Today a lot of visitors will try to reach your site by typing in your domain from memory, this is called “type-in traffic”.
So ensure you site is accessible without the www. subdomain.
As someone said elsewhere on the web ‘www is deprecated‘
Archive for the 'uncategorized' Category
Unless you are selling gold at half price, then don’t make it hard for buyers to pay you.
In the Bricks and mortar world everyone knows this, but on the web some sellers aren’t testing the buyers experience or ‘eating their own dog food’.
I cannot count the number of times I have bought something on ebay from some slick seller who instead of using an ebay/paypal page - routes a buyer via some el cheapo shopping cart, where you can;t even press Next, Next, Next.
What prompted me to write this post was my recent dealings with Blacknight Solutions. I need to renew my .ie domains. So I log into their control panel. They have certainly tidied up their house in recent years there is now one control at http://cp.blacknight.ie.
So I login, wanting to press Next a few times and enter my Credit Card number, or pay by Paypal. But what I find it such a messy layout, so unusable, I now feel angry, this is like road rage, however, at least they are better than Register365, insofar as if I email Blacknight at least they will reply. Maybe if I posted Blacknight a cheque or cash someone there would do the necessary?
Usually when people talk about ads on blogs the focus is on Adsense. But some blogs make money from Pay per post articles. So in the interests of journalism I looked into this.
Conclusion: Its too tacky, even for Ambrand.com, plus ahem the returns are too low, and are paid is US Dollars which are laughably worthless at the moment.
How to sing like Sinatra
Published June 29th, 2007 in singing, sinatra and uncategorized. 0 CommentsEverybody would like to be able to sing like Sinatra.
Having listened to his music for a long time there are some characteristics that have become clear.
- Warbling When holding a note your voice should should “warble”, this is done by expelling just a bit of extra air every second, to create a high-low-high-low pattern that is very slight.
- High pitched voice While Sinatra was clearly male he had a range extending above that which most can reach, even attempting to emulate the voice is painful for most men. This is why when you try to sing one of his songs you can cover some lines easily but on others you have to go down an octave, and ruin the song.
- Accent The words must be clear
Snickers Review
Published June 12th, 2007 in lidl, candy bar, mars inc, snickers and uncategorized. 2 CommentsSnickers is no ordinary bar, while other brands come and go - Wispa, 54321, Double Decker- Snickers has remained constant, as reliable as the Radio 4 Schedule, and as available as Long Wave. The very name S-n-i-c-k-e-r-s makes my mouth water, I need one… [5 mintues later] ahh I am now Satisfied let continue…
History
Back in the days of paper and pen there was a chocolate bar called Marathon. I imagine the name was chosen to imply to the potential purchaser that this was no ordinary chocolate bar, that this was chocolate bar packed with energy of an Olympian magnitude.
Outside
Snickers has a mono block for factor. It has brown wrapper, emblazened with its name in a bold white 1970s font. Beneath the logo is a picture of a Snickers that has carefully cut with a surgical precision not afforded by teeth to unleash a tirade of peanuts. In the food business it is accepted that Peanuts are expensive, and thus Mars Inc, tha manufacturers of the fine bar are keen to highlight the peanut content, which elevates their bar from the common plain milk-chocolate genre, to the exclusive Marks & Spencer genre. The chocolate feels thick and has a casual few ripples on top, reinforcing the manly assured appearance.
Inside
The peanut aroma cannot disguise the cheap sugary chocolate sheath. The fine peanuts are tempered by the nougat, which bring a sharpness to the flavour. The consistency is dissenting chewy, as the choclate melts away the the nutty nougat provides the punch of peanut goodness. Small pieces of peanut remain in the mouth after consumption. Snickes is best consumed at 8 degree celcius, it does not benefit from being left in a 3 degree fridge like Cadbury Yellow Snack, indeed such temperatures would make convert a satisfactory chewiness to an awkard boiled sweets hardness.
Availability
Snickers can be found in supermarkets, newsagents, service stations. I source my Supply of Snickers from Lidl Ireland, they sell 6 packs for EUR 1.99. The writing is in German and the bars are slightly smaller then the default size though.
The Offshoots
Snickers Ice Cream, Snickers Duo (two bars in one wrapper the spawn of market research findings which killed the obesity causing King size)
Advertising
Why is Registered Post so expensive?
Published May 30th, 2007 in open to interpretation, consumer pays, vague, an post, rip off ireland, irish government and uncategorized. 0 CommentsAn Post, the Irish post office, charge EUR 5.00 to send a registered letter (signature on delivery, and web tracking number) anywhere on the Island of “Ireland”.
We would expect the charge to send a regsitered letter abroad to be higher, but infact it is cheaper. The charge for “Great Britain”, “Europe” and “Rest of World” is just EUR 4.93.
Looking past this current irregularity lets just look at the price within Ireland, EUR 5.00. It is quite expensive, when we consider a normal stamp is EUR 0.55, and that registered post is no faster. So why is the price so high? Well I content it is because An Post have a monopoly in this area. Various Government Acts and Statutory instruments specify the “Mode of service” of notices.
For example
RESIDENTIAL INSTITUTIONS REDRESS ACT 2002, Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006
These say a notice can be served by the writer delivering it to the receiver’s hand, or sometimes just at his address, or having it delivered by “Registered Post”
For the obvious temporal and economic reasons most notices are sent via the latter “Registered Post”. In keeping with the practice of vagueness that keeps the courtrooms whirring legislation does not specify what exactly is meant by “Registered Post”, so rather then use a Private Post Provider and risk it being judged an invalid service it is the practice to use only An Post.
There is an old chestnut joke doing about the memos exchanged between pilots and ground crews…
- Problem: Left main tire almost needs replacement.
Solution: Almost replaced left main tire - Problem: Test flight OK, except autoland very rough.
Solution: Autoland not installed on this aircraft. - Problem: Something loose in cockpit.
Solution: Something tightened in cockpit. - Problem: Dead bugs on windshield.
Solution: Live bugs on backorder. - Problem: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200-fpm descent.
Solution: Cannot reproduce - Problem on ground.
- Problem: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
Solution: Evidence removed. - Problem: DME volume unbelievably loud.
Solution: DME volume set to more believable level. - Problem: Suspected crack in windscreen.
Solution: Suspect you’re right. - Problem: Aircraft handles funny.
Solution: Warned Aircraft to straighten up, fly right, and be serious. - Problem: Radar hums.
Solution: Reprogrammed radar with words. - Problem: Mouse in cockpit.
Solution: Installed cat.
In programming it’s sometimes necessary to adopt the same attitude, viz don’t solve the problem, just silence the error message. Fortunately all error messages are enclosed in named divs so they can be silenced by editing the stylesheet.css of a wordpress theme;
.wpdberror {
display: none;
}
.error {
display: none;
}
The text will still be sent, but a brower will not display it.
Continue reading ‘Wordpress error messages’
Irish Lordships for sale
Published May 23rd, 2007 in titles, lordships, commonwealth and uncategorized. 7 CommentsOn May 24th we will cast votes for the next government of the Republic of Ireland. Across the channel in England an “auction” of a different kind will be taking place.
Ordinary citizens with illusions of grandeur are being offered the chance to become Irish “Lords of the Manor” as five feudal baronies, and more than 30 lordships will come under the hammer.
However, while the new owners will be able to call themselves ‘Lord of X’, they cannot be known as ‘Lord X’, and cannot sit in the United Kingdom House of Lords.
The feudal baronies of Castle Knock in Co Dublin, Carrigaline in Co Cork and Clanwilliam in Co Tipperary are to be auctioned off by the Anglo named Strutt & Parker.
The feudal barony and lordship of Carrigaline has a guide price of GBP 25,000 (approx EUR 37,000)
Jtold the BBC News Website that there had been a lot of interest in the 24 May sale, with several bids already received.
“A lot of the titles come with ancient grants. Many of them have not been used for a long time and research into the titles may show that the grants may still be able to be used,” said Mr Chaplin… One title sold previously came with rights to a harbour. The government wanted to rebuild the harbour and the title owner received £4m - but that is a complete extreme.” - Jonathan Chaplin of Strutt and Parker
Some of the titles give the owner rights governing local markets and fairs.
Title owners will be able to apply to the United Kingdom College of Arms for a personal coat of arms for their exclusive use.
Manorial lordships date back 1,200 years to Saxon times when they were formed part of the feudal system.
A 1922 United Kingdom property act allowed lordships to be sold separately from the estate they related to, but they continue to be conveyed in the same way as property.
Mentioning “Titles” in Ireland can be risky, while there are many “Lords” and “Ladys” etc in the country there are many people of an Anti-British sentiment here, and the question as to whether or not the titles were nullified upon Independence is complicated.
Article 40, of BUNREACHT NA hEIREANN (CONSTITUTION OF IRELAND) which dates from 1937 reads
1. Titles of nobility shall not be conferred by the State. 2. No title of nobility or of honour may be accepted by any citizen except with the prior approval of the Government.
This paragraph stopped the Order of St Patrick, which was seen as too British. But could it also make the purchase of a title pointless? Indeed are titles pointless?
Well, pontification aside, if I had the money I would bid at the auction, and I imagine there are many of a similar mind in todays Celtic Tiger/SSIA Ireland who do have a bank balance to support their illusions of grandeur.
Driving in Ireland
Published May 23rd, 2007 in hire car, hired car, rent a car, irish rental car, petrol and uncategorized. 0 CommentsDespite the 2005 Switchover to Metric road measurements in Ireland there are still road signs with distances in miles. Miles seem so quaint, but in Kinsale, and other tourist towns quaintness is bankable.
Website housekeeping
Published May 23rd, 2007 in wordpress template, wordpress theme, template, webmaster and uncategorized. 0 CommentsI’m considering repacing the lovely image at the top of this website (Roches Point Lighthouse, Cork Harbour, Ireland) with something less “Orish”
I need your input, please leave a comment of wisdom below. Continue reading ‘Website housekeeping’
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