Coffee Cup Half Moons

This week’s song is the ever-popular “Endless Rain” from my “Heaven” album.

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj5XqGVs8EQ

Since the rejection replies you get from Google regarding applications to their AdSense program can be quite vague and even cryptic, I thought I would share my experience. First things first, you are not going to get to talk to Google directly — you have to use the forums. (Here is my thread.)

My rejection was simply:

Hello Jeremy,

Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense. Unfortunately, after
reviewing your application, we’re unable to accept you into Google AdSense
at this time.

We did not approve your application for the reasons listed below.

Issues:

- Unacceptable site content

Looking around their restrictions, I really could not find a solution, as I couldn’t find any rule that I explicitly violated.  I posted a request for insight on the forums, and a very insightful user (wasaweb) pointed out my extensive duplicate content on http://jeremytharp.com/ and http://www.coffeecuphalfmoons.com/.  And it’s true — I use my blog’s rss to feed much of the content on my music site.

Since I want to keep the sites separate, I saw no reasonable solution, but then I discovered that recently Google began allowing cross-domain canonical URLs.  Eureka!  I simply set the canonical URLs on the pages on jeremytharp.com that fed from coffeecuphalfmoons.com to the appropriate page that fed the same content on coffeecuphalfmoons.com.  When I resubmitted the AdSense application, it was approved!

Keep in mind that there are a LOT of reasons you might get rejected from AdSense, but given that this was very simply successful, I thought I would share.

I also noticed an immediate reorganization of my site:jeremytharp.com results on Google (for the better).  I’m hoping it has some positive effects on PR on both pages as well.

This week I chose to do “Careless Whisper” — a great song originally by George Michael that Seether was able to completely take to the next level.  I sing this with Town Crier, so it was a natural choice.

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvfnKyvzXNE

Sometimes you don’t want a particular category to appear on your WordPress home page.  For me, I create weekly Twitter digests, and I’d rather they not be part of the page welcome.

The process of hiding them actually took me a little bit to figure out, so I thought I’d share.  It’s rather simple, so don’t blink! 

Simply edit “index.php” in the wp-content/themes/<your_theme_here>/ directory.

Between the lines:

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>

and

<?php while (have_posts()) : the post(); ?>

Insert the line:

<?php if (is_home()) { query_posts("cat=-XXX"); } ?>

Be sure to replace “XXX” with the unique numeric ID of the category you want to ignore.  To find the ID, log into your admin, navigate to your categories, and select the one you want to ignore.  The number will then appear in the URL.

NOTE: Make sure you don’t delete the “-” before the “XXX” or else you will ONLY show entries from the category.

If you update your theme, you will probably have to repeat this procedure.

If you want to hide multiple categories simply append the other categories to the string with a comma: (Example: “cat=-12,-82,-4″)

It also follows, then, that this technique can also be used to hide tags, posts, etc.

This week’s podcast is another two-parter. The first song is “Lightning Crashes,” a great song by Live who I first heard live when I was in college in 1997 or 1998. I sing the song with Town Crier.  This recording was made before I really “moved in” to the song, so there are some variations that I no longer do.

The second song is “The Thirst” from my album The Threshold of Omniscience.  I originally chose the song as a podcast right after I wrote it.  I liked it so much, I just had to share.  It too, has evolved somewhat.

As usual, these songs were recorded by just me and my acoustic guitar in my studio on my Sony ICD-SX700 Voice Recorder.

Direct link (Lightning Crashes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMTMsaaOyPA
Direct link (The Thirst): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRT4jflN0E

I was looking for a VAG-COM adapter so I can do more advanced computer readings on my 2005.5 Jetta TDI.  The cheapest place by far was Autonostics where it was about $19 after shipping.  I couldn’t pass the deal up!

I placed my order and waited patiently.  Weeks went by, and I received no package.  Since I had recently gone through a lengthy ordeal with another company, I sent a few emails to the company and got no reply.  So, I simply filed a PayPal dispute, to which Autonostics never replied.  In fact, I never got any communications from them at all, and I also never got the dongle (which is disappointing, because I now have to begin the search again and am not likely to find as good of a price).

My opinion? Do not waste your time with the company …

I have no idea what their angle is, but I know my experience was way less than satisfactory.

This week’s song is “Irrational” from my Two Sides Of The Same Soul album.  This is a pretty dramatically introspective song (go figure) with a general free form, and it’s one of my wife’s favorites. 

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHiUv2Ws6-w

This is a repost of information located at: Verizon Wireless USB760 on the Ubuntu Forums.

I am putting it here because I found it very useful, and wanted people to be able to find it.  If you anyone takes issue with my publishing it here, please contact me.

At any rate, the Verizon USB760 does not work right away, so you have to modify two files.  This solution was posted by Databit. I added a few notes for clarification purposes and enclosed them in brackets.

File 1: /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-cd.rules

Find the line that contains "Novatel_Mass_Storage" and append the following to it:

RUN+="/usr/bin/eject %k"

[You will probably need to use a comma before this part]

File 2: /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-modem.fdi [Will require superuser privileges]

Add this in the USB section:

      <!-- Verizon USB760-->
      <match key="@info.parent:usb.vendor_id" int="0x1410">
        <match key="@info.parent:usb.product_id" int="0x6000">
          <match key="@info.parent:usb.interface.number" int="0">
            <append key="info.capabilities" type="strlist">modem</append>
            <append key="modem.command_sets" type="strlist">IS-707-A</append>
          </match>
        </match>
      </match>

I have tested this and it worked without issue in Jaunty Jackalope 9.04.

This week’s songs are “Mr. Jones” (originally by the Counting Crows), and “Bedroom of the Sun” by Me (on my album Triad).

The reason there are two songs this week is I decided to start doing one cover and one original each week.  I chose to do “Mr. Jones” because I sing it with Town Crier (it’s the last song in our first set), and “Bedroom Of The Sun” is just one of my favorites (it was also requested).

As usual, this is just me on my acoustic guitar, recorded at home in my studio on my Sony ICD-SX700 voice recorder.

Direct link (Mr. Jones):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwgkDVCK2wI
Direct link (Bedroom Of The Sun): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH5I0RsNBmM

This week’s song is a great one by Steve Earle — inspired at least partially by The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. It’s a great song sung by Irish immigrant Buster Kilrain during the Civil War.

Recorded as just me and my acoustic in my studio on my Sony ICD-SX700 voice recorder.

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRPBcBXLp0