Archive for April, 2008
Recently I met an old friend of mine who trains a lot for races (running).
He bought a Nike+iPod and he was training with this sports kit. I was very impressed as he explains to me all the available functionalities and boost which this Nike+ gadget provides. It is simply amazing..
What Is Nike+iPod Sports Kit
- A small device which measures and records the distance and pace of a run
- used to track walking, running, and combinations of the two
The Nike+iPod consists of 2 parts:
1) A sensor - precisely called as a piezoelectric accelerometer. It’s embedded with a transmitter that is mounted under the inner sole of the shoe. (see diagram above)
2) A receiver - This is meant to be connected with your iPod. (see the diagram above)
Any Special Shoe needed?
While Nike recommends that the sensor needs a special Nike+ with a special pocket in which to place the device, my friend told me that his non-nike+ shoe was equally good for this purpose
How to Use the Nike + iPod Sport Kit
The best place with the best diagrams and clear explanation is surely the Nike+iPod Get in gear - have a look at the diagram there..
Something Striking
This device have in-workout audio feedback and pre-recorded congratulations provided by famous athletes like Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and Paula Radcliffe whenever a user achieves a personal best. See the following 2 videos for a concrete understanding:
Nike Plus Motivation
Another demonstration with steps:
Your Stats Can Be Integrated With Nike+ WebSite
When the device is tracking your progress and personal workout, you are essentially connected with the Nike+ Website and getting exposed to other products also.
Quote from Wiki:
Share This Article with your friends if you appreciate my effort to write it!In addition to tracking personal workout statistics, the Nike+ integrates directly with the Nike website. Workout data can be automatically uploaded to the website during an iPod sync with iTunes or through another program via the website’s public API.
Here’s another breaking news from the Wordpress development community:
Version 2.5.1 of WordPress is now available. It includes a number of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and one very important security fix. We recommend everyone update immediately, particularly if your blog has open registration.
By the first line, it may sound (for newbies) as if a new version of Wordpress is out. But no! It’s another “fix” and a fix is there to solve bugs which are present in the main version, namely 2.5
I have been observing the trend of each release of the Wordpress package. When a version, lets say A.B is out, there is bound to have other “fix” releases in this family, like A.B.1, A.B.2, A.B.3..etc, so in general it’s A.B.x
When they have enough of this bug fixing, they release a new family, more precisely a new “species”, A.C, just like the example of 2.5
(on blogcatalog, when 2.5 was released, I said to someone that you will see such fix release soon enough, but i guess at that time some people might have just laughed.. that’s cool!)
Now, if you have understood what I mean, prepare youself for other releases like, 2.5.2, 2.5.3, 2.5.4…etc This means you will need to update and upgrade your package “x” times per year!
[..] In addition to the security fix, 2.5.1 contains many bug fixes [..]
[..] If you download the entire 2.5.1 release, you will be getting over 70 other fixes. 2.5.1 focuses on fixing the most annoying bugs and improving performance. [..]
For those of you who keep an eye on these frequent releases, you will find certain common things mentioned each time:
1) important security fix
2) many other bug fixes solved (here about 70!)
As per the Wordpress team, it’s the culmination of 6 months of work to release the 2.5 species. Then again, they come back with 2.5.1 fix.
But this is getting so stupid and frustrating to each time having to upgrade like this - it’s basically like 3 to 4 updates per year for bloggers using self-hosted wordpress package. Does the development team not care for all this hastle for us?
Why the hell can’t they just take one full year, test it fully and then bring to the world a robust and strong package!!! I starting to be fed up with wordpress..
Anyway, I let you see some more fix releases soon.. enjoy it if you are a big Wordpress fanatic! 
Content is King…
Content is King…
Content is King…
Content is The king and your blog is its castle, right? Well, at least this is what you must have been reading around. While this is true, there is a further deep meaning down the valley, which you need to understand. Since the medieval time, a King never lives without his Queen, in his Castle.
In other words, your blog will not bloom success in the long run without unique content.
King + Queen = A wonderful Castle (let’s forget soldiers for the sake of this discussion )
Queen always played a pivotal role. Even in chess, the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. So, in blogging the Queen plays an important aspect as well.
I name this Queen “unique” content.
What Does Uniqueness Mean In Blogging?
=> Unique content means that you are not reproducing the exact copy or framework of another author. It should not be a duplicate. Write your own work and in your own words.
=> Do not say exactly what others are saying. Say it differently.
How To Make Your Content Unique?
=> The best thing is to always write an article from your own knowledge, experience and observations. An example is this article itself, which I’m just writing without any googling or reading. It is just about how I see things and I trust it is good!
But this approach might not always be sustainable. You cannot write such unique content every time, simply because no one knows everything. There will be moments when you will need to make some references.
