Blog with Honor

There has been much debate lately about whether or not its acceptable to take money for writing blog posts. Blogging for money without disclosure, along with opportunities like PayPerPost and the like, takes it all to a new level. I don't think we want blog police, but I also believe trust and credibility don't happen by themselves. What do you think?

Advertising seems to be the way to generate revenue from a blog. There is nothing wrong with that. However, content and advertising must be distinct. Well, yes I do blog about interesting ads that make me think, but that is not what I mean. Do you see 'Ads by Google' at the bottom of my AdSense links? That is called disclosure. So, if I'm ever offered payment to blog about some product, have no doubt it will be clearly marked as sponsored post. Having said that, if all you do is AdSense, I don’t even consider it a source of income. As far as I can tell from my experience, readers avoid clicking them (20 clicks out of 14,700 page impressions generate a grand total of $4.89)! Its passive and obvious.

I am in favor of any tactic that will enhance and point to a blog's credibility. The Blog Honor Pledge is designed to help bloggers make a statement to be authentic and transparent at all times. Even though its a kind of link bait, I like what it stands for and the ethics it represents. Thus, I adapted the Blog Honor badge on this blog, as you can see in my sidebar, with a little tweak so that it links back to this post where I take the Blog Honor Pledge (there is a link here to the original Blog Honor page anyway).

Do the right thing by the reader and the rewards will eventually come your way.

I have chosen to pledge to you the following:

1. I will endeavor to continue to bring you the highest quality content that I am capable of

2. I promise to attempt to disclose or clearly mark any content or advertisements or other monetization attempts that help me keep my blog operating

3. I pledge to never write "fake" blog content solely for the purpose of trying to generate revenue without complete and clear disclosure. With exception, my blog may exist for business purposes, therefore I use it to talk about products & services that relate to my business, thus assisting me in generating leads & sales for me indirectly

In return, I hope that you will continue to read my blog with the knowledge that I produce my blog out of a passion for the topic I write about, and not because I'm hoping to fool you into making money for myself.

Please note, I have nothing against generating revenue from my blog, in fact, your ongoing support of my sponsors and advertisers (text links, partner ads, etc...) helps me keep my blog operating so that I may endure to create better content for you.

I do appreciate your support. Continued thanks for your readership.

Click here to continue reading..

Don't Copy That Floppy

Ok, you filthy thieves. I am about to show you something that will hopefully steer you clear of your current life of evil crime. Here is a hilarious look at copyright laws all the way back from the early 90's from MC 'Disk Protector'. The rap video portion is interspersed with boring nice interviews of the staff responsible for design of an early version of Neverwinter Nights.

That's it! I will never copy a game on a floppy ever again. I won't, believe me.

In recent times online credit card use is increasing very rapidly. Keeping this in mind many companies have started credit cards services but still the best one is visa credit card. For this people can get information on internet where many websites are providing useful information about credit card loans, mortgages and rental insurance. These websites also provide resources to calculate income plans of retirement. Some of these websites also provide the facility of online mortgage calculator. Other than this any one looking for payday loan information can easily get it from such websites

Click here to continue reading..

How to Make a Bow and Arrow

"Once the weapon of choice for everyone from Native Americans to Turkish armies, the bow and arrow is one of the oldest hunting (and fighting) tools on Earth. While it's no match for modern weaponry, or indeed for modern archery equipment, a primitive bow and arrow can still save your life if you have to hunt to survive in the wilderness.

A high quality bow can take weeks or months to cure and construct, but a simpler version can be made relatively quickly and with readily available materials. The instructions here, based largely on the U.S. Army Survival Manual FM 21-76, can teach you how to construct a 'field-expedient' weapon."

[Via: WikiHow]

Click here to continue reading..

Type Fast or Die

It is logical to associate an expert typist with fast typing, given that touch typing is an automatic skill, but a better description might be accurate typing. While learning to touch type will almost always result in a perceptible increase in typing speed, it is just one factor contributing to a marked increase in productivity.

Here is a creative application of an online game to test your typing skills: QWERTY Warriors! (Hit 'Play' to start then select a difficulty level.) The objective of the game is to type the word next to your enemies as fast as you can to survive. Sure beats typing tutor programs to make you faster!

Click here to continue reading..

Email Your Future Self

I've seen this before, and maybe some of you have seen this as well, but I'm sure most people haven't. Even so, its time to bury your own personal time capsule! Ever wonder where will you be one year from today? Preserve your thoughts, resolutions, and memories on Future Me, then specify the date in the future when you want them emailed back to you.

