One-click redirection for Blogger Blogspot blogs is now available!
You can now specify a URL to which Blogger will redirect your feed’s traffic. This means you will no longer have subscribers getting your Blogger-hosted feed while others get your FeedBurner feed. Google is starting up the engine to fully integrate Feedburner to Blogger. Way to go. Woo!
More here.
–aj
These rules are the key to speeding up your web pages. They’ve been tested on some of the most popular sites on the Internet and have successfully reduced the response times of those pages by 25-50%.
The key insight behind these best practices is the realization that only 10-20% of the total end-user response time is spent getting the HTML document. You need to focus on the other 80-90% if you want to make your pages noticeably faster. These rules are the best practices for optimizing the way servers and browsers handle that 80-90% of the user experience.
Credits: Steve Sounders
Eskwela.com has launched a fresh new look. The team worked so hard to improve the usability and user-experience of this re-design.
Included in the release were added features like “Assignments” (an all-in-one dashboard), photo feeds, statistics on your network such as your profile stats (who’s viewed me, who’s online, etc.), friends stats (relationship status, gender, who has a job), university bulletin, latest companies, latest members and many many more…
There are also tons of improvements on the site’s backend that are not visible to the end-user so that Eskwela.com 50,000 users will definitely improve the way they navigate and use the site.
Kudos to Jolo, Aldous, Terence and Gzel!
And to the little samurai of Eskwela.com - LJ Regalado.
Songbird according to their site is a desktop Web player, a digital jukebox and Web browser mash-up. Like Winamp, it supports extensions and skins feathers. Like Firefox, it is built from Mozilla, cross-platform and open source.
The great guys that are working on Songbird (a very young media player) have tons of experience on their sleeves. Their previous gigs includes Winamp and the Yahoo! Music Engine.
Songbird beats industry giants Apple iTunes (it has an iTunes media import too) and Microsoft’s Media Player on cross-platform availability. It can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux.
On top of the team’s expertise, their board of advisors are industry heavy-weights (and I’m a fan!):
Aaron Boodman (Greasemonkey), Josh Aas (Mozilla/Firefox), Bart Decrem (Flock Founder).
Some interesting facts about Songbird:
Related Links: The Joy of XUL, XUL Programmer’s Reference
I think I’ve said enough. There are more features that I can write about Songbird here, but I’ll leave that to this page.
More screenshots below:
Enjoy downloading and make it your default media player. It has more to offer than the rest.
Tracking your buzz is really something that is becoming more and more important over and will continue to increase in importance as time goes on. Everything is going social right now and messages fly around the web at a million miles by hour. In order to manage your reputation you need to track the right things, so here’s a list of 10 things that you absolutely need to be monitoring.
1. Company name - Obviously your company name is one of the most important things that you need to monitor. Anytime your company or products are mentioned, you should know. Ex. Google
2. Company URL - It is also important to track your company URL for those times when someone links to your company but doesn’t mention it by name. This happens a lot and is just another way to make sure you are covering all your bases. Ex. Google
3. Public facing figures - Track the names of any key employees in your company that are public facing figures. What is said about these people also reflects on your company and usually when this people are talked about your company is tied in with that. Ex. Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Larry Page.
