Wannatech

Is Yahoo migrating all the 360 blogs to Wordpress?

2008-05-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been announced a long time ago and it should be effective soon, Yahoo! 360 is transitioning to a more integrated Yahoo! experience. This means that Yahoo! 360 will never get out of Beta.

If you followed the link you've noticed the high number of comments on the latest posts of the official Yahoo! 360 blog. The Yahoo! 360 team probably has one of the most popular Yahoo! blogs out there.

Back to my question, is Yahoo! migrating all the 360 blogs to Wordpress? After all, many Yahoo! blogs are Wordpress blogs, their music blog, their video blog, their flickr blog, their corporate blog- at least it used to be, now I'm not so sure -... Maybe Yahoo! has a special partnership with the Wordpress people? Or maybe they just hate their own blogging platform.

If Yahoo! can come up with a blogging platform that is easy to use, allows full control of content and layout, allows third party code integration and that is also integrated in the rest of the Yahoo machine they might have a winner. The Yahoo! 360 seemed to be integrated with only Yahoo! messenger. At some point I thought they would upgrade all the old profiles to 360 but they didn't. Then came the Mybloglog acquisition and now it seems that they have come up with a new profile system that integrates all the information you enter on any Yahoo! site. My wish for them is that they don't loose any bloggers in the transition process.

Am I still watching American Idol?

2008-05-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

Not really.

For many reasons that I wont detail here I have not been able to watch the latest episodes. Hopefully for me, my latest favorite, Jason Castro is still in the game. I'm not mad that Carly Smithson and Brook White went home. I was never a Carly fan, she may be a good singer but... I never heard one of her songs that I wanted to hear again. As for Brooke, I liked here a little, she can sing really well but the crying.... no, no, I had seen enough of that since she sang "Let it Be".

I'm afraid Jason might be the next one to leave unless Syesha Mercado chooses a really bad song or if the same thing that happened to Kristy Lee Cook happens to her- she would get eliminated even though she seems to be doing a better job week after week -. Even with a performance like "Somewhere over the rainbow" or "Draydream" he can't win over David Archuleta or David Cook unless they do something really bad. By the way I wasn't all crazy about his "Hallelujah" performance. I think he needs to do something very simple but original.

So far there are only three contestants I don't mind listening to more than once a week: Michael Johns, Jason Castro and Brooke White. I think Michael Johns should still have been in the competition but like many others, Carly, Brooke, he felt he had already achieved his dream in the competition, so I guess there was no point in still keeping him. I do believe however that he has the potential to make a great recording artist if they give him the right songs to sing. I think the same thing of Jason Castro and Brook White but those two might be appealing to fewer people. Even though I don't like David Cook I also think he has enormous star potential. He's the best stage performer I've seen this season, he looks natural and at ease. As for David Archuleta, the judges' favorite, this season's 17 year old that they absolutely want to win just like Jordin Sparks last season, I think he should be cast in High School Musical 3- or 4 since it might be too late for 3 -, he could play the new kid in town who's in love with Gabriella. Sorry for those who've never watched HSM-apparently that's what they call it -and have no idea what I'm talking about.

Shiny New Yahoo! Mail Classsic

2008-04-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

Yahoo upgraded my mail account from Yahoo! Mail Classic to New Yahoo! Mail Classic. I had tried the New Yahoo! Mail and didn't like it. It's heavy, cluttered, painful when you don't have a really wide screen and plain ugly plus some features like folders don't work. Folders! One of the most useful features of Yahoo! Mail, it's really great when used with filters by the way and it's a feature Gmail doesn't have but I digress.

Well since Yahoo is not forcing his users to use the New version of Yahoo Mail, at least not at this time they simply changed my Classic Mail to the New Classic Mail without a warning. For once, I'm not complaining. This new version looks like a mixed of both New and Classic Yahoo Mail. It keeps the wide viewing space but adds some functionality. They have however taken out some features like the "Instalist" which allowed you to instantly create a mailing list for recipients when you are sending a message, it was a very practical way to create list for people you mail as a group. Yahoo has a full list of added and removed features.

I have more than one Yahoo! mail account, and no, I don't think it's illegal. I've noticed that only one of them was upgraded the others remained in the old Classic Mail version, still I'm not complaining as long as it's not the New Yahoo Mail! I felt the New Yahoo! Mail does not provide a good ad space, the ad at the right side of the screen just seems to eat up my inbox/mail viewing space while the old placement, when ads are at the top of the page, kept the ad away from my viewing space which I found more convenient. I personally think horizontal ads are better than vertical ones but that's just me.

Have I become a Jason Castro fan?

2008-04-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Ramiele Malubay and Michael Johns were my two favorite contestants this season. Both are gone now and I barely watch the show. Though I have to admit, even before their departure I was starting to slowly but surely finding interest in none else than Jason Castro... Maybe it's his goofiness, his messy hair, his big smile or the fact that he looks like a girl or just the guitar or his tight pants???... The guy is an original and he is so distinct from most of what you hear usually, he does not have this mainstream I hear it all the time voice unlike some other contestants. I also like his laid back attitude. I still don't get the tight pants... But really I could listen to some of the songs he sang again and again.

My mom likes David Cook. Even though she doesn't listen to rock but for some reason she thinks he's really good, which means that David Cook will probably go really far in this competition, by the way my mom accurately predicted that Michael Johns was going to be eliminated last week while many people were surprised when it happened. I'll probably ask her from now on who she thinks is going to be eliminated next.

More Spam on Yahoo Mail

2008-03-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

It just doesn't stop. This morning again while checking my mail I found a few more spam messages in my Yahoo Mail Inbox. I wonder when Yahoo Mail is going to do something about it.

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Daily spam on my Yahoo mail

2008-03-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

I used to get the occasional spam message delivered to my Inbox on Yahoo mail but nowadays I don't get one but many spam messages daily. I report all of them as spam but still day after day or ever later on the same day I receive similar messages from obviously spammy addresses (many are freenet.de email addresses) and with obviously spammy titles.

I don't remember giving away my email address on any site recently but I guess somebody sold my email to some spammers out there I just hope Yahoo! mail's Spamguard would do a better job at catching those spam messages and sending them to the Bulk folder considering that I've been reporting them regularly for a few days now. Funny, after writing the first draft for this post I went on my Indox again and found yet another spam message from a freenet.de address I had just marked the ones I found earlier as spam and they were removed from my inbox.

Again a few hours later, before publishing this post I find yet another spam message and you've guessed it form another freenet.de address... Disappointed with Yahoo! Mail.

American Idol season 6 contestants where are they now?

2008-03-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Melinda Doolittle - not Dolittle -
She finally released her first single last month, it's called "My Funny Valentine", it's available online for purchase at itunes, napster, amazonmp3 and emusic.

Jordin Sparks
She was the American Idol season 6 winner. She released her album and even sang a song with Chris Brown. I find her a bit boring, still, I was never a fan.

Blake Lewis
For some reason Blake Lewis is the one I read the most about since the end of season 6 as if he had the most fans. He hasn't changed his hairstyle much,he released his CD "Audio Day Dream". He also has a fully loaded official website where you can find video clips, a blog, pictures, audio clips and all other things Blake Lewis that it's possible to find online.

Watch Blake Lewis' video Break Anotha

American Idol top 11 results night - Bye Amanda

2008-03-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

It was result night on American Idol season 7, on Fox last night. The contestants will know if they will get another chance to try and convince America that they can be the new american Idol or if they will be sent back home.
The first person to make the bottom three is Carly Smithson, surprisingly. Less surprisingly Kristy Lee Cook joins her, she's been a regular of the bottom three for the past weeks, just like Phil Stacey was last season, he made it pretty far and landed a Disney contract. Kristy and Disney sounds like a good match. And finally, and not surprisingly at all, Amanda Overmyer joins them. As I predicted yesterday Amanda Overmyer was the one sent home. I doubt anybody who's been watching the show since the top 12 is surprised especially if you watched the previous night. She looks like a really nice girl underneath the goth-rocker-biker-chick image, when she's not wearing a lot of make-up she does look "sweet" but saying that I'll miss her on the show would be lying. American Idol being a singing competiton and not an attitude competition I can say that logically she was the weakest singer of the remaining 11.

American Idol - Top 11 performance night - Will Amanda Overmyer go home tonight?

2008-03-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, March 18th 2008

A two-hour show, you know one of the long long shows with plenty of fillers. The contestant will perform for a chance to spend one more week in the competition and come one step closer to win.

American Idol is back with yet another Beatles night! No way. The Lennon/McCartney night was far from successful, the contestants perform better with more contemporary songs. In fact, the week before was near catastrophic. A bad choice to bring the Beatles back on the show.

Amanda Overmyer, she feeds of fthe audience's energy, she's a vampire... or a singerpire!, she's singing "Back in the USS army". Her voice is awful, she's screaming and it's not melodious. And they call that singing... mercy! When will it end, stop the torture and send Amanda home. Since it's a performance competition and not a singing competition anymore the judges might just like it.

What did the judges think?
Ryan, "... pitch problem, 7 out of 10".
Paula, "... when you connect, you are authentic, I love you ...stay who you are"
Simon, "... predictable, a bit of a mess in part, the same thing week after week after week, ....in danger of becoming a bit boring..."

She's trying herself at being a diva, trying to please the crowd. Simon reminds her that her tickets are not on sale yet while she brags about showing the audience what they would see if they came to see her in concert. Yep, she's ready to leave, she just bought her ticket out of this competition.

Kristy Lee Cook came with her photo book. She's a cute nice girl with a powerful voice. I don't quite like her outfit. She chose a boring song with too many low notes especially in the chorus. I'm not sure many people know this song, I don't. She finishes with a long high note. People like her for her personality even though Simon thinks she doesn't have any.

What did the judges think?
Ryan says it's one of his favorite Beatles song but he found the performance a little boring.
Paula, "... would have been safer to stick to the melody... a little safe... good"
Simon,".. you need hypnosis, you're not a good performer... like musical wallpaper..." His basically telling her she's forgettable but he still thinks she was better this this week than last week.
Kristy tells Simon she can blow him out of his socks. And Ryan just couldn't stop laughing after that comment, me neither. She'll be back, she's still modest and being a good girl, trying her best.

David Archuleta thinks he wont forget the lyrics tonight, he sings "the long and windy road". I think Beatles' night is easier on the guys than the girls in general. He chose a better song for his voice. Yeah he's not bad, I'll grant him that.

What do the judges think?
Ryan,"... David Archuleta has brought the hotness back to the play... very nice..." he obviously loved it.
Paula,"... the most exciting and wonderful performance...you rose above adversity and came back strong ..."(she 's actually giving performance feedback this week).
Simon thinks he was amazing, "...you made my point... master class...". The girls kept on screaming after the performance, you could barely hear Ryan... I guess he is this season's Sanjaya.

Michael Johns, "A day in the life". I like Michael Johns but you already know that. He is trying to sound like a Beatle. He choose a good song. He's a good singer but, Beatles is not exactly relevant, it's really old school, that's the least I can say and he chose an old school song. I guess being older than the others gives him an edge for this week. Still looking nerdy. What I like about him on Beatles' night is that he's the only one who makes those song still sound like Beatles' songs, being a Beatles' fan I really enjoy that.

What did the judges think?
Ryan, "... not one of your best performances..."
Paula "...".
Simon, "... it was a mess, you didn't hit the right notes... not enough time for that song ...". And I think he's right, it's a full song that needs full time. But I still think Michael was great as usually, I loved his performance. He's one of the strongest singers they have.

Brooke White, still not back to the ground from her "let it be" performance. I don't think it was that great. She's singing "Here comes the sun". The melancholy in that song , yes that's just right for Brooke White. I still have issues with her voice. I think she sucks. Very very Karaoke, and not a great karaoke. Boring. She's trying to dance to an un-dancable song, unless you're...
What do the judges think?
Ryan,"... what's going down? what's going on? ...awkward for me... not hot for me..."
Paula, she couldn't help but smile, she loved the yellow dress Brooke was wearing. I don't think she liked the performance, she said it wasn't challenging enough for Brooke.
Simon,"... I thought the performance was terrible...lack of conviction... forgettable".

David Cook, singing "Day Tripper". I think it's more of a girl's song, really... It's a short song if you know it, and it does not have too many words in it. He really feels like a rock star at a rock concert and he acts like one.

What did the judges think?
Ryan, "... I love seeing you. not necessarily your best performance but ...."
Paula didn't like it.
Simon, "... a bit predictable... didn't like it..." me neither.

David Cook stopped being irritating to Simon, now he's being modest saying his taking all the opinions of the judges and building off of it for next week.

Carly Smithson, Simon has compared her to Kelly Clarkson twice. She's singing "BlackBird". The song Simon was waiting to hear from a contestant tonight. She sings very well. She kept it simple.
What do the judges think?
Ryan, "... another great performance for Carly Smithson, very nice man..."
Paula, "... an amazing tone otoyour voice... beautiful arrangement".
Simon,".. not a very smart thing to do, the song was indulgent..." He didn't like it at all.

Jason Castro, singing "Michelle" and Ryan does the impersonation of a French man, "Voici Jason Castro!" He sings nicely.
What did the judges think?
Ryan .....
Paula thought he was a little awkward in his moves
Simon, "... a very weird show. ..this is all getting a bit strange..." He thinks Jason has charm and that's what makes it work for him.

Syesha Mercado, she's singing "Yesterday", will she do a better job than Ramiele. She takes it acoustic and sits down. She tries a "soul" version if I may say. Interesting, it's all about doing something unusual with the songs and she did just that. I guess she wont be the one going home next week. She looks nice tonight.
What did the judges think?
Ryan, "... very very good performance tonight...".
Paula thinks she should work on connecting with the audience
Simon ,"...you're best performance so far... not incredible..."

Chikizie, "I've just seen a face". He's definitely not an original. He sounds so familiar. Then, he plays the harmonica. R&B meets country. I didn't like the R&B part but the country part was interesting.
What did the judges think?
Ryan, "...some good part some bad part..." He thought he was better in the fast country part.
Paula loved it."... You did it again...".
Simon thought he started off ok but the harmonica part was atrocious. "It was gimmicky".
Can you believe they didn't even give him a second to say a word while all the others had a chance to respond to the judges and save themselves after getting bad awful reviews.

Ramiele Malubay, trying herself at "I should have known better". Trying not to bore the judges. She seems to have made friends with all the other contestants, Brooke, David Cook, Syesha. I think her song is actually boring... Yep, there's something missing, she sings but she does not perform I guess that's what's missing. But I don't expect too much from a Beatles' night on American Idol. I think what the judges don't like about Ramiele is that she's not very emotional like Brook White or very sensational and bursting like Amanda or David Cook, or even fake and looking like she's always happy and jolly and carefree and in a joking mode like someone I wont name...
What did the judges think of her performance?
Ryan," ...I wasn't jumping up and down.... alright... you did your thing..." Sounds a bit like what he would have said to Sanjaya, maybe Ramiele is this year's Sanjaya?!! I'm just kidding.
Paula, ".. better than last week....." I can't tell you if she liked it or not.
Simon, "... sounded like Chikezie on the harmonica. very amateurish...."
At least they let Ramiele Say "Ok" Chikezie wasn't that lucky.

American Idol Season 7 - Top 12 performances

2008-03-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, March 12th it was the American Idol season 7 top 12 performance night. The contestants were performing songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I watched the full two hours of the unnecessarily long top 12 performance night.

As a Beatles' fan, I was looking forward to this night. But I forgot it was American Idol and not and all star karaoke night. The contestants thought they had to twist and thorn the songs in order to impress the judges because we all know that American follows the judges when the time comes to vote except in those rare cases when the contestant is Oh so cute or Oh so original that the viewers just want to see more of him even when he/she fails to impress with his/her vocal skills but I digress. Some songs are beautiful enough that you are better off just doing a karaoke version than trying to make it your own. Besides you're already singing it with your own voice that should be enough to make everybody feel your personal grain of salt.

I'll start with Brook White's performance.

Brook White sang "Let it be", she bought Sergeant Pepper's lonely hearts club band album when she was younger- I have that album too -. She does not do the song justice. I think her voice is not strong enough. She changes the notes but it's hard to tell whether it's her personal touch or just a pitch problem. I think she did an awful job. It's a beautiful, timeless song, she messed it up.

Ryan , talks a lot, I don't think he really said what he believe, but in the end he said he loved it. Paula , felt an emotional connection bla bla bla.... Simon , thought it was one of the best performances of the night, " brilliant choice of song , it's believable. " what?!

I really didn't like it, I'm sure I'm not the only one. She said, "this is it", after her performance. I guess she's not aspiring to become "the idol" because she believes she's already where she was aiming to be.

David Hernandez sang 'I saw her standing there'. I don't really like him. He does not look or sound authentic. He's a bit country and pop. He sings with ease but really he can't help looking uninteresting to me, almost like he's pretending something. Please give me Michael Johns next, I can't take any of this anymore.

Ryan, " you got a big voice... too over done" he was lost. Paula , "thinks" he over did it. Simon, " David, no no no, corny verging on desperate. ... wasn't very cool"

I like the fact that he's confident and reacts maturely. The guy knows exactly what to say, he's dangerous or very efficient or both. This guy can go far even if he does not go for a career in music.

Amanda Overmyer, I'm not a big fan of hers. The contrast between her talking voice and singing voice is huge. She saing "You can't do that" from "A hard days night". She reminds me of the Adam's Family. She's just shouting the song, it's not easy on my ear at all. You can still hear the Beatles in the song. It's not a song I know but it's so obvious that's it's from them, even with the "Amanda spin".

Ryan , " Beatle song to southern rock, very cool ". Paula , " you look fantastic, she's blown away cause this is the best season". Simon doesn't think it was as good as last week- that's the least I would say -.

I think it sucked.

Michael Johns, was next, finally! He's cute, in a nerdy kind of way. He sang "Across the Universe". Not sure it's a good song for this competition, it's completely slow, I was worried it would probably sound too old for most people. Michael is a very strong singer but he has no clue of what he's supposed to do while he's singing. His performance was a bit short but I love Michael! He even says thank you at the end, a nice guy who knows he's safe for at least one more week.

Ryan ," good, ok for him , a little sleepy".
Paula ," brilliant performance". Women can't resist Michael!
Simon , " you should have done something like Carly.". He's still a big fan of Michael but he's not overwhelmed by the performance.
Once again Michael Johns is sweating like a pig. I wonder if I would have liked him as much if he were American instead of Australian? Maybe it's the accent or the way he says G'day!

kristy Lee Cook, she's all about impressing Simon. She sang "Eight days a week", country style. She looks like she got her clothes out of a thrift shop. She reminds me of "spiritual Cindy"- can't remember her name - from "Grease, you're the one that I want" on NBC. Her jeans really looked awful.

Ryan , " ...wild for me. half and half".
Paula didn't enjoy it, she didn't get it.
Simon thought it was horrendous- that's what you get for trying to impress Simon Cowell- . I guess country is not Simon's thing.
According to Paula Kristy has a large fan base that should keep her safe for next week.

David Archuleta sang "Wee can work it out". It's a good song, at least one that I like. Unfortunately David kills the song. He even forgets the lyrics in the first sentence! No he didn't? Or maybe I just didn't hear what he was saying because he's cutting the words. David Archuleta is a pop singer, definitely. There's something missing... I guess he didn't really realize what the song was saying. He made the song sound meaningless.

Ryan ," not on point. very forced, didn't work for him".
Paula thought this was not his best week, but " we love you". That's the kind of thing they would say to Jordin Sparks last season.
Simon thought it was a mess, he stumbled on the lyrics, it was his weakest performance so far. He said that he had to be fair to other contestants.

David's problem is that he let everybody know how nervous and unprepared he felt to sing a Lennon or McCartney song so they expected to see his nervousness and unfortunately for him it showed right in the beginning.

To summarize the night.

Syesha Mercado performed first and she was was so-so. Ramiele did a very good job but the judges were merciless with her. Jason Castro is cute and he chose a cute song so the girls are going to vote for him even though his performance wasn't great. Carly Smithson is good even I like here. Jason Cook over-rocked his song, as always. Brooke White whispered her song and cried after her performance, nothing new there either. David Hernandez.... whatever, he chose a boring song. Amanda Overmyer was overconfident. Michael Johns was good and chose a nicey-nice song. Kristy Lee Cook sang a weird country version of a song... maybe she's the one going home. David Archuleta forgot his lyrics but he was well dressed and stayed cute so I guess he's safe. Oh wait, I can't believe I forgot to say something about Chikezie, I'm not a big fan, he did a lot of noise with a song, he was very confident and the judges loved it so he's very very safe.

As much as I don't want to see Kristy go home tonight I'd rather see her go than having to say bye to Ramiele who is still my favorite female contestant.

Ramiele Malubay dedicated her song to her friends who've already left the competition. Was it her way of telling them that she'll come and join them soon?

Many people seem to think that Kristy Lee Cook is the one to go tonight. The judges crushed her last night so that might be her faith.

American Idol Season 7 - Top 12

2008-03-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 6th, 2008.

It was about time we had the final 12. Last season I did not watch much of the show prior to the top 12, this season I realized that it was a smart move. The show is long and boring, so many fillers. Having to watch American Idol not two but three days in a row before knowing who's been eliminated, is a bit too much. At least this week we only had to suffer to one hour episodes...

Thursday is not a good day to watch American Idol, it's elimination night, two guys and two girls will go home. There will be cries and still it's a long way to the final night when America chooses the "One".

Blake Lewis stopped by for a performance and everybody seemed happy to see him again on stage doing his "thing". He wasn't a finalist for nothing.

And finally they tell us who goes home. Kady is gone, no more Britney Spears on American Idol! I'm really going to miss fake Britney. I think Kady Malloy has a future in show business.

Luke Menard, Danny Noriega and Asia'h Epperson are also gone.

I predicted the eliminations pretty much accurately then again who hadn't?

American Idol Season 7 - Top 16 - Women

2008-03-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

March 5th, the women take the stage to see if they can convince America that they deserve to sing another day in this competition.

Asia'h Epperson, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody".
She's definitely not very articulate. It's karaoke night people. Her voice is not strong and the backup singers do a better job than she does at least they sound better. And her performance just goes on for ever, no, it didn't work for me at all. What is she wearing?

What do the judges think? Randy,recorded that song with Whitney Houston, he thinks it was Hot! -I don't thinks so- . Paula thinks she nailed it. Simon, is not quite so enthusiastic, " at best it was second rate Whitney Houston. She did the Whitney version of the Whitney song. " I completely agree with him.

Kady Malloy,"Who Wants to live Forever". She didn't think America would pick her instead of Alaina Whitaker, the girl has no self confidence... What she doesn't know is that they just love it when she impersonates the celebrities. She should have done Britney Spears tonight to secure her place in the top 12. She kind of sucked.

Randy thinks it was a very interesting song choice, a nice queen song, she did a good job, pretty good- whatever - . Paula, thinks it was, to date her best performance, she likes the tenderness and softness of her voice. Simon thinks it was definitely better than last week, but has issues with her " massive lack of personality". How can you say that to someone? I think it's offensive.

Amanda Overmyer ,"I Hate Myself for Loving You". She seems to have adopted the Robbie Carrico look in her pre-performance video... I don't know the song but it rocks. A great choice for her but I'm wondering how well she customized it?
What did the judges think? Randy found the Amanda that he loves, "the bluesy rocker chick, well done baby! ". Paula, " your face is beautiful, I like your hair, this is who we fell in love with". Simon thought it was fantastic," absolutely nailed that song, his favorite girl performance of the competition so far."

She looks better tonight indeed, better makeup, better hair, she looks younger and more
approachable, nicer, more feminine and less gothic.

Carly Smithson,"I Drove All Night". Irish Girl who can sing but probably looks too old and too married for the AI people. Did you see her tattoos? They always show you inside her mouth when she's doing those loud long notes, you can see her tongue it's a bit weird.
Not a great performance, pure Carly, technically good. I kind of like here, she's very likable.

What did the judges think? Randy, " I love that dude, another great performance ".
Paula, " dude ...", she liked it. Simon, once again, he doesn't think she chose the right song, she made the most out of it. Just not a great song for her and bla bla bla...

Kristy Lee Cook ,"Faithfully". She's an atypical girl. She has a real nice powerful country voice. Not perfect but charming. Her tongue looks red though they only showed it from the side unlike Carly's that they show right up front.

What did the judges think? Randy, " this is cool man, great song, I actually liked it...". He liked the country version. Paula thinks it could be a hit for her in country music, " you look great tonight ". Simon , thinks she's forgetable, he's not right. Who can't remember Kristy, the one who sold her horse and never watches R rated movies...she's the tall blonde. Maybe Simon has something with blond country girls or blonds in general.

