60% Geek

Today I “stumbled upon” some sites and found a little quiz over at mingle2.com. Turns out I am about 60% geek. Got the star trek, star wars, gaming, and browser questions, but I missed some of the more hardcore ones. I gotta say, I am surprised I am not higher, but I suppose ya gotta keep a balance to keep the ladies happy.

They also had this little gem. Thought it was pretty accurate.

Anyone else take the quiz? How did you score?

Also, I will be announcing the winner of the comment contest very soon…

Its funny what you learn when you begin to blog. I have been reading dozens of blogs for over a year, trying to keep up with the latest trends, tools, and designs…and you know what? I rarely ever clicked on any ad links. Why? Not sure exactly.

There are a lot of sites that I love and want to continue and be properous…and yet “no clicky”. I chalk it up to being like most readers, and Americans in general, who are trained to gloss over most of the ads we see. I see the ads, but somehow they get ignored over without a second thought.

Now that I am a blogger myself and have my own ads, I find myself noticing the ads on other sites and sympathizing with the owners. Most blogs exist, at least in part, to bring in some form of income. Now that is probably not the primary reason for the existance of a blog (it certainly isn’t for this one), but if a blog has any sort of advertising, then the owner obviously is hoping for a little cash.

It should be noted that the point of this article is not to get you all to click on my ads (although you are certainly welcome to). The point, rather, is to put the notion in the back of your head that if you like a blog…any blog…why not click on an ad that interests you? The owner will certainly appreciate it, and it is a little way to tell them thanks for the effort it takes to make the blog something you love.

Just a thought.

This week is one of Microsoft’s big conferences called Mix07. As part of that they are making a lot of announcements regarding Silverlight and the WPF. Some really neat stuff coming. I will post about it more later today.

For now though, I thought it was worth noting that a new trial/beta version of the Blend product is out. This is the first version that allows developers to build Silverlight applications.

I am downloading it now. If you want to as well click here.

Just a quick reminder that there is one week left in our comment contest.

As a quick recap, all you need to do to enter is write a meaningful comment on any post on the site. On May 7th, I will look through all the comments and pick one at random to win a fabulous USB Missile Launcher.

Obviously, the more comments you make, the more likely you are to win.

To see all the “official rules” see my earlier post.

Good Luck!!

A couple of people have contacted me telling me that the text disappears for them when they scroll around on the site. They are using IE 6. Anyone else having these problems?

I have tested the site with IE 6, 7 and Firefox with no problems, but that doesn’t mean anything really…

Please let me know if you are having problems viewing the site.

Thanks!

A List Apart is doing a survey about web design and development. If you are a professional designer/developer, its probably a good idea to do it. The more people who take it the better the results will be.

I for one would love to know some stats about our industry.

Ok, so since this is such a new blog, I need help spreading the word. To help with this, I am having a contest.

What is this contest you ask? Well…its a comment contest. For the next two weeks (ending May 7th), every meaningful comment that is posted on any article counts as an entry to the contest. Obviously, the more comments you make, the more likely you are to win.

Now the key is…meaningful…”FIRST” comments and the like do not count. To be entered the comment must be on topic and polite. Don’t forget to leave a valid email address, otherwise I can’t give you the prize.

Also…if you email me, that counts as well (as long as it meets the above criteria).

So what do you win? Since we are a small blog, we can’t offer a Zune or ipod like some of the bigger guys. However, our prizes go for style geek points. So in that vein, the prize for the first ever comment contest is a USB Missile Launcher. I have personally always wanted one of these, so I will be a bit jealous of the winner.

For those of you who do not know about the USB Missile Launcher…according to the catalog it is:

Take control of the airspace in and around your cubicle! Use your PC to aim and launch the 3 foam missiles to secure your borders and defend your homecube. With a 15-foot range, the USB Missile Launcher is perfect for pre-emptive shock and awe strikes of nearby cubicles. Mission accomplished! Includes 3 foam missiles and control software. Requires Windows 2000/XP.

Nothin’ says geek like a missile controlled by your computer. Awesome.

To stir the pot, I posted a discussion article earlier today. You can post there or any other article on the site. Good Luck!

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I will be out of town the rest of the week so there won’t be any posts till Monday.

Until then, here are a few articles and such to keep you busy. See ya Monday.

Web Design 101: Positioning

7 Habits of a Highly Successful In House Web Designer

37 Steps to Perfect Markup

14 Tab Based Interface Techniques

Toggling Content Visibility

Today Netvibes is launching their next “big thing” (6pm Eastern time). I found out about it on Friday from a press release sent to me by my contact with the company (because of the upcoming interview).

The big thing is called “Netvibes Universe”.

So what the heck is it? Well according to the press release it is…ahem…

With Netvibes Universe, users can collect, design and syndicate their entire digital world in just minutes. Moving beyond traditional blogs and social networks, Universes bring together and deliver on a single Netvibes page all types of rich online media, including RSS feeds, websites, podcasts, videos, blogs, and photos, along with web services, including del.icio.us, Digg, eBay, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube, and widgets from nearly any platform.

Starting today, users can enjoy content in over 100 Universes that have been created by Netvibes pilot content partners. Furthermore, Netvibes will soon announce the availability of tools to allow all Netvibes users to create their own Universes and use them as outlets to express, showcase and share their complete Web life with others.

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I love pulling for a good underdog story. Here is one for the web.

COLOURlovers is up for a webby against some stiff competition (delicious, yahoo!, threadless), and is calling for votes.

Normally I am not a fan for this kind of stuff, but I like the webby awards, and I think that this is a cool site, so I for one am rooting for them.

If you are a fan of the site, or you just like to see David whup Goliath you can read more about it or you can just go on and vote.
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