Jerry Leventer

This Day In History: 1/1/2008

2000: the dreaded Y2K computer ‘millennium bug’ failed to appear as predicted.

1985: the first British mobile phone call was made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone; and the Internet’s Domain Name System was created.

1983: the ARPANET officially changed to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.

1939: William (Bill) Hewlett and David Packard founded Hewlett-Packard.

1925: American astronomer Edwin Hubble announced the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way.

1908: for the first time, a ball dropped in New York City’s Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.

Happy Birthday:

Author J. D. Salinger (1919),
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972),
Inventor George Washington Carver (1864-1943),
Seamstress Betsy Ross (1752-1836),
and American Revolution Patriot Paul Revere (1735-1818).

RIP: Singer Hank Williams (1953).

Source: IDG Connect
[tags]History, Fun, This Day In History, Happy New Year, 2008[/tags]

I was watching a couple of tutorial videos for The Personal Brain mindmapping tool, and I have to say that I was impressed. This looks like a new industry standard for how we can keep track of information that needs to be stored for the long-term, or that we will be using on a daily basis.

I had only just heard about this product a couple months ago and was under the impression it was fairly new. Turns out it’s been around for ten years! One user, Jerry Michalski, has been using it for all that time, and he has accumulated over 80,000 “thoughts” in his “brain”. You can take a look at it here, and download a free copy, now. Version 4, released in 2007, works on PC, Mac, and Linux machines. A chart of product features and comparison of different versions (free and paid) can be found here.

You can watch a recorded Video Tutorial Here.

[tags]Personal Brain, MindJet, Mindmaping Software, Business Software, Project Management, Collaboration Tools[/tags]

In order to combat blog comment spam, Wordpress and other blogging platforms have turned off link backs from within comments. Many bloggers however want this nofollow feature turned back on.

There are several useful plugins for Wordpress which remove the NoFollow microformat extension. Here is a partial list I found on Andy Beard’s blog:

Lucia’s Linky Love Plugin - Andy likes this one the best and claims it is both fast and rugged.

DoFollow - One of the originals, this one removes the nofollow attribute from comments and trackbacks.

Dofollow (WP Plugin)

Link Love - This one removes the nofollow attribute after a poster has made a predetermined number of comments, and the detection is based on their email address rather than their domain or URL, which allows the commenter to link to more than one site but still get credit.

GoodLinks - This is primarily designed to fix formatting problems when a commenter posts a long link. It allows you to remove nofollow as one of its options.

Feel free to visit Andy Beard’s blog to read more of his comments on this subject, including other blogging platforms. Joomla blogs are not covered there, but I’ll be posting on that in the near future.

[tags]Wordpress Plugins, Wordpress, NoFollow, DoFollow, Andy Beard, Link Love, Good Links, Lucia’s Linky Love Plugin[/tags]

To set up your webcam for Skype, please follow these steps:

• Download and install the most recent drivers for your video device (you can get these from the webcam device’s manufacturer’s site). In many cases this is not necessary if it is a USB device.

• Select your video device in Skype by clicking the following from the Main Skype Control window:

Tools -> Options -> General (tab) -> Video Settings (tab)

• If your webcam is functioning you will see yourself displayed. If you are not seeing yourself be sure you have Enable Skype Video checked. If you are still having difficulty click Webcam Settings.

Please note: FireWire devices are not supported at this time.

• Make sure the option Enable Skype Video is checked. Also you can set video privacy settings to the desired options in the same window.

• The recommended System Requirements for Skype video calls are a 1Ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, a video card with at least 16MB of memory (also the latest version of DirectX installed) and a 512/256kbit (down/up) connection. Video and call quality may vary greatly in environments with conditions below those recommendations.

• Please be sure, that your webcam is connected and not in use by another program.

From the Skype Help Pages:
http://support.skype.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=questiondetails&_i=1267

You can purchase Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 Webcams and video cameras at the Skype store here:
http://us.accessories.skype.com/store/skype/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.11041900

[tags]Skype, Skype Video, Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000, Logitech, Webcam, Skype Webcam, How to, Instant Messenger[/tags]

John Reese has just launched his long awaited blog Traffic & Income System … and it’s free. You can sign up here: http://www.JerryBiz/blogrush

I don’t believe this is a spam tool. I’ve been trying it out on my site, http://www.JerryBiz.com, and it looks like quality links are being displayed in the sidebar widget.

So far, I’m comfortable recommending this to my friends and business contacts. This is a good opportunity to generate more long-term, targeted traffic to your website.

I came across this today, and I wanted to post it as a reminder, not only for you, but for myself as well. Jo Han Mok is an advocate of “The Law Of Attraction.” Unless these theories are well founded on verifiable experimental and scientific method, I would not recommend wholesale acceptance simply because, “Gee, it sounds plausible.” While some of those principles ARE be helpful, I wouldn’t necessarily refer to them as “Laws” such as Newton’s Laws of Motion, or Einstein’s Laws of Relativity.

Nonetheless, I picked up a copy of one of his reports called: Internet Millionaire Blueprint. It’s free and worth having a look at. Here’s a tidbit: Have you heard of O’Toole’s Law? O’Toole’s law states that Murphy was an optimist. (LOL)

Here’s a table of positive transformation:

[Read more →]

I want to introduce you to Audacity. It’s an excellent software application for you to get started recording and editing your podcasts, interviews, teleseminars, phone conversations, and web page audio - and it’s Free!

Audacity is created by the SourceForge programming community and released through GNU GPL Open Source licensing. Audacity allows you to create multiple track or single track recordings. You can do very precise editing to cut out unwanted vocal sounds or background noise. You can also easily add music lead-ins and lead-outs to mp3’s that have already been recorded. Just open the mp3 from within the Audacity program and add the new sound track. Save the file and you’re done.

With Audacity, you can create a first draft of your audio message for a web page you are creating, but you don’t have to re-do the entire recording just to change a portion of it; you can just cut-and-paste the new part into the original. As long as you keep a consistent volume and intonation to your voice, the editing will not be noticeable.

You can download Audacity for free at the SourceForge website: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Be sure to read this article on how to record from a phone to your PC sound card:
Record Phone Calls Through Your PC Sound Card with this Wireless Phone Recording Controller by Radio Shack

GNU is a recursive acronym for “GNU’s Not Unix”; it is pronounced guh-noo, approximately like canoe. See: http://www.gnu.org/

[tags]Audio Recording Software, Audio Editing Software, Audacity, SourceForge, Podcast Recording, Audio Publishing[/tags]

Did you know that now you can record phone calls directly to your PC? This can be useful when you are interviewing an expert in your niche market, or if your need to keep a record of your conversations with a business partner or coaching client.

You can use a device that connects your Wireless Phone or Cordless Phone to the Microphone input of your sound card. The device is called the Radio Shack Wireless Phone Recording Controller, catalog number 17-855. It sells for about $25.00 US and can be ordered online here:
http://www.radioshack.com/sm-wireless-phone-recording-controller

What’s the difference between a Cordless and a Wireless Phone, you ask? Well, the cordless phone has a base that plugs into a wall jack and connects by a land line to the phone company’s central office. A cell phone has no wires but connects to the phone company via transmission towers in your local area.

Here is a picture of what the device looks like (headset, phone, and recorder not included)

Panasonic KX-TCA60 Hands-Free Headset with Comfort Fit Headband & Boom Microphone

(Don’t forget to ask the other party’s permission to record them, in order to comply with local and federal laws.)

Technorati Tags: Audacity, Audio Recording Equipment, Hands-Free Headset, KX-TCA60, Model Number 17-855, Panasonic Headset, Phone Recording Equipment, Radio Shack Wireless Phone Recording Controller, Wireless Phone, Wireless Phone Recording Device

What does that mean?

Well, it means I’m going to present myself to you in a way you can hopefully relate to if you are or have been in a similar position as me.

My Situation:

I’ve been working with Internet Marketing for over 18 months and I’m still not generating the kind of income from it that I want to.

I have been mostly supporting myself with my offline private tutoring business. I enjoy that very much. However, the income isn’t enough for the lifestyle I want to live. So I’m going to start keeping a record of my daily, weekly, and monthly activities in order to track my progress toward building a highly profitable and sucessful online business .

My Goal:

Hopefully this business journal will not only help me, but it will help you as well. It will help me by keeping me accountable for my actions. It will help you by allowing you to see my successes and failures. We will therefore both be able to benefit.

This falls right in line with the idea that I have heard attributed to Zig Ziglar, “You will be successful when you have helped enough other people to become successful.” And I hope not only to be successful for myself, but also I’d like to take everone on my list of subscribers along with me!

[Read more →]

Rather than retype what’s already been written about the 30 Day Challenge, I’m going to give you a couple links to where you can read all about it from other bloggers.

Here’s a quote from Yaro Starak’s blog:

In a nutshell… The Thirty Day Challenge is about making your first $10 online. For a full 30 days we are going to be showing you exactly how to start your own Internet business and generate your first income online without spending a dime.

[Read more →]