Disqus + Avast = Bad idea.

Recently I updated my Hanson site (www.hansonstage.com) and when I updated the blog I noticed that I could no longer see Disqus comments when viewing from my PC.  I assumed that when I updated WordPress something went wonky so I turned off the Disqus plug in and thought nothing more of it.

Until I went to comment on a friend’s blog who also uses Disqus and there was no comment form to be found.  I checked out the comments here and they were MIA too.  I ended up tweeted Disqus for help because the plug in said it was down for maintenance, but when they got back to me (quite some time later) they said everything was working on their end.

During the time when I was waiting for Disqus to get back to me I tried both sites on my laptop and the comments were working so I figured out that this was something local to my PC.  I figured it was either something to do with my Cache or my virus protection.

I deleted all my cache and anything and everything I had stored – didn’t work.

Then I found a page that said that a “known issue” was between the Chrome Avast add-on and Disqus.  I disabled the add-on and tada! We were back in business. I was glad I didn’t have to remove the virus protection completely.

Now I’m just waiting for a comment contest on the Hanson site to come to an end before swapping back over to Disqus (I don’t want to risk losing the comments / entries)

But if you have Disqus and can’t see the comment option on your page and have the Avast add-on – that’s probably your problem!

New Hot or Not App!

Hot Or Not is the hottest new app out there to find out if you are HOT and who is HOT around you! Simply download the app, sign in with Facebook and start rating people to find out! You can download the app at: http://www.tryhotornot.com.  Once you download the app you will be shown other app users photos and you rank them HOT (heart) or NOT (X) which gives them a ranking.  The more people you rate the more times you’ll pop up on other peoples apps to get ranked yourself. I have to say I did find a couple of cuties on this app – and they live nearby!   If you have an iPad, iPhone, Android or PC you can download this app – all you need is a Facebook account!

You can filter your results based on Guys or Girls (or both) as well as what age range you want to check out and it automatically shows the people who live closest to you first.

You are able to check out the profiles of everyone on the app as well, which features their score (many don’t have scores yet that I found), their location so you can see if there is someone HOT near you, if you share any friends, an about me and what languages they speak.  There is also an option to block users through their profile if that is something that you are looking to do.  The shared friends feature is actually pretty interesting – almost like a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon but using your Facebook friends.  It will show that you are friends with person A, who is friends with person B who is friends with the person you are ranking. May come in handy if you are looking to meet up!

Hot or Not Sweeps!  Hot or Not just released a new version of their app and are trying to get the word out with a sweepstakes! Whether you’re just catching the HotOrNot flame or you’re already a full blown addict, enter to win $1000 today!

http://www.apptism.com/sweepstakes/

Simply enter your email address at the link above and register for the sweepstakes! The winner will be announced on February 15, 2014.  The prize is a $1,000 Gift Card to a Retailer or your choice!

Check out hot or not on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tryhotornot

 

 

 

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post. Regardless, the opinions expressed in this post are my own. I only recommend products and services which I believe will be good for my readers.

Adventures at the Genius Bar

apple

I have a MacBook.  It’s from 2007 or so.  It’s been working pretty well – it’s only my ‘backup’ computer that I use for browsing the web or taking on trips so I haven’t done a lot of wear and tear on it.  Until this summer when the battery started to warp.  Then the charger stopped charging and I found myself with quite an expensive paper weight on my hands.

I made a genius bar appointment, thought I fixed the problem on my own, canceled it, turns out, it stopped working again. (Isn’t that how it always happens?)

We went to the Apple store anyway, because most posts online said that they can fit you in at the Genius Bar even without an appointment. The closest store with a genius bar is almost an hour away.  We get there and are told “There’s no way we can fit you in without an appointment.  Appointments are at least a week out.”  Except that on Thursday I made an appointment for Sunday (and only because I had plans on Friday and Saturday) and when he had me go to the computer to set up a new appointment… I could have gotten one for  Monday (the next day) but put in for Tuesday since I wouldn’t be able to go Monday.  I mean, I’m no GENIUS but that’s not a week!  (Actually I’m just kidding, I’m totally a genius.)

