Google aqquired Feedburner back in July of 2007 and since then the search engine giant have slowly being making changes to the web feed management service. The most recent highly discussed of these changes being the migration of feeds from Feedburner to Google’s own feedburner.google.com.

Google posted an update on their ‘AdSense for Feeds‘ blog on Monday detailing more reasons as to why moving over to Google was important, and why doing it sooner is better. For example, the post details:

“February 28th, if you have not moved your feeds to a Google Account, the traffic to your feeds will not be cut off or terminated, but you will not be able to view or manage your feeds until you have moved to a Google Account” Steve Olechowski and Matt Shobe, on behalf of the AdSense for Feeds/FeedBurner Team

Some people are having difficulties in completing the migration, although personally I had very few troubles. One major problem for many seems to be subscriber counts altering upon moving to Google. Have you transfered your feeds, if not be sure to, and if so, has your subscriber count suffered?

I last posted about my MacBook back in December of 2007 when I had troubles with the Magsafe power adapter. Today I wanted to post about a problem which has been an issue on more than one occasion, and you may have guessed what from the post title.

Since owning my MacBook (which I bought in January of 2007) I have now had my laptop in for repair three times, two of those times were for the case of the MacBook cracking. It seems to be somewhat of a common problem, as a simple search on Flickr shows, and having just recently had it repaired I thought I ought to share my frustration towards the problem.

Those who buy a new all aluminium enclosed MacBook will not face these issues due to the laptops unibody structure, but it’s the old (still available) white models which face the problems, and it seems not much can be done about it. I came to the conclusion it was the magnets in the laptop which made the case to crack, and have often wondered if the magnets could be made weaker, but this of course would then effect the laptops ability to close. When at the Apple store last week I questioned an Apple employee as to what could be done to solve this happening again, and he assured me that the repair would be done using ’stronger plastic’, now as to whether that is true is down to the test of time so we shall see.

Beyond all of this it is worth noting that despite me being out of warranty Apple did carry out the repair free of charge, and it was all done overnight, free and fast. I have it back now, and the case looks all shiny and new, but how long will it last?

Have you experienced this issue, what have you done to solve it, can you share any handy hints? Do feel free to share in the comment form!

I seem to have a really bad habit of keeping my Wordpress installation up to date, but I have finally updated my blog to the very latest version of the Wordpress blogging platform. I have installed 2.7 on a number of other blogs I operate but for some reason or another never got round to updating my personal blog here at ChrisBrandrick.com.

I now have, and I am glad I did, as 2.7 is such a joy to use in comparison to previous versions, it has so many little details which really do contribute to the overall user experience. So take note from my tardiness and be sure to upgrade your installation today, you won’t regret it!

Update: I did of course mean to say 2.7.1. I am running the latest version, which is 2.7.1! Thanks to Darren Singleton (via email) and Zander Chance for pointing this post error out to me!

I haven’t posted in a while so I figured I ought to make an update just to let you all know I’m still on this planet!

Carsonified are a UK based company who design and create websites, apps and also host industry events for like minded individuals, like you and me! There next event is the ‘Future of Web Apps’ and it is going down in Miami, Florida next week (23rd-24th), but for those of you here in the UK, Carsonified will be hosting the ‘Future of Web Design‘ in London on the 30th of April. The event brings together web designers, developers, marketing types and more all to learn, share and discuss. This year the speaker list includes: 

• Ryan Carson
• Elliot Jay Stocks
• Meagan Fisher
• Mike Kus

As promised earlier in the month, I would come back and review which of my goals I reached that I set in 2008. I somehow don’t think I did to well, but the way I figure, I can’t move forward and set new goals or even revised goals, without overlooking those I have set in the past. You need to look back in order to go forward.

So without further a due, lets get the ball rolling and take a look at the goals set back in Janurary of 2008.

1. Get a custom blog design – Fail

As with any good blog a custom design is a must, and ever since opening my blog I have been using the free theme you are currently seeing, which of course means I failed in getting a custom theme for my blog online in 2008. Although this goal is/was not a complete failure, I started to create a custom design very early on last year, but for one reason or another, decided not to use, despite developing it nearly to completion. I may end up finishing of the theme and releasing it for free, who knows. But ever since deciding against using the above as a theme, I began working on a new design, one which created more of a personal branding for myself and my blog, and what I want the blog to be overall. Hopefully, that should be online soon, but it seems I always end up wanting to tweak, so don’t hold your breath!

2. Increase blog earnings – Success

I pointed out that although my blog was a place for me to detail my online activity, I also wanted to use it as a revenue stream. I detailed how I would like to earn about £100 per month from my blog, and although I didn’t reach this goal, I did earn a somewhat regular income from my blogging activity, mainly through writing reviews. I shall continue to do so, and hopefully it will become more of a regular part of my blogging overall. In addition to reviews, other income methods will be integrated in to my blog.

3. Learn to drive – Fail

“I hope to learn and pass my driving test, thats the goal. Buying a car is not.” - That’s what I said back in January of last year, and I can safely say I came nowhere close to passing this goal. I do have my provisional licence now which enables me to learn, but as of yet I have taken no lessons. I figure failing this goal came down to a lack of desire, and no need at current to drive, public transport does me fine. As to whether it does in the future, who knows, either way I need to learn eventually.

4. Blog More – Success

Despite saying I was hoping to blog at least five times a week, which I clearly did not, I am marking this one as a success anyway, as my posting frequency did improve to a level at which I am now happy with. I think making more regular short posts while ok, may not be deemed as valuable, content wise, as more infrequent larger posts. Your thoughts?

5. Launch WebmasterPlay – Fail

A central hub for videogame webmasters, ‘webmasterplay’ didn’t see the light of day in 2008, and I am really bummed out about that as it’s a project I have been longing to get on the road, but it requires a lot of attention, which it just didn’t see due to work on Gamebrit, and starting Kufu.

6. Increase RSS Subscriptions – Success

By no means did I hit my projected goal of 500, but i did increase my subscriber count from it’s initial zero. This can only continue to rise by promoting it more, and integrating subscriber opportunities into my blog more effectively.

7. Get into my final year of University – Success

I am currently in my final semester of my final year of University, meaning I acheived my goal of getting into my final year of my Web Technology degree. For my final degree project I am making a website which I hope will be usefull to a lot of freelancers in the online space, so be sure to catch some future blog posts about that.

8. Launch and make a success of Gamebrit – Success

After a hefty development period and many delays Gamebrit finally launched in the summer of 2008, August to be precise. I outlined in my goals how I wanted the site to be attracting a minimum audience of at least 15,000 uniques per month before the end of 2008. It reached that goal, and then some, reaching over 50k in December. Keeping up this momentum is key to the success of the site.

9. Purchase an iMac – Fail

This just did not happen. Plain and simple, other things came about, like my holiday to Turkey, going to Leeds festival, and moving house yet again. It was always somewhat of a dream goal, but hey, we can all dream. Maybe 2009 will bring me some desktop apple joy.

10. Increase overall earnings – Fail

Sure I made money online in 2008, than I did in 2007, but not to a level I was happy with, I’m mainly putting this as a failure as a means to motivate myself further. Let’s see the potential.

So that makes a total of five successful goals, to five failed ones. I met you in the middle 2008. With this reflection done, it’s useful in scoping future goals and what I can and can’t reach. Look out for my 2009 goals soon. How was 2008 for you?