The free service lets you to send an email to any address up to 30 years from now. It's a great way to check in on yourself a few years forward and see if you've achieved your goals or languished in procrastination. I know it can actually be difficult to write down one’s goal but it’s something you have to do if you wish to be accountable to yourself.

Here are some examples from the public letters if you need some inspiration.

Click here to continue reading..

Get a First Life

Go Outside. Make some real life friends. Live your life. Second Life is a popular virtual world which recently crossed one million residents. To parody Second Life, Darren Barefoot created a one page satire site called Get a First Life which is a '3D analog world where server lag does not exist.' This blaugh seemed appropriate here:

[Via: Quick Online Tips]

Click here to continue reading..

Bored of Times New Roman? Make Your Own Handwritten Font!

If you have a Tablet PC, you can create your own font with a free Microsoft powertoy called My Font Tool. On the same page, there is also a Handwriting Analysis Tool that supposedly reports what your handwriting reflects about your personality. Very interesting piece of software! Posted my results in the comments.

Lets face it. We are all using computers to type more and more everyday. Its no surprise that my script isn't very pretty. So, I present you with this good collection of free handwritten fonts. Enjoy!

Click here to continue reading..

Size Does Not Matter

Jedi Master Yoda from the fictional universe of Star Wars once said "Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?" This is the idea behind the new ad for Golf GT TSI developed by the creative agency DDB London. This car may only have a 1.4 litre engine but it’s boosted with a turbocharger and a supercharger pumping out a whooping 170hp. The result, small but powerful!

Click here to continue reading..

Borat Wins a Golden Globe

Jagshemash! Most of you probably have heard of Borat. He is a (now famous and controversial) fictional character portrayed by the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Most of you probably seen his film too. Borat - Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan. Well, 'Borat' recently won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Watch his hilarious award acceptance speech (or read it here).

I Like You! Although I would ideally cut the post here, I can't help but continue with some constructive critism. I think Borat is as an inspiration from the Turkish Internet celebrity Mahir "I Kiss You" Cagri. Check out his music video! Moreover, if you visit his original website, you will see a lot of similarities. In particular his facial hair, formal wear and his use of the catchphrase "I like sex." In the film's introductory scenes, Borat not only uses Mahir's "You can stay my home" catchphrase, but also poses during a game of ping-pong in revealing red shorts, referencing two of Mahir's famous shots. Though unlike Mahir, the traveller, Borat is a television reporter. I really like how he uses this opportunity to reveal people's inner-selves (although sometimes it is offensive to others). This can be best described with Sacha Baron Cohen's own words (about Borat's anti-Semitism) in an interview featured in The Rolling Stone magazine:

"Borat essentially works as a tool, by himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism.... I remember, when I was in [Cambridge] university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.'"

Do You Like Me? To be honest, Cohen is a great actor. No doubt about that. But I have seen the film and I don't think it was as good as Cohen's previous works. For example, I used to enjoy watching Borat (even before he became famous) in every episode of Da Ali G Show, doing satirical interviews with often-unwitting subjects. I was also rolling on the floor laughing at Borat's appearance on the talk show (twice!), Late Night with Conan O' Brien. In the film, there were some scenes that simply created a shock effect and I found them utterly tasteless (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, watch it here re-enacted by bunnies in 30 seconds). Surely there were funny scenes as well, but it still is a low-budget mockumentary!

High Five! Fans of Borat, please go easy on my first post including my opinion.. but it had to be done!

Click here to continue reading..

Swimming in Wine

It has been said that Cleopatra loved to bathe in red wine as a rejuvenation treatment in ancient Egypt. Don't like wine? Try swimming in Tea or Coffee! You can do just that at the Yunessun spa resort in Hakone, Japan. The resort provides all sort of liquid goodness for you to dip in - and you thought your Dead Sea soak was exquisite. It even has a traditional Turkish Hamam!

Click here to continue reading..

How To Recover From Hangovers

If you have ever drunk more alcohol than you should, then you are no stranger to the symptoms of a hangover. The formal name for a hangover is veisalgia, from the Norwegian word for "uneasiness following debauchery" (kveis) and the Greek word for "pain" (algia) - an appropriate title considering the uncomfortable experience!