4. Product names - Track any of your company’s product or service names as well. What are people saying about your products and services? Ex. Gmail, Picasa, Dodgeball
5. Product URLs - For the same reasons that you need to specifically track your company’s URL you should also be tracking your product URLs as well. Ex. Gmail, Picasa, Dodgeball
6. The industry “hang outs” - This includes blogs, message boards, important players, consumer review sites, and anything else that’s related to your industry. Many times the industry feedback, that you can discover from the conversations at these “hang outs” can really help you improve your product or service. It is also a way for you to interactive with your potential and existing customers. Ex. http://searchenginewatch.com, http://seroundtable.com, http://threadwatch.org
7. Employee activity/blogs - Things your employees do online can affect your brand image. If you have employees that blog, it is smart to at least know about their MySpace accounts, Flickr accounts and personal blogs. I am not saying that you should spy on your employees but you do need to monitor these things just in case. It is not considered spying if they already make this stuff public. It might be safe to let your employees know you watch these things. The more well known your employees are the more important this is, many times these employee bloggers turn into company ambassadors. I’ve heard stories before where employers know an employee is quitting before he or she tells them because they blogged about it or put it on MySpace. Ex. http://mattcutts.com/blog, http://bladam.com, http://crazybob.org
8. Conversations - Are you tracking the comments from blog posts that are related to your company name, url, products, or any other buzz? These are great opportunities that allow you to participate in conversations about your company. Tools for tracking comments include Commentful, coComment, and co.mments. Ex. http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/62569.html, http://www.digg.com/software/Google_Talk_Adds_Voice_Mail_File_Sharing, http://www.flickr.com/photos/smash/36648272/
9. Brand image - What is the overall image of your brand. Do people think you’re evil? Or do they love what you’re doing. Ex. http://www.opinmind.com/search.jsp?q=google
10. Competitors - Track everything from 1-9 related to your competitors including; company name, URLs, products, key employees, etc. Everything. You need to be ready to move when any opportunity comes up. Ex. http://www.ysearchblog.com, http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/, http://www.opinmind.com/search.jsp?q=yahoo
Here is a list of a few of the websites / tools that can be used to track your buzz: Technorati, Sphere, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Google Blog Search, Rollyo, TechMeme, OpinMind, Alexa, and Commentful. Any time your company is referenced in any way it is best that you know about it. Track everything.
11. Also monitor images/video, (Edit: Podcasts too! suggests Brian) such as flickr instances of your company, products, and employees. You may be surprised how your brand or products could be treated (think about the kids who raised money for an iPod to then smash it for online video, exploding laptops, and bike locks that get picked by a pen cap).
12. Monitor tags and Social search tools such as Delicious.
13. Monitor Social Voting tools like Digg.com (strong search) and Techmeme.com (which doesn’t have a strong search yet).
14: This is nearly a part-time job for a small company, and nearly a full-time job for a company with large brand equity, or heavy activity. There are several firms that can offer listening services, but use that for reporting only. Train your product teams to learn how to listen, also consider offering forums for customers so you can bring conversations closer.
15: Also consider creating a feedback mechanism that allows customers to post URLs of conversations that they want you to see –why spend all the time searching, when you could also encourage customers, employees to submit links
16: Lastly, create a “Voice of the Customer†log in your intranet, perhaps using a blog, database, or other tool that can track sentiment, instance, and or voice.
17: Consider devoting an individual or team to this. I suspect in the next few years, roles will appear called “Brand Monitor†or “Blogosphere Watcherâ€, It’s not just about ‘reporting’ but more like “real-time monitoring†of the voice of your customer. You can harness this to build better products, services, and be a better company.
18. Self-clipping services like Google or Yahoo alerts for keyword mentions, but also audio and video hits as well…services like PodZinger for example to ascertain conversational audio levels
19. Utilize RSS and aggregators like Bloglines in order to aggregate, integrate and assimilate all relevant incoming and outgoing moments of truth (perceived truth perhaps, or even truthiness according to Rob Stevens)
20. Use wikis like PmWiki to discuss and debate pretty much everything from 1-19 and most importantly attempt to turn all the talk/conversation into walk/action.
21. (ending on 20 would have been so contrived) Repeat steps 1-20 to look outside of your own circle. Evolve the perspective from yourself, through your direct competitive set to your indirect competitive set and ultimately to your aspirational/non-endemic/non-competitive set. This is where you want to follow the leaders so to speak - Apple, Nike, Google or whichever company you admire.
22. Create a PROACTIVE capability/budget in order to QUICKLY execute against everything you’re monitoring - specifically opportunities like Fedex Furniture, Tiger Chipping in on the 16th.
23. Conversely, have a REACTIVE process in place to comprehensively and compellingly respond, especially when you’re on the bumpy receiving end of the stick.
CREDITS:
http://www.jaffejuice.com/ (18-23)
http://www.web-strategist.com/ (11-17)
http://www.pronetadvertising.com/ (1-10)
Relationship experts report that too many couples fail to ask each other critical questions before marrying. Here are a few key ones that couples should consider asking:
1) Have we discussed whether or not to have children, and if the answer is yes, who is going to be the primary care giver?
2) Do we have a clear idea of each other’s financial obligations and goals, and do our ideas about spending and saving mesh?
3) Have we discussed our expectations for how the household will be maintained, and are we in agreement on who will manage the chores?
4) Have we fully disclosed our health histories, both physical and mental?
