Blazing Moon

Preventing WordPress Plugin Folly

Andy — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:58:30 +0000

There’s no doubt that plugins are one of the reasons for WordPress’s success. They can do some wonderful things. Even so, they’ve been the downfall of many a site. This post discusses the tradeoffs of plugins and how to protect your site from the Creeping Menace of Plugin Bloat. Who this article is for. Anyone [...]

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Choose the Right WordPress for Your Website

Andy — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:26:18 +0000

Many small to medium-sized nonprofits need an easy, inexpensive option for their websites. A common bit of advice is often dispensed in those situations: try WordPress. Depending on the organization’s needs, that advice might be spot-on. Unfortunately those giving the advice sometimes don’t delve into an important question: which WordPress? Because there’s not just one [...]

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WordPress Backups: The Hard Way and The Easy Way

Andy — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:19:17 +0000

Dental checkups. Cleaning the gutters. Computer backups. Some things are all too easy to put off even though we know we should do them. I can’t help you with your teeth, and I won’t help with your gutters, but I have advice about backups. Specifically, WordPress backups. Every day more organizations trust WordPress as their [...]

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Caution: Do Your Really Own Your Domain Name?

Andy — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:32:09 +0000

You own a domain name. Great. Did you or someone at your organization register the domain name directly with domain name registrar? Or did a consultant do it for you? Maybe a web hosting company or marketing firm set it up? A domain name is like a mask. It’s your public face on the Internet, [...]

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Choose the Right Technology: Goals, Tools, and Match

Andy — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:07:36 +0000

I try not to use overwrought, hyperbolic drama-words too often in my writing. Okay, so maybe I don’t try very hard. But there’s no other way to say this: the time people and organizations have wasted by using the wrong technology is utterly tragic. It can happen so easily, especially for nonprofits who often need [...]

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Website Options for Nonprofits — Part 3: Use Your Browser to Build a Website

Andy — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:15:45 +0000

This is the last in a three-part series discussing website options for nonprofits. Part 1 gave background information about what a website really is and discussed options for where yours can live. Part 2 discussed the traditional approach: installing a web page editor on your computer and using it to build a website. But the [...]

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Website Options for Nonprofits — Part 2: Web Editing Software

Andy — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:00:52 +0000

This is the second in a three-part series discussing website options for nonprofits. Part 1 gave background information about what a website really is and discussed options for where yours can live. But whether you’re building a new site or need to update an existing site, you need some way to edit pages. Today we’ll [...]

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Website Options for Nonprofits — Part 1: Big Picture

Andy — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:29:26 +0000

If your organization has a web presence of some kind, which it probably does, there’s a good chance you’re not completely happy with something about it. Maybe it’s too expensive. Maybe it’s too hard to update. Maybe it’s just plain ugly. If your organization doesn’t have a web presence, there’s a good chance that makes [...]

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Cut Through Computer Clutter

Andy — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:00:03 +0000

Stop me if I’m wrong: there’s a lot of junk on your computer. Hey, look at that. Nobody stopped me. It’s awfully easy to accumulate so much stuff on your computer that you can’t find the useful stuff mixed in with all the cruft. And oh, the cruft. It saps our time and sucks our [...]

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Google Voice for Nonprofits

Andy — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:21:20 +0000

“Google Voice for Nonprofits” isn’t a new Google offering intended for nonprofit organizations. It’s a question. Is Google Voice right for nonprofits? As with any worthwhile question, the answer is “it depends”: on the organization’s size, its culture, its work needs, and plenty of other things. This article takes a look at some issues to [...]

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Computer Viruses: Repel, Reveal, and Remove

Andy — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:48:32 +0000

Virus prevention is a little like dental cleanings. Maybe you put it off longer than you should, even though deep down you know that’s a mistake. Then when something finally goes really, painfully wrong you smack yourself in the head for not taking care of it sooner. I’ll try to make this as painless as [...]

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Share Files Online — Part 3: Collaboration Tools

Andy — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:11:49 +0000

You need to share files. Whether it’s with friends, clients, partners, or coworkers, there’s some file you need them to see, and vice-versa. My last two posts drew a distinction between whether you’re file-sharing for publication or for collaboration (How to Share Files — Part 1: Overview), and then explored some options for the publication-based [...]

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Share Files Online — Part 2: Publication Tools

Andy — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:18:53 +0000

In last week’s post, How to Share Files — Part 1: Overview, I drew a distinction between publication-based online file-sharing and collaboration-based online file-sharing. In brief, Publication tools let you put a file where others can get it. Collaboration tools let you cooperatively create a document with others. There’s a lot of overlap between these [...]

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Share Files Online — Part 1: Overview

Andy — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:23:25 +0000

Over the last few months I’ve answered a lot of questions about online file-sharing. “Should I upload my files to my own website or put them on a file-sharing service?” “How can I make a PDF available on my blog?” “What about sites like Google Docs and Zoho?” As with nearly anything, the answer depends [...]

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Fixing a Flickering PowerPoint

Andy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:19:58 +0000

This quick tip is for a very specific situation, but I want to make it available since lengthy Googling didn’t turn up an answer for me. I had to solve it the hard way: by actually paying attention. I’m not used to doing that. Google has made me weak. The Problem When I ran a [...]

