Archive for August, 2007
· August 31, 2007 at 9:04 am · Writing Advice
Tags: advice, bait, bookmarks, Digg, links, popular, social, vote
It seems like these days when I go check out my feed reader to do some reading from my favorite news sources and blogs - there are a lot of posts you can spot that were written just for the sake of trying to bait the social bookmarking and ranking sites for popularity’s sake.
I am not sure this is the best writing practice. Why? Well after you get success with it once, you try it again and again. After a while, all you have left are a lot of wasted hours that you could have spent doing something more creative.
Sure it seems like a lot of these links that you see on digg, delicious, and others seem to come with a pre-packaged and sure fire way to make it to the top. There is a lot to be said for creativity as well though. Just because you wrote one “top 50 Firefox extensions you can use under water” post does not mean that every top 50 post you write will be just as popular.
You also need to worry about offending your current audience as well. New readers are grand, but if you can’t keep them they might start to look elsewhere. Take for example Mashable.com.
I used to really love reading Pete’s web site but the last few weeks it has been nothing but top ten, twenty and thirty lists. I am sure he’s gotten a lot of incoming links from the social bookmarking places but as a reader - I am bored, and I am sure I am not alone.
So don’t write to become popular - become popular because of what you write.
· August 29, 2007 at 6:27 am · Personal, Web Hosting
Tags: best, daily, hosting, hosting-hoopla, hosts, links, list, Resources, subscribe, web
I have really been having fun lately with Hosting Hoopla. Going on a “link hunt” to find the best the web hosting industry has to offer is always a challenge, because you often run into the same old stuff time and time again.
That is one of the reasons for the redesign and refocusing of the HostingHoopla.com web site. I wanted to make reading about the web hosting industry fun and informative again.
Now do I expect you to come visit the web site each and every day? No. I want to make things easy for you and that is where the RSS feed comes into play. I have had a number of folks subscribe directly to that. The more popular method though seems to be signing up to get daily updates via your e-mail’s inbox.
+ Subscribe to Hosting Hoopla by E-Mail
+ Subscribe to the Hosting Hoopla RSS Feed
These are two ways to track what is going on in the hosting world that can not be forgotten about. Also I have one last offer for the web hosts or hosting professionals out there. Feel free to contact me at mitch@mitchkeeler.com and I’ll be happy to take your own submissions for the list too. I’d really like to get more coupons and deals from any web hosts or other people who have offers to give in the hosting industry.
· August 28, 2007 at 6:03 am · Personal, Software Help
Tags: install, kubuntu, linux, review, switch, Ubuntu, Windows, wubi, xp
At least once a year I get so frustrated with Windows I look over at Linux and see what is happening on that side of the fence. Now before I might do the whole Live CD thing - my main problem with that though is that my CD drive in this PC sounds like helicopter taking off when I put any disks into it.
So what is a guy wanting to play with Linux, but doesn’t want to do the whole partition dance need to do? Go give Wubi a whirl.
From start to finish, Wubi just makes it almost dead brain simple to get Ubuntu up and running. As a matter of fact, over the past two days I’ve played with Kubuntu and Ubuntu trying to decide which one I like more. When your done with it - you can just uninstall it like you would any other application and it is gone from your system. No messy clean up and no sticky mess.
· August 27, 2007 at 5:45 am · Hot Web Topics
Tags: linux, os, PC, switch, Ubuntu, Vista, Windows, xp
No, that’s not an offer to dance but one of the best desktop OS (operating systems) out there today that runs on Linux instead of Windows. Interested?
Good because this article is about the process of installing Ubuntu Linux right along-side Windows XP Pro, my expectations and what actually happened. Egads, you say! Are you nuts? No, in spite of the rumors I’m quite sane and if you read on you’ll see why.
Been keeping up with the latest news on the Vista home front? All the bugs that are beginning to come out in the light? Again? Hear the horror stories about the costs of the upgrades? The extra hardware that’s needed to make sure that Vista will run like it’s advertised? It can be intimidating to say the least. Well read on gentle readers as I have a sound solution for you and your computer. The sweet part of it? All it’ll cost you is a little time. That’s right, it’s free!
What Are You Talking About Ubun-who?
Now, before you start the nay-saying, let me explain. Linux (of which Ubuntu is a distribution or distro) is based on what’s called Open Source Software. It’s not proprietary like Windows which allows it to be free for everyone to use as they wish. An entire global community works together on many variations of Linux. Each one has it’s followers like Ubuntu which this article will follow.
Some might say that “you’ll get what you pay for and if it’s free, it isn’t going to be much good!” Wrong again! I’m here to tell you that what you get with Ubuntu is a full-featured, rich operating system that will blow your mind away.
Follow along as I work my way through the process of installing Ubuntu’s Ver. 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) along-side Windows XP Pro on my desktop PC, what I expected from it and what I end up with. I’ll include what you’ll need to accomplish this task so easily that you’ll wonder what you were nervous about in the first place.To be honest with you, I was terrified that I’d screw up my PC if I tried to monkey around with it. But to my absolute amazement, it all went smoothly.
