Archive | January, 2008

Hosting Peeps on Spock

Jan/09 in Hot Web Topics

Spock has quickly turned from one of those sites I have never heard of to one that I keep getting requests to from odd enough, people inside of the web hosting industry. Now I have web hosting peeps on MySpace and Facebook too. It seems like there are more hovering towards Spock though than anywhere else.  Very odd, yet cool.

I haven’t done much over there just yet – but maybe over the next few days I’ll dedicate some time to figuring out what exactly the hook is to keep me keep coming back. Hopefully it isn’t to answer friend requests.

There are also a few clones of me on the page too.

Give Spock a shot – and feel free to add me to your trusted list of people. You do trust me, right?

 Update:   Looks like somebody at Spock is a fan of Mitchelaneous.  Just noticed they merged my 3 profiles into one… but when you search for me the 3 profiles still show up?

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Micro Hosts Make Hosting Even Cheaper

Jan/08 in Web Hosting

Talking to a few people both inside and outside the web hosting game there is a certain business model that seems to be taking off in popularity. Many large web hosts looking for new revenue streams are trying to also be Micro hosts. Now what is a Micro host?

Web hosting disk space and bandwidth offers are so large these days it is getting ridiculous web hosts have to do something new. You can always lower the price – so why not make fast food’s equivalent to the web hosting world? That is Micro web hosting 101.

Now who would want to use a stripped down and less expensive hosting plan? Well you will need to toss in a few more perks. Maybe an easy to use page editor or a template system. The target for these will not be Joe down the street who has years of experience in coding HTML, PHP and working with MySQL databases. The target is Jane, who has never done a web site before and wants something simple and quick so that she can type in the content, hit save and she never has to look at the site again for six months.

So is Micro hosting a bad thing? No. It is creating yet another business model that will make the web hosts money and the customers of the web host happy.

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Feed Suggestions from G to K?

Jan/07 in Hot Web Topics

We are almost reaching the half way point with my web site and feed suggestion list taken right from my Google Reader subscription list.

Google Operating System – This is my favorite of all the Google news, tips and tweaks blogs out there. If you want to know a little more about what is going on at Google this is the web site to follow for sure.

Worthy Example Post: YouTube Feeds

VistaStyles.org – The VistaStyles.org resource is for anybody who is a fan of making their desktop look just a little ‘bit better. No matter if you are using Vista or not – there are enough wallpapers, icons and more to keep your desktop different from the rest.

Worth Example Post: Longhorn Wall

Internet Duct Tape – IDT is one of those web sites I decided to subscribe to after seeing something brilliant they had done that had got them linked elsewhere. Filled with tons of tips, tools and tweaks on all aspects of our geeky lifestyle we all live.

Worthy Example Post: 107 t-shirts for geeks that do not suck

Kyle’s Cove – Kyle is just your average blogger who has found a niche in blogging about things that others find interesting. He didn’t start a Web 2.0 company or invent bubble wrap but I am willing to bet he’s more interesting to read than most of the two previous examples are.

Worthy example Post: Top 5 Free Software You Should Be Using

Next comes the part of the alphabet everybody slurs together. Should be able to pick some goodies from there for you to check out too.

Checkout the Entire Feed Suggestion Series!

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Top Picks for Screen & Capturing Gratification

Jan/04 in Desktop, Desktop Apps

Need a better way to capture the images on your desktop? Now anybody using Windows for more than five minutes can tell you that this is what the “Print Screen” button is for, right? Well true – that does get the job done but some of us need a little more. Here are my best suggestions for desktop image capturing and web site image capturing.

…for the Desktop

MWSnap – this is a powerful free tool that puts your screen capturing ways on steroids. If Microsoft ever released a power toy for screen captures, I have a feeling this is what it would look like.

MWSnapHere are five MWSnap features I like the most (in no specific order):

  • 5 snapping modes
  • Support for BMP, JPG, TIFF, PNG and GIF formats
  • System-wide hotkeys
  • Clipboard copy/paste
  • Auto-start with Windows and minimizes to system tray

…for the Web

WebShot – By far, WebShot is the best web site screen capture freeware package you can get. You can capture full size or thumbnail screenshots in a number of different image formats. Wish the documentation was a little better, but it really isn’t that hard to figure out.

Web ShotsHere are some of the features WebShot provides that I really enjoy a lot:

  • Automatic determination of page width and height that captures the whole page accurately. Does a great job every time.
  • Browser size specification allows you to capture the whole page or part of it.
  • Image encoding to JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP with image quality control to save on disk space. Everybody should have a format to love.

There are a few other options out there too but these seem to far out weight their alternatives from head to toe. So next time you need to grab an screenshot of something on your desktop you should be more than prepaired to meet that chore head on with these freeware goodies.

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BurnAware Free Edition

Jan/03 in Desktop Apps

BurnAware Free EditionLooking for a replacement to your favorite burning application? There are many out there, but a new one to catch me by the nose and take me for a ride is BurnAware Free Edition. The package of disk burning tools is simple, but has enough to make it powerful enough to replace some of the classic crapfests that you can buy.

Thanks to companies bundling over thirty or forty different tools in with the big burning sofware packages (I’m looking at you Nero) I have been left to look at BurnAware Free Edition as an alternative. What does it deliver? Continue Reading →

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Learn to Lead with your Writing

Jan/03 in Writing Advice

If you can learn to write by leading your reader and holding his hand through the work – you can become better than you ever thought you could be.

Writing is one of those skills that everybody can do, but not many can master. If you broke it up into a chart you would have those who can’t being a very small percentage of the pie, those who have mastered it being another slightly larger pie piece and then those who are “somewhere in the middle” taking the rest of the cake pie.  Continue Reading →

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Feed Suggestions from D to F?

Jan/01 in Hot Web Topics

Continuing the trend of plugging those who either deserve to be plugged or don’t get the plugs they deserve from the public, here are a few more feeds directly from my feed reader to you. All of these selections totally deserve a look if you have not done so before.

David Airey – A great graphic designer and not that bad of a blogger I must say. His recent issues with his domain name are worth reading alone to find out how you yourself might be in harm’s reach.

Worthy Example Post: Collective effort restores David Airey.com

Download Squad – This is a page/feed and resource that I would suggest anybody check out and subscribe to. Sure it has already gotten tons of appreciation and praise, but you know – there is a reason for that. It is a top notch web site.

Worthy Example Post: Hoosgot – The return of LazyWeb (in spirit)

Drop the Mike – A web site just added to my feed reader, Mike’s blog is shaping up to be something awesome and a resource any hoster, domainer, or just about anybody else can get something from.

Worthy Example Post: Pass The Mike: Cotton Rohrscheib

Dueling Analogs – I already told you about one of my favorite online comics, bLaugh. Dueling Analogs would be my second (with both being equal in quality, of course). This one is for anybody who is a fan of video games and short – yet hilarious takes on them.

Worthy Example Post: No Funkin’ Way!

Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog – Another great Mozilla and Firefox resource, if you like that sort of thing. When looking for web sites like my own FirefoxFacts.com – the gurus work stuck out like a sore thumb that just reeked of awesomeness.

Worthy Example Post: Blog Year in Review: November 2007

Freelance Switch – I’ve been a freelance worker for almost 6 years now so I can appreciate a resource the helps make any freelancer’s job easier.

Worthy Example Post: Should You Sell Hosting?

Correction: In my last article, I forgot an entry for “C”. CyberNet News definitely belongs one my favorite feeds list. An alternative to some of the bigger blogging network out there, it definitely delivers a lot of content in a small package. Two thumbs up from me and once again, sorry about missing it on the last list.

Checkout the Entire Feed Suggestion Series!

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