ZSZN

One of my friends showed me the Battlefield Play 4 (For) Free online game today. Basically it is a free version of the popular saga Battlefield by EA games that runs off your web browser.

The game play itself and its models remind me a lot of Battlefield 2. This was such a great idea for EA Games to come up with. It only took about 20 minutes to fully install the game, and I was up and running. The game will first install a plugin/extension to your favorite web browser which will allow the game to function. It will then copy several files to your hard drive which it will pull to run the game.

You will create a character class, this is important because you can not change it later in the game. I chose “Assault” since that appealed most to me. After playing the game for a few minutes you will collect money which you can use to upgrade your equipment and weapons. Leveling up is fairly easy, just kill other players to receive points!

Overall the game is a lot of fun and is definitely a great freebie to play with your friends if you have some spare time. Don’t expect it to be as good as the other Battlefield games, it is free after all.

Unfortunately, the game is not compatible on Linux and Mac systems yet. This is a bummer since I am a HUGE Linux fan. The minimum system requirements are as follows:

Windows XP or Windows, Intel Pentium 4 processor 1.7GHz, 512mb of ram if your running Windows XP and 1GB if you are at least running Windows Vista, a Direct X 9.0c compatible sound card, 256kbit internet speed, and 1GB of hard drive space.

Click here to play!

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Since today, April 24, 2011 is Easter Sunday, I thought I would list the dates of future Easter Sundays over the next few years. The dates for Easter Sunday in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 are listed below.

Over the past decade Easter Sunday has taken place sometime in March or April. It seems to fall more often in April, but it frequently takes place near the end of March.

Future Easter Sundays:

2012 – April 8th

2013 – March 31st

2014 – April 20th

2015 – April 5th

2016 – March 27th

2017 – April 16th

Now you can mark your calendars for the future dates listed above. You won’t ever have to ask the question “When is Easter?”, at least for the next 6 years. Happy Easter everyone!

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Choosing the best WordPress plugins for you blog is important if you want it to be successful. Plugins offer a wide variety of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) customization and enhancement.

As you probably already know, ZSZN runs off of WordPress. I choose my plugins carefully and ensure they do not affect one another and cause confliction. The worst thing you can do is install too many plugins and end up hurting your SEO rankings, which of course will decrease the amount of organic search visitors to your blog. The only plugins I use are WP-reCAPTCHA, All in One SEO Pack, Google XML Sitemaps, and WP Contact Form. Below I have the download locations of all the plugins and an explanation as to why they are a must have.

WP-reCAPTCHA – This plugin adds a powerful CAPTCHA requirement to your registration form and comments. This reduces the amount of comment spam to virtually nothing by requiring users to enter simple words shown in the picture. This plugin is very customizable and easy to implement.

All in One SEO Pack – I consider this plugin the best option to reduce duplicate content, and auto generate meta keywords and descriptions for all your pages. This is essential as it will optimize your blog to its fullest potential.

Google XML Sitemaps – Having a regularly updated sitemap will help spiders locate all of the pages on your site and your pages will become indexed quicker. This plugin is fully automatic and updates your sitemap each time you publish new content. It also adds your sitemap URL to robots.txt which is great. You should be sure your sitemap URL is submitted to Google, Yahoo, and Bing through their webmaster tools.

WP Contact Form – If you are looking for a simple and easy to use form for visitors to contact you, this is the one. All you have to do is install the plugin and then add  the code “<!–contact form–>” (without quotes) to the body of the post or page to display the form wherever you want it.

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Learning how to boil an egg is important if you want it done perfectly. There are many ways to boil eggs which is why almost everyone you ask will have different methods.

I personally like my hard boiled eggs done right, and easy to peel. Below are directions that I compiled from several recipes to boil the perfect egg. There are two different ways to boil eggs, hard and soft.

According to a New York Times article, depending on how hard/soft you want the eggs, you will bring the eggs to a boil. Then, turn off the heat and let them sit for anywhere between 10-17min covered. Afterwards, they need to be put into cold water immediately. This will make them easier to peel and cool them off quicker. Also, make sure you use water with some salt when the eggs are cooking. This will help seal the eggs if they become cracked and stop leaks.

