verITableLIFE

Google Chrome Users Beware

UPDATE: Google Chrome has modified their EULA !!

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a new web browser, competing with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc. I will admit, that I downloaded Google Chrome and gave it a test run; however, USERS BEWARE. I will agree that it is much faster than both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but does have increased speed make up for waiving the right to content you post and publish?

As an IT Professional, I try to evaluate products on multiple levels. When reading the Google Chrome EULA, I was SHOCKED. Posting anything via Google Chrome gives Google the right to your content. Why is this bad, well for the blogging community, a bloggers content is what makes a site worth visiting and unique; if bloggers start to post pages using Google Chrome, they no longer have a unique post…..it becomes the property of Google as well. Below is the portion of the EULA that concerns me: Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator

It is official, I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA). You may remember from my previous post, Starting a Technology Career Path, that the last exam required to complete this certification gave me a hard time. After writing the post, I was inspired to finish my certification track and started studying. I owe a lot to the free training material I received through Microsoft TechNet; for those of you who are interesting in becoming an IT Professional I would strongly recommend that you visit Microsoft TechNet and browse through all that they have to offer. To learn more about how I used Microsoft TechNet visit my first guest post on the WNY Technology Blog; which will help lead you in the direction of free Webcasts, Virtual Labs and Podcasts.

Review of TechSagar

Recently, Pras of TechSagar had entered and won my contest to determine what my first post should be for the WNY Technology Blog. After his victory, I have decided to spend some time poking around his site to see what he had to offer.

TechSagar may not be a site that you want to visit everyday, as posts are spread out. However, I would highly recommend stopping by at least once a week (but who am I to judge, I am the same way). The quality of the TechSagar posts are what should bring readers back. I would like to highlight a few of posts from TechSagar that are worth visiting.

1. At the time of this post - TechSagar’s most recent article, is about an interesting form of 3D modeling of photography through Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth.
2. TechSagar’s Rewarding the Commentor’s With a DoFollow helps educate readers on the DoFollow, include the benefits of the DoFollow and how to effectively use it.
3. For those of you who use Google Adsense, TechSagar has a post on how to Monitor Your Adsense Account With A Browser Plugin.
4. And I’ll save the best for last, TechSagar features a post that will help Improve The Performance of Windows Vista Using ReadyBoost.

TechSagar demonstrates a great Technology Blog, providing useful information at a level that eveyone can understand. Please check out TechSagar, and spend some time reading through the posts. You should not be disappointed.

WNY Technology Blog Contest

UPDATE: I am extending the entry period, as I would like to choose from more entries.

I am now officially an author for the WNY Technology Blog. This is very exciting for me as I just started blogging a couple months ago; I will be writing a minimum of two posts per month for WNY Technology Blog. I want to ensure that my first post is a quality post: one that catches peoples attention and keeps their attention. This is where I am asking for your help!! I am officially announcing the What Should I Write for WNY Technology Blog contest.

Contest Rules

There aren’t any real rules per se, more so guidelines.

1. Ideas are to be left in the comments section of this post.
2. If you haven’t figured it out, it’s a technology blog. Topics must be technology related.
3. If two people have the same idea, the first to leave a comment will be considered the owner of that idea.
4. Ideas will be accepted up until this Saturday: August 16th.
5. The top three ideas will be selected by verITableLIFE.
6. A poll of the top three ideas will then be run for 3 days.
7. The prizes will be as follows:
   1. First Place - 300 EntreCard credits, a post about your blog, and a link on the verITableLIFE blogroll
   2. Second Place - 150 EntreCard credits and a link on the verITableLIFE blogroll
   3. Third Place - 50 EntreCard credits and a link on the verITableLIFE blogroll
8. If for some reason there is not much of a response, I reserve the right to prolong the entry period; however, the polling period will only be 3 days.

Record Entrecard Drop of 8 minutes and 13 seconds

UPDATE - Aug 7th: I have shaved over a minute off of that time - new record time 7 minutes and 11 seconds.

As an IT professional, I spend most of my time trying to identify efficiencies and determining how to take advantage of them. More often than not, I spend more time trying to figure out how to do something easier and more efficiently than it would take to just go sit down and do it. Ever since joining Entrecard and getting my first entre-credit, cupidity has come over me to earn as much as possible. I came up with a plan to drop as much as I could ever day, and hopefully in turn I would start getting reciprocal drops back. Last week I received over 300 drops, for the first and only time. I was excited!! I also made the top 65 blogs in terms of Entrecard popularity. I was living the high life; but now I wanted efficiencies. I wanted to drop 300 cards in under 10 minutes, and I did. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting a Technology Career Path

Five years ago I stumbled upon a job as an IT administrator for a professional hockey team, the Buffalo Sabres, with minimal knowledge of Windows Server and a basic understanding of network concepts. Since then, I have acquired and accumulated a plethora of IT skills and working knowledge of information technology as it relates to business; I start managing one room of five or six servers to managing a large scale computer network that spanned eight states. If this type of career path is interesting to you, read further as I will give you the tips and tricks I have acquired through the years.

Before My Technology Career

In my years prior to having any career in IT, I always spent time fixing computers or building new computers for myself, friends or family. Whenever there was a problem, I would assure people that I could fix it, even if I had no clue at all on how to. In my opinion, this is the most important part of who I have become today, this is how I learned to effectively and efficiently scour the internet in search of solutions to problems (and I am not referring to Scour.com, I am referring to Google.com which is the best search engine for this job). During this time in my life I was able to fix a wide range of problems, I learned how to deal and handle customer support, I figured out how to create small home networks, and most importantly is I learned how to find a solution for everything. Read the rest of this entry »

Paying the Web Hosting Bills

For some of you dishing out a couple bucks here and there doesn’t really put a dent in your pocket. However, for some of us we don’t always have that luxury. Since I host several sites, the cost of the web hosting starts to add up: resulting in a need to create some addition revenue outside of my regular job.

How to Fund a Website

While this is not the only way to fund a website, I have recently been introduced to RevResponse, a website that helps people like me pay for this crazy addiction. In particular, I found RevResponse to be more unique than other affiliate websites. I find the idea that “RevResponse helps you present FREE content that’s of genuine value to your site visitors” to be a great advantage for both myself and my readers. Being able to provide readers with FREE content is one thing, but to be able to provide them with FREE magazines is another.

Additionally, RevResponse is running a July promotion that allows people like me the opportunity to receive a $50 bonus. As you may recall from my post You Too Can Be a Webmaster, I am a fan of PowWeb for my hosting solutions, so being able to get a FREE $50 will keep this site up and running for 6.435 months!

Although the price of technology is decreasing, it helps to know that there are ways to help recoop the costs.

Thanks for Calling, Press One For…a Guide to Deploy Technology

For the past couple months, I have been saying that I need to get to the doctors; nonetheless, day after day, I never picked up the phone to call and make an appointment. One day, about two weeks ago, I finally decided to call to schedule an appointment. However, my first attempt to schedule my appointment was unsuccessful. After 15 minutes sifting through menus and sitting on hold, I gave up. A few days later, I decided to give it another shot: I called the doctor’s office and started navigating my way through the automated call maze. It wasn’t until I was two menus deep when I grew impatient and decided to press ‘0′ to go straight to the operator. Much to my surprise, pressing ‘0′ was an easy way to get right back to the beginning. Once again, I started my trip through the automate call attendant, this time I made it through the four levels of menus and was now on hold. Read the rest of this entry »

Motorcycle Sold!

Side view of my Ex 2003 Yamaha YZF-R6 Limited Edition

In my previous post, Farewell Old Friend, I was selling my motorcycle using Craigslist. Well, she’s gone. No more motorcycle for me. However, there are some great lessons to be learned for people looking to sell their vehicles.

Lesson One - Advertise

Advertise, advertise, advertise. I know this seems like a little more work, but it is important that what you are selling is reaching it’s intended audience. How did I do that with Craigslist? Simple, I would delete my post and then repost it every other day: this kept my add on the top of the page. Read the rest of this entry »

Website Stalking

Let’s face it; we live in a world that puts information at our fingertips thanks to the internet. Most people know how to find information about a specific subject, or trying to find their friends (or enemies) on MySpace or Facebook; however, not everyone knows how to find out information about internet domains. So if you are interested in finding out who owns your favorite websites, I will give you the tools to figure it out and a little lesson on the domain registration process.

What are Domain Names?

A domain name is what you type in the address bar of your favorite web browser, for example, to get to my site you type in “www.veritablelife.com.” You will notice that there are three parts to what was typed in: www, veritablelife and com; each part is a part of the domain.

• www – third-level domain
• veritablelife – second-level domain
• com – top-level domain

When purchasing domains, companies and/or people will typically purchase second-level domains. Once owner of a second-level domain, you can create multiple sub-domains, third-level domains, through DNS: although this is a whole new discussion. Our main focus will be on the second-level domains. Read the rest of this entry »