The title of this post is not just hype, but a serious question.Here is what happened.I wrote and published 5 days ago on 4/24/2006 my article about my experiences and opinions about the current beta of Google’s new toy called Google Pages. Link to Full Article: Google Pages DemystifiedIt is now 4/29/2006, for only 3 hours, because it is right now 3:00 am in the morning here in Fresno/California. I got my usual email from GoogleAlerts.com at around 6:00 pm. GoogleAlerts.com is the commercial version of Google’s Free Service with the same name. It has some more features and options that the free version does not have. Anyhow, I use the service to monitor Google Search Results for important things that affect me personally or professionally, such a my Name, Artist Nick Name, Company Name, My Websites etc.Here is what I looked at and had me read it twice.The Account is now a bit over a week old and the content (5 Pages) is up for about 5 days now. The Site is already in Google’s index and here it comes: outranking a lot of old sites for the same key-phrase. It ranked #17 and when I checked now in complete disbelieve, was it still #17. The Search Results are for my companies name, VisionOne,Inc. (#24 if you count the indent sub-results). It outranked almost a 100 other websites (our clients for the most part), with an estimated 487,000 Pages indexed by Google. I am absolutely speechless. This is something[…]
I am an artist at deviantART myself and was browsing around on dA, checking out Art posted by other artists (one of the normal things to do as a “deviant”).I came across an Artist yesterday that caught my attention more than it normally does.He goes by the Artist Name Dilekt (Dilekt Artist Homepage at dA). Below are the pieces that are available as Print. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do. Empyrean by DilektLarge View | Buy Print Foretold Prophesy by DilektLarge View | Buy Print Glacial Haven by DilektLarge View | Buy Print Inner Soul by DilektLarge View | Buy Print The Inevitable by DilektLarge View | Buy Print Throne Of God by DilektLarge View | Buy Print Full Galery of Dilekt Art @ deviantART.com I loved his art right away and added 6 of his pieces that are available as print to my wishlist (others can buy me as gift) and 8 others to my favorites (that others can see which Art from from other Artists I like). If you want one to put on your wall (not computer :)), no Problem. Prints are available and cost only between $2 and $24 dollars (without frame) depending on size and print type (lustre, matte or glossy) plus about $5 for shipping (2nd day air and special packaging). You should get it within 3-4 days, if you order today.
Anybody who is an active blogger could recognize the default blogger template layout which I used for my Roy/SAC Blog when I launched it at the beginning of February.I did some changes to it to have it at least look a bit different, but that was not enough, the basic design of the blogger template was still clearly visible.I used this weekend to take care of that issue for good and redesigned the Blog. The Blog continues to use black as the general background. The MS DOS background was black and ASCII’s look best with white font on dark background which made me pick the template with the black background in the first place. I did not want to change anything about that concept, because I liked at back then and I still like it today.In incorporated some “fake” and “real” Block ANSI elements into the design. I will probably continue doing some fine tuning over the next months for those elements, especially the text borders. Over all does my Blog now look much better and you can tell, that it is primarily about me, Roy/SAC and what I did and do using that nick name, ASCII and ANSI Text Art and some Pixel VGA Art.Please come and have a look for yourself and tell me what you think about it. If you have any ideas, generic or specific or even criticism, do not hesitate and just add a comment to this post. You can do so anonymously, if you[…]
I got finally an Invitation to create an account at Google’s new Service (still in beta) called “Google Pages” or “Google Page Creator”.I tried to create an account there already a while back, but as always, they had not enough server resources available to handle the amount of traffic, because of interest in the new services by a lot of people and disabled the creation of new accounts on the same day they announced it to the public.My First PagesMy first impression was very positive, but I realized quickly, why the service is still in beta. It has still a lot of minor to severe flaws and some features require a lot more tweaking and improving before they should release the service from beta and make it available to the general public.You can have a look at my Test Pages here. No IFrames allowedI noticed that even if you modify the HTML Code of the pages directly, that certain things are not allowed and “stripped” out of the page when you publish it, such as Amazon Ads which use JavaScript and IFrames . I assume that the IFrames are the problem and removed by Google Pages, because they are a possible security issue, if abused. The blocking of IFrames prevents the possible abuse of the Google Pages service by fraudsters that may try to do things like installing malicious software on the visitors machine. This is one of the notorious misuses of IFrames . No External JavaScript / No Google[…]
A week ago was my birthday and I got spoiled with a free trip to Las Vegas. I was staying for free at the all new and luxurious Wynn Resort and Casino. I blogged about the reasons for the free stay at the Wynn Resort and Casino at my personal Blog already two weeks before I actually got there.It was actually a coincidence and had nothing to do with my birthday. It was great timing nevertheless. I had a great time at the Wynn. It was really luxurious. The Service was great and we had a lot of Fun. I was bringing a friend of mine along since the invitation included everything for free for TWO PEOPLE and I am a single and pretty busy at the moment to find time for a girlfriend. Fancy Dinner at Daniel Boulud French BrasserieWe started with a great dinner a the Daniel Boulud French Brasserie were we got to meet our host and also other the other people that were invited as well. I completely forgot all the entree’s because of the main entr??e. It was angus beef filet and ribs. I would have never imagined that I would eat a great angus beef filet AFTER the “other” stuff on the plate, but man, the ribs were not from this world. They were cooked and the meat was so tender and juice that a knife was not needed at all, the meat was falling apart, all by itself. A Fantastic Show: LE R??VEAfter[…]