Consistency Part 2
In the Small Business Marketing 101 post consistency was the theme as it portray to a establishing a thought process for marketing. Consistency is such a big part because it usually takes people seeing a name/brand a minimum of three times before that message is remembered. If potential customers can remember a company’s message they [...]
10:16 AM | |
Is freshmeat still fresh?
I have long suspected that freshmeat.net is about as fresh as your average grandmother is young. Untill today I hoped that this was not true and went back to it whenever I needed to find something. I have been ever more disappointed.
Once as an ASP developer I used to be upset that all the good code work happened for php. These days all the good code work does not seem to happen at all. Maybe it's just that I've raised the bar for what I expect and very little can meet the challenge or maybe it is because freshmeat is full of junk.
I wanted a mialing list program for a new project and so searched Freshmeat for such software. Everything tht was php and open or free I selected. I then worked my way through the available results and wrote down what I found. I revised my comments and edited afterwards which is how I am able to comment on things I've yet to get to.
I did not do much downloading.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/mailing-list/ - "Mailing List - Default branch"
It claims an "OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)" but is actually blended Google adverts with screenshots under them. I saw no mailing list software available on site at all. mailing-list.us is the site in question with no software at all on it. Not a good start.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/wanewsletter/ - "Wanewsletter - Default branch"
It claims an "OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)" but fails to mention that the site is not in English. As a result I gave up and moved on. So far 0/2 for freshmeat.net
http://freshmeat.net/projects/extipemailbud/ - "Exercise Tip Email Buddy - Default branch"
This software is "freeware" and supprisingly it seems that the site is exactly what the freshmeat page said it would be. 1/3 for FM! I've not tested the software yet but I was able to grab some files - something I was soon to learn was a novelty.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/web-mailing-list/ - "web mailing list - Default branch"
It claims an "OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)" but fails to mention that the project needs some more work before it is fit to be used. (The todo list on site was as long as the feature list (3 items each)). Freshmeat fails again.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/webmlist/ - "webmlist - Default branch"
This one is supposed to be "5 - Production/Stable" under "OSI Approved :: BSD License (original)" but the page it links to no longer appears to carry this project. So one more fail for freshmeat who has no scored a pathetic one out of five - an 80% fail rate.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/phpmylist/ - "PHPMyList Mailing List Manager - Default branch"
http://phpmylist.sourceforge.net/ was the target of the link but the site said "Database not available - please try later" I followed a second link - http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmylist/ - I found out that the last file was released in "September 9, 2001" so given the sttus of "4 - Beta" I figure this project has gone dead. Freshmeat fails again.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/postlister/ - "Postlister - Default branch"
It is listed as "5 - Production/Stable" under "OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)" and is on sourceforge - I was hopefull. Last file release was "September 5, 2002" which means that it is likely to have register globals issues unless is was very well written. I've grabbed it but I'm not holding my breath.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/phpmynewsletter/ - "phpMyNewsLetter - Default branch"
It's another "4 - Beta" so I want to see some updates within the last three years. Sadly I have no idea about "last updated" as it is in french and I'm an English speaker. To be fair I might go back and try it later because the screen shots look smooth. 1 to 2 out of 8.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/letterit/ - "PHP LetterIt - Default branch"
It says "OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)" and the site says last updated "26.07.2007" - three days ago! It is a site in English even though it is on a .de domain. Success! (It even had a demo).
I did also return phpList which I did not think much of but is at least active and maintained. So the fresh test has to be fair I'm discoutning the older stuff so the final fresh test score is just 2/10. 20% of the stuff at fresh meat might be usefull while 80% is junk, spam and dead and unfresh stuff.
Thursday Short Poem: Simmonds’ “The Woman who…”
The cultural references are heavily English, but the sentiments are nigh-on universal. Kathryn Simmonds describes more than one woman whom I know. The Woman who Worries Herself to Death She wasn’t robbed or raped or made a scapegoat of, she didn’t take ill-fated flights on shaky planes and no one splashed her house in paint. Kids with hoods and [...]
