Category: Rants

rants

Ask a Font Creator: Yes, I even obsess about fonts on vacation.

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We just recently took a short vacation to Las Vegas. It’s cheap and close to get to, and we hadn’t been there in around 15 years. But of course, I can’t just turn off the fonty part of my brain, so I was looking at typography the whole time. It doesn’t help that there is typography all over that whole town. I’ve shared some of my thoughts about the good, the bad, and the ugly fonts and typography treatments I saw over at this week’s FontBundles blog post. Read “Ask. . . Read More!

An epic wad of spam!

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Hi Basicinstructions Team, I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting enough organic & social media traffic on your website. I would like to update you that your website is still not ranked on the top pages of Google SERPs for your popular keywords (Products). Your loss is your competitor’s gain i.e. the traffic which could have generated quality sales for you goes to your competitors as they rank well in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) organically. Reasons: 1. HTML and. . . Read More!

I love bacon, but I hate Spam

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Despite the fact that I don’t blog all that often right now, I’m certainly fielding a lot of comments. I mean a LOT of comments. Unfortunately, there’s nothing of substance in the whole lot. I thought that including a simple CAPTCHA would help cull the spam, but it’s done nothing but speed up recently. Here’s three days from my inbox: That was a fairly light three days; it’s been two weeks since I’ve cleared out my pending comments, and there are 140 sitting in there. Clearly, these are real people. . . Read More!

Google Voice: Transcribing Voicemails Like a Boss

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I use Google Voice for my main phone number. When someone leaves you a voicemail, it’ll then use its high-quality algorithms or whatever and transcribe the message for you. Usually it’s word salad. Lately, I’m getting mostly political calls, and one of them tickled my fancy: Hello, this is weapon Pam Powell and I’m calling to advise you that your boning this chick has been changed to 46. I’m calling to respectfully ask for your belt but they Representative August 14, 2012 authorized to support More Jobs Education, thank you. . . Read More!

Compu-Crafts: More Phone Hijinks!

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Yes, I just spent a good portion of last weekend monkeying with my phone. Not only did I do things to the user interface to make it look pretty, but I also installed new software on it. That software was awesome. Then, this last Monday, the news came out that with Cyanogen (the new software we’d put on our phones), our phones couldn’t dial 911. It’s not a problem with all phones. It’s not even a problem with some phones. It’s a problem specifically with this one model of phone,. . . Read More!

Gut Doctor, Car Doctor, Throat Doctor

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Gut Doctor I visisted my brand-new gastroenterologist yesterday. A recap: I was originally diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 1997, and had been in medication-free remission since 2003. I had a Crohn’s flare in 2009, and hadn’t found a new gastroenterologist in Floriday yet, so my HMO referred me to Doctor #1. Had a colonoscopy and started on the meds that I know put me in remission (immune-suppressors), although they started me at a lower level. After 3 months, Doc#1 opted to put me on a second medication, Cimzia (one of. . . Read More!

Scars, Jobs, and Underpants

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SCARS: My stitches are out! Of course, the wounds still look kind of angry. But I did get hearty kudos at the dermatologist’s office — they said I’d done a great job with my wound care, and had kept everything (everyone’s favorite word) moist. The stitches came right out, smooth as silk. All that for a little mole. Seems a bit drastic! The good dermatological news is that on all three things that were excised, the margins are clear — they got the whole mole out on all of them.. . . Read More!

Breaking News: More TV Junk Merchants

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I get the TV Guide RSS feed, so there are always little breaking news tidbits about new shows. Today there’s a post about The Great Big American Auction, which will be hosted by Ty Pennington (who looks more and more like a troll doll every time I see him). This is a great example of how small cable shows start a trend, and then seasons later, the big networks pick up the concepts. Because auctions and memorabilia shows have been showing up all over the cable channels. Oh, I’ll totally. . . Read More!

Words Salad

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I have an Android phone, so up until recently, I’ve had to scratch my fake-Scrabble itch with a game called WordFeud. It’s been good, but it seems like you can’t be alive without hearing about how great and amazing the fake-Scrabble game for the iPhone is. Well, now we Androiders can enjoy the same game as those iPhoners (and play against them) in rousing rounds of Words with Friends. That’s right, there’s now an Android version! I do have to wonder, though: does the iPhone version not allow you to. . . Read More!

Come On, Google Reader!

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I read a bunch of blogs, and use Google Reader to consolidate them all onto one page. But while Google Reader has its good points, it’s also kind of an idiot in a lot of ways. A huge portion of its idiocy comes from the “recommended sources” section — it sees what blogs you read, then recommends other blogs based on (I believe) what other Google Reader users read. But I wish it wouldn’t recommend: – Blogs I already currently read (at the exact same address) – Blogs I used. . . Read More!