Buzz Topics Week of December 15th 2008

WordPress 2.7

Even though this was released in the middle of last week, it's still being talked about. Ways you can spin it: Likes/dislikes. What to do before you upgrade, what to do if your upgrade fails. If you are a service provider you can always talk about how it is more productive for most serious entrepereneurs to have their blogs upgraded for them. Review & affiliate opportunities. There are a few automatic upgrade tools. There is the ever famous free plugin: WordPress Automatic Upgrade. There are also tools like WP Auto Upgrade which is paid software but you can upgrade multiple blogs from one place.

Best of 2008

Ok, technically this is not exactly what everyone is talking about but think of it this way. It's a good way to catch some affiliate sales. Build your own “Best of list”, and use your affiliate links where applicable. This is a great time to do a “Best of list” or “Most popular” list.

Google Wants To Jump The Line To Get To Your Computer

This has to do with network neutrality. Right now the Internet is ‘neutral' in the sense your blog, gets to your viewers computer at the same speed and is just as accessible to your readers as Google's sites are. For a long time, the network providers namely your Internet Service Providers have been asking for the option to charge those who deliver the most content a higher rate so their sites gets through the ‘pipeline' faster. Everyone else's sites can wait. It has been going on for a while and Google has always been at the forefront protecting network neutrality but not it seems Google has changed its mind? Hmmm…. Get full details on this hot topic at the WSJ.com. What do you think? How do you feel about this as a blogger, as a small or micro business owner and as a Internet user?

Teacher throws kid in detention for using Linux

This is a good one even for parenting blogs! We don't have to say how slow *some* schools and educators have been on the technology curve but this is like living in the stone age. Linux has long been open source and probably will forever be. Open source meaning no cost to use or distribute. But apparently a teacher didn't think so. Not only did she throw the child into detention, she also wrote a very feisty letter to HeliOS (a distribution of Linux) and accuses them of distributing illegal software plus, to rub salt into injury… says Microsoft is better. Now don't get us wrong. We like our Windows but we also know that it's pretty much suicidal to get into a conversation with users or developers of other operating systems.

As a parent this really makes me wonder. How equipped are our educators to bring our children into the new economy? No matter what kind of government assistance or infrastructure being put in place, if the child is not educated properly about them, they won't know how to use the massive number of tools laid out for them.

Link: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/242520/teacher-threatens-to-call-the-cops-over-linux.html

Holiday Buzz

We've already said that games are hot to blog about but do you know which? According to Nielsen Online, the most talked about Game console is surprise! The Xbox. The most talked about gift idea is TV followed by DVD. We highly recommend you to grab a copy of Nielsen Online's press release to study the findings from the link below (it is a PDF).

Click to download => [download#61#nohits]

But here are some suggestions you can get from this study. Find and check out any coupons for TV's or anything related to DVD's and Xbox post them. We'll also look out for them for you. Use your affiliate links and write about these products what makes a good holiday, why and how. Use your affiliate links to point out deals and specials for Xboxes, TV's, DVD's and related items.

How NOT To Use Screen shots

You know how we are asked to sometimes submit a screen shot of your computer to show an error or maybe you create a screen shot to demonstrate how to work a program to someone? Well… this is a perfect example why one must be careful when creating that screen shot. Click for image bigger picture. Right click, Save As to save to your computer if you wish to blog about it.

Bernie Maddoff's Huge Pyramid Scheme

Here at BlogEnergizer, we try to find upbeat topics to blog about. But some things are unavoidable especially in this economic climate. While we are not financial experts, we believe this is one story that could be blogged about in many ways. For example, what happened to good old fashioned honest business? With so many ‘schemes', mismanagement by large companies, mega CEO renumeration packages, are people starting to tire of big businesses? Is this good or bad for small businesses?

Link: http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12795543&fsrc=rss

Obesity Controlled by The Brain

According to scientists, there are 7 variants of a gene that affects your brains' ability to control your eating behavior, appetite and your body's ability to burn fat. A person carrying all 7 of the gene variants are more likely to be heavier than those without. Full story here.