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
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Widgets - Creative Finally Releases Fixed Vista Drivers For X-Fi [Vista Drivers]
Creative's finally put that whole driver fiasco behind them and released Vista-capable drivers for their X-FI cards. What took them so long? Who knows, but they've added DVD Audio playback, which is... Read More
Dashboard - General SQL Parser .NET 1.9.8 (Demo)
General SQL Parser .NET 1.9.8 (Demo)
Check syntax of SQL statements, pretty print out SQL statements
Check syntax of SQL statements, pretty print out SQL statements
Download - ScriptVOX Studio 1.8.2 Build 17831 (Trial)
This software is designed to help you bring your stories to life by assigning TTS elements to the text Read More
Dashboard - TheSpringBox 1.1.3
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:
Happy Holidays Everyone,
- The SpringWidgets Team
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
Download - Opell Video to PSP Converter 2.1.10 (Demo)
A handy and powerful utility that will convert your video files to PSP format. Read More
Download - iPhone Hip Holster Recharges Your Battery While Repelling the Ladies [Holsters]
iPhone Hip Holster Recharges Your Battery While Repelling the Ladies [Holsters]
Sheathing something as slick and pocketable as the iPhone in a holster feels wrong to me for many reasons, but this particular holster adds the handy ability to charge your drained batteries with its...
Sheathing something as slick and pocketable as the iPhone in a holster feels wrong to me for many reasons, but this particular holster adds the handy ability to charge your drained batteries with its...
Download - Opell Video to AVI MPEG MOV RM FLV iPod PSP 3GP Zune Converter 2.1.14 (Demo)
The all in one software able to convert video file formats. Read More
Dashboard - Kinara widget for Kwanzaa is here!
We're finished the Kinara widget for Kwanzaa!!!!
A new candle is lit for each day of Kwanzaa. Click on "Get this widget" to put it on your page!
Read More
A new candle is lit for each day of Kwanzaa. Click on "Get this widget" to put it on your page!
Read More
Widgets - The Menorah for Hanukkah is also available . . .
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Download - GamePark's GP3X "Wiz" PMP Spy Shot [Gp3x]
It has been nearly 3 years since the original Linux-based GP2X handheld first arrived, and based on this spy shot, it appears that a second-gen version is well on its way. Naturally, not much is... Read More
Download - Penguin United's Quad Charge Station Takes Four Wiimotes Simultaneously [Wiimote Charger]
Nyko's Wiimote charge station has been on the market for a while now, dutifully rejuvenating two Wiimotes at a time so you don't have to. How could you improve on that concept? By introducing a... Read More
Download - GAMES, GAMES, GAMES!!!!!
We love the cool games we played when we were kids, so we found them and put those games in our widget platform (Thank You, Neave!!!!).
http://springwidget.com/widgets/byCategory/12
Check them out - they are in the "Fun and Games" category of the Widget Gallery.
We have the following:
Asteroids
Tic-Tac-Toe
Simon
Hexxagon
Snake
Space Invaders
They are pretty addictive - I spend more time than I'd like to admit tie-ing the computer in Tic-Tac-Toe - but I figured out the one move that always wins - hehe.
Have fun and let us know what you think!
Read More
http://springwidget.com/widgets/byCategory/12
Check them out - they are in the "Fun and Games" category of the Widget Gallery.
We have the following:
Asteroids
Tic-Tac-Toe
Simon
Hexxagon
Snake
Space Invaders
They are pretty addictive - I spend more time than I'd like to admit tie-ing the computer in Tic-Tac-Toe - but I figured out the one move that always wins - hehe.
Have fun and let us know what you think!
Read More
Download - Temporary Server Issues
Temporary Server Issues
We are experiencing issues with some of our servers. We are aware of the problem and working on it. This is not affecting the availability of our widget. It is only affecting our website and the bookmarking and sharing functions. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will update this post as soon as the issues [...]
