ShoutBox troubles

Well, we recently ran into some issues. As you may have noticed, there are no more ads on the blog. We think it was due to an unhappy reader in Sheffield who spammed our ShoutBox complaining bitterly about something or other. I didn't really take notice because most of it was uninteligable. He was very clear about getting our AdSense account banned though...and a few days later we received an e-mail from Google saying our account was closed down. So my guess is that some guy in Sheffield thought it would be funny to spam click the ads and then to e-mail Google.

To be fair I don't really care. I only made a dollar on it anyway. So, if whoever did this could e-mail me with his IP address and postal address I'll be sure to pass it onto Google. If not, then I must assume you're a coward and deserve a good kick in the nuts.

There should be a guide on the Storm8 games coming soon though, to keep people happy. We've had a quite a few hits of people looking for guides to these games, so we thought it would be nice to give the people what they want.

Final Thought Byte : Google should really check their banning policies.

Tags : None

Layout Change

Ok, the layout has now been changed slightly to accommodate the blog's new direction. Instead of a Contents list, there is now a Categories list. Clicking on a url will then show you all posts in that category based on date it was published. If you are looking for anything specific, you can always use the search bar at the top of the page or you can browse the archives at the bottom.

We also added a disclaimer at the bottom. It protects us from law suits if people do silly things based on what we say. (Such as buying a 8600 GT and running GRID on it...its just gonna blow up). It also means we own the copyright to the comics.

We hope you enjoy it.

Final Thought Byte : Yay for layouts!

Tags : Categories, Copyright

Change of Direction

For the first time in this blogs history we are going change the format a little! Yay!

Generally speaking we don't really have a following, but due to my little DNG ad campaign, we have started getting more hits. Nothing huge or anything, but it certainly makes a difference. In reaction to this, I have decided to try and offer people a little more. I found out yesterday that you can have more than one author per blog, which means that there will now be two of us. 

Lemon is a very old friend of mine and we recently started talking about doing a web comic together. Instead of spending money on a website and taking ages to try and establish ourselves, we have decided to expand this blog to encompass the web comic. However, we don't want to change this blog so that all it does is host a web comic. In a way we are sort of converting the blog into a ever changing news paper. People like to read articles about current affairs and they like to read reviews about products, but they also like to have a laugh. A great example of this is Dilbert and Punch. There was some interesting reads and a funny little cartoon.

So broadly speaking we are expanding the blog. Things will be roughly put into three sections, which will have their own contents list (hopefully). We will continue to write reviews on games, music and hardware and we will definitely continue to write about current affairs and gossip. But added to that we will stick in our own little web comic too.

Final Thought Byte : We hope that this is a style that people will want to read. We're not really trying to make money out of this , it is more a case of having fun. So we hope that in the coming weeks as we change the layout and get geared up to start releasing more articles and cartoons that people will come back again and again to have a laugh.

Tags : Comic, Format, Layout, Reviews, Web, Webcomic

DNG

The other day I had a great idea. After watching stuff like Deren Brown and thinking about how people react to negative commands, I decided to try out an advertising technique. By putting DO NOT GOOGLE APOCALYPTIC BUTTERCUPS in the signature of a forum I have received an increase in hits from Google. 

There is a very specific reason to why I have used this phrase. By using capitals I was forcing people's eyes to notice the phrase, which the colours do also. The reason I used red letters for DO NOT is because it is negative, and the green lettering for the rest is obvious because it is positive. The thinking behind this is that it is a conflicting command. The red letters are telling people to not do something, which usually makes them curious and gets them to do it. And by using green letters I am encouraging people to remember what they want to do. I also purposely did not want to put a URL in the actual forum signature because I wanted people to actually phsycically type it into google, and therefore severing the association between the forum and the blog.

The first forum I used this on was on the Star Sonata forum, (a review of this game will follow in a couple days). I am planning to move this to other forums and possibly into poster advertising in the real world. My University would make a great place to try this idea out.

