This is great news for anyone concerned about Google’s recent pricing changes for Google Maps API.  In addition, MapQuest supports OpenStreetMaps – an awesome crowdsourced mapping platform that is extremely worthy of support.

We haven’t yet looked into converting web maps using the Google Maps API over to Mapquests, but we were able to switch over to using MapQuest for Android with very little difficulty (it was pretty much a straight drop in ).

/var/log/munin/munin-node.log {
        daily
        missingok
        rotate 7
        compress
        notifempty
        create 640 root wheel
        postrotate
        /etc/init.d/munin-node restart
        endscript
}

/var/log/munin/munin-update.log {
        daily
        missingok
        rotate 7
        compress
        notifempty
        create 640 munin munin
}

/var/log/munin/munin-graph.log {
        daily
        missingok
        rotate 7
        compress
        notifempty
        create 640 munin munin
}

/var/log/munin/munin-html.log {
        daily
        missingok
        rotate 7
        compress
        notifempty
        create 640 munin munin
}

/var/log/munin/munin-limits.log {
        daily
        missingok
        rotate 7
        compress
        notifempty
        create 640 munin munin
}

We first encountered Canvas when we were asked to write a tool that would synchronize contact information from a client’s Canvas application with their Google Contacts.  Using Canvas’s web API we were able to easily write the synchronizer and are now suffering from idea overload of all the ways business data could be linked into the cloud!

But seriously - we found the idea of electronic business forms to be pretty intriguing and we think Canvas has done an awesome job at helping business move away from paper.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Canvas has a myriad of pre-existing applications for all sorts of industry available in the Canvas Application store.  Some of the industries Canvas already has pre-made applications for include Agriculture/Forestry/Fishing, Construction and Contracting, Education, Finance, Government/NGO, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Oil/Gas/Mining, Professional Services, Retail & Wholesale Distribution,  Service Industry, Telecom and Media, Transporation & Logistics, and Utilities and Energy.

If an application doesn’t already exist, you can easily build a custom application using Canvas’s easy to use application builder.  You can even take a pre-made application from the Canvas Application store and tweak it to suit your needs!

Canvas offers a 30 day free trial, and pretty reasonable Pay as you Go, and unlimited monthly and annual plans.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Modern web browsers and mobile phones  include support for providing a website with a user’s physical location based on their GPS coordinates, nearby WiFi access points and maybe other criteria.  This is great for mobile users because it lets us do things like create a page called “Find your nearest store” that automatically shows where the visitors nearest store is – based on where they actually are.  And unlike traditional “GeoIP” solutions, Geolocation can use the visitor’s actual GPS, so they don’t end up appearing as though they are in Calgary, Edmonton or Toronto if they happen to be TELUS Mobility, Rogers or Bell subscribers!

We have used this technology in a few projects before including our now defunct WebAPRS Web Position Reporting system (it let us broadcast real time updates of where amateur radio operators were and send/receive messages via APRS), and our QR Code tracking service.

Ochre’s Geolocation Service for Wordpress Plugin makes it simple to have individual WordPress pages or posts query the visitor’s web browser for their true location, and if found, can execute javascript to do some nifty AJAXy things (like showing them on a map with directions to their nearest store), and redirect to a new web page and specify their location information that way.  We’ve also added some do_action() hooks for plugin and theme developers to use too.

For the plugin’s home page, visit Ochre’s Geolocation Service for WordPress Plugin page or go directly to the Geolocation Service for WordPress extend entry for the plugin to get started right away!

• Keyword Position Checking
• Site Auditing
• Google and Alexa rank checking
• Backlink checking
• Search Engine saturation checking
• Meta Tag generation
• Various other plugins

We are using Seo panel as one of several tools in our SEO tool chest and like it so much, we’ve opened up a free Seo Panel for you to use!  No strings attached! (except that we can only provide limited technical support and basic Q&A – for more indepth Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing you should inquire within)!

Check out Ochre Labs’ free hosted Seo Panel from http://seo.ochrelabs.com/

Quoteth Ryan Gaven, GM of IE Business & Marketing:

The Web overall is better – and safer – when more people run the most up-to-date browser. Our goal is to make sure that Windows customers have the most up-to-date and safest browsing experience possible, with the best protections against malicious software such as malware.

Yes, yes it is.  We are very happy to see Microsoft taking this step.  Older versions of IE hold back the Web in many ways.

Some of the key benefits to AdWords:

1. AdWords are Quick and easy to setup.
2. Ads can be targeted by key words potential buyers search for, and by geographical location.
3. Costs are easily managed by setting budgets and paying only when potential buyers click on your advertisement.
4. Reporting in both AdWords and Analytics lets you see measurable results, all the time.

We were particularly concerned about ease of use for updating the videos, and having good performance on iPad and Android platforms.  Flash isn’t really an option for mobile, it’s either not supported or suffers performance problems.  Luckily modern Webkit based browsers support HTML5 video natively.

We decided to use VideoJS to handle video playback.  VideoJS is an open source, light weight javascript library that supports the major web browsers, IE 6-8 and our favorite mobile platforms.  VideoJS includes the major HTML5 supported video formats (H.264, Ogg and WebM)  and was a breeze to implement into our custom solution.

There are also plugins available for a number of Content Management Systems, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Umbraco and a jQuery plugin.

Feedburner is a free service that enhances RSS feeds such as the feed provided by your blog, discussion forums, news announcers and websites.  One of Feedburner’s best features (IOO) is the ability to offer nicely layed out Email subscriptions to your audience.

To setup a Feedburner feed, go to feedburner.com and login with your Google or Gapps account.  Once logged in you should see a list of your feeds, and an option to Burn a feed right this instant.

After adding the feed head on over to the “Publicize” tab in your Feedburner console and enable Email subscriptions.  You can set how often updates are Emailed, brand your Email with your logo and obtain widgets for embedding a subscription link into your various web presences.

In addition to Email subscriptions – Feedburner also includes analytics, optimizations such as “Web Friendly” feeds, SmartFeed to ensure your feed is compatible with all major,  options to monetize your feed through Google Adsense and much more.

]]> http://www.ochrelabs.com/marketing-tools/bring-your-blog-to-email/feed 0 http://www.ochrelabs.com/amoosement/if-custer-was-on-facebook-in-1874?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=if-custer-was-on-facebook-in-1874 http://www.ochrelabs.com/amoosement/if-custer-was-on-facebook-in-1874#comments Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:19:13 +0000 http://www.ochrelabs.com/?p=457 From Steven Paul Judd‘s Art gallery on Facebook: