CAPTCHA is very often used as a method to reduce the number of spam comments on websites. It is a way to verify that the person who leaves a comment is real, and is not an automated script. For those who do not know, CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. “CAPTCHA” is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”, and it is often incorporated it in a way that visitors have to type the letters of a distorted image. Most spam comments are posted by bots or programs which are specifically designed for spamming. They automatically visit sites on the Internet to look for places where it is possible to submit comments. They do this in order to post unwanted advertisements of websites or services. One of the best ways to stop these bots is to use the CAPTCHA system which requires the visitor to write down the letters that he sees. Since computer programs do not know how to analyze images, only humans will be able to decipher the letters. While some CAPTCHA’s have been broken like phpBB’s, it is still a very good method to avoid scripts spamming forums or other websites. A lot of sites are recently adding the CAPTCHA verification system. I think that this will not make them necessarily less enjoyable to visit, but will rather prevent spammers and hackers. However, when using CAPTCHA it is important to make it readable to for average person. After all, we want to stop bots from visiting our site, not our loyal visitors.
Blog, Tech, Web
Many gamers buy games on a regular basis as there are so many attractive titles coming out. Often gamers do not realize that this hobby can be quite costly. Let us say that an average gamer spends $1000 per year on games. That equals to $83 per month is a price of two games. Since games are becoming more and more appealing to adults, we are going to assume that gamers are going to pursue their hobby for 20 years. If you multiple $1000 by 20 years you will see rather large sum of money which equals $20,000. As you see this hobby is quite expensive; however, can we really put a price on entertainment?
It is quite evident that gaming is a hobby that requires a lot of money. While this might seem expensive, there are also many accessories that gamers like to acquire. One of the newest things is a gaming chair, which is supposed to make playing more enjoyable. They might indeed be comfortable, but they are also quite costly. You are going to have to pay anywhere from $150 to over $5000 to acquire one so be prepared for this before you plan to buy one. Such gaming chairs are usually specifically designed for racing games, but you can use them to play other games as well. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of products and accessories that gamers spend money on.
Tech
More and more people on the Internet listen to podcasts. For those who do not know, podcasts are similar to blog posts. The difference is that podcasts are in audio format. More technically speaking, a podcast is a collection of digital media files that are distributed over the Internet. It often uses syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Podcasts have become more and more popular, and some believe this is due to iPods. That is because iPods allow its users to listen to thousands of audio and video podcasts. In any case, if you want to compete with the best websites in your niche, you might consider using podcasts to gain an edge over your competitors. All you have to do is use the podPress plug-in that you can find on wordpress.org. This plug-in enables you to incorporate podcasts without making any serious changes to your site. There are many advantages of podcasts, but the biggest one is that you can speak directly to your readers or rather listeners.
One downside of podcasting is that not everyone knows how to subscribe to podcasts. However, once people get the hang of it, they usually really enjoy it a lot. They might even become fans because they will like them so much. If you want to add a personal feeling to your blog, at least consider the possibility of integrating podcasts. You might start by listening to some of the popular podcasts on the Internet in order to get inspired.
Blog, Tech
On this website I give advice about blogging and about a variety of Internet topics. One of the key aspects of blogging is having your domain and hosting associated with it. If you want your blog to look professional, you need to choose an established and successful hosting provider that you will be able to depend on. There is nothing worse then investing a lot of your time in your blog and then realizing that your site is not working properly or is even down, because of your hosting provider. There have been cases where hosting providers suddenly vanished, either because of debt, or because they did not have profits. That is why you should be careful choosing your hosting provider and should ask other webmasters what they think about a specific company. You may even want to visit a website that discusses Web hosting, because you can never be too careful choosing a web hosting provider for your blog. You should always ask whether the uptime is guaranteed and what is the bandwidth limit. Basically, you jsut want to make sure that your blog will continue to work without any interruptions, even if you will decide to host larger files like audio or videos.
Blog, Tech
Online marketing has many strategies, one of which is keyword research. Blogs can often rank well in search engines due to their frequently updated content. This can bring a lot of visitors to your site. Another way to bring many visitors is to do some keyword research. This type of research will show you what people are searching for, and will maximize the potential the search engines have to bring traffic to your site. If you research what keywords are popular, then you will know what topics to focus on, and maybe you will even change the marketing strategy your blog has. Great tools with the help of which you will be able to research keywords are keyworddiscovery.com and wordtracker.com. Both of them are relatively easy to use so check out both of them in order to decide yourself which one you will want to stick to. I have to warn you that keyword research might take some time, but in the end it is worth it. After all, search engines are an excellent source of traffic for webmasters who optimize their site for them. I does not mean you have to makes drastic changes; however, being aware of the most popular keywords will surely give you an advantage over the competition. Investing some time into keyword research is certainly a good idea for any webmaster who wants to be successful. Using a powerful keyword research toll should save you a lot of time.
Blog, Tech, Web
When it comes to blogging, there are some decisions to be made related to our domain names. First of all, we have to decide where we want to host our website. For example, if we decide to host our site on Blogspot, then our domain name will look like this: domain.blogspot.com. On the other hand, if we choose a custom domain, then we can completely customize our domain name. We will also not be forced to use “blogspot”, “wordpress”, or any other word in our blog address. Custom domain cost money, but some sites can teach you how to have an extra income to cover the costs of your domains.
