Spring into Easter with JCPenny

 Special
Mar 202012
 

Do you shop at JCPenny’s?  Sign up for their emails to get savings in your inbox.  Often times, they will offer special offers only through their emails.  Combine a special offer with a sale priced item and a cash back site and you can score yourself some really good deals.

When I first moved into our home, I used this strategy to purchase  double layer Waverly valances for my living room/dining room.  The cost for each one was $39.99, and by the time I was done, I paid $17 and change for each valance – I needed six.  That’s more than a 50% savings on an item not on clearance.

Tipsy Tuesday – Bloggers – Are You in Violation of Google’s G+ Buttons Policy?

 Blogging, Daily Meme's, Tipsy Tuesday
Mar 202012
 

Goodbye to GFC (Google Friend Connect) for many, and hello G+ –  GFC’s replacement.  Good enough except – are you in violation of Google’s G+ Button Policy in trying to get your site followed?

Google’s policy stipulates:

“Publishers may not direct users to click a Google+ Button for purposes of misleading users. Publishers may not promote prizes, monies, or monetary equivalents in exchange for Google+ Button clicks. For the avoidance of doubt, Publishers may direct users to a Google+ Button to enable content and functionality. When a Publisher directs users to a Google+ Button, the button action must be related to the Publisher or the Publisher’s content. For the +1 Button, the content or functionality that is enabled for the user must also be accessible to any of the user’s social connections who also enable it.”

I interpret this to mean – you better not host a giveaway asking entrants to follow your site via G+ or click the G+ button pertaining to that post.  If you do, you risk suffering consequences by Google.

Quite frankly – it really bums me out that Google is being this way.  I want Google to write to all companies that ask bloggers for their follower stats.  I’m sure there are a lot of companies who have no clue what has transpired, although – they should have to deal with what we have to work with…it’s out of our hands.  Ask our page ranks, FB followers, Twitter followers, and if they must – Alexa. They need to know it’s not fair game anymore.  We can’t give stats for something we can’t work on actively.  We’re just a handful of people trying to get our content read.  We’re certainly not Google!

And this linky thing going around – I’m not impressed with that either. I see that as being similar to Picket Fences – doesn’t mean crap to companies.  Alexa ratings – that’s not all it’s cracked up to be either.  Aside from bloggers – who installs the Alexa tool bar?  Heck, I never even heard of the site before I started blogging and I was always online doing something (no exaggeration) for several years before blogging came along.

Your thoughts?

Medical Monday – Photosensitive Epilepsy – Is Your Site Seizure-Free Friendly?

 Medical Monday
Mar 192012
 

There are many types of seizure disorders but there is one that I feel is important to touch base on as a blogger – Photosensitive Epilepsy.  Why do I feel this way?  The reason is because often times we tend to manage our site including background images, site headers, banners, and buttons.  For some bloggers they may be able to design their site from scratch.  Our choices can ultimately effect who will be able to visit our sites or become long term readers.  Personally, I don’t want to exclude any individual with a disability in being able to visit my site.  If there is information out there to help me make my site a compatible site for those with disabilities – I will educate myself on how to make this happen.

What is photosensitive epilepsy?  In a nutshell, these are seizures brought on by flashing lights, rapidly changing or alternating images, as well as static spatial patterns such as squares or stripes. Mouse-overs that cause large areas of a PC screen to flash rapidly on and off are contributors to bringing on this type of seizure in addition to going from dark to light.  Many other factors contribute to this type of seizure disorder; however I won’t get into the nitty gritty of them, but you can read a good article {here}, if you’re interested in learning more.  Children have had issues in years past with this type of seizure disorder from television broadcastings causing mass seizures in children.  A good article to read mainly pertaining to these types of seizures in children can be found on the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance site.  Please note – these seizures don’t just pertain to children – adults have this type of seizure too.

Let’s take this a step further.  The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – is the international standards organization for the WWW (W3 or World Wide Web).  Their job is to address and develop Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.  In 2008, Version 2.0 specifies content should not flash more than 3 times in any 1-second period.  Flashing above this rate is allowed if the flashing is below the “general and red flashing thresholds”.  That basically means it is okay to flash more than 3 times in a 1 second period if the flashing is low enough in contrast and small enough.  A free tool is available to web developers to determine if a site meets W3C guidelines.  The tool is Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT).

United States federal agencies are governed by section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.  This particular act states that pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and less than 55 Hz.  When the 508 regulations are updated it is expected that they will use the same criteria as WCAG 2.0.

How can you as a site owner make your site seizure-free friendly?

  • Don’t put rapidly flashing banners on your site.
  • Don’t put rapid flashing banners that go from light to dark or vice-versa.
  • Don’t have your background look like one of those illusion posters – they are too visually busy for those with this type of seizure disorder.
  • Don’t have rapidly moving scrolling or rotating widgets on your site.
  • Don’t have large areas of darkness lead into large areas of lightness and vice-versa.  FYI – Many individuals have these seizures simply from getting out of a vehicle into daylight or going from inside a home to the daylight outside and vice-versa.
  • Take a break from looking at your site – when you come back does anything stick out to you that is hard on the eyes at a first glance?  Even certain types of fonts have been noted to effect people with these types of seizures.
Here’s a cool tool for you provided by W3C – free service for validating Web pages against standard formats.  Note – validation is not mandatory on the Web – however, it is useful for improving the quality of the pages on your site.  That being said – the only thing that passed their standards for my site was the Feed Validator – guess I better get busy on learning more about Word Press.
Did you know? Certain types of music can bring on seizures.
Another Post you may be interested in – Tipsy Tuesday – I Can’t Read the Text

 

 

Zebco Diego Floating Fishing Rod and Reel Combo at Amazon

 Special
Mar 182012
 

Fishing season is just around the corner (I can’t wait!). Do you have a little one who you’ll be teaching how to fish this year?  If you do, this might be the perfect pole.  The pole floats, lights up when there’s a fish on the line, has 6lb. line and is 30″ long.  It comes with a 4.5 star rating.  Quite honestly, I am thinking about buying this pole for myself.  I love to horn pout and with this pole I could have two lines in the water. I would use this as my second line and when it lights up – I would know there’s a fish waiting to be reeled in.  That would work for me quite well.

Zebco Diego Floating Fishing Rod and Reel Combo

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