Entries Tagged 'Online' ↓
July 30th, 2009 — Ideas, Online, Time Wasters, internet
Here are a few interesting sites to visit if you have 5 minutes to spare…
Photofunia
This interesting website will allow you to choose from several templates to insert your photo’s
Etsy
Buy & sell all things handmade, and if you prefer searching for items by color, the “Shop by Color” page is fantastic.
DeviantArt
If you’re looking for any type of image, you will most likely find it here. I love the wallpapers here.
Lost In Translation
A website which translates through different languages, and definitely proves how context is completely lost from one language to the next. I tested this with a simple phrase “My boss sucks” (suggested by a co-worker, not myself 
, and after translating through other languages and back to English, it came out as “My proprietor absorbs” – hehe. Definitely worth a try.
5 Minute Game
Miniclip offers a wide variety of games to pass the time. There’s a whole section with all the “5-Minute Games” which you can try out!
July 5th, 2008 — Job, Online, Sponsored, internet
Someone recently asked about webhosting. Not in those words though, but rather something along the lines of “how do you get a plain .com” blog instead of the blogspot behind your blog name. I tried to explain by telling him about hosting on your own domain, and how it all works, but it was kind of useless.
I’ve since tried to make it a bit simpler to explain to myself in plain terms exactly what ‘hosting’ means – trying to think what I would use if I had to give a comparison to something which is more commonly known.
Wiktionary defines it like this: “The service of hosting a site on the Internet making it viewable for other users on the net”
However, if you compare it like this, maybe it will make more sense: Blogspot accounts are free, because the main domain name, being www.blogspot.com has already been bought – however, they choose to give people free accounts, for whatever reason they have. Comparing this to market is the best I can do. You don’t pay for the space you use, but at the same time the space you’re using is very high quality. For some people this could work perfect. They don’t intend upgrading, ever. The cons of hosting with a free server such as Blogspot is that your website address might be a little bit difficult to remember if you intend to attract customers for that matter.
If you can run a successful business (or blog) from your free market space (or blogspot blog), you might want to consider upgrading. See this as moving into an office park, or maybe even a mall. This sounds wonderful, but you need to be able to justify the move. It doesn’t help you move to a mall if your income is so little that you’ll not even be able to pay the rent from your profit you make.
Its pretty much the same with webhosting in that sense. If you generate an income from your blog, that’s great, and if it could cover a proper .com domain (www.yourblog.com), and you still have a bit extra left, I believe that justifies it. However, if you want a .com domain name just for the fun of it, you’re going to be prepared to put cash into your hosting, without getting anything back – kind of like a hobby I suppose. This is still fine if you can afford it, but you need to understand your motivation for wanting to move before doing so. Also be sure that you are aware of the cost – there’s a registration fee, and also a yearly hosting fee. Be sure that you know what these are, and that you will be able to cover those. Its better to have free account which is hosted by a provider such as blogspot, and never move from there, than to have a .com domain, and only stay there a year, only to realize that you don’t want to pay for something that you can have for free in any case.
My reason for moving to a .com host is first of all, the free service that I was using before shutdown my blog, because they didn’t allow paid posts. And secondly, I make an income from my blog (however little it is) it still covers more than my hosting costs.
If you need webhosting advice, speak to a couple of different service providers, and make sure that you know about all the costs before making a decision. There are different types of packages available. Some give you more space (if you intend to host large files, such as images or video’s). For a normal blog you might not need as much space as a business would, so double check that you take the right package for your needs.
June 18th, 2008 — Money, Online
I signed up with SocialSpark which launched a while back – probably about a month ago? Anyway, its kind of a sub division of 
, and basically it works in a similar way as Payperpost.
The main different between SocialSpark and Payperpost is that the advertisers and the bloggers get to ‘meet’ each other so to speak.
SocialSpark enables bloggers and advertisers to add each other as friends, compromise over opportunities, and even for users to swop reviews between each other.
The whole idea is pretty cool, and I joined it rather enthusiastically. However, my blog has still not been accepted: its been declined twice, because its not listed in major browser. Now first of all, this is due to my payperpost posts. Google started cutting out results which had anything in the site about Payperpost. Secondly, I actually do find my blog on Google when searching, and a lot of my blog traffic comes from Google searches. The only problem I’ve picked up from Google is that I don’t have a page rank.
I will keep trying to get my blog approved, and hope for the best – else there are not a lot of opportunities for me to partake in. I guess I would probably have to remove all traces of Payperpost from my blog, then wait until Google runs an update, and hope for the best.
In the meantime I’m still blogging with Payperpost – the odd opputunity that still pops up there, and loving their interface MUCH more than that of SocialSpark.
For more information you can check SocialSpark for yourself, or just have a look at my profile on there.
February 29th, 2008 — Online, Shopping
I’ve found it rather interesting to know that there are now companies that rate your credit card. Online. Whilst you’re doing a transaction online. What basically happens is that they compare various bits of information of the person logged into the specific site, to that which is associated with the credit card, at the bank which its registered.
Basically, this would stop people from using other people’s credit cards, and they will only be allowed to use their own. If all your details are matched, you can pretty easily get a really low score (which is good). But if for instance your credit card is regsitered in the US, you registered your account for the specific online service in Bulgaria, and your IP is in Mauritius, then your credit card will be a “bad credit card“, and you it will get a really high score, which might prevent your transaction from being processed.
This is to ensure that you don’t commit fraud. Which is fair. But now, you might be using a credit card like in the above scenario without being a fraud. In that case, you’ll have to prove it though, afterwhich you will be white listed.
I never realized there was so much politics behind the scenes, but I find it really interesting though.
So if your credit card is declined somewhere online, and you’re not a fraud, feel free to contact their customer support and explain the situation. If they are confident that you’re telling the truth, they will white list your card, and you’ll be able to use it.
November 12th, 2007 — Dizzy Dee, Job, Occupation, Online, Poker
Where did you want to be, and where are you? I asked myself that question this morning.
When I was young I imagined that I would be an air-hostess. Somehow that occupation captures the hearts of many young girls, and it seems strangely glamorous. Though in my opinion its nothing more than a waitress really. I understand that these ladies (and sometime men – *cringe*) get to travel all their hearts can desire. But still. There’s no challenge in bringing people food and drink on each and every flight?! Only waiting for someone to complain about the turbulence, the food, the drink, or maybe even your attitude!? That seems really frustrating from my point of view. So at least I’m glad (so far) that I haven’t followed that path.
Anyway. As you might or might not know. I’m working in the Quality Assurance department of a company that creates online gambling software. In other words, I get to test poker all day long.
Well, not really. But that’s what most people figure when I tell them what I do.
I would NEVER have imagined that I would end up here though. I’ve heard some kids, saying how they would love to test Need for Speed, and what not. And even some adults who have insinuated that I have it really easy, and how they could only dream of such a job. But I haven’t heard anyone’s ambitions being to test poker. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. But its just not the typical job that gets discussed in class when a teacher asks what her pupils would like to be ‘when they grow up’.
So tell me about your occupations – or if they’re just jobs. Are you what you envisioned yourself to be when you were 7? Would you make the same decisions you did, and end up exactly in the job you are now? Some of these questions I don’t even know the answers of, and I suppose they might need some thinking…
