Owner: McGrath Dot CA URL:http://www.mcgrath.ca Join Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 07:17:31 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: I started this blog to be able to write articles/reviews about technology and entertainment and do "Spread the MIS spec. word" contests. I will also give news about my current 2 freeware MIS Info Video... Site statistics:Click here
Review: And the color is??? AdesClrPicker to the rescue 2007-05-16 16:22:32 I found out via AdesBlog.com(blog covers News & Updates about Web Technologies, Web Design and Making Money Online) that he make a color picker called AdesClrPicker. Like me, he is a programmer. I don’t need one everyday but if you work often with colors, then take look at it. It’s small and cost $19.90USD. I just tested the demo version(RGB only). I would had like a full version but it would also meant a limit in days(more later). I’m lucky, the programming language I use needs RGB. It could be useful in web design.
AdesClrPicker installed itself in the System Tray:
It’s simple to use because you get tips when using it. It’s simple after a minute.
Take a look at the menu.
It can translate the colors to: HTML, RGB, C++, VB and Delphi color codes.
Recommendations
Because I did not used the colors in other languages(only HTML, RGB), I would had like to see example of the kind of value. Why? Because my language can also accept a numeric number. F
Spread the MIS specification word and win $150CDN 2007-05-15 21:24:52 Following a conversation in a recent post, I decided to write a generic text for you to email your favorite consumer electronic manufacturers. You can modify it to your own needs(delete the products they don’t make ). Plus, I added a little something fun for you.
Subject: Support the MIS specification
Hi,
Can you support the MIS specification(metadata text for media files) in a current or future product. I, my parents, siblings don’t want to install a computer in our living room but would prefer something much easier (DVD player, Media player, portable MP3 player or digital photo display). All the technical information are included at the end.
Thank you for your time
Links:
MIS Specification:
http://www.mcgrathinfosolution.com/mis_en.htm
Info2MIS (free, Create .MIS):
http://www.mcgrathinfosolution.com/info2mis_en.htm
MIS Info Video (free, Front End/Player):
http://www.mcgrathinfosolution.com/misinfovideo_en.htm
Example for movies with MIS Info Video:
http://www.i2mfan.com Read more:Spread
News: Free and open source software violates Microsoft patents 2007-05-14 22:39:24 In the article by Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft
: Free and open source
software violates 283 Microsoft patents, it demonstrated again why intellectual property licenses could be rewritten to take care of this. For example, when I wrote the MIS specification license, I took the initiative to make it available for free for non-commercial projects from the start.
By doing that, some did say that I would indirectly benefit from free projects by helping making it a standard(can’t pleased them all). My intentions were and are still sincere. I look at it the another way when I wrote the license. If commercial applications started using it first, then free projects would had to pay to get the documentation or reverse engineer the specification with trials and errors. I resolved that too by making the documentation available for free.
I also look a other licenses and I decided to make it affordable even for small developer(e.g. shareware). Many licenses asked for a few thousands/year plus ro
Review: Zune Art site 2007-05-11 20:22:47 If you have a Zune
, I don’t, and are looking for Zune wallpapers then get them on Zune Art.
The site
On first look, the site is very simple and I liked that. It’s separated in 5 sections: Top(home, search, top rated …), Category(3D art, Babes, Movies/TV shows…), Random files, Last additions and various links(About, Site maps…). (more…)
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Blog News and Programmers Competition update($100CND) 2007-05-10 15:21:21 Blog News
I decided to make another change to the blog. I added the feed to Feedburner and made it more visible. And after seeing some stats with Feedburner, I wanted to see which post were popular by adding plugins. All post views start at 0.
Programmers
Competition Update
Only 5 days left to enter the $100CND random draw. Please read the rules.
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Top 77 Mistakes New Bloggers Make by Joshua Dorkin 2007-05-09 18:01:48 I nice article by Joshua
.
Domain & Hosting
Not hosting their own blog
Registering a blog name (URL) that has been copyrighted
Registering a long and difficult to remember domain nameStyle, Design, and Basic Blog Ingredients
Keeping the basic template that came installed on the blog
Using a black background or one that flashes, blinks, or moves in any other way
Read the rest of the article
Following those tips, I decided to open comments more(no registration needed) and see what happens. I hope not to have to deal with spam too much It may be easier to get feedback from users of my 2 freeware Info2MIS and MIS Info Video.
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Info2MIS v.2.0.0b13 is out! 2007-05-08 22:25:06 Well, I’m releasing Info2MIS v2.0.0b13. Like I mentioned in a early post today, I corrected the troubles when importing the ftp files from imdb.com.
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Info2MIS: May 2007 IMDB database available 2007-05-08 19:21:32 Since January, I had trouble with the IMDB ftp files that had change. So, this weekend, I took many many hours to see what files did not work. For example, the actors list alone took about 2h30-3h. It took a long time but I finally found the changed files. I guest some files were fixed since then. (more…)
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Read more:available
Review: “Blast your ads” to x Millions 2007-05-08 18:28:15 I was receiving, like everybody else, this type of offer every day but one more than the others. So, I decided to review it and see what amount of traffic I could get. (more…)
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Read more:Blast
Is it wise for Microsoft to buy Yahoo? 2007-05-05 00:16:06 I take a break to go see Spider-Man 3 and I missed that news. I also read the article on johnchow.com and he gave information on the financial performance of Yahoo
. I don’t follow that like I used too. (more…)
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Read more:Microsoft
Battle of The PR Linkback: AdesBlog.com vs JohnChow.com 2007-05-18 18:24:33 This is the match of the century I tell you! Ok, ok maybe of the next few weeks
In the corner: AdesBlog.com
Google PageRank: 7
Alexa Rang: 112 470
Category: News & Updates about Web Technologies, Web Design and Making Money Online …
Name: Abdylas Tynyshov
Started linkback: April 2, 2007
Requirement for linkback: Review a small software by Ades
In the other corner: John Chow dot Com
Google PageRank: 6
Alexa Rank: 2 728
Category: Making Money Online, Reviews Web Technologies…
Name: John Chow
Started linkback: December 22nd, 2006
Requirement for linkback: Review his blog
Goal: Bring the most traffic to me in the first week after the batch post.
Winner: Bragging rights
Good luck to both!
P.S. I’m in the queue on both sites.
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Read more:Battle
, Linkback
Improving your site ranking on Alexa 2007-05-23 18:20:15 In a “old” post(Feb. 26, 2007), So, you want to make money on the Internet, I wrote about looking at your Alexa
Rank. Even if it’s far from perfect(more later), advertisers, ReviewMe! type sites…. will use it with other variables to calculate your worth and pay you accordingly. At the time of the old post, my Alexa Rank was 2,7 Millions for McGrath Info Solution and now it’s 1,33 Million(i2mfan.com was 2.9M vs 1.17M now).
How did I do that
To make this possible, I:
Submitted MIS Info Video (free) on many freeware/shareware sites thus creating many good links
Change my signature in forums to point to both sites
Participated in blogs that I liked
Added a link button in MIS Info Video to go directly to the blog
Allowed comments in my post thus increasing the community/traffic
Added the Alexa widget showing my rank
Using the Alexa Toolbar (Internet Explorer) and SearchStatus (Firefox)
With the last Google PageRank update(April), this blog and McGrath I
How to make a new TV show survive the whole season 2007-05-22 13:16:01 This year was one of the worst TV season I tried to watch. Why? Most shows that I started to watched were canceled after just a few airing(many were serialized).
Those are my recommendations for you TV executives/Show Producers
Stick to the time slot or people won’t know when it’s on. Create an habit first and change it the next season if need be.
People use an invention called a VHS/DVD recorder/HTPC and they use it. I use 2 PVR(single tuner) and timeshift. Yes, in Canada we can do that. We may not see it live but we do watch it later. A 2 dual tuner solution would fix it in the U.S. in case of 4 good shows at the same time(no timeshift). That’s for die hard tv viewers.
Take a note from 24h/Prison Break. Play them in order with no repeats. You can split them in two with a small break(2-3 weeks) for the holidays.
Be more patient. Let the viewers find it. You used to do that.
Use Saturday for new shows. Again, You used to do that.
Make a free quality download versi Read more:survive
My sister, Vista and Me 2007-05-21 07:47:14 Last week, my sister
bought a new HP computer with Vista
. She wanted me to set it up and I said that she could do it herself. Hey! it’s supposed to be friendly for everyone and I wanted her to be more independent. I told her to just answer the question that the HP would asked via the many installed software. I did help her, by phone, to download Firefox from this blog(bottom page) and OpenOffice.
Note: I only use Vista on the HTPC(mostly for testing my 2 freeware MIS Info Video, Info2MIS) and still use Windows XP Pro on my main computer. So, my knowledge is limited for now.
Guest who is coming for supper?
Yesterday, she called me on how to transfer the Thunderbird email account from the old to the new computer(XP). She did not want to to do it at that moment but later in the week. I said that I would help her by phone. She however invited my parents and me for small supper last night. So, I took the opportunity to do a quick transfer and I did not want do that all night.
New plugin: Adsense-Deluxe 2007-05-26 20:58:52 You will notice that I added a new plugin: Adsense
-Deluxe
. In doing so, I hope to increase revenue from the blog to help pay for the cost, freeware, contest …. It is not a license to click on ads just to help me. Only click if your find an ad interesting. Otherwise, they will think it’s click fraud.
I think it should show ads related to the post. Plus, it’s limited because not all post has an ad. I may have to tweak things more.
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Mini-review: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End 2007-05-26 15:51:20 I just saw it in theater. They were many fans on this sunny Saturday after-noon for the English showing .
If you seen the first 2 movies(most had by now), then see it in theater. Besides, most summer blockbuster are worth it. Pirates
of the Caribbean
: At World
’s End is long at times(2h50) and equivalent to the second movie. The first one is still the best. I did not watched the second one since last year and I suggest you watch it again for a refresher if you need to.
And one last thing…
Stay after the credit(most left the theater). Without going into details, I could see a fourth one. The weekend box office will surely tell us.
I seen a new(?) longer trailer for Transformers. I was not very excited at first but I’m more now because this one by gave us more details. I just hope I did not see the whole movie with this trailer!
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Read more:review
Review: My experience with ReviewMe(both sides) 2007-05-26 08:27:51 Recently, I decided to create an account on ReviewMe to review both sides(blogger/advertiser).
What is ReviewMe
It’s a way to bring both advertisers and bloggers together. The advertiser pay the blogger to review a site or product. With ReviewMe, the advertiser can’t ask for a positive review. The review must be available for at least 30 days.
Like a Blogger, writing for the very first time
After a few days(no offers), I finally decided to make a trial run on a $5 open review. The advertiser paid $10 for it. I took my time and it was almost 500 words(minimum is 200 words). For the advertiser, it was a real deal because I would had normally asked much more than that.
Unfortunately, I can’t change what I want to charge for a review. That option is not available to me but it is for top blogs. I can’t even find my blog in the blog search box. Again, it’s only available to top blogs. I taught that once I would had written my first review, my ranking/option Read more:experience
Contest 2: Spread the MIS specification word and win $200CAD 2007-05-25 12:14:22 I like contest and I’m sure that Icewolf too(previous winner). So, to make it even different this time, I decided to do another contest but for blogs only. You will see that the theme is 200.Contest
rules:
To enter the contest for a chance to win $200CAD, you:
- Must have a blog at least 2 months old
- Have or create a Paypal account. I suggest the Premier Account for later uses like donations on your blog …
- Create a post on your blog with the links below with a small text(200 words excluding the What is the MIS specification and links) on why you want the MIS specification in your electronics devices or software applications and what step you took or will take to make it possible(i.e. email manufacturers, created a video with a .MIS, include a .MIS in your podcast, ask authors to support it…). You may offer specifics(products) or examples(files) if you want.
Note: The real “work” is to write your original text because the rest is just a cut and pas Read more:Spread
Tip: Doing reviews, create an About page with an email on your blog 2007-05-25 09:29:03 Yes, this is a simple page to write and please, also include an email address. Your readers may want to know more about you, blog, work backgrounds… but don’t write your life story.
