Cashquests is GONE…

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After the successful auction I reported yesterday… Well, seems that Cashquests’ inspiring blog by Kumiko Suzuki is gone… I logged into see what was happening after her blog was sold, and to my horror I found this ugly domain place holder. All other posts are now redirecting to that domain parking mess. Ugly as sin… I’m sure she must be shocked, too.

cashquests is gone

I can’t even bring myself to link to the CRAPPY Domain that has taken its place. Of course, its Page Rank has gone back to zero after such a huge change… Let’s hope that the new owner is planning to resurrect the blog. After all, moving a domain, posts and a blog to a new location isn’t that hard…

We’ll be checking back in seven days to see what is happening. I don’t see how with a top 5000 ranking on Technorati, a PR of 5, and a high Alexa ranking that giving up this blog can be a good thing… What are your thoughts? I’m sure you’ll miss her blog as much as I do… I know I’ll miss the traffic from that link she sold me!

DashBoard Editor: Changing your Dashboard in Wordpress

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Sometimes as a blogger, I get tired of the traditional feel and look of the Administration Panel, and the slow loading of the Wordpress feeds drives me nuts. I’ve already tinkered with the Administration page before on more than one occasion, but recently, I’ve been trying two plugins that are pretty neat: DashBoard Editor (this post) and MyDashBoard (Thursday).

DashBoard Editor
The first is Dashboard Editor, which is a simple panel that adds a dashboard configuration switch under the Dashboard editor. Currently, I can’t get the website to load but you can try again later.

dashboard-clean

It’s very simple to operate. And, most importantly, it works in a non-destructive way, so you can simply disable the plugin, and everything’s back to normal.

At the top you will see a text area that you can type in. This text will appear in the dashboard. Formatting is very similar to the bb-code style of posts and pages. If you used to blog in WP1.0+, you will already be familiar with the switches.

Below that area are a number of check boxes, all of which are self explanatory. They will allow you to remove the feeds, incoming links, news and so on. Of course, you can simply clean everything and start from nothing. One of the neatest features is that you can use Plugins, too. If you look at the last switch entitled “Use Sidebar Widgets”, this will create a separate column under your Presentation >>> Widgets menu. Simply create, add or move any widgets you want to show up on the Admin panel.

There are some limitations that you may wish to consider:
1. There’s no obvious way to have a widget in two places, though, ie. in your Admin Sidebar as well as the general sidebar(s). Also, the Admin sidebar is only available to those who login.

2. If your blog has many users who can register and login, you may wish to think carefully about the information you enter. For example, putting passwords for your email account in there may not be the wisest thing to do! Currently, there is no way to change the Admin area for different levels of users.

Overall, it’s easy to implement, easy to use, and easy to remove. We are looking forward to the developer adding features in the future!

MP3, Mobiles and Digicams: Is it really a good choice to buy those multi-function phones?

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samsung-e3For many people who purchase these items regularly, the following MP3 player ‘review’ is probably old hat. I didn’t buy an MP3 player since my first one… OK, it’s got 64MB internal, plus external, it can accept external cards… Anyone care to guess how long ago that was? So I am a little out of the loop in that respect…

So, on Saturday we were shopping in the local Carrefour when my wife expressed her interest in buying a small type MP3 player, something she could use easily and slip intor her bag… So we perused all the sixty or seventy types on offer: a lot of cheaper OEM type stuff, a few notables, including Creative, Ipod and Sony, and a bunch of other tweenies.

I explained the plus and minuses of each model, including the fact that Sony and Ipod tend to use proprietary technology that makes some things much harder, including copying and adding MP3 files, as well as requiring additional software other than a file system! So, we settled on the Samsung model pictured (the YP-E3), priced at about NT$1800 only.

“The digital audio player is a flash-based USB stick DAPS and offers lithium-ion battery. The YP-E3 delivers color screen with four texts and an ability to display song lyrics. The YP-E3, a portable music player comes with: 1GB memory, an OLED screen, FM tuner, DNSe sound enhancement technology, Dimension – 2.85″ x 0.91″ x 0.47 and Length – 50mm.” (Quoted).

In addition, we found that we can squeeze about 10-11 hours on each charge. But most surprisingly we found that the sound quality that was reproduced in the earphones was excellent. That was the best thing about this.

My only two concerns: losing it because it’s pretty small as you know, and getting a battery replacement (let’s hope the battery lasts more than a year!).

So, in this unreview (because the product isn’t new!), I’m just going to share the few observations we had about buying this and many similar devices.

  • #1: if you are a regular user of some smaller devices, like notebooks, mobile phones, and MP3 players, etc.. it’s really quite amazing to see how far and fast products develop in a number of fronts. Even products just a year old look quite dated.
  • #2: If you are looking for excellence in any particular area, don’t bother with the multi-function devices such as phones, etc.. They all involve some kind of compromise in some ways. You will only be disappointed. If you do find a phone with good camera functions, the MP3 player will be crappy.
  • #3: If you buy a multi-function device, like a mobile phone: with MP3, Tuner, Phone, Camera, etc.. all thrown in, when the device breaks down, you lose the function of ALL the devices!
  • #4: When these devices do break down, and they do, often they are designed just to be thrown away. There’s really nothing TO repair. Many of the lower priced items, such as MP3 players, Palms, etc. will just end up in the consumer’s garbage can. It’s certainly much cheaper to replace an MP3 player than a mobile phone, and many cameras (of FAR better quality) are usually cheaper than their Phone equivalents (if you can find one).
  • #5: When you have more than one device, you’ll find that using them at the same time won’t present that much of a problem: you can listen to your MP3 player AND look at your pictures AND answer the phone AT THE SAME TIME if you need to. You can also lend one of them to your buddies!

While it’s a hassle to carry about a camera, MP3 player and a phone, you’ll find that there are a lot of hidden benefits: non-interdependence, wider choice, better quality for each device. And of course, you are not locked into contracts, providers, or ‘unlocking’ issues with devices (unlike the iPhone!).