Quick set of updates
Just a status update on Pocketables and projects we have going on. TL;DR same, health update, meh.
Upcoming
You might notice I’ve been writing a bit more on root stuff. I’m finishing up on my HTC 10 on how to jump carriers, if only for four days personally.
Yup, I’m S-OFF, SuperCID, got my domestic SIM unlock code, and an invite from another carrier to play on their network for a few days.
I guess we’ll see tomorrow if it all comes together and I will actually have data service in the Sprint dead zone or if I’m hosed.
The EVO project
A few of you uploaded a lot of ROMs to me. I’ve been contacted a couple of developers who asked if I had their ROM, and that I not distribute it if I did. This was unexpected. Going down the list of developers I can contact.
Don’t know what the issue is. Could just be a person with an axe to grind, or developers not wanting the headache of supporting ancient ROMs.
User reviews
I don’t talk a lot about this lately, there’s a reason. I’ll get it sorted out soon. I’ll also be emailing the people on the reviews list with what’s going on this week.
Pocketables
As there is a lot less new content on Pocketables (due to me being only one person, job, illness, babies, etc.) the traffic has declined and continues to. We have maybe 1/5th the original content weekly as we had when John was here, and about 2/3rds the traffic. Three years ago we used to have between 5 and 8 articles a day, that’s probably what we have in a good week now.
This of course looks like a dying site to anyone putting money into it (oh you’re spending 1/5th what you were a year ago and getting 30% more traffic for dollar?) and thus it’s been hard to attempt to convince anyone that putting some money into hiring a writer or two would turn the site around.
Basically for the past three years we’re in a slow circle around the internet drain. I’ve asked to buy the site over and over and been turned down which seems a bit crazy as they’d cut their losses and I’d have the ability to pay people based on traffic. How would you like to actually get paid what your article draws in traffic/advertising?
Meh, it’ll work out or it won’t. Worst case one day Pocketables never updates again. Kind of depressing after five years of involvement with it and several trips to CES and a crapton of work getting the SEO fixed, scraper sites banished, copied content removed, etc etc.
Me, because it’s all about me
I just went through some of the worst allergies, sickness, etc of my life. I spent about two months hacking up a lung, had chest x-rays, CT scan, nebulized (which only made me jittery,) lung function tests, allergy tests, and was on horse pills for two weeks.
Unfortunately the horse pills ended Thursday and this weekend I started back down the path to getting sick. Soooo, the suck biscuit has been bitten once again. Sitting here productively coughing.
The one thing I did discover is that potentially my absurd eight months of nearly no rest (even with the world’s calmest baby,) may have to do with sleep apnea, which is because of a deviated septum that was not deviated last year. I’ll learn if it’s that on Thursday.
Feel free to donate to the Paul can breathe fund. I kid. Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll have an answer to the lung funk and the sleep funk and I’m betting they’re going to both point to the same cause (might be getting my nose broken by a headbutting two year old last year).
Interests, because it’s all about interests
I changed the content of the site around a bit a while back to be heavier on reviews of product. This was an attempt to get Pocketables up and more income via affiliate programs. Basically the way these things work is you click one of our links and even if you don’t buy something we mentioned if you buy something else on the same visit bam, easy referral money.
Attempt was to make the site more valuable to Crowdgather and get some metrics on performance.
After months of this, I can’t get any metrics on performance. There’re some more product reviews I’ll be doing for things that make my monkey murmur, but I’m probably going to mosey more back into the interesting Android news and root stuff.
Just mentioning it.
