What is Zylblog?
Zylblog is a personal blog about anything and everything. Previously, Zylblog was specifically dedicated to computer technology and software.
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Recent Comments
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- tanveer on GTA: San Andreas on Linux
- Tom C on Winco Store Brand Reviews!
- Jesse Zylstra on Review: Acer Aspire 5 (A515-54G-70TZ)
Spam goes up, real human visitors goes down — how does this really work?
Posted in Personal Blog, Website Updates
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What is the pipe organ?
Anyone who has met me would know in a very short amount of time that I am very passionate about the pipe organ. Why? It’s my instrument, and my world. (Might as well just say it as it is..)
I bring a FAQ regarding the pipe organ and common misconceptions.
How do pipe organs sound at different pitches?
The length of pipes causes sounds to either be lower or higher. In pipe that use reeds, the length has less to do with it, and more to do with the tuning position of the reed.
Are organ pipes always vertical?
No. Pipes can be mounted just about any way imaginable, except for the heaviest of pipes which will not support themselves easily (pipes are made out of a tin and lead alloy, which is very heavy). A feature often found is for trumpet pipes to be mounted horizontally at the front or back of a room. Of course, most pipes in an organ will be vertically placed. Continue reading
Posted in Music, Personal Blog
Tagged asked, faq, frequently, instrument, keyboard, Music, Organ, Organ pipe, pipe, questions, what is
1 Comment
New Changes to Zylblog
Hello Everyone,
Over the past few years since the beginnings of Zylstrablog on Blogger.com, and later private IP-based hosting through a free domain redirect (anyone remember zylstrablog.co.nr ? Still works…), and then zylblog.info and now zylblog.com, my interests in computers has faded now to the point where I only find about one new article I am interested in about every 1.5-2 months.
I have decided to no longer specifically target computer or technology related articles. Indeed, I’ll no longer have a real focus, and Zylblog will be much more “blog-like”. I will no longer maintain a separate music blog (which I didn’t like maintaining separately anyways). Read on for what my site stats are (as I’ve always kept those secret). Continue reading
Posted in Computer Stuff, Hardware and All That, Music, Personal Blog, Programs and Software, Uncategorized, Web Services, Application, and Design, Website Updates
Tagged changes, new, zylblog.com
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Adblock Plus: Morally right?
Many people believe that using ad blocking software like Adblock Plus is morally wrong.
Image via Wikipedia
But is it? Can using Adblock Plus on a website that operates off ads be considered stealing or of poor moral fiber?
I’m not so sure.
Consider this: I am the network administrator of Zylblog and all of its sister sites and services. The sites use Google Ads in-post relevant to the content. In essence, if I really made much money off automated ads, I would be loosing a lot of money. I don’t make a lot of money on ads since I target computer people who all use Adblock Plus (ABP) anyways.
So, do I mind that people block ads? Certainly not! Sure, it’d be nice if I made more off of effortless automated ads from Google, but I know that consumers should be able to be selective. Heck, as a college student, if I see a single advertisement for a business on a bulletin board, you can be assured that I will rip it down. Commercials make me turn the TV off.
Not only are ads annoying, they aren’t good for many reasons. They take longer to load, especially when they have images. Image ads are often inappropriate on sketchy sites (like Gamecopyworld, a good example of very bad ads). They take up space, which is especially annoying for sidebar ads when a user has a low screen resolution.
Most important in defense of software like ABP, ads are often extremely dangerous. Have you ever seen “Slow computer? Does it take more than 10 seconds to load your email? Is your Internet slow? Click here to download a program to clean up your PC.” Adware, spyware, and even viruses often follow these ads that sound so desirable. Ads lack moderation by humans and whats worse is that they target computer novices who are very likely to fall in. Ads also are created to blend into websites and look like legitimate links.
In all, Adblock Plus and other ad-blocking software are fine.
What can be done about ads?
Web designers, you can write your own ads for companies. There are tons of websites on the Internet that can connect you with businesses that want to advertise and protect you with free speech of opinion in the matter. As many of you remember, I wrote many ads for a while and I was very selective about what I accepted. I didn’t write ads that were not relevant to my users, and I always did a check on each service I would advertise to make sure they were legitimate.
Posted in Computer Stuff, Programs and Software, Web Services, Application, and Design
Tagged ad, Ad filtering, Adblock Plus, ads, bad, block, blocking, Content filtering, good, Google, legal, moral, plus, right, wrong
2 Comments
Instructables: Wallet made from a Keyboard
Fun from the Past, originally from Jan 22, 2010:
Wallet made from a Computer Keyboard
I ran into this fun, relatively easy and geeky project and thought it would be worth sharing.
This project is easy to complete, and it gets rid of those old keyboards kicking around in your basement. This meets my personal requirements for an instructable: All done with parts around the house, hardly costs anything, doesn’t require you to buy any additional parts (tape excluded), cool, and the most important: Has practical use.
This image is from the original instructable -- check out the website with the link above!
Posted in Computer Stuff, Hardware and All That, Uncategorized
Tagged computer, instructable, keyboard, wallet
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A Shorter Film about the SAGE Computer
Image via Wikipedia
For those of you who do not care to watch the 20 minute documentary about the SAGE computer mentioned in our last article, check this one out from the 1960’s: (2:49)
(Still has all the CRT‘s, styluses/light-guns, projectors, and crazy-cool vintage computers)
Posted in Computer Stuff, Hardware and All That
Tagged computer, documentary, explanation, information, sage, system, video
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Zylblog is now IPv6 compatible
Posted in Website Updates
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Man and Computer; SAGE
Image via Wikipedia
Computer CRT monitors, printing, computer projectors, styluses, and networks — often, we think these things were invented towards the later half of our computer history, but in fact they have been around for a long time.
Built in the 1950’s, SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system) was using these things. SAGE was the first computer to use many of these things, and the first computer to use a screen. Why? Nuclear bomber
Sage Control Room (Via Wikipedia)
aircraft threats were such a major concern during the cold war, we built a computer system to help us track radar data all over the US to determine if traffic is friendly or not. Continue reading
Posted in Computer Stuff, Hardware and All That
Tagged computer, History, sage, video
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September Site Updates
Early on in the month, we had a few very short outages which seemed to be associated with the internet connection. These outages lasted about five minutes apiece, but were in multiples.
08/23: Registered Zylblog.com
08/24: Began making DNS changes for Zylblog.info and Zylblog.com
08/25: Zylblog.info did not redirect domains properly for one day, Google searches went to the wrong pages. Reversed this change later
08/27: Zylblog.info inaccessible for two days
08/30 Successful forward of Zylblog.info to Zylblog.com while retaining permalinks — all issues fixed, site running normally again.
The issues with the domain were a hit to the traffic, but resolved now. We were not in an advertising period with per-post advertisers, and did not affect their possible revenue.
Visitor usage Up 53.33%
Top Pages
(I’ve purposely left in some of the page views)
- The Sims 3 Online Play | ZylBlog – 1,134 Views
- Accordion Fingering Chart (bass) | ZylBlog – 231 Views
- » Play the Sims 3 Online for Free (BETA/Trial) – 225 Views
- Open Clip Art: Open Source Clip Art | ZylBlog
- ZylBlog | Anything. Everything. (homepage)
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Posted in Website Updates
2 Comments
Where Can I get a .com Domain Name?
Since we recently “upgraded” to a .COM domain name, I thoguht it would be interesting to revisit this post from the past, which is still quite accurate. Our .COM domain name is registered under GoDaddy, and was purchased (with coupon code FAN3 ) for ~$7.45 + ICANN tax. Why GoDaddy? It is still the easiest and one of the cheapest domain providers available. I don’t like their advertising, but I can deal with it to get a domain for cheap. Their reputation is stable now, with the exception of their ads.
I also want to note that GoDaddy recently re-designed their DNS manager, and it is easy as heck to use now. Their DNS manager was shifty a while ago, those problems are now resolved. (Though, I still use CloudFlare for most of my DNS management, GoDaddy manages DNS for the old domain to handle redirects)
Let us visit the past, 2009:
What is the best place to get a cheap .com domain name?
This is (like most of the other questions I answer) a very common question. It seems that there are two major domain sellers which you have probably already read about — to great misfortune, there isn’t really anything much cheaper.
GoDaddy.com — Around $10.69 per domain. From what I hear, GoDaddy is reliable, but support seems to be somewhat lacking. (Their support reputation, according to a few people I have talked to, is declining. This may change in the future as the problem is probably becoming more prevalent to the company itself) Continue reading
