It has been a very busy week, perhaps you could have guessed that by they fact that I have not posted anything in a couple of days. I won’t apologize for not posting here but I have been busy posting over at Epiblogger.

Take a look at these three posts that I have up over at Epiblogger.

Obscurity to Popularity – Entrecard

Use WordPress to Welcome Visitors

5 WordPress Security Essentials

Happy New Year! I hope that you have had a good 2007 and that 2008 will be a good one for you.

I personally have been getting sick of reading all of the top 2007 and goals for 2008 posts that have been posted lately so I refuse to do one of those here. I will have a major announcement soon about a new project I am involved in so stay tuned this week for the post.

Merry Christmas to everyone! It has been a good year and I am looking forward to 2008. I hope that everyone has a chance relax and spend time with family. I know I am looking forward to having some fun with my kids in the snow.

For all my clients, thank you for your business. It has been a pleasure working with you through out 2007 and I look forward to working with you in 2008. Instead of sending out presents to clients this year I decided to donate to the One Laptop per Child program. If you have not heard about the program, it is an education program whose mission is to help educate children. You can read more about the program on the One Laptop per Child website. If you want to get involved in helping to educate children you can get involved at the One Laptop Per Child giving website. The geek in me thinks the laptop looks pretty cool.

All the best in 2008!

From the strange and wonderful world of my log files I discovered that I am number one for the term “Internet geek” when you search Blogger profiles. I took a screenshot that you can see below. I also saved it using Furl, my latest favourite social bookmarking site. You will need to be logged into Furl to see the cached page. Here is a link to the profile search results.

I tried to find out how you search Blogger profiles, but I could not find it. Did not even know it existed until today. Does anyone know how to search Blogger profiles? I wonder if my profile will be moved over to the new Google profiles that have been talked about recently. Maybe I can rank number one there for Internet Geek as well.

I got a good laugh out of it, I don’t know about you.

I remember the days of the local bulletin board systems and dialing in to take part in the conversations. Bulletin board systems are the precursors of the modern internet forums. The earliest forums date back to 1996. Today web forums are the most active and alive forms of social media you can find.

To have a good experience and get the most out of web forums there are some very basic things you should remember.

• Read the rules of the forum. Every forum is different and has different rules. Some allow you to have signatures with links on your posts, some don’t. Some allow you to advertise your services other forums don’t. I have been guilty of not reading to rules and having posts deleted.
• Be respectful. This can be difficult when others post viewpoints that differ from your own, but remember that everyone there is there to share, learn and take part. Most forums also request that foul language not be used.
• Don’t spam. I should not even have to say this. No one likes it and it will just get you banned.
• Write clear and complete sentences. Forums are not chat rooms. Questions and answers are much easier to understand when they are written out with no short hand.
• Use the search feature. The search box is there for a reason. Always try searching for your answer before asking.

By following a few simple rules forums can be a great place to learn, discuss and discover new things that you are interested in. There are forums on all kinds of topics and you are sure to find one that interests you.

Aside from doing web development I also provide computer repair and support here in my community. I enjoy doing it and it gets me out of the office at least once a week to do something other than coding, doing webmaster stuff and lately blogging. I Stumbled across these PC Dice today and I thought that it was really funny. There are some days I could really use these. I know those of you that do computer support and repair on a day to day basis will really appreciate these PC Dice. They will make your day go so much faster. This is probably the best gag gift I have seen lately.

Today is Rememberance Day here in Canada and I would like to take a moment to thank all of the people who have and are still serving in our armed forces. Your sacrifices and work is not forgotten and is appreciated.

I hope everyone can take a couple of minutes to honour our veterans.

This has got to be the coolest shirt I have ever seen! Nothing like wearing a wi-fi detector shirt that changes depending on the strength of the wi-fi signal where you are. I have to put this on my Christmas list. Nothing like being able to walk around and know if there is a wi-fi signal around that you might be able to hope onto. Not to mention it will really come in handy when I am setting up a new wireless network at a clients house or business and it will just be cool to wear around and have it animate.

For those interested here are the product features:

• Glowing animated shirt dynamically displays the current wi-fi signal strength.
• Shows signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g
• Black 100% Cotton T-Shirt
• Animated Decal is Removable (with hook and loop fasteners) for Easy Washing
• Battery Pack is Concealed in a Small Pocket Sewn Inside the Shirt
• Runs for hours off three AAA Batteries (not included)

If anyone feels so generous to send me one I take an XL. Maybe I will find one in my Christmas stocking? There are just so many cool gadgets over at ThinkGeek  I could get all my Christmas presents for myself there.

I finally got around to replacing the carpet in your little kitchen nook with some new laminate flooring. I took pictures as I went and put them together in this little video. It is 30 secs long so you won’t have to site forever to watch it. It is hard to tell from the video, but the floor turned out pretty good. It took me about 6 hours, but I was also answering the phone and checking and replying to emails occasionally through out the day. I probably could have had it done sooner if I actually turned off the phone and computer. Hard to do that when you run your own business.

It is hard to tell but if you look out the window you see our great yard. We have a 200 foot lot, so it goes on forever. You can see the hedge, past that is our garden and fruit trees.

Now I can’t say I never win anything. I submitted a comment in Smashing Magazine’s Anniversary Developer’s Tools Giveaway post and my name was drawn!

I have been wanting to try Crazy Egg, but have not gotten around to it with everything else that has been going on. I will have to do a write up once I get the account and install it on some pages. I have been using the Google Analytics overlay and that shows some interesting data, but it is the heat maps data that I will be most interested in seeing.

Thanks again to Smashing Magazine for the great anniversary prizes!