Government Censorship

The regional ban was made because YouTube hosted Russia for Russians, an ultra-nationalist video.

Russia’s blogosphere reacted with anger today after a regional court banned YouTube because it carried a single video containing “extremist” content.

Read the article >>>

The Russian ban of YouTube is just the latest Internet censorship headline and I’m sure it wont be the last.

Just recently The U.S. Government shut down a popular WordPress hosting site of more than 73,000 blogs, so much for free speech in the United States. The Government claimed the blogs were shutdown because of content on a few of them. My question is whats next? Considering that a web hosting provider houses hundreds of websites on a single server, what happens when the government starts pulling the plug on the server because of what one person has on their site? All the websites on that server go down. This WILL happen, it’s only a matter of time.

More Sports is an Independent sports blog written by Andrew Macaluso with articles about athletes, sports teams, trades, players, coaches and everything else sports related.

Although I did’t design the initial WordPress theme for this site, I did change it dramatically to make it unique to his website and to make it be able to do the things he wanted to do and look the way he wanted it to look.

This was a complete start to finish project, from registering the domain name to handing over the reigns to Andrew so he could start posting. Although I did alot of graphics work on this WordPress blog, most of the time was spent on the back end with Search Engine Optimization and WordPress plugins and settings.

Here is the short list of work completed

• WordPress template redesign
• Custom logo and graphics design
• Search Engine Optimization
• WordPress plugin installation
• Fine tune WordPress
• Support to help him get started posting

More Sports is powered by my web hosting service NetSpace Ltd. NetSpace Ltd used to be a web hosting service I offered directly so anyone that needed web hosting could sign up. These days I only offer web hosting to my customers that I build websites for. If the demand becomes strong enough I will consider opening the web hosting service back up to the public.

Take a look at Andrew Macaluso’s More Sports

Interested in having a blog designed? Need your WordPress blog optimized for the search engines? (SEO)
Contact Me

Having never used Facebook before I am curious what all the commotion is about with the “hatred” of Facebook. There are headlines all over the web today that appear at first glance to be some kind of smear campaign by the corporate media companies.

One article from MSNBC states “The most visited site on the net may also be the most despised“. That sounds like an oxymoron to me. If it was so “despised” how could it possibly be the most visited website on the net. You would think that most people that hate a website would stop using it. But then again, most people that complain about Microsoft use Windows.

“Facebook is a phenomenal success, so we were not expecting to see it score so poorly with consumers,” said Larry Freed, president of ForeSee Results. “At the same time, our research shows that privacy concerns, frequent changes to the website and commercialization and advertising adversely affect the consumer experience.”

Read the article >>

Do you hate Facebook? Please share your opinion by writing a comment below.

This was a relatively easy website to design. I tried to keep it as simple as possible yet make it unique and fitting for his personality and type of music. I will be the first to admit that it is in no way a perfect website, but so far I have received allot of compliments for the work I did and have lined up two more projects from people that want something similar. Simple clean easy to navigate and functional.

The website was designed using straight HTML with CSS. The willingness of Elliot himself to let me be creative without interference made the project fun to do and being a fan of his music helped more than I could explain.

His website features Videos from his debut album ‘Delirium Tremens’ along with some other videos of songs that have yet to find a home on a conventional CD. Half of the videos on the website were made by fans from all over the world and were done quite well, the addition of those fan made videos to his website shows how strong a connection he holds with his fans and encourages more fans to create videos with the possibility of getting them posted on his video page.

In addition to the videos, you can listen to a couple of the songs from ‘Delirium Tremens’ directly on his music page, there are also direct links on that page to buy his CD from iTunes or Amazon.

Although the website is functional it is not quite complete. I am still working on features that will be available to his visitors in the coming weeks. Those features include a WordPress blog so he can keep his fans up to date on what he’s up to, a forum and a PHP script that will allow visitors to buy his CD or individual songs directly off his website with an instant download.

You can view Elliot’s website at www.elliotbrownmusic.com

And I know your all anxious to take a listen to his music so here is a playlist featuring songs from ‘Delirium Tremens’

After taking some time to consider where my blog was heading after the first six months, I decided that I needed to focus my attention on a smaller number of topics that I am well qualified to report on. If you are a subscriber then you know that my blog posts were all over the place, from politics and news to web design and technology and everything in between. Recent projects have made me decide that I need to focus my attention on writing about web development, with a strong focus on WordPress.

I have several projects that I’m currently working on and I will be posting information about those projects very soon. One of those projects is the creation of free WordPress themes/templates that I will soon make available for download.

More than likely you found my blog from Google, or a link from another website and the page that you were referred to has been removed. Part of the process of transitioning my blog to a more “niche” environment is removing irrelevant and outdated posts, but I did keep a few of the old posts which have been moved to the Misc category.

