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Friday, March 04, 2011
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Droid X
It's been a long time since I posted, and a long time since I've gotten a new gadget. So I thought I might take care of both at once. I've been wanting an android phone for a while now. I didn't like the motorola droid when it came out because of that keyboard (which I don't need, why waste space). Then the incredible came out, but I didn't like the screen's performance outside. Then, finally there is a phone I can dig. The Droid X looks awesome!
I started looking around for deals (BTW, I highly recommend slickdeals.net if you don't already visit there). I found out that letstalk.com has a $50 discount going on now (bring the price down to $150), plus a $30 bill credit! Sweet! I'm going to buy!
BTW, here is a pretty cool video comparing the iPhone 4 and the Droid X
I started looking around for deals (BTW, I highly recommend slickdeals.net if you don't already visit there). I found out that letstalk.com has a $50 discount going on now (bring the price down to $150), plus a $30 bill credit! Sweet! I'm going to buy!
BTW, here is a pretty cool video comparing the iPhone 4 and the Droid X
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Nature Cleanse wrap-up: 60 days, what happened?
Hi all, thanks for reading. I kind of fell off the CPA bandwagon on 7/23 and turned off my google campaigns. My initial plan was to let it run for 60 days, but I didn't have enough time to watch every day and do proper analysis (work, life & family got a little chaotic for a bit).
During the period of 6/12 and 7/23 or 42 days, I conducted an experiment in CPA with a product called Nature Cleanse. There was a lot of tweaking work the first week, but for most of the campaign it was just sit back and watch. I did try to use yahoo keywords mid-campaign, and spent far too much money with them for no results. For this product, google adwords seemed to be the right choice.
So here is the summary report:
If I wouldn't have blow so much at yahoo (in fact, one day was over $34, for nothing!!) this would have been a much better ROI campaign.
Will I do it again you ask? Oh heck yea, I just want to make sure Copeac is actually going to pay me. They have a $100/mo minimum, so my first month I didn't get paid since I only earned $96, but month two should be rolling around here so and I should have enough for a paycheck. I can't wait to see what happens.
Did I learn a lot? Oh heck yea! I'll definitely do things slightly differently next time.
Is this a legit biz? I'm still on the fence. None of my sells ever came from a click through, however click through volume from google definitely affected the number of products I sold. Does that sound strange? All my sells came from someone typing in "Nature Cleanse Trial" into google and finding my landing page, and buying from there. Once I turned off my google ads, people ironically stopped typing Nature Cleanse Trial into google. One IP address actually signed up 2 times!! I just don't get it. My only guesses are that someone saw my add, and then searched on the landing page name keywords to look for reviews or something similar and bought based on a good google page rank. This is a little discouraging because I'd really like them to trust the click and drive them that way. I need to work on how I phrase my ads maybe.
During the period of 6/12 and 7/23 or 42 days, I conducted an experiment in CPA with a product called Nature Cleanse. There was a lot of tweaking work the first week, but for most of the campaign it was just sit back and watch. I did try to use yahoo keywords mid-campaign, and spent far too much money with them for no results. For this product, google adwords seemed to be the right choice.
So here is the summary report:
| Earnings | Yahoo | GoDaddy | Profit | ROI | Daily Profit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $256 | $116.09 | $65.49 | $11.17 | $63.25 | 32.8% | $1.50 |
If I wouldn't have blow so much at yahoo (in fact, one day was over $34, for nothing!!) this would have been a much better ROI campaign.
Will I do it again you ask? Oh heck yea, I just want to make sure Copeac is actually going to pay me. They have a $100/mo minimum, so my first month I didn't get paid since I only earned $96, but month two should be rolling around here so and I should have enough for a paycheck. I can't wait to see what happens.
Did I learn a lot? Oh heck yea! I'll definitely do things slightly differently next time.
Is this a legit biz? I'm still on the fence. None of my sells ever came from a click through, however click through volume from google definitely affected the number of products I sold. Does that sound strange? All my sells came from someone typing in "Nature Cleanse Trial" into google and finding my landing page, and buying from there. Once I turned off my google ads, people ironically stopped typing Nature Cleanse Trial into google. One IP address actually signed up 2 times!! I just don't get it. My only guesses are that someone saw my add, and then searched on the landing page name keywords to look for reviews or something similar and bought based on a good google page rank. This is a little discouraging because I'd really like them to trust the click and drive them that way. I need to work on how I phrase my ads maybe.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
7/1 Update on Nature Cleanse
Right after I posted that last blog entry, I ended up with 2 more sales on Nature Cleanse, wow! I think I may just leave this campaign alone (google seems to have stopped slapping me) and see what it can do. I've done no more work on it since my last report, only watch the money go in (commissions) and out (adwords).
To date (including all my mistakes) on this campaign, I'm at $160 revenue, $85.57 expense, $74.43 profit (46.5%). My target profit should be around 50% (from what I've read), and I'm getting pretty close even with some serious mistakes.
If I could just figure out how to get more clicks!! Maybe it's time to start playing with Yahoo and Bing and other traffic sources.
| Date | Commissions | PPC Costs | Godaddy Costs | Landing Page? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06/30/2009 | $2.44 | Yes | ||
| 07/01/2009 | $64.00 | $1.77 | Yes |
To date (including all my mistakes) on this campaign, I'm at $160 revenue, $85.57 expense, $74.43 profit (46.5%). My target profit should be around 50% (from what I've read), and I'm getting pretty close even with some serious mistakes.
