TechieSouls

Blogs as Media Companies (report)

MOin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:39:48 +0000

Report written on 2007 by David Yanover, editor at TechieSouls, regarding the media and blog networks in Spain and Latin America, and translated from spanish to english (there are errors, and we are deeply sorry about that).

Abstract
The blogs are an inevitable analysis, meaning one of the greatest phenomena of modern communication, facing the study of a future in which traditional media are facing a number of obstacles to understand and assimilate the transformation that is coming on their models arrival to the business and society. The media companies based in blogs are the prelude to new forms journalism, which slowly gain strength. This report covers key aspects of the staging of a commercial blog network, while identifying contradictions and relations between them and traditional media and among bloggers and journalists .-

Blogs as media companies

The media and players that shape it, have evolved since the origins of journalism, as access to the scene, where there is information vanishes and massification. The blog networks are a new channel of view, assuming a working philosophy that is based on the future of digital publications.

What is a blog from a business perspective? What contradictions is the journalist who wants to be a blogger? How the media works and build within the so-called blogosphere?

At first, it is necessary to identify three categories of blogs, also known as blogs: personal, commercial and corporate. However, each stage is to maintain the “codes” that govern the blogosphere, regardless of its purpose. Commercial nature sites are the next step of the vast majority of personal blogs, meaning that what began as a hobby became a crowded space, builder of opinion, which strives to continue its development profitable. For its part, the blog includes corporate communication as one of the hearts of a company’s business, scheduled public sites through which to report progress and respond to general concerns of customers, as well as internal blogs, based on the interaction between top management and junior employees to facilitate a “round trip” of opinions towards improving services and / or products. Also mention that a site belonging to any of the three categories described, they can write one or more persons (collective blog).

The word blog itself, emerges in 2003, but not too different from the idea of “personal page”, which was present on the network since its inception. What has changed is that the blog evolved from the personal page to a platform almost become a standard, applied in both mainstream media as sites run by one person. This was still in force in the Web 2.0 era, which put the sailor in the place of both reader and generator of information. Time magazine did not hesitate to declare that “You” were the character in the past year, from an effect on its cover that made it possible for you to reflect on it, referring to the phenomenon of online social networks like YouTube, Wikipedia , MySpace and the rise of blogs.

One reason behind the success of blogs is the lack of credibility that has ciberlector on traditional media. In this context, the blog represents the opinion of its author, and if one disagrees with what it expresses, can manifest it. Thus, a blog that does not allow visitor comments do not deserve that title.

The blog of a stranger can be much more credible and valuable to the navigator, the independence of the author, in contrast to one written by a journalist who has experience in print media, radio and television, and decides to try his luck in this emerging pathway communication. This view makes sense when analyzed primarily blogs linked to political, economic and social.

The opinion article is developed at its best in the land of blogs, being an area in which prevails the freedom to say what one thinks and feels. However, unsubstantiated opinion, as in the classical period that the reader does not turn your back.

However, the potential of a blog is marred by lack of knowledge. It is not simply to publish information related to one, but also to understand the culture and the way in which things move in the network. The major blogging platforms, WordPress, Drupal and Movable Type, the first two for free download and submitting a final cost of licensing, are available for both big multimedia as for a boy of twelve who want to explore and have fun on the Web . The opportunity is the same for all, and the problem has nothing to do with investment, but with knowledge.

This report covers all aspects needed to understand the essence behind the construction of a network of blogs, as well as a personal blog, and the impact this trend has on the electronic versions of major newspapers around the world. The blog offers a philosophy of work and communication that is declared as the basis for the future of the Internet. Far from being a game, blogs manage thousands of millions of visitors per month.

The boom in commercial blog networks

The birth of the blog networks originates in mid-2003, starring in a big explosion in Spanish two years later, and attracting new entrepreneurs and investors to the times of today. First, the Internet succumbed to SHAKESPARE language, and then Hispanics. However, in both markets, divided by language and geography-not because you have to understand that the Internet does not exist across boundaries, those responsible for the formation of networks, were businessmen, mostly in their twenties and thirty years, who accompanied the phenomenon since its inception, having previous experience with respect to business on the Web. Most owners of the blog networks have their personal blog, which not only serves as reference for the sector, but also as a prelude to new business.

The commercial blog networks bring together teams of bloggers behind each of your projects online. Hispanic networks, consisting of three, ten or even more than a dozen blogs, are sold as advertising space. Such enterprises tend to be led by people who lived through the success of a blog itself, and decided to translate their experience in the construction of new blogs. But beyond business, blogging networks that enable and promote the authors who work in their ranks to express themselves without fear. In fact, a problem related to the latter, is in the eyes of advertisers, which are embodied in these spaces, criticism of various kinds. The blog belongs to a network can be written by one or more authors, resulting in the latter case, a collective blog.