Getting Yourself Ready and Started
I downloaded the ISO file from Ubuntu’s website, burned it to a CD and checked it to make sure the image was a good burn. Keep in mind that an ISO file should be burned as slowly as possible for it to work properly. I also downloaded an ISO image of an app called GParted (free for download) for future use. More on this later.
Now, this is where your details might differ slightly from mine but no worries, mate! It’s all gonna work out.
I have 2 hard drives mounted in my PC. One was for storage and the other for apps and all that other junk that we accumulate over time. I also have 2 external hard drives connected by USB. Yes, I have a lot of junk!
I chose to install Ubuntu on one of my internal drives because I had moved all my files to the external ones. So, I had one to play with. You can install Ubuntu on the same drive as Windows if you wish. It will happily co-exist there with Windows and you can boot to either at anytime.
Next, you’ll read about how easy the installation went, any issues realized and what I wind up with.
Article by Scott Wilson - Scott has been involved with PC’s, operating systems and web development for around 6 years. Once he figured out how to turn a computer on he’s never been quite able to turn it back off again. He’s been continually adding to a weblog to help pass on information relating to the world wide web. You can find out more about Scott and his work at MerlinsMinute.com.
· August 23, 2007 at 5:52 am · Interviews, Web Hosting
Tags: file, file123, free, hosting, hosts, Interviews, Resources, web
Now I have a lot of friends inside of the hosting industry, but not many of them in the file hosting business. With a new one coming up every single minute - it has to be a hard side of the web hosting fence to make a living at. I had a chance to talk with one of these digital cowboys in the business in question.
After covering File123.com on the Web Hosting Show, Matthew Dusig the CEO and Co-Founder got in touch with me. It’s not every day I get to pick a CEO’s brain and I was really interested in learning more. I tossed out the idea of asking him a few questions - and he gratefully accepted my offer.
The personal file and backup hosting services area seems a little crowed at best right now. Why make your mark there with File123.com?
If you compare File123 to all the other file and backup hosting services, you’ll see some major differences. Primarily, File123 focuses on helping people backup important paper documents, where none of the other services allow users to fax or scan in documents.
We’re focused on disaster preparedness. There are many important documents in a real-world file cabinet that will be destroyed in the event of a natural disaster. All the other services only help you to back up your hard drive.
What is your personal background in the hosting business?
My personal background is in the online industry, but not specifically hosting. I’ve built many successful online web systems since 1999 and understand the requirements of building scalable and redundant systems for storing data. Amazon S3 provides the storage hardware that services File123, which allows us to focus on new technology solutions to increase customer satisfaction.
Where do you see the most need for a service like yours?
Every night, when you get home from work you probably check you “real” mail. After you throw away the junk mail, what do you do with the other paper documents that you know you need to hold onto? File123 provides a digital solution for storing those real-world documents.
In addition to storing real-world documents, File123 OCR’s all documents (paper and digital) to make it easier to search for keywords within your documents. Also, File123 converts all documents into PDF files. If you upload a word document, you can immediately save your file as a PDF. File123 provides PDF conversion for free.
Where do you see yourself focusing in the future or are you more worried about the present right now?
There are many more services that File123 will offer in the future. I can’t discuss them all today, but File123 will continue to evolve into a very robust online application.
I want to thank Matt for taking the time out to talk with me here - and if any other CEOs are watching - your welcome too. Just drop me an e-mail. Here are just a few more good things about File123.com worth talking about.
File123.com Feature You Will Not See Anywhere Else:
PDF Conversion: File123 provides free PDF file conversion.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Search for text found within any image or document.
FAX / SCAN: Easily store paper documents.
EMAIL: Instead of emailing attachments from work to your gmail or yahoo account, email them to your personal File123 storage account.
USER INTERFACE: File123 provides a state-of-the-art Web 2.0 user interface that features drap ‘n drop for files and folders, large and small thumbnails of all your files, and customized folder design.
Need more information? Hear me talk about File123 on episode 119 of the Web Hosting Show podcast.
Give File123.com a shot. In a market where there is a lot of competition I think these guys stand tall and maybe even taller than some of the more popular choices out there. They have both free and paid options - so there is no reason to not at least sign up for that free 1GB of space.
· August 22, 2007 at 6:06 am · Personal
Tags: audio, help, mic, placement, podcasting, recording, tech
When it comes to podcasting, it take a while to tweak things around and find the best way of doing the job that needs to be done. I have talked with a lot of fellow talking heads - and this tip seems to be pretty popular.
When recording, if you think you sound a little funny - put the microphone above your nose or near your eye. You might have to turn up the mic sensitivity a little ‘bit but it will sound better. This is for people who think they sound too nasally or who might have a problem popping their p’s.
Also if you are a heavy mouth breather (no - I mean that in a good way) this could keep you from sounding like you just ran a three mile race before recording.
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