Thats right!! Last months contest was such a hit I’ve decided to do it again! However, this time, I’m using a cool new site to help me do it. ContestMachine is an online contest site that will host your contests for you. They offer free and paid accounts with the obvious benefits for paid accounts (more contests per month).

This month, all you have to do is register for the contest through the widget. Thats it. One lucky winner will receive a Pound of Carolina Morning Blend Coffee (whole bean or ground, your choice) and 1000 Entrecard Credits! A second winner will receive 500 EC Credits. How freaking cool is that??

Oh yea, here’s the widget!

Popularity: unranked [?]

Having worked for a web hosting company for a while as a Systems Administrator (think fancy tech support) I kind of know my way around web servers. When it came time to find my own servers, I knew what I was looking for. A dedicated server, where I was responsible for everything except hitting the power button. Luckily I found what I was looking for and its been a good move. If I’m ever in a situation where I need the server rebooted, I just submit a ticket and generally its back up with in 15 minutes or so. The average webmaster may not be so lucky and truth be told its often hard to find the best web hosting when everyone and their mother seems to offer hosting.

Luckily, there’s a place you can turn to. I’ve talked briefly about Webhostrating.com before and after a more in depth visit to their site, I feel good recommending them to almost any one looking for information on hosts. Aside from having one of the best rating systems on the web for hosts, they’ve also got a good slew of informative articles for potential webmasters (and mistresses) that will help guide your selection process.

For example, maybe you want to put up a website for your daughter’s world of warcraft Guild (ok, lets be honest here, *YOUR* WoW guild). However, “mean-bitches-who-kill-everyone-and-eat-their-eyeballs.com” is not really a practical url. Why not? Well, I’ll let you figure that one out, but WHR’s article on Tips For Choosing A Domain will help you select one a little better for your guild your daughter’s guild.

It doesn’t stop there! You can create accounts and rate your hosts as well. All in all, Web Hosting Rating is a tool every webmaster should have bookmarked.

Popularity: 75% [?]

No. Not the little red delicious (though i prefer the Mt. Fuji apples) kind. Nor will you be wining the new $3800 virtually flat apple laptop. What you can win though is a $25 iTunes giftcard good for downloading a variety of music, tv or movies right to whatever itunes enabled device you own.

Did I just hear you scream “How the hell do I win that??” Glad you asked. Its kind of a “You rub my back, I rub yours” (No, I will not rub anything other than backs so don’t ask me perv…). All you have to do is write a post about Delusions of Grandeur and link to this post (so that I get a ping back and can tell you actually did the post). You can write about the new design (of which I’ve received nothing but compliments, or at least, I’ve only paid attention to the compliments), you can write about my awesome generosity (I mean seriously! I’m GIVING AWAY $25 worth of iTunes!) or you can write about how off base I am in my belief that Mike Huckabee should be the next president of the United States.

Write about whatever you want to about this site. The only requirement is that you link back to THIS post. If for some reason, your trackback doesn’t work correctly, make sure to drop a comment here with a link to the post so I can check it out. I’ll choose one first place winner at random (or at least you’ll think its random) for the iTunage and I’ll even pick a second place winner who will get a 125×125 ad spot for a month on the site here (not that thats not a big deal in itself). Hell. I’m feeling generous. I’ll even review the two sites here on Delusions of Grandeur and rip in to you like a lion rips in to a retarded zebra.

So what are you waiting for…. get posting!

Popularity: 35% [?]

Thirteen of my favorite posts from 2007
In no particular order…

1. starting over - I started the blog with a clean slate in January of 07. Here’s the first post from the new blog.
2. Back to linux - I’ve been playing with Linux on and off since 2000. This time, I made room on the second disk in the laptop and installed sabayon with all the eyecandy (which reminds me, I should really give vectorlinux a try).
3. It Could Happen to You - We had a harddrive die last year and its like loosing a member of the family…
4. When Tech Support Isn’t - I had to provide my own support when my host couldn’t get my box booted…
5. WUBI!! - WUBI is a Ubuntu on Windows installer that virtually gives you ubuntu on your windows install. It was cool.
6. Tower Power - Someone was trying to put up a cell phone tower on some property across the street from our neighborhood….
7. 4th of July to Forget - Our fourth of July adventures on the high seas!
8. Blogday 07 w00t! - I listed a list of the blogs I visit on a somewhat regular basis. Check them out.
9. IWTGBTP!! - I finally got to take amy out west and she got to see the splendor of Colorado and New Mexico…
10. So Many Plates - Life is like a balancing act…
11. Three Must See Shows - Not that I’m likely to see the complete seasons this year (thanks you greedy money grubbing studios) but these three were the standouts in a season prematurely ended…
12. Playing Catch up - This one is kind of cheating. Its was the first link in the series about our trip to Disney World for Thanksgiving and has links to the other posts…
13. Make EntreCard work for you - A post about entrecard and how to make it work…

Popularity: 27% [?]

These days it seems that traffic boosting schemes are around every corner when it comes to finding ways to improve traffic to your blog. Blogrush, BloggingZoom, Sphinn, Entrecard, thoof, Digg and so many others that if I typed them all out I’d be here for hours. It boggles the mind that yet another one could come along, but guess what campers, it has! rssHugger (from the folks that brought WordHugger to the masses) is a multistop rss feed aggregator (at least thats what it appears to be).

From their site:

rssHugger is a new website developed to help bloggers promote their blogs, and to help visitors discover new blogs that write about subjects that the readers are interested in. Through the power of the internet and viral marketing, rssHugger looks to bring blog writers and blog readers closer together.

They’re offering free 10 year accounts for a review of their service (you get the account after you do the review….. kind of backwards) or you can pony up 20 clams and get the same thing. I don’t actually know how the service works for Delusions of Grandeur, as I have to write the review of the service before I can use the service (are you confused yet?). I’m going to try it out for a bit and let you know how well it works, but if it works as well as their about page claims it will, then it should be good for something. At the very least, it gets my rss feed out to more people and thats always a good thing.

Popularity: 22% [?]