In traditional models of communication, caring carefully the information published, and the effect this can generate revenue in the medium, while blogs networks, each author has direct access to present their vision, without an editor involved. However, not all networks of blogs are run under the same conditions, and while it raises the symbol of freedom of opinion over all else, there are always exceptions to the rule, because behind every page, there is a business .

Today there are around 40 networks of blogs in Spanish, however, business is divided among the four or six topping the list, and new proposals continue to emerge. From projects that focus on particular themes such as sports or finance, to firms that have over 15 pages very different from each other, are possible to identify. Spain is the most returned home, where stands the work of Weblogs SL, which moves more than five and a half million unique visitors per month, while the electronic delivery of the newspaper El Mundo manages 8 million.

Spain is where there is the biggest call for enterprises, as well as potential profitability of advertising. In Latin America still has not exploited this boom with equal impact, because the market itself still needs time to afford these worldviews on the Internet, being a perspective in which it may be observed geographical difference, measured by culture and experience of each market, because the reality is that since Latin America has a large competitive advantage in relation to costs in local currency and foreign income opportunities, as they are, in general, industry exportadota Software.

The role of search engines

Search engines are imposed from two perspectives. On the one hand, are part of the strategy of all successful online projects, because they are capable of generating up to 85% of traffic for each site. On the other, are vital for the blogger, to bring together various sources on the same topic in an agile way. Let us review briefly the latter, to deepen the focus then linked to the report, which refers to the search engines as a tactic of momentum of a network of blogs, although this can be applied to any Web initiative.

The search engine should be considered a basic tool of work and planning, whether you perform in a digital environment or not, because from a query, one can obtain various media sources and locations of countries on the planet enriching the construction of an independent opinion on the event. Google News is a classic version of the engine very special, because existing results based on news media, which were previously selected. Meanwhile the traditional form acts as a tornado, “index” everything in its path, and then analyze each content according to a set of parameters known only to those responsible for the search engine.

This raises the issue as Google News, also has a version based on blogs. This trend, it is also accompanied by Yahoo and other companies, but the reference that leads this field is Technoratti, mostly because it provides practical utilities to site owners, allowing them to know who talk about their content published, having been bound from other blogs.

How can an emerging network of blogs to break into an industry in itself populated with ideas and projects of various kinds? Today, it is not possible to speak of “new pioneers”, but of strategists are looking for from a serious and constant. In this context, it rises on the horizon an action plan clearer and more transparent than water: the positioning in search engines. This, also use those players who attacked the blogosphere in the days when it was uninhabited. Appear in the top 10 of search results is effective and direct business, because people entering the site, is because it responds to your need, resulting in a search. If search engines were responsible for 85% of a site, and Google represents 75% of that figure, positioning is a determining factor. However, it is easy to enter this scene, with its Directors known as SEO’s (Search Engine Optimization).

While this is not a guide to positioning is key describe the main parameters influencing the assessments carried out on engines each page. Thus, given the context, it should be emphasized the valuable combination of guidelines governing the SEO and the philosophy of the blogosphere.

- The title which is presented each article is a critical parameter, which should be composed of 5 or 7 words descriptive of the theme developed, thinking it would enter oneself to be against the form. In this way, always put a title or using metaphors expressive words can be damaging, losing visitors. However, it is best to play with a little bit of perspective, because the securities attractive to search engines, can not be very catching to the reader. Thus, in some digital media using two titles, one designed for search engine robots and another for loyal visitors to the page.

- The Page Rank (PR) was a parameter of power about five years ago at Google, allowing a page to appear for the term you want, simply by having a high PR, which gives a value between 0 and 10, being the second largest. From the abuse of this technique, it was weakened, leaving his throne but remaining as a key reference. The Page Rank is generated from the set of internal and external links on a site. On one side is the internal structure, the pattern is simple access to content, always linking to the home page and sections that cover the content, so the PR flow through the entire Web. On the other hand, include external links, which are the result of generating unique content and value in the eyes of other blogs, as described above to explain the philosophy of the connections in the blogosphere. The common scenario in practice arises when one writes an article and assigns a link to a note presented in another blog, being the latter you get a new vote of confidence, which serves to increase your PR. The goal here is that one’s blog to become the source, but it is also important to be an issuer of bonds, not only thinking about an exchange of favors, but also in the reader and the search engines themselves, who see both ways as positive values on one site.

- A third key factor in Google is given by the age of the domain, ie if you buy a dot-com and upload your page, it lacks a story, so you do not have the force would have done if it had been created five years ago and developed a range of information that other sites were assessed. Thus, a domain of ten years of age but was never used, has the same value as a new one. As with the variable on the Page Rank, the value at the age of a domain desgató with the passage of time, having had a major influence until mid-2006.

