Tag Archives | best

Top 6 Landscape and Scenery Wallpapers

Feb/01 in Desktop, Desktop Apps, Free Wallpaper

MORE WALLPAPER!

I don’t know what it is, but for some reason a lot of people like to view outdoor scenery while sitting at their computers.

Maybe it makes us feel less chained to our desktop environments?

Maybe it is a subliminal message from our brain telling us to go outside?

For those of you like me who are chained to their desks at the moment, here are my top six favorite landscape wallpapers.

Way Home 2 Way Home 8 Clear Day
Cold Day in November Traveling Light White Summer

Have any other good suggestions?

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Red Dwarf

Jan/30 in Personal

I have been a fan of Red Dwarf for I don’t even know how many years. I remember before I was introduced to the wonders of satellite television watching it on my local PBS channel really late at night.

Well just the other day I completed my DVD collection of the entire British series. I finally broke down and bought the last three seasons last week – and that is pretty much all I have been doing during my free time. Catching up watching episodes I haven’t seen in years.

I never really got into your Star Wars or Star Trek or anything else traditional with “star” in the title. So why get into a series about a group of guys traveling through space? It was one of the most brilliantly written television shows I have ever seen – thats why.

Even though it has been some time since their original airing – they are still good. You could watch it for your first time today, and not have that feeling that you watching a TV show that was on ten or more years ago. Can you say the same thing about the Fresh Prince of Bel Air? I don’t think so.

So if your wanting something new to watch or you want to find out more information – I would suggest checking out the official Red Dwarf Web site. Here are some more links to help you learn more about the series as well:

+ Chris Barrie
+ Robert Llewellyn
+ Norman Lovett
+ BBC’s Red Dwarf Web Site
+ Red Dwarf Fan Club

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Web Hosting’s Impact Players of 2006

Jan/02 in Web Hosting

There is no doubt in my mind that 2006 was a big year for the Web hosting industry. We saw a lot of news, we lived through a lot of things.

There are a select group of folks that I think deserve a little extra credit for making 2006 a wonderful year for Web hosting. Here is my list of impact players for the past year.

1. Amy Armitage – Amy is the best marketing mind that the Web hosting world has. No matter where I turn it seems like I always hear or see Amy’s name coming up in the conversation. Lunarpages has been all over the map in the past year, and it is mostly thanks to Amy’s marketing skill. Heck, she even brought me in to the Lunarpages fold in the past year – so I know she at least has good taste!

2. Keith Duncan – Keith gets in for creating great paperback content for the Web hosting industry. Much like Amy, when it comes to opinions that I trust and admire, I turn to Keith first. He knows the Web hosting world from the inside out. Ping! Zine is also the leader in my opinion when it comes to the Web hosting magazines out there as well.

3. Isabel Wang – Heart and Soul of the WHIR Blogs, and another informative personality. I have never talked with Isabel one on one, like I have with the other award winners – but hers is a name I see pop up more often than not as I browse through the latest happenings in the hosting industry. Hopefully in 2007 we can get to know each other better because I think we are both folks who have passions for the business we are in.

4. Rob Moore – Came out of left field and gave DemoDemo some competition in the flash tutorial market. I remember the first time I saw DemoWolf. I reviewed them on the Web Hosting Show and thought to myself it would be nice if these guys survived. The more competition you have, the better and cheaper the products become. Rob went from being an unknown to running one of the most successful startups of the past year.

5. George Roberts – Leader and creator of the Web hosting industry’s biggest party. HostingCon has become the “must attend” event for the hosting world. Much like Mac World is for Apple fans, and E3 was for video game fans, HostingCon is the event that hosting geeks can call their own.

Have somebody that I might have missed? Leave a comment and give their name as well. I don’t want to leave anybody out of the mix, so if there are enough comments I might just have to give them the award as well.

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WordPress Plugins for Regular Folks

Dec/06 in Online Apps

Since people liked my article on Firefox Extensions for Regular Folks I figured I might try to cover another topic that is near and dear to my freaky heart, WordPress plugins. Now I like to use WordPress to run the back end of nearly all of my Web sites I manage. It is one of the best (if not the best) content management system out there today. So which plugins would I consider alright for the everyday folks?

1. WordPress Database Backup

Keeping a regular backup of your Web site or blog is always a good thing to do. What if something goes wacky with your Web host, and all your files and content are lost? Sure they might have a backup – but what if they don’t. Take care of yourself and keep a regular backup! I try to at least do backups once a week to once a month. At least this way I am for sure that not too much could go wrong.

2. Google Analytics and Feedburner Reports

I love both FeedBurner and Google’s Analytics tools, but it is a pain to have to go here and then go there to find out all these stats I am tracking. This WordPress plugin brings it all together for me on one nice single Web page.

3. Search Everything

No matter where your content is, you want to make sure it gets searched. This WordPress plugin makes note of all of your content (not just the blog posts) and makes it searchable via WordPress’s built in search engine. You don’t want people to miss any of your content so having this plugin is a necessity as well.

4. Google Sitemap Generator

We all want Google to pay more attention to us, right? Well, as confusing as the current Google Sitemap system is for regular folks, it is all we have to go by right now if we want to make sure Google is keeping an eye on us. This WordPress plugin creates your sitemap and also allows you to ping Google when you update it.

5. Smart Archives

Now as I have said before, and I will probably say again – I do not navigate via the archives that much. If I want to find something, I usually search for it. For those few times you need to have organized archives though, Smart Archives does the job better than the rest. The install is easy and when you are done you have a neat organized list of all your posts.

6. Optimal Title

When it comes to creating a Web site, having a good title is key. The Title is what grabs folks attention and it is also how you bring them in via the search engines. To make sure you title is “optimal” you need to pick up this WordPress plugin. It is key if you want clean titles that are search engine optimization (SEO) friendly.

7. Jerome’s Keyword Plugin

This might not be the best way to get tags into your WordPress blog, but it is simple. I have tried some of the other WordPress plugins for tags, and I always keep coming back to this one. It does the job, it does it well and you really can not ask for more than that.

8. FAlbum

Have a Flickr account and a WordPress blog? This WordPress plugin makes quick and easy work out of creating a gallery of all your latest and greatest photos from your Flickr account.

9. Akismet

The ultimate comment spam killer. Not much more can be said about this WordPress plugin that has not been said before. One of the main reasons I moved away from Blogware was because of the spam problems. Now I have no problems at all.

Now I am not the be all and end all as far as this list goes. Do you have any plugins that I might have missed? Let me know about it by leaving a comment and that way you will share your thoughts on the matter as well. If we are creating a list for he folks, then your suggestions and opinions are just as important as mine.

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Top 5 Web Hosting Industry Blogs

Oct/23 in Web Hosting

I have been maybe the loudest voice when it comes to Web hosts and Web hosting related services needing to blog, and it sounds like finally somebody has been listening. A year or two ago when I started talking about this, there was maybe two or three Web hosting blogs out there. Now the numbers have grown.

The numbers have grown enough to where I can actually do a top five list without feeling like I have to make half of them up.

The WHIR Blogs

OK, so maybe this isn’t just one blog – but I am going to sum them all up together, because they do give you the nice option of subscribing to all of them at once if you would like. Now what is so great about The WHIR’s Blog?

Well they give you a lot of interesting voices and views from the Web hosting industry. They have some voices from one side and other voices from another. The thing some people don’t understand is Web hosting is a really big tent – and the WHIR Blogs try to fit a lot of the industry biggest spots under their feed.

Amy’s Blog

Amy Armitage (from Lunarpages.com) has a nice blog that I would say is the closest thing to a professional blog Lunarpages has got.

I like the feeling of the whole thing. It has a much more personal feeling to it, and shows that Web hosting doesn’t always have to be about servers and uptime. You can create interesting Web hosting content without feeling like you are putting folks to sleep.

FastServers’s Blog

The folks over at FastServers.net also have a blog for both industry insiders and folks interested in the world of Web hosting to check out and read. Now the content here usually is a little more business focused, but that is OK too.

It gives you a secret window to look through when it comes to running an impressive data center. With multiple authors and interesting content – there is a lot of promise for this company blog to do great things in the future.

Inside ISPCON and HostingCon Blog

The two most important conferences inside of the Web hosting industry both have blogs as well. Now some of the content might be more relative the closer you get to the events, but there is more than enough content to read through and keep you happy all year long.

Both also have podcast content of the conferences as well.

Now sure, that isn’t all of the Web hosting blogs out there – but most of the best ones have been listed. If you need some more hosting content in your RSS reader, check out these Web sites as well. If you have one I didn’t mention, please leave a comment and I will add it to the list.

Oh yeah, just as a final reminder – you can’t forget about one of the best blogs/podcasts out there today for the Web hosting industry, the Web Hosting Show!

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Top 10 Web Hosts

Aug/02 in Web Hosting

Just like everybody else around here, I am tired of seeing one hundred and one different top ten lists when it comes to Web hosting. Web hosts buy into these, because it is a good way to advertise themselves to the unknowing public. The problem with this is that many Web hosts “purchase” their place on these lists. I have figured out a way to make the top ten process a little more fair.

The first thing I did was I searched multiple search engines for multiple Web hosting top ten lists. I wanted my subject lists to be totally random, so nobody could claim as much favor. This mixes real lists in with the fake ones, I know. To defend the paid-placement lists though, I have this to say. If a Web host is financially stable enough to pay for advertising, then they must be doing something right. Continue Reading →

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