About.com’s home cooking article provides the following directions:

1. Place eggs in single layer in saucepan.
2. Cover with at least one inch of cold water over tops of shells.
3. Cover pot with lid and bring to a boil over medium heat.
4. As soon as the water comes to a full boil, remove from heat and let stand.
5. Large soft-cooked eggs: let stand in hot water 1 to 4 minutes, depending on your tastes.
6. Large hard-cooked eggs: let stand in hot water 15 to 17 minutes.
7. When cooked to desired level, drain off hot water.
8. Immediately cover with cold water and add a few ice cubes.
9. Soft-cooked eggs: let stand in cold water until cool enough to handle. Serve.
10. Hard-cooked eggs: let stand in cold water until completely cooled. Use as needed.

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Registering that keyword rich Dropped or Deleting domain name that you have your eyes on can be somewhat confusing. I am going to try and clear up the process for you, and simplify it.

Dropped domain names, and deleting domain names are very simple to find. You can start a search and include many variables to find domain names that recently dropped with Just Dropped. I have been using that site for years now and always found it very helpful. Another useful site is Pool.com. Pool will show you domains that dropped recently (last couple days) and show you domains that will drop within the next week. All you have to do is visit their site and click on “Deleting Domains” tab at the top.

Deleting (dropping) domain names can be registered ahead of time. This is called backordering the domain name. Most registrars have the option to backorder a domain name. I would stay away from this if the domain name is one that you think someone else would be interested in. Even if you backorder it at a registrar and someone else backorders it somewhere else, there is a chance you may not get it. I will help you increase your chances of getting a dropping domain name.

I strongly recommend using Pool.com, SnapNames, and eNom to backorder your domain names. They will give you the best chance at getting your domain name as soon as it drops. You only have to pay for the service if they are successful at getting your domain name. So, why not backorder the domain name through all three to increase your chances even more? If someone else backorders the your domain through one of these services as well, it will go into auction between those that backordered it.

Keep in mind if you find a deleting (dropping) domain name, you don’t have to backorder it through any of the above services. This is only if you think there is a chance someone else may try to get it. You can simply go to your favorite registrar and keep trying to register the domain name throughout the day it is scheduled to drop on. From experience I have noticed that domains scheduled to drop usually are available to register in the afternoon, eastern time.

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Today, Google rolled out their Panda  (Farmer) update to all internet searches across the world. On February 24, 2011 the first update took place, which affected around 12% of all websites. These algorithm changes are in response to the increasing amount of internet trash and content farms.

Internet trash are websites that steal content from other websites and republish it as their own. Most commonly autoblogging. This is when someone creates a blog about a specific topic, or to sell certain products. Autoblogs use a plugin to grab an RSS feed, or scrape products from other websites, and repost the same content on the blog. This is used to build a fast database of content, despite that it is completely copied.

Content farms are websites that pay people low wages for written articles. These articles are then posted on the websites to create enormous amounts of content about all kinds of topics. The content is often not very well written and legitimate. This creates a problem to search engine users who are trying to find legitimate information.

In my opinion, I think Google’s algorithm update was definitely needed. I know I am not the only one who is tired of seeing poorly written information show up in the top of Google’s results.

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Increasing backlinks to your website, blog, forum, or other internet property is VERY important to SEO, and will increase your website rankings. I will share several proven, quality methods to increase backlinks to your site which will improve your website substantially. You should continuously try to improve the amount of links to your website appearing on other places on the web.

An easy way to check how many backlinks you have in each search engine, is by using simple tools provided by Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Google – Create a Google Webmaster Tools account and add your website. It can take up to 24 hours for the data to start appearing in your account. On the dashboard under your site locate “Links to your site”, this is a complete list.

Yahoo – Yahoo Site Explorer Simply type your URL in at the top and hit “Explore URL”. Then, click “Inlinks” at the top. These are all the website indexed in Yahoo search that link back to your website.

