Justin Germino Ramblings

So it took about two months but Google finally reversed their manual penalty on JustinGermino.com and DragonBlogger.com after I finally not only removed what they found was the penalty (they never officially told me anything other than the generic “OUTBOUND LINKS DETECTED” but also I think my explanation in the reconsideration request was the final deciding factor which helped them choose to remove the penalty, this is because it took 2 reconsideration requests and the first one went with them choosing to keep the penalty and not remove it even after I didn’t do anything different other than word my reconsideration request differently the second time I submitted it.

So I knew I was penalized for hosting external dofollow links not because I was doing it with any attempt to manipulate PageRank, but because I was hosting guest articles from sites like MyBlogGuest and Post Runner as well as some others.  As a result of the penalty to MyBlogGuest just about every site hosting articles or who had been a part of that network was penalized it would seem and I went about removing hundreds of guest posts from my blogs as well as implementing a nofollow plugin which made all links on all posts nofollow.  This combined with some soak for Google bots to pick up the changes, I filed my first reconsideration request only for Google to say that my site still didn’t meet guidelines.

So I filed another reconsideration request, this time asking for specifics and telling them everything I did to try and become compliant, I explained that I did host articles from MyBlogGuest but now all links are nofollow and articles of lower quality have been deleted.  I also pleaded that they link and explain which parts of my site were not compliant so that I may quickly correct the issue.

The only thing the responded with was the manual spam action revoked, but I think explaining the steps you go through and how you got into the situation (or believe you got into the situation helped).

Has anyone else been successful in getting their PageRank restored yet after a manual action?

So maybe you have seen all the dozen or so YouTube vids on my channel with Hearthstone matches, but something about this card game brings out the competitive nature in me that Magic the Gathering did back in the day when I had free time to play and people to play with.  Now with the advent of online card games I have dabbled in several of them, but the fast and furious pace of Hearthstone tends to be the most fun I have had in a while.

Now Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is not as complex or detailed as Magic the Gathering, there is no ability to play interrupts or cards while it is your opponents turn so that element of interrupting is lost, you do have a secret card you can play which triggers on certain events but that isn’t the same thing as reserving mana to play an interrupt on an opponents turn.  Still the fact that you only have 30 card decks compared to the rather large decks in Magic means you have to have very lean choices and the game is extremely fast paced though in casual mode players can stall their turns for too long without penalty of timeout.  Ranked matches give them about 90 seconds per turn it would appear but they can still drag matches out if they are sore losers and just waste time until the end of their turn, it isn’t insufferable though.

Meanwhile, I find that I get trounced more often than not as a result of my decks being new and weak, I don’t pay for packs or cards, so playing on skill alone and when a player has an epic card it really shifts the balance of the whole game in their favor.

Enjoy some recorded matches if you are curious to see how it plays.

Anyone else playing Hearthstone?

So recently at a steal I purchased the Samsung WB250f Smart Camera for myself and one of my Dragon Blogger staff to help improve product images, video recording and more and I have to say the camera/camcorder is far superior to the Sony Bloggie Touch at a much better price on Amazon.

The Samsung WB250f right now was $117 on Amazon, and you need to buy an SDCard SDHC or SDXC and was say another tiny amount depending on size but the images and quality of images is amazing.  The flash is very strong and actually pops up from the camera.

It has a touch screen on the back, a ton of smart features, can connect to your Wi-Fi and directly upload pictures to the Samsung Smart Camera App on your Smartphone or a cloud service like OneDrive (which it still calls Skydrive the former name for the Microsoft service).  It also will let you directly upload video from the camera to your YouTube account via Wi-Fi without the need to connect the camera to your computer via USB.

You can fit approx 18 min of 1080p 30fps video for each 2GB of SDHC or SDXC card you have installed and you don’t hear or have to deal with any auto-focus issues.  You do however have to have lighting as the awesome flash doesn’t have an always on mode for video, they do this to conserve battery life, but I would have liked to be able to manually turn the flash on and use it like a flashlight in dark environments while doing quick recordings.

I was super impressed with the image quality and the 14MP images are about 4-5MB in size when downloaded.  Use Picasa to shrink and post them, but you can auto-post them to FB or social media right from the camera as well and it will size the images down somewhat so they are easier and smaller to share.  I still would reduce the image quality down quite a bit if you intend to share pics on Social Media.

Overall this is a fantastic camera/camcorder and honestly is better than any handheld camcorder in the $100 – $250 price range that I have found, plus is better than most cameras I have tested.

These shots were all taken with the Samsung WB250f and it has some really nice focus capabilities, zoom and really allows you manual control over shutter and f-stop. The camera shoots video in the H.264 format, which allows you to record for longer than cameras using MJPEG video.

One caveat of the auto backup to OneDrive is that it will back up a 1600×1200 version of the original photo, it won’t back up your original 14MP shots so make sure if you want to keep original highest resolution quality of your shots you will still need to use the USB to manually copy the photos off of your camera.

Iggy will be doing a full feature review of the Samsung WB250f  on DragonBlogger, but it met my criteria and for a great price.

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So I learned something new this week when my son had to go in for emergency surgery in what first presented like Appendicitis and turned out to be Omental Torsion (or twisted Omentum) which became necrotic and died and had to have portion surgically removed.  The omentum is tissue(peritoneum) that connects your stomach and intestines to the back of the abdomen, it also carries many blood vessels.  So while the omentum moves and helps also protect internal organs in rare cases it can twist as it slides around and in even rarer cases it can twist so badly that it cuts off blood vessels and can’t retract properly.  This causes portion to die off and as it tends to be right over the abdomen area where the appendix is it can often be mistaken for appendicitis or other bowel issues.

The surgeon who treated our son said they only see a few cases per year and usually it takes a laparoscopy to really diagnose it as ultrasound and CT can’t really tell the difference between the organs and the omentum very well, they get general area issues but not exactly what is the problem as in this case.  Fortunately the surgery is as easy and quick as an appendix removal and our son’s recovery time is rapid, he was discharged from hospital in less than 24 hours after surgery and is already recovering well with some soreness.

I did a lot of Google searching of Omental Torsion or Twisted Omentum and found a bunch of cited medical information all of which said it was pretty uncommon.  I am just glad my wife had great instincts to take Mason to the ER after he was having abdominal pain for 4 days and very glad we didn’t wait longer to see if it would get better on it’s own as apparently when this happens Omental Torsion always requires surgical correction and can become fatal if it isn’t treated surgically very quickly.

This was a unique enough issue I thought I would do a post about it as whenever I learn something new I like sharing that knowledge.

Image Credit: http://www.proprofs.com/

I have always been a Roku fan and I own two Roku XDS, a Roku 2 and a Roku 3. The Roku 3 is lightning fast compared to previous models and is fantastic, the included remote with headset support allows you to watch TV with earbuds at night in the bedroom without disturbing your partner for example.

I also have a Google Chromecast and I can tell you I used it 6 times only in 6 months, I constantly go back to the Roku.  The channels, options and remote are just too easy to use and offer so many more choices than the Chromecast.

Now Roku has the Roku Streaming Stick, which has all of the features/channels of the Roku plus the direct streaming capability of the Chromecast for YouTube and Netflix.  This means the one channel missing from Roku (YouTube) is now solved with the Roku Stick as you can stream YouTube from your tablet or smartphone.  BAM, lack of YouTube channel problem solved by Roku.

The Streaming Stick doesn’t have the motion control sensor or remote with headset support, but honestly I never played games on my Roku and the headset support I rarely used.  The streaming stick has a much improved Netflix interface, it is quicker though not nearly as fast as the Roku 3 and makes a great option.

The streaming stick will only support HDMI input to the TV and either leverages 1 USB port on the TV (if it has one) to power it, or plugs into an AC adapter.

If you weren’t thrilled by the Chromecast and/or have been wanting to test the Roku I can tell you the Roku Streaming Stick is a great deal at a great price, it is about 40% less than the Roku 3 and will more than serve the purpose if you don’t need the motion controller or the headset support in the remote.

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So when all of my sites were penalized by Google for hosting unnatural links which was a consequence of accepting guest posts both directly but more likely linked to using My Blog Guest I immediately put in a nofollow plugin to auto nofollow all links, then did a sitemap and ping re-index submit followed by a reconsideration request.

Unfortunately, a week later Google still found my site violating quality guidelines, but I was curious why the site was still not meeting Googles terms and conditions if they say nofollow isn’t a penalty.  So I am filing a 2nd reconsideration request because maybe something wasn’t indexed, or I need more information as to what is violating quality guidelines, as besides nofollowing every link in all posts, pages and comments, not sure what else they are going to find that would be in violation of ToS.

Meanwhile, has anyone else been hit by Google and did anyone succeed in getting their manual action removed recently?  I know a few bloggers who instead created entirely new sites and ported over all content putting 301 redirects on their old site as a result of the penalty, but this isn’t something I particularly want to do.

My son had begged and pleaded for months to get a Star Wars R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid which responds to around 40 voice commands and plays games as well as stands about 24″ tall.  He wanted the closest thing to an interactive robot that he can do more than just press buttons or control with a remote.

So for 8 weeks my son was given a reward chart where he had to earn the prize, this included making sure he got straight A’s and B’s for the entire rest of the school year and turning in all report card money and allowance until June.  He had to eat his vegetables, and whatever else healthy we put in front of him, make his bed every morning and do his chores every two days with no reminders.

He worked his butt off every day with this incentive and when he had an incident of bad behavior we added an entire week to his time to earn as punishment which made it that much harder to earn for him.

At long last the Star Wars R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid had arrived and unfortunately the first one we bought from Amazon was a repackage of a returned one and it was defective.  We knew right away because the packaging was messed up and not taped properly, there was a missing part and it wouldn’t respond to any voice commands.  Amazon had no problem taking it back and sending out a replacement, but my son just about burst into flames when he realized the toy he wanted was defective and had to wait 2 more days after seeing it fail to work.

This was a life lesson that some things don’t work or arrive broken and need to be returned, so it was a good lesson to learn that mistakes happen and products aren’t perfect or even orders sometime.

Amazon however is awesome, and the next day the replacement one arrived and I could tell this was brand new by the packaging.

This little guy just looked awesome, had all the authentic R2-D2 sounds and responded well to my voice command while I did some testing before my son got home from school to make sure it worked and was setup for him when he came home.

My son immediately loved asking it questions like “Do you remember Darth Vader” and others, and R2-D2 sometimes didn’t respond to commands well when there is noise in the room like the dogs barking and other people talking, but generally it had good voice command response.  One of the most fun modes my kids both liked was setting R2-D2 into Laser Tag mode, where you have to hide and R2-D2 will search the room looking for you to tag you with his laser.  He has a camera eye and can listen, so as you say “come and find me” he actually turns and tries to search the room looking for you.  He is really good about avoiding walls, and can adjust his course, though he has a little bit of trouble crossing between a hard floor and a carpet, he does work on carpet but not nearly as well as a nice hard floor or vinyl floor.

My son played with him many hours the first day, second day and then the batteries died.  My biggest complaint about the Star Wars R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid is that it requires 4 D batteries and 4 Double A batteries.  The thing should have come with a rechargeable battery pack, or something like those PowerWheels batteries so you can just plug R2-D2 into a wall and recharge him or recharge a battery pack.  It is expensive to keep having to buy a 4 pack of D cell batteries and honestly 3 months of constant use and you would be paying for the R2-D2 price in just batteries.  This toy must raise Energizer and Duracell stock prices.

After just a few days and asking my son if he still thought it was worth it, my son did share his disappointment saying “It didn’t change my life, but I like it”.  He was looking for a robot that was so interactive it had artificial intelligence, he really is looking for an android that can be more than just a simple toy.  Oliver is always constantly hoping the technology will exist soon or that he will grow up and create robots/androids that can be that advanced someday.

In the meantime, I think this toy is very fun and interactive for kids 7 and younger, older kids will probably bore of it fairly quickly.  They like to have it, but it does drain batteries fairly quickly (don’t buy the cheap generic D and Double A batteries, they last 1/4 as long as Duracell).  The interactive modes are fun, the programming movements is a little tedious but gives the kids some entry level step by step command programming via verbal commands, which is similar to verbal object oriented programming really.  It reminds me of the step increments for Lego Mindstorm except just verbal queues instead of program blocks, but only for movement like forward, backward, turns…etc.

Meanwhile for the price, it was more functional than an electronic Buzz Lightyear and robot Dinosaur that were around the same price in previous years, so if you have a little one who is looking for a robot friend the Star Wars R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid is not a bad choice.

