Can you tell it's almost Halloween? I can. And I can also tell how much traffic one little blog article can drive. My stats for the past few days are awash with Google and other searches landing people on this site for pumpkin carving patterns, since I wrote about a great deal I found and how to get them them the other day. Here's a small, partial listing of a small portion of the search referrers for pumpkin carving, taken from today's web traffic stats on this site:

 

pumpkin carving patterns (www.google.com)	34
free pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	29
pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	29
free pumpkin stencils (www.google.com)	21
free pumpkin carving patterns (www.google.com)	13
pumpkin patterns (www.google.ca)	11
pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	11
free pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	11
pumpkin designs (www.google.com)	10
free pumpkin carving stencils (www.google.com)	10
pumpkin stencil (www.google.com)	10
free pumpkin stencils (www.google.ca)	9
free pumpkin patterns (www.google.ca)	9
pumpkin carving pattern (www.google.com)	9

And it just keeps going from there, too. Hundreds of similar search combinations and terms in addition to those. Definitely noticing the increase in the number of visits (still a small drop in the bucket, but interesting to see).

"Microsoft: Connecting with the IT community for a pain-free future"

Did you know that 1% of bugs account for more than 60% of errors? As a result of the Windows XP error reporting dialog box, Microsoft has reduced crashes in the consumer products by as much as 80%. Leveraging this program, Microsoft formed WE-SYP, which stands for "We Share Your Pain," a direct feedback program that connects customers to the people responsible for programming the portion of code that creates your frustration.

Oh, if only it was true, hehehe... But the video (take off from TechNet) is hilarious, and the premise is great. View it here.

(from ActiveWin)

Unless, of course, you die today... In which case, you probably don't care much about this right now.

Hugh over at gapingvoid.com writes hilarious (and often poignant) cartoons on the backs of business cards. Come of them are decidedly off-color, granted - but they're worth looking at as long as you don't have easily offended sensitivities or something.

Oh and many of the designs are available as T-Shirts and BlogCards.

Halloween is coming, and for those who really get into the event, carving pumpkins is a lot of the fun. No better place to discover the intricacies and tricks of the jack-o-lantern carving trade than the Internet.

The Pumpkin Carving 101 site has lots of information, history, tips and tricks to make you a real pro in the carving biz. Whether you're doing traditional, old-fashioned carving or going the stencil route, there's lots of help there. They even have tips for photographing your carved work of art.

If you're looking for patterns and stencils, SpookMaster has a few free ones as well as a HUGE number (more than 200) of advanced designs, all of which you can get for a one-time fee - not a bad deal. When you subscribe, you get access to their subscriber site, which you can  continue to use through at least January of next year. I just ordered them for a youth group even that's coming up, and I think it's a great deal. The patterns can be downloaded in PDF or JPG formats.

Enjoy.

(via Make blog)

Over at bandwidth.com they've added a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) test to let you check your Internet pipe for factors relevant to supporting VOIP phone services. The VOIPTEST "gives you the inside track to understanding how many VoIP phones you can support, evaluates the quality of your Internet connection and provides insight into your firewall configuration."

Click to run the test. (it's free)

Lots of service pack and patch announcements the past couple weeks, and here's another one of note. Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 was released the other day, and it contains a number of fixes and important enhancements.

Better support for Windows Mobile devices (push technology with Windows Mobile 5, for example - which stands a chance of giving RIM a run for it's money eventually if the devices keep getting better) and incorporation of the Sender ID protection from spam, enhanced security, better offline address book support and even enhanced mailbox store sizes (75GB per store).

Webcasts are available here, and a top-ten reasons to upgrade list can be found here. The latest information about Exchange Server can always be found on the Exchange web site.