Archive | July, 2007

MP3 Player Software Doesn’t Have to Suck

Jul/31 in Desktop Apps, Personal

Yes, I am still fawning over my new mp3 player. Can you blame me? Just look how tiny and beautiful it is! Sure the menu system is a little wonky and I am just now starting to manage it but other than that it has been a good solid player thus far.

The software that came with it wasn’t that bad either as a matter of fact.

Usually when software comes a device it is lackluster at best and at worst, well it just sucks. Go ahead and tell me the last software package that came with your device that you actually use. You can’t because none of us do it. The Creative Media Lite program that I was asked to download after buying my Creative Zen Stone Plus is awesome.

Creative Media Lite

Why does it rock? (pun was intended there buddy)

  • It Tells Me if the Battery is Charged
  • It allows me to Drag and Drop Media From and To the Device
  • It Doesn’t Slow Me Down With a Bunch of Other Features I Don’t Need

I was expecting to see something with a music store, big flashing lights and an interface that looked like it was stolen from a Scifi Channel movie of the week. Instead I got a useful application.

Two thumbs up to you Creative, you deserve it!

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Not Passing a Zen Stone Plus

Jul/30 in Personal

Zen Stone Plus RocksSince I’m growing a little tired of people thinking I am somebody who just complains all the time, I figured I might touch on a more positive experience I’ve been through recently. At the suggestion of one of my Pownce buddies – I picked up the Creative ZEN Stone Plus the other day. I’ve been looking for something cheap that I could toss podcasts onto while I work outside – and this fits the bill perfectly.

It’s almost smaller than my thumb, so size is no concern. With it’s shape and size though I’m a little afraid I might mistake it for a breath mint one of these days and swallow it down. If I do, I’ll be sure to turn on the built in microphone so that I can create one heck of a good podcast out of all that.

The radio feature isn’t the best in the world, but will probably never be used. The same could be said for the count down clock and timer. All in all though after just paying around $70 for it I can’t say I feel like I was duped at all.

Now I’m off to find a shovel and go bury my Dell Pocket DJ in the backyard. At least now I’ll be able to listen to myself while doing it.

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Conversation With a Content Theft Artist

Jul/24 in Hot Web Topics, Web Development Tutorials

Blog Content TheftI don’t like having my stuff stolen or abused. Unlike most folks though that just roll over and take it – I like to do my best to fight back.

If nobody fights back against these guys, they win and we all have to pay the price for it. I recently found one web site that will go un-named (no reason to give these guys free press) stealing content from my podcast, WebHostingShow.com. Here is the un-edited version of his responses. I sent the first e-mail asking for the content to removed and for him to respond within five days or less.

Not totally out of the question – right? Here is his reply:

Hello Mr. Keller, we are not using site webhostingshow.com for these news, than using rss feeds from domaintools.com. And under every message there is your name and your email – notice to people that YOU have written those texts. So, please see with domaintools.com are using their rss feeds are legal or not.

Oh so they are saying it’s DomainTools.com that is stealing my content – not them. Hu? Yeah didn’t make much sense to me either – the DomainTools.com folks are a great team of people, not like this idiot who can’t even spell my name correctly. I replied trying to clarify, here is the next response:

Mr Keeler, we are using material that domaintools.com provides via rss feeds for free. So I do not see any copyright abuse. If you think this material is copyrighted, please contact domaintools.com first. If they remove your blogs from their site, they will be automatically removed from our site, too.

Oh so all content published via RSS feeds are free for the taking, happy I got that cleared up.. no wait, it is still my copyrighted material I did not give him permission to post. That is the fact plain and simple – so yet again I try to explain the situation and ask for some clarification.

Wish I could say this story had a happy ending, but afraid thus far it is not looking that way.

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Record Breaking Web Hosting Podcast

Jul/23 in Personal, Web Hosting

Web Hosting and Development PodcastLast week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show had nearly 2,000 downloads in the span of 7 days. That is a new personal record for me. Now I am not usually one to talk about numbers, because compared with other out there I know I am probably going to be laughed or at least snickered at.

I don’t care though, because I am still proud!

So you know what, lets do it again! Episode 116 of the Web Hosting Show was just uploaded today. Download it, share it – give it to a friend because it is one heck of a good show if I do say so myself. On this week’s show I covered:

  • Company Bio of FastServers.Net (Part 2 of 3)!
  • Google Webmaster Tools Setup Guide and Help!
  • How to Catch Hosting Friends with LinkedIn!
  • The Best Way to Submit Your Site to the Search Engines!
  • What is a Reverse IP Lookup?

So what are you waiting for? Go download the mp3 and lets see if we can get 4,000 downloads this week!

