Your Favorite Posts on CrazyKinux's Musings are....

A week or so ago, I ran a poll here on CrazyKinux's Musings asking you what your favorite posts were - 52 of you to the time to respond. Thank you kindly.

Not surprisingly these were the results:

1. EVE Blog Banters (28%)
2. Guides and Links (25%)
3. Ship Setups (19%)
4. General EVE News (17%)
5. Contests (7%)
6. EVE Post Cards (1%)
7. Friday Videos (0%)

So I guess that it's no surprise then that the latest EVE Blog Banter Contest was such a frackin' success! And despite the abysmal 0%, I still plan on doing these non-EVE-related Friday Videos! I enjoy them too much to stop now! :p

Your comments and input is always welcomed by the way! 

EVE Fanfest Giveway: The Two Lucky Bastards!

In the end, putting the contest together was the easy part. I had the EVE Fanfest Swag, the extra magazines and the desire give it all away to some lucky members of the EVE Blogging and Tweeting Community. That was easy. Picking only 2 winners out the multitude of you who linked, tweeted and blogged about this blog, was much more difficult than I'd originally thought.

In the end, I used a dash of subjectivity, a sprinkle of luck, and a few pints of the good stuff to choose these two lucky capsuleers - @starryeyedpod (A Starry Eyed Pod-Pusher) and @ChainerCygnus (Corrupted Datacore)!

Thanks for all that you've done and keep up your excitement about EVE, this blog and the EVE Blogging Community.

Here's a reminder of what you'll both be splitting amongst yourselves:

• 2x EVE Fanfest 2008 T-Shirt
• Some EON coasters
• 2x Random EON magazine issues
• Some EVE Online Postcards
• 1x EVE fridge magnet
• 1x EVE mini-mouse
• 2x packs of EVE Collectible Card Game (CCG)
• 2x Fanfest Schedule
• 2x 1-Year Lonetrek Extended Hosting Plan
• 2 50% Lonetrek Promo Codes

EVE Fanfest Giveway: Hands Off my EVE Online Loot!

On this Canadian Thanksgiving I'm in a very festive mood and wanted to share some of the EVE Fanfest loot I got while attending last year's Fanfest. That's right, I'll be giving away some of the extra loot I brought back from the 2008 Edition of the EVE Fanfest; not this last one which was help in October, but last year's.

Allow me the privilege of flattering my ego!

Similar to the above Iteron warping home to some distant orbital station somewhere with the vast universe of New Eden, I find myself warping home to this blog. Full of ideas and renewal. I've got contest results to give a away (remember this?), new posts to write, new ideas to explore, new lists to revisit, and 500 millions ISK to give away. That's right, half-a-billion ISK to give out.

But before we get there, allow me to indulge in some grand delusional scheme that will see my ego grow to the size of the Stay Puft Marshmollow man, before imploding to its normal, above-average standard!

I love stats. I, like many bloggers out there, love to go over this blogs statistics: number of visitors, where they came from, how long did they stay over, where 'd they end up after passing by, as well as what keywords they used to get here. But of all these stats, the one I have the most fun reviewing are the keywords. So lets take a look at the top 20 keywords that get people here, of the last 2000 visits.

1. eve online blog
   
2. eve online screenshot
   
3. eve online podcast
   
4. eve online guides
   
5. eve online corporations
   
6. eve blog pack
   
7. crazykinux
   
8. eve blog
   
9. eve online blogs
   
10. eve mini client
    
11. eve podcast
    
12. capsuleer
    
13. myrmidon setup
    
14. crazy kinux
    
15. capsuleer iphone
    
16. eve blogs
    
17. eve online iphone
    
18. eve overview
    
19. eve myrmidon
    
20. eve online tortuga
    

What's interesting is that in some cases, the link to this blog doesn't appear on the first page but on the 2nd or 3rd, and in some cases as far as the 5th. Yet they get here! Other interesting findings: Myrmidon is the only ship within the top 20, appearing twice, as does capsuleer, crazykinux, podcast, blog(s) and iphone. Finally, the only video making that list is Tortuga. Not surprising considering the quality ofthe video.

OK, well that's enough self centeredness for one day, now I'm off putting together another post so that this one isn't the latest post for too long!

Back from Fanfest and asking for more

It's been 3 days since my return from Iceland, and a bit longer since the end of the 5th EVE Fanfest. Quantum Rise has been deployed and from all accounts, all has gone smoothly. Life is slowly returning to normal for me, though I'm still very much busy with the job hunt and taking care of the little family.

This last Fanfest was my first and, as I've been telling everyone and their mothers, hopefully not my last. Though the whole event was short, and I didn't get to enjoy the Icelandic scenery, the whole experience was a blast. I finally met face to face with folks I'd been chatting and emailing for over a year. And I also met with folks who were complete strangers, leaving with new friendships which are likely to last. Never mind 3 days of EVE Online news and discussions!

I still have got loads of notes and subject matter that came out of the Fanfest for about a dozen future posts. So expect more over the next two weeks. I just need a bit of time to wrap my head around a few ideas and get my facts together.

This Friday's Speedlinking post is likely to be one of the lengthiest, as I've put together the news of the last 2 weeks, which as you know, has been quite extensive. This one should go live early Friday morning. YoMma and I are scheduled to record the 4th installment of MicroWarpCast also on Friday morning, and with some luck, I should have the editing done by the end of the week-end.

I leave you with these two photos of me and some lovely Icelandic ladies with whom I had a bit of fun on Saturday night, during the Fanfest Party. Should convince a few of you boys out there to definitely make it to Fanfest next year!




All innocent fun, of course. I mean, I'm an honorable Canadian of course!

Cheers!

July 2008 in Review

I've been wanting to get back to doing these monthly review for sometime now, but was just too busy with other stuff, or too lazy, depending on how you want to see it. Here we go again. I'm blatantly copying Wilhelm of The Ancient Gaming Noob here, as I really like his review format.

So without further ado, let's look at this past month, July 2008.

The Site

• 25 posts
• 74 comments
• 15,668 pageviews
• 10,809 unique visitors
• 2,203 returning visitors

Overall I'm happy with the July post count, though looking back over the last few months I'll want to post more often about what my main character is doing. Over the past several weeks I've put a lot of energy getting the EVE Bloggers Community going, at the expense of posting about Treenara. In the coming months I'll try to give you more regular updates. I've got a few ideas that I need to discuss with Phoenix Labs Executives before though. So keep your eyes open.

More (Ranking) Stats:

• Feed Readers: 254
  
• Alexa Ranking: 269,182
• Technorati Authority: 70
  

By the end of August, I'd like to have 300 readers, be below 250,000 for Alexa and get over 100 in Technorati Ranking. If you can help me get there, I'd really appreciate.


The EVE Blog Pack

In the last month the Pack grew by 6 new blogs - including mine, which I had forgotten to include! I've got 2 more that I'm keeping an eye on, which will likely get added by the end of the month. In his July Review, Wilhelm mentions that he's got an idea for the Pack. I'm very curious about it and can't wait to get word from him.

Overall I'm very happy with the results of the EVE Blog Pack. I think that I've managed to get a great group of bloggers together, with a good blogging momentum. If you're reading and would like to join just let me know in the comments of the Pack post.


The Drone Bay Podcast

Just as it was in June, July only saw the release of 2 episodes (#13 and #14). Crovan came back from his stay in the Land of the Rising Sun but had some PC woes, and this being smack in the middle of the summer holidays, it's been difficult to get together on the regular weekly schedule. Hopefully with August things will get back to normal again.

On a good note, we've done the last 2 episodes in front of a live audience using Ventrilo. So far it's been a lot a fun and a great experience for those dropping in to listen to the show as it's being recorded. Crovan as always works his editorial magic, and the Live experiment hasn't affected the quality of the final edited shows. Look for even more listener interactions in the coming weeks.

Wrap-Up

In other news, after a brief stay at Massively.com, my tenure as an EVE columnist comes to an end. My stay wasn't long, but in that time I've made some great friends, which I hope will continue to be so as our paths take different roads. I wrote 3 features for my Have Clone Will Travel column - I invite you to read them if you haven't had a chance as of yet:

• Ambulation in the EVE tutorial
• An EVE Online Wish List
• 3 Essential Tools for Capsuleers

Next Month

A year ago I was about to start A-Post-A-Day Challenge which in the end saw me complete 26 posts, 4 shy of my goal. I'm thinking of giving it another go, and invite other EVE Bloggers to join me in this Epic adventure! OK, I may be pushing it here, I mean epic, please! I'm only trying to get pumped-up! Khant t'you feel da blood rush in mie big mussel!!!

