John Lamansky

Microsoft recently published a helpful step-by-step guide to cleaning your computer.

From the article:

“Your computer could fry if you don’t keep it clean,” says Jonathon Millman, chief technology officer for Hooplah Interactive.

Dust clogs the vents behind your computer, which causes your CPU to heat up—and heat is the biggest cause of component failure in computers. Regular cleaning could save you costly maintenance fees down the road.

This is definitely something I want to add to my to-do list for this summer!

As you might know, I’ve tried Google AdSense on this blog several times before. For those who aren’t familiar with AdSense, it is a Google service that lets you put ads on your site (the same kind you see on Google search results). When people click ads on your site, you get a portion of the what the advertiser pays Google. Here’s an example:

I’m not sure how relevant the above ads will be, but every time that I’ve tried AdSense I’ve removed it because I have not been happy with what ads have been displayed.

For example, after I published the post Mr. Monopoly vs. The Deet, in which I described how some deet-containing bug spray ate the ink off my grandma’s Monopoly board, then my AdSense ads started showing advertisements for, guess what?, deet-containing bug spray.

About a month later I published a post called What is Bug Control?, in which I attempted to present a pun concerning the fact that a dead mosquito landed on the Ctrl key on my keyboard. But AdSense started showing ads for bug control, mosquito repellant, and pest removal. Even though my post contained the words “bug,” “mosquito,” and “control,” the ads displayed weren’t exactly relevant.

Then apparently, the AdSense algorithms saw the words “John” and “Catholic” and decided to put up an ad for John Kerry.

Frankly, that was the last straw. I removed those AdSense ads and haven’t put them back up since.

Until Google can increase the relevance of AdSense ads, or until I get enough traffic to the point that I’ll get clicks regardless of ad relevance, I probably won’t be trying to use AdSense again. Maybe lack of relevance is just a risk that advertisers have to take. But in addition, I didn’t get a single click throughout my entire site during the entire time I was displaying AdSense ads.

So in summary, I’ve decided that for now, AdSense for me doesn’t really make sense… or cents.

I really got a kick out of this; it was in a Burger King newsletter published back when Star Wars Episode III was in theaters.

I wonder how long Obi Wan would stand up to General Grievous if he used these tactics.

Be Prepared, Young Jedi!

Practice the Jedi Workout so that you will be ready for General Grievousâ„¢ if you bump into him on the playground!

1. Stand straight up holding your light saber over your head on your right side.
2. Sweep your light saber across your body toward your left side and bend at your knees.
3. Bring your arms back over your head to your left side and stand straight up.
4. Sweep your light saber across your body toward your right side and bend at your knees.
5. Repeat 2 more times.

If you have a FeedBurner feed, you’ve got to check this out: FeedBurner has released a feed-to-email subscription service.

For bloggers and podcasters, a feed-to-email subscription service means you can expand your “push-delivery audience” to readers and listeners who aren’t familiar with RSS feeds.

For readers and listeners, an email subscription service such as FeedBurner Email means that you can sign up to receive emails every day that let you know about new blog posts or podcast episodes. (Of course, if there’s nothing new for a given day, you won’t get an email.) For many people, email subscription services remove the need to remember to visit a blog or podcast site for updates.

My take on FeedBurner Email? In short: it’s awesome.

Continue Reading »

Yea! Fantastico’s WordPress bug is fixed and I finally have a WordPress installation that is 100% WordPress 2.0!