I didn’t post for a week and it didn’t make any difference in the web traffic I received. In fact, on Monday my views were higher than last week. So clearly posting is less important  than the stuff I have already posted. Interesting.

I like surfing and trying out new WordPress plugins. I tried one that said it would increase SEO by suggesting terms and analyzing your writing, but I wasn’t impressed. My goal isn’t really to get views, it is to share things that I think will help the average person. If someone wants to see something added, I am open to suggestions.

I really like the Broken Links WordPress plugin. It scans all the web links on my website, and tests them to make sure they work. If they don’t work, it gives me a list and then I can try them to double-check they don’t work.

However about 6 months ago it stopped working. It might have been because I added new plugins in that time. Anyway, I deleted it and reinstalled and now it is working great. This is just to share that reinstalling plugins sometimes makes them work again. Most of the time plugins just work, and they continue to work through WordPress upgrades.

Today I saw my first search request from a site called Blekko. I have never used it before, but one of my top articles showed up on the front page for it. It is interesting that it says it is spam free. I wonder how it accomplishes that? Interesting that I wasn’t the first listed, but the person still choose me. I wonder why?

WordPress › Bad Behavior « WordPress Plugins. I was looking for options to reduce spam from subscribers. I am continuing to search to reduce spammers who try to create accounts to launch spam from. This is another great tool to keep a quality blog.

Ok forget this plugin. I just uninstalled it. Apparently it also blocks helpful bots like MSN/Google so your site won’t be indexed and search traffic will decrease. How disappointing. Instead use Wordfence. It has some great features and even a paid version.

Google Docs bumps up free storage to 5GB, primes servers for Drive? — Engadget. Interesting strategy to alienate customers. Why not offer the people who have supported your company the same extra 5GB? It just doesn’t make sense to treat customers this way.

What I wanted to share is that I looked at my webpages that had lists of the top 50 themes of 2011 or something like that, and while they looked nice, they worked very poorly. Lists on the Internet are not valuable to me because they take a tremendous amount of time to fit the features to your needs. What I think would be far more helpful on webpages is a matrix that shows features and products. It always amazes me that the description of things on the Internet is so vague when there is no cost to go into great detail about what it can do.

Therapy in the Air: Scientific American – StumbleUpon. I breathe when I start to feel tense, or when I think I might get tense. It does work and helps you stay grounded in the present moment. The best things in life are truly free.

Nike iPod – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – StumbleUpon. This is everything you wanted to know about this device. I have never considered this as a serious tool for fitness. I don’t like that you have to buy a certain brand of product. If they allowed this for all shoes, then I would use it.

Ferry Tale: Fire Ants Aggregate into Living Rafts to Escape Floods: Scientific American – StumbleUpon. This is pretty impressive behavior. I wonder how much of coöperation we see in nature is coercion?

Welcome to Macintosh (2008) – IMDb – StumbleUpon.I watched this film and it was ok. I agree with one of the reviewers that trashing the competition is petty and unnecessary. If you have a good product, then talk about what your product offers. I would consider this a film for people who only have introductory knowledge of Apple.

Study Says Most IT Guys Are Ignorant | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com – StumbleUpon. This is an interesting point of view. I wonder if this is revenge for the perceived lack of social skills of IT people.

This is how creative you can get with old watches – StumbleUpon. Creative person who experimented with these materials. Old metal is interesting, and these would be beautiful decorative objects. Perhaps one day we will have holograms of this stuff so we can enjoy their beauty without consuming valuable resources.

Limit WordPress Login Attempts Simply By Installing a Plugin. This is a good and free plugin to help secure your site. I am going to install this. It might slow a casual hacker down.

5 Reasons Why People Hate Apple – PCWorld – StumbleUpon. I often hear these reasons in arguments on the Internet. I don’t argue with people anymore about their beliefs. If they want to believe things that aren’t backed up by evidence, that is their choice.

Has anyone got a spam email that said they wanted to buy your domain? I received that today as a generic email sent to my primary email account. I deleted it of course, because it is silly that someone would want to buy my domain. I don’t have enough traffic to make it worthwhile for a commercial interest. Spammers are getting more creative in trying to verify addresses aren’t they?

Also is anyone else getting spam emails from Poland and other countries? Is it just me, or  has spam been less Nigerian money scams and more attempts to exploits public information?

The Body Odd – Watching Jersey Shore might make you dumber, study suggests – StumbleUpon. So this is no surprise. I felt dumber after watching dumb shows. I guess we really are who we hang out with.

