Next Blog

It's been a long time, huh?

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:39:00 +0000

I have to admit that during the last few years I've been concentrating on my french blog (and even there I've only been posting sporadically). If you are interested in Music, you should have a look at it, since I'm posting video clips of artists that I appreciate on there and I definitely won't post those clips here too. Why? Just because I never wanted to become my own translator and say roughly the same things on several blogs. There are some videos though that would better fit on here and I'll try to post them from time to time, such as videos where Letterman speaks with various guests, or some videos of Bill Hicks. Stay tuned!

New Epinions review

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:25:00 +0000

Writing for Epinions had been quite an adventure.

I wrote my very first Epinions review back in august 2000. It was about a quite obscure Ryuichi Sakamato album and a few reviews later, I was hooked. Back then, it was quite amazing to see the pennies added to one's counter every time a member read a review.

Later on, the money (especially for music reviews) was drastically reduced, but like many others, I stayed for the community. Where else was it possible to write reviews about Tuxedomoon, Can, Bob Mould, etc. and get comments from people who actually knew what you were talking about?

Of course, I've been reading lots of reviews too, learned a lot (especially some vocabulary) and become interested in many bands.

Anyhow, the small amount of money that I earned for my reviews and the amount of 100$ that every writer outside the U.S. had to earn before being allowed to redeem made me realise that I certainly never would see a single Penny from Epinions.

And even the hits and comments weren't enough to keep me motivated on the long run.

Nevertheless, I just managed to write a new review for Epinions, the first one since more than a year. It is a review about Bluejeans and Moonbeams, a more than 30 year old Captain Beefheart album, that I have discovered only a few days ago.

I've got no idea if this will remain the only Epinions review for 2008, or even my last review for the site, or if I finally managed to start all over again.

I guess that time will tell.

How to add a Recent Comments column to your blog

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:01:00 +0000

Many bloggers complain that they don't get enough comments.
At the same time, the comment section is not quite prominent on most blogs, at the end of the post or even hidden in a link.

That's why a Recent Comments section can

motivate your readers to comment
make your blog more interactive.

Convinced? Well, here's an easy way to add a Recent Comments section to all Blogger templates, without using any JavaScript, Third Party Elements, Flash or whatsoever. It is all done with RSS and Blogger Page Elements.

Just go to the Page Elements tab and choose Add a new element. Then choose Feed. The feed name will be http://myblog.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default (replace "myblog.blogspot.com" with the URL of your blog). Then determine how many elements you want do display (up to 5) and if you want to show the date and author of each element.

Name this column Recent comments (or whatever) and move it where it should be.
That's all.

(This procedure only works for blogs that use the Blogger platform and the new version (anciently called Blogger beta).

You can check out the result on this blog. And, feel free to comment :)

Notice: This Blogger feature doesn't seem to be working correctly at this time. You can use instead this Javascript widget.

Update:
This Blogger feature is working again.

pdf spam... what a great idea!

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:14:00 +0000

Spam has been a nuisance since spam exists.

Fortunately, we can find great anti-spam tools like bayesian filters integrated to popular free e-mail software such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Foxmail. These filters can identify easily 90% of all incoming spam, sometimes even more.

That's why the spammers have come up with a new trick, pdf spam.

In case of empty messages with an attached pdf file, even bayesian filters have problems to classify them as spam or non-spam, since there isn't anything to analyze.

On the other hand, why should I even waste my time clicking on a pdf file that fjkjkjkmdjf@perfecta$$hole.com is sending to me?

And supposed that I really have nothing better to do, why should I believe anything that a guy using a bizarre (and probably fake) e-mail adress is trying to tell me?

How many investors in the whole world really could be stupid enough not to see the difference between a fake investment alert and a real one?

I guess there might be more stupid spammers hoping to make big money with dirty little tricks than stupid investors...

How to add RSS buttons to your blog

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:24:00 +0000

RSS buttons are an easy way to let your readers add your blog to Netvibes, iGoogle, Yahoo, Wikio or any other online RSS reader.

Many of those services even have created tools for creating those RSS buttons within a few seconds. All you will have to do is paste the generated html code where you want on your blog.

Here are links to some of those RSS button tools:

Netvibes button tool

iGoogle button tool

My Yahoo button tool

Pageflakes button tool

Webwag button tool

Wikio.com button tool

RSS button maker

The last one comes from the TopRank Online Marketing Blog and might be one of the best RSS button tools, since it gives you the possibility of creating several buttons with one single operation. You can even chose if you want to get simple html code, a dropdown menu or blog specific code.

Important notice:
You need to know the exact URL of your RSS feed for all of those tools except for the Netvibes tool. Netvibes will normally identify your feed or make several propositions (at least one of them should work).

If you use Feedburner, you might not be able to use some of these tools. This applies apparently for the Wikio tool.

If you are unable to identify your feed, you might want to check out the FAQ pages concerning your blog. Some blogs might not have any RSS capabilities, so none of these tools will work.

Foxmail as a POP3 client for Gmail

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:54:00 +0000

I've been using Foxmail since quite a while, because Foxmail is free, more secure than Outlook and it has a built in bayesian spam filtering.

As a recent user of Gmail, I wanted to find out if it is possible to use receive messages sent to a Gmail account with Foxmail after configuration of the POP3 functionalities of Gmail and Foxmail. This can for instance be useful to keep a copy of your important Gmail messages on your hard disc for security or to print them out.

The answer is yes, and it can be done quite easily.

1) Gmail configuration
At first, go to the Settings of Gmail, tab Forwarding and POP.
Now enable POP Download.
You can choose if this activation shall be effective from now on or if it shall apply to all messages (attention with this option, if you already have plenty of messages on your Gmail account).
You can also choose if you want to keep a copy of your messages on the Gmail server.
Don't forget to save the changes.

2) Foxmail configuration
Acces to the menu Other POP3s (menu Accounts/Properties).
Click on New and fill out the form like this:
POP3 server: pop.gmail.com
Account: your complete Gmail address
Password: your Gmail password
Now click on Advanced Properties to type in 995 as POP3 server port and activate Use SSL for security on this server.
Confirm all modifications and you're done.
In case you don't want to receive your Gmail messages with Foxmail anymore, just uncheck the box of the Other POP3s menu or delete the Gmail account information.

PS: Please note that I'm using a french version of Foxmail. For this reason, some menu titles might be wrong. If so, please let me know.

Electronic Music Map

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:41:00 +0000

I stumbled upon this Guide to Electronic Music some days ago. I've found it useful and entertaining although I'm not too much into this kind of Electronic Music (Techno, Trance, House, etc.) and the artists and styles that I appreciate are often on the very edge of the maps. The most interesting feature is the possibility of listening to typical excerpts of almost every style, and the witty comments as well.

Epinions comes now with RSS feeds

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 12:31:00 +0000

I'm glad to announce that Epinions has now integrated RSS feed functions to many many pages. This is a great opportunity to keep informed of new reviews posted on the site without even signing up to Epinions.

There are basically two choices:
1) to stay informed of any reviews posted by an author
2) to stay informed of any reviews posted about a product

You will find the feeds on the product or user profile pages.

You do have the possibility to subscribe to as many feeds as you can handle and you can of course subscribe to both types of feeds.

(RSS feeds are compatible with recent browsers such as Firefox 2.0, RSS readers, or web based tools such as My Yahoo! or Netvibes.)

Pandora

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 11:16:00 +0000

I'd like to present you an Internet Radio Station that is a bit different from most other net radio stations, because it allows you to create your "own" radio stations, according to artists or tracks you like.

As you may have guessed according to the title, this station is called Pandora and you'll find it here. So how does it work? Simply type the name of an artist or an album track and Pandora will chose tracks you should like, and very often some tracks of the chosen artist. Therefore Pandora allows you to make yourself a first opinion about artists you have heard of and also to learn about similar artists.

Sounds great, but there are some cons too. The first is that you have to sign up for free after about half an hour and the second is that you have to reside in the USA, since you have to state your Zip Code.

Progressive Rock Site

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 21:01:00 +0000

Today I've stumbled on an interesting progressive rock site. It is called Prog Archives and the URL is http://www.progarchives.com/.

I must admit that I don't quite agree with their Top 100 album list that features Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis (sic!) as the creators of the 5 best progressive rock albums.

On the other hand the site contains technical information and reviews of a great amount of prog rock albums. The reviews are generally not as exhaustive as on Epinions, but I guess that Prog Archives will often have reviews of albums that haven't been reviewed on Epinions.

Writing for Epinions Again

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:04:00 +0000

To my great surprise I finally managed to write a new review for Epinions, the first one after more than a year. The review was about the David Sylvian Best of compilation Everything and Nothing that I bought some weeks ago on eBay.

I was particularly happy to get some comments from persons that came across my reviews for the first time. I really should leave more comments to other people's reviews and try to reply whenever I get a comment.

I'm already looking forward to writing another review, but the choice of an album to review is a tricky question. Some possible candidates (for instance Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea) have already been reviewed by very talented epinions authors, some are waiting to be reviewed for quite a while (for instance Tago Mago) and I don't quite know how to write a review about them...

life in korea

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Tue, 02 May 2006 15:10:00 +0000

As you may have noticed, I do love music, but I do love photography too. So here's a link to a photo blog that I've stumbled upon with blogger's Next Blog button a few days ago and that I check out almost every day: life in korea

Enjoy!

My turntable

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 20:51:00 +0000

It shouldn't be a huge surprise that I've been in the attic to fetch my turntable, since I've been reading and writing a lot about vinyl records during the last few days. I wouldn't consider myself as a collector, but I still own about 100 vinyl records. Most of them were bought in the eighties and even if my taste has evolved since then, I still appreciate listening to most of them.

My own music reviews

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 21:33:00 +0000

OK, I just wanted to let you know something. I guess that some people who get here might wonder why I read and comment music blogs without writing any reviews myself.

I've been a member of Epinions since Fall 2000 and I've written 30 music reviews, many of them about previously unreviewed albums and I don't feel like deleting these reviews or pasting them into this blog. Please feel free to check out my reviews here. On my epinions profile, you will find links to many more writers and most of them are specialized in the field of music.

Yet another Music Blog

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 20:56:00 +0000

Carl (cf. my last blog entry) does have a nice LP collection, but if you are looking for something really crazy, check out 20th Century Music, Ron Kane's blog. He has lots of interesting LPs, singles and CDs from Ryuichi Sakamoto to CAN. Frankly, I'm not sure to own a single album he doesn't have, or if I do, it might well be one of my On-U Sound reggae albums or thinks like Hail or Simon Fisher Turner. This guy could open a museum or an archive for a big radio station!

Interesting Music Blog

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 07:45:00 +0000

Do you still own a turntable? Or maybe I should ask: Did you ever own a turntable? What, you don't even know what a turntable is? Well ok, way back in the last century, CDs, MP3s, home computers didn't even exist, but people were already listening to recorded music. They used big discs, the so-called vinyl records, turning at 33 or 45 rpm that were read by a needle and electrically amplified by the above mentioned turntable.

Anyway, some people still have vinyl records and one of these folks is presenting them here. By the way, his name is Carl.

How confusing!

noreply@blogger.com (damospace) — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 14:13:00 +0000

Hello everybody,

I didn't feel like leaving you guys out, so I created this blog for all english speaking folks. I don't know yet if I'll write on here very often, but I wanted to create this blog in order to add some links to blogs I like and also to avoid messing up my french and german blog with english posts and comments.

The title of this blog (please note the "-" between "next" and "blog") is of course a hint to blogger's great toolbar function with the same name, but also to the fact that this blog is already the fourth blog I've created this month.