Best Tips and Tricks

4 Must-Have Plugins When Using WordPress as a Portfolio

2010-12-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

If all the portfolio themes are anything to go by, WordPress can often be a solid choice for photographers who need to put together a portfolio, the quick and easy way. Using a blogging platform like WordPress you can have your portfolio up and running in no tme, while also giving you complete freedom in how the photos are ultimately displayed.There are some stunning free WordPress portfolio themes, many of which are WordPress 3.0 compatible. That said, with a few extra plugins, you can turn your WordPress blog into the ultimate portfolio. Whether it’s tweaking the appearance of your portfolio, protecting your images, or making it easier to bulk upload images, WordPress plugins have you covered.

Disable Right Click Menu

One of the main reasons so many photographers opt for flash portfolios is so that their images can’t be stolen. If you’ve decided to use a WordPress blog for your portfolio, there are other ways that you can protect your images. For one, you can disable right clicking on all of your photos with the No Right Click Images plugin. Installing it on your blog will simply take away the right click menu from any of your images. There are no settings to play around with – the plugin works right out of the box.

Add a Watermark

Another way to protect your images is to apply a watermark to your photographs. Rather than have to add a watermark to each individual photo (and permanently alter your file in the process) with a WordPress plugin, you can automatically add a watermark to all of your images. With Watermark Reloaded, you have complete control over how the watermark appears, choosing the font, the size, colour and placement.

You can also control which size images the watermark will appear on – from the thumbnail to the full-sized image.

Exclude the Date

Unlike blog posts, it is not at all necessary to include the date of upload on a portfolio entry. In fact, you’ll find that any professional photographer’s portfolio is date free.
Unfortunately, there are no plugins that deal with this in the most efficient of ways. Unless your theme already removes dates, Date Exclusion SEO makes it a little bit easier, but to really make use of the plugin, you will most probably have to tweak your theme as well.
Date Exclusion SEO removes the dates from your posts, tag, category and home pages. It also gives you the option to replace the date with any text of your choice.

While Date Exclusion SEO removes the date, it doesn’t remove the text preceding it. You will find that you’re left with something looking a little bit like this:

Unless you can find a creative way to deal with the gap in the wording, you will have to manually edit your theme’s code, making the plugin obsolete.
For example, in the default WordPress theme, Twenty Ten removing the following code from Single.php will remove the date from individual posts.

When using this method, be sure to backup your WordPress theme before editing it. Not only will have you have to edit the file, Single.php, you will have to edit every instance in your theme where the date appears. In most themes, this will include Single.php, Page.php and Index.php. A detailed guide on what to look for can be found here.

Create Galleries

Uploading images to WordPress can be a tedious task. Using a plugin like NextGen Gallery streamlines the process, while also giving you a few extra options and a little bit of eye candy to boot.
With NextGen, you can create easily create galleries, viewable as a slideshow or lightbox, add image or text watermarks to your photos, and best of all, upload entire zip files of images to your galleries in one go.

NextGen also takes the pain out of resizing your images, allowing you to set one specific size to be used for all images.

Once you create a gallery, make a note of the HTML code that will allow you to include the gallery in any given post or page in your WordPress portfolio. You can continue to add photos to any given gallery after it has been posted.

NextGen is as feature rich as a plugin comes, and should be compatible with any WordPress theme. Another advantage to using a plugin like NextGen is the freedom to use any theme of your choice, while benefiting from features usually found in portfolio-specific themes.
What plugins are you using on your WordPress portfolio? Let us know in the comments.

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How to Install Android 2.2 "Froyo" on your HTC HD2

2010-10-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

Instructions for installing Android 2.2 on your HTC HD2.

Download: http://www.multiupload.com/NFPQO7W8G9

Visit http://www.windowsphonehacker.com/ for more guides

Gmail Priority Inbox: 5 Tips for Better Productivity

2010-08-31T06:41:00.001-07:00

http://mashable.com/2010/08/31/priority-inbox-tips/

Ten Simple, Helpful Microsoft Outlook 2010 Tips

2010-08-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

Image via CrunchBaseMicrosoft's Outlook 2010 got more of a makeover than any of the other applications in Microsoft Office 2010. It's got new and improved features throughout and now uses the Ribbon interface everywhere, instead of only in some windows, as in the 2007 version. It's a big complex app; no matter how many tricks you know for this league-leading email client, there are always more to learn. We've put together ten simple but powerful tips that apply mostly to new features in Office 2010, and also to a few older features that work differently from the way they worked before Office 2010. Stay tuned for more installments of Office 2010 tips. Click on the slideshow below to read the rest of our Outlook 2010 tips story.

Build A Custom Search Engine Using Your Social Bookmarks

2010-08-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, Yahoo finally unveiled the long-awaited new version of the social bookmarking site Delicious. Along with the new URL, simply delicious.com, the site got a revamped UI and added new features like selectable detail levels and alphabetical sorting of bookmarks. However, amid the delighted oohs and ahhs from the tech community over the new-and-improved site, some people were raising the valid question: "Who bookmarks anymore?" Besides bookmarking for the sake of making sure a site gets seen in your FriendFeed stream, the truth is that many people bookmark, but then turn to Google search when they actually want to find something.

67diggsdiggIf that's the case, then why are we bothering to bookmark at all? Instead, why not just build a Google Custom Search Engine that searches your Delicious bookmarks as well as any other sites you find interesting? The process is actually surprisingly simple.

Here at RWW, we're big fans of Custom Search Engines, and we use them regularly, so it just made sense to make one from our bookmarks.
Getting Started

The first step to building a custom search engine is to go to the Google Custom Search Engine site. Building a CSE is pretty simple - just click the button on the homepage to start and then fill in the search engine details (name, description, etc.). We're not going to hold your hand through this process step-by-step - it's very straightforward and Google provides documentation on how to do this. To get through the initial setup, you'll have to include at least one URL to search (we suggest www.readwriteweb.com, of course). You can remove it later on if you would like, though.

Once the engine has been configured, click the link to go into the engine's "Control Panel." You'll be on a page with links across the top that let you manage various aspects of your engine. Click the link that reads "Sites:"

Get Your Bookmarks

Now, in a separate tab of your browser, login to your social bookmarking account (delicious, ma.gnol.ia, etc.) and export your bookmarks through the option provided in your settings.

The reason we're doing this is because, in order to proceed, we need to get all the bookmarks to appear on one page on the web, so unless your particular service offers that as an option, just proceed with the export.

Once exported, you'll need to upload your bookmarks back to the web so that they all appear on one page. If you want to post them to your blog or use a simple page creator program to do so, that's your choice. However, I found that the absolute easiest way to get them on the web fast was to use the new service from Posterous.

Posterous is a lightweight blogging service that lets you blog without even setting up an account. You just email post@posterous.com. Compose an email to that account and copy-and-paste the content from the HTML file that contains your exported bookmarks. Posterous will quickly email you back with a link to that page on the web. (This is also a handy way to back up your bookmarks, too.)

Now click the link emailed to you to go to your Posterous page on the web. You'll want to actually click the permalink to the blog post you created, for example: http://myblogname.posterous.com/my-first-blog-post-1159

Add Your Links to Your CSE

The final step is to return to the tab where your CSE control panel is loaded. Click the "Add Sites" button and a dialog box will appear. Paste in the URL (the permalink) from Posterous and choose the 3rd bullet ("Dynamically extract links from this page..."). Then choose the first bullet underneath that ("Include all pages this page links to."). Click "Save." (Now you see why I made you put all the links on one page, right?)

You're done! You can now test out your engine. If you did everything correctly, your search engine will just search through the sites you've bookmarked.
But Wait...There's One More Thing!

OK, great, you now have your own custom search engine up-and-running, but what if you want to add to it in the future? Luckily, there's an easy browser bookmarklet you can use to do so: the Google Marker. As with any bookmarklet, you simply drag it to your bookmarks toolbar to install it.

Now, when you come across a site you want to add to your search engine, you just click the bookmarklet. If you have more than one engine, you can choose the one you want from the drop-down box provided. You also have to option to bookmark either everything on that site or just the page that you're currently on. When you're done, click "Save."

There you have it - instead of bookmarking and tagging, you can just search instead.

Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/build_a_custom_search_engine_using_social_bookmarks.php

How to Import and Display your Tumblr posts on Wordpress

2010-07-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

Self Hosted Wordpress can’t import directly Tumblr Posts as it does with LiveJournal or Blogger.

However, Importing and Displaying Tumblr posts on Wordpress can be done indirectely through different methods, lets check each one of them.

1. Tumblr to Wordpress Export Tool

This page has a Tumblr post export tool that transforms the posts into an xml file ready to be imported into Wordpress. Be sure to read each of the options available and also to choose the option Export For self-hosted Wordpress. Now in your wordpress go to Tools >>> Import >>> choose Wordpress . You might be asked a few question to get the content organized, but that’s pretty much it.

2. Reading and Saving your Tumblr XML, Then Importing to Wordpress

LaurenTK blog gives us a really detailed explanation on how to do this, It’s not a one step solution but it works anyways.

3. Using the Tumblr API to create a plugin for Wordpress

This is only for developers, and Im still to find out a plugin that allows the import of Tumblr into Wordpress displaying the content properly.

4. phptumblr, API wrapper

phptumblr. Again, this is only for web developers with some knowledge of php and how to implement it in wordpress, it makes use of the Tumblr api to import Tumblr posts with the hmlt format you want.

5. Using Wordpress Plugins, Feedwordpress and inline RSS

Feedwordpress inlinerss. This wordpress plugins allows you to syndicate content from feeds (rss, atom). This means it also works with Tumblr. This is the right option for people with no knowledge of programming.

more on : http://tumblring.net/how-to-import-and-display-your-tumblr-posts-on-wordpress-self-hosted/

Learning jQuery – Tutorial Roundup for Beginners

2010-04-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

jQuery is one of the most popular Javascript libraries, used by designers and developers to enhance a website design beyond the confines of CSS and to easily create complex Javascript effects with just a few lines of code. If you’re confident with your CSS, you’re ready to move onto the basics of jQuery to extend your skills toolbox. Here’s a roundup of the 10 best tutorials and series of articles online, that will be your very best resources for getting to grips with the awesome jQuery library.

http://line25.com/articles/learning-jquery-tutorial-roundup-for-beginners

50 Excellent Adobe After Effect Tutorials

2010-04-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software. Its main purpose is for film and video post-production. With Adobe After Effects it’s possible to create so great looking visual effects as in “Hollywood style” movies. Adobe After Effects is mainly used to create visual effects for commercials and movies but you can also create image slide-shows, some small videos, transition effects for websites and stuff like that.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/adobe-after-effect-tutorials-beginners-intermediate-advanced-users/

Lock Your Folder Without Software

2010-04-21T09:00:00.001-07:00

http://bang-anuh.blogspot.com/2010/03/lock-your-folder-without-software.html

How to Launch your Blog or Website on Google

2010-03-23T09:28:00.001-07:00

http://articles.onlinebusinessconsultant.co.uk/2010/03/how-to-launch-your-blog-or-website-on.html

How to use FTP with your Blog or Website

2010-03-23T09:27:00.001-07:00

http://articles.onlinebusinessconsultant.co.uk/2010/03/how-to-use-ftp-with-your-blog-or.html

30+ Super Secret iPhone Features and Shortcuts

2010-03-20T03:52:00.000-07:00

Here are over thirty iPhone tips and tricks that aren’t widely publicised – I’m sure you’ll have encountered a few before, but some are bound to be brand new to you. Read on to join the ranks of an iPhone ninja!

link is here!

Don’t Click Delete – 10 Tips For The Recycle Bin

2010-01-12T02:48:00.001-08:00

Sometimes the PC world is such a mirror for the real world. I guess in both, the trash can (that’s the Recycle Bin) is the most neglected component of our daily usage. It’s great because it’s there. We miss it only when it goes missing.

GMAIL TOOLBOX: 60+ Tools For Gmail

2009-11-04T02:16:00.000-08:00

How To Increase Your Broadband Speed In 3 Minutes

2009-10-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

http://mostlysavingmoney.com/how-to-increase-your-broadband-speed-in-3-minutes/

Top 10 Windows Vista Speed Tweaks

2009-10-12T09:06:00.001-07:00

http://mostlysavingmoney.com/top-10-windows-vista-speed-tweaks/

50 Useful Google Apps for Writers

2009-07-21T03:12:00.001-07:00

Writers, especially those who work from home or who juggle busy schedules around multiple assignments, have a lot to manage–note pads, sticky notes, brainstorming lists, correspondence with clients and editors, and even personal documents and materials that take up a lot of space and time. With its new applications and tools, Google continues to make it easier to manage all that. Below are some of our top picks for the most useful Google apps for writers.
Link is here!

A Summary of Principles for User-Interface Design.

2009-07-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

1. The principle of user profiling

-- Know who your user is.

Before we can answer the question "How do we make our user-interfaces better", we must first answer the question: Better for whom? A design that is better for a technically skilled user might not be better for a non-technical businessman or an artist.

One way around this problem is to create user models. [TOG91] has an excellent chapter on brainstorming towards creating "profiles" of possible users. The result of this process is a detailed description of one or more "average" users, with specific details such as:

* What are the user's goals?
* What are the user's skills and experience?
* What are the user's needs?

Armed with this information, we can then proceed to answer the question: How do we leverage the user's strengths and create an interface that helps them achieve their goals?

In the case of a large general-purpose piece of software such as an operating system, there may be many different kinds of potential users. In this case it may be more useful to come up with a list of user dichotomies, such as "skilled vs. unskilled", "young vs. old", etc., or some other means of specifying a continuum or collection of user types.

Another way of answering this question is to talk to some real users. Direct contact between end-users and developers has often radically transformed the development process.
2. The principle of metaphor

-- Borrow behaviors from systems familiar to your users.

Frequently a complex software system can be understood more easily if the user interface is depicted in a way that resembles some commonplace system. The ubiquitous "Desktop metaphor" is an overused and trite example. Another is the tape deck metaphor seen on many audio and video player programs. In addition to the standard transport controls (play, rewind, etc.), the tape deck metaphor can be extended in ways that are quite natural, with functions such as time-counters and cueing buttons. This concept of "extendibility" is what distinguishes a powerful metaphor from a weak one.

There are several factors to consider when using a metaphor:

* Once a metaphor is chosen, it should be spread widely throughout the interface, rather than used once at a specific point. Even better would be to use the same metaphor spread over several applications (the tape transport controls described above is a good example.) Don't bother thinking up a metaphor which is only going to apply to a single button.
* There's no reason why an application cannot incorporate several different metaphors, as long as they don't clash. Music sequencers, for example, often incorporate both "tape transport" and "sheet music" metaphors.
* Metaphor isn't always necessary. In many cases the natural function of the software itself is easier to comprehend than any real-world analog of it. Don't strain a metaphor in adapting it to the program's real function. Nor should you strain the meaning of a particular program feature in order to adapt it to a metaphor.
* Incorporating a metaphor is not without certain risks. In particular, whenever physical objects are represented in a computer system, we inherit not only the beneficial functions of those objects but also the detrimental aspects.
* Be aware that some metaphors don't cross cultural boundaries well. For example, Americans would instantly recognize the common U.S. Mailbox (with a rounded top, a flat bottom, and a little red flag on the side), but there are no mailboxes of this style in Europe.

3. The principle of feature exposure

-- Let the user see clearly what functions are available

Software developers tend to have little difficulty keeping large, complex mental models in their heads. But not everyone prefers to "live in their heads" -- instead, they prefer to concentrate on analyzing the sensory details of the environment, rather than spending large amounts of time refining and perfecting abstract models. Both type of personality (labeled "Intuitive" and "Sensable" in the Myers-Briggs personality classification) can be equally intelligent, but focus on different aspects of life. It is to be noted that according to some psychological studies "Sensables" outnumber "Intuitives" in the general population by about three to one.

Intuitives prefer user interfaces that utilize the power of abstract models -- command lines, scripts, plug-ins, macros, etc. Sensables prefer user interfaces that utilize their perceptual abilities -- in other words, they like interfaces where the features are "up front" and "in their face". Toolbars and dialog boxes are an example of interfaces that are pleasing to this personality type.

This doesn't mean that you have to make everything a GUI. What it does mean, for both GUI and command line programs, is that the features of the program need to be easily exposed so that a quick visual scan can determine what the program actually does. In some cases, such as a toolbar, the program features are exposed by default. In other cases, such as a printer configuration dialog, the exposure of the underlying printer state (i.e. the buttons and controls which depict the conceptual printing model) are contained in a dialog box which is brought up by a user action (a feature which is itself exposed in a menu).

Of course, there may be cases where you don't wish to expose a feature right away, because you don't want to overwhelm the beginning user with too much detail. In this case, it is best to structure the application like the layers of an onion, where peeling away each layer of skin reveals a layer beneath. There are various levels of "hiding": Here's a partial list of them in order from most exposed to least exposed:

* Toolbar (completely exposed)
* Menu item (exposed by trivial user gesture)
* Submenu item (exposed by somewhat more involved user gesture)
* Dialog box (exposed by explicit user command)
* Secondary dialog box (invoked by button in first dialog box)
* "Advanced user mode" controls -- exposed when user selects "advanced" option
* Scripted functions

The above notwithstanding, in no case should the primary interface of the application be a reflection of the true complexity of the underlying implementation. Instead, both the interface and the implementation should strive to match a simplified conceptual model (in other words, the design) of what the application does. For example, when an error occurs, the explanation of the error should be phrased in a way that relates to the current user-centered activity, and not in terms of the low-level fault that caused there error.
4. The principle of coherence

-- The behavior of the program should be internally and externally consistent

There's been some argument over whether interfaces should strive to be "intuitive", or whether an intuitive interface is even possible. However, it is certainly arguable that an interface should be coherent -- in other words logical, consistent, and easily followed. ("Coherent" literally means "stick together", and that's exactly what the parts of an interface design should do.)

Internal consistency means that the program's behaviors make "sense" with respect to other parts of the program. For example, if one attribute of an object (e.g. color) is modifiable using a pop-up menu, then it is to be expected that other attributes of the object would also be editable in a similar fashion. One should strive towards the principle of "least surprise".

External consistency means that the program is consistent with the environment in which it runs. This includes consistency with both the operating system and the typical suite of applications that run within that operating system. One of the most widely recognized forms of external coherence is compliance with user-interface standards. There are many others, however, such as the use of standardized scripting languages, plug-in architectures or configuration methods.
5. The principle of state visualization

-- Changes in behavior should be reflected in the appearance of the program

Each change in the behavior of the program should be accompanied by a corresponding change in the appearance of the interface. One of the big criticisms of "modes" in interfaces is that many of the classic "bad example" programs have modes that are visually indistinguishable from one another.

Similarly, when a program changes its appearance, it should be in response to a behavior change; A program that changes its appearance for no apparent reason will quickly teach the user not to depend on appearances for clues as to the program's state.

One of the most important kinds of state is the current selection, in other words the object or set of objects that will be affected by the next command. It is important that this internal state be visualized in a way that is consistent, clear, and unambiguous. For example, one common mistake seen in a number of multi-document applications is to forget to "dim" the selection when the window goes out of focus. The result of this is that a user, looking at several windows at once, each with a similar-looking selection, may be confused as to exactly which selection will be affected when they hit the "delete" key. This is especially true if the user has been focusing on the selection highlight, and not on the window frame, and consequently has failed to notice which window is the active one. (Selection rules are one of those areas that are covered poorly by most UI style guidelines, which tend to concentrate on "widgets", although the Mac and Amiga guidelines each have a chapter on this topic.)
6. The principle of shortcuts

-- Provide both concrete and abstract ways of getting a task done

Once a user has become experienced with an application, she will start to build a mental model of that application. She will be able to predict with high accuracy what the results of any particular user gesture will be in any given context. At this point, the program's attempts to make things "easy" by breaking up complex actions into simple steps may seem cumbersome. Additionally, as this mental model grows, there will be less and less need to look at the "in your face" exposure of the application's feature set. Instead, pre-memorized "shortcuts" should be available to allow rapid access to more powerful functions.

There are various levels of shortcuts, each one more abstract than its predecessor. For example, in the emacs editor commands can be invoked directly by name, by menu bar, by a modified keystroke combination, or by a single keystroke. Each of these is more "accelerated" than its predecessor.

There can also be alternate methods of invoking commands that are designed to increase power rather than to accelerate speed. A "recordable macro" facility is one of these, as is a regular-expression search and replace. The important thing about these more powerful (and more abstract) methods is that they should not be the most exposed methods of accomplishing the task. This is why emacs has the non-regexp version of search assigned to the easy-to-remember "C-s" key.
7. The principle of focus

-- Some aspects of the UI attract attention more than others do

The human eye is a highly non-linear device. For example, it possesses edge-detection hardware, which is why we see Mach bands whenever two closely matched areas of color come into contact. It also has motion-detection hardware. As a consequence, our eyes are drawn to animated areas of the display more readily than static areas. Changes to these areas will be noticed readily.

The mouse cursor is probably the most intensely observed object on the screen -- it's not only a moving object, but mouse users quickly acquire the habit of tracking it with their eyes in order to navigate. This is why global state changes are often signaled by changes to the appearance of the cursor, such as the well-known "hourglass cursor". It's nearly impossible to miss.

The text cursor is another example of a highly eye-attractive object. Changing its appearance can signal a number of different and useful state changes.
8. The principle of grammar

-- A user interface is a kind of language -- know what the rules are

Many of the operations within a user interface require both a subject (an object to be operated upon), and a verb (an operation to perform on the object). This naturally suggests that actions in the user interface form a kind of grammar. The grammatical metaphor can be extended quite a bit, and there are elements of some programs that can be clearly identified as adverbs, adjectives and such.

The two most common grammars are known as "Action->Object" and "Object->Action". In Action->Object, the operation (or tool) is selected first. When a subsequent object is chosen, the tool immediately operates upon the object. The selection of the tool persists from one operation to the next, so that many objects can be operated on one by one without having to re-select the tool. Action->Object is also known as "modality", because the tool selection is a "mode" which changes the operation of the program. An example of this style is a paint program -- a tool such as a paintbrush or eraser is selected, which can then make many brush strokes before a new tool is selected.

In the Object->Action case, the object is selected first and persists from one operation to the next. Individual actions are then chosen which operate on the currently selected object or objects. This is the method seen in most word processors -- first a range of text is selected, and then a text style such as bold, italic, or a font change can be selected. Object->Action has been called "non-modal" because all behaviors that can be applied to the object are always available. One powerful type of Object->Action is called "direct manipulation", where the object itself is a kind of tool -- an example is dragging the object to a new position or resizing it.

Modality has been much criticized in user-interface literature because early programs were highly modal and had hideous interfaces. However, while non-modality is the clear winner in many situations, there are a large number of situations in life that are clearly modal. For example, in carpentry, its generally more efficient to hammer in a whole bunch of nails at once than to hammer in one nail, put down the hammer, pick up the measuring tape, mark the position of the next nail, pick up the drill, etc.
9. The principle of help

-- Understand the different kinds of help a user needs

In an essay in [LAUR91] it states that are five basic types of help, corresponding to the five basic questions that users ask:

* 1. Goal-oriented: "What kinds of things can I do with this program?"
* 2. Descriptive: "What is this? What does this do?"
* 3. Procedural: "How do I do this?"
* 4. Interpretive: "Why did this happen?"
* 5. Navigational: "Where am I?"

The essay goes on to describe in detail the different strategies for answering these questions, and shows how each of these questions requires a different sort of help interface in order for the user to be able to adequately phrase the question to the application.

For example, "about boxes" are one way of addressing the needs of question of type 1. Questions of type 2 can be answered with a standard "help browser", "tool tips" or other kinds of context-sensitive help. A help browser can also be useful in responding to questions of the third type, but these can sometimes be more efficiently addressed using "cue cards", interactive "guides", or "wizards" which guide the user through the process step-by-step. The fourth type has not been well addressed in current applications, although well-written error messages can help. The fifth type can be answered by proper overall interface design, or by creating an application "roadmap". None of the solutions listed in this paragraph are final or ideal; they are simply the ones in common use by many applications today.
10. The principle of safety

-- Let the user develop confidence by providing a safety net

Ted Nelson once said "Using DOS is like juggling with straight razors. Using a Mac is like shaving with a bowling pin."

Each human mind has an "envelope of risk", that is to say a minimum and maximum range of risk-levels which they find comfortable. A person who finds herself in a situation that is too risky for her comfort will generally take steps to reduce that risk. Conversely, when a person's life becomes too safe -- in other words, when the risk level drops below the minimum threshold of the risk envelope -- she will often engage in actions that increase their level of risk.

This comfort envelope varies for different people and in different situations. In the case of computer interfaces, a level of risk that is comfortable for a novice user might make a "power-user" feel uncomfortably swaddled in safety.

It's important for new users that they feel safe. They don't trust themselves or their skills to do the right thing. Many novice users think poorly not only of their technical skills, but of their intellectual capabilities in general (witness the popularity of the "...for Dummies" series of tutorial books.) In many cases these fears are groundless, but they need to be addressed. Novice users need to be assured that they will be protected from their own lack of skill. A program with no safety net will make this type of user feel uncomfortable or frustrated to the point that they may cease using the program. The "Are you sure?" dialog box and multi-level undo features are vital for this type of user.

At the same time, an expert user must be able to use the program as a virtuoso. She must not be hampered by guard rails or helmet laws. However, expert users are also smart enough to turn off the safety checks -- if the application allows it. This is why "safety level" is one of the more important application configuration options.

Finally, it should be noted that many things in life are not meant to be easy. Physical exercise is one -- "no pain, no gain". A concert performance in Carnegie Hall, a marathon, or the Guinness World Record would be far less impressive if anybody could do it. This is especially pertinent in the design of computer game interfaces, which operate under somewhat different principles than those listed here (although many of the principles in fact do apply).
11. The principle of context

-- Limit user activity to one well-defined context unless there's a good reason not to

Each user action takes place within a given context -- the current document, the current selection, the current dialog box. A set of operations that is valid in one context may not be valid in another. Even within a single document, there may be multiple levels -- for example, in a structured drawing application, selecting a text object (which can be moved or resized) is generally considered a different state from selecting an individual character within that text object.

It's usually a good idea to avoid mixing these levels. For example, imagine an application that allows users to select a range of text characters within a document, and also allows them to select one or more whole documents (the latter being a distinct concept from selecting all of the characters in a document). In such a case, it's probably best if the program disallows selecting both characters and documents in the same selection. One unobtrusive way to do this is to "dim" the selection that is not applicable in the current context. In the example above, if the user had a range of text selected, and then selected a document, the range of selected characters could become dim, indicating that the selection was not currently pertinent. The exact solution chosen will of course depend on the nature of the application and the relationship between the contexts.

Another thing to keep in mind is the relationship between contexts. For example, it is often the case that the user is working in a particular task-space, when suddenly a dialog box will pop up asking the user for confirmation of an action. This sudden shift of context may leave the user wondering how the new context relates to the old. This confusion is exacerbated by the terseness of writing style that is common amongst application writers. Rather than the "Are you sure?" confirmation mentioned earlier, something like "There are two documents unsaved. Do you want to quit anyway?" would help to keep the user anchored in their current context.
12. The principle of aesthetics

-- Create a program of beauty

It's not necessary that each program be a visual work of art. But it's important that it not be ugly. There are a number of simple principles of graphical design that can easily be learned, the most basic of which was coined by artist and science fiction writer William Rotsler: "Never do anything that looks to someone else like a mistake." The specific example Rotsler used was a painting of a Conan-esque barbarian warrior swinging a mighty broadsword. In this picture, the tip of the broadsword was just off the edge of the picture. "What that looks like", said Rotsler, "is a picture that's been badly cropped. They should have had the tip of the sword either clearly within the frame or clearly out of it."

An interface example can be seen in the placement of buttons -- imagine five buttons, each with five different labels that are almost the same size. Because the buttons are packed using an automated-layout algorithm, each button is almost but not exactly the same size. As a result, though the author has placed much care into his layout, it looks carelessly done. A solution would be to have the packing algorithm know that buttons that are almost the same size look better if they are exactly the same size -- in other words, to encode some of the rules of graphical design into the layout algorithm. Similar arguments hold for manual widget layout.

Another area of aesthetics to consider is the temporal dimension. Users don't like using programs that feel sluggish or slow. There are many tricks that can be used to make a slow program "feel" snappy, such as the use of off-screen bitmaps for rendering, which can then be blitted forward in a single operation. (A pet peeve of this particular author is buttons that flicker when the button is being activated or the window is being resized. Multiply redundant refreshing of buttons when changing state is one common cause of this.)
13. The principle of user testing

-- Recruit help in spotting the inevitable defects in your design

In many cases a good software designer can spot fundamental defects in a user interface. However, there are many kinds of defects which are not so easy to spot, and in fact an experienced software designer is often less capable of spotting them than the average person. In other cases, a bug can only be detected while watching someone else use the program.

User-interface testing, that is, the testing of user-interfaces using actual end-users, has been shown to be an extraordinarily effective technique for discovering design defects. However, there are specific techniques that can be used to maximize the effectiveness of end-user testing. These are outlined in both [TOG91] and [LAUR91] and can be summarized in the following steps:

* Set up the observation. Design realistic tasks for the users, and then recruit end-users that have the same experience level as users of your product (Avoid recruiting users who are familiar with your product however).
* Describe to the user the purpose of the observation. Let them know that you're testing the product, not them, and that they can quit at any time. Make sure that they understand if anything bad happens, it's not their fault, and that it's helping you to find problems.
* Talk about and demonstrate the equipment in the room.
* Explain how to "think aloud". Ask them to verbalize what they are thinking about as they use the product, and let them know you'll remind them to do so if they forget.
* Explain that you will not provide help.
* Describe the tasks and introduce the product.
* Ask if there are any questions before you start; then begin the observation.
* Conclude the observation. Tell them what you found out and answer any of their questions.
* Use the results.

User testing can occur at any time during the project, however, it's often more efficient to build a mock-up or prototype of the application and test that before building the real program. It's much easier to deal with a design defect before it's implemented than after. Tognazzini suggests that you need no more than three people per design iteration -- any more than that and you are just confirming problems already found.
14. The principle of humility

-- Listen to what ordinary people have to say

Some of the most valuable insights can be gained by simply watching other people attempt to use your program. Others can come from listening to their opinions about the product. Of course, you don't have to do exactly everything they say. It's important to realize that each of you, user and developer, has only part of the picture. The ideal is to take a lot of user opinions, plus your insights as a developer and reduce them into an elegant and seamless whole -- a design which, though it may not satisfy everyone, will satisfy the greatest needs of the greatest number of people.

One must be true to one's vision. A product built entirely from customer feedback is doomed to mediocrity, because what users want most are the features that they cannot anticipate.

But a single designer's intuition about what is good and bad in an application is insufficient. Program creators are a small, and not terribly representative, subset of the general computing population.

Some things designers should keep in mind about their users:

* Most people have a biased idea as to the what the "average" person is like. This is because most of our interpersonal relationships are in some way self-selected. It's a rare person whose daily life brings them into contact with other people from a full range of personality types and backgrounds. As a result, we tend to think that others think "mostly like we do." Designers are no exception.
* Most people have some sort of core competancy, and can be expected to perform well within that domain.
* The skill of using a computer (also known as "computer literacy") is actually much harder than it appears.
* The lack of "computer literacy" is not an indication of a lack of basic intelligence. While native intelligence does contribute to one's ability to use a computer effectively, there are other factors which seem to be just as significant, such as a love of exploring complex systems, and an attitude of playful experimentation. Much of the fluency with computer interfaces derives from play -- and those who have dedicated themselves to "serious" tasks such as running a business, curing disease, or helping victims of tragedy may lack the time or patience to be able to devote effort to it.
* A high proportion of programmers are introverts, compared to the general population. This doesn't mean that they don't like people, but rather that there are specific social situations that make them uncomfortable. Many of them lack social skills, and retreat into the world of logic and programming as an escape; As a result, they are not experienced people-watchers.

The best way to avoid misconceptions about users is to spend some time with them, especially while they are actually using a computer. Do this long enough, and eventually you will get a "feel" for how the average non-technical person thinks. This will increase your ability to spot defects, although it will never make it 100%, and will never be a substitute for user-testing.
Bibliography

[TOG91] Tog On Interface, Bruce Tognazzini, Addison-Wesley, 1991, ISBN 0-201-60842-1

[LAUR91] The Art of Human Computer Interface Design, Brenda Laurel, Addison-Wesley, 1991, ISBN 0-201-51797-3

The Psychology of Everyday Things, Don Norman, Harper-Collins 1988, ISBN 0-465-06709-3

The Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines, Apple Computer Staff, Addison-Wesley 1993, ISBN 0-201-62216-5

The Amiga User Interface Style Guide, Commodore-Amiga, Addison-Wesley 1991, ISBN 0-201-57757-7
Credits and Change History
August 14, 1998: Initial public release.

August 19, 1998: Applied grammatical fixes sent in by Kuraiken and Mark Ellis. Made various additions attempting to fix deficiencies pointed out by James Cook (risks of metaphors), Richard Kail (cross-cultural metaphors) and Stephan Bethke (terse and uninformative dialog boxes).

sursa : http://www.sylvantech.com/~talin/projects/ui_design.html

Cum formatam un usb driver si-l transformam in NTFS

2009-04-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Start/settings/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Disk drives/USB Device/Properties/Policies/bifati Optimize for performance... (ca sa se activeze formatarea in NTFS) si click pe OK. inchideti ferestrele ramase. click pe my computer / pe removable disk click dreapta/ Format ... si o sa vedeti FAT32 si NTFS.

Top Tips to Extend Your Laptop Battery Life

2008-12-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

by Erik Rhey
source http://www.pcmag.com/

You seasoned techies are no doubt thinking, "Another article on how to get more life from your laptop battery. Big deal. I already know how to do that." Well, Mr. or Ms. Techie, I scoff at your hubris. There's still plenty to learn when it comes to getting more juice from a charge and extending your battery's overall life.

So, yes, there are tips that most of us know:

1. Dim your screen.
2. Minimize background processes.
3. Don't use the CD/DVD drive.
4. Disable your wireless antenna when not in use.

But there's still a lot you may not know about battery technology and the things that both help and hinder your laptop's juicebox.

Getting More Minutes per Charge

You can fiddle with background processes and other software settings all you want, but your hardware is the biggest factor in battery life, according to PC Mag's lead analyst for laptops, Cisco Cheng. In fact, software such as power-management utilities can help minimize the impact internal components have on battery longevity. Knowing this can affect your buying decision if you're looking for a new laptop (see the "Picking a Laptop for Maximum Battery Life" section below) or help you get the most out of the trusty laptop you've got. Here are a few ways to optimize hardware for maximum battery output.

1. Turn off ports. Disabling unused ports and components, such as VGA, Ethernet, PCMCIA, USB, and yes, your wireless, too. You can do this through the Device Manager or by configuring a separate hardware profile (see next step).
2. Create Power-Saving Hardware Profiles. Configure your laptop for the various scenarios in which you use it (on a plane, at the coffee shop, at the office, and so on). You can do this through the Hardware Profiles menu by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Preferences or by using a freeware utility such as SparkleXP (for Windows XP users).
3. Configure your display to turn off when not in use. This is different from just using a screensaver, because in many cases a screensaver still requires the display's backlight to be on. You can set the interval to turn the display off in Windows' Power Options—found in the Control Panel.

Extending the Overall Life

The easiest way to give your battery an early death is to damage it. And the two most common causes of damage are from overheating and overloading. Here's how you prevent overheating:

1. Use a cooling pad when using a notebook computer on your lap.
2. Avoid propping your laptop on a pillow, blanket, or other soft surface that can heat up.
3. Clean your desk. It sounds strange, but if you have a dusty, dirty desk, that dust will get into the vents and clog the cooling fan. Once the dust is inside your laptop, it is much harder to remove. You can try blasting it out with canned air, but you run the risk of damaging internal components. You can also remove the vent and clean out the grit, but remember that taking apart your laptop can void the warranty. So clean your desk at least once a week, if not daily.
4. Never store your laptop in a place where the air temperature exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit, such as a hot car or an outdoor patio.
5. Consider taking your battery out when using your laptop plugged into AC power. Just make sure to keep the contacts clean. If you need to clean them, use rubbing alcohol.
6. For lithium ion batteries, you do not need to discharge them fully and recharge constantly. Since they don't have the same "memory" as older nickel-metal hydride batteries, it is actually better to discharge a lithium ion only partially before recharging. You need to do a full discharge only about every 30 charges.

Overloading a battery occurs when you use an AC adapter that has a higher wattage than that specified on the laptop (and battery), or if the circuitry of the laptop consistently overcharges the battery. If you're using a replacement or spare adapter, make sure the wattage matches your laptop's within the specified voltage range. In the worst-case scenario, overloading can also damage your motherboard.

Picking a Laptop for Maximum Battery Life

If you're in the market for a new laptop, there are features and components you should consider to get the most mileage from the system's battery.

1. An ultra-low-voltage processor, such as the Intel Penryn or one from VIA's line of ULV processors.
2. A solid-state storage drive, which requires less power and, since there are no spinning parts, will suffer less wear and tear than a traditional hard drive.
3. An LED display. Although pricey, LEDs use much less power than LCD.
4. A smaller screen. A smaller screen means a smaller backlight, which will also save on battery drain.

According to Andrew Bradner, product line manager for APC, all lithium ion batteries are not created equal. The proof is in the pudding, or in this case the chemistry. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to discern if the battery you're buying was manufactured in a top-notch facility using high-quality materials. And making that call is not as easy as assuming your laptop manufacturer's battery will be of better quality than a battery from a third-party vendor. But you can stick to a couple of key guidelines.

1. Don't skimp on your battery. If you choose the lowest-cost battery you'll probably get a battery that degrades quickly, and you'll end up buying a replacement too soon anyway. So spend the money now to save expense and frustration down the road.
2. Don't buy an expired battery. A good indicator of a battery's performance is how far into its product life it is, whether it's used or new. If possible, look at the bottom of the battery and find the manufacture date.

Restore Lost Favorites

2008-10-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

If you're lucky, your Internet Explorer bookmarks are still in the Recycle Bin. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop and select the Details view (the one that shows a row of information for each file). Click the Type column header to sort by file type. Look for files whose type is Internet Shortcut. When you find some that match your missing Favorites, right-click them and choose Restore. Some people organize their Favorites into submenus, which are stored as folders. If your Favorites included submenus you'll need to look through the items of type File Folder and restore any of those that came from your list of Favorites.

If the files aren't in the Recycle Bin you're pretty much out of luck. One thing you can do to recover the ones you use most is open the History panel in Internet Explorer, and revisit the sites you recognize as Favorites, then add them.

For the future you should create a user account for your grandson and log him in separately when you want to let him use the computer. Then unless he's a computer whiz he'll only be able to delete his own Favorites!

Source : http://www.pcmag.com/

10 Free and Fantastic IE Add-ons

2008-07-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

Eat your heart out, Firefox ! Well, maybe not. Internet Explorer 7 , the current version of Microsoft's browser and the one that comes with Windows Vista, can do a lot of the stuff Firefox can do. One of those things is the ability to handle add-ons (formerly "extensions" in Firefox).

The problem with IE add-ons is that most of them cost money. Finding decent, free ones is hard enough; even searching for free IE add-ons turns up scores of IE toolbars and little else. Toolbars! It seems like virtually every company with a product of some sort has an IE toolbar, evidently trying to capture the success of the ubiquitous Google Toolbar. Do we really need toolbars for casual game publishers, or for jazz radio?

Buzz up!on Yahoo!
We spent hours digging through the toolbars and other freebies to find ten totally free IE add-ons that don't suck. We split them into two categories: Useful Stuff and Fun Stuff. Each entry links to the Windows Marketplace page where you can find more information and a download link for each add-on

6 Vista features

2008-05-30T02:31:00.001-07:00

Windows Vista has an incredible amount of features and tools, many of which are almost totally undocumented and buried in the system somewhere. Administrative and troubleshooting tools particularly are now much more powerful and easier to use then ever before.
Here are six little features and applications in Vista which I think are quite useful.

Gmail on Windows Mobile 6.0

2008-05-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

1. Enable IMAP in your Gmail settings.
2. Open the Start menu and select Programs > Messaging > New E-mail Account.
3. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') in the E-mail Address field.
4. Uncheck the box to get settings automatically from the Internet and select Next.
5. Select Internet e-mail as your email provider in the drop-down menu.
6. Enter your name as you want it to appear in sent emails.
7. Enter a descriptive name for the email account and select Next.
8. Enter 'imap.gmail.com' in the Incoming Mail Server field.
9. Select IMAP4 as the Account type from the drop-down menu and select Next.
10. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') and password.
11. Select Next.
12. Enter 'smtp.gmail.com' in the Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server field.
13. Make sure that the Outgoing server requires authentication box is checked.
14. Select the Advanced Server Settings link.
15. Make sure that the Require SSL box is checked for both incoming and outgoing emails.
16. Select The Internet as the network connection from the drop-down menu.
17. Select Done and then Next.
18. Select how often you want your phone to send/receive emails from the drop-down menu.
19. For more download options, select the Review all download settings link.
20. Select Finish.
21. Check our recommended client settings, and adjust your client's settings as needed.

