OpenWeb – Free User Created Graphics

openwebgraphics logo

According to my log files, quite a few of you are doing Google searches for graphics, buttons and badges. So, it’s only natural of me to include some content for those of you who are looking for it. Here is something I’ve come across recently called Open Web Graphics. A resource of freely available user-submitted graphics that cover web banners, web icons and web backgrounds.

The web icons are generally in PNG format but you can sometimes find them in .gif. Some of the icons also come in various colors and are searchable by TAGS or CATEGORY. Here are a few of the more popular icons that I see blogs using all the time.

RSS Icon Email Button Home Icon User Comment

The Web Banners and Web Backgrounds section only contains 1 page of graphics which means theirs not a whole lot of selection. OpenWebGraphics has announced that they have reached BETA status back on October 1st but as far as I can tell, the site is open for registration. Once of the coolest things about this site is the ability to upload PSD files. This might be one heck of a resource area for photoshop newbies, who want to learn how the graphics were put together. Do the right thing and don’t redistribute these open PSD files.

Click here to check out their existing library of graphics.

X-Wing Model Bursts Into Flames

A couple of days ago, I came across an excellent article on Gizmodo which highlighted a group of people that built a 21 foot long model of an X-Wing. The model was built out of Baltic Wood, and contained solid aluminum for some parts of the aircraft. The model was also outfitted with four class M rockets which would provide the red flare type of glow that is seen on the X-Wing’s engines during the movie Star Wars.

Alas, here is the video of this model trying to fly and as you can see, the force was not with them.

X-Wing Model Launch Fails – Watch more free videos

Pimp Your Google Identity

Introducing the un-official G Ring. This is a prototype of a vanity ring designed by Markus Kison. The ring displays how many hits you get when you search for the name of the wearer.

Introducing The G Ring

Here is some information related to the project:

While in earlier times richness and importance were equal to the amount of money or jewels someone possessed, in a post information society it’s the attention you get from the worlds people, that counts. Being in people’s mind means being important, whether they think about you in a positive way our not doesn’t matter. And what people have in their mind is what they read in the media. In the future this will mean, what they read/see on the net. Every content creator that copies and pastes your name will rise the value of your virtual mirrored importance. And there is a hard mechanical algorithm on the net, that extremely objectively measures your appearance, it’s called Google and has already passed the “line of no return” (Bruce Sterling). In most job interviews the personnel manager will already use this machine to check your importance and have a look at the first answers this mirror tells about you. Your mirror identity strikes back on your chances in the real world.

Using specialized software, the name of the wearer is typed into the ring and the number of hits or in this case ‘attention carots‘ is displayed. The ring comes with it’s own docking station where it communicates with Google and updates the hit count overnight.

Vanity Ring Demo Video


I certainly can’t see my girlfriend wearing one of these however, I can see a number of A-List bloggers wearing one of these rings around their pinky, taking a page out of Dr. Evils book, ONE BILLLLLLION HITS.

Web 2.0 Badge Generator

web20badges.com logo

It’s still hip to use web 2.0 styled badges. If you have ever wanted your own badge but didn’t think you had the photoshop skills, your in luck. Web20Badges is a web 2.0 styled badge generator with an assortment of templates to choose from. Users can type in the text they want to appear on the badge, select a font from a drop-down list and configure the font size as well as the color. You can even determine the angle in which the text is displayed although, the text never seems to look right with an angle applied. Once you are finished, you can right-click and save the badge to your desktop and then claim it as your own. If you want the ultimate ability to create your own badge without the generator, WEB20Badges does provide the PSD files for most if not all of the badge templates.

Check out some of these examples.

Digg Badge RSS Feed Badge Google Badge Shield Badge

YouTube Now Apart Of Google Earth

GoogleEarth Logo

Google has finally integrated YouTube videos into Google Earth. YouTube videos that are geo-tagged will now show up in their proper locations within GoogleEarth to show where that video was filmed.

Our new browseable layer of geotagged videos works a lot like our Google Book Search layer, only it shows you the locations referenced in specific videos instead of books. Let’s say you’re jetting off to Paris. Before you go, you can watch the sunset filmed from the top floor of the Eiffel Tower, among other clips of popular spots in the City of Lights.

You can access this new data layer in the ‘Featured Content‘ folder which normally appears on the left-side panel of Google Earth. After clicking on the YouTube button, all sorts of icons will appear, highlighting videos filmed at that specific location. You can either view the video from within Google Earth or on the YouTube site.

Going to add this to my list of productivity killers.

I See Your WordPress Plugins

Wordpress.com LogoSimonne of AllTipsAndTricks.com has posted a helpful tip for WordPress users. By default, the permissions for your WordPress directory are set up in such a way to allow the public viewing access. Like Simonne, I’m not sure what the practicality would be except for those snooping around or those trying to figure out which plugins you have installed in which they can then look for vulnerabilities or exploits in those plugins to hack your site.

The fix is quite simple. You can do one of two things, change the permissions of that directory from 0755 to 0750 or, you can upload a blank index.html file. When I set my plugin folder to 0750, some of my plugins decided to stop working. So I opted for option two. In fact, I added a redirect within my index.html page that redirects the browser to my homepage.

Here is the code I used in my index.html file if you would like to do the same.

Redirect Code I Used In My Index.html File

UPDATE -Thanks to LGR for adding this in via the comments. You can simply add Options -Indexes to your .htaccess file. This will redirect anyone who is trying to view a folder index to your 404 error page without the need of creating empty index.html files. Thanks again LGR.

I Need Your Help With Spam

Spam Sucks

Comment spam has never really been a problem on this site thanks to Askismet. However, I’ve recently become a victim of Trackback/Pingback spam. It looks like bots are creating automated blogs which either scrape the entire block of content or in my case, an excerpt. Sometimes, the bot states that I’m the author of the post. Other times, the bot gets the author incorrect but still displays my content.

When I visit the culprits site, the posts are usually posted in the UNCATEGORIZED category by either ADMIN or UNCATEGORIZED. At first, I was fooled a couple of times thinking these were legitimate links but I’m starting to recognize these sites as being spammers. The joys of maintaining a blog right?

How have you tackled this problem of linkback/trackback url spam? I was told that I should install a plugin called Bad Behavior but the site was down.

I have also noticed that I am receiving spam comments on at least two specific posts within my blog. The first is on the subject of joining a forum pertaining to your niche, the second deals with my take on guest blogging. I have no idea why these two posts are attracting so much attention from spam bots but they are.

I’m open to discussion on how to combat my apparent spam problems. Any and all suggestions are welcomed. 

Spooky Sticker Icon Set Released

http://iconfactory.com

David Lanham of The Icon Factory has released a Spooky Sticker icon set for the Mac, Windows, or iContainer. The icon set contains Halloween themed stickers which make a great addition to your desktop around this time of year. This icon set will also look good on Vista as it was built with large resources. To download this icon pack, check out Spooky Stickers.

SpookyGhost SpookyPumpkin SpookyWoman

Why CLIQ May Kill BlogRush

When BlogRush was released to the masses, it became the next best thing for bloggers since Akismet. BlogRush claimed it would provide it’s users with a RUSH of traffic from relevant blogs through the use of a widget. This widget would display your blog posts via credits earned by displaying posts from other blogs through the widget on your own site. The truth is, neither I or many others witnessed the RUSH in traffic that was almost guaranteed to those who used the service. If you’d like to see my results that came along with BlogRush, please read an earlier post I made called Is The BlogRush Over With?

After reviewing CLIQ and what that service had to offer, it dawned on me that this service could potentially wipe BlogRush off the map. Here are the reasons why.

Full Control:

With BlogRush, you have no control over which posts are displayed on the widget. You can only control what DOESN’T show up. You also have no control over who displays your blog posts.

With CLIQ, you have full control over what will be displayed in the widget. You also have the ability to make your group private so that members can only join if you accept their request, or if you manually invite them.

Relevancy:

BlogRush does provide a FILTER list that allows you to create WORD or PHRASE based filters so that you can sort of control which posts are displayed or not but when you think of all the posts your going up against within a widget that only has 5 spaces, the filters become less of a factor. BlogRush maintains a category based organizational system. Without knowing how many blogs are actually within this category, it’s hard to judge how much competition you’re actually up against. BlogRush also uses an algorithm to detect relevancy between the blog, category and blog post title.

Because CLIQ provides you with an option to make your CLIQ invite only, you can essentially control how relevant the content will be within the widget. That is, if you only invite members that post similar or close to similar content, your going to have a relevant widget that contains blog postings that your visitors and the visitors of your member blogs will have a higher probability of clicking.

Creating Your Own Niche Network:

Users have no way of creating networks within BlogRush. Your essentially at the mercy of the BlogRush algorithm to determine when your blog post fits the right criteria to be displayed next to 4 other entries.

By creating your own CLIQ, you have the ability to invite high traffic blogs into your group. Each blog that joins your CLIQ is a referral. CLIQ administrators can set unofficial TRAFFIC requirements for CLIQ memberships meaning, you can determine what amount of traffic a blog has to gain and refer in order to maintain membership. This produces competition amongst the members to drive up their own traffic which in turn, benefits the group as a whole.

Conclusion:

If you haven’t picked up on the theme yet, as a user of BlogRush, your essentially at their mercy versus CLIQ which gives you total control. Why rely on BlogRush to provide you with a lackluster rush of relevant traffic based on algorithms when you can do it yourself and reap the benefits? Sure, the CLIQ method revolves a little more in the way of work, but hey, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Bloggers won’t be benefiting from BlogRush anytime soon unless your JohnChow. So do yourself a favor, ditch it and go for something you can control and manage yourself.

CLIQ is what BlogRush should of been and I’ll leave it at that.

Do you agree or disagree? Let me know by leaving a comment and contribute to this conversation.