Dude, Your Online Photo Portfolio Sucks

I’ve been browing through my local photographers looking for family portrait photographers and wedding photographers. As someone who is very familiar with the web, I’m always struck at how poorly some people do their web portfolioes.

How Do They Find You?

Like anything, the most important thing about a photography site is how it ranks on google for location + keyword searches.

• http://www.google.ca/search?q=ottawa+photography
• http://www.google.ca/search?q=ottawa+wedding+photography
• http://www.google.ca/search?q=ottawa+portrait+photography

I’m sure that ottawaportraitphotographers.com does quite well when it comes to new clients finding them via Google.

The Good

I chose my wedding photographer because he uses a blog to display his pictures. The pictures are big enough that I can see the quality, there isn’t anything hiding the images, and enough pictures load all at once that I can get a good indication that I want to see more without having to click on each individual photo. Blogs also have the added feature where I actually can tell that the photos are recent work. With some sites only the hairstyles give any indication of when the photo was taken.

There were a few Ottawa wedding photographers who use this approach of having both a blog and a flash-based gallery, and I have to say I was impressed with all of them.

• Mike Dickson – Ottawa Wedding Photographer blog (flash site)
• Byron Brydges – Ottawa Wedding Photographer blog (flash site)
• Andrew Geddes – Ottawa Wedding Photographer blog (flash site)

The blogs are photo galleries all on their own. None of them mix personal blog posts in with the photos.

The Bad

One of my biggest pet-peeves with photo gallery sites is having to click on each individual photograph to load it. It isn’t so bad if I can middle-click on them to open them in a new tab to look at later, but with some flash- or javascript-based sites it takes forever! I have to click on each individual picture, wait for it to load, look at it, then click again… it ends up taking 20 times as long to view the entire gallery vs a blog-based sites.

If you use a flash-based site for displaying your photos, it has to be FAST. Use something like SimpleViewer instead of coding it yourself.

Another pet-peeve is when the pictures aren’t big enough to see the photo in detail. Thumbnails are great for overall navigation, but it’s very hard to tell photo quality when the picture takes up less than one fifth of my screen.

The Ugly

One of the worst things I’ve seen is watermarks embedded in the image. We all understand that you don’t want other people to steal your livelyhood, but much like how digital rights management shouldn’t prevent people from watching a DVD, the embedded watermark in a photo shouldn’t prevent your potential customer from seeing how good your pictures are. I can’t appreciate a photo when the writing on top of them is too distracting.

Of course, it’s even worse to have blurry photos in your portfolio. Thank you, but if I wanted an out-of-focus shot I could do it myself.

I hope if there are any amateur or semi-pro photographers in the audience they can learn a few things about what customers are looking for.

Weekend Reader – friendfeed, startup, web2.0, xbox360, search

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] Tacky, bigcontrarian.com
  • Rant against the blogging about blogging industry
• [CODE] The fallacy of choice, linuxhaters.blogspot.com
  • Why open source software sucks — too many choices
• [EMAIL] On Peanut Shells and Email Archiving, 43folders.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Never organize what you can simply discard; and if you can’t discard it, throw it onto one big pile.
• [EXERCISE] one hundred push ups, hundredpushups.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Train to do 100 pushups in 6 weeks
• [FRIENDFEED] FriendFeed’s Top 250 Most Followed Users, user21.com, via:deepjiveinterests.com
  • I’m on there as #132
• [FRIENDFEED] Frienderati, frienderati.alltop.com
  • Neat, I’m one of the Frienderati on alltop.com
• [ITUNES] TuneUp Automatically Updates and Fixes Your iTunes Metadata, lifehacker.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Fixes metadata in 50 iTunes songs per month, $20 for unlimited usage or $12 annually
• [JOBHUNT] How to Hack a Technical Job Interview, lifehacker.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Using NPL and psychology to do well in job interviews.
• [LIBRARY] 7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During A Bad Economy, consumerist.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Reasons to develop a library habit
• [RUBY] 7/11 & 7/25 ShoesFests with Why The Lucky Stiff, ihack.us
  • Shoes hack fest for creating tiny GUI apps with the Ruby toolkit
• [SEARCH] facesaerch – find people with this one-click face search, facesaerch.com
  • Interesting UI for a search engine — looks like iTunes coverflow
• [STARTUPS] Tips, mmakai.com
  • Collection of tips for starting a new company
• [STARTUPS] Y Combinator: Startup Ideas We’d Like to Fund, ycombinator.com
  • Some interesting ideas that could become companies
• [TECH] Bug Shooting, bugshooting.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Screenshot tool for bug reports
• [WORDPRESS] Moving from WordPress.com to WordPress, blog-well.com, via:wank.wordpress.com
  • Linked of things to know when leaving WordPress.com
• [XBOX360] Turn Your Xbox 360 into a Streaming Netflix Player, lifehacker.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Stream Netflix to your computer and then to your Xbox 360 if you have Windows Vista

Weekend Reader – programming, drm, api, google, copyright

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [CODE] Neal Stephenson on programming, lambda-the-ultimate.org
  • What programming and writing have in common
• [CODE] Pimp My Code, Part 15: The Greatest Bug of All, wilshipley.com
  • This is what programming is like.
• [CODE] Regular Expressions: Now You Have Two Problems, codinghorror.com
  • No, not really. Some brief reasons why you should use regexs.
• [CODE] The Ultimate Code Kata, codinghorror.com
  • Practice makes perfect, and the only way to improve is to push yourself to the edge of your limits.
• [COPYRIGHT] “Canadian DMCA” brings “balanced” copyright to Canada, arstechnica.com
  • You can get sued $20,000 for posting an mp3 on the internet.
• [FIREFOX] Firefox 3: Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3, lifehacker.com
  • Lifehacker has the skinny on what’s new.
• [GADGETS] Roku: $100 gadget for watching Netflix movies on your TV, boingboing.net
  • This looks awesome.. Netflix’s movies on demand for $100 plus $8.99 a month.
• [GAMES] Get Spore, spore.com
  • Spore character creator trial is available
• [GOOGLE] Google vs Geosign, canadait.com
  • Google dismantles a 160 million venture capital deal in Canada in mere weeks
• [HUMOR] Thank you, Adobe Reader 9!, blog.micropledge.com
  • Adobe Reader, giving us all time to drink our coffee
• [IPHONE] 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G, fsf.org
  • The Free Software Foundation lists what’s wrong with the iPhone developer model
• [PRIVACY] Big Brother is not watching, guardian.co.uk, via:gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
  • The problem of too much data – if you collect everything, it’s hard to catch the correct things.
• [SLEEPHACKS] How to nap, boston.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Awesome graphic on why napping is good for you, and when to schedule it
• [WEB2.0] Two Cardinal Sins of REST API Design: Lessons you can Learn from the NewsGator REST API, 25hoursaday.com
  • Interesting points, I realize that I usually make the mistake he’s outlining.
• [WEBDESIGN] 37Better Project: Better thinking, design and usability leads to better online experiences, 37signals.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Some old school redesigns from 37signals with a focus on usability
• [WORDPRESS] posting to wordpress via ruby and atompub, jmettraux.wordpress.com
  • small script for piping text into wordpress blog posts

Created with rss2html

Tags: api, drm, programming

Weekend Reader – friendfeed, blogging, technology, programming, wordpress

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] Exposed – Blog-Post Confidential, nytimes.com
  • From the article: ” I kept coming back to the idea that I had a right to say whatever I wanted. I don’t think I understood then that I could be right about being free to express myself but wrong about my right to make that self-expression public in a permanent way.”
• [BLOGGING] Stop asking, start filtering, a.wholelottanothing.org
  • Filter out the PR companies, for they are dumb and don’t let us unsubscribe.
• [BLOGGING] Video Comments? Blow Me., expertidiot.com
  • Video comments are the stupidest feature ever and this sums up my opinion of them.
• [CODE] Blogging Horror, girtby.net
  • Has Coding Horror jumped the shark? Jeff responds in the comments.
• [DIGITAL CULTURE] Gilligan’s web, roughtype.com
  • Counter argument to Clay Shirky’s pro-internet piece from last week.
• [FRIENDFEED] FriendFeed Friday Tips #1: Five Ways To Use the Hide Function, louisgray.com
  • How to use hide as your information filter
• [FRIENDFEED] FriendFeed Friday Tips #2: Using the Bookmarklet, louisgray.com
  • More ff tips from lg
• [FRIENDFEED] Keep Your Eyes On FriendFeed: It May Be The Google Of Social Networks, webomatica.com
  • Why Jason things Friend Feed is one of the social apps to watch for 2008
• [FRIENDFEED] On FriendFeed, We’re All TV Channels, bhc3.wordpress.com
  • Great analogy. I wouldn’t worry too much about your ‘channel’ — just be yourself and they people who find that interesting you probably share interests with.
• [INFORMATION OVERLOAD] Too Many Choices, Too Much Content, readwriteweb.com
  • Dear Internet, give us a better way to filter information than “turn off the computer”.
• [LIFEHACKS] Grocery List Templates For Healthy People, smarterfitter.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Great little Excel template for those often shopped for items
• [PIRACY] Understanding Anti-Piracy Enforcement, torrentfreak.com
  • An attempt to clear up some of the FUD.
• [SOCIALMEDIA] Summon Monsters? Open The Door? Heal? Or Die?, gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
  • Are social media sites useful for anything other than sucking up your time?
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] Designing for the Social Web: The Usage Lifecycle, bokardo.com
  • Your users are at different stages in adopting your software, make sure you target each stage in your messages.
• [STARTUPS] How to be authentically fake, ricksegal.typepad.com
  • Don’t use stock photography and claim its team shots of your employees. This is the future of visual search engines.
• [TECH] Early Adopters Are Useless, technosailor.com
  • Needs more meat, but has some good links.
• [TECH] Looking back at mesh 2008, mathewingram.com
  • Collected links to the Mesh 2008 conference
• [WEB2.0] How to Build a Social Web App, simon.incutio.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • These are the most amazingly concise notes I’ve seen of social web app best practices by the guy who made delicious.
• [WORDPRESS] 13 of the best WordPress plugins, davidairey.com
  • Plugins for Self-hosted
• [WORDPRESS] How To Protect Your WordPress Theme Against Upgrades, themeshaper.com
  • I didn’t know that you can essentially derive a new theme off of an existing WordPress theme.

