the Inconsequential Rantings of Bruce HorstBruce Horst (662)    Bruce Horst   Wanna Buy a Handgun?Posted Friday, February 08, 2008 (212 days 3 hours ago.) Viewed 1,606 times. If you are considering the purchase of a handgun for your protection, there are a few things to consider. Would you feel safe with a gun which misfires once for every 10 times you pull the trigger? Would you maintain a gun which left your family less safe than it would be without it? After being robbed at gun point and consequently completing a concealed handgun course, I have a few observations that might prove valuable to anyone considering a handgun purchase. When I'm asked why I carry a gun, I respond that it is because the U.S. Constitution and the State of Texas allow me to. I expect that I will never really need a gun again, but if I do, I need it to work flawlessly. Good luck in the purchase of your next handgun!
Permalink Comments (18) What to do if you have a Computer VirusPosted Monday, January 28, 2008 (222 days 14 hours ago.) Viewed 225 times. In my social circles, I am commonly thought of as the Resident Geek. What this means is that if a friend has a technical problem, I am the one they call.
The most common problem I get asked about is what to do if they have a virus on their computer. I thought I'd post my standard response here so that the next time I can just point them to this page, and hopefully others can benefit as well!
Hey, sorry to hear about your computer... here's my advice....
The very first thing to try is to restore Windows to a previous state, before you had the virus. Most computers running Windows have a system restore which is incredibly easy to use. Click "Start", "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools", then "System Restore". You will then be given the option to choose a time and date to restore your computer back to. Make sure you choose a date back far enough to ensure that the virus didn't exist then. The process takes a few minutes and will require that your computer reboot, but it is easy and it works probably 75% of the time.... I think this is the best feature in Windows that no one ever knows about. If this doesn't work, you're going to have to download some software to remove the virus. The two best programs I would recommend is Spybot - Search and Destroy and AdAware which are free and can be downloaded from: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and http://www.lavasoftusa.com If these programs don't completely fix the problem, the next thing to try is HiJackThis from http://Merijn.org . This is a powerful program which can really mess up a computer, so use it as the last resort. If all else fails (and sometimes it will) you will need to format the hard drive and re-install windows.. but hopefully you won't have to do that. Good luck! Bruce
Permalink Comments (4) How Do I Get More Readers To My Articles?Posted Monday, January 07, 2008 (243 days 17 hours ago.) Viewed 810 times. As the developer and 'chief visioneer' of SearchWarp, I have to answer all the hard questions which we receive from our users.
By far, the most common question we receive is, "How do I get more readers to my articles?". The editors and I see so many articles every day that we can typically tell how many readers an article will attract even before it goes public. We've learned a few things over the years about attracting readers and there are definitely rules to follow if you want to become a popular writer. I'd like to outline some of the most important rules for you... 1. The first and biggest determining factor in how many people your writing will attract: You must write about what people want to read about, NOT what you want to write about. The Internet is filled with peoples' opinions, and the hundreds of millions of people who search for things on the Internet every day are never looking to read more opinions, unless it comes from someone that they are already familiar with. In other words, if no one knows who you are, no one is going to go searching for your opinions, so you're going to have to write about something else to attract readers. This is a hard one to swallow, and the majority of people that we give this advice to do not use it because they want to write about what they want to write about. This is ok. At SearchWarp, we like to promote the less-common opinions of people that few have ever heard of. You will probably get some readers from within SearchWarp and hopefully a few will join your fan club, but you will not get a large number of readers from across the Internet. You might have noticed that most of the writers who are featured on our home page do not have really high popularity numbers. Typically we feature good writers who are passionate about what they write about, but this alone does not attract readers. Some of our writers have figured out how to write about what they want to write about AND put it in a format that people want to read about. For example, if you want to write about a particular topic, find the most popular quotes from that topic, the history of that topic, or how-to information about that topic. All 3 of those formats usually work very well on SearchWarp.
2. Good articles must clearly answer a question. Many writers struggle with this until one day the light comes on and they realize that the more clearly their articles show a question asked and answered, the more people will believe their articles are worth reading.
I'm not suggesting that you change the topic of your article, but rather the style or format. Abstract thoughts don't attract many readers. "How to do this to get that" and "why this means that" will attract many more readers.
3. Make your titles descriptive. Inexperienced writers like to come up with cute little titles. Experienced writers make their titles as descriptive as possible. If your article answers a question (and it should), use a title that forms the question. At one time SearchWarp forced people to use more than 2 words for a title, but we got so many complaints that we discontinued this requirement. Guess what? Those who complained can now use their cute little 2 word titles, but no one is reading their articles! A classic example came through SearchWarp a few years ago. A writer submitted an article entitled, "It Happened Again". Do you know what the article was about? No one else does either, because no one ever read it. You've got to use your title to let people know why they should read your article. 'Nuff said. So how do you decide what to write about? On SearchWarp we list the latest trends on our Hot New Articles page. You can also look at our What People are Looking For page. The Hot Comments page shows which articles are attracting a the most comments, which doesn't always mean the most readers, but it can help in determining your topic. You can also check out the Top 100 Hall of Fame and see what the the most popular authors are writing about. Typically the top authors write about relationships, celebrity gossip, current events, fashion trends, how-to instructions, and holiday-specific information. Outside of SearchWarp I'd recommend the following pages to stay on top of trends: Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends Lycos Top 50: http://50.lycos.com Yahoo Buzz: http://buzz.yahoo.com Hopefully you will find this information useful on the way to writing stardom! If you have any other good links that other writers might find useful, please send them to me. Otherwise, please let me know if you have any other questions!
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