1. Sleep. It gives your body time to recover. A tired or unfit drinker is especially vulnerable to hangovers.

2. Water. Keep drinking water.

3. Eat. Complex carbohydrates such as bread and pasta will raise your blood sugar level. Bananas are excellent because they contain complex carbohydrates, potassium and Vitamin C. And if your stomach can't face food? Chamomile tea is best, and make the first cup really strong. The chamomile will help your stomach, and if you take in quantities of water with the tea, it will ease the pain.

4. Exercise. This will help you sweat the alcohol out of your system.

5. Sex. See exercise.

There are doctors who claim hangovers are mostly mental. In that case you may feel the need to punish yourself with a more exotic cures. If so, try the Middle Ages mixture of bitter almonds and raw eel. Or mix together vinegar and raw eggs, and swig them down with a giant gulp.

You might decide you were better off stopping at cure No. 5 above.

[Via: RealBeer]

Click here to continue reading..

Show Some Love

Its my birthday! I am not a big fan of celebrating it but my friends here insist on a 'surprise' party, *smile*. Today would be a good opportunity for you to show me a little love by chipping in to help raise funds for a proper domain name. Even a $2 would be of great help. Special thanks to Olerato Salepito for being the first to contribute! :)

If not, at least you can:

........... 1. Join the Community in MyBlogLog,

........... 2. Fave this Blog in Technorati,

........... 3. Add to Bookmarks in Del.icio.us,

Thanks for all your support. Keep thinking!

Click here to continue reading..

How To Read 50 Million Blogs

OK. Maybe none of us will ever be able to read AND keep up with all them in a lifetime but among 50 million blogs some of them are bound to be good. A few are really really good, such that you need to check them everyday! Surely there are loads of things on the Internet you would like to read but how to keep up with the ever increasing number of great blogs?

Well, this is how I do it: Since I prefer to visit the sites and enjoy the content inside beautiful template designs made after long hours of effort, I bookmark them (there are about 300 something at the moment) in folders of the time interval for which they are updated and use this service [HassleMe] which sends me an email that reminds me to check them at those time periods.

Simple and effective!

Click here to continue reading..

Einstein's Riddle

Supposedly, Albert Einstein wrote this riddle as a boy, and said 98% of the world could not solve it. There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer. Which percentage are you in?

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors. In each house lives a man with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.

The question is: "Who owns the fish?"

Hints:

• The Brit lives in the red house.
• The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
• The Dane drinks tea.
• The green house is on the left of the white house.
• The green house's owner drinks coffee.
• The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
• The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
• The man living in the center house drinks milk.
• The Norwegian lives in the first house.
• The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
• The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
• The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
• The German smokes Prince.
• The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
• The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

Unless you are a genius, you might want to look at an example methodology to solve the riddle. If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can!

Enjoy solving riddles? Get busy with Da Vinci’s Other Code.

Click here to continue reading..

Break to the Beat

Amazing moves. Unbelievable skills. Breakdance, also known as breaking, is a street dance style that evolved as part of the hip hop movement that originated among African American youths in the South Bronx of New York City during the early 1970s. It is arguably the best known of all hip hop dance styles. It is also my second favorite sport that I do, after Capoeira!

French b-boy Junior, a.k.a. Buana, is probably one of the best breakdancers. He is in a crew named Wanted. Here is a classic video of him in RedBull BC One competition:



Want to learn how to breakdance? Then check out the Newbie's Guide first [BBoyZone]. Then Moves Guide, Instructional Videos, and now your ready to join a crew!

Click here to continue reading..

Knowledge Grows When Shared

So said wise philosopher Bhartrihari (c 450-510). When I started this site, I called it 'The Thinking Blog' for the following reason; here is where I write about things that I like, find useful, and ONLY stuff that I feel is worth sharing. It is about many of the topics that make me think! I hope it will keep you thinking too..

I undertook some minor updates on the blog this past weekend. First of I have completed my profile on MyBlogLog.

What is MyBlogLog? It is were blog authors and blog readers connect. MyBlogLog enables you to take advantage of your existing presence on the Web and ties it into communities of like-minded readers and authors to add context to the conversations in which you take part. Readers can become friends with other people who read your favorite blogs. See what else they're reading. What do they like and what are they ignoring? What are they reading elsewhere on the Web? I think it is important to develop your presence on MyBlogLog, especially now that it has been acquired by Yahoo!

