Justin Germino Ramblings

In an article on Search Engine Land published yesterday [source] Matt Cutts explained why duplicate content shouldn’t be a stress and a worry unless it is spammy in nature.  What my takeaway from this as a blogger fits in line with what newspapers are doing in having articles syndicated across the web. Content Syndication where you pick up an article and re-publish it fully or partially intact with source credit links is common in newspapers and online news media sites.  This means one could potentially open up or encourage their own content to be syndicated to other sites and in doing so could reach more audience without necessarily being worried about being penalized by Google for having that same article reposted on other sites.

With this announcement I expect to see more of a trend in syndication partnerships going out and this actually coincides with something Triberr has been offering for a while which is content syndication to bloggers where they can repost content from a feed in their site to another blog and consolidate comments across all articles at the same time with their commenting system.

I also see this as an opportunity to help syndicate and justify syndicating news related articles in the topic you are in again as long as you include source link as well.  I always add my own opinion and feedback to anything I publish as a blogger but this could be a quick way to share press releases and other information where you just want to reprint and share with your audience.

What do think about content duplication and listing the proper terms and conditions when hosting that duplicated or syndicated content?  As a technology blogger one of the most common forms of duplicate content on my site and other sites would be product specs and details direct from the publisher which is technically duplicated from their own sites and press releases.

Minecraft 1.6 surely changes how mods are deployed in that you now create versions of Minecraft that have the mods you want and you can always have those versions to load without having to force update and replace previous versions and losing the work modding.  So when my boys asked me to put CubeWorld on Minecraft 1.6.1 and I fumbled through it a bit I decided to create a more detailed tutorial with screenshots than the main article I found listed here: http://www.9minecraft.net/cube-world-mod/ I just wanted to help further clarify some steps and show some screen shots of what files looked like to make it a little faster for others.

What is Cube World for Minecraft

Cube World is a fantastic mod for Minecraft that adds a new Biome type of Cube World which generates floating worlds that in the air, this makes worlds that remind me of the Dragon Hunters movie honestly and is an awesome way to create unique worlds where islands in the sky can appear at random everywhere.

Installing CubeWorld for Minecraft 1.6.1

Step 1 – Make Sure You have Minecraft 1.6.1 installed

These instructions would apply to any mod you want to install in any version of Minecraft 1.6.x, you simply clone your base version to a new folder and then start the renaming process so you can brand and load the modded version in your Minecraft Launcher Profile.

To clone your Minecraft version you simply open your %appdata%\.minecraft\versions folder

You should see some folders in here for the Minecraft Versions that were played.  Note, if you do not see version 1.6.1 in the Minecraft Versions folder, this version needs to be downloaded first so you can clone it.

To do that simply load up your Minecraft 1.6 Launcher and click edit profile.

Click on Use Version dropdown

Select release 1.6.1

Click Save Profile

Then click Play button

Now it will download the 1.6.1 version and the folder should show up in your %appdata%\.minecraft\versions folder.

Step 2 – Download CubeWorld for Minecraft 1.6.1

You can use either of these 2 links but download this file for now

http://www.dl.9minecraft.net/index.php?act=dl&id=1372775813

http://www.dl2.9minecraft.net/index.php?act=dl&id=1372775449

Step 3 – Clone Your Minecraft Version Folder

So now that you see your 1.6.1 folder in the %appdata%\.minecraft\versions folder all you need to do is clone it, this is copy and pasting the folder.

To do this all you have to do is select the 1.6.1 folder, CTRL+C on the keyboard, then hit CTRL+V on the keyboard and you have copied the folder.

Now rename the 1.6.1 – Copy folder to the exact following: Cube_World_1.6.1

Open up the folder and you will see 2 files, the 1.6.1.jar and the 1.6.1.json files though if you have file extensions hidden you may not see the .json and .jar at the end which is fine.

You will edit both of these files and rename them to be the exact same name as the folder (except leave the file extension intact).

1.6.1.jar rename to Cube_World_1.6.1.jar

1.6.1.json rename to Cube_World_1.6.1.json

For short cut just select file and hit F2 to rename, F2 will not include the extension to help reduce the mistake of erasing the file extension.

If you accidentally erase the .jar or .json part you will have to re-add it.

Step 4 – Editing your Cube_World_1.6.1.json file

You have to edit the Cube_World_1.6.1.json file and change the Minecraft version # of 1.6.1 in there to match the proper Cube_World_1.6.1.  So you will want to use a text editor like Notepad, Wordpad or Notepad++ which I recommend and is free.

Right click on the Cube_World_1.6.1.json file and click Open With

Select either Notepad, or Notepad++ if you have that installed.  However only NotePad++ or Textpad will show proper formatting, so it may look garbled or one incoherent line in Notepad.

When you have the file open in your text editor, the version # next to ID is the only thing you want to change.

Change the 1.6.1 in the quotes to be Cube_World_1.6.1

Save the file.

Step 5 – Copying Cube World Java Files to Cube_World_1.6.1.jar file

Okay, now if you don’t have 7-zip installed on your computer, download and install it here because my instructions are with 7-zip, though you could use WinRAR or other programs you will have to know how to do to it with those on your own.

You basically want to copy your java files from the Cube-World-Mod-1.6.1.jar to your Cube_World_1.6.1.jar file in the %appdata%\.minecraft\versions\Cube_World_1.6.1 folder.

So first extract your Cube-World_Mod-1.6.1.jar file into it’s own folder, by right clicking on the zip file, hover over 7-zip and click Extract to as you see in the image below.

Then open up that new Cube-World-Mod-1.6.1 folder, and move the window to the left.

Now open up a new file explorer window (Windows+E) key and browse this window to %appdata%\.minecraft\versions\Cube_World_1.6.1

In your new window right click on the Cube_World_1.6.1.jar file and with 7-zip say Open Archive

Now, make sure you have your Cube World Mod folder open on the left and your 7-ZIP archive manager open on right and you can simply select and drag all of the files in the Cube_World_1.6.1 folder into the 7-zip archive.

Say yes or confirm any dialogue box.

(Alternatively you could select all and paste the files into the 7-zip archive too).

Now you must make sure you delete the META-INF folder after you copy over the new files, if this folder is not deleted then your Minecraft will crash.

So select the META-INF folder in the 7-zip archive, then hit your delete key.

It should vanish, then you can simply close your archive by pressing the X button at top right.

Step 6 – Loading the Cube World Minecraft

Now you open up your Minecraft 1.6 Launcher and click Edit Profile, reload your launcher if you had it open so it loads in the new version files.

Click on Edit Profile and select the new release Cube_World_1.6.1

Save Profile and Click Play

When Minecraft loads now when you create a new world you have the option to select “Cube World” for World Type.

Have fun with your Minecraft Cube World

Troubleshooting

If you cant see any Minecraft Versions when you edit profile, or you see this error in the Minecraft Launcher

Unexpected exception refreshing version list
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Version ‘1.6.1’ is already tracked
at net.minecraft.launcher.updater.VersionList.addVersion(VersionList.java:91)
at net.minecraft.launcher.updater.LocalVersionList.refreshVersions(LocalVersionList.java:44)
at net.minecraft.launcher.updater.VersionManager.refreshVersions(VersionManager.java:47)
at net.minecraft.launcher.Launcher$2.run(Launcher.java:166)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

This means you didn’t update the .json file properly and change the version this error occurs if there are duplicate ID versions in the JSON file in the versions folder.

Of course the Tablet PCs are the hybrid device between tablets and PC’s and typically when one references a Tablet PC they almost immediately are talking about a Windows 8 Tablet PC device as most associate a desktop Operating system with a Tablet PC.

The Samsung ATIV TAB 7 for example has an 11.6 inch display and has an Intel Core i-5 processor clocked at 1.8ghz.  It has 4GB of memory, 128GB Flash Memory and boasts a 5.5 hour active use battery life (not great but sufficient for most operations).

It only has 1 USB 3.0 port and has the Intel HD 4000 graphics so will be able to play most casual stuff, but there is a high price tag for a Tablet PC and that extra feature of detaching the screen and using it as a touch screen device.  Is the extra convenience and functionality worth the extra price when you could spend the same amount and get a more powerful laptop with more storage and graphics power?

Plus the battery life on this tablet is lower than a high end Ultrabook by far, due to the smaller size and the hefty CPU it can’t have as large a battery.

Still I would love to get my hands on one of these little devices and see how it works in practice, even with a small screen can it actually replace both an iPad for tablet functionality and a laptop for your working/daily use?  Minus the fact that Windows still has a sparse store compared to Android or iOS if this device could run some of my favorite games it could be the best of both worlds.

The Acer Aspire P3 is a little cheaper but has a slightly smaller FLASH and lesser graphics display.  It boasts 6 hour battery life which is a little better but still on the low side considering it is an 11 inch Tablet PC.

Of course the Sony Vaio Duo is a 13.3 inch tablet pc that comes in a Intel core-i5 model or an Intel Core-i7 model with either 128GB or 256GB SSD storage.  It is the closest to the best of both worlds and with a 13.3″ screen is better screen size wise at replacing a typical laptop but it’s price tag is among the medium range for 17″ gaming laptops.

Do you see the Tablet PC as being the ultimate in mobility and functionality and do you see Windows being the operating system to do it, or do you think Android OS will catch up and become fully accepted as a Desktop OS not just a tablet OS?

I still have a slew of products to review that I came back to after returning from my Anniversary Vacation last week, fortunately I managed to get four done last week but have about 6 remaining.  Some involved creating YouTube videos to help spur interest and showcase the products and as always testing and playing with new gadgets is one of my favorite hobbies and perks of being a technology blogger.

The trend in mobile Wi-Fi disk drives is astonishing as mobile devices themselves stay relatively flat with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage space, these wireless storage drives allow the flexibility of putting all of your video and photo media on an SDCard or USB drive and then plug it into the wi-fi hub so that your mobile device can stream the content and they even support multiple device streaming.

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In particular I have reviewed two and both are excellent choices, the Kingston MobileLite and the RAVPower Filehub.  The RAVPower Filehub is a little larger but also doubles as Wi-Fi hub which means your mobile device can connect to it and stream media as well as still connect to the Internet at the same time provided you configured the Filehub to connect to your wi-fi network first.

The beauty is that the iPad or Android device when it connects to the RAVPower FileHub can then go into settings and configure the Wi-Fi drive to connect to whatever network it can find.  This was a brilliant app and inclusion and makes this the more recommended device over the two in my opinion.

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My one con for both of these devices is that many companies seem to still be ignoring the Android Amazon App store, as they are not releasing Kindle Fire versions of the app.  With over 4 million Kindle Fire tablets, this to me is just losing customers and preventing them from being sold to owners of these tablets and it can’t be much more additional cost to port the Google Play app and make it available on the Amazon Android App store, so I am not sure why all of the companies seem to have that delay in doing it?

So far in the upcoming weeks I have Car USB Charger devices, a new Gaming Headset, a WordPress plugin and more to review.  Need to just find the time to start working on the reviews.

A fellow gaming blogger who runs That Gaming Critic wrote an article recently about not knowing what they were doing or where to go with their blog.  After having some frustration with my comment not going through 4 passes of CommentLuv I am leaving my feedback and advice in an article here on my personal blog for Scott Craighead.

Scott, I started from scratch blogging in August 2008, didn’t know what I was doing, never blogged before and just read that you could earn a 2nd income blogging part time and figured I would do it.  I immediately had the passion for writing, reviewing and spawned 11 blogs (pared down to 7) over the last 5 years. 

For me passive income sales (banner ads, amazon affiliate) were not my initial ways to bring in funding and didn’t bring in income until years later when site had a lot of traffic, it was the sponsored reviews, review posts and other items that brought in income.  If you haven\\\’t yet, you really should be reading and checking out the programs in the make money online page on Dragon Blogger, I have used 21+ programs over the years and some still earn me a lot. 

When you site establishes with a PR2 or higher you will be able to start selling more banner ads directly and offering sponsored guest posts as well and earning that way.  Regardless, you can’t run a blog with thoughts of how to earn, until you have established your 1st 4 questions. 

What do you want this site to be, how do you want your personality to be and shine through.  Are you about gaming, if so then take it up a notch you need to do video game reviews constantly, showcase, start a YouTube channel showing play tips, tactics, sign up for every beta possible that is open and be the early ones to get videos. 

I make $25 per month just from AdSense on my YouTube channel, not even my site, it isn’t much but this more than pays for the web hosting fees and DNS names of all the sites combined, so you will be combining multiple revenue streams.Build a newsletter and mailing list where you feature the best games of the week or month, each one can be a logo, about the game and link to your amazon affiliate link of the game.  Promote the games via social media with social media review blurbs and shortened Amazon link, some months I can net over $200 in Amazon affiliate and most of these clicks come from my Social Media shares not the blog (I use separate tracking codes for the azon affiliate links I share on Social Media) compared to those I use on my blog so I can track them all better.

Always remember, there are 10,000+ others doing the exact same thing trying to carve their way online, you need to be a brand that people can respect, trust, and get solid information from.  

Some would say the most piggish, annoying, prickish ones get the attention and the traffic, and this would seem true if you see the YouTube traffic levels for some of these people but I always take the professional and respectable route myself.    Don’t put cursing in your titles/articles, this will cause Google to brand your site adult content and potentially put a warning or remove from safe search filters, very bad idea man.

