I think I am comfortable enough with doing the Web Hosting Show each and every week. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I’ve been at this for nine months! Hopefully I am comfortable by now. Since I kind of know the mold of producing a great Web hosting podcast, I thought I’d shoot a few ideas out there for some more “specials” that I have in mind.

Halloween Web Hosting Show – I have always been a big fan of the “holiday special” episodes of any of the old sitcoms out there. Halloween has to be my favorite holiday, so it just seems to work for me. What might happen? Well the Web Hosting Show midgets might have to make a return.

Windows Server Episode – I’ve been talking to a few guys on the Microsoft Web hosting team about doing an entire episode of the Web Hosting Show dedicated to the Windows hosting environment. In the world of Web hosting, Windows is really the underdog so it is curious to see what tools there are out there for it. Also, I’d like to really dispell any myths and rumors that may or may not be true about hosting on a Windows hosting server.

Got any other ideas for future Web Hosting Show episodes?

Wouldn’t you like to have more control over how other programs open up links inside of Firefox? Sometimes it is annoying to see that some programs open up a new Firefox window, while others replace a Web page I might already be looking at inside of Firefox. This is how you control where links from other applications open Firefox.

At the top of Firefox, you need to click on Tools, then Options. This should open up a new window where your Firefox options are. Now navigate over to the Advanced section. Under the section for tabbed browsing, you should see a few options. What I want you to look for is “Open links from other applications in:”.

Once you find that, you are given three choices. You can have them open up in a new window. This means that a new Firefox browser window will open to display the link. You can have it open up in a new tab. This means that the link will open up in a new tab inside your current Firefox window. The last option is to open in the most recent tab or window. This is when the link opens in whatever tab or Firefox window you might currently be running.

Personally I like to have mine open in a new tab in the most recent window. That way I don’t have to worry about multiple Firefox windows running with different tabs. It is all about how you like to organize. Some other folks might like to have it different. The important thing to remember here is that you have the choice. So play around with the options and see which one you like best.

Also, if you have any other Firefox tips that you’d like to share with the rest of the world, make sure you let me know!

Yep, today is my birthday! I just turned 23 years old just about an hour ago. So how does it feel? Well, to me it feels just about like 22 did. I think I have passed up all the “cool” birthday dates to have. I guess the next one will be when I can draw in my social security. Between now and then though, I plan on having plenty of more years filled with Web hosting podcasts, good friends and hopefully even more success.

Time to put out the weekend garbage, get rid of that hangover from the weekend and grab a loved one. The one and only voice of the Web hosting world is back to tell you why doing business with a young Web host might not be such a bad idea. The Web Hosting Show is new this week and we are talking about the next generation of Web hosts out there. These days teenagers who are running a Web hosting business get a lot of doors shut in their face because of their age. In my opinion, this shouldn’t be the case.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 34!

Running Time: 18 minutes | File Size: 4.22 MB

For the most part, if you have been around the Web hosting world you have heard about the Web hosting companies out there that are run by a younger generation. There are actually some teenagers out there running Web hosting businesses. Now there are two sides of this story, and I feel like only one side is getting attention.

There have been a lot of bad things said about Web hosting with somebody who is not out of high school yet. Some people say they are unexperienced. Other people say that they are not safe. While some of these worries are true, here on the Web Hosting Show I want to give everybody the benefit of the doubt.

If doing Web hosting with somebody who is still in their teens makes you a little nervous, then that is fine. Go with a bigger and more experienced company. I for one am happy to see these kids getting in on things. It goes to show me that the next generation of Web hosting gurus are going to be even more experienced and savvy in their later years.

Now true, it would be nice if Web hosts had to tell you before if they are under aged or not. I am afraid there just is not a governing power out there big enough to do that just yet. If you are under twenty and running a Web hosting business, I want to tell you something. Don’t fear your age! Tell folks about it. That way you have nothing to fear and nobody can say that your are being dishonest right from the start. Could some of these younger generation Web hosters give the old guys a run for their money? Maybe one of these days, somebody will.

Feed Your Reader is one of my most favorite Firefox extensions to date. You see, much like the rest of the geeky crew at Lockergnome, I love my RSS feeds. Right now I have around 50 to 100 inside of my feed reader of choice, FeedDemon. How would you like to have Firefox automatically launch your feed reader of choice whenever you click on that orange RSS logo in the bottom right of the screen? That is what Feed Your Reader lets you do.

After you install Feed Your Reader, all you need to do is set your favorite feed reader in the options.

Feed Your Reader currently works with: AmphetaDesk, Awasu, Bloglines, Bot A Blog, Bottomfeeder, FeedLounge, Fyuze, Headline Viewer, IzyNews, mobilerss, My Yahoo!, NewsGator, NewsIsFree, NewsMonster, nntp//rss, Radio Userland, Syndic8, Wildgrape NewsDesk, and WinRSS.

Now every time you click that RSS button in Firefox, it will automatically launch your feed reader which will be ready to add the RSS feed for the Web page you wish to subscribe to. No more copying, cutting and pasting URLs over and having to do more work than it should take. Feed Your Reader is the RSS lover’s dream come true.

So take control of how Firefox handles your RSS feeds and try out Feed Your Reader!

Gada.be is the best thing going when it comes to searching these days. I really love it. I love it so much, I wanted to add some of it’s functionality into my own entries on both Mitchelaneous and the Web Hosting Show. Now I have. You can see it in action when you navigate down to the “Article Tags:” under this article. Now how did I do that?

Now for me, I had the keyword function cut and pasted out of my templates. So this is the only code I needed to insert into my articles template:

{{if keywords}}

Article Tags: 

{{loop keywords}}

<a href=”http://{{var name=keyword}}.gada.be” rel=”tag”>{{var name=keyword escape=html}}</a>{{unless __last__}}, {{/unless}}

{{/loop}}

{{/if}}

Where it says “var name=”keyword”, that is where the sub domain for the gada.be URL comes from. That was the only real hard part to figure out. The rest of it should look pretty much like the regular keyword section that was there before I added gada.be into the mix. Now of course you can add your own CSS and look to the code. So get with it already. Show the folks out there that gada.be is the best thing going today.

Updated Oct 16: Added (rel=”tag”) into the code. Thanks Chris!

How could the simple idea of RSS feeds, the little orange button and what we know so far about RSS become complicated? The idea is simple. You see the orange RSS button, you click it, you are brought to the RSS feed for that Web site. Well, now Microsoft is thinking over which icons they will use for RSS.

This shouldn’t be so hard. I guess it is nice that Microsoft is asking for input, but no mater what every company that puts an RSS feed out there is going to have a different looking orange button. Why? It is because every company will want to show you, “Hey we have better RSS than the other guy! Our button is prettier!”.

Giving you the information you requested at the speed of light, here are a few Firefox shortcuts and tips that I use on a daily basis. Ever since I started doing these Firefox articles, a lot of folks have been asking for more Firefox tips I could share. Here are three of my favorites that should help you boost productivity or at least impress your friends.

Here is a tip to chance your font size within Firefox with your shift key and scroll wheel mouse. To increase your font size in Firefox, all you need to do is hold down your Ctrl key, and then scroll your mouse wheel up or down. Moving it up will increase the font size and moving it down will decrease the font size. Want to go back to normal? All you need to do is hold the Ctrl key and hit the 0 (zero) key.

Do you have multiple tabs open and you don’t want to worry about moving your hand back to the mouse? Then just hold the Ctrl key down and hit the numbers one through nine. Depending on the number you hit, you will go to that tab. If you have three tabs, then if you hit the number three then you will go to the third one. If you hit the number two then you’ll go to the second tab.

Want to go quickly move backwards or forward from the Web pages you have visited? Then just hold down the Shift key, and scroll up and down on your scroll wheel on your mouse. If you scroll up, then you move forward. If you scroll down, then you move back.

Have any other quick Firefox shortcuts or tips that you would like to share? Let me know!

E-mail is something you know about right? When it comes to Web mail and your Web hosting account, things can get a little more tricky. Chances are, if you have a Web hosting account you also have access to your E-mail via the Web. What, you didn’t know that? Well then you need to check out the latest Thursday special on WebHostingShow.com! As always, make sure you let me know what you think.

Listen to me explain what all this Web mail buisness is all about!

The folks over at About.com have written up a very nice article to help you come up with ideas or topics to write about. Every so often we all are effected by some writer’s block. We all hit the bottom of the charisma well once or twice. This article is there to help all the folks out there who think they have nothing to say a voice in the world we live in today.

You know that feeling… the awful sensation that you just can’t possibly blog about anything. Nothing inspires you enough. Everything seems too mundane. And, the more you think about blogging, the less you are inclined to blog.

Indeed, if writers can get writers’ block, then bloggers can get bloggers’ block.

What do you do in moments like these?

Here are some ideas on how you can create weblog content during ‘dry times’ when you feel as though anything under the sun isn’t worth blogging about.

[Read the Rest at About.com!]