=> Read what others are saying and write it in a completely different approach - will require creativity from your part.
This can be a very nice approach, because I believe that there is more than a hundred ways of expressing and explaining something. May be someone among them may come up with a more intelligible and pertinent way of explaining it. So why not make your article be that special one?
Wakish Encourages..
With some good techniques, observation and experience, it is all possible to breed wonderful ideas in your garden to shape unique contents. It just need a bit of motivation and creativity from your side! 
This time I bring you an interview with Problogger, Darren Rowse. My interview subject is based on the approach and writing styles of normal blogging vs review blogging.
To Avoid any confusion, consider:
=> Normal blogging = the type of blogging I do here or like Darren does.
=> Review Blogging = blogging about reviews of products, camera phones..etc A concrete example has been given by Darren in the interview below.
About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is a full time blogger and is making a six-figure income from blogging now since 2005. He is the man behind the famous ProBlogger Blog and several other blogs.
I would also like to mention that Darren Rowse has recently launched his own ProBlogger Book. Here’s a quote:
Unlike other books that are big on potential and theory, ProBlogger provides results based on the authors own experience of what really works through practical, tried and tested advice. Inside readers will learn:
How Bloggers Make Money
Direct Income Earning vs. Indirect Income Earning methods
Why Niches are Important
20 Ingredients for a successful blog post
Optimizing advertising
Which advertising platforms work best
Expert analysis of Technorati’s Top Blogs - why they work
The Interview
Mr Darren Rowse, I have chosen you for this interview since I believe you are
the right person and in the right places to talk about writing styles
concerning normal blogging and review blogging
1) Darren, how long have you been doing “normal blogging” and “review blogging” ? And which one you started first?
I’ve been blogging for about five and a half years. I started on a blogspot blog which then morphed to livingroom.org.au/blog - I’d classify this as a ‘normal blogging’ type blog where I talked about life, culture, spirituality and the experience of starting a new church that I was involved with.
For a while I was also involved with what you might call ‘review’ blogging at livingroom.org.au/photolog - this blog collated and organized reviews of digital cameras from around the web. I don’t really do this much more although have someone else do it on that blog for me now.
Over the last few years most of my blogging has been on ProBlogger.net and Digital-Photography-School.com/blog where I’d say I’m doing ‘normal’ blogging again. I much more enjoy this.
2) Which of the two blogging styles consumes more time and can you briefly tell us how you proceed in each approach?
These days all I really do is the ‘normal’ blogging at ProBlogger and DPS.
3) I believe that writing for “normal blogging” and writing for “review
blogging” involves different writing styles. How far do you think this is true? Can you give us some insight concerning this?
The review blogging in the style I did it is more about finding good content from others. This meant following a lot more blogs of others. Blogging on ProBlogger and DPS is more about finding something to say and then working hard on providing unique and useful information.
4) Any particular message you would like to convey concerning the interview subject?
not really
5) About the layout and themes, would you say that it matters a lot? Any tips or points to consider in the choices for both?
Yes it’s important - there are millions of blogs and one of the quickest ways to differentiate yourself from others and create a good impression is to have a slick looking and eye catching design.
The main tip I’d give is to test your design on a new visitor to your blog. Find a family member that hasn’t seen it before and get them to surf through your blog while you watch. See what they think of it, see how they navigate and watch how they respond to it. I wrote more about how to do it at Run a First Time Reader Audit on Your Blog
6) With problogger, you definetly have built a “loyal” readership, do you think this can also be achieved with review blogging and does it matter here?
Yes I think it can be done - take a look at Engadget or Gizmodo and you’ll see that they’re doing a very similar thing. They add more of their own ideas to post which I think helps.
7) Darren, which one of those two types passionates you the most since we know that you take a lot of devotion and passion in whatever “niche” or “areas” you blog about.
Do you mean which I am more passionate between normal ‘blogging’ and ‘review’ blogging? If so, ‘normal’ - it’s all I do these days 
I hope you will find this interview helpful and stay tuned with Wakish Wonderz for some yet new exciting and informative articles..
Other Recent Interview:
=> Interview With John Chow - Choice For His Shitty Attempt At Viral Video Revealed!
Share This Article with your friends if you appreciate my effort to write it!
Here’s the fourth batch of Review My Blog and Get A Free Linkback:
1) Rajiv’s Blog presents Wakish Wonderz, A Cool Blog To Hang Out At!
If you would like to avail of this free and yet effective and wonderful offer, you just have to read and respond to this post here: Review My Blog and Get A Free Linkback
Previous Edition:
=> Get A Free Linkback - Batch 01
=> Get A Free Linkback - Batch 02
