weather widgets

Barack Obama's $3 Million 'Overhead Projector' Actually Pretty Cool [Gadget Politics]

2008-10-09T17:56:00.019-07:00

Barack Obama's $3 Million 'Overhead Projector' Actually Pretty Cool [Gadget Politics]
During the last Presidential debate, John McCain delivered this line about his opponent with withering contempt: [Obama] voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects,...

TCP Connections

2008-10-09T17:56:00.017-07:00

A Widget to monitor TCP connections, used in Internet communications. The Widget can speak connection changes and culmulative values are available in a tooltip. Double-clicking produces a detailed netstat report of connections. Appearance and function are configurable. Performance optimized with COM/WMI (Windows). read more

FeedBurner feed count drop

2008-10-09T17:56:00.015-07:00

You may have noticed on Saturday (3rd November) that you FeedBurner feed counter was reporting a much lower level of subscribers to your blog. Here at Newsniche the counter dropped by nearly a hundred subscribers.

FeedBurner blame Google for the glitch as the Google feedfetcher bot had gone out on Friday night and was up late Saturday. This was probably due to drinking too much GoogleJuice the night before, those bots can't hold their drink. As a result none of the Google Reader subscribers were reported in the stats for Saturday.

Google Feedfetcher drops ball

At the time like me you may have worried even panicked when you saw a massive drop in subscriber numbers. If you have more than one blog then you would have figured out the drop was across the board and due to some glitch.

These sorts of glitches although usually temporary can cause a webmaster a lot of unnecessary stress. These things happen, my advice is don't hit the panic button, do a little investigating then report it if needed. More often than not these things are temporary. I have learned by experience if you do too much tinkering thinking it's something you have done you end up making things worse. All you need to do now is explain to your advertisers why your stats dropped.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

Football widgets are in season!

2008-10-09T17:56:00.013-07:00

Football widgets are in season!
With football season fast approaching, now is the best time to put the spotlight on our Sports Scoreboard widget and the NFL Gametrax widget. These two widgets are quite possibly the best sports focused widgets ever built. At least that's what our moms say ;-)

The Gametrax widget pulls in all the currently playing games for the NFL and displays them complete with play by play action and game leaders! (can you say fantasy?)

That's a live Gametrax widget to the left, clicking on the "game" tab will show you the play by play action if there is a game currently being played.

Our Scoreboard widget pulls in a complete list of all games playing complete with live scores for the NFL (excluding preseason), MLB, NBA, NHL, College Football and College Basketball leagues.

The great thing about the Scoreboard widget is that it can be dynamically sized. It will drop down as small as 160 pixels wide so that it will fit on most blog sidebars. If you have a sports blog, this is really the best way to share scores with your readers.

The scoreboard widget set to 160 pixels wide for blog sidebar placement. You can also set the default league shown to be MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, CBK or CFB

Each league in the scoreboard gets yesterday's, tomorrow's and today's games in a tabbed format and you can set the initial display of the widget to default to any of those tabs for any league when the widget first loads.

In the yesterday tab, the final game scores along with a win/loss indicator on each team shows you quickly who was on top. Tomorrow's tab shows the game time and teams playing so that you can better plan which sports bar to visit to watch the most games at once, and the today tab shows off live in game scores on all games in the list complete with some in game leader information.

Now for the really cool info... For those of you who have our desktop application installed, the scoreboard widget really begins to shine after you download it.

Flip to the preference panel in the desktop sports Scoreboard widget and enable "docking" and you'll be able to drag the widget to the sidebar for all day sports tracking ability even when your work apps are open.

Take a few minutes and play with the widgets and feel free to use them for your desktop, blog or social network profile. If you think our moms are right and these are the best sports widgets that have ever been built, let us know.

If you are interested in more sports related widgets, search the gallery for sports. So far we have 109 sports related widgets that have been created ranging everywhere from Ask Men's Health and Sports News to the Worland Middle School Sports Schedule.

-Don

click the thumbnail to see what the Scoreboard looks like when docked on your desktop.

Cartoons 1.0

2008-10-09T17:56:00.011-07:00

Enjoy permanently refreshed cartoons and illustrations of world’s largest user-generated cartoon platform toonpool.com.

About Cartoons
Do you like cartoons, humorous drawings and caricatures? Then download this gadget and get permanently refreshed cartoons and illustrations of world’s largest user-generated cartoon platform toonpool.com. Watch the latest, top rated or random cartoons in a slideshow or view your favorite artist. You can display them as tiny thumbs or in full size. Every cartoon is providing a link to the respective page on toonpool.com.

Twitter Tweets

2008-10-09T17:56:00.009-07:00

Twitter Tweets
21:14 Blogging & WordPress Twitter Tweets: 21:21 Blogging & WordPress Twitter Twee.. tinyurl.com/4dabdm # Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter Posted in Blogging Tips

21:14 Blogging & WordPress Twitter Tweets:
21:21 Blogging & WordPress Twitter Twee.. tinyurl.com/4dabdm #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Posted in Blogging Tips��

Spiderman gets on the Express train.

2008-10-09T17:56:00.007-07:00

Get this widget!

Sony Pictures decided to put out an express widget for the upcoming Spiderman 3 movie.

Being a long time comic book collector, I can completely understand the excitement surrounding this film and am looking forward to seeing this one on the big screen at the local Imax probably more than any of you are.

While you are waiting through the last few days prior to the release, be sure to grab this widget and follow the news leading up to the opening weekend.

Remember, "With great power comes great responsibility!"

Of course, this Spiderman widget is so cool, I had to mash one up myself! as did EJRavin, another of our ExpressWidgets users. Good job EJ! read more

New Features - More Customization of the Button

2008-10-09T17:56:00.005-07:00

Well, it’s 2008. Hope you all got a chance to try the new features we added last month to your analytics interface. We already received some great feedback. We’ve been busy preparing to move to our new platform. This new platform will enable AddThis to scale more easily and provide additional powerful capabilities to the service. [...]

Well, it’s 2008. Hope you all got a chance to try the new features we added last month to your analytics interface. We already received some great feedback.

We’ve been busy preparing to move to our new platform. This new platform will enable AddThis to scale more easily and provide additional powerful capabilities to the service. We have now reached the milestone of 100 Million buttons served per day, so it was time to move again. The move will happen next week, the transition will be completely transparent.

We have also been busy coding new features for the button (widget). Many of you have asked us for more ways to customize the button, as well as for an email function. We listened…so here are the latest enhancements. Thank for your continuous feedback!

Button customization - You now have full control over the customization of the the button image, text, and style. We essentially moved the button image and link outside of the javascript, so you can now change the image, text, or style of the button as much as you want, and very easily.

Service options customization - You can now customize the list of service options that appear in the dropdown (e.g. Del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, etc). You can even remove the “More” choice completely, if you only want to provide access to the most popular services.

Dropdown positioning - We also added the ability to re-position the dropdown vertically or horizontally, if needed.

Email a Friend - We have added a new service option: Email. So when selecting your options for the dropdown, you can now include the keyword ‘email’. When the user clicks on ‘Email’, the dropdown will transform itself into a tiny form to send an email notification to a friend.

>> Here is the documentation for the new features <<

Happy Customizing!

3 things you really want to know about RSS

2008-10-09T17:56:00.003-07:00

3 things you really want to know about RSS

I have been doing some digging into the statistics for Newsniche to try and discover what you are really interested in when it comes to RSS. So I have come up with the imaginatively titled 3 things you really want to know about RSS. So here are the most wanted to know things about RSS in reverse order.

RSS publishing tools

The third most popular topic is on RSS publishing tools. Rather than an article this is a section of the site dedicated to letting you know how you can publish RSS on your site. Being able to publish RSS on your site means that you have a constant stream of updating content for your readers.

Which is the best RSS feed reader

The second most popular item on the site is an article on Which is the best RSS feed reader. You certainly want to know which is the best way to read your feeds. This is not surprising as RSS is all about being able to have information from your favourite sites available to you without having to visit every you like frequently. Why not subscribe to their feed and have the content come to you.

Using Javascript to display RSS

I guess deep down everyone wants to display RSS using Javascript as the number one most read article is Using Javascript to display RSS. This is an article I wrote ages ago showing you how you could easily place content from an RSS feed on your site using a snippet of Javascript. That is so 2006.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

Asus Planning to Release Touchscreen Eee PC Within Six Months [Eeeeeeeeee!!!!!]