I left, super annoyed… to return on Tuesday for my appointment.

We got there about 5 minutes before the appointment, checked in and sat at the bar waiting… and waiting… and waiting…

While I waited I read the screen overhead that said “If you don’t have an appointment, we’ll try and fit you in” (maybe not verbatim, but close enough!) Oh, ok.  Apparently not on weekends though when we will lie to you and tell you appointments are a week out.

It was at least 20-30 minutes before someone could see me.  So tell me why did I have to make a 6:15 appointment?  Fortunately they were apologetic.  And I had a feeling that all I needed was a new battery and a new charger – but I didn’t want to buy them myself only to find out something more was wrong inside the computer.

Turns out – a 2007 MacBook is “vintage” and if anything more was wrong with it besides the battery (and the case IS cracking, but I guess I’ll live with it) I’d be S.O.L.  So I had to pay $129 for a new battery… and they were able to work it out so that the charger would be replaced for free since it was old and had known issues.  And ta-da! all was working again.

So, all in all I ended up saving myself about $100 on the charger / shipping… but had to drive to the store back and forth twice… and then sit there and wait.  Was that worth it? I don’t know…

But I am strongly considering a PC when I need a replacement laptop, if THAT tells you anything.

myVegas now on Android!

myvegas

myVegas slots is no longer just on Facebook, it is now an app for Android phones as well (I don’t know if it’s available for iPhones)

Things are a little bit different than on the Facebook version and the only thing you share between versions (if you hook the app up to your Facebook) is your Loyalty Points. Which is the most important thing, anyway. The proliferation of such games into the internet has profoundly impacted the exoskeleton of search engine, which we term as SEO, a conglomeration of UK search engine optimisation experts profess.

You must start from level 1 over again on the App and for now there are only 3 games available – Excalibur, New York New York and Mirage (with the last 2 being unlocked once you reach a certain level)  These games are similar to the ones on the Facebook app, but the bonus rounds are much different as some of them even provide Word villas answers if done the right way. There is no “high/low” or anything like that there is generally 3 bonuses – the free spins, one where you spin a wheel (some spin multiple times for multipliers, etc) and one where you have to pick things.  In Excalibur you pick 3 tiles and then pick a sword for a multiplier bonus.  In New York New York you keep picking until you’ve been “busted” 3 times and in Mirage you pop balloons. You start with 5 but some of the pops give you +2 picks so on the last 2 games it is possible to clean up the whole board, if you’re lucky!

The other slots say that they are coming soon.

Every hour you get bonus coins.  In the beginning I was getting 300 and now I’m only getting 250 – I don’t know if they changed it completely since I started playing or if you get less once you get to a certain level. (I’m currently 16)

Once you unlock the strip – things are very different here than in the Facebook app.  There are Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.  Right now I’m just doing the Bronze and it gives you some sort of challenge.  Some of them are quick and others seem impossible.  For instance – you may have to get 160 pretzels while playing New York New York.  This is when you’ll want to bet less because you want to get more spins and more chances at pretzels popping up.  For challenges where you need to earn loyalty points or XP it may be wiser to bet more to win more.  One was to get a 10 win streak going.  I got up to 6 multiple times but it took a while to actually win 10 spins in a row!  This keeps me stuck to one game at a time to try and do the challenges.

Currently I am 34% (it tells you your progress, which is nice) to earning 93,000 XP in New York New York.  I’ve been getting maybe 1% if I am lucky per hour with my bonus coins.  I’ll be trying to finish this one for a while I think, unless I win a big jackpot!

You do also get the spin the wheel bonus once each day like on the Facebook App and the multipliers for days played, etc are calculated different.

Loyalty Points are a bit different as well. On the Facebook app once you fill the coin up you get 10 points.  On the phone app you need to fill it up multiple times (I want to say 5, but I’ve never actually counted) and once you do you get 35 points.

If you want to skip any of the star challenges you can do so for a fee of $0.99 and you can also buy chips through the game for various prices if you so choose as well.