Being hosted on a custom domain name is generally considered to be a better solution, but why are there still many successful blogs that are hosted on Blogspot? I believe that they did not switch to a custom domain name, because they did not want to lose their domain age and back links. If that happened, this would mean that from a SEO perspective they would have to start from the beginning. Since accumulating links can take a long time, changing a domain is not an easy decision to make.
Another aspect to consider may be growing registration fees. The registration fees for domain names are generally getting higher, as VeriSign quite often raises the prices. VeriSign raised the prices at least two times since 2006, so some analysts are getting alarmed by this trend. I think that the prices are still relatively low, as the cost of hosting is the major expense for webmasters. This especially applies to those with a lot of traffic and downloadable resources such as videos, audio, and software. VerisSign claims that the .com and .net infrastructures are continually being fortified against more sophisticated cyberattacks, so let us hope that this company will spend the extra money it is receiving on security.
The decision whether to switch to a custom domain will ultimately be up to you, so consider all facts before making a final decision.
Blog, Tech, Web
When it comes to movies, sequels are often regarded as inferior, because they may lack what made the original movie so great. This often happens, because the producer wants to take advantage out of the success of the first title. He wants to earn more money, even if he knows that the sequel will never be as good as the first movie. When it comes to computer and video games, I believe that the opposite is true. Games are constantly evolving, and games 20 years ago take 1000 times less space on a hard drive compared to modern games. While it is not always true that the size of the game indicates whether a game is good, my point is that this shows how fast games are changing. Most gamers agree that they are getting more and more fun to play. So what I am trying to say is that you do not have to worry whether the sequel to your favorite game will be better. That is because statistically speaking it is going to be a higher quality product. It will be interesting to see how games will look like in ten or twenty years. How do you think they will change?
Tech
Sites like Flickr have been growing in popularity for the last few years. Taking photos and uploading them to sites like Flickr has been a hobby of many enthusiasts. Unfortunately, some people try to take advantage out of it, and are selling pictures taken from Flickr on sites like eBay. Usually, they claim that they are their own, which of course is not true. It is not easy to identify such people, and even if you are the one who took the pictures, it will not be easy for you to track each photograph you have made. Even if you are using some tool to detect duplicate images, it is easy to change the size of the picture by slightly cutting the bottom or right/left side of it. This way it should be impossible to track whether your photos are being posted anywhere else. Your best bet is to watermark your pictures.
Of course, if you are taking pictures simply for fun, then you are not going to lose any money because someone is selling your pictures. If would be a completely different situation if you were a professional photographer because people who downloaded your pictures from Flickr could undercut your prices very easily. That is because they would have no costs associated with downloading your pictures. I am not saying that sites like Flickr are a bad thing, but I am simply reminding everyone that it is easy for people to take someone’s work and claim it as their own.
Tech, Web
One of the things that economists dislike are monopolies. I think it is safe to say that the public also dislikes them, because whenever we have contact with monopolies it is the consumer that suffers the most. This is often due to the fact that we have to pay a higher price, or simply the quality of goods and services are lower. When it comes to the technology market, it seems that Microsoft and Google are in many ways monopolists. What consequences does that have to an average Internet user? I believe that it does not benefit us, because there is not enough competition in the market. If this trend is going to continue, then soon there will be even less companies to compete with Microsoft or Google.
A prime example of the monopoly of Google is Pagerank. Pagerank has become very important for many webmasters in the blogosphere, and even if this is only the opinion of Google about your website, this does not change the fact that bloggers are still interested in it. This is because Google is a monopolist, and Internet users are starting to realize what the disadvantages are of a company being a monopolist. Fortunately, there are some counter measures being taken like the introduction of other ranking systems like RealRank, a ranking system that actually tracks the visitors to your site and ranks it accordingly. On the other hand, PR updates only once every few months, and it is very hard to know whether your PR will get higher or drop.
What I wanted to say in this post is that there are advantages of having more than just one or two companies that basically control the Internet, or in this particular case, control the only popular website ranking system.
Home, Tech
Many people believe that graphics in games are very important. Different games have a different palette of colors. Games that are more aimed for children like, for example, Flyff tend to be more colorful. On the other hand, games that are designed for adults tend to be more gloomy and darker. It is easy to notice whether a particular game is aimed at children or at adults. However, most gamers play colorful games from time to time. There is something attractive about playing a game that is bright and colorful. For example, a very popular online game called World of Warcraft has very colorful graphics, and is played by many people who are in their thirties. There are also games that are gloomier, but are very popular as well. I cannot imagine playing them all the time, but the overall atmosphere in them was different: dark and mysterious. I think that if game developers want to introduce darker graphics, they should feel free to do so. However, they should realize that most children might not want to play such a game. You should also realize that if a particular game seems too dark for you, you can usually increase the brightness in the game settings. These setting, however, might not work that well if you plan on playing in windowed mode. Overall, different players may prefer different type of graphics. It seems that there are is a market for both colorful games and more gloomy ones.
Tech