Enkay Blog

So, You Want an iPhone?

Well, the iPhone is set to release tomorrow and many people should be lined outside the Apple and AT&T stores trying to get their hands on one. If you are not under a contract then it may be easy, but what if you ARE under a contract. Well, the Consumerist.com has a list that shows you 6 ways you can get out of such a contract.

1. Sell your cellphone contract.

2. Complain that service isn’t up to par, file complaints with PUC, FTC, BBB,
AG and cc them to the company.

3. Wait for the company to change its rates (like text-messaging), then call
to cancel based on the material change of contract. These are usually for the
default rates and you won’t be able to cancel if you have a package that takes
care of it… hint: so get rid of the package and call back…. Here’s some
recent rate changes and cancellation success stories:

Sprint
AT&T/Cingular
Verizon
T-Mobile
US Cellular

4.Move to an area outside the plan’s coverage area.

5.Join the armed forces - you’ll need to fax in a copy of your orders.

6.Die - someone will need to fax in your death certificate on your behalf.
You’ll be dead, but at least you’re in heaven. iPhone heaven

So, is anyone actually in the market for one of these on the first day?

Blog Uniqueness: It’s What Works!

There have been a lot of blogs that just come and go without getting noticed but there are a few that stick around because they are unique. Obviously, content has to be good in order to keep attracting readers but aside from the content there are other factors that contribute to a blog actually being successful. I figured, that I would go ahead and talk about certain things that you could do to make your blog POP!

Personalized Design
Be sure that your blog is personalized, meaning, you can’t just download a template that you found online and use it without making any changes first. You have to make the design suit your needs. You may even have to get your hands dirty and mess with the code a little bit before you have it looking the way you would like but in the end, you are going to be the one with the brightest smile on your face! You have to personalize your design because otherwise, even if you have great content, the!re is nothing that differentiates your design from the other 1,000 websites that have the same design AND lousy content! People will indirectly associate the same design with bad content and you wouldn’t want that!

Paying Attention to Graphics
Another thing that you have to look at is how well your graphics blend together. If you don’t really know how to work well with Photoshop you may even ask a friend of yours to help you. Graphics are another method of personalizing your blog and eventually it will help you get more readers. If your graphics are visually appealing then your readers will more than likely be more inclined to come back. On the other hand, if your graphics are obtrusive and make it difficult to read your content, then you might want to reconsider re-doing them. Make sure your graphics are easy on the eyes and that they get the message across quickly. Your readers want to get information quickly from your graphics because that will decide whether they stay and read or leave and never return.

Being User Friendly
You should always pick a layout that best fits your needs because you need to be able to navigate through your blog easily without having to look for things, important things too, such as the navigation menu or your most recent posts or archives. Sometimes, people have ads located towards the top of their sidebar causing their actual sidebar menus to slide downwards and although that may raise your ad revenue, that really wont help you bring in the readers and if you do the math, no readers = no ad revenue! Its that simple, always be sure to have a layout that is easy to navigate and one your readers dont mind getting used to.

Color Schemes
You should always have your color scheme planned out in your blog. For example, you cant have dark blue text on a black background. All that does is make it even more difficult to read your content and that definitely doesn’t help keep your readership up. What you need to do is to make sure that the colors in your blog do not contradict each other, rather they should compliment each other. For another example, it wouldn’t be too classy if I used a bright red banner followed by soft colors for the rest of my design or if I had bright flashing neon colored buttons in a very sophisticated design. Basically, have someone look over your website before you finalize something and that way a second opinion will help you be a better judge as to whether or not the colors aren’t bothersome to your reader.

RSS Feed Button
Your RSS Feed button is a very critical button and because it is what determined how many people read your blog, its obvious that it should be located towards the very top. Its not too useful to hide your RSS feed button towards the bottom of the page because most times, people dont want to trouble themselves looking for your feed. Your RSS feed button should be able to easily get attention and should be located as close to the top of the page as possible. For example, if you launch my website in your browser, one of the first things you will notice is a big bright orange RSS feed button.

Well, thats it for now but I really hope you enjoyed reading my post. I just wanted to give you guys a few tips regarding what can help you become not only a better blogger but one who cares about his or her readers. Once again, your comments are appreciated! Thanks for stopping by!

Convert Images to HTML

So you saw my post yesterday about this talented guy that can draw using HTML and now I came across a website that can convert any online image into HTML format. What happens is that a table is created which is filled with large numbers of 1×1 cells. Each cell has a background color of the corresponding pixel in the image. So basically its just a large grid of colored cells. Even still, it is quite difficult to do!

Here is where you can go to actually convert any image into the html format.

http://neil.fraser.name/software/img2html/

The Week in Review

So, I was just thinking about what is going to happen all this week and I have a few things listed that you can look forward to in the coming week. It may not necessarily be tech related but it will definitely be entertaining and worthwhile.

Toyota Rav4 Review
I did mention this in an earlier post and recently I got behind the wheel of the 2007 Toyota Rav4 and for those who are curious, yes it was the V6. I will be talking a little bit more about it in my review and that is what you can expect to see in the coming week. I still have a little research to do based on car design before I can make a judgment. This has been one of the popular SUV’s out there but the question is, is it worth the price tag? I guess you will just have to wait to find out.

Paris Hilton Gets Out of Prison
Paris is expected to be released from prison early this week and its good to know that she plans to change the course of her life and that she found God in prison. Lets not jump to conclusions and say that I am happy justice is being served, all I am happy about is that finally the news will be about something more than what Paris is doing every second in prison.

John Chow’s Income Statement
So Monday (July 1st) is exactly one week away from today and thats when we all come to know how much JohnChow has made for the month. To me, its very motivating to see how much everyone else has made through their blog. It doesn’t have to be over $1000 to be a positive thing, it could even be a few dollars and I would still be motivating. I believe in the idea that you should never wish the worst for others, you should wish the best for yourself but at the same time wish the best for everyone around you. Good karma goes around and comes around!

iPhone Release
The most awaited cell phone, the iPhone, is set to release on June 29th in AT&T and Apple stores nationwide. As with any hot electronic item, customers are expected to be waiting outside in line and the latest in news is that AT&T has hired an additional 2000 people to make sure that they are able to handle the influx of customers on the launch date onwards.

I Get More Time to Blog
Thats right, I figured I don’t talk about my personal life too much but I have to show my excitement about this. I finally get done with summer school on the 28th of June and what that means is that I will have more time to blog now and write content. I have a final exam on the 28th, so if you don’t see me responding as quickly to emails just blame it on the exam. That doesn’t mean that I will stop posting content, because I wont, but email replies may take longer than usual. Usually I answer within a few hours!

A New Domain
It is highly probably that my new domain name will be active by the end of this week. I have decided what domain I want to purchase but I will have it published when I have purchased it. It will be redirected to my current page due to the fact that I have all these great link backs and so the domain will basically make it very easy to remember the URL for my page because obviously, with the current url it is very difficult to remember how to get to my blog. Hopefully the new domain name will help me boost my blog traffic!

Well, thats all for now, and I hope you stay tuned to see the updates on this blog during this week! A special note to my RSS subscribers - I am really sorry if the feed wasn’t working or was displaying the images incorrectly, I got some help and was able to fix it so now the feed should display properly! Thanks for hanging in there guys!

Can you DRAW in HTML?

Thats right, another one of these videos is out that is just unbelievable. Theres a guy that uses html tables and a variation of background colors to actually create a work of art. I have a video below where you can see this in action. Its just amazing, because for someone like myself, who knows HTML it is just amazing to see how someone can use HTML to actually create a complete picture. Theres not much more I can say, just watch it!

Note: You may want to turn your speakers down because the music can be a little noisy!