For the last two weeks my views had gone to ridiculously low levels. Perhaps everyone was on vacation, but more likely Google has changed how it feels about my site and content. I say this because the major source of traffic comes from the Google search results, and the last two weeks those have been down to double digits when they typically were triple digits.

Has anyone else had this experience?

Google admits tracking Safari users | Technology | guardian.co.uk – StumbleUpon. Ok. This almost makes me want to stop using Chrome. I used to use Firefox but it got to glitchy and unstable. Maybe its time to go back.

An Alternative “Related Posts” WordPress Plugin – Where Did They Go From Here | Search Engine Journal. I am trying this to see if it is useful. It seems to work pretty well. I tested it out and it did make a link. I wonder what kind of internal linking it will show. I am always surprised to see the popularity of some posts.

How to Disable “This Page Has Insecure Content” Warning in Chrome – LockerGnome ~ LockerGnome. I got this message today in Chrome version 17. It explains how to find the insecure content and that it normally is related to a plugin.

I’ve been working on performance on my website using the suggestions from Page Speed Online. Since yesterday I have gone from 80 out of 100 to 87. I added WP Minify which compresses javascript/CSS. I also used the compress option in WP Super Cache. I am going to be working on that today as well. Google seems to make a big deal about performance in their search ranking.

After further tweaking with W3 Total Cache my site scores 95/100 on google speed page online test. Thats the highest ever for me. I am so pleased with that plugin.

7 Signs of a Facebook Scam – StumbleUpon. This is a good general warning sign of any scam. It is nice to see people are becoming more conscious about this.

15 Worst Internet Privacy Scandals of All Time PCWorld – StumbleUpon. This link has some interesting stories. It is amazing to me that people engage in this kind of immature behavior. What do they seek to gain from it?

This was helpful to solve a problem that a friend had. It is amazing how hidden they make this feature. Don’t they think that people need to share information from their forms? Thanks CCSD!

What kind of evil is Google: Accidental or intentional? | Privacy – InfoWorld – StumbleUpon. It does seem its more intentional than accidental these days. Well there goes my search engine rankings.

I was thinking that services like StumbleUpon is almost like candy for your mind. It has quick, easily digestible pieces of information, but nothing that is really satisfying. I find myself drawn to a book or something more in-depth after stumbling for awhile. Even Wiki pages seem too brief to me. Using the same analogy I suppose Wiki pages are the fast food of information.

It has been awhile since I’ve read a well-written, fact-based book. Do you have anything that you have enjoyed that you might suggest?

I use Apple mail for email.  When…: Apple Support Communities. Nice solution. I haven’t had a problem with it. Thanks Tom.

When you add a photo to an email, control > Click on the photo in the message and selct “View as Icon”.

This may help.

via Carpenters – Top of the World (The Bob Hope Special) Part 1 – YouTube.

I was driving with a friend and I noticed a TV companies van. What really struck me was below the logo and slogan were the words in heavy bold type “We are not hiring.” I didn’t realize they got asked the question so much they needed to put it on their vehicle.

I immediately thought of that old german proverb. “Who is not busy growing is busy dying.” I wonder if stores like Best Buy will have that on their windows now. I used to see that when I shopped at Kmart/Sears in the past. Whats wrong with retail? Can’t they see the writing on the wall? If they don’t offer service, they have no chance to compete on price.

via TURTLE: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY – YouTube.

via Boy Meets Girl – Waiting For A Star To Fall (Original Video 1988) – YouTube.

Siri Meets Eliza | jordanmechner.com. This is a fun conversation. It makes Eliza sound more intelligent than Siri IMHO.

Google’s 3 Top Executives Have 8 Private Jets TechCrunch. My impression of reading this article is that pointing out the green initiatives of the company and then listing they have jets is to show they are hypocritical. I am not defending Google, but I think we should first look at our own lives before we judge others.

Consumer Watchdog: The 12 scams of Christmas – National – NZ Herald News – StumbleUpon. What happens when people think they can get something for nothing. I have had the romantic scam played on me numerous times. Why do women think men are so desperate?

Search engine aims to give power to the people | TG Daily – StumbleUpon. Interesting challenge to Google. I hope this is successful. I love the fact that it doesn’t store searches. Makes it even better that data won’t be sold to advertisers.

This is a fairly balanced view of the different services. I don’t trust Amazon after they disabled and deleted content off the device. Just one time of being disrespected is enough.