Moar Refreshments (mai multe piscoturi)!

The Romanian word “piscoturi”, loosely translated as “refreshments,” has become associated with the meagre price deontology or blogger ethics commands on the online advertising market (i.e., “piscotareala”) in that many are willing to sell not only their blog, but their soul and their mother’s soul for a few cookies and a coffee. Being a writer is a job everybody would love to have, except the writers themselves. Few other jobs (except maybe acting or singing) have as many people trying and so few succeeding. Being a blogger is somewhat less glamorous than being a writer, at least not in the traditional sense of the (former) word, as it combines traits of several other fields, such as IT, publishing, PR, but it still has a strong creative component. In this article, we take a look at the Romanian refreshment (piscot) market.

OSS WLW and quitter bloggers

As blogging is dying, those of us who still cling to this habit are occasionally baited by news we'd like to think will come true, only to be proven otherwise. One such news items suggests that Microsoft might release the source code of Windows Live Writer or WLW.

HufPo on The Monetization of Mom Bloggers

If you ever wondered how "mom bloggers" are doing, HuffPo published an article full of interviews with them.

The Big Freak Bloggers

Newsweek is having a look at the "the most notorious (and often successful)" bloggers. We could not resist the temptation to read this article..

fake traffic bots

Faking traffic to one's website is not done only for ego-boosting reasons ("look how many people read me, ma"), but also for profit. Here we try to show some examples and clarify some myths.

Welcome! Have a read and FAQ yourself

What is the point of this website? What are we trying to accomplish? Do we plan to rule the world and if so, will we be good, googly, or evil? The answer to these and other questions, below.

Windows Live Writer Portable upgrade

I was prompted today to upgrade my portable install of Windows Live Writer. In case you have not heard about it, WLW is one of the few Windows applications that have no equivalent in the Linux world, causing many to keep Windows virtual machine or windows partition just so they can use it. This being the best blogging editor there is, I thought it's a good idea to share this experience (and much more) with you.

Mayor Gabriela Firea takes Blogger to Court and Cleaners

An important blogger in an Eastern European country was sued by that country’s [major city] Mayor. We hope he’s appealing, even though he's not so personally.

Disqus support fatigue

#Disqus has become the de facto standard in commenting, being used not just by small blogs, but even major newspapers and other high-traffic sites. I was one of the early adopters of Disqus, after having tried the Blogger 'left-behind' system, then the Intense Debate which ended up acquired by Wordpress parent. Compared to alternatives, Disqus is still the best, but there have been and still are problems, and that is what this article is about.

The 2015 CBC Creative Competitions

I have only learned about this competition now, and decided to participate. It ends soon (March 1) - so if you're interested, you'd better send your stuff in soon! Before you spend the time to read more about, know the limitations: Canadian citizenship or permanent residence, 1200-1500 words, $25 entry fee.

Looking at Vlogging

Spurred by the ROTLD announcement I started considering monetizing my blogs. That means, for most of them, a new look and more frequent posting. I started by looking at a few Romanian blogs and even considered vlogging or video blogging.

Encyrption on Blogger II - veenix

The best and most complete real encryption function for Blogger (and probably other platforms as well) was done by Vinnie, a student at the same U of T Engineering department where I studied as well.

End of year blogging tips

I found two interesting articles full of good tips on blogging in general as well as generating discussions. A summary of each can be found below.

Entrecard – drop it like it’s hot

I've recently looked at Entrecard advertising system as a way to discover interesting blogs and to build a community. Sure, there are other community / promotion tools, but they each have their drawbacks.

DMCA takedown–Vali Petcu aka Zoso

Once again, I find myself at the receiving end of a bogus DMCA claim (I cannot even ascertain what it is about). This time however, I intend to fight it and document every step of the way, in the hope that others might find it useful.