2007 March Archive at J.B.Slife dot Com

Archive for March, 2007 Page 2 of 8

Web 2.0 Visualized: Stamen Design and Digg

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J.B.Slife

on March 27, 2007

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Browsing around Digg, I found Digg Labs. Digg Labs is a collaboration between Digg and Stamen Design. Stamen Design is resposible for Swarm, Stack, and BigSpy (new Digg visualization). I can’t say that I was surprised…I was astounded. I felt as if I was being sucked into the net. Kakul Srivastava, Senior Product Manager of Yahoo! stated, “Working with the Stamen guys was like having our own site design SWAT team.” Yes…that quote is from Yahoo!, but what a great way to describe what I see at Digg. There’s no way to describe what I see at Digg better than that. If this is Web 2.0, I want more of it.

Diggâ€™s Stack by Stamen Design Stack - The names chosen for Digg Lab projects describe them perfectly. Each dugg story is a stack of blocks. Each time a story is dugg, another block falls from the top of the screen onto the pile. It’s done in real time so all of the stories start out as the same height (no matter how many diggs they currently have). More popular stories are a brighter shade of green; new stories are grey. As time progresses the currently popular stories grow taller. As stories are dugg that are not on the screen, they enter from the right and push the screen to the left. Great visual, check it out!

Swarm at Digg by Stamen Design Swarm - This one is insane, it reminds me of molecular science. The way the swarms move will drive you nuts. I really don’t have the space in my blog to try and explain it, so go see for yourself.

As if these two weren’t good enough, Stamen has done it again for Digg. Their new Web 2.0 vision can be seen here, it’s called BigSpy. WOW…the digg flow is so much more exciting when it slaps you in the face with 200 point text.

Does your site have vision?

Until next time,

JBSlife

NASCAR’s Car Of Tomorrow (COT)

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J.B.Slife

on March 25, 2007

in Random

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Yes, I’m a huge NASCAR fan (#48). NASCAR is in the process of debuing their “Car Of Tomorrow” (COT) right now at Bristol. The COT was largely sparked by the death of Dale Earnhardt to improve the safety of NASCAR. I’m very interested to see how the teams and drivers like it in a real race situation.

NASCARâ€™s Car Of Tomorrow (COT)

The major difference that most fans will notice the the adjustable wing on the rear of the car, just like a street racer. There is also an air splitter on the front of the car that most fans will not notice. These devices adjust the downforce on the front and rear of the car. Since both of these are adjustable, teams will no longer have to build whole cars specific to certain tracks. A car will, hopefully, be able to race short track one week and super speedway the next with a few adjustments to these two devices. This is NASCAR’s way of making racing more affordable for the teams, they will need less cars.

The major safety enhancements are not really noticable to the fans at all. The whole car is a little bit more square to catch more air and slow down the racing. The pitch of the windshield is more vertical for the same reason. The cars are 2″ taller, 4″ wider, the roll cage is 3″ further back, and the drivers seat is 4″ closer to the center of the car. Overall, the car is bigger and less aerodynamic.

(Sorry…I have to break into race mode. We’re under caution at Bristol. The restart will be a green, white, checker. Kyle Busch is in the front with bad tires. His teammate Jeff Gordon is right behind him with fresh tires. Will he let Kyle win it for the good of the team…hell no…here we go. Gordon tries and fails, Burton passes Gordon…Busch, Burton, Gordon…1,2,3. Kyle Busch wins the first COT race. Is he the DOT (Driver Of Tomorrow). Great race, back to the article…)

There are a couple other major changes. The exhaust is now on the right side to keep some heat away from the driver and stay clear of the catch can man. Also, the air intake is under the front bumper to prevent overheating due to clogged grills. The clogged grills was getting to be a huge problem, I hope the new intake works.

We should hear some driver and team reaction in a little while. I’ll give you an update once some opinions come out. Will the COT be put into the race schedule full time for 2008 or will in be pushed to 2009?

2000 MyBlogLogs Widget

Published

J.B.Slife

on March 25, 2007

in Blogging

. 4 Comments

Alvin Phang created this fun little widget. It displays 2000 MyBlogLog avatars in your post. Seems like a good way to advertise to me. The only requirements are a MyBlogLog account with an avatar. Claim your spot before they’re all filled.

Save Your Spot in the “2000 MyBlogLogs” Widget

I first saw this at Calvin Harvey dot Com…check out his site also.

Rereading Your Blog Posts

Published

J.B.Slife

on March 25, 2007

in Blogging

. 3 Comments

One of the many reasons I started this site was to improve my writing skills. I made a deal with myself, I said that I would post at least once per day. I have been posting regularly and I am happy to say that unleashing my mind is getting much easier. The only problem is that I tend to ramble.

As I look back on some of my other posts, I notice that they go slightly off track. That brings me to the point here…

Are you rereading your posts?

Not rereading your posts is a huge mistake. I don’t mean reading them right after you write them for the purposes of grammar and spelling. You need to sit down every once and a while and read a week of your posts. Do they make sense? Are they on track with the theme of your blog? Will other people find them interesting? Your past writing WILL help your future writing improve.

Part 3: How Many Websites Can One Webmaster Manage?

Published

J.B.Slife

on March 25, 2007

in Management

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This article seems as if it should have been several smaller ones. I will blog about that in a minute, but I think we left off with “Creating Websites You Know and Love”.

Creating Websites You Know & Love

This is a very simple concept. Don’t try to talk about something you don’t know about. Don’t blog (or create websites) about things just to get high valued AdSense clicks…write about what you know. I have a gymnastics forum that is starting to do very well. It is doing well because I was a gymnast and now I’m a coach, my life is gymanstics. My ecommerce store is a gymnastics pro shop, also what I know.

I am trying to branch out a bit, but still within my comfort zone. I am trying to start a country music community. I love country music, but I am not an authority on it. I will not pretend to be an authority. I’ll attract members can play a guitar and sing, but I’m just a fan. That’s the way I will present my information.

What’s my next thing? My family website, SlifeFamily.com…I know and love my family. How about “G” scale model trains and slot cars…I know and love them.

I can’t write about cell phones and techno gadgets. I’m not going for what will bring in the most money per click, I’m going for something that I know and love. Think about it, makes perfect sense.

How Many Websites Can One Webmaster Manage?

It really depends on what kind of site they are. Ecommerce sites are not just websites, they are full businesses. If you are going to run an ecommerce site, you have a real business. In other words, plan to work real hours. If you are talking about forums and blogs, I say 30 to 60 minutes per day per site. If one of them really takes off, plan on more.

Unstress yourself, manage your time, and create websites you know and love and you will be fine. I would say that 5 successful websites would be a full time job…or maybe 10 moderately successful sites…or 20 garbage sites…or 1 ecommerce site. There is no answer to this question. How hard are you willing to work?

Introducing SlifeFamily.com

Published

J.B.Slife

on March 24, 2007

in Blogging

. 0 Comments

I’ve decided to open my family website again. I created during the birth of my first child, next Wednesday my second child is due. If you would like to read more about my family, check out the Slife Family Website.

Here’s the twist…the website is going to be a guide to “creating a family blog”. Hopefully I can get a few of my friends and family to create blogs and tell their friends and family. Is it possible to build many backlinks by using your computer illiterate friends and family? Well, that’s what blogging is already doing…isn’t it?

If you have a revenue blog like JBSlife.com, create a family blog. If you have a family like mine, it’s bound to create some traffic for you. Until next time…

JBSlife

J.B.Slife dot Com

Archive for March, 2007 Page 2 of 8