Most Recent Stories & Articles for Website
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Updating my network of sites...
- Posted On: 3/21/2008
I'm in the process of updating my network of websites. I've been transitioning to "Enterprise Architecture" along with a lot of other life changes. Busy, busy, busy... I've been using del.icio.us a lot lately, so here's what I've been looking at lately:
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Reach Out and Help Someone
- Posted On: 7/7/2006
I actually helped a fellow developer enough that they commented! That feels good. It's like the feeling you get when you volunteer for a good cause. You get the "I should do that more often" idea in your head, but, for the majority of the population, you never get around to it until it's overdue. Hmm... maybe I should be making more donations or feeding the hungry or clothing the poor or giving toys to children in need or visiting the hospitalized or... Or, maybe I should do what I have the time to do and be happy with my life, doing whatever I can extra when I can. I'm completely random at the moment, but I'm a firm believer that much of life is respecting the underprivileged enough to appreciate what you have and to show that appreciation by 1) enjoying it for yourself and 2) sharing it with others (when it can be shared). Of course, this includes things we usually take for granted: health, walking, electricity, food, driving, special talents, love, security, paying to have someone serve you, freedom, life, and people in your life that help you on any level that often go unnoticed or even unackowledged... the list goes on. Tell someone how much you appreciate something they did for you today!
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Officially Unfocused
- Posted On: 7/6/2006
I'm tired of hearing web architects preach about content focus and target audiences. They are preaching the truth, but I'm the choir and I'm tired of hearing the same ol' sermon. Besides, my website is the exception. Perhaps my website's focus is simply me, which would explain why everything is so random and stream-of-consciousness. My target audience? Everyone that might find my website whether they know me or not. My website's goal isn't to capture an audience of regular readers who interact with my content on a daily basis... not even weekly or monthly. Well... maybe monthly. Occasionally family, friends, coworkers, peer developers, my step-son's friends, my wife's extended family and friends, strangers who find their way here, people who read one of my forum posts or saw a bit of my code... These are all drastically different audiences who are coming to this website for different reasons and they will each find 1 or more aspects of my experience (dare I suggest even my personality?) interesting. Or, not. Whether they do or do not, they've hopefully had the opportunity to enjoy something that relates to them. Yes, that includes enjoying being negative about something too (you odd, MySpace SPAM lovers who I think either 1) don't understand what I'm attempting to teach [so, I'm a bad teacher to them] or 2) represent the spamming community and are mad at me).
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Regular Readers (if any)
- Posted On: 6/8/2006
If any of you are regular readers of my blog (yes, wishful thinking), I would like to apologize for the extremely biased posts toward Body-for-LIFE, Music Man, and the new job. Obviously, these 3 are taking up all of my time right now. I am working as the understudy for the lead character, Professor Harold Hill, as well as my role in the quartet as Jacey. Greg (the lead) had to leave this week for family matters, so I have been at 3-hour rehearsals every night. 5 AM - 10:30 PM is a HUGE change for me, but my body is coping really well thanks to the exercise and nutrition program.
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Comment SPAM
- Posted On: 5/26/2006
Getting SPAM comments in a blog is simply to be expected these days, but I'm doing everything I can to help prevent it! You can now only post a maximum of 3 links in a comment (spammers often post a hundred in a single comment). SPAMMERS BE WARNED! I have no reservations of returning the favor, although I respect our laws and, conveniently, I know them well enough to still cause problems on your SPAMILICIOUS website; I'll just eat it up!
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Website Fixes
- Posted On: 5/9/2006
ALL: Thank you for notifying me, making comments has been fixed. I have also fixed the bunny movies for those of you who cannot use the "mms://" protocol. *It looks like comments were down for almost a week! Sorry about that.
Membership registration has also been fixed for those of you who keep trying to impose your concerted and pointless efforts upon me and my website!
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Old MSN Spaces Archive
- Posted On: 4/20/2006
I archived all of my posts on my old MSN Spaces blog on this website. I have not been able to extract all of the comments people made, so you'll just have to deal with that for now. -
Worldwide Reach
- Posted On: 4/20/2006
I can never quite believe how popular my old MSN Space blog got. I think Microsoft has done an incredible job of bringing the world together as a collaborative community. I'm continually suprised when I see all of the places around the world people come from when they visit my website. I can only hope that people will find this and any future versions just as enjoyable.
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My Guestbook
- Posted On: 4/20/2006
Welcome to my online guestbook! I appreciate your visit, so please let everyone know you were here by signing the comments section below...
Some of you may remember the old Bravenet Guestmap. Although it only stores the last 100 comments (old ones get deleted), here it is for your viewing pleasure: 
This is not a link directory for you to advertise on! -
I'm a sell-out; Advertising
- Posted On: 4/19/2006
Nah! I've had a love affair with TemplateMonster.com's website design templates for about 5 years now. I've used their designs and logos with multiple clients and refer people to them all of the time. I honestly do love the work they do. If you find their work worthy of mention on your own website, be sure to either 1) Join their affiliate program or 2) Give me some credit by using my affiliate URL (right click and "copy shortcut"). They sell website designs, logos, flash introductions and websites, icons, and more. -
RSS & Atom
- Posted On: 3/30/2006
» I added an RSS feed for those who want it.
» I also added an Atom feed for those who want it.
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Favorite Website Links
- Posted On: 3/6/2006
I have built several link directory engines in the past, but until I can get around to implementing one on my own website... This will have to do...
*Keep in mind that this is not a thorough resource of links on my behalf. I'm simply posting them when I 1) remember and 2) get the opportunity.
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Privacy Policy
- Posted On: 3/4/2006
Your privacy is important.
Personal Information
I recognize your right to confidentiality and are committed to protecting your privacy. I will never give, rent, loan, or sell any identifiable personal information to any other third party, unless legally required to do so.
I may store and process that information to better understand your needs and how I can improve our products and services. In addition, I may use that information to contact you.
Non-Personal Information
In some cases, I may collect information about you that is not personally identifiable. Examples of this type of information include the type of Internet browser you are using, the type of computer operating system you are using, and the domain name of the Web site from which you linked to our Web site.
IP Addresses
Every computer connected to the Internet is given a domain name and a set of numbers that serve as that computer's "Internet Protocol," or IP, address. When a visitor requests a page from any Web site within the Eric Swanson domain family, our Web servers automatically recognize that visitor's domain name and IP address. The domain name and IP address reveal nothing personal about you other than the IP address from which you have accessed our site. I use this information to examine our traffic in aggregate, but do not collect and evaluate this information for individuals. Our Web servers do not record email addresses of the visitors.
Links to Third-Party Sites
Our Web sites may contain links to Web sites operated and maintained by third parties, over which I have no control. Privacy policies on such linked sites may be different from our privacy policy. You access such linked sites at your own risk. You should always read the privacy policy of a linked site before disclosing any personal information on that site. These linked sites are denoted with a dashed underline to indicate they are external to this site.
Contacting the Web Site
If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this Web site, or your experience with this site, please contact me.
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To-Do List
- Posted On: 3/1/2006
UPDATE: 2006-04-17If anyone has glanced back at my to-do list for this website and noticed that it hasn't changed... that's because I would like to take advantage of the ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 features as well as integrate my knowledge of Content Management Systems into a newer, better version of my website. I've already made great strides on the architecture, but I do not yet have a release date, so I will just keep blogging until then.
There are always things to do on a website and this is my forever growing list... I'll always be updating this list, so don't look for "Updated" flags on this one... -
I'm Alive
- Posted On: 10/26/2005
I'm alive and I'm busy... work, work, work. family, family, family. house projects, house projects, house projects. sing, sing, sing. friends. work, work, work.
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Website Updates
- Posted On: 8/15/2005
Alright you MSN Spaces Update List Lovers
You can find the NEW and not improved updated MSN Spaces list at: AndNBSP.com. I purchased the domain so that I could eliminate the connection between "Eric Swanson" and the tool (no more ericis.com in your statistics!!!). Plus, it was a really geeky, cool name and I had to grab it. For those less geeky than I, the HTML entity represents a non-breaking space on an HTML page. And, since us common folk pronounce "&" in English as "and" rather than the proper "ampersand" ('cause it's ugly and long)... well, you get the idea.
For those of you who were waiting... sorry, for the delay, but I had / have some huge work responsibilities as well as a volunteer, website re-write for a community choir I am in. It's a REALLY basic start, but I'm attempting to clean it up. I'm no graphic design artist.