Weekend Reader – blogging, twitter, marketing, funny, lifehacks

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] Its about respect, winextra.com
  • When do you link to someone? When you’re talking about them and want to discuss their viewpoint.
• [BLOGGING] Ten FriendFeed Visitors Beats 1,000 StumbleUpons Any Day, bhc3.wordpress.com
  • Why Friend Feed is a better source of traffic than Digg and StumbleUpon
• [CODE] Business of Software Forum FAQ, discuss.joelonsoftware.com
  • Good info for MicroISV developers.
• [CODE] Why I’m a better software developer than you, ytechie.com
  • Hey, that describes me to a tee. :)
• [CULTURE] Shift Happens, slideshare.net
  • Excellent slide show showing how the world is changing and the new culture that is emerging.
• [FACEBOOK] FaceBook In Reality, youtube.com, via:codinghorror.com
  • Funny video from BBC comedy group
• [GOOGLE] Share anything. Anytime. Anywhere., googlereader.blogspot.com
  • Google Reader Shares might have just become the delicious killer for me.
• [ITUNES] harmony, thirteen23.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • Automatic cover art downloader for Windows
• [LIFEHACKS] Life Hack Misnomer, thegrowinglife.com
  • From the article: ” Repurposing your shoe holder to organize your gadgets isn’t hacking life, it’s hacking a shoe holder. Likewise, utilities used to synchronize files don’t upgrade your life, they upgrade your computer.”
• [MARKETING] 5 Great Examples of Guerilla Marketing Gone Wrong, weburbanist.com
  • Except, has the guerrilla marketing gone wrong if people are still talking about it?
• [PRODUCTIVITY] The Joy of Freeing Up Mental RAM, caffeinatedcoder.com
  • Intro to Getting To Done
• [SOCIALMEDIA] Are we building Universities or Amphitheaters?, weblog.raganwald.com
  • Because getting your attention is more valuable than giving your life value.
• [SOFTWARE] MoMB | The Museum of Modern Betas, momb.socio-kybernetics.net
  • Looking for new stuff to try out? This has a comprehensive list of betas that are available.
• [STARTUPS] From Messes To Successes, avc.blogs.com
  • Applies very well to the perception people have of Twitter
• [STARTUPS] The Coolest Business Plan Ever, ricksegal.typepad.com
  • Microsoft Office metadata strikes again
• [TECH] What’s Mainstream Technology? Ask Joe Average, The Spouse, Grandma, and Dave Letterman, webomatica.com
  • How to figure out if tech is mainstream.
• [TWITTER] Using Twitter to track your FedEx, UPS or DHL Shipments, technofriends.in
  • Neat trick, twitter @trackthis supports FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL tracking codes to send you direct messages whenever your packages change languages.
• [TWITTER] Who Should I Follow? | Twitter Friend Recommendations, whoshouldifollow.com
  • REALLY excellent tool for suggesting people to follow
• [WEB2.0] Web 2.point.Mac: Developing software on Apple computers, compsci.ca
  • Many of the web2.0 companies out there are using Macs as a developer platform.
• [WORDPRESS] 13 of the best WordPress plugins, davidairey.com
  • Plugins for Self-hosted

Weekend Reader – programming, lifehacks, code, blogging, funny

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It, thegrowinglife.com
  • The ultimate guide to writing lifehack posts. :)
• [BLOGGING] A Secret to Blogging Success – Build Upon What You Build, problogger.net
  • Good advice for anything, really. Always leverage what strengths you already have.
• [BLOGGING] Thurday at Noon is the best time post and be noticed (PST), 3.rdrail.net
  • When is the best time to post a story that will get noticed?
• [CODE] Git forking for fun and profit, blog.labnotes.org
  • Really good explanation of distributed version control and GIT and why you should git it.
• [CODE] Invitation to try out open source code review tool, mail.python.org
  • Google’s Mondrian code review tool is going open source.
• [CODE] Programmers Don’t Read Books — But You Should, codinghorror.com
  • Reading one programming book a year makes you a better programmer than the average.
• [COMMUNITY] Listening to Customers is Hard, Hard, Hard, continuations.wenger.us
  • Some tips on how to make the most out of customer feedback.
• [CROSSLOOP] The Crossloop Community, winextra.com
  • I’ve been unhappy with the social aspect of Crossloop before (namely, takes to long to get someone to install the software), but the “helper” marketplace can be a great thing.
• [DIGG] The StatBot pits Digg vs Digg, thestatbot.com
  • Digg 2007 vs Digg 2008 for keywords
• [GEEK] J.K. Rowling, Lexicon and Oz, linearpublishing.com
  • Harry Potter author misuses copyright to sue related work by fan she once gave an award to.
• [GEEK] Nomophobia and The Curse of The Mobile Phone, putthingsoff.com
  • What kind of mobile phone user are you?
• [IPHONE] iPhone Canada: Pay me now, or pay me later, mathewingram.com
  • The iPhone is coming to Canada, but will this mean data plans open up? My guess, big no. Rogers has too much of a track record when it comes to sucking.
• [LASTFM] soundamus – new and upcoming music releases from the artists you listen to, soundamus.net
  • Website that gives you an RSS feed to alert you when your favs on Last.FM release new music.
• [LIFEHACKS] The Battle for Our Minds, thegrowinglife.com
  • Using our minds at work all day is making us stupid.
• [SLEEPHACKS] Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor, 37signals.com
  • From the article: ” If you encounter someone who’s acting like an ass, there’s a good chance they’re suffering from sleep deprivation.”
• [SOCIALMEDIA] Greasemonkey Scripts For the Social Media Addict, readwriteweb.com
  • Scripts for Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, Delicious, Facebook, and Flickr. Several of them by yours truly.
• [TECH] Early adopter angst, scobleizer.com
  • Arguments why earlier adopters do matter.
• [TECH] What’s Mainstream Technology? Ask Joe Average, The Spouse, Grandma, and Dave Letterman — Webomatica – Technology and Entertainment Digest, webomatica.com
  • How to figure out if tech is mainstream.
• [TWITTER] TwitterSnooze! v0.13, twittersnooze.com
  • Stop following someone for a few days.
• [WORKHACKS] Up or Out: Solving the IT Turnover Crisis, thedailywtf.com
  • Embrace change, and quit your job when you start to stagnate.

Weekend Reader – twitter, blogging, usability, webdesign, bsg

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] 10 things you MUST know before you register a domain name with anyone, domainwarning.com
  • Tips for picking out where to host your domain names.
• [BLOGGING] Google Analytics for Blogs, googlesystem.blogspot.com
  • Google Analytics will report daily readers, incoming links, popular posts, comments added.
• [BLOGGING] Warning Labels for Bloggers, geekculture.com
  • hahah… so on point.
• [CODE] The Perfect Job Interview Question, noop.nl
  • How to interview programmers: “what do you not like about other people’s code?”
• [CREATIVITY] 17 Obscure Creativity-Sparking Websites, lifedev.net
  • List of interesting websites that stand out from the crowd.
• [CULTURE] Gin, Television, and Social Surplus, herecomeseverybody.org
  • From the article: ” However lousy it is to sit in your basement and pretend to be an elf, I can tell you from personal experience it’s worse to sit in your basement and try to figure if Ginger or Mary Ann is cuter.”
• [FRIENDFEED] Proposal to Clean Up the FriendFeed Clutter, bhc3.wordpress.com
  • Some great ideas on making FriendFeed more useful.
• [GAMERS] Grand Theft Auto IV Activity Book For Kids, the-minusworld.com
  • And they thought Mass Effect was bad…
• [GEEK] Battlestar Galactica Backstory in 8 Minutes, io9.com
  • Spoilers, of course.
• [JAVASCRIPT] Guarding in JavaScript, thoughtworker.in, via:lazycoder.com
  • Very brief look at using && and || to simplify your code.
• [LIFEHACKS] 5 Productivity Nutjobs Explained, thegrowinglife.com, via:doshdosh.com
  • This made me laugh. :)
• [LINUX] The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment, contentconsumer.wordpress.com
  • How hard is it to switch from Windows to Linux?
• [MEDIA] The Wire as Simpson Characters, periscopestudio.com, via:kottke.org
  • artist renditions of scenes from the Wire as Simpsons characters
• [PERL] Ten things I hate about Perl, pozorvlak.livejournal.com
  • I absolutely hate Perl’s OO, all the referencing, and the ugliness of embedded POD. It’s hard to go back to Perl 5 after Ruby.
• [STARTUPS] Why I love working with family people, 37signals.com
  • If people have the constraint of “having a life outside of work” it makes it harder to hide poor management.
• [TWITTER] The Twitter Blacklist, twitterblacklist.com
  • Tool with API for identifying Twitter spammers. It works by analyzing the ratio of followers to friends with some manual intervention.
• [TWITTER] Twitter Less, Blog More!, dailyblogtips.com
  • From the article: ” Why? Because your blog is your property. It should be the single most important location for you on the Internet. It should be the place where people go to when they think about you. Your blog, not Twitter”
• [TWITTER] TwitterSnooze! v0.13, twittersnooze.com
  • Stop following someone for a few days.
• [WEBDESIGN] Five More Principles Of Effective Web Design, smashingmagazine.com
• [WEBDESIGN] Khoi Vinh, nytimes.com
  • Interview with one of my favorite web designers.

