Computer Chit Chat

ReminderFox

I am a calendar and to do list person. I keep almost everything in the Thunderbird calendar and like it. But sometimes it’s a pain to have to leave Firefox, go to Thunderbird where I’m in the mail screen and go to the calendar tab. That’s why I was intrigued when I learned about ReminderFox.

ReminderFox manages to do lists and reminders. For those of you thinking that Thunderbird can do that, yes it can. But ReminderFox isn’t a calendar like Thunderbird. ReminderFox is  simply a really helpful add-on for Firefox that can display and manage lists of date-based reminders and ToDo’s. It sits in the bottom of your screen and displays a pink ribbon and the name of your reminder, which will stay there until you mark it complete. It can manage to do lists and reminders and includes an alarm. ReminderFox is a free add-on for Firefox.

Entrecard toolbar

Recently Entrecard released the Entrecard toolbar. It’s especially helpful for people like me that have more than one blog, although any Entrecard user would find it helpful. On the far left is a pulldown menu that allows users to switch the Entrecard account they’re dropping with on the fly. The next menu, from the left side, shows you how many credits you have in the Entrecard account you’re logged into and how many drops you’ve made that day. The next menu after that will take you to your favorites and all of the categories. The last menu on the far right allows you to choose what types of sites you want to drop or advertise on. The little green arrows allow you to navigate to the next site and the next ten sites. The Entrecard toolbar is free and works on Firefox 2 and 3.

Fireshot

FireShot is just one of the neatest add-ons there is. It’s like someone read my mind. Every time I take a screenshot if I want it cropped I have to edit it in another application. I stopped trying to do nifty things with my screenshots a long time ago because it was a pain. That’s no longer the case with FireShot.

FireShot is a Firefox add-on that creates screenshots from right within your browser. To install it just download and activate it. Once activated all you need to do to use it is press the big red S in the corner of Firefox. FireShot allows users to create, edit, save and share screenshots, which can be saved as a png, jpeg, bmp or gif file. Look at all of the neat tools in the second picture! Now I can draw little arrows and stick notes all over my screenshots!

Come back MySQL

I hate when I hit a site, particularly my own, and I see that message that tells me the wp mysql has gone away. Where has it gone? Obviously it doesn’t leave the server. Why does it come back? Really though, I’m only kidding. I don’t know the super technical aspect of it but if I understand what I’ve read apparently it happens when queries to the MySQL server don’t reopen a previously established connection. I just wanted to see if it bugged anyone else besides me?

Entrecard Comment Rush

At the end of June Entrecard announced that it would be offering a weekly comment rush. Each week a different blog will be highlighted on the Entrecard blog. One post will be selected and the Entrecard community would be invited to visit the post with the hopes that they would leave a comment on that blog. What a terrific idea! It’s sort of like a carnival of comments in reverse, if you know what I mean. I wonder how one’s blog gets chosen?

Who sez your comments

Entrecard announced that it’s partnering with Sez Who. Just log in to your Entrecard dashboard to register for SezWho. Then install the plugin on your blog and activate. That’s it. Now when people leave a comment on one of your posts a link saying Who am I will appear by their name. If you hover over it a box opens showing the comment author’s website, blog, an about blurb and their most recent comments. Entrecard droppers will be able to search for blogs with Sez Who enabled, and will receive credits for commenting.

How to customize your Wordpress 404 page

Ever searched for something on a blog and didn’t find it? It’s awful to see that 404 message and not have anywhere to go from there. Have you tested your blog’s 404 page? Try testing it out by trying to go to yourblog.com/testpage or some other page you know isn’t there. If you only see Not found go into your dashboard now and get to work. It only takes a few minutes to customize a 404 page and it might keep someone on your sight longer. You can include a number of things on your 404 page including categories and monthly archives, a listing of all your pages and an offer to subscribe to your feed. So rather than seeing “page not found” a visitor could now see something like ” the page you requested wasn’t found but feel free to browse the pages listed below for what you’re looking for”.

To customize your Wordpress 404 page, log in to your dashboard and click on presentation. Click on Theme Editor and then click on the 404 Template link on your right. Find the message you just saw when you tested your 404 page and replace it with a customized message. You can even include the php code to show your categories, pages and archives. Click update and you’re finished. As always, go one step at a time and test, that way if there’s a problem you can undo your last step. And always backup your files.

GigglePrint did not leave me giggling

I heard about GigglePrint through BzzAgent and decided to check it out. GigglePrint offers free business cards and sells business cards, stationery and the like. I bet you’re thinking they sound like VistaPrint. You’re right except they’re not as good as VistaPrint. They don’t have as many designs or products and they charge an arm and a leg for shipping. What I could order for free from VistaPrint and have shipped for under $4 would cost more than $10 to have shipped by GigglePrint. Talk about highway robbery! When I saw the shipping prices I was not giggling. I won’t be ordering anything here.

Places to find free pictures to use on your blog

It’s great to include pictures on your blog, no matter if they’re personal or related to something you’re writing about. It’s not always possible to take the picture you need yourself, so it’s helpful to have a list of places that offer free photos. Here’s a list of some of the most popular free photo sites.

• StockXchng - my favorite
• EveryStockPhoto
• Free Foto
• Free Images UK
• Free Photos Bank
• Free Range Stock Photos
• Free-Stock Photos
• Free Stock Photos
• Image Blowout
• ImageAfter
• Morguefile
• Picture Perfect Digital
• Stockvault

Skribit

I just heard of a new blog widget called Skribit. Skribit is an application that allows people to make suggestions on things they’d like to see you write about. Once you’ve signed up for a Skribit account you need to configure and install the customizable Skribit widget on your blog. Once the widget is installed your blog readers can suggest topics, ask questions and find other blogs to read with similar subject matter. The widget can be configured so that users must be logged in to Skribit to leave a suggestion or so that anyone can leave a suggestion anonymously. Readers are able to vote on others suggestions. Bloggers logged in to their Skribit account page can see what suggestions have been left, who left them and how many votes suggestions have received.

I can see where Skribit would be great for some blogs. I don’t think it’s a good match for me. I have a contact form in place and I don’t really want to have to deal with logging in to yet another site. I also would not leave comments on anonymous, which mean my readers would need to log in to use it and I won’t ask readers to log in to something. Are you using Skribit? How do you like it?