February, 2011

10 Open-Source Programs for a Variety of Uses

This is a guest post by Cathy Pierce. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Open-Source software is more popular than ever because many Open-Source programs are now on-par with purchased software. To get even more bang for your buck (so to speak, since all of these Open-Source programs cost only a few clicks of your mouse) here are some of the top Open-Source programs that have a variety of uses.

• Open Office — Probably the best free Open-Source alternative to the Microsoft Office Suite, Open Office includes Writer (a word processor), Calc (an Excel-like spreadsheet program), Impress (a Powerpoint-like presentation program), Base (an Access-like database program) and more. In addition to having its own native file formats, Open Office also can recognize and open any MS Office file format.

• Notepad++ — Created as the souped-up programmer-targeted alternative to Microsoft Windows’ Notepad program, Notepad++ is great for editing source code, creating Cascading Style Sheets, or typing out the occasional good old .txt file.

• Miranda — Miranda is a an all-in-one instant messenger application that lets you combine contact lists from all of your other IM applications, even Facebook, and IM them through the Miranda interface. It’s a small and efficient program that saves your chat history to your hard drive for added security and can be customized with skins.

• Audacity — A great audio editing and recording program. Audacity lets you record live audio, convert cassette tapes and records into MP3 format, change the speed and pitch of recordings, blend sections of different recordings together to make your own sound mixes, edit numerous file types including MP3, WAV and AIFF and more.

• GIMP and GIMPshop — GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a powerful image-editing, painting, drawing and photo-manipulation program that boasts the same kind of power as Photoshop. In fact, if you download the add-on, GIMPshop, the menus will rearrange and some features will rename themselves so that those comfortable with Photoshop can effortlessly convert right to GIMPshop.

• NetBeans IDE — An Integrated Development Environment for programming in numerous languages, including Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, C, C++, CSS and more. An excellent tool for web and software development, and useful for editing existing web pages and Cascading Style Sheets as well. NetBeansIDE is split into modules for each program so you only install the module for the language you want to program in.

• TightVNC — TightVNC allows you to view and remotely control another person’s computer through yours. You see their desktop as if it belongs to your computer and can move the mouse and use the keyboard to make changes that affect that computer even though it’s far away from you. TightVNC is great for tech support, administration, accessing your home computer’s software from another location and more.

• Cabos —A free alternative to Limewire, Cabos allows for peer-to-peer file sharing. It uses the Gnutella network and enables fast downloading. Use it to get the latest music or movies out.

• GnuCash —Keep track of where your money is going with GnuCash. It’s free accounting software that implements a double-entry bookkeeping system. Use it for large or small business, or even personal, accounting needs.

• AssaultCube – All work and no play isn’t the way to live. Escape the daily grind with this multi-player first-person shooter game. Turn your home office into an arcade for a few minutes.
These are just a glimpse of the hundreds of free Open-Source programs out there for you to download and make good use of. While these programs are useful for a variety of things each, there are also many great programs aimed at doing one particular task well. Since Open-Source is free, you’ve got the power to try as many different programs as you like until you find the one that works best for you

Cathy Pierce is a business professional turned stay-at-home mom. She loves her kids, good TV and the Web. Follow her on Twitter @mrscathypierce.

Page Not Found Error While Trying To Edit And Save ?

Arvind,

Q: I have a problem where every time
I edit a post, 1 out of 2 times when
I save it, I get the message that
the page is not found!

This is strange and most annoying, if you had written a lengthy article and lost due to such weird behavior! If you encounter such a situation, then hit the back button on your browser and most of the time(if you are using Chrome and Firefox) your data will be safe. Thanks to browser cache.

Normal Reason For This Problem
The reason for such problem maybe the URL slug. Never have those weird characters in the URL slug. If you have double quotes or single quote or some special characters in the Title, make sure you remove those characters special code from the URL slug. Because some browsers may interpret these characters differently, hence behave in different manner.

The “slug” is the URL-friendly version of the name. It is usually all lowercase and contains only letters, numbers, and hyphens

SEO Wise
Best practice is to remove unwanted words and characters from your URL slug.
Ex: My Title is “Page Is Not Found Error While Trying To Edit And Save ?”

Here remove My, Is, While, To, And etc and retain only the main keywords which you think are most relevant to the article.
So my article’s URL looks : http://technotip.org/page-not-found-error-edit-save/
My title is still Page Not Found Error When Trying To Edit And Save ?

More sophisticated problem
If you don’t have any special characters in your URL slug and still have this problem, then your next suspect should be plugins.
Deactivate one plugin at a time and try to edit and save. By repeatedly doing this trial and error method you can detect what plugin might be in conflict.

Also make sure you have all latest plugins and have upgraded your WordPress installation to the latest version. Most of the times these bugs will be fixed, but we forget to update the software and face the consequences!

Are Comments On Your Blog From Real People ?

Lately I have started getting lot of spam comments on this blog. And yes, I use Akismet WordPress plugin. Surprisingly enough, these latest spams easily get through the Akismit plugin. And some times, these comments look valid too: so they are smart enough and even can fool a real human being!

I Love Automation!
Yesterday while surfing the web I stumbled upon a review about a software product. I usually look for such things, because I love the idea of automation. Not about auto-generation of content. I’m talking about using machines and programming in a smarter way to reduce human involvement and to acquire more reliability and faster accomplishment of tasks with less expense.

Idea’s and Logic
With that quest I looked at the review, and to my shock it was a software which once triggered comments on around 500 to 1000 blogs! It has a RSS like system, wherein it collects all the frequent updates and based on the keywords it posts the pre-templated comments with link back signature in it. Hence driving traffic.

Well, idea wise, it’s a good idea to generate loads of traffic to the blog. Because, the comments will be to the topic and most of the times seems like related and genuine. But the problem is, this software scraps the same comment across all the blogs which has published articles with similar keyword. You will be shocked to see, how many blogs with same niche get all word-to-word same comments.

Killing The Business
This approach dilutes the healthy conversation/discussion going on in the comment section. I’m not sure why these people develop such a software which isn’t healthy for their own long term success. If making as much money as possible in short period of time was the motto of every business, then we wouldn’t have heard of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Oracle etc. Business people should have ethics in making money and long term plans to nourish their business.

The Consequence
Increased activity of such software scripts has led to the shutdown of many blog’s comment system. Owners of big blogs can’t handle these floods of comments. And some other bloggers have turned off the linking system in their comment system. So, if someone wants to comment, then the only purpose should be to add more value and to involve in the discussion.

The problem with the above mentioned idea for scrapping comment is: many blogs will have same comments. The comment will be generic and not exactly to the point. So it will surly reduce the value of the overall conversation.

Disclaimer
I’m not writing this to harm any business. I want to keep webmasters informed about such a thing in market. And my 2 cents about Software Business.
[Well I’m in my final year MCA: Master of Computer Applications. So being a Software guy myself, I have my own work ethics and opinions. So please bear with me, if it doesn’t resonate with you!]

Comments should be to the topic and should add value..

FREE Software: Screen Capture + Audio Capture

Shruthi,

Q: I want to do some tutorial videos and do some voice overs for the skits that we often do. I have put all money into purchasing a good Camera, so can’t invest in software products. Are there any open source software that will let me record the computer screen and also do voice over or voice narration to my skits — all for free ?
For editing my video’s from Camera, I have got software
along with the cam itself.

Words Wisdom!
Just three years back I was using the word “Softwares” for referring to multiple copies of software and multiple software products, but it’s wrong usage. There isn’t a word called “Softwares“.

Usage Example:
Our company has 1 software product.
Our company has 2 software products.

Screen Capture + Audio Capture:

Authoritative
Good Video content is usually seen as authoritative by the users. People usually prefer to watch, than to sit and read. There are wide variety of devices from iPod, iPad, iPhone to a wide range of smart phones which enable easy viewing of video content, thus making it more consumable.

Part of the reason for considering video content creators as authoritative is because they stand out from the crowd: the crowd which usually produces text content.

Some Facts
The matter of fact being, YouTube is receiving more than 2 Billion hits per day. And more people who watch videos comeback and watch videos again, than people coming back and reading the same blog again when there is new content.

Free Software
There are two pieces of software to accomplish this. They are open source.

For Screen capturing use CamStudio.
For Audio recording, Audacity is the best.

CamStudio isn’t that sophisticated, but it has all the basic features with which you can easily start screen recording and produce some professional looking video tutorials without hassle.

Why Audio Record Separately ?
If you are using your Camcorder to record the video skits and later want to record the voice over! May be because your camera audio recording isn’t good and you don’t want to put extra money into purchasing an external voice recorder device for your camera.

Audacity is by far one of the best, free voice recording tool I have seen so far. It has lot of useful features and enhancement plugins. There are versions for Windows, Macintosh as well as for Unix/Linux. Give it a try.

Screen Capturing Software Also Capture Audio
All the above mentioned screen capturing tools also capture system sound as well as audio from external Microphone, but for people who want to voice over separately and want a open source one, check out Audacity.

Online Screen Capturing
You can even try Jing, it’s an online screen capturing tool from TechSmith.

Paid Software
If you can afford and want to look at some paid software, then make sure to consider:

Camtasia for both Windows and Macintosh.
Screen Flow for Macintosh.

I would recommend to check out “Free Trial” of these paid software; they are worth trying.

There are many other software for screen capturing and audio recording, if you have used any – please share your experience with us in the comment section.

12 Strategies to Make Your Blog More Interesting

This is a guest post by Michael Cash. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

One of the biggest (and most important) challenges that bloggers face is making their blog stand out from the masses and hit home with a group of readers. From generating the content itself to handling aspects of the blog’s organization and design, it can be difficult to come up with interesting ideas to add that personal touch to your posts.

Provided here are 12 strategies to make your blog more interesting. If you’re having trouble keeping your readers interested in your blog, the answer may be below.

1. Prove to your readers that you know what you’re talking about. Accomplish this with an About Me page, and include your education history, certifications and places where your content has been published.

2. Post a poll or a survey with software such as Blog Poll or Poll Daddy. Allowing your readers to interact with your blog beyond simply reading it can keep their attention. As a bonus, you can learn more about what your readers want to know more about.

3. Consider using SEO services to generate a list of keywords that will not only bring new traffic to your blog, but likely touch on some of the subjects that your regular readers want addressed. You might be surprised at some of the keywords related to your blog that are revealed – some that you may not have ever thought about before.

4. Respond to your readers’ comments. Blog readers like to know that their comments are taken seriously, and the debates you engage in may provide inspiration for future posts.

5. Create catchy titles. Words and phrases such as “how to,” “reasons why,” “lessons,” “secrets,” and “top” catch the reader’s attention because they imply that the information included in your post will be direct, actionable, specific and/or rare.

6. Include images and graphs to illustrate your points. Free charts are available from sites such as MarketingCharts.com and Compete.com. If you need to post an image that you didn’t originally create, be sure to use legally available images from sites such as Flickr and ImageShack that fall under the Creative Commons license.

7. Post your contact information to make your blog more personal. You don’t need to disclose sensitive information such as your phone number, but you can at least list your email address and perhaps your Skype contact name.

8. Link to a relevant Youtube video, or create your own video content. Most Internet users prefer to watch instead of reading. Videos are especially useful for product review blogs, live music blogs and other types of content that demand more than a text explanation.

9. List your sources. Phrases such as “studies show” or “according to some” don’t mean much unless they’re attached to a credible, authoritative source.

10. Include some humor. Even the driest, most rigid, most academic subject matter can benefit from some irony or a light jab. Including humor in your posts reminds the reader that you’re a live human being, not a machine simply spewing facts.

11. Include hashtags in your posts. A hashtag is a # symbol attached to a word of interest, such as #Obama or #Lollapalooza. You can use hashtags to categorize your posts, and make the keywords attached to them easier to follow. For example, your reader could click a word affixed with a hashtag and see all of the other posts on your blog that include that hashtag.

12. Don’t post “walls of text.” Break up your content with white space, headings, subheadings, shorter paragraphs, and bulleted lists. Judiciously using bold text, italics and even colored text can help to emphasize a point. Keep introductions short and pointed, and ensure that your reader knows exactly what to expect from your post after reading the first sentence or two.

This post was contributed by Michael Cash, an expert in SEO and Social Media @ iNetZeal.net

Do You Want More Sales ?

We see a lot of ads all over in our lives! like internet, TV, Newspaper, Streets, Radio, beginning of a movie in the theater, at intervals etc. Its all around us. So much so that most of us have developed ad blindness. Geeks can smell adsense ads from far 🙂 let alone click it!

Do You Have A Business? Want To Sell More ?
If you run any online or offline business, it’s wise to start advertising your business. Well this is common sense, but many businesses are still operating without ever trying to advertise.

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.”
— Steuart Henderson Britt
(Marketing Management and Administrative Action)

If you are making $5000 per month without advertising, then how about making $15000 per month, by spending $100 for effective advertising ?
It’s like having a sales force to bring in more leads, more business to you. Wouldn’t you spend $100 to get an additional profit ? Why not, right ?

Product First
But for all these things to work, you must have a good product in place. If you have that, then there is no need to step back.

“If you believe in what you do and you can really help people, then you have a moral obligation to try and bring it to as many people as possible.”
—- Chet Holmes

Most of us think advertising as evil..but if you have a good product, and a nice offer to make, then I don’t think you need to hesitate to get all your target audience to buy your product. Most people under-estimate the power of advertising. If you think you have a good product which helps people, then why not provide them a nice offer via advertisement and help them even more ?

#1 Form of Advertising
The old form of marketing – “The Word Of Mouth” marketing is still the #1. But to get to that point, you can use advertising effectively to build the brand.

See the biggest brands in the world, for any commercial product. There is at least one big dominator in most niches. How do you think someone became #1 ? Yes, they obviously have a good product, and a big budget to market via advertisement.

Darker Side!
There are some products which are not so good, but they still manage to sell ? It’s the marketing trick and the magic of advertisement. But you bet, they won’t be in the market for a long time. If someone has a bad product, and tries to sell via advertisements, these advertisements will eventually hurt the business, no matter how good they are at advertising. But sure, with advertising they will make some quick bucks for a short time.

Essentials
For long term successful business, these are the key ingredients:
1. Have a good product.
2. Market the product effectively.
If you fail in any one, your business is likely to fail as well.

Give advertising a try, if you haven’t already. Build the brand, sell the product, help as many as possible.

Tips for getting started
There will always be (most of the times) some offers for advertisers to get started. For example, Google provides Free Google Adwords coupon, Chitika and Bidvertiser also provides Free $$ for new advertisers to get started. Make a quick search on our blog and you will find a lot of discount coupons for advertising on various ad networks.
If you want to advertise on a magazine, ask for a offer. You will always need to negotiate and never compromise with the quality of the ad copy that you write.

Let us know, how you market your business, both online and offline.

Problem With ComLuv Plugin ?

It’s a good strategy to show commentators latest blog post at the end of his/her comment. This would drive more people to comment on your blog regularly. With this great idea came a WordPress plugin called ComLuv plugin.

The Problem
Some people are experiencing a problem, where the plugin reports that there are no latest posts to retrieve 🙁
It’s heart breaking to receive such message when you blogged all day night and have published articles every day without fail!

Does this screenshot seem familiar to you? It will not be any more, read on..

Research Phase!
After using all online tools to check the blog’s feed health, blog’s header coding for proper feed address etc, found a solution So I’m here sharing this small tip, hoping to save you some time.

Root Cause of the Problem
It is to be noted that http://technotip.org and http://www.technotip.org will be treated as two different locations by online automated tools. So, you need to redirect the http requests to any one of the above mentioned form. Choose one or the other form, and don’t get obsessed with it. www is considered as a sub-domain. Now the problem is, ComLuv plugin may be looking at any one of the above mentioned form. If your blog URL is in the other form, then it obviously tells that “there are no latest posts on your blog” or “No last blog posts to show”.

The Solution
1. You can goto your hosting company and tell them to force redirect the http request to any one of the above mentioned form.

OR

2. You can simply start using the way which works with ComLuv plugin! i.e., if you use http://www.technotip.org while commenting and ComLuv didn’t show your latest post. Then change the URL to http://technotip.org and in most cases the plugin starts working.

If this worked, then congrats. Bookmark this post and share it with your Twitter and Facebook friends 🙂