Over 900 Unread Items

Posted on February 25, 2007 by Michael Koby

I went to Austin to visit some friends over this past weekend and was without a computer or any other kind of internet access other than my phone and came home to find over 900 unread items in my Google Reader. That is a lot of stuff for just a little under 48 hours without internet access.

Maybe I should look into some kind of way to access Google Reader from my phone. Anyone have any ideas on how to do this? Anyone already doing this? I’m going to see if I can not find something but want to know if any of my readers are already utilzing a solution that works for them.

[Technorati Tag: ]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Over 900 Unread Items

Weekly Readings 2007-02-23

Posted on February 23, 2007 by Michael Koby

In this week’s weekly readings, Lifehacker teaches us about gadget mounting, Performancing and Web Worker Daily want to help us be more productive, and The Simple Dollar helps you cut down on splurges. Also, IHelpYouBlog gives us a complete pro-blogging resource list. All this an more from some of my favorite articles from this week.

On another note, after reading some articles on linkbaiting and link begging this week, I realized that this weekly post could be considered link baiting or link begging. I would like to note here and now that this is not my intention. This weekly list serves two purposes:

  1. It allows me to at least point people to articles I found worth while throughout the week and
  2. Since I only get 1 or 2 "Power Web Pick(s)" each week on the radio show I co-host, this is a great way to at least inform people about the stuff that did not make it.

Hopefully you enjoy these articles as much as I did.

Lifehacker:

Performancing:

Problogger:

The Simple Dollar:

IHelpYouBlog.com:

Web Worker Daily:

Posted in General | Comments Off on Weekly Readings 2007-02-23

5 WordPress Plugins

Posted on February 23, 2007 by Michael Koby

It seems these days everyone is using WordPress to handle their blogging needs. And why not? It is one of the easiest to use, highly customizable web applications in existence today. For this week’s list I’m going to share with your 5 WordPress plugins that I use on this website here.

  • 5) Future Posts & Enhanced Post Management: Yes, I know these are two separate plugins, but they are written by the same person, Michael Mancur. These two plugins alone help me track my future posts (since I write my Mon., Wed., and Friday posts about 1 week in advance on average) as well as modifying the post management page to make things a little easier to maintain. Great, simple plugins.
  • 4) Google Sitemaps: This plugin is almost essential if you want Google to index your website accurately. You simply need to install it, set a couple of options and you are sending sitemaps to Google. Also, since Yahoo! and Microsoft have agreed to use this particular sitemap standard, there is no better time to install this plugin.
  • 3) Feedburner Feed Replacement: When it comes to modifying files located on the server, I am of two minds. Part of me likes to do it myself, so that I can learn the inner workings of things. However, there are certain things where my mind tells me to let the computer do it. My RSS feeds is one of those things. Since RSS is one of the new ways to show you how much traffic you are getting, I wanted the most accurate numbers possible. This Feedburner plugin, has one textbox and that is it. Doesn’t get any simpler than that.
  • 2) WordPress Cache: Speed counts when you run a website. The faster your page loads the happier the readers are. WordPress Cache makes it easy to cache pages on your site for a length of time that you determine. You simply tell it how long to cache a page for and this plugin does the rest.
  • 1) OpenID Registration: I have been on an OpenID kick lately. I really like the idea of a single login/password combination. I also think that OpenID has the potential to succeed where Microsoft’s Live ID fails. This plugin allows you to set up OpenID registration on your website so that people can use their OpenID when registering to leave comments. While installing the plugin in the comment form can be a little difficult for a beginner in PHP/HTML, the payoff is worth it. I expect that OpenID is going to make a ton of headway now that AOL and Microsoft have announced support for the platform.

Well there you have it, some WordPress plugins that I use on this website. None of these probably come as a tremendous shock, but they are good plugins that should at least be given some focus. Do you have a WordPress plugin that you love? Tell me about by leaving a comment or emailing me directly.

[Technorati Tag: ]
[Technorati Tag: ]

Posted in Lists | Comments Off on 5 WordPress Plugins

links for 2007-02-22

Posted on February 21, 2007 by Michael Koby
Posted in Daily Links | Comments Off on links for 2007-02-22

Joost Token Anyone?

Posted on February 21, 2007 by Michael Koby

I’m just wondering if any of my readers out there have a Joost token they would be willing to spare.  I am looking at getting a token so that I can review Joost for an episode of the Power of Information, the radio show I co-host with my good friend Derek.

If you have a Joost token (invite) that you can spare, I would be most grateful.

[Technorati Tag: Joost]

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on Joost Token Anyone?

Skype

Posted on February 21, 2007 by Michael Koby

I am officially on Skype now.  My Skype name is michael.koby.  I’m not totally sure how much I will be using it at this moment in time, but I definitely wanted to get an account set up for possible future use.

So, add me if you would like, because it is all good.

[Technorati Tag: Skype]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Skype