Probably the most unique thing about these old BMW bikes is the appearance of the motor. They have several nicknames associated with them such as “boxer twins” and “airheads”. The 2-cylinder motor looks like a block with a cylinder head sticking out on both sides. The engine is an air-cooled engine, thus the term “airhead’. I’ve been riding it around for about a month, and it has become the subject of many conversations. I’ve had several already ask if I would be interested in selling it………not today.

In street-bike terms, the motor is of the smaller variety with a 600cc engine. Even though it’s not uncommon with the bikes of today to see engines at 1500cc’s and higher, this motorcycle has plenty of acceleration power to pass at highway speeds and run smoothly with the flow of traffic on the freeway.

I grew up riding small motorcycles, and loved them when I was a kid. I stopped riding when I got my driver’s license and started driving cars. I hadn’t been on one in years before getting this one, and had forgot just how much fun they are to ride. The only downside is, that the weather is starting to get pretty cold, so that limits how often I will ride for the next few months.

For pictures of some more cool BMW bikes, check out the BMW Motorrad group on Flickr.

Used BMW Motorcycles and Accessories

When the issue first came to my attention, there were plenty of people telling me “not to back down”, and that I “should speak to a lawyer”, etc. I realize now that I got way too caught up in this.

When I first spoke to Dave from NMM, I felt like he patronized me, and didn’t hardly give me an opportunity to speak. It made me mad. Maybe I took him wrong, maybe I didn’t. Either way, I should have left the issue alone, because in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a Wordpress theme, which honestly, are a dime a dozen.

To Dave: I’m publicly apologizing for the part I took in this. My pride is not worth trying to make you look bad. You told me what happened, and I wish I had just taken your word for it. I don’t need to examine the code to say that.

Someone left a comment that they thought I was trying to milk this for all it’s worth. I can see how it looks that way, but that’s not what I want, and I don’t want to try and get attention by making someone else look bad. So Dave, staff of NMM, and people of the blogosphere, I hope you will overlook my prideful behavior.

The theme has been heavily modified, and looks very different from the original. However, one look at the source files verifies that it is indeed built on NetWorker.

The website in question is apparently the official site of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and boasts protection under Crown Copyright.

After receiving quite a few emails, I’ve since had several journalists this morning from London email me and request comment. Before responding to any journalists, I sent an email to the company in charge of developing the website(New Media Maze) to try and work this out privately. They claim that they tested the NetWorker theme, but then rebuilt it from scratch. Although they rebuilt it from scratch, they failed to remove the credits in the CSS file that name the theme “NetWorker” or to change the theme folder which is named “NetWorker-10″(Networker version 1.0). They say this “slight oversight” would fulfill the Creative Commons license anyway. Uh…….

You can read further into this here:

• Prime Minister’s Website Breaks Copyright Law
• Has Downing Street Claimed Copyright on Stolen Code?
• 10 Downing Street Website Knock-Off and Rip-Off
• Number 10 and the Creative Commons

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is becoming way to common on the web. What I don’t get, is how can a Web Design firm (which I assume is respected) make these kinds of mistakes?…especially on a website that will have such a high profile?

For an update to this post, please read My Regrets about Copyright Dispute.

What is it that makes someone think they can visit a blog, leave a stupid, sarcastic comment, leave no website url, and think that’s gonna ride. It won’t ride here.

I’ve never made a comment policy, or even felt the need to. But lately, I’ve been getting comments from trolls, and that’s why comments automatically go into moderation for someone who’s never commented here before.

Here are a few points that outline what I think is and is not acceptable.

• First of all, I do like to get comments on the blog. I think they add life to a blog, and contribute new ideas and knowledge to the given subject.
• I retain the right to edit or delete any comment.
• Spam will be removed. Hopefully, the tools I have in place will continue to catch the far majority of automated spam, however if any slips through, it will be removed immediately.
• Rude comments, profanity, and comments that are unrelated to the post will be deleted.
• I will edit out links in comments that are unrelated to the post. Links pointing to related content are OK.
• Comments that disagree with something I say, but are written in a respectful and helpful manner are welcome. I’m always open to you teaching me something I don’t know……just don’t be a jerk about it.

That’s it, I doubt this will change anything though, because I’m sure trolls don’t read my posts anyway. They just like to stir up trouble and leave their links.

One of my most popular articles on this site, as well as one of the articles that brings in the most search engine visitors, is my How to Install Wordpress with 1and1 Hosting article. I believe the reason for this is because there are many people who’ve run into the same problem trying to get Wordpress to connect to the database on 1and1’s servers. 1and1 doesn’t like to play by the standard rules.

1and1 is not only the most well-known web host, but they’ve also served my website quite well. As my site has grown, not to mention the fact that I now have multiple websites, my needs are changing. This post is not to bash 1and1, because they have provided me with good service. But I believe Hostgator has a set-up that will better meet my needs. Read on to find out why.

Why Hostgator?

