Insert Map feature of Windows Live Writer…not bad..not good either
November 29, 2008 by Ben Shoemate
This is a short test to see how the insert map feature of Windows Live Writer works. I think I am ready to give this product my endorsement. The push pin is a bit ugly though…I mean come on.
Testing the Polaroid Picture Plugin in Livewriter
November 29, 2008 by Ben Shoemate
I’m not sure how Polaroid feels about their name being used, but this plugin does and pretty good job of doing what is says it will do. Very nice usability and great results. Here is the link.
Oh…I looove the caption option. Just so you all know, I inserted the image on the right without the border, dropshadow, caption, or tilt – windows live writer and the polaroid plugin did all the work…very nice.
It does have more padding on top then I want…not sure how to fix that.
Windows Live Writer
November 29, 2008 by Ben Shoemate
Wow. As I said in an earlier post I am testing desktop blogging tools today. Since I can not use the firefox only Scribefire plugin because of an apparently unsolvable problem with firefox, I first tried out Qumana and now Windows Live Writer. So far, all I can say is wow…it downloads your theme so you can type directly in a true WYSIWYG – So, far, I’m truly impressed. The preview is a real preview. All the features are here and more. Here is the break – much more after it.
Tools to edit your blog offline - Qumana review
November 29, 2008 by Ben Shoemate
I’m in the market for a desktop blogging tool. For a year now, I have been using Scribefire, a Firefox plug-in to post to my blog from any where on the web. I like the fact that the icon was always there in the bottom of the browser. I could start a post, finish it at my leisure and it used the built in spell check of firefox. But, alas, I have an unsolvable problem with firefox. So I am writing this with Qumana…what do I think, well…(read the rest)
- Somehow it managed to post with the wrong timestamp. Ok, figured that out, there is a choose date feature…nice.
- I can’t figure out how to insert a blog splitter - as most of you wordpress fans know, Wordpress lets you insert a <hr> tag to tell wordpress where to put the "more" button.
- It has spell check, but and suggestions, but clicking the suggestion doesn’t change the text…weird. Oh nevermind, it does…
- It has an insert ad feature, put it takes a loooong time to insert and you can not do anything while its inserting.
- Its Java based and that scares just me a little.
- I really like the droppad tool. This is a floating desktop icon that stays on top of all windows. Select text or pictures and drag them to the drop pad. You can do this over and over, then when your ready, double click it and you will see everything you have collected read for your blog entry. nice.
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Why the Japanese love wikis, the French love blogs, and the Germans love…testing?
June 26, 2008 by Ben Shoemate
Look at this Google trends search comparing the terms “wiki, blog, music, movies”. It would appear searching for music online is in decline (but there is a definit Christmas time bump as people fill there new iPods and laptops with movies and music). But look at the steady climb of blogs and wikis, they are almost as popular now as online music (the term MP3 follows music but is lower).
Blogs
So what’s the deal? Why are blogs and wikis so popular? Are they really as popular a search term as music and movies? To try and find the answer I looked at the cities and countries where the data comes from. Blogs are dominated by the French and Vietnamese?
The word blog returns 3,510,000,000 results worldwide on Google (that’s 3.5 Billion with a B). My research (consisting of asking Google “blogs popular in france”) returned this article. Although it is already 2 years old, it asked the same questions and reports that users of France’s most popular blog spent over an hour there on average versus just 12 minutes in the US.
French blogs stands out in other measurable ways. They are noticeably longer, more critical, more negative, more egocentric and more provocative than their U.S. counterparts, said Laurent Florès, the French-born, New York-based chief executive of CRM Metrix, a company that monitors blogs and other online conversations on behalf of companies seeking feedback on their brands.
“Bloggers in the United States listen to each other and incorporate rival ideas in the discussion,” he said. “French bloggers never compromise their opinions.”
Wiki
Wiki appears to be crazy popular in Japan. Just look at these results:
Let’s ask the same question. First some anecdotal evidence, like this article about a Japanese government official caught doing something he should not have been on the internet…editing wikipedia articles about the robot toys known as Gundam?
I love this quote:
“The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam,” ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura said.
The agriculture ministry verbally reprimanded five other bureaucrats who contributed to entries on movies, typographical mistakes in billboard signs and local politics. The six employees together made 408 entries on the popular Internet encyclopedia from ministry computers since 2003.