If I could just figure out how to get more clicks!! Maybe it's time to start playing with Yahoo and Bing and other traffic sources.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Update on Nature Cleanse
So the Nature Cleanse Trial through Copeac has been going well. I am making a slight profit with it, and quite happy with my lessons learned. The big thing I learned was to have a landing page!! I was able to get my click costs cut in half, unfortunately I'm having a hard time getting traffic on the keywords I can afford (some are priced way to high in the $2-10 per click range). The cheapest keyword ironically is just a simple plain "colon", unfortunately I get a lot of unrelated traffic there and it's hard to filter out just those looking for the body part colon and some health product to use with it.
Here are my up to date stats on this campaign:
So far, I'm at a net profit of $14.64, however you can tell that I'm doing much better between click 2 and click 3, where the cost to convert was $9.16 and commission was $32.
Also, something important to notice here is how drastically my PPC costs changed after I spent the $11.17 at godaddy to get a landing page (and that costs covers 2 months worth of hosting!!). I can't emphasis enough, if you're serious about marketing a product, get your own landing page!
Lessons Learned:
Spending a few bucks on a landing page is worth it's weight in gold. You have to keep an eye on google, I did have a couple of google "slaps" where they basically made my keyword costs way to high and I had to re-start my campaign by tweaking it a bit. That's what explains the few dead dates with no clicks. And probably the last tip I learned, when you buy a landing page, make it a little generic. I named mine NatureCleanseTrial.com which means I basically can only market Nature Cleanse on there. I probably should have considered getting something more generic like ColonCleanseCentral.com or something along those lines (this example is already registered, and setup basically how I should have set it up).
For those keeping track, I've probably put about 10 hours into the nature cleanse promotion, leaving me making around $1.40/hr. Not all that exciting, and I'm not quitting my day job anytime soon, but I like to think the education I'm getting while doing this experiment has been amazing. I can't believe how much I know about this little known world now.
Here are my up to date stats on this campaign:
| Date | Commissions | PPC Costs | Godaddy Costs | Landing Page? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06/12/2009 | $32.00 | $49.03 (sale was in the first $20) | No | |
| 06/13/2009 | 11.17 | Yes | ||
| 06/14/2009 | $2.09 | Yes | ||
| 06/15/2009 | $.27 | Yes | ||
| 06/16/2009 | $1.13 | Yes | ||
| 06/20/2009 | $1.05 | Yes | ||
| 06/21/2009 | $1.18 | Yes | ||
| 06/22/2009 | $0.90 | Yes | ||
| 06/23/2009 | $3.69 | Yes | ||
| 06/24/2009 | $32.00 | $3.69 | Yes | |
| 06/27/2009 | $5.29 | Yes | ||
| 06/28/2009 | $1.85 | Yes | ||
| 06/29/2009 | $32.00 | $2.02 | Yes |
So far, I'm at a net profit of $14.64, however you can tell that I'm doing much better between click 2 and click 3, where the cost to convert was $9.16 and commission was $32.
Also, something important to notice here is how drastically my PPC costs changed after I spent the $11.17 at godaddy to get a landing page (and that costs covers 2 months worth of hosting!!). I can't emphasis enough, if you're serious about marketing a product, get your own landing page!
Lessons Learned:
Spending a few bucks on a landing page is worth it's weight in gold. You have to keep an eye on google, I did have a couple of google "slaps" where they basically made my keyword costs way to high and I had to re-start my campaign by tweaking it a bit. That's what explains the few dead dates with no clicks. And probably the last tip I learned, when you buy a landing page, make it a little generic. I named mine NatureCleanseTrial.com which means I basically can only market Nature Cleanse on there. I probably should have considered getting something more generic like ColonCleanseCentral.com or something along those lines (this example is already registered, and setup basically how I should have set it up).
For those keeping track, I've probably put about 10 hours into the nature cleanse promotion, leaving me making around $1.40/hr. Not all that exciting, and I'm not quitting my day job anytime soon, but I like to think the education I'm getting while doing this experiment has been amazing. I can't believe how much I know about this little known world now.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Experiments in PPC & CPA
I'm doing some experiments with PPC arbitrage, or sometimes known as traffic brokering, or in the industry terms, CPA (Cost Per Action). Basically the idea is to find a product to help sell, and take a commission on it. If your strategy works well, you pay less for advertising/marketing than you make in commission, and you're left with your profit as the difference.
The problem is that there are a ton of crappy products out there, a lot of scams, a lot of spammy stuff, but I've found some good networks of solid products that I can at least (on the surface) believe are not scams. Most are these As Seen on TV style products. I mean, if there is a store dedicated in the mall to them, how bad can they really be.
The first one I'm testing with is called Nature Cleanse, and it's a all natural colon cleanse system that you subscribe to monthly mailings. The first month is free, you only pay shipping and handling. I've bought several similar colon cleanse products in the past and have had good experience with them, so this seems right up my alley.
I also have a Nature Cleanse Trial blog going as well.
The problem is that there are a ton of crappy products out there, a lot of scams, a lot of spammy stuff, but I've found some good networks of solid products that I can at least (on the surface) believe are not scams. Most are these As Seen on TV style products. I mean, if there is a store dedicated in the mall to them, how bad can they really be.
The first one I'm testing with is called Nature Cleanse, and it's a all natural colon cleanse system that you subscribe to monthly mailings. The first month is free, you only pay shipping and handling. I've bought several similar colon cleanse products in the past and have had good experience with them, so this seems right up my alley.
I also have a Nature Cleanse Trial blog going as well.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tinkering with PPC Internet Marketing again
Back last year, I experimented a bit with Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising with Google and a few different products on Clickbank.com and Amazon.com. I only lost money, but I did learn a lot about the world of internet marketing. Luckily I only lost about $50, so it wasn't a crushing defeat for me. I kind of put it on the back burner as something I knew was possible to make money with, but I just hadn't quite figured it out yet. I only sold a few things through amazon and never made a profit on it, and clickbank was a total waste of my money. I never sold a SINGLE ITEM!! UGH!
This year while networking with real estate investors, I ran across a guy online who was showing his affiliate accounts and Bank of America small business accounts in videos where he was clearing $20-50k a day (after google, yahoo, and msn expenses). I figured I had to have another shot at this.
I started doing more research with clickbank and decided to go with their top 2 products and try to market them. Here are the details of those tests.
As you can see I experienced beginners luck on both of them on the first day, and the addiction drove me wild. I spent well more than my earnings (commissions column) to try and get the second sale on both those products for nothing!! UGH!! How frustrating.
Lessons Learned:
I was a bit too eager, I was doing direct linking instead of getting my own landing page (as almost every profitable PPC or CPA advertiser will tell you that you need). I think this led to higher than normal google adwords costs (twitter traffic machine was 34 clicks at ~$0.88/ea, clickbank code was 71 clicks at ~$0.63). I think if I could have got my click costs at $.40 or less for CBC and $.20 or less for TTM, I could have made them profitable.
Overall, I'm very satisfied I was actually able to convert some products, which I was NEVER able to do last year. Like I said, I've learned a lot. Net loss = $20.87.
This year while networking with real estate investors, I ran across a guy online who was showing his affiliate accounts and Bank of America small business accounts in videos where he was clearing $20-50k a day (after google, yahoo, and msn expenses). I figured I had to have another shot at this.
I started doing more research with clickbank and decided to go with their top 2 products and try to market them. Here are the details of those tests.
| Date | PPC Expense | Commissions | Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06/07/2009 | $2.00 | $11.98 | Twitter Traffic Machine |
| 06/08/2009 | $15.68 | $0 | Twitter Traffic Machine |
| 06/09/2009 | $12.38 | $0 | Twitter Traffic Machine |
| 06/09/2009 | $7.44 | $42.13 | Clickbank Code |
| 06/10/2009 | $37.48 | $0 | Clickbank Code |
As you can see I experienced beginners luck on both of them on the first day, and the addiction drove me wild. I spent well more than my earnings (commissions column) to try and get the second sale on both those products for nothing!! UGH!! How frustrating.
Lessons Learned:
I was a bit too eager, I was doing direct linking instead of getting my own landing page (as almost every profitable PPC or CPA advertiser will tell you that you need). I think this led to higher than normal google adwords costs (twitter traffic machine was 34 clicks at ~$0.88/ea, clickbank code was 71 clicks at ~$0.63). I think if I could have got my click costs at $.40 or less for CBC and $.20 or less for TTM, I could have made them profitable.
Overall, I'm very satisfied I was actually able to convert some products, which I was NEVER able to do last year. Like I said, I've learned a lot. Net loss = $20.87.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Credit Card Abitrage is Back: Citi Cards No Fees 0% Offer
I was surprised to get a 0% balance transfer offer with no balance transfer fee today from Citi Cards. Lately they seem to all be 3% fee and have gone from $99 caps to no caps. It seemed like the days of no fees were well gone, as I hadn't gotten an offer like that in over 9mos. What a difference from having them regularly 2-3/mo from any number of banks for years. Does this mean that the credit markets are turning back up, or that Citi is just desperate to get more customers in their card business?
In any case, I'll take free money for 12 months any day of the week. The arbitrage benefits aren't as good these days: high yield savings are pretty low, and heloc payments aren't bad either with prime at 3.25%. Like I said, free money. It's very easy to make $300-400 off the deal still even in a bad yield market.
In any case, I'll take free money for 12 months any day of the week. The arbitrage benefits aren't as good these days: high yield savings are pretty low, and heloc payments aren't bad either with prime at 3.25%. Like I said, free money. It's very easy to make $300-400 off the deal still even in a bad yield market.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
New Photos and Video
It's been far too long since I uploaded photos and videos. I'm happy to say that everything is up to date now:
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhunzi/
Videos: http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=zhunzi
In other news fronts, I'm nearly done with my an adwords experiment. It's not going as well as I liked, and I'll write more about that later. I've been reading a few books, trying to soak up as much information about time management and making money as possible.
