SEO in The Desert - The Web Optimist of Palm Springs

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Cool Links July 23rd, 2008

Who Killed the Electric Car?I know this has nothing to do with SEO, but it does relate to technology and, well, I just feel the need to let folks know about this documentary, which I missed when it was originally shown in a limited number of theaters.

I recently watched the Who Killed the Electric Car? DVD and must say, it is an eye opener. I was in California when the state mandated that car manufacturers produce vehicles with zero emissions. While it was in place, I saw all kinds of electric cars here in the Palm Springs desert - the EV1, Honda and others. That was a decade ago.

Apparently, the auto companies, with help from the oil companies and politicians, convinced California to drop the mandate, and the electric cars were immediately pulled from consumers who loved them! The EV1 electric car that is followed in this documentary is one hot little car, but GM killed it, recalled all of them (they could only be leased) and destroyed them rather than sell to consumers who were begging to buy the vehicles.

So, we’ve had the technology for a quiet, practical around town electric car for years. The Japanese got the message and started producing hybrids, while the USA car companies came out with gas guzzlers like the Hummer.

Now, we are paying for big business greed and politics.

This should be required viewing for every American citizen. I highly encourage everyone to watch this. In addition to purchasing a DVD, Netflix has it. For more information on the movie, see the site.

MTV Like It Used To Be - Online!

Cool Links July 14th, 2008

Yes, you can have your MTV, even in 2008!In my post a few months ago, Social Media & S E O: I Want My MTV!, I lamented the loss of the original MTV format - 24 hours of non-stop music videos. If you’ve watched the channel lately, you’ll see music videos from time to time, but the format is mostly movies, music related documentaries and bad reality programming.

An interesting Internet-only TV channel has stepped in to fill the void. Available through TVU Networks, the strangely named BroccoliTV shows 80s videos non-stop (I’m watching The B-52s Love Shack video as I write this). It’s free. You can either watch through your browser (I could only get it to work with Internet Explorer, not Firefox) or you can download their viewing software.

TVU Networks offers a lot of other Internet video viewing, including a few cable channels like Sci-Fi Channel and Comedy Central. Most channels work great, but some could stand for better compression as they came through jerky, even on my 130 Mbps connection.

Cool! Hot in the City and White Wedding by Billy Idol!

I miss the VJs, though!

Gas Price Search

Cool Links April 24th, 2008

Oil well pumpHere’s a pretty cool link that lets you check for the lowest gasoline prices in your area.

This MSN service is apparently updated every evening and includes a map of the area with place marks to help you find the stations. I checked for my zip code and the best price is $3.75 per gallon (OUCH!) today.

I need to lose weight anyway. Guess it’s time to break out the walking shoes!

Multiple Monitors or PCs? Check Out These Must-Have Freebies!

Cool Links April 2nd, 2008

Video demo of free software for ultiple monitors and PCsSEO rock star Danny Sullivan wrote about his monitor set up on his personal blog not too long ago. Danny recently joined the dark side and went Mac, purchasing a laptop after realizing he had the only PC laptop at a recent company meeting. He’s sold on the Mac now, but needed some MacBook Pro solutions for his multiple monitor set up in the post.

Since I don’t have a Mac, I didn’t really have any solutions for him, but it got me to thinking about my own computer and monitor arrangement and how well it works for me. And, I have to give a lot of the credit to free software. See the image below for a look at my monitors and the laptop in its stand. Danny’s got a cool three-monitor stand for his screens. I’ll get there.

My laptop and dual monitor setup

Sorry for the image quality, but it’s the best my iPhone could do. ;-)

Here’s quick rundown of my personal PC situation. My main work computer is an HP M9080N PC running Windows Vista. When I purchased it, I decided to max it out on hard drive space, so it’s got 1TB between the two hard drives along with a 700 GB personal media drive and a 160 GB pocket media drive.

My primary monitor includes speakers as you can see. I’m using a Tritton SEE2 USB 2.0 VGA Adapter to power a second monitor, which sits on the right of the main monitor. To the left, I have a Toshiba laptop that is provided by FramesDirect.com, who I work for as their SEO in residence. This laptop is connected to their servers by VPN for Exchange email, access to their control panels, VOIP system, etc. For a while, I had a separate wireless mouse and keyboard set up for the laptop, but as mentioned in my post Share a Mouse with Two or More PCs, using a free software tool by the name of Synergy, I am able to share the desktop PC mouse and keyboard across all three screens by way of IP addresses. It’s almost like having three monitors.

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Get a Who’s Who Listing

Cool Links January 24th, 2008

The folks over at Website Magazine, a terrific publication covering online marketing and SEO that happens to be free (Subscribe here), are offering free publicity for your site in the form of a Who’s Who Directory.

If you haven’t visited the magazine’s web site, head over to http://www.websitemagazine.com/index.htm to see what they’ve got to offer. While you’re there, click on the “Who’s Who” tab at the top of the page. if you scroll down you’ll see the directory listing that you can get in on.

Website Magazine's Who's Who Directory

Signing up is free and simple. They allow you to post information on your company site, including a 120×120 image, personal profiles, company photos and, as of this writing, a clean link back to your site (no link condom). And, you can add additional companies if you like.

Here’s what my listing looks like:

Web Optimist listing in the Who's Who Directory

Naturally, once you set up your account, you’ll see options for purchasing CPC advertising, but the basic directory listing is free, just like the magazine.

Networking and a free listing in one directory. You can’t beat it, so head on over and check it out.


Copyright © Richard Burckhardt, The Web Optimist
P.O. Box 5507
Palm Springs, CA 92263
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