What we see in the analysis of positioning and recommendations on writing articles on a blog, is that one thing leads to another. If you write an article of 800 words, unpublished, will generate very different reactions over a 200 words and merely repeats the same thing expressed ten other blogs, because blogs in the author’s opinion prevails, and when it fails own vision about the fact, see it as both sailors seekers. The parameters that influence the valuation that search engines make each page, continually changing, but not the construction of a single text. The best optimization is one that, following the basic guidelines, not forced. Beyond that one write about a story in itself already developed dozens of sites, it is essential to shake up the information, stating what others were unable to say.

The journalist who wants to be a blogger

Work at the site of a blog network is a real option, where working conditions are as special as your own environment and style that are appearing. The journalist has not recently received the “culture blogger in training, but has the tools to incorporate it. Between the journalist and blogger raises a number of confrontations point, following the practice is done in each area:

- In journalism student is instructed in the theory and practice, to avoid the citation of sources represented by other means involving competition for which it acts. Quoting other blogs that address the same subject, is a value-added information, besides helping the search engine rankings, invites interaction with blogs suggested, either for the ciberlector know another point of view, expand the analysis and data, or credit is given to the page where you originally reported the story. In traditional media, individuality and exclusivity reigns of the media company, so today is a fantasy to find a note recommending Clarin La Nacion. However, this happens also because of the distance between a source of information and second, because while you pay for access to a journal on the Internet so it only takes one click to jump from one medium to another and back. Electronic versions of printed newspapers, are slowly adopting a more flexible about connections to external sites, but making the changes that you perceive is minimal.

- Objectivity is a premise in publishing and journalism education, while access to the articles of opinion is restricted to the main representatives of the media. In a blog, individually or collectively, each “entry” (a term that distinguishes a note), should be mixed with personal vision we have of the issue discussed. The more expressions and feelings can present the blogger, the stronger charge content, because it departs from what the structure of news stories, which usually is made on the basis (and without too many changes) to information provided by agencies like Telam, EFE , APE, and Reuters among others.

Either way, the journalist is able to incorporate the knowledge needed to serve as a blogger. On the one hand, their ability to compare various sources, helps you build an independent opinion lightly. Also, the versatility to analyze and understand each story, although it should have an area of specialization, for a sports writer can hardly write fluently in a blog on technology, and vice versa. Otherwise, the notes have no real basis, being that the blogger is governed by the premise to transmit its opinion.

Electronic journals and blogs

The vast flood of e-journals, among which can be seen Clarin and La Nacion in Argentina, El Pais and El Mundo, 20 Minutos in Spain, El Mercurio and La Tercera in Chile, among many other references, have already adopted the trend of the blog , and its main sections, devoted to this channel a specialist opinion, which brings together leading environmental journalists.

In the case of El Mercurio, shows two very interesting applications in the presentations of “Blog Editorial” and “Blog Cards”. The combination of personal blog with both traditional newspaper terms is not less. On the contrary, is an evolution of these spaces classics brought to the digital environment. 20 Minutes joined under a single category ‘Blogs / Opinion, giving appointment to all middle column.

Clarin, in turn, bets with a wide range of blogs, run by journalists, comedians and other known figures in their areas of expertise. In these contexts, the medium is about the reader, integrating the discussion. The Nation made a thorough follow-up World Cup Germany 2006 from an area of blogs, which brought together some of the most prestigious sports journalists.

Increasingly, that means accepting the motion of the blogosphere. Not all implement the same, because there are rules to follow in this regard. The blog where electronic newspaper breaks the structured information, enabling a lighter and personal development, while working as a prelude to discussions between the readers themselves.

The blog serves as a trigger for review. Bring the letter to the editor and op-ed to new forms within a channel pattern competition from international media, in which not all were able to develop successfully. The discontinuity of the site CNN in Spanish in 2004, remains a great paradox, multimedia and global vision that surrounds this giant of the news. However, the Internet was an area not economically viable as transcend left. The planning of income and expansion of a medium in the network can not be done under the same rules as those observed in traditional ways. The presence of an SEO is, for example, a crucial factor, though not so often presented as such, but as part of the marketing team, a position supposed to be ignored by the sheer ignorance. In this sense, the New York Times has in its lists to any person under the Vice President of Marketing, Corporate searches.

Digital publications are managed under rules quite different from traditional ones, without affecting the content generated by the environment. The problem arises when one understands the context in which they are working, and past experience within the graphic, television and radio, the network will require a break on multimedia and the way it is being read . El Pais newspaper took a strong position to change in late 2006, its design and strategy for one more comprehensive and current trends with regard to online, even changing its domain. Is a. Com, and presenting a rich area parallel blogging. Also during the transition in the country will be out specific SEO techniques such as redirection 301 (warning hunters moving each page according to the site), so that the least possible jump affect their place in the search engines.

Conclusions of a digital future that does not follow from its roots

The stated goal of this analysis possibly left open more questions than answers, due to the large number of developed areas, which do not have a line linear learning in any field of education. However, they are tools that you should try to add to their training. In the particular case of a student of communication, it can get started today, simply walking through one of hundreds of online services can enable you to develop and host your own blog. It’s easier to have a radio program itself, and hides a potential that can only be appreciated from the practice, speeding up the journalistic mind planner while typing and working on issues that one is passionate about. It is also the possibility to participate as an author on the page of a blog network. They constantly are in search of new opportunities for people able to add their virtual teams.

The practice of digital journalism provides a rich experience which then can translate into production on traditional channels and vice versa. Currently, it is hard to find a journalist who does not use the PC and the Internet as access to information, but the network will never replace the newspaper, as many analysts predicted that would happen many years ago-and even today many still waiting to happen – , as was also the demise of the book forward. However, in this context, blogs are not a fad but a trend that is applied in various ways. Just because you add the possibility to comment on a news story, is part of the philosophy of the blog, and that is to be analyzed. It’s not dwell on the analysis of personal pages themselves, but the features that surround them.

Chasqui publication, published by the CIESPAL in Ecuador, he devoted his copy of March 2007, the challenge faced daily with the explosion of digital media. The content of this edition, in which the writer was present this article examining the media jumped to the Internet world, it was reported that there is no explicit fight for the survival of one or other news channel. The secret is knowing how to bring these two areas of development journalism, so that the reader can benefit from the advantages of each, which also has an impact on radio and television, the latter being a new phenomenon to come this year in digital format After the success of YouTube.

The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in the United States, conducts detailed reports on the future of media, readers, and the relationship that both have with the land of bits. Mario Garcia, Director of design agency, revealed for 20 minutes in the second National Congress of Publishers of Periodicals in Spain, reading the newspaper that initially will be on the mobile (cellular telephones and PDAs), then on the internet finally in the paper, noting that readers will already know the news graphics before purchasing. In this framework, described that “60% of the news appearing on the cover of U.S. newspaper Wall Street Journal are already known by readers when they get the newspaper.”

Blogs are inevitably part of the change that is affecting traditional media. Even the radio and TV have their corner in the blogosphere, from Podcasting and Vlogs (video blog) respectively. The first refers to items presented in audio format, while the second accounts for entries to a blog based on blocks of video, this is the case of Mobuzz in Spain.

Therefore, the blogs do not act only as independent companies builders view, but also their characteristics to the newspaper editors. Blogs as media companies represent an industry that morning planting bases. The question is whether those responsible for the traditional media will be able to see and understand the evolution that lies ahead, to adapt their business models and move, thus, on a preventable death.

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Android 2.0, features of a little gem

TechieSouls Team — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:22:22 +0000

Almost by surprise, Google has released version 2.0 of its Android platform for mobile phones, based on GNU / Linux. Once consolidated through various manufacturers that have been launched over this 2009 terminals based on this (besides HTC: Samsung, LG and Acer among others local and lesser known), with this new major version will reach a state art that makes Android at the height of Apple’s iPhone OS or Palm WebOS (in case anyone still doubted it).

Beginning with the news, it introduces support for multi-touch interfaces. If you wonder if this statement because you are accustomed to using your Android phone with your fingers, say you work on a touch interface (it seems, are not the same), and in case you can use the multi-mode device is due additions to software made by third parties. What has made Google (thanks to the independent community of developers that swirls around Android) is to integrate this functionality into the code base of the system, thus achieving multi native support on any phone that has the appropriate hardware.

The difference between an interface and a multi-touch is that while the former can only manage a pressure point on the screen and respond accordingly *, the second can manage multiple simultaneous points, not just responding to them but also act accordingly. For example, the typical image of using a multitouch interface is a slideshow program, and photographs, in which and through two fingers can rotate pictures.

The web browser, a key element of the operating system that has given the company behind them, has been improved including support for elements of the draft of HTML 5, a trend that follow the main desktop browsers. Stresses powerfully native support for full screen video by tag, something that Google is very interested given the success of YouTube, the video streaming service Internet leader, which it owns.

The address book is “internationalized” and thanks to the new API for exporting and importing data, you can now synchronize with any external service. It also provides the tools necessary to connect to Microsoft Exchange servers, although the final implementation and use of this functionality is up to each manufacturer. Personally, I think this is smart move for Android is a valid platform for building business phone, but without neglecting either the end user market, especially the most multimedia enthusiasts. The manufacturer, and depending on the orientation of the model being built, you can use or not use this functionality.