Delicious Links – 20 links – blogging, windows, codinghorror, amazon, shopping

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [AMAZON] Amazon Discounts: Secret Amazon Discount Finder, deallocker.com
  • Cool tool for finding discounted items at Amazon. Works in Canada. Also has a coupon blog.
  • (amazon, shopping, tips, 1583 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [AMAZON] Top 10 Amazon Power Shopper Tools, lifehacker.com
  • If you’ve ever shopped on the Internet, then you’ve used Amazon. Here are ten tips to help you use amazon from building wishlists to finding discounts/free shipping/coupons to getting refunds for items you’ve bought.
  • (amazon, shopping, tips, 440 saves, 39 inbound links, 703 diggs)
• [BLOGGER] Jerry Springer For Programmers: Only A Matter Of Time, gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
  • From the article: ” It’s awesome to get a free burrito every 11,429 times somebody decides to read your blog. But that awesomeness doesn’t translate well to full-time careers.”
  • (programming, blogging, techcrunch, codinghorror, 11 saves)
• [BLOGGING] More Bloggers Raising Money. Here Come The Politics. And Here Comes My Rant., techcrunch.com
  • Arrlington on the business of blogging. Very honest.
  • (blogging, business, 90 saves, 100 inbound links, 4 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] The Art Of Heresy (Or How To Thrive Under The Benevolent Rulership Of King Gabe Rivera), chartreuse.wordpress.com
  • From the article: ” If your audience can view you anytime, anywhere then you have to be good all the time.”
  • (blogging, media, 4 saves, 4 inbound links)
• [CODE] Forced To Write English Syntax Code – Simplicity or Burden?, codesqueeze.com
  • How being forced to write code in English makes things simpler for non-North Americans. You almost have to appreciate the strength of his opinion about the French…
  • (english, funny, programming, 8 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [CODE] The Programming Style that Saved my Marriage, ourdoings.com
  • Programmers get grumpy when interrupted. Functional programming is a style that handles interruptions better than procedural programming
  • (code, 2 saves)
• [COPYRIGHT] Free your mind, stevenpoole.net, via:codinghorror.com
  • Copyright should be renamed to RightToEat.
  • (copyright, writing, economics, 87 saves, 50 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [FACEBOOK] Facebook knows who you are, and that’s worth more than you think, paulbuchheit.blogspot.com
  • If you don’t think Facebook is going to be a profitable company, then you’re underestimating the value of identity.
  • (facebook, search, 24 saves, 29 inbound links)
• [FLICKR] The definitive collection of Flickr tools, plugins and API applications, flickrbits.com
  • Huge list of tools for working with Flickr
  • (flickr, 1354 saves, 17 diggs)
• [GAMERS] Grand Theft Auto IV Activity Book For Kids, the-minusworld.com
  • And they thought Mass Effect was bad…
  • (gta, games, parody, 11 saves, 19 inbound links, 21 diggs)
• [GEEK] stackoverflow, stackoverflow.com
  • New podcast by Jeff “Coding Horror” Atwood and Joel Spolsky FTW
  • (podcast, codinghorror, joelonsoftware, 53 saves, 100 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [PHP] Rails for PHP Developers, railsforphp.com
  • Great idea – it looks like the PHP reference, but it shows you how to do the same task in Ruby.
  • (php, rails, ruby, rubyonrails, 25 saves, 12 inbound links)
• [SCREENSCRAPING] Automating Firefox for Web Application Integration, urbanhonking.com
  • Controlling Firefox using Ruby with the JSSH extension for screen scraping Javascript.
  • (firefox, javascript, automation, jssh, ruby, 133 saves, 23 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] Shout about the best of Houston at PlaceShout, blogs.chron.com
  • Interesting, like Twitter but for location. A bit rough around the edges, needs to support non-US zip codes.
  • (twitter, yelp)
• [WEB2.0] The noise in Web 2.0 is mainly a Tech Elite problem, vanelsas.wordpress.com
  • Real people don’t suffer from information overload because they can walk away from the computer.
  • (information, overload, 22 saves, 30 inbound links, 1 diggs)
• [WEBDEV] Web pages have ‘come alive and started breeding’, telegraph.co.uk, via:gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
  • Interesting idea: the design of the web page evolves based on how people interact with it.
  • (webdesign, 100 inbound links)
• [WINDOWS] Tray It, teamcti.com
  • Great little free windows application that lets you minimize ANY software in the system tray.
  • (windows, software, freeware, utilities, 400 saves, 69 inbound links, diggs)
• [WINDOWS] Upgrading from Vista to Windows XP: A Review, dotnet.org.za
  • Worth reading :)
  • (windows, microsoft, humor, 475 saves, diggs)
• [ZUNE] 5 reasons my Zune is dead to me, crave.cnet.com, via:raganwald.com
  • Remember the Zune? Me neither.
  • (zune, ipod, 7 saves, 22 inbound links, 3 diggs)

Delicious Links – 20 links – blogging, google, webdev, marketing, lifehacks

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] 10 Ways to Improve Blog Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less, problogger.net
  • good tips for when you’re blog is in the dumps
  • (blogging, tips, promotion, 264 saves, 34 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] 27 Thoughts On Blogging For The Artist, problogger.net
  • From the article: ” Though tempting, you’ll never crush your own mediocrity working only four hours a week.”
  • (blogging, funny, 27 saves, 26 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] Content Is Becoming a Commodity, readwriteweb.com
  • Lower barrier of entry causes flood of information causes devaluation
  • (media, blogging, 159 saves, 77 inbound links, 15 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] The Readers Point of View: The Irritating Side of Blogs, northxeast.com
  • Why your blog sucks.
  • (blogging, 7 saves, 5 inbound links)
• [BLOGGING] The Top 5 Ways to Generate Traffic With Less Work, skelliewag.org
  • Simple tips for bloggers
  • (traffic, marketing, blogging, 18 saves, 7 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [CODE] Donating $5,000 to .NET Open Source, codinghorror.com
  • That’s pretty awesome. Still donating $5k to open source even though you’ve quit your day job to be a full time blogger.
  • (opensource, code, 6 saves, 17 inbound links)
• [FACEBOOK] Facebook Is Not Really That Special, mattmaroon.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • From the article: ” It’s a glorified Classmates.com. For all the hype about the –social graph– that’s the most it will ever amount to because there’s nothing social about the internet. The internet is the most anti-social invention of all time.”
  • (facebook, google, socialnetworking, 10 saves, 7 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [FIREBUG] Firebug 1.2 Excitement, railsjedi.com
  • Firebug is hands down the best way to work with/develop web applications using javascript, HTML and CSS. If you aren’t using it then you’re effectively handicapping yourself.
  • (firebug, firefox, webdev, 66 saves, 18 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [FIREBUG] Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar, microsoft.com, via:solotech.com
  • Firebug equivalent for Internet Explorer
  • (webdev, microsoft, 6 saves, 100 inbound links)
• [FIREFOX] Why downloading Firefox is like getting into college, sethgodin.typepad.com, via:avc.blogs.com
  • From the article: ” In the lingo of Nancy Reagan, Firefox is a gateway drug.”
  • (firefox, marketing, 85 saves, 91 inbound links, 23 diggs)
• [GEEK] stackoverflow, stackoverflow.com
  • New podcast by Jeff “Coding Horror” Atwood and Joel Spolsky FTW
  • (podcast, codinghorror, joelonsoftware, 45 saves, 85 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [GOOGLE] Play Googolopoly, the internet board game from Box.net, blog.box.net
  • Google is the new Monopoly
  • (google, games, humor, 87 saves, 100 inbound links, 12 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] 11 Odd but Simple Ways to Improve Your Health, dumblittleman.com
  • I can vouch for neti pots. I learned that one on Six Feet Under. :)
  • (health, lifehacks, 4 saves, 29 inbound links)
• [LIFEHACKS] 16 Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in School, positivityblog.com
  • Lots of common productivity tips, but still a good read.
  • (productivity, lifehacks, 865 saves, 76 inbound links, 17 diggs)
• [RSS] ReadBurner Fired Back Up With Revamped GUI, Reader Integration, louisgray.com
  • ReadBurner looks like some nice sugar on top of Google Reader to make RSS more of a social activity.
  • (readburner, rss, google, GoogleReader, 3 saves, 10 inbound links)
• [SCREENCAST] Wink, debugmode.com
  • Free screencast authoring tool
  • (screencast, 9115 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [TWITTER] Twitter: The Web’s Playground, blowski.wordpress.com
  • The most concise explanation of the tech blogging scene on Twitter that I’ve ever read.
  • (twitter, 4 saves, 6 inbound links)
• [WEBDESIGN] Should Redesign? Cast Your Vote Now!, shouldredesign.com
  • Vote on web designs. Very addictive.
  • (webdesign, design, inspiration, 82 saves, 59 inbound links, 9 diggs)
• [WEBDEV] inursite, inursite.com, via:morethanseven.net
  • Spider for automatically checking your site for validation once a day.
  • (webdesign, webdev, 27 saves, 7 inbound links)
• [WORKHACKS] The Business, randsinrepose.com
  • How to negotiate your salary before accepting the job offer.
  • (business, negotiation, 70 saves, 21 inbound links, 1 diggs)

