I’m honestly not sure what button I clicked or how it is that I shared this, but OK!
Bettina Arndt is from Australia and has a very traditional view of marriage and the roles people play in the marriage. I think anyone that wants to stick to a Biblical view of things will enjoy this video. The warnings about where we are headed as a society are very interesting and valid as well.
I have often thought about how things like the Bible guide our society, and what that means. One thing I come back to often is how do these things fit together if you’re an atheist? While I don’t claim to have the answers to that question it seems to me that the knowledge presented from the generations past must have some value. Be it our parents, or even older generations the people who have gone before us have learned something. They have gained some knowledge to pass down to us in one way or another.
These things also force me to consider how this generation and the next might look in 20-30 years. I see everyday more and more rejection of the knowledge from those that have gone before us, and this is not even mentioning the rejection of God both in obvious and subtle ways. I think I could expand on these topics ad infinitum because on one side you have the people who outright claim God is dead or a lie and these people are easy to spot. However, there is a more subtle and, to my mind, more scary trend especially among the young to “rebrand” things and “tweak” them a little. This has to be like the stuff Jim Jones must have been doing.
Anyhow, I am getting further and further away from my intent here… This video was interesting. I hope you enjoy.
In looking for an answer on a computer issue the difference between dd and ddrescue I came across an interesting concept that I have been thinking about. The application is practical for most things we do if you understand the why and apply it properly. As Journeyman Geek says ‘Most UNIX graybeard would say “Use the big bashy thing” – it’s the “right” way to do it.’ He may not be agreeing with what he attributes to the graybeard but I think it is genius!
Bashing away at things may seem like the wrong choice when you aren’t trying to break things but in most cases, we have to make a compromise between speed of getting the thing done and accuracy. Both of these are things that we strive for speed … accuracy. It’s the holy grail of productivity to achieve both in any project or endeavor be it work or personal.
In computing specifically you need accuracy or things break very easily, however, there is a little more to it than that. There are known problems with accuracy in computing such as bit flipping. I learned about it from Defcon years ago you can see the talk here: Bitsquatting. You can also read more here.
Basically, due to faulty equipment at some point along the way of you typing in amazon.com you could actually end up at aeazon.com (as an example). This is due to one of the zeros flipping to a one or vice versa.
And that might be a poor demonstration of what I am getting at here, but let me try to just break it down a more simple way. If the Big Bashy Thing succeeds in making things work it likely did it faster and with enough accuracy. So we should try that first then get more fine-grained especially since some operations like ddrescue can take days to complete where dd might only take half a day and output the same quality even if it is a little less accurate.
It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I wrote you guys about how I was working so hard to get things cleaned and organized on my computers…
But…
Here I am again. Not completed from last time…
Anyone who knows what I’m talking about here knows that if you don’t keep things organized as you go then it becomes a daunting task to do it later. Sometimes that is easier said than done. We get busy, things get in the way, or others were forgotten.
Part of getting it right is having the right system. And I have had my share of “wrong” systems. I am certainly still trying to figure it all out. You can read about some of that in my Paper vs Digital posts (at the time of writing I still have 2 more posts to come).
Today I am going to tell you about 2 new tools I have added to the mix that seems to be holding their own weight… My only evidence is that I am sitting here writing this blog post now instead of …
1st up on our list is Getting Things Done. This is more of a methodology than a tool but it is just as much a tool in how you use it. I found the book terribly boring and recommend not getting it – sorry to David Allen for that. However, there is this YouTube video which does a good job of breaking things down in about 8 min. And eventually, I will finish the book. To help with the system there is an app called GSDfaster. I’ve been using this for around a week now and really am enjoying it. I will make a blog post about it when I get through the book and understand the system fully.
2nd on our list we have pCloud! I got this AppSumo deal for 500 GB of space for a lifetime for 1 payment of $49. I loved it so much I upgraded to the 2TB plan for $200 more. You might ask how that helps but as someone that uses several devices, several computers, and in many locations. I have had to leap-frog my cloud storage solutions for years. OneDrive, Dropbox, Google, and iCloud are all full and due to device limitations not all of them are on all of my devices. But pCloud is different… It saves my data in the cloud and gives me a virtual hard drive effectively extending my hard drive to the size I need. I can also set a cache size allowing me to keep all the files offline if needed such as if I were traveling where there was no internet but still needed access to my files.
I hope you found that useful! I will let you know as things develop and I find more useful tools. Additionally, I have made a major change on my Ultimate Guide to Online Marketing essentially I have followed my own advice and made an adjustment to my target audience. This guide is going to be most helpful to anyone running some sort of service based business such as coaching, consulting, and alike. You can find more details on the actual post as it develops by clicking here.
Thanks, everyone!
-Spencer
PS I will do a blog post about this in the future but I have used affiliate links when possible. This costs you nothing extra and helps cover the costs of operating the many sites I have. Thank you!
During the research, I am doing for my Online Marketing Guide I came across a common problem, one that I have been facing.
Missing Traffic
In the past, this blog used to get around 10,000 unique visitors to technical posts. It ranked rather well in google and that is what I can attribute most of the traffic to. However, since I took the blog down for about 1 year my ranking dropped, but I realized so did the landscape. I have found many technical blogs no longer get the traffic they once enjoyed.
This traffic can be motivating in itself to keep going and trying things out. It gives us clues about what people are interested in and helps drive us forward when things seem hard.
So where did it all go?
While I feel like I am pointing a finger of blame here… I am bringing you a solution in just a moment.
But it is the rise of sites like Quora and StackExchange that I would say is directly responsible for this drop in traffic (there are others but I actually like these, I even got a “Famous Question” award recently).
What happens now is partially speculation on my part but it makes sense.
First, I think people are answering questions on these sites because it is easier to have a question posed and answer it. It is much harder to identify a problem and figure out the solution and report on that.
Second, I think people instead of searching Google (or other) to find the answers or information they are looking for now head straight to the question sites to ask their question. Quora actually lets you type your question in and then if a similar enough answer pops up you would just click on it.
Don’t get me wrong I love these sites. While I do think they are changing the landscape of the internet we have grown accustomed to over the last 10 years or so when blogging and podcasting seemed to be “the thing”. This is the natural trend of things. But it doesn’t mean blogs are dead or anything like that.
And I think the solution is rather simple. If you are looking for traffic then you should be answering questions on these sites, blogging about your answers and linking back to your blog where appropriate. Simple as that.
Find things to answer and answer them well. Provide more in-depth tutorials, explanations, or advice on your blog and link back where you are allowed and it will not be seen as spammy. And that means spammy here and now but also in the future.
These sites also offer a unique opportunity to those that are smart, in that they will show you the trend. They do a better job than Google ever did of giving you insight into what people want to know right now. They let you make an instant connection and then if you are able to link back give you the traffic you have been looking for. Win-Win in my book.
I wanted to get this out there because it has been so long!
Basically, I have been hard at work as you have you and like everyone in our predicament I end up saying “I’m too busy.” <–(a lot)
But I decided I have to make some time to make things happen
If you don’t know my wife and I recently moved back to Tulsa. While this has been so much easier giving us more time to see each other and less time driving and expense it also means I have been doing a lot of “catching up” if we can call it that. We also still regularly travel back to Muskogee to see friends, customers, and family.
Working on Few Things
Something that I have been putting off for over a year now is working on the Hektechnologies website and the Better PC Health website. I need to fix the design, layout, and copy. So I have started on that, but in the process, I started something else. Well, 3x something else:
1st – The Ultimate Guide to Building a WordPress Business website – This will be interesting because unlike most blog posts and articles that are posted on completion I have posted this as I work on it and update it each time I make changes. So far I have reorganized the content more than once and rewritten a few things, but it gets better each time. When done I will turn it into an e-book and Udemy course, but also leave the free guide posted right where it is.
2nd – The Ultimate Guide to Online Marketing – Like the WordPress guide I am posting this one as it is developed. I think this one will take much longer as I want to cover everything and at the end leave readers with a checklist of sorts that they can apply with reasonable success.
And Working on Other Things
Beyond that, I have several other things going including working at a company called Techsico doing a really cool program that connects their web driven project management system directly into QuickBooks. This removes human error in the data entry process and makes syncing data a breeze. I plan on showcasing the features in the near future.
In order to brush up on my marketing knowledge, I wanted to challenge myself. So on my personal YouTube channel, I am doing live videos discussing popular Online Marketing articles from around the web. It should be interesting and worth subscribing. So please check it out and let me know what you think. If you didn’t know there is also an official Hektechnologies YouTube where I post helpful WordPress, business, and developer/programming videos.
One last thing to mention, if you made it this far then maybe you’d like to check out another project that I have been hard at work on. Uniquelahoma is a website dedicated to featuring the Uniqueness of Oklahoma. I encourage you to take a look!
Hope to talk to you guys again soon,
Spencer
PS If you didn’t catch it the title it’s backward sometimes it takes a little longer and we need to work a little harder to get that dollar.
The problem with your awesome technical blog that exposes new methods and techniques of doing things is that someone just copied an excerpt from your latest post. They posted it verbatim to Quora or Stack Exchange. Trust me these sites have way more domain authority than you and they will take your “random” traffic.
But I think I have some solutions to this problem especially since the name of the game is to keep progressing and moving forward. So if you are missing traffic and wonder why. You are putting out great content but not able to hit the numbers you did 1 or 2 years ago. I think I have a solution. It will come in a later post since I have to get to work now.
You may have noticed some interesting looking, but incomplete posts that I have put out recently. This is ok. It is intentionally done this way. Partly as an experiment related to online marketing and the current state of SEO. Beyond that, it is an experiment on how people consume content and the best way to deliver knowledge. I hope you find these posts useful and possibly entertaining.
I also want you to comment and interact with the things you are interested in. I promise it will all work better if you get involved.
I will be developing my Udemy course here on my blog this means you will get most if not all of the content free by following this post. Thank you for looking there is a lot more to be added over the next several months.
sometimes it takes a little longer and we need to work a little harder to get that dollar.
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