Silicon Palms

Author: Aaron

  • Movable Type

    In 2004 I switched to Movable Type personal publishing software (also known as MT), since 2000 I’d been using a software called Radio from one of the original blog inventors, which I suspect is now near extinction, especially since WordPress has become so ubiquitous to blogging. At first I used the MT software just for Blogs as I tested and tried dozens of other content management systems (CMS). At that time there were dozens of PHP code repositories that offered individual components and/or modules, all in Open Source, so web geeks like me could just install theses onto the core and keep adding databases and then the various scripts we needed to achieve the desired applications. The idea was to install all the various scripts and tie it all together on the web.

    One of my favorite sites for open source downloads, back in the beginning of the hay-day of the PHP development was EvilWalrus.com, you could get just about any type of program for free and find support on a Forum from an active community of hackers trying to do the same things. Then the CMS “all-in-one” systems came, fast and furious, I tested one after another and settled on Mambo for awhile, then it changed names to Joomla but I became disenchanted with the CMS concept as I found them to be too buggy and never liked the user interface.

    Fast forward: Movable Type evolves it’s personal publishing platform to do more things and manage more tasks, the open source community grows and adds more components and modules, which they call plugins. The user interface is superb to anything else and the versatitlity of the software has grown to the point where you can do anything with MT that you could do with any of the 100 or so leading CMS software packages. I dig Movable Type. 

  • Back on a Winning Streak

    Finally feel a burst of new energy and have some encouragement recently from a few enquirers about hiring Winning Streak to do some Internet marketing for on-line gaming companies, or i-Gaming as it’s known. Online gaming has always been one of my favorite industries, so I couldn’t resist getting back to work on one of my oldest websites.

    Currently Winning Streak has an Alexa rank of 1,868,122 with about 40 unique visitors per day. At one time this site was very busy with 1,000 visitors on a low-traffic day and it generated significant affiliate revenue. Now begins the challenge to see how fast I can get the traffic back to where it once was, then go beyond that level to get back on a winning streak.

  • Renovation

    I decided to take up writing on this weblog again and for no other reason than to express myself in a way that is not about making money or promoting another web project. Just purely for the sake of having a place to publish my thoughts and ideas. Also, to make use of this Domain, which I’ve always been rather fond of and to use this publishing system for practice, as well as somewhat of a “sandbox” for testing various technologies developed for Movable Type by the “open source” developer community of which I am a member.

    This weblog is actually quite old, originally started with Radio software in 2001, which is why it was named “weblog” rather than “blog” since I started using this type of communication tool before it became fashionable and before the web community adopted the name “Blogging”  – for those that keep a “Blog”. In the beginning it was more about keeping track of site development.

  • Simple-ology

    Mark Joyner is one of the Guru’s of on-line marketing. For me, one thing that makes Mark interesting is that he does his own thing and lives his life the way he sees fit, whereas many of the U.S. based Internet marketing experts require the approval of the other Guru’s, so in the end you have a pack-mentality, where one product launch becomes the product du-jour for the entire pack. Maybe some, or all, of these new products (now mostly coaching programs) have value but it’s dubious when the inbox fills up with “last-chance, don’t miss-out” recommendations.

    The other thing I like about the approach of Mark Joyner is that it’s Simple, as in Simple-ology, and he has a way of consistently making his message fun to read.

    Today I found a free course about Blogging that I decided to try:

    I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

    It covers:

    • The best blogging techniques.
    • How to get traffic to your blog.
    • How to turn your blog into money.