The cultural references are heavily English, but the sentiments are nigh-on universal. Kathryn Simmonds describes more than one woman whom I know.
The Woman who Worries Herself to Death
She wasn’t robbed or raped or made a scapegoat of,
she didn’t take ill-fated flights on shaky planes and
no one splashed her house in paint. Kids with hoods
and sovereign rings and hates left her alone. That twinge
she sometimes felt was just a twinge. Her fillings didn’t
leak. At office dos she danced and no one laughed.
Her children didn’t have disorders, fail exams,
take smack. Her husband didn’t love his secretary
or get the sack. But, if you saw her fidgeting
towards the dawn, her breathing playing tricks,
a thousand what ifs snaking in a queue, you’d feel for her,
you’d wish she had something to pin her torment to.
Are nPower the devil's own vomit?
Last year at about this time I wrote a post entitled "nPower - the worst power company ever" where I described the harassment I suffered because nPower decided to bill me for having a prepayment meter. I pointed to a whole batch of similar complaints (http://tinyurl.com/yq29sz and http://tinyurl.com/2zch9q and http://tinyurl.com/22tttp and http://tinyurl.com/ynmt45 and http://tinyurl.com/25gkbu to name but a few.)
Well it seems that despite any promises the rudeness is all set to start again. Once more they have sent me a demand for payment. Frankly I call this fraud.
So to spite them here are some more of their crimes found only by typing npower into Google. To be honest I think nPower are trying to make up the money for the fines they will be slapped with (Ofgem launches Npower sales probe). Here are some other links telling of the evil that nPower currently is: nPower in the Guardian, nPower as bullies, nPower in the timesonline.co.uk and Npower faces investigation over claims of mis-selling by sales force
Frankly (and in my opinion only) the order of the day at nPower is squeeze every penny they can out of customers regardless of the morality, truth or even legality of their actions. I believe that npower should not have the right to operate in this country and should be forced into receivership and divided up (with the directors banned from holding similar positions for 12 years) on the grounds that nPower appear unable to operate honestly or in the best interest of the marketplace.
Some tags: npower, npower evil, npower wrong, npower bad, ban npower
Economic slowdown anecdotes
Further signs of a declining local economy. At my boxing gym, attendance at classes has gone down substantially while demand for private training has stayed level. The owner of the gym theorized that those who only attend classes (at $15 per pop) are more likely to be vulnerable to economic fluctuations than those [...]
Further signs of a declining local economy. At my boxing gym, attendance at classes has gone down substantially while demand for private training has stayed level. The owner of the gym theorized that those who only attend classes (at $15 per pop) are more likely to be vulnerable to economic fluctuations than those who can afford private sessions ($60-$90 per hour.) The notable drop in class attendance over the past three or four months, and the comparable stability of the private client pool, seems to bear this out.
I called my local tux shop today as well. One of these days, I’ll get around to buying a really nice vegan tuxedo, but for now, I just rent a standard black tie outfit for the three or four annual occasions for which I need one. (I’ve got an event coming up in ten days or so.) I know the fellow who owns the shop, and he lamented that business had been slow. Just as many wedding parties to kit out, but slightly lower attendance at black and white tie charity galas has been taking a toll.
At the Mobil station on Del Mar and Arroyo Parkway (one of my favorites), regular unleaded gas is $4.12. But the streets are as crowded as ever.
(WiaB) What is a Blog
Back in December I wrote about "Cargo Cult Websites" and it has become so popular that it is listed on the breakout results when you Google "Lord Matt". In the cargo cult websites post I looked at cargo cult blogs.
This is what I want to talk about today. It is my aim to continue to discuss What is a website but specifically What Is A Blog? as part of my What is a website and why should I want one collection.
In many ways I have put the cart before the horse as I have already written briefly on How to Launch a Blog without ever talking about what a blog actually is. This post, therefore, will correct this and address the issues of what is and is not a blog.
Back in "What is a website? Part 3" I promised to show you a "better way" to run a website. That post is still pending but I will give you a hint - a blog is one very good way to do it.
Let us start by defining what a blog is.
"Short for "Web log," a specialized site that allows an individual or group of individuals to share a running log of events and personal insights with online audiences. Blogs with political or current-events themes have grown in popularity and become "soap boxes" for instant mass-audience commentary.
www.pvt.com/oth/glossary.htm
There are plenty of other definitions of "blog" but frankly most try to define a blog based on what they are used for and not what they are. The wikipedia, for example, echos the PVT.com definition:
"A blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."
Blog, en.wikipedia.org, permalink
At it's most basic a blog can be nothing more than a loose collection of pages with dates on - or even a massive single "log file" style page. However blogging has a number of elements that can be considered quintessentially "bloggish".
Posts or entries
The heart of the blog is that it contains content. This content is in the form of posts and might contain, text, html, video, audio, images or other files (linked or embedded).
Normally these posts are placed such that the newest is shown at the top of the "index" page. Older pages are most often found in archives that can be searched or browsed.
It is what you put into these posts that will make your web log interesting to others (or not). If you write in a way that others want to read what you say then your blog will be popular and if you do not write like this then it will be largely ignored.
Permalinks and post pages
Each entry onto a blog is traditionally called a post. There is no reason why you can not call them "pink-star-flowers" if it makes you happy although the nearer you come to using a word or phrase that other people understand the better you will be able to communicate with those other people. But I digress...
In order to allow yourself and others to reference each blog item one ideally grants a unique reference to each item. Sometimes (when the posts are all on one page, for example) each entry can be granted a fragment marker so that the url looks something like
example.com/blog.html#09-09-2008but for most this is not enough.
This brings us to "post pages" which is where each post, article or "pink-star-flower" has a page of it's own. Thus each page can be summoned on it's own. Methods vary depending on how the blog is generated by most common are the use of some id or title in a number of ways.
Some of those ways are considered better SEO than others.
The perma-link and URL of the post page are for all basic instances exactly the same thing. The blog post is likely to show up in other locations (archives, front page and other feature areas) but the "permalink" is the URL whereby one can always be able to lcoated it.
Archives
While not essential it is recommended that a blog have an archive so that older posts can be found. These can organised by month, topic or anything else that seems logical. There is not a lot that can be said about blog archives apart from that they are an archive of older stuff.
Honestly, it's not that complicated.
Other stuff
Actually I lie - there is no other stuff. While comments, trackbacks, pingbacks, chicklets, feeds, counters, widgets, adverts, sidebars and a hundred other things exist "for blogs" they are nothing more than additives many of them not even very specific to blogs.
Some things (widgets, for example) change with the fashions and others have become so common that we can not envision a blog without them (comments spring to mind). Yet these things are optional extras and not part of the core.
If we want to be "hard core" about things even the archives and permalinks are a mere nod to practical co-operation.
It is this other stuff that has become a "cargo cult" wherein bloggers try to imitate the look, feel, style and extras of successful bloggers and then wonder why they are not considered to have anything new or fresh to add; why they are not considered as great or good and why the money does not flow.
Often we blog writers start to wonder why we don't have 99 comments as a minimum even though we do the same things as those that have twice that. The answer is that all this stuff has nothing to do with it - it is mere decoration. The true power comes on what the successful blog owners do when not on their blogs.
Call it networking if you like but the long and the short of it is these guys do the hardest work away from the blog and often away from computers entirely. The work of a blogger that makes it into the world top 100 is only 1% blogging.
I challenge you to strip your blog down to it's basics and see if it actually makes any difference at all. The pages will load faster and the blog will become more focused. Visitors will click links you provide more often and third party stuff less often.
In short reduce the amount of "other stuff" to increase the success and utility of your blog. That's all there is to it. Try it - you might like it.
Mildred Loving
Mildred Loving has died. It was Loving — born Mildred Jeter — who with her husband Richard challenged Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law, and eventually won the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia in the year I was born, 1967. She and her husband were lucky in love and lucky in their surname, but [...]
