Photics.com

Recently, I moved all of my Guild Wars content to a new website. I feel pretty good about the new content management system and the new direction of the website. But as I went to bed last night, I started thinking about 404 Errors – Page Not Found. I had forgotten to set up Apache Redirects. After having a dream about poor search engine ranking, I woke up and updated my .htaccess file. It was simple but important work. Without sending web traffic to the new location, I risked losing visitors. Fortunately, with Apache Redirects, I could point web visitors to the new locations. This should create a better experience for both Human and Robot visitors.

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When I would publish my Android Apps, the Google Developer Console would give me an unusual error. “The apk is not zipaligned. Please run the…” Blah, blah, blah… what’s Google complaining about now? Typically, I would just ignore this warning. Why should I care? Google didn’t prevent my app from being published, so I would just let it go. But recently, I decided to give this another look. How do I zipalign my apps? I went digging through the Android Developer documents and I was finally able to publish my apps properly. Although, as usual, it was a bit of a struggle. That’s because I hadn’t updated my Android software in a while. It seems that some things have changed in Android land.

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With the holidays, kids (and adults) tend to focus on that one big gift. Maybe they want a new game console or a fancy new toy. Yet, they may have forgotten about all of those expensive gifts from the past… like Wii Fit. You know, the $90 scale that’s collecting dust in the corner. With the tough economy, parents want to save money. Yet, they don’t want to disappoint their loved ones either. That’s why I think Wii Fit Plus should be considered as a stocking stuffer gift… or for Hanukkah… or just for fun. If you have a Balance Board that’s lacking attention, Wii Fit Plus can give new life to an old toy.

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Despite the grumpy feelings, I decided to give iPhone development another go. So far, I’m pleased that I did. While converting my Photics Forums app to the iPhone / iPod Touch, I learned some new tricks. For the longest time, I was struggling with getting my iPhone apps to match my Android apps. I was having problems with Reachability and Landscape mode. With the completion of my new app, that’s no longer an issue. While waiting for my app to be approved, I have some time for reflection on my progress.

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I worked on a lot of projects during the last two months. With another full month of data to review, the successful projects are emerging. While I may have more time to work on my website, I do not have an infinate amount of time. I’ll have to focus on what works. Some results were expected. But with some others results, I was quite surprised by the way things turned out. But most importantly, things are improving. Month-Over-Month website activity roughly doubled in October. There were more visitors – like you - and they’re staying longer. That’s encouraging!

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