I just added a bunch of new automation tips to this... http://ping.fm/Her2t

snopes.com: An Open Letter to President Obama - Lou Pritchett

Apparently this letter is legitimate, written to the New York Times, who never acknowledged or published it - huh...

snopes.com: An Open Letter to President Obama - Lou Pritchett

I've seen Google asking if I want to "translate this Balkan page?" while the page is in English, but now on .id domain I get no offer ;(

I run pc's off of a KVM switch, and just moved my second monitor to the newer pc, but it's really time for a third monitor.

Nice job, Oregon #FAIL - Printed on the back of my citation - "Pay online at http://ping.fm/4ldLk " (it 404's)

Watch 4 phishing email, Authorize.net "Account Suspension". Entering your username / pw = death to your business. Plz RT

Top 10 Reasons why Scott Hendison is ramping it up against #PeakStudios http://bit.ly/cboBBp - (How juvenile)

My wife just brought me some Heritage Dr. Pepper - mmmm... http://bit.ly/cFhpfI

I'm trying to help the Muscular Dystrophy Association - Can you please? - http://bit.ly/9XaE9o

I just got a call from a former client who received the Peak Studios email... wanting to REengage ;) http://bit.ly/cnYhtB

This is a VERY cool Twitter app, but fairly worthless to me until they let you expand the window size - http://bit.ly/mkttwt

If you attend just one @sempdx event in 2010, this is the one to see - Link Building http://bit.ly/8e92dR

Nice - the @SEMpdx server is down again - Who hosts that !@#$%ing thing anyway?

Just had an hour long call with @jim_morris about linkbuilding that he's going to be turning into a podcast...

I'm working on my part of the best link building session ever to take place in Portland - @sempdx http://tinyurl.com/y972xtu

Amazing that there's NO forum for "Wishlist for WordPress" users. Great support, but a user forum would be HUGELY helpful.

Sometimes letting someone fail is a better education than trying to teach them why their idea is a bad one. Easier too!

We're following some dumb client instructions to the letter, with ugly font and stupid placement of the calls to action.

Really, nobody can recommend me a local Portland iPhone developer? Hard to believe...

Getting Older and Fatter

Someone sent me this email, and I had to snag a screen shot and post it here on my personal blog.

Oh, and yes, I do feel better after seeing this for my 48th birthday...

Bad Advice from Seth Godin

As a huge fan of Mr. Godin's, read or listened to all of his books more than once, I have to say this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard him say. While it may be a nice gesture, it would do serious harm to the people who have to pay for those clicks - i.e. the advertisers themselves.In the post, he says - >> 'If every time you read a blog post or bit of online content you enjoyed you clicked on an ad to say thanks, the economics of the web would change immediately." >>Well that's for sure! I don't understand how something so obvious could escape someone so brilliant. In a comment on Sphinn, http://sphinn.com/story/67432 someone points out that perhaps this is a vendetta against Google for having all but squished his Squidoo venture from appearing in the search engines. I suppose that's a very real possibility, because what else could explain such obviously horrible advice. Mr. Godin, are you also advocate that a company's stockholders should each have their family and friends buy up hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of products before year's end to drive up the stock price? Then they could just return all the products after the start of the new fiscal year, and get their money back, yet the stockholders make a nice profit.I find this completely appalling, and I do hope Mr. Godin addresses it...

read more | digg story

Just ran across my Dad in Plaxo... too funny. Seems like not that long ago I was showing him how to use the mouse, and how to copy & paste.

Finally found sitemap tool that works on a site where all the links were coded as relative URL's.

http://www.auditmypc.com/xml-sitemap.asp

Wondering why it's necessary to have three different XML sitemap creators. Why do some just not work right on some sites?

Just" blogged" right from my Digg account into an old Blogger.com blog. Pretty slick, nice integration... I'd never tried that before!

101 Reasons Freelancers Do it Better

I ran across this article on Digg, and was pretty impressed at the amount of thought that went into it... A happy worker is a productive worker, and it's hard to find a happier lot than freelancers. Whether they're entrepreneurs, Web workers or something in between, freelancers enjoy a better lifestyle than their cube-dwelling brethren.

read more | digg story

High Tech Cigarette

At CES I found a cool new product, and created a quick site about it. I hope to develop it into a full fledged affiliate site soon thats all about electric cigarettes.

Another Talking Dog

I'm not sure why this joke amuses me so much, but it does ;) -

A guy is driving around the back woods of Tennessee and he
sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house:
"Talking Dog For Sale."

He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog
is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a
nice looking Labrador Retriever sitting there.

"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog speak,
he says, "So, what's your story?"

