One of the most thorough, albeit rather drawn out, tutorials is presented by expertvillage. They break the process down into 16 short segments that deal with proper vinyl handling, cleaning, and storing. If you’re new to the vinyl collecting game, it’s worth the 20 minutes to view the video series and learn the basics.

Luckily Google allows us to setup advanced filters that will report statistics using Page Titles instead of urls. A few quick settings and you’re all setup. From then on Google will report page statistics using your Page Titles.

Checkout http://bit.ly/dfa2vv for the step by step guide.

Information is power. The more data you have, the better informed you are about your website traffic, the more you can tailor your site for your audience. For example, if you see 90% of your traffic finds your site using the keyword “cat” then it would be a good choice to speak of cats often on your site. Likewise, if the least popular page on your site is about dogs, then it wouldn’t make sense to post additionally dog pages. Your time would be better invested creating additional cat pages.

Google Analytics puts a plethora of information at your finger tips. You can see how people are finding your site, what keywords they search for to find you, what page most people first see when they come to your site, plus tons of other bits of data, all bundled together to help you know your audience and give them exactly what they want.

Add A Google Map To Your Contact / Location Pages

It stands to reason that if people know how to contact you, the better chance  they’ll become a lead, or even a sale. Often times a site’s contact page isn’t given much attention, but if your site is suppose to become your #1 sales lead generator, shouldn’t your contact page give a perspective client every opportunity to get in touch with you?

Adding a Google Map to your site gives your website visitors a central place to find:

• Your physical Address
• Directions to you from any address
• Recognizable locations in the surrounding area
• Route planning
• Estimated travel times
• and more…

Updating/Adding Meta Information

Although search engines have come a long way, there’s still a lot to be said about making sure the basics are covered. Meta information serves up your information on a silver platter to search engines. It allows you to tell them exactly what your site is about, why people should visit it, and keywords that describe your site content. And although it’s only a piece of the puzzle when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it’s still best practices to have then readily available for the search engines to read.

Use Header Tags

When search engines visit your site, they attempt to discover what your site is about. Are you a doctor website, a real estate company, a bank, or a personal site? This is one of the questions a search engine tries to answer. One way they do this is by gathering all the information on your site and see what you call attention to in the HTML code of your site. What is in bold, what is underlined, etc. One of the bigger tags they look at are the header tags <h1>,<h2>, etc. A H1 tag tells the search engine, this text is the most important thing on my site, so pay special attention to it.

Because CSS can style header tags to look like common text, you may be looking at header tags and not even realize it, but the search engines know it’s there. And if you have an H1 tag wrapped around “Contact Us” you’re not getting much SEO use out of it. So look through your site and insure you have H1 tags wrapped around the text you feel is the most important on the page.

Add Professional Photography

You’re a professional business, so it doesn’t make much sense to use photos quickly taken by a coworker on your site. Professional photography adds a more official look and feel to your site and makes it more visually appealing to your visitors. Additionally, long blocks of text are typically not read on websites, but by breaking text apart with relevant images you can supply a lot of content to your visitors and increase the chance they’ll read it all. At the very least aim to have one relevant image per page. If your content scrolls to additional pages, try to have one image visible for every page down you can scroll.

According to his post, the primary goals for Firefox 4 are

• Fast: making Firefox super-duper fast
• Powerful: enabling new open, standard Web technologies (HTML5 and beyond!),
• Empowering: putting users in full control of their browser, data, and Web experience.

He also presented some slides that show off the updated UI that strikingly resembles Google’s Chrome browser.

I’m most happy about their goal of speeding up Firefox.  As I’ve increased my Chrome usage, Firefox has felt more like an elephant than a fox. I’m a limited add-on user, so speed improvements to the core browser will be most welcome.

Mike Beltzner’s Firefox 4 slide presentation.

Firefox 4: fast, powerful and empowering

View more presentations from Mike Beltzner.

Why must companies continue to do business this way? Lala.com is 1000x better than iTunes, so instead of making their product better, Apple simply buys and shuts down the competition. What a sad existence. This is Microsoft kind of crap Apple’s pulling. Come on Apple, you’re better than this!

Face it, iTunes sucks. It’s bloated, a memory hog, and slow. Additionally the 30 second clips on the music store simply aren’t enough to test drive an album prior to purchase. This has my biggest call to piracy. I remember going to a record store and being able to listen to full albums prior to purchasing them. Nowadays we’re “treated” to 30 second clips from random points of a song and told to make our purchasing decisions based on that. Digital music has sucked all the fun out of purchasing music. Then what little glimmers of hope we do receive, such as Lala.com, are killed off and we’re told we should be content with less.

Good job Apple, you’ve officially become everything I hate.

The Appeal is the story of a small city in Mississippi whose water supply is contaminated by a large corporation’s chemical factory. The contamination leads to high cancer rates in the towns people. After the death of a husband and child, one women fights back against the mega corporation with the help of her lawyers, who are willing to put everything on the line.

Or

The Appeal is the story about how public elections are controlled by interest groups who funnel money from corporations and the power elite to candidates they favor.

My main gripe about this book is the misleading title. When I read “The Appeal” I have expectations the book will be set in a court room and detail the appeals process of a major trial. Instead the appeal is only a byline in the final chapter and we’re presented instead with the the election story of a state supreme court justice. Now granted, the election is directly related to the appeal, but I expected the appeal itself to be the focus, not the election process.

Other than the title/plot bait and switch, The Appeal is standard Grisham fodder. Court, the south, and lawyers, are all present and enjoy active roles in the book. Overall it’s a good read that offers plenty of enjoyment. I’m sure at this point in his career Grisham can write these books in his sleep, but The Appeal never feels like he mailed it in. The writing is tight, the ideas are well supported, and the actions make sense. Well worth a read.

PS: I propose all reprints of The Appeal be retitled “Justice Supreme.”

Photo Credit: black_coffee_blue_jeans

Those of us who grew up in the Southern USA are keenly aware how hurtful and hateful racial words like that can be, so it’s inclusion in a video game for kids to play is a bit shocking.

I know I don’t want my kids to use those words, even when singing a rap song. It’s included in the group of words we never say. I can’t help but wonder if you get points taken off if you don’t say the word. Are there clean edits you can choose instead? Will the KKK begin to play the game at their ralleys?

How about you. Would you sing the word? Would you feel akward if you did? Would you look around to see who is in earshot before choosing the NWA song?

The “I’m Working on a Post” Post

Don’t waste time telling me of a grand, life changing post you will soon be making. Instead, use that time to actually work on the post. I know some people like to drum up excitement about upcoming posts, but I’d rather have an awesome post a day earlier than a leadin three days before the real thing.

Twitter Collection Posts

I know some twitter plugins for wordpress allow you to automatically collect a set number of your twitter posts and post them, but why even bother? If we follow you on twitter, and take the extra effort to visit your site, why show us the same content we read days before? Wouldn’t it be better to simply kill your blog and push people to your twitter page, where you do all your updates and postings?

Fresh Start Blog Post

So you didn’t post on your blog for three years and two months and you want to get back into the swing of routine posts, good for you. Keeping your website current can be hard work, and falling behind happens, but why waste my time telling me what you hope to do? Why not simply keep your site updated? I’ve got a secret, if you keep your site current, I’ll pick up on the fact that you want to keep your site current. So there’s no need to make a post saying you’re sorry, or about how your car died and you lost your house keys and the computer OS crashed so you couldn’t post for 18 months. Jump right back in, and I’ll forget you ever left.

Promise to Post More Post

If you only post once a quarter, don’t waste one telling me you hope to start posting more frequent updates. If you want to post more, then post more. We readers will get the idea, no need to explain it to us.

New Design Introduction Posts

Don’t waste a post telling me you changed your site’s design and you’re still working out some of the bugs. I feel fairly certain that if you change the design I’ll notice it. And if your site still has display bugs you want to fix, then pull it back into dev and leave the old one up. I don’t want you telling me I can only read your site in Safari on an iPhone until you get around to testing in all browsers. There’s no need to tell me that, I’ll notice the text is backwards and simply leave.

Last.fm Chart Posts

Yet again a wordpress plugin offers to do the work for you and make a post out of information from another site. In this case it’s a weekly summary of your last.fm scrobbles. Who cares if you listened to Coldplay 56 times, and Wall of Voodoo 42 times? I know I don’t, but if I did, I would visit your last.fm profile. That’s not to say I don’t like having a recently played plugin on your site. I find people’s listening habits fascinating, but when you present it to me as content for your site, I move on.

So that’s my post rant. What types of blog posts get under your skin?

Photo Credit: conskeptical

Midwestern Songs of the Americas (1998)

Starting off with a bang, Dillinger Four jump out of the gate with a killer debut album. They quickly establish their unique sound and prove why they stand head and shoulders above their contemporaries. There’s a craftsmanship to their songs that is sorely lacking in other punk bands. Rests, key changes, solos, sudden bridges, and changes in acoustics all  add up to a killer album. It’ll have you singing along in no time.

Grade: B

Best Song: O.K.F.M.D.O.A.
Worst Song: The Great American Going Out of Business Sale

Versus God (2000)

Dillinger Four prove they’re full of maximum piss and vinegar on their sophomore album. Their ability to write infectious hooks yet retain punk credentials is second to none. On Versus God they strive sell their message to move post anything that holds you back, whether it be religion, government, or your friends, but I can’t say they get the message across too well. In the years since bands like Dead Kennedys told us the government was corrupt and dangerous punk music has become less about the message, and more about the fashion. Not that I hold this against Dillinger Four, they do all they can to push the message back to listeners, but we’re now so use to punk not saying anything, I fear we can’t see the forest for the trees.

Honestly, this is my least favorite Dillinger Four album. It’s still fun and loud, but the hooks aren’t as impressive as other albums, and I find a few of the songs sound too similar and begin to merge together. All together a solid album, but not their best.

Grade: C

Best Song: Music is None of My Business
Worst Song: Wrecktheplacefantastic

Situationist Comedy (2002)

Back and better than ever, Dillinger Four rip through 13 songs preaching the gospel of nonconformity and personal identity. I love the tone of Situationist Comedy. They target corporate design and the idea that companies can dictate what we should like, what we should look like, and how we should act. Their message of individuality is loud and clear. Don’t let others label you, but if they do, who cares, just live your life.

The musicality is their best yet. The songs are addicting, the lyrics are clever and poignant, and the music is a blast of punk energy. You’ll feel you just left the mosh pit when the album is finished. A must have for punk fans.

Grade: A

Best Song: Fuzzy Pink Handcuffs
Worst Song: Labourissuesinthetoydepartment

Civil War (2008)

Coming 6 years after their previous album, Dillinger Four prove they are the only current punk band worth listening to. Their ability to cram hooks into a catchy song is amazing, and they pull out off the stops with Civil War. Showcasing a more mature sound, Dillinger Four tighten up loose ends of their music and go for the throat, targeting religion, government, and the rich. Channeling the works of Dead Kennedys, they lead a frontal assault for the minds of Americans to think for themselves and don’t let others tell you you can’t do something.

It took me a while to be absorbed into this album. When a punk band matures beyond fart jokes and songs about beer, they have to rediscover their fan base and prove themselves worthy all over again. This holds true for Civil War. I felt the album was too polished and clean to be a proper Dillinger Four album, but as I listened to it further, I discovered it’s still the band I know and love, they’ve just matured as lyricists and musicians. Their own special blend of comedy is still present, but now comes presented in a little different container.

Grade: B

Best Song: Ode To The North American Snake Oil Distributor
Worst Song: Like Eye Contact In An Elevator

Grade Breakdown:

• Situationist Comedy A
• Midwestern Songs of the Americas B
• Civil War B
• Versus God C

The whole processes seemed too easy, so I decided to pull out one of my unplayable records and test it out. Was it as easy as they said it would be?

It turns out, no, it isn’t. Especially if you’re as impatient as me. My attempts at using wood glue to clean my vinyl was a check list of what not to do. Here are my mistakes so you can avoid them.

Cover vinyl record evenly

To insure easy removal of the glue, you’ll need to make sure all the glue dries together into one solid piece. This can’t happen if you have drips and drops of glue by themselves. Make sure you smooth the glue out so you can remove the glue in one piece.

Add pull tabs before you apply glue

I noticed the guy in the guide placed pieces of tape on his record to make the removal process even easier. Once I smoothed the glue over the album, I placed two pieces of scotch tape on the edges. Bad idea!

The tape immediately shriveled and curled. Not only did they become brittle and tear before they pulled and glue off, they also prevented the glue under them from drying, leaving two wet glue islands on the vinyl when I attempted removal.

Not waiting long enough before attempting glue removal

I suppose it was my fault for reading the back of the glue bottle to check drying time. In a standard wood gluing situation, it should be dry in 30 minutes; however, when applying to vinyl records, drying time is 24 hours. I only waited 8 hours before I thought it was dry enough to attempt removal, which left a gummy, sticky, glue mess all over the vinyl.

Once I removed what I could, I left the rest to dry and came back the next day to try and remove the test of the glue. Because I had messed up so badly the day before, I had to scratch and pull with my fingernails to remove most of the glue. After 30 minutes, I gave up and reminded myself this was just a test album. There are bits and pieces of glue still on the record, so it’s needle-ruining unplayable right now.

Not using enough glue

As you can see in the above picture, there are areas that are only lightly coated with wood glue. Ideally the records should be totally covered. For my second attempt, I used over half the 4 oz bottle and it made all the difference.

The glue dries more even, removes easier, and leaves less artifacts the more you use. It appears to be better to use too much than to use too little.

So there you go. Be careful when using glue to clean your records. Start with a crappy record first so you can learn the technique before you cover Blonde on Blonde in wood glue.

How about you? How do you clean your vinyl collection?