Every two months I publish a digest post collecting the best of Internet Duct Tape. You can also see the Digest for November 2007.

One Year Ago

Here are some articles that are still timeless.

• On Wikipedia, Blogging and the Anti-blog Bias
  Wikipedia is out to get us
• Cory Doctorow on Building an Audience
  Getting them to buy the cow even though the milk is free.
• How to fix the Firefox memory leak (Firefox hack)
  Memory problems in Firefox? Change these settings.
• You Can Be a Good Example or a Horrible Warning - How NOT to be a Successful Blogger
  featured on problogger.net
• Switching back to real full feeds
  Because partial feels make you feel icky (like walking home in a prom dress at noon).
• 107 t-shirts for geeks that do not suck
  hit front page of digg and del.icio.us
• 81 movies for geeks that do not suck (GGG7)
  hit front page of digg and del.icio.us
• Tech and Blogging Predictions for 2007
  This is my long list of everything that I predict will happen in 2007.
• Top 10 Resolutions That I Will Not Feel Bad About Not Keeping (2007 Edition)
  Why make resolutions in the New Year that you’re going to feel bad about not keeping?
• Wikipedia Loses the Google Juice
  Wikipedia makes a change that will keep their results from influencing search engines — why it won’t work and what they should have done instead.
• Why Posting Your Email Address in Plain Text is Never a Good Idea
  TechCrunch readers (unsurprisingly) get spammed — what TC should have done differently.

Monthly Digest

Tips and Tricks

• How to Play Downloaded Videos on Your iPod, Xbox 360, or DVD Player
  Everything you need to know about the big scary world of video codecs.
• CoinStar — Is It Worth It To Convert Your Spare Change?
  You’ve seen the machines. Is the time saving worth the service charge?
• Fat Blogging 101 - Weight Loss Tips
  engtech’s guide to not being a fat bastard.
• 7 Tips to Optimize Windows XP for Gaming — Playing The Witcher on Minimum System Requirements
  Have an old machine you want to play new games on? Here’s how.
• Windows XP - Disable dumpprep when programs crash
  The only thing worse than having an application crash is waiting five minutes for it to FINISH crashing.

Software and Programming

• The Canary in the Coal Mine of Open Source Code Re-use
  What’s the quickest and easiest way to see if an open source project is worth checking out?
• How to Install the Exception Notifier Plugin with Ruby on Rails
  This is the one Rails plugin *everyone* needs. Get emails when your app breaks.
• Yahoo Pipe: Sub-Reddit Feed Filter
  How to subscribe to the best of ruby.reddit.com (or any sub-reddit)
• Free Idea: Outlook Calendar Screensaver
  I want: a screensaver that shows when I’m in a meeting.
• 9 Ways to Know When to Jump Ship at a Startup
  When is it time to hit the open seas? When is it time to stick to your guns?
• Why Open Source Software Sucks - Software Simplicity Isn’t Simple
  The number one thing I hate about not-for-profit coding.
• Getting Started with Ruby on Rails - Week 3 - Testing
  He said unit. Hee hee.

Music

• Stupid iTunes Tricks - How to Burn a MP3 CD with Folders
  Because trying to fast forward 11 songs while driving is a pain in the ass.
• My Favorite Albums of 2007
  This is what I’ve been listening to.

Blogging and Writing

• Online Survival Guide: 9 Tips for Dealing with Idiots on the Internet
  Things I’ve learned from spending too much time in front of computers.
• Rules of Thumb for Writing
  Quick writing advice.

Book Reviews

• Book Review: Halting State by Charles Stross
  My favorite programmer/gamer/geek book. Highly recommend.
• Book Review: Everyware by Adam Greenfield
  If your interested in the future of ubiquitous computing, when your floor will be smarter than you.
• Book Review: Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson
  Is pop-culture making us smarter?

Navel Gazing

• Year in Review - Most Popular Posts of 2007
• Digest for November 2007

Delicious links

My weekly link posts. Lots of gems in here.

• Delicious Links - 20 links - programming, community, development, twitter, lisp
• Delicious Links - 20 links - blogging, programming, ruby, photography, copyright
• Delicious Links - 20 links - writing, programming, javascript, jquery, testing
• Best of Feeds - 19 links - blogging, inspiration, writing, design, apple
• Best of Feeds - 23 links - programming, music, photography, psychology, rails
• Best of Feeds - 20 links - geek, movies, blogging, programming, xbox360
• Best of Feeds - 14 links - security, gmail, google, testing, dns
• Best of Feeds - 13 links - photography, business, photo, copyright, comics
• Best of Feeds - 7 links - geek, humor, funny, games, windows
• Best of Feeds - 11 links - facebook, blogging, google, reader, stupidity

Popular Posts

What’s hot.

1. 7 Tips to Optimize Windows XP for Gaming
2. Fat Blogging 101 - Weight Loss Tips
3. Why Open Source Software Sucks
4. Online Survival Guide: 9 Tips for Dealing with Idiots on the Internet
5. Stupid iTunes Tricks - How to Burn a MP3 CD with Folders
6. 9 Ways to Know When to Jump Ship at a Startup
7. Rules of Thumb for Writing
8. My Favorite Albums of 2007
9. How to Play Downloaded Videos on Your iPod
10. The Canary in the Coal Mine of Open Source Software

Most popular of all time

Software

Free software I’ve been working on.

• [GREASEMONKEY] The Pirate Bay + Rotten Tomatoes = Crazy Delicious
  This script will create links to Rotten Tomatoes while browsing the Pirate Bay.
• [PIPES] Filtered Technorati Recent Mentions
  My Filtered Technorati Recent Mentions pipe works again. It can give you an RSS feed of the latest blogs that links to your blog.
• [GREASEMONKEY] Userscripts.org Popular Scripts v0.2
  Updated my script for identifying the most popular Greasemonkey scripts on userscripts.org
• [WORDPRESS] Category Resizer v1.0
  WordPress Category Resizer 2008/01/02 - v1.0
  - BUGFIX: newer versions of WordPress.com broke this script
  - BUGFIX: will run on any WordPress install, not just WordPress.com
  - BUGFIX: now works when you have less than three categories
  - added automatic update check
• [WORDPRESS] Comment Ninja v0.5
  Comment Ninja v0.5 2008/01/02 - 0.5
  don’t display comment ninja in mass-edit mode, since it doesn’t work on that mode
  wordpress.com added avatars to the comment display and they were being sent in emails
  on multi-author blogs it grays out the comments you can’t edit

The second year of Internet Duct Tape found me settling down into my blogging rhythm. It went from an obsession to an integrated part of my life, which was important because there were many weeks where I’d be lucky to even check my stats because I was so busy at work.

2007 Highlights

• Finally got my own domain name, which I think really fits
• I was featured in the book Blogging Heroes. It’s pretty neat to see your name on the written page.
• My cat was lol’d by the readers of icanhascheezburger.com (easily the post of the year on IDT)
• Best of Feeds has been going strong with around 10-20 new links a week on the subjects I find most interesting.
• Tried doing a web comic for a bit, but it was too time consuming and I stopped in May
• Hovering at around 2.5 million page views
• A solid 6,000 page views a day even when I don’t write new content
• Learned about different aspects of web design/programming: javascript, css, rss, and ruby on rails

2007 Software

• Created a new blog documenting my dirty little hacks at IDT Labs
• Tag Cloud Generator brought tag clouds to WordPress.com before they were official, and is still used on icanhascheezburger.com
• Auntie Spam became even more useful
• Comment Ninja has let me reply to reader comments with ease
• Technorati Favorite Your Fans made scratching each others backs even easier
• Delicious and StumbleUpon are now joined at the hip for me because I submit links to both sites at the same time
• I showed bloggers how to easily create a digest post, create a link digest, and create a blog command center
• It’s easier than ever to cut-and-paste an image from Flickr into a blog post and give credit attribution

Most Popular Posts of 2007

• Top Romance Movies: 76 Romantic Flicks
• How to Earn a Six Figure Income from Blogging
• How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job
  
• Revolutionizing the Web with Firefox and Greasemonkey
  
• How to Create LOLCats
• This is Harold
• 7 Tips for Learning the Declutter Habit
• Windows XP Logon Screen with No User Account
• Distraction Free GTD: 32 Todo List Web Apps
• Do Anything: 3 Steps for Success
• How to Install a Firefox Extension
• The Secret to Finding the Perfect Valentine
• Getting Started with Google Code Hosting
• 14 Tips to Get More Done in Less Time
• The Missing Curriculum for Programmers

You can also see the break down of most popular posts per month

Top Sources of Traffic for 2007

The number of RSS subscribers has been climbing steadily, and I’m impressed that I have any with the way I jump around different topics.

Thank you for reading my little spot on the interweb.

Every month I publish a digest post collecting the best of Internet Duct Tape. You can also see the Digest for October 2007.

One Year Ago

Here are some articles that are still timeless.

• Book review: JPod by Douglas Coupland (favorite quotes)
• What to buy Little Johnny for Christmas
  • Simple comparison of Playstation 3 vs Microsoft Xbox 360 vs Nintento Wii
• Gift Guide for Geeks Part 1 - Tis the Season for Receiving
• North America’s Next Top Blogger? - Be a celebrity first
• Blogging Getting You Down? Try Something New and Interesting

Monthly Digest

Blogs

• Internet Duct Tape featured in Blogging Heroes
  
  • I’ve been published in a book… does this mean I get a wikipedia entry? :)
• Add to Google Reader in Internet Explorer 7
  
  • Google Toolbar button for one-click subscribing to feeds

Tips

• Avoid Prime Real Estate for Live.com Email Address Landrush
  • Tip: having an uncommon email address can help you avoid lots of spam
• People Are Computers Too - How Improving Applications Can Improve Your Life
  • The technique to make a software run faster can be used to improve your life

Programming

• How to Profile Greasemonkey Scripts with Firebug
  • If you code greasemonkey scripts you’ll want to read this
• Programming Best Practices: Profiling
  • When was the last time you profiled one of your apps?
• Why Open Source Software Sucks - Software Simplicity Isn’t Simple
  • Why my code sucks

Ruby on Rails

• Getting Started With Ruby on Rails - Week 1
• Getting Started With Ruby on Rails - Week 2
• Getting Started with Ruby on Rails - Week 3 - Testing
• Book Review: Ruby on Rails for Dummies
  

Best of Feeds - weekly round-up

• Best of Feeds - 7 links - geek, humor, funny, games, windows
• Best of Feeds - 11 links - facebook, blogging, google, reader, stupidity
• Best of Feeds - 12 links - blogging, blogs, google, mashup, comments
• Best of Feeds - 13 links - geek, marketing, blogging, software
• Best of Feeds - 19 links - blogging, tips, google, opensocial, community

Popular Posts

What’s hot this month.