Ramiele Malubay,"Against All Odds". My favorite female contestant, isn't she cute? Trying to look her age tonight. She has a good voice but .... I don't know, something's missing.

What did the judges think? Randy, " big song , big vocals, he feels she's not confident enough, you got mad vocals dude come on with it ". Paula, " you have such a beautiful face .... bla bla... "ok Paula... finaly she says, you deserve to be in the top 12 " , as if the top 12 was the end of it.
Simon, " because you're so little and cute it was quite good, but didn't hear the big money performance he was looking for.

Brooke White,"Love is A Battlefield". There's something with her voice, it's not clear enough, almost like she's coughing. But she's oK, not a bad performance compared to what I've heard so far.

What did the judges think? Randy really liked it, "very interesting ".
Paula "a very wise choice". Simon, it worked purely for the reason she didn't use the complete band but only a guitar . So they all loved it, she's very safe.

Syesha Mercado, "Saving All My Love for You". I don't quite like her. But she usually delivers a solid performance probably because she's confident and a confident performer is usually a good one. She's definitely not dressed for the occasion. What's up with all those Whitney Houston songs? She does something really weird with this song, a bit too piercing for my sensitive ears. America will probably like it, I don't. I think it's just oK. They should stay away from WH's songs, she's a real diva you can't outsing her.

What did the judges think? Randy " good ". Paula, " sophisticated lovely". Simon " a bit predictable but good".Very short comments from the judges they probably told them that their time was up.

I feel so sad to see Kady go- Though sh'es not gone yet but I'd be surprised if she made the top 12-. We need her on this show! I'm really really going to miss Kady. Who will go with her? It's not obvious I can't really tell. I also have to say that Ramiele might be in danger also... I just hope I'm wrong. Maybe Asia'h will also be in the bottom three?

Did you see Asia'h carrying Kady on her back? Asia'h is one of the shortest female contestants and Kady is one of the tallest female contestants.

American Idol Season 7 - Top 16

2008-03-05T05:02:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've written anything about American Idol. Now that there are only 16 contestants left I thought I'd comment on last night's performances and about the remaining contestants. The performances were shorter, which gave the contestants less time to try to impress the judges and the viewers but they did make the best out of it, you can feel the increasing pressure on their shoulders.

March 4th, the show is back to the reasonable 1 hour performance format. I enjoy watching American Idol but I think two hour performance shows are too long, a lot of fill-ups. Last nigh was 80's night.

First up, Luke Menard (29).

I've found his performance to be so-so. Not much more I can say about it really.

Then came David Archuleta (17).

I see he's trying to look sexy, yeah so many girls are going crazy for him. I think he sounds good. The judges have been trying to imposing David Archuleta as a favorite for this season, makes sens doesn't it since he's "only 17"! But I'm not sure that's a good thing at this stage in the competition, soon they're going to start telling him that he's so consistently good that he's become boring...

Danny Noriega (18) performed after Archuleta.

What was that? He should not try to dance during his performances. If only he had great hair like Sanjaya Malakar, maybe then, there would be a really good reason to keep him for a few more rounds.

Then there was David Hernandez (24).

I found his performance not bad actually, he's surprising me, really! I've never been a fan of his but what can I say?

Then came Michael Johns (29).

He moves the microphone strangely when he holds it. I don't quite understand his posture, and the man just can't dance! But he's still cute! Where did he find that song? That's such a wrong choice for him, it does not showcase his vocal skills enough. He looks nerdy or maybe a bit like Aerosmith... He's still my favorite guy. I don't think I've ever seen a contestant sweat so much after such a short performance.

What did the judges think? Randy loved it and thinks it's a good song choice. Paula thinks it was the perfect song and loves the hear him in the low range.- Her chest looks bigger tonight... -
Simon liked it, loved it. He thinks Michael has huge talent but still hasn't had his moment yet, he thinks Michael's going to do very very well in the competition and really likes him. I hope Simon's right about him doing very well in the competition.

The "rocker", David Cook (25).

Remember people David Cook is the rocker who plays the guitar and has short colored hair not to be confused with the blond long-haired rocker called Robbie Carrico who was voted off last week- he failed to convince the judges and America that he truly is a rocker -. I don't understand why they take so much pride in being called "rockers", like rocker=cool or many it's the Daughtry effect- rockers make more money(?)-. I don't really like that guy I don't find him "nice" and likable enough but he's not a bad artist though I think he overdoes the "rock thing". This season seems to be all about the rockers and instrument players. He plays the guitar and does this "rocked out" version of Hello from Lionel Ritchie. Starts a bit hesitantly then "rocks it out". What can I say, the guy has talent and I like rock so yeah, I think it was really good and quite impressive actually, no doubt about it, David Cook is a stage performer.

What did the judges think? Randy loved it, he thinks it was a brilliant and "evil" version of the song. Paula loved it too, she likes David Cook, and believes he'll be a great shining star. Simon thinks it was a brave thing to do and he loved it. He thinks David took a risk and hopes he'll see him next week.

Next, Jason Castro, (20).

