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.

How to Unminify Javascript Code

As websites have moved away from static pages to interactive updating displays, the modern Greasemonkey hacker has been forced to learn new tricks: namely interacting with the Javascript on a website. Sometimes that’s harder than it looks because the Javascript on the site you want to modify has been minified.

Really Simple Syndication

What is RSS and what can it do for you?

Competition

When we look at technology we use everyday, the great success stories all have one thing in common: competition. They all achieved their success despite healthy competition, or perhaps because of it.

Fixing the WordPress.com Possibly Related Feature

You might want to skip this post if you aren’t hosted on WordPress.com.

You may have heard talks about how “Related Posts” was going to become an integrated feature in the WordPress core. Last friday they released a feature called “Possibly Related”. They use Sphere.com’s technology to analyze what posts are related to the current post and add links to the bottom of it. Doesn’t sound bad, right? Wait for it…

For WordPress Multiuser (like WordPress.com) they’re including links to other “related” posts by other people.

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)

What Have You Done For You Lately?

For Earth Day this year I decided I was going to try to make a real change by commuting to work under my own power instead of using my car. I’ve been riding a wave of endorphin high as my body goes through the shock of experiencing exercise again for the first time in a long while. I can feel the winter doldrums lifting [1], and I asked myself: when was the last time I did something that makes a positive change in my life?

Lifestreaming 101 – Don’t Cross the Streams

History has a tendency to repeat itself, mostly because the inventors weren’t old enough to have been around the first time. Having a blog is the same as having a BBS twenty years earlier; using Twitter is the same as using IRC. Of course there are differences [1], but progress is built on the shoulders of giants.

Like how 2007 was the year of microblogging, 2008 is the year of lifestreaming. People are becoming more comfortable with the idea after learning to swim in Facebook’s pond [2], and they’re ready to start swimming into the raging rivers of the public Internet. But before these neophyte tadpoles start eating flies, there’s one thing they need to learn:

Don’t cross the streams.

How to Import Your Twitter Contacts to Friend Feed

I’ve commented before that Friend Feed makes for a really sweet Twitter client because of the way it threads replies and how easy it is to reply to another user. The only problem is trying to find all of your Twitter contacts on Friend Feed.

I’ve written a program that uses Google’s social graph to find the links between Twitter users and Friend Feed users. Download the program, run it, enter your passwords and watch it find and subscribe to all of your Tweeps on Friend Feed.

It keeps track of who it has added over time. If you unsubscribe from someone using the web interface, they won’t be added again by the program.

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)

Who Moved My Cheese? The New WordPress Admin Interface

Two of my blogging heroes and inspiration Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky have joined together on a new venture called StackOverflow: overflowing with awesomeness. They are also doing a weekly podcast, and you can download the first 45 minute podcast here (8 MB). In the discussion, Joel makes a great comment: Windows Vista gives you change without giving you any value. As a Windows XP user there is no compelling reason to upgrade because you’re going to have to relearn where everything is, but you don’t get any new and compelling features or applications to offset that.

Put a Copyright Notice in Your RSS Feed

As a blogger, your content is going to end up being stolen and republished on the Internet. It’s a fact of life, there’s nothing you can do about it.

One thing you can do however is put a copyright notice in your RSS feed with FeedBurner. (FeedBurner is the Google’s RSS publishing service).

Delete It – Tips for Managing Information Overload

We’re deep into the beginning of the Information Age, as you can see from the propagation of information aggregators like Google Reader and the meta-aggregators like Friend Feed. There’s only one tip for handling information saturation that has any success: delete it.

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)

Friend Feed Scripts: Unsubscribe, Who Are You and Better By Service

It’s another week which means I have more Friend Feed scripts to share with you all.

Speed Up Outlook Express

I was investigation my dad’s computer trying to find out why it was so slow. There was the usual culprit of Norton Antivirus and Outlook Express. There’s nothing I can do about Norton, but he’s been using Outlook Express since 1998 and his mail folder is a whopping 5.8 GB. It’s time to perform my sonly duty and try to fix his slow computer, even though I haven’t used Outlook Express in the past ten years.

I’ll walk you through how I do it…

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)

Battery Charged or Not

The problem: It’s 3am and the wireless mouse has run out of juice. Scrounging through the battery drawer shows 13 double-A’s, but none of them have a charge. Maybe they were charged at some point, but rechargeable batteries don’t hold their charge if they aren’t being used.

All rechargeable battery manufacturers love to boast about their product’s current capacity (mAh). But there is a dirty little secret that they don’t want you to hear: self-discharge rate. Simply put: a fully charged NiCd of NiMH cell will gradually lose its stored energy over time. Technical papers I have researched typically put the self-discharge rate at 10-20% per month for NiCd cells, and 20-30% per month for NiMH cells. This kind of self-discharge rate is usually acceptable in applications such as digital cameras. via: Jeff

The solution: A social website for keeping track of:

• how many batteries you have charged
• which brands you use
• which devices used charged batteries
• when you last changed the batteries
• Collect stats will recommend the best batteries available in your area
• Monetized by referrer micropayments from all the battery sales

It can even have a local component for finding people who have the same interest in rechargeable batteries as you!

Controlling Your Privacy

Today I tried out a new service by one of the smartest guys I know, Michael Geist. It’s called iOptOut and it’s a gateway for Canadians to voluntarily put themselves on do-not-call lists *before* the company contacts you, as well as giving you a legal recourse for when they call you anyways (those bastards). Within hours of signing up for the service I got 8 calls from 1-480-543-1171. Spooky coincidence.

Customer service representative indicated they worked for Fido. Trying to acquire different identification information, such as passport, drivers license, citizenship number, SIN number. Agent was rude the whole time and started asking if any of the information was fake.

They had the nerve to call us back again. Fido has confirmed they are not legitimate for selling Fido phone service. Ottawa Police (Canada) are now launching a fraud investigation. – Jeremy

(1-800 Notes is a great site for looking up the telemarketers before you give them any information — I’m glad I did)

Presenting: Livejournal Theme for WordPress

You know the story. You’ve been using LiveJournal since 1999. It’s your home. You’re familiar with it. You’re on the list of notable LiveJournal users. But times they be a changin’. You’re friends are all leaving LiveJournal for WordPress because it’s a better C-M-S (whatever that is). You’ve switched to WordPress, but everything looks strange and confusing.

Don’t worry, as usual engtech has your back.