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Decide Which RSS Feeds to Follow

Andy — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:37:33 +0000

RSS is a great way to easily follow a lot of websites. This article isn’t an introduction to RSS—that’ll have to wait for another time—but if you’re new to RSS or just a little hazy on the details, I highly recommend you watch the 3-minute video RSS in Plain English. Even though RSS is awfully [...]

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Nonprofit Profiles, Groups, and Pages: Facebook Policy

Andy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:58:09 +0000

When creating a Facebook presence for your nonprofit, you need to decide which kind of presence to use. In addition to creating a Facebook Cause—which you should consider as a supporting service rather than a primary presence—you really have three options: a Profile, a Group, or a Page. Profiles are intended for individuals; Pages are [...]

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Nonprofit Social Media Resources: A Menagerie

Andy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:00:19 +0000

This week I’m giving a presentation on social media to the Dane County Administrators of Volunteer Service (DCAVS). In a 75 minute talk (including discussion) I’ll only be able to scratch the surface of this enormous topic, so I’m providing them with additional resources to help with later planning and learning. I thought I’d post [...]

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Move Your Domain to a New Web Host

Andy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:28:21 +0000

Web host migration is like skydiving: you know there’ll be a lot of adrenalin, and you hope there won’t be a loud thud at the end. I’ve migrated a few domains recently for myself and others. So far, no thuds. Here’s the process I used. The following assumes (1) you already have a website hosted [...]

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Create a Nonprofit Facebook Page in 3 Easy Steps

Andy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:37:11 +0000

Step 1: Contemplate Ask yourself this question: “Why am I doing this?” (This is a pretty good question to ask before doing most things.) If you can’t answer that question clearly and specifically, you should do more thinking before you make a Page. Answers like “Because everybody’s doing it” and “Because somebody asked me why [...]

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Sync Zotero Between Two Computers

Andy — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:35:37 +0000

I’ve been using Zotero for the last few months and really appreciate it. But I had a problem: I alternate between a workstation and a laptop, and keeping Zotero in sync between the two computers was problematic. I eventually found a work-around and have posted a tutorial explaining the problem and its solution.

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Install Koha on Ubuntu — Part 6: Going Live

Andy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:00:41 +0000

Warning: this tutorial was developed in 2008, and is for versions of Koha and Ubuntu that are now considered quite old. If you want to install the current version of Koha on Ubuntu, please visit Koha on Ubuntu at the Koha Community wiki. This is part 6 of 6 in a tutorial series on installing [...]

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Install Koha on Ubuntu — Part 5: Testing

Andy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:00:21 +0000

Warning: this tutorial was developed in 2008, and is for versions of Koha and Ubuntu that are now considered quite old. If you want to install the current version of Koha on Ubuntu, please visit Koha on Ubuntu at the Koha Community wiki. This is part 5 of 6 in a tutorial series on installing [...]

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Install Koha on Ubuntu — Part 4: Koha

Andy — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:00:18 +0000

Warning: this tutorial was developed in 2008, and is for versions of Koha and Ubuntu that are now considered quite old. If you want to install the current version of Koha on Ubuntu, please visit Koha on Ubuntu at the Koha Community wiki. This is part 4 of 6 in a tutorial series on installing [...]

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Install Koha on Ubuntu — Part 3: Koha Prerequisites

Andy — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:00:56 +0000

Warning: this tutorial was developed in 2008, and is for versions of Koha and Ubuntu that are now considered quite old. If you want to install the current version of Koha on Ubuntu, please visit Koha on Ubuntu at the Koha Community wiki. This is part 3 of 6 in a tutorial series on installing [...]

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Install Koha on Ubuntu — Part 2: Preparing Linux

Andy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:00:08 +0000

Warning: this tutorial was developed in 2008, and is for versions of Koha and Ubuntu that are now considered quite old. If you want to install the current version of Koha on Ubuntu, please visit Koha on Ubuntu at the Koha Community wiki. This is part 2 of 6 in a tutorial series on installing [...]

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Install Koha on Ubuntu — Part 1: Introduction

Andy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Warning: this tutorial was developed in 2008, and is for versions of Koha and Ubuntu that are now considered quite old. If you want to install the current version of Koha on Ubuntu, please visit Koha on Ubuntu at the Koha Community wiki. This six-part series will help you to install Koha. Specifically, this guide [...]

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Thin Clients in Libraries: A Brief Reflection

Andy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:54:14 +0000

“Thin Clients” are inexpensive computers, throwbacks to the days of computer terminals. The thin client itself has very little power, instead connecting to a powerful shared server for most of its smarts. In many situations these computers can save organizations money in purchasing, setup, and maintenance. I recently developed a brief, 12-minute overview of “dumb” [...]

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Presenting to Groups: Principles and Techniques [How To]

Andy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:51:20 +0000

This week I’m giving a 1-hour presentation about… giving presentations. It covers preparation, visual aids (PowerPoint and otherwise), managing your time in the presentation, encouraging participation, and more. I’ve uploaded the PowerPoint and the accompanying Word handout. “Talking Points: Presentation Principles and Techniques” by Andy Giesler is licensed under a Creative Commons...

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