Udder Talk » Udder Tips

Crazedlist.org – The best way to search Craigslist.org

dnyce — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:52:06 +0000

The more you know, the more you begin to realize that you know so little. A friend of mine recently dropped me a line on this website. I’ve been meaning to check it out but for some reason I could never find the time. The website is Crazedlist.org and it’s potential is limited only by your imagination.

Crazedlist has one simple trick. It allows you to search multiple Craigslist.org sites in one fell swoop. This means that you can find that toga you’ve been looking for in multiple colors, widths, heights, etc… Even more useful when your looking for a possible game purchase. If the seller is willing to ship merchandise to you then you could easily shop till you drop and find it across different locales.

Hope you enjoy it. :borg:

The best things in life…are still free.

dnyce — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:40:33 +0000

So you say you got a fix for all things free huh? Well look no further my friend. What I am going to show you today is going to open you up to a whole new world of free games, movies, videos, and software galore. :megaman:

The black market has always been a thing of amazement to me. I mean where else can I get a replacement body part, an unwanted child, and a cocktail of narcotics for a nominal fee? The internet has managed to put a new twist of the term “black market” and this twist means that gamers of the world are able to get their weapons of choice, games, for free. I want to re – introduce you all to the torrent.

Wait, Torre what?

You may have heard the term before, or you may be all too familiar with torrents, in which case this post is not for you.

A torrent as defined by Wikipedia:

“A torrent generally signifies a strong flow of something, especially fluids and particles, and in particular water or rain”

That version of the torrent may not seem too familiar to many of you, but it is the proper definition of the term. However, the following definition is what we’re after.

Also taken from Wikipedia:

“BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol. BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting and bandwidth resources. Instead, when data is distributed using the BitTorrent protocol, each recipient supplies pieces of the data to newer recipients, reducing the cost and burden on any given individual source, providing redundancy against system problems, and reducing dependence on the original distributor.

The protocol is the brainchild of programmer Bram Cohen, who designed it in April 2001 and released a first implementation on 2 July 2001. It is now maintained by Cohen’s company BitTorrent, Inc.

Usage of the protocol accounts for significant traffic on the Internet, but the precise amount has proven difficult to measure.

There are numerous compatible BitTorrent clients, written in a variety of programming languages, and running on a variety of computing platforms.”

It is this same protocol that feeds the beast that is the torrent marketplace. The sharing of software, content, media, etc… from p2 many p has created the best black market of them all. Torrents can provide you with free videos, free music, free software, and of course, free games.

But wait…nothing in life is free?

In the case of torrents, this is some what true. When you play with torrents, you are, for lack of a better set of words, playing with fire. You run the risk that you could actually be downloading a virus or even worse, spyware. You also run the risk that the software you are downloading has some really malicious anti – piracy capabilities built in. Lastly, you could end up with out internet. If the company who’s software you’re downloading finds out somehow that your sharing their software, then they have the right to contact your ISP and have them stop you from sharing the file/s. My recommendation is to back up your hard drive before proceeding into the world of torrents and p2p file sharing. Tread with caution and don’t get greedy. Also, remember to make use of the files and software you find for yourself alone, DO NOT SELL THE SOFTWARE YOU DOWNLOAD.

So how do I get started
Well it’s easy really.

1) Download and install a torrent client like BitTorrent. uTorrent, or Azureus

2) Go to Google and type in the name of whatever piece of software you’re looking for followed by the word “torrent”

3) Once it’s downloaded simply double click on the torrent file and let the magic happen

To start, check out the following links:

Isohunt – Claims to be the world’s largest BitTorrent and P2P file sharing community, and I would have to agree with them. If you can’t find it here, then you can always try Google again but odds are, you won’t have too.

Wikipedia – More information BitTorrent and the protocol that we have all grown to love.

Finding one’s voice is not the same as finding the force.

dnyce — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:31:46 +0000

When it comes to blogging, I tend to let my mind go off on it’s own tangents then I try to calm it down and gather up as much meaningful information as I can. I recently let my mind go running and I came up with a post that I dubbed perfect for John Chow. I then sent it along to him as a guest post. The readers over there took it in and broke it down, but all in all I think they got the final message. Check it out here. :megaman:

Is eBay really just e – Xpensive?

dnyce — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:20:59 +0000

My girlfriend and I have been looking for an iRobot Roomba. We are both price conscious individuals and so naturally, we want the best bang for our buck. The problem is that with all the models of the roomba available, we are hard pressed to decide where we should limit ourselves, in terms of price and accessories. I could write a whole new post on just that, but the issue at hand came about when we went looking for a deal on the auction god website that is eBay.

My girlfriend is constantly searching through listings with the keywords “Roomba new” looking for that diamond in the rough, i.e. a brand spanking new Roomba for dirt cheap! I then decided to test out a method that a college professor taught to a group of us gifted students back in my hay day. He stated that if you were to do a search, outside of eBay, for atleast 5 minutes, then you should come up with deals that are likely to be either better, or equal in price. I went digging through Google and I managed to find deals galore on the Roomba, all within 2 minutes. As it would turn out, coupons are all over the internet for these things.

The average price of the 535 model on Ebay is ~ $215 (including shipping). Checking around google, I was able to find it for: $212 shipped from HSN with a coupon code.

The average price of the 560 model on Ebay is ~ $305 (including shipping). Checking around google, I was able to find it for: $300 shipped straight from iRobot with a coupon code OR I can march down to the local Bed Bath and Beyond and use a 20% off coupon and buy it there for $302 as well.

Bottom Line

I think we’ll be purchasing our Roomba from somewhere other than an eBay.

I do not want to imply that a deal cannot be found on eBay. There are plenty of deals to be had if you are willing to wait it out, but for the every day consumer, you would be better off looking else where for your next purchase. Try it for yourself and come back with comments.

Note from Devon: eBay is great for those hard to find items, think every Playstation, Xbox, or new game console that is in short supply come Release day. Just remember, rare items come at a high price. :whatever:

Taming the FireFox. 5 add-ons every Webmaster must have.

dnyce — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:30:16 +0000

As a webmaster your job is rough enough. You have to stay on top of Google, while maintaining those 5 star ratings from your readers. You have to maintain multiple websites while building traffic to… all of them. You have to learn to endure the days when the revenue just isn’t there. Let’s face it, life ain’t fair, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get help from your web browser. Below you will find 5 tools for use with Firefox that I personally use to get my job done, day in and day out. Hope they can lend you that helping hand, like they do for me on a daily basis.

SearchStatus Toolbar

If you care at all about your google and Alexa rankings then you will want to grab this handy little toolbar add on. It displays both the Alexa and Google PR ranking of the website that your currently browsing. As a web marketer myself, I install this tool as soon as I install firefox and set it to default over IE.

Web Developer Toolbar

This tool places some key web design/development buttons in your toolbar. I like to use this one in combination with the next add – on as a web developer knock out punch.

FireBug

This tool is perfect for editing, debugging, and monitoring the CSS of your website (or any website that your currently browsing). I personally love this tool and use it in combination with the Web Developer Toolbar.

FireFTP

A File Transfer Protocol for Firefox, although it is not the best tool for making File Transfers out there, it’s free and works great in FireFox. I use this tool to transfer files whenever I make use of my Linux powered Laptop.

Colorzilla

Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies, this tool is quickly becoming my favorite of the pack. I use it to quickly find RGB color codes whenever I surfing around the web. It is great for finding a particular color code on the fly, rather than my old method of printing the screen then pasting it into Fireworks. If you do a lot of design work and need to cherry pick color schemes from a variety of websites, then you should not be without this add – on.

There you have it folks. My top five Firefox plugins that help me get the job done day in and day out. Now before the hate mail starts flowing in, I know that there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of Add – ons out there for Firefox. This list is simply my top picks. If you have others that get the job done better, then please be sure to let me know by commenting.