5) Is my partner affectionate to the degree that I expect?
6) Can we comfortably and openly discuss our sexual needs, preferences and fears?
7) Will there be a television in the bedroom?
Do we truly listen to each other and fairly consider one another’s ideas and complaints?
9) Have we reached a clear understanding of each other’s spiritual beliefs and needs, and have we discussed when and how our children will be exposed to religious/moral education?
10) Do we like and respect each other’s friends?
11) Do we value and respect each other’s parents, and is either of us concerned about whether the parents will interfere with the relationship?
12) What does my family do that annoys you?
13) Are there some things that you and I are NOT prepared to give up in the marriage?
14) If one of us were to be offered a career opportunity in a location far from the other’s family, are we prepared to move?
15) Does each of us feel fully confident in the other’s commitment to the marriage and believe that the bond can survive whatever challenges we may face?
Source: NY Times
ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER
DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT
DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM
THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS
SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME
ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY
ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET’S RECOUNT
MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER
SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z ‘S
A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
I M A DOT IN PLACE
THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE
Found on the net. Nice article on how to maximize Safari’s Support for search fields.
Visit the full details here on Bartelme Design
Other details here
Most of the times I find myself crafting web designs and user interfaces… I think most designers will agree that a good designer will need to take some time to think and analyze the ui/layout and take a crack at it “ALONE”, paper sketch it, make a draft in Adobe Photoshop or any graphic editor, then check to see if its even good. If it’s not, he’ll make changes until he comes up satisfied and say “Hey, this is Ok, this is already good”.
According to a friend, “There should be already a task map and/or sitemap before anything is designed. UI is left to designer or to information architect to decide on.”
That’s the only time he’ll show it to his teammates (prolly a web team comprises of a project manager, developer/designers) confidently that his work is already a good one. The teammates now will have the turn to check/analyze/see if it really does makes it to their likings. There’s a 99.9% possibility that may say that you have to change this, change this to that, and so on and so forth…
The work it taken back to the drawing board to correct/change the team’s suggestions then check if it’s good again, show to team, etc.. etc… Cycle goes on until all are satisfied.
It’s a sad part that most clients/project managers think that dictating the designer on designs/layouts, sitting behind the designer’s back, is the fastest course to go. Well, you are wrong. It does not only limit the creativity of the designer, but also make the designer feel he’s under pressure and that the client/project manager can do a better job…
This is an enlightenment for project managers/clients who has the “can you change this, can you change that” attitude while the designer is still thinking how to lay it out.
Let him be on his own first. When he/she is finished and calls his/her work “good”, then it’s the time you can start saying… “can you change this, can you change that, etc..”
Most of the times I find myself crafting web designs and user
interfaces… I think most designers will agree that a good designer
will need to take some time to think and analyze the ui/layout and take
a crack at it “ALONE”, paper sketch it, make a draft in Adobe Photoshop
or any graphic editor, then check to see if its even good. If it’s not,
he’ll make changes until he comes up satisfied and say “Hey, this is
Ok, this is already good”.
According to a friend, “There should be already a task map and/or sitemap before anything is designed. UI is left to designer or to information architect to decide on.”
That’s
the only time he’ll show it to his teammates (prolly a web team
comprises of a project manager, developer/designers) confidently that
his work is already a good one. The teammates now will have the turn to
check/analyze/see if it really does makes it to their likings. There’s
a 99.9% possibility that may say that you have to change this, change
this to that, and so on and so forth…
The work is taken back
to the drawing board to correct/change the team’s suggestions then
check if it’s good again (hoping), show to team or manager, etc.. etc… Cycle goes on
until all are satisfied (but remember, you will never please anyone).
It’s a sad part that most
clients/project managers think that dictating the designer on
designs/layouts, sitting behind the designer’s back, is the fastest
course to go. Well, you are downright wrong!
This wrong process does not only limit the
creativity of the designer, but also make “this” designer feel he’s under
pressure and that the client/project manager can do a better job…
This
is an enlightenment for project managers/clients who has the “can you
change this, can you change that” attitude while the designer is still
thinking how to lay it out.
Let him be on his “own” first. Give him the “AlONE” space. When
he/she is finished and calls his/her work “good”, then it’s the time
you can start saying… “can you change this, can you change that…“