The reading list:
Jim Cramer - Real Money (currently reading)
Robert Kiyosaki - Who Took My Money
Robert Kiyosaki - Choose to Be Rich
Tim Ferriss - The Four Hour Work Week
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhunzi/
Videos: http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=zhunzi
In other news fronts, I'm nearly done with my an adwords experiment. It's not going as well as I liked, and I'll write more about that later. I've been reading a few books, trying to soak up as much information about time management and making money as possible.
The reading list:
Jim Cramer - Real Money (currently reading)
Robert Kiyosaki - Who Took My Money
Robert Kiyosaki - Choose to Be Rich
Tim Ferriss - The Four Hour Work Week
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Prosper Arbitrage?
First off, if you haven't seen Prosper.com yet, you should. I get absolutely no commission for telling you that.
When I first saw prosper, I thought it was great. I deposited $50 and lent out my first partial loan at 19%. I'm still getting payments from the person, and they're on target to pay me back the complete $50+interest at around $1.80/mo. My only complaint about the company is that you get locked into these 3 year loans. There aren't any means for folks to take out various term lengths, so that you could essentially stack your money as you would in CD investments. The only way to have a constant flow of funds that can be available immediately is to just continually fund small portions of loans each month over the next 3 years. That's kind of annoying.
All that being said, I work for a large bank, and I know how they make money. One of the main ways is to lend money on one side, and convince folks to deposit money (usually by paying them interest) on the other side. They always lend for more than they pay. It's pure arbitrage. I also know that there is often very little margin in it for banks. They need LOTS of customers to make it work. So I got to thinking, could an individual make arbitrage work at Prosper? I searched around and sure enough, there are plenty of folks lending money at 5-6% in order to then lend that money out again at 15-20% to make a profit. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's a great living. Look at the chart I created below based on $5000 being borrowed at 6%. You need to get a very high return (which is hard, because the higher the rate, the riskier the customer).
So if you could borrow at 6% and lend at 18% with no mishaps, you would make roughly $18.18/mo off a $5000 arbitrage after taxes. To be honest, managing between 10-100 loans (depending on how large your contributions per loan is) is not going to be worth $18.18 of your time. Not unless you say live in a seriously deprived location where that might buy you a royal lifestyle for the week. In which case, you probably don't have good credit, nor access to the internet. The numbers scale linerally, so if you wanted to aim for making $1818/mo you'd need to lend 100x the $5000 or $500,000 to be exact. Now that to me, looks like A LOT of risk!
My thoughts: Arbitrage doesn't work at Prosper.
When I first saw prosper, I thought it was great. I deposited $50 and lent out my first partial loan at 19%. I'm still getting payments from the person, and they're on target to pay me back the complete $50+interest at around $1.80/mo. My only complaint about the company is that you get locked into these 3 year loans. There aren't any means for folks to take out various term lengths, so that you could essentially stack your money as you would in CD investments. The only way to have a constant flow of funds that can be available immediately is to just continually fund small portions of loans each month over the next 3 years. That's kind of annoying.
All that being said, I work for a large bank, and I know how they make money. One of the main ways is to lend money on one side, and convince folks to deposit money (usually by paying them interest) on the other side. They always lend for more than they pay. It's pure arbitrage. I also know that there is often very little margin in it for banks. They need LOTS of customers to make it work. So I got to thinking, could an individual make arbitrage work at Prosper? I searched around and sure enough, there are plenty of folks lending money at 5-6% in order to then lend that money out again at 15-20% to make a profit. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's a great living. Look at the chart I created below based on $5000 being borrowed at 6%. You need to get a very high return (which is hard, because the higher the rate, the riskier the customer).
| $5000 Arbitrage | Personal Loan @ 6% | Lend Out @ 12% | Lend Out @ 18% |
| Interest + is in, - is out | -475.96 | 978.6 | 1507.46 |
| Income minus Expenses | 502.64 | 1031.5 | |
| Income minus Expenses / 36 months | 13.96 | 28.65 | |
| Income minus Taxes (25%) minus Expenses | 257.99 | 654.64 | |
| Income minus Taxes (25%) minus Expenses / 36 | 7.16 | 18.18 |
So if you could borrow at 6% and lend at 18% with no mishaps, you would make roughly $18.18/mo off a $5000 arbitrage after taxes. To be honest, managing between 10-100 loans (depending on how large your contributions per loan is) is not going to be worth $18.18 of your time. Not unless you say live in a seriously deprived location where that might buy you a royal lifestyle for the week. In which case, you probably don't have good credit, nor access to the internet. The numbers scale linerally, so if you wanted to aim for making $1818/mo you'd need to lend 100x the $5000 or $500,000 to be exact. Now that to me, looks like A LOT of risk!
My thoughts: Arbitrage doesn't work at Prosper.
googhydr-20, who are you?
I've been researching different ways to make money on the web using arbitrage. I've used credit card arbitrage for a long time (it's how I paid off my 6 years of college debt in 2 years, but that's a story for another day). Credit Card arbitrage is getting harder to do because too many people know about it, and because the prime rate is so low and cards rarely offer free balance transfers anymore, so what you can make per month on it is nominal and not worth my time anymore. So I've started looking for a new slight of hand to make a few extra bucks here and there.
