21 May 08 Changes At The Eye
Of course, dear reader, you noticed right away. Yes, we’ve got a new look.
It was felt here at The Eye, that perhaps it was getting a little too crowded, that there was perhaps a little too much information on the page.
Did you really need to know what the time was here? If you know where I’m situated, and you’re in the same time zone you know what time it is. If you’re in a different time zone, you probably don’t care.
Of course, we have keep some advertisements which we hope you don’t find overbearing, and indeed hopefully useful on occasions, and we do need to keep the lights on here too, and this blogging lark does cost time and money, even though we enjoy it and it’s fun.
To get to this new look, we spend some of that precious time (it’s like gold around here), looking at various new ideas and themes.
Some looked very nice, and classy, and we actually did do some code rewriting on a couple of them to customize them to what we wanted – and then changed our minds.
There was one them that was really cool, but it wouldn’t allow me to use my flickr images in the way that the designer had got the whole thing set up, and I didn’t want to go re-loading them all again onto my own server. It’s not that I’ve not got the space; it’s that The Eye has been around a few years, and I haven’t got the time to make a few thousand previous postings look pretty.
One day, when I start a whole new blog though, I’ll take a look at some of these more unusual designs again.
Anyway, we hope you like the new look!
Please do comment or drop us an email and tell us your thoughts, good or bad. We’d love to hear from you.
Tags: advertisements, blog, different time zone, gold, images, lark, occasions, postings, precious time, time and money
06 Apr 08 New Google Group
Here at The Eye, I’m unashamedly pro-Google.
Well not so much pro-Google, as that I like the way they do things. There’s so much out there on the net these days. Some stuff is cool, some isn’t so cool. I’m all for getting value for money (in life in general, not just online). I’m not interested in swanky brand names, just functionality.
Google provides me with an excellent email service, a great reader for all those RSS feeds I collect, great search facilities, superb analytics so I can find out what you’re all reading, and how you found me. I can set alerts, and also read Usenet groups. I am finding Google Docs more and more useful, and I mustn’t forget Adsense, that does two jobs -helps to keep readers informed about new and related products and services out there, and also generates revenue to help pay for the running of The Eye too.
I compare the Internet to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. Some folks mistakenly think that both are free. Well, a better term is perhaps free at the point of use. Very few folks pay per minute any more, even those still on dial-up usually have free or flat-rate local calls to access the net, and those on broadband services pay one monthly fee. To access pages or site such as this one, however, there’s no entry fee or page fee.
It could have gone that way you know. In fact, one of the first online services I joined was back in 1986. It was called Compunet, and was for Commodore 64 computers. There was a charge to access some areas. Then along came Prestel, which was British Telecom’s first online offering. There was an time-based charge, and many pages were a penny each to download and view too.
Anyway to get back to the point of the post.. (doesn’t he go on?).
I’ve set up a new Google Group for The Eye. You can find it here
It’s a discussion group and meeting point for anyone that’s interested in the activities, postings, and general rants and drivel in here. Please feel free to join. Like most Google products it’s free.
Tags: access pages, adsense, brand names, british telecom, broadband services, commodore 64, discussion group, drivel, email service, general rants, google, local calls, meeting point, national health service, postings, prestel, related products, search facilities, united kingdom, usenet groups
05 Mar 08 Good Time
I like a wide variety of music. As I’ve mentioned in previous postings, I haven’t bought a CD in years, however, I do subscribe to Napster. No, not the bad old P2P Napster, but the legal one. It’s $14.99 a month, for as much music as you care to download and listen to on your computer or your mp3 player. So DRM rears it’s ugly head, but you can always buy the downloads separately without it.
Alan Jackson is a country artist I’ve liked for a number of years. Up-tempo and mostly foot tapping light songs, not too much of the dog died stuff, and this is one of Alan’s brightest albums, and it’s also a whole album, and his first album too, that’s full of entirely original songs.
You can listen to the album here….
Listen to these tracks on Napster:
Play all
Good Time by Alan Jackson
Small Town Southern Man by Alan Jackson
I Wish I Could Back Up by Alan Jackson
Country Boy by Alan Jackson
Right Where I Want You by Alan Jackson
1976 by Alan Jackson
When The Love Factor’s High by Alan Jackson
Long Long Way by Alan Jackson
Sissy’s Song by Alan Jackson
I Still Like Bologna by Alan Jackson
Never Loved Before [Feat. Martina McBride] by Alan Jackson
Nothing Left To Do by Alan Jackson
Listen To Your Senses by Alan Jackson
This Time by Alan Jackson
Laid Back ‘n Low Key [Cay] by Alan Jackson
If You Want To Make Me Happy by Alan Jackson
If Jesus Walked The World Today by Alan Jackson
Tags: alan jackson, bologna, country artist, downloads, good time, light songs, love, martina mcbride, mp3 player, much music, napster, p2p, postings, s song, senses, sissy, southern man, tempo, ugly head