    I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

  • Casino Beach

    Casino BeachEver since the day I registered this Domain I’ve been dreaming of developing a true “Live” Casino that integrated my 2 favorite things, beaches and casinos. Just like the old IBM commercial “where are the flying cars? we were supposed to already have flying cars….” I feel the same way about the convergence of media and online gambling, it’s just not completely there yet, at least not the way I envision it, which is to create a virtual reality integrated with real reality. My day will come… meanwhile, checkout CasinoBeach.com

  • Myrtle Beach

    MyrtleBeach_southview.jpgThe Redneck Riviera earns it’s nick name honestly and in my opinion it’s the Carolina Redneck’s that make this fabulous beach town so great. Having lived in South Florida for 12 years and only visited Myrtle Beach a couple of times, mostly just a drive-by kind of thing, I was under the impression that the people and the place would be more like Ft. Lauderdale, which can be described as a sunny place filled with shady people, but alas I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the two beach towns have very few similarities.
    Click on the photo for a larger picture.

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  • Rio de Janeiro Sunrise

    Rio de Janeiro Sunrise

    Rio de Janeiro
    The Marvelous City, as they call it, was all of that and more. We stayed in a nice hotel on the end of Copacabana, every day we explored new beaches and every night we discovered new restaurants. This was my third trip to Rio so I’m starting to get to know the lay of the land now, which is very challenging because of the position of the mountains that rise directly out of the Atlantic like giant pointed knobs, often rock faced on the steep sides or otherwise covered in jungle-like vegetation.

    The beaches are broad and curved with a cool Atlantic swell pounding in to relieve the masses of sun worshipers who flock here to enjoy the summer heat from all parts of the globe.

    The first time I stayed in Rio was between Christmas and New Years, on Barra da Tijuca in a condo across from the beach. All along the beach there are kiosks called Baraccas, and every morning before the sun comes up, the nightlife comes to the beach to watch the sun come up and finish off the party. Many people swim in the sea, take a shower, then have breakfast and go home to sleep off the alcohol. It’s a cool way to close the night and washes the soul with a most magical sunrise to start the next day.

    Kiosk da Tijuca - Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro
    Kiosk da Tijuca – Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro

    Planning to return to Rio de Janeiro very soon and most likely to stay in Barra da Tijuca, to once again enjoy the Rio de Janeiro sunrise ritual.

    Barra da Tijuca or simply known as Barra is the youngest neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro which was developed around 30 years ago. This neighborhood is famous for its Barra Shopping Mall which houses over 700 stores and restaurants and its 17 km long sandy beach. Barra is home to many luxury condominiums and large office complexes, making it an emerging spot for the rich and affluent. The neighborhood is also known for its American influenced lifestyle.

    Surfing, kite surfing and body surfing are popular sports here. It is one of the richest neighborhoods and is known for its public and private safety largely due to the lack of ghettos in the area. The name Barra da Tijuca roughly translates as “Swamp Sandbank”. The value of property in this region has steadily grown for the past 20 years as the neighborhood grew in stature. This region also is well frequented by business travelers as it is close to several convention centers.

    Many of the events for the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held at Macumba Beach, which is just down the road from Barra da Tijuca.

  • Success Strategy

    Here’s some words of wisdom from Alexander Graham Bell, a renowned scientist and inventor. In 1876, at the age of 29, he invented the telephone.

    “The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion… It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider – and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation – persevering in what he knows to be practical, and concentrating his thought upon it, who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree.”

    Alexander Graham Bell

  • Conflict of Conscience

    I hand-coded and published my first HTML web page in 1993, ever since then my thinking about what I should be doing with my web-publishing passion, has vacillated between projects for helping disadvantage children in third-world countries, or providing information and services to help wealthy North Americans invest offshore.

    Living in South Florida at that time, every day we watched images, or in one case I eye-witnessed, Haitian families coming ashore in home-made rafts because they were so desperate to escape the poverty of their Island Nation. It prompted me to start-up “PC on Earth” a non-profit organization that would find ways to get information technology to schools in the Caribbean.

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  • Reefer Poker Logo

    reeferpoker-logo.pngIt all starts with a good name and this one rocks! because of it’s eccentricities and enhanced viral-factor, since it combines 2 illegal activities into 1 name, both of those activities are adored by Pop culture, Gen-X and the masses, both will thrive despite prohibition.

    The color scheme discreetly incorporates the Rasta colors of red, yellow and green, the font is called “Keep on Truckin”.