Ive been participating in 6 Figure Blogging with Darren from Problogger.net and Andy Wibbels from 6 Apart.  Most of the course so far has been fairly elementary for those who have been blogging for a while.  Indeed, I almost wish there was a disclaimer before I plunked down the money that would have rated the course on a sliding scare between Beginner and Expert blogging knowledge.

One of the things that did catch my interest was the subject of message on your blog.   The analogy given was a good one, and one I am trying to find some kind of balance for in my own blog here on troyrutter.com

Imagine going into a bookstore and looking for a magazine.  You are thinking of going skiing in Colorado this winter, so you go from one shelf to another, and come to a section marked Sports.  There tucked in back of the latest NBA news you spot a magazine called “Colorado Skiing” that was exactly what you were looking for.  You pay for the magazine and go home.

Now, think of what it would be like to go to the book store and instead of having a skiing magazine, you had a “Sports” magazine.   Inside you had all sports imaginable and maybe 1 article on skiing in Colorado.   Now back up yet another level, maybe there was one magazine on …. everything.   This magazine had articles on computers, decorating, potty training your child, baseball, fixing cars, politics, Britney Spears - everything in the world.

And that is where you find most personal blogs.

I love my blog here at TroyRutter.com, but the fact is it will not, and can not, ever be used to do the almighty M - “monetize.”   The only blogs/podcasts that seem to do well that are personal blogs are celebrities. (ie: Wil Wheaton, Adam Curry, among others.)

So what does your blog say about your tastes?

Posting Categories

One of the easiest ways to judge if your blog has a tight or broad focus is to look at your category list.   If you see more than 10 categories on your blog, then your net may be too big.  A focused blog may have 5 or less categories that posts fall into.

When you go to make a new blog post, and are considering making a new category, think carefully about what you are doing.   If you are adding a category, then your net is about to get even larger, and you may risk alienating those who have started coming to your blog because of another topic you wrote about.

Monetize? Blasphemy!

If you don’t have any aspirations to  monetize your blog, then by all means talk about anything and everything.   But if you have any interest on focusing on a niche to help earn some extra money, then focusing your blog’s entries and categories on that niche will benefit you from the start.

Almost 2 years ago I remember reading Wil Wheaton’s blog where he lost all or most of his purchased iTunes music, and I remember feeling jealous when a rep from apple who read his blog, called him to make everything right.

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2006/09/apple_gave_me_b.html

Fast forward to the Twitter age.

DIGSBY

I have used several IM clients over the years, and had pretty much settled on Trillian to be my IM program of choice, since it combined the services of AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN. A coworker then told me about Digsby, which also combined Facebook, Myspace, Gmail and Twitter. I installed the application and had no issues whatsoever.

What I was having problems with was a notification showing up in Digsby that I had a @reply, but couldn’t see them on my twitter timeline (I use the actual twitter.com interface). I almost immediately received a direct message from Digsby offering to help troubleshoot the problem.

Whoa.

Turns out it wasn’t Digsby at all, but my settings on Twitter to “show all @replies on my timeline”

But, I was still very impressed with Digsby monitoring the twitterverse for their name being mentioned, and jumping right on questions that were presented - but probably not even directed towards them.

Bright Kite

I don’t have a phone that supports Bright Kite, so I enter in my location manually, thus somewhat defeating the purpose I suppose. In today’s world of so many different social applications being launched, I oftentimes use a generic password for sites Im not sure I will use a lot.

So, when I really WANTED to use Bright Kite recently, I had forgotten which password I actually used. I searched and searched, but to my surprise there was no “forgot password” link to be found. I immediately twittered my frustration (and almost at the exact same time remembered my password anyway). Within 2 minutes there was a @reply to me saying they were working on it, and within 20 minutes, I got another reply saying there was now a forgot password link on the site.

Yikes.

Yet again, another company that “gets it.”

So bravo to these companies and others using twitter to enhance not only their core product, but also customer service. I’m sure there are many other companies out there doing the same thing. But for once (or twice) - you guys made me feel like a celebrity.

Technorati Tags: bright kite, digsby, twitter, wil wheaton

I was in the market for a new laptop when Wal-Mart announced their pre-Black Friday “super” special on an Acer 5315 laptop at a mere price of $350. I previously purchased a Compaq laptop back in 1999 that served me well, but by now was quite antiquated. The Acer 5315 specs looked promising except for one teensy weensy detail that I was sure I could overlook - Windows Vista.

Over the past several months I haven’t used the laptop as much as I thought I would, and I attribute much of that to the installation of Vista. Even after installing the maximum 2 gigs of memory, the machine was slow to boot up, slow to play Starcraft (although now I think I know why…), and slow to do almost anything. Even running a copy of Castblaster (a podcasting program) was painful. An experience trying to run a video editing program on it last week was the last straw, it was time to “upgrade” it to Windiows XP.

The Problem

In doing a Google search for installing Windows XP on the laptop, it became clear that this wasn’t going to be easy. It would seem that Acer had zero Windows XP drivers for the laptops, and the settings for booting up were confusing for those who were not familiar with installing Windows XP.

Now I had reinstalled Windows about a billion times over the years, but even for me the instructions seemed daunting. That is until I found a web site that offered step by step instructions for installing Windows XP on the Acer 5315. Here.

The Process

I followed the instructions carefully, but when I rebooted for the final time I was greeted with a wonderful blue screen of death. I then remembered something about the boot drive type that I read on a separate web site (which was not explained on the instructions I linked to above) that said I needed to change the type of the boot drive from SATA to IDE in the bios. Once I did that. Voila! Windows XP!

I went through the rest of the install, chose my initial username, and happily reinstalled Castblaster and the trial version of Goldwave… the important programs. I rebooted to make sure the installation really was successful and it auto-logged into my main account. I didn’t like that - I wanted the username/password screen, so I went into the control panel, changed the startup sequence to show the login screen and shut down the computer while I had lunch.

I Can’t Log In

A couple of hours later I decide I want to reinstall some more productivity software so I turn on the laptop, get to the login screen, type in my password and … I can’t log in. What the heck? I try the password over and over, which I set during installation, but nothing happens. Finally, I search on my other computer for ways to recover a lost password and give it a try. It doesn’t work and instead installs another copy of Windows on the computer. Not what I wanted.

Just as the computer is booting up after installing the second copy of the operating system, it hit me. I was stupid.

The Final Solution

What I did was so stupid, I hesitated to blog about it. When I set the startup sequence to ask for a username/password… I never actually set a password for the user account I was using. That is why I couldn’t log in. I then remembered what the password I did set was for - the Administrator user. So as soon as the Windows login screen appeared for installation #2, I rebooted and chose installation #1, logged in with the Administrator account, set the password for my main user account, logged off, logged back in with my user account and ta-da! Im back in business. And of course I promptly removed installation #2 from the boot menu, and deleted it from the computer.

Frustrating, yes. But after using it for half the weekend … oh so worth it.

Technorati Tags: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Acer 5315, Troy Rutter

Thursday was the big day, and my call time was set for 8PM at the Spaghetti Works in Downtown Des Moines.  In the morning I received a call from the extras casting people that it had been moved up to 5pm, so I left work a little bit early to get there at around 4:30PM.   I parked my car at the Iowa Cubs parking lot, and took one of the production shuttles downtown to Java Joes, where they were going to be having dinner.

I met a few people from the production, including the extras people, and also met my co-extra, Randy from Waukee, who went through the dinner line with determination.   I however, decided not to go through the line, mainly since I was nervous about driving the Mercedes, worrying if it was a manual transmission.  (Hey, I don’t know cars.)  Eventually the entire crew filed in, ate, and one by one went back to the set to continue working.  Randy and I remained at the table we were sated at, and eventually it was just us and two other people who we would come to know as “good looking couple.”

Over the next few hours, Randy and I would talk with Good Looking Couple about a variety of subjects, just trying to stay awake as another hour ticked off the clock.   It was cold and rainy, but at least we were dry and warm sitting in the Fourth Street Theater adjacent to Java Joes.  At around 9PM, we were told to go to the set, so we took off down the street.

