The Paradigm of What To Do With An Original

Ahhh…the original versus the copied. The unique versus the duplicated. Playing a song like the record or doing it just for the jamming potential.

And with the recent release of the Windows 7 Operating system, the latest jab at the operating system is the idea of promises of improvement over the years through the statement, “…won’t have any of the problems (insert various versions here) had.” Now I might be off by a word or two used in the commercial being played as recently as today, but these needs for significant improvement have been no laughing matter for Microsoft over the years.

So, with all of the different operating systems available for personal computers, the shedding of these various skins poses a gradiating risk factor for each version and as each version ages, what of the previous versions, let alone the original notes that went into the first official release of said programming.

Open source programming principles offer potential for continued interest to be brought forth in connection to providing such a core element to computing, which is the operating system. It’s what helps the hardware make the jump from visible capacitors, resistors and other chips being attached to a motherboard into something able to play videos, record phone conversations, and yup…even posting to a blog.

Certainly, the longer a software program has been available, the greater the chances for an all or nothing circumstance in which the end result is incalculable in any direction. The more weaknesses/flexibility(?) identified, the longer the exploitation menu becomes, despite the relative nature of the interpretation of whether or not an alteration of original programming is a positive or negative. In some ways, an upgrade by the original designers is a financial exploitation of flexibility previously identified and classified as a format the designers find to be unacceptable.

Whereas Mac continues to exploit such frequent updating needs compared to Windows in their commercials, the Unix platforms and who knows what else is out there continues to exploit the popularity of the top two operating systems by either trying to stand out as highly unique and niche or more of a system for mass installation.

Since “exploitation” is a relative term, not all has been lost with each of these upgrades, especially when there is clear improvement from the first few rounds of updates…I’ve been thinking I’m too old to go switching my operating system mid-life and since I am stuck being a PC-based tech chick, I guess I’ll just chalk it up to having something to do with being 39 years old, still thinking 80’s music is totally awesome and having no major issues using Microsoft 2000 relative to what I use the computer for!

Filed under: 101 Reference Desk, Giving Thanks, One Value Of A Click Or A Quack, Software Programs , each version, mac, macintosh operating system, no laughing matter, open source programming, operating system, risk factors, unix, windows 7

“Restaurant World” via Facebook + A Trip Down Memory Lane

Content creatures like myself who view themselves as individuals who are better off producing original materials rather than being a hard-core consumer of such materials frequently find ourselves overwhelmed with the variety of conduits and containers available to carry forth our own contributions to the virtual community.

I’ve had quite a few real accounts for access to spaces on the address grid over the years, but not many with the illusionary proposition that such settings were that of a “social nature” and to be interpreted as such…regardless of the content.  I have typically been someone who prefers to interact more with gaming-type content being produced and Pogo.com is one of the first virtual video game arcades I joined and not for the chatting options.  Shockwave.com was the first virtual arcade I was able to find the version of Spy Hunter I used to play from time to time at a local convenience store and doses of Alice Greenfingers and Farm Frenzy via MostFun.com still help me stay sharp with all of the real life logistics I am responsible for accomplishing.

When I decided to join Facebook, I really had no idea what to expect other than ghostly images of a past experience with MySpace.com combined with other functional assumptions telling me how to work the interface so that I too, could have one of these accounts.

Conversational abilities and convenient quirks, what really drew my attention was that Facebook carries a whole list of virtual gaming options!  Go figure!    I can own a zoo, open restaurants, build roller coasters and even some time-restricted role playing games, such as Vampire Wars and Special Forces.

Therefore, I thought it appropo to once again liven up The House That Caera Built with a couple of gaming quirks I’ve already learned of:

In Restaurant World, there are three ways to clean a toilet.  Hire someone to do it, click on the toilet and wait 3 or 4 seconds, or click and drag the toilets to the inventory screen and then re-positioning them back inside of the restaurant.  Clicking on the toilet seems to be the fastest and most direct, but you also have to monitor the restaurant.  Some people do buy lots and lots of toilets, but unless you are still planning on revisiting every three or four hours (real time), it still gets messy and people still visit your establishment whether you are connected to the game or not. 

If you care about your rating, then keeping your toilets clean counts, especially since characters will still visit you just to use your rest room facilities.  These visits do not bring you any coins, but they can boost your overall rating through the additional rating opportunities relative to the number of toilets available for use.

There are even signs designating separate gender facilities that can be purchased, but shyness apparently is not a problem in the game and you don’t even need walls up for them to do their thing, but if you’re in it for the image points, then some form of privacy can influence whether or not you get a live rating, let alone what that rating ends up being.  Be careful if you purchase the tall walls because they can block your view of the icon that hangs over the facility when it needs attention.  This is definitely one of those personal preferences relative to the boundaries of the technology. 

Speaking of programming boundaries, you can turn the walls you purchase, as well as most of the other elements you purchase, but only into four different positions, so unless I’ve missed something, there is no way to click and drag the restaurant with 360 degree directional abilities, but it also doesn’t seem to impact the game except in circumstances such as with providing privacy to those using the bathroom facilities at your restaurant.

In remembering how fascinating it was when the first books on “game cheats” were published (I’m talking Snafu, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, After-Burner, Darkness Falls, Everquest, the urban legend about being able to drill holes into quarters, tie a thin string to it, and then just tug back and forth to get yourself infinite game credits…yeah…I’m “old”), it is with their pioneering spirit of authorship I thought to offer up these little tidbits I myself have noticed when it comes to the virtual game industry.

P.S.  Today’s video games are still fundamentally the same in their mathematical compositions.  With general fondness, I used to know how to play many of these games and each held benefit during my years as an administrative assistant with both macro and micro time management issues.  I also remeber how eventually existing fiction began to be translated into something for the gaming community.  How many will you remember?

After-Burner
3D Tanx
*Asteroids
Asylum
Avenger
Baby Pac-Man
Boulder Dash
*Burger Time
*Centipede
Chase the Chuck Wagon
City Connection
Cloak and Dagger
Codename MAT
Congo Bongo
*Darkness Falls
*Dig-Dug
*Donkey Kong
Dragon’s Lair
Dungeons & Dragons
Excalibur
F-15 Strike Eagle
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
*Frogger
*Galaga
Jumping Jack
Mail Order Monsters
Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man
*Millipede
Ms. Pac-Man
Mr. Do’s Castle
My Hero
Mystery House
*Pac-Man
Parachute
Penquin Land
*Pole Position
Potty Pigeon
President-Elect
Puzzle Panic
*Q*Bert
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Robot Tank
Sarge
Silent Service
Sir Lancelot
*Snack Attack
*Snafu
Solitaire (Windows)
SOS
Space Invaders
*Spy Hunter
*Spy vs. Spy
Star Trek
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
Super Mario Bros.
Super Pac-Man
Swordquest
Tank Battalion
*Tempest
Tennis
The Dovetail Group
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy
Treasure Island
Tron
*Utopia
Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Wizadry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn

Filed under: 101 Reference Desk, Caera's House Lists, Reviews of Facebook External Vendor Connections, The Legend behind Bass Players Rock & Roll , alice greenfingers, build roller coasters, buy toilets in quantity, clean a toilet, click and drag toilet, click the toilet, facebook, facebook account, farm frenzy, hire someone, image points, keeping toilets clean, mostfun.com, network, open a restaurant, original materials, own a zoo, pogo.com, practice, privacy can influence vote, real life time management, restaurant, restaurant world, separate gender facilities, shockwave.com, shyness not a problem in game, social, social network, social networking, special forces, spy hunter, time management, vampire wars, world

Claiming Ownership Of Your Site By Registering With Services

For those who follow the science of what has been come to be known as “search engine optimization” or SEO, Alexa is a widely known registry service primarily used to help leverage the ranking and credibility of a website within a search engine, although a secondary feature is being able to review, aggregate and analyze traffic using a variety of variables.

Whereas Technorati and other registry services allow relatively simple and direct claims to ownership of a site, Alexa contains restrictions to claiming ownership that rejects registry of a variety of free sites such as WordPress.  Now whether this is the accountability of Alexa or perhaps WordPress is dragging behind for some reason, but either way the results are still the same.  Those that choose to use free services are not permitted to access the same level of credibility simply based on the service provider, rather than the quality of content on the site.

So should you bring out the soapboxes, paint the signs and protest such a restriction or are there other ways around this exclusion from a set of tools that is known to influence search engines?  Although you are certainly welcome to send them an email stating your opposition to the restriction, if registering your web content with Alexa and other registry services are of importance to you, then you will need to consider avoiding the adoption of a subdomain name and investing the few bucks into a domain name of your own.

This purchase of a domain name already sets you on a completely different ranking path and once you own the domain, you will have to choose your hosting service carefully.  For example, GoDaddy has the ability to quickly integrate WordPress content, thereby opening your WordPress work to registry with Alexa as well as other services.  However, you will have to choose whether or not your domain name registration is public or private.  Most companies charge for the privacy service (I have yet to find one that doesn’t), but your domain name will still show up in the WhoIs database or some other domain lookup service.

Make no mistake that there are many ways to abuse this freedom to take claim of an address for yourself.  For example, there are individuals who purchase domain names in bulk only and then return the domain names after a short period of time…for a full refund.  What this action does is that it activates the address so that the primary error message that would normally show up when no one has ever registered the address is removed and typically some form of advertisement-filled, clickable content takes its place.

Another example would be spamming a free service by opening up thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of accounts.  To the skeptics who think this is a time-intensive proposition or not possible, not only can this be done in a matter of days (if not hours), it can be virtually traceless if a botnet network is used to open up the accounts and the operator has at least an inkling of what to do with the timing of such a growth in account count.  There are few blogging services that have not had to endure such an assault and once a site has been blacklisted by another registry service, it can be quite difficult to shift such a designation away from the registered address.

There are certainly other layers of registering your site with another service, but this first round of choices holds its own set of positives and negatives that can have significant implications in the future.  But for many people, being recognized by a free service search engine is far more valuable that being registered with another service that helps elevate your standing so make sure you think through how important these types of registering services are going to be within your marketing plan.

The record company behind a musician might help with the initial distribution boost, but ultimately it is the fans of the artist that controls the rise and/or fall of a song or CD.  The same thing applies to who you file claim over an Internet address.  Registering with a few or many services will take you only so far in the search engines so if a registy service rejects your claim to ownership, never fear.  If you have the content, the credit and subsequent credibility will follow.

Filed under: 101 Reference Desk, Beginners, General Resources, Intermediate, Internet, Internet Development, Marketing Your Site, Search Engine Optimization , abuse, accountability, adoption of subdomain, aggregate, alexa, analyze, analyze traffic, avoid the adoption of subdomain, blacklisted, botnet, botnet network, claiming ownership, contains restrictions, credibility, domain name, domain names in bulk, elevate your standing, engine, fans control rise and/or fall, free services, godaddy, growth in account count, help leverage, hosting service, influence, influence search, influence search engines, integrate, optimization, ownership, privacy service, private, public, purchase domain name, ranking, registering web content, registry service, rejects registry, results are the same, review, search, search engine, Search Engine Optimization, secondary feature, SEO, set of tools, simple and direct claims, spam, spamming free services, technorati, thousands of accounts, variable, variety of variables, website, whois, whois database, wordpress