Bing – Create a Bing Webmaster Tools account. Locate the “Backlinks” section and you will see all the websites listed.

Now that you have an idea how many backlinks you currently have, here are several ways to increase your backlinks to your website.

1. Submit your site to online website directories.
2. Write unique and quality content, this will prompt others to reference your site.
3. Bookmarking and social network sites like Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc.
4. Submit a quality press release to sites such as PRLog, PRWeb, etc.
5. If you have an RSS feed on your site submit it to feed directories.
6. Update your websites regularly.
7. Check for broken links.
8. Exchange links with other webmasters who have websites related to yours. This will help your business.
9. Blog Commenting
10. Forum posting

Remember quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. All lot of the above methods are very tedious and time consuming, this is why backlink building is always an ongoing process.

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TLC’s latest show Extreme Couponing has definitely caught my attention. I am so surprised with the price these people pay for huge grocery hauls. I am going to share some links that could help you learn how to coupon successfully.

I have no idea what I could possibly do with 50 bottles of mustard, but hey I got them for $2 right so why not pick them up! Some of these “stockpiles” are absolutely insane! If the shoppers can actually go through tons of the same products I definitely don’t have a problem with it.

There is no way I could possibly use all that food and I would probably end up just donating most of it, like a lot of the shoppers on the show.

According to Discovery (owns TLC) Channel’s website 2.1 MILLION viewers watched the December 29, 2010 premier of Extreme Couponing. That’s A LOT of people! Looks like it’s not just me that is fascinated.

I am going to try out couponing this summer when I have the seemingly countless hours required to put into each shopping trip. Below are some useful websites that I found that explain how to get started with couponing based upon their own experiences.

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/ – Shows you where to shop and the coupons to use. Featured on TLC

http://www.couponing101.com/ – Lots of interesting information

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/bargainshopping/a/Coupon_Guide.htm – An About.com beginner article

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I like McDonalds just as much as the next guy, but I try to keep my intake to a minimum. I decided to find out what McDonalds’ chicken nuggets are made of, since I’ve always wondered what ingredients were used to create those golden nuggets that so many people enjoy.

Obviously, the McNugget is not made up of entirely white meat chicken, I mean just look at the texture inside after you bite into one. Nicely enough, McDonalds makes it pretty easy to find all their nutrition information and ingredients for all the food they serve at their fast food locations right on their website.

These are the ingredients inside the McDonalds’ chicken McNuggets taken from their website (link below).

Chicken McNuggets®:White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning [yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose,citric acid], sodium phosphate, natural flavor (botanical source).  Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiaminmononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodiumaluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dextrose, corn starch.  Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybeanoil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent. CONTAINS: WHEAT

WOW just look at this long list of ingredients! So to put it simply, most of the “chicken nugget” is made up of corn. Corn is a food that we modify to products TONS of different things.

Dimethylpolysiloxane, an antifoaming agent for the fryers, is actually used to make silly putty. Yummy!

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/ingredientslist.pdf

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I use GoDaddy as my registrar for most of my domain names. Before I purchase a domain I usually look around for a GoDaddy promo code or coupon code to try and save a few bucks (yes I am pretty cheap). Some of them even work for SSL certificates, hosting, and other services offered by GoDaddy.

Godaddy is probably the registrar that I have seen discounts for most often. If you are looking to save some money always look around the coupons, they are everywhere!

Below is a list of promo codes that may work for your next order. You will just have to try and see if they are still active; you may get lucky with a few of them.

Latest promo codes:

cjc749fat - Register a .com for $7.49 (saves a few bucks)

FBF20TLD - 20% off .com, .net, .org, .biz, and .us domains.

gdz334pla - 31% off your order.

FAN3 – Register a .com for $7.49.

gdbb1855 - 15% off $50 or more.

gdz372p - .com renewal for $6.08.

gdz328bw - 20% off an order of $80 or more.

DOTCO1099 - $10.99 .co domains.

FAN749 – .org domains for $7.49 each.

YESSSL - SSL certificate for $12.99.

SPN1 – 10% off your order.

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