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Thanks to Affiliate Lights, my Blog Engage referral program is actually almost earning me as much as AdSense on all of my smaller blogs combined.  This is a great service that helps bloggers, especially newer bloggers get some exposure and media reach and Blog Engage is a service that not only provides article syndication but promotion for their articles and especially their YouTube videos so they can get a wider audience.

The plans are reasonable and the ROI has kept me a long time customer and I consider them enough of an ROI to recommend.  Blog Engage is not only a decent way to get some exposure, networking and awareness for your blog but Affiliate Lights is also a decent way to earn recurring monthly payments from syndication customers.  For every customer that subscribes to the Blog Engage RSS Syndication service you get a % commission monthly which is recurring, get a bunch of others who learn the benefits of Blog Engage and sign up under you and this could be a good source of income to help cover expenses like your own monthly web hosting, or even have your referrals pay for your own Blog Engage RSS Syndication and more.

You can see from my above that my Affiliate Lights income from Blog Engage basically covers some of my own blogging expenses, ironically I use it to supplement and help me experiment with more blog networking services as well as purchase gadgets and games to giveaway to readers in sweepstakes for Dragon Blogger.

The Affiliate Lights commissions really add up and help cover some expenses, it was more than enough to cover my web hosting services for my blogs for over a year.

If you want to earn some commissions and do it while selling a service that can benefit peer bloggers, I recommend you take a look at Affiliate Lights to see what helping refer people to Blog Engage can do for you and more importantly to your peers and customers.

I have to say that was a good time at The Social Canvas a few weeks back where the put together local art classes and painting events where you can get together as a couple or with a group of friends and take a painting class at a local establishment.

Right now classes are typically 2 times a week at alternating locations and a different theme painting is chosen for that week.

The week my wife and I went the class was held at Iguana Mack’s restaurant where there were easels setup on tables and you get to sit (or stand if you prefer) and paint with acrylics with all painting supplies provided.  Francesca then shows you step by step how to start your painting and it is amazing to watch how everyone has a unique style and approach.

For our class we did a Van Gogh lilies painting style and you can see my wife and I painted very similar but unique versions of the same painting.

When you are taking a Social Canvas class you can eat, drink and be social while painting and it really was a fun time and made for a great date that my wife and I went on. If you live in the Phoenix area, or are visiting, I highly recommend you visit The Social Canvas and book a class, have some fun, meet some people or just go as a group and do something different.  They have weeknight classes or Saturday classes, and even do private parties too!

You can follow the Social Canvas on Twitter, Facebook and feel free to send them an email anytime as well at info@TheSocialCanvasAZ.com.

Today I join my wife on the annual CCFA walk which seeks to raise awareness and funding to research cures for IBDs which include Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis and other intestinal diseases.  More people are diagnosed and treated for IBDs than most people thing and according to the CDC website under IDB’s

IBD is one of the five most prevalent gastrointestinal disease burdens in the United States, with an overall health care cost of more than $1.7 billion. This chronic condition is without a medical cure and commonly requires a lifetime of care. Each year in the United States, IBD accounts for more than 700,000 physician visits, 100,000 hospitalizations, and disability in 119,000 patients. Over the long term, up to 75% of patients with Crohn’s disease and 25% of those with ulcerative colitis will require surgery.

I know first hand what it is like living with a partner who has Crohns disease, I am quite familiar with the 3-4 ER visits per year, the hospital stays, the 2-3 doctors appointments per month chasing the various connecting and related symptoms and ailments that are associated with this disease. I watch my wife go through it and struggle with it constantly over the past 17 years and my son who has stomach trouble on and off was tested and has the genetic markers for Crohns but did not confirm a diagnosis, but we are watching it as there is very much a genetic component to this disease.

I myself suffer from IBS and various intolerances to food over the years, but my ailments pale in comparison to actual IBD’s which often come with severe inflammation, secondary infections as a result of the inflammation and far worse symptoms. This is why I do what I can to help support the causes and raise awareness, recently I donated one of the tablets I reviewed to my wife’s raffle to raise funding for CCFA and I continue to help where I can.

So here is the link to our team, and we walk to help raise awareness for IBD’s so that treatment can become better and suffers will require less surgery.
http://online.ccfa.org/site/TR?px=2756909&fr_id=4384&pg=personal