Delicious Links – 20 links – google, blogging, wordpress, twitter, lifehacks

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] 6 Ways That Bloggers are Like Rappers, copyblogger.com
  • Are you down with the B.L.O.G.? Yeah, you know me!
  • (blogging, 31 saves, 29 inbound links, 7 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] How to Target the Right Social Media Sites, problogger.net
  • Howto guide for bloggers on using sites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon to generate traffic.
  • (socialmedia, blogging, 44 saves, 7 inbound links, 15 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] the thorny issue of blog comment ownership, nbrightside.com
  • Who owns a comment?
  • (blogging, comments)
• [CODE] Google REST Search API, blogoscoped.com
  • This could be useful for web apps.
  • (google, rest, 19 saves, 7 inbound links)
• [CODE] We need a Wikipedia for data, bret.appspot.com
  • Where is the open source database for map info, whitepages, movie times, music info, etc.
  • (data, opensource, innovation, 222 saves, 79 inbound links)
• [FIREFOX] Why downloading Firefox is like getting into college, sethgodin.typepad.com, via:avc.blogs.com
  • From the article: ” In the lingo of Nancy Reagan, Firefox is a gateway drug.”
  • (firefox, marketing, 71 saves, 62 inbound links, 20 diggs)
• [GEEK] My Cat Bubba Posts Videos and Twitters using an EeePC and Ubuntu, fsckin.com, via:webomatica.com
  • It’s a pretty static video of the cat eating, but nice hack.
  • (cats, 3 saves, 2 inbound links, 33 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] From 10000 to 0 Emails in an Inbox in 24 Hours, problogger.net
  • Switching to Gmail to become more productive with email.
  • (lifehacks, workhacks, gmail, email, 22 saves, 14 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Just say NO to crap!, squawkfox.com, via:skelliewag.org
  • The ultimate decluttering tip is not to consume.
  • (lifehacks, declutter, 2 saves, 11 inbound links)
• [STARTUPS] We Need A New Path To Liquidity, avc.blogs.com
  • From the article: ” what happens when a company gets purchased: The service languishes. The team leaves. It stops getting better. And often gets worse.”
  • (web2.0, business, vc, 116 saves, 99 inbound links)
• [STARTUPS] What the New York Times “death by blogging” story got right., calacanis.com
  • From the article: ” In some ways I think I’ve realized that life is just a big video game and if one game doesn’t work out you put another quarter in and try again.”
  • (startup, entrepreneurship, blogging, 17 saves, 18 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] Improving Twitter, kungfugrippe.com
  • Merlin Mann’s ideas for how to improve twitter. He’s one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter
  • (twitter, 26 saves, 18 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] Twubble, crazybob.org
  • Twitter friend of a friend finder.
  • (twitter, tools, mashup, 513 saves, 100 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [WEB2.0] AppEngine World: your one-stop resource for Google App Engine, appengineworld.com, via:marshallk.com
  • AppEngine news aggregator. I wish I had an AppEngine account :(
  • (appengine, google, 5 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [WEB2.0] Google App Engine, code.google.com
  • Google releases blogspot for web applications.
  • (google, python, hosting, 2148 saves, 100 inbound links, 26 diggs)
• [WEB2.0] Mulling On Google App Engine, al3x.net
  • Alex Payne (of Twitter)’s thoughts on the new appengine
  • (google, hosting, web2.0, 4 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [WORDPRESS] Coming Soon: My Personal WordPress Theme Starting Point, themeshaper.com
  • Ian is releasing his Sandbox-plus-plus theme with some stuff from BluePrint CSS. I’ve been waiting 9 months for this. :)
  • (wordpress, themes, 3 saves, 2 inbound links)
• [WORDPRESS] The Great WordPress Attack, psionmark.com
  • If you aren’t running WP 2.5, your site is probably hacked.
  • (wordpress, 5 saves, 6 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] The Case Against Overtime, caffeinatedcoder.com
  • Compelling arguments as to why you shouldn’t work overtime as a programmer.
  • (career, balance, programming, 6 saves, 3 inbound links, 4 diggs)
• [WPDESIGN] Raising Personal Standard for Paid WordPress Themes, wpdesigner.com
  • What a WordPress theme should include.
  • (wordpress, themes, 6 saves, 10 inbound links)

Delicious Links – 17 links – wordpress, webdesign, productivity, google, search

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] 7 Reasons Why your Website Won’t Last Without Analytics, makeuseof.com
  • This is in my “top 5 beefs with wordpress.com”. Blogging without Google Analytics sucks because you’re never able to self correct.
  • (analytics, webdesign, 18 saves, 9 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] How to Create a Rock-Solid Tagline That Truly Works, copyblogger.com
  • Create your tagline by thinking about the problems you solve.
  • (copywriting, blogging, 30 saves, 18 inbound links)
• [CSS] 960 Grid System, 960.gs, via:technospot.net
  • Looks like Blueprint CSS, with more polish.
  • (css, grid, webdesign, 2444 saves, 100 inbound links, 11 diggs)
• [GREASEMONKEY] Google Gears + Greasemonkey to take Wikipedia offline, code.google.com
  • Proof of concept on how to use Greasemonkey with Google Gears. I want to try this out, I think the combination of Gears, jQuery and Greasemonkey could lead to some awesome scripts.
  • (greasemonkey, google, javascript, tutorial, 11 saves, 95 inbound links)
• [LIFEHACKS] 10 Ways History’s Finest Kept Their Focus at Work, lifedev.net
  • Look at the productivity tips of some of histories greatest figures.
  • (productivity, lifehacks, 408 saves, 46 inbound links, 240 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] 12 Rules for Getting a Grip on Massive Email, problogger.net
  • How to manage too much email.
  • (email, productivity, 12 saves, 6 inbound links)
• [MEMES] I Can Has Rezearch Papar?, cylegage.com
  • Long article discussion internet culture, memes and anonymity.
  • (culture, internet, 327 saves, 59 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [MYBLOGLOG] FOAFster — Mashable FOAF, from MyBlogLog, kentbrewster.com
  • Ok, this might be the mashup that gets me using MyBlogLog again.
  • (mybloglog, mashup, foaf, 9 saves, 4 inbound links)
• [PYTHON] Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python, python.net, via:benjamingolub.com
  • Python style guide by the maker of Docutils.
  • (python, programming, tips, 1270 saves, 19 inbound links)
• [RUBY] Announcing Ninja-Patching!, avdi.org
  • How to patch code so that it will randomly kill other code.
  • (ruby, funny, hacks, 17 saves, 4 inbound links)
• [SCIFI] Brasyl, Halting State, The Last Colony and Rollback: The 2008 Hugo Voters Electronic Editions, scalzi.com
  • How to obtain electronic copies of this years Hugo award nominees.
  • (scifi, 2 saves, 5 inbound links)
• [SEO] I’m Getting Pretty Tired of Startup Advice that Doesn’t Include Any Mention of SEO, seomoz.org
  • Most web startups are dumb about getting direct search referrals.
  • (seo, startup, search, entrepreneurship, 173 saves, 35 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] I’m Over Twitter, threeminds.organic.com
  • From the article: ” With Twitter, each of us shouts into the void to the community at large, rather than taking the risk of speaking directly to one another.”
  • (twitter, 25 saves, 15 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [WORDPRESS] A Proposal for Theme Management in WordPress, themeshaper.com
  • Make the footer easily customizable.
  • (wordpress)
• [WORDPRESS] WordPress 2.5 usability review, noscope.com, via:archgfx.net
  • Discussion of what the WP2.5 admin panel does wrong.
  • (wordpress, design, 8 saves, 5 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] Meetronome, meetronome.com
  • Online meeting minute generator that also calculates the average cost of the meeting
  • (meetings, workhacks, 2 saves)

Delicious Links – 20 links – friendfeed, blogging, javascript, psychology, startup

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can see me add them in real time on Friend Feed.

• [BITTORRENT] Protect Your Privacy When Downloading, lifehacker.com
  • Two tips for not being caught as the nasty pirate that you are.
  • (bittorrent, torrents, 31 inbound links)
• [BLOGGING] 20 Types of Pages that Every Blogger Should Consider, problogger.net
  • Great examples of how to use the WordPress page feature. I wish I didn’t have so many damn problems with it on WordPress.com (can’t remove it from my theme head, trackback prob).
  • (blogging, wordpress, tips, 581 saves, 46 inbound links, 21 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] 7 Blogging Statistics Rules – There is Life After Page Views, hanselman.com, via:raganwald.com
  • From the article: ” If you post a Gallery or a List or anything post with a Prime Number and the word “Rules” in the title, you’ll get traffic. You post smart, compelling content, you need to be wicked smart before folks take note.”
  • (blogging, statistics, 16 saves, 8 inbound links)
• [BLOGGING] A Caffeine Inspired Interview with Jeff Atwood from CodingHorror.com, caffeinatedcoder.com
  • “The only difference between good and great blogs is that the good bloggers kept writing until they became great bloggers.” — Jeff Atwood
  • (blogging, writing, tips, codinghorror, 3 saves, 6 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] Group Interview: What Do Online Advertisers Look For in a Website?, dailyblogtips.com
  • Daniel gets the skinny on how to sell ads on your website.
  • (advertising, blogging, 20 saves, 8 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [FRIENDFEED] A Few FriendFeed Treats Out There, jeffisageek.net
  • A list of the cool little hacks people have made for FF so far.
  • (friendfeed, 5 saves, 5 diggs)
• [FRIENDFEED] Friendfeed 2018, blogoscoped.com, via:winextra.com
  • The future of Friend Feed.
  • (friendfeed, humour, web2.0, 5 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [FRIENDFEED] Share that link on FriendFeed using FeedDemon, winextra.com
  • Share items on FF using Feed Demon.
  • (rss, friendfeed)
• [FRIENDFEE] The FriendFeed Playground, ffapps.com
  • Avi put together a FF apps site for pointing to the cool apps people are building around FF.
  • (friendfeed)
• [GEEK] Wired’s Geekster Handbook, a Field Guide to the Nerd Underground, wired.com, via:reddit.com
  • Which geek are you? I’m 1-5 but thankfully not 6.
  • (geek, 2 saves, 3 inbound links, 10 diggs)
• [GREASEMONKEY] How to play nicely with jQuery and Greasemonkey, joanpiedra.com
  • Tips on accessing jQuery inside your Greasemonkey scripts.
  • (greasemonkey, jquery, javascript, programming, 46 saves, 15 inbound links)
• [JAVASCRIPT] Great JavaScript presentation by John Resig, lazycoder.com
  • I started using jQuery a lot this week and its friggin awesome. I must watch this video.
  • (jquery, javascript, 2 saves)
• [MARKETING] Polarize Me, fastcompany.com, via:37signals.com
  • The ‘Made to Stick’ guys talk about how in order to have people love you, you have to decide who will hate you. No walking the middle line.
  • (marketing, branding, 43 saves, 36 inbound links, 1 diggs)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] Why I will never get another date, jennifer-mccarthy.blogspot.com
  • The truth of social web apps exposed.
  • (socialsoftware, humor)
• [STARTUPS] How To Use Perks and Rewards in Startups to Get The Best Talent, instigatorblog.com
  • Anywhere could hire me away if they offered me the best-of-breed source control, chat, backup and allowed me to attend conferences.
  • (startup, hiring, 6 saves, 7 inbound links, 37 diggs)
• [STARTUPS] The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment, part 1: Biases 1-6, blog.pmarca.com
  • Long read, but the section on incentives/disincentives are particularly interesting and applicable to all aspects of your life.
  • (entrepreneurship, psychology, startup, 304 saves, 54 inbound links, 13 diggs)
• [WORDPRESS] FriendFeed Comments WordPress Plugin, blog.slaven.net.au
  • Display the Friend Feed discussion on your WordPress blog.
  • (friendfeed, wordpress, 9 saves, 8 inbound links)
• [WORKHACKS] The KJ-Technique: A Group Process for Establishing Priorities, uie.com, via:labnotes.org
  • The KJ-Technique is a method for getting the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ as fast as possible without getting bogged down by borderline cases.
  • (workhacks, psychology, 234 saves, 23 inbound links, 1 diggs)
• [XBOX360] REST API for Xbox Gamertag Data, duncanmackenzie.net
  • Public rest API for Xbox Gamertag. Gives you an XML file.
  • (xbox360, rest, 7 saves, 5 inbound links)

