The end of an era has arrived for a legend in computing. Windows 3.1, the first widely accepted foray into graphical user interface operating systems from Microsoft, has reached its End of Life.

The BBC covered the story noting, “[It] helped Microsoft establish itself and set the trend for how it makes its revenues, and what drives the company until the present day.”

While Microsoft stopped releasing the OS as a desktop operating system years ago, licenses were still being issued as it was apparently wildly popular as an embedded Operating System. The BBC points out, to my surprise, that it is even being used on Virgin Atlantic and Qantas airlines to power the in-seat entertainment systems for their long-haul flights. Note that this does not appear to be the case with Virgin America that appears to be using a Linux variant, as we covered over a year ago.

To me, it seems that Windows 3.1, while it was certainly lightweight by todays standards, is a bit overkill for an embedded operating system. Certainly, mobile phones tend to benefit from Java ME (Blackberry smartphones, for instance, are run on Java), Symbian which is wildly popular among Nokia phones or event the .NET Compact Framework usable in Windows apps on mobile devices.

Of course, mobile phones are not the only mobile devices. Every electronic device that does anything has some sort of embedded operating system that might be a embedded linux variant, or the like.

The trick for embedded operating systems is that they must live in a very small memory space and typically are feature limited to essential functionality usable in a miniature device. Windows 3.1 ability to live in the reserved 640k memory space of a DOS environment made it sexy for this kind of application (keep in mind that Windows Vista requires a minimum of 1GB of memory, so do the math on technology differences).

@ECHO OFF
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /M:15 /E /S /L:D /V
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SMARTDRV 2048 16 /V
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE CON RATE=32 DELAY=2
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE CON CP PREP=((865) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EGA.CPI)
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MODE CON CP SEL=865
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\KEYB DK,865,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\KEYBOARD.SYS
LH /L:2 C:\MOUSE\MOUSE
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DOSKEY /INSERT
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\CTSND
SET DIRCMD=/P /A
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET SOUND=C:\CTSND
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:G
C:\CTSND\DIAGNOSE /S
C:\CTSND\SB16SET /P

It’s been a good 18 years, not that I miss Windows 3.1 all that much. I got my start on Apple IIc and moved quickly to an 8088 before beginning real learning on an i286 running Windows 3.1. This was back in 1990, so there’s a bit of nostalgia here. Congrats, Microsoft, for making a game changer.

I have been woefully neglectful of this blog for the last couple of months – this I know.  Im woefully neglectful of this blog anyway, huh?  Maybe I need to start running my Twitter feeds through it again, so at least you know where I am. 

So, whats been going on? 

• Im whoring myself out to get Christina Loves rolling – and its doing well.  And its tons of fun.  And its pretty!  3 for 3!  Guy Kawasaki and the fine folks at Alltop added me yesterday to their beauty page, so something is working for me.  I have joined Glam again, but am waiting waiting waiting patiently to get set up over there. 
• Marshall’s father is tremendously ill with encephalopathy, a side effect from liver failure.  It is unbelievably sad to see and the progression is so fast.  Ryan (my stepson and recent LSU graduate) has moved here to stay with Dr. Jones (Poppy, as he is affectionately known), as he needs 24 hour supervision as of the last couple of weeks.  Oy.  Thank God for Ryan.  Take care of yourselves – you need your liver to work.
• Survey crews have been here this week and staked off our property so we can get the deed and start bulldozing!  We live in an 80+ year old house on Nunn Jones Road that was built by – guess who – Nunn Jones.  Marshall’s grandfather.  And it is not only falling down, but it is a firetrap.  I was thinking last night that I bet a licensed electrician has never cast a shadow on this property.  The Jones’ are a family of men – my husband has two brothers, their father has two brothers, and I think there *might* have been a girl in the generation before, but Im not sure of that at all.  So these manly men can do it all themselves, and they have.  Here.  For 80+ years.  Do you have any concept of how much stuff I have plugged in here in my office?  Oy again.
• We had a hoppin’ Halloween party for Zoe’s friends on Halloween night.  They didn’t do much but lots of “he-ing and she-ing” (and some hilarious bobbing for apples) but seems like they had a good time.  No trouble other than one smoking kid (cigs, nothing illegal), and my Noah, who at 10 yrs old chose to stay at the party instead of go trick-or-treating, and lets just say he learned a lesson or two.  As did I.  Thank God for Rock Band – it sucked some of those high school kids in to play with him, so the night wasn’t a total wash.
• My new job is going fabulously.  For the first month or so I felt a little lost, and wasn’t really sure what to do with myself, but I now have a to-do list a mile long, and feel nice and cozy.  I think I work a lot better with a long to-do list.  I am easily distracted when I’m not on a mission.  Have I mentioned Beautyfix?  Check it out – it totally rocks.  And go sign up for the newsletters at Blush if you haven’t – once Beautyfix is going strong I’ll be working on getting Blush going.  Right now it is just newsletters, but before long it is going to be SO. MUCH. MORE.  I can’t wait!  This move was the best decision I have made in a very, very long time.  Probably since I decided to marry Marshall.  Someone was definitely watching over me on this one – the timing was almost too coincidental.
• We bought a snotty new Mercedes.  We had Mercedes’ when I was growing up – I have always really REALLY loved them.  Marshall and I both drive 10 year old SUV’s, and not only are his weekly trips to and from Texas City incredibly gas hoggy, but the risk of the Tahoe breaking down is getting worse and worse.  Especially since he SHOT it.  :P  Marshall doesn’t do stranded, so new car it is.  It’s a sedan – I am holding out for a vintage convertible.  And a VIP ticket to the next Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.  One can hope, right?  Me, I’m just thrilled we got a car loan in this crappy economy.  Cross your fingers for the home loan.  Did I mention I hate debt?  Well I do.  We have almost none now – shortly we are going to be up to our eyeballs.  Lovely!
• I am in the process of moving all of my websites over to Wired Tree.  Thanks to Joe for the fabulous recommend.  Siteground is officially oversold and telling tons of folks that they are over the CPU limits – even folks that don’t have anything but a regular old blog.  They have kicked 2 of my sites off now, and I am done and taking everything with me.  When I started with Siteground they were so nice and had such amazing customer service.  I loved their UI – they were fab.  Not so much anymore, and while it makes me sad, I am growing up and learning to manage my own server, slowly but surely.  Good stuff.

So I guess that is the long and short of what’s going on at the moment.  Not too much, but plenty just the same.  I am *so* not ready for the holidays.  It’s hard when its 85 degrees still.  Hope you have a great day!

One way to build awareness, brand, credibility and buzz about your blog is to appear in mainstream media (read more about the Benefits of being featured in Mainstream Media).

A lot has been written about how to get your blog featured on other blogs - but how do you get press coverage whether it be TV, Radio, newspapers or magazines?

Image by tozzer

Following are a few tips on how I’ve done it:

Develop a Unique Story

One of the best tips I can give is to really think about the story that you’re pitching to journalists before you approach them. If you simply contact the editorial staff of a mainstream media outlet and say that they should write about you without giving them a unique angle they’re unlikely to respond positively (if they respond at all).

Stories about a blog are not that exciting to write - so what angle can you give them? What have you done, experienced or achieved that is going to grab people’s attention? What relevance does your story have to the readers or viewers of the media outlet?

Note: you don’t just manufacture these stories out of nothing but if you’re on the look out for opportunities they do come up. They might emerge out of a post that you write that gets attention, causes some controversy (controversy is a great way to get media attention), gets picked up by other blogs etc - or it could even emerge out of something that someone else does that you could comment about or that you’re featured in.

For example I was featured in a ‘top Aussie bloggers’ list last year and shot a link to the list to a national newspaper - the story got picked up with me as one of the bloggers featured.

Think (inter)National AND Local

I know one blogger who complains every time that I bring up mainstream media that he’s never had any success. When I ask who he’s pitched his story to he tells me that he’s approached the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC and a few other top tier news outlets.

While I commend him for thinking big - a more successful approach is likely to be to approach not only the big guns but smaller outlets. For one you’ll increase your chances of success in approaching a more local outlet - but you might also see the story picked up by larger media outlets (or you can use it to pitch to them later).

Write the Story

I’m not suggesting that you fully write an article when pitching mainstream media - but I’ve found that when I pitch a story and when I do a little extra work in showing how the story might look that journalists sometimes take what you present them with and build upon it.

So do some work on your pitch. Provide the media outlet with any facts, figures, stats or quotes that might help the journalist do their job more quickly and efficiently.

Be Approachable

Sometimes it isn’t a matter of pitching your story to mainstream media as them approaching you. This grows as your blog and profile grows but you can enhance your chances of being approached by being contactable.

An essential item for blogs should always be a way to contact the blogger. Whether this be by providing an email address, phone number and/or having a contact form - if you’re able to be contacted (and make it easy to be) you’ll drastically increase your chances of being approached.

