MyLot.com

I found this site about a week ago. It's many things (another blogging site, a forum, a pay to post site, etc.). I can't explain it well, so just check it out!

If you use FireFox, read this.

I found this page on another blog I was reading and I wanted to share it with you just in case you use FireFox. I used mose to these "hacks" and they made FireFox (and other Mozilla based browsers like Opera, K-meleon) a whole lot faster. They may seem intimidating, but they aren't that bad and they make a real difference. Read the steps carefully, though. I don't recommend the trace monkey hack. It seems risky. Later!

30 Day Challenge

Just added my twitter feed and I thought I'd let you know what it was about, so here's a link. I'm doing this blog because I'm passionate about the subject (I would like to make money on it, but I'm not expecting that). But the 30 day challenge is about making your first $10 online (which I never did because I stopped). They give very good details on how to do this and they update it each year. Once you have passed the 30 day challenge, you'll understand what else they can teach you (how to make even more on the web). I'm looking forward to trying again, because my head hurts from reading about all the myriad ways of making money on the web (just google home based business for starters). I've found some ways of making a little money (more like pennies) that might be easy (and yes sometime even hard!). And so far I've only managed to lose inbox space and not money from all the schemes I've read about (like cash gifting! ILLEGAL!). I hope if you are reading this and thinking I'd like to make money online, then be careful. I think the general rule for most of these things is "a fool and his money are soon parted". The 30 day challenge is free and I believe all the tools and techniques are free, too (but don't quote me on that). Go check it out!

So what is usenet?

Follow the link above for extreme detail (go ahead, I'll wait), but in layman's terms, it is basically a file-sharing service (that offers discussion of topics, much like a message board). If you haven't heard of it, that's ok. It's not quite as popular as Bittorrent or Kazaa or Limewire. But if you know what you are doing, it's even better. As a downloader, you are generally anonymous. As an uploader you can take simple steps to make yourself anonymous. So what's the catch? Well, you can't find everything. The server you use to connect to the usenet content is your choice (unless you use your isp's server, which I would not recommend for many reasons) and you should study this part heavily. The basic things to look for in a server are:

1. Retention (how long they store their content)
2. Completion (how well they store that content)
3. Speed (how fast you can get that content)
4. Anonymity (what they log)

Fortunately the first three are easy to find out, as most usenet providers advertise this on their homepage. The last may or may not be clear, so you may need to read their terms of service (tos) and usage agreements. Most are pretty much anonymous, but will say they log what you upload (just to keep spammers in line). Also most providers offer a trial period that may or may not be free. This is good, because sometimes even the seemingly best service may not be the best for you. What I mean here is that speed might be an issue, from provider to you. These usenet servers are located in many different places and may have to take a long route to reach you (so pay attention to where their server is based). The longer the route, the slower your download speed. Also, they may cap their speed depending on the level of service you paid for (or possibly your internet service provider may cap your speed as well). Anyway, I'll try to make a chart the covers the popular providers and rates them (and I'll try to keep it up to date). If you want to advise me on a new service (or correct me on something I said), comments are very welcome. Expect more to come! (Can you tell I'm excited to get this thing going?)

This is my very first blog

I'm going to be blogging about usenet and how to use it (you may have also know it as newsgroups from a newsserver). I'm going to make tutorials and recommendations and such. Check back soon!