Archive for September, 2007
How I Dropped Outlook Like a Bad Habit
Posted on September 26, 2007, under Email, How To, Software, Tools and Services.
I have had a couple questions lately on how I handle all of my emails, so here goes:
Like many out there I have used Outlook for the longest time, longer than I can remember actually. I had a huge PST file with emails dating back to college. When I got a PDA for work purposes, all of a sudden having my email in one place on my desktop did not work unless I wanted to setup an Exchange server. It has always upset me that Outlook does not support IMAP completely, and they have made it difficult to use; so this wasn’t an alternative. I had fears about giving up control of my mail server, which I have always chosen to run myself. Lastly, how was I going to sync up my calendar? After testing many setups, this is how I dropped Outlook like a bad habit.
Let Go of Mail Server Control:
I always ran my own mail server because I didn’t have to worry about spam signatures being attached to my emails, running out of storage space, or any of that other crap. GMail came along and changed the game with Google Apps, and Yahoo has been ramping up it’s offerings as well. I needed my email in a central place where any of my devices could hit it. An Exchange server was too pricey and with it came support problems, and any other software was just going to be something else I would have to set time aside to get up and running and keep running. I finally let go control of running my own mail server, and haven’t looked back since. Gmail is fast, works with my domain, has plenty of storage, improves it’s services without me having to upgrade anything, requires no time investment from me, has a mobile portal, and just keeps getting better.
Got Used To Using WebMail:
It was hard to get used to using a webmail client as my only email client. Especially with GMail which uses tags instead of folders. Breaking out of the mentality that my email is here, I can physically handle it, and it’s mine proved difficult and I almost reverted at several points.
Mail Notification:
With a webmail client, unless you want to keep it open all the time, you need to know when you have new mail so you can stay on top of it. I found a little gem by a company called MassGrid called GAlert. I paid a hefty $20 for this little shareware application, which sits in the system tray and lets you know when you have new mail for more than one GMail account. This was actually a hard application to find, yes there are a lot of GMail notification tools out there but not that many work with Google Apps and even less that work well.
On The Road:
As mentioned before, GMail has a slick mobile interface which is easy to use; just point toward your regular login and Google knows you are coming from a mobile device. Calendar was the next problem. Right now there are limited API’s available for GMail and Google Calendar, so it was also a task trying to find a way to synchronize my mobile calendar with Google Calendar. GooSync does just that. A little application downloads to your Mobile device, and lets you sync with the mobile calendar. They have both a free and paid service. Perfect!
Conclusion:
I haven’t been happier. In the process I dropped having to invest time in running a mail server and manage my mail and calendar, made myself more mobile and able to grab my data anywhere, and dropped ActiveSync which is a blessing of it’s own.
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Web Developer Tools Round Up
Posted on September 24, 2007, under Browsers, Development, Tools and Services, Web Design, WordPress.
I recently had to wipe a computer and get it up from scratch. In the process I realized that there are a series of tools I can not live without. This process also helped me realize how many tools I rely on and make a web developer’s life so much easier. Here is the run down of my “must have” tools.
- Firebug
- YSlow for Firebug
- Litmus
- Live HTTP Headers
- Screengrab!
- User Agent Switch
- Web Developer
- DOM Inspector
- Aardvark
- UltraEdit
- UltraCompare
Have any “must have tools” not on my list.
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Why the NBC Announcement Hurts Us All
Posted on September 20, 2007, under Media, Software, Tools and Services.
Yup, we all knew it was coming the second NBC announced it was pulling its shows from iTunes. NBC just announced it’s new service, and everyone is talking… even the fake Steve Jobs. Bottom line is it looks like another DRM’d sucktastic proprietary service. Shows are free for the first seven days, must be played on special player, no Mac client (yet), no iPod or other media device support, it’s everything we knew was coming. While everyone is focusing on this, that, and the other thing: think about who this really hurts… Us! The consumer!
Yup, that’s right, this is a HUGE step back in digital media. Why? Because it’s not going to work. If someone has to have an NBC account, ABC account, CBS account, and the same amount of authorized players, and can’t watch the show on any other medium than their computer… are people actually going to use it? No, probably not. Which means the average consumer, non-geeks, are just going to watch it on television… which is exactly what the media companies want. They do not want change! They want to make sure you are watching shows, at the scheduled broadcast time, unable to rewind or fast forward, and heavens-for-bid skip over that really annoying commercial you have seen a zillion times, or even rewind to see that commercial you can’t get enough of; because it works for them. They do not have to change a thing, and continue to rake in the steady stream of money that they have become to enjoy. They are even lobbying Washington to make sure the Government guarantees that they continue to dominate the market.
So bottom line is we lose! It’s not going to work, and it’s going to be much easier for someone to just watch it on TV; and that sucks!
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All the Right Reasons Microsoft Should Be Worried
Posted on September 18, 2007, under Email, Software, Tools and Services.
Mint just launched its new online money management service at TechCrunch40 this week. I was part of the beta and it is nice! Also this week Google unveiled it’s PowerPoint Competitor. This puts two more thorns in the side of Microsoft, because you can now not only replace Microsoft Office, but you can do it with online services, and best of all you can do it for free.
Microsoft Word: Google Docs, Zoho Writer
Microsoft Excel: Google Docs, Zoho Sheet
Microsoft Power Point: Google Docs, Zoho Show
Microsoft Outlook: Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Zimbra (recently acquired by Yahoo), Zoho Mail
Microsoft is one of those companies that needs to compete in every market, and can’t just sit anything out. With the exit of Bill Gates coming up quickly one has to wonder what, if any, change will come to Microsoft. Meanwhile as Microsoft readies its answers to all of these new services, we sit and wait for Vista SP1.
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Time For Thunderbird to Grow Up
Posted on September 18, 2007, under Browsers, Email, Software, Tools and Services.
The Mozilla Corporation is going to spin Thunderbird out into it’s own company, and fund it with $3 million. This is great news, and with the recent news of Yahoo acquiring Zimbra, means more exciting things are coming for email.
Thunderbird has been real slow to release features that could have made it a true Outlook killer. With it spinning off into it’s own company it will now get the focus, dedication, and funding that it has always needed. There are loads of opportunity here in the form of partnerships with GMail, or Yahoo, but probably not Hotmail. There has also been rumors of a new GMail desktop client which may lead to a long awaited API to GMail. Things are definitely still evolving in the email space, even with all of the new Twitters and IM services popping up.
On another note pulled from the article, it was interesting to hear Mitchell Baker, chair of Mozilla Foundation, being quoted in saying “There have been very public complaints about bloat coming back to Firefox and lack of innovation”. It’s good to know that the Mozilla Foundation knows when it’s been spreading itself too thin, and can be flexible enough to fix itself; unlike some other companies.
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This is Why I Will Not Be Adding BlogRush to Code and Coffee…
Posted on September 18, 2007, under Blogging, Tools and Services, WordPress.
There has been a lot of press lately around the new BlogRush service, which is by no means a new idea. It basically is your typical social networking pyramid scheme service. You have a little widget that you put in your website’s sidebar, that syndicates stories from other blogs in your related category. The more people you refer the more of your blog postings get syndicated on other blogs.
Like the Web enthusiasts I am, I signed up. Code and Coffee is in need of a design refresh, and I have been thinking about removing the MyBlogLog widget in the sidebar to help with page load times and just because it does not actually seem to be doing much for Code and Coffee anymore; the buzz is over. With all of this I was hesitant to add this new BlogRush service to my site. In visiting another technology website tonight I found that my concerns were valid. Here is a screen shot from the site of the BlogRush service:
In case you can’t see what I am talking about, two of the five links above are to websites that contain content that I would not directly link to myself: “adult content” and “spam”. Sure, I can hear you say… “Yeah it’s just two links, and the service is still new.” Yup it is just two links, but that’s two too many. And the service is still new, but if that can’t stop the gaming now; how will they later on when they have twice as many users and twice as many gamers? MyBlogLog was really quick to respond to spammers on their system, even pre-Yahoo acquisition.
Just proof that all of these new services should always be tested on a sand boxed blog before bringing them to your bread and butter.
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Alternatives to iTunes as a Podcatcher
Posted on September 14, 2007, under Podcasts, Software.
I have had a love hate relationship with iTunes through out its existence. Recently after deciding to go back to iTunes, because surprise it works best with the iPod, I have decided to drop it as a Podcatcher. iTunes for Windows is not as stable as it is on the Mac. I have some 30+ podcasts that I am subscribed to, and on a daily basis when it’s time to download new episodes iTunes locks up. No it’s not the computer, no it’s not my hard drive; I have determined that it is the simple fact that iTunes does not multi thread well on windows. When it is doing intensive downloads, it is just outright not responsive. I contribute part of the problem to the lack of options that iTunes allows you to set for downloading media.