• Why Open Source Software Sucks
• People Are Computers Too
• Password Recovery
• Getting Started With Ruby on Rails
• Overtime Considered Harmful

Software

Updated versions.

• Akismet Auntie Spam v2.09
• Yahoo Pipe Cleaner v1.1

Most popular of all time
Digest for October 2007

Every month I publish a digest post collecting the best of Internet Duct Tape. You can also see the Digest for September 2007. This month marked a big milestone for IDT — hitting the 2 million page view mark.

One Year Ago

Here are some articles that are still timeless.

• How to access Gmail when it is blocked at work or school
• Life in the Trenches - Getting Out Alive (by guest blogger AJ Valliant)
• Web Anonymity 101 - Digital Breadcrumbs
• Web Anonymity 103 - Online Privacy
• WordPress.com Domain Registration - From the User’s Point of View
• Is he a programmer or a terrorist?

Monthly Digest

Blogging Tips

• How I Use Google Reader
• Blog Action Day: Save Paper when Readers Print Your Blog
• Blog Tip: Create a Link Post in 3 Seconds
• Distraction Free GTD: 32 Todo List Web Applications
  (mentioned on LifeHacker)
• Password Recovery — The Achilles Heel of Your Online Security

Working for the Man

• Overtime Considered Harmful
• Coworkers Considered Harmful

Geeking Out

• The Attention Age: Accelerando, Software Agents, Filters and Gatekeepers
• What I’m Playing: PC, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360
• Magazine Review: October 2007 Issue of Inc. Magazine

Best of Feeds

My weekly best of the net link round-up.

• Best of Feeds - 9 links - humor, microsoft, productivity, visualization, comics
• Best of Feeds - 30 links - programming, google, tips, agile, facebook
• Best of Feeds - 26 links - programming, webdesign, javascript, design, tips
• Best of Feeds - 34 links - programming, google, lifehacks, ruby, funny

Popular Posts

What’s hot this month.

• 7 Tips for Learning the Declutter Habit
• Distraction Free GTD: 32 Todo List Web Apps
• Coworkers Considered Harmful
• Overtime Considered Harmful
• How I Use Google Reader

IDT Labs Software Updates

IDT Labs is where I track free software I create.

• [WORDPRESS] Extract Comments or Trackbacks
  • I’ve created two Yahoo Pipes for building filters of the comments feed on your WordPress blog so that you can see comments only or trackbacks only.
• [RSS] Tagosphere
  • Tagosphere is an example of Yahoo Pipes I created for Jon Udell that builds an RSS feed around a specific tag using delicious, flickr, technorati, and wordpress.com.
• [DELICIOUS] Delicious Link Builder
  • Build a list of links using your delicious account to bookmark them. Works great with my Yahoo Pipe Cleaner script.
• [RSS PIPE] Stupid Credit Builder
  • This is a clone of Stupid Feed Rewriter that backdates the entry to January 1st, 1970. Useful for adding a credit link at the end of a list in an RSS feed.

Digest for September 2007

Every month I publish a digest post collecting the best of Internet Duct Tape. Here you go! You can also see the digest for August 2007.

One Year Ago

Here are some articles that are still timeless.

• Making a mountain out of a molehill (of bugs)
• Windows Genuine (Dis) Advantage — Why buy when a crack works better? (WGA sucks)
• Internet Address Book - Web anonymity down the drain
• Startup Lessons - Viral and Scaling
• Web Too.Many: The Internet has no clothes
• The Dirge of iPod
• My First Greasemonkey Script: WordPress.com Category Resizer
• Guide on How to Setup Two or More Gmail Accounts to Use One Account (Create, Forward, Link)
• Using Perl on Windows: Installing ActiveState Perl
• Book Review: Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

Monthly Digest

Lifehacks

• 7 Tips for Learning the Declutter Habit
• How Procrastination Dashes Made Me a Better Worker
• Adopting Getting to Done
• Do Anything: 3 Steps for Success

Blogging and RSS

• Blog Tip: Creating a Blog Maintenance Start Page with Netvibes
• Managing Spam Maintenance with Akismet Auntie Spam Version 2
• WordPress.com Command Diagrams

Social Web Applications

• Delicious Stumbles - Post to Delicious and StumbleUpon at the same time
• Do You Make These Mistakes with Wikis? 9 Ways To Build a Wiki That Doesn’t Suck
• Using Mind Maps to Explore User Interaction
• The Problem With Social Web Applications
• 9 Techniques to Promoting Your Social Web Application

Books

• Quotations from The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder (1978)

Best of Feeds

My weekly best of the net link round-up.

• Best of Feeds - 30 links - programming, productivity, code, socialsoftware, socialnetworking
• Best of Feeds - 22 links - programming, blogging, tips, javascript, rails
• Best of Feeds - 55 links - programming, firefox, blogging, tips, lifehacks
• Best of Feeds - 22 links - lifehacks, blogging, facebook, firefox, productivity
• Best of Feeds - 35 links - design, programming, blogging, socialsoftware, javascript

Popular Posts

What’s hot this month.

• How Procrastination Dashes Made Me a Better Worker
• Blog Tip: Creating a Blog Maintenance Start Page with Netvibes
• 7 Tips for Learning the Declutter Habit
• Using Mind Maps to Explore User Interaction
• Delicious Stumbles - Post to Delicious and StumbleUpon at the same time
• Managing Spam Maintenance with Akismet Auntie Spam Version 2

IDT Labs Software Updates

IDT Labs is where I track free software I create.

• [DELICIOUS/STUMBLEUPON] Delicious Stumbles crossposting tool

  Last Greasemonkey script this week :) With Delicious Stumbles I get all of the super-useful features I like about delicious (speed, recommended tags) but I also teach StumbleUpon more about what I like without having to spend all that time cutting-and-pasting between two accounts. Submit a page…

• [WORDPRESS] Comment Ninja

  My WordPress Comment Ninja extension is available for beta test. Try it out and let me know what you think! Respond directly from the comment administration panel on your dashboard Respond by comment, email or both (without having to cut-and-paste your response!) Respond using your email…

• [AKISMET] Akismet Auntie Spam Helper for Akismet v2

  Version 2 is out, but you probably already know that. Read more about it. Akismet Auntie Spam is a maintenance script for WordPress administrators. One of the problems with the Akismet spam protection service is that sometimes it misidentifies a real comment as spam. WordPress has a spam recovery…

• [FLICKR] Cut-and-paste to blog with CSS classes and credit link

  Makes it easy to do an OLE cut-and-paste Flickr photos to your blog (ie: WordPress using TinyMCE) and give the proper attribution This script makes it easy to cut-and-paste photos from Flickr into your blog while still including a credit link to the photographer. creates CSS classes around images…

• [PHOTOBUCKET] Log Me In Already!

  Takes you directly to your album if you visit http://photobucket.com while already logged in. Because it’s too annoying to have to click “My Album” every time. IDT Labs is a blog for news announcements about software, tools or blog themes created by InternetDuctTape.com . Subscribe…

• [GMAIL] Quickly Open Compose Mode

  Turns off clutter when directly composing gmail messages (IE: clicking on a mailto link) One thing that annoys me about Gmail is how slow it can be to load. This becomes a real problem when you force all mailto: links to open in Gmail. Gmail Quick Compose redirects all “compose mode” links…

• [WORDPRESS.COM] Stats for Pages

  This is a Greasemonkey script that adds stats to the Edit Pages panel on WordPress.com. IDT Labs is a blog for news announcements about software, tools or blog themes created by InternetDuctTape.com . Subscribe to InternetDuctTape by RSS or subscribe by email .

Digest for August 2007

Every month I publish a digest post collecting the best of Internet Duct Tape. Here you go! You can also see the digest for July 2007.

One Year Ago

Here are some articles that are still timeless.

• 5 Habits for Writing for the Web
  Technical tips you need to know when writing online
• Stupid Windows Features: Disabling Filter Keys
  Filter keys is useful if you have a disability, not so useful if you don’t
• Stupid Windows Features: Monitor Turns Sideways
• 9 Tips for Buying Glasses
  I had a bad experience buying glasses, here’s how you can avoid the same thing happening to you.
• Web 2.0 Time Tracking in a Nutshell
  Quick list of websites you can use for time tracking
• Holy Grail of Synchronization
  This is my first post that “won the Internet”
• Why Can’t I use Last.FM on my cellphone?
  … and someone sends me a solution on how to do it
• How to read web pages offline on your cellphone
  My cell provider charges too much, but I found a quick way to convert/sync web pages on to my cellphone.
• Signs of the Blogamageddon
  Humorous post about how blogs are going to die and what we can do to prevent it.

Monthly Digest

LifeHacks

• Do Anything: 3 Steps for Success
  I’ve been all touchy-feeling and self-discovery lately. I ponder what are the key qualities to be successful at anything.
  
• What is Your Opportunity Cost?
  We’re taught to stay productive and keep busy, but busyness for busyness’ own sake will make you miss out on what could be great opportunities.

Web Browsers

• Revolutionizing the Web with Firefox and Greasemonkey (with screenshots)
  Using Greasemonkey to enhance web sites and make them easier to use.
  
• How to Install a Firefox Extension (with screenshots)
  Beginners’ guide on how to install your first Firefox extension and why you’d want to.
  
• How Do People Use Google Reader with Internet Explorer?
  Ranting about an incredibly frustrating time try to subscribe to feeds in Google Reader.

Online Identity and Anonymity

• Universal identity and single sign on using openID? No thanks
  OpenID and single sign on is an interesting idea, but it means having a single point of failure.
• Tip: Send Amazon or iTunes Gift Certificates Anonymously
  Use a proxy to hide your identity when sending gift cerficates online.
  
• The Solution to Social Network Site Fatigue
  The social graph problem — how do we bring out friends list with use anywhere?

Blogging and RSS

• Canadian Marketing, Media, and Digital Blogs Tournament
  Help me choose some of my best posts for a Canadian blog tournament.
• Greasemonkey Script: Yahoo Pipe Cleaner
  Make it easier to cut-and-paste from Yahoo Pipes output.
  
• Facebook Tip: Broadcast your Facebook status as RSS
  Import your Facebook status into other websites using RSS.

Best of Feeds

• Best of Feeds - 37 links - lifehacks, tips, productivity, programming, blogging
• Best of Feeds - 30 links - blogging, humor, geek, problogger, design
• Best of Feeds - 26 links - video, blogging, web2.0, google, css
• Best of Feeds - 34 links - blogging, greasemonkey, facebook, programming, wordpress

Popular Posts

What’s hot this month.

• Revolutionizing the Web with Firefox and Greasemonkey (with screenshots)
  Very popular on StumbleUpon! Why don’t you give it a Stumble?
• Facebook Applications and Privacy
• How to Install a Firefox Extension (with screenshots)
• Do Anything: 3 Steps for Success
• Community Starts with Communication

IDT Labs Software Updates

IDT Labs is where I track free software I create.

• [WORDPRESS.COM] Open 5 Blogs at Random
  I’ve created a short little script that will open five WordPress.com blogs at random when you press ALT+SHIFT+W .
• [RSS PIPE] Stupid Feed Rewriter
  • Here’s another weird one that I might be the only person interested in. It republishes a title/description/link whenever there is a new post in the original feed. I have two twitter accounts at http://twitter.com/engtech and http://twitter.com/et By using Stupid Feed Rewriter I can advertise that I have two accounts.
• [WORDPRESS] Akismet Auntie Spam v2
  • This is a complete re-write of my Firefox add-on that makes the Akismet Admin Panel about 1 million times more useful. Expect a full post on Internet Duct Tape with all the features some time next week. Rewrote from scratch using IP filtering idea from Donncha.
• [WORDPRESS.COM] Find Blogs to Comment On
  • This is a dumb little Greasemonkey script that displays a banner message when a WordPress.com blog has the Recent Comments widget installed. The idea is to spend a few minutes a day commenting on lesser known blogs and meeting new bloggers.
• [GREASEMONKEY] Show popular scripts on Userscripts.org
  • Userscripts.org is a website for hosting Greasemonkey scripts. This script makes it easier to see how popular scripts are when looking at search results.
• [RSS] Yahoo Pipe Cleaner
  • I’ve create a Greasemonkey script to make cutting-and-pasting from Yahoo Pipes into a WordPress blog look nicer.
• [RSS] Recent Blog Mentions
  • I’ve created a new Yahoo Pipe that filters your Technorati recent mentions. It removes all the ones with low authority (most likely spam) changes the title and link to go to the root of the domain name IE: if I linked to you from http://internetducttape.com/2007/08/12/hello-world it would show internetducttape.com
• [RSS] Facebook Status Feed Filter
  • I’ve created a new Yahoo Pipe that that will take the RSS feed URL for your Facebook status, filter out your name, and add (from Facebook status) to the end. This makes it easy to repost your status in Twitter, Pownce, Tumblr, whatever.
• [WORDPRESS] Search the WordPress.com Blog
  I’ve created a small script for Firefox that adds a search form to the WordPress.com Official blog.

Digest for July 2007

Every month I publish a digest post collecting the best of Internet Duct Tape. Here you go!

One Year Ago

Here are some articles that are still timeless.

• Programming
  • Getting to Deadline - programmer productivity
  • Book Review: Joel on Software
  • Document your code in the source — in any programming language
  • Time tracking for Programmers
  • Should corporations standardize on programming languages?
  • Google code hosting  - better than SourceForge?
• Blogging
  • Tagging folksonomy… wtf?
  • Building an Audience
• Software
  • Tweaking Windows Update not to interrupt you
  • How to remove Windows Genuine Advantage

IDT Labs Software Updates

IDT Labs is where I track software projects I’m working on.

• [WORDPRESS] Akismet Auntie Spam update
  Ever have one of those weeks? Akismet has decided that all comments from me are spam and there’s nothing I can do about it, other than politely emailing the blogs I regularly post to and asking them to go dumpster diving for me. I’ve updated my Akismet Auntie Spam script for Firefox to deal with some of the issues I’ve had.
• [THEME] Preview of themes for the Sandbox Design Competition
  The Sandbox Design Competition as come to a close. I only managed to get two designs in under the wire. You can see previews here .
• [FLICKR] Always search for CC licenses photos
  I’ve updated my script that forces the Flickr search box to remember that you’re searching for Creative Commons licensed photos. It fixes a problem with the advanced search box.
• List of Software
  I’ve put together a list of all the software I’ve created. I’ve oh-so-intelligently organized it by the websites they interface with. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Monthly Digest

It’s All Geek To Me

• Book Review: Overclocked by Cory Doctorow (and Fair Use Day)
  Short stories from the guy who does Boing Boing
• TV: When Good Heroes Go Bad
  Finished watching Season 1 of Heroes

Web 2.0

• How to synchronize your iPod (or iTunes) to Facebook using Last.fm
  Show off your playlists on your Facebook profile… automagically.
• Facebook Applications and Privacy - How to Configure Facebook Applications
  All my peeps are on Facebook now. This is a guide explaining the privacy settings for all those newfangled applications.
• Be My Friend (on social network sites)
  Friend me up on Facebook, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, etc.

Blogging Advice

• Community Starts with Communication: 5 Tips to Building Your Readership
• 3 Surefire Ways to Advertise Your Blog on a Shoe String
• Climbing Out of Category Hell
  I did a major reorganization finally.