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Sr. Software Developer vs. Dude on the Internet
- Posted On: 8/10/2005
Here are a couple of questions I ask myself constantly...
Q: How can you be a "Sr. Software Engineer" when your personal website looks so aweful and incompatible in almost every non-IE browser?
A: 'Cause I don't care. I do this crap all day, you think I want to test my own website? I'll test it when it affects large populations of people, like my updates list, but all-in-all, I really don't want to take the time. I'd rather make a quick post here in MSN Spaces, have it automatically appear on my personal website within the hour and then go about my life. Maybe I'll stop by randomly throughout the day and take 5 minutes to make another post. But, I'm definately not going to spend an hour trying to make my website pretty for every browser quirk. Besides, my personal website is just a constantly evolving mess of tests and fun. I'll re-write it in a month or two I'm sure...
Q: I noticed you have Google's ads on your updates list. I thought you were doing this as a voluntary service to us "spacers"! What's up with that?!
A: I'm sorry... did you visit the page and it asked you for money? I added that this last weekend to see what happens. Here's a guarantee for you: I will spend more time on that tool than will ever be compensated by any amount of advertising. Besides, I almost used my initial earnings to buy Mike a free MeeGo for all of his hard work here at spaces, but it doesn't allow you to gift the lil' critters. -
Statistics That Count - Last 2 Weeks
- Posted On: 8/8/2005
Following are some interesting statistics of the "Visits" to my domain ericis.com in the past couple of weeks. Each is listed in order by the total number of visits. For example, the US represented the largest number of hits in the world, so it is listed first. So, please do not assume the list is biased and note that I have purposely chosen not to include other countries whose numbers did not represent a significant contribution of visits to my site.
World Visits 
US Visits
Asia Visits
Europe Visits
Canada Visits
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My Blog List
- Posted On: 7/22/2005
*Warning: The following color scheme may cause permanent damage to your personal opinions of this MSN Space. As a result, the author of this MSN Space will not be held accountable for his intentional misuse of color. Read at your own risk... just like you do when you see how most people add color to their website with their eyes closed. FYI: Links are in pink.
Okay... I'm tired of having to remember everyone's blog urls and I don't want to do a "blogroll" (basically a list of blogs much like a person's "favorites" or "bookmarks" for websites). Being a web-head techie dude... I am tired of "Favorites", "Bookmarks", and now "Blog Rolls". They really suck. I need a better way of organizing the thousands of links! And, since I don't have the time (won't take the time) to write my own kick-ass website program for managing them, I've done a few things...
- I added a "Blog List" to here, my MSN Space. Now, I don't want everyone getting all upset because their blog isn't listed. There are some really great blogs out there and I love visiting them, but I'm only listing the ones I WANT to list for MY OWN reasons. Besides, the goal is to NOT have a list 500 links long... So, don't be commenting things like, "Eric - You're site really rocks!!! I added you to my blog list. (hint, hint) I'll hate you if you don't add me!" Or, "Where the hell is my blog? I comment all the time, so I deserve to be on your list!"
- I FINALLY wrote my OWN homepage about 2 months ago on my "localhost" web server. So, no more depending on another website and no depending on internet connectivity either (to know links to my localhost programs). The link list is very compact and doesn't include obvious sites or sites I don't use on a weekly basis. I did this once before long ago, but decided to do it again and actually am using it.
- I have been using the "Search Prefixes" for Internet Explorer through the "Tweak UI" utility for Windows XP forever now and I love them! Not just for search engines either... shopping, movies, weather, maps, yellow pages, etc. If you're not familiar with them, they are similiar to what a toolbar offers you in terms of entering some text and selecting which site to send you to. But, I don't need the obnoxious toolbar. (FYI: The FireFox feature for this is really well integrated, but that's not my primary browser since it's not the primary browser of my software's clients)
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Must've died and gone to reality
- Posted On: 4/21/2005
Surely Eric must've died and gone to reality after not posting for 2 months, eh? No. Life's just been terribly busy and, quite frankly, when that happens Blogs don't really matter that much. So, what's everyone in cyberworld been up to lately?
As a tribute to last night's fun, I have recorded some of the after-effects of drinking the night before:
- Singing low the "morning after"
- Singing high the "morning after"
- Singing "Over the Rainbow" really high the "morning after"
Career Blogging
I received my first copy of "FastCompany", a business magazine that specializes in keeping companies and individuals up-to-speed with this crazy, crazy ride where, if today you aren't on your toes, tomorrow you might be out of business. It's an "alright" mag. I read an article about so-called "career blogging". The idea being that prospective employers will "Google" your name (search for), and, if your an active online participant, you just might show up.
So, the principal is: If your active online, you may want to always keep your career and reputation in mind. You know, don't post crazy, modified pictures of your face on some other guy's body like this dude: http://ericis.com/
Choir
Yes, yes... I grew up singing. And, of course, it's always been a dream of mine to make my voice my career. So, what did I do about it? Did I join a band to start touring and getting name recognition? Did I make a date for some recording time in a studio to publish my first album? No... I joined the community choir.
And, karaoke of course! Every Wednesday the local country bar has karaoke night. Normally I wouldn't be marauding about a country bar, but when fun is involved you have to make sacrifices. (I listen to country... it's just not my favorite) I don't get to make it more than once a month it seems, but when I do it's great fun! Last night the bar was really busy, so I started off with some Bob Seger "Old Time Rock N' Roll". That got the entire bar giving my high fives and, for the first time ever, launched a series of requests that didn't stop. I ended up singing about 10 songs. Blues is my passion. And, I don't care what the old-timers say about it, I love to sing a modified James Taylor's "Steamroller" with a gruff, low roll. "Ah how, how, how..." (I know that isn't "Steamroller" you blues buffs)
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Over 1 Million Visitors! (in a day)
- Posted On: 2/2/2005
"Over 1 Million Served" - I think this is a trademark of McDonalds.
My MSN Space received over 1 million visitors yesterday afternoon and evening from Microsoft.com.
Check out the attached "screenshot" of my MSN Spaces stats. I am so happy! Abbie also received a couple thousand visitors from CNN.com (read the comments to this story). 
Actually, it was discovered yesterday how MSN Spaces tracks visits to a "space". The image depicting my 1,106,349 visits yesterday was not "doctored". It is the real thing. Now before MSN gets upset at me... I have submitted a "feedback" ticket exposing the vulnerability. They had better fix it too, because I think it may be susceptible to DDOS attacks. I'm not willing to give it a try that's for sure!!! I think I pushed my "legal" bounds doing what I did just to get 1M visits to explain the vulnerability. I suppose I could have just submitted a ticket.
Whether or not this "issue" is a hacking vulnerability, is for Microsoft to decide. It is, however, a problem, since I could issue mock referrals to any "space" I wanted from any website I wanted. This would be in clear violation of the Section 4 of the Terms below. My fun on Abbie's stats is likely a violation of this section and I am hoping MSN will show mercy and not shut-down my space.
(hug) I should note that my silly 1M mark hardly affected your server's resources (no worries - can't explain here since it might give away the vulnerability).!!!SHOW MERCY MSN!!!
I have "ceased and desisted".
Contact MeMSN Website Terms of Use and Notices
4. NO COMMERCIAL, UNLAWFUL OR HARMFUL USE OF THE MSN WEB SITES
The MSN Web Sites are only for your personal use. You will not use the MSN Web Sites for commercial purposes. You will not use the MSN Web Sites in any way that is unlawful, or harms Microsoft, its affiliates, resellers, distributors, servic
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Personal Website Update
- Posted On: 12/18/2004
Blogging has renewed my enthusiasm to update my personal website. The primary content will remain here at MSN Spaces, since I will update my blog more than the site. However, I have added a "Contact Me" page, so feel free to drop me a note. I'll have to add a work experience page to the site I suppose with my resume, but I can't think of much else I will add to my site until I run out of space for photos on this site.
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If you can't beat 'em, join 'em...
- Posted On: 12/14/2004
Well, I certainly can't beat the phenomenon of the BLOG. As a website developer, I suppose it's my duty to embrace new web technologies such as this and run with them. I'm certainly not an "early adopter" of blogging, simply because I do not find the constant stream of information downloaded to our brains off the internet particularly useful.
But, for all of those people in my life that think I am at least interesting at conversation, I suppose I will make a feeble attempt at logging, or rather blogging, my thoughts and life electronically for your amusement.
So, off we go on this new adventure! Read up or read out!