We are experiencing issues with some of our servers. We are aware of the problem and working on it. This is not affecting the availability of our widget. It is only affecting our website and the bookmarking and sharing functions. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will update this post as soon as the issues [...]
We are experiencing issues with some of our servers. We are aware of the problem and working on it. This is not affecting the availability of our widget. It is only affecting our website and the bookmarking and sharing functions. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will update this post as soon as the issues are resolved.
Update: Problem solved. Both the website and the bookmarking/sharing functions are working again. Luckily, the downtime was short and the effects minimal. Thank you for your patience.
- the AddThis team
Download - 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 Read More
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!
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 Read More
Download - PowerReuse 1.1 build 1.1.0.57 (Trial)
PowerReuse 1.1 build 1.1.0.57 (Trial)
A document assembly software for boosting productivity for professionals
A document assembly software for boosting productivity for professionals
Widgets - Wii MotionPlus Demonstrated in 3D, Jedi Drone Training is GO [Wii MotionPlus]
AiLive, the company that collaborated with Nintendo on the MotionPlus controller add-on, has released a video demonstrating the full capabilities of the new hardware with a set of 3D tools called... Read More
Dashboard - John Chow vs Shoemoney RSS competition
John Chow vs Shoemoney RSS competition
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.
Dashboard - New Features - New Faces - Happy Holidays
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)
- 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 O’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!
Read MoreDownload - iBird Avian Flight Simulator Makes You Feel Like Icarus [Flight Simulators]
newVideoPlayer("/ibird.flv", 506, 304,""); The iBird Flight Simulator was easily the most creative demo at Microsoft's Research Summit yesterday. Also developed in conjunction with NYU (like the... Read More
Dashboard - Current Profits For Game Publishing Puts Nintendo Up Front With Infinite Gold Cheat [Gaming]
These are the current software profits for Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony based on first-party game titles published under their banner. It's much like the hardware situation, with Nintendo up front... Read More
Download - Social Trends for September
Social Trends for September
Here are the trends for September. The first graph shows the evolution of the ranking for the top 10 social bookmarking services. We can clearly see the sudden rise of Facebook to the 4th position in September. Another interesting path is the one traced by Live, who was initially in the 6th position, was pushed [...]
Here are the trends for September. The first graph shows the evolution of the ranking for the top 10 social bookmarking services. We can clearly see the sudden rise of Facebook to the 4th position in September. Another interesting path is the one traced by Live, who was initially in the 6th position, was pushed [...]
Here are the trends for September. The first graph shows the evolution of the ranking for the top 10 social bookmarking services. We can clearly see the sudden rise of Facebook to the 4th position in September. Another interesting path is the one traced by Live, who was initially in the 6th position, was pushed down to the 8th position by Reddit and StumbleUpon in April, and then went back up all the way to the 4th position in July pushing down Digg and MyWeb.
As expect, September’s mover is Facebook, going from 5% in August to 7.1% in September. Delicious however lost a little bit of traction. Favorites (browser bookmarking) have also increased, but this is mostly due to the fact that Favorites are now also included in the drop-down widget.
Google Reader continues to grow and lead the feed reader market (up 1.4%) while MyYahoo and Bloglines are standing still. The mover for September is Live, which moved up 2%.
To see more trends, click here.
Top Social Bookmarking/Sharing - Ranking Over Time
Top Social Bookmarking/Sharing - September 2007
Top Feed Readers - September 2007
Widgets - NPR Addict
NPR Addict
For you NPR addicts out there, you can use this Widget to select an NPR program by date to stream via Windows Media or RealPlayer on Windows or Mac. There are several other public radio streams and archives that are added over time (e.g., CarTalk, A Prairie Home Companion, and others). Note: this Widget does not play the streams, in simply invokes your audio player to do so. See comments section for late breaking announcements. To see details on past and future developments with this Widget, go to http://www.evolutedesign.com/website/widgets.html.
