Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

Writing a blog is fun, but it can be time consuming, and, as they say, “Time is money!” So, the question comes around at some point, “How can I monetize my blog?” For those of you that don’t use the current “buzzwords”… “monetize” is to “make money from” your efforts. No matter how open and free spirited you are, if you can make some money from your tireless blogging… well, why not?

In my case, because I wanted to make sure that if I did, it wouldn’t be so intrusive and “take over” my blog. It needed to “fit in” to my blog’s style and look-and-feel. So, I signed up for Google Adsense, and starting playing around with several packages for WordPress that would integrate Adsense into my blog.

I had mixed results. It turns out that the best way (for me anyway) is to use the old fashioned “code hacking” approach and insert the Adsense code directly into my WordPress Blog code. Here’s an article that shows you how to do it:

Adsense in WordPress

So, I hope you find the Adsense ads tasteful, and not too distracting, and if you see something that you are interested in, and want to click on it for more info… well, reset assured in the knowledge that you will be helping the Doctor pay for the cost of running the blog! Thanks!

By the way, you may notice that on the right sidebar I have a disclaimer that says, “The Computer Curmudgeon web site is not directly affiliated with any advertisers.” This is true. Don’t tell them that, “the Doctor sent ya,” because the Google ads are context based, and I have no idea what will come up based on the context of an article!

“Computer experts from the University of Cambridge claim not only to have breached the Great Firewall of China, but have found a way to use the firewall to launch denial-of-service attacks against specific Internet Protocol addresses in the country.”

Academics break the Great Firewall of China

Very cool! China wants, of course, to deny free access to ideas that their government does not approve of. Now, academics have broken their firewall and made it possible for folks to access world-wide information.

Ya gotta give M$ credit! When they want something to work right, be fast, and impressive, they have enough sense to use Linux and Apache!

Office “Live” Demo Was Hosted on Linux/Apache

A guy tested the site and found it was being hosted by an web hosting firm in Sweden on Linux and Apache!

“Intrigued, I decided to check out the site that’s hosting the Office 2007 demo: I looked up “runaware.com” on WhoIs and found that it is operating from Sweden, and is not a Microsoft-owned site after all. Then I used NetCraft to see what the runaware.com site is running and guess what? It’s a Linux+Apache environment!”

Very cool!

There may yet be justice! The evil (more evil than Microsoft, and that is going some!) SCO is set to lose big time. Hopefully, they will shrivel up and die as they should have done year’s ago. (No, I have no mercy for them.)

Judge Tosses Out Most of SCO’s Anti-Linux Lawsuit Against IBM

“A U.S. magistrate struck down most of The SCO Group’s (SCOX) claims of copyright infringement in the battle over source code in the freely distributed Linux operating system. Dealing a setback to the Utah company’s $5 billion lawsuit against IBM Corp., (IBM) Magistrate Brooke Wells dismissed 182 of SCO’s 294 legal claims in an order signed Wednesday and obtained Friday by The Associated Press. IBM was accused of dumping confidential Unix code into Linux, but Wells ruled SCO had produced virtually no proof of the allegation.” (Emphasis mine.)

The world’s second richest man, Warren Buffett – who’s now worth $44 billion – will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July – most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation!

Warren Buffett gives away his fortune

“Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world’s largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett’s (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates). The Gateses credit Buffett, says Bill, with having ‘inspired’ their thinking about giving money back to society. Their foundation’s activities, internationally famous, are focused on world health — fighting such diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis — and on improving U.S. libraries and high schools.”

Wow. Gotta give Buffett credit! The great thing about being rich, and having made it yourself… you know how you did it, and you can do it again if need be! Kudos to Mr. Buffett! I trust his contributions will be well used!

eWeek Magazine has a new article that helps you tweak your résumé. “A study released May 31 by Spherion Pacific Enterprises, a recruiting and staffing firm based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., found that nearly half of the U.S. IT work force plans to change jobs in the next year. While this means great things for techies—the same study found that IT workers beat the overall work force in job-seeking confidence—it also means that thousands now have résumés to polish and tighten.”

10 Ways to Tweak Your Tech Résumé

Check out the suggestions in the above link… some are pretty useful!

You know I have pointed out in the past that AOL is the Internet on training wheels, even “Weird Al” Yankovik’s song “It’s All About the Pentiums” has a line that says, “And postin’ ‘Me too!’ like some brain-dead AOL-er.” So it has been previously established that AOL is lame. However, it is also hard to leave the ranks of the mind numbed as well when you do get a clue, note this exchange caught on tape:

Leaving AOL… Breaking Up is Hard to Do!

I must admit, way back when (and I mean WAY back when) I cancelled my own dial-up (no, NOT AOL, Earthlink), they gave me a hard time as well, but not THIS bad!

OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 has been released. It contains performance improvements, improved compatibility with Microsoft Office formats, support for Intel Macs, and much more.

OpenOffice 2.0.3

Since MS-Office has been delayed… treat yourself to a REAL upgrade and get OpenOffice.org!