Archive for October, 2007

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Entry-Level Wacom Tablet

In Productivity,Technology on Oct 31 by jason Tagged:

One of the best technology gadgets I’ve ever purchased is my Wacom Tablet. With up to 8 (okay 12) hours a day on the computer, a stylus and tablet provide for more productive, injury-free computing. Although it comes with a mouse, I use the stylus and ExpressKeys for just about everything. Not ready to spend the $300+ to get one? Check out the new entry-level options.

Unless you’re doing professional graphics work, you probably won’t need an Intuos3 Wacom Tablet. I used to recommend the Graphire line to people, but even that has a steep price point. Enter the Bamboo.

For less than the cost of 2 weeks of lattés, you can get the Bamboo with:

  • Precision desktop control
  • Handwriting recognition
  • Increased workflow efficiency

Do you need color coordination? Check out the Bamboo Fun. They’re available in black, white, silver, and blue. How’s about wireless? Check out the Bluetooth Graphire Tablet.

Do you use a tablet? Ever consider using one? Share your thoughts!

Source: Popgadget

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Free dotMac: notMac

In Technology on Oct 26 by jason Tagged:

Mac users who are enticed by the syncing solution provided through .mac, Apple’s commercial webspace, email, and file storage solution, now have a free alternative. Say, “Welcome” to notMac. notMac, a product of the notMac Challenge, was recently introduced as a free, opensource alternative.

If you’re not willing to pay $100 to fix corruptions issues, try notMac out and let us know how it works for you. Apparently there are plans to create a cross-server solution that will also work with non-Mac web servers.

Check it out here: notMac.

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Want More Comments?

In Blogging on Oct 16 by jason

During my recent switch, I decided not to import comments. The main reason? It was easier not to. I don’t regret it, but now my posts look less lively. So I need more! For business blogs, even old comments are important. They increase authority and can provide a bit of an ego boast if you’re looking for one.

So how can you encourage people to comment more? Here are a few tips:

How are people encouraged to comment on your blog?

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Favicon on Blogger

In Blogging on Oct 15 by jason Tagged: , ,

Favicons are those little icons in the Address bar and next to your Favorites. When I migrated to Blogger, I lost my custom favicon and inherited the default, orange “B.” To restore it to my original “j.u” favicon, I performed some first-grade slight-of-hand trickery (It’s really easy).

  1. Choose a favicon host.Although possible, Blogger doesn’t make it easy to upload non-post files. To get your favicon online, you need to sign up with an image host. I chose ImageShack since I had a few things on there already. Others you could use include Photobucket or even GooglePages.
  2. Create my favicon.If you’re creating your own, simply create a 16 x 16 pixel image. You can save it as a GIF or PNG. They should both work.I already had a favicon, although it was in .ico format. When I was on my own server, that was fine, and correct. ImageShack, however, doesn’t allow the uploading of .ico files. I had to convert my file to a standard image format. I chose PNG.
  3. Upload my faviconI uploaded my favicon. Imageshack gave me a few choices of code to use to display my favicon. I copied the “direct” URL and pasted it in the next step.
  4. Add favicon to templateOnce my favicon was online (it took less than 4 minutes), I inserted the appropriate HTML into my Blogger template.<link href="URL_TO_YOUR_FAVICON" rel="shortcut icon">

The whole process took less that 10 minutes, and almost less than 5. If you’re ready to dump that orange B for a spiffy new icon that better represents your blog, the four steps are all you need. If you need help with any of the steps, feel free to leave a comment.Update: If you’re getting some kind of parse error in Blogger, it’s probably looking for a closing tag. Try this code instead (note the added slash toward the end). <link href=”URL_TO_YOUR_FAVICON” rel=”shortcut icon” /> 

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Blogger Migration 404

In Blogging on Oct 12 by jason Tagged: , ,

With the migration to Blogger from WordPress, the most effort is going into dealing with post path differences. These differences will cause 404 (missing file) errors if not dealt with correctly. I wanted to be sure that people looking for my older WordPress posts would be appropriately redirected to the correct Blogger address.

My WordPress paths had this structure:
http://jason.ungos.com/2007/09/27/blog-downgrade/

On Blogger, the same post looks like this:
http://jason.ungos.com/2007/09/blog-downgrade.html

Here’s how I’m doing it.

  1. Setup a missing files host.
  2. Redirect visitor to new Blogger path.

Blogger Missing Files Host
The missing files host option was probably created to deal mostly with broken images or downloadable documents. I’ve expanded its use a bit by creating a custom 404 page that has some redirecting functionality.

The custom 404 page is a PHP script that:

  • Checks the URI
  • Determines what kind of document is being requested (post, tag search, etc.)
  • Semi-intelligently determines the new URI, and
  • Redirects the visitor.

Here’s what I have so far:

It’s neither elegant nor robust, but it achieves my main goal of dealing with old post links. I plan to develop this a little more to accommodate changed page names, broken images, and feeds.

Anything else I should add?

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