So I have set out to find a better alternative to downloading my podcasts. Here is what I am now using:
- PodNova: I have had a PodNova account from way back when the podcasting boom was happening; you know back when Odeo and others were getting love. They have done a lot with the user interface, and it now serves up a lot of AJAX goodness to make finding and subscribing to podcasts easy. With PodNova, you can take your personalized OPML feed and use it in a Podcatcher to always have an up to date list of your subscriptions.
- Juice: An excellent open source and cross platform Podcatcher. It has all the right features: The ability to tweak download threads, the ability to import directly into iTunes as well as other media players, ID3 tagging, etc. A perfect match.
You can get this up and running in under 10 minutes. Juice has direct support for PodNova and any OPML feed. I have been looking at Google Reader as an alternative as well, but they do not handle all video Podcasts; with the codecs and all.
I am hoping this works out, if you have any other good alternatives i am open for suggestions.
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Interesting Website of the Day
Posted on September 13, 2007, under Miscellaneous.
A buddy of mine pointed me to this site, at first I thought it was just another all flash media site representing a media company. As reading through some of the literature I realized that it was a little bit more, and one of the most unique websites I have been to in a while. Check it out.
For those non-geeks, FF0000 is the hexidecimal code for red, hence the name: Red Interactive Agency. Another unique spin on things.
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Tips For Updating WordPress
Posted on September 12, 2007, under Blogging, How To, WordPress.
WordPress has made it fairly simple to update to a new version, but there are some little quirks that come along with it. Here are a couple of tips I have implemented over the years for a smooth upgrade path.
Your Do Not Need To Be The First:
Unless you are doing a review or enjoy being the guinea pig, never be the first to upgrade. I usually give a new release about a week to see what, if any, troubles come up in the headlines. Sometimes a security flaw is found right out of the gate, and WordPress will release a fix. If you wait a week you do not have to deploy this fix, because it will be included in the most recent download.
Use a Sandbox Environment:
This is a lot more feasible these days, with hosting providers allowing more than one domain or even subdomains. You can easily replicate a WordPress deployment and database to make a sandbox environment of your blog or website. Deploying an upgrade to a sandbox install will give you a chance to solve any problems before taking your blog down for an upgrade.
Check Your Plug ins:
Much like Firefox, some of your plug ins might not be compatible with a new version of WordPress. You should check with every plug in to see if there is a new version available that has been tested with the version of WordPress you are upgrading to. Any problems with your plug ins can be found in your sandbox installation noted above. If you have problems with a particular plug in, most authors are quick to release a new version; or you might have to wait a little longer to deploy the WordPress upgrade.
Backup, Backup, Backup:
I will never hold back on how important backups are with any data. Your Blog is not different. Right before you are about to do an upgrade to WordPress, make a backup copy of all WordPress files and your database. Even if you are doing automatic backups to your web server, which you should, if you need to rollback for any reason you want to roll back to the point right before the upgrade.
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Let’s Block Firefox, That’s a Great Idea!
Posted on September 11, 2007, under Browsers, Development, Tools and Services.
So Chris Soghoian today is reporting that there is a face off between the makers of Adblock Plus, the very popular Firefox extension, and an “obscure” web designer Danny Carlton. Danny was unable to pick out which visitors were using the Adblock Plus Firefox extention, so he just decided to go ahead and block Firefox all together. He even has an anti Adblock Plus campaign going on. If you try to go to his blog in Firefox you instead go here. This kind of blanket decision reminds me so much of the decisions that are happening with DRM, and net neutrality. Let’s take a look at why this is a horrible idea:
- Not every Firefox user is an Ad Blocker. So now you are not only forbidding uses to your site, you are also pissing them off.
- You are a web designer, you are suppose to be following and promoting standards. What does this say to your customers?
- You are forcing users to use a less secure browser just to view your site.
- If you are really worried about losing revenue, combat it in other ways:
- Make a membership fee
- Put all of your images and CSS at the root domain. So if they block www.domain.com with Adblock Plus they will block everything and then it’s their own choice to block your site.
The list goes on, but I really do not feel like getting involved I was just shocked to hear that this a practice that is being promoted with his campaign. My Dad always said “Doors and Windows are to protect you from honest people.” Does that means we should start creating houses that are just cubes? Seriously! Software piracy is huge amongst the Windows shareware community. Should I just forbid people from installing my application on Windows?
It’s an age old lesson: You are going to spend more time and money than it is worth trying to beat the bad guys, and in turn you are only going to piss off and drive away your customers. And at the end of the day… it’s all about the customers.