Couple more of the updates are based on few comments that I get late.. I suppose they are late due to reasons such as 'time is very limited', or 'too lazy to type', or the all time (almost) famous 'the cat ate the keyboard'! :-) Don't worry, another way you can leave feedback is by rating the post using the new star ratings found under every entry. These star ratings will also be added to older posts but because they are already read it is not unusual to see that no one has rated them. To give quick feedback on my blog in general, its overall design etc., I added a rate my blog thingy on the sidebar under the 'About this Blog' section.

If you have any tips or suggestions, you can contact me now using the good old email: ilker@thethinkingblog.com

[UPDATE: I removed the post and blog ratings because it slowed down the blog loading time a great deal according to comments received by readers in this post and this post]

Click here to continue reading..

Ads in Captchas

Seth Godin is thinking! Basically the idea is to commercialize CAPTCHAs by using them as spaces to sponsoring companies. Of course, by putting recognizable words in captchas rather than random strings of numbers and letters, the likelihood of a non-human could guess them would increase. Loads of different ads (and sponsors) are needed to secure comments from spam.

Click here to continue reading..

Godzilla Building

Here is something creative. A building shaped like Godzilla. The more I think about this the more it seems like a great idea. Just imagine the amount of tourist revenue this project could generate! From the architect’s stand point, this would have to be one seriously alluring challenge. I’d like to see how the arms could be built without the use of some type of support.

Click here to continue reading..

Make Water in the Desert

The desert is hot and dehydration can set in quickly. If you are stuck or stranded in the desert, you can use the sun to generate a sufficient amount of water for yourself. This article discusses the concept of a "Solar still" or distillery. It can be used to collect water from soil in any climate, given enough sunlight and existent soil moisture. Find out how to make water in the desert. You never know, it might be handy one day.

Click here to continue reading..

Internet Phenomenon

An Internet phenomenon (sometimes called an Internet meme) occurs when something relatively or completely unknown becomes hugely popular, often quite suddenly, through the mass propagation of media content made feasible by the Internet. Check the list of Internet phenomena from Wikipedia. I think being popular brings a lot of fans, but a lot of haters as well.

Here is a video I found on Youtube's most discussed of all time page. Although it had 12100573 views, 34805 ratings, and 8912 comments last time I checked, it still is a waste of time.. so, feel free to skip! I didn't see it before but I think its one of the good ones compared to other (badly done) videos of this sort. It is called "Hey Clip" by Tasha and Dishka:

By the way, let me know if there are better singing and dancing videos than this.

Click here to continue reading..

Wiki of Quotations

What is Quotiki? Its a social quotes site that lets you quickly find and enjoy quotes. You can search through the entire database or filter by quote, author, or tags to find quotes from literature, speeches and media. Join to start rating, tagging, and submitting quotes. My favorites: Top Quotes, Funny Quotes, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Yoda!

Click here to continue reading..

Remove Tourists from Photos

Want the perfect shot but tourists and passing cars are spoiling it? The solution is simple. Take several shots of the same scene with a tripod or a fixed support, such as a wall, then copy/paste the bits where the people moved out of the way into one shot. For better results, take a minimum of three pictures and make sure the lighting is the same for each photo.

Can't be bothered? FutureLab has a nifty online service called the Tourist Remover that does just that, for free! Send in the right photos and they will erase all the tourists and cars for you. Pure magic!

[Via: DS Photographic]

Click here to continue reading..

Most Exclusive Seaside Resort

Uniquely designed and exclusive residences as well as a new destination for the rich and famous in Egypt who wants to explore the Red Sea region in complete luxury. Vantage has asserted that Serrenia is a futuristic vision for ultra luxurious real estate projects. This stunning development, inspired by the unique landscape in which it is situated, has been designed by Foster & Partners.

This mega marina is a colossal $2.7 billion-dollar residential development on the Red Sea coast in Egypt, an hour's flight from Cairo. The complex includes a spa with an elevated infinity pool, a 200-bedroom, seven-star hotel, residential areas that include palaces, villas and apartments and a shopping area beneath a floating roof.

Serrenia's Marina 'Hub' is one of the focal points of the development - with an extraordinary wave shaped floating roof. The marina also features a flying-saucer-style yacht club that looks more like an airport lounge and in the center this blimp-on-end, the Serrenia Beacon. The development is also believed to house the biggest yacht. Work on the marina, which involves creating a big basin, will start at the tail end of this year with completion set for 2008.

Click for more pictures and a video here.


[Via: GR8 Egypt]

Click here to continue reading..

The World is Yours

It's a small world after all. But thanks to virtual maps, we can now "travel" across the globe with a few simple clicks. It started in 1996 with Mapquest and continues on with Multimap and Norkart's Virtual Globe, but the list goes on. Recent map sites can be compared in FlashEarth: a single flash-based interface including Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Ask.com Maps, just to name a few.

The idea is old but new approaches to online maps are springing up. Note that this is not meant to be exhaustive, nor in any particular order. The focus is on providing a general overview with useful links along the way, and enjoyable reading!

Google Maps are the basis for many examples. First up we have Placeopedia. This adds Wikipedia encyclopedia articles to user-pinned locations on the map (at selected zoom levels) linking to relevant articles from Wikipedia (English) for each location. Next we have WikiMapia which adds a wiki system, allowing anyone to add information for any location. The intended goal is to 'describe the whole planet'. On the more fun side, we have a 'flight simulator' style game called Goggles. There is even Google Maps + Placeopedia + Wikimapia + Flickr + YouTube = Jotle! Now that is what I call Google Maps Mania. The possibilities are endless!

More recently, Google Earth switched interactive maps to the next level; integrating satellite imagery, aerial photography and geographic information system (GIS) over a 3D globe. No doubt some of you have already used it to find your street, your house or visited some extremely remote parts of the World. Though, have you ever used it to find animals? Click on the thumbnails, use the given coordinates or just watch them in a nicely compiled video clip.

BUFFALOS: 4°17'21.49" S 31°23'46.46" E
CAMELS: 15°17'40.32" N 20°28'47.42" E
ELEPHANTS: 10°54'13.66" N 19°56'06.15" E
FLAMINGOS: 21°50'36.15" S 35°27'00.60" E
HIPPOS: 6°53'53.00" S 31°11'15.40" E
ORYX: 24°57'18.60" S 15°51'30.61" E
SEALS: 18°26'45.45" S 12°00'44.20" E

You can follow interesting findings like these through dedicated blogs; Two I enjoy are Google Earth Blog and Ogle Earth.

That said, Google Earth is facing some major competition from other free services such as Windows Live Local (with texturized 3D models of buildings online) and NASA World Wind (with near-real-time aerial photography, software currently only for Windows).

Seen every part of the world? Check out Google Moon and Google Mars for starters. Install the Mars add-on for Google Earth or use NASA World Wind to look at the Moon, Mars or Venus in detail. You can also view our solar system or stars with constellation images, simply by entering your location on Earth into Stellarium. Just as you would see if you looked at the sky when out in the country. No light pollution!

Want to explore deep space? The next application doesn't confine you to the Earthly view or to our planets. Travel through the entire solar system, to any of over 120,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. Celestia comes with a huge catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. If that's not enough, you can download over 10 GB of add-ons from detailed maps, images and astronomical wonders!


Did I miss something related to these? Please share your knowledge by leaving a comment.

[Special thanks to Justin Swatsenbarg for proof-reading this post]

Click here to continue reading..

Flags of the World Re-designed

Clients sometimes are just excessively picky. Clayborn creative consulting which won the third place in Moscow International Advertising Festival 2006 shows us how would national flags be designed if they were consumer-driven: Watch the flash video (for those who missed it). Be warned though the humor could disturb some nationalists out there.

I caught myself laughing out loud when I first saw this and it still brings a smile on my face when it comes to my country's flag:

This is not to be confused with the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2006 winner with the "Flags of the World" poster ads of the magazine Grande Reportagem in Portugal.

Click here to continue reading..

Sophisticated Android

Whilst many people's view of the future is a depressing vision of a world taken over by technology, Johnnie Walker presents a far more positive and inspiring outlook in this film, entitled "Human". Seamless, artistic and very touching! An epic masterpiece made in 4 months from creative agency The Mill, London.

Click here to continue reading..

Nature Calendar 2007

Happy New Year! I wish you all a most rewarding and playful 2007! To celebrate this event, here is my gift to you: Beautiful Nature Wallpapers Calendar 2007. Spent quite a bit of time doing it! These are made by photographs I took recently in Spain, Portugal and Turkey. You can view it below and download the entire calender here [Updated].

What? You actually want a toy? Then there isn't anything better than Line Rider for this season. Enjoy!

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my readers. I'm glad to see your interest in my blog during its short life and hope you are looking forward to my future posts! If you enjoyed what you read in 2006 and would like to read about similar posts in 2007 then subscribe to get new posts in your inbox.

Click here to continue reading..