I think that I prefer to facebook version, but since I can’t play that all day this will have to work for now 🙂

Getting a bunch of opt-in texts? Me too

Over the past week or so, every store, radio station, brand, etc that I’ve ever signed up for text alerts have been texting me.  (So much so my coworker even commented “Your phone just goes off all day”)  The idea of the text is the same: “Do you want to continue receiving texts from ___? Reply YES”  It turns out that the FCC is tightening up its rules on texts and calls through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and if you don’t get your list to re-up by October 16th, your list will be wiped out.

I found this site that breaks things down a bit more and it made the most sense of the multiple articles that I’ve been looking through to find out why all of a sudden I am the most popular person via texts.

http://www.nixonpeabody.com/New_mass_marketing_FCC_rules_go_into_effect_October_16

Fortunately it seems like the texts will stop after today.  I never realized how many opt-ins I had done for text messages until they all started flooding in over the course of a few days!  So if you want to keep getting texts with discounts from your favorite store – just opt back in and that will give them express written consent to continue to contact you.  If you’d rather not, then your info will be wiped from their system today.

And now I can go back to being the unpopular person I am getting only texts from Twitter alerts 😉

ChatterFun Media – Talk Like a Pirate!

chatterfun

Arrrr Mateys! Did ye know that today be talk like a pirate day?  (How’d I do?)

If you want to go above and beyond – you can play with pirates with the help of Chatterfun Media!  Chatterfun Media is a leading company that designs early childhood language software and is excited to announce the opening of their Kickstarter project!  With Kickstarter, you can help Chatterfun Media fund their project and you will get rewarded for your participation.  The rewards include software, original art, character development or for one very lucky and deep pocketed individual – you can help them develop a pirate module to teach children the language of the seas while providing them with an interactive game to explore and discover pirate language and culture! The ultimate gift on this day, International Talk Like a Pirate Day. You can view the Chatterfun “My First Language Lesson” project via this link http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/249182525/my-first-language-lesson-by-chatterfun-media  (And if I were you I’d check out the page – we don’t need anyone walking the plank!)

Chatterfun Media currently retails two products, ABC’s with Elly and Spelling Bee Interactive. Their products are used in homes and schools to introduce children to foreign language. These affordable programs are a great first step or introduction to language and allow children to experience and play with language. The Kickstarter project is for development of an activity workbook and CD based on our current titles. If fully funded, they will develop cultural themes, activities, additional games and more animations. Children will be able to explore Spanish one day and French the next day. Through this fun activity, children develop a great passion and interest which leads to better results in learning. But they need your help! Please help by funding our project and share with friends via social media. By joining us on Kickstarter, you will also have the opportunity to vote for our sixth language. For more information on Chatterfun, please visit www.chatterfun.com.

GMail Categories? Go Away!

I don’t know about you – but I’m not a big fan of the changes that happened seemingly overnight to my GMail account creating “categories” for my inbox of Primary, Social and Promotions. My inbox is a mixture of everything I’ve been emailed and I’d like to keep it that way. As I read things and no longer need them, I delete them. If I need to save them I have my own set of personalized categories where I place everything. I don’t need GMail guessing what needs to go where and essentially giving me 3 inboxes to check per email address. (I have something like 11 email addresses and while all aren’t through Google/GMail that still ends up being a LOT of clicking that I don’t really need to be doing.) This comes after a couple weeks ago they decided to no longer let me select what emails I wanted to delete and I had to go through each one individually to delete them… (I’ve since modified my settings so it is now swipe to delete and not swipe to archive)

Anyway, fed up this morning when I saw the changes I went through the settings. If you go to the Settings for your email you want to make the switch on, there is one that says “Inbox Categories” click that and then there are all sorts of check boxes – Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. If you want categories, make sure they have a check. If you’d prefer everything be lumped in your “primary” inbox, uncheck them all so that it will default to only Primary.

This is what works on my Android (HTC One X) phone. On the web version, go to Settings once logged in and then to Inbox and you get the same check box categories to uncheck!

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AT&T is a rip off, but I now have a droid

For the past couple of months I have been absolutely fed up with my blackberry.  No one develops apps for it any more, and it is always going ridiculously slow and I’m always getting their equivalent of the hour glass of things loading.

