This is one of the funniest Photoshop tutorials I’ve seen in awhile. As the guy tries to explain how to place a marriage certificate onto the windshield of a shaggin wagon, he is continuously interrupted by what I believe to be his wife. *WIFE* What are you doing? *Guy* I’m writing off taxes. He definitely displays a good use of the keyboard shortcuts on a Mac.
D-LINK Goes Custom
D-Link and Skinit now offer customers the option to customize their routers with some 3000 designs, including fashion designs, sports teams, colleges, tattoo art, initials, symbols, and corporate logos, as well as the ability to import a personal photo using the Skinit custom design tool.
Skinit’s skins are personalized, high-quality vinyl covers specially designed to fit a broad variety of consumer electronic devices. Initially, D-Link and Skinit are providing personalization solutions for the following routers:
D-Link® DIR-655 Xtreme N™ Gigabit Router, DIR-625 RangeBooster N™ Router, DIR-615 Wireless N Router DGL-4500 Xtreme N Gaming Router, DGL-4300 Wireless Gaming Router, DGL-4100 Gaming Router and the DI-624 802.11g Wireless Router.
Revver Updates WP Plugin
Revver has updated their WordPress plugin today. The plugin mostly consists of more customization and greater support to users.
The plugin has always required that your host allow cURL access. Unfortunately for some users, certain hosting providers such as GoDaddy required additional configuration settings that would have required updating the plugin code. To remedy this, we added a field in the “Revver Configuration” tab where you can add a proxy server that does support cURL (sounds a little mumbo jumbo-y, but all you need to do is copy and paste a URL and you’re good).
Instructions for installing for the first time or upgrading an existing install can be found on the quickstart guide page.
Telligent Lacks Intelligents
Charles Stricklin has published an article today that shows off Grafiti essentially slamming WordPress. According to Charles, Telligent has purchased the keyword WordPressPodcast from Google Adwords. Upon clicking on the promotional landing page, you discover that the Grafiti CMS is THE alternative for WordPress. Telligent claims that Grafiti has a 2 minute install time when compared with the 5 minute install time for WordPress. Some notable differences between the two: Grafiti is based on Microsoft.NET and IIS technology and costs $199.00 which by the way, is a limited time price, so who knows what the final price may end up being.
The final verdict? Grafiti seems to be taking some pretty sharp jabs towards WordPress which don’t even make sense. Although they have a pretty aggressive advertising campaign going on, what they are offering with Grafiti isn’t even close to what you receive with WordPress. I don’t know who they are trying to kid, but who in their right mind would pay at least $199.00 for this stuff?
As Charles mentions on his blog, the major downfall Grafiti has going against their software is that it’s proprietary. This means you have to lean on Telligents shoulders and hope to god they never go out of business. In retrospect, WordPress is an open-source project filed under the GPL. This means, even if the major developers stepped away from the project, nothing stops you from picking up where they left off.
Ever hear of the phrase, You Get What You Pay For? Generally, it’s true. In this case however, you get $199.00 worth of crap. Enjoy.
R.I.P. Netscape Navigator
Looks like it’s the end of the line for the Netscape web browser. Security patches for the latest version will continue to be released until February 1, 2008. After that, there will be no more product support for Navigator 9 or any previous version. What’s interesting to note is that, the Netscape engineering team even tried to create a skinned version of FireFox with a few extensions installed, and even that didn’t help them gain any market share. It’s been a very long time since I used Netscape Navigator but for the longest time, it was the preferred browser of choice for my mom, mostly because of Composer.
Honestly, I think what Netscape is doing makes complete sense. Stop wasting time with Navigator and invest those engineering dollars into the Mozilla foundation. Now Netscape can focus on other things such as Propeller.
At any rate, R.I.P. Netscape Navigator.
AOL’s focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be. Given AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.
Click here to read Netscape’s death certificate. Also read the comments that go along with the article, for once, there is an interesting conversation that takes place.
Glogster – You In A Poster
Finally, a somewhat different and unique approach to social networking. Check out Glogster.com Glogster.com lets you network with your friends via posters. These posters can contain graphics, text, images, videos, sound, and wallpapers. You can either select from a number of predefined templates for each section or, you can upload your own video, image or sound. The uploading feature allows you to upload up to 100MB per file. Whoever would upload a 100MB video file to a poster is insane.
No registration to the site is necessary to create a glogster. So, I decided to give it a try to see what I could come up with. I was surprised to see all of the different preset images and frames that were built into this web app. One thing I noticed during my test is that, when you hover over the editing icons, there are no tooltips. This makes me wonder what it is that particular tool or button does and that is not good when you think of usability. Another thing I didn’t like is the constant need to move the main editor window around. It always seemed to get in my way.
This is what the element editor looks like. The arrows represent scaling while the circular arrow represents rotation. Your guess is as good as mine as to what the icons next to the word EDIT are supposed to do. I know for certain though that, the trash can deletes the element from the poster. All of the predefined elements are vector images meaning, they can scale to a very large size while still maintaining quality. If you upload a custom image that is not vectorized and you increase it’s size within Glogster, you will see a drastic decrease in image quality.
After I was finished creating my (Glogster), I clicked on the Save and Publish button. The publish dialog box popped up which gave me the ability to give my (Glog) a title, specify an address for the glog, assign tags, and choose a category. Glogster also gives you the option of making your Glogs public, or private. Thank goodness they have a WTF category because thats precisely the reaction you’ll have when you see this thing.
Once I clicked the publish button, I was greeted with a register page so that I could publish and share my glog to others. Apparently, you don’t need an account to create a glog. However, you need to have an account to publish and share the glog with others which makes sense, considering the social networking aspect of the service. So for this reviews sake, I created an account.
The good news is, if you register an account after you create your glog, it will be accessible as if you created it with a pre existing account. Good move on Glogster’s part.
There is much more involved with Glogster than what I covered, but I wanted to highlight the poster creation part as I think that it’s a pretty cool idea. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a social network that uses a different method of being social. Hopefully, if other social networks are coming down the pike (you just know they are) they will have a way of doing things that is outside of the box. A little ingenuity never hurt anybody.
Oh, and before I let you go, kiss your chances of embedding your Glogster into your blog. I gave it a shot and the damn this is over 900 pixels wide. So, you’ll most likely have to link to your Glogsters instead.
Enough with the review, time to see my WTF poster! Take note Mike. If you create a Glogster, be sure to let me know and send us a link.
There She Blows
Wow. Mother Nature decides to blow the house down, almost literally.
First Episode Of WordPress Weekly
The time has finally arrived where I will pop my podcasting cherry and produce the first episode of WordPress Weekly. WordPress Weekly will TRY to be a weekly oriented podcast that takes place every Friday evening at 9PM EST on Talkshoe.com. The easiest way I can explain the format of the show is by looking into the TwIT podcast by Leo Laporte. Twit otherwise known as This Week In Tech is a weekly podcast where Leo gathers other tech pundits from around the country to discuss technology news topics of the week.
WordPress Weekly however will be a show where I gather various bloggers who use WordPress as their cornerstone and discuss WordPress related news that took place during the week. Sometimes, the show may stray from the norm and we may cover a particular topic. Other times, we may open the mic and generally talk about anything blogging related. At the end of every show, every guest including the host (ME) gives out a blogging tip for the week. This tip can be a theme, a plugin, a hack, a blog you’ve come across, anything that would be of value to a WordPress user..
I am aiming for a relaxing atmosphere where WordPress Users can gather around for 1 hour every Friday evening and discuss the latest happenings with everything WordPress.
The first episode of WordPress weekly will cover why I and the guest hosts use WordPress. Why we chose WordPress over competing solutions. The floor will be opened on this show which means, we’re liable to discuss just about anything as it relates to WordPress or blogging.
These are the guests that are scheduled or tentatively scheduled to be on the show Friday. Ronald from the Readers Appreciation Project and Brad from Strangework.com. Steven Hodson of WinExtra.com might be able to make it but so far, he is still not 100% sure.
Listener Participation:
So how can you be a part of the show? Well, there are a number of ways. The easiest way is to create an account on Talkshoe.com. Then, download and install their client software. The Talkshoe software serves as a bridge of communication between the host, and his/her listeners. The software contains a chat room as well as phone number information to call into the show.
However, you do not need to install the software in order to listen to the show live. This Friday at 9PM EST, look on the front page of Talkshoe.com or click on the LIVE NOW button and look for the WordPress Weekly show. Instead of clicking on the JOIN IN button, click underneath where it says LISTEN ONLY. This will tune you into the live stream.
If you want to call in to the show via telephone, Skype, etc., use your phone to call 724-444-7444 and follow the audio instructions. *Note* In one of the recent updates to Talkshoe, anonymous calling is now supported. This means you can call in and participate without the need to create a Talkshoe account. However, if you have a Talkshoe account, your registered name will show up within the Talkshoe client letting others know who is speaking.
You can also use SIP clients such as ProjectGizmo or X-Lite. For example, when I use X-Lite to dial in, I type in 123@66.212.134.192 and then follow the audio directions.
Remember this information as it will be required when you want to dial into the show.
Talkcast Name: WordPress Weekly
Talkcast ID: 34224
Phone Number: 724-444-7444
Show Information:
I can not purchase a seperate domain for the show. So please look to this site for information regarding each and every episode. I’ll also be posting show notes on this blog after every show. Also, starting on Friday, I will be adding the TalkShoe Talkcast player widget to the sidebar of the blog. This allows you to listen to the show right from the front page of the blog. You can also keep tabs on the show and look through the archive if one is ever created by clicking here.
What To Expect:
I have no idea what to expect. I’ve never hosted my own show before so this might turn into a disaster. I’ve been a Talkshoe member for a very long time so it shouldn’t be too bad. I’ve seen other shows experience technical problems so I won’t be surprised if I go through some hardships through the first couple episodes. I’ve always wanted to tinker with this podcasting deal but I needed to find something I could talk about on a weekly basis and I wanted to do it with other people, not just by myself. The first show might be filled with a ton of bloopers, but hey, I’ll be there to have fun and to engage in some good conversations and I hope you’ll join us in one way or another.
New Poll For 2008
Thanks to the overwhelming response to last month’s poll which asked the question, “Do You Celebrate Christmas“? 31 of you said yes, 13 of you said no and for whatever reason, 3 people voted that Christmas offended them. I have a good idea as to who may have voted for that third option but I’m not going to give out any names. Wouldn’t want them to be stoned or anything.
At any rate, thank you for participating. With 2008 now underway, the question for this month is, “Was Your 2007 Resolution Successful?” As for myself, I promised I would drink more water and stop visiting fast food joints so much. Indeed, I was able to really trim down how many times I visit fast food joints but I was unable to drink more water this year. Instead, I think I drank even more Mountain Dew. I also promised myself that I would have a new job before the end of 2007 and that didn’t happen either. Well actually, if you consider writing for WeblogToolsCollection.com as a second job, then in fact, I was successful but at this point, I’m not going to count that as a second job.
So after voting, let me know if you think New Years is a good time to make empty promises.
Last Updates Of 2007
This will officially be the last post of 2007. What a year it’s been for this particular blog. Jeffro2pt0 started in May 2007 and since then, has continued to grow by leaps and bounds. I wanted to take a moment and thank each and every one of you for making 2007 a hell of a year for the blog. All of you who have subscribed to the RSS feed, commented on the blog, participated in the discussions and helped me out along the way have really helped to make this blog a success. I couldn’t of done it without you and I look forward to what 2008 may bring.
To illustrate the kind of year this blog had, I’ve taken the following screenshot of my AWStats page for the year 2007.
Blog Stats
There are currently 401 posts and 820 comments, contained within 15 categories and 1,872 tags.
Spam
Akismet has protected your site from 6,547 spam comments.
Stats In Total For 2007:
New Year Means New Design:
As you may have noticed, the blog now sports a new design. It’s not really a major redesign, it’s more like a reshuffling/reorganization of content. I’ve removed one of the sidebars and have opted for one, large sidebar. I’ve also installed an Archive plugin and have turned the Archives into it’s own seperate page so that I could free up more space within the sidebar. I’ve made the shoutbox wider, moved the MyBlogLog reader widget to the bottom left part of the site, replaced the Recent Forum Posts module at the top left corner of the site with the Last 5 Blog Posts module and in 2008, I will add in a tag cloud. I will be condensing all of the categories into tags and from now on, blog posts will be organized by tags instead of seperate categories. Last but not least, I have widened the content area of the site by about 30 or 40 more pixels.
I also realize that the blog looks horrible in IE7, again. I will work on this during the month of January but until then, please browse my blog using FireFox.
On the backend of things, I have uninstalled numerous plugins. Most notable is the SideBlog plugin. I’ll stick to Twitter for those types of posts. You might also be surprised that I have removed the SezWho comment rating system as well as the Cliqin widget. It’s not that I don’t believe in these services, its that they weren’t being used to their fullest extent on the blog. So instead of keeping the blog polluted with stuff thats not being used, I opted to get rid of those features completely.
If you are one of the bloggers that joined Cliq or displays the Cliqin widget because of me, you now have the option to keep it published or take it off your own blog.
One other thing worth mentioning. A loyal RSS Feed Subscriber notified me today that the HeaderEntry plugin which adds copyright information to the beginning of a post when it’s being scraped or read through a FeedReader was actually keeping him from seeing what any of my posts were about. My guess is, he has his FeedReader setup to display this blog’s feed as a summary and that summary was nothing more than a copyright spiel. So, I have removed the plugin. Please let me know if the Feed returns to normal for you and thanks Lee also known as LGR for pointing this out to me.
The Forum Is No More:
The forum which is powered by Vbulletin and cost me $85.00 has been taken offline. The forum simply has not worked out as well as I thought it would. It’s actually had a negative effect on the blog. The forum has separated the forum users, from the blog users. I’m running out of time trying to update the forum to keep content fresh and there hasent’t been too many new members signing up as late. Therefor, I am going to go back to using the blog as a forum and not worry about having a seperate entity for the forum until I become uber popular. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. All of the forum posts and user data will be backed up and saved onto my hard drive so nothing will be lost. If I have a change of heart, we’ll start right back where we left off.
In Closing:
Thank you for your support throughout the year of 2007. I hope you and yours truly have a successful and happy New Year. Only four more to go until 2012!
Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff 