Category Archives: web tools

DYJHIW means…

Texting or sending sms has changed the way people communicated with each other. No, not only that, it has changed the way family dynamics has evolved. No, not only that, texting has changed the way personal relationships, friendships, business partnerships, and whatever kind of relationship that needs constant communication.

As a matter of fact, the texting frenzy as well as the chat culture has in itself a whole new language that adults will surely have a hard time understanding.

Below are a few chat symbols that represent something else to the trained eye. Are you ready to take the challenge to guess what these are?

Let’s see if you can guess these three samples of commonly used smileys:

:’-( or :-} or %-D

Here are some love expressions cyber style:

:-X or [] or (:-….

Can you guess who these favorite characters are who have become smileys?

3:-) or *<:-) or =):-)

Meet new friends in cyber space:

Q:-) or B-) or 8=:-)

What animals are these?

:3-< or :@) or OOOOO<

Ok, enough said. For those who want to know what these letters mean, read on:

Mobile1: WU?

Mobile2: YKW? OTP

Mobile1: CUL

Mobile2: SYS

Too easy? Try this one:

HO. IHAIM. BRB.

Ok, for now, TTFN. MNC. %-D

Here is a useful guide: Webopedia.
Read an interesting New York Times article.

Splogs

Splog or spam blogging is a menace. Sure it links to your posts and may even up blog’s links. But in truth, these are fake blogs. These fake blogs copy the first few sentences from blogs and post these in their site with some links going to where the posts were copied. Some popular topics covered are about gambling, poker, home mortgage and even parenting.

Here is an example of splogging which I have removed the link attached to the permalink (the permalink is linkless 😀 ) :

I Wear My Sunglasses At Night » Zenni Optical Glasses | iwearmysunglassesatnight.sunglassesbargain.com/2008/02/22/zenni-optical-glasses | IP: 69.41.230.6

[…] unknownnHBifocal lens, tinted sunglasses, sunsensor, progressive and single exteroception lense are offered. The Best Thing Found: Zenni Optical add sells internationally and candid to the customers the drug eyeglasses so the prices are not … […]

When I clicked the link, the splog site was gone. Instead, I found this:

The website you are trying to view has been suspended due to a breach of our Acceptable Use Policy.

Anyway, what can be seen when the link is clicked is my post. Yup, this is a repository of posts written by other bloggers, aiming to achieve high search engine result through the use of keywords and links found in posts written in blogs. These rake in money from pay-per-click ads.

Click these articles to read more about splogging:

 

The Guardian’s Cashing in on Fake Blogs

Wired’s Spam + Blogs = Trouble

Mark Cuban’s A Splog Here, A Splog There…

Maria Langer’s Google, Adsense and Splogging

Underground Text Link Seller

First day of February, this email came:

 

—– Original Message —–
From: A___ K____
To: abcdefg@teacherjulie.com
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 12:19 AM
Subject: can i buy an ad on your teacher julie site?

Hey ______,

Your list of “you might be in Education” is really funny…and true. I like #14

Say, I was wondering if I can place an ad on this page http://teacherjulie.com/2006/08/05/you-might-be-in-education/
for someone who runs an online learning site?

I don’t have much, but I can pay $___ for an ad there. If this works for you let me know and I’ll send you over the ad and the payment.

Thanks,
A___K____

This was the reply I made:

 

From: abcdefg@teacherjulie.com
Sent: Thu 1/31/2008 2:28 PM
To: A____ K______
Subject: Re: can i buy an ad on your teacher julie site?

can i buy an ad on your teacher julie site?

A____,

Thank you for the interest in putting an ad in that particular page. I am skeptic though because you see, the post I made was not my own since the source can be found below it, www.teachingheart.net. I think that that would not be fair to the site where I got the article.
I am sorry I think I have to refuse your offer, even if it sounds so tempting because your $____ is a lot of money where I am.

I hope you understand.

Best Regards,
http://teacherjulie.com
http://homeschooling.teacherjulie.com
http://greenbucks.teacherjulie.com

P.S. #14 is funny, yes, I am a teacher but I do homeschooling.

To which the man replied again:

Magandang Umaga!

Thanks for getting back to me so soon. Great News – I took another look at your site and found 6 pages that I’d like to get ads on. I can offer you $_____ for advertising on these 6 pages.

Here are the 6 pages I’d like to get ads on:

http://homeschooling.teacherjulie.com/2007/11/11/sibika-mag-anak-family/
http://teacherjulie.com/2007/11/23/amazing-blogger-award/
http://homeschooling.teacherjulie.com/2008/02/01/science-centrum-field-trip/

http://homeschooling.teacherjulie.com/category/photo-hunters/
http://homeschooling.teacherjulie.com/2007/09/07/bodies-of-water-anyong-tubig/
http://homeschooling.teacherjulie.com/?s=fruits

On this page http://homeschooling.teacherjulie.com/2008/02/01/science-centrum-field-trip/, here’s the ad that I’d like:

—————————————–
http://www.dimacc.com/users/Alex/teacherjulie.html
—————————————–

Please avoid using the words “ADS” or “SPONSOR” as this actually decreases clicks.

If this works for you I’ll send you over the other 5 ads for the other pages. Once they’re live, I will pay you through PAYPAL or a CHECK (whichever you’d prefer).

Thank you for your time,

A____

I don’t know but I didn’t reply back.

Then in a group mail subscription that I am a part of, JMom included a link that made me think about this harder.

Were those offers I got were from underground text link server?

Plugins, Widgets and Blinkies

I do not spend 100% of my time online writing posts. I read online publication especially current events and magazines. I read blogs. But there is that thing about SOME blogs that are not very appealing to me.

Why?

 

There is just way TOO MANY or TOO MUCH (because I can’t count every one) of these things:

  • blinkies
  • plugins
  • widgets
  • awards
  • video
  • audio
  • kilometric blogroll
  • what-have-yous

Feeds and other forms of subscriptions to the blog are ok with me. Archives and post categories can be compressed or maybe not, because these are the blog’s own records. Links or blogroll can be put in a separate page. As much as possible, do not put too many or is it too much blinkies, plugins, widgets, video, audio, whatever seem nice to the eyes but not really necessary. Not only does it make the blog looked cluttered, it doesnt look good to have a kilometric page when the permalink is just a two-three inches long.

My suggestion? Have these in separate pages. We do not need to see every badge, every award, every blinky, every plugin, every video, every photo posted in Flicker, even every book in an online bookshelf that the blog owner has, on the main blog’s page itself.

Am I just too criticizing?