Did I mention Randy and I were supposed to be “Mafioso?”

Anyway…

When we arrived at the set, my fears were calmed by the director telling Randy that Randy not only had to smoke a cigar, but would be driving the car.   I had mixed feelings, as this obviously meant Randy was the main subject of the scene, but hey, that can be a good thing too.   So over the next 2 1/2 hours we repeated a sequence of coming out of the restaurant, me opening an umbrella and locking the door, us both getting into the Mercedes, him dropping a cigar, and us driving off.

Easy.

It was fun to be on a movie set again, and it is very contagious.   The police had set up barricades on Court avenue, and at times there was a crowd standing there, wondering what was going no.   It was an interesting feeling having a crowd watch *you* doing a scene, then watching you get out of a car, wondering if you were “somebody.”

When we were done, I had to turn in my overcoat and shoes that were provided by the costume department in order to get my payment voucher.   I took the shuttle back to the parking lot and thankfully made it home without falling asleep.

All in all, filming South Dakota really felt like working on a production in Los Angeles again.  Both it and Duck Farm No. 13 were fun, but it was evident that South Dakota had a higher budget.   I think I read somewhere that Duck Farm No. 13 had $250-$500,000 budget and South Dakota is 2.5-$3 million.    Iowa is getting a lot of motion picture action lately due to increased tax incentives for production.   No doubt about it, as long as they want me to keep being in them, I’m always available… unless it’s a major crowd scene.

Just not interested in doing those any more.   But luckily there are always others who are willing to.

So major thanks to Deb Copeland of Copeland Creative Talent for the opportunity to work on the film for the day.

I’ll keep you posted on the release dates, etc as I can.

She was there to promote her new book - on crafts of all things - but she ended up putting her foot in her mouth yet again when it comes to politics and how she sees the world.

As someone who has had first hand knowledge of dealing with such a demoralizing and ugly personality, I found it strange that she has once again crawled out of the shadows. Oh how it only seems like yesterday that she was out touting yet another book about her withdrawal from public life (Celebrity Detox) - Rosie - we wish you WOULD withdrawal from the public.

Rosie is a nasty woman if you get on her bad side, and she doesn’t allow anybody with different opinions to be around her. Even on Good Morning America this morning she said “I’m the same person I always was. But on my show there was no one with a conflicting point of view. And I was also the boss of everything, which frankly for me works well. ”

Her own words.

My question is… she has wanted to “withdraw” from public life - so why doesn’t she? Putting up a blog and posting her broken english every day is not quite “withdrawing.”

For those wanting to learn more about my Rosie experience(s) - stay tuned, I’ll try and post them when I can, including maybe some emails from Rosie herself back when I worked for another company. (oh boy!)

Technorati Tags: Rosie O’Donnell, Good Morning America

This past Thursday I received a voicemail from their production office, asking if I would be interested in a non-speaking “featured extra” role.  When you audition for a film, there is usually a spot on the audition form that says “would you accept a role as an extra” - this is very similar to the same kind of question you have on any audition form for any type of play… high school, community theater - whatever.   In this case I checked “no.”  I have “been there, done that” being part of crowd scenes in TV shows in Los Angeles, and it really doesn’t appeal to me.  For some people in Iowa, “just being in a movie” is enough thrill - but I know better how drawn out and sometimes boring it can be, so I checked no.

The production office wanted to know if I would accept a “featured” extra role, that was not part of a crowd scene.  It would consist of myself and 1 other person doing a scene that is supposed to take place in Philadelphia.

You have probably seen, and possibly made fun of, these type of “featured extra” roles.   They are usually noted by “shouting man” or “man #1″ or sometimes “bar customer #2″  … but the point is they DO get in the credits, whereas most of the crowd extras do not.

So, I said yes.   I’m actually looking forward to it, and will post more details after the filming.  the entertaining part is that we we are filming a scene that takes place in Philadelphia, for a movie called South Dakota, that is actually being filmed in Iowa.

Gotta love the movie business!

In scanning the news articles, it seems as though the conspiracy theorists are surmising that Apple is purposefully creating/pulling back iPhone stock in order to rush the deployment of 3G versions of the iPhone sooner than people were originally anticipating (summer 2008).   That’s all fine and dandy, but there is no proof.

What has come out of the discussion, however, is a general agreement among those closely watching iPhone developments, that there is some kind of “deal” that is causing the shortage.  It has been suggested that there is a tax/sales reason why the units are easier to find at AT&T stores.  Apparently, iPhones that are kept “in stock” at Apple stores are not recorded as “sales.”  Whereas units kept in stock by AT&T stores show as sales for Apple.   Therefore, keeping less stock at Apple stores and more at AT&T could inflate sales figures.

So is Apple a) Inflating sales figures by intentionally shipping more units to AT&T than its own outlet stores?   or b) Suffering an actual shortage of phones  or c) none of the above?

Id say a combination of a and b.   I bet manufacturing has slowed down on the older models intentionally, and sales figures are being boosted by shipping/selling to AT&T.

Only time will tell.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, AT&T, Apple

A typical visit to the set would entail me entering through the main entrance and signing in at the window (in later seasons I had to have a guest name badge assigned to me for some reason.)   I would then go through a door and down the hallway, first stopping at Jeffrey Willerth’s narrow dwelling, then stopping in to say hi to John Copeland and his faithful companion who was usually there with tail wagging.   Then I would continue down and if I was feeling daring, stop at the last office on the right and say hi to Joe, aka “J. Michael Straczynski” aka “The Great Maker.”

Then I would usually find Jeff Conaway.

Jeff was one of those cast members who always had the time to say hi.  We had first met at one of those “live chats” where I conducted a conference online between him and Babylon 5 fans.   Ever since then, whenever I was on the set, he would always greet me with a big hello, handshake and smile.

Jeff was infectious.  Not with anything bad, but he was always fun to be around.  We’ve all seen television bloopers, but when Jeff made a mistake, either he would bust out laughing, or he would very honestly be upset that he blew the line.   I remember when I was first told his age, and at the time I couldn’t believe that a guy who looks so young could be over 50 and have grandchildren.   I couldn’t believe he was over 35.

In recent years, I have hated turning on the television, as the TV magazine shows have had a field day with Jeff.   From getting kicked off/quitting celebrity fit club, and then the awful video from Celebrity Rehab, we have been shown a very different Jeff Conaway.  Now he walks with a total chest/back brace as a result of lifting boxes - a far cry from the happy-go-lucky Zach Allen I remember from my visits to the set.

I haven’t spoken to Jeff since the series ended, but I have heard he is investigating Scientology as a way of dealing with his sobriety, drug use, and physical condition - no doubt thanks to John Travolta.   Whatever the reason, I’m glad to hear that Jeff is finally doing better.

Take care, Jeff.

Technorati Tags: jeff conaway, babylon 5, jeffrey willerth, john travolta

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem.

Also, apparently there is a bum rush on March 29th for the original Age of Conversation.  You can find out more here:

The Age of Conversation

What’s a bum rush?  Find out more about bum rushes soon at Content, Community, Commerce. 

But there is one goal that I can’t do alone - record a song.

I can’t play any instrument.   I played trombone for a few years in elementary school, but thats about it.   I’ve worked with several talented singers and songwriters over the years, but most of them I have lost contact with.

What I need to know is:   How does someone who can’t write a song…. find a song to “record?”  Do I license an already performed, copyrighted work, or do I try and find a song people are looking to have someone record.  if so, how do I contact a publisher and say “send me song demos, Im interested in recording something” ?

Whoever can hook me up with a good song that I can record will get my eternal thanks and who knows what else.

Oh…

rock/slow rock preferred.  To my podcasting/blogging buddies think Geoff Smith / Guitar man of central park… etc.

Any and all constructive suggestions and/or help welcome.

Troy