Anyway, it is still early days and the increase in page hits might be a fluke, we'll see. If you are one of those people that googled this blog because of the Star Sonata forum then leave me a comment or give me a PM on the SS forum so that I can guage what Kind of response I am getting. Also keep your eyes peeled for more interesting posts. (Yeah, i know...not many here at the moment. Chances are I will be changing the setup slightly so that there are at least two posts a week on predefined topics).

Final Thought Byte : Only thought is that if this works I'll let you guys know in a later post.

University Life : Top 10 Essay Procrastination Technique's

As a change to social commentary and reviews on whatever I feel like (although that will continue, with a review on the XFX 9800 GTX+ Black Edition and some reviews on some games I have recently purchased coming up shortly), I have decided to follow up on a post a while ago which mentioned upcoming Top 10 Lists for University in the United Kingdom.

Today's topic is on procrastinating when you have an essay due in. The list that will follow is open to discussion and can be changed around and edited if people severely agree with the order.

1. Facebook
   Wasting your time on this fabled social networking site is the number one way to waste your time completely. You will have access to irritating addictive games and it allows you to spend hours stalking your friends.
   
   
2. Windows Live Messenger
   Windows Live Messenger or MSN is also a great way to stop yourself from doing work. Just log on and talk to your friends, you won't even notice the time going down the drain.
   
   
3. Eating Food
   Eating food when you're bored probably comes under a form of eating disorder, but who cares, it wastes some more time!
   
   
4. Cleaning your room
   Sometimes cleaning your room will let you "clear your mind" so that you can do your essay properly. A more likely explanation to why people do this activity before starting an essay is that it lets you not do said essay for 10 minutes.
   
   
5. Blogging
   Obviously I'm doing this post at the moment because I'm doing an essay, so obviously Blogging has to be on the list somewhere. . .
   
   
6. Checking Gaming Forums
   If I'm being perfectly honest, I check the Star Sonata forums about every ten minutes regardless. The only difference is that during an essay I will actually read what people have said.
   
   
7. Checking E-mail
   Most people don't have any important e-mails , so checking them is pointless, right?
   
   
8. Going down to the pub
   If you really want to waste a few hours, instead of just a few minutes, grab a few mates and go down the pub for a couple drinks. Guaranteed to stop you from doing work.
   
   
9. Checking the BBC News
   If you are really trying to not do your essay, you could always pretend to be an intellectual.
   
   
10. Wikipedia
    Nuff said.

Final Thought Byte : Wasting your time when you need to do an essay is fun, at times. Just don't forget that it actually has to be done at one point. . .

Tags : Essay Writing, Facebook, games, Procrastination, Star Sonata, university, Wasting Time

Blog Update

Having discussed the direction of this blog with my close friends and girlfriend, I have decided to start writing a "University Top 10" series. It will include advice on what to take, what to do on your first day and your first weeks, what not to do and the best way to have the time of your life. Obviously this won't apply to everyone, but the more first hand advice the better.

Next up though, is a product review on the XFX 8600 GT and a game review of Genesis Rising.

Tags : games, Genesis Rising, top 10, university, xfx 8600 GT

Buttercups meet monkey?

Ok, so none of this probably makes any sense. But that's good, because if it made sense, it would be boring and no-one would probably read this.

So time for an introduction. If there was a giant drape somewhere I would try and use that to uncover this blog in an impressive fireworks show, but considering this is just a bunch of "thought bytes", that's a little difficult.

As for the "thought bytes", its a play on words for something similar to "bite size thoughts". I'll try and keep things short and interesting....and as frequent as possible. It will also mean that I get to write about pretty much everything. Ranging from reviews on games, music, movies or just general views on anything interesting (including the news...which we all know is ridiculous sometimes).

First up is a review on some hardware...and how crap Microsoft is.
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Tags : Buttercup, bytes, games, introduction, monkey, movies, music, news, thought, thoughts