Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category

We support Kiva, a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose slogan is “loans that change lives” with a mission to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Imagine the idea of random acts of kindness and helping someone realize the dream of a better life for their family by offering funds in the form of microloan support through Kiva. If you are an active customer for my design services then a portion of your fee for custom cms web design or matching artwork may have already helped a Kiva entrepreneur.

The Kiva community allows a person to invest a nominal amount towards microloans to entrepreneurs mostly in poorer countries who would not otherwise qualify for a traditional loan. You get to choose a specific entrepreneur by trade and geography after reading their bio and history.

As of November 2009, Kiva had facilitated over $100 million in loans in their first 4 years since incorporating in 2005. Understand that lending to the working poor through Kiva involves risk of principal loss, yet you can place as little as $25 towards helping prequalified persons attempting to make a better life for their families.

Kiva does not guarantee repayment. Kiva does not offer any financial return on your loan. However, the principal repayment rate is greater than 98% to date, so helping ease poverty and seeing that success rate is very gratifying. Once repaid you may withdraw the funds from your account, loan it again to another needy person, or donate it all to Kiva.

Note: A 15% donation added at checkout to funds the first time you lend is voluntary and may be declined, yet helps defray Kiva operating costs. You have other Kiva donation options on future microfinance loan purchases from 0-20%, also. The donation portion for USA lenders is tax deductible.

Visit their website to learn more about helping people help themselves with microloan support through Kiva. While there, visit my microloan lender page to see profiles of entrepreneurs I helped.

The computer hard drive storage capacity setup on my pc 3 years ago seemed like a forever solution until just recently. Imagine the shock of seeing a computer alert warning that open capacity on the 250Gb hard drive storage was dangerously low at 4%.

Rather than buy a new pc my solution was the WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN 1Tb External Hard Drive from Western Digital. The photo here shows the new My Book Essential 1Tb hard drive on my desk next to the pc tower. You can buy alternate capacity of 500Gb or 2Tb, also.

Once installed, mouse over the WD icon in the taskbar and it indicates storage used as a percentage plus a temperature indicator with “ok”.

The photo shown has the box (left) and actual external drive (right). My Book is an appropriate name. At approximately 7″ tall with air vents on 3 sides the add-on is shaped like a small thick book.

The backup system chosen 3 years ago was a Western Digital 250Gb external hard drive at $150 plus separate backup software for $100 for $250 total. The new WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN 1Tb external hard drive has 4x the storage for $99 (July 2010), plus includes excellent backup software that installs automatically. Thus total cost for bigger and better was cut more than half.

In 2007 I never imagined filling up a 250Gb hard drive. By the time I need a 2Tb drive I’ll be overdue for a new pc. The plug and play setup and installation of the WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN 1Tb was surprisingly fast and simple.

I was mildly disappointed that the software does not mirror my folder structure but splits storage into folders by file type: system, pictures, other, music, movies, mail, and documents. I archive and sometimes delete by entire project folder not by individual files, so I went to the WD forum for archive advice.

One solution from the WD community forum is keep two copies of the file you would delete or archive with one as the “original” and one on the “backup” drive so you have them stored in different locations. I’ve decided to store 50Gb of the original files on the retired WD 250Gb drive. There are already backups on the new external drive, so now I can safely remove them from my computer to free up storage space.

Overall I’m pleased with the great value and ease of use of the WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN. In particular I was very impressed with the software, the speed of the initial backup, and the automated real time backup function. The automation instead of manual backups means my 2007 post Surviving the Inevitable Hard Drive Crash warning about regular backups is now even easier with an external hard drive upgrade.

A new video tutorial has been added to the main site. An advantage of owning a custom cms web design is you may add, edit, or delete content unassisted.

With a matching custom WordPress theme for your blog or podcast, you also have a comment spam magnet which prompted this WordPress anti-spam video tutorial.