I’ve chosen to go with Hostgator for several reasons. At the top of that list, is the great reputation they’ve built for themselves. Unlike 1and1, I’ve found much more praise of Hostgator on the net than bashing. Another reason is that I found their reseller accounts very attractive. These accounts cost a little more than your run of the mill hosting plans, but I think this is the perfect set-up for someone with multiple websites. Having a different account for each site should eliminate all my sites going down if only one site were to take more than it’s share of bandwidth. Unlimited MySQL databases is also a big factor in my decision, as my 1and1 plan limited me to 50 databases. Unlimited databases will allow me to continue building BANS sites, as well as any other type of database-driven sites I want to build in the future.

Hostgator Points to Consider

• Great Reputation
• Great Customer Service
• Affordable Reseller Accounts
• Unlimited Databases
• Uses standard C Panel admin

Support

I’ve seen a lot of 1and1 bashing on the net, and apparently that is due to their “horrible customer service”, which I don’t have any experience with personally. I’ve been with 1and1 for over two years, and have never had to contact their tech support. So, that could either mean that I’ve been lucky, or that there hosting service works like it’s supposed to. As Forrest Gump would say, “that’s all I have to say ’bout that”.

My initial impression of support from Hostgator has been well beyond my expectations. They will move up to 30 websites for you from your previous web host to the Hostgator servers. I understood this to be somewhat automated between web host’s using C Panel. 1and1 has their own non-standard control panel, so I didn’t think this would apply to me. Boy, was I wrong! They manually moved close to twenty websites for me(databases included), and it didn’t cost me any extra! I’m truly impressed with the level of customer service that I’ve received so far. Great communication and great service.

The transition went really smooth. I think I may have lost a couple of new comments between the two servers during the change, so for that I apologize.

I’ve never posted a theme before that I didn’t create, but today we have a real treat. Shane at Zoomstart, has created a theme called Videographer that has me quite impressed. As video becomes more and more prevalent online, so does the need to create new ways of displaying those videos. The most popular way to host video content online is, of course, YouTube.

What we have with Videographer is a Wordpress theme that organizes those YouTube videos in the body of the post quite nicely. Shane takes advantage of the thumbnails provided by YouTube for each of their videos for the post snippet. Then for the full post, the full size YouTube video is displayed.

Form and Function

Videographer is loaded with style. The template looks well-planned and professional. The color-scheme and the layout works well with current web trends. For us tweakers, the stylesheet is well laid out, which should prove easy to customize for those fairly familiar with CSS.

I really like the way the video works in this theme. However, the theme was built for a site that includes video in every post. Shane states on his site that the theme is intended for a new video blog that doesn’t yet have content.

Just upload it like any other Wordpress theme. NOTE however, that this theme is meant for a NEW blog, not a blog with existing content. The theme is specifically designed for creating a video blog.

So, you should understand that this theme is not for general blogs, but specifically for those built around video.

Advertising Ready

Another nice touch, are the included files that ease the task of adding banner ads in a few strategic places. Those of you who’ve done this in the past, know that it can be a real headache to get your ads centered in the right spot. Shane takes the guesswork out of this, and makes it easy. You can see how that looks on the themes demo site.

There are a couple of plug-ins that are recommended to go along with the theme, such as WP YouTube and WP PostRatings.

Conclusion

If you’re considering a video blog, I believe Videographer would be a great choice. You can download, demo, and read specific instructions on setting it up right here.

Since Technorati has become pretty useless, now I don’t have much reason to pull up their site.

First of all, NET10 is a cellphone company, that does not require that you sign a contract of any kind to use the service. Simply put, it’s a pay-as-you-go service. No hidden fees, no small print…….just a simple to understand 10 cents per minute. I love that about it. The last thing I want is another monthly bill. With most cellphone companies such as Cingular, Alltel, etc, you are required to not only pay a monthly service fee + tax and additional fees, you’re also required, in most cases, to sign a two-year commitment. That is a huge turn-off to me.

Paying for the Service

With NET10, you have multiple choices when it comes to buying airtime cards. 150 minute card for $15, 300 minute card for $30, etc. I generally buy the $30 card, in which I have two months before I have to buy additional airtime. If I use all the minutes up, I can buy another card, or if I don’t use the minutes up in that time frame, I still buy another card after 60 days, but the previous minutes roll over. If you don’t go over on minutes, this service can cost as little as $15 per month. That’s cheap!

There are also multiple choices on where you buy airtime. You can go to most major retailers and buy a card, you can buy airtime online, or directly from your phone. Either way you go, there’s a convenient choice available.

The Catch?

If there is any catch to this at all, it’s the lack of choices when it comes to what phone you use. You can’t get your iPhone or your Razr connected to Net10. They have 6 or 7 Motorola and LG phones to choose from, but it has to be one of those phones……which is fine for me. I don’t use my phone as an MP3 player or to surf the web. I use my phone to……talk.

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