Koozie Notes

Online Ads and Affiliate Programs

The November issue of Business 2.0 had an interesting store by Dan Schoeffler titled, "The Merchant of Margaritaville."   The article covers a business model of driving traffic to your affiliate account by way of online ads from google or yahoo.

Here’s a question I’ll bet you’ve asked your-self: Given a laptop, an Internet connection, and a comfortable lounge chair, how can I earn enough to let me laze on a tropical beach instead of propping my eyes open with matchsticks in my cubicle?

-Chris

time.gov

I tried to use the time.gov web site this morning to re-set my clocks, but the webmaster posted a note that their animated clock is down due to heavy demand.  Ouch.

Background on Daylight Saving Time.

-Chris

OpenOffice 2.0 Released

I'm currently at the 12% mark trying to download the 2.0 release of OpenOffice.  This might take some time. :-)

OpenOffice.org

-Chris

Linucon 2.0: History of the Internet

History of the Internet
John Quarterman  [Blog]
7:00PM on 1 OCT 2005

I took hardly any notes during this session because the lights were off during the slide show presentation.  John did post all the books he mentioned during his talk on his blog.

I generated the same list with links to Amazon.

1. The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide
2. Casting the Net
3. Where Wizards Stay Up Late
4. The Victorian Internet
5. Neuromancer

Funny Court Filing

(via BoingBoing) This short post from boingboing links to a humorous court filing. If you didn't catch it, re-read the first paragraph on the first page.

I wonder how often stuff like this really happens?

-Chris

Linucon 2.0: Running a Small Online Business

Running a Small Online Business
Howard Tayler & Giles Schildt
11:00 AM on 1 OCT 2005

I must admit that I never read Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary prior to attending this session on running an online business. 

Howard gave a wonderful presentation on how he made the transition from getting a paycheck to running your own online business.

First, He covered some basics like coming up with a business plan.   His strip generates revenue from online advertising, merchandising (with superior help from Warehouse 23), and pay-pal donations.

Howard is leveraging the power of Google Adsense to increase his revenue from online advertising.  He did mentioned that you need to have a backup plan just in case your ad provider decides to terminate your account.  As an example, he told the story of how Google shut down his adsense account in their third month.  He did get his account re-instated with the help of some Google employee that happened to be Schlock Mercenary fans.

Focus on your strengths.  Howard can do three things really well and he wanted two of them to be his drawing and writing. He knew that trying to maintain and move inventory can be huge pain so he partnered up with Warehouse 23 to handle all of his merchandising for his strip.

Overall I really enjoyed this session.  Howard posted his own short review on this session as well.

Linucon 2.0: Linux Security & Optimization

Optimizing Linux
Stu Green
10:00 PM on 30 SEP 2005

I have to admit that most of the material presented here was over my head.  I just not that familiar with tools used to optimize Linux programs.  I have used top before to see what is sucking up my computer performance.

Stu did ask the attendees if anyone had investigated extended attributes on their systems.  He mentioned that people are working on interesting applications by using these attributes as means of associated files with their applications.

Computer Security
Stu Green
11:00 pm on 30 SEP 2005

Most of the discussion during this session center around Stu presenting the Six Dumbest Things in Computer Security by Marcus Ranum. 

Using a Uninterrupted Power Supply "UPS" to clean the incoming power was also mentioned.  Someone also added that they track down a problem a network problem that was caused by power fluctuations in their router.

Linucon 2.0

I'm finally getting around to posting some of the notes I took during Linucon 2.0 held in Austin, Texas on 30 SEP - 2 OCT 2005.

Early History of Computers
9:00pm on 30 SEP 2005
Tom Morin & Bill Allen

I arrived a little late to this one hour session.  Bill and Tom took turns telling their tales.  Bill Allen told some funny stories about his time he spent working at MIT, including the time he crased their system by switching to radix 7. 

The first computer game they remember playing was called Space War. Bill devised a clever technique that would allow him to beat his opponent each time he played.

Other Notes:
- triode, 2 tubes to make a flip-flop
- Cray Supercomputer, cooling system
- Data Point, in San Antonio, VTL