We found several improvements in Android 2.0, enough to write several articles, but here I have summarized the most important. Those interested in exploring a bit more in everything that can bring this new major revision of Google’s mobile platform, please contact the blog post on the company that details the specifics, and download free and free of charge Android SDK 2.0.

With the entry of several manufacturers in the field of Android (among Sony Ericsson, which recently presented the Xperia X10), this coming year 2010 was an excellent future holds for this platform based on Linux, and I’m sure we will see him achieve a quota respectable market, eating away market share from Windows Mobile, Symbian and to a lesser extent, BlackBerry. However, the assault on the iPhone platform I see it more difficult, but not for technical reasons, the fame among iPhone users makes it an object of fetishistic desire, which is often valued more than their technology status.

* And, in fact, if pressed on another point will see the cursor “goes crazy” going from one point to another or giving random answers.

This article has been written by Guillem Alsima for one of our partner sites, and automatically translated to english.

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Fileinspect.com – the Windows Process Library with a Different Approach

MOin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:15:02 +0000

Not many people can say what exactly each process does when they take a quick look at the Windows Task Manager. An average computer user will recognize some of the processes, but will need to Google others to find out what they do. This can be especially difficult if some processes are run by malware.

Even fewer people know how to fix process-related errors. There is a number of websites that offer generic processes descriptions, that are usually automatically generated and, to tell you the truth, aren’t of much help if you are trying to fix errors. So, you have to Google again, ask questions on forums, etc. – basically, you are forced to spend a lot of time researching.

File Inspect Library Beta is a new Windows process library that has a different approach.

Its developers try to not only provide general process descriptions, but also offer tips and fixes for possible problems. For example, if you go to www.fileinspect.com and do a search for Windows Service Host Process, svchost.exe, you will find a thorough article that explains what is svchost.exe, what it does, and how to fix svchost 100% CPU usage.

Users can contribute to the website by rating processes (safe-unsafe-dangerous) and leaving comments, asking questions, and suggesting possible fixes for process-related errors.

Another useful thing about this site is that Vista and Windows 7 users can download a small free tool called Fileinspect Sidebar Gadget.

This sidebar tool will display the most resource-heavy processes running on your system, which is quite handy if you don’t want to have the Task Manager opened all the time, but would still like to know what’s going on. If you click on the magnifying glass sign next to the process name, you will be able to read a detailed process description. Very handy!

The site is still in Beta and processes descriptions are still being added. Also not all processes have a detailed article describing them – most of descriptions are still pretty generic. But it’s clear that Fileinspect.com developers are going for a different, more personal and helpful approach.

This guest post is written by Liz Vasileva. Liz is a technology writer. She loves everything to do with computers, classical music, opera, and travelling. She blogs at www.auslogics.com/en/blog

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How to Waste Spammer’s Time and Participate in the Race Against Spam

MOin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:02:28 +0000

Over the years (and especially recently) I’ve been getting a lot of spam from poor, hapless folks in dire need of money (relatives of prices in Nigeria’s the big one here, although more recently I’ve had spam from people who were supposedly victims of Katrina, or a Tsunami, or a bad divorce, or they were in the right place at the right time just before a dictator was toppled…you get the idea), who offer you a small percentage of a ridiculous sum – usually millions of dollars – in exchange for your contact information or more likely, your bank account.

A couple times I’ve even had my parents – both intelligent people with advanced degrees – send me emails they’ve received to the effect of, “You may just have won the UK lottery,” and ask, “Is this for real?” This kind of spam, particularly the Nigerian ones, is called 419 spam. How can the average computer user take a step further than using simple spam blockers and fight back against the criminals who employ this method to gain the trust and money of unsuspecting internet users? One word: spambaiting.
Spambaiting is the practice of engaging the spammers – because these emails are most often sent and replied to by real, live people rather than bots – in long, meaningless diatribes that result in wasting their time and preventing them from going after more susceptible individuals. It’s kind of like trolling, but in reverse, and if you have time on your hands and a little bit of savvy, you can visit sites that will show you how you can fight against 419 spam at a grassroots level. What’s more, since it looks like a lot of 419 spam originates with people who don’t have a particularly good grasp of the English language, you can wind up with some pretty entertaining emails to show around the office next time the topic of spam comes up.

Of course, there are some basic safety precautions you should take before you start engaging in spambaiting, since in the end the people you’re dealing with are breaking the law and trying to extract money from innocent victims. If you decide spambaiting is for you, remember not to use your real name (or even your real email address – as social networking sites become more prevalent it gets easier for spammers to figure out who you are and how to take advantage of your identity, so sign up for a fake account with a free provider) or to hand out any real information on yourself. Above all, be creative, and remember that whatever the spammer you’re dealing with might say, you’re the one in control.

