There have been some interesting comments regarding Ghacks in general. Some of you mentioned things that you would like to see changed or added and I would like to list those in the following paragraph and ask everyone to contribute to the discussion.

Some of them are impossible to fulfill because of restrictions either imposed by coding or monetization but I’m confident that some additions can be implemented in no time to add to the value of the site:

• Make the header logo clickable and link it to the homepage.
• Categorize the blog, add icons to categories, additional RSS feeds(?)
• Better Search
• More images in posts
• Cover additional operating systems
• Add Social functions, more interaction

Some of the points made are clear and easy to understand. I would like to receive additional information about adding more interaction to Ghacks. It would be interesting to see what readers like here and what they do not want to see. I’d also like opinions on the state of the site search, more images in posts and better categorizing the articles.

I was also thinking about something totally crazy. How about an ad free version of Ghacks for subscribers who pay a low yearly fee for that? I’m not sure if there would be interest for this at all and it probably would depend on the price for that as well. The benefits would be a cleaner design and faster loading times basically. What would a reasonable amount be?

If you have anything to add, be it new ideas for Ghacks, comments on what already have been said feel free to comment in this thread. I value every comment. Even a “don’t do this please” is good enough for me. The more comments the better.

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It took another seven month until I finally quit my day job and started blogging full time. Ghacks has seen some tremendous change in those three years. From a site with a few hundred visitors per day to a website that’s coming close to 30000. That’s a huge leap if you consider that the site did not have a marketing budget and that all growth was natural.

The main reason was probably mouth to mouth advertisement from guys that like my site. I know that you are out there and tell other people about my site because you like it and I would like to thank you for that.

Ghacks would not be what it is without you and the rest of the readers and visitors. To celebrate the third birthday I thought I donate ten Ghacks shirts to lucky readers who post a comment in this thread. I like to hear your opinion about the future of Ghacks. Should I add a new category, new topics, concentrate on something, write more, less, longer, shorter. Everything that comes to your mind is important to me.

You can pick the black or red shirt. Both are made of an exceptional quality (I have to know, I got four of them that I wear regularly)

Good luck to everyone and happy birthday to Ghacks!

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It is still a lot of work and I collect unique gift ideas throughout the year to be prepared to buy a gift that is unique and special. Here are five unique gift ideas that make a very special gift for people that you care about. I hope you do find at least one gift idea to be good enough.

1. Custom Jewelry:

I start with the most expensive gift idea, don’t worry the others will not be that expensive. Paragon Lake is a company that creates custom jewelry. Customers explain what they would like and Paragon Lake creates a 3D design of the jewelry which will later be used to create the jewelry. This will of course only be created when the customer is fully satisfied with the model.

Paragon Lake Homepage

2. Blends for Friends

A truly unique gift for tea drinkers. Alex Probyn is a professional tea tester who creates custom blends using information that you provide about the person. He needs as much information as possible about that person. Everything is important and could include hobbies, colors, job, unique stories, experience and so on.

The tea will be neatly packed in a unique presentation gift box, a decorative tin, recipe descriptor referencing the personality traits of the recipient and a booklet. Each blend gets a unique id which makes it possible to order additional amounts.

The first is sold for £27 plus postage and additional ones cost £7 plus postage. That’s about $55 for the first one.

Blends for Friends Homepage

3. RideMakerz

Create custom cars for kids of all ages. You choose the car, paint jobs, tires, rims, engines, radio control, stickers, music and a personalized license plate. Prices start at $19 plus posting.

Ridemakerz Homepage

4. Art Toy USB Drives

A gift for geeks, especially female ones I think. Unique usb devices that cost a little bit more because of their uniqueness. You can buy some characters from Star Wars, Happy Tree Friends and unique creations that look cute, oh so cute..

Mimoco Homepage

5. My Food Home

This is actually a pretty unique idea. You pay a monthly membership fee of $9.99 to join the food community which gives you the support and knowledge to analyze and change your eating habits. This is done by taking pictures of the food that you eat which is then analyzed by experts and other community members.

My Food Home Homepage

Mimoco Homepage

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If you want a hotel recommendation I suggest you take a look at the Moevenpick Berlin hotel which is located at Anhalter Station just 600 meters from Sony Center and Potsdamer Platz. A great location, big rooms and awesome breakfast.

I will be back tomorrow evening and start updating my site more frequently from then on. Tonight however will be a special night with lots of fun, some dancing, some drinking. Have a nice evening as well, see you tomorrow :)

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Birthdays can be added by opening the address bock in Thunderbird and right-clicking on an entry that you want to edit. Select Properties in the right-click menu and click on the other tab. Custom 1 is the default location for the birthdays. Add the birthday in the format 8.2.2007 (day / month / year).

The new birthday will be picked up automatically by the birthday reminder extension. Two options exist how you will be reminded of birthdays. The first reminder is send by email – you specify how many days in advance you want to be notified and an email will be send with the information about the upcoming birthday.

The second reminder is a simple popup window which opens everytime Thunderbird is opened. I do not like the second option that much because I tend to open and close Thunderbird a lot and it soon becomes annoying to close the birthday reminder popup.

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I don’t want to talk about history because what we need to do is look in the future, not in the past. I still would like to thank each and everyone who visited my website and commented on topics, wrote emails with suggestions or helped in other ways. Special thanks to Thunder7 who is sending me many emails with links to interesting websites, it is really appreciated. A big shout to my bud Kenny who created all those google applications this website was orignally about, you are a great guy.

I’d also like to thank all the webmasters who helped me on my way, especially Everton Blair from connectedinternet.co.uk, the swedish guy who runs fosfor.se and all others that helped me or added a link to my website.

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