Archive | November, 2008

Playing with IntenseDebate

Nov/17 in Web Development Tutorials

intensedebate-logo I installed IntenseDebate on FirefoxFacts.com a few days ago, and thus far – I like it.  There are a few bugs and annoyances, but overall the product is really cool.  The idea here is to add tons of new features to your standard commenting system. 

Some of the cool features that IntenseDebate brings includes:

  • Comment Threading – this allows you to add a comment to the general discussion, or just reply to one comment that needs a reply.
  • Reply by E-mail – the reply by e-mail feature makes it super-easy to stay in the conversation.  You can respond to and moderate your comments with the ease of just replying to an e-mail.
  • Importing and Exporting – the best feature of all, the import and export feature is nice.  It gives you a “way out” just in case IntenseDebate doesn’t tickle your fancy.

You can read about the other features, such as reputation points and commenter profiles here.   There is also a ‘bit of a social network thrown into the mix too – which is a nice touch.  You get your own profile page, where people can find where you have commented and who you are following. Here is my profile as an example:  http://www.intensedebate.com/people/cheasym

Sign up is easy (especially if you have an Open ID) and they walk you through the steps of adding it you your blogging engine of choice.

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Indiana Favicon and the Temple of Generators

Nov/13 in Web Development Tutorials

What is a favicon?  It is that tiny icon you see in most modern browsers, right next to your web address. 

favicon-help

Think of it as a visual reminder for the browser of what site you are on.  This is really handy when it comes to favicons in tabs, because you can quickly see and think “Oh, there is an ‘m’ there, and it looks like Mitch’s layout – that tab must be where I loaded Mitchelaneous.com”.

Favicon creation is not that hard, as long as you have a good graphic editing program.  What you need to remember is keep it 16×16 pixels and name it favicon.ico. Also it will need to be in the root folder for the domain in question – so for example on most Linux-based/cPanel hosting plans for your primary domain name that would be your public_html folder. If it is located somewhere else you can specify a location with these strings in between your <head> and </head> code on your web page:

<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/ico" href="/favicon.ico" />

Going back to the favicon creation, there are several good resource online to help you get this done quickly and easily.  Here are some of my favorite favicon generators:

There you can quickly create, edit and download your own personal favicon to use.  It cuts some of the work out of the overall chore of getting your favicon ready for public consumption. 

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Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro

Nov/12 in Desktop, Personal

Logitech_Cordless_Desktop_Wave_Pro_1

The way I see it, if there is anything I need to invest well in – it is a good mouse and keyboard.  With the freelance contracting and writing that I do, it is my proverbial nails and hammer to get the job done.  So when my old mouse died off, I saw it as the perfect chance to grab the Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro.  I have been using it a little less than 24 hours, and thus far I love it.

That is one wacky looking mouse!

The first time you see the mouse, you might think it is the ugliest computer add-on you have ever laid your eyes on.  Once you put your hand on it though, you understand that ugly feels pretty damn good in the palm of your hand.  Also, this thing has more buttons on it than I have ever seen before.  For browsing on the web, the two side buttons are nice – because by default they are used as backwards and forwards buttons.  The big thumb button on the side is cool too, even though I don’t use the Windows Vista 3D flip all that much (and I can change what it is programmed to later of course).

Keyboard fits like a glove!

The keyboard has a really nice feeling to it to.  The keys are waved in a way to make typing on it feel more “natural”, or so it says on the box.  I can’t complain yet.  The keys have a good feeling when they are pushed too.  It feels good.  I also usually hate all the programmable keys that come across the tops, bottoms, and side of many keyboards – so nice to see this one doesn’t have that many. 

All in all, I am very happy with the purchase, and I would give the Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro two thumbs up for any other web hosting guru, freelance contractor, writer, and geek out there like myself.   If you don’t trust me, Cnet has also put out a nice video review of the combo.

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Easier Web Site Translations

Nov/11 in Online Apps

translate-thisNot many web sites out there are region specific, so we have to realize we are aiming our content out there to the world, and not just one niche audience.

With that in mind, you might think to yourself, “How can I do multiple translations of my web site for everybody?” 

Well with ConveyThis.com, you do not have to.  ConveyThis.com takes the AddThis.com or ShareThis.com aspect of bookmarking and puts a translating twist to it.  By simply adding one button to your web site, you can quickly offer translations into 29 different languages. 

Think of it as a quick and easy way to access some of the most popular translation services out there such as Google translate, BabelFish, Live Translator, and more!  It is easy to register, and once you do – all you need to do is embed your code into your site.  It is just that easy! 

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Sales Advice – Learn to Highlight the Good Things!

Nov/10 in Hot Web Topics, Personal

If there was one basic idea of sales and how to work sales to your advantage when you are in a business, it would be to don’t sell what you don’t have.  Day after day, I see people who ignore this one simple rule for selling anything.  No mater if you are in web hosting industry, like I am – or you are selling shoes down the block.

Highlight the Good Things, not the Bad Things!

Now what do I mean by this?

You do not bring up the features you don’t provide.  Instead, you want to highlight the features that you do provide.  Take for an example, you sell cars.  The consumer comes to you interested in that truck out back.  Now, you don’t highlight the fact that the truck has no wheels.  You want to point out to the consumer that it has a fresh coat of paint, and an all new interior.