Mildred Loving has died. It was Loving — born Mildred Jeter — who with her husband Richard challenged Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law, and eventually won the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia in the year I was born, 1967. She and her husband were lucky in love and lucky in their surname, but not lucky in longevity. Mildred Loving was but 68 when she died, and her beloved Richard died decades ago in a car accident.
I’m keenly aware that there was a time within living memory when my wife and I could not have been married in most U.S. states. Sixty years ago this October, the California Supreme Court struck down the Golden State’s laws against mixed-race marriages, leading to their gradual repeal across the country and the final victory in the Loving case nineteen years later. If my wife and I were the age of my grandparents, our marriage would have been invalid under the laws of this state and most others; if we had been the age of my parents (who married in 1964) and living in Virginia, we might too have faced arrest or “deportation” of the sort the Lovings faced. It’s a queer thought.
So many of my students today happily date across racial lines; so many successful marriages in my family today are between folks of widely disparate backgrounds. I rejoice that this blending of color and culture has become so easy and so natural. I rejoice too in the sacrifice and the courage of couples like Mildred and Richard Loving, and am happy to think of them together again — at last — this day.
I am happy also to note that in her last public statement, as reported by the New York Times, Loving, with her unique moral authority on the subject, called for the right to marry to be extended to gays and lesbians.
10:15 AM | |
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变压器检测设备
� ���� 该产品用于判断电力变压器的空、负载损耗、阻抗电压、感应耐压、空载电流等电气参数的测试，测量参数全部数字显示，并将测试结果打印输出。该变压器检测设备可根据用户的要求设计制造。
变压器检测设备技术参数：
直流电阻测试范围：1μΩ~20kΩ 准确度：�0.2%
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继电设备的作用
������继电设备是具有隔离功能的自动开关元件，广泛应用于遥控、遥测、通讯、自动控制、机电一体化及电力电子设备中，是最重要的控制元件之一。 继电设备实质是一种传递信号的电器，它根据输入的信号达到不同的控制目的。 如在直流电动机里的电流继电设备，当电流过小或过大时，它检测到这种电流信号后便控制电动机的启停。还有如热继电设备，如电动机长期过载而使温度过高时，它便控制电动机停止。
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绕制变压器的材料
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����变压器使用的铁心材料主要有铁片、低硅片，高硅片，的钢片中加入硅能降低钢片的导电性，增加电阻率，它可减少涡流，使其损耗减少。我们通常称为加了硅的钢片为硅钢片，变压器的质量所用的硅钢片的质量有很大的关系，硅钢片的质量通常用磁通密度B来表示，一般黑铁片的B值为6000-8000、低硅片为9000-11000，高硅片为12000-16000，
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变压器设备的损耗
������� 当变压器设备的初级绕组通电后，线圈所产生的磁通在铁心流动，因为铁心本身也是导体，在垂直于磁力线的平面上就会感应电势，这个电势在铁心的断面上形成闭合回路并产生电流，好象一个旋涡所以称为“涡流”。这个“涡流”使变压器设备的损耗增加，并且使变压器设备的铁心发热变压器设备的温升增加。由“涡流”所产生的损耗我们称为“铁损”。另外要绕制变压器设备需要用大量的铜线，这些铜导线存在着电阻，电流流过时这电阻会消耗一定的功率，这部分损耗往往变成热量而消耗，我们称这种损耗为“铜损”。所以变压器设备的温升主要由铁损和铜损产生的。
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什么是真空断路器
������ 真空断路器因其灭弧介质和灭弧后触头间隙的绝缘介质都是高真空而得名，其具有体积小、重量轻、适用于频繁操作、灭弧不用检修的优点，在配电网中应用较为普及。
������ 真空断路器主要包含三大部分：真空灭弧室、电磁或弹簧操动机构、支架及其他部件。
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高压断路器拒合原因分析
������� 高压开关柜经检修调试以后，变电所值班员操作高压断路器时，第一次合闸和分闸操作均能正常动作，但当第二次合闸时，就产生拒合现象。事故警报均正常动作，发出声响和提示信号。
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10:15 AM | |