529 Computing Tips

2008-05-04T09:12:00.001-07:00

There's a ton of information in your computer's user manual, but it's also hundreds of pages long. To become a real power user, you could read through the entire thing, memorizing the details on each page. Or you could turn to PC Magazine.
For this very special feature, we'll boil down that manual's hundreds of pages into hundreds of tips—529, to be precise—carefully organized into nearly three dozen categories. This should take the hard work out of being an expert!

Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our tips compendium starts with the fundamentals of computing: the operating system and basic productivity applications such as Word and Excel. Then we touch on multimedia, mobility, and business, with hundreds of tips in each section

Link is here!

529 Computing Tips

2008-05-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

100 Top Computing Tips

2008-01-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

Whether you're looking to fix what's broken, speed up what's slow, or just tweak your tech for fun, we're here to help. Many tips are pulled from PC Magazine's Ask Neil and Ask Loyd columns, how-to features in the magazine and on the Web site, and in PC Magazine's Solutions section. Most links will take you to PCMag.com, while others will keep you right here on ExtremeTech.

Quick Tip: Backup Firefox Preferences

2008-01-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

You may not have realised this until now but Mozilla Firefox has its own version of the Windows Registry, where all your preferences are stored. In the browser, it can be accessed by typing in the address bar about:config
But what, in the future, if you have to re-install Firefox from scratch? You may have spent a long time tweaking Firefox to get it the way you want it and if you subsequently lose all your preferences, then you would have to start again from the beginning. This would throw me into a fit of rage but I discovered recently there is a way to make a backup of your “about:config” preferences in case anything goes wrong.

Just navigate to your Firefox profile folder in your Windows Explorer. For me, it’s under

Documents and Settings -> Mozilla -> Firefox -> Profiles

However, it may be different for you, depending on how you installed Firefox on your system.

When you have located the profile, locate a file called prefs.js. This is the file containing all your settings and preferences. Just copy that file to somewhere safe such as a USB stick, a re-writable CD disk or even just another location on your PC. Remember to update this file on a regular basis with your latest settings.

If you subsequently lose your preferences on Firefox, just drag your copied prefs.js file back into the Firefox profile. Windows Explorer will tell you that a prefs.js file already exists and would you like to replace it with your copied file? Say yes and your preferences will be updated the way you want them again.

Sursa : Mark O’Neill http://www.makeuseof.com/

50 Top Computing Tips

2008-01-11T07:41:00.000-08:00

Top Tips story includes Vista secrets, better search methods, hardware tweaks, and ways to speed up your network. Here are 50 more of the most popular tips from the past year.

90+ Online Photography Tools and Resources

2008-01-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Photos are everywhere on the web. From sharing with friends, to editing, printing, buying, selling, searching, remixing and free hosting, we’ve lined up a plethora of resources for photo fiends.

20+ Mobile Internet Applications

2008-01-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

2008 is the year of the mobile internet, right? We hear that every year. Let’s forget about predictions and focus on what’s available right now. We bring you over 20 mobile internet applications that you’ll actually use.

Sonyericsson learningcenter

2007-12-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

Improve your mobile know-how with these easy-to-follow lessons.
http://www.sonyericsson.com/

Top 10 Template Generators for Blogs and Websites

2007-12-16T06:11:00.000-08:00

If you are not satisfied with ready-made blog and website templates and want to build your own design, having a bare-bone structure might make it easier. We’ve created a list of top ten tools to help you create that basic structure to kick-start your creativity.

Cleaning Up Audio Files with Audacity

2007-12-16T01:50:00.001-08:00

http://www.geeks.com/techtips

Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs

2007-12-16T01:48:00.000-08:00

reinstall-windows-and-outfit-your-system-with-all-freeware-programs

Ghid de bune practici pentru reducerea costurilor de print

2007-12-08T02:56:00.000-08:00

Urmatoarele trucuri va vor ajuta la economisirea de resurse financiare prin reducerea costurilor privind imprimantele inkjet sau laser. Din punct de vedere al tipului de imprimanta, sfaturile se adreseaza atat celor monocrom, cat si celor color.

Inainte de a intra in subiect, iata cateva sfaturi pentru acele persoane care incearca sa aleaga intre o imprimanta pe baza de jet de cerneala (inkjet), si una laser. In general, pretul imprimantelor inkjet este mai mic decat al celor laser insa, pe termen lung se dovedesc o povara apasatoare pentru buzunarul utilizatorului din cauza costului foarte ridicat al cartuselor de toner.

Sugestia noastra este alegerea optiunii cu laser daca planuiti sa printati mai mult de 8-10 documente pe zi. Aceste imprimante prezinta un cost mai scazut pentru cerneala consumata, iar viteza de print, cat si calitatea printului, sunt mai superioare. Totusi, daca trebuie sa respectati un buget si sa printati imagini digitale color, o imprimanta inkjet este mai potrivita.

Computerworld

Web-Video Campaign Creation 101

2007-12-07T14:06:00.000-08:00

By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

Everyone knows what television commercials are, how long they are, and what the various formats and styles consist of, ranging from the hard-sell detergent ads to the soft-sell feel-good stuff.
Most people, especially those addicted to late night television also recognize the standard infomercial format with the familiar over-enthusiastic host, obnoxious pitchman, the ebullient paid shills, and the fabricated, fantastical demonstrations. And of course, let's not forget the ever-present "But wait there's more! Call now and get even more..." There are many ways to effectively deliver a marketing message and this is not one of them.
What's a Web-video Commercial Anyway?

Maybe it's just us but I'm finding more and more clients open to the idea that Web-commercials need to be something different, something entertaining, something informative, and most of all something memorable. It isn't about creating something viral for the sake of being viral but rather something that is worth the time and effort to sit through.

If you start your video project with a television mindset, you are going to waste a lot of money on bad ideas and expensive production costs that add nothing to the delivery of a memorable message.

Big production costs may enhance the reputation of the video producer or feed the ego of the executive suite but they rarely sell more stuff. And worst of all elaborate productions generally cause the client to cut back on the number of videos created for the campaign. One video doesn’t have the same lasting impact as a series of videos with a similar theme and message. To use poker legend Scotty Nguyen's favorite expression, "It's about the campaign, baby!"

So without further preamble here is Web-Video Campaign Creation 101.

Web-Video Campaign Creation 101 - The Plan

1 Define Focus

Your marketing message must be focused on a single idea. If you try to cram everything you can do, or provide, into one video presentation all you are doing is diluting your core marketing message, the element that makes you different and superior to your competition - you are superior to your competition, aren't you?

One reason some companies have such difficulty with this concept is that they have been trained to focus on the old feature-benefit rationale. This is a game that I guarantëe you will loose unless you are the biggest, best financed, and most ruthless cutthroat company in your industry. Maybe that describes you and your business, but that's unlikely.

For any small or medium-sized company that thinks this is the path to success, read Sergio Zyman's book, "The End of Marketing As We Know It". Mr. Zyman is the former Chief Marketing Officer of the Coca-Cola Company and the guy responsible for New Coke. It's not that Mr. Zyman doesn't know what he's talking about but rather, there is only one Coca-Cola and I dare say most businesses don't fall into the same category. Unless you're a multinational corporation, trying to run your company like one is a prescription for disaster.

So, if you shouldn't be reciting a bunch of facts and features, what should you be focusing on: emotional value-add. It's the key to hitting a nerve in your audience's psyche. Focus your marketing on the psychological advantage you provide, and your competition will be left in the dust.

2 Build A BME Structure

If you want viewers to remember what you are saying and hopefully respond, then your videos have to tell a story that paints a picture in the viewers mind that they'll nevër forget. Without beating a dead horse, you just can't throw up an animation with a bunch of bulleted points or a series of stock royalty-free images that have been used more times than the ladies in the local red-light district and expect it to be effective.

In order to effectively deliver your core marketing message you must structure your videos around the BME story format. Simply put, a story must have a beginning, middle, and end.

This is not rocket science, but nevertheless it is a simple method that seems to elude a lot of entrepreneurs and business managers. Your story must begin with a problem that you can solve; proceed to a level of frustration or exasperation; and end with a solution; a beginning, a middle, and an end. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

3 Create Signature Personality

Why do you watch certain programs on television and not others. Sure certain genres appeal to some and not others, but the success of any television series is based on the connection that the audience has with certain characters. If you like the characters on 'CSI' (Las Vegas) I dare say the characters on 'CSI Miami' are a complete turn-off and perhaps vice versa.

The point is your brand, whether represented by your company or by a particular product, must have a defined personality. That personality like the difference between the Las Vegas and Miami CSIs is sure to generate both positive and negative reaction, and that is good.

If you think you should only generate positive reactions from your marketing, then you will nevër be a successful marketer because you'll nevër say anything memorable or interesting. Some people absolutely hate David Caruso but that doesn't stop the people who like him to make his show a consistent top ten ratings performer.

4 Create Dialogue that Resonates

If you want a web-video marketing campaign produced for an affordable production budget, you have get past the old bromide followed by the traditional movie and television industry - show it, don't tell.

First of all, showing is always more expensive than telling and it doesn't have the nuance and sophistication of communicating through the face and voice of a real human being. With apologies to all aspiring John Woo's, words have meaning, speech has impact, people sell product. We are making a commercial, not a feature film or television show. There are similarities but there are also differences.

The script is the critical element in making your point, delivering your message and creating that elusive brand personality we've talked about.

5 Add Appropriate Memory Prompts

So now that we have our focused psychological value-add, our story structured with a beginning, middle, and end, our signature personality, and a dialog scripted to present it all, we now need a few enhancements.

A successful web-video campaign is definitely not a PowerPoint presentation ported to video nor does it have to be one of those overly produced television ads the car companies like. Delivering the message is all about connecting with your audience, that is why the script and choice of presenter is critical, which brings me to the point of using the company president or sales manager as spokesperson - forget it. It is a bad idea, a very bad idea. First of all your sales manager will probably be working for the competition in a couple of months and other than the president's spouse, no one really wants to listen to, or look at him or her let alone be convinced of anything they have to say. Actors and voice-over talent know how to look, and how to deliver a line, that's what they do.

Depending on what the particular scenario being presented is, there are certain techniques that can help a campaign connect with its audience.

Music can be a major factor in enhancing memory retention but only if it is used properly. The caveat that I expressed for royalty free imagery applies to royalty free music. One of my favorite Web-campaigns is the Wayspa.com Christmas gift series. This series of video commercials is extraordinarily funny and I think effective, but its tagline incorporates the infamous "F-word" and that will definitely turn some people off. The music that they used as their signature theme recently cropped up on a new Christmas ad campaign for a local jewelry retail chain. As I was watching this commercial play twelve times during the evening, all I could think of was the Wayspa.com tagline. Not exactly what the nice middle-of-the-road, don't offend anybody retailer was trying to achieve.

Music has an enormous psychological effect on the viewer, it provides mood, enhances personality, and if scored to the presentation can stress certain key points that get embedded in the viewers memory because of the musical emphasis.

Another key use of music is as a signature logo-tag, like the familiar Intel tag that accompanies every appearance of their logo or the famous three-note NBC sound-tag.

Voice-overs are another way to create character, personality, and memory enhancement within a video presentation. Cutaways of appropriate images or montages, or on-screen text prompts are also effective ways of enhancing the memory retention of a presentation. All of these techniques enhance and emphasize if used properly, but if they are misused as is so often the case, they get remembered for all the wrong reasons.

6 Be Bold or Save Your Money

This is the Web we are talking about, an environment where it is critical to standout if you expect to get heard, let alone make an impact. You can not, I repeat you can not, be coy. Be bold or forget it. Unless you are some deep-pocketed multinational with more dough and market share than ideas then you have to make a statement, clearly and decisively. It is the only way, if you want to be successful on the Web.

Being bold may seem like it's alienating some potential customers, but what it is really doing is qualifying leads.

7 Create Campaigns Not Ads

How do you know if you've come up with a good concept that will make an effective Web-marketing advertisement or commercial? If the concept 'has legs' meaning that you can roll that idea out into a minimum of at least six similar but different presentations then you know you've got something.

It is taken for granted that everyone understands that you can't just present an advertisement once and expect it to be successful. It should also be understood that you have to present your concept in varying configurations in order to maximize its ability to be remembered and to penetrate the Web's clutter, not to mention the need for the investment to be cost effective.

After all, the hardest part of developing a marketing campaign is to come up with one that has legs. Why waste a great idea on a one-shot effort, when you should be milking it for all it's worth.

The End

So there you have Web-Video Campaign Creation 101: seven simple steps that will give you a shot at having an effective marketing campaign.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/

Build a Better Web Site

2007-12-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/

How To Unlock Your Phone

2007-11-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

by Sascha Segan

Now that the Copyright Office has given a green light to unlock your GSM or iDen phone, you can save money on a new phone – provided you can find it unlocked, or unlock it yourself. Depending on your phone, you might be able to do that by punching in a code, by buying a cable, or by sending it to a professional unlocking service. This applies to Cingular, T-Mobile and Nextel phones; Sprint, Verizon and Alltel subscribers are out of luck, for reasons I'll explain below.

If you've had a T-Mobile phone for 90 days, or you've run out of time on a Cingular contract, you can get an unlocking code just by calling your carrier. Tell your carrier's customer service representative that you're traveling abroad and want to use a foreign carrier's SIM card. If they don't give you the code, stick by your guns and ask for a manager.

If you don't fulfill those requirements – say you've just bought a phone off of eBay and it turns out to be locked, or you want to use a phone locked to a foreign carrier, or you want to make a prepaid phone into postpaid – you have a bunch of different options.

If you have an older or more basic Nokia phone, including the 1100, 6230, 6820 or 7650, you can use a free, online calculator to figure out your unlock code. Check out the instructions at http://nokiafree.org/forums/t64045/s.html and then use the calculator at http://unlock.nokiafree.org/ to find the code.

Owners of a few GSM Pocket PC smart phones made by HTC – the Cingular 8125 and 8525, and T-Mobile MDA – can use another free tool, at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=240784.

For most other phones, you have to buy something, whether it's software or a service. Many phones, including Sony Ericsson phones, Blackberries, some Treos, some LG phones and HTC smart phones can be unlocked with software and a special cable, according to Alex Parkhomovich of CellCorner.com in Astoria, NY. Running the software taps into a remote database of unlocking codes and transmits the right code to your phone. All told, expect to spend $15-60 for the cable and/or the license to unlock one phone.

Many more recent phones either require hardware modifications or aren't unlockable at all, according to Evan Silbert, president of Warlox Wireless (www.iunlock.com) in Boston. Silbert only does "postal unlocking" – you send him a phone, he unlocks it and sends it back to you, charging around $25 for the service. Postal unlocking is the best bet for non-expert users, Silbert says, because he guarantees success and his experts won't damage your phone.

On recent Motorola phones, that involves disassembling the phone, drilling into a shield over the main circuit board to tap into the right contacts and kicking the phone into a special diagnostic mode to get at the unlocking code. Recent Samsung phones can be unlocked with a software-only process, Silbert said.

If you're really hard core, you can buy gadgets like the NsDongle for unlocking Samsung phones and the Smart Unlocker box for many Motorola phones from CellCorner. But that kind of unlocking hardware costs $200 or more, so Parkhomovich suggests buying unlocking software or services instead, which cost $15-60 from him depending on the device.

Unfortunately, some very new phones can't be unlocked at all. The hackers are working on it, but if you can't find your phone on the lists at CellCorner, iUnlock, or other unlocking shops like TheFoneDoc.com and GSMLiberty.net, you may be out of luck.

Once your phone is unlocked and moved to a different network, you'll have to reprogram the phone's data settings so you can access the Web and send and receive picture messages. T-Mobile users can get their settings at http://tmobileus.wdsglobal.com/phonefirst; Cingular users should call 611 and ask to have their MMS and WAP settings pushed to their phone number.

The various unlocking services all unlock different phones for different prices, so it's worth shopping around to find the best service and the best deal. HowardForums has a good list of unlocking shops (http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=63).

Firefox Hack: Control Tab Scrolling

2007-10-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Tabbed browsing is a blessing and a curse. Sure, you have easy access to several sites. But if you open too many tabs at once, Firefox 2 will shrink them, then scroll the others off-screen.

If you want to see all your tabs, change the tab width or turn off the scrolling feature completely. Type about:config in the address bar and choose the browser.tabs.tabMinWidth key. The default value is 100, meaning that the minimum width of a tab is 100 pixels. You can modify this number—double-click on the value—to fit more tabs in the screen before the scrolling kicks in, or just enter 0 to disable the feature entirely.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com

2007-10-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Get free patching without Windows Update

By Scott Dunn

My Sept. 20 and Sept. 27 articles about silent and flawed upgrades involving Windows Update have made many people wonder whether they should really trust Microsoft's installer.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to Windows Update that will keep your system fully patched without costing you a dime.

It's easy to replace Windows Update's functions

In my previous columns, I reported that Windows Update has been periodically installing at least a few small executable files without notice to users, even when those users have selected a do-not-install option in the Automatic Updates control panel. This stealthy behavior upsets many people, but they don't want to completely do without a method of installing new security patches from Microsoft.

Windows Update (WU) does three things when it scans a PC: it determines which upgrades are needed, downloads the relevant files, and ultimately installs them. Fortunately, you can replace each of these tasks without spending any money.

In doing so, you give up some of the ease of automation offered by WU and Microsoft Update, WU's big brother, which also upgrades Microsoft Office applications. But the good news is that using alternatives makes it easier to update software from all major vendors, not just Microsoft.

In two previous articles, I explained how to determine which security upgrades a system needs. The best free scanner to diagnose your patching needs is currently Secunia.com's Online Software Inspector. My Sept. 9 article explains how to use the service with Internet Explorer. A Sept. 13 article explains the steps using Firefox.

I'll show you today how to add to your monthly Software Inspector routine an alternative to Windows Update.

Not many completely free alternatives exist, but there are a few that are worth examining:

• The Software Patch
• Windows Updates Downloader
• Microsoft Download Center
• AutoPatcher
• WindizUpdate

The Software Patch is my number-one pick

The best updating tool I've found is a service called The Software Patch (SP). This Web site provides not only Microsoft security updates but also a great deal more. The site includes necessary hardware drivers and updates, Microsoft Office and WordPerfect service packs, patches for Adobe and Corel products, updates for games, and more.

Pros of using SP. The Software Patch has many positive attributes:

The site is well organized, grouping its downloads hierarchically by product type (hardware or software), then by subcomponent, and finally by whether an update is "essential" or "optional."
The service links to the vendors' own sites (Microsoft, Adobe, etc.) to download updates, so you don't have to worry that the patches were somehow altered by a third party. Since SP doesn't store patches on its own server, the service is unlikely to run into legal tangles with Microsoft.
I was able to download and install a handful of Windows patches from Software Patch on a test machine. Windows Update had failed to install these same patches due to the bug I reported in the Sept. 27 issue.

Cons of using SP. No site is perfect, of course. Among the downsides to using the Software Patch are the following:

The site is supported by advertising, including pop-up ads, some of which manage to evade pop-up blockers.
The site has no downloads for Windows 2000 or earlier versions of the OS.
Navigating to Microsoft.com via SP doesn't mean you'll necessarily avoid being checked by Redmond's servers for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) compliance. For example, if you download Microsoft's Windows Defender, a WGA check is built into the program's installer. (But also note that Microsoft.com doesn't currently require WGA compliance to obtain most of its security patches rated "critical.")
Software Patch lacks some useful tools found at Microsoft's Download Center — for example, MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer). In cases like this, you can usually find an alternative source for the program. For example, FileHippo.com offers a download of MBSA, both the current version 2.0.1 and the beta version 2.1.

Figure 1. The Software Patch site provides ways to upgrade a wide variety of products.

Other system-updating possibilities fall short

In addition to Software Patch, other solutions have may have value for some users.

The Windows Updates Downloader is Microsoft-only. If you find yourself downloading a large number of Microsoft updates every month, you may like a free utility called Windows Updates Downloader (WUD).

Created by Jean-Sebastien Carle, a frequent contributor to MSFN (Microsoft Software Forum Network), WUD makes it easy to select which patches you need and then download them all with a single click. Although WUD was designed to slipstream updates into new installs of Windows, it can also be used for downloading patches for existing installations.

Unfortunately, the tool is designed to download Microsoft patches only; it provides no options for getting updates for non-Microsoft products. In addition, keeping up to date requires you to download new Update Lists from the WUD site each month. And because the product automates downloading only, you still have to launch each update's installer one by one.

Microsoft Download Center is disorganized. Another option that avoids using MU or WU is to use the Securities & Updates section of Microsoft's own Download Center, where you can obtain patches, documentation, and other tools.

Unfortunately for the average user, the listings at this Microsoft site are not well organized, with important patches mixed in with optional utilities, technical seminars, and other content. Moreover, it offers no patches for non-Microsoft products.

AutoPatcher is out of commission. Until recently, one popular source of patches for Windows and other products was AutoPatcher. Unfortunately for the service's fans, however, Microsoft requested that the site suspend its offerings in August. The software giant cited security concerns, because patches were being stored on AutoPatcher's server instead of being downloaded directly from Microsoft.

Despite that setback, project leader Antonis Kaladis hopes to launch a comparable replacement service, perhaps as soon as this month, according to a post on the AutoPatcher site. Until then, users must content themselves with other sources for patches.

WindizUpdate isn't up to snuff. Another patch-download site is WindizUpdate, owned by Phil Young of Auckland, New Zealand. Unfortunately, the site requires an unsigned plug-in for your browser, frequently asks to scan your Registry, and lacks updates for non-Microsoft applications. Editorial director Brian Livingston gave the service a tepid review in the Windows Secrets Newsletter on June 29, 2006.

Keeping your system up to date requires that you analyze, download, and install patches on a regular basis. Secunia's Online Software Inspector does a great job of system analysis. In addition, The Software Patch gives you one-stop upgrades for a variety of platforms and applications.

The Software Patch is the clear winner for patch downloading. In combination with Secunia's service, The Software Patch is a welcome solution. If you need to keep Windows 2000 patched, however, the Windows Updates Downloader can be a useful assistant as well.

Readers David Todd and Leland G. Whitlock will each receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for their help in researching this topic. Have a tip to share? Send us your comments via the Windows Secrets contact page.

Top 10 Webapps That Run In Your Browser Sidebar

2007-10-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sidebars. The most underrated part of Firefox and Opera. We just use them for displaying browsing history or bookmarks. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Sidebars are capable of so much more: displaying weather, baseball scores, Digg news, and even instant messaging. Here’s a few of our top picks.
Most of these apps are really just web pages that run well in the sidebar. But how do you add them to the sidebar in the first place? Simple: use bookmarks. In Firefox, bookmark the page and put it in your Bookmarks Toolbar. Then, right click the bookmark you just created, hit Properties, and check Load this bookmark in the sidebar. Then, just click the bookmark to load it in the sidebar.
http://mashable.com

25+ Productivity Modules For iGoogle

2007-10-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

We already know we can turn Netvibes into our personal office. Why not do the same with iGoogle, which is gaining popularity (and hundreds of new modules) very fast? We’ve assembled a list of over 25 productivity modules for iGoogle; take notes, send e-mail and SMS and review your daily schedule directly from your favorite personalized portal.
http://mashable.com/

FIREFOX GOD: 300+ Tools and Resources For Firefox

2007-09-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

As the second biggest browser out there, and the biggest open source one, Firefox has a tool for just about anything you can dream up. In this list, Mashable has collected over 300 of the best.

The 20 Most Interesting Printers of 2007

2007-09-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

You might think that in a category as mature as printers, it would be hard to find a lot of interesting products in this year's crop. If so, you haven't been paying close attention.In some cases the interesting part is simply the price (how does $300 for a color laser strike you?); in others, it's an indication that a given feature is becoming more widespread (like printing on optical discs); and then there are cases of something that's actually new and different. Some printers in that last category are already available. Others have just been announced, but offer so much promise that they demand mention in any list of interesting products. Here's a look at 20 of the most interesting.http://www.eweek.com/

PHOTOSHOP TOOLBOX - 80+ Photoshop Tools and Resources

2007-09-07T10:11:00.001-07:00

Almost exactly 6 months ago (February 28th 2007), Adobe promised an online edition of Photoshop “within 6 months”. That hasn’t materialized yet, but in the meantime we thought we’d take a look at the desktop version, which is an irreplaceable tool for every photographer and web designer out there…even most bloggers can’t live without it. In this post, we have compiled a one-stop-shop for various Photoshop tools and resources.

40+ Tools For Google Calendar

2007-09-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

The new Yahoo Mail rolled out to everyone this week with, among other things, better integration with Yahoo Calendar. But don’t forget what we think is the simplest calendar out there: Google Calendar. We’ve thrown together a series of programs, browser add-ons, Greasemonkey scripts, and Stylish user styles for Google’s calendar service.

75+ Email Services That Aren’t Gmail

2007-09-07T09:53:00.001-07:00

http://mashable.com/2007/09/06/email-toolbox/

Babystrology baby ticker

2007-09-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Start your baby countdown with a free baby ticker for your signature, message boards, blogs and webpages.
http://babystrology.com/tickers/index.html

THUNDERBIRD TOOLBOX - 110+ Thunderbird Themes and Extensions

2007-09-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

http://mashable.com/2007/09/03/thunderbird-toolbox/

Top 20 Temporary and Disposable Email Services

2007-09-06T03:50:00.000-07:00

Top 20 Temporary Mailbox services

Collected below is a list of best temporary/disposable email services that provide you give you a temporary email inbox which is totally spam free and needs no registration or sign up:

1. Mailinator is one of the best and top rated disposable email services that gives you a temporary mailbox on the following address format e.g. something@mailinator.com
2. MyTrashMail is another good temporary mail service that gives you a mailbox in the address format e.g. something@trashymail.com and also gives you secure temporary mailbox if you signup
3. MailExpire stands out in the crowd by giving you the option to have a temporary inbox ranging from 12 hours expiry to as long as 3 months
4. TemporaryInbox is yet another simple and easy to use temporary email service that gives you an email address in different formats
5. MailEater gives you a free temporary email inbox in the format e.g. something@MailEater.com
6. Jetable not only allows you to set the life span of your temporary email inbox but also allows you to forward the mails in your temporary inbox to your real email address
7. SpamBox gives you a temporary email address in the format e.g. something@spambox.us and also allows you to set the lifespan of your inbox
8. GuerillaMail lets you generate a temporary email which expires in a time of 15 minutes and also tell you how to offer a temporary email service on your site.
9. SpamHole provides you a 2 hour long temporary email inbox at the address format e.g. something@spamhole.com
10. 10MinuteMail generates an easy 10 minute email inbox for your temporary email needs
11. DontReg is one bigger, better, faster and safer temporary email inbox solution
12. TempoMail is one new temporary email inbox services that give you spam-free mailbox
13. TempEmail aims to give you a fast, anonymous yet secure temporary email inbox
14. PookMail is a multi-language temporary email inbox service that gives an email address in the format e.g. something@pookmail.com
15. SpamFree24 is a new multi-domain temporary email inbox service which is growing rapidly
16. KasMail requires registration, allows up to 25 aliases, can set aliases to expire after a certain amount of time.
17. SpamMotel requires registration, provides mail forwarding, mail can be accessed through desktop e-mail clients, can reply to e-mail from your real e-mail address using SpamMotel e-mail.
18. GreenSloth requires no registration, receive-only, e-mail expires automatically after a week
19. AnonInbox requires no registration, simple, no frills.
20. Spam.la is a fast disposable email service which requires no registration, no frills. You can see all spam being sent to all Spam.la accounts, or just your own.

With links find original articles : http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/05/27/top-20-temporary-and-disposable-email-services/

15 Great, Free Security Programs

2007-09-03T03:34:00.000-07:00

Turn your PC on, and you're immediately vulnerable to malicious attacks. But you can use these free applications to minimize the dangers and protect yourself.

30+ Firefox Themes

2007-08-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

http://mashable.com/2007/08/26/firefox-themes/

40+ Firefox Add-ons for High Speed Blogging

2007-07-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

40+ Firefox Add-ons for High Speed Blogging

Posted: 19 Jul 2007 05:28 AM CDT

Firefox works great on its own, but it’s the thousands of extensions that make it excel. We’ve pulled together more than 40 add-ons for Firefox that provide quick access to handy blogging tools. But whatever you do, don’t install them all at once.

Blog Publishing

Blogger Bar - Search Blogger, “Blog This” function for any page you’re on.

Clipmarks - Clip any portion of a website to save, email or put on your blog.

Deepest Sender - Blog to multiple platforms from one window.

JustBlogIt - Just right click, and you’re blogging about the page you’re viewing.

LiveJournal Addons - Notifies you of friends updates, messages and more.

LiveJournal Hook - Gives you quick access to many LiveJournal commands and tags.

MySpace Blog Editor - Post directly from Firefox, drag and drop clips from sites.

Scribefire - A blog editor that integrates with your browser and allows you to drag and drop items from a web page into a blog post.

Twitterbar - Post to Twitter directly from the address bar.

WordPress.com Sidebar - Adds a quick access sidebar to get to your WordPress.com account.

Uploading Photos and Media

Fireflix - Sidebar extension to upload, browse, and manage your Flickr photos.

Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery - Upload photos directly to your Kodak EasyShare Gallery.

Firefox Universal Uploader - Universal program for uploading to sites such as Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, and Facebook.

FireFTP - An integrated FTP system that syncs and checks versions.

Flickr Sidebar - View the pictures in your account in a sidebar.

Fotofox - Select, tag, and upload images to popular sites such as Flickr.

ImageBot - Lets you upload photos to ImageShack or Photobucket.

OakFlickr4PFF - Allows uploading to your Flickr account.

Blog Tools

Adsense Notifier - Displays your current earnings from Google Adsense in the status bar.

Copy as HTML Link - Copies the address of a page to the clipboard as an HTML ready link.

Create short URLs - Right click an address, click wrapURL, and create a shortened URL for your use.

Dict - Highlight a word, right click it, select define and get a definition in a pop-up window.

DictionarySearch - Similar to Dict, but the result appears in a new tab.

FastDict - Add quick access to any number of dictionary sites to spruce up your blog entries.

ShrinkThisLink Link Shrinker - Use the ShrinkThisLink service without leaving the page.

Tiny.pl - Shortens an address via the tiny.pl service.

Blog Design, Customization and Development

ColorZilla - Get a color reading from any spot in your browser.

DT Whois - Adds a button for Domaintools.com whois service for the site you are currently viewing.

Firebug - Look under the hood of your favorite websites and take a peak at their code.

Greasemonkey - Allows you to run small java scripts to manipulate the way a page displays to you.

HTML Validator - Checks the validity of a page’s HTML and tells you the results in simple graphics.

IE Tab - Lets you view a webpage in an Internet Explorer tab without leaving Firefox.

iWEBTOOL Webmaster’s Toolbar - Allows you quick access to services and tools from iWEBTOOL.

JavaScript Debugger - In browser Java script debugging.

KGen - Allows you to see the strongest keywords for a given site.

LinkChecker - Checks the validity of all links on a given page.

Load Time Analyzer - Allows developers to measure how long a page takes to load.

MeasureIt - Draws out a ruler to get a pixel dimension of any element on a page.

MetaTags - Checks the meta information of a site and features an automated search engine submission tool.

RankQuest SEO Toolbar - Quick access to over 30 SEO tools.

SearchStatus - Keyword density analyser and checks backlinks.

SEOHAND - Tracks a site’s standings and creates graphs over time.

SEOQuake - Ever wonder why a page gets good search ranking? This will help you figure it out.

Web Developer - A highly regarded debugging tool for designers.

11 Ways to Search Without Google

2007-07-31T02:44:00.000-07:00

As of this writing, Google doesn't own the whole world. But it does have a solid lock on our browsing habits. Want proof? Try typing "good" into the address bar of your browser—did you accidentally type "goog"? Yeah, me too. When a coworker heard I was writing this story, he asked (semi-jokingly) "but if I'm using a different search engine, how will I get Google results back?"

Depending on who you ask, Google accounts for between 40 and 50-something percent of the search engine market (add in Yahoo and MSN and the figure jumps to around 90 percent). And rightly so—the service gives speedy results and has a very good user interface.

But don't you ever want to try a different search engine, just to see where it takes you? After all, Google's search results are based on relevance and popularity, so scrolling through Google results isn't the best way to get off the beaten path and discover new Web territory.

Here, for your surfing pleasure, are 11 ways to do exactly that. Included in our list are sites like ChaCha.com, where a real live "Guide" takes your query and returns related results tailor-made to your specifications. The service is free, and is quirky enough to be a lot of fun (a friend of mine learned first-hand that if you flirt with your guide, sometimes they'll flirt back, though of course that's against ChaCha policy). The service doesn't require any registration, and it's completely free.

StumbleUpon.com gives you thumbs-up/thumbs-down icons in your toolbar and lets you rate pages and sites you come across. As StumbleUpon learns your preferences, it gets better at directing you to stuff you'll like. There's also a social aspect; you can add other people with similar interests to your friends list, and their preferences will further refine your search results. StumbleUpon's Web site can be slow at times, but it's a great way to find Web content you wouldn't be exposed to otherwise.

Link is here!

Test your popup blocker software.

2007-07-28T00:43:00.000-07:00

PopupTest.com provides a simple and independent source for popup window testing. Whether you are developing a popup killer software or you are thinking about purchasing one, you can use our sample popups to test the effectiveness of the application.

We are providing samples of the most common popup styles, as well as some not so common ones (as indicated).

Speedup Your PC 2

2007-07-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Speedup Your PC 2 - For more funny movies, click here
Do correctly these things you can make your PC faster without ANY errors! Link is here!

10 Articles All Bloggers Should Read (at least once)

2007-07-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

10 Articles All Bloggers Should Read (at least once)

Submitted by Ryan Caldwell on July 17, 2007 - 7:15pm in great articles | new bloggers

I have about twenty bloggers working for me at any given time. Many new bloggers are often not familiar with the details of blogging software (e.g. the screwy video embed issue with WP) or they don't know much about the art of blogging (other than writing about the blog's topic).

Over time I've developed a list of ten articles that I send to all my new bloggers as part of their initiation. Today I've decided to make one version of that list public in the hopes that new bloggers everywhere can benefit, and maybe we can turn the comment section into a "you forgot this one" list.

Many of these posts overlap in theme, and some even cover the same topic. But reinforcement never hurt anyone.

(these are listed in order of priority)

1. How to Write Magnetic Headlines

In my view, headlines are the most important aspect of blogging both from a reader standpoint and an SEO standpoint. Brian Clark has written the authoritative guide to Headline writing, and if you haven't read it yet, let me just suggest that you should easily be able to double your readership and search traffic just by following his suggestions.

2. How Can 10 Simple Articles Change Your Life?

This article is all about creating a long-term vision for becoming an expert blogger. Chris Pearson introduced me to the idea of how a blogger can establish authority with 10 killer posts. In fact, Chris had probably established his authority before he got to 10 (somewhat due to his design skills, I'll admit). Nonetheless, it's 100% true that you can enter from under the radar and dominate a niche just by writing long (seriously long), well organized, authoritative articles on your topic. Of course, they need to be good articles. And they need to provide unique analysis and information. And you probably do need to be an expert. But you'd be surprised by how many experts are out there trying to rise above the crowd with short little 300 word newsy posts. Not going to do it.

3. Scannable Content

This is perhaps the one article that will make the biggest immediate difference. Visual display is to blogging like curb-appeal is to real estate. Bloggers should be constantly thinking about the curb-appeal of each article. It really makes a difference.

4. 10 Killer Post Ideas

Here's an experiment I've run several times. Setup a blog. Tell the blogger how to use WordPress. Don't give any article hints. See what comes out the other end. If your experience is like mine, then you know that most of the time you'll see two very bad habits form. One, the article titles will not be specific enough (and they'll be dull). Two, the blogger will develop a one-dimensional article style. To avoid this situation, make sure you read Chris Garrett's suggestions for 10 Killer Post Ideas.

5. 7 Steps to Being Recognized as an Expert

Liz gives you seven effective ways to build an expert reputation. As a blogger, building a reputation in a specialized niche should always be your goal. Start by following Liz's methods and you'll be on the right track.

6. Converting One off Visitors to your Blog into Regular Readers

Getting visitors is not enough. You want your visitors to stick. I don't know how many times I've found one of my blogs the beneficiary of a massive traffic surge, only to find three days later that the surge hadn't been sticky. A blogger constantly looking to convert visitors into regular readers. Darren Rowse's classic post gives you the essentials for building a long-term relationship with your new visitors.

7. 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang

Catching and keeping your reader's attention is critical, especially for realing in new readers. Brian Clark gives us five of the best ways to get your readers to bite from the very beginning.

8. The Art of Linkbaiting

Nick Wilson's article rocked my world when I first read it. Just as in the academic discipline of Logic there are "forms of argument" The Art of Linkbaiting helped to define "forms of blogging." What's most impressive is that it gives the blogger a way to be very intentional about her content. "What purpose does this post serve in the overall scheme of my blog? Will it help attract a sticky readership?" While not all blog posts need to be linkbait, blogging should be about giving the reader what the reader wants. And in the end that's all that linkbait is about. Be the first or the best at giving the reader what she wants, and you're golden.

9. Before You Begin Blogging: A few things you should know

The worst thing you can do is give a new blogger false hopes. DebNg provides a completely accurate and sobering look at the reality of problogging. This is the first article that I show to all of my potential bloggers before they even get started. False hope is the number one killer of new bloggers aged 15 to 85.

10. 5 Surefire Steps To Increase Readership 300% (or more)

Ok. Here's my little contribution to the list. Once a blogger has gotten the hang of writing quality, linkable content, it's time to add those little things that can take a blog to the next level.

Bonus: Why Live Blog Stats Matter

Help-Key: How to Optimize Your Video for YouTube

2007-07-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

When I say things like this, my friends roll their eyes, but it’s how I actually talk. I say things like, “Let’s talk about video compression!” They buy another drink. But that’s what we’re doing in today’s Help-Key, and it’s something I actually get to do for a living (besides blogging, duh).

YouTube is getting huge. Somehow, despite the lack of a coherent business model, it’s become one of the most popular destinations on the Internet, and rightly so: the idea that anyone can become some sort of memestar by uploading a simple video is great. And because the site does its own Flash conversion, it’s a piece of cake. The thing is, though, with digital video garbage in means garbage out.

You may have noticed that some videos on YouTube simply look better than others. This is because they came from better sources. With a little tweaking and a little know-how, you can prepare your video for YouTube in a way that spares us all from oversized pixels.

The first step is knowing what format you’re starting with. Most digital cameras today shoot video, as do most phones, which is a great cheap way to start. Sadly, the videos created tend to be worse than that 3rd-gen VHS copy of Cheerleader Carwash 8 you found under your brother’s bed. If you can, pull your video from a digital camcorder. Most Mini-DV cameras include Firewire out, so if you’ve got a fairly recent Mac you’re set. Or you can get a Firewire card for your Peecee pretty cheap.

But no matter where your video comes from, the onus is on you to make it awesome. There are plenty of editing tools on the Internet for any platform you wish, and the latest computers actually have tools bundled with the basic install for just such casual editing. And they’re easier to use than you think. You’re not Kubrick, so you don’t need Final Cut Pro or Premiere. I personally use the $30 pro version of Quicktime, because it’s fast and has drag-n-drop editing, which is nice.

If you can avoid it, don’t use the Windows Movie Maker. The program handles things with tricky Windows Media codecs and black magic and the blood of virgins. Also, if you’re using a cellphone video source, it’ll vomit on you. Quicktime plays nice with about anything, and the pro version can be had on any PC or Mac.

Once you’ve got your clip looking pro, you’re going to want to make it YouTube ready. YouTube can only take certain formats for input, so this is where it gets tricky. You’ll want to make a .mov or .mp4, so make sure whatever editor you’re using can hack it. If not, you’ll need to do a conversion, and that’s no rock n’ roll fun, and you lose information during the transition, so best just leave it alone.

Your newly formed video should be set to the YouTube-native size of 320×240 (aka QVGA). I know, I know: here we are in the world of HiDef, and I’m telling you to shrink your vids. I’m just the messenger, ya know?

It’s also worth noting that your camera might shoot at a different aspect ration than the 4:3 that is 320×240. If so, you’ll have to do a little letterboxing. It does king of suck, but it’s better than the stretch and pull method that would happen otherwise.

When YouTube’s servers encode your video, it’s going to lose some quality, it’s a fact of streaming media. That means you’re going to want to make it as bit-rich as you can. Use a bitrate as high as you can, YouTube can take it. That being said, anything above 1200kbps is probably overkill and will take the video longer to process on YouTube’s end. Somewhere between 700kbps and 1000kbps should do the trick nicely.

Now that we’ve got size, codec, and quality set up, choose your audio. You’ll want to use the MP3 audio codec (either CBR of VBR), which should be standard on your editor.

Output your file as a .mov or .mp4 and preview it. It should look pretty good (if small). If you’re satisfied, do your upload. After it’s on the servers, it can take up to an hour or more to display. This is because YouTube is formatting it and encoding it for their Flash streaming. It’s an automated process, but by following the guide above, it makes less work for the YouTube servers. This isn’t altruistic, however: you did some of their work for them, but since you were in control, you made it better than they could. This means that your video will look better than most, and will encode faster. Double bonus, pal.