The make up makes him look like a girl or maybe he just naturally looks like one? Or maybe it's the facial expressions? Did you see how he opens up his nostrils every now and then? Quite a sight. He chose a soft song. Not bad, he does not look satisfied with himself. But he looks like a nice guy, very likable.

What did the judges think? Randy said it was one of his favorite songs," Good looking out man, Good looking out baby, nice." Poetic don't you think. Paula,... is she ...? Well let's move along with Simon. One of his favorite songs, he thought it was absolutely brilliant, "Probably one of his favorite performances of the night."

And finally came Chikezie (22).

He sounds quite a bit unoriginal. He's still trying to prove himself.

What did the judges think? Randy thinks he did a good job, he thinks it was "really good". I hope he didn't say that because Chikezie is the only black male contestant. Paula thinks Chikezie's vocals sound really good, and Simon thinks it didn't work at all, " much more caberet than last week, not a very smart move ". What's wrong with cabaret by the way?

So who is going home this week? Luke and Danny probably, Chikezie will be close once again. At least that's what I would like to see happen.

No more website links in Blogger comments

2007-12-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

I've notice recently that I was unable to add a link to my blog while leaving a comment on Blogger. If you comment on a Blogger blog with your Blogger identity it links to your Blogger profile which has a list of your blogs.

I often like to leave a direct link to one of my blogs on Blogger blogs that allow anonymous comments that's why I usually allow anonymous comments on my own blogs. Now Blogger gives you three commenting identity options: Google/Blogger ID, Nickname and Anonymous neither one of those allow you to leave a direct active link to your site. I'm guessing the Blogger team did this as part of their continuous effort to fight comment spam but was it a smart move? What do you think?

The big guys and their blogging systems

2007-11-23T06:54:00.001-08:00

Don't worry this post is not about the bloggers who make big money with their blogs.

WordPress seems to be the most popular blogging platform among high profile bloggers. Yahoo, Google and Microsoft all three have their own blogging platform. Yahoo has it's 360 blogs, Google has Blogger and Microsoft has Msnspaces blogs....

Google proudly uses Blogger for all its official blogs, they all have a .blogspot.com URI. Yahoo has a few of its blogs on 360 like the Yahoo Answers blog but they didn't think the Yahoo 360 was good enough for their corporate blog so they used WordPress instead. And they expect Yahoo users like me to take the 360 seriously? They built the system and they don't even have enough confidence in it to use it for they own blogs. What does that say about the quality reliability and perennity of the product? Maybe one day they'll buy Wordpress and close Yahoo 360 blogs and push all the 360 users to convert their blogs to Worpress blogs? (By the way Yahoo is going to transition the 360 starting next year).

Blogger's blog search is also case sensitive

2007-11-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

I found out this morning that the search feature provided by Blogger is also case sensitive. This is getting ridiculous.

Blogger labels are case-sensitive

2007-11-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

In case you want to use links that point directly to label pages, you have to be careful to write the labels the exact way you wrote them in the post otherwise you'll get a blank page see Melinda Doolittle Vs melinda doolittle. Therefore, if you write the same label with different cases in two posts they will show up as two different labels.

About Melinda Doolitte (not Dolittle), did you know that she used to sing with the Mile High Orchestra when she was in college? Well now you do. For those wondering what the Mile High Orchestra is, it's a band competing in Fox's The Next Great American Band.

A blogger is an athlete

2007-11-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

I once read somewhere that a blogger is like an athlete. As an athlete, here's all you need to reach those high performances your aiming for:

Start young. Sorry grandpa but your blogging muscles are just not as flexible as junior's.
Practice. As in everything else practice makes perfect, the more you blog the better you'll become at blogging.
Find a good coach. Some might succeed at being self-taught bloggers but for the rest of us, a coach/mentor or famous blogger we can look up to is necessary to give us guidance and ideas, inspiration and encouragement on our path to becoming just like them or even better.
Engage in competition. Or set challenges for yourself, it's an excellent way for you to evaluate your performances.
Know when to take a brake and when to retire.

My profile has a higher pagerank than my blog!

2007-11-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

I just realized this morning that my blogger profile page has a higher Google pagerank than my Wannatech blog. I know I have not put enough effort in updating this blog in order to secure a decent pagerank for it as Google updated them, but still. I also discovered this morning that Google uses nofollow for links to your blogs in your blogger profile (!).

Isn't that odd, I guess they consider that your profile can't vouch for links to your blog or that maybe somehow you're only spamming blogger so they won't be passing any PR from your blogger profile to your blogs. But of course the links at the bottom of the page which point to Blogger buzz, the Google store etc.. are regular links, I guess they are more relevant to your profile than your own blogs. But I'm forgetting, your profile is not about you, it's about Blogger.

I started blogging sometime in 2004 (see my blogger profile :D) but until this year I wasn't even aware of the existence of the pagerank concept. To me the Google pagerank is a sort of award system like the levels on Yahoo Answers. So by giving me a low PR Google is telling me, your blog stinks, fix it and wait for the next pagerank update to see if we like it.

Taking my Blogger template from two columns to three

2007-10-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

If you had visited this blog in the past, you've certainly noticed that I've added an additional column to my template and increased its width (see an archive of the old wannatech template at archive.org).

