Newegg Enters Web 2.0

If you haven't heard of Newegg please crawl out from under the rock you are residing under. Newegg is a great place to buy any type of computer equipment or electronics. Newegg has been my goto for all of my computer equipment for about 6 years now and will continue to be so as long as they provide the same excellent service.

Eggxpert is Neweggs's latest socially driven site with forums and a blogging community that allows Newegg customer to gather and discuss products or anything they would like. The site could be a great place to get real product reviews from average customers. They have a tagging system in place and a decent search to help you find what you are looking for. The home page for Eggxpert is filled with editor picks for the blog of the day and thread of the day, and would make a great place for a front page voting system. Voting is not an option for now hopefully the will add some type of thumbs up and down for blogs.

Newegg has a very large customer base so they can use this to build up the site. The pages are not open to the public as of now, but I have a feeling they will be opening it up eventually. It would not make sense for them to not open it up for non members to read the articles, and it would probably have great search engine results.

So if you join be sure to check out my blog with nothing on it as of yet at hemphill81.

Charter Communication Tech Support

My biggest complaint against Charter internet support is the automated support system. I never call any type of tech support unless there is nothing left to do on my end, so when I call they need to let me just speak with someone. If you are like me and tired of getting the automated system just say operator when the system asks you to describe the problem and this will get you straight to a tech. This trick actually works with most automated support systems so you can use it there as well.

When Steve met Bill

When I pulled up this picture at CNET from when Steve met Billy the first thing that popped into my mind was Steve Jobs singing " Take on Me" by a-Ha.  The worst part about all of it the song is now stuck in my head.

MyBloLog Tagging Fun

Ok I couldn't resist putting some tags on the Paris Hilton and Britney Spears page. So be sure to head over to their page and hit the + sign by the tag.

MyBlogLog Tags

I really like the way MyBlogLog is doing user generated tags. This will be a very handy feature when you are looking for blogs on certain subjects. One of the greatest parts is the more you get tagged for a certain subject the higher you go up on the list of other users tagged for that tag.

For example if you visit the Digg tag page you will first see the users who have been tagged under that subject the most. This can be great with sending you traffic if you are the first listed in the category, and it can be very helpful for finding new blogs.

So on that note I would like to encourage anyone reading to give me as many tags as you want. I will be sure to return the favor ;)

RSS Hiccups

If you subscribe to my RSS feed I'm sorry (on multiple levels). I'm trying to do some SEO tricks, nothing black hat, just the way some of my links work and it looks like I republished a lot of articles.

So if you are subscribing and you see tons of weird crap just ignore it.

Mac Mini Dead?

Hopefully AppleInsider isn't correct on their prediction the mini will be killed off. It is amazing to me how Apple has not been able to tap into the lower end pc market with the mini. For the price of the mini it is great for low end internet users. The look is also so much better than a clunky pc you can get for the same price.

Apple don't kill the mini you already took the 12-inch PowerBook from us. That is my other gripe give us a 12inch MacBook.

Blogger Issues

Seems as though Blogger has been having some issues today with stability. Techspews was up and down for a number of hours. The only problem with using a free blogging and hosting service is when you are down no one really cares and you can't gripe at anyone.

The really upsetting part is I just posted a blog about an hour before the problems started happening endorsing blogger as a great service. Hopefully they have resolved all of the issues for now. The worst part about it is whenever blogger is down Google Apps for your domain is down as well so you can't get to email for your domain or anything.

I guess you get what you pay for and when you don't pay anything you can't expect much.

Cheap Blogging

I have read a couple of different articles the past few days about beginning blogging tips. Though I'm not an expert in this field by no means I can help you get started blogging for just $1.99.

The most important thing to do when you start your blog is to have your own domain name. I found this out the hard way by using http://hemphill81.blogspot.com in the beginning. After having many incoming links from major sources I made the switch to techspews.com. Right now my blog is ranked a 4/10 on the Google page rank scale, but my old one was as well so I might be a 5 right now had I originally used a domain. The domain is really the only thing you need to buy at first, and you can get a domain for the first time from Yahoo! domain names for $1.99 by searching Google for "yahoo domains" one of the ads that comes back will be for Yahoo! domains at $1.99. It seems if you go directly to the URL the price changes and this is the way to get a domain name for very cheap.

You can use Yahoo's DNS if you like, but I'm using ZoneEdit for my DNS hosting. ZoneEdit will allow you to point 5 domains to them for free. Techspews was pointed at Yahoo's DNS for a while, but they would not allow me to direct http://techspews.com to www.techspews.com which is the name that is pointed to Google.

Use a free service like Blogger to find out if you really want to blog. Blogger is also great because they will let you point a cname such as www to ghs.google.com and they will redirect everything for you. You will want to go find another template the basic blogger templates are kind of bland. There are some other templates already out there for you to use just search Google you will get plenty of results.

There are also free mail hosting option available to you with Google Apps for your domain. This is great for Gmail fans this way you can create 50 accounts and have Google host your mail.

Follow these steps keep your blog updated with posts often and you will be blogging in no time with only an initial investment of $1.99.

Is Kevin Rose Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Back on February 1^st Kevin Rose stated the following:

“So what does this all mean? After considerable internal debate and discussion with many of those who make up the Top Digger list, we’ve decided to remove the list beginning tomorrow. As for what’s next, we’re currently working on designing and refining the technologies required that will help enable our nearly 900,000 registered users to make real connections that we believe will greatly enhance the Digg experience – whether you’re brand new to the site or have been on Digg since the beginning. We plan on rolling this out in the coming months along with features and programs that do a better job of rewarding positive contributions to the Digg community.”

The post was about the removal of the top users list, and you can read the full article on Digg the Blog. The part of the statement that bothers me is that they plan on rolling out new features to do a better job of rewarding positive contributions to the community. Where are these features Kevin? The only feature that has been added to the site since that time to award users is the invite a user get your name on the front page addition. This only seems to reward Digg and not the users that contribute to the site. The top users list was a great reward for those that submitted quality content on a regular basis.

So is Kevin Rose Obi-Wan Kenobi? Is he using jedi mind tricks on the Digg community?

Digg users: Let us see the rewards.
Kevin Kenobi: [with a small wave of his hand] You don’t need to see the rewards.
Digg users: We don’t need to see the rewards.

Meebo Rooms

One of my favorite free services Meebo added a new feature called Meebo Rooms earlier this week. Kind of feels like you are in a IRC chat room which I haven't been in about 15 years. You will notice that their is a new addition to the sidebars on Tech Spews, the Meebo room Tech Spews has been added. This is a pretty handy little tool if you are trying to create a community of readers so they can interact with you and others visiting your site. I will leave it up for a while, and would love to hear what you think of the feature.

If you want to create your own room it is very simple. You just need a Meebo account sign in and there will be a create room link in the bottom, and the rest is self explanatory.

What's Your Web 2.0 Meme?

My first meme! I was tagged by Parislemon a couple of weeks ago and just noticed. This one was started by engtech.

Daily Use
Blogger can't beat free blog hosting.
Technorati find out who is linking me.
MyBlogLog trying to make new blogging friends.
Meebo never install a messenger again also have recently added rooms.

Weekly Use
Digg using it less and less since I can't find any new content
Netscape enjoy reading the comments to see everyones opinions

Monthly Use
Myspace hate it but my wife is on it so it was required.

To spread the meme.

Tech Blot | Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com | perkonis

Update on Digg Petition

Yesterday MG over at Pronet Advertising wrote an article about the Digg petition, and as of now we have 37 signatures. It seems the concerns most users have is that showing who buries stories will start flame wars. This is a valid concern, but honestly wouldn't you want to know if the same user was just following you around burying all of your stories?

If we take a look at the bury feature there are a few options you are given.
1. Duplicate Story: This was the one I used most often as it is very legitimate reason to bury a story.

2. Spam: This is probably the second most abused, if not the most, of the bury options. Many users use this option if they do not like what someone has to say. It also seems like it does not take very many markings from this to end up in the auto bury bin.

3. Wrong Topic: Probably the least abused of them all. This option should not bury articles, and if it does something is seriously wrong.

4. Inaccurate: Not sure if stories are buried with this, but they are given the caption of inaccurate.

5. Ok, this is lame: This one has always bothered me in the sense of how broad this is. Someone who does not like (just an example) Microsoft might go into the Microsoft category and mark everything they see as lame. Most people do not understand what this option is really for, but feel it is for when they do not like what others are say or just do not like the topic in general.

There is no reason Digg can not open the bury data. If I were to bury a story on Digg for any reason it would not bother me at all if the author or submitter can view my name as burying it. If you use the bury option for legitimate reasons you should not care who can see it unless you have something to hide.

Something else we can all do is email Digg support with this petition, and tell them this is what we want. If anyone has any concerns about why this would work, or just why they don't like it please bring it up in the comments so we can all have a civilized discussing about this.

Apple Upgrades Macbook Forgets Mini

Was 2 days ago now when Apple release the upgraded Macbook with a faster processor. Where the heck is the upgrade for the Mini? Seriously how hard is it to put a core 2 duo in the little thing? Does anyone know the reason it is taking so long to put a core 2 in the Mini?

The sales on the Mini can not be that great right now at this time for the fact most people are waiting for them to put the core 2 in it. Honestly I would have rather seen the Mini get the upgrade before the Macbook since it was just a small step in processor speed.

Anyone with any information on it please comment and let me know.

[Update]
Decided to ask an "Apple Expert" if they had any clue when the Mini upgrade would take place here is the response I received. I knew they wouldn't have any information, but I wanted to see what kind of response they would give.

Whole Lotta Bacon

This honestly has to be the biggest pig I have ever seen a picture of. [BIGGER than Hogzilla]

Woo I Got a Wii

I don't know if production just increased recently or if they have met demand in the small town I live in, but the local Wal-Mart had 2 Wiis last Thursday (1 of which is mine now) and when I went back Monday they had 2 more. Haven't had as much free time lately as I would like to play it, but from what I have played it is great. When I got it home the only thing on my mind was thinking back to childhood opening up the NES at Christmas time, and it kind of made me feel like a kid again.

Would love to hear if they are still hard to find in other areas, and would also like to suggest if you are having problems finding one make sure you go to smaller cities as demand will be met there quicker.

Digg Petition

After reading the article Mr Rose Tear Down This Wall That Hides I decided to create an online petition to call on Digg to open up the bury data. If you agree Digg should be transparent about who buries an article just as they are with who votes on it sign this petition.

Digg show us the bury data!

Digg Mayhem

Somehow I managed to miss all the Digg drama yesterday. After seeing one story on the front page about the DVD code yesterday, and everyone was complaining about it I thought it would be no different than the usual Digg ruckus. Then I checked my logs this morning only to see I had way more than my average number of page hits. This was due to the search "Digg CEO Jay Adelson" the second result was to a Digg story I posted.

The whole deal actually confuses me on the fact this code is all over the Internet (actually I think the first posting of it was on wired). Why would Digg be the target of a lawsuit if this code is readily available everywhere else. The only thing this goes to show is that Digg needs to be more open about their burying practices, and when a site administrator removes an article. In the past they just tried to be secretive about the fact that they removed a story and I know many others have been complaining about their bury practices. Have been saying it for a long time and will continue to say it Digg needs to be more open about their bury tactics.