Here’s an excerpt explaining results:

Today’s tutorial using SI CAPTCHA solved my comment spam problem. The advice in this custom cms training video tutorial allowed me to reduce that 100 per day to zero instantly.

Mini-review: The SI in SI CAPTCHA stands for Secure Image which is a spam solution I have used for years in custom cms web design. The WordPress plugin version uses many of the same files and was already proven to be an effective tool to fight spam robots from putting comment spam in contact forms, so it was an easy choice.

Watch the video to learn how you can download, install, and activate this WordPress anti-spam solution in less than 3 minutes! After making the video I used a stopwatch to time the installation on another blog and actual time from log-in to done was 1:23, yes 1 minute and 23 seconds.

Having purchased SubmitEaze directory submission software several years ago for seo or search engine optimization reasons, recent updates and enhanced functions make this a good time for another look at SubmitEaze. Part of website optimization strategy for search engine optimization involves backlinks which are links to your website from other sites. These are like votes when found by Google, so by acquiring more votes your site is more likely to increase its rank.

Two methods of acquiring those backlinks are “Website Directories” and “Article Directories” featured in my series of do-it-yourself seo reports released in 2007. Follow that link to download your free copies of the PDF reports (no email or registration required).

In a hurry to learn how? Visit their site to watch the SubmitEaze demo videos.

In summary, you acquire backlinks by getting listed on other websites. The Website Directory lists businesses by category with links to those sites, and the Article Directory sites accept advice articles for syndication that includes links in the resource (About the Author) box. Get listed, or write helpful articles about your business niche and submit to 100′s of directories.

Prior to SubmitEaze, the submission process was VERY time consuming. Each site you visit meant doing copy and paste of content over and over, so submitting to 100 sites could take 2-3 days. SubmitEaze is a very fast and semi-automated software program with a system to submit your site or articles to directories in minutes, not days.

First released for web directories only, SubmitEaze now handles article submissions, too. My advice is to review the SubmitEaze software and watch their demo videos before you buy. I started out doing manual submission of my website, and then bought other software before discovering SubmitEaze and making it my standard.

The developers of DupeFree Pro software for checking duplicate content and testing article keyword density, just to name two great features, are asking existing users to reply to an online survey of possible new features. If YOU have taken my advice for downloading their free program and receive their survey request email, please take the time to comply. Here are some of the comments I included in my submission.

For me DupeFree Pro is used mostly for keyword density and article word count. It might be nice to have the option to set a target density for a keyword, ie 4 percent, then test and if the density is low, have a value displayed in DupeFree Pro for the number of times to add that word to achieve my target percentage.

That’s easy to achieve by trial and error yet with a number it would be easy to copy/paste that key word X number of times in appropriate places within the article while maintaining human readability. Otherwise, with trial/error and copy/paste I compromise the target and stop while thinking “good enough”.

In addition, I made the following comments

You have a great product which I am happy to promote and suggest people use. Many have. A 50 page PDF tutorial I wrote on custom cms web design and do-it-yourself seo makes reference to free resources for research and testing of website content.

The free ebook has been downloaded 1000′s of times, and includes DupeFree Pro as recommended for testing keyword density. The 4 percent target keyword density mentioned earlier in the survey is what I suggest within the 1.5-6.5 percent in your documentation. It has worked very well for me.

My core business is custom cms web design. I truly believe holding my position on Google page one at #1 and #2 for custom cms web design for the last 2 years is due in part to your fine software. Thanks!

Finally for my readers, given the opportunity please take the DupeFree Pro survey to help them in deciding on future developments and enhancements of their software.

The challenge of the day was learning new php and mysql related terms involving a web design upgrade, and then finding a timestamp date and time code converter. The research began without knowing the right words to describe what was needed! It’s time to share the solution for novice designers facing the same mystery.

Searching the date and time code 1190073600 plus php or mysql, and then words like translate or convert, did not explain how that timestamp code translates to midnight on September 18, 2007. Knowing how to create similar dates and specific times in a proper 10 digit code was a variable necessary for importing updates to a searchable database being considered in a web design project.

Don’t even try to find a date or time in that code. 1190073600 is more cryptic than the 07 meaning 2007. The code 0000000000 translates to midnight on Thursday, January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 (GMT). That timestamp is the unix epoch, or reference date for unix based servers, and time is calculated in seconds from that “zero” time and date. Therefore, the mystery time code definition of 1190073600 is that moment in time 1,190,073,600 seconds after the unix epoch.

Noontime today when converted to a unix timestamp would be human readable as Thursday, November 5th 2009, 12:00:00 (GMT) and translates to 1257422400 as the unix timestamp. Without an understanding of how that 10 digit date and time code was created, it took persistent and stubborn research before finding this online timestamp (date and time) code converter.

With the solution and clearer terminology in hand, Google “standard time to unix online tool” and the first tool in search results today was this standard time and unix timestamp converter which converts the code or datetime either way. The linked 4webhelp.net version interface and display was nice, yet others in the top 10 results were adequate online tools, also.

Will I be disappointed if I can integrate and update the database without needing that date and time code converter? No. The solution was fun to research and will hopefully help others as curious or stubborn as me.

An email received today was from a customer who watched one of my graphics tutorial videos recently where I use Xara Xtreme, and then asked for a comparison of Xara Xtreme and Photoshop for creating website graphics. Here’s my reply.

I chose Xara based on price and functions after downloading trial copies of each. Both are vector graphics software. Photoshop is the “standard” for high end professional design, yet for what I do designing web graphics and artwork for print, the cost and functions of Xara were more than sufficient and made it a clear choice.

It’s easy to understand why the advanced print artwork capabilities of Photoshop are needed for full time graphic design. Based on need, Photoshop had more than I needed or would ever use, while Xara was sufficient without more technical functions or a steeper learning curve.

View examples of my artwork for a feel for what can be done in Xara. 9 out of 10 logo designs on my site including these 50 custom business cards and another 50 card designs were drawn freehand in Xara to ensure crisp clean lines in the final artwork.

The video flash animation in the intro and outro of new videos done for my puppy’s Life with Corky website used Xara. Here’s an example 23 second puppy video on YouTube to demo flash creation and export. Special effects for the moving text and puppies popping up was created with Xara.

If you’ve only seen the first photo edit tutorial, an improved video of photo masking techniques shows more detail of how to use Xara for photo edits including cropping backgrounds, so that may be of interest, too.

I’ve been using Xara Xtreme for more than 5 years with professional results online and in print. Photoshop is excellent, yet more than I need for web and print graphics.

Frustrated or overwhelmed managing large numbers of followers and people you follow on Twitter? The Twitin Twitter online tool from Buzzom.com may be the solution you need to get back in control.

A novice Twitter user may look at the stream of tweets flying by 24/7 when they have 1000+ friends and think it’s like a freight train passing at 100 mph and you’re expected to read the grafitti on each train car. Strategies for following, unfollowing, reciprocating, and then communicating with Twitter friends in your new social circle will be easier using an online tool like Twitin.

There are many tools you could review and choose, and after trying several I am most impressed with the Twitin Twitter online tool. As shown in the graphic above, you have choices that are automated to figure out people you follow who do not follow back, who follows you that you may have overlooked following back, and a bunch of other tools for very advanced Twitter account management.

Besides automating the routine functions just mentioned that allow you to match up people to follow or unfollow, another option suggests a list of Twitter people that are very likely to follow you back. After using their tool for about an hour, I permanently blocked a handful of people following me who tweet content that I found too offensive. I reciprocated with 200+ followers who I didn’t realize were following me unnoticed because that freight train is moving so fast. In addition, I unfollowed about 100 people who I chose to follow who did not reciprocate after several months.

Next, a real cool online tool at Twitin that I recommend is their “Cross Follow” