Tired of using Blogger, WordPress.com, or TypePad and you think you’re ready for the installed version of WordPress (which to me is the big daddy of blogging application)? Then keep reading!

The easiest part of this is proably figuring out what your blog name will be. If you have a business then it’s most likely going to be your business name. If you’re trying to promote your work then you’d want to go with your name. But hold on, with so many websites up nowadays you want to check to make sure that domain name you want is available. So the first thing you want to do is check that. How?

• Go to GoDaddy, check availability and then purchase the one that suits you right there and there
• GoDaddy isn’t the only place to check or purchase (it’s just one we use). To just check you can go to WhoIs.Net. Then you want to find an ICANN accredited domain name reseller.
• Then you want to find a hosting company which THIS can be REALLY tough to do. It’s the heart of your website and so you need to make sure that the company you go through is healthy in many different aspect.

How do you know if a hosting company is reliable and stable?

• First you want to figure out what you want – features wise – out of your hosting provider (e.g. server space, customer service, 800#, Linux/Windows, database, subdomains, control panel, Fantastico, email). If you’re not sure, you need to either read more on this topic or find somebody who can explain it for you. If you know exactly what you want your web space to be then this process will be less painful for you and the person helping.
• A little tip if you want to mainly use your site to run WordPress. Find a hosting company that has Fantastico in their package. With Fantastico you can install and update WordPress with a click of a button. A monkey can even do it {::SMILES}. It’s nice because even though I’m an advanced WP admin having a button to click to upgrade saves me a whole lot of time. NOTE though, if you want to install WordPress MU, the multi-user, you can forget Fantastico. A basic company will do.
• After figuring the features you want to look for companies that has all or more of what you want. Write them out and if possible create a side-by-side chart in Excel or something.
• Go to WebHostingTalk.com. This place is awesome! Type in the name of the hosting company you’ve got listed in the search… the ones you’re interested in… and read what others have to say about it. If you can’t find any post on a company you’re eye-balling, create an account and post a question there. You’ll get some good answers that say day. Keep in mind that there’s no perfect company but from the first few pages of a thread you should be able to get an idea which company is good and which you should just skip.
• Make up your mind and open an account. Here’s my suggestion. DO NOT go for a year plan. Go witha monthly plan and if you like them after a few months you can do the 6-mo or even a year. But anymore I’d be careful. Hosting companies are like roller coasters. They go up and down very quickly. The company that was great 2 years ago might be terrible today. Yes it might be a bit more but imagine your website being down half the time and you can’t get your money back if you switch because despite their bad service you did agree to a contract that said no money back (usually they only have a 30-60 days satisfaction guarantee period).

Ok, so that’s that. Next time we’ll talk about plug-ins. Out of the thousands on WordPress.org’s site which are great to use for an educational blog… or blogs in general.

Posted: October 22nd, 2009 under OpenSource, Tips/Tricks.
Comments: none

Do you need to edit your images but can’t afford something like Adobe Photoshop? Are you on a tight budget? Do you just need basic functions and not all the bells and whistles Photoshop has to offer? If yes, there are a few options for you…. For many, Photoshop is the first thing that many people think of when it comes to photo editing, which I think is great and it’s been my favorite application since college, but for basic photo editing, do you really need to spend the money? Plus it has a high learning curve.

Alternatives? Window Paint is terrible so we won’t even go there and Photoshop Express is just too express. While Adobe Lightroom or Elements are less expensive, you still have to pay for them. Fortunately there are a few free editors and below are some that I know (I’m no expert on any of them but I tried doing basic stuff and they’re great).

• Gimp. Who does not know Gimp? Gimp is:
  • Free
  • Mac/Windows compliant
  • Many high end tools
  • Portable. You can run it through your USB drive. Or, get PortableApps and you can have a few apps running through a 1Gig drive. The bigger your USB drive the better (for storage and more apps) but a giger is good enough. Portable Apps is awesome. Read about it on their site but I’ll blog more about it later!
  • Did I say Gimp is free?

With Gimp I can edit images, use layers like in Photoshop and create some cool stuff… where in my case it would be a digital scrapbook page {::SMILES}. Now, don’t get me wrong. Just because it’s not Photoshop it doesn’t mean it’s easy to use. There is a high learning curve for Gimp so be prepared, give yourself some extra time to learn, and enjoy this FREE application. IF you happen to be a UCM student, faculty, or staff, please do visit Atomic Learning and you can have access to some nice FREE Gimp video tutorials. If you are a student, faculty, or staff who needs access to Atomic Learning outside of the university, please contact me and after verifying your status with the university I can give you the username and password.

• Pixlr: Another freebie but this is online. How nice is that? Pixlr has some “wicked” tools and a few nice filters. A bit more basic than downloading Gimp but you can get a lot done with this one application. Try making a nice announcement… or get ready for next Christmas holiday photo card early {SMILES}.
• Sumo Paint: I think this is my favorite online photo editor. Unlike the other online editors, Sumo was intended more for image creation than just editing. Which right there tells you… more features. After clicking here and there to me, Sumo does have a lot of features and it is more Photoshop-ish which made it easier for me to use. There’s a good overview of Sumo Paint which you can read. One day, after I play with it more, I’d love to write more about this and maybe offer a few tutorials.
• Splashup: This is the one I haven’t played much with compare to the three above. What I can see would be handy is the sharing option, share to FB, Flickr, and Picasa. After permission’s granted, I can grab images from my Flickr gallery and edit it in Splashup. Very nice, actually waaaaay nicer than Picnik.
• Paint.net: One I have not had the chance to actually use bit I have it (terrible me!). It’s Windows only (ahhh, that’s probably why I haven’t used it) and it is comparable to Gimp.

A few options there for you. Whether or not you want the installed version or an online one, for a lot of the basic photo editing that I know some would like to use Photoshop for, one of the above will serve the purpose just fine.

Have a great week and if you want to share the money you save, send it our way. I’m sure our department would appreciate it {::GRIN}!!

Savitri

Posted: January 14th, 2009 under Mac, OpenSource, Web2.0, windows.
Comments: 2

It’s Savitri here and I just want to share my favorite apps of 2008, in no particular order.

Windows

• Pidgin: This chat software is stable and gets all my account in one application. It has a Facebook plug-in too, which I love because I don’t like logging in to Facebook all the time.
• Twirl: A Twitter based desktop application. Simple and easy on the eyes.
• Flock: The best social networking browser that connects me to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Delicious, and more.
• SnagIt and Camtasia: Creating screen captures and videos has never been easier.
• PortableApps: Many OpenSource apps on your USB drive.
• Filezilla: Still my Windows FTP application of choice

Mac

• Snapz Pro X: Very awesome for creating screen capture videos.
• Adium: Like Pidgin but the Mac version.
• Handbrake: There is a Windows version too but I’ve only used the Mac one. Awesome for recording my daughter’s DVDs since she ruins it all the time. Now, each time the DVD gets scratched I can make another copy from the original.
• CyberDuck: My favorite FTP program.
• TextWrangler: Best text editor for me. It can easily open hidden files, un-corrupt Word files, and more.
• NeoOffice: Free office suite.

Web Based

• Twitter: I know half of what I know from it.
• GoogleDocs: It’s a really nice web based office suite.
• Zoho: I think I like it better than GoogleDocs, still indecisive.
• LiveMocha: Learn a foreign language for free and meet people while you’re at it.
• Delicious: Life saver for those who works on multiple computers. Best online bookmarker for me.
• YouTube: My visual manual for learning new apps.
• WordPress MU: I love WP but MU makes it easier to create multiple blogs here on campus.
• Flickr: Just a personal favorite
• Zamzar: Converts all sorts of file.

Cool but no time to really explore

• Gimp: OpenSource image editing software, Photoshop-ish.
• InkScape: Vector drawing application, Illustrator or Corel Draw-ish.
• Dreamweaver CS3: Sad, it’s just sitting there. All I use is the editor for html, css, and php/coldfusion.
• Drupal: I’m finding it more interesting than Joomla but didn’t have a lot of time to really learn this CMS.
• Acrobat.com: Word Processor, Video conferencing, pdf converter.

Oh, there are a few more but these are what come in my head at the time of writing. I’ll add them later!

Posted: January 9th, 2009 under Mac, OpenSource, Web2.0, windows.
Comments: none

If you watched the video above, you should now have a better understanding on what a blog is.

In summary, or decide to skip and keep reading, in general a blog is an online journal or a place for you to instantaneously publish information or news quickly on to the World Wide Web. There is no special software that you need to purchase on your end. As long as you have a computer, Internet Access, and a web browser, you are good to go.
What do people use blogs for?

Depending on each person’s blog goals, blogs can be used for the following reasons and some are:

1. Self expression
2. Information sharing
3. Community building
4. Marketing
5. A Course
6. Mini discussion board

What are the benefits of blogging?

There are many benefits but what I think is top on my list are:

Read more »

Posted: May 28th, 2008 under OpenSource, Tutorials, Web2.0.
Comments: 1

Helix 2008 presentation

Handout in

• Word
• PDF
• PPT

| View | Upload your own

Posted: April 4th, 2008 under OpenSource.
Comments: 1