2008-10-09T17:56:00.001-07:00

Asus Planning to Release Touchscreen Eee PC Within Six Months [Eeeeeeeeee!!!!!]
Asustek executive Samson Hu has confirmed his company's plans to release a touchscreen Eee PC variant for sale by Q1 of 2009. It's not known whether the devices will look like the touch panel Eee...

Add an Integrated GPS Receiver to Hackable Dell Mini 9 [DIY]

2008-10-07T17:22:00.001-07:00

Modders prodding around inside the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 have discovered that there is a lot of potential to add new functionality thanks to some areas with empty space. That having been said,... read more

aTunes 1.10.0

2008-10-07T17:21:00.017-07:00

A fully-featured audio player and manager, with ripping and encoding tools included. A fully-featured audio player and manager, with ripping and encoding tools included. (read more) read more

Yahoo! Fantasy Standings

2008-10-07T17:21:00.015-07:00

---Supports the following--- Sports: Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey Types: Rotisserie, Head-to-Head, Salary Cap, Pick'Em League Access: Public, Private ---Other Info--- -Salary Cap and Pick'Em for football only -Pick'Em ids have 2 types, individual and league --Id Formats Individual: league_id/team_number (ex: 67374/2) you can find the information in the url. League: league_id (dont't need slash) read more

No Smoking 2.0

2008-10-07T17:21:00.013-07:00

Provides some motivation to help you stop smoking.

About No Smoking
This is a very simple widget that gives you a count of the number of days that it’s been since you’ve stopped smoking. You enter the date that you last had a cigarette and it displays the number of days that have passed since then on top of a No Smoking sign.

Optionally you can now enter how much you typically spend per day and it will display how much money you have saved as well.

New Features - More Customization of the Button

2008-10-07T17:21:00.011-07:00

New Features - More Customization of the Button
Well, it’s 2008. Hope you all got a chance to try the new features we added last month to your analytics interface. We already received some great feedback. We’ve been busy preparing to move to our new platform. This new platform will enable AddThis to scale more easily and provide additional powerful capabilities to the service. [...]

Well, it’s 2008. Hope you all got a chance to try the new features we added last month to your analytics interface. We already received some great feedback.

Dropdown positioning - We also added the ability to re-position the dropdown vertically or horizontally, if needed.

>> Here is the documentation for the new features <<

Happy Customizing!

Convenient Download Bundle

2008-10-07T17:21:00.009-07:00

For many installing Perl modules is difficult within their environment, and for those people we provide a simple and easy to install bundle of all the necessary perl modules for Plugin Manager. Instructions Download the bundle. Navigate to the MT_HOME/extlib... read more

Facebook Climbing to 3rd Spot

2008-10-07T17:21:00.007-07:00

Facebook Climbing to 3rd Spot
The October data are in! Facebook is continuing its amazing climb, taking the 3rd spot away from Del.icio.us. Favorites are back, stealing the first position from Google Bookmarks. Again, Favorites here means “browser bookmarking”, for any browser. On the Feed Reader front things are much more quiet. There was almost no changes between September [...]

The October data are in!

Facebook is continuing its amazing climb, taking the 3rd spot away from Del.icio.us. Favorites are back, stealing the first position from Google Bookmarks. Again, Favorites here means “browser bookmarking”, for any browser. On the Feed Reader front things are much more quiet. There was almost no changes between September and October.

Top Bookmarking/Sharing - October 2007

Top Feed Readers - October 2007

VI Cheat Sheet Widget 1.0

2008-10-07T17:21:00.005-07:00

VI Cheat Sheet Widget 1.0
Main commands for the VI Editor.

About VI Cheat Sheet Widget
Main commands for the VI Editor as a quick reference.

We've Got Widgets!

2008-10-07T17:21:00.003-07:00

We've Got Widgets!
As anyone following the site can see, we've put a few new widgets in the gallery since last week.

We've added widgets from the NBC Show Heroes, Harper Collins Booksellers, American Idol, Rotten Tomatoes, Ask Men, Fox Sports, Career One, 20th Century Fox, FX, Speed Channel, News.com.au, and about a couple hundred of your own customized ExpressWidgets!

Heroes

Get this widget!

How cool is it that SpringWidgets is driving the viral widget on the official Heroes MySpace page! I don't know if you are a fan, but here at SpringWidgets, we are all fans of Heroes and this is one of the only shows that we refuse to miss!

Look through our gallery and you might also discover a Heroes feed in an ExpressWidget or two!

Get this widget!

Harper Collins
Take a look at the upcoming books section of Harper Collins Booksellers. Every upcoming book they offer will sport a widget that you can take with you to count down to the release of your favorite upcoming book.

ExpressWidgets in the house!
Even though it's only been a week since we had our soft launch of the ExpressWidgets beta, we're being bombarded with new widgets. My guess is that even with the tens of thousands of SpringWidgets RSS Readers that were created before we introduced the new process, we'll see this gallery grow rapidly.

For those of you who were brave enough to jump on board right away and found a thing or two that you would like changed about the express widgets process, we've been listening! We've upgraded the profiles so that they now show the widgets that you have "expressed" and we've also built in an "edit" and a "delete" feature for your widget in case you have a change of heart after you've published.

Simply log in using the button on the upper right of this page to view and edit the widgets that you have in our system - you can change the default size, header image, gallery tile and color of the widget using your edit page.

American Idol chose to have our technology drive a few bobbling heads made especially for their contestants. Now you too can put a Sanjaya Bobbler on your blog. Check out their site for more information

If you have a few minutes, take a stroll through our gallery and take a look at the variety of creative and colorful solutions that have been added. Chances are that you'll find quite a few that you can add to your page or blog.

This has been a busy couple of weeks here, and we have pushed out quite a few new widgets and features. We're hard at work on some other stuff too that quite honestly blows the doors off any other widget platform out there, bar none. But more on that later . . .

MSI Wind Gets 9-Cell Battery, Unofficially [Mini-notebooks]

2008-10-07T17:21:00.001-07:00

If you're willing to buy from a third party vendor, the MSI Wind now has an impressive 7800mAh, 9-cell battery available for preorder. Priced at $180, it's not an inexpensive upgrade and it weighs a... read more

MyProxy 9.0

2008-10-02T20:22:00.007-07:00

MyProxy 9.0
Ad-Filter, Pop-Up Killer, HTTP/HTTPS/SMTP/POP3-Proxy, Port Mapper, i-Dialer Ad-Filter, Pop-Up Killer, HTTP/HTTPS/SMTP/POP3-Proxy, Port Mapper, i-Dialer (read more)

Apple Patent Adds QuickLook Capabilities to Mouse Pointer? [Patents]

2008-10-02T20:22:00.005-07:00

QuickLook for instant-previewing files with the spacebar is my favorite feature of OS X 10.5 hands down. Encouraging news, then, is this Apple patent dug up by Apple Insider which could add QuickLook... read more

Free Teen Bible Browser 2.7

2008-10-02T20:22:00.003-07:00

Free Teen Bible Browser 2.7
This software was created to help you get closer to religion and to get easy access to the Bible text. This software was created to help you get closer to religion and to get easy access to the Bible text. (read more)

The Simpsons Quote Box 4.0

2008-10-02T20:22:00.001-07:00

Displays famous quotes form “The Simpsons” T.V. show and movie. Randomly selects a quote from a database of almost 2000 quotes then displays it when Dashboard is shown.

About The Simpsons Quote Box
Displays famous quotes form “The Simpsons” T.V. show and movie.

Randomly selects a quote from a database of almost 2000 quotes then displays it when Dashboard is shown.

Features:
- The most Simpsons quotes of any Dashboard widget, almost 2000 quotes.
- Allows the currently displayed quote to be copied to the clipboard.
- Quotes from all the major characters of the show.
- Quotes from Seasons 1-19.
- Quotes from “The Simpsons Movie.”
- Quotes from “The Simpsons Game.”
- Customizable face colors. Light Blue, Orange, Pink, and Yellow.
- Checks for updates automatically.

Install Photo Gallery

2008-10-02T20:21:00.011-07:00

Install Photo Gallery
There are two options when installing Photo Gallery: Download and install the Photo Gallery archive manually Install via the Plugin Manager plugin for Movable Type...

How to display your RSS subscriber count

2008-10-02T20:21:00.009-07:00

How to display your RSS subscriber count

You've all seen the little FeedBurner subscriber counters on sites that display a site or more often a blogs number of RSS subscribers. Whilst this is a nice widget to display on your site there isn't much in the way of customizing to display something different.

Plaint text subscriber count

There is a way to display the number of readers you have for your feed by using FeedBurners API. This means you can display your subscriber count within some text, for example as part of a blog post. You could also have a separate message somewhere on you site saying X number of readers subscribe to this site.

You can use the PHP code below. You need to have PHP5 otherwise the SimpleXMLElement command will not work.

//get cool feedburner count
$whaturl="http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=YourFeedburnerFeedLinkHere";

//Initialize the Curl session
$ch = curl_init();

//Set curl to return the data instead of printing it to the browser.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//Set the URL
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $whaturl);
//Execute the fetch
$data = curl_exec($ch);
//Close the connection
curl_close($ch);

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
$fb = $xml->feed->entry['circulation'];

//end get cool feedburner count
?>

The next line of PHP needs to be located where you want the subscriber count number to appear. This code needs to occur after the code above for it to work.

I borrowed this code from Mark over at 45n5 so thanks Mark.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

Ab Solo Combines Sit-Ups and Basketball to Trick You into Exercising [Exercise]

2008-10-02T20:21:00.007-07:00

Ab Solo Combines Sit-Ups and Basketball to Trick You into Exercising [Exercise]
I've always wished I could work out at a Chuck E Cheese's, but there has never been an exercise machine that combined the drudgery of sit-ups with the fun of arcade basketball. Until now! Guitar solo...

DropMover

2008-10-02T20:21:00.005-07:00

DropMover
The DropMover Widget displays a keypad, which can be used to move or copy files and folders to specified folders, or to open applications, data files and web pages. Each key of the keypad can have a destination folder, application file, data file or url associated with it. Files or folders dropped onto the key are moved or copied to the destination folder or passed to the associated application. DropMover has seven keypad layouts of increasing complexity. Each has its own settings which are preserved when the Widget is closed and restarted. PLEASE NOTE: The default action of the Widget has changed. It now moves files and folders by default. To copy files and folders, hold down the alt-key (on Macintosh) or control-key (on Windows) while dragging and dropping files and folders onto a key. The Widget moves files and folders by copying them to their new location, then deleting the originals. Please use the Confirm Action feature where loss of files would be important.

SpringWidgets loves iGoogle

2008-10-02T20:21:00.003-07:00

SpringWidgets loves iGoogle
There is a lot of press today on Google Homepages... oops... I mean "iGoogle"

Since we at SpringWidgets are really big fans of Google and everything they do. I thought this would be a great time to officially say how much we love the iGoogle page by letting everyone know that we have recently added in support for automatic posting of all SpringWidgets into your personalized iGoogle page!

Just choose the widget you are interested in, configure it however you like it to look and function and then select the Google icon in the share it box.

The whole process takes only a few seconds and is one of the easiest ways to put one of our widgets on a page that we have available. Way to go Google!

With all the recent focus on widgets, it's not surprising that everyone is building a widget destination of some sort. We at SpringWidgets will continue to build support for each new destination as APIs become available and look forward to helping enable 2007 truly being the year of the widget.

Here is my iGoogle page. Complete with today's MLB games and a countdown to the next episode of NBC's Heroes!

SpringWidgets Blog is Here!!!!!

2008-10-02T20:21:00.001-07:00

SpringWidgets Blog is Here!!!!!
We're using the tools available to speed up our communication process. We'll be using this as our What's Up?, New and Cool, Future "stuff" blog so you don't have to crawl through the Forums if you don't want to (of course, feel free, if you like . . . either's cool).

The "wizards" (as I like to call them), aka our development team will add info here as well . . . so keep checking back.

Pandora and Other Webcasters Saved By Act of Congress [Web Radio]

2008-10-01T14:54:00.011-07:00

Pandora and Other Webcasters Saved By Act of Congress [Web Radio]
Today the otherwise preoccupied Senate quickly passed the Webcaster Settlement Act many of you petitioned for, granting Pandora and other net radio services the right to negotiate royalties with the...

RSS advertising with Bidvertiser

2008-10-01T14:54:00.009-07:00

RSS advertising with Bidvertiser

There are already several options for RSS advertising but Bidvertiser has decided to enter the market and offer publishers the opportunity to sell advertising in their RSS feeds. Of course this also means advertisers will also be able to buy ads in RSS feeds.

Advertising with RSS

With the much larger subscriber numbers for RSS feeds it has become more viable for advertising to appear within an RSS feed. An ad in an RSS feed means that the ad will only appear in the feed rather than on the site.

As RSS subscribers tend to be more interested in the content the ads could be more effective if targeted correctly. Bidvertisers feed advertising program is in public beta and offers RSS advertising and allows RSS publishers to sell RSS ads. It will be interesting to see how it progresses compared the Feedvertiser program.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

NJStar Chinese Pen 2.23 Build 8308

2008-10-01T14:54:00.007-07:00

NJStar Chinese Pen 2.23 Build 8308
An application that allows you to input Chinese by writing it. An application that allows you to input Chinese by writing it. (read more)

"Plugin Manager Enabled" Badges

2008-10-01T14:54:00.005-07:00

"Plugin Manager Enabled" Badges
Are you a Movable Type plugin developer? Have you built in support for Plugin Manager yet? If so, consider adding one of the following badges to your plugin's web page to signify the your plugin is "Plugin Manager Enabled." This...

Build A Snowman 2.0

2008-10-01T14:54:00.003-07:00

Build A Snowman 2.0
Build and customize a snowman.

About Build A Snowman
With 38 different items to mix and match with, you can build a snowman as unique as you! Snow is not needed! Just a little time and imagination. The widget can be easily placed anywhere on you dashboard to give it some wintry decor, even in the middle of the summer. Intelligence not required! The back customization board is easy to understand and you can build a snowman in seconds!

London Underground Tube Status

2008-10-01T14:54:00.001-07:00

Provides real time information about the London Tube Lines. There are two views for this Widget: 1) The detailed view shows the status of all the London Underground Lines. 2) The compact view only shows the Underground Lines that are having problems. You can get detailed information about each of the tube lines (including station closures and details about the report problems) through tool tips (by giving the Widget focus and moving your mouse over the individual tube lines). The Widget also contains a complete map of the tube system and four convenient links to the TFL Journey Planner tool for common trips. read more

Admit It, The Stormtrooper Hoodie is a Little Tempting [Fashion]

2008-10-01T14:52:00.007-07:00

Admit It, The Stormtrooper Hoodie is a Little Tempting [Fashion]
By Mark Ecko, this Stormtrooper hoodie will ensure that, at a moment's notice, you will be ready for an impromptu Star Wars convention or back alley role-playing fest. It may sound like overkill, but...

PixViewer 1.2.0

2008-10-01T14:52:00.005-07:00

PixViewer 1.2.0
A quick and easy way to browse your image files! A quick and easy way to browse your image files! (read more)

EA Waiting to Release Android Games Until It Can Charge for Them [Android]

2008-10-01T14:52:00.003-07:00

While Namco jumped headfirst into the Android Market by giving away Pac-Man, EA Games is going to sit out for the time being, at least until there's a billing system in place for apps in the Android... read more

Install Photo Gallery

2008-10-01T14:52:00.001-07:00

Install Photo Gallery
There are two options when installing Photo Gallery: Download and install the Photo Gallery archive manually Install via the Plugin Manager plugin for Movable Type...

How to Remove WordPress.com Ads From Your WordPress.com Blog

2008-09-29T21:17:00.019-07:00

How to Remove WordPress.com Ads From Your WordPress.com Blog
Matt Mullenweg has just announced that you can go “ad-free” on your WordPress.com blog. While you may have never noticed, those who are not logged into WordPress.com will see ads on blogs across the WordPress.com network. two years ago, WordPress.com started experimenting with Google ads to help support the cost of the experimental and state-of-the-art multiple [...]

Matt Mullenweg has just announced that you can go “ad-free” on your WordPress.com blog.