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12 Most Wicked Looking External Hard Drives Available In the Market

MOin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:12:48 +0000

A few weeks ago I bought an external hard drive and my first preference was the best ratio between outlook and performance because external hard drives lay out on your desk and gets the maximum exposure around your working space.

Today I am going to mention all the external hard drives I found during my HD hunt. If you are looking to buy a good looking external hard drive then this post will help you to make a good decision and you don’t need to search any more for a perfect suitable external storage device for yourself because I am pretty sure you are going to find one from my ’12 most good looking external hard drives’ collection.

For the curious ones: which hard drive did I buy from the following collection? I bought ‘Western Digital My Book Studio Edition’ because the features it offers suits me best and I love the way it looks.

1. Hitachi [re]Drive

Energy-efficient external hard drive uses less power

Eco-friendly ingredients and packaging

Automatically powers on or off with your computer

Simple plug n play add-on storage

Turbo USB 2.0* interface, up to 25% faster than USB 2.0

Also compatible with USB 2.0, 1.1

Award-winning Fabrik backup software, including 2GB free online backup

Friendly, free unlimited technical support

PC and Mac compatible

2. Transcend StoreJet 35 U

Works with all 3.5″ SATA hard drives

Two connection options: eSATA or USB2.0

eSATA for maximum performance up to 3.0Gb/s

USB2.0 interface assures universal compatibility

Silent 80mm cooling fan reduces risk of HDD failure

External power adapter and eSATA cable included

Includes StoreJet?elite backup software

Hot-swappable / Plug and Play

Stylish aluminum housing

Anti-slip vertical stand

LED indicator light

3. iOmega eGo™ Midnight Blue

Rugged-Perfect for travel environments, the Drop Guard^TM feature protects the drive when dropped up to 51″ (40% above the industry average!)

Small and stylish solid aluminum enclosure

Preformatted and hot plug-and-play

No AC adapter needed

Compatible with PC and Mac®

USB 2.0/1.1 compatible

Transfer rate: 480 Mbits/s

4. Western Digital My Book Studio Edition

Plug and play

Automatic backup

USB 2.0 compatibility

FireWire 400 and 800 compatibility

eSATA 3 Gb/s compatibility

Formatted for Macintosh

Compact book like design

Capacity gauge

Environmentally friendly

SmartPower™ features

Designed to keep the drive inside cool

5. Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus

Automated OneTouch™ Backup

USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 interface

1TB Capacity

7200RPM, 16MB Cache Buffer

Maxtor SafetyDrill™

Sync Your Files

Easy-to-Use Interface

Maxtor DrivePass™ and Encryption

Simple Setup

6. Toshiba USB 2.0 Portable HD

USB powered for portability

Small size saves desktop space

Plug and play, ready to go out of the box

Easy to use Windows and Mac software

Internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology to help protect your drive

Simple solution for backup or increasing computer storage

7. Seagate FreeAgent Go

Available in 250GB, 320GB, or 500GB capacity

The thinnest portable drive available. Even the cables are compact

Ten different colors to suit your style and let you tell one FreeAgent™ Go from the next

Automatic backup for peace of mind

Encryption technology keeps your files safe

Easy synchronization means you always have the most current version with you

Access your files without fumbling for cables

Preloaded software means easy setup

8. Verbatim USB Portable Hard Drive

Bus powered – no AC adapter or power cords required

Includes easy-to-use backup software

Increase the storage capacity of your laptop or desktop PC

Transfer files between office and home

Store and take music, photos, and video anywhere

9. Acomdata PureDrive

Hi-Speed USB 2.0

eSATA

On-Off Switch

Mac & Pc ready

Security lock slot

Near-Silent Operation

Vertical & Horizontal Placement

Stackable

10. Cavalry Cauc Series

3.5″ hard disk drive

One touch backup

OS backup function

USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 compatible) interface

Plug & Play for Windows 2000 and newer (Pre-formatted to NTFS)

Transfer rate of 480Mbps (USB 2.0)

Hard drive activity LED

Aluminum case

11. Acomdata Enigma Ruggedized Mobile Drive

Fingerprint biometric access

Password Protect

Military-grade AES-128 encryption

Hi-Speed USB 2.0

Pc ready

Bus-powered operation

Plug and Play

12. Seagate FreeAgent Desk

Available in 500GB, 640GB, 1TB, 1.5 TB and 2TB

Sleek, modern, brushed metal design

Lay it flat or on its side, you choose

Automatic backup software makes it easy

Software encryption keeps sensitive files and folders private

Easy to sync between FreeAgent Desk and other drives

Fast data transfer with USB 2.0 interface

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5 Simple Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

MOin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:23:37 +0000

We all want our computers to be fast. And there are a lot of ways to speed them up – you could upgrade your hardware (adding RAM is the easiest solution), use lots of Registry edits, disable various services, etc. But if you are looking for a fast and easy way to improve your computer speed and performance, here are 5 tips that will not harm your computer in any way and will make it run a lot faster.