Also useful for this is developing an about page that contains the type of information that journalists are looking for. Include information like your biographical information, links to a FAQ page and even a specifically written Press Page that shows how other press outlets have covered your story.

Press Releases

I’ve had limited experience and success with writing press releases but know at b5media that we regularly use them and that they are very useful - particularly when launching new blogs/portals.

You can learn more about the power of Press Releases here.

Build Profile

Perhaps the most important thing to do is to work hard at building a fantastic blog and having a great profile in your niche.

I’ve found that as I’ve done this that mainstream media outlets have increasingly come to me and that on the occasions that I’ve approached them that they’ve been much more open to covering me.

This of course comes with time and you can’t manufacture it over night - but I say it to give bloggers having problems getting on the radar of media a little encouragement - stick at it and build a great blog and it’ll come in time.

Keep In Touch with Journalists

If you do strike it lucky and get featured in a story - keep the contact details of the journalist that writes the story. If they’ve written one article they might be willing to do another. Also let the journalist know that if they ever need a quote for another story that they are writing that you’d be willing to take their call.

11 Tips from my Friends on Getting Media Coverage For Your Blog

I asked my Twitter followers for their tips on getting press coverage for blogs. Here’s some of what they said:

1. “If your writing to try and get press coverage be emotive, timely and topical - demonstrate ’special’ or ‘insider’ expertise” - keithdon
2. “1- easy to find contact info; 2- photo of self & decent bio; 3- blog trends, hot topics” - alizasherman. She also tweeted - “My miscarriage blog was featured in More mag. I was blogging a “controversial” topic in a daring way. Got noticed & featured.”
3. “Break the news so the press use you as the source. Has worked multiple times for me.” - michaelmeloni
4. “Keep blogging your niche and the reporters will find you. And when they do contact, jump at the chance to help them.” - GrantGriffiths
5. “Treat traditional media like you would want 2 B treated; don’t spam them, read their stuff 1st, be concise, give links 4 more” - CathyWebSavvyPR
6. ” 1) write quality content 2) have clients that write quality content and reference you” - leahmac
7. “Be bit controversial, write press release for them (they lazy) be original.” - theworstofperth
8. “provide constructive criticism when everyone else is bitching about a problem and you’ll be noticed” - MadLid
9. “give your blog a spit shine before press release. Check spelling, grammar and theme errors. Be prepared for a big jump in hits.” - beanfair
10. “Start small. Offer something eg tips, advice, short column to local newspaper. See what works then go for the bigger papers.” - bussogardener
11. “Media coverage advice for bloggers- Be honest, be brief, and find a relevant hook. I’ve had success with the press doing this. ” - BJMendelson

To be included in future lists of ‘tips from my friends’ - follow me on Twitter.

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If you’re looking for some SEO teaching and have a spare 30 minutes you might find this video presentation by Stephan Spencer at a recent WordPress event.

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Now that the election is over and we have an understanding of the numbers that were put up by both campaigns, I think we can safely say that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill both killed the McCain campaign and reinforced social media at the helm of communications for the future.

Let me explain. There were over 120 million votes cast (a conservative number at that!) in yesterdays election. That is almost all of the eligible voting population, or approximately an 85% turnout rate. Obama raised nearly $900M for his campaign and spent nearly $860M of that.

What happened over the past 2 years has been simply extraordinary. McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act was passed in 2002 to much fanfare by placing strict regulations on “hard” and “soft” money. Hard money was money contributed directly to a candidate while soft money was defined as money contributed to a party for discretionary allocation. Usually, soft money was tied up in “issue based” advertising that benefitted a candidate indirectly.

McCain-Feingold imposed limits on how much money could be contributed to a campaign by special interests. This placed the “money support” mandate in the hands of individuals. Obama capitalized on this by extensive use of grassroots campaigning. Jay Voorhees calls it an Open Source Presidency.

Through the use of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and text messaging, he locked in the Gen X and Millenial votes and raised more money with grassroots efforts (”Donate $5, please”) than any other campaign in history.

Social media friends here in DC went to Florida, Virginia and Colorado to ensure that the vote was turned out for Obama.

Special interest had little role in this election. Passionate people rallied and inspired, contributing frequently in small amounts, powered this victory.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign tried to run a traditional campaign subject to the rules that the candidate himself authored in 2002.

Victory will always go to the individual who is able to adapt to changes in the landscape and Obama clearly did that better than McCain.

It try not to be too picky when it comes to the men I date, but I do have a few deal breakers. 3 things I will not put up with in a relationship:

1) unemployed (I don’t make nearly enough to support two people)

2) lives with his mother (I can’t believe I actually have to say it, but I know too many men who still live in their mother’s basements

3)…

Ok, it’s really just 2 things.

Over the weekend I set up and launched my new Twitter Tips Blog - TwiTip.

Since announcing the launch of TwiTip here on ProBlogger I’ve been asked quite a few times about what WordPress plugins I’ve installed to enhance and add features to the blog.

I still need to add a few more but so far I’ve added the following 10 WordPress plugins:

1. Akismet - a great comment spam plugin. Interestingly I had comment spam on TwiTip that Akismet filtered within minutes of launching the blog on Twitter.
2. All in One SEO Pack - a plugin that helps to optimize a blog for search engines. It gives easy ways to set up title tags, descriptions, keywords (both for home pages but also on individual posts) and a variety of other settings that have an impact upon SEO.
3. cforms - a powerful contact form plugin. It’s a lot more complex than other comment form plugins out there but has a lot more features (some that I’m yet to fully test).
4. Google XML Sitemaps - a plugin to help Google and other search engines to find every page and post on your blog - good for getting a new blog indexed quickly.
5. Simple Tags - extends the built in tags features on WordPress.
6. Subscribe To Comments - a WordPress plugin that allows those leaving comments to check a box and be notified when other people leave a comment on that thread.
7. Tweet This - ads an invitation for readers to Tweet a link to the post they are reading. While I wouldn’t put this on every blog - it seemed a no brainer on a blog about Twitter.
8. WordPress.com Stats - I’m using Google Analytics as my main metrics tool for TwiTip but it doesn’t update in real time so this plugin helps to get a quick update of what’s happening on the blog at any given point in time.
9. WP-Polls - an AJAX polling plugin with some nice features. I’ve previously used the Democracy Plugin but this one seems to be working really nicely so far.
10. WP Ajax Edit Comments - this plugin allows those leaving comments to edit their comments for a short period of time after they leave a comment.

These are just the first 10 that I’ve already installed (listed in alphabetical order and not in order of importance). There are more to come. For example I’ll install Related Posts (pointless at this point as there are only 5 posts on the blog), WP-Navi (again, no point to install it yet as I don’t have enough posts to need a navigation tool) and WP Super Cache (I’m not doing enough traffic to really need it yet).

They are the 10 WordPress Plugins I’ve installed on TwiTip. If you were starting a new WordPress blog today - which plugins would you be installing?

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The 44th President of the United States of America

Photo by jmtimages

I first wrote about this guy back in February after he pressured me to go on one of the worst dates of my life. Then he vanished from the gym for months, and reappeared a changed man. He’s been popping back quite a bit lately. He still tries to get my attention, and though I feel like I’m crushing him every time I ignore him, I feel there is no other way to get rid of him.

When I walked in today, I went straight for the bench press machine. Asked some beef standing nearby if anyone was on it, and he said he hadn’t seen anyone, so I started loading it up. Out of nowhere comes Chicken Shawarma; “I’m on there” he says. “Ok, sorry” I say and promptly jump on to another machine.

When he finishes, I am mid chest press with barbells hanging above my head. “I’m done on there, yo.” Uhm. He had a gangsta accent. Now, from the last time I spoke with him, he was going through some life changes, but the guy grew up in the Toronto suburbs. Why on earth does he all of a sudden have an accent? I hate guys like this.

I went out on Saturday night with the Toronto Scottish Rugby team for the 13th annual Halloween booze cruise. Yes, it was November 1st, and not October 31st…but that meant I got my costume on sale. For my costume, I dressed up as a bat. Not Batgirl, just a bat. I chose the costume because I saw some wings that I really liked.

Everyone assumed I was Batgirl though. This is understandable because of the amount of people out dressed up as superheros. There as a Batman and a Batgirl that were part of the same party. My question for society is, why is that hot? When I initially got upset (not really) when someone mistook me for Batgirl, someone said “Well, Batgirl is hot.” This got me thinking- what is it about women (or men) dressed up like animals that is hot? Are bats on their own hot? No. Are cats hot? Not to most- but put a curvy chick in a Catwoman outfit (which, you can buy at the sex stores) and men go nuts. Am I the only one who finds it weird?

My girlfriend was dressed as a wench. That makes more sense to me. Dressed as a slutty human. That is hot.