Tools
« Previous Entries Next Entries »SplashCast comes to WordPress.com
Friday, March 2nd, 2007 According to sys-con media SplashCast will soon be available to use on WordPress hosted sites, sounds like very Shiny news indeed!
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SplashCast enables anyone to create streaming media 'channels' that combine video, music, photos, narration, text and RSS feeds. These user-generated channels can be played and easily syndicated on any web site, blog, or social network page. When channel owners modify their channel, their content is automatically updated across all the web pages 'tuned' to that channel.I haven't had a chance to try it out myself yet, but you can bet I will be trying it soon!
Sharing with divShare
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 The other day I had planned to write an article about divShare on WordPress, but being unable to get it to work in its Beta format I had to delay my article, but now they have released the full version 1.0 everything seems to be working right, for me anyways.After three days of very productive Beta testing, the DivShare Uploader Plugin for Wordpress is officially moving up to version 1.0. Thanks to everyone who helped out!So what is divShare? This plugin allows you to post your blog images directly from your divShare account or upload an image or file via a new interface on your admin "Write" page, as demonstrated in this capture:
So far it seems to work better than the standard uploader that is provided with the WP install, though I will need to do a little more testing to see how I get on with accessing pictures on my account.
Have you tried divShare? How have you got on with it so far?Clip-clopping around the ‘net
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 In my Google Alerts today I found an interesting article about clipmarks, a social network type site that is also a very useful Blogging tool, see the demo below of a clip from the article that led me to them:
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Weekly(?) life
Saturday, February 24th, 2007 I haven't got around to doing a "week in my life" post for a while now so I thought I would try and correct matters today, and also give the "wp-amazon" plug-in another run out.- Watching: "Rescue Me" Season One            Â
- Listening: Nora Jones CD "Not Too Late"
![Not Too Late [Deluxe Edition]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000MG1ZEM.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V45125447_.jpg)
- Reading: Linda Barnes "Heart Of The World"
Open ID, your Passport to the net?
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
On the heels of the Windows® CardSpace™ general availability launch in Windows Vista™, Microsoft demonstrated momentum with industry partners that are working to apply this technology to help consumers realize a more confident online experience. This includes the announcement of collaboration on use of Windows CardSpace with the OpenID 2.0 specification. Through the support of the WS-Trust-based Windows CardSpace experience, consumers can take advantage of increased security against phishing attacks without adding complexity to their identity management experience. Also at the conference, Wachovia Corp., Arcot Systems Inc. and Corillian Corp. showcased a proof of concept demonstration using Windows CardSpace to deliver a simpler and safer online banking experience for customers.With AOL signing on, Firefox 3.0 promising integrated OpenID support, Yahoo getting in on the act and up-and-coming sites such as Digg, NetVibes and SmugMug signing on it looks as though this one might be here to stay. Some still have worries over the security of the project but most concerns appear to of been addressed, so I went and signed myself up with an account at MyOpenID.com. General Info. Brad Fitzpatrick who kicked off LiveJournal is the original developer of the current system. Simon Willison has posted a Quicktime Video demo of how openID works that you can view here. As a P.S. for those who feel they will miss the opportunity to create all those new accounts in the future, don't despair, go get yourself a Useless Account, which does. . . absolutely nothing! :-)
wp-amazon plugin
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 A little while ago I came across an article on the wp-amazon plugin, though for the life of me I can't remember where. Anyways, I made a mental note to give this one a try at some point as it looked like a very useful tool. What is it good for?Have you ever wanted an easy way to link to a book, movie, or product that’s relevant to what you’re writing about? Typically, this is a pretty cumbersome task—open up a browser, go to Amazon, look for the product you’re interested in, copy the URL, then paste the link to your entry. Not anymore. With WP-Amazon, the Amazon product catalog is available right from WordPress. This plugin will allow you to search Amazon as you compose your post or page entry.Sounded pretty good to me, so I have now added it to my site. Check out the demo video on their page too, it's a surprisingly easy and versatile tool. If you have an associate id with Amazon this can be integrated in the "Options" area of your admin. It is now fully functional for WordPress v 2.1 but there are still other versions available here for those who may have chosen not to upgrade yet, or maybe can't due to some problem with their website host. There is also a Google Group support forum. So, here is my first attempt, and if I can do it, so can you.
Do you use a similar tool on your blog? Do you use it to monetise your site or just to add a feature to your posts?MyBlogLog and Spam-a-lot.
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 Apparently the weekend was a good time for spammers, they hit-up MyBlogLog users big time with an exploit in their set up. According to the MyBlogLog Blog:Saturday evening, a member discovered an exploit where you could send someone a request to join their community as a co-author and then automatically approve the request. In other words, someone (dare I call them a jackass) could force you to be a co-author of their community. I have no idea why they would do this, other than a negligible bump in marketing, but who ever said jackasses made sense?They are introducing several new security features to try and keep things under conrol in future:
- We're going to post an official Terms of Service (ToS) and hold people accountable.
- By default, you now see only message from your own contacts.
- We will include the text of the comment and associated controls (delete,reply, etc) in the alert email.
- We will limit users to only five requests for co-authors a day.
- We will limit users to join 15 communities and add 15 contacts during any day.
- After the first five are complete, we will set up a comment approval system.
About MyBlogLog You probably know a ton about your favorite bloggers - what they think about the subjects they write about, maybe some of their work and life history... you may even know what toothpaste they use. But how much do you know about all the other people who read their blogs? And how much do they know about you? For all this talk of a global conversation throughout the blogosphere, there's a lot to be desired. It's a two-tiered system, with bloggers talking amongst each other and the majority of the readers looking on from the fringes. You may get to call out something from the sidelines by leaving a comment, but things could be so much better. For everyone. MyBlogLog is launching this new Communities service to empower authors and readers to operate at the same level. For the first time, everyone who reads a web site or blog can learn about and engage with one another, and in the process take the conversation to a whole new level. Readers can become friends with other people who read your favorite blogs. See what else they're reading. Check out their MySpace and Friendster profiles and view their Flickr photostreams. Authors can learn more about their readers individually and as a group. What do they like and what are they ignoring? What are they reading elsewhere on the Web? MyBlogLog enables you to take advantage of your existing presence on the Web and ties it into communities of like-minded readers and authors to add context to the conversations in which you take part.You have probably seen their widget around, it's on quite a few blogs these days.
As it seems to be more and more prevalent I thought I would give it a try, see how it works out for a small blog like this one and see if it helps build some relationships around the Blogosphere.
I was very impressed with the founders reactions and the sense of community they have. The plan they have put forward may be a little "stop-gap" for now, but they are prepared to listen to their users and fine tune it as things go on.
In the near future I will add their widget to my side bar, perhaps giving me a chance to find out a little more about some of the people who drop by.
Are you a MyBlogLog user? How have you found their service? What benefits are you gaining?Blogging from your Desktop
Sunday, February 18th, 2007For a while now I have been using the Windows Live Writer as my desktop application for my blog, and overall I have been pretty pleased with it, but these last few days it seems to of developed a bit of a glitch.
I am not certain if this is because of some change in how WordPress works with the 2.1 install or if it's some update in the Live Writer that is causing the problem but so far I have not been able to work out what to do to correct the problem. The simple solution? Switch back to using "BlogDesk", which seems to have no problems with publishing to my site and has let me set up posting images pretty easily.
I recommend this desktop application to all blogger's, though it may not have the looks of "Live Writer" it has a few extra dictionaries that you can add:
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English (US and UK)
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German
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French
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Italian
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Spanish
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Swedish
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Danish
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Croatian
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Czech
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Polish
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Slovenian
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Dutch
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Latin
Another nifty feature is that it allows you to save template posts as well as drafts, so if you have a weekly update or special repeated "Top 10" type post you like to make you can save yourself the hassle of setting it up every time.
Is there a desktop blogging application you would like to recommend?
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