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Yahoo Site Explorer Feed Submission Problems

Retrocosm 3 Comments

I was recently trying to submit a site feed, actually a site map, to Yahoo Site Explorer and kept getting a ‘Sorry, your request is invalid’ error message.

I did all the usual checks ensuring the file I had uploaded to my website was in a valid format, created a new one, uploaded it, tried it in both xml and txt formats and generally messed around for about an hour.

Extremely frustrated I was about to give up when I found the solution.

Click on My Sites at the top of the left navigation menu, then click on your website URL that should be listed in the My Site section.

Now click on the Feeds link that should have appeared in the left navigation menu and if you had the same problem as me you’ll now find that in the Feeds box that has appeared, whereas before there was just a forward slash and then the text entry box for your site map file, you’ll now see your full website address before the text entry box.

Enter the name of your site map file that you’ve uploaded to your server, click add feed and it should work.

What a bloody wind up!

Why Isn’t Katharine McPhee A Bigger Star?

Retrocosm Leave a comment

Ok, so if you’re in the UK I can hear you saying ‘Who?’  Well back in 2006 Katharine Mcphee was the runner up in the 5th season of American Idol.  I don’t know why but my wife and I started watching this on I believe ITV 2 and got hooked due to the overall quality of the participants.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the last 5 finalists on this show could have walked the finals of most series of the UK’s X-Factor, with perhaps the exception of the year Leona Lewis won, that’s how high the standard was.

Oh and yes I do fancy the pants off of Katharine McPhee, let’s just get that out of way.

Things started well, here’s her audition, slightly rough around the edges but clearly there’s something special there:-

Katharine went on to the finals, one of her best performances for me was her version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, rarely am I moved this much by a singing performance:-

She also gave a pretty rocking performance of K T Tunstall’s Black Horse and the Cherry Tree:-

Katharine finished as runner up to Taylor Hicks who was also very good and she went on to release her first album Katharine McPhee.  Her record sales have, in my view, been disappointing, she’s almost an unknown in the UK.  A beautiful young woman with an extraordinary voice I have no idea why she is not more successful.  She has also done some acting and does appear quite often on various shows in the US.

Earlier this year she released her second album Unbroken and I wish her every success and wish we could see more of her.

I leave you with this thought, how can you not love this?:-

Resources:-

Katharine McPhee Home Page

Katharine on Youtube

Katharine Wiki

Freeview HD Availibility

Retrocosm 1 Comment

I’ve been looking for a new TV, the Panasonic plasma I have is a fine box but it only has one HDMI slot and it can’t manage full HD, only 720P, plus I swear the streetlights in our road dim when you power it up. I haven’t yet upgraded to a Blu Ray player but intend to do so shortly, this will bring me to three HDMI connections required.

I have my eye on the Panasonic TX-P42G20B Plasma, it supports Freeview HD and Freesat HD has plenty of HDMI slots and despite having an extra 5 inches on the diagonal its overall dimensions are little larger than my current box, and it’s cheaper than that was.

Here’s the rub, Freeview HD is apparently not available in my area until April 2011 which is deeply irritating, the only other way I’m going to join the ranks of those enjoying HD broadcasts is to have a ‘chav lives here dish’ on the side of the house and that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

With the highly likely VAT increase on the way coupled with fact that tv’s are fantastic value at the moment I feel a purchase may be likely anyway.