So a few months ago I deleted Windows 7 and installed Ubuntu Linux. I felt at the time that the transition went well. But after running it for 2 months I decided to go back to Windows. I purchased Windows 7 and just blasted Linux and installed Windows. Now I admit that I am not a Linux expert and I am sure someone out there will find fault with all my reasons below. But I am better than most at this stuff. Here’s why I dumped Linux:

1) Flash SUCKS on Linux. We have several flash apps that I need to run every day at work and they simply didn’t work right.
2) Virtual Box kind of works. I found myself still running Windows in a VM. Photoshop, MS Office, Itunes and more I had to run in Windows anyway. And it is just not the same in a VM. Plus the sound is always messed up when run in virtual box.
3) ITunes. I admit I am a bit of an apple fan boy. But I love itunes and my iphone. I could sync my phone but it was VERY slow. It worked pretty well in virtualbox until the most recent update of itunes. It completely broke me and I had not had access to itunes for over a week. This is what finally sent me back to Windows.
4) Google Talk. I tried several chat clients on Linux and they are ok. But I really missed the fact that Gtalk stores my chat history with my email. This is huge for me to go back and find stuff that I cant remember if it was in an email or in a chat.
5) Password syncing. I hated that all my passwords are not synced between windows and linux.
6) No Netflix in Linux. I know it is silly but I could not use Netflix streaming at all in Linux. It uses Silverlight for some dumb reason. And because of the sound issues in virtual box I couldnt run it there.

The Windows 7 install was the easiest I have ever had with any version of Windows. It took me less than 45 minutes and it automatically detected all the hardware on my laptop. Everything worked fine right from the beginning.  Now I liked Linux for the simple stuff.  I may dual boot it at some point in the future.  But it is good to have Windows back!

My coworker Jim sent these quotes to me today and I was very touched by them. So I decided to post them to my blog.

1. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

2. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

3. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

4. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

5. My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

6. No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

7. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

8. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

9. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Most Interesting Quote:

10. I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

I am running an analysis on the top ad banners from several genealogy companies. In case you don’t know, EPC stands for earnings per hundred clicks. This is a measure of their conversion rate and payout and gives affiliates a way to judge programs and ad creative.

Ancestry.co.uk is a 5 star CJ program (payouts of over 20k each month?) with a 3 month epc of $13.68 and a 7 day epc of $2.15. (They have had a huge dip in epc, ie conversion rate, in June for some reason). OneGreatFamily is just a 3 star CJ program (5k in payouts each month?) and has just a $2.74 3 month epc and a $3.77 7 day epc.

Here are Ancestry.co.uk top banners (highest 3 month EPC):

$38 3 month epc and $15 7 day epc. This seems like an ugly banner to me with too many words and not a good call to action. But it is there best performing banner. It could just be the size. It is the only 120×60 they offer.

This one has a $28 3 month epc and is pitching the 1891 census which was hot news. It has good branding and a good call to action.

This one is at $25 and is pitching free access to marriage and death records. Good branding but poor call to action. Good colors.

This is a simple banner targeted at people who know Tony Robinson. It has a $23 epc, is ugly and has a good button.
Here are OneGreatFamily top banners:

This is a strange sized little banner that simply pitches their free trial, shows their branding and has an ok call to action. This has a $16 epc.

This one has no animation, catchy photos, great branding and a great call to action. It has a $15 epc.

Again this one is pitching the free trial and millions of names in their tree. Good branding and poor call to action.

If any of you have input on these banners please let me know.

Here are some more notes from Paul’s class on blogging with my comments added in.

1. It increases your business web presence and enhances your personal brand.

2. You get to vote for Web pages, which affects Google search engine rankings.

It has been a while since I posted. Just too busy! I hope that I will have time to get some posting done during the holidays.

I was forced to post because I was “blog tagged”. The idea is if you get tagged you have to write 5 things that others don’t know about you then tag 5 others. I was tagged by Jeremy Palmer, who was tagged by Scott Jangro, who was tagged by Shawn Collins. I don’t know where it started. But I supose this will get some press and will be interesting to be a part of.

5 Things you don’t know about me.

1) I once ate a spoonful of 100s of pinhead sized peanut beetles. Yes they where live tiny beetles that someone had “grown” as a medicine. Yes they where all alive and it took a full glass of water to keep them from coming back up. This was on my LDS mission in Brazil.
2) I have been researching salt-water reef aquariums for over a year and just started my first tank. I now have 8 small crabs and 6 turbo snails. My first fish will come this week.
3) I once built an android pheasant. Using servos, servo controllers and a programmable CPU I build the body that could turn its head and rock forward and backward. My brother who is a taxidermist stuffed it to make it look real. It was awesome! I will build a real personal robot some day.
4) I have an alter ego or “pen name” of Adam Speed. I built several simple financial websites under this name and even got quoted in a newspaper article (they should check their sources). Last week I received a check with the name of Adam Speed. I don’t know what I will do with it.
5) I was once stranded with my Dad and brother in the desert for 2 days on a hunting trip. We got 2 flat tires within a mile of each other and waited in the middle of the road until someone came for us. In all that time not a single car passed or even came within CB range. Shows you how remote the west desert in Utah can be.

I tag Paul Allen, Bart Gibby, Ryan Williams, Fransico Pascual, and David Lifferth