I counted down the days to April 15th, when I would be eligible for a new phone upgrade. (Once every 2 years with AT&T).  I saw a new android phone was coming out, HTC One X and I decided that was the one I wanted.

I pre-ordered it through AT&T – it was $299.99 with a $100 “instant” rebate.  Of course, to me instant means the $100 comes off at the time of purchase but to AT&T this means that you fill out a form a week or so after the phone arrives and then mail it in to get the $100. (How is that “instant”? That is a mail in rebate, you’re not fooling anyone AT&T)

I ended up seeing that it was $149 through Amazon Wireless – $50 cheaper than AT&T (after the rebate) and no hassle of dealing with this mail in rebate.  I called AT&T and was able to cancel the phone order since it was a pre-order and then I went and ordered it on Amazon.

Fast forward – the phone came the day before I was going to be leaving for Tulsa.  I needed a case.  I pre-ordered one on Amazon but they had no idea when it would be coming.  So I stopped at the AT&T store.  Apparently you now need to “sign in” when you arrive and get put on a list and then you wait for someone to be available.  I picked up a hard case for the back of the phone for $30 and picked up a screen protector.  I didn’t see a price on it.  My total came to $60.  The screen protector was also $30.

WHAT. A. RIP. OFF.

(Fortunately the screen protector has a lifetime warranty so if anything happens to it, I can replace it at no cost but shipping)

Of course I was in a bind and didn’t want to travel to Tulsa with the phone completely caseless.  And now I canceled the order with Amazon because even though I liked that case more (and it was only $15) now that I am in $60 with these AT&T cases they will be sticking around until I completely break them.

The kicker was that Amazon sent a car charger FOR FREE with my order.  When I made my purchase at the AT&T store I got asked if I wanted to BUY a charger in addition to the ridiculous amount I was spending on a case.

So to make a long story short, AT&T is a big fat rip off and now I am locked in with them for another 2 years since upgrading extended my contract with them! Awesome! (And Amazon rules)

Clipix

Clipix is a free, awesome, new and useful tool that is changing the way we organize our lives online.  clipix allows you to maintain customized privacy settings so you can organize your online life and share only with people you want to grand access to your clipboards.

There is a bookmark called the “Clip” button that you drag to your bookmarks bar when you first sign up  Then whenever you see anything online that you want to check out again, you click it. Everything you clip will be on the website in customizable clipboards.

You can make clipboards for anything – recipes, gadgets, vacation plans, a shopping wish list, etc.  There are also Syncboards which allow you to clip with your friends and family! When anyone adds a clip to the syncboard, everyone else will see it in real time.  Great if you are planning a trip or party with friends or family!

I’ve been trying out the website for the past couple of days.  I have clipboards for each of my fan sits so that I can keep track of articles that I need to link as well as a clipboard for my upcoming trip to Tulsa.  I am sure that I will add quite a few more clipboards as I continue to use the site.

If you have an iPhone there is even a Clipix app so that you can take your clipboards with you wherever you are!

Here’s a screen cap of my clipboards in progress!

Find out more about Clipix at their website: clipix

On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/clipix

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Clipix/252550344792744

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4heBUKnDb-w]

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Alexa Ranking

My goal with my alexa ranking, was to be 500,000 or lower.  As of writing this I am now under 400,000 – which is awesome!  I am hoping this will lead to my Google PR ranking being higher than 0 whenever they next update. (I have a ranking of 3 on my Honor Society blog and a ranking of 1 on my Hanson blog – and I can not for the life of me figure out why theirs are higher than mine, except for the fact that I changed from my blogspot.com name to my permanent domain name around the time that Google was updating their rank)

Some giveaways / product reviews ask that your ranking be under 100,000 – but I’m not sure I will get to that point.  If I do, then that will be great – but it’s not like I’d be totally bummed if not – because Alexa ranks you versus other websites out on the web and I am not sure I am even worthy of a ranking as low as 100,000!  But whatever happens, happens 🙂

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