If you know anything about being an affiliate you probably know that there are datafeeds available from the affiliate centres like RegNow and ShareASale.

The question is, are these feeds any good? What do they look like?

Now I am well aware what is the common sense advice from anybody who has experience as an affiliate. The advice is: don’t expect that you can just paste some code onto your site and instantly have a good-looking, useful shop that people would actually want to visit.

But still, we all have to start from somewhere, so I decided to try out a php feed from RegNow to see what it would look like.

It certainly was easy to implement!

That’s actually why I chose the php feed. There are others available but the php looked like the one that would involve the least work. Other formats include javascript, csv and XML.

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It seemed to be very fast and has some interesting features.

Click for bigger image in separate window.

I normally use a Linux system: as of today Chrome is not available for Linux, but it will be some time soon. I am trying it on a Windows machine just because I’m curious.

What is the Chrome Browser?

I won’t use much space here for a full description of Chrome and what it is aiming to do.
You can read all about that at Google, in comic book format
That’s a detailed description, 38 pages.

The short version: main points:

These days web users access a lot of web applications rather than static web pages, so it would be good to have a browser optimized for that kind of usage.

Some of the things Chrome developers want to achieve:

(Pop-up pages will be confined to the tab they originated from.)

Processes run with restricted rights - they cannot just read and write anywhere on your hard drive. Also Chrome will know a blacklist of bad websites so it can warn about potential threats.

In this mode Chrome does not record any of your browsing history or keep the cookies

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People seem to have a lot of questions and opinions about this.
For example:
What exactly Google is planning by way of a business strategy, and future applications?
Why do they really want to develop a browser?
Should Google even be getting into browsers?
How much control of the web does Google want?
Will there be another browser war?

Well, I can’t answer those questions. What I have here are some notes and impressions about what it was like for an ordinary user to download, install, and give Chrome a quick trial.

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Why is this information here?

Because I live in a noisy place. I do use my own concoctions of white noise a lot. I went looking for something else to improve my aural environment. I thought ambient music might be the answer, but I found lots of other interesting things.

I knew I had collected a few links to good sites where we can find free music. But, when I had good look at all the sites I had noted, it turned out I also had quite a few links to sites with other sounds, e.g. loops, environmental sounds, field recordings and so on.

The list below includes (what I think will be) less well known sites, not just the obvious ones that you would quickly find on any search engine.

(Links open in a new window. )

Free Music

Songs, ambient, mp3 downloads etc.

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Free Music Archive

Still in development, but already on the nets… at FreeMusicArchive.org

… and there is already some music available.

From their description:
“The site will combine the curatorial approach that stations like WFMU have played for the last few decades, and the community generated approach of many current online music sites.”

You can find lots of music - i.e. free, legal, Creative Commons etc., - just by looking around the site: e.g. check the comments on the ‘About’ page.

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Opsound.org

OpSound.org

Music is available under a Creative Commons license, the “Attribution-ShareAlike license”.

Musicians and sound artists are invited to add their work.

Everybody is invited to listen, download, remix etc.

There is a huge list of genres to choose from: as far as I have checked, there is a good selection within each genre.

It has taken me a long time to write this post because sites like this are so distracting. I can’t stop myself looking (or listening) around.

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Anisform

A net label, free music to stream or download. Genre: Ambient music, “subtle soundtracks”.

Ansiform.

All Creative Commons.

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Dreamstate: free ambient music.

Dreamstate.

Just some people, their ambient music, you can listen and download for free.

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we7.com

I suppose most experienced web-shoppers and frequent music buyers will not be needing my help to point them to this one. So here it is anyway.

We7 is one of the serious attempts to work out new ways for the music industry to operate.
That is, instead of the old way - which was big corporations + everything copyrighted.

We7 has a variety of ‘music delivery’ options, e.g.:

• Free streaming music,
• Free ad-supported MP3 downloads
• DRM-free MP3 downloads you can buy

And…

It’s all DRM-free music, whatever options you use.

Unlike some of the other sites mentioned here, We7 has commercial music from well known musicians and bands.

We7 prides itself on being a safe place to download and share music - i.e. without the spyware and malware that infests the free-for-all and illegal download neighbourhoods.

I found streaming and downloading speeds were particularly quick from We7.

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Wikipedia Creative Commons Music List

For a large list of mostly classical music that is public domain or Creative Commons licensed see this collection at Wikipedia.

Well, it was mostly classical music last time I looked. But it’s Wikipedia - there is no telling how it will develop over time.

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Lovefingers.org

Lovefingers.

Here there are MP3’s available for a limited time to be used for sampling purposes only, not with the intention of profit or to violate copyright.

There is recent, commercially produced music here. But each one is only available for a limited time.
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Free Music, Samples and Sounds

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Mashable

Again, frequent music users will not be needing me to tell them about Mashable.

But anyway, here is a link to their creative commons section.

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Legal Torrents

Legal Torrents offers, as the name suggests, legally available and creative commons material that can be downloaded by torrent.

There is much more than just music.
It is all organised in categories.

There is:

Music (of course)
Including:

• Netlabel Music
• Sounds, Samples and Loops

Movies
Including:

• Animations
• Short Form Video
• Television

Books
Including:

• Audio Books
• Graphic Novels

AND

• Games
• Podcasts
• ‘Other’ (e.g. wallpapers, images)

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Free Samples, Loops, Film Foley Sounds etc.

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Below here we depart from ‘music’ in a narrow definition, and branch out towards samples, loops, grooves, etc. - and then, a bit later, we get well away from music and towards other recordings, Foley for your film, environmental sounds, phonography…

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So I had to go and look it up. I was mainly concerned that there was a limit on how long a cable could be and still be reliable. We have a long house and six computers on the network.

Which reminds me of another thing: 25 years ago, when I was just starting a family, nobody told me that part of being a father was being a network administrator.

And they didn’t teach me anything about it at school. I thought school was supposed to prepare us for life.

Anyway it seems that most cable at the local store is Cat6 these days, and I have no complaints. Last time I bought a new computer (in late 2007) I transferred a LOT of data across my network and I have no complaints about the speed.

I tried making up my own cables for a while - with a packet of connectors and the expensive crimping tool. The problem with making my own was that it is easy to waste connectors by making bad joints.

The answer to that problem is to buy yet another device - a tool to check the cables electrically. But at some point it gets cheaper to just buy quality cable (with connectors) off the shelf.

Anyway, in case anybody is wondering about Cat6, here are some details.

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There’s a New Cable in Town: CAT-6 Ethernet Cables

By Roberto Bell

CAT-6 is an Ethernet cable standard which was defined by the Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunications Industry Association (known as EIA/TIA).

Category 6 cable, which is commonly called ‘Cat-6′, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5/5e and Category 3 cable standards.

Cat-6 features more strict standards for network crosstalk and system noise. The Cat-E cable standard provides performance of up to 250 MHz and is suitable for 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet). It is likely to suit the 10GBASE-T (10Gigabit Ethernet) standard also. CAT-6 is the sixth generation of Ethernet cabling standards.

CAT-6 cable contains four twisted copper wire pairs, similar to earlier network cable standards. Although Cat-6 is sometimes made with 23 gauge wires, it is not a requirement. The ANSI/TIA-568-B.2-1 specification states the cable may be made with 22 to 24 AWG gauge wire, as long as the cable meets the specified testing standards.

Attenuation and Crosstalk are significantly lower in Cat-6 cables compared to the Cat-5/5e standard. CAT-6 standard supports Gigabit (1000 Mbps) Ethernet and network communications at more than twice the speed of CAT5e. As with all cables defined by ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B, the maximum acceptable length of the Cat-6 cable is 100 meters (330 ft) in length.

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The writing itself is here: A Traveller Lost His Way.

The writing itself is here: One Night Stan.

This is a WordPress installation. I am still working on it and probably will be for a long time yet.

If you are thinking about using WordPress… I can can tell you that I found the installation very easy.

I originally installed WordPress so that, when I put a page on this site, visitors could add comments.

Now I have to make decisions about things like using WordPress as a ‘content management system’,  a simple way for visitors to add comments, a blog, and how to integrate it with the rest of the site.

We’ll see what happens.