That may be an extreme example, but it gets the point across.  Now, I am not telling you to lie.  That would be wrong.  What you need to do though, is find at least three highlights on a product for every down side.  Let’s say I want to sell you a wired computer mouse, that has a ball in it.  Now, most people would say that thing is dated and past it’s prime.

Where can you find the positive in that negative?

  • It still works, just like it was brand new
  • Makes a loud noise when you click, so you know you the button is being pushed
  • It makes a great alternative to a wireless one, just in case you ever run out of batteries

You can not be a good sales person without being able to see that the glass is half full, and not half empty.  You have to be optimistic, because if you are not – do you think the customer will be?

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Top 10 Saturday Morning Cartoons (Mitchy-style!)

Nov/07 in Hot Web Topics, Personal

They don’t make cartoons like the used to.  After buying the complete series of Captain N, the Game Master on DVD, it made me start thinking about other cartoons I remember watching when I was growing up.  Here are my personal favorite top 10 awesome old cartoons.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Continue Reading →

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The Toxic Avenger Rides Again! (Watch the Entire Cult Classic!)

Nov/05 in Hot Web Topics

Talk about childhood memories!  I used to love the whole series of Toxic Avenger movies.  Maybe it was a growing up in the 80′s thing?  Perhaps it was because I had a love for bad movies even way back then.  My earliest memories of watching The Toxic Avenger was on the USA Network – when they used to have marathons of all the movies (edited, of course) on Saturday or Sunday mornings.

For those unfamiliar with this cult classic, here is the plot summary:

Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl) is a stereotypical 98-pound weakling. He works as a janitor at a health club in the town of Tromaville, where the customers–particularly Bozo, Slug, Wanda, and Julie – harass him constantly. His tormentors get more and more violent until he is tricked into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep. He is then chased around the health club by witnesses of the event where he eventually jumps out of a second story window. He lands in a drum of toxic waste and is irradiated and deformed by the accident. He suddenly lights on fire and runs down the street in a ball of flames. Melvin quickly takes a bath and mysteriously transforms into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength.

Ohh Toxie, why don’t we have heroes like you anymore?!

Warning, this movie might not be for everybody. Was probably rated R when it came out in theaters, and Hulu rates it as TV-MA.   Ok, now that I got the warning out of the way, enjoy the show!

Oh, and yes – I did love the Toxic Crusaders too.  Let us see how many of you remember it as well.

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Create a Web Page in Seconds with Clutter Me

Nov/04 in Online Apps, Web Development Tutorials

clutterme_316x87Want to quickly make a free web site?  I am all for the simple tools, and Clutter Me is pretty down right simple.

Let us remember, the key word here is simple.  All you have to do is sign up.  After that, you just click anywhere on your page, type and then click somewhere else to save.  Everything you put on the page can be dragged around, and the general troubleshooting tip they give for errors is “refresh the page”.  Simple, right? (Try the DEMO!)

When your ready to publish, you will be given an URL that looks something like clutterme.com/yourname, which is totally understandable for a free service.  If needed though, you can pay them to register a domain name for you.

To check out a little more on the development side of things, be sure to thumb through their blog and check these links for some example creations:

If you are looking for a simple and easy way to put your first page out there on the Web, I would highly recommend giving Clutter Me a shot.

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9 Google Reader Add-ons for Firefox

Nov/03 in Desktop Apps, Online Apps

google-reader

Looking for an easy way to get through your Monday morning feeds?  Use these add-ons for Firefox, mix them up with Google Reader and then recover the rest of your morning.

  • Google Reader Notifier – This shows you how many unread items you have in your Google Reader account.
  • Google Reader Watcher – Afraid your updates are getting away from you?  Google Reader Watcher will check your Google Reader for unread news.
  • feedly – Feedly is a new kind of RSS start page which weaves Google Reader, Digg and Delicious into a more fun, magazine-like user experience.
  • Better GReader – Preview web pages inline in Google Reader, collapse the header and sidebar for more reading area, get a Mac OS X like skin, add favicons to feed subscriptions and more with Better GReader.
  • Shareaholic – Shareaholic allows you to quickly share, bookmark, and e-mail web pages via a very wide array of your favorite web 2.0 social networking & bookmarking sites such as Google Reader!
  • IntenseDebate in Google Reader – Add IntenseDebate comments to Google Reader.
  • Google Reader Toolkit – Adds a few more browser utilities for use with Google Reader.
  • Integrated GMail – Allows you to make the Inbox Collapsible and loads your choice of Google Calendar, Reader, Notebook, Groups etc… seamlessly into the gmail interface. Works w/Google Apps Accounts.
  • gReader Comments – gReader Comments is a Greasemonkey script-turned-extension for Firefox that brings all Disqus conversations into Google Reader.

Know of anymore good ones?  How have you super-charged Google Reader?  Be sure to share!

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Best of October 2008

Nov/01 in Odds & Ends

Looking back, I had a very interesting mix of the most popular posts on Mitchelaneous for October.  I would even say, there was a little something for everybody.

Hope you enjoyed, and if there is something you’d like to see more of or less of coming into November, please let me know. 

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