The thing I've read a lot about recently and have been doing some research on is adwords arbitrage using google adwords. In doing some various tests, there seems to be someone out there that is a step ahead of me at every turn. With the big ole internet, I'm pretty used to that. In fact, there are usually thousands ahead of me. Everywhere I turn I keep seeing one particular amazon associate id (googhydr-20, and of also googhydr-21 on amazon.co.uk). This person seems to have tagged every single amazon product and nearly ever possible google search keyword! I'm amazed! I can only guess that this person, whoever they are have managed to amass a large fortune for themselves.
Oddly enough, nobody else has written about this person that I can tell. I googled googhydr and googhydr-20 just to confirm, and all I can find is 3 pages of links where folks have copy/pasted the URL into their blog to talk about a product. They're all random folks too so I don't think they even realize they're giving this person some free press. So it makes me start to wonder... [tinkly music should play here, but I was too lazy to search for some in creative commons] Is this possibly Google's ID? Are they getting amazon referral fees for forwarding traffic to amazon (probably at the tick of 8-10% per amazon transaction)? I tried to figure out what the tracking ID stood for, but the best I can come up with for googhydr is "Google Hider."
In any case, I found this amazing, and since nobody has managed to write about it, I decided it was my time.
More on my forays in arbitrage to come.
Oh, and if you want to help me out. Click on the Amazon spinner below. I picked out a few interesting songs that I'd heard today, and I thought you might like as well. Amazon has an amazing MP3 store now with DRM-Free music (can I hear a wooo hooo?) priced at a great price (.89-.99 per track). And even better, I get 10% commission if I can point people to go there and buy.
The thing I've read a lot about recently and have been doing some research on is adwords arbitrage using google adwords. In doing some various tests, there seems to be someone out there that is a step ahead of me at every turn. With the big ole internet, I'm pretty used to that. In fact, there are usually thousands ahead of me. Everywhere I turn I keep seeing one particular amazon associate id (googhydr-20, and of also googhydr-21 on amazon.co.uk). This person seems to have tagged every single amazon product and nearly ever possible google search keyword! I'm amazed! I can only guess that this person, whoever they are have managed to amass a large fortune for themselves.
Oddly enough, nobody else has written about this person that I can tell. I googled googhydr and googhydr-20 just to confirm, and all I can find is 3 pages of links where folks have copy/pasted the URL into their blog to talk about a product. They're all random folks too so I don't think they even realize they're giving this person some free press. So it makes me start to wonder... [tinkly music should play here, but I was too lazy to search for some in creative commons] Is this possibly Google's ID? Are they getting amazon referral fees for forwarding traffic to amazon (probably at the tick of 8-10% per amazon transaction)? I tried to figure out what the tracking ID stood for, but the best I can come up with for googhydr is "Google Hider."
In any case, I found this amazing, and since nobody has managed to write about it, I decided it was my time.
More on my forays in arbitrage to come.
Oh, and if you want to help me out. Click on the Amazon spinner below. I picked out a few interesting songs that I'd heard today, and I thought you might like as well. Amazon has an amazing MP3 store now with DRM-Free music (can I hear a wooo hooo?) priced at a great price (.89-.99 per track). And even better, I get 10% commission if I can point people to go there and buy.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Charlotte Plans to spray Foray 48B on the city!
I just submitted the story to digg, but I can't believe that Charlotte is planning on spraying a pesticide all over the city!
Digg Link
Digg Link
Friday, September 21, 2007
Blackberries on the Beach
Just a quick update. I ended up going with a Blackberry Worldphone 8830. Probably one of the biggest deciding factors was that work would pay for it, where I'd be out $600 iPhone. It didn't help that AT&T was dropping 80% of my calls at the time, and my work email was overflowing! It all made perfect sense at the time. Even so, I love the blackberry. It's made my work life much easier. I am a little disappointed that they block 3rd party apps. I had google maps installed on there initially before syncing it up with the blackberry gateway server at work, and it was VERY sweet. About a week after syncing, a policy was pushed down to my blackberry and google maps was wiped off. :( I'm also a little disappointed that Verizon turns off the built in GPS device inside the phone. They want to sell you their own GPS enabled service for $10/mo I guess.
Over labor day, we went to Top Sail Beach. We had quite the blast. Due to unforeseen circumstances, my in-laws couldn't make it, so we ended up inviting some of our friends from the natural living groups we're a part of in town. Did I say we had a blast?!?! I've never made a huge sand sculpture before (only small ones), so it was quite fun having a few folks to help out with a mega sand turtle.
It only took a few minutes for the kids to climb all over it and crush it (we snapped a picture of them all on top). Of course then a few hours later it was just a nice flat piece of sand, thanks to the ocean.
I must admit, I did bring my blackberry on the beach and checked out the headlines while basking in the sun. Ah...
Over labor day, we went to Top Sail Beach. We had quite the blast. Due to unforeseen circumstances, my in-laws couldn't make it, so we ended up inviting some of our friends from the natural living groups we're a part of in town. Did I say we had a blast?!?! I've never made a huge sand sculpture before (only small ones), so it was quite fun having a few folks to help out with a mega sand turtle.
It only took a few minutes for the kids to climb all over it and crush it (we snapped a picture of them all on top). Of course then a few hours later it was just a nice flat piece of sand, thanks to the ocean.