1) Speed Up Windows Explorer

If you feel that Windows Explorer takes too much time to start, there is a thing you can do to speed it up. The reason it is slow if because Windows automatically looks for network files, shared folders, and devices when you start Windows Explorer. You can disable this option by doing the following:

Open Windows Explorer
Click on Tools menu
Then click on Folder Options
Click on the View tab
Find Automatically search for network folders and printers check box and uncheck it
Click Apply, then OK
Reboot

2) Optimize Appearance Settings

If performance is the highest priority for you, I’d recommend optimizing appearance setting, because all those visual effects that we are so used waste system resources. Some people think that it’s only the graphics card that has to deal with it all. Wrong – CPU and RAM are affected as well. And Vista is even worse in this respect, because its graphics are more advanced and slow down your PC a lot.

Luckily it’s very easy to configure XP for best performance by reducing unneeded visual effects:

Go to Start – Settings - Control Panel
In the Control Panel click System and go to Advanced tab
In the Performance Options window select Adjust for best performance
Click OK and close the window

By doing this you will turn off all visual effects, which is especially good for less powerful PCs and laptops. But if you’d still like Windows XP to look nicer, leave the following boxes ticked:

Show shadows under menus
Show shadows under mouse pointer
Show translucent selection rectangle
Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
Use visual styles on windows and buttons

3) Uninstall Unused Device Drivers

There is absolutely no need to have device drivers left if the device itself was uninstalled. You don’t want those drivers to waste system resources, right? Because anyway you don’t need them anymore. This happens because you install its drivers when installing a device, and those drivers get called each time you boot up your PC. The bad thing is that even when the device has been uninstalled, the drivers are still there and your system continues to load them at boot up.

To get rid of them:

1. Press the Windows key + the Break key on your keyboard to open the System Properties box

2. Select the Advanced tab

3. Click Environmental Variables

4. Under System variables click New

5. In the variable box type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices

6. Type 1 in the variable value text box

7. Click Ok and return to the System Properties box

8. Click Ok again

9. Go to the Device Manager tab

10. Click View – Show hidden devices

Then you need to expand all branches and search washed out icons – they show unused drivers that you can remove. To remove a driver, highlight it, right-click on it, and select Remove. Be careful though, because you don’t want to delete any used drivers! So make sure you delete ONLY washed out icons.

4) Remove Software You Don’t Need

Most people like trying out new software. So, we download programs, install them, and… sometimes never use them at all. Why keep them then? Because having too many applications makes your computer slow on starup. Go to Start – Settings – Control Panel – double-click Add/Remove Programs.

Check which programs you don’t need and get rid of them.

When Uninstalling Software Fails

Sometimes removing software can cause problems. A very common one is that some programs leave some data behind and your system gets cluttered with junk files.

And sometimes the uninstaller doesn’t work at all. But not to worry – you can always remove the software manually. What you will have to do is find the folder where the program is installed. Usually it’s the Program Files directory. Find the software folder and delete it. If some files don’t want to be deleted, try restarting your computer. This will help if the files were used by the system. If you still can’t remove those files, try booting in Safe Mode (tap F8 during PC boot) and then delete the files.

After that you need to get rid of invalid Registry entries. Microsoft has a free Windows Installer CleanUp Utility to help you do that. Install and open it and then select the program you want to uninstall from the list. The utility will remove all registry entries related to that application. I suggest backing up the Registry before you do this. Just in case.

Another way to cleanup the Registry is to use a third party Registry cleaner. Always be careful and use ONLY well-known and trusted software that has received positive user reviews. There are lots of programs that say they are great, but in reality they can do more harm than good.

A very simple way to uninstall programs without having to worry about it at all is to use a software uninstaller. Those uninstallers find and remove all entries related to the software you are uninstalling and get rid of it all in one go.

A good program for that is Auslogics BoostSpeed, because it contains both an uninstaller and a Registry cleaner, plus lots of other useful utilities to optimize and protect your system.

5) Disable Indexing Services

Indexing can be useful, but can also make your computer slow and loud, as it takes up RAM and makes the hard drive thrash. This service is used to update the lists of all the files that are on your computer, so that you can search for files faster. Disabling it will make your search a bit slower, but your computer a lot faster. I recommend disabling it.

Go to Start - Settings – Control Panel
Double-click Add/Remove Programs
Click Add/Remove Windows Components
Uncheck Indexing Services
Click Next and then click Finish

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25 Beautiful Free WordPress Themes That Offer Theme Options

MOin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:30:50 +0000

WordPress is one of the most widely used blogging platforms and there are ever increasing numbers of plugins and themes being released for it. Vast numbers make searching for the perfect theme for your blog a tough job.

Today I intend to help you find the perfect theme by offering a list of great wordpress themes that offer some great theme options allowing customization from the admin dashboard.

Description:

The Buffet Framework is a theme framework designed not only for the theme developers who will be using the theme actions and filters to create the child themes, but also for the end users who would be able to add and remove what they want.

If you think this post gave you a good idea or if you found something interesting from this blog why don’t you Subscribe to RSS Feed and let us inform you about new posts on daily bases. You can also get informed via E-mail just enter your e-mail into subscription form available on sidebar.

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Integrate ReShouts to Twhirl Desktop Client

MOin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:59:10 +0000

Digg one the most popular social media website removed Shouts feature a couple of days ago for security reasons and spamming complaints. They replaced shouts with Twitter and Facebook, when you submit story you share it on your twitter account and post it story to facebook profile to let your friends know about dig submission. This new replacement is good for many reasons and bad for only one reason ‘Shouts are gone’ many of the diggers were still relying on shouts to get diggs and to promote their submissions. Now when ‘shout lovers’ were screaming for help in the middle of no where a knight came with a brilliant solution which is a lot better than shouts but is more effective and productive.

ReShouts.com is the solution, Reshouts work like microblogging platform many active diggers joined it and now they (including me) are sharing dig stories here and there to let their friends know about their submissions. In this post I am about to tell you that how to integrate Reshouts with Twirl (popular twitter desktop client).

Well now you have full fledged ReShouts desktop client. Happy digging

1. First of all Download Twirl from here

2. Select “laconi.ca”

3. Enter your @diggshout.com

4. hit the “+”, then click “connect”

That’s it, you’re done.

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WP Soul Free WordPress Theme by TechieSouls

MOin — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:12:51 +0000

Download WP Soul | Demo

WP Soul designed and coded for content healthy blogs to give content more exposure and load as fast as possible. WP Soul is a full fledge theme which won’t require any external modding to make your blog ready to go. As soon as you install and activate the theme you’ll be able to adjust sidebar ads, RSS subscriptions button and form options, Author info, Twitter button integration, Header Logo image (if you don’t want to use text) and Social media icons on blog posts. You can set all these options right inside your Admin panel.

Full Feature List:

Simple & Elegant look
Fast loading structure
xHTML and CSS Valid
Supports comments threading and paging
Fully WP 2.7.1 support
Premium Quality
Styled Blockquote
Styked Sticky post
Fixed Width
2 Columns
Right Sidebar
Many theme options
Free of cost

What can I adjust from Admin Theme Options??

Header logo image: If you want to use image in your header image just enter image URL.
Sidebar 125 x 125 ads: You can tune sidebar ads from inside your theme options just enter banner URLs and enter link for them.
RSS form and button settings : You can enable sidebar RSS buttons and if you are using feedburner to manage feeds for your blog then you can put your feedburner feed address and name to use feedburner links instead of default wordpress feed address.
Twitter button settings: You can enable Twitter button to show in your blog sidebar. To link twitter button to your profile just enter your Twitter Name.
Author info box: You can enter information about yourself in author info and enable it to show in sidebar.
Social icons box: Its upto you if you want to enable Social bookmarking icons in your blog posts you can even set your own text to show above icons.

Screenshot of WP Soul Admin Options screen. (click on thumbnail for full view)

Installation:

Extract the wpsoul.zip file in a convenient location
Copy the ‘wpsoul’ folder to ‘/wp-content/themes/’ directory in your web server.
Log in to the WordPress Administration Dashboard
Select the ‘Themes’ sub-menu from ‘Appearance’ menu
Select the WP Soul theme from the available list of themes to preview
Activate the theme.

Where are Admin Theme Options??

Sign in to your Admin Dashboard.
Under Appearance tab click on ‘WP Soul Theme Options’ menu.

Download WP Soul | Demo

The easiest way to install this theme is to get it from the WordPress themes directory, this way you can upgrade to the latest version easily using the in-built theme auto-upgrade tool. http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/wp-soul

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Download Best Free Nokia Symbian Themes

MOin — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:34:27 +0000

If you have Nokia symbian based mobile and you are looking for some cool themes for your mobile phone then let me tell you, this is accurate place to download some free themes that actually looks awesome. I am mentioning some beautiful and professionally made themes by Theme Artist Nahid. He is more like a magician of themes I never saw such beautiful and wicked collection of themes at one place.

In order to download theme follow download links available under each thumbnail or give Nahid Website a visit to download full collection of Symbian themes for your mobile.

Clean – Download

Technology – Download

Mix Red – Download

Sea Wave – Download

Shadow – Download

Gray – Download

Dotted Stripes – Download

Girl – Download

Electro Blue – Download

Colorful V2 – Download