For you NPR addicts out there, you can use this Widget to select an NPR program by date to stream via Windows Media or RealPlayer on Windows or Mac. There are several other public radio streams and archives that are added over time (e.g., CarTalk, A Prairie Home Companion, and others). Note: this Widget does not play the streams, in simply invokes your audio player to do so. See comments section for late breaking announcements. To see details on past and future developments with this Widget, go to http://www.evolutedesign.com/website/widgets.html.
Download - RSS Hugger
RSS Hugger
Collin LaHay has come up with an idea called RSSHugger, it's a site that allows webmasters to promote their RSS feeds by adding them to the site. You can add your own page but it will cost you 20US dollars (10 is you blog about RSSHugger).
RSS Hugger seems to be a cross between an RSS directory and a wiki. Collin wants the directory to grow to 50,000 blogs which he claims is 0.00045 percent of the blogosphere.
The idea behind the new site is to create buzz and generate new RSS subscribers for RSS feeds that are added to the site. When you buy a page you basically get your feed headlines displayed on your own page within RSSHugger. Whether or not enough buzz is created to generate any new subscribers to members feeds remains to be seen.
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.
Dashboard - NP | Music to be free 2.0
NP | Music to be free 2.0
Get the latest news & support Niko Pavlidis with this widget.
Get the latest news & support Niko Pavlidis with this widget.
 | About NP | Music to be free Get the latest news & support Niko Pavlidis with this widget. |
Download - DirecTV Adding 30 HD Channels on August 14th, 1080p Movies Later This Year [Home Entertainment]
DirecTV Adding 30 HD Channels on August 14th, 1080p Movies Later This Year [Home Entertainment]
DirecTV is poised to take the lead in the HD battle by adding 30 extra channels starting on August 14th. That would give them 130 channels of HD in total—putting them well on their way to the 150...
DirecTV is poised to take the lead in the HD battle by adding 30 extra channels starting on August 14th. That would give them 130 channels of HD in total—putting them well on their way to the 150...
Download - iPhone 3G Data Plan for Deaf: $50/Month [IPhone 3G]
The iPhone 3G's data plan for the deaf will be $10 higher than the original, just like it is for everyone else. It comes with unlimited texting, email and web browsing for $50 a month, or $65 for the... Read More
Download - Liz Strauss Invites You to Show Off Your Blog
Liz Strauss Invites You to Show Off Your Blog
Liz Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Bloggers is giving you a chance to promote your blog to the world in her Showcase Your Blog at Successful-Blog July 26-27, 2008. This is a great chance to showcase your blog to thousands of bloggers and fans on the blog by the founder of the popular Successful and Outstanding [...]
Liz Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Bloggers is giving you a chance to promote your blog to the world in her Showcase Your Blog at Successful-Blog July 26-27, 2008. This is a great chance to showcase your blog to thousands of bloggers and fans on the blog by the founder of the popular Successful and Outstanding [...]
Liz Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Bloggers is giving you a chance to promote your blog to the world in her Showcase Your Blog at Successful-Blog July 26-27, 2008.
This is a great chance to showcase your blog to thousands of bloggers and fans on the blog by the founder of the popular Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference (SOBCon) and author of the fast selling ebook, The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog — The Insider’s Guide to the Conversation That’s Changing How Business Works.
To particpate, check out the instructions in the announcement of the Blog Showcase and email your blog title, URL, blog tagline, a sentence of two about what makes your blog worth visiting, and some advice on blogging or a colorful bloggy quote. The deadlines is Saturday July 26, 2008.
Site Search Tags: liz strauss, successful blog, sob, sobcon, showcase your blog, show off your blog, blog competition, blog contest, blog brag, brag about your blog, successful blogger
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
Download - iBuddy Meatspace Instant Message Notification Guy Now On Sale [IBuddy]
That iBuddy MSN emote guy we caw back at CES is now on sale at Brando for $20. If you don't remember, you can set up notifications on your MSN buddies, so that when they sign on, the iBuddy goes nuts... Read More
Download - ExpressWidgets from SpringWidgets!
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!
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!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Dashboard - 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... Read More
Dashboard - Netflix Streaming Will Always Be Subscription-Based, Never Pay-Per-View [NetFlix]
Subscribers hoping that Netflix would get into the pay-per-view space will be slightly disappointed, as its CEO reiterates that they will always be in the subscription business. Reed Hastings says,... Read More
Dashboard - ExpressWidgets from SpringWidgets!
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!
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!
Widgets - Wiimote-Controlled Canoe Adds Nerdiness, Removes Physical Effort [DIY]
Ah, the great outdoors. Nothing says summer like heading out in your canoe. Especially if said canoe has been modified with a small electric motor that's controllable via a Wiimote. That's right,... Read More
Download - 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
Download - Blog Challenge: Describe Your Software - Then and Now
Last week’s blog challenge was Describe Your Computer Setup - Then and Now. This week, I am challenging you to blog about your blog software, then and now. I’ve used just about all types of computer technology, from the early days of data storage on gigantic floppy disks to magnetic cards to “640K is enough for [...]
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I’ve used just about all types of computer technology, from the early days of data storage on gigantic floppy disks to magnetic cards to “640K is enough for anyone” to my favorite current love, my 750 gig portable drive. Along the way, I had harsh words for most software, from the earliest Cobal and Fortran to Visual Basic to DOS to Windows, and a lot of other stuff in between.
From day one, I hated the lack of functionality, clear thinking, and usability in most software programs. “Clunky” was my favorite descriptive word. With little ability to style graphics in the early days, we were stuck with nothing but words on a green, amber, or white monochrome screen, putting more work into the manipulation of data than data presentation. Luckily, I was in the right place at the right time to help change much of that in the early days as an early beta tester and part of the program development teams with Microsoft, Apple, WordPerfect (Novell), and other early software companies, but it was a battle to get the concept goal desired to work with the limitations of programming and computer abilities at the time.
Slowly, software changed as hardware technology shrank, speed up, and became more flexible and versatile, and the ability to handle graphics improved. Programs became more colorful, faster, and usability became more important than just “pretty.” Competition, and trips to the courtrooms of intellectual property and product design, helped to actually create standardization, so we could install any program on any machine in a similar fashion, and all the buttons and menus were in basically the same place, speeding up the learning curve as you moved from program to program. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) became a slogan as programs now showed you what the final version would look like before you hit print or publish. Things seemed to become faster, but not always easier.
What did I use to make this static-to-import conversion? Software I used to depend upon that I haven’t touched in years. I used WordPerfect and InfoRapid freeware to search and replace across multiple text files. After Corel took over WordPerfect, it’s gone downhill for me. The last two upgrades of WordPerfect crashed randomly and without warning, and sometimes not even loading to start without errors. I do all my writing for my blog and other editorial work in NoteTab Pro and rarely do I need to search and replace across multiple files. On the rare occasions I have to write a letter or major document, I use Word, though I curse and scream every few minutes for the “improved” lack of usability and difficulties in completing the easiest of tasks. I’ve tried Open Office and it’s usability is also problematic, taking me three times as long to do what I could do in a few clicks or keystrokes in WordPerfect.
Where I used to use dozens of programs on my computer to do simple tasks, I find that I am using only a few programs and doing more focused work on them. A couple months ago I bought a new laptop and it took only a couple hours to get it up and running so I could work without stress and struggle. It would have taken days before to find the disks and upload all that software. I feel like a minimalist when it comes to my software dependency.
I could talk for ages about the powerful software I have used over the years that lost funding and support as the monopolies and slow thinking bureaucracy stifled software development within the corporate offices of the United States, which spread to the rest of the world quickly, leaving people using decent but uninspired programs - but this is your blogging challenge.
I want you to write about the software you use, whether it is software you used in your day-to-day work and life, or online software that brought the web into your life, as it was then and how it works for you today.
As usual, send a pingback or trackback to this post, or put the link to your blog challenge post in the comments, so we can all see how you’ve done with your blog challenge.
Did you know that you don’t have to write these blog challenges? You can also use audio with podcasts or make a video in response to the blog challenge and publish it on your blog. There are a lot of ways you can have fun with these weekly blog challenges. Use your imagination and see how far you can take the challenge into territories you haven’t explored before.
These blogging challenges are published weekly and are an attempt to kick your blogging ass. They serve to challenge your thinking and efforts in blogging and blog writing. To participate, start challenging yourself now. Today. Go for it.
Past Blogging Challenges
- Blog Challenge: Blog About Those Who Dare to Speak Out
- Blog Challenge: Who Would You Like To See Blog From History?
- Blog Challenge: What’s Your Blog’s Story?
- Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash
- Blog Challenge: What is the Most Unusual Blogger You’ve Found?
- Blog Challenge: Write A Biographical Post
- Blog Challenge: Teach a Blogging Technique
- Blog Challenge: Write a Memoir of a Moment
- Blog Challenge: Shopping Experiences
- Blog Challenge: Write a Political Post
Site Search Tags: blog challenge, blogging challenge, writing, blog writing, computer software, software history, computer history, software development, how software influences your work and life
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
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Download - Question: What Will You Not Blog About?
Question: What Will You Not Blog About?
In What Will You Not Blog About? on the Blog Herald, I asked readers to tell me what line they will not cross when it comes to blog content. What will you NOT blog about. The responses have been very interesting. A few bloggers take a no-holds-barred approach, blogging on everything and anything they want. However, [...]
In What Will You Not Blog About? on the Blog Herald, I asked readers to tell me what line they will not cross when it comes to blog content. What will you NOT blog about. The responses have been very interesting. A few bloggers take a no-holds-barred approach, blogging on everything and anything they want. However, [...]
A few bloggers take a no-holds-barred approach, blogging on everything and anything they want. However, even they have lines they will draw. Jeremy Steele admitted that he won’t report on conspiracies, other than poking fun at them.
Paul of the Opera Blog admitted that he avoids the negative:
I will generally avoid writing negative reviews about performances or recordings. I’ve only made one exception to this rule over the years. I figure there’s no point in discussing how bad something is, especially when there’s so much good stuff out there. I’d rather save my writing effort for worthwhile projects and simply ignore the crappy ones.
Chris Garrett agreed. “I would rather be a positive than destructive influence, like a ‘do no harm’ thing.” Many agreed with his Star Trek Prime Directive philosophy, including Barbara Ling (aka Owlbert):
I will not blog about anything that is meant to bring another person down. I’m a big believer in treating others the way I’d like to be treated myself.
The concern over the impact a blog can have on a worker’s life and position was brought up by Shortshire and Rhys who both agree that anything that involves their jobs or fellow employees isn’t worth the risk.
Almost all agreed that they like keeping it clean, avoiding offensive, abusive, and offensive language content from their posts as well as their comments. Richard H said, “And no foul language. It’s just not necessary to get a point across, in my opinion. A wise man once told me, ‘a foul mouth is a sign of a feeble mind trying to express itself forcefully.’”
Big Fella, like many, believe in sticking to the main focus of their blog without stepping over any moral boundaries:
I do not do gossip, I don’t like to use gratuitous profanity in my postings, I am not a shill for anyone. Just a guy sharing my observations on what piques my interest at any given time and creating commentary reflecting my values, and exercising my activist urges.
Graeme Hunter summed it up very nicely:
I tend towards the maxim of “If it will cause me or others trouble, don’t write it”. I don’t mind a good argument over opinion on a topic, but I see that as different to actually causing trouble. I have both a personal blog in my own name, and write on a work blog, with links between, so I have to be on my best behaviour.
We all have lines in our blogging sandboxes that we won’t cross. What about you?
Site Search Tags: blog writing, blogging tips, crosing lines, how to blog, blog content, blog focus, what will you blog about, what will you not blog about, blog choices, editorial, editorial content, editorial guidelines
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
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