24 hours of adsense, and I haven’t earned a penny! What are the chances of that?
On the upside I did score a google analytics invite that I’d requested months ago. So while you’re reading this I’m probing you. Or Google is probing both of us.
It's not all caviar and baby wipes, mate
Monthly Archives: April 2006
My Big Web 2.0 Idea
Widgets are everywhere; WordPress, TypePad, OS X, and about 56 million other places according to Google. But up until now there hasn’t been one place that collects all of these together*, highlighting trends, allowing you to identify favorites on one platform and find matching functionality for other applications. Rest easy, because I’m poised to launch** widgr.com, a site that, um, does what I just said.
I’m thinking bold pastels, rounded corners, floaty AJAX things, and of course the all-important missing letter before the ‘r’. There’ll be advertising, of course, but really I’m doing it for the sense of giving back to the community. That and the thought of millions of Americans unknowingly using a British slang word for a boy’s thingy.
*I didn’t actually check, but it’s a fair bet
**Not really – who’s got the time?
How not to replace your bike’s brake cables
I recently bought a couple of new components for my bike. I replaced my handlebars because they weren’t a comfortable size for me – the distance to the drop was too great, and they weren’t that comfortable when I got there. So that’s out, replaced by a nice Ritchey Pro Biomax
I also replaced the brakes, upgrading from some Tektro generic types to Shimano Ultegras (last year’s model, all hail eBay!) One of the known weaknesses of my bike is the braking, and while I didn’t find it a big problem the brakes are the second most important component* on the bike, so an upgrade seemed worthwhile. Oh, and did I mention they were lighter? Well only a few grams in this case, but I’m already dragging my belly around so every little helps.
Replacing all this meant it was a good time to replace the brake cables, and because the new brakes were different shapes to the old ones I needed to shorten some of the brake housings. And that’s where some advice that a woodwork tutor gave me many years ago, and which I had proven out only a couple of days earlier on a DIY project, totally failed me. The advice? “Measure twice, cut once.” I, of course, measured by eye and snipped wildly, so now I have to stop by the store and get a replacement housing.
*The tires, in case you were wondering
Commerce
You may have noticed a new layout. What can I say, I get bored easily. Along with that I’ve added some capitalist elements to the blog. The first is a link to my host, together with a promo code to save $50. As much as anything this is because a number of people have asked me what host I use (because they’re excellent), so now I can just send them here.
Even more raw, I’ve added a discrete Google Adsense section. No, I don’t expect to make money from this. In fact, that’s kind of the point; I want to see how much a modest (oh so modest) blog like this makes from the system. Most of my traffic is bots/spam, and most of the rest is about 6 friends who I don’t expect will click the links. So will I make 50 cents? A dollar? Maybe, gasp, $2.50! We’ll see, and in roundabout, none-TOS-breaching terms I’ll let you know.