Archive for January, 2009

WordPress Twitter integration

// January 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // tools

Hopefully this post will be the first that automatically updates Twitter. Two plug-ins haven’t worked so far, so I’m hoping TweetMe does the business.

Update: This has just been updated to version 1.1 and I also wanted to add a link to Whomwah.com, the plug-in creators website.

To netbook or not to netbook?

// January 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // tech

That’s the question a lot of people are considering at the moment. I took the plunge and after a little research went for the Samsung NC10. After almost 2 months of usage I can heartily recommend this fantastic little laptop. I’m running the Windows 7 Beta on there as a dual-boot with XP Home at the moment and I have to admit I can’t remember the last time I booted into XP Home. If you have an NC10 and feel brave enough to try the 7 Beta, Ade Miller’s blog post helps to iron out the minor issues.

While I was researching Netbooks, the one thing I couldn’t find was a hands-on comparison of all the popular models available. Thankfully I stumbled across that exact piece yesterday and wanted to share the article: Netbook supertest

9 Great Tools for 2009

// January 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // tools

Having read Michael Arrington’s post over at TechCrunch I thought it might be useful to list out nine programs and tools I depend upon on a daily basis to make my life easier!

  1. Firefox 3
    An amazing browser and the number of useful Add-ons is unbelievably useful. Great to see it eating away at Microsofts market-share, but it’s never going to be everyone’s favourite browser.
  2. Firebug
    My personal favourite Add-on for Firefox is Firebug, the simple inline troubleshooting it allows you to do, makes HTML and CSS tweaking an minor inconvenience!
  3. iGoogle
    It’s where I start my browsing session every time I fire up Firefox – it takes a little while to get organised, but the dashboard of categorised, relevant news organised by tabs makes the wide volume of information I need to keep tabs on manageable.
  4. WordPress
    2.7 is simply improved perfection – the back-end interface improvements, coupled with the new automated upgrade process make it simply the best Blogging solution IMHO.
  5. LogMeIn
    This free-to-use remote access software makes lifetime friends and family support contracts a manageable experience. The free version gives you all the power you should need for simple troubleshooting and PC maintainence.
  6. Carbonite
    Automated, secure, off-site back-up. It’s not free, but it’s very affordable! How much is your data (photos, music, etc) worth in both time and money? Microsofts Live Mesh almost got a mention here, but I’m still getting used to it’s functionality and querks.
  7. Popurls
    A perfect companion to iGoogle for broader interests and breaking news stories. Popurls is a customisable collection of all the best news feeds available online. Even better, is that if you don’t like it you can totally customise it!
  8. Outlook 2007
    Alot of people have expressed their gripes at Office 2007. Personally I love it, a really positive step forwards. My favourite application is the new and improved Outlook, the simple inclusion of RSS feeds alongside my Inbox allows fantastic brand visibility and monitoring with the help of Distilled’s Reputation Monitor.
  9. IM – Windows Messenger / Pidgin
    This was a tough choice, between IM and Twitter, but IM is still one of my most valuable tools for communication and online collaboration. Microsoft has been a wee bit sneaky, but incorporating Messenger into a Windows Live Essentials software pack, but Ads aside it’s my prefered client. For a fuss-free, fast and functional IM client Pidgin ticks all the boxes and sits perfectly in my system tray, without all the bells and whistles that Live Messenger brings to a desktop – perfect for work.

So that’s my Top 9 at the start of 2009. It would have been easy to expand the list to 20, but top 20′s don’t seem that popular as blog posts…and also it didn’t rhyme.

Web Predictions for 2009

// January 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // web thoughts

Inspired by ReadWriteWeb’s accummulated list of predictions, I selected my top 5 that I’d like to see happen:

  1. Sarah Perez predicts ‘Google Chrome adds plugins…one of them is a Google plugin that lets you integrate Google Mail, Reader, & other Google products/services right into the browser.’ This is a real, must happen if they want to compete with Firefox. Although they appear to be targetting Chrome purely at IE’s marketshare at the moment, by going for the simple, fast browsing experience. If they could add-in support for Firefox plug-ins they could take a larger slice of the browser marketplace.
  2. Lidija Davis predicts that ‘Microsoft resurrects WebTV after buying out Netflix’. Anything that continues the enhancement of the Windows Media Centre platform would be welcomed by me. Windows 7 looks to given it a lick of paint a some improvements, but greater support for IPTV and integrated streaming i.e. iTunes movie rental would be great.
  3. Sean Ammirati predicts that ‘Unfortunately, Facebook Connect authentication will become dominant method for authentication on the web (while this is my prediction, I’m still rooting for a more open solution).’ Facebook Connect has amazing potential and has real implications for website owners that desire ‘community interaction’. Social media is now approaching mainstream as people being their online experience on Facebook and move-out from there.
  4. Rick Turozcy predicts that ‘eBay – the Yahoo! of 2009 – oscillates between break-up and acquisition. After a great deal of drama, it will eventually be acquired by Amazon and incorporated into its seller storefront offering.’ This would be a interesting one to see play-out – two e-commerce giants combining. I think 2009 is too early, but I wouldn’t rule-out a coming together of these two at some point as they appear to be aimming for the same place long-term?
  5. Sean Ammirati predicts that ‘Twitter will be acquired (probably by Facebook–but multiple suitors will compete for the deal).’ The big acquisition of 2009 has to be Twitter, with increasing numbers of users and a more stable infrastructure it’s going to appeal to a number of buyers. Sean goes for Facebook, but I think Google may also be interested…

What do you predict for 2009 online?