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HostingCon 2007 Gets Going

Jul/23 in Hot Web Topics, Web Hosting

I nearly forgot that HostingCon is getting started today. I wouldn’t really consider myself really excited, but it should be interesting to watch what sort of coverage comes from the event. I noticed over at Clickfire they will be covering the event. I also have a few friends that will be there as well.

How come I am skipping out on the event this year again?

Eh, it’s a long trip and I’m not sure how big the payoff might be. Right now I am happy to watch from the sidelines and see how many of the big hosting web sites cover it if they do so at all. HostingCon is the like the Super Bowl of the web hosting industry.

For more ideas on what you can expect to see and hear in the next week or so at HostingCon go back and check out my interview I did with HostingCon’s head honcho George Roberts on Web Hosting Show episode 110. For our post-HostingCon coverage I hope to get a few friend on the podcast again to talk about what they thought about the event. If you have anything to say, feel free to drop me a line about it.

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Lost a Dog and Buddy

Jul/19 in Personal

Update! After passing out flyers, calling the local radio station, putting in a newspaper ad and going door to door asking about him – this morning it looks like Rocky ended up right in the drive way. Don’t know if he just “made his way back” or if somebody got a guilty conscience. Either way I am one happy Mitch. :)

The last few hours have been pretty hectic and stressful. Our family dog Rocky – that we have had at least for ten or more years has run away. Looks like the stupid pizza delivery guy left the gate open last night, so there is no real clue of when exactly he got out. I found the gate open when I got off work – then put two and two together.

Been taking it pretty hard because – as you can imagine, he was pratically a family member more than “just a dog”. If we don’t find him returning by tonight, in the morning we will have to go up to the newspaper office and put in a “missing dog” ad. I’m on the verge of writing the Pizza Hut Web site a nasty letter just because I feel kind of like I should be doing something – but have nothing I can really do.

So if you’ve been a little too busy to spend a few minutes with your favorite pet, make sure you do so cause you never know when something like this might happen to you.

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Passive Income Guide (and eBook)

Jul/16 in Online Apps

Get More Money!Want to create a side income for yourself – a little extra change on the side never hurt anybody right? Well the folks over at FreelanceSwitch have put together one heck of a nice guide helping you learn how you can do it too.

Learn how to create a passive income yourself.

Getting paid by the hour is pretty neat, but it’s even better when you have income that comes in when you’re taking time off too! Freelancers are uniquely positioned to be able to spend time creating sources of passive income while still getting their main money earning work done.

You can download it as an eBook or you can read the entire thing Online. The choice is up to you.

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How Much Does Popularity Cost?

Jul/13 in Hot Web Topics

There is no doubt that the two “easy ways out” when it comes to Web popularity – you either know somebody famous that mentions your service or you. The second way would be to pay lots and lots of money on advertising. Other than that, building a “successful” brand on your own is really hard.

The main problem we suffer is that a lot of folks only focus on following the big voices Online. If somebody like Robert Scoble, Kevin Rose or Leo Laporte don’t mention it, use it, or give it a thumbs up you are dead to a lot of the world. That is not their fault, they are just folks Online as well that just happened to get lucky and gain a real voice out there in the geeky world we live in.

Firefox Facts gain most of its popularity because Chris Pirillo really helped inspire and lead me into the entire project from day one. So I have gotten a perk out of this type of popular voices driving the popular vote.

I’ve recently been actually spending money in promoting the Web Hosting Show in new audiences and I have to say it has been paying off a little ‘bit. Most of my projects are done as a hobby though – so not sure if I can count myself.

I do feel sorry for folks out there trying to build a business from the ground up because if your not on the A-list or know somebody on the A-list it is almost impossible to “make it”.

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Pownce – Needs a Little Something

Jul/12 in Hot Web Topics, Online Apps

Mitch Got Pownced!Well I have been using Pownce for a while now and I think there are some good things about it and a few things that could be improved with it. It hasn’t been fully released to the public though – so I don’t think there is any reason to think they won’t get things fixed up very nicely by the time everybody can use it.

Of course (like with any good Online application) I hope that continue to improve it past that point as well.

For those who are familiar to the instant messaging/connecting aspect of it – you can think of it as Twitter, but actually kind of useful.

Pownce Desktop Client Issues and Problems

I want to be able to minimize it to the system tray in Windows. It should remember it’s resized window as well. Right now I think the default size is a little on the large size, so I’d like for it to remember I resized it down each time I start it up.

Pownce Web Site Issues and Problems

Pownce really needs a better search option for users. I can’t really find people yet because the best thing you can do is a “Name” search. I want e-mail address search, I want keyword and interest search. I just want a little more to help me connect with people I know or people I might want to know.

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Best Firefox RSS Reader Extensions

Jul/11 in Desktop Apps, Hot Web Topics, Popular Posts

There is more than one way to subscribe to web pages and get the latest updates and news. Firefox itself can even become an RSS feed reader if you install the right extension. Now which extension is right for you?

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