Today I have been told that I must make a complete effort to post at minimal one post per month to my personal blog. I will try I promise, maybe even more than one post per month.

So, before the wreck occurred I was on the job market looking for my next job since my current contract was near on expiring and I am happy to say now that I have secured and started my new position as an Information Manger in Europe, good for three more years “possibility of 5”. Oh, almost forgot to mention the best thing about my new job is that I have finally made it into the 6 digit annual income bracket!

What else is going on well we have also just started the proceedings of our second international home purchase and are now the proud owners of two homes, getting ready to rent the first home out. In the middle of the real estate negotiations I have also been debating back and forth about buying a Macbook or another XPS and I ended up buying the XPS so now we own the M1210 and the M1330. The 13 inch notebook is the only way to go in my opinion and if you’re wondering why I turned away from the Mac it was because I have programs that only run on windows and I did not want the hassle of installing windows on a Mac just for a little change - maybe another day who knows.

Last but not least our new Landrover has just arrived in Germany late as I expected since all dealerships lie to you on the actual shipment times. Will post some pictures soon of the new LR2 and maybe some pictures of Leeds England since I will be over there next week!

Also, incase your wondering what book I’m currently reading it’s called Click “What millions of people are doing online”, I’m on chapter five at the moment. It’s an easy reading book very informative and I’m loving it. After telling a few colleagues about it one guy told me he purchased the iPod version of it which I’ve never thought about checking out before because he’sable to listen to a chapter a day on the way to work and on the way home.

Thanks for all the comments from the true readers and to the people that are just using me for a link back to their site.

The short and long of the crash an older man failed to look before making a left turn onto a major highway blocking my vehicles path. We hit the front of his car, reaping the front of it off causing us to roll an estimated three-six times, hitting at light pole with the car ending upside down.

Hearing my son screaming in the backseat as the car was flipping down the road is the scariest thing that I have every gone through in my life. Once our car was at a complete stop I unlocked my seatbelt, slide back to my son that was still in his car seat and I unlocked him and then slide out the driver side window.

The crazy part out of all this!! Neither one of us had a signal injury at all!! It’s now been six days since the accident, I only have a bruise on my left shoulder and my son it still “A-OK” of-course I’ve had him checked out twice now by doctors to make double sure.

I was driving a 2005 Land Rover Freelander and to be completely honest I had never given thought to safety when purchasing car. Since the wreck I checked the rating of my vehicle and come to find out it had excellent safety rating for keeping people safe in the event of a wreck.

So, it’s just a week later now and I’ve already settled and received my insurance check and believe or not I have already decided, paid and order our new 2009 Land Rover LR2 HSE it’s due to be at the dealer in Germany in just four to six weeks. It’s even safer than the old one, seven airbags and if you’re really interested you can check it out more at landrover.com

Also wanted to note that my son’s car seat is a Confront BeBe “Moby” Oxygen 2/3, not sure if the brand is available in the states or not we purchased at John Lewis in England it’s also available in several locations throughout Europe and “YES” I’ll be replacing the seat with another one.

Here are some pics of my crashed Freelander and our new 2009 LR2 HSE.

Our Crashed Land Rover Freelander

Our New 2009 LR2 HSE (here in just 4 weeks)

It may seem odd to talk about saving time on the internet. Thinking back to 15 years ago, the internet was just starting to burst into mainstream America. The speed and reach of the internet was mind-boggling at that time. Now we’ve come so far with the technology that we actually find ourselves wanting better and faster results.
Your Vote Counts!
As is true with nearly all technology, the internet has evolved to be something much different than it was 5, 10, and certainly 15 years ago. But have internet users evolved in the way they use the internet? We know that humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like to do what we’re familiar with, see who we already know and get along with, and go places we already know we like. I think it’s fair to say that the same can be applied to our internet habits.

New programs, applications, and websites are constantly being created and marketed to users. The ones that get a lot of media attention have a good chance of getting users to at least test them out, even if it’s just on a trial basis.

However, there are other sites on the internet that have been around but aren’t getting the attention they deserve. Let’s go back to search engines. Most people are familiar with the “Big Three” of engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If you’ve paid attention to web trends over the years, you know that each has had their heyday, with Google probably receiving the most attention in recent years.

This is a good illustration of the fact that what is popular one year on the web may be at the bottom of the líst the next year. Does anyone remember when Webcrawler.com or Excite.com were touted as the destination search engine? It’s all a part of the natural evolution and progression of search engines.

Another evolution of the search engine is the creation of the meta search engine. Meta search engines are similar, in that you type in a term or phrase to be searched. The meta search engine then gathers results from several different search engines, compiles them, and presents them in its own search results page.
Get the Number 1 Position on Google!

The results from a meta search engine will vary, depending on which other engines the meta engine is pulling from. Dogpile.com, for instance, pulls results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA.com, LookSmart.com, and others. This quickly accomplishes what would take a user much more time to open all those browser windows and type in the same search term over and over again.

However, Dogpile does receive criticism for its compiled search results page. The sponsored results are mixed in with the “real” results, which can be confusing if you’re not paying attention. It’s also hard to believe that the search results are in any particular order of relevance when broken up with those sponsored results.

Another search engine, Widow.com, uses a tried and tested algorithm to compile its results and then order them in relevance, without sponsored results. When doing a side-by-side comparison of the five top search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and Fastsearch), you’ll see that Widow.com comes up with not only the most highly ranked results, but some very useful links that the other engines didn’t pull.

To illustrate my point, I looked at how the different search engines handle a specific search word. If we take a term that has been in the news a lot lately, “foreclosure”, and type that in to different search engines, we’ll see different results.

Not surprisingly, Fastsearch had no results on “foreclosure.” Though it is one of the top search engines, its focus is on business and information technology. So it’s really not going to be relevant for anything beyond those topics.
Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!

All of the other search engines (five of them!) had one or more sponsored results at the top of the page. Dogpile.com, as I previously warned you, had the most sponsored ads - an astounding 10 sponsored ads on the first results page. Plus, they’re all mixed in with the other results, with just a note at the bottom to let you know it’s an ad or otherwise paid for result.

The only search engine that returned no sponsored results or ads was Widow.com. It sorted through the results, performed its algorithm magic, and produced variety and depth in its results page. Better yet, Widow has a nifty search term bar on the left hand side that allows you to pull up search results for related terms. Talk about saving time and energy!

Of course, the main reason search engines were developed was because the internet is so expansive. No human can search the entire web on their own, hoping to stumble upon the answers and information they’re seeking. Search engines are tools to help users find pertinent information in a timely manner.

Taking a traditional approach to search engines is fine if you have the time, the motivation, and the desire. Sometimes the best drives are the ones where you only have a vague destination, right? So I suppose the same can be true of using one of the top five engines we’ve mentioned.

But sometimes, thinking outside of the box, can not only inspire new ways of thinking, but can help push you or your research in a different, better direction. The most efficient way to do that is to utilize a meta search engine. Try stepping outside of your usual search strategies and see for yourself why it “is” sometimes greener on the other side of the fence. There’s a whole wide world (web) to discover and explore!

By Trey Pennewell (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers

For the key term celebrity gossip a Google search returns 6.9 million results now not all of these are blogs of course but this is the competition that our entertainment portion is up against. The Geektalk section of Ja Kel Daily is for the most part whatever I feel like posting about since it’s my personal blog but predominately I talk about tech related things and if you Google anything related the results are an astounding 300 million or more if it’s a generic term. Anyway you get the point, I hope.

So how different are you? This is a question I started asking myself while reading blogging hero’s in Greece. Since the start of our up hill blog trip we have manage to reach an average of 100,000 hits per month with a growing income as well and we have accomplished this with no advertisement costs.

What exactly can a blog site do to show that they are different than the millions of others out there on the net? Video blogging is the answer that I came up with and something that I had been giving some heavy thought for quite some time now. Why, because there is only one you that can be offered to the world and if you public likes you the traffic will follow.

Ja Kel Daily TV- Jason. Coming soon to geektalk and also Kelly will be doing the same for our entertainment section so I suggest you check them out. In case you wondering the Amy Winehouse video is just there for representation purposes of the vblog section.

So what’s happened in the last thirty days in my world? My job in Belgium is coming to a possible end in the next six months so I’ve been interviewing and applying to new areas thought-out the world. I’ve officially passed my CompTIA A+ certification test so I am now among the certified computer geeks. My daughter has been heavily into the Wii console and I am the number one choice for help with all games especially “Ratatouiee”. My son is turning two this month so birthday party planning, gift buying and keeping up with his energetic needs.

Greece was extremely relaxing a well needed break for both my wife and I. I can highly recommend Paradise Island Villas that we stayed at in Crete, well worth the money. We visited a few places such as Heraklion, Elounda, Hersonissos, and Agios Nikolas which was my favorite place in Crete. My wife even managed to find a new Greek 18k white gold ring that she fell in love with, image that a hidden “love” travel expense (men do not forget to budget for it if you go to Greece because there are loads of Greek designer ring shops around).  

YouTube Link

I also had a chance to read Blogging Heroes the book I mentioned before. It was an excellent read but if you are new to blogging do not expect the book to have secrets and such from top blogging experts. The number one tip you will receive from all thirty bloggers in the book is that you must be passionate about whatever you intend to blog about because with out it you will certainly fail. Overall I feel the book gives a fundamental top blogging education base and is worth a read.

Heraklion

Agios Nikolas

Initially when I picked the magazine up I was actually thinking it was a tech related magazine but in fact it is designed for the entrepreneur. I was so impressed with my read and the overall material I decided to pay for a subscription which was only $9.97 for twelve issues.

Yes, I know you can read thousands of websites for free on such material but there is just something about picking up a magazine and a cup of coffee and having a great read wherever the place may be at the time.

I’ve read the magazine from front to back now and the article that has moved me per say the most is the one about Evan Williams the founder of blogger that struggled his way uphill and eventually sold and made $50 million from Google. The funny thing is I’ve never actually looked into blogger’s background even though I am a techie and user of two years.

I since have explored William’s blog EvHead to read his mentioned post on “Ten Rules for Web Startups” which has become something of an internet standard and what he considers to be one of his best blog posts of all time.

Six important aspects I gained from his post:

1. Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful.
2. Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it.
3. One of Google’s biggest strengths—and sources of frustration for outsiders—was their willingness to say no to opportunities, easy money, potential employees, and deals.
4. User experience is everything.
5. Create something you want to exist in the world.
6. Yes, high levels of commitment are crucial.

Another article I found to be equaling as compelling was “How to Evaluate New Product Idea”

1. Tractability is partially about technical difficulty and much about timing and competition.
2. Is it clear why people should use it?
3. The most successful products give benefits quickly.
4. How many people may ultimately use it?
5. How hard will it be to extract the money?
6. Do you really want it to exist in the world?

What have I learned like any other net savvy person that is always looking for the next best idea on the net and “Yes Anything Can Happen” as long as the willingness to succeed is there!