Delicious Links – 20 links – friendfeed, lifehacks, blogging, programming, wordpress

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] The Conversation Has Left the Blogosphere, readwriteweb.com, via:friendfeed.com
  • Examples for bloggers on where to find and how to manage all the conversations that are happening OUTSIDE of your blog about your blog content.
  • (blogging, 90 saves, 71 inbound links, 26 diggs)
• [CODE] Google Code University, code.google.com, via:lazycoder.com
  • Google is putting together tutorials about programming subjects for university level. Good refreshers.
  • (programming, google, code, tutorials, 2628 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [DIGG] 12 Must-Have Tools for Active Digg Users, doshdosh.com
  • This is a *KILLER* list. The extensions I’ve already tried on the list are must haves, and the rest look even better.
  • (digg, tools, 72 saves, 28 inbound links, diggs)
• [EMAIL] Do Not Reply, donotreply.com, via:codinghorror.com
  • Many companies use @donotreply.com for their automatic emails. What they don’t realize is that donotreply.com is a real web address and he’s posting the contents of the emails! IT security at its worst.
  • (email, 138 saves, 82 inbound links, 8 diggs)
• [FRIENDFEED] FriendFeed is for Lurkers too, oracleappslab.com
  • How FriendFeed is becoming a user generated content repository for the parts of the web that people are actively creating.
  • (friendfeed, 2 saves)
• [FRIENDFEED] Friendfeed Grid, blogoscoped.com, via:louisgray.com
  • A random look at the people on Friend Feed.
  • (friendfeed, visualization, 30 saves, 8 inbound links)
• [FRIENDFEED] Hack to Get an RSS Feed from FriendFeed Search Results, lifestreamblog.com, via:techcrunch.com
  • FriendFeed is a lifestreaming aggregator. Here’s some tips for getting RSS feeds from it.
  • (friendfeed, 4 inbound links)
• [FRIENDFEED] How FriendFeed Became Internet Famous, runningwithfoxes.com, via:friendfeed.com
  • An analysis about how FF became the “IT” webapp of 2008.
  • (friendfeed, 4 saves)
• [INTERNET] George Clooney, esquire.com
  • Esquire sits down with Clooney and goes through a Google search of his life. Interesting from the geeky POV of all the information that is out there, and how accurate is it, really?
  • (interview, humor, via, 120 saves, 72 inbound links, 25 diggs)
• [JAVASCRIPT] EJS – JavaScript Templates, embeddedjs.com, via:gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
  • I might be able to use this with rss2html to work with Yahoo Pipes formatted data
  • (javascript, programming, erb, 36 saves, 8 inbound links, 20 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] 5 Tools to Track How Much Time you Waste while Online, makeuseof.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • I recommend RescueTime out of the list they have. The best suggestion might be “unplug your internet connection when you’re trying to get work done”
  • (lifehacks, timetracking, 223 saves, 26 inbound links, 959 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] The Top 100 Productivity and Lifehack Blogs, collegedegree.com, via:readwriteweb.com
  • Huge list of lifehack blogs organized by topic.
  • (lifehacks, 596 saves, 71 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Wisdom from the way-out edge, theage.com.au, via:chipsquips.com
  • From the article: ” Reward risk, risk is good. Trust crazy people. Believe in yourself, everyone else is faking it. Find the real problem to solve.”
  • (innovation, technology, software, lifehacks, 7 saves)
• [MARKETING] Nomadic Growth: Moving to Greener Pastures, skelliewag.org
  • In order to keep expanding your audience you have to keep reaching out to new plateaus.
  • (marketing, blogging, 6 saves, 2 inbound links, 16 diggs)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] Relationships are complicated, factoryjoe.com
  • What works better: asking users to explicitly list their relationship with people, or viewing how they interact with people and deducing the relationships from there?
  • (socialsoftware, relationships, 2 saves, 6 inbound links)
• [STARTUPS] How To Use Perks and Rewards in Startups to Get The Best Talent, instigatorblog.com
  • Anywhere could hire me away if they offered me the best-of-breed source control, chat, backup and allowed me to attend conferences.
  • (startup, hiring, 4 saves, 2 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] favotter, favotter.matope.com
  • It’s like twitter.com/popular — a list of tweets that have been favorited a lot. Pretty entertaining.
  • (twitter, mashup, socialnetworking, 43 saves, 17 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [WEBDESIGN] 101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site, insidecrm.com
  • If you run a website then there’s some gems in here you haven’t thought of in a while. In depth advice on each item is available.
  • (webdesign, 1378 saves, 86 inbound links, 1749 diggs)
• [WORDPRESS] 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.5, technosailor.com, via:andybeard.eu
  • I can’t wait until we get some of this stuff on WordPress.com
  • (wordpress, blogging, 60 saves, 46 inbound links, 8 diggs)
• [WORDPRESS] More WordPress Theme Viewer Screenshots, winextra.com
  • Preview screenshots of the new WordPress theme viewer
  • (wordpress, themes, 4 inbound links)
• Powered by Delicious Links Pro

Delicious Links – 20 links – tools, gamers, workhacks, code, links

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BITTORRENT] Dutch University Uses BitTorrent to Update Workstations, torrentfreak.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
  • Pretty cool. Then when from 20 servers and 4 days to update clients to 2 servers and 4 hours to update clients.
  • (bittorrent, 15 saves, 22 inbound links, diggs)
• [BLOGGING] 17 Tips For Getting Bloggers To Write About You, informationweek.com, via:doshdosh.com
  • This should be titled “WELCOME TO THE INTERNETS”. Mandatory reading for understanding linking. It gets bonus points because the article doesn’t follow its own rules.
  • (blogging, tips, Linkbait, links, 54 inbound links)
• [CODE] insomnia and productivity, sob.apotheon.org
  • hack mode
  • (code, programming, 2 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [FRIENDFEED] Elite Bloggers Joining FriendFeed In Droves, louisgray.com
  • List of tech bloggers who are on friendfeed
  • (friendfeed, blogging, lifestreaming, 15 saves, 50 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [GAMERS] Animal Crossing Is Tragic, animalcrossingtragedy.ytmnd.com
  • Sad little tale of a gamer who shared Animal Crossing with his/her dying mother.
  • (animalcrossing, gamers, 15 saves, diggs)
• [GAMERS] The Co-op Gaming Bill of Rights, ozymandias.com
  • Co-op gaming can be a ghetto on a lot of platforms. I’d love for more games to adopt these.
  • (gamers, xbox360, 2 saves, 12 inbound links, 4 diggs)
• [GAMERS] Warlords Online, warlords-online.com, via:lazycoder.com
  • Online MPORG based on Puzzle Quest
  • (gamers, puzzlequest, 15 saves, 2 inbound links)
• [LINKS] Ten Sites for Finding Wonderful Things, readwriteweb.com, via:twitter.com
  • Some suggestions for ‘best of the weird web’
  • (links, fun, 15 saves, 20 inbound links, 649 diggs)
• [OPENID] Zero Sign On – 1 better or Infinitely better than Single Sign On?, drnicwilliams.com
  • How to use OpenID certificates so that you NEVER have to log in to any site that supports OpenID.
  • (openid, authentication, certificates, firefox, 15 saves, 47 inbound links, 7 diggs)
• [TECH] The real reason I left my career in tech, backinskinnyjeans.com
  • What women have to deal with being in the hightech workplace
  • (tech, women, 8 saves, 10 inbound links, 34 diggs)
• [TWITTER] 17 Ways to Visualize the Twitter Universe, flowingdata.com
  • Some cool examples of visualizing data
  • (twitter, visualization, tools, 15 saves, 94 inbound links, 12 diggs)
• [TWITTER] Need help managing your Twitter Karma?, dossy.org, via:experiencecurve.com
  • Something I’ve been complaining about. A better Twitter followers manager. Needs more info about the followees though.
  • (twitter, mashup, 15 saves, 10 inbound links, 185 diggs)
• [WEBDESIGN] 20 Websites That Made Me A Better Web Developer, sixrevisions.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • List of webdesign related websites. Most are familiar.
  • (webdesign, development, design, 15 saves, 65 inbound links, 3621 diggs)
• [WEBDESIGN] Administrative Debris, tomayko.com
  • Content is everything… then why do we display so much stuff that isn’t content?
  • (design, tufte, usability, 15 saves, 8 inbound links)
• [WEBDESIGN] IE App Compat VHD, microsoft.com
  • Virtual machine images of different versions of Internet Explorer so that you can test a website on multiple versions of the same web browser.
  • (windows, virtualization, testing, 3 saves, 100 inbound links)
• [WEBHACKS] Down for everyone or just me?, downforeveryoneorjustme.com
  • Find out if a website is unreachable for the entire net or just your machine
  • (tools, internet, network, 15 saves, 100 inbound links, 8 diggs)
• [WEBSAVVY] the Awesome Highlighter – be nice, highlight, awesomehighlighter.com
  • note to my parents: please use this all the time so I have some clue why you sent me that web page in an email.
  • (tools, highlighter, web2.0, sharing, 15 saves, 100 inbound links, 29 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] 10 Ways to Improve Your Programming Productivity, matthewpaulmoore.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Good advice, even if none of is groundbreaking.
  • (advice, workhacks, code, programming, 15 saves, 28 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] 9 Simple Strategies to Getting Things Done At Work, lyved.com
  • Tricks for being more productive in the office
  • (productivity, lifehacks, workhacks, 15 saves, 12 inbound links, 679 diggs)
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This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