Test
One term I that myself use a lot is the word “test”. When ever think my internet connection may have been lost, I open my browser, and just to make sure I’m not looking at a cached version of google, I type test. I figured I was not the only one so test is pretty high on google’s rankings. The suprising thing is where it is popular.
Note that I graphed it versus, xp and jobs. Both of those show new year increases (one for new christmas computers, the other for new years resultions I imagine).
But look how steady test is, which fits my theory that the term “test” is used to actually test google. Now look at the regions:
The Germans are not only number 1, they dominate with the top 5 cities. What is going on here? It does fit the sterotype.
Installing wordpess into server2go
June 25, 2008 by Ben Shoemate
If you want to have a local development version of Wordpress (or any other local development platform for that matter), the best way to do this is to install Server2go. This lets you have a simple, portable version of the database (mySQL) and the web server (Apache) that you can run locally and copy with all your folders, or give to others to run…
Why do this? Because otherwise, getting to the point where you can start developing themes or plugins is a pain.
I consider myself a well rounded developer. I don’t play favorites. That means, from one day to the next I may find my self in php, coldfusion, or java. I build prototypes using ext.js framework and also have local versions of Joomla, Conflunce, MediaWiki, and even Websphere portal with WCM, and SAP Portal (I keep those beasts locked away in a WMWare enviroments). But VMware is overkill for something as light weight as Wordpress.
Here are the steps for setting up a local Wordpress dev enviroment with Server2Go.
- Download Server2Go - there are several versions. To pick the right one, check the requirements of the software you want to run. Since I want to run wordpress - I look at it and downloaded this one - (only ~23MB - nice).
- Extract it somewhere (you can move it later) and and launch the server2go.exe. this starts the server. Any time you want to work in in, just launch it. If you want to change the way it works (like launch firefox instead of IE, edit pms_config.ini file.
- Server2Go will launch IE for you and show the default screen. Now we have to create a wordpress database. So click phpMyAdmin under tools on the right.
- In the Create Database feild type “wordpress” (no quotes) and press “Create”.
- Download the Wordpress package and unzip it into the htdocs folder in your server2go folder.
- In your browser type: http://127.0.0.1:4001/wordpress/
- Follow the instructions onscreen - click the create wp-config.php button, then “let’s go”
- Type “wordpress” (no qoutes) into the Database name feild and submit.
- Then you see this and that’s it! WordPress should now be installed.
- Once your in wordpress, you can download themes from the internet and unzip them to the themes folder. Once you do, you can see them on the Design page in the wp_admin.
- I like to find a theme that is close to what I want and modify it. Once you find one you like, create a site in dreamweaver and edit the theme from there. You can save changes to the php files and css and see them in immediatly on the site by refreshing.
Semantic Search Engine
December 31, 2007 by Ben Shoemate
If your are not familiar with the concept of semantic search, or wonder what it means - watch this video. These guys are off to a pretty good start but I think their site could use a bit more usability tuning.
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Google searches the skies, tracks your flight
December 27, 2007 by Ben Shoemate
Google rolls out a new flight tracking feature: just type your airline
and flight number into the search box, and get the departure and
arrival location and estimated time. I really love these guys.
Use Gmail to find out who sold your email address
December 27, 2007 by Ben Shoemate
Google lets you put a + sign in you email address that it ignores but you can use to create filters. For example, when you create an account at buy.com, just I just tell them my email address is BenShoemate+buy.com@gmail.com. If I start getting ads for “V I A GR A” I know who to boycott, report, complain, filter. Cool.
Also, gmail ignores the . in your name. So even if you signed up for FirstLast@gmail.com you can tell people at work its First.Last@gmail.com and set up a filter to auto tag those as work. Also cool.
office 2007 :The windows installer service cannot update one or more protected windows
December 17, 2007 by Ben Shoemate
I am trying to install Office 2007 onto a clean install of Windows XP (on a friends eee PC - it is really a sweet little laptop.. anyway), I get the error above about protected files. Here is the solution. (This may have happened because in optimizing XP down, some files were deleted).
1. From Windows install disk goto E:\I386 folder and open open (Double click) on the FP40EXT.CAB file. It should open.
(or - if you do not have the disk, find a working XP computer and go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin).
2. find fp4autl.dll in the list and copy it (ctrl-c)
3. go to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin and paste it (ctrl-v)
4. Restart the 2007 office install
Viola! (thanks guys over at http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=627360)
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