Instant Messages

I have for MANY years been using various instant messenger systems, such as ICQ, MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk and Skype.  Now I’m mainly using MSN and Skype as most of my friends are using those. I do prefer MSN due to the graphics in it (yeah, just call me a teenager…lol).  I have the programs running almost all day, to be in touch with friends and also people I work with. Some people find it disturbing/interrupting that people can get in touch with you so easy but I don’t have an issue with it. They should just know that I might not answer right away and if I’m busy then I will tell them. If you compare to people phoning you then I find instant messengers systems way less interrupting, often you skip all small talk and get direct to business (just ask a question like: Hi Sam, do you know how to setup Unity for iPhone… and I can then answer very quickly either yes or no).

Facebook

I have been using Facebook for quite some time now but not from the very start. I often check my account a few times a day, just to see what people write and such. Sure Facebook can end up wasting a LOT of your time but it all depends on self-discipline. I would not start to take quizzes or play games during work, just a few messages/comments and that’s about it. Actually, I never did one of the billion of quizzes on Facebook and I only play ONE game there :-)

In case you want to get in touch over Facebook then just go to my profile

Twitter

I got a Twitter account in the early days of Twitter but had no idea what to use it for really but I have lately started to use it more and more. Not to write small silly messages (What a nice weather, going for coffee now…); I have so far just written there 21 times in all. I’m just following a few people on Twitter; a few friends and some bloggers and pro poker players (37 in total!). Again, nothing that interrupts my life as I can check whenever I want or if I choose I can get live updates (See TweetDeck). Nice to see how some of the pro poker players still have time to Tweet at the big tournaments :-) I’m FAR from a real Pro with twitter and I just know a bit of what is possible, but it does the trick for me.

In case you want to follow me on Twitter then you are very welcome, just head over to my profile

TweetDeck

There are many clients to Twitter, web based, SMS and a whole bunch of applications. The one I’m using is TweetDeck, very simple program to use with lots of options. I’m just using a few of the features and I should set a bit time off to figure it all out. It is nice to be able to start the program when I feel like it and read through the last tweets from around the world. Check a few searches and so. Oh, and another nice feature of TweetDeck is that it is possible to get Facebook updates here also. Even better, when I do my own Tweets then I always make it so my wall on Facebook gets updated right away also. So while I have TweetDeck running I will get automatic notifications when people Tweet or update their Facebook. Another nice feature is that it support sync between multiple devices (notebooks, work pc, home pc, iPhone..).

TweetDeck also exists for iPhone (iPod touch) but I have not yet tried it there. When I get an iPhone 3GS at some stage then this will probably be the first programs I will be installing.

I’m not saying this is the BEST client but why spend too much time testing the others when this one suits me :-)

Marina from HotForWords is also using TweetDeck, might be an idea to see how she is using it. Just head over here to check out what she got to say about it.

MySpace, XING, LinkedIn and …

I might have a MySpace account but to be honest, I’m not sure. Just can’t be active on all platforms and why should I be :-)

Two sites where I KNOW I have profiles and where I even update from them from time to time is XING and LinkedIn I do see these two sites as more professional/business social sites but have to check the latest changes before I say too much :-)

Anyway, that’s about it regarding social networks. Hope to see you on some of them…

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Let me do a quick follow up on the last post and then write a bit about what is going to happen now…

Extra work

In March I wrote that I would not be taking any extra work on; well, that’s was true until now :-) I’ll get back to this in an upcoming blog entry. (I’m rather excited about this). It involves iPhone & Unity 3D ;-)

Poker

I have not had much success with poker the last few months; sure I got some payouts but not enough. It also happens that I leave a game been unhappy about how I played. So I sure have enough to work on there. Other Poker opened at a new location, so now both in Basel and Kaiseraugst and I will surely continue to play there when I have the change (and the time). During the last few months I also did a good few games online but again, not with enough positive results but I will continue to play of course. I will be playing less than before, both due to bankroll and the extra work I will be doing.

Fitness

I paid for continuing the training at the fitness studio but never got around to go again. So I finally cancelled my membership. Nothing wrong with the place or the people there but I’m just able to find the time to go there. Hope this will change one day…

So… what comes next?

This kick start is NOT about goals, aims and so forth. Had enough of that :-)

• I will be approving all comments in the queue that is not spam (of course) and do some comments on them; some of the comments are rather old :-(
• Then check if some small tweaks are needed for the blog, updates of plugins and so forth.
• Cleanup in links

Thereafter it will be time to start blogging again, it is SO simple.

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In this giveaway they have a pretty cool prize, and no, it is not a free WordPress theme or some free advertisement. No, this time the prize is nothing less that a rugged & water resistant laptop from Ruff PC, the Laptop they are giving away is the RuffBook Tech, which actually got some pretty nice specs.

This is a perfect Laptop if you like to blog away from home; take it with you anywhere you go. Even to the beach or when you go mountain climbing. Oh, guess it is also very good if you got small kids, spilling milk and water on it would not matter (beyond the mess). It might even work if they took it out to play with it in the dirt.

So what do you have to do to win it? Simple, you just do what I just did :-) All you have to do is just to blog about it. Hmm, so by suggesting this to the readers of this blog I actually reduce the chance of me winning. Oh, what the hell. If you do win it and you got to the giveaway from this blog then it would be great if you mention it on your blog, I would also be happy to write about it (including picture). Good luck to us all.

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This is not a get rich quick system; actually, it is not a way to get rich at all. Some of the options I have range from $5 up to $15; they also have rules that have to be followed so it would not be possible to make a blog that is based on the paid posts.

The subject of the posts varies a LOT and no, I will not write about them all. Don’t see any reason why I should start writing about mortgage, estate agent in NYC, garage furniture, alcohol rehab in Florida or garden furniture since I got no interest in that (got no garage or garden anyway) and I doubt the reads of this blog wants to read about that.

I have so far written 3 blog entries that are sponsored and I wrote about them as I felt they where suited for this blog and the readers and so it will continue. I will also continue to stay 100% true to the posts, so I will never make something up just to be able to make it sound good. So when I wrote about the high tech binocular and that I’m considering buying them, then that’s the truth.

Each sponsored post will be marked as a sponsored post either by text or by graphics; see the bottom of this post for how it can look. PayPerPost actually require this which I think is a great policy to have. Just have a look at their disclosure page: payperpost

So will this bring in a lot of money for me; nope. I hope so find interesting enough options to get around $25 to $50 per month and I plan to use them well. I need to improve my grammar so I will be looking around for online courses and they will be paid with any income I get from PayPerPost. I might even look for some real-life courses here in Switzerland.

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What is HubPages?

The very short version: HubPages is a CRAZY big blog with around 40.000 articles, written by a lot of different people (Their best list got 6999 listed). A Hub can be seen as a single post/blog entry.

The Hubbers (writers/bloggers) can write a Hub about what ever they like and it is not connected directly to their own ’space’. The Hubbers do have their own profiles where the latest Hubs are mentioned, but it does not work as a blog for each member. Just have a look at my profile.

Around 3 million people are visiting HubPages each month, often are people coming from the search engines, so a big audience.

Hubbers are not paid directly by HubPages for blogging but if they sign up with Google’s AdSense and Amazon (eBay also possible) then the impressions (impression = when an ad is shown) is split so that Hubbers gets 60% of ads impressions (Meaning, 60% of the impressions will have the AdSense/Amazon code from the Hubber in them). It is also possible to get more and get impressions on other hubs by linking. You also get some % if you refer people to sign up to HubPages. But even if 60% of all the ads shown have your code in them, then this does not mean that they will be clicked.

Why not use my own blog for all?
So there are great possibilities but you might ask ‘why write there when you have your own blog’. When I signed up at HubPages I liked the idea about that you can write about whatever you like and whenever you like, not as other blog networks that might require that the author selects a category and then are require to write X number of posts pr week. But back to ‘why’; on HubPages I can write about subjects that might not match my own blog. I’m also able to go in and have a look at the ‘requests’ from other people; these are suggestions from other people.

My first Hub was an answer to such a request (See the Hub). I plan to use the requests a lot, find a request that I find interesting, do some research and write about it. So it is as a practice for me: quick research and then blog about it, even if it was about a subject I never had to deal with before. If I write about things that I would find suitable for the blog then I will of course mention it here on blog; together with a link. You can of course also subscribe directly to the RSS from my profile.

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