I must admit, I did bring my blackberry on the beach and checked out the headlines while basking in the sun. Ah...
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Lots of updates
Well, it's been a while, so I want to do a few quick updates. Since my last post the Abby and I have taken a trip to San Francisco, Yosemite, Oak Island, and recently went camping just outside of Statesville, NC in a town called Hiddenite. I must admit, there wasn't much up there in Hiddenite, but it was quiet. All the rest of the vacations were a blast and were filled with lots of pictures (see my flickr site).
I've also been thinking more and more about learning a stringed instrument. I really wanted to learn the banjo, but they're just so big. I found that you can play some cool stuff on ukulele's so I bought a cheap chinese one off ebay for just under US$30 shipped (Mahalo brand). Abby loves it! I also found a very cool program for windows to help me tune it called AP Tuner. There are a ton of free lessons on the web and a ukulele podcast too! Tiny Tim, look out!
I've also been watching a neat wine podcast called winelibrary tv. It's pretty cool and there is also a social networking site it links into called cork'd. I'm in there as ZhunZi of course. :) Friend me up.
I also tracked down an old graduate school buddy of mine (Jerome Leveque) who managed to slip off and get married while I wasn't watching.
Anyway, more news to come...
Daniel
I've also been thinking more and more about learning a stringed instrument. I really wanted to learn the banjo, but they're just so big. I found that you can play some cool stuff on ukulele's so I bought a cheap chinese one off ebay for just under US$30 shipped (Mahalo brand). Abby loves it! I also found a very cool program for windows to help me tune it called AP Tuner. There are a ton of free lessons on the web and a ukulele podcast too! Tiny Tim, look out!
I've also been watching a neat wine podcast called winelibrary tv. It's pretty cool and there is also a social networking site it links into called cork'd. I'm in there as ZhunZi of course. :) Friend me up.
I also tracked down an old graduate school buddy of mine (Jerome Leveque) who managed to slip off and get married while I wasn't watching.
Anyway, more news to come...
Daniel
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Future of cell phones
I've been thinking a bit recently about the future of cell phones and the new functionality they will take on besides just placing telephone calls. One thing that has really caught my attention is their use as a GPS/Navigation device. Two phones (the Apple iPhone and the Samsung u740) recently have really made me start to think on the possibilities.
What if cell phones had the ability to send a beacon. Imagine if you will, you're at a party and you want to explain to a friend how to get there. You just send them a MMS message with your GPS coordinates, and their phone accepts them and navigates you to the location, whether you're 100 kilometers or 10 meters away. Or imagine if while on the phone with someone, both of you could be moving in a direction towards each other and meet halfway with the help of your cells? What about a 3-way calling situation? I think the next few years are going to bring about some exciting innovation in the cellular space. I'm looking forward to it.
For now, my Nokia 6820 is still holding out. I hope to have something new by this summer. I'm holding out to see if the iPhone is all that it promises to be.
== UPDATE 9/21/2007 ==
After much frustration with dropped calls on AT&T recently, I decided not to risk 600 bones on an iPhone locked on an AT&T network. In a way I'm glad I didn't, 2 months later they reduced the price by $200. I ended up getting a Blackberry 8830 Worldphone on Verizon. I'm very happy with it. Ironically, while watching InDigital Episode 25 I saw where Helio released my idea on their phones before I ever posted that blog entry. I swear I had never heard of it, but I'm glad to know that there are companies out there thinking of these great mashups. Helio calls it Buddy Beacon.
What if cell phones had the ability to send a beacon. Imagine if you will, you're at a party and you want to explain to a friend how to get there. You just send them a MMS message with your GPS coordinates, and their phone accepts them and navigates you to the location, whether you're 100 kilometers or 10 meters away. Or imagine if while on the phone with someone, both of you could be moving in a direction towards each other and meet halfway with the help of your cells? What about a 3-way calling situation? I think the next few years are going to bring about some exciting innovation in the cellular space. I'm looking forward to it.
For now, my Nokia 6820 is still holding out. I hope to have something new by this summer. I'm holding out to see if the iPhone is all that it promises to be.
== UPDATE 9/21/2007 ==
After much frustration with dropped calls on AT&T recently, I decided not to risk 600 bones on an iPhone locked on an AT&T network. In a way I'm glad I didn't, 2 months later they reduced the price by $200. I ended up getting a Blackberry 8830 Worldphone on Verizon. I'm very happy with it. Ironically, while watching InDigital Episode 25 I saw where Helio released my idea on their phones before I ever posted that blog entry. I swear I had never heard of it, but I'm glad to know that there are companies out there thinking of these great mashups. Helio calls it Buddy Beacon.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Wow! My account is still active.
I haven't posted here in over a year! Wow. It's amazing my account is still even active! In any case, lots has happened with me, and my online presence.
#1) Google bought blogger.com - totally cool
#2) Textamerica started charging for moblogs - this stinks. But it has forced me to give Flickr (now a Yahoo property) a try now. I actually like Flickr much better other than the learning curve is still there. Check out my new image blog at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhunzi
#3) Abby is now 2 years old (see flickr site), my myth tv I gave up on and it's packed away in a box (we moved in 2006). I'm not certain what I want to do with it yet.
#4) Finally - Apple has announced their iPhone and it's amazing looking. Other than the $500 price point holding them back from the mass markets, I think this phone is going to be a big hit!
Anyway, I will try to post more frequently than once every 1.5 years.
- ZhunZi
#1) Google bought blogger.com - totally cool
#2) Textamerica started charging for moblogs - this stinks. But it has forced me to give Flickr (now a Yahoo property) a try now. I actually like Flickr much better other than the learning curve is still there. Check out my new image blog at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhunzi
#3) Abby is now 2 years old (see flickr site), my myth tv I gave up on and it's packed away in a box (we moved in 2006). I'm not certain what I want to do with it yet.
#4) Finally - Apple has announced their iPhone and it's amazing looking. Other than the $500 price point holding them back from the mass markets, I think this phone is going to be a big hit!
Anyway, I will try to post more frequently than once every 1.5 years.
- ZhunZi
Sunday, July 31, 2005
MythTV Update: Just Images
I finally posted a few images of the hardware work on my textamerica account. As you can see, my daughter Abigail was actively involved.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
MythTV Update 3: Remote Works
After much battling, I finally got my remote control to work. It seems the PVR-250 Model 980 comes with the same remote as the PVR-350. If you look underneath the batteries, you'll see the model number is A415-HPG.
I followed the instructions in this thread, and was able to get it up and running. HURRAY!
/etc/lirc/lircd.conf
/home/mythtv/.mythtv/lircrc
I followed the instructions in this thread, and was able to get it up and running. HURRAY!