•   Delicious Links – 17 links – programming, stumbleupon, blogging, windows, copyright

   

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

•   [DELICIOUS/STUMBLEUPON] Delicious Stumbles v2.0
  StumbleUpon upgraded their interface last nice so that means you get a new version of Delicious Stumbles.

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• Installing ruby-prof as a plugin on Rails 1.2
• rails/mysql: Load your production database on to your development server
• How not to replace WEBrick with Thin

Tags: blogging, code, design, gamers, links, programming, tools, twitter, workhacks

Delicious Links – 17 links – programming, stumbleupon, blogging, windows, copyright

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] Bloggers Beware: Nigerian Fraud Has Evolved Into Display and Text Link Ad Solicitations, deepjiveinterests.com
  • Those people who want to pay you money might be scamming you to GET your money.
  • (blogging, spam, 12 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] Death Threats, Intimidation, and Blogging, codinghorror.com
  • When good blogs become silenced we all lose.
  • (blogging, 26 saves, 21 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [BOOKS] Neil Gaiman’s Journal: The nature of free, journal.neilgaiman.com
  • From the article: ” the problem isn’t that books are given away or that people read books they haven’t paid for. The problem is that the majority of people don’t read for pleasure.”
  • (books, copyright, 18 saves, 49 inbound links)
• [CODE] Are .NET Developers the American Tourists of the Software Industry?, caffeinatedcoder.com, via:raganwald.com
  • From the article: ” The comments that drove this home was the one said my opinion should be discounted because I break the programming languages world into –languages by Microsoft– and –other languages–.”
  • (.net, programming, code, 5 saves, 5 inbound links)
• [CODE] What Does It Take To Become A Grandmaster Developer?, moserware.com
  • From the article: ” The way to the top is filled with things getting harder. There are no shortcuts. Sorry.”
  • (programming, learning, career, 216 saves, 20 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [CREEPY] CUBOCC, cubo.cc, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • The web is a weird, weird place.
  • (design, flash, interactive, animation, 403 saves, 100 inbound links, 40 diggs)
• [DELICIOUS] Welcome to del.ishli.st!, del.ishli.st, via:lifehacker.com
  • Use delicious bookmarks to build a wishlist.
  • (del.icio.us, wishlist, shopping, 470 saves, 61 inbound links)
• [FREELANCING] 1000 True Fans, kk.org, via:codinghorror.com
  • Great take on being successful. 1000 people spending $100 on you a year is a $100,000 salary. Second amazing article I’ve seen from this blog, gonna have to subscribe.
  • (freemium, freelancing, success, 937 saves, 100 inbound links, 12 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Messy Productivity: Why Perfection Will Slow You Down, anywired.com
  • Getting things done means letting go of being perfect
  • (psychology, gtd, lifehacks, 2 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [PERL] Strawberry Perl, strawberryperl.com
  • Perl 5.10.0 for Windows
  • (perl, windows, programming, 173 saves, 31 inbound links)
• [RUBY] Monkey Patching Ruby, just like in The Matrix – Whoa!, blog.semanticart.com, via:ruby.reddit.com
  • Metaprogramming with Keanu Reeves
  • (programming, ruby, tutorial, fun, 8 saves)
• [SOCIALMEDIA] IM Etiquette: 8 Tips from Top Social Media Users, reemabeidoh.com, via:doshdosh.com
  • How to promote your website without making an ass of yourself.
  • (socialnetworking, digg, etiquette, 7 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] The Second Order Network Effect, avc.blogs.com
  • One Facebook app developer is building its own network of Facebook apps and click-sharing WITHIN Facebook. Looks like how blog networks happened, but within Facebook.
  • (facebook, socialsoftware, gaming, 17 saves, 5 inbound links)
• [STARTUPS] Startups Must Hire The Right People And Watch Every Penny. Or Fail., techcrunch.com
  • Some good advice on what is needed for startup success.
  • (startup, business, hiring, 140 saves, 80 inbound links, 15 diggs)
• [STUMBLEUPON] My StumbleUpon Favorites, linklusion.com, via:techipedia.com
  • Tool for taking your bookmarks out of StumbleUpon and making them into bookmarks for your local computer.
  • (stumbleupon, 41 saves, 2 inbound links)
• [STUMBLEUPON] StumbleUpon Alerter, blog.adamant.com.au, via:doshdosh.com
  • Little app for your system tray that monitors your “discoveries” to see how popular they get.
  • (stumbleupon, tools, 28 saves, 10 inbound links, 100 diggs)
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This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• Searching for the Perfect Inline Code Documentation Tool
  • I have an intense love automatic documentation generation. Nothing makes me more tickled pink than seeing code and documentation living side by side in perfect harmony. I hate seeing documentation put on the company intranet only to diverge from the code it’s supposed to explain as the days go…
• Mashing Your MP3 Music Collection with Last.FM
  • One geek itch I’ve been wanting to scratch is to be able to listen to my MP3 collection using the recommendations from Last.FM. I’ve you’ve never heard of Last.FM, it is a music service that lets you listen music as a radio station over the internet. I’ve been using it for a year and…
• Delicious Links – 19 links – tips, google, music, code, blogging

This Week at IDT Labs

IDT Labs is where I announce new software tools I’m working on.

• [TUMBLR] Regular Post Digest of the Last X Days
  • Build a list of the last X regular posts from your Tumblr account in the past Y days. Useful for doing weekly digest posts with Yahoo Pipe Cleaner . Based off of a pipe by romzombie . IDT Labs is a blog for news announcements about software, tools or blog themes created by InternetDuctTape.com .…
• [TUMBLR] Delete your Tumblr with TumblrCleanr 0.0.1
  • There’s one Tumblr feature that’s missing: how do you delete your Tumblr? At some point you might want to destroy all traces of your tumblr (privacy concerns, or you want to use it for something else) and there isn’t an option to do that — other than click the delete button on every…

Tags: blogging, programming, stumbleupon

Delicious Links – 19 links – tips, google, music, code, blogging

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] The Benefits of Keeping a Private Journal, doshdosh.com
  • Brilliant tip and way to keep mindful of your goals.
  • (blogging, 7 saves, 20 inbound links)
• [BLOGGING] What’s it Like to Run a Popular Blog?, skelliewag.org
  • Skelliewag talks about her meteoric success and what’s different about having 3500 readers vs the 100 or so she had just a few short months ago.
  • (blogging, success, tips, 7 saves, 9 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [BOOKS] Inside Google Book Search: Your library, my library, booksearch.blogspot.com
  • You can keep track of the books you’ve read with Google library, and limit your book searches to only the books you’ve already read.
  • (google, library, books, 2 saves, 13 inbound links)
• [CODE] Programmers At Work, programmersatwork.wordpress.com
  • New website about the 1980’s book.
  • (code, 26 saves, 11 inbound links)
• [COMICS] Rampant Plagiarism, mightygodking.com, via:io9.com
  • The rampant plagiarism of the comics industry is revealed!
  • (comics, photoshop, 12 saves, 22 inbound links)
• [FRIENDFEED] 10 Ways to Get More Out of Friendfeed, blogoscoped.com
  • Some quick tips for the new service that everyone’s blogging about.
  • (friendfeed, tips, socialnetworking, 35 saves, 19 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [GMAIL] Gmail Tips and Tricks – 35 Cool Gmail Hacks, botw.org, via:doshdosh.com
  • Yes, we’ve seen a lot of them before. But a good collection.
  • (gmail, tips, lifehacks, 368 saves, 15 inbound links, 67 diggs)
• [GOOGLE] The Real Story: Why ComScore’s Google Clicks are Flat, seoblackhat.com
  • Google Adsense changes are why adclicks are down. Buy Google stock because the market is full of idiots.
  • (google, 11 saves, 26 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [HUMOR] Mobile Desktop, improveverywhere.com, via:codinghorror.com
  • Improv Everywhere brings their desktop computers to Starbucks.
  • (humor, geek, 130 saves, 100 inbound links, 3059 diggs)
• [HUMOR] Stuff White People Like, stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com, via:gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
  • Recursion at its best. White people like Stuff White People Like.
  • (funny, humour, 2364 saves, 100 inbound links, 104 diggs)
• [LASTFM] Build Last.fm: Extend your Last.fm experience, build.last.fm, via:del.icio.us
  • Last.FM is promoting community created tools that use the service.
  • (last.fm, music, tools, mashup, 386 saves, 82 inbound links, 17 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Your Brain Is In 10 Kinds of Trouble, secretgeek.net
  • No solutions, but a discussion of the information overload we’re all experiencing.
  • (productivity, overload, 12 saves, 10 inbound links)
• [MUSIC] The Filter Releases New Version of Music Recommendation Software, readwriteweb.com
  • Playlist generator from your iTunes library
  • (itunes, LastFM, music, mp3, 17 saves, 3 inbound links, 27 diggs)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] FriendFeed Changelog, changelog.friendfeed.com
  • wth? A web app that publishes its new features via it’s version control changelog.Brilliant.
  • (friendfeed, transparency, code, socialsoftware, 16 saves, 8 inbound links)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] This Psychologist Might Outsmart the Math Brains Competing for the Netflix Prize, wired.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Interview with the guy who is building a better recommendation engine using psychology instead of math.
  • (psychology, algorithm, netflix, datamining, 71 saves, 35 inbound links, 7 diggs)
• [SOFTWARE] Rethinking Recommendation Engines, readwriteweb.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Damn good point in this one. The human psychology behind recommendations is what makes recommendations fail. Instead of telling use what we like, just remove what we’re NOT going to like.
  • (recommendations, personalization, 135 saves, 35 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [TWITTER] Nearly a million users, and no spam or trolls, russellbeattie.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • From the article: ” Twitter, however, has almost a million members, a thriving community, lots of discussions and yet doesn’t have spam or troll issues. If you step back for a second and think about it, that’s pretty amazing.”
  • (twitter, community, spam, 80 saves, 51 inbound links)
• [WORDPRESS] Installing WordPress Locally Under Windows XP, geeksaresexy.blogspot.com
  • I don’t know why I never did this before.
  • (wordpress, windows, 361 saves, 92 inbound links, 7 diggs)
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This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• How to Explain RSS to Normal People – 2008 Edition
  • As a geek who enjoys spending too much time on the internet, I like RSS almost as much as delicious toast. As a blogger, RSS is the shiznitz because it lets you consume a lot more information and it makes it easier for other people to read your blog without having to drop by every few days to see if…
• I Can Has Ruby?
  • I have a new tumblelog for ruby stuff.
• How to delete your Tumblr tumblelog with TumblrCleanr
  • There’s one feature missing on Tumblr: how do you delete your Tumblr? At some point you might want to destroy all traces of your tumblr (privacy concerns, or you want to use it for something else) and there isn’t an option to do that — other than click the delete button on every individual…
• Delicious Links – 13 links – programming, lifehacks, productivity, geek, games

