Importing your blog to plaxo

It all started with this: Yesterday I was offered the option of importing my blog to facebook. That seemed a good way to increase link ranking, so I agreed. Today, when I click the original link, I get a blank screen!
http://pc-tech-upper-hutt.blogspot.com/
What do you folks get?
Has the blog been moved?
If so, I want it back!

Thankfully after the blog disappeared, facebook provided a solution to this problem.

Thank you for contacting Plaxo Customer Care.

Follow the steps to find the feed link of your blog which you added to Plaxo:

1. Signin to your account at https://www.plaxo.com/sinin
2. Click on "My Profile"
3. Click on "About Me"
4. Click on "Websites"
5. You will find the link of your blog http://pc-tech-upper-hutt.blogspot.com/

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Even though the information was not perfect, it did provide a way to get the blog back. They deserve credit for that (name of respondent deleted).

Agressive email filtering?

Over the years I have made many friends on line. Some write to tell me their stories or to catch up with where others are. In that time contacts have been made with people world wide. Some, however have misused the email service by sending large numbers of useless messages to as many people as possible. Let's refer to them as the world of S-P-A-M. We have all had some annoyance from this practice and the misuse of legitimate services. In one case my own link page scripts were misused by people who submitted links and entered other people's email addresses with them I got blamed when their activity caused unwelcome mail from my services.


Now I have found there is a legacy that is causing a new problem for genuine users. A certain ISP (legitimate) in its attempt to prevent such problems has labeled several internet service providers in my country as sources of such mail. So instead of blocking the email addresses involved, they have blocked all mail that comes from those services.

I have just been informed that although my messages resulted in rejection errors, the intended recipients got their mail. This would surely require a weird set of circumstances involving malfunctions in the ISP systems.

As a result of this, thousands of innocent people believe they are being cut off from emailing friends who use those services just because somebody else did something bad, or because of a system error and these innocents may be punished for the wrong doing of others.

What would you think if your ISP behaved like this?

Do you have too many links in your email signiture?

A friend recently reminded me that I have too many links at the end of my emails. For those of us who have many different online interests this is a common thing. If there are too many, it can become a problem for them. For that reason I am adding them to my blog separately so everyone can benefit from a better way.
Contact me
Order my novel entitled [Return] here.
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Powering Lamps with Soil (thanks, Ray)

Normally when it comes to energy, we talk about biofuels and hydrogen sources like methanol. But one designer decided to go for a more natural, easily accessible power source. One of Marieke Strap's rather interesting projects is a lamp powered by nothing else other than your run-of-the-mill garden soil. Aptly called the "Soil Lamp," it exploits the naturally-occurring electrolytes in healthy garden soil to provide energy enough to power a simple LED light bulb. More here: Powering lamps with soil

Star Trek Technologies (real or fiction)

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do. (Henry Ford)
Shades of Star Trek!
Is it here already?
Star Trek Technology: Real or Fiction?
Multi-spectral communication
That first article reminded me of an old series that introduced new ideas to many of us. In those days they seemed futuristic and very ambitious. The interesting part is that now some of them are becoming realities. The series of pages beginning above explains how to vastly increase the amount of information moving along a single optical fiber. It is explained in fairly basic terms, but the reality is that the means already exists to take a fibreoptic cable and multiply the amount of information passing along it, efficiently separating each signal at the destination point. The idea has been on my site for some years, but is only now being employed by those who require this kind of powerful information system.

Do you want to ask the author?

As it appears at least 2 of us are published authors, it seemed fitting to put such experience to good use. Therefore interested ones are invited to post questions about writing your own book. This can include standards of writing, editing, subject matter, publication issues, format, accuracy, printing and distribution. Since each work must be unique (to avoid plagiarism), the qualities needed include good language skills, imagination, ability to use a word processor, access to publishing services such as lulu.com or author.com

Here is a taster for you.

In the words of Anar: "In a seldom visited part of the passages of Corin-Bast is an unremarkable alcove. Nearby is the spot where we found the coffin of a six fingered man. His story led me to discover things we were forbidden to know. Someone hid the secret of our past here over a thousand years before I was born. Along with it was an object that had survived the centuries intact. Had I known its importance then, I would have run away and hid. Instead I became obsessed with knowing the truth of it. Why did I do it? Never could resist a challenge. All I wanted was to know its secret, but along the way it just got bigger and more dangerous. It is the story of how we got here and ultimately of our return to the 'place without wall or ceiling where man would no longer be alone'. The natives there call us 'Homo Subterens' (underground man). If we had suspected it earlier would we have set out to discover it, or shrunk back in fear? Now I hardly know how to tell it. I am no longer the boy who began this journey. I don't even look like a man any more. How long had the truth been hidden from us? Where do I begin to chart the rise of man? Sitting here among the mossy outcroppings it seems like a dream. I remember everything from the start, but who would believe me? Worst of all, when they look at my face they see the one who killed me, and who later delivered us all. Was Tascanar originally just a project, the creation of a brilliant mind, or was it ‘the resting place of the prophets’ as my people taught me? On reflection it probably started as one and became the other over time. Do not think of me as a hideous enemy. He was born as a son of the Kefa, one of the slaves of an evil twisted man. I speak now in his place. His kind and his world were the product of a wicked mind. He fears now because my mind shares with his in the same body, and condemns the things he did. It is ironic that this combination was what brought about our return. Now all depends on whether the court believes the truth of it, or whether they will condemn me as my own murderer. Anar
Get a copy here:Return (by John Durham)
Updates to the novel: Since a friend recently commented that my story was "too detailed", I had a choice.

1)Rewrite the book (ouch!) or 2)Provide cause for a detailed account.

Thankfully, the second option seemed far more practical. Therefore, a small addition has been made to the introduction. It gives cause for the detailed style (sorry- you have to read it to find out why).

Bacterial computers

Biologists have created a living computer from E. coli bacteria that can solve complex mathematical problems.

Computers are evolving – literally. While the tech world argues netbooks vs notebooks, synthetic biologists are leaving traditional computers behind altogether. A team of US scientists have engineered bacteria that can solve complex mathematical problems faster than anything made from silicon.

The research, published today in the Journal of Biological Engineering, proves that bacteria can be used to solve a puzzle known as the Hamiltonian Path Problem. Imagine you want to tour the 10 biggest cities in the UK, starting in London (number 1) and finishing in Bristol (number 10). The solution to the Hamiltonian Path Problem is the the shortest possible route you can take.

More here: Bacterial computers