/etc/lirc/lircd.conf
#
# this config file was automatically generated
# using lirc-0.7.0(any) on Sun Nov 28 20:25:09 2004
#
# contributed by
#
# brand: Hauppauge 350
# Created: G.J. Werler (The Netherlands)
# Project: Mythtv Fedora Pundit-R www.mythtvportal.com
# Date: 2004/11/28
# model no. of remote control: Hauppauge A415-HPG
# devices being controlled by this remote: PVR-350
#
begin remote
name Hauppauge_350
bits 13
flags RC5|CONST_LENGTH
eps 30
aeps 100
one 969 811
zero 969 811
plead 1097
gap 114605
toggle_bit 2
begin codes
Go 0x00000000000017BB
Power 0x00000000000017BD
TV 0x000000000000179C
Videos 0x0000000000001798
Music 0x0000000000001799
Pictures 0x000000000000179A
Guide 0x000000000000179B
Radio 0x000000000000178C
Up 0x0000000000001794
Left 0x0000000000001796
Right 0x0000000000001797
Down 0x0000000000001795
OK 0x00000000000017A5
Back/Exit 0x000000000000179F
Menu/i 0x000000000000178D
Vol+ 0x0000000000001790
Vol- 0x0000000000001791
Prev.Ch 0x0000000000001792
Mute 0x000000000000178F
Ch+ 0x00000000000017A0
Ch- 0x00000000000017A1
Record 0x00000000000017B7
Stop 0x00000000000017B6
Rewind 0x00000000000017B2
Play 0x00000000000017B5
Forward 0x00000000000017B4
Replay/SkipBackward 0x00000000000017A4
Pause 0x00000000000017B0
SkipForward 0x000000000000179E
1 0x0000000000001781
2 0x0000000000001782
3 0x0000000000001783
4 0x0000000000001784
5 0x0000000000001785
6 0x0000000000001786
7 0x0000000000001787
8 0x0000000000001788
9 0x0000000000001789
Asterix 0x000000000000178A
0 0x0000000000001780
# 0x000000000000178E
Red 0x000000000000178B
Green 0x00000000000017AE
Yellow 0x00000000000017B8
Blue 0x00000000000017A9
end codes
end remote
/home/mythtv/.mythtv/lircrc
# lircrc.example.HauppaugeSilver-nativelirc
# 2005-01-27, Russell Salerno
# mailto:rsalern5@optonline.net
# Save this file in ~/.mythtv/lircrc
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Off
config = Esc
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Go
# Swap the PiP windows
config = N
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 1
config = 1
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 2
config = 2
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 3
config = 3
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 4
config = 4
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 5
config = 5
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 6
config = 6
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 7
config = 7
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 8
config = 8
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 9
config = 9
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Back/Exit
config = Esc
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = 0
config = 0
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = menu/i
config = M
end
# Below are keys used with the Hauppauge Silver remote
begin
prog = mythtv
# This is the Red key
# We'll use it for "Delete"
button = Red
config = D
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# This is the Green key
# We'll use it for "Information"
button = Green
config = I
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# This is the Blue key
# Use it for the sleep timer
button = Blue
config = F8
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# This is the Yellow key
# adjust video
button = Yellow
config = F
end
# Note the "repeat =" strings in the volume and channel.
# This means that if you hold down the key, every nth instance will be
# passed. This depends on your system, so you may want to increase or
# decrease this and see what happens. repeat = 1 is probably too
# fast.
begin
prog = mythtv
button = vol-
repeat = 3
config = F10
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = vol+
repeat = 3
config = F11
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Ch+
config = Up
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Ch-
repeat = 3
config = Down
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Up
# This is the "up" on the central diamond
repeat = 3
config = Up
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Down
# This is the "down" on the central diamond
repeat = 3
config = Down
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# button = Vol-
button = Left
# This is the "left" on the central diamond
repeat = 3
config = Left
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# button = Vol+
button = Right
# This is the "right" on the central diamond
repeat = 3
config = Right
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# Middle button on the diamond
button = Ok
config = Return
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Mute
config = F9
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# Change focus for PiP (to change channel in the other window)
button = Blank
config = B
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# Toggle PiP on/off
button = Full
config = V
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Rew
config = Left
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Play
config = P
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = FFW
config = Right
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Record
config = R
end
begin
prog = mythtv
# Teletext
button = Stop
config = T
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = pause
config = P
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Replay
# Use for backwards commercial skip
config = Q
end
begin
prog = mythtv
button = Skip
# Use for forward commercial skip
config = Z
end
#MPlayer
begin
prog = mplayer
button = Off
config = quit
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = MENU
config = osd
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = Rew
config = seek -10
repeat = 1
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = FFW
config = seek +10
repeat = 1
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = Replay
config = seek -60
repeat = 1
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = Skip
config = seek +60
repeat = 1
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = Pause
config = pause
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = Play
config = pause
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = BACK
config = quit
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = VOL+
config = volume +1
repeat = 1
end
begin
prog = mplayer
button = VOL-
config = volume -1
repeat = 1
end
begin
prog=mplayer
button=Mute
config=mute
end
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
MythTV Update 2
Forgot about all my paranoia about the model 980 card, the thing works out of the box with the newest release of KnoppMyth. It was a piece of cake. I've got it up and running and recording TV now with the standard install. Now it's tweak time! :)
Thursday, July 07, 2005
MythTV Update 1
Well, I think I have all the components now to get this thing working. I found an article on how to get myth working with the model 980 card here:
http://www.byopvr.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-13-page-1.html
I ended up and went over budget a little bit because I chose a more expensive case than I really needed. I really liked the small form factor case, and it was worth going ~$100 over budget. The AOpen EZ18 case with built in motherboard is awesome. It's got an nVidia MX onboard video that can support 2 (count them, 2) monitors, and 1 S-Video out. It also has built in firewire, and a nice little flip down fronts that obscure an optical drive that's color doesn't match.
AOpen EZ18 [$159.99 after $20 mail-in rebate @ NewEgg.com]
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ [$77.99 @ NewEgg.com]
Corsair 512mb PC3200 RAM [$39.50 @ NewEgg.com]
Maxtor 200gb HD [$69.99 w/free shipping @ Outpost.com]
Hauppauge PVR-250 Model 980 Video Capture/Tuner Card [$125.99 w/free shipping @ Buy.com]
I managed to time a few of my purchases just right to get some great deals. My advice is just watch for deals. Two days after my PVR-250 arrived, buy.com had a dual tuner hauppauge for just $5 more than I paid. I was a bit dismayed, but oh well. I think I hit some great deals on the AOpen box & the hard drive. I'll eventually replace the 250 with a dual tuner, especially if I can find a deal like buy.com had last week. The downfall of going with the SFF case is that it only has 1 PCI slot. So my second tuner either has to be on 1 card, or I have to go with a firewire device.
In order to install KnoppMyth, I had to borrow my DVD drive from my other desktop. I'll eventually put a DVD Burner in this case, but again, waiting on the right deal.
Total cost so far: $520.35*
* - I could have saved about $15 by not splurging on 2-day shipping and expedited handling on my newegg order. I was on vacation when I ordered it and I wanted to get it ASAP so I could tinker.
http://www.byopvr.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-13-page-1.html
I ended up and went over budget a little bit because I chose a more expensive case than I really needed. I really liked the small form factor case, and it was worth going ~$100 over budget. The AOpen EZ18 case with built in motherboard is awesome. It's got an nVidia MX onboard video that can support 2 (count them, 2) monitors, and 1 S-Video out. It also has built in firewire, and a nice little flip down fronts that obscure an optical drive that's color doesn't match.
AOpen EZ18 [$159.99 after $20 mail-in rebate @ NewEgg.com]
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ [$77.99 @ NewEgg.com]
Corsair 512mb PC3200 RAM [$39.50 @ NewEgg.com]
Maxtor 200gb HD [$69.99 w/free shipping @ Outpost.com]
Hauppauge PVR-250 Model 980 Video Capture/Tuner Card [$125.99 w/free shipping @ Buy.com]
I managed to time a few of my purchases just right to get some great deals. My advice is just watch for deals. Two days after my PVR-250 arrived, buy.com had a dual tuner hauppauge for just $5 more than I paid. I was a bit dismayed, but oh well. I think I hit some great deals on the AOpen box & the hard drive. I'll eventually replace the 250 with a dual tuner, especially if I can find a deal like buy.com had last week. The downfall of going with the SFF case is that it only has 1 PCI slot. So my second tuner either has to be on 1 card, or I have to go with a firewire device.
In order to install KnoppMyth, I had to borrow my DVD drive from my other desktop. I'll eventually put a DVD Burner in this case, but again, waiting on the right deal.
Total cost so far: $520.35*
* - I could have saved about $15 by not splurging on 2-day shipping and expedited handling on my newegg order. I was on vacation when I ordered it and I wanted to get it ASAP so I could tinker.
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