Test it out and tell us what you think. If you’ve got some other tips, feel free to share them in the comments thread for this story. Also note that there’s software out there that has automated YouTube features, such as VirtualDub. These programs are great time-savers if you’re and hardcore YouTuber, and they should be considered.

Enjoy, readers, and we’ll see you on our screens soon.

Source : Crunchgear

2007-06-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

Analytics Toolbox: 50+ Ways to Track Website Traffic

Posted: 25 Jun 2007 09:18 PM CDT

http://mashable.com/

From analyzing your RSS feed to counting page views to visual representations of where your visitors are clicking, there is no shortage of companies looking to help you better understand your web site’s traffic. In our latest “toolbox” installment, we analyze (pun intended) the wide variety of applications and tools available for keeping tabs on how your sites, feeds, blogs, emails, or even your intranet is performing.

As with our other toolbox articles, we encourage you to add other applicable links in the comments area.

Web Traffic Visualization

Visualization tools use a variety of methods to show you where users are clicking on the individual pages of your Web site to help you make design adjustments that emphasize the right links and content.

ClickTracks - Enterprise analytics software, shows visitor navigation directly on your site’s pages.

Crazy Egg - Provides visual “Heat Maps” to show where your visitors are clicking.

Indextools - Provides web-based analytics package featuring real-time reporting. The Path Explorer feature provides a visual overlay of how users are behaving on your site.

Intellitracker - Enterprise web analytics software including recently released IntelliMaps feature for visualizing user activity.

VisitorVille - Windows application that helps you visualize your web site traffic through a video game-like interface, for example, animated characters representing a visitor to your site.

Blog and RSS Feed Analysis

While a blogger with significant traffic should also make use of one of the many analytics packages listed, there are also a variety of tools specifically designed to help bloggers better serve their readers and advertisers.

FeedBurner - The most widely used tool for measuring stats on RSS feeds for blogs and podcasts, FeedBurner reports and trends subscribers, incoming links, and visitors. FeedBurner was recently acquired by Google.

MeasureMap - Provider of web-based tool for tracking blog traffic, inbound links, comments, etc. The company was acquired by Google while still in beta and is currently not offering new accounts.

Mint - An installable application for measuring traffic, referrers, and feeds, aimed primarily at bloggers.

Performancing - Aimed at small to medium size sites and blogs, provides data on individual visitors and tag cloud views of referring sources in addition to standard statistics.

Pheedo - Tracks stats relating to RSS advertising, including subscribers, number of views for different pieces of content, and conversion rates from the ads in your feeds.

Technorati - Measures the popularity of blogs based on the number of people that have “favorited” them using the service.

Market Research Data and Site Rankings

Want to see how your site stacks up against the competition? Several companies provide publicly available data and rankings on web traffic.

Alexa - Provides widely-reported and widely-criticized statistics on relative popularity of web sites, based on usage of those that have installed the Alexa Toolbar.

Compete - Uses a diverse set of tools for measuring traffic and popularity of web sites.

comScore - Market research firm that publishes reports on Internet usage and trends.

Hitwise - Market research firm, provides analysis on key websites in more than 160 verticals.

Nielsen//NetRatings - Offers web analytics package that compares your site with others in your industry. Produces widely followed research reports in dozens of different Web verticals.

Analytics Software Packages

There are dozens of companies that provide similar packages for measuring your web site traffic in great detail. From spotting problems in your registration path to seeing which content is most popular, picking the right vendor will depend largely on your site’s level of traffic, goals, and budget.

Clickability - Provides imWare, which includes web-based tools for adding Email This, Save This, and Print This functionality, and then provides stats on each respective tool and how it is being used.

Clickfox - Provides an analytics tool based on “artificial intelligence” technology that makes specific recommendations for your web site with a focus on usability.

Clickstream – Markets Datasherpa Web Analytics to hosting providers.

Coremetrics - Provides analytics software with a focus on delivering information on actual customer behaviors.

DeepMetrix - Provices LiveSTATS analytics software with versions for enterprise users, small business, and ISPs.

Fireclick - Offers analytics package that integrates with paid search engines, e-mail providers, affiliate programs and more in order to provide a consolidated view of all site activity.

Google Analytics - Google’s free analytics software. Includes tight integration with AdWords (see also: 27 Features that Make Google Analytics Best of Breed). Unlike some enterprise apps, the stats are usually on a delay of a few hours.

Hitslink - Around since 1999, offers a Professional and Enterprise version of their web-based real-time reporting package.

iPerceptions - Provides “attitudinal analytic solutions” looking at customer behavior both online and off.

Manticore Technology – Includes Web Analytics as part of their Virtual Touchstone “demand generation” suite.

Maximine - Offers full suite of analytics software to handle privacy, accessibility, site quality, legislative compliance, web standards enforcement and traffic tag validation issues

MetriServe - Web-based analytics solution, also offers gadgets for Windows Vista and Mac OS X to get up-to-date stats on your desktop.

Moniforce - Offers two versions of the webSensor analytics package, Enterprise for high traffic sites and a light version called Commerce.

Mtracking - Dubs itself a “visitor relationship management service” with two different analytics packages.

Nedstat - Offers two analytics products - a more lightweight service called Sitestat and enterprise-focused Nedstat Pro.

SPSS - Provides “Predictive Web Analytics” by providing lists of the visitors most likely to convert.

Omniture - Offers three web analytics products; SiteCayalyst for traffic analysis, DataWarehouse for list generation, and Discover for segmenting large chunks of data.

OneStat.com - Provides a range of analytics packages from small to large web sites, as well as a free counter that anyone can use.

Optimal IQ - Provides Marketing Webtools, along with ClickForensics product for monitoring click fraud.

Quova - Analytics software with a focus on measuring the effectiveness of marketing strategies by geographic region.

SiteClarity - Web analytics with reports in areas including marketing, site optimization, and customer retention.

SiteCounter - Offers free stat tracking of key metrics like visits, page views, and referring source for sites with less than 250,000 visitors per month.

Unica - Offers NetInsight for enterprise-class web analytics and NetTracker, for small and medium businesses or internal sites.

Visual Sciences - Formerly WebSideStory (one of the earlier large web tracking companies), today the company offers the HBX Web Analytics package aimed at high traffic sites.

WebAbacus - Performance and Effectiveness product provides a variety of analysis of designed-focused reports.

WebSTAT - Provides installable client-side analytics package that includes more than 40 canned reports.

WebtraffIQ - Analytics package tracking site traffic, effectiveness of emails, and offline campaigns.

WebTrends - One of the top players in analytics since the early days, the company now offers multiple tiers of software packages for different size businesses and specific industries.

SiteMeter - Provides a basic free tracking service for measuring visitors and page views, and a premium version with more features with pricing based on page views.

Log File Analysis

If you would rather keep all of your data in-house and customize a stats package for your own needs, these solutions offer a starting point by providing an analysis of the log files on your server.

123LogAnalyzer - resides on your web server and analyzes your web site’s log files. Provides stats on visitors, geographic regions, popular content, etc. Starts @ $14.95/user.

Analog - One of the longest running stats packages, Analog is open source and provides basic statistics like number of visitors, referring source, and popular content.

AWStats - An open source, installable stats page, AWStats analyzes your raw log files to produce a number of graphical reports. The software can also be used to provide analysis of FTP log files and mail log files.

Webalizer - Downloadable, open-source analytics software that generates reports from your site’s log files.

E-Mail Tracks

2007-06-26T03:06:00.001-07:00

E-Mail Tracks

Posted: 13 Jun 2007 01:08 PM CDT

A couple of years ago, an organization approached me with an interesting dilemma. One of their employees (let’s call him “Steve”) had taken a vehicle and run off. They were desperate to find him to help him out of the trouble that he had gotten himself into.

The next day, the police found the vehicle about 400 miles away where it had broken down. They believed that he was somewhere in the vicinity and were concentrating their search in that area. They looked for three days without any luck.

Then, this organization got lucky. The CEO received an e-mail from the Steve, apologizing for all the trouble that he caused. The employee used a Hotmail account that he could access from anywhere to send the e-mail. Steve indicated that he was going to be checking his this e-mail account for the next couple of days if we wanted to “talk” with him.

It was at this point that I was called in. Everyone was sure in for a surprise!

The CEO asked me to take a look at the e-mail and see if there was a way I could determine where “Steve” was sending the e-mail from. I immediately went to work.

I was about 30 seconds into my investigation when the CEO came to be with a puzzled look. “Aren’t you going to read the e-mail? All I see is gibberish on the screen! How’s that going to help us?”

I responded, “This ‘gibberish’ is called an e-mail header and it is the equivalent to a GPS trail for the e-mail. It tells the computer, and me, every single system that it went through to get to your computer here. I can then cross-reference this information with registration information on the Internet. I should be able to tell you what city Steve is located in, the Internet provider for the place that he sent the e-mail from, and when he was at that location.”

Sure enough, it took me about two minutes to discover that Steve was nowhere near where he abandoned the car. Rather, he was more than 1,500 miles from that location, half a country away! I provided the information to the police and they got the address from the Internet provider. Within a couple of hours, a worker had positively identified Steve and the process of helping him could now begin.

All because Steve sent an e-mail.

The Importance of Headers

What I had done was really not that difficult. In fact, it is really common practice. They key to doing this is understanding the contents of an e-mail header.

The e-mail header provides all of the technical information that was required to get to your mail inbox. It is built up as it travels through the Internet. My time it gets to you, it is full of information goodness that gives a pretty good history

I’m not going to go through a comprehensive guide on how a header works and all the possible options that are available to the user but I will point you to a couple of really good web pages. Reading Email Headers talks in more detail about decyphering the contents of an e-mail header and Permanent Message Header Field Names is a great resource for everything that may be in an e-mail header.

The important headers to be looking at are:

Received - This is probably the most useful header in the entire bunch. This tells you the system that received the e-mail and the system that sent the e-mail. There may be several of these headers, depending on the number of systems the e-mail needed to go through. It also has a number of subfields that help to provide specific information:
- from - The name and/or the IP address of the system that sent the message during the transaction
- by - The name an/or the IP address of the system that received the message during the transaction
- for - This tells you who the e-mail is for. But, more importantly, it tells you the time that this transaction occurred. This helps you to confirm the path the e-mail took.
From - This is the e-mail address that sent the message.
Reply-To - This is the e-mail address that would receive the response if you hit Reply in your e-mail program.

One thing to note is that e-mail header Received information is generally in reverse chronological order. That means that the last transaction to occur is the first one in the header. This can be confusing because within the transaction itself, the from and by subfields are listed in chronological order of receiving the e-mail.

Useful Online Tools

What I would rather do is provide you with some quick tools that can help you track the e-mail to its origins quickly.

Email Graphic Traceroute - A very useful and easy to use tool. Simply paste your header into the web page and it will generate a Google map mashup showing you exactly where the e-mail has gone.
Geobytes Free Services - A huge list of useful free services that all rely on being able to associate an IP address to a physical location. These services include:
- Spam Locator
- IP Locator
DNS Report - A very comprehensive look at a specific domain name. Also provides an option to check an e-mail address.
Network Tools - A lot of very useful IP and DNS tools including:
- ping
- lookup
- trace route
- whois

Conclusion

To track the average user’s e-mail is a relatively easy process. It can be very useful when you need to figure out where someone is located.

But, be cautioned. It is also relatively trivial for someone who understands how mail systems work to fake almost every header option. So be sure you know who you are tracking first unless you want to become the tracked!

http://www.dailycupoftech.com/

The Ultimate RSS Toolbox - 120+ RSS Resources

2007-06-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate RSS Toolbox - 120+ RSS Resources

Posted: 12 Jun 2007 01:35 AM CDT

Never again will mankind have to look for RSS info in more than one place…ok, we’re kidding, but we’ve aimed to create a near comprehensive list of all the RSS readers, tools, browser plugins, tips, hacks and directories available on the web. We hope you find it useful (we built it because we needed it), and feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

For those just starting out in the big wide world of RSS, note that we’re talking about Really Simple Syndication, a way to publish and subscribe to frequently updated content like blog entries and news items.

RSS readers - Windows

Omea - one of the most fully featured RSS readers out there; can get a little slow as its database grows; free in its basic version, also has a commercial, advanced version with more features
Mozilla Thunderbird - Mozilla’s e-mail and RSS reader, supports skins and add-ons
Awasu - RSS reader with a customizable user interface, the ability to synchronize with other readers, bookmarking and annotation, and republishing of your feeds
GreatNews - integrates with Bloglines, and offers a very fast way to browse through your feeds
RSS Bandit - RSS reader that offers organization of your feeds through folders, as well as synchronization across several installations
IntraVNews - an RSS reader that integrates with Microsoft’s Outlook.
SharpReader - requires .NET framework, lets you organize feeds into folders, integrates with Feedster, can display new items via system tray popups
eCruiser - an RSS reader in Japanese
Juice - a pretty basic RSS reader
Opera - Opera web browser comes with a fully featured RSS reader
FeedDemon - Newsgator’s feed reader offering a high degree of customization, newspaper-style feed reading, synchronization with other Newsgator products, and feed search
Snarfer - a free RSS reader, with key features being river of news style view, embedded video display, synchronization with Bloglines, powerful search and filtering
Active RSS Reader - simple RSS reader with a very small hard disk and memory footprint
Feed Amasser - a very lightweight, freeware RSS reader
FeedExpress - a freeware, open source RSS reader; quite basic, but with some nice features, for example CSS customization
Crackfeed - a tiny systray based application that notifies you with RSS news as they come
HappyFish - RSS reader and podcast client, requires .NET 2.0
Attensa for Outlook - RSS reader that fully integrates with Outlook, support OPML import/export, scheduling, republishing, and advanced feed organization
Briz RSS Reader - a very simple RSS reader
Particls - desktop RSS notifier and ticker with lots of options, also has a Firefox plugin
Anothr - RSS reader/bot for Skype/Gtalk/MSN

RSS readers - OS X

Newsfire - RSS reader for OS X
NetNewsWire - Newsgator’s RSS reader for the Mac comes in two flavors: commercial and free
PixelNews - a commercial Mac OS X RSS reader that comes with a huge database of feeds
Shrook - a Mac RSS reader which also has a web based version; supports synchronization, instant notifications via Growl, real time search, smart grouping and more
Vienna - a freeware, open source RSS/Atom newsreader, with a built-in tabbed browser and the ability to customize feed display
NewsLife - RSS reader for the Mac, pleasing to the eye, simple and easy to use
Squeet - another Mac RSS reader, currently on hiatus

RSS readers - Linux

Liferea - RSS reader for Gnome users
Akregator - RSS reader for KDE
Straw - RSS reader for Gnome, supports RSS and ATOM, as well as exporting/importing OPML feeds
Snownews - text based RSS reader for all you 1337 people
AgileRSS - desktop aggregator that is able to display any RSS, ATOM, and XML news feed; also offers an RSS news ticker

RSS Readers - cross-platform

RSSOwl - works on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Offers, among other features, a multi-pane, highly customizable interface, OPML and blogroll import, internal browser, and a search engine.
BottomFeeder Rich-featured multiplatform RSS reader (works on Linux as well as Windows and OS X), supports CSS customization, OPML import/export, and plugins.
BlogBridge - open source RSS aggregator that allows you to create dynamic feed reading lists

RSS readers - web based

Google Reader – In addition to tracking your feeds, Google’s popular RSS reader allows you to star items (like in Gmail), view trends in your feeds and reading habits, and recently added an option to read feeds offline.
iGoogle – Formerly known as Google Personalized Home, iGoogle allows you to include RSS feeds as part of your custom start page.
Netvibes - This personal homepage provider includes hundreds of “modules” you can add to your page from Hotmail to your Flickr photos, but also lets you create your own modules by simply entering an RSS feed URL.
Pageflakes – Another personalized homepage provider, Pageflakes functions similar to Netvibes, letting you select from pre-made modules or create your own by adding an RSS feed.
My Yahoo! – Still the most widely used custom homepage on the Web, My Yahoo now allows you to add RSS feeds alongside your weather, stock quotes, and news. Similar to Netvibes and Pageflakes, My Yahoo allows you to re-arrange your feeds with drag and drop features.
My Netscape – Netscape’s personal homepage service also includes the ability to add RSS feeds as content modules. An account also lets you participate in their Digg-like homepage voting.
Daily Rotation – A no-frills personalized homepage aimed targeted at techies, Daily Rotation includes recommended feeds from hundreds of tech sites, and also lets you add in additional feeds of your own choosing.
Rojo – A part of Six Apart, Rojo is a web-based reader that combines RSS aggregation with a community of sorts, showing what people are reading on their homepage.
Bloglines – One of the early online RSS readers, Bloglines “split screen” interface makes it easy to view the full content of any of your feeds. The service is part of the IAC family of sites.
Newsgator – NewsGator’s RSS reader allows you to organize your feeds in Windows-style folders that can be expanded and collapsed.
MySindicaat - an advanced online RSS reader with a tree-like feed layout, available in several different flavors, including a mini ticker and a mobile RSS viewer. It also has RSS mixing capabilities.
Fwicki - web based RSS reader that lets you create custom river-of-news style feeds.
NewsAlloy - a fast and full-featured web based RSS reader. Also has a mobile version.
Feeds 2.0 - a personalized RSS aggregator, that learns from your reading habits and displays relevant feeds

Mobile RSS Readers

NewsGator Go! – NewsGator’s mobile version syncs with user’s online accounts, allowing you to read their feeds on the go for $29.95.
LiteFeeds – Once downloaded to your phone, LiteFeeds allows you to browse your feeds, email articles to friends, or bookmark them to your del.icio.us account.
Egress – This program for Windows Mobile sports a clean UI and also supports podcasts. Egress is available for $12.95.
Mobispine – Mobispine is a free Java application for reading your feeds on your mobile. The service also includes a web component where users can add feeds to the Mobispine database, see related feeds, and leave comments.
Quick News – Designed for Palm OS, Quick News lets you download feeds either via a HotSync or a direct internet connection for later use, which enables offline (or out of coverage) reading.
Bloglines Mobile – The popular web-based reader also offers a browser-based mobile version to access your feeds without downloading anything.
FeederReader – This application is designed for phones running Windows Mobile, and bills itself as being especially well suited for developers, allowing you to view the RAW XML files for and its XML elements and attributes.
FreeRange – This Java application will work on Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. The site has optional Google Reader integration.
Google Reader Mobile – If you use Google Reader, you can access a version designed for mobile phones.
ZapTXT for mobile - mobile version of the ZapTXT widget.

RSS to email converters

Feedblitz - one of the most popular RSS to e-mail converters. Supported by FeedBurner. Also has a Firefox plugin.
ZapTXT - monitors feeds for certain terms and sends you notifications via e-mail. Also has a mobile version.
R|Mail - offers simple subscription to any RSS feed, as well as an R|mail subscription widget which you can use on your site

RSS Feed Validators

Feed Validator – By entering your feed URL at Feed Validator, the service will literally translate your RSS to code and identify any potential problems. It works with versions of RSS up to 2.0.
RSS 1.0 Validator – This validator for RSS 1.0 generates an HTML page identifying any errors.
Redland RSS 1.0 Validator & Viewer – This validator offers a variety of display options for checking your feeds.

RSS-related plugins - Firefox

Sage - RSS reader for Firefox, has a decent amount of options, allows CSS customization
Wizz - a very advanced RSS reader for Firefox with a huge set of options
RSS Ticker - an RSS ticker for Firefox with a large number of options
Beatnik - simple RSS reader for Firefox
BlogRovr - a Firefox plugin that brings you related news based on your feed choices and the website you’re currently visiting
NewsFox - fully featured RSS reader for Firefox, with three panes; similar to Thunderbird
InfoRSS - another RSS ticker for Firefox with a very comprehensive set of options
Feedbar - Feedbar displays new live bookmarks items directly in your Firefox sidebar

RSS-related plugins - Wordpress

Feedlist - a wordpress plugin that displays linked lists imported from an RSS or ATOM feed
Feedsmith - redirects all RSS feeds on a Wordpress blog to the Feedburner feed.
Fedafi RSS plugin - a plugin for Wordpress that creates a full text valid RSS 2.0 feed from your Wordpress blog and adds a style sheet, tracks subscribers and clicks on articles.
BDP RSS aggregator - converts RSS feeds to Wordpress blog entries. Handy for creating an automatic blog.
Sig2Feed - Wordpress plugin that lets you add a signature to your RSS feeds

RSS-related plugins - other

Good News Trillian RSS plugin - allows you to read RSS feeds in Trillian
RSSNews - RSS reader for IM client Miranda
RSS Feed Scanner - Azureus plugin that allows for automated downloads by means of advanced feed filter configurability
RSS Popper - RSS plugin for Outlook and Outlook Express
RSS Reader for Gaim - enables you to read RSS feeds in Pidgin (formerly Gaim)

RSS managers

Feedburner - the obvious one. Recently acquired by Google, FeedBurner has become the de facto standard for RSS feed management, offering a huge set of features, including detailed analytics, chicklets, feed optimization and ad insertion.
WebPasties - a set of RSS-related tools, including some feed management features
FeedPass - creates a nice landing page for your feeds

RSS mixers

Yahoo! Pipes - an advanced RSS mixer with a graphical user interface; supports simple operators, filters, and many advanced functions
Feedbite - a combination of an online RSS reader and an RSS mixer, with the possibility to vote for RSS “bundles”
Feedblendr - a very simple RSS mixer that doesn’t require registration
Blogsieve - full featured RSS mixer that lets you blend up to 5 feeds and do some advanced filtering on the results
Feedcombine - RSS mixer that lets you blend feeds from a list of predefined sources
Feedshake - RSS mixing and some basic filtering
xFruits - a set of very neat tools for RSS blending, filtering and conversion, including an RSS to PDF tool
BlastFeed - an RSS mixer that lets you combine and filter feeds and get them delivered via e-mail, IM or RSS
FeedRinse - an advanced RSS filter that enables you to get rid of the “spam” in your RSS feeds
FeedDigest - RSS mixer that lets you mix and sort feeds and then republish them on a website
Popfly - Microsoft’s very promising RSS mixer, currently in closed beta
Google Mashup Editor (GME) - Google’s set of developer tools for creating mashups
RSSMesh - a PHP script that lets you blend several feeds into one
Afeeda - RSS mixer which lets you blend all your favorite feeds into one

RSS Ping Tools

Pingoat – On Pingoat, you enter your blog URL and select the services you would like to ping. Doing so will make sure that the selected sites crawl and index your site. The site has nearly 50 different services you can ping.
Ping-o-matic – Enter your blog or feed URL and select from a variety of blog search engines and Ping-o-matic will send them a ping. The site has about 20 services to choose from.
Blog Flux – In addition to a variety of other tools for bloggers, Blog Flux offers Pinger, which includes more than 30 sites you can automatically ping, including several language specific indexes.
ping service – This site is mostly in Dutch and automatically pings a few of the larger services such as Technorati and Weblogs.com

Feed directories

Syndic8 - one of the biggest RSS feed directories; integrates with several services on this list
Technorati - indexes blogs based on tags and authority, as measured by incoming links.
Feedster - organizes feeds into content channels such as technology and celebrity gossip.
Blogstreet - places feeds into different directory categories and also has a Digg-like homepage powered by user rankings.
Weblogs.com - one of the original feed directories, Weblogs.com simply shows the most recent blog updates automatically as they happen.
Icerocket - a blog search engine that also keeps track of blog statistics with their Blog Tracker product.
blo.gs - a simple listing of recently updated blogs in the spirit of Weblogs.com.
blogdigger - blog search engine, also has a Local feature for finding bloggers in your area.
2rss.com - a categorized blog directory and search engine with about 10,000 feeds indexed.
WeBlogALot - a blog directory that also pulls in breaking news feeds from mainstream sources.

RSS tips & hacks

Steve Rubel’s collection of RSS hacks
Another set of RSS-related hacks from Steve Rubel
Web Worker Daily’s tips on RSS reading
5 RSS tips by LifeDev
Steve Rubel’s 35 ways to use RSS feeds
RSS tools for Firefox - a detailed roundup of RSS-related add-ons for Firefox here on Mashable
Mister Tipster - a hardware USB mini display aimed specifically at displaying RSS feeds
Some RSS tips from Wired
Read RSS on your AppleTV

Miscellaneous RSS-related tools

SearchFeedr - RSS feed search, supports Yahoo!, Google, MSN Live and Altavista
FeedCycle - bundles feeds into “episodes” and delivers them on a scheduled/daily basis
FeedCrier - brings RSS feeds to your instant messenger
Clicky’s RSS feed - Clicky is a web analytics tool which can deliver analytics results via an RSS feed
RSS Panel X - a Greasemonkey script that displays RSS, Atom, hAtom and OPML directly from originating website
FeedForAll - create and edit RSS feeds and podcasts
Radio UserLand - a combination of a publishing platform and a news aggregator
Custom Reader - a white label RSS reader solution, ready to be branded to your liking
Chaos Wallpaper - RSS reader and wallpaper changer in one
FireAnt - RSS reader focused on podcasts, vidcasts, and media
NewsAloud - converts RSS feeds to voice
RSS2PDF - converts RSS feeds to PDF format
Dapper - creates an RSS feed from any website
Feedity - another RSS generator that can generate an RSS feed from any website
RSSMicro - an RSS search engine; searches over 65 million feeds

Recommended: Piczo Layouts at Mashcodes!

http://mashable.com/

I Think I Have A Virus

2007-06-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

I Think I Have A Virus: Now What?

Posted: 11 Jun 2007 04:22 PM CDT

Everyone knows that there viruses can cause an awful lot of damage to your system. Sure, there are some viruses out there that will cause silly pop-ups to show on your screen and nothing else but there are many more out there that just want to cause serious harm to your system and others.

Because of this, we put a lot of effort into keeping viruses off our systems. We install antivirus programs. We keep virus signatures up to date. We perform regular scans of systems in case something may have snuck in. We monitor files, e-mails, systems in realtime to try and prevent viruses before they hit our systems. We create policy to prevent people from bringing in CDs, DVDs, USB drives that may be infected. We install systems to monitor for suspicious activity that could indicate a zero-day attack. We lock down systems so that applications can not run as administrator. We prohibit users from installing applications. We disable the ability for remote users to access non-authorized networks.

And yet, we still get viruses.

But what do you do when you suddenly realize that the unimaginable has happened? What do you do when a virus hits?

I have put together a few steps that I typically follow whenever the unthinkable happens that may be of benefit to you.

Disconnect from the Network and/or Internet

This is the very first thing that you need to do! And I don’t mean going an disabling the network card. I mean physically go and pull the network cable from the network card or the phone cable from the modem. This is one of the few ways of guaranteeing that there is no connection between the virus and the rest of the network.

Why is this so important? There are several reasons:

It stops the virus from propagating. If there is no connection, the virus cannot replicate itself to other systems on the Internet or on your network.
Prevents data from leaving the system. Many trojans are designed to transmit user information and files to other systems. If the trojan can’t connect to these other systems, then your data can’t leave your system.
Prevents access to your system through back doors. Other trojans create a connection between your system and some system on the Internet. The owner of the remote system can then get in to your system and basically work on it as if s/he were on your system locally. This means they can move files, make system changes, or even move the mouse and use the keyboard. By unplugging your system from the network, this breaks this connection.

Perform a Manual Virus Scan

This is your first attempt to determine whether or not your system is truly infected. Do a deep scan of every single file and folder on the system. This may take several hours but it is necessary to determine whether or not your system is infected.

If it does not come up with a virus, then run a second scan with another antivirus program that can be run from read-only media. Many antivirus programs allow you to create a CD that you can run the program on.

Note: It is very important that you only use read-only media on this system until you are certain that it is not infected or that you have eradicated any viruses that are on the system. The means do not use floppy disks, external hard drives, USB flash drives that are not in read-only mode (many flash drives do not provide this option), CD-Rs and DVD-Rs that have sessions that are not finalized, CD-RWs, and DVD±RWs. Any of these portable media are susceptible to being infected by the virus. If you have no choice and need to use one of these media types, once it is put in the system, assume that it is also infected and treat it accordingly.

If you do not come up with a virus after scanning the system with two antivirus packages, this does not mean that your system is virus free, even though it probably is not infected. But, as someone once said, “Just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!” So, be paranoid.

Check for Unusual Startup Applications

A virus needs to be running in order to work. And if the virus does not have a way to start itself up again when the system is rebooted, then it would be a simple matter of rebooting the system and the virus goes away (at least, until someone runs the virus manually). There are typically five ways that a user can run a program automatically:

From the Startup folder. Any application or shortcut to an application that is located in a Startup folder will automatically run that application each time a user logs into the system. There are several of these folders located throughout the system including each user’s profile (including the Default and All Users profiles). There are also some more added in Windows Vista including one in C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms.
From the Registry. There are several locations in the registry that will allow you to run a program automatically. These programs can be run either when the user logs in or when the computer starts up automatically. Typically, settings under the HKEY_USERS and HKEY_CURRENT_USER run when the user logs in while settings under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE run when the system starts up. Some of the registry keys that you need to look at include:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionTerminal ServerInstallSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
- HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
- HKEY_USERS<UserGUID>SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
Anything that is located under any of these keys will be run when the user logs in. The biggest challenge is that not all of these applications run when every user is logged in. The programs under HKEY_USERS are specific to individual users and may not run for every user.
From a Scheduled Task. A scheduled task has the ability to run applications on start up and on log in of a user. They also have the ability to run a program as a different user or as the system itself. The Scheduled Tasks can be found under the Control Panel.
From a Service. A program installed as a service can launch itself non-interactively when the system starts up. It can also run as the system. To check out the services that are running on your system, look for Services under the Administrative Tools.
From a Startup or Login Script (Local Policy). Every system has a local policy that can launch scripts and programs on start up and log in. To access these settings, run gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy console. The two areas that you will then want to look in are Local Computer PolicyComputer ConfigurationWindows SettingsScripts (Startup/Shutdown)Startup (for programs that run when the computer is started) and Local Computer PolicyUser ConfigurationWindows SettingsScripts (Logon/Logoff)Logon (for programs that run when the user logs in).

Some of the things to look for in these areas include:

Applications that you have not installed
Applications with names that look random (e.g. od7f29p5.exe)
Applications running from odd locations (e.g. svchost.exe running from a temporary directory)
Applications running as odd users (e.g. svchost.exe running under your account rather than a system account)

A really great resource to check on the validity of these applications is ProcessLibrary.com. It allows you to do a search for any executable that may be running on your system and tell you whether or not it is a legitimate process. Not 100% infallible but it can sure point you in the right direction.

Check for Processes Accessing Remote Computers

In order to replicate itself, viruses need to infect other systems. One of the most common ways to do this is by copying itself through network connections. Thus, it is really useful to have the ability to determine what applications are attempting to connect to remote resources.

An excellent freeware application for doing this is CurrPorts. With it, you can easily see what applications are using the network, where they are connecting to, where the application resides, and what port(s) it is using. You also have the option to close any network connections or kill processes that are making the connections.

Some things to look for:

Applications that are accessing the network that should not be accessing the network (e.g. notepad)
Applications accessing the network using different ports than they should be using (e.g. iexplore on port 5800)
Any application listening on port 25 (SMTP)
Heavy activity between any application that is attempting to connect to a network resource outside of the local network
Network activity that is on a non-standard port
Network activity on ports 80 and 443 from non web browser applications

A good resource for what type of traffic is typically on each port, check out the Port Knowledgebase.

Kill and Rename Suspicious Files

If you have determined that there is a file or two that should not be running on your system, your best course of action is to rename the file. The problem occurs when the file is running. A running application (or virus, for that matter) will not let you rename it. So, what do you do?

One of my favorite tools to circumvent this problem is called Unlocker. It gives you the ability to stop (or unlock) files so that you can perform different functions on them. If it can’t unlock the file live, it will allow you to make changes to the file on next reboot before the file is executed.

Recover Deleted Files

If the virus was destructive, it may have started to delete some important files and data. Fortunately, most viruses do not securely wipe your data and some of it may still be available. Use a tool like Restoration to look for and retrieve data that may be still available.

Clean Up System

Even once you have renamed the virus and prevented it from starting, there could still be some remnants that could cause errors. Use your favorite system cleaner to remove orphaned links and registry entries.

Conclusion

It is rare for an IT person to not come across at least one infected system during their career. Being prepared for this eventuality will help you get through this tough time relatively unscathed.

Sursa : dailycupoftech.com

FOSS for Security

2007-06-26T02:30:00.000-07:00

FOSS for Security

Posted: 15 Jun 2007 12:51 PM CDT

It never ceases to amaze me how much quality freeware/open source software (FOSS) there is out there. In honor of Security Week, I have decided to compile a list of security related FOSS.

I have broken the security software into the following categories:

All descriptions of the software are copied straight from the website.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I can guarantee that there are several applications that I have missed but I see this list as a starting point. If you know of an excellent security tool that should be included in this post, please feel free to add it into the comments for all to see.

Anti-Phishing

Verification Engine -VerificationEngine gives you the ability to verify that the site you are visiting (or directed to via a e-mail) can be trusted - essential in the current environment of fraudulent sites and faked emails. Just mouse over the logo brand or image you want to verify and VerificationEngine will authenticate the different trust credentials of the site you are on. For example VerificationEngine will check logos such as credit card icons (for online purchasing) web site endorsements such as BBB online or TRUSTe or trade associations are legitimate. In addition simply mouse over a logo and a green border will indicate that the site is legitimately the company it claims to be.
TrendProtect - TrendProtect is a FREE browser plug-in that helps you avoid Web pages with unwanted content and hidden threats. TrendProtect rates the current page and pages listed in Google, MSN, and Yahoo search results. You can use the rating to decide if you want to visit or avoid a given Web page.
PhishTank - PhishTank is a collaborative clearing house for data and information about phishing on the Internet. Also, PhishTank provides an open API for developers and researchers to integrate anti-phishing data into their applications at no charge.

Anti-Spyware/Anti-Malware

BOClean - Our BOClean version 4.23 software protects you against a full spectrum of malware, automatically removing these programs from memory, your hard disk and your registry without the need to reboot or drop your internet connection. BOClean safely neutralizes these threats instantly without any risk of damage to your files or computer. Updates are FREE, and the update download and installation process is (or, in the case of network deployment, can be) completely automated.
Spybot - Search & Destroy - Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven’t intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been “hijacked” (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don’t see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is free, so there’s no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.
AVG Anti-Spyware - The efficient solution against the new generation of threats spreading over the internet. Secure your data and protect your privacy against sypware, adware, trojans, dialer, keylogger and worms. We offer you advanced scanning and detection methods and state-of-the-art technology behind an easy to use interface.
Windows Defender - Windows Defender is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
Ad-Aware SE Personal - It is our vision at Lavasoft that all individual, regardless of economic status or geographic location, should have the power to protect their privacy and security. Our free anti-spyware product, Ad-Aware SE Personal, gives you that security, providing advanced protection against harmful spyware that secretly attaches itself and takes control of your home computer. After using Ad-Aware, annoying pop-up ads, hijacked homepages and sluggish computer performance will be things of the past.And you can rest easy knowing that your personal information like bank details, passwords and credit card account numbers will be safe from sneaky spyware and hackers.
Spyware Terminator - Free 100% Real-Time Protection is included in Spyware Terminator basic version - an essential function most other applications charge you extra for. Effectively remove spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, home page hijackers and other malware threats.
SpywareBlaster - Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software. Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox. Restrict the actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer.
<SpywareGuard - An anti-virus program scans files before you open them and prevents execution if a virus is detected - SpywareGuard does the same thing, but for spyware! And you can easily have an anti-virus program running alongside SpywareGuard.
Sandboxie - When you run a program on your computer, data flows from the hard disk to the program via read operations. The data is then processed and displayed, and finally flows back from the progam to the hard disk via write operations. Sandboxie changes the rules such that write operations do not make it back to your hard disk. Sandboxie intercepts changes to both your files and registry settings, making it virtually impossible for any software to reach outside the sandbox. Sandboxie traps cached browser items into the sandbox as a by-product of normal operation, so when you throw away the sandbox, all the history records and other side-effects of your browsing disappear as well.
a-squared Free - Security must not be a privilege. Under this motto, Emsi Software provides the Malware scanner a-squared Free completely free of charge for private use. But it is not a very limited version, it is a full tool to clean your computer from Malware. Not only Spywares, as detected by classic Anti-Spyware programs, but also especially Trojans, Backdoors, Worms, Dialers, Keyloggers and a lot of other destructive pests, which makes it dangerous to surf the web.

Antivirus

AVG Anti-Virus Free - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is one of the most popular solutions to provide basic security protection on home and non-commercial PCs.
avast! 4 Home Edition - avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users and non-commercial use. Both of these conditions should be met! Our company offers the Home Edition free of charge, since, in our opinion, it is possible to avoid global virus spreading by efficient prevention; however, many users are not able to or do not want to pay for antivirus software.
AOL Active Virus Shield - Advanced detection technology to help stop known and new viruses, spyware and other malware before they attack you. Always-on, automatically checks for updates every hour- providing real-time scanning and protection against virus threats.
Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic - Protection and security against viruses, worms, Trojans, dialers & more
BitDefender 8 Free Edition - BitDefender 8 Free Edition is your chance to use one of the world’s most effective antivirus engines for free! BitDefender 8 uses the same ICSA Labs certified scanning engines found in other BitDefender products, allowing you to enjoy basic virus protection for no cost at all. BitDefender 8 Free Edition is an on-demand virus scanner, which is best used in a system recovery or forensics role.
BitDefender Removal Tools - virus specific removal tools.
Comodo AntiVirus 2.0 beta - Detects and eliminates viruses from desktops and networks, constantly protects with real-time On Access scanning, proactive Heuristic analysis intercepts unknown threats, host Intrusion Detection blocks malware before it can run, daily, automatic updates of virus definitions, simple to use: install and forget
ClamWin - ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and 2003. ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code. You may download and use it absolutely free of charge. It features: High detection rates for viruses and spyware; Scanning Scheduler; Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database; Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer; Addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.
Cyberhawk - Cyberhawk is different. It does not rely on signatures, but instead constantly analyzes your computer’s behavior to detect and block any malicious activity. Cyberhawk protects immediately so you know your PC and your valuable data is always secure.

Encryption

Truecrypt - TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys. Entire file system is encrypted (e.g.., file names, folder names, contents of every file, free space, meta data, etc).

Firewalls (Software)

Comodo Firewall Pro - With its built-in application database, Comodo Firewall Pro classifies more than 10.000 applications according to their risk level such as SAFE, SPYWARE, ADWARE etc. It is the only firewall which has such a big application database and which uses such a database to analyze the security risks.
Jetico Personal Firewall - The software offers detailed, configurable event logs, reports, plus the option to view and edit the firewall configuration. The modular architecture is as open as possible to assist with easier evaluation of the security.
Safety.Net - Safety.Net 3.61 offers Internet security, content security and advanced Internet firewall protection for all your LAN computers, and trust controls to block unwanted or harmful applications from accessing the network. You can define granular user or computer specific access controls based on site, content, PICS ratings and time of day. You can monitor connection level network activity round-the-clock and view detailed reports to analyze traffic and usage patterns.
ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite - Network and Program Firewall, Operating System Firewall, Antivirus Protection, Anti-Spyware Protection, Identity Theft, Wireless PC Protection

Firewalls (Operating Systems)

SmoothWall Express - SmoothWall Express is an open source firewall distribution based on the GNU/Linux operating system. Linux is the ideal choice for security systems; it is well proven, secure, highly configurable and freely available as open source code. SmoothWall includes a hardened subset of the GNU/Linux operating system, so there is no separate OS to install. Designed for ease of use, SmoothWall is configured via a web-based GUI, and requires absolutely no knowledge of Linux to install or use.
IPCop - IPCop Firewall is a Linux firewall distribution geared towards home and SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) users. The IPCop interface is very user-friendly and task-based. IPCop offers the critical functionality of an expensive network appliance using stock, or even obsolete, hardware and OpenSource Software.
Freesco - FREESCO was developed in the open source tradition as an alternative to routing products offered by Cisco, 3-Com, Accend, Nortel etc. While all of these companies offer products that are well made, the overhead and overall costs can be expensive.FREESCO is open source, stable, inexpensive, easy to use, extremely versatile and flexible … and best of all, FREESCO is FREE. FREESCO is based on the Linux operating system. And incorporates many of the features of other Linux distributions into software that fits onto a single 1.44 meg floppy diskette.

Monitoring

Snort - Snort is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system utilizing a rule-driven language, which combines the benefits of signature, protocol and anomaly based inspection methods. With millions of downloads to date, Snort is the most widely deployed intrusion detection and prevention technology worldwide and has become the de facto standard for the industry.
Wireshark - Wireshark is the world’s most popular network protocol analyzer. It has a rich and powerful feature set and runs on most computing platforms including Windows, OS X, and Linux. Network professionals, security experts, developers, and educators around the world use it regularly. It is freely available as open source, and is released under the GNU General Public License.
NetStumbler -NetStumbler is a tool for Windows that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g. It has many uses: Verify that your network is set up the way you intended. Find locations with poor coverage in your WLAN. Detect other networks that may be causing interference on your network. Detect unauthorized “rogue” access points in your workplace. Help aim directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links.
Nagios - Nagios is a host and service monitor designed to inform you of network problems before your clients, end-users or managers do. It has been designed to run under the Linux operating system, but works fine under most *NIX variants as well. The monitoring daemon runs intermittent checks on hosts and services you specify using external “plugins” which return status information to Nagios. When problems are encountered, the daemon can send notifications out to administrative contacts in a variety of different ways (email, instant message, SMS, etc.). Current status information, historical logs, and reports can all be accessed via a web browser.

Passwords

Password Chart - create a complex password that is easy to remember using a unique password chart.
KeePass Password Safe - KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).
PINS - PINs is a free feature-rich Windows program for safe and comfortable storing of any secure information like passwords, accounts, PINs etc. PINs uses a secure 448 bit Blowfish algorithm to ensure the data are not crackable. The password used for securing access to stored data is not saved anywhere. PINs does not require installation and does not need any special dlls, drivers or system files which can mess up your system. This means that PINs can run directly from floppy - including data files - without installing anything. This is extremely useful if you wish to easily access your data on other computers as well.
Cain and Abel - Cain & Abel is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kind of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. The program does not exploit any software vulnerabilities or bugs that could not be fixed with little effort. It covers some security aspects/weakness present in protocol’s standards, authentication methods and caching mechanisms; its main purpose is the simplified recovery of passwords and credentials from various sources, however it also ships some “non standard” utilities for Microsoft Windows users.

Patching

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer - Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is an easy-to-use tool designed for the IT professional that helps small- and medium-sized businesses determine their security state in accordance with Microsoft security recommendations and offers specific remediation guidance. Improve your security management process by using MBSA to detect common security misconfigurations and missing security updates on your computer systems.

Penetration Testing

Nessus - Nessus is the world’s most popular vulnerability scanner used in over 75,000 organizations world-wide. Many of the world’s largest organizations are realizing significant cost savings by using Nessus to audit business-critical enterprise devices and applications.

Privacy

Tor - Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features.

Rootkits

RootkitRevealer - RootkitRevealer is an advanced rootkit detection utility. It runs on Windows NT 4 and higher and its output lists Registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit. RootkitRevealer successfully detects all persistent rootkits published at www.rootkit.com, including AFX, Vanquish and HackerDefender (note: RootkitRevealer is not intended to detect rootkits like Fu that don’t attempt to hide their files or registry keys).
GMER - GMER is an application that detects and removes rootkits. It scans for: hidden processes, hidden threads, hidden modules, hidden services, hidden files, hidden Alternate Data Streams, hidden registry keys, drivers hooking SSDT, drivers hooking IDT, drivers hooking IRP calls, inline hooks.
DarkSpy Anti-Rootkit - DarkSpy Anti-Rookit is a multiway-based detection tool for rootkit detection. It internally combines many effective detection techniques, including DarkSpy’s own handlers and also methods used by other famous tools.

VPN

Hamachi - LogMeIn Hamachi is a VPN service that easily sets up in 10 minutes, and enables secure remote access to your business network, anywhere there’s an Internet connection. It works with your existing firewall, and requires no additional configuration. Hamachi is the first networking application to deliver an unprecedented level of direct peer-to-peer connectivity. It is simple, secure, and cost-effective
OpenVPN - OpenVPN is a full-featured SSL VPN solution which can accomodate a wide range of configurations, including remote access, site-to-site VPNs, WiFi security, and enterprise-scale remote access solutions with load balancing, failover, and fine-grained access-controls
SSL Explorer - SSL-Explorer is the world’s first open-source, browser-based SSL VPN solution. This unique remote access control solution provides you with a means of securely accessing intranet applications and resources using a standard web browser.
iPig - iPIG shields your data from even the most sophisticated methods of online spying and snooping like the “Evil twin attacks”. In addition, your sensitive information is not only protected between your computer and the wireless access point you’re using, but all the way to iOpus’ secure connection servers deep in the Internet. This ensures that your data can’t be easily hijacked through the air and at the point it transitions to a “wired” Ethernet connection.
FreeS/WAN -Linux FreeS/WAN is an implementation of IPSEC & IKE for Linux. IPSEC is Internet Protocol SECurity. It uses strong cryptography to provide both authentication and encryption services. Authentication ensures that packets are from the right sender and have not been altered in transit. Encryption prevents unauthorised reading of packet contents. These services allow you to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks. Everything passing through the untrusted net is encrypted by the IPSEC gateway machine and decrypted by the gateway at the other end. The result is Virtual Private Network or VPN. This is a network which is effectively private even though it includes machines at several different sites connected by the insecure Internet.

Sursa:Dailycupoftech.com

Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers

2007-06-25T13:29:00.001-07:00

Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers

June 19, 2007 — 07:15 PM PDT — by Mashable Team — Share This

An aspiring blogger can be overwhelmed with the vast amount of resources, tools, and advice for bloggers available on the net. While in no way definitive - there’s simply too much going on in this space to cover it all - we did our best to bring you a comprehensive list of blogging resources, which should be equally useful to beginners as well as veteran bloggers. Enjoy.

WordPress

WordPress Themes

ThemeViewer - The number one location to find WordPress themes to make your page cool, which you will most certainly want to do.
Templates Now - A smaller collection of WordPress themes, but still worth your while to check out.
TemplateMonster - If you want more professional quality themes then this site can be useful. They offer extremely high quality themes that you can purchase
for WordPress.
Wordpress Themes - a neatly categorized site with a huge selection of themes

Best WordPress Plugins

Akismet - The best blog comment spam prevention plug-in. Ships free with WordPress, but you still have to turn it on and keep it updated.
Wordpress Backup - an absolute must if you want to keep your archive in case of something going wrong
WP Cache - if your blog ever experiences a burst of traffic, you’ll be thankful you have WP Cache
Sitemap Generator - everyone who cares about SEO (and that should be everyone) should have this one
Preview Pane - If you upgrade/install WordPress 2.2.x, the Preview Frame has gone missing, as the developers decided to leave it out, and it is a vital tool on checking your posts, so this plug-in restores that functionality.
Facebook Photos - A nice WordPress plug-in that allows quick access to your Facebook photos and the ability to integrate them in to any post within WordPress with ease.
Flickr Photos - Same as Facebook Photos, but for use with a Flickr account.
Related Posts - This plugin lets you display all the posts you have written on the same subject near each post. It increases the chance that a visitor will spend more time browsing your blog posts.
Feedburner Feed Replacement - sooner or later, most people switch to Feedburner for their RSS needs. This plugin redirects all the RSS feeds on your blog to the Feedburner one. Might cause problems with Technorati.
Ultimate Tag Warrior - an advanced solution for all your tagging problems.
Adsense Deluxe - a great way to manage AdSense ads on your blog.
Super Archive - Creates a great dynamic archive for your Wordpress blog posts.
Stat Traq - Get detailed statistics in a very effective graphical format.
Sociable - adds all those cute tiny icons for easy social bookmarking
LightBox 2 - A fade effect that you see on a myriad of blogs you visit these days where you click the image, the background fades and then the image itself displays in full view. A very nice effect to have.

Wordpress Plugin repositories

Official Wordpress Plugins Site - The official Wordpress plugin repository is actually one of the best lists of its kind out there
Wp-Plugins - a comprehensive list of Wordpress plugins
Wp Plugins DB - another large database of plugins for Wordpress
Weblog Tools Collection - an often updated site bringing you the latest Wordpress plugins as they arrive

Movable Type

Movable Type Styles

Style Library -If you are looking for a way to make your Movable Type blog look fresh, then look no further.
The Style Contest - A collection of Movable Type Styles created from contests to create the best styles. Only the best is here.
Style Generator - Use this if you wish to take things in to your own hands and
create your own Styles for use with Movable Type.

Best Movable Type Plugins

MT Notifier - This plug-in gives you a great amount of control of notification options for your users and helps with keeping your users connected to your Movable Type blog.
InlineEditor - No more clicking through 3 or more pages to edit your posts on Movable Type, this plug-in allows you to edit through Ajax technology right on the same page as your post.
MT Blogroll - If you want to link to your favorite blogs and sites, then you need a “blogroll” (collection of links to sites and other blogs), and this plug-in solves this problem with providing you the ability to create and manage as many “blogrolls” as your heart desires.

Movable Type Plugin repositories

Official Movable Type Plugin site - a comprehensive alphabetical list of Movable Type plugins

Blog Hosting Solutions

Dedicated & Shared Hosting Services

Dreamhost - Offers a lot for a very small amount of money.
CirtexHosting - Hosting plans starting at as little as $2.
BlueHost - Another affordable hosting solution.
HostGator - Cheap shared personal hosting.
Media Temple - Grid based hosting; known to be able to sustain lots of traffic.

Paid Blog Hosting Services

TypePad - If you are a MovableType fan, then TypePad is the premiere service to be using to host your blog.
Blogsite - An enterprise level blogging and publishing platform. Multiple blogs can reside withing one blogsite. Amazing SEO visibility.

Free Blog Hosting Services

WordPress - WordPress allows you to create and host a blog on their own servers and you can display it to the world. You don’t get as much customization and functionality as if you have it hosted on your own server (for example, advertising is not allowed), but it is still a very good way to blog without paying money.
Blogger - A service owned by Google, Blogger is a way to have your blogs hosted for free and you can post as much as you want. It allows Google’s AdSense to be used.
Xanga - iXanga is a lively community of online diaries and journals. Users create their own profiles and there are many opportunities to interact with other users.
LiveJournal - LiveJournal is excellent if you wish to blog on a personal level and join a community and share your blogs among friends.
Vox - A new contender to the arena but Vox is a very nice and powerful blogging tool; not to mention free!; You receive many social experiences with this option as Vox is based heavily on community based blogging.
Tumblr - Tumblr is great if you don’t have time to blog, but still want to share something now and again. It lets you easily post videos, pictures, links, and of course you can write there too.

Mini-Blogging Services

Jaiku - Jaiku allows you the ability to post “mini-blogs” which are short blogs (usually under 140 - 160 characters in length) about whatever you decide. Jaiku also allows you to link together content from other services and social sites that provide RSS/ATOM feeds and they can be displayed as well.
Twitter - Twitter lets you say what you are doing in 140 characters or less. Recently new features have been added that have made it into a great communication tool.

Mobile Based Blogging

TextAmerica - A way to blog on the go. You blog with service by adding photos to your mobile blog and then later on you can add text descriptions and people
can see your world on the go.
Twitter - Twitter also has solid support for blogging from mobile devices.

Tips & Advice

Blogs about Blogging

About.com Weblogs - Professional blogger / freelance writer Deborah Ng covers a wide range of blogging topics for all levels of blogger, but is especially good for new bloggers.
Advanced Business Blogging - Two people who are really making money with blogs and new media and showing others how to.
Blogging for Business - Ted Demopoulos focuses “on practical business implications and uses of new media and technologies, including Blogging and Business, pod-casting, and other ‘Cool Internet Stuff’.”
Andy Wibbels - The author of Blog Wild! puts emphasises blogs for small business marketing, but his tips are useful for all bloggers.
Problogger - Darren Rowse is the definitive guide to making money with your blog.
MasterNewMedia - A site about independent publishing and social media which publishes articles showing how to create effective blogs and improve online marketing strategies.
Copyblogger - a great resource of no-nonsense information for bloggers (and everyone else who wants to learn how to write well)
DailyBlogTips - a place where you can find useful tips to improve the quality of your blog. Updated daily.
Blogging Pro - news, tips and technical support for bloggers.
Blogs in Education - a great list of useful resources aimed at those who want to use blogs for educational purposes.

Tips

10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs - No philosophy, theory or personal rants/raves/ramblings here - just practical tips for business
owners.
Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog - Tips for increasing the usability of your blog for your users which can lead to new and returning readers.
Big list of blog search engines - a very detailed resource for blog search engines.
Search Engine Submission Tips - an interesting list of techniques and strategies you can use to make your blog appear in relevant search results.
How to Make Money From Your Website - a practical guide that explains the differences between the different advertising systems that you can use on your blog.
25 Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Readers & Search Engines - useful tips that help your blog stand out from the crowd.
Research, Promote And Monetize Your Online Writing: A Blogger’s Guide To Twitter - a great guide by Michael Pick that shows you how to get the best out of
Twitter.
25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog - a detailed list of tips to help bloggers optimize their site for online marketing.
9 Lessons for Would-be Bloggers - Joshua Porter shares interesting lessons he learned in 7 years of blogging.
Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes - Jacob Nielsen writes down a list of the worst things you could do on your blog.
How to Become a Freelance Blog Writer - Leo Babauta shows how to become a freelance blog writer and get rewarded.
How To Prevent Running Out Of Blogging Steam - Did you run out of words? Here is what you can do when you have to face a situation like that.
13 Tips To Get Your Blog Noticed - a list of short tips to make your blog shine among the others.

Blogging Forums & Sites

Blogger Forum - This site has a nice forum with plenty of resources for helping you on your beginnings in blogging.
Bloggst - a fairly new community devoted to bloggers, and blogging, with howtos, interviews and other resources.
True Blogging - a forum completely dedicated to bloggers, blogging resources and blog monetization.
Blogger Talk - great resource for bloggers who want to share their experiences.
Bloggeries - a community for bloggers from all over the world to gather and discuss their blogs.
Webloggers - forum on marketing blogs, software for bloggers, blogging news and mobile blogging.
The Blog Herald - a source of blog and blogging related news for bloggers.

Blog Tools and Resources

Blog Search Engines

Technorati - One of the most popular search engines for blogs; its top list is one of the most often cited metrics on the Internet.
Sphere - a blog search engine that offers a contextual widget which shows related posts from other blogs.
Google Blog Search - A very simple blog search engine. It’s basically Google Search that only looks through blogs and comments on blogs.
Ice Rocket – A Google-like blog search engine.

Blog Top Lists

RSSTop55 - the most comprehensive list of blog top lists and blog submission sites on
the net.

Blog Statistics & Analysis

StatCounter - A completely free statistics and analysis tool for tracking your blog’s numbers.
Site Meter - Site Meter comes in two flavors, Site Meter Basic and Site Meter Premium and this service offers advanced analytics of your site statistics.
AWStats - A free and open-source alternative to track your site statistics.
Feedburner - A wide range of tools to spiff up your RSS feed, including HTML preview, geotagging, merging link and photo feeds, password protection, and one of our favorites - a customizable GIF-based headline animator. They can also insert ads into your feed and have both free and premium analytics.
Alexa - Alexa has the statistics for all of the internet and it lets you compare your blog to another.
Google Analytics - a free, full-featured (albeit a bit slow) analytics program from Google (ex. Urchin).
MeasureMap - another free tool for detailed analysis of your blog’s visitor habits

Blog Monetization

PayPal - PayPal allows you to set up a donations system on your site. Your readers can click a button that will bring them to a page where they can send you some cash.
Chitika - Contextual interactive CPC advertising. Requires more screen real estate than AdSense, but tends to have higher click-through rates and payout rates.
LinkAdage - Text links and text advertisements to generate revenue from your website by way of bidding, brokering, and exchanging text advertisements.
Txtswap - If you want to exchange text links to try and bring in more users, and in turn raise the potential to gain income, this is another service to try.
Google AdSense - Almost certainly the largest single source of income to bloggers worldwide. Pay per click and per view.
Yahoo Publisher network - pay per click ads, similar to Google AdSense.
AdBrite - Get paid for text link advertisements on your blog.
Text Link Ads - One of the leading suppliers of text link advertisements.
BidVertiser - an advertising system where you set the bids for pay per click ads.
ReviewMe - a marketplace for paid blog reviews.
PayPerPost - another marketplace for paid blog posts; often criticized, not only because of the idea of paid blog posting, but also due to the fact that they don’t require full disclosure on paid posts.
BlogBurst - get your blog syndicated by the bigtime media; best blogs get paid for their content.

Spreading The Word

Reddit - Social content site with focus on fun stuff, politics, science; sometimes, anything goes. Witty descriptions are obligatory.
ClipMarks - A service that allows you to save and share “clips” from web pages.
Digg - Social content site that likes technology-related content; especially Google and Apple related. Promoting your own blog - especially too aggressively - on Digg is not a good idea.
Blogmarks - another “clipping” service for saving and sharing links from the web.
Newsvine - Social news site with plenty of options and features
Netscape - Netscape’s social news portal, less oriented towards technology than both Digg and Reddit
Del.icio.us - If you need to share bookmarks or you want people to tell you about websites, Del.icio.us will allow you to do that.

Misc. Tools

MyBlogLog - Possibly the coolest blog community building tool around. Doubles as a simple analytics tool.
BlogRolling – Blogroll manager.
PollDaddy - cool polls for your blog.
BlogPolls - another provider of free polls for bloggers
Favicon Maker – simple service that enables you to easily create a favicon from an image.
Qumana - a desktop blog editor for Mac and Windows.
Blogjet - another desktop blog client, works only on Windows.
Blogarithm - enables you to track all your content at one place.
GeoLoc - a widget that shows your visitors’ locations on a world map.
JunkIWant - display your Amazon wishlist as a widget on your blog
BlogSticker - create stickers for your blog.
MyOpenId - enables you to identify yourself for various online service, using your blog address.
BlogFlux tools - several cool tools for bloggers.
ImageShack - free photo hosting service.

RSS & Aggregation Resources

Everything related to this topic is covered in our previous big feature, the RSS toolbox.

The following Mashable authors contributed to this article: Stan Schroeder, Livia Iacolare, Rodney Rumford, Scott Allen, James Mowery, Todd Carter, Ben Gold

Microsoft Surface: Hands-on First Look

2007-06-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

http://link.brightcove.com/

The top 100 Webware sites for 2007

2007-06-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

Over the course of 20 days in May and June, the community of Webware.com users voted for its favorite Web applications. These are the results: the top 100 Web apps, 10 in each of 10 categories, determined by Webware readers and the fans of the sites that made the final cut.There were more than 5,000 nominations for sites to be included in this awards program, which Webware's editors pruned to a list of 250 finalists. Users then voted on those finalists--there were 489,467 votes cast--to come up with these: The top 100 Webware sites for 2007.
http://www.webware.com

Top 10 Wordpress plugins for beginners

2007-06-07T14:23:00.001-07:00

http://www.mikesquarter.com/

If you’re planning to start a new blog, you would probably choose to use the most popular system out there, Wordpress. Unfortunatelly, Wordpress only comes with a couple of features preinstalled, only the basic ones. To get all the goodies you need to install some extra plugins. But, with the vast number of plugins available for Wordpress, a beginner might get a little confused, so that’s why I’m going to put up a list of my top 10 plugins I use on every blog. Hope it might come in handy for everyone.

Number 10 – Sitemaps generators

DD Sitemap Generator is a plugin that allows you to create an advanced online sitemap for your blog. It has many options, including displaying mode, sorting types, etc, and can be used in conjunction with the Google XMl Sitemaps plugin in order to create also a XML sitemap that can be submitted automatically to search engines.

Number 9 – Contact Form

Every decent blog needs a way for the readers to contact the webmaster, thus a Contact page is needed. The easiest way to put together such a page is by using the WP-ContactForm plugin, that allows you to set up a form in no time. Has some cool options and supports CSS for better blending with your site.

Number 8 - Sociable

The importance of social bookmark sites in blogs marketing and developing has been increasing lately. Nowadays, it’s vital that your site is seen and bookmarked, and the easiest way to ensure that is by using the Sociable plugin. This one creates a list of icons of the social sites you choose (over 60 of them) at the end of your posts, allowing the readers to bookmark or submit your story with just a simple click.

Number 7 – Related Posts

Related Posts plugin might allow you to keep your readers more time on the site, by providing a list of related entries based on active/passive keyword matches for the opened post. I usually place just bellow the main post, so that when someone finishes reading it, the list would catch his eye and maybe make him click on another related story.

Number 6 – Latest Comments

The Recent Comments plugin allows you to display a list of some of your latest comments. The purpose of using it is to improve and encourage user interactivity, cause it’s a known fact that the first comment on a post is the most difficult. So if seeing the other visitors comments, a reader might be tempted to say something too. And voila, you got interactivity.

Number 5 – Database Backup

Backup is crucial. It is more then necessary to backup your blog’s data from time to time (I do it once a couple of days, but if you have a lot of content every day, you might consider doing it daily). The WP-Database Backup plugin allows you to easily backup the main database, and also the plugins tables if you want to. Can be scheduled to run from time to time and send the output on the mail.

Number 4 – Jerome’s Keywords

Jerome’s Keywords allows keywords to be associated with each post, which can be used as meta keywords and for creating a local tag system. You can show tags on every post, create a Tag Cloud navigation menu or a tags list. Tagged posts are also automatically submitted to Technorati, giving your site more exposure.

Number 3 – Global Translator

When you are starting a blog, you might consider the fact that not all of your readers would know your native language. Of course, most of them know English, but why not use theGlobal Translator plugin in order to allow every reader to translate your blog in its native language. Only a couple of important languages are supported and the translation algorithm is pretty good. Not to mention that this plugin will allow search engines to find many more entries of your blog (each page in all the provided languages), thus increasing your chance to get traffic from this important source.