This Week at IDT Labs

IDT Labs is where I announce new software tools I’m working on.

• [TUMBLR] Regular Post Digest of the Last X Days
  • Build a list of the last X regular posts from your Tumblr account in the past Y days. Useful for doing weekly digest posts with Yahoo Pipe Cleaner
• [TUMBLR] Delete your Tumblr with TumblrCleanr 0.0.1
  • There’s one Tumblr feature that’s missing: how do you delete your Tumblr? At some point you might want to destroy all traces of your tumblr (privacy concerns, or you want to use it for something else) and there isn’t an option to do that — other than click the delete button on every…

This Week at Ruby, eh?

Ruby, eh? is where I blog/tumble about the Ruby programming language.

• Rake RDocTask with all of the options stubbed out
  • http://pastie.caboo.se/159372  Rake::RDocTask.new(:rdoc) do |rd| # rd.external # run the rdoc process as an external shell # rd.main = “name” # ‘name’ will be the initial page displayed # rd.rdoc_dir = “html” # set the output directory # rd.rdoc_file = [] # List of files…
• Rake: Recursively parse a list of all the requires from a source file
  • There’s probably an easier way to do this. http://pastie.caboo.se/159362  # Recursively parse a list of all the requires from a source file def local_requires(source) results = [] File.open(source,’r’).each_line do |line| if line =~ /require [‘”]([^'”]+)[‘”]/…
• I Can Has RSS?I’ve switched to FeedBurner for RSS support . And set up full feeds, thanks to Alex . (I had no idea that they were turned off!)
• Bulk updating Gem sourcegem install allison Bulk updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org I swear to god that rubyforge is actually a humongous peer to peer network made up from stealing our bandwidth when we do a gem install.
• Rake Tip: force tasks to run based on operating systemhttp://pastie.caboo.se/158812 task :windows_only do raise “Must be run from Windows, not #{RUBY_PLATFORM}” unless RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /mswin/ end task :linux_only do raise “Must be run from Linux, not #{RUBY_PLATFORM}” unless RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /linux/ end
• Rake TipBAD: s.gsub(/.rb$/,’.exe’) GOOD:  File.basename(s).ext(‘exe’)
• Rails: how to delete ActiveRecords to a recycling bin
  • The contenders: acts_as_paranoid – 2005-09-17  Creates a delete_at column and overrides finders to ignore columns with deleted_at set. Last release was 2005-12-20, about 1600 downloads. Around ~100 blog mentions. This guy is using it instead of acts_as_trashable   Reported not working on…
• validates_presence_of and validates_length_of
  • Pick one : validates_presence_of :snausages validates_length_of :snausages, :maximum => 3 OR validates_length_of :snausages, :maximum => 3, :allow_nil => true I broke my app because of not including allow_nil grep validates_length_of app/models/*.rb | grep -v allow_nil // engtech  …

Tags: blogging, code, friendfeed, google, music, tips

I Can Has Ruby?

I seem to have finagled my way into getting to program in Ruby almost full time at work. One day you’re just reading raganwald, labnotes and gilesbowkett and then the next day you’re doing guerrilla adoption of a new language. Obviously, the internet is a gateway drug. I tried out Ruby mainly as a way of increasing my own job satisfaction after I had heard so many good things about it.

So far it’s working.

Because I’m using Ruby for several hours a day, I’ve decided to start up a tumblr account as a link dump for all the things I’m finding out as I’m learning Ruby.

rubeh.tumblr.com

Related Posts

• How to Install the Exception Notifier Plugin with Ruby on Rails
• Getting Started with Ruby on Rails – Week 3 – Testing
• Getting Started With Ruby on Rails – Week 2
• Getting Started With Ruby on Rails – Week 1

Delicious Links – 13 links – programming, lifehacks, productivity, geek, games

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] 10 Reasons Why Bloggers Hate Blogging, geeksaresexy.net, via:chipsquips.com
  • because it’s a beast that never stops being hungry.
  • (blogging, tips, 11 saves, 26 inbound links, 8 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] Comparing Six Ways to Identify Top Blogs in Any Niche, readwriteweb.com, via:twitter.com
  • …and they all suck. How do you find good resources around a niche?
  • (blogs, socialmedia, 355 saves, 67 inbound links, 39 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] Scaling Yourself, chrisbrogan.com, via:problogger.net
  • Some good thoughts on time management when you’re working for yourself / by yourself
  • (lifehacks, productivity, 42 saves, 32 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [EMAIL] How to Stop Checking Email on the Evenings and Weekends, lifehacker.com
  • tips for email management
  • (productivity, email, lifehacks, 263 saves, 61 inbound links, 88 diggs)
• [GAMERS] Criterion Collection: Xbox 360 Games You MUST Own, thegamereviews.com, via:digg.com
  • List of the best Xbox 360 games.
  • (xbox360, games, gamers, 19 saves, 3 inbound links, 930 diggs)
• [GEEK] George Lucas Will Sell Your Dreams For Candy, io9.com
  • Star Wars merchandising that never was. High quality artwork.
  • (geek, starwars, 6 saves, 3 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [MOVIES] 2008 Movie Sequel Guide, geeksofdoom.com, via:digg.com
  • A geek’s guide to the sequels.
  • (2008, movies, 17 saves, 10 inbound links, 927 diggs)
• [MUSIC] Sources For Free & Legal Music, seanpaune.com
  • List of free sites with legal music downloads
  • (music, mp3, 2 saves, 4 inbound links, 11 diggs)
• [REPUTATION] What happened to me and the new girl (or: –The girl who cried Webmaster–), joeydevilla.com, via:weblog.raganwald.com
  • Ugh. Reminder that there are crazy people out there.
  • (psychology, wtf, 17 saves, 12 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [RUBY] Do not learn Ruby, webmat.wordpress.com, via:ruby.reddit.com
  • The downside of embracing Ruby
  • (ruby, programming, humor, 19 saves, 6 inbound links)
• [WEBDESIGN] Internet ’96, msu.edu, via:digg.com
  • A look at major corporate websites in 1996.
  • (internet, history, webdesign, 379 saves, 100 inbound links, 7650 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] Five steps to enlightened expectations, blogs.techrepublic.com.com, via:weblog.raganwald.com
  • How to manage expectations
  • (code, programming, workhacks, 14 saves, 3 inbound links, 4 diggs)
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This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• Delicious Links – 20 links – geek, twitter, sleephacks, design, programming

This Week at IDT Labs

IDT Labs is where I announce new software I’m working on.

• [GREASEMONKEY] The Pirate Bay + Rotten Tomatoes = Crazy Delicious
  This script will create links to Rotten Tomatoes while browsing the Pirate Bay.

Tags: lifehacks, productivity, programming

Delicious Links – 20 links – geek, twitter, sleephacks, design, programming

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [CODE] The Years of Experience Myth, codinghorror.com
  • It’s more important to hire smart people who get things done than masters of the domain
  • (programming, career, development, 177 saves, 53 inbound links, 51 diggs)
• [COMMUNITY] 4 Reasons You Should Encourage, Foster and Harness Dissent on Your Blog, problogger.net
  • Reasons against censoring dissenters
  • (blogging, community, 14 saves, 21 inbound links, 73 diggs)
• [COPYRIGHT] The Pirates Can’t Be Stopped, portfolio.com, via:techcrunch.com
  • An interview with the kid who hacked Media Defender copyright police.
  • (hacking, piracy, filesharing, p2p, 47 saves, 57 inbound links)
• [GEEK] 10 Breeds of PC User Identified and Explained, anywired.com
  • This was great. I’m a bit of 5, 7, and 9 with maybe a dash of 10.
  • (geek, computer, funny, 12 saves, 11 inbound links, 21 diggs)
• [GEEK] George Lucas Will Sell Your Dreams For Candy, io9.com
  • Star Wars merchandising that never was. High quality artwork.
  • (geek, starwars, 6 saves, 2 inbound links, 4 diggs)
• [GOOGLE] How 404 pages work in Google Toolbar Beta 5, mattcutts.com
  • The new Google Toolbar won’t display your custom 404 page if it’s less than 512 bytes long.
  • (google, 404, toolbar, 16 saves, 94 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [HIRING] The Naive Approach to Hiring People, weblog.raganwald.com
  • Really excellent read by raganwald on why interviewing candidates is a Bayesian filtering problem instead of a if-then problem.
  • (hiring, career, programming, 75 saves, 14 inbound links)
• [JAVASCRIPT] XPath Overnight, ejohn.org, via:lazycoder.com
  • XPath is taking over DOM traversal in javascript libraries.
  • (javascript, 17 saves, 14 inbound links)
• [LIFEHACKS] I Was Programmed by Tetris to be a Better Person, io9.com
  • The 7 habits of highly effective form tetris players
  • (gamers, lifehacks, 12 saves, 9 inbound links, 11 diggs)
• [MOVIES] Netflix on the PS3 or Xbox 360 Could Be a Killer App, parislemon.com
  • Much agreement that this is too good to be true. If this happened it would kill the movie industry overnight.
  • (movies, 2 inbound links)
• [PIPES] Our one year anniversary, blog.pipes.yahoo.com
  • Yahoo Pipes is one year old. They have a list of tutorials
  • (pipes, 5 saves, 2 inbound links)
• [PIRACY] Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads, technology.timesonline.co.uk, via:l33t.reddit.com
  • The UK is setting up a “three strikes” rule where pirates could be banned from having internet access.
  • (copyright, piracy, filesharing, 28 saves, 100 inbound links, 22 diggs)
• [SLEEPHACKS] Ask YC : How many hours do you sleep in average ?, news.ycombinator.com
  • Good discussion about sleeping
  • (sleephacks, 5 saves)
• [SLEEPHACKS] Relax Like A Pro: 5 Steps to Hacking Your Sleep, fourhourworkweek.com
  • Some things I haven’t heard before
  • (lifehacks, sleephacks, 423 saves, 51 inbound links, 164 diggs)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] The Complexity of the Web 2.0 World, hq.andrewshuttleworth.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
  • A crazy look at what ubiquitous computing really means.
  • (web2.0, socialnetworking, visualization, 48 saves, 29 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] Dear LazyWeb, dearlazy.com, via:blog.twitter.com
  • A questions and answers interface using Twitter as the backbone
  • (twitter, web2.0, 10 saves, 4 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] Twitter-proxy: Any Interest?, assetbar.wordpress.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
  • A look at why Twitter has such scaling issues.
  • (twitter, architecture, performance, 36 saves, 10 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [URLS] I CAN HAZ dot COM, icanhaz.com, via:lifehacker.com
  • new url shortner
  • (lolcats, tinyurl, tools, 61 saves)
• [WEBDESIGN] 10 Principles Of Effective Web Design, smashingmagazine.com
  • Well researched look at what makes for effective web design
  • (webdesign, design, usability, 2079 saves, 99 inbound links, 1709 diggs)
• [WEBDESIGN] Interface Screencast #1: The WordPress Dashboard, binarybonsai.com, via:wank.wordpress.com
  • Screencast of the (old) WordPress dashboard, and why it sucks. A little on the long side at 30min
  • (wordpress, design, interface, 4 saves, 4 inbound links)
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This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• Digest for December 2007 and January 2008
• Book Review: Halting State by Charles Stross
  • If you’re a programmer/gamer geek and looking for a gripping book that you won’t be able to put down then look no further than Halting State.
• The Canary in the Coal Mine of Open Source Code Re-use
  • Don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s one of those things that’s much easier to say then it is to do, particularly when it comes to programming. Programmers suffer from a horrible mental disease called Not Invented Here Syndrome (it’s in the DSM — check if you don’t believe me). We…
• Book Review: Everyware by Adam Greenfield
  • Adam Greenfield is a designer and one of the guys behind Boxes and Arrows. He’s also the guy who coined the term “moblogging” for blogging from your cellphone. He’s got a knack for inventing terms because “everyware” is such a simpler name than unicomp or “ubiquitous…
• Delicious Links – 20 links – programming, community, development, twitter, lisp
  • programming, community, development, twitter, lisp

This Week at IDT Labs

IDT Labs is where I announce new software I’m working on.

• [GREASEMONKEY] The Pirate Bay + Rotten Tomatoes = Crazy Delicious
  This script will create links to Rotten Tomatoes while browsing the Pirate Bay.

Tags: career, design, filesharing, geek, lifehacks, piracy, programming, sleephacks, twitter, web2.0

Delicious Links – 20 links – programming, community, development, twitter, lisp

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [BLOGGING] Absolute Guide to Losing Readers, raproject.com
  • Things not to do
  • (blogging, community, 3 saves, 39 inbound links)
• [CODE] David Heinemeier Hansson step aside, Paul Graham is next to be voted off the island, weblog.raganwald.com
  • The backlash against the new Arc LISP dialect
  • (rubyonrails, arc, lisp, pg, 17 saves, 4 inbound links)
• [CODE] Let The System Design Itself, gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
  • From the article: ” 1) runs all the tests, 2) contains no duplication, 3) expresses every idea you want to express, 4) minimal number of classes and methods. When you work with these rules, you pay attention only to micro-design matters.”
  • (programming, development, 7 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [CODE] The Programmer’s Food Pyramid, osteele.com, via:labnotes.org
  • Good point. Instead of writing about code, we should be reading code or writing code.
  • (programming, software, code, 59 saves, 16 inbound links, diggs)
• [CODE] can lisp do what perl does easily?, groups.google.no, via:programming.reddit.com
  • Ouch. Stinging roast of Perl.
  • (perl, rant, lisp, 13 saves, 2 inbound links)
• [COPYRIGHT] Better Than Free, kk.org, via:blogs.chron.com
  • From the article: ” The internet is a copy machine.”
  • (business, economics, free, marketing, 1146 saves, 100 inbound links, 30 diggs)
• [DESIGN] 8 Web Design Mistakes That Developers Make, wakeuplater.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • What programmers get wrong when they try their hand at web design. I found myself nodding my head.
  • (webdesign, typography, advice, 1307 saves, 94 inbound links, 2429 diggs)
• [DESIGN] DOs and DON’Ts – Colour, inspirationbit.com
  • advice on choosing colours
  • (color, design, webdev, 25 saves, 38 inbound links, 17 diggs)
• [GAMERS] The Mass Effect, nytimes.com
  • From the article: ” –Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,– she added. –But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.–“
  • (games, amazon, community, 56 inbound links)
• [GEEK] 10 Breeds of PC User Identified and Explained, anywired.com
  • This was great. I’m a bit of 5, 7, and 9 with maybe a dash of 10.
  • (geek, computer, funny, 6 saves, 7 inbound links, 14 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Applying Unix Philosophy to Personal Productivity, lifehacker.com
  • A decent read if only because it’s a good refresher on unix philosophy
  • (productivity, gtd, unix, programming, lifehacks, 269 saves, 29 inbound links, 149 diggs)
• [PHOTOS] 5 Image Resizing Tools to Die For, friedbeef.com
  • Includes the resizer tool for GIMP/web that lets you resize only the non-important parts of images. Coolest resizer ever.
  • (photography, photoshop, gimp, resolutions, 11 saves, 5 inbound links)
• [RSS] Rating Burner, ratingburner.com, via:louisgray.com
  • What are the most popular blogs?
  • (feedburner, ranking, rss, 83 saves, 68 inbound links, 64 diggs)
• [RUBY] reddit for ruby hackers, reddit.com
  • Reddit has a spot just for ruby posts
  • (ruby, reddit, rails, 87 saves, 13 inbound links)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] Nofollow Killed Google Social Graph API 3 Years Ago, andybeard.eu
  • A look at the Google social tools
  • (google, socialsoftware, 4 saves, 26 inbound links, 1 diggs)
• [SOFTWARE] Best Software Tools for the Family Tech Support Guy, killertechtips.com
  • Useful tools for debugging Windows PCs
  • (freeware, tools, software, 33 saves, diggs)
• [TWITTER] Power Twitter by 30 Boxes, 30boxes.com, via:hmmcast.com
  • Firefox extension for adding new features to Twitter
  • (twitter, firefox, extensions, 96 saves, 79 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [TWITTER] When Seth Godin isn’t Seth Godin, problogger.net
  • Interesting look at branding on social media sites. Someone can pretend to be you with negative consequences
  • (twitter, 12 saves, 47 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [WEBDEV] Web Developer’s Field Guide – Your Ultimate Resource, webdevelopersfieldguide.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Ok. That’s a ridiculous list of links. Everything you need to know if you’re doing anything on the web.
  • (development, webdesign, reference, resources, 1816 saves, 96 inbound links, 4 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] Firing on All Cylinders: Productivity Tips for the Knowledge Worker, baron.vc
  • It’s isn’t about getting more done, it’s about distancing yourself from the work so that when it’s time to work you are prepared for it
  • (tips, work, workhacks, 2 saves)
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This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• V-Day Alert
  • This is your friendly neighbourhood geek reminder that Valentine’s Day is only a week away and that now is the time to make restaurant reservations and/or go gift shopping.
• How to Install the Exception Notifier Plugin with Ruby on Rails
  • Exception Notifier is a Rails plugin that will email you when an error occurs in your Rails application with full debugging information. It’s as useful as you can imagine, and running it is the difference between happy users and grumpy users who don’t use your web app because every second…
• Delicious Links – 20 links – blogging, programming, ruby, photography, copyright
  • blogging, copyright, lifehacks, photography, productivity, programming, ruby, rubyonrails

Tags: community, development, lisp, programming, software, twitter, webdesign