People have to entertain and inform and the combination of two works best, so focus on exactly how you will present your messages, what you love to do and present it.  To grow your site you will need to be active on all major social media channels, you will also need to offer unique insights and opinions and a style that resonates with a following.  It is very hard to SEO game articles, I know I have tried, sometimes solving a how-to specific problem in a game helps bring in traffic, doing a serious of them can help a bit.  The IGN and the gaming guides that have full walk-through of every game step by step make it really tough though.  I see more success in YouTube with video game bloggers earning from monetized video.  Even people who just record themselves talking while playing can find an audience that resonates, but again just solve a problem, showcase achievements in the game…etc.  Eventually one of several things happens, you either get bigger and get noticed, or you build up enough of a resume that you can officially work for one of the bigger sites doing the same thing but for more pay perhaps.

Source article on That Gaming Critic.

So last week during a lunch break I helped co-host a Tap Influence Twitter party with @WindowsPhone were for a 1 hour event they were talking about 4th of July vacations and used 6 questions to engage Twitter fans and gave away 1 Nokia Lumia 928 for each of the 6 questions.  This event was broken down into this type of format.

• Question
• 10 minutes of answers
• Winner chosen and announced
• Next Question
• 10 minutes of answers
• Winner chosen and announced
• …etc

It was superbly done and as a co-moderator I was overwhelmed with the 500-600 Twitter replies per minute, as many as 10-15 per second coming in during some of the questions to where every tool that I have ever used to manage social media communications was just barely keeping me in, responding, encouraging and reading as much as possible.

I leveraged Twubs as a replacement for Tweetgrid and Tweetchat but it has a limitation that it can’t handle multiple streams or columns and you can’t really manage replies to yourself in real time when you have that much traffic, I wish it allowed for a 2nd column just for handing responses to you so you could keep those in a separate column.

I used Hootsuite to manage my replies and direct messages, during the event in a window that consumed 1/2 of my 24" monitor screen, while Twubs at the fastest setting took up the other half.

I also used the Twitter website directly to follow @WindowsPhone and make sure everytime they sent out a question or answer, it was retweeted to capture as much audience and congratulated all the winners, actively asked questions, added my own replies and responses.

The hour went by so fast and I think I sent over 100+ tweets during the event, nearly 2 tweets a minute while reading and tweeting like mad. 

If I ever run a Twitter chat for DragonBlogger, I want to run it like this event.

With internet auction sites such as Ebay, people have been able to buy and sell whatever they wanted online. However, some of the items sold have been downright bizarre. It makes you wonder what kind of people sell weird items, and even more so, what kind of strange people buy them. This is a look at just a few of the Internet’s oddest purchases.

1. Grilled Cheese Virgin or Stevie Nix

Image via flickr by yrgoldteeth

The Lord works in mysterious ways. In this instance, he chose to have the mother of his only son appear on a grilled cheese sandwich. Or its Stevie Nix, your call. This delicious and sanctifying or angel-voiced morsel sold at auction for $28,000.

2. Illinois Corn Flake

It’s only natural that one of the country’s leading producers of corn would show up in corn flake form. Sisters in Virginia found the outline of the state in the guise of a corn flake. It sold for $1,350.

3. Virginity

Image via flickr by jenny8lee

There’s nothing more special than losing your virginity to someone you love. However, one 18-year-old woman decided that this moment was worth some moolah. The inexperienced young lady sold herself on Ebay for a cool $300,000.

4. Group of Four Men from Australia to Spend the Weekend With the Promise of “Beer, Snacks, and a [Heck] of a Lot of Laughs

Image via flickr by anniejay

This couldn’t be made up. Four friends in Australia actually auctioned themselves on Ebay for a wild weekend. And some lonely soul couldn’t say no. The selling price of $1,300 seems a bit steep, but maybe the weekend turned into “The Hangover”. No word yet on how the partying went.

5. The Meaning of Life

Image via flickr by michaelsking

The question all human beings ask: what is the meaning of life? Someone had the answer, and decided to make money off the knowledge. Apparently the answer isn’t exactly uplifting. It sold for $10.50.

6. Bridgeville, California

Image via flickr by GYLo

This sleepy little town of 25 residents has been sold 3 times on Ebay. The most recent buyer committed suicide after purchasing the town for $1.25 million. It sounds like a lovely place, doesn’t it?

7. An Imaginary Friend

Image via flickr by leafar.

Whoever thought up this idea was brilliant and creative. The purchaser may need to see a shrink. The unseen buddy sold for $3082.50 at auction.

8. Inflatable Party Sheep

Image via flickr by Gene Hunt

What exactly you need an inflatable party sheep for is beyond me, but apparently they are in high enough demand for them to be sold on Amazon for $11.95. So, if you’re having a Little Bo Peep themed party or one of your friends has a bizarre fetish, fear not.

9. Wolf Urine

Image via flickr by Arrr!

If you’re in the market for carnivore pee, look no further. You can buy this stuff online, and it’s only $31.95 a quart. Talk about value. Supposedly it’s used to ward off deer. Or used in rituals. Either way, you can make it yours.

10. Sigmund Freud Action Figure

Image via flickr by One From RM

You remember when you were a kid, playing with Batman, Superman, and Flash action figures, fighting the forces of evil. What you should have done was pit the id against the super-ego. And who better to fight that battle than Freud himself.

11. Electronic Spin the Bottle

Image via flickr by Michael_Lehet

No one does it the old-fashioned way anymore. For only $45, you can be the proud owner of an electronic spin the bottle game. If you’re too lazy to spin a bottle, I can’t imagine what making out with you would be like. Sloppy and uninspired, indeed.

Don’t forget that the Internet is useful for other things as well. From explaining internet cables to learning how an engine works, the Internet has it all. There really is no such thing as a free lunch. Especially if it has the Virgin Mary seared into it.

Welcome to the July Kindle Fire Giveaway

JustinGermino.com was not compensated for this post, and is not responsible for prize fulfillment. This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or any other social media website. Please contact Desiree at So Sew Mama with questions, or to have your company/product featured in our next big giveaway! Read my Full PR disclosure here.

Today there is a Twitter Event being thrown by @WindowsPhone that you should know about, it is called the #Reinvented Twitter Party and the event starts at 2pm ET / 11am PT. The event and sweepstakes being thrown during the event will be all about what you did this past July 4th and how you may have captured some of those events on a Nokia Lumia 928 phone.

During the Twitter event 6 questions will be asked and participants in the #Reinvented party on Twitter will get 1 entry for answering each of the 6 questions.  One question will be tweeted every 10 minutes starting at 2pm ET sharp, so you have up to 9 minutes to answer each of the 10 questions.  6 people will be awarded Nokia Lumia 928 phones, so there will be 6 winners, one for each of the questions.

The final question will go out at 2:55pm ET (1:55pm CT, 12:55pm MT, 11:55am CT) and the winner will be announced at 3:06pm ET. 

You can read the full #Reinvented Twitter Party Rules here for more details:  http://sdrv.ms/107kyrg

This sweepstakes is only open to residents of the U.S. however.

These will be all the co-hosts for the party, including myself!

@dragonblogger
@eva_smith
@techsavvymama
@Erica_D_House
@ninasay

A great website to join and follow the Twitter party is http://twubs.com and I have to thank @SocialWebCafe for the recommendation!

See you at the #Reinvented Twitter Party hosted by @WindowsPhone and my fellow tech bloggers.

Pinterest you would think would be an excellent resources for helping generate some sales for the arts and crafts, jewelry and other crowds but there are many measures in Pinterest which block affiliate efforts.

I had a reader ask me if there was a way to beat the fact that Pinterest strips your Amazon affiliate links or simply issues warning if you try to work around with a URL Shortener. I experimented, researched and tested everything, you will not be able to effectively market Amazon affiliate products on Pinterest with direct link to your AZON affiliate. You will have to do articles on your site and link to them that way, but I hear sites get blocked for doing too many Pins of their own site links and whole domains and web stores can be blocked from Pinterest. This affects even people who make custom art, jewelry, crafts and such and just want to showcase with maybe getting some sales/interest.

I hear CommissionJunction links are blocked and possibly others now as well, Pinterest is a social media network and like most Social Media networks it is about engagement and sharing cool stuff but not directly a way for you to earn money.  I think the readers should decide who to follow/what to follow and they can just not follow the Pin boards of people who market too blatantly or too much.  In the end though they are controlling who and how things get marketed for those who leverage it to still try to market.  Do you think this is akin to Facebook stripping your Amazon Affiliate tags out of any Amazon product links to share, or Twitter stripping out CommissionJunction tags?  Or because Pinterest is really a network of images that affiliate marketers and those who would post images to popular products just to get their attempt at an affiliate market share are not welcome on Pinterest?

Also I have seen numerous articles that still inform readers how they can market Amazon affiliate products on Pinterest with their affiliate tag, articles published even in the last 60 days that seem to have no clue that Pinterest strips the tags and has been for over a year. 

In Summary

Beware when using Pinterest, as with rules of other site, PIN others far more than you would PIN your own stuff, never PIN direct to a sale/cart page, PIN to reviews/pictures with passive ability for reader to buy. Keep your ratios good or you risk undoing all your Pinterest marketing work.