Number 2 – Dean’s FCK Editor

Although users can’t see the effects of this plugin, as it is a back end one, the FCK Editor plugin is a must for every blog. It replaces the standard posting menu with a more complex one, that allows you far more options, so that your post would look exactly as you want it to.

Number 1 – Akismet spam protection

One of the biggest problem of Web 2.0 is spam. Spam invades us every day, and if you want to put together a blog you must protect yourself from it. The Akismet plugin, that comes preinstalled with Wordpress (that’s how important it is), makes exactly this thing: protects you from comments spam, filtering the bad ones from the good ones. It is crucial from the point you let free comments appear on your blog, without moderating them. For better protection, can be used in conjunction with other filters, like the Math Comment Spam Protection or others, but for the beginning, the Akismet protection would be enough.

That’s it. Hope you find the list useful. Of course there are many other good plugins, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to stuff your site from the beginning. Just keep it plain and simple. If you disagree with my list, or have some better plugins I might not know yet, I would really appreciate your comments.

Build It: The Fastest PC Ever!

2007-05-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Pcmag.com

20 Must-Have Tools to Automate an Online Business

2007-05-24T01:41:00.001-07:00

20 Must-Have Tools to
Automate an Online Business
By Donna Gunter (c) 2007
With all the information online about tools and techniques available to help someone effectively manage and run an online business, how do you ever decide which ones are truly useful to have in your business management toolkit? Here's my listing of the 20 indispensable tools that I cannot live without:
http://www.sitepronews.com/

1. Article Marketing: SubmitYourArticle.com automates the article submission process by allowing you to submit up to eight articles each month and then distributes the articles to hundreds of web sites, article directories and ezine publishers. Without a doubt, this has been my most effective online marketing tool that has produced tremendous results for my business.

2. Audio Recording/Podcasting: AudioAcrobat.com makes audio streaming fast and simple, whether you want to add an audio greeting, audio testimonials, podcast or videos to your website or send out an audio postcard or record a teleclass.

3. Backup: Carbonite.com offers an unlimited amount of data storage for $50 per year. Carbonite is very intuitive and went directly to my email files and Roboform files to back them up without me having to manually select the backup files. I frequently use this service to find the original version of a file that I've accidentally overwritten, as well.

4. Blogging: Typepad.com is both simple to use and powerful. You can set up as many blogs as you desire with a Pro account, and you can customize your blog in an infinite number of ways. Once it's set up, the online interface makes it a snap to make new posts to your blog.

5. Bookmark Manager: SPURL.net makes managing a moderate to massive amount of bookmarks very easy. You create any number of categories in which to file your favorites, and adding a favorite website is as easy as clicking a button.

6. Color Matching: Pixie is a tool that I use daily to help me match a color exactly for a document that I'm creating or a color I'm trying to replicate on a website. Run it, simply point to a color and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that color.

7. Content Management: Edit.com is a website maintenance service that makes your current website editable so you can change the content yourself. They handle everything to get your site set up and provide you with telephone training to walk you through your first edits. There is no software to install because it just uses your web browser. At no chärge, you can have them review your website to ensure that your site is compatible with their service.

8. Email Líst Management/Autoresponders: aWeber.com is a great service for creating, mailing and reporting back on the success of your newsletter as well as to subscribe your readers to a sequential autoresponder, either associated with your newsletter or with another product. I love to be able to see how many readers opened my newsletter, who opened the newsletter, and what links they clicked on from the newsletters.

9. Fax: MaxEmail.com lets you send and receive faxes through the Internet/email and makes your need for a fax machine obsolete. The faxes arrive in PDF format, so you can easily share you faxes with others as needed. They also offër voice mail on your fax line, and the voicemail message arrives as an audio file in your email inbox.

10. Graphics Program: SnagIt.com lets you show someone exactly what you see on your screen. Select and capture your screen image and send it to SnagIt's editor to add professional effects, edit the image (resize, adjust color), and or drop it into your favorite application.

11. Hostíng: Aaces.com offers the ability to buy a hostíng plan in which you can host and manage a large number of websites through one account rather than buying multiple hostíng plans for each website for your business. And, their customer service can't be beat.

12. Idea Management: With EverNote.com you can easily store and quickly access typed and handwritten memos, webpage excerpts, emails, telephone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and more! A free version or a 30-day tríal of the paid version is available for download.

13. Merchant Account: PracticePaySolutions.com offers an all-in-one ecommerce solution that helps you take payment online. The coolest feature that they offër in this service is the ability to do batch uploads of charges, so if you have a number of clients on retainer that you invoice every month, you can simply create a spreadsheet and batch upload the data rather than entering each client's information individually.

14. Publicity Tracker: Google Alerts lets you type in an unlimited number of search terms, like your name, your company name, your industry, the name of your competitors, etc. Google will then deliver an email alert for any mention of your search term online. This is a wonderful way to track your own PR as well as industry trends.

15. Password Management: Roboform.com is the top-rated password manager and web förm filler that completely automates password entering and förm filling. You'll nevër have to remember a password again! I maintain both my passwords and user info and that of my clients in this program.

16. Shopping Cart: KickstartCart.com is easy to use and setup, and offers the ability to create affilíate programs, follow up with prospective and current customers with autoresponders, create coupons for limited-time offers, as well as enable buyers to immediately download electronic purchases (ebooks, audio files). There is a free 30-day tríal, but don't sign up until you have the time to test drive it--30 days goes by fast!

17. Spyware: CounterSpy.com will protect your computer from spyware, adware, Trojans and other malware threats.

18. Teleconference Line: LiveOfficeFreeConferencing.com lets you meet with colleagues, associates or even family members through a teleconference bridge line that can bring up to 250 people together at one place over a teleconference telephone line. You can use the line to conduct classes and training and record your calls, as well as manage your participants from an online interface.

19. Time Tracker: TraxTime.com has helped me keep track of my consulting projects for years. You simply create projects and clock into and out of them, with the ability to write memos about how you've used your time.

20. To Do Líst Management: Accomplice.com works online and offline, integrates with Outlook and other software you already use, and syncs with your PDA. What I love most about this software is that I can create in-depth, hierarchical to-do lists (tasks and sub-tasks of a bígger project) very easily, and add additional tasks on the fly as they occur to me. I can see at any point what are my more important tasks and what is coming due soon.

Try out these tools with the tríal offers provided and see how your business becomes easier to manage!

About The Author
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet and get more clients online. To claim your Frëe gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at GetMoreClientsOnline.com . Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com .

How to reduce the memory usage on Firefox?

2007-05-07T12:45:00.001-07:00

How_to_reduce_the_memory_usage_on_Firefox

Download YouTube Videos: 23 Ways

2007-05-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Google has a solid amount of cash in its pockets, but with all the recent lawsuits against YouTube one has to wonder if it’s time to salvage whatever videos you like from the service and save them somewhere where evil attorneys won’t look – your hard drive.

Luckily, there are literally dozens of tools for downloading videos from YouTube and/or converting those YouTube videos to some format other than .flv. It’s hard to pick the best one, as they all have pluses and minuses. Thus, we’ve chosen 23 YouTube downloader tools we’ve found to be actually working. Here they are, categorized according to the platform they work on:

Web based

1. YouTubeX doesn’t have a lot of options, but it’s simple, and it works. It also enables you to share the YouTube video with your friends via e-mail. Unfortunately, all the files are called get_video, and you have to add the .flv extension manually.

www.youtubex.com

2. KeepVid is another simple site. No hassle, works not only for YouTube movies but for a number of other sites, including Google Video, MySpace Video, DailyMotion and others. Again, you have to add the .flv extension by hand.

keepvid.com

3. VideoDownloader is very similar to KeepVid, but supports even more video sharing sites, and it’s also available as a Firefox extension. Just like with KeepVid, all downloads are in .flv format. We recommend MediaCoder for free conversion.

javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php

4. YouTube Downloads takes the cake in the longest domain name contest. It also separates itself by using a proxy for downloading videos, which means that you might be able to get videos even if YouTube access is blocked at your workplace or in the country you live. Just search Google for YouTube videos, and copy/paste the URL into YouTube Downloads.

www.downloadandsaveyoutubevideos.info

5. Zamzar is an online file format conversion site which can do a lot more than just converting YouTube videos to another format and downloading them to your hard drive, but it’s doing a great job so we had to include it here. Thoroughly tested by us and highly recommended. See the video of it in action here.

www.zamzar.com

6. YouTubia separates itself from the crowd by enabling you to search as well as download YouTube files. Options are scarce, but it works.

www.youtubia.com

7. VidGrab is another simple site that works with YouTube, Google Video, MySpace and Break.com. Besides the download function, the site also sports a top list of most viewed videos.

www.vidgrab.com

8. Vixy offers both downloading videos and converting them into DivX avi, mov, mp4, 3gp, or mp3 (for audio only) formats. The conversion works well enough, but sometimes results in slightly choppy playback.

vixy.net

9. Hey! Watch is an ambitious video encoding service with a large number of options, especially when it comes to converting videos to portable media player formats (it even supports my trusty iRiver H340.) Most online video converters often produce crappy results, with video and audio being out of sync, and this problem is also present on Hey! Watch, but it happens rarely.

heywatch.com

10. Media Converter can be a little slow, but the results of the video conversion are quite good. We’ve converted some YouTube videos to avi (mpeg4 + mp3) format and it worked well. The tool is not limited to video conversion; it also supports several audio and document formats.

www.mediaconverter.org

11. KcoolOnline is a web-based converter which supports 98 video sharing web sites, including YouTube. It has literally zero options, so it’s recommended for those who like to keep it simple.

www.kcoolonline.com

Windows Applications

12. VDownloader is a desktop application that catches YouTube, Google Video, and Grinvi video links from your clipboard. Start it up, copy the video URL and click download. It automatically converts the videos to mpeg or avi formats.

www.softpedia.com/progDownload/VDownloader-Download-51327.html

13. YouTube Grabber downloads files from Youtube in .flv format. Copy and paste the URL of a video from YouTube into the program, press «grab», and the file will be downloaded into the same directory as the program.

www.download.com/Youtube-Grabber/3000-2071_4-10574801.html

14. Orbit Downloader is a desktop application which can download videos from a wide variety of sites. The download process is very simple, just hover your mouse over the video and you’ll get a button that says «Get It». The developers of the program claim that it’s very fast (up to 500% faster, they say) due to its P2P download technology.

www.orbitdownloader.com

15. My Video Downloader. With all these free tools, it’s actually funny to see a commercial one. It’s called My Video Downloader, and while it does look solid and offers a lot of conversion options (a free trial which enables you to download 10 videos is available), we’re not sure it offers enough to warrant a price tag.

myvideodownloader.com

16. KeepV is a desktop downloader as well as a converter, which can convert the downloaded videos from flv to avi, mov, mp4, or 3gp formats.

keepv.com

17. VideoGet boasts being able to download video clips from more than 100 video sharing websites. We haven’t tested all of them, so we’re just going to take their word for it. It’s a deskop application with a nice, simple interface, and a solid number of options.

nuclear-coffee.com/php/products.php

18. TubeSucker is a desktop YouTube video downloader with some interesting options, including batch downloading large amounts of videos from a certain user. See the video tour on the site.

www.newrad.com/software/tubesucker/

OS X

19. Get Tube is an OS X application which lets you download video or audio files from YouTube, DailyMotion and Kewego.

web.mac.com/simonvrel/iWeb/software/v.1.0.html

Linux

20. Youtube-dl. Here’s some love for Linux users. Youtube-dl is a program that lets you download YouTube clips in flv format, which both mplayer and VLC can easily chew up.

www.nuxified.org/blog/download_youtube_video_files_with_youtube_dl

21. YouTube Ripper is not actually an application; it’s a simple script that rips all videos that match a keyword, uploaded by a specific YouTube user. We don’t really have ideas on what to use this for, but maybe you do! PHP port is also available.

nlindblad.org/2007/04/08/youtube-ripper-collectors-edition/

Plugins

22. Vidtaker is a Firefox-only plugin that can download videos from most streaming websites: Google Video, YouTube, MySpace, as well as a number of nasty adult SomethingTube spinoffs (Pornotube, YouPorn etc). It automatically converts the video to a DivX avi.

www.vidtaker.com

23. Ook? Video Ook! Yes, that’s the full name of this Firefox plugin, which enables you to download videos from YouTube and several other video sharing web sites. It features one click downloading and integration with the popular DownThemAll Firefox plugin.

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2584

Recommended: MySpace News - MySpace Launching News Site

Thanks to Mashable

Turn off hidden shares

2007-05-05T02:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/

Use Robots.txt, Save the World

2007-04-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

By Sante J. Achille (c) 2007

http://www.sitepronews.com/wresources.html

Robots.txt Help the Search Engines Learn All About Your Website

There is a growing interest in the little known file that every website should have in the root directory: robots.txt
It's a very simple text file you can find all about at the robotstxt.org website.
Why should you use it ? Here are some good reasons for you to consider.
Controlled Access to Your Content
With a robots.txt file you can "ask" the search engines to "keep out" of certain areas of your website. A typical area you might like to exclude is your images folder: If you aren't a photographer, painter and your images are for your website use only, there are good chances you don't want them to be indexed and showing up on image search engines, for people to download, or hotlink.

Unfortunately grabbers and similar software (such as Email harvesting applications) will not read your robots.txt file disregarding any indication you may provide in this respect. But that's life isn't it, always someone being disrespectful to say the least ...
You can keep search engines away from content you wish to keep out of sight, but remember your robots file is also subject to attention of hackers seeking sensitive objectives you might inadvertently líst: keeping out the robots while inviting the hackers � keep this in mind.

The Growing Importance of Robots.Txt

At SES New York a robots.txt summit was held where major search engines (Ask, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!) participated, sharing interesting information on this file. Here are some numbers.
According to Keith Hogan from Ask:
i) Less than 35% of websites have a robots.txt file
ii) The majority of robots.txt files are copied from others found online
iii) On many occasions robots.txt files are provided by your web hostíng service
It looks like the majority of webmasters aren't familiar with this file. This is going to play a major role as the size of the web continues to grow: Spidering is a costly effort that search engines tend to optimize. Those web sites demonstrating optimal command (which in turn determines efficiency) will be rewarded.
During the summit, all search engines announced they will identify (or autodiscover) sitemaps via the robots.txt file. In essence search engines are now able to discover your sitemap via a link in the following format:
Sitemap: , where is the complete URL of your Sitemap Index File (or your sitemap file, if you don't have an index file).

Being Compliant to Google Terms of Service

Robots.txt can help prevent you getting banned or being penalized by Google. In a move to eliminate search results pages because "web search results don't add value to users" Google has recently added the following sentence to their terms of service:
- Use robots.txt to prevent crawling of search results pages or other auto-generated pages that don't add much value for users coming from search engines.

How to Implement a Robots.txt File

If your website doesn't support a sitemap and you do not have any areas to exclude, include an empty robots.txt file in your root directory. By doing so you are acknowledging full spidering of your entire site.
Carefully review the robots exclusion protocol available at robotstxt.org. If you must exclude numerous areas of your website, build your file in a step by step manner and monitor spider behaviour with a log analyser tool.

Test your robots.txt file with a few online tools and keep in mind that every spider has a different behaviour and spidering criteria.

Avoid Useless Spidering Traffíc

When your website grows to a significant size and achieves optimal visibility, spidering significantly increases to hundrëds (if not thöusands) of hits per day and will put your server and bandwidth to the test.

Recently I was called on to examine a blog burdened by a very unusual and extremely heavy spidering activity: the log file I examined reported an excess of 8 Gbyte of invisibile (spider) traffíc over a 1 month period. Given the reduced amount of daily visitors (less than 200) and the reduced size of the blog (less than 100 posts), there was something wrong in the architecture.
It took just a few minutes to identify the problem: There was no robots.txt file.

At each request for a robots.txt there was a redirect to the home page of the blog triggering a complete download of the blog home page. Each download of the home page was approximately 250 K. There were thöusands of unnecessary hits on the home page. This was causing a spidering frenzy that ceased when an empty robots.txt file was created and uploaded to the server. Traffíc is now down from 8 Gbyte to 500 Mbyte.

Keep the Spiders Informed, Help Save the World

The web is growing by leaps and bounds. The use of a robots.txt file helps the search engines effectively allocate their resources and is a tangible sign of respect and courtesy. If you don't have a robots.txt file on your website set one up now. Use it to inform the crawlers on how your site is organized, and how often it is changing. I think we should all do our part to avoid waste of resources, saving energy and helping to save the world.

Dezinstalare teme telefoane Nokia seria N

2007-03-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

Follow this steps to access SYS and PRIVATE folders of memory card without using a pc:
-Open default file manager
-press options-find, and choose memory card
-write the name of that folder you want to browse (either sys or private), press "find", and wait.
-the folder will appear in search results.Now just select it and begin browsing
You can use it, for example, to delete those themes that don't appear in "App. Manager".Themes are located at E:\private\10207114\import\
If you have problems, i.e. a folder doesn't appear in search results, put you memory card in a card reader, and clear "hidden" attribute of that folder that's not appearing."File manager" doesn't show hidden folders.
Warning:
If you use "File manager" to create a folder anywhere, it may set "hidden" attribute to "private" folder, and it will not appear anymore
Don't try to access thru app manager,Use file manager so be carefull not to make a mistake.

http://www.noeman.org

Top 100

2007-02-05T01:57:00.000-08:00

Top 100 Diggers
The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines
Top widgets from Widgipedia

Bring alive water scenes

2007-01-28T02:55:00.000-08:00

BRING ALIVE WATER SCENES - video powered by Metacafe

link is here!

The Perfect Editing Station

2007-01-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

http://www.pcmag.com/

Top 10 WinXP tips of all time!

2007-01-23T01:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.networkcomputing.com/

Top 10 tips and trick for windows vista

2007-01-21T11:12:00.001-08:00

http://chris.pirillo.com//

The eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

2007-01-19T05:11:00.000-08:00

The eXtreme Power Supply Calculator contains 600+ CPU including latest processors from Intel and AMD such as Conroe, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Extreme, Intel Core Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Xeon, Intel Pentium, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon 64 FX, AMD Athlon 64 X2, AMD Opteron, AMD Sempron 64, 939, AM2, F and LGA775 sockets and latest graphics cards from NVIDIA and ATI such as GeForce 7900 GS, 7900 GTX, 7950 GT, 7950 GX2, Radeon X1900 XTX, X1950 XTX, graphics cards from EVGA and Gigabyte and more. Power supply calculator has the ability to select hard drive type (IDE, SCSI, SATA), NVIDIA SLI or ATI Crossfire technology, cooling fan, PCI card, external device, USB and Firewire, water cooling kit and components, etc. This version of eXtreme Power Supply Calculator determines the overall computer power supply wattage for your desktop computer, server, computer racks or any pc computer system that uses ATX power supply. Also you can print the results!

PC Repair System

2007-01-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailycupoftech.com/

Retouch Photo In Proffesional Way With Photoshop

2007-01-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

Retouch Photo In Proffesional Way With Photoshop - video powered by Metacafe

link is here!

Where To Find Hosting Forums

2007-01-12T14:19:00.001-08:00

I get a lot of questions sent my way, and I do my best to answer them all. Every so often though, I get one that is good enough to share in front of the rest of the class. Jim was the most recent person to drop me a line and he wanted to know where he could find some good forums to learn more about or discuss Web hosting.

Well Jim, I am not going to give you just a couple of suggestions, I am going to tell you about every set of Web hosting forums I know about.

Now I know I might have not gotten everybody covered. So if you feel like I might have missed an important one, be sure to leave a comment so others know about it as well. Forums are a good way to learn about and discuss any topic, so hopefully this list will be useful for everybody.

by Mitch Keeler on January 11, 2007 at 10:11 am
Categorized by Web Hosting / Related Information

The Insider's Guide to Windows Vista

2007-01-08T23:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.pcmag.com/

Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

2007-01-08T06:16:00.001-08:00

http://www.useit.com/

Test the security of your email system!

2007-01-08T00:06:00.000-08:00

Is your email system secure against email viruses and attacks?
The most deadly viruses, able to cripple your email system and corporate network in minutes, are being distributed worldwide via email in a matter of hours (for example, the LoveLetter virus). Email worms and viruses can reach your system and infect your users through harmful attachments. But that's not all! Some viruses are transmitted through harmless-looking email messages and can run automatically without the need for user intervention (like the Nimda virus). Are you covered against such threats?

Free books on technology subjects

2007-01-07T23:55:00.000-08:00

Free books on technology subjects

Best Pc for the money

2007-01-07T05:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.pcmag.com/

Maximize your notebook battery life

2007-01-06T14:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.pcmag.com

Top 10 threads of 2006

2007-01-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2078790,00.asp

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Log File Analysis

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