Quick Blog Tips

• Tim Ferriss’ Four Minute Blog Training - The 9 Rules You Need to Know
• FeedBurner Tip: Create a private area for your RSS subscribers only
• WordPress Tip: Create a Digest Post in 3 Seconds

Web Design

• CSS Tip: Building 3D Buttons with CSS for the Sandbox Theme
• WordPress CSS Tip: Design for Sandbox Theme in a sandbox
• Win Cash Prizes for your CSS Design for Sandbox

Best of Feeds — Link Posts

• Best of Feeds - 58 links - programming, tips, business, code, design
• Best of Feeds - 41 links - blogging, humor, geek, lifehacks, facebook
• Best of Feeds - 37 links - google, blogging, facebook, wordpress, tips
• Best of Feeds - 24 links - design, tips, facebook, blogging, games
• Best of Feeds - 34 links - readerlinks, blogging, facebook, startup, iphone
• Best of Feeds - 26 links - blogging, tips, writing, comics, comments
• Best of Feeds - 21 links - programming, code, development, geek, lolcats

Most Popular Posts for June and July 2007

• 3 Surefire Ways to Advertise Your Blog
• How to synchronize your iPod (or iTunes) to Facebook
• I was on vacation :)

Digest for May 2007

Every month I publish a digest for subscribers who are would rather take their //engtech in infrequent chugs rather than frequent sips.

Subscribe to this digest using RSS.

I finally got my own domain name! http://internetducttape.com

Opinion and Reviews

• Electronic Civil Disobedience
  Cutting and pasting a number isn’t going to change the world.
• Create Buzz by Doing the Unexpected and Being Remarkable (Puzzle Quest Case Study)
  I haven’t been blogging because I’m spending too much time playing this game.
• Book Review: Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers
  What you can learn about programming from reading a book that’s 20 years old.
• Favorite Quotations from Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers

Harold Is a Robot

• comic: The Spider-man Alien Symbiote Costume
  Harold goes to see Spiderman 3

Memes

• Friday Fun: Catptions of my LOL Cat
• Meme: Blogs that Make Me Think

Blogging

• The Programmable Web - Yahoo Pipes
  Making the most out of RSS
• Opting Out of Technorati - The Break-up
  It wasn’t you, it was me… no wait, totally was you.
• Using Comment Spam to Measure Blog Rank
  WordPress.com needs better spam protection so I’m turning off comments on older posts.
• 5 Reasons Blogging Leads to the Unemployment Line (You’re Fired!)
  A look at all the people who have been fired because of the blog.
• What I learned in my first year of blogging
  It’s been a year! What did I get out of it?
  

Aggregated Links

• Best of Feeds - 29 links - code, humor, google, books, geek
• Best of Feeds - 45 links - blogging, business, startup, career, tips
• Best of Feeds - 34 links - programming, productivity, lifehacks, firefox, google
• Best of Feeds - 30 links - blog, design, productivity, lifehacks, geek, psychology

Last time: Digest for April 2007

Every month I publish a digest for subscribers who are would rather take their //engtech in infrequent chugs rather than frequent sips.

Subscribe to this digest using RSS.

April started off with a bang with WordPress.com using my April Fool’s idea :) My own attempt to head in a different direction with my April Fool’s LOLcats went well, with a surprising 6000-some hits. I am seriously wondering if my April Fool’s intersection between lolcats and wordpress indirectly led to ICANHASCHEESEBURGER being hosted on WordPress.com VIP? I get a warm fuzzy seeing them as the Top Blog every day.

Guest Bloggers

During April I featured a whole bunch of guest bloggers. I liked the experience, and would love to do it again. It made me realize that instead of trying to crank out 5 posts a week + 1 linkblog, I should focus on 2-3 quality posts and not worry if a day goes by without a blog post. Apparently the Internet still goes on even if you aren’t there. Who knew?

• How I Learned to Shoot the Engineers and Ship the Product
  
  • (by guest blogger Andy Lawrence)
• Are you making the most out of Google Search?
  • (by guest blogger Ashish Mohta)
• Lions, Tigers and Managers Oh My - The IT Animal Kingdom
  • (by guest blogger logtar)
• An Introduction to Reputation Management
  • (by guest blogger Tim Nash)
• How to design a variable sidebar WordPress theme with widgets
  • (by guest blogger Daria Black)
• For Those Who Are New to the WordPress.com Support Forums
  • (by guest blogger Sulz)

Working in Tech

• How to find out if you are passionate about your career or if you are just wilfing
  • There’s some good discussion in the comments on this post.
• 14 Tips to Get More Done in Less Time
  • Part of the Ultimate Guide to Productivity group writing project.

Memes / Group Writing Projects

• What’s Your Web 2.0? (meme/survey)
  • Inspired by an older post, I want to do an informal survey of what “social” Internet sites people make use of.
• Want to win some free t-shirts? Group Writing Project #3 — Theme = T-shirts or Movies
  • More free stuff for my readers who want to join me in some group writing.
• Joost Invite Giveaway to RSS Subscribers
  • I’m trying to give incentives to my RSS subscribers as a way of saying thanks for validating my ego :)

Aggregated Links

• Best of Feeds - 20 links - code, digg, programming, web2.0, software, google
• Best of Feeds - 36 links - humor, programming, code, tips, gmail, seo
• Best of Feeds - 15 links - google, lifehacker, twitter, usability, design, greasemonkey
• Best of Feeds - 17 links - blogging, blogs, code, blog, google, search

Technorati

• Technorati Favoritism - Trading Favours
  • I’ve ignored the Technorati Favorites feature for a long time, so I figured I’d try to give it a go with the incentive that I’ll favorite back anyone who favorites me.
• Technorati Program - Automatically Favorite Anyone Who Favorites You
  • It looks like there’s around 400 other bloggers who are reciprocally favoriting back the people who favorite their blogs, I wrote a small program to reduce the time sink people were spending on this activity so they can get back to blogging.
• Are Bloggers Being Gamed? - Fixing the Technorati Favorites Feature
  • As it stands there isn’t a good reason to use the favorites feature other than trying to get on a top 100 list that has no legitimacy, I offer some suggestions on how to make it a better feature.