The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could
talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government,
so I told them. In no time at all they had me jetting from
country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world
leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.
I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years
running.

"But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I
wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I
signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover
security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening
in.

"I uncovered some incredible stuff and was awarded a bunch of
medals. I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just
retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he
wants for the dog.

"Ten dollars," the guy says.

"Ten dollars?! This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you
selling him so cheap?"

"Because he's a liar. He never did any of that stuff."

Cool Software for Talking Photos

I ran across a pretty cool piece of software, and it turns out they're giving it away for free temporarily. All you have to do is write a blog post about it, which I may have done anyway, because it's so cool.

What it does is help transform any photograph you have, into a " talking" picture, suitable for greeting cards websites were sending by e-mail. Here's a sample in action...

Definitely worth checking out, wouldn't you say?

Political Kool Aid

This is a cool domain name I picked up a long time ago, and never did much with. As the election approaches, it might be fun... I wish I had more time!
Political Kool Aid

Both Kids now Have Blogs

Both of my kids now have blogs of their own, that I host. I like this better than them playing around on My space or other sites.

My oldest son Mikkel, thinks he's the coolest kid in the universe, while my other son just says he's the "most awesome kid on the planet".

Frank Cardias New Blog

I helped someone launch a personal blog on the Wordpress blogging platform. It's always fun to see people get into blogging...

His name is Frank Cardia, and he's a runner that wants to talk about his various triathalon exploits, and I'm hosting the site on my Portland web hosting servers.

Wow, he's ambitious!

Solar Information

I've learned a lot about solar stuff since launching my solar products affiliate site . I've not written the solar articles there myself, but I have proofread them and edited slightly.

Currently, the site is only offering solar lighting but I hope to expand it with other affiliates like solar batteries and other solar accessories..

This is likely the last post here

Work takes priority now, but my blog is now here. I try to post daily about many subjects.

8 1/2 minutes

Can you spare 8 1/2 minutes to possibly improve your life forever? I almost said "no" to that question myself but instead decided to "gamble" my time on someones recommendation, and I'm glad I did.

As a computer consultant and internet marketer for the past few years, I've gradually built up my arsenal of affiliate products I can offer to my customers.

Affiliates are companies with products or services that I can refer people to, that will pay me a commission. Some are a one time payment, and some are monthly services.

I have affiliations with companies like Comcast and Dell, and with many smaller companies too. None by themselves will make me rich, but they do provide checks rolling in from time to time that are very nice to have.

Now I've affiliated myself with a company that will change my life. For me, it's a "no brainer", especially because of the industry I'm in. For you...well, you should at least spend just 8 1/2 minutes to decide for yourself. It just may change your life for the better.

Visit http://www.pdxtc.com/scottsway

HIPAA Directory of services website

I've posted an online collection of HIPAA articles and information at a new website, called HipaaSchool.Net.

For the small office, hiring a HIPAA consultant just isn't always affordable. That website will be an online resource for dental and medical offices with less than 30 employees.

The goal is for them to be able to get compliant, without breaking the bank. I'm currently trying to set up some online HIPAA training resources and reviews there.

PPC Fraud resources - Pay Per Click fraud information

Combat click fraud

I've posted an online directory of information and resources about how to combat click fraud in your PPC advertising campaign. There are articles, links to other information, and ads for PPC auditing services. I hope to grow it into the largest online directory of it's kind on the internet.

Listing your website on internet directories

I've posted an article about the new local searches that are changing the face of the internet. If you're a business owner, have your web designer and advertising manager read it today!

Spyware removal

This is a link to one of my articles about Spyware. What is it, where does it come from, and how to get rid of it are all covered.

Jabra Hands Free

Jabra hands free
Today I bought a $169 cordless hands free earpiece for my phone.
My phone is a Kyocera 7135. (Flip phone, palm pilot etc.) It's the best phone I've ever had for everything from battery life to durability, PLUS it syncs daily with Outlook. I wear the Kyocera on my belt, and I kept knocking the plug out of my hands free jack killing my call.

This Jabra looks perfect, if not a little bulky. In a year it's shrink to half size, but that's part of what makes it so cool. I'll be back to recommend or slam.

Update - Gone in 3 days. What a pain in the neck. Wait for Bluetooth

A foundation for SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages)

Portland Technology Consultants - Scott Hendison

I put up a new article on my website about Oregon Search Engine Optimization It explains to the novice how to build a good foundation for a website, so you can get the Search Engine results they want.
most of this is exactly what I do as phase one of any campaign for a website to get found on the internet. Of course there's lots of expensive stuff to hire me for, but you can do these on your own...