Old Template >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>New Template

I wasn't always a fan of three column templates but as my sidebar was getting longer I knew that one additional column would allow visitors to see more sidebar content without having to scroll. I did not want to switch to another template and hopefully I found an easy step-by-step guide to changing a two-column-new-blogger template into a three-column-new-blogger template on LawnyDesignz.

Related posts
Removing Page Elements Titles
New Blogger
Register your domain name directly from Blogger

Access Hollywood Video in Yahoo Mail

2007-10-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed the videos in yahoo mail? No? Well I just watched a clip from Access Hollywood featuring Hayden Panettiere and Vanessa Hudgens and Miley Cyrus. They were asking Hayden about her relationship with Heroes co-start Milo Ventimiglia, she couldn't believe that people think they are dating -why not?-.

I'm not much of an online video watcher but I do watch entertainment and celebrity news on TV every once in a while and I'm a Heroes fan too. I prefer those videos over the car insurance ads.

Problogger is down

2007-10-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

Problogger is down. At least I can't access it. All I got was this

Update: Guess what? Problogger is back up again...of course.

Register your domain name directly from Blogger

2007-10-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Google is indeed offering domain name registration through Blogger. Actually the domains are registered with either eNom or GoDaddy who have partnered with Google, and they cost only US $10. To register your domain name for your Blogger blog, go to your blog's Settings from your Dashboard. Click on Publishing from the settings menu then choose "Switch to: Custom Domain ". There, you'll be able to check for the availability of your desired domain name and eventually buy it. If you already own a domain name that you want to use with your blog use the Advance Settings.

You might think that US $10 for a domain name is not a good deal but consider what you get for the price:

1 year custom domain name registration

1 Google Apps account for your new domain

private registration to protect your personal information (a US $9 value)

Once you've bought the domain, Google will configure everything for you so your shiny new domain will work instantly with your blog. Moreover, you'll be able to use all of the services available through Google Apps and have full control of you domain settings which will allow you to use your domain for other services not provided by Google.

I guess the people at Google are reading my blog(!)

Read the Blogger Help Guide on "How do I buy a custom domain through Blogger?"

Related Posts:
Domain Names
Renting a Domain Name
Who stole my domain name?

Who stole my domain name?

2007-10-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

They're watching you and your domain. ..

After writing about buying a domain name I've searched a little to find the perfect domain for my blog. I was ready to buy a brand new shiny domain name that I could call my own.

As I searched through the Internet to find the domain registrar that would be right for me, I found and settled for goDaddy.com because they seemed to have the lowest prices. The name I wanted was available, I jumped in joy but just didn't buy it right away because I had other things to do and thought it could wait for the weekend.- If only I knew that a company called UltraRPM was spying on the domain name searches.- The day after I came and searched for the name again only to have goDaddy tell me that it was taken! No! it's not possible ! Yes it is, it was registered a few hours after I had searched for it the first time by a company called UltraRPM. This practice which seems to be quite common is called domain kiting or domain tasting. Wikipedia describes it as

".. a practice of registrants using the five-day "grace period" at the beginning of a domain registration for ICANN-regulated generic top-level domains to test the marketability of a domain name. During this period, when a registration must be fully refunded by the domain registry, a cost-benefit analysis is conducted by the registrant on the viability of deriving income from advertisements being placed on the domain's web site."

The fact that people register domains only to test them out and release them a few days later is not bad in itself. What is bad is that they take domains that they know people are interested in buying so they can try and sell them to those same people at a high price during the period when the domain costs them nothing. Hopefully most domains are released after the five-day grace period and can then be registered at a regular price. So the next time you see your desired domain taken soon after it was said to be available wait four about five days and it will most likely be available again, be patient.

Read more about domain kiting:
http://pocketseo.com/domains/7
http://www.heritage-tech.net/466/does-domain-hijacking-spyware-exist/#comment-50554
http://www.domainnameregistrationblog.com/2006/08/04/whois-hijacking-another-reason-to-hate-ads/

BlogRush - Bloggers should know better

2007-09-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

I don't understand all those bloggers being disappointed with BlogRush. Seriously, what did they expect? All those so called A-list bloggers backing BlogRush should only prompt warnings in the common blogger's head. What's in it for them? That's the question you should ask yourself every time you see a blogger promoting a product or service. And yes you should do that when you see me inviting you to join a site or buy a product.

I'm not saying that bloggers shouldn't profit from the exposure they provide to websites but you should keep in mind that often, the incentives that a blogger gets from advertising a site or product -or service or company- does not leave him with a completely objective state of mind. Many times you'll see bloggers recommend sites or products they've not used at all or with which they've only had a limited experience - it's called advertising-. I've read about BlogRush on every other blog about making money online that I visited recently. Even bloggers that didn't write about it used the widget. Still I failed to see what BlogRush had that other earn-credits-and-get-exposure (traffic exchange) systems lack except for the buzz. I only see BlogRush as a variation of many other such services already available out there. And since it's based on the same model, it has the same weaknesses. Yet another widget to clutter your sidebar with.