Most Popular Posts for the month of April 2007

• How to Create LOLCats
• 14 Tips to Get More Done in Less Time
• How I Learned to Shoot the Engineers and Ship the Product
• Windows XP Logon Screen with No User Accounts
• An Introduction to Reputation Management
• Why You Should Own Your Domain Name

Last Time: Digest for March 2007

Every month I publish a digest for subscribers who are would rather take their //engtech in infrequent chugs rather than frequent sips. This one is kind of large because it’s been six weeks since my last Digest.

Subscribe to this digest using RSS.

Internet Identity, Career and Privacy

• Is your web identity a help or a hindrance to your employability?
  Some thoughts on reputation management, blogging and job searches.
• How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job over it
  Featured on Lifehacker. Facebook usage is exploding in Canada, but are you aware of how much information is public?

Tools for Bloggers

• Tag Cloud Generator for WordPress.com
  Tag Clouds for WordPress.com and WordPressMU bloggers who can’t use plugins.
• Get RSS Updates when your Site is Submitted to Digg or Reddit (using Yahoo Pipes)
• Hack - Display Your Technorati Rank in a Sidebar RSS Widget (using Dapper + Yahoo Pipes)
  This is how I display my Technorati rank of 1900 in my sidebar without javascript or a plugin and have it update automatically.
• Broadcasting RSS Feeds with Twitterbot in Less Than 5 Minutes
  Twitter global instant messenger is a great way to stay connected with news (faster than blogs). Here’s some tips on broadcasting your RSS feeds on Twitter.

Blogging

• The Biggest Mistake a Blog Can Make is Not Owning Its Own Name
  Part of DailyBlogTips’ Blogging Mistakes group writing project.
• Website Analysis - Phil Gerbyshak’s Make It Great
  Part of SOAP - Scratch One Another Program. A look a one blogger’s website with suggestions on improvement.
• SOAP and The Importance of Hallway Usability Testing
  Part of SOAP - Scratch One Another Program. //engtech gets SOAPed. Suggestions on improving this blog.
• Design Tips: Website Speed Optimization for Dummies
  Save reader’s time and optimize your website so that it loads faster.

RSS - Really Simple Syndication

• I display my FeedBurner subscribers count because I don’t have a choice…
  Part of Maki’s FeedBurner meme. The reasons why I use the FeedBurner RSS service.
• The Secret Behind Why Blog Readers Unsubscribe
  Response to Problogger.net. A look at how RSS reader software influences how people subscribe to feeds.
• Request for Comments: Which RSS Reader and Why?
  Why do readers use the RSS software they do?

Contests / Group Writing Projects

• Group Writing Project #3 — Theme = T-shirts or Movies (Win Free t-shirts contest for bloggers)
  My latest group writing project. Win t-shirts and WordPress.com credits.
• 5 Things Draws to an End
  The results from my second group writing project.
• My favorite entries from Contest #1
  My favorites from the first group writing project / contest.

Comics and Humour

• This is Harold
  Harold loves the movie 300.
• Global Warming 2007
  Harold wonders wtf is up with this winter?
• How to Create LOLCats aka MemeCat aka Kittah aka Cat Macros
  April 1st post.

Programming

• Automatic Documentation of Python Code using Doxygen
  Tutorial on getting started with using Doxygen to generate code docs of Python scripts.
• Getting Started with Google Code Hosting, Subversion, and TortoiseSVN without feeling like an Idiot
  Tutorial on setting up a Subversion client on Windows and using it to connect to the free Google Code Hosting.
• The Missing Curriculum for Programmers and High Tech Workers
  Tongue-in-cheek look at what courses are missing in university cirriculum. Featured at a seminar and in some university courses.

Web Technology

• My Top Must Have Firefox Extensions
• What’s a URL to do? — How to Save URLs
  Most social bookmarking systems suck at distinguishing the same URL.
• Five Ways to Fix Digg’s Comment System
  Featured on Digg. Digg has the most useless flamewars in the comments… how can it be fixed?
• Cyber-bullying - Not just for teenagers
  Kathy Sierra saga. Is being minor internet celebrity enough of a reason to be singled out and harassed?

Windows

• Windows XP Logon Screen with No User Accounts?
  My computer drives me nuts.

Aggregated Links

• Best of Feeds - 20 links - blog, development, programming, blogging, technology, hightech
• Best of Feeds - 27 links - blogging, google, tips, development, alist, howto
• Best of Feeds - 21 links - blogging, development, twitter, blog, web2.0, socialsoftware
• Best of Feeds - 30 links - software, google, startup, humor, programming, tips
• Best of Feeds - 47 links - programming, blogging, career, blog, interview, fizzbuzz
• Most Popular Posts for February 2007
• From the Vault: Making the Most Out of Tagging
• Best of Feeds - 15 links - blogging, google, reader, photo, windows, orthogonality

Last time: Digest for February 2007

Subscribe to this digest using RSS.

Every two to three weeks I publish a digest for subscribers who are would rather take their //engtech in infrequent chugs rather than frequent sips.

Subscribe to this digest using RSS.

If you’re a blogger you can get win a prize by participating in my group writing project.

Deep Thought

• Getting to Simple - Engineers Have No Idea How Normal Human Beings Interact With Their Environments
  Thoughts on simplicity and how it is anything but simple to create.
• In the Future This Blog Post will be Obsolete
  The modern Library of Alexandria is already burning because of ever changing digital formats.

Comic - Harold is a Robot

• How to Earn a Six Figure Income from Blogging in Two Easy Steps
  Most popular comic I’ve done so far with around 15,000 views
• Ode On a Silicon Yearn
  A Valentine’s Day poem
• According to Dilbert Creator Scott Adams 95 Percent of Men Would Have Sex With a Robot
  A Valentine’s Day poem gone horribly wrong
• Q+A: What is your favorite online web comic?
  I ask a bunch of people what their favorite web comics are. There are some good finds in the list.

How-Tos / Reviews

• StumbleUpon Help: I Can’t Submit a Site or Page
  Surprisingly easy to fix
• Book Review: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
  A little meh, but some interesting ideas.

Blogging

• Building an Audience - DailyBlogTip’s Traffic Generation Tips Project
  31 tips to increase the number of visitors to your web site.
• 5 Reasons Why Blogging Is Better Than Sex (With Me)
• Win an Amazon Gift Certificate or WP Upgrade Credits - Group Writing Project and Contest #2: Five Things
  There’s a new group writing project with more prizes
• Group Writing Project #1 Complete and the winner is…
  Links to everyone who participated in my last group writing project
• Technorati Top 3000 and the Neighbour of the Beast
  I hit the top 3000! I’m already in the top 2500 since I posted this
• Robert Scoble attacks the cat blogs… but what about MyCatBlogLog?
  Taking the piss in order to introduce MyCatBlogLog
• In defense of 2000 bloggers
  Giant link bait?

Aggregated Links

• National Engineering Week
• Best of Feeds - 39 links - humor, google, marketing, howto, seo, tips
• Best of Feeds - 36 links - humor, design, webdesign, programming, blogging, photos
• Best of Feeds - 62 links - design, humor, funny, programming, tips, howto

I’ve Got VD - Valentine’s Day Related Posts

• Have Yourself a Very Geeky Valentine’s Day
  Lots of geeky Valentine’s Day links like gamer VD cards
• Top Romance Movies: 76 Romantic Flicks for Guys and Girls
  Another movie compilation post — this time on romantic flicks.
• The Secret to Finding the Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift for the Person You Love
  I try to do the guys in the audience a favour.
• Show Your Geek Love with Code Poetry (in Perl)

Every two to three weeks I publish a digest for subscribers who are would rather take their //engtech in infrequent chugs rather than frequent sips.

Subscribe to this digest using RSS.

If you’re a WordPress.com blogger you can get free upgrade credits by participating in my contest.

//engtech site news

• Win WordPress.com Credits — //engtech Contest #1
  I’ve decided to start hosting monthly contests as a way to promote the blog.
• It’s All About You — Reader Survey Results
  I asked you guys some questions, here are the results.
• //engtech now has asides
  I’ve started posting my “links ‘o the day” daily at 7 PM EST. Collected as “Best of Feeds” on Saturdays.

Harold is a Robot web comic

Inspired by xkcd and Passive Depressive, but not as good.

• comic: Harold Is a Robot #1
• comic: Harold Is a Robot #2

Opinion

• Does Technorati Matter? (Searching for Violent Acres)
  Does anyone use a “blog search engine” except to search for their own blog?
• Wikipedia Loses the Google Juice
  Wikipedia makes a change that will keep their results from influencing search engines — why it won’t work and what they should have done instead.
• Why Posting Your Email Address in Plain Text is Never a Good Idea
  TechCrunch readers (unsurprisingly) get spammed — what TC should have done differently.

News

• ScheduleWorld now has AJAX offline contact editing
  The popular free calendar synchronizer has a major update.
• Ottawa employees fired because of Facebook
  Reminder that what you post on the Internet can and will affect your real life.

Best of Feeds

• My favorite posts
  Pointing new readers to what I consider to be some of my best posts.
  
• Best of Feeds - 29 links - blogging, seo, programming, search, google, humor
• Best of Feeds - 45 links - programming, blogging, humor, blogs, geek, tips

Blogging

• Getting Started With Splashcast on WordPress.com
  There’s a new multimedia widget called Splashcast — how to use it.
• Why Do You Blog?
  Announcement of blogging contest for iPod Shuffle
• It’s All About Me — Or Is It?
  Follow up to a question on “How Not to be a Successful Blogger“

Most Popular Posts for the month of January 2007

• I Hate Internet Explorer 7 (Uninstall Guide)
• 107 t-shirts for geeks that do not suck
• Reasons to Take Security Upgrades Seriously
• Top 10 Resolutions That I Will Not Feel Bad About Not Keeping
  
• Ottawa employees fired because of Facebook
• comic: Harold Is a Robot #1