Yahoo Yellow Pages

Earlier this Spring, Yahoo bought Overture, which meant great Yahoo placement with your Overture ad. Now though, there's a new contender to deal with in your Yahoo search results. One aspect of the new "local" version of Yahoo is called the Yahoo Yellow Pages.

A while back, someone called me from Performance Advertising in Texas, representing Yahoo Yellow Pages, and I listened to the pitch. He and I have talked at great lengths about various subjects related to the future of search on the internet, and I believe this can be a big advantage to early advertisers, because it's first come first served. You can't be outbid.

(Of course, whether the results actually show up at all on any given day is still in question, but they're trying to work out the bugs, I think.)

If you want to phone him, his name is Jason Svatek j_svatek@yahoo.com (512) 637-3099 is his direct line, I believe.

Scott Hendison

Portland Technology
Consultants
503-522-9244

Update 1/05
As it turns out, Yahoo weaseled the rules, and now the Yahoo Yellow Pages do not come up in the regular SERPS. Those wesaels.

I still pay for a monthly listing though, to improve inbound linking. Directories are still a part of any strategic Internet marketing plan, and Yahoo is definitely in the game plan, but the sales tactics in the summer or 2004 were shoddy.

Stop Spam services

Today I became a reseller of a spam service for customers from US Internet. It is amazing. $15 a month protects the whole domain. It's the same one used by Coldwell Banker, and hundreds of other companies and I have had near perfect test results for a month. It's called Securence, and I'm now offering it to my customers.

For a single email address though, the best I've ever found is called Knowspam. Free trial here http://www.knowspam.net. Look on my website for some spam prevention articles and tips, but none are perfect. These two are great.

Scott's First Blog

For over 7 years, I've been writing articles on my websites, most recently at my business,
Portland Technology Consultants. I've decided to start a blog, and my first page here is filled with a lot of things my readers know that you may not...


They have a general idea of what’s inside their computer.
What's Inside Your Computer?

They know how to use their mouse, (both the left and right buttons) effectively.

Mousing Around and The Right Mouse Button

They know how to perform routine maintenance on their computer to keep it running
properly. Tune Up Your Computer and Speed It Up, Buddy! and Windows 98 Maintenance

One of the first things they learned, was that it's much easier to Copy Cut and Paste than to retype
something. What a timesaver!

They know how to minimize their risk of disaster.

Removable Storage Options and Backup, or you'll be sorry!

They know how to keep unwanted programs from loading when they boot up their
computer, which keeps their computers’ performance high and increases their
own productivity. The Perfect Computer

They know how to effectively search the internet, and how to use their web browser to
it’s fullest of capabilities. Search Engines on the Web and Customize your Browser

and Customize your Browser II

They know how to properly utilize their e-mail, and keep their in-box, as well as all their desktop and all their other files neat and orderly, so that anything can be found in a snap.

Manage Your E-mail and Manage Your E-mail II and Clean Up Your Desktop

They know how to troubleshoot their own basic software problems, and they know what
the likely solution is for resolving those problems.

Error Messages and When Software Won't Work and Three-Finger Salute (ctrl-alt-del)

and How to call Tech Support

They know how to download programs and files from the internet, then locate those
downloaded files and install, view, or print whatever they’ve downloaded.

Foolproof Downloading and Printing from the Internet

They know how to properly scan pictures for sharing online, without special software
being needed to view them. How to Use Your Scanner

Most importantly, they know how to keep their computer free of viruses, unwanted
intruders, and “spyware” that violates your privacy, and causes a whole host of serious problems.
The Truth About Viruses and Virus Safe Computing and

Spyware...Is someone watching you? and Do you need a Firewall? (Yes you do)

They moved out of the realm of being beginners with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME (yuck), and Windows 2000. In doing so, they learned that the CTRL - ALT - Delete command was their friend, especially in Windows XP. Three Finger Salute - XP

Today, (September of 2004) they are running a system with bare minimum Windows XP Home, with 256 megs of Ram and a 1.0 GHZ processor or higher. If not, then a new $400 computer should on the holiday wish list.

Here’s a helpful list of keyboard shortcuts that will save you
lots of time, compared to using the mouse. Power Users' Keys to Success

If they have a business, then they probably know How to Establish a Web Presence,
and how to Market Your Website. They also know how to Be your own IT department

They know what their kids meant when they heard them say to a friend... "I'll IM you later". That's because they read Understanding IM Services

There are over 70 articles at my site, and as more articles get written, I'll post them there. This Blog though, will be a way to write various things that someone somewhere might find interesting.