Please be patient as I upgrade and improve my blog and be sure to check back for updates on my latest projects.

Del

HP Pavilion DV7 Laptop

The Laptop

Reliable and durable are two words I would associate with the HP Pavilion DV7 Laptop. This is the first Laptop that I’ve kept for more than a year so I thought maybe a review was in order. Normally I buy a new Laptop about once every 6 months to a year but because this one does pretty much everything I need it to do and because times are tough I wont be upgrading any time soon.

Lets Start with the hardware and basic specs. 

The Processor
The HP DV7-1232nr is powered by AMD’s Turion Dual core processor (2.2 GHz 64bit). The processor provides plenty of power for multitasking and gaming and runs all my graphics programs with ease. On the downside, the AMD mobile processors, especially the 64 bit dual core processors, run very hot so a Laptop cooling pad is highly recommended for any AMD Laptop. 

Memory
This Laptop comes standard with 4 gigs of RAM. I have considered upgrading to the max (8 gigs) but I don’t think its necessary. I can run several intense programs at the same time with no lag at all but I do have to deal with the heat issue when pushing the DV7 to the limit. Even on the cooling pad (which has two fans and elevates the Laptop for good air flow) when I watch a video, play a game or work in Photoshop the cooling fan on the Laptop will come on. 

Storage / Hard Drive
The HP DV7-1232nr comes with an adequate 320 gig hard drive with 13 gigs set aside for the backup partition and 285 gigs usable by the Operating System partition. The Hard Drive spins at 5,400 rpm not to bad for a standard Hard Drive but I think in this Laptop HP should have went with a 7,200 rpm Hard Drive. 

Peripherals
This version of the DV7 also comes with a no frills DVDRW drive for burning DVDs and cds (Unfortunately does not have lightscribe), a built in web cam, 3 usb 2.0 ports, HDMI, a remote control, which comes in handy for watching movies but I have to say it does not work very well. There is also an express card/pcmcia slot, VGA port and a multi card reader. All pretty much standard equipment on any Laptop these days. The DV7 series also has touch controls for music and video playback. I also like that it has 2 headphone jacks. 

Video
This is the one thing that this Laptop is lacking. The DV7-1232nr comes with an ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics card. This video card works great for watching movies and image editing but it seriously lacks in performance when it comes to gaming and video editing. One of the main reasons I bought this computer is because I thought this video card would be a good all around graphics solution, It is better than most but not as good as I expected. 

The Display
The HP Pavilion DV7 series comes with a 17 inch widescreen LCD display. (17.0” Diagonal WXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1440 x 900) Once you get used to a screen this large on a laptop it’s hard to go back to a 15 inch monitor. But the trade off in size of the machine is something to consider not to mention the weight. 

The Battery
This is the second draw back to this Laptop. The battery on average only lasts about 2 hours. Just enough time to watch a movie. If you do alot of camping like I do and like to take your Laptop along for entertainment you wont get much time to watch videos, work or play games without a power source nearby.

HP DV7 1232NR

The Case
The casing has been described as “elegant” by many other reviewers and it is attractive but the shiny finish on the casing leaves very noticeable fingerprints and needs to be cleaned often. With that being said, the case is very well designed, sturdy and durable. Last summer when I was at PDX getting ready to board my flight to North Dakota I wasn’t paying attention and my suit case fell over on the concrete walkway. My Laptop was the reason it fell over and all of the weight from my suitcase (about 45 pounds) landed on top of my laptop which hit the concrete very hard. Concerned that it might have damaged the computer, as soon as I boarded my flight I turned it on to make sure everything was OK and I examined the outside. The only damage that was done was a scratch on the top of the lid. The keyboard is full and feels natural, unlike most laptops it also has a number pad making it feel more like a desktop than a Laptop.

Software
Loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit and a mass of bloatware, trial software and junk software it takes about 2 to 3 hours to uninstall the junk and get this Laptop running the way it was meant to. The DV7 runs Windows Vista better than any other Laptop I’ve seen but I still recommend upgrading to windows 7 or downgrading to Windows XP. Or better yet, install a user friendly version of Linux like Ubuntu. I got rid of windows Vista and am currently running a dual boot system with Windows 7 ultimate 64bit and Linux Ubuntu 9.0. 

The actual HP Pavilion DV7-1232nr specs

Now that you have a general Idea of the HP Pavilion DV7, here is how I would rate this Laptop overall.

• Value – I bought this laptop at Staples in Feb 2009 for $599 – Grade A
• Performance, multitasking, processor power, memory – Grade A
• General Video performance – Grade A -
• Video Gaming performance – Grade C +
• Hardware, Hard Drive, Peripherals, DVDRW – Grade B +
• Battery power and portability – C +
• Fit and finish – A -
• Usability A
• Overall rating of this Laptop B +

Would I recommend this Laptop? 

The short answer, yes. If you are looking for a “desktop replacement” This HP Laptop would be a good choice. Even though generally newer desktops are faster and more powerful than this HP Laptop, most likely The HP DV7 series is going to be faster and have more features than the desktop you currently have. Not to mention you are not going to get a better value for the money.

The Mayan Calendar

Many people believe that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world. Before we get into what can, will or could happen in 2012 let’s take a closer and rational look at the Mayan Calendar.

The Mayan Calendar is actually three parts. There is a Religious Calendar, Solar Calendar and the Long Count. The part of the Mayan Calendar that ends in 2012 is the Long Count, Which ends December 21^st, 2012. For the sake of keeping this post as short as possible I am not going to go into great detail about the Mayan Calendar. For a more detailed description of the Mayan Calendar view this post.

The Mayan Calendar Ends

To say that the world will be destroyed, or life on earth will be wiped out on December 21^st, 2012 because the Mayan Calendar ends on that day is purely speculation. The truth is no one knows what that means, if anything. It is purely a guess by some that promotes fear in the minds of the ignorant; it is the equivalent of believing that your car will quit running when your odometer reaches 100,000 miles and turns over to start at zero again. It is very possible that the Long Count Calendar is a cycle Calendar that would begin again once it turns over. No one knows what it means therefore to speculate or make predictions about the end of the world because of it is irresponsible.

433 Eros

Cosmic Collision – (NEA) Near Earth Asteroid

Most people that believe the Mayan Calendar predicts the end of the world think that the Earth will be impacted by a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) or a Near Earth Object. One such Asteroid in question is 433 Eros. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/433_Eros and http://nineplanets.org/eros.html and http://near.jhuapl.edu/

433 Eros is an enormous Asteroid that will be coming near the Earth in 2012. To learn more about this Asteroid follow the links above or do a Google search for 433 Eros.

The problem with this theory is that 433 Eros is an enormous Asteroid that would indeed cause an extinction level event but 433 Eros is on a schedule that conflicts with the Mayan Calendar if it is indeed going to impact the Earth. 433 Eros will be closest to Earth January 31^st 2012 at about 16 million miles away. Scientists do not expect this Asteroid to impact the Earth but, if it did it would end life on Earth almost a full year before the Mayan Calendar predicts.

Planet X

Planet X is something we know far less about. Considering that I have not done much research on this one (yet) I cannot confidently post any information.

Only The Facts

So far I have shown that most people that believe the world will end in 2012 are not paying attention to the facts. So let’s take a look at what we KNOW WILL HAPPEN in late 2012 to help us make a more educated guess on if we are actually in danger.

What will happen in 2012

On December 21^st 2012 a very rare (approximately once every 26,000 years) planet alignment WILL take place. The alignment will take place during the suns peak solar cycle (AKA “solar maximum”). This alignment will have gravitation impact on the sun that we have never experienced before that could cause a major solar storm that could have no effect at all or could cause unknown damage and chaos here on Earth. During the peak solar period the earth could be hit by unusually strong solar storms that could knock out our communications systems (satellites) and other electrical systems that could cause serious problems for us on Earth. Some believe that the polarity of the Earth could change, even Einstein supported this theory. A change in the polarity could Move the North and South Poles, the Equator and would cause our compasses to no longer work. It would also disrupt the Earth’s electrical infrastructure on a permanent basis. If this polarity change were to happen the Oceans of the world would be displaced and most likely volcanoes would erupt or become active.

Some scientists theorize that if a massive solar storm hits the Earth it could cause the Earth’s core to heat up and liquefy allowing the Earth’s crust, or plates, to move freely around the surface of the planet. If that happened we would surely not survive. That theory is the plot of the move 2012.

A word

Obviously no one, not even scientists know what the result of the planetary alignment will be. At this point the only thing known for sure is that the alignment will take place and that it will take place during the suns “solar maximum” leaving us all to theorize and come up with our own conclusions and predictions. It seems like the less we know about something the more hype and attention it gets. 2012 is a hugely hot topic on the internet right now and as December 21, 2012 approaches I’m sure it will become discussed even more. Remember the millennium scare? From about 1998 to December 1999 there was almost a worldwide panic. Then January 2000 we realized there was nothing to fear at all.

What do I think will happen December 21st, 2012? 

The only thing I know for sure is that the malls will be packed with last minute Christmas shoppers

What can you do? Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I have sized these pictures at 1440 / 900 so they will work great if you want to set one as your desktop background.

These pictures were taken with a Canon A470 Digital Camera

Heres a short video taken at the same location.