Cody Sortore's Ramblings

What used to be

cody — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:14:26 +0000

The original idea of this website was to keep it to have a diary of my life… after two years of that I realized that I never really looked back on anything anyways and very few people were looking for history of me so things started to fall away. Then I realized that I could make money with the site and I picked back up on here… the site was banned from Google for taking paid posts so I have once again nearly stopped posting anything new here. As you can see it has been nearly 3 months since my last post! Every once in a while I’ll pop in and update things, but mostly because I’m getting paid for it. Sometimes I wonder if I really know what I am doing when it comes to online development… it seems my knowledge continues to grow on how to build and design. I keep making websites better, more easily used and vast… Search engines even love them, but something is missing as I can’t seem to squeeze anything more than $5 a day from my sites without PayPerPost… and worse yet it seems that every time I get up to that with one site and think I can move onto another to do the same thing then the previous site gets knocked down and starts making nothing again. Well the economy is picking back up again, so we will see how things are doing here in a year or two. I really shouldn’t get so down since five years ago when I first began I was desperately trying to get my sites to pay for themselves… now I’m renting a $100/month server, and paying for 30 domains and paying the bills all on the income of about 5 websites.

Web Hosting Geeks

cody — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:04:55 +0000

I’ve stressed to my readers time in and time out on all of my blogs the importance of when you decide to go online to DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Whether you’re purchasing a new computer, computer parts, a car, or whatever you should research that product, research the company, research their customer support. I tell the same thing to all the people out there looking to go online with their business. I tell them that when you’re looking for web site hosting look up the company, look up what they stand for and how they do business. Not doing so is just asking for trouble. I know when I first moved my business online I was naive and just looked for a manageable price on everything. Then turns out the company that I went with was impossible to get a hold of, their server wouldn’t allow me to upload via FTP, and .htaccess files were not allowed so I couldn’t run the types of sites that I wanted… needless to say I didn’t stick with that company for very long (I won’t say who it is because from what I’ve heard they’ve changed since, but I still hold a grudge so will never return to them. It’s one of the mega super hosting companies)

Format fails

cody — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:15:49 +0000

ugh! Formatting = teh failz! jeez… I really REALLY don’t want to do this right now. Some of you may remember that I upgraded to a RAID 5 array well in doing so I moved from three individual hard drives to a “single” RAID drive. Which created all sorts of problems ESPECIALLY with Adobe products. Don’t ask me why but once you install an Adobe product (be in Reader, Photoshop, or anything else) the installation path is forever remembered and freaking ridiculous to get rid of. Even though I uninstalled everything from the other hard drives after ghosting the C drive to the new array now when I go to reinstall some of this stuff it won’t let me because I can’t specify an installation path and the old path is forever ingrained…

So the plan has been to uninstall everything, make backups of the information that is important, and reinstall the OS… don’t really want to wait on it for too long, but I think it’s going to have to wait until after I’m done at LifeTouch. I just don’t have the energy right now, especially with a newborn around finding the time and energy to make all the backups and what not has been more than a little bit of a pain!

Charter Cable Giveaway!

cody — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:47:10 +0000

Some cable companies just want to have fun, fun with your money that is! And other cable companies just want you to have fun! Fun with their entertainment, and viewing options. Charter Cable Company is striving to be on a whole new level of fun. In the past they’ve given away a Honda Civic Hybrid, several Xbox 360’s, and now they’ve got a chance for you to win a 52″ LCD flat screen television, a home entertainment system, AND one year of FREE Charter Digital Cable® service with HD programming. Now we’re talking fun! And for once not just fun for them.

Even if you don’t win the 52″ LCD flat screen television they will also be giving away one 22” flat screen HDTV every day throughout April. This promotion does not just apply to new customers either! Upgrading current customers will be entered into the contest as well.

Not only is Charter giving away this great prize, they’re trying many different methods to give their customers the highest level of customer satisfaction. Connecting with their customers on unprecedented levels they’ve got a twitter feed (@chartercom) their customers can follow, and have opened up the lines of communication so that they can better listen to and serve their customers.

Connor Gabriel Sortore

cody — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:55:40 +0000

Connor Gabriel Sortore was born to Cody and Rose Sortore on April 03, 2009

He entered this world weighing 6lbs and 15oz 21inches long.

First born of Rose and Cody, Connor will be raised with as much love and care as they know how. Surrounded by a community of support from our church family at Oasis Community Church, and the crazies that we love so dearly at Faire.

Search Engines

cody — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:17:55 +0000

Many people don’t remember what the internet was like before the days of Search Engines. Search engines truly did revolutionize the way we think about and use the internet though. It used to be that you could only find or go to sites that you had previously heard about, saw an ad for, or that one of your favorite sites linked to. Enter Search Engines… now all the information in the world is right at you fingertips with a few simple keyword searches! Websites such as Find Hub have made it possible for all of us to scour the internet and get the information that we want… not the information that other people want us to have!

Computer Registry Cleaner

cody — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:27:54 +0000

Recently I’ve run into a lot of troubles with registry errors… well I guess that’s what happens when you go from having three hard drives all with applications installed on them to ghosting your operating system onto a 4 hard drive RAID 5 1.36TB array. So a lot of my file paths were incorrect, even though I uninstalled everything on my E:\ and D:\ drives before I put everything back together on the larger, faster, safer RAID 5 array when I went to reinstall all my programs I still ran into troubles. Some programs didn’t uninstall the way I would of liked them to… as in completely. So when I went to reinstall them they wanted to reinstall back on my E:\ drive where they were before, and they wouldn’t let me customize where they got installed. Well let me tell you something else… running 8 gigs of RAM means that I’ve got to be running a 64bit operating system… never before did I imagine how insanely difficult it would be to find a registry cleaner for 64bit operating systems. I mean we’ve been running with 64bit for a long time now, I thought everybody was 64bit compatible right now (even if their program had to be in 32bit mode).

Luckily I did find jv16 PowerTools 2009 because I was seriously about to reinstall everything just to fix some of my problems. JV16 PowerTools helped save me the time and hassle of backing up my whole computer, and reinstalling EVERYTHING. Plus it only cost me $30 that’s a deal if I’ve ever seen one. If we’re talking just an hourly rate, if I charged myself what I get paid at work for the amount of time it would take to reinstall everything that is a savings of well over $150 just for one quick download and scan of my computer!

You flatter me!

cody — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:07:06 +0000

haha, okay, so as a lot of people know I’ve used a petition site for years to my advantage. The site used to be really good for SEO campaigns, you’d create a petition (with your own HTML in the body of the petition) and sign it 10 times… automatically you’ve got a PR3 page, PR6, and possibly several PR1 pages linking to your site! Bingo bango! Oddly enough I was the only person who had figured this out… I had used it for a LONG time without anyone ever noticing, or changing anything on the site, as you can probably tell that’s not the case anymore. I’m not really sure it’s possible to get any links from them now… and I have to say it’s probably solely my fault I started to get too greedy, adding the same site to every category, and adding more and more sites they finally stopped that from happening for me

MagNext Online Adventure

cody — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:45:19 +0000

Lets face it, the world is moving towards computers, every job needs them to function in one form or fashion. Which is why I still don’t get why some parents feel that computer games are bad for a childs health or development. Kids are going to grow up to be adults, and the world is changing, they will need to know how to use a computer, and the more fluently they can use that computer the better chances they will have with a job. So why not start them out early and teach them to play games? Heck you don’t even have to spend much money on it. Most homes in America have computers, and you can have your children play free games like the one offered by MagNext !

The Magnext universe is full of fun and exciting for your children to explore based upon the toys magnext (which are awesome by the way for kids of any age… even a big kid like myself at 23). The free MMORPG allows them to build, and play with MagNext toys virtually so you don’t have to spend money on MagNext products (well you probably will at some point in time because if they realize how awesome magnext are they won’t be satisfied with the virtual game). But it’s still a good way to get the kids out of your hair for a while, letting them grow mentally.

Here’s a screenshot of the game:

Riding the iCoaster

Cryo-cell stem cell - cord blood bank

cody — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:26:27 +0000

Are you interested in saving and preserving life? It has been said that our nation has become a selfish and self serving nation, but I don’t think that is completely true. If we were so selfish and self serving we wouldn’t advance technologies for the preservation of mankind such as stem cell research. Of course there are a few selfish and greedy individuals who do it for the glory or money, and those who donate or help for the hopeful increase to their life, but as a whole stem cell research does one thing: save lives. One company leading the stem cell world is a cord bank facility called Cryo-cell. Cryo-cell helps people by giving you the option to store cord blood with them from your babies cord blood.

Cryo-cell even challenges you to compare us and find out if their service is right for you. They push the limits and challenge their rivalry companies to step up and continue the advancement of technology with them. Of course Cryo-Cell is leading the way in this endeavor which is why they are so confident in their comparison charts. If you do choose Cryo-Cell you may be interested in their Current Offer which could save you a boat load of money!

Marc by Marc Jacobs for my wife

cody — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:13:55 +0000

Are you into shoes? Well isn’t that fabulous, because I have an amazing deal for you on marc by marc jacobs shoes! These gorgeous and high class designer shoes can be found on jildorshoes.com for a great price as well. Anyone that has ever wanted to own a pair or maybe even a couple pairs of Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes should not pass up this importunity! You don’t just find deals like this on Marc by Marc Jacobs every day, nor should you waste any time waiting on these designer shoes to disappear before you have your chance to own your very own pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes.

I know my wife is into shoes and would love to own a pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes so maybe I’ll have to find a good time to order some of these gorgeous dress shoes that I could surprise her with later! You all know me and how I like to purchase things based on quality of design and well Marc by Marc Jacobs is the greatest example of quality designer shoes you could ever hope for! Anyone who’s been searching for the right opportunity to get their very own pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs has just hit the jack pot because here is that very opportunity!

Those are my favorite Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes that I’ve found. I love the style, and think it’s totally sexy when my wife wears open shoes like these to bear her beautiful toes. If you’d like a beautiful pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes you can snag them at a great price from http://www.jildorshoes.com/

RAID 5EE vs RAID 5

cody — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:11:18 +0000

Here in a couple of days I’ll finally have the opportunity to order the final piece that will allow me to put my 4 500GB hdd’s in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). The real question is what sort of RAID array do I go for? I’ve heard a lot of conflicting opinions on the different RAID setups. Originally I wanted to go with a RAID 5 setup… then researching it I started to find a lot of information that showed RAID 5 as ALWAYS having a Hot-Spare drive… No offense, but I don’t need/want a Hot-Spare. I’m not running a full on server environment where information is mission critical… I can lose all my information and I might pout for a few days, but I’ll rebuild it, I mean my websites are all up and running respectively, and most everything can be re-obtained in some form or fashion. So double redundancy isn’t really that necessary… and I don’t need it to be rebuilt THAT fast if there was a failure.

Either way with what I’ve been seeing (don’t know if it’s true or not) but with RAID 5 I end up with 1TB of storage space and a slower speed than RAID 0 w/ 2hdds which then brought me to RAID 10 which also gives me 1TB of storage space but is as fast as two hdd’s in RAID 0. Then there’s RAID 5EE which should give me 1TB of space with who knows what sorts of speeds… I’d say about that of RAID 0 with 3hdd’s but some of the people I’ve read stuff from say no. I’ve also read on TomsHardware that regular old RAID 5 (with no Hot Spare) will give me 1.5TB of space and be as fast as RAID 0 with 3 drives… so I think that’s what I’m going to risk running… if nothing else I’ll make sure and set it up without a hot spare and it’ll give me 1.5TB of hdd space whether or not it runs too much faster.

I’m thinking that the people having troubles with speed come from running RAID with too large of a stripe size so their information isn’t getting spread out. Which brings me to another point… do I make a super small stripe size to force files to be split up, or do I go with a larger stripe size for faster transfer speeds? I’m thinking 64kb stripe size… but maybe 32 would be the better choice since I’ve got a whole bunch of little files for website things that would just eat up hdd space in no time if they were forced to take up 64kb each.

Lap-Band Surgeon

cody — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:01:50 +0000

We all know that getting out to the gym is hard, and dieting is no fun either. So where do we all turn as Americans? That’s right, the quick fix surgery is always the right fit for anyone. Just like in that movie where Cloning becomes popular and when you get too fat and old you simply get cloned for a new younger you, get your thoughts and memories copied to the new clone and dump your old body off to work in slavery. If you’re getting old and fat but are too lazy to actually go to the gym, and too unconditioned to be on a diet get yourself a lap-band surgeon to fix your ailments!

Unsightly Unwanted Hair

cody — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:56:12 +0000

Have you ever wondered what the secrets behind laser hair removal were? Do you have a passion for beauty and helping others achieve their best look? Then the laser hair removal training DVD is right for you! Learn the secrets behind laser hair removal and get your training on how you too can become a laser hair removal technician! This is also a great opportunity if you’ve recently been laid off, or have been looking for a career move opportunity. Help others get rid of unsightly or unwanted hair today as you train from the comforts of your home to become a Laser Hair Removal Technician!

Laser Hair Removal Video

Hair Removal Videos | Facial Hair Removal

Contact Info — The Complete Guide to Laser Hair Removal (run time: 1 Hr. 44 Mins.) can be ordered for $175.00 plus shipping, by calling 1-800-414-2434 or visiting www.VideoShelf.com.

Verizon Cell Phones

cody — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:10:21 +0000

I’ve been looking for somewhere to get a new cell phone recently, but everyone wants SOOO much for the phones. You either get stuck with a huge up front price, or tied to a contract for 2 or more years. That’s why I like BestInCellPhones.com they offer Verizon cell phones and cell phones for many other companies out there for great prices! I have to give a big thanks to BestInCellPhones.com they’ve made finding great cell phone deals a snap! Now I can get the plan I want from Verizon, without being tied to a ridiculous contract for my cell phone plan! Freedom from high prices or long contracts is a wonderful thing!

SEO Link Submission

cody — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:01:39 +0000

I’ve talked a lot lately about how many people have flocked to the internet during these hard economic times. What doesn’t get mentioned a lot is how many of those people get swallowed up into the vast depths of the internet. It’s a shame to watch a new person to the world of the internet get drowned and burned out by all the big sharks out there. You absolutely must get your site seen on the search engines. Anything less than the top 10 for any particular term and your site may as well not exist too. One of the best practices for enriching your SERPs and increasing your SEO quality is to get listed in as many free directories as possible… problem is finding the right ones for yourself! Trying to find enough relevant directories to get your site SEO optimized is more than a little bit of a pain in the butt.

Luckily there are services that offer affordable manual directory submissions! I’m actually thinking about using the service for myself, at $0.14 per submission getting my site listed on 1,000 directories is only $140… not bad considering the equivalent in blog advertising will cost you more than five times that much. When I launch my vacuum cleaner review site I know one of the first places I’ll be using to get it listed is DirectoryMaximizer.com along with some more expensive services like PRWeb, and PayPerPost. But DirectoryMaximizer is definitely my favorite, they have some great features such as allowing you to spread out your submissions (to avoid the sandbox effect) to where you can get listed in either 100 directories a month for 12 months, or do a slow 5 week launch. And you can keep track of all submissions to help avoid duplicate link content.

I was extremely happy to find DirectoryMaximizer, they’ll be included in the SEO campaign of every new website that I launch for a long time!

Equestrian Lovers

cody — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:09:20 +0000

When my wife and I met it was no accident. And it wasn’t because we were both hanging out at the same bar the same night. You might find a fling here or there at a bar, but for true love you’ve got to find someone with the same passions and loves as you. My wife and I met doing something that we both love doing, working at the Renaissance faire.

Now there is a great place where all horse lovers can meet and find that perfect someone for them! That’s right Equestrian Lovers someone has created an environment just for you to find your soul mate. And best of all they offer FREE sign-up!! Most dating sites don’t take your hobbies, and interests very seriously, but they will always be a huge part of your life! Take my cousin for example, the guy is like me he loves gaming, in fact he’s the one who got me into gaming! But the girl he was dating hated it… so you could see issues coming from a hobby. Of course now he blames his hobby on what went wrong in the relationship, and won’t take part in it anymore. Any hobby or interest of yours can be a potential breaking point, or foundation point in your relationship. So if you’re an equestrian lover you owe it to yourself to visit EquestrianCupid.com to see what they have to offer all you Horse Lovers out there! Don’t let your love for horses ruin a potentially wonderful relationship, find the love of your live with equestrian cupid today!

Vacuum Cleaner Review

cody — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:42:04 +0000

Woot! I’m getting fairly excited about the whole vacuum cleaner review site! It’s going to be good. Gotta get it off to the right start though. The build is going kinda fast, but a bit slow at the same time. Lots of annoying little things here and there that have begun to add up and get in the way. Plus I’ve got to hide some of the aspects of the site (things that I don’t want other people messing with). Oh well it’s going to take some time, and energy to get it all done, but in the end it will be worth it.

Did PPP actually do something correct for once?

cody — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:23:01 +0000

Wow, so it seems that PPP may have actually done something right! Yeah, no kidding honest to goodness they may have done something that actually benefits bloggers. On a couple of different levels. A) they got rid of interim posts, so less writing for your money! B) they increased posts to 7 per blog per day! (used to be 3) C) they lowered the minimum cost per post to $1 (for bloggers $2 for advertisers).

All I can say is that my job is secure, when the seasonal LifeTouch position ends some time in June/July I’ll be able to jump right back into blogging and never have a break in what I make! Should be a good thing… combine that with what I’ll be changing about kclanparty, and the vacuum review website I’m constructing… I should be making about 1/3 of what I’m making at LifeTouch right out of the shoot! Couple of months down the road and I’ll be making just the same

Just when you thought it was safe!

cody — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:53:49 +0000

Oh man, just when you thought it was safe to start blogging again… P3 goes and slaps the bloggers around again by adding the ability for advertisers to pay as little as $1 per opportunity! And of course bloggers get paid half of that. I’m sure you can do the math on that…

Unfortunately bloggers are willingly shooting themselves in the foot here… The minimum payment to P3 is $50 for advertisers… which means these people are running at least 40 ads… and I’ve seen more than one of them completely filled up! For small time sites like ApplyMyWay this is going to be perfect for the launch… and for other sites like KCLANParty this will help me promote the directory in a manor that is worth it to me… but for bloggers this means the end of easy career blogging!