While you may have never noticed, those who are not logged into WordPress.com will see ads on blogs across the WordPress.com network. two years ago, WordPress.com started experimenting with Google ads to help support the cost of the experimental and state-of-the-art multiple user free blog service. The intent was not to cover your blogs with ads, like many free blogging services do, but to show an occasional ad discretely within your WordPress Theme.

Since few complained or noticed, the experiment continued, helping to keep WordPress.com free and add a lot of free features that might have been paid upgrades.

These ads were so rare, I never saw them. So I forgot about them. I’ve written a lot about the WordPress.com Terms of Service policy that prohibits adding ads to your WordPress.com blogs, so I was dismayed a few months ago when I got a few emails accusing me of special favors from WordPress.com because I had ads on my blog. They were seeing the WordPress.com experimental ads. Unfortunately, one of the ads was - shall we say - inappropriate, a problem many have with Google’s ad program.

Still, this bothered me. I talked to the WordPress team about this and they agreed that users should have the right to determine whether or not to have WordPress.com ads on their blogs. As Matt explains:

At the same time it’s easy to imagine blogs that would never want ads on them: businesses, startups, non-profits, political activist sites, the list goes on. Google Adsense analyzes the content to show contextually relevant ads, but that might mean a link to a competitor. Because of this we’ve introduced a premium option that gives you control: the No-ads upgrade.

They’ve been working on this new feature for a while, trying to come up with a secure and affordable way for users to continue to support WordPress.com by permitting ads on their blogs, while allowing those with sensitive or special interests to not host ads. They’ve finally done it, and I applaud their foresight and integrity.

Removing Ads from Your WordPress.com Blog

Before you start jumping to remove ads from your WordPress.com blog, remember that those ads, most of which you will rarely ever see, help bring in income to keep WordPress.com going. If they don’t bother you or your readers, leave them alone. Why not?

You are using one of the most powerful, state-of-the-art blogging platforms, a service that will survive the Digg-effect and high traffic surges without charging you; a service that keeps bringing you options and features without charge; a service that gives you a platform upon which to express yourself proudly - and is incredibly SEO friendly. Why not help them continue to keep this service free for everyone?

If you do feel a compelling need to remove ads from your WordPress.com blog, go to Upgrades.

Scroll down to No-ads and select the option.

The cost to remove ads from your WordPress.com blog is 30 credits annually (USD $30 if you haven’t earned any credits) which comes to eight cents a day.

Whether you keep or remove ads from your WordPress.com blog, why not take a little time to give back to WordPress.com and other WordPress.com users by browsing the WordPress blog network and get to know your fellow WordPress.com members. You can use the Random Post feature in the gray dashboard bar at the top of your WordPress.com blog when you are logged in, or visit the WordPress.com Blogs of the Day which lists the most popular blogs by language, or the WordPress.com Tags list.

If you are familiar with how WordPress.com works, then why not help out in the WordPress.com forums and get to know the volunteers and staff there as well as your other fellow WordPress.com members. It’s a simple way to say thank you for this powerful free blog service.

I Want to Put Ads on My WordPress.com Blog

A lot of WordPress.com bloggers want to put ads on their blogs to make money for themselves. While some free blog hosts permit that, don’t forget that WordPress.com is also a testing site for many of the latest features of WordPress development.

While the world has to wait for the release of WordPress 2.7, WordPress.com users are already using the new sticky post feature and will soon be playing with other new features as part of the new WordPress Administration interface redesign, a continuation of user interface improvements from the previous version of WordPress - long before anyone else.

This means that WordPress.com has to stay clean of code that will screw up not just one blog but all the blogs on the WordPress.com network powered by WordPressMU. While most ad code is harmless, opening up WordPress.com to Javascript and other code languages opens the door up to malicious code, too. It’s a security risk WordPress.com isn’t willing to take, and I support that policy.

If you want to monetize your blog, get the free version of WordPress and pay for cheap hosting. Some hosts are offering web hosting for under USD $10 a month. With the full version of WordPress, you can not only add ads, but customize the whole look, add all kinds of cool WordPress Plugins, and really tweak your whole site to maximize its revenue potential.

WordPress.com has always been about blogging, about freedom of expression and creativity. It’s not about the code. It’s about the words. WordPress.com is working overtime to make sure we have a place to share our words with others around the world - no holds barred.

Site Search Tags: wordpress news, wordpressdotcom, wordpress.com, wordpresscom, ads, ads on blogs, blog ads, advertising, blog advertising, monetization, advertising on WordPress.com, WordPress.com ads, make money, make money with blogging

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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.

Posted in WordPress News, Wordpressdotcom��

Sony's BDP-S350 Blu-ray Player Officially $300 and BD-Live Capable [Blu-Ray]

2008-09-29T21:17:00.017-07:00

Sony's BDP-S350 Blu-ray Player Officially $300 and BD-Live Capable [Blu-Ray]
Not only did Sony's mainstream BDP-S350 Blu-ray player finally get its firmware update to be fully compatible with the net-interactive BD-Live (BD 2.0) content already hitting stores, but it also got...

John Chow vs Shoemoney RSS competition

2008-09-29T21:17:00.015-07:00

RSS is now one of the most valuable metrics on the net. Increasing your RSS subscriber count is a measurable way to show the popularity of your site. As RSS is an opt in way for readers to view your site contents, they can easily stop being a subscriber at any time.

It shows how far RSS has come when John Chow and Shoemoney start a competition to see who can get the most new subscribers in a month. Notice how it wasn't a competition to get the most traffic or the most subscribers to an email list but who can get the most RSS subscribers.

Why RSS subscribers

John and Shoe are both canny marketers and know the value of RSS. RSS is a transparent metric that shows a loyal readership. If a site starts to slide in it's content then readers will no longer subscribe. They would rather gain an RSS subscriber than an extra visitor.

Whilst the challenge is a bit of fun there is also a serious reason John and Shoe have gotten together to run this little competition. At the end of the competition they will both have a larger loyal subscriber base. This competition has gained them a large number of new subscribers which generally means more revenue for them.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

See You in Las Vegas at Blog World Expo

2008-09-29T21:17:00.013-07:00

I’m going to be joining everyone in the blogosphere at Blog World Expo in Las Vegas this weekend, September 20-21, 2008. Not going to be there? You are missing out on what could be a record breaking event. I will be there with Woopra, Layered Tech, and WordPress. I’ve peeked at the Conference Schedule and there [...]

I will be there with Woopra, Layered Tech, and WordPress.

I’ve peeked at the Conference Schedule and there is so much going on, I don’t even know where to begin.

In addition to the Blog World Expo Exhibitors in the Exhibition Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the incredible collection of speakers and workshops, and the crème de la crème of the blogosphers attending, there are also events within the main event, including:

These specialty meetings and workshops cover niche areas and specific issues that confront bloggers within those specific areas. So much of it crosses borders, though, I’m having a tough time deciding which to attend.

I do know where I will be Sunday, September 21, from 3:00PM - 4:00PM. I will be on a panel with my buddies, John Pozadzides and Liz Strauss, covering The Stats of High Performance Content and Marketing.

I will also be occasionally found in the Exhibition Hall in booth 220 with Layered Tech, Woopra, and WordPress. If you want to talk about servers, web hosting, and the grid, I’ll let you talk to the other guys there, but if you want to talk WordPress or Woopra, I’m ready!

I hope to see you there!

NEXT: Next weekend, September 27, 2008, is WordCamp Portland, Oregon - September 27, 2008, where I will also be making noise. The event is sold out and there is a waiting list. It’s going to be great!

Other upcoming events where I will be speaking and attending include:

Site Search Tags: lorelle, lorelle speaks, converences, events, woopra, blog world expo, wordcamp portland, blogworldexpo, blogworldexpo2008, wordcampportlland, hawaii, blog events, blog conferences, blog news, conference news

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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.

How to display your RSS subscriber count

2008-09-29T21:17:00.011-07:00

How to display your RSS subscriber count

Plaint text subscriber count

You can use the PHP code below. You need to have PHP5 otherwise the SimpleXMLElement command will not work.

//get cool feedburner count
$whaturl="http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=YourFeedburnerFeedLinkHere";

//Initialize the Curl session
$ch = curl_init();

//Set curl to return the data instead of printing it to the browser.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//Set the URL
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $whaturl);
//Execute the fetch
$data = curl_exec($ch);
//Close the connection
curl_close($ch);

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
$fb = $xml->feed->entry['circulation'];

//end get cool feedburner count
?>

The next line of PHP needs to be located where you want the subscriber count number to appear. This code needs to occur after the code above for it to work.

I borrowed this code from Mark over at 45n5 so thanks Mark.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

The Menorah for Hanukkah is also available . . .

2008-09-29T21:17:00.009-07:00

The Menorah for Hanukkah is also available . . .
Here's the Menorah for Hanukkah!!!!

A new candle is added and lit for each day of Hanukkah. You can choose from a variety of candles and Menorah colors. I've made this one silver with blue candle, but just click the "Get this widget" to configure in your own way and embed on your page . . .

Thank you Drew and Lani and Michael for creating these great looking holiday treats!

widgets/Menorah.sbw¶m_candleColor=blue¶m_menorahColor=silver&memberId=thespringbox" quality="high" wmode="transparent" width="185" height="280" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

Get this widget!

V1.1.2 of the SpringWidgets SDK is available!

2008-09-29T21:17:00.007-07:00

We published a new version (V1.1.2) of our SDK today - adding the following features/functionality:

"Right Click" menu support
New Fixed Size widget template
Option to remove Default Close Button
Event for content pasting - (CTL-V)
Title attribute in OPML
Larger text node wrapping in OPML

We made these modifications based on the feedback we've received since our launch from developers and users in the community - so please keep the feedback coming.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

ExpressWidgets from SpringWidgets!

2008-09-29T21:17:00.005-07:00

It’s a day to “Express” change . . .

Today we’ve launched our ExpressWidgets service…

http://springwidgets.com/express/getFeed/

Up until now you could use our RSS Reader Widget to brand and add a blog to your site or desktop, but you could not add that finished blog widget to our gallery so that other people could find it and share it.

Today we changed all that!!!

As of right now you can use our ExpressWidgets process to create your own uniquely-branded Widget(s) and have those widgets instantly added to our gallery just like any other widget. Build as many as you want and add them to our growing gallery of blogs and desktop Widgets so other users can embed, pass along and bring them to the desktop.

It’s pretty cool. We “expressed” the RSS Reader first. We think it’s the easiest build process for you to quickly syndicate and distribute your blog or audio and video podcast content. Best of all, you can uniquely brand your ExpressWidget to match your website or blog, making it a truly one-of-a-kind Widget out in the WidgetSphere.

To make sure that the end product is as good as it can be, we've added a new way to customize an Express RSS Reader - you can now skin the "chrome" around the content so that it better matches your blog or site. (This is a feature that has been requested for a while and we are happy to be able to push this feature live today).

And for our many Feedburner users, your burned feeds will continue to give you the industry leading analytics and metrics for which Feedburner is known. If you have your Feedburner feed handy, drop on in to the ExpressWidgets process now and add your blog to our gallery to get some free exposure.

Talking about exposure… We’ve also added in a few familiar buttons on the display pages for your widget. Anyone can now Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us and otherwise bookmark your widget directly from the widget view in the gallery – guaranteed to lead to at least a couple of hundred eyeballs on your content ;-)

Go get’em tiger! read more

LOST S5 Countdown 1.5

2008-09-29T21:17:00.003-07:00

A simple countdown to the beginning of LOST Season 5 featuring the hatch clock.

About LOST S5 Countdown
A simple countdown to the beginning of LOST Season 5 featuring the hatch clock.

Circuit City Continues Death Spiral, Really Wants You to Stop Calling It "Circuit Shitty" [Circuit City]

2008-09-29T21:17:00.001-07:00

Circuit City Continues Death Spiral, Really Wants You to Stop Calling It "Circuit Shitty" [Circuit City]
Spurred by its latest quarter of dismal failure—a net loss of $239.2 million—Circuit City has instigated a "comprehensive analysis of its business," which will "start with improving the...

Motorola USBW100 WiMax Adapter Allows Easy Wireless Upgrade [WiMax]

2008-09-25T19:16:00.007-07:00

Motorola USBW100 WiMax Adapter Allows Easy Wireless Upgrade [WiMax]
If you're tempted to buy into WiMax technology but don't want to purchase a whole new computer to partake, this Motorola USB adapter offers WiMax to any laptop with a USB port. Coming in multiple...

SpringWidgets Blog is Here!!!!!

2008-09-25T19:16:00.005-07:00

We're using the tools available to speed up our communication process. We'll be using this as our What's Up?, New and Cool, Future "stuff" blog so you don't have to crawl through the Forums if you don't want to (of course, feel free, if you like . . . either's cool).

The "wizards" (as I like to call them), aka our development team will add info here as well . . . so keep checking back. read more

iPhone 2.2 Beta 1 Seeded to Developers [Iphone 2.2]

2008-09-25T19:16:00.003-07:00

Well, that was speedy. Not too long after iPhone 2.1 arrived to fix most of iPhone 2.0's most damning problems, Apple has seeded OS 2.2 Beta 1 to developers. No one's had a chance to dive in yet to... read more

Lighthouse Cams 2.5

2008-09-25T19:16:00.001-07:00

View lighthouse webcams from the East Coast, Great Lakes and West Coast. Select an area or cycle through all webcams. Choose from 5 seconds to 30 minutes.

About Lighthouse Cams
View lighthouse webcams from the East Coast, Great Lakes and West Coast. Select an area or cycle through all webcams. Choose from 5 seconds to 30 minutes. Also check hotels near those lighthouses from back of widget. Links to the Travel Widgets Lighthouse store also on back. Report webcams that are down.

Brought you you by TravelWidgets.com, the most tech savvy travel site on the internet featuring dozens of widgets and iphone web apps to help book travel and track the latest travel deals. Book hotels, air, car rentals, cruises and show tickets and activities. Save on air and hotel packages. Have you visited Travel Widgets yet?

This Child Harness Warrants No Safety Concerns At All [Recalls]

2008-09-25T19:15:00.011-07:00

This little gadget was spotted at a Taipei trade show. To those pesky kids who insist on walking but move too slowly to keep up with their parents, just let them stand at an adult's height with their... read more

Cool show, Cool Widget!

2008-09-25T19:15:00.009-07:00

Cool show, Cool Widget!
If you haven't taken a look at the show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", now is the time. This show is awesome in the way that "The Office" is awesome. It's a brilliant comedy about four friends who own a bar who almost universally approach every problem with the wrong solution. If I had only one word to describe the show, it would have to be "Great!"

The widget is perfectly sized for a blog post, or placement on a Myspace profile and has tons of show related content and links.

Click the options to share this now, it's a live widget!

BIG Interactive and FX Networks created a SpringWidget to help promote the show.

Like the show, the widget is great as well. There are video clips to watch, Sunny tour dates, show information and links to the polls, website and Sunny Blog and even a sneak peak video.

I had never watched this show before seeing the widget, but the widget provided me with enough video and information about the show to let me know that I had to go out and buy the first season DVD set. I didn't realize until after I was at home watching one of the episodes that a "widget" had convinced me to buy the show. I had not even visit the website before I made the purchase.

The best part of the Sunny widget is that the developers at BIG Interactive really took advantage of our platform, building in some features that are only available when the widget is downloaded. So while the online widget is cool, only users who grab it as a download get the full experience.

Download the desktop widget and you get a second widget hidden in the right click menu made to look like the star characters. This second widget is not available online.

You can click and drag the widget by the characters "head" and some pretty neat physics take place, they wiggle and bounce off the side of your monitor. when the character stops, some pretty hilarious video clips start to play.

If you are reading this on a Thursday for the next few months, including This Thursday (tonight) the show should be airing on your local FX network. Take my word for it, it's worth watching.

-Don

p.s. You can find out more about BIG Interactive here and more about FX Networks here

Taboo 0.5.6

2008-09-25T19:15:00.007-07:00

Firefox extension that will let you see in your browser thumb previews of your selected tabs Firefox extension that will let you see in your browser thumb previews of your selected tabs (read more) read more

New Features - New Faces - Happy Holidays

2008-09-25T19:15:00.005-07:00

Only a few more days and it’s already 2008. How time flies! We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. Here is a brief message with the latest news about AddThis. More Analytics. To help you start off the new year, we have upgraded our stats interface to give you more analytics about how your [...]

Only a few more days and it’s already 2008. How time flies! We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. Here is a brief message with the latest news about AddThis.

More Analytics. To help you start off the new year, we have upgraded our stats interface to give you more analytics about how your content is bookmarked and shared by your visitors. Here are the new features:

- bookmarking/sharing trends over time (day, week, month, year)
- enhanced ‘Top Bookmarks’ report
- audience breakdown by country
- export to various formats (e.g. CSV, Tab, Excel)

To try it, just go to your account ! By the way, we will be adding even more analytics soon. So be sure to add our widget now on all your pages, so that the tracking can already begin. Also, be sure to tell your friends about AddThis.

Our Team. Our team is expanding as well. We are excited to announce that Brian Jones has joined AddThis. Brian is a sys/admin/infrastructure guru; he founded Linuxlaboratory.org, created Python Magazine, helped found php|architect magazine, and is the co-author of Linux Server Hacks 2 for Oâ€™Reilly publishing. Brian is already working hard setting up tomorrow’s infrastructure for AddThis, making sure AddThis can continue to deliver its great service reliably as it continues to grow.

We are hiring. We are currently looking for a front-end guru. If you live and breath AJAX, Javascript, and PHP, and are obsessed with creating the best possible tools for users, then we want to hear from you. We offer very good salaries and great benefits, and even the possibility to work from home.

AddThis Trends. As most of you know by now, each month we publish a report of the top most active bookmarking/sharing and feed reader services. Below is the report for the top bookmarking/sharing services for November. You can find more reports here.

Top Bookmarking / Sharing Services - November

Don’t have our widget yet? If you don’t have an AddThis widget on your website or blog, click here and get it now. It will really help your visitors share and remember your pages, and help you gain visibility in the search engines by the same token.

Happy holidays and best wishes for 2008!

Over 20 Billion Buttons Served in April

2008-09-25T19:15:00.003-07:00

Over 20 Billion Buttons Served in April
It’s already been 18 months since we launched, an eternity in Internet time, and AddThis is continuing to grow very fast. Here is a graph we wanted to share with you. It gives a good idea of how fast our button is spreading. The graph shows how many times the button has been served [...]

It’s already been 18 months since we launched, an eternity in Internet time, and AddThis is continuing to grow very fast. Here is a graph we wanted to share with you. It gives a good idea of how fast our button is spreading. The graph shows how many times the button has been served each month since we started in October 2006 - over 20 Billion times in April alone (that’s 7,500 per second).

We have recently done a lot of under-the-hood work, to keep up with this fast growth. Stay tuned, we are also working on a lot of cool new features, including more analytics, more customization.

His Compass Bible Search

2008-09-25T19:15:00.001-07:00

His Compass Bible Search
This Widget allows you to search the Bible using His Compass Bible Search from His Compass Ministry

FeedBurner feed count drop

2008-09-24T03:01:00.019-07:00

Google Feedfetcher drops ball

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

The iPhone Accelerometer is the Best Thing to Happen to Cheating Since the Konami Code [IPhone]

2008-09-24T03:01:00.017-07:00

A Macenstein reader may have discovered the first instance of the accelerometer in the iPhone being used to enter a cheat code in a game. He claims that you can start on any level you like in Imagine... read more

"Plugin Manager Enabled" Badges

2008-09-24T03:01:00.015-07:00

Yahoo! Fantasy Standings

2008-09-24T03:01:00.013-07:00

Yahoo! Fantasy Standings
---Supports the following--- Sports: Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey Types: Rotisserie, Head-to-Head, Salary Cap, Pick'Em League Access: Public, Private ---Other Info--- -Salary Cap and Pick'Em for football only -Pick'Em ids have 2 types, individual and league --Id Formats Individual: league_id/team_number (ex: 67374/2) you can find the information in the url. League: league_id (dont't need slash)

Convenient Download Bundle

2008-09-24T03:01:00.011-07:00

Convenient Download Bundle
For many installing Perl modules is difficult within their environment, and for those people we provide a simple and easy to install bundle of all the necessary perl modules for Plugin Manager. Instructions Download the bundle. Navigate to the MT_HOME/extlib...

Install Feed Manager

2008-09-24T03:01:00.009-07:00

There are two options when installing Feed Manager: Download and install the Feed Manager archive manually Install via the Plugin Manager plugin for Movable Type... read more

TheSpringBox 1.1.3

2008-09-24T03:01:00.007-07:00

TheSpringBox 1.1.3
Hey Guys. Today we've got an update of our desktop platform for you. Most of the updates are purely cosmetic, but we hope they will improve you SpringWidgets experience:

Visual Updates

Lock your widgets on your screen

Performance updates

Widgets are now stored under My Documents

Happy Holidays Everyone,
- The SpringWidgets Team

WiredDeals

2008-09-24T03:01:00.005-07:00

Keep track of tons of daily deals from FatWallet.com and SlickDeals.net!!! This simple Widget lists top deals as rated by the deal aggregator WiredDeals.com Current version lets you configure: Number of deals to display Forum (All, Hot Deals, Finance, Free Stuff, etc) Deal age limit (deals posted in last 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, etc) Deals update frequency Widget appearance (colors) Widget width Numbers before the deal title are current deal rating and 2-hour rating increase. read more

Twitter Tweets

2008-09-24T03:01:00.003-07:00

Twitter Tweets
07:20 Getting a lot of great interest in #sobcon09 in May 2009 Chicago. You going to be there? I will. Can’t wait. # 10:56 #wordcampvancouver is this weekend in BC. Will you be there? Wish I was. I’ll be #wordcampportland. # 11:36 Looking for digital video editing software. Finding crap. Suggestions? # 11:36 @wordcampbham I’m sure #wordcampbham is [...]

07:20 Getting a lot of great interest in #sobcon09 in May 2009 Chicago. You going to be there? I will. Can’t wait. #
10:56 #wordcampvancouver is this weekend in BC. Will you be there? Wish I was. I’ll be #wordcampportland. #
11:36 Looking for digital video editing software. Finding crap. Suggestions? #
11:36 @wordcampbham I’m sure #wordcampbham is going to be fantastic. I need some promo material to help, so contact me! #
11:38 @backon_online #wordcampportland is going to rock. I am so excited to meet up with new-old friends and NEW NEIGHBORS! Love being in portland #
11:41 @jeffr0 Thanks and eager to get news on your new WordPress podcast! How’s that going? #
11:41 @secretsushi WordPress 2.7 is due later this fall. A demo will be featured at many of the WordCamps this weekend - so stay tuned for peeks. #
11:42 @duanestorey Some friends of mine are heading to #wordcampvancouver this weekend. Glenda and Darrell. Treat them like honored guests for me! #
11:43 @kwbridge You can email me answers on how WordPress changed your life at lorelleonwordpress at gmail. Thanks! #
11:44 @mollermarketing And you did great answering how WordPress changed your life! You are a video star! #
11:46 Idiot Alert: I recorded video at #bwe08 vertical not horizontal. ARGH! How do I flip or rotate digital video? #
11:59 @vegasgeek yep!!! Lay down video - new style. Everyone lays down. So used to still, didn’t think about horz vs vert. SIGH. #
11:59 @wiredprworks Will be posting how WordPress changed your life video and video of talk after weekend’s #wordcampportland. Going to ROCK! #
12:20 @GlendaWH Hey, my new dear friend! lorelleonwordpress at gmail - Your video is ~3 minutes on how WordPress changed your life! #
12:21 @vegasgeek LOL That’s the solution for sure. But I like the idea of 200 people laying down to watch much better. Fun at #wordcampportland! #
12:53 @bkajino Can’t wait for #wordcampportland You know I’m also talking about Woopra??? Will have some goodies for those attending, I hope! #
12:54 OMG Did you all see that I’m on the cover of Blogger and Podcaster Magazine?! Bunch of my articles in there. Wow! Didn’t know until #bwe08 #
13:11 @GlendaWH Can’t find your card - found Darrell’s so I emailed him with notes. CAn’t wait!!! #
13:18 Ever have one of those days when you wonder why you blog? Back from #bwe08 I shouldn’t but tired out. Need kick. #
14:21 @WatershedStudio Blogger and Podcaster Rock Star? right? I was so stunned to see my name on the cover. I’m just little ol’ me. #
14:22 @gregbd Right, but not separate. Your blog is yr online resume today. Social business model circles around it. Start blog first then social #
14:45 Idiot Alert Off. FOUND IT! How to flip a vertical video back to horizontal. is.gd/31N1 Simple and easy! Whew. #
14:56 Michael Moore giving away next movie tinyurl.com/5dkqm8 Slacker Uprising. Another example of how free giveaways make money? #
16:13 @vegasgeek What dates are you thinking for WordCamp Vegas? WordCamp Denver scheduling for Jan and don’t want to overlap. #
20:28 4 WordCamps this weekend: Portland, Toronto, Utah, Vancouver(BC) WordPress #wordcamp weekend! #
22:06 @MikePerry Thanks. It was a surprise to me at #bwe08. Great timing. Blogger and Podcaster Magazine doing some interesting stuff lately. #
22:07 YEAH! Raw fooder! Check out the raw food porn book "Raw" by Charlie Trotter. Too much trouble to cook but sexy pics. #
22:08 @vegasgeek Denver wanted the same dates for their WordCamp. Will let them know and maybe they can change them. Thanks much! #
22:14 @gregbd BuddyPress WordPress Theme on steroids is doing that as are others. Connecting the dots. We need more dot connectors to stop scatter #
22:15 @bkajino Woopra is very sweet. I wrote that article (wrong byline), too, after first public preview (hours). It’s even better now. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Posted in Blogging Tips��

New Features - New Faces - Happy Holidays

2008-09-24T03:01:00.001-07:00

Only a few more days and it’s already 2008. How time flies! We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. Here is a brief message with the latest news about AddThis.

- bookmarking/sharing trends over time (day, week, month, year)
- enhanced ‘Top Bookmarks’ report
- audience breakdown by country
- export to various formats (e.g. CSV, Tab, Excel)

Top Bookmarking / Sharing Services - November

Happy holidays and best wishes for 2008!

SimplyHired "job search" widget launched Monday

2008-09-19T17:43:00.017-07:00

SimplyHired released a widget on SpringWidgets this Monday (2/5/07) - a SimplyHired "job search" widget!!!!! More will be announced "officially", but wanted everyone that might drop by the blog to know they should go grab the widget and put it on their page or pop it into the desktop launchpad.

http://springwidgets.com/simplyhired

widgets/Simply Hired.sbw" flashvars="param_keywords0=Developer¶m_location0=Atlanta, GA¶m_distance0=5&memberId=thespringbox" quality="high" wmode="transparent" width="250" height="350" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

Get this widget!

Atom Feed XSL Stylesheet

2008-09-19T17:43:00.015-07:00

Atom Feed XSL Stylesheet
One of the key features of Feed Manager is the ability to render a virtually illegible XML feed as HTML so that it is more easily understood by a person. The secret behind this feature is a simple XSLT stylesheet...

Sponsor Thanks [Announcements]

2008-09-19T17:43:00.013-07:00

Capitalism is an evil, wretched establishment...except when it supports these glorious companies: 1800 Tequila, Becks, Blackberry Curve, Casio, Chevy Fuel Solutions, Dell, Gilda's Club Worldwide,... read more

ExpressWidgets from SpringWidgets!

2008-09-19T17:43:00.011-07:00

ExpressWidgets from SpringWidgets!
It’s a day to “Express” change . . .

Today we’ve launched our ExpressWidgets service…

http://springwidgets.com/express/getFeed/

Up until now you could use our RSS Reader Widget to brand and add a blog to your site or desktop, but you could not add that finished blog widget to our gallery so that other people could find it and share it.

Today we changed all that!!!

As of right now you can use our ExpressWidgets process to create your own uniquely-branded Widget(s) and have those widgets instantly added to our gallery just like any other widget. Build as many as you want and add them to our growing gallery of blogs and desktop Widgets so other users can embed, pass along and bring them to the desktop.

It’s pretty cool. We “expressed” the RSS Reader first. We think it’s the easiest build process for you to quickly syndicate and distribute your blog or audio and video podcast content. Best of all, you can uniquely brand your ExpressWidget to match your website or blog, making it a truly one-of-a-kind Widget out in the WidgetSphere.

To make sure that the end product is as good as it can be, we've added a new way to customize an Express RSS Reader - you can now skin the "chrome" around the content so that it better matches your blog or site. (This is a feature that has been requested for a while and we are happy to be able to push this feature live today).

And for our many Feedburner users, your burned feeds will continue to give you the industry leading analytics and metrics for which Feedburner is known. If you have your Feedburner feed handy, drop on in to the ExpressWidgets process now and add your blog to our gallery to get some free exposure.

Talking about exposure… We’ve also added in a few familiar buttons on the display pages for your widget. Anyone can now Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us and otherwise bookmark your widget directly from the widget view in the gallery – guaranteed to lead to at least a couple of hundred eyeballs on your content ;-)

Go get’em tiger!

Sprint's Xohm WiMax Service Delayed Again, Possibly [WiMax]

2008-09-19T17:43:00.009-07:00

We've been talking about Sprint's Xohm Wimax service for ages—tracking its on again, off again status. And now it looks like it's been slightly delayed again, from September to October 6th. A... read more

STOIK Imagic Free Browser 4.0.3.4

2008-09-19T17:43:00.007-07:00

Easily import, organize, automatically enhance and share your photos Easily import, organize, automatically enhance and share your photos (read more) read more

Chat with MegaHAL 1.0

2008-09-19T17:43:00.005-07:00

Have a chat with MegaHAL, the learning chat bot Have a chat with MegaHAL, the learning chat bot (read more) read more

2008 Nebraska Huskers Football Schedule Widget 4.0

2008-09-19T17:43:00.003-07:00

2008 Nebraska Huskers Football Schedule Widget 4.0
Clicking the Nebraska logo displays the Huskers Football Schedule with kickoff date, time, TV and scores from previous games.

About 2008 Nebraska Huskers Football Schedule Widget
Instant automated access to the latest Huskers kick-off and schedule information for the 2008 Nebraska Huskers football games. All games are listed with the date and time, home or away, TV scheduling plus the scores from the previously played games.

- Team logo hot link to the team’s Official Athletic Web Site for the absolute latest information on scheduling.
- Button to play Nebraska Fight Song.

National Champions 1997, 1995, 1994, 1971, 1970

Go Huskers!!

Spiderman gets on the Express train.

2008-09-19T17:43:00.001-07:00

Get this widget!

Checking your own RSS feeds

2008-09-19T17:42:00.001-07:00

Are you checking your own RSS feeds, are you subscribed to your own feeds. If not then how do you know your feed is working properly. This is something I have come across, I have noticed on both my own and other bloggers feeds that sometimes your feed breaks.

The simplest thing you can do is subscribe to your feed in your feed reader. Create a separate folder to accommodate just your own feeds so you know exactly where they are. Now every time you make a post your new post will appear in your feed reader.

When you do your usual daily RSS trawl you will be reminded to check your feed. If there is anything amiss you will know about it sooner rather than later. I have emailed many a webmaster to tell them that their feed is broken. I mean who reads their own feeds, right.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

Convenient Download Bundle

2008-09-15T07:42:00.007-07:00

How to display your RSS subscriber count

2008-09-15T07:42:00.005-07:00

Plaint text subscriber count

You can use the PHP code below. You need to have PHP5 otherwise the SimpleXMLElement command will not work.

//get cool feedburner count
$whaturl="http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=YourFeedburnerFeedLinkHere";

//Initialize the Curl session
$ch = curl_init();

//Set curl to return the data instead of printing it to the browser.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//Set the URL
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $whaturl);
//Execute the fetch
$data = curl_exec($ch);
//Close the connection
curl_close($ch);

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
$fb = $xml->feed->entry['circulation'];

//end get cool feedburner count
?>

The next line of PHP needs to be located where you want the subscriber count number to appear. This code needs to occur after the code above for it to work.

I borrowed this code from Mark over at 45n5 so thanks Mark.

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

AVG Anti-Spyware Signature Database September 15, 2008

2008-09-15T07:42:00.003-07:00

The latest signature database for AVG Anti-Spyware The latest signature database for AVG Anti-Spyware (read more) read more

Checking your own RSS feeds

2008-09-15T07:42:00.001-07:00

This post is from the Newsniche website and should not be reproduced elsewhere. Why not subscribe to the RSS feed and get this information delivered straight to your News reader.

PS 0.1

2008-09-15T07:41:00.011-07:00

PS 0.1
Photoshop news, tutorials and widgets.

About PS
Get Photoshop News, Tutorials and Widgets!

- Adobe Photoshop Tutorials
- Adobe Photoshop News
- Adobe Lightroom News
- Tutorial9 - Tutorial Bliss
- TutorialsHot
- Photoshop Roadmap
- PhotoshopAtoms
- The Photoshop Blog
- PhotoshopCandy
- Photoshop News Box
- Photoshop Tips
- Lunacore
…and much more !

Redefining the Widget

2008-09-15T07:41:00.009-07:00

Last year at Widgets Live, the announcement of the SpringWidgets platform redefined what a widget could be. At the time of our launch there were three categories of widgets: desktop widgets, web widgets and a special subsection of web widgets that would work on social networking profiles.

We changed all that by inventing a widget platform that allowed for the first time, the ability to use a single, updatable and configurable widget file to reach all of these destinations. We took it further by incorporating in the ability to “pop” any SpringWidget you find on the web onto your desktop with just one click.

Since our release, there have been a few companies that have announced a similar product offering - YourMinis and Netvibes are examples we feel are well done.

I'm going to give you a little sneak peak behind the curtain where we are quietly working on redefining the widget once again, and perhaps in the process spur another round of inspiration.

For the most part, online widgets have been exactly what the limited definition has made them out to be …

A web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation.

Thanks Wikipedia

Reading this, I’m thinking about the widget landscape and in my head I’m starting to challenge the entire box that we have collectively put widgets into, trying to look past the simple definition and look at the transformative nature of what a portable chunk of code can do.

Is the widget just a visitor on the web page or can it be much more and control and interact with the web page it’s on? If widgets are like parasites, can a parasite define the host?

Can a widget be a portable “experience?”

Envision if you will a Widget that no longer sends the user off to another site to personalize itself. Imagine a widget that is not content to stay within the confines of it’s own little box, but rather can interact with the page it lives on. The “Transformative Widget” would take over the page it’s on; integrating it's content within that page and transforming it based on a click.

If the Widget is not just a chunk of code, but rather a portable experience, imagine the infinite ways we can expand the brand experience within the social network itself. Moving code and embedding Widgets can create a better way to immerse the user in an extreme brand experience. The widget then becomes an ad that is user embedded, user selected and more powerfully engaging and interactive than any traditional advertisement that is available - and just as performance oriented.

If a user allows the widget to brand the entire page, is that a "Widgetview", an "Ad Impression", or a "Pageview"?

So if SpringWidgets is ready to challenge the Widget Landscape it’s safe to say that the launch of THE FANTASTIC FOUR Widget is the next step in redefining the Widget. The transformative nature of TFF Widget is completely apparent once you start using it on your MySpace profile and the brand experience is more immersive than anything possible with a widget prior to the Fantastic Four widget launch.

This is only one of the many transformative widgets that we are engaged in and only represents a small amount of our R&D efforts. Over the weeks and months to come, we'll be rolling out some truly fantastic products that will not only transform the widget, but transform SpringWidgets as well.

We would love to have you on board as we make these transformations, so please feel free to download our API and put your own thoughts to work in redefining what a widget can be. read more

Custom Filter 1.0

2008-09-15T07:41:00.007-07:00

This Adobe Photoshop plugin allows you to create your own convolutions. This Adobe Photoshop plugin allows you to create your own convolutions. (read more) read more

What is the U.S. Military's New Top Secret Terrorist-Killing Gadget in Iraq? [Top Secret]

2008-09-15T07:41:00.005-07:00

What is the U.S. Military's New Top Secret Terrorist-Killing Gadget in Iraq? [Top Secret]
Here's an idea for new unofficial Gizmodo game. It doesn't have a name, but it's based on guessing what Bob Woodward was talking about when he said the U.S. military had some super secret new gadget,...

RemoveIT Pro 4 SE 15.9.2008

2008-09-15T07:41:00.003-07:00

Locate and remove many new dangerous files including Spyware, Malware, Virus, Worm, Trojan and Adware. Locate and remove many new dangerous files including Spyware, Malware, Virus, Worm, Trojan and Adware. (read more) read more

We hit a million . . . and counting . . .

2008-09-15T07:41:00.001-07:00

We hit a million . . . and counting . . .
We just had to share . . . SpringWidgets has had over One Million widgets viewed on webpages in less than a month - YEAH!!!! - and we're trending upward daily.

While that may not seem like a lot to some and is certainly a relative number depending upon your comparison group - we're are definitely pleased. It means you're enjoying the widgets, pasting them to your pages and others are enjoying your modifications by doing the same.

Don't forget to check out the widget gallery from time to time . . . we have a new Christmas Tree widget loaded and will be launching a Simply Hired widget very soon!

(Maybe we can make Two Million before Christmas!!!! That would be cool! Keep embedding and spreading!)

Nidesoft DVD to MP4 Suite 2.3.08

2008-09-13T16:04:00.019-07:00

Nidesoft DVD to MP4 Suite 2.3.08
You can adjust the output files parameters with few clicks, such as video size, video quality, file size, audio quality. You can adjust the output files parameters with few clicks, such as video size, video quality, file size, audio quality. (read more)

Cool show, Cool Widget!

2008-09-13T16:04:00.017-07:00

If you haven't taken a look at the show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", now is the time. This show is awesome in the way that "The Office" is awesome. It's a brilliant comedy about four friends who own a bar who almost universally approach every problem with the wrong solution. If I had only one word to describe the show, it would have to be "Great!"

The widget is perfectly sized for a blog post, or placement on a Myspace profile and has tons of show related content and links.

Click the options to share this now, it's a live widget!

Porn Browser Wars Heat Up, Firefox Goes Incognito, Too [Browsers]

2008-09-13T16:04:00.015-07:00

In a response to Google Chrome's Incognito mode and IE8's InPrivate(s), Firefox beta 3.1 (hitting next month) will have a privacy mode of its own that will "ensure that users can't be tracked when... read more

Adding an Item to Your Queue

2008-09-13T16:04:00.013-07:00

Adding an Item to Your Queue
From anywhere within Media Manager you can add another item to your queue. Click on the "Add Item" link in the left hand menu, or the "Add Item to your Queue" found on the main Media Manager screen. From...

RACV Holiday Countdown Clock 1

2008-09-13T16:04:00.011-07:00

Count down the days hours and minutes to your next holiday Count down the days hours and minutes to your next holiday (read more) read more

Football widgets are in season!

2008-09-13T16:04:00.009-07:00

The scoreboard widget set to 160 pixels wide for blog sidebar placement. You can also set the default league shown to be MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, CBK or CFB

click the thumbnail to see what the Scoreboard looks like when docked on your desktop.

Install Photo Gallery

2008-09-13T16:04:00.007-07:00

Install Photo Gallery
There are two options when installing Photo Gallery: Download and install the Photo Gallery archive manually Install via the Plugin Manager plugin for Movable Type...

Proportions 0.1.6

2008-09-13T16:04:00.005-07:00

A small widget to easily and fast calculate arithmetic proportions

About Proportions
A small widget to easily and fast calculate arithmetic proportions

San Francisco Hunting For "Mystery Device" on City Network [Sf Hacker Strikes Again]

2008-09-13T16:04:00.003-07:00

San Francisco is continuing to untangle the mess created by the notorious Terry Childs after his attempt to bring down the city network. According to estimates, the cleanup has cost taxpayers $1... read more

2008 Indiana Hoosiers Football Schedule Widget 4.0

2008-09-13T16:04:00.001-07:00

2008 Indiana Hoosiers Football Schedule Widget 4.0
Clicking the Indiana logo displays the Hoosiers Football Schedule with kickoff date, time, TV and scores from previous games.

About 2008 Indiana Hoosiers Football Schedule Widget
Instant automated access to the latest 2008 Indiana kick-off and schedule information for the 2008 Indiana Hoosiers football games. All games are listed with the date and time, home or away, TV scheduling plus the scores from the previously played games.

- Team logo hot link to the team’s Official Athletic Web Site for the absolute latest information on scheduling.
- Button to play Indiana Fight Song.

Go IU! Fight! Fight! Fight!!