Devil Works

A couple of days ago I upgraded my AVG anti virus installation. One of the features of the update is a link checker that integrates with your browser.

I was having a lot of problems with Firefox hanging and it was giving me a big case of the irits. I spent a couple of days blaming Vista before it twigged that the problems started when I upgraded my AVG installation to 8.0

So after I quick Google search for Firefox and AVG I found it was a common problem with a quick fix.

In Firefox go to the menu

Tools> Add-ons

Then click “disable” AVG Safe Search 8.0

Problem fixed.

Well almost the Safe Search feature of AVG is no longer active but I’ve survived without it this far, so I’m going to take my chances.

I’ve been reading lots about Twitter lately so I thought it was time I checked it out for myself. I’ve signed up as TedAu and within five minutes I’m already following Darren Rowse, Jason Calacanis and Matt Cutts.

While the names are ones I’ve heard around the net for a while, I’ve never spoken to the them. Does following them on Twitter make me a stalker ?

Speaking of stalking, within 5 minutes of me following Jason Calacanis decided to follow me. I’m not sure I’m really worth following, I’m a self confessed internet nobody. Maybe Jason needs to get out more?

I rank first page on Google for How The Devil Works

My site name has actually nothing to do with religion. I was trying to think of a name for a long defunct web design business. Some days I have little creativity so I combined the name of a native animal and drove past a business called Office Works. Put the two together and now I’m stuck with it on sentimentality grounds.

Actually the only reason I created this blog on this domain was it had a PR of 4. That’s gone now so maybe it’s time to move to something a little more relevant……

Every time I renew my domains at Go Daddy I get teased with a little box at the bottom of the checkout screen asking for a Promo Code. This is a sign that there are discounts out there, I just need to know where to find them.

Being inherently lazy I googled for a solution and found this page of Go Daddy promo codes. I tried the top one and it saved a few bucks off my order.

The good thing is that it was created almost a year ago and was updated only last week. It’s well worth adding to your bookmarks

I’d been hanging out for Microsoft to release SP1 for Vista. I’d been having problems with Windows Update for several months and thought this might be the only thing that saves me from wiping the hard drive and doing a full reinstall of Vista.

This is a blow by blow of how I wasted 9 hours of my life keeping my computer up to date.

14.30 I read in a magazine that SP1 would be available via Windows Update from mid April. This wasn’t going to help me as my Windows Update function had been broken for some time. I read a little further into the article and it said SP1 was available now via Microsoft Downloads.

14.35 I head to Microsoft Downloads and discover that the SP1 pack will be 400+ MB as I had no choice but to download the 5 language pack. The windows update version was only around 65MB.

16.50 The download has completed and I start Vista SP1 installing. I get a message on the screen saying it may take more than an hour to install.

17.50 First hour is up, things are progressing but it hasn’t finished installing yet.

18.50 Two hours down, I’ve had dinner now, things are progressing, but still not fully installed.

19.20 The installer reports that it’s 100% and hangs with that message for about 10 minutes, also advising me not to turn the computer off.

19.30 After over two and a half hours I get a message on my screen advising that the SP1 install has been unsuccessful and SP1 is now uninstalling itself.

20.30 SP1 finishes removing itself from my system and reboots. A window pops up and refers me to a Knowledge Base article about SP1 failed installs. I take a look and it offers five different possible fixes for the problem. The one that stands out to me is SP1 requiring a couple of important windows updates having to be installed before SP1 could be installed. I vainly turn my attention to windows update and see if I can convince it get the required updates. This time when I hit the “get updates” button I get a different error code to what I have previously experienced.

The previous error had told me that I needed to follow a bunch of different steps to reinstall Windows Update. I duly followed these steps numerous times and nothing changed, I also spent hours Googling for an answer and still got nowhere.

This new error message leads me to a help file that suggests I have a firewall preventing Vista from accessing the Windows Update server. I have a bit of a think and the only firewall I can think of (other than the internal Vista one) is on my adsl modem/router. I log into the router and disable the firewall, click “get updates” again and after nine months of update errors I discover I have 90+MB of updates needed for my system. So update I do.

21.50 The updates have installed and I initiate the Vista SP1 install again.

23.30 A message pops up on the screen saying that the SP1 installation has been successful. I reactivate the firewall on my router, turn off the computer and go to sleep.

Total elapsed time of 9 hours.

I’m peeved that
A) It took four hours for SP1 to install, work out it shouldn’t be there and uninstall itself.
B) The initial failed installation was most likely as a result of Windows Update not installing the required packages prior to my SP1 upgrade attempt.

C) The SP1 installer should have checked I had the required updates before going through the whole convoluted process.

And the really annoying thing is that I payed Microsoft for the privilege. If I’d bought anything else that had so many faults I’d be demanding a refund.

Unless Microsoft really lift there game I can see myself being a Linux user in the very near future.

Can summarise the changes to Google Adsense for me ?

I get presented with a really long page with all the terms and conditions and all I really want to know is what has changed since the last time.

I’ll keep taking the skip option until I don’t have a choice. Though I have plenty of time. Changes don’t start till the 28th May.

If you need computer technical support then it might be worth considering Fast-Teks. They offer fourteen different services for business, including troubleshooting, repairs, network management and even offer training on Quickbooks. They also offer services to residential customers such as DSL set up and virus removal.

If you’re anything like me and waste too much time looking after computers instead of using them then a company like Fast-Teks is just what you need.

This has been a sponsored post

After the first couple of months I stopped reading the adsense optimisation tips that Google automatically sends me each month.

The main reason is that unless your very new to creating websites for money making purposes then they haven’t anything new to tell you.

The other reason is that Google wouldn’t think for a second that there is better ways to make money than stacking your sites with Google products.

I have a funny feeling that the whole idea of killing pagerank for sites selling text links is so that people replace them with Google inventory.

Here’s some of the clever tips that Google provided me this month

Adsense for Search adds both functionality and revenue to your site.
You are not currently using Adsense for Search on your sites.

Okay, I agree to this one, but in the past when I’ve used Adsense for search the revenue has been tiny. So I haven’t bothered to replace the code when I’ve changed themes. If I was getting 10,000 hits a day I may reconsider my position on this one.

Referrals can add incremental revenue to your site.
You are not currently using Referrals on your sites.

Google recently reduced payouts on referrals by massive amounts, I won’t waste my time for the pittance they are offering.

Placing more than one ad unit on a page often generates more revenue.
Many of your sites only contain one ad unit.

I know this, it’s obvious. Though doubling the number of ad units on a page doesn’t always mean double the revenue. I have one site that has a link bar at the top then 3 decent size ad blocks throughout the template. 95% of my Google revenue on that site comes from the link bar.

I know it doesn’t pay to bite the hand that feeds you, but it also doesn’t hurt to check the source and quality of the food before you eat it !

I’ve got some big plans for my web sites this year that involve a lot of database work and some minor server customisation so to save hassles later on I’ve decided that I should move hosts now rather than later. I’m currently using a reseller package that I got a couple of years ago. Compared to what’s on the market now I know I’m paying too much for what I’m getting but web hosts never seem to upgrade their offers as time goes by.

I’ll either be looking for a VPS or managed dedicated solution. I guess I’ll decide once I’ve done some shopping around.

I thought about doing this myself but I don’t think I could maintain the interest in it. So I’m putting the idea out there for anyone else to run with. Listen Up…..

I’ve been subsrcribing to John Chow’s blog just about since it began. It used to be an interesting read for me but these days he is posting several times a day and a lot of it isn’t relevant to my interests anymore. For some reason I’m still subscribed but tend to skim through a lot of the posts.

My idea is to post a weekly digest of Johns posts, summarising what they are about and linking to each of the posts. John has over 15,000 RSS readers and even if you only get 5% of his readership subscribing to your blog for the digest posts then that would be 750 new readers. I know I’d be one person to subscribe, I waste far too much time looking at his dining reports and paid reviews of things that I’ll never need.

Another reason is that very few of John’s posts are time critical, so if they don’t show up in your feed reader for a week it’s unlikely you’re missing out on much.

If you’re the first one off the block with this idea I imagine you’ll get link baited from John Chow, John Cow and maybe a few other blogs.

Maybe my ideas not new and someone else is already doing this, if so let me know and I can get some of my precious time back…… and waste it on Facebook.

Hmmm, writing this post I’ve just come up with another idea……. not sharing that one though, I’ll save that for when I have the resources to put it into place.