Also, an advertiser may want to contact you about making a review or correct facts about a review(paid or unpaid). I know, because I ordered a few reviews
in the last weeks. I contacted some about small mistakes and to mentioned that I like the review but others, I could not.
I did not want to leave a comment in the post. Why, you ask? Another advertiser may look at the comments of older reviews and see that you often make mistakes that were not corrected. Those could be simple(typos) or worst(misinterpreted facts) thus very harmful to the advertiser. In the long run, you will loose the trust of advertisers(paid) and readers.
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Read more:create
What is bla.st on my lower sidebar? 2007-05-29 18:23:14 It’s a widget that display “cards” on blogs/sites for free or just a few cents a day(optional).
Currently, I made one for the current contest and got new visitors because of it(welcome). Once the contest is over, I will still be able to display it for free but my card will be in a lower position versus the paid one. Also, the sooner you get one, the better your overall position in the free cards.
For example, I made one 3×3 with the “blog” category.
It’s a cheap way to bring traffic to your sites because of the a fix price per day. Just click one of the link above.
P.S.
It was recommended a few week ago by Tim(thanks).
I’m waiting to see how it goes after the contest. I will have to redo my card.
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nPost.com: where tech job seekers and startup meet 2007-05-29 16:46:19 I was contacted by Nathan Kaiser from nPost and he gave me information about the site. He is a wise man because he is reading my blog.
What is nPost.com?
It’s a niche tech sector(it’s Steve’s Tech Blog after all) job board bringing jobs seekers
and small- to medium-sized startups. Startups seek individuals who want to help build, grow, and create something new and dynamic. It is small for now but the jobs are all over the U.S.
Other aspects
One thing that I found interesting was the interview section. There, you will be able to read what entrepreneurs(i.e. Feedburner.com, Answers.com…) did when creating their startup. It’s worth a read.
They are also hosting events in Seattle, Vancouver and Portland. They, however, looking to expand to other cities. Btw, The “n” is for networking and events are good for that.
I’m not hiring but maybe one of you may find it interesting.
What do you think?
P.S. I was not paid for this.
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Updated: Rules for the contest 2 is lower 2007-05-29 06:33:29 I decided this morning the change the way it’s done and lessen the requirements. I will however reward the effort of the winner. The more you write, the more you win!
The winner will be rewarded like this for the original portion of the post:
$100CAD = 20-99 words
$125CAD = 100-124 words
$150CAD = 125-149 words
$175CAD = 150-199 words
$200CAD = 200+ words
So, if someone did start writing a longer post, they won’t be penalized.
It’s now easier to win $100CAD! But I would like to give the $200CAD instead
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Read more:Rules
Get free ads for your blog/site with adgridwork 2007-05-27 14:30:16 Yes, it’s possible with adgridwork. You will noticed that I added free ads at the top of the page. By putting those, my own ad for this blog will be displayed on the other sites in the network. The main goal is to bring more traffic at no cost to members. So people clicking on my ad will directly go to the current contest(Displayed URL(blog), Target URL(contest)).
I also included a referral link but I think it may help with my ad being shown more often.(edit: nothing more is gain. It would be interesting to see how many use mine in the future to become a member)
Taken from the F.A.Q.
If adgridwork is free, how do you plan on making a living off of it?
We do not make any money much less a living off of adgridwork. We handle the site in our free time (though lately with the launch it does feel more like a job :-). We simply had an idea and wanted to see it through - see if it would catch on. We have never had any plans to make a living or any money at all from running adgridw
MIS Info Video 2.7.0b1(beta) 2007-05-27 09:38:54 This is a beta to show an additional way to display the media files. It’s using an HTML page(mainpage.html). You must have v2.6.0.
If you have feedback or errors, please leave a comment.
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Updated: Rules for the contest 2 changed to have more winners(very easy) 2007-06-02 07:56:33 Please, read the rules of the contest again.
Because it’s after June 1, I will take 200 entries only(I kept my word). I will give $10CAD/each for the first 3 entries. I also added 5 secondary prizes(draw) of $10CAD/each. All this for only 20 words(minimum) on the MIS specification. The chances of winning are greater than before(now 1 in 25).
I learned a lot from this contest and make it better on the next one.
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Read more:Rules
Father’s day gift ideals and blog update 2007-05-31 08:08:28 In celebration of the upcoming Father
’s day, I put banners for games(casino, board, card) that might interest them or even you. I should had taught of it for Mother’s day. Anyway, it’s another way to diversify the streams of income. I will add others that you may like, including me, but I will never clog the post itself. I want my readers to see the post first and the offers after.
I also put a badge for the Blogger’s Choice Awards. I took Corporate but they needed one more category(Geek). I was aiming for the big Corporate boys and show them that a smaller one could also win. That would be funny. So, if you find this blog useful and have time, please go vote. Plus, you can nominate other blogs.
I also changed the “contest 2″ in case you missed it. The first 3 entries will get $10CAD. I like to make surprise bonus like that.
Do you have an opinion on any of those?
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Can you make money with the MIS specification? 2007-06-05 10:00:42 Yes!
If you have or working on a software product or a consumer device then it would be simple the buy a license/royalties for the MIS specification and offer something extra to clients. In fact, many of my users would like to have their favorite application or device support it. The “Spread the MIS specification word” campaign is one way to achieve awareness by making it known to others.
You are a programmer with no software?
Participate in the current competition and get a chance to win a prize.
Create a converter that would read a .MIS, convert it to html, bbcode(for forum) or Wordpress and sell it for a few dollars.
Create a converter that would take text based subtext(SRT, TXT…) and convert it in the .MIS.
But what if you don’t have any product?
If you have a site or blog, you could offer some content based .MIS files(no media file). For example:
Create a .MIS for every comic books for a superhero and selling the entire collection for a few dollars
I activated the Link Love plugin(dofollow) 2007-06-03 23:01:14 I decided to deactivate the “nofollow” with the Link Love plugin (found via Andy Bear list of dofollow). What does it mean for commentators? After a certain number of comments( less than the default 10), you will have a backlink. That’s easy! I like that plugin because it give me some control over spam. I may change that number if I need to.
I got the ideal from Kumiko. I prefer that method to the 2 other ones because it’s the honest one.
Btw, Kumiko has new domain and she’s giving me a chance to make money online too with her new Cash Quest Competition!! If I win, I may make another contest(I like them) with that money but I will keep the rest for me.
Good luck and do comment!
Edit1: I had to remove it because it cause a problem with comments. I used another plugin
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Info2MIS: June 2007 IMDB database available 2007-06-02 23:30:04 I created the database(1.37 gig unrar, 274MB rar, 8+ hours) with Info2MIS 2.0.0b13. A smaller version for 2006-2007 movies exist(91MB unrar, 22MB rar).If your don’t know, the database will let you create a .MIS for a movie in 2 clicks but instead of using the imdb.com site, it will use the local database with more information than the site. The search result(75%) is less than via the site(90%).
It can serve has a backup if the imdb.com page change format(often) and will give me time to fix Info2MIS.
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Read more:available
Can you make more money with Adsense? Yes 2007-06-07 23:01:50 Last week, I decided to try an Adsense
tip from John Chow free ebook. I often got clicks worth $0.01 to $0.03 in May like it was written in the chapter. Using the tip, my average per click is starting to improve($0.74/click). Here is my average per click in the last few months:
March($0.10)
April($0.28)
May($0.19) (More and more $0.01)
June ($0.74) (1 week only and not that many clicks versus the other months for the same time period)
Note: The number of clicks increased each month
Show me the money!
What did I do? I started using Competitive Ad Filter. So, I went to adsblacklist to create my list(350+) for my site. The only drawback of the ad filter is the maximum of 200 sites. In my case, they are 150+ sites not filtered. So far, it seem to work but I did got a $0.01 yesterday. My $0.01 might be a site that was not in my filter.
Conclusion
I did not want to wait a month before showing my result in case it was working or look like it was working. My opinion so far: it’s wo
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