Site Went Splat
February 28, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under TECH
Yesterday the site was working fine and then Yahoo must have made some change to one of their servers or software because suddenly my site was totally unavailable. After waiting on the phone for over 1 1/2 hours, and then discussing the errors with the tech support guy, he finally checked with the system people and found the problem was on their side, but they had no idea what had happened to cause it. (Big surprise.)
So my choice was to either wait until it’s fixed (which was supposed to be within 12 hours at the least!) or to finally move to Bluehost.com, which I’d been thinking of doing anyway. (Guess they helped make up my mind, eh?) I like Bluehost
as I already use it for other things, and they have decent pricing, great tools, and handy tech support if needed. They also support more add-ons than Yahoo, and let you tweak things at a more advanced level so this should make future website handling quite a bit easier for me.
I’m glad I decided to move the files – 24 hrs later, and the original site at Yahell, I mean, Yahoo, still is giving out http 400 errors with no fix in site, er, sight…
So, I will be trying to restore or replace the articles that were previously here and add new ones along the way in the meantime. (It’s always something in the fun and fascinating world of blogging and website design.)
Unfortunately, if I try to restore my previous backup, the files lockup or some are missing (differences between Yahoo’s MySQL and everyone else’s?), so any and all previous comments have been lost. Sorry ’bout that…
BTW, the irony of the situation is, Yahoo sent me their annual ‘how do you like our Small Business Hosting’ service just a few hours before they killed mine. How’s that for timing? LOL
TORCHWOOD Fan Convention Coming in April
February 26, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under TV SHOWS, Torchwood
Like STAR TREK, STAR WARS, and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, TORCHWOOD is now joining the hallowed ranks of TV shows and movies with fan conventions.
To test out how well it will be received, it will be held just for one day at the Porchester Hall in London on April 26 with actress Eve Myles among the guest stars taking part in the TORCHWOOD event.
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Epson America – More Annoying Than Ever
February 26, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under TECH
I just got an email notification from one of my favorite online ink cartridge retailers that they will be discontinuing most, if not all of their Epson compatible inkjet cartridges.
It appears Seiko Epson has been busy suing approx 24 makers of compatible cartridges pretty much saying that unless these companies are willing to pay for a license to use Epson technology – which would of course increase the cost and thus the price of compatible cartridges making them no better deal than the originals – then Epson is going to find a way to force them out of business to try to boost their own bottom line which has gone into the red recently.
Epson’s complained that they don’t make any money on actually selling printers and need to make all their money on the after-market cartridges and refilling used ones. Note: I find that funny as none of my cartridges for either my CX88 or CX5800F are refillable and Epson has made them such that if you accidentally pull out one and try to use it again, it’s ruined and won’t work anymore, no matter how much ink is left in it. Not to mention, Epson just got class-action sued for making their own cartridges trigger the “empty” signal long before they really are… (Detect a pattern there?)
It seems to me that the money they’ve spent suing these people (no doubt contributing to the loss they posted) would have been better spent on developing lower cost cartridges in order to compete better and make customers happy rather than pulling the rug out from people already using their printers.
Epson’s printer sales have dropped due to miscalculating the number of people wanting stand-alone printers versus multifunction units and they say they’ll have to sell current inventory at a loss in order to “realign” their inventory to the market. So, it seems, we consumers have to “fix” their business model by paying even more for supplies from only one source – them. Yeeesh.
The only reason I bought Epson this last time was they have separate cartridges for Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, (and Black) so I didn’t have to throw away 2 colors when the 3rd ran out (as you do in brands that have all 3 “colors” in 1). Another reason I went with Epson was there were alternatives to their exorbitantly priced “brand” name cartridges. However, now that that’s changing and places like Office Max and Walgreen’s refill cartridges from brands like HP with quality ink, I definitely will probably switch printer brands as refillable cartridges are more ecologically-sound anyway besides less expensive than what Epson will be offering. (With NO competition, their ultimate goal, I can just imagine what price heights their own cartridges would reach.)
So I guess Epson won’t have to worry about losing money on selling me my next printer as I won’t be buying another given their latest business practices.
Ultimate Muscle Advantage Live Teleseminars
February 25, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under HEALTH
If you have any desire to build a ripped and muscular physique, but you still don’t have the body you deserve and you’re frustrated and confused with all the conflicting info, this might be the most important article you read in 2008!
For the past few months, personal trainer and muscle building author, Vince DelMonte has rounded up the world’s biggest muscle building experts all in one place!
http://spotlight-on.com/go?ultimatemuscleadvantage
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And The Oscar Goes To…
February 24, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under MOVIES
In what I thought was an interesting twist, the 80th Annual Best Picture Oscar went to the movie featuring the Best Supporting Actor instead of the picture with the Best Actor. In fact, none of the lead actors of the Best Picture were nominated for their roles in it… (Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for a Best Actor, but for a different movie.)
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN took home 4 awards (Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role) making it the “winningest” movie of the year. It appears Javier Bardem’s performance helped push the movie to the top over THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Best Actor in a Lead Role, Best Cinematography).
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When Will Your Favorite Show Be Back On?
February 21, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under House, TV SHOWS
According to Yahoo! TV, here’s how the writer’s strike affected some of people’s favorites shows and when they’l finally be on the air with new shows (that is if anyone remembers where they left off in the first place!):
GREY’S ANATOMY:
Five new episodes will be shot with new ones to begin airing April 24th
HOUSE:
Four new episodes are on the slate with a start date of April 28th (that’s a move to Monday nights for anyone who’s used to tuning in Tuesdays)
30 ROCK:
Five to six new episodes are expected with air dates starting April 10th
CSI (Las Vegas):
Six new episodes are to air beginning April 3rd
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES:
Six new episodes (including the 2-hour season finale) will hit the airwaves with the first on April 13th
CSI: NEW YORK:
Looks like seven episodes are on their way to start showing April 7th
THE OFFICE:
Will be sending us six new episodes, the first on April 10th
CSI: MIAMI:
They’ll be going for eight new episodes to begin March 24th
UGLY BETTY:
They figure on five episodes starting April 24th
LAW & ORDER SVU:
Five new episodes to be released starting April 15th
BROTHERS AND SISTERS:
Four more shows starting April 20th
WITHOUT A TRACE:
Six more shows to appear beginning April 3rd
MY NAME IS EARL:
Going for a record with nine new eps starting March 17th
TWO AND A HALF MEN:
Sharing the spotlight with EARL, these guys are also going for nine new eps to begin March 17th
BOSTON LEGAL:
Aiming for six new shows to start April 8th
Blu-ray Wins By Default
February 21, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under GAMING, MOVIES, TECH
It appears that in the battle of the formats, Toshiba America has finally thrown in the towel, and announced that they will be discontinuing their HD DVD format players/recorders, giving the Blu-Ray format backed by Sony the match by default.
Quite a few people are upset given that they purchased player/recorders and XBox’s with HD DVD heavily last year and for Christmas in anticipation of many more titles to come, and now the big retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon, Best Buy, and movie studios like Universal and Paramount have said they will follow Toshiba’s lead, and drop providing new stuff in HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray. Owners of the pretty much now-defunct format are saying they would have gone PS3 instead if Toshiba could have admitted they lost the format wars way back when instead of making sure they were able to sell of existing inventory at full price for the holidays.
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Now THAT’s a Frog!
February 20, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under OTHER
Northwestern Madagascar definitely breeds ‘em big. According to scientists who unearthed fossils of this monster, “Beelzebufo” or Devil Frog, as it’s been named, was the size of a bowling ball, heavily armored, had teeth, and lived among the dinosaurs way back when, possibly munching on baby dinosaurs for snacks.
The drawing, by Dan Klores Communications, shows a Beelzebufo ampinga staring down the largest known living Malagasy frog, Mantydactylus ampinga. Just to get an idea of perspective, a full-length pencil is included in the drawing.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d want to meet THIS frog on a dark night (or even during a bright sunny day)! RIBBBIT… CHOMP
Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight
February 20, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under OTHER
Due to some REALLY beautifully clear (and very cold) skies, we got a great view of tonight’s total lunar eclipse.
Given the amount of clouds we’ve had all week at night, I was extremely surprised we got a break and very grateful since this is the last total one until 2010.
I took the picture above with my Canon PowerShot
What’s really scary is this picture taken with a digital camera actually turned out much, much better than one I tried to take years ago with a Minolta 35mm w/telephoto lens. Weird.
Next-Gen Engineering!
February 19, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under TECH
(Concept Pictures by New York’s Fxfowle architects)
Talk about an amazing feat of engineering – POPULAR MECHANICS has an article about the new arch bridge about to go in at Dubai in the United Arab Emirates:
It will be almost as tall as the Golden Gate Bridge at its highest (with the GG Bridge standing up to 746ft and the Dubai bridge standing 670ft). However, the mile-long Dubai bridge will be able to handle up the 12 lanes of traffic in EACH direction allowing up to 2000 cars across per HOUR on each side making it the largest arch bridge in the world when it’s completed in 2012!
Talk about amazing! And they even managed to make it very, very cool looking at the same time. And using the newest tech, this bridge should hopefully be quake-proof and stand up to quite a bit of beating, giving the Golden Gate and the new Bay Bridge Skyway runs for their money as some of the world’s greatest bridges.
