There were some pretty severe storms that ripped through the U.S. this last weekend. There are millions of people without power, which is a huge problem now with these high temperatures. Reports are that it was basically as bad as a hurrican on land and there was really no warning about it. I’m very thankful for air conditioning, power and my Internet connection. There are millions of people without these things. It’s something they didn’t expect or plan for and it’ll take a while to recover.

I remember this happened last year and maybe the year before… not a huge storm like this but there were blackouts on the East Coast of the U.S. People were without power for a while. During that time, I was in the TKA forums. People were baffled why their website stats dropped suddenly. They were panicing. They thought something happened to their websites or that Google slapped them with some penalty or something. It wasn’t that. It was that several millions of people had no power and no Internet connection. I mentioned that and it seemed to turn the light on in people’s heads and they stopped panicing.

It’s amazing how the ripples of a large power outage reach everywhere. There are people that depend on Internet advertising and revenue… you know, just people clicking on ads. When those ad clickers can’t click ads, revenues go down all over the place. I know that people having an Internet connection is one of the lesser concerns when your whole town has been destroyed, so I’m not trying to downplay that. I just think that, from an Internet marketing perspective, the ripples of the storm can be felt all over the place.

This kind of thing will happen. People will eventually get power and things will return back to normal. If your website traffic has dropped over the weekend, then don’t panic, ok? It might not be what you think. I really hate that Google has such a hold on us that we think the worst and assume the worst. There ARE other factors. It’s not all about Google every time.

Oh, and on the Fourth of July (and most other holidays), people aren’t typically inside glued to their computers. They’re out having fun, so expect lower website traffic on holidays. The best time for Internet traffic, from what I have seen, is snow storms that don’t knock out power. People ARE inside, glued to their computers – except for me… I’m out skiing, baby!

Again, I’m very thankful that I have power and air conditioning now and I pray for the safety and health of those that are stuck in this mess.

-Tony

Wow, now that’s a deal… like Black Friday in May or something!

My 40″ HDTV a few years ago was $1000 but it did include a PS3. Still, $299 for an HDTV is darn cheap, people!

This is what it felt like…

Zoolander… “In the Computer!”

Germz!!! | Myspace Video

Bejeweled 3 is coming soon and looks pretty sweet!

-T

I was just playing the new beta version of the Bejeweled Blitz game on Facebook – with Boost and Coins. They have some new improvements coming out, so I thought I would review them and provide some more tips and tricks.

How it works is, you collect points to earn boosts. Boosts are like power ups. Here are the boosts:

• Detonate – 2500 coins: Detonates all special gems on the board. You can use it once per game for 3 games. If you don’t use it, it gets wasted, so use it.
• Scramble – 3500 coins: Scrambles all gems on the board. You can use it twice per game.
• +5 Seconds – 5000 coins: Adds 5 seconds to the end of the game.
• Mystery Gem – 6000 coins: Puts a random gem on the board at the beginning of the game.
• Free Multiplier – 7500 coins: Puts a multiplier gem on the board at the beginning of the game.

When coins appear, it seems that they’re each worth 100 points. If you match gems to get them off the board or if they remain at the end of the game, they are each worth 100 points. All the coins are yellow gems – not all yellow gems are coins though.

I’m not exactly sure how you gain points. I can’t find documentation about it yet and I’ve tried playing to figure it out but I’m not sure. It seems to be based on how many gems you clear with one gem swap. I’m not sure how many though.

The Bejeweled Blitz boost I like the most, so far, is Detonate. The Free Multiplier is nice and sometimes the Mystery Gem is a power gem but not all the time. The added 5 seconds is nice, too. Scramble seems kind of useless to me. Scramble is something you almost want to avoid but if you do get one of those games where you’re stuck playing at the top, then it could be nice but that doesn’t happen enough where you’d want to spend coins on it. I think spending coins on Detonate is the best Bejeweled Boost because you can always use it and it’s the lowest cost.

More Bejeweled Blitz Tips and Tricks:

• Bejeweled Blitz Tips and Hints
• New Bejeweled Blitz Tips and Strategy

Below are some screenshots – enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

How to Purchase and Use a Boost

First, decide which boost you want to use. The boosts that are available to you will be lit up:

Second, purchase the boost(s) you want with your available balance of coins:

Third, with some boosts, there will be a small button on the bottom left of the game board:

How to Use the Scrambler Boost

First, purchase the boost:

Second, just like the Detonate Boost, there is an icon for the Scrambler boost but it’s on the lower right hand side of the game board:

-Tony

03-02-10 – The Price of Boosts

I see the tough economic times are hitting the Bejeweled Blitz world as well. The Detonate boost is now 3,000 coins (was 2,500). Scrambler is now 4,000 coins (was 3,500). The +5 Seconds boost came down and is now 4,500 coins (was 5,000).

The design of the coin gems have also changed this week.

I know that to earn coins at the end of the game, you get one per each multiplier that you’ve earned.

Does anyone see any other changes?

-Tony

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