bay, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh

Well, that’s about all of the “advice” I can offer myself or anyone else who may read this. Hopefully next year I can read this and maybe it will help me do a better draft. Either that or I can just use a dart board…

I’m going to post this on Fantasy Football Cafe - hopefully others can add some tips so we can all read and learn from them next year.

Ask Com.  Are you looking for a search engine called Ask.com?  Then why did you do a Google search for “ask com”?  Perhaps a better idea would have been to type www.Ask.com in the URL field of your web browser?  You might have even typed in http ask com, which is quite bizarre, but nevertheless, I am hearby going to give you a link to this search engine you seek.  Follow this magical link and it should take you there:

Visit Ask.com

What is this all about?  Contact me and maybe I’ll tell you. 

Black Friday 2007 is just around the corner, and at some malls and department stores it is starting even earlier this year - yes… some are choosing to open on Friday at MIDNIGHT on November 23rd instead of the usual 5 or 6 am.  There are plenty of sales this year that you can take advantage of - if you get to Wal-Mart or the other store of your choice.

Here is a round-up of Black Friday ads, deals and sales for 2007 in no particular order.  You can avoid a lot of the insanity by shopping online.  But, if you are feeling adventurous, many of these must be taken advantage of at the actual store.  Good luck and don’t get crushed by the stampede!

Online Black Friday Sales:

Amazon.com is kicking off their “Amazon Customers Vote” promotion once again where you vote for items that they will sell online starting Thanksgiving Day and going until Wednesday, November 28th.  There are 6 rounds and 18 deals which will be sold at significantly reduced prices.  Examples of some of the stuff that may be sold includes Nintendo Wii, Panasonic HD camcorders, HDTV’s, HD DVD players, laptops and more.  So, go there now and vote and check back on each day’s buying day to see if you are selected to get the product you voted for at the sale price.  But don’t get too excited as there are millions of others doing the same.

Wal-Mart is having their Black Friday sales from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and if you go here you can view Black Friday ads in your city.  It looks like they will have a 42″ HDTV for $798, portable DVD players for $49.98, Compaq Presario computer for $398 as well as sales on digital cameras, camcorders, toys and more.

Target will be opening their doors at 6:00 a.m. on Black Friday and has specials very similar to Wal-Mart.  Go here to view their ads online.

If you have an outlet mall or regular shopping mall in your city, you may be in for a special treat as many will be opening their doors at midnight so you can avoid the insanity of getting up at 2 am and waiting in line in the cold for hours to go to other stores.  About.com has a listing of outlet malls that will be opening at midnight.  Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea and surprised malls are just starting to do this.  Read a story about this phenomenon on CNN.

Well, there are far too many more stores to list here, so I’ll end by giving you some web sites that specialize in Black Friday on a full time basis.  See below for places where you can find scanned ads, info on online Black Friday specials and more.

Bfads.net - Boasts itself to be the “Official Web Site of Black Friday 2007″ and includes Black Friday ads, coupons, online deals, hot deals and more.  They also have a message board so you can chat with other holiday shoppers.

BlackFriday.info - Black Friday ads, coupons and news.  One of the most popular sites on the web.

FatWallet Black Friday 2007 - Forum where you can post Black Friday ads, read ads posted by others and discuss all things Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

TheBlackFriday.com - Another site claiming to be the “Official…”.  More scans of Black Friday ads from just about every store you can imagine.

BlackFDay.com - Black Friday ads downloadable in PDF format as well as information and deals on Cyber Monday.

Black Friday 2007 at Mahalo - Very thorough resource for Black Friday ads, information, shopping tips and more.

Well, I hope this gives you a good starting point for your 2007 Christmas shopping.  If you would like to share more links on Black Friday 2007, Cyber Monday or need help finding a certain deal, please leave a comment below.  Good luck!

Well, I think I’m throwing in the towel as a fan of YouTube.  They had a great run but Oprah Winfrey had to come in and ruin the site.  She recently discovered the site and has taken over the home page with her selection of featured videos - many of which are OLD.. and I mean old as dirt!  Some of the videos she featured include the Otters Holding Hands, Mentos & Diet Coke (I kid you not),  Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog and Laughing Baby.

Oprah, PLEASE GO AWAY!  You have your own nationally syndicated TV show… isn’t that enough!?  YouTube should be for the smaller peeps out there not for you to use as yet another publicity tool.  Go away… now.  Ugh… Oprah makes me wanna puke.  When mainstream idiots like her “discover” the cool stuff, the cool factor goes away FAST!

The good news is I think YouTube is doomed anyway… Vimeo now has HD web video that blows them away… and I foresee everyone jumping ship very soon.  I’m jumping ship right after I hit the publish key.  Would you like to join me? 

I just stumbled onto this awesome deal on Facebook where you can get 5 free iTunes songs by joining the Ticketmaster group. To get your free iTunes, follow this link to join the group and you will see an iTunes song good for 5 free songs. Codes expire on November 15, 2007 and you must redeem your 5 free songs by December 31, 2007. Get your 5 Free iTunes!

If you’ve ever thought about writing an eBook and don’t know where to begin, I can recommend from experience eBook Pro for you to compile/create your ebook. Most eBook compiler/creator software will make your ebook for you, but few protect your work from being stolen like eBook Pro does. With eBook Pro they allow you to create usernames and passwords that are stored on a remote server requiring anyone reading an ebook to enter this username and password in before reading the ebook. You can limit the number of readers per ebook or if you aren’t worried about protecting your work you can allow unlimited readers to read it.

I’ve noticed a lot of people use Adobe Acrobat to create and distribute their ebooks, but think this is a bad idea as it is easy to distribute a PDF file once it is out on the web. If an ebook created with eBook Pro gets in distribution it doesn’t matter as someone trying to steal a copy won’t be able to read it. If you are already selling ebooks and concerned about theft, you should definitely get Ebook Pro software. It is WELL worth the money.

If you notice suspicious activity with an ebook password that you sent out, you can deactivate that username and password remotely.  You can even collect contact information from your readers.  So, whether you want to make money selling ebooks or give away a free ebook as a viral marketing tool, eBook Pro is the way to go!  For more information, visit the eBook Pro web site.

Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal gives you this in depth video review of Apple’s new version of their OS X operating system - OS X Leopard which is due out tomorrow, October 26th.  OS X Leopard will ship on new Apple computers purchased, or existing Mac users can buy the upgrade for $129.  Personally, I’m going to wait a few months so they can work out all the kinks. 

Walt says the sexiest feature of Leopard is the Time Machine feature which allows you to easily make backups on your Mac.  Other cool features include Cover Flow - which gives you live preview of images, movies, pdf files and more, and Quick Look which allows you to view the contents of a file without opening it.  Boot Camp is also built into Leopard so you can install Windows on your Mac with greater simplicity.