Fly Safe, or die trying!

CrazyKinux's Musing Design Poll

For those of you who visit the blog and don't just read them through RSS readers, you'll have noticed that I gone from a 3-column back to a 2-column design. I did this because as I sat down yesterday morning for my usual week-end clean-up, I kind of noticed that with the 3 columns it was getting visually very crowed.

Now what I like about the 3 column was the fact that the blog page wasn't too long, since I had widgets on both sides, cutting in half the length of the page. The down side was that it was too busy - for my taste anyways.

This is where you come in. I need your opinion. I've set-up a poll on the top right column and would like to know where you stand on this matter. If you want to let me know, please fill in the poll and add your comments to his post. I'll make sure to take into account every opinion.

CK out.

The 100,000 pageview mark!

Photo courtesy of Christoper Chan via Flickr

Just wanted to share this one with you. Yesterday, during the afternoon, CrazyKinux's Musing passed the 100,000 pageview mark - just shy of 70,000 visitor - since its launch. I'm still working on my 2007 review, but wanted to let you know of this proud achievement!!

Here's to hitting the 100,000 visitor mark!

CrazyKinux's Musings - Looking back at October 2007

With October behind us and less than two months before Christmas, it's time again for another monthly rap-up. Let's take a look at the stats first:

• 15 posts
• 17 comments
• 14,211 page views
• 9,105 visitors
• 1,337 returning visitors

Apart from the low post count which was a result of a week vacationing in Cancun, and a few days last week in Atlanta on business, the rest of the stats are pretty encouraging. Were almost at the 10,000 visitors a month mark, and just shy also of the 15,000 monthly page views. We're getting good traffic that's for sure!

CrazyKinux's Musings: Looking back at August 2007

Well August has come and gone, and what a month this was. The Post-a-day challenge is now over, and though I know I wasn't able to do exactly that (that is, make at least one post everyday), I still did achieve my second goal, which was to increase my overall posts for the month. I haven't started looking at all the other blogs which I challenged, but I'll get to it in a post or two (patience young Wilhelm!), and post the winner!

CrazyKinux's Musings - Looking back at July 2007

With July behind us it's time to look back, see the month that was, and understand where I can improve this blog.

A bit of statistics first, please. July was...

• 13 posts
• 1 poll
• 38 comments
• 7894 page views
• 5422 visitors
• 848 returning visitors

A pretty good month in terms of visitors and comments, not so much on the posting side. Which is why I've given myself the royal kick in the arse to post at least once a day for August. Still, I'm quite happy with the results. Compared to June, were looking at an increase of 64% in pageviews and 54% in visitors. Quite impressive in my opinion. What's less impressive is that July had half as much posts as June. Not too happy with that one, but I'm working on it.

CrazyKinux's Musing: a major overhaul

Well I finally got to it - redesigned this blog to look exactly like I always wanted. I used PsycHo to generate a template and then spent a lot of time, tweaking the look and feel and importing the various links, and items from my old template to the new one.

It works almost as I want it to look like. Except in IE6.0 that is. For some god forsaken reason, the 3rd column start at the end of the main section. This happens only in IE. In Firefox, it's fine - it looks great. If anyone knows why and can help me fix this, I would greatly appreciate the help. And if anyone viewing this site with Opera, Safari or IE7.0, I would also be thankful if you told me if all three columns start are the top.

In the meantime, use Firefox (which is my default browser anyway) to view the site at it's best.

I've got a bunch of posts, ready to be published. I'll be back to my regular daily posts soon.

CrazyKinux's Musing, a redesign

Those familiar with my blog may notice that I've made some drastic changes to the template I use. Gone is the generic blue header picture, replaced by a screenshot I took a few month back.

I also made some changes to the overall width to be able to post bigger thumbnails (well considering the size of these "thumbnail", you can't really call them that anymore), and to go for a more minimalist approach.

What do you think? Like it? Hate? No difference? I would appreciate your comments, positive or negative.

Compare this post (opens in a new page) to this one (also opens in a new page) to appreciate the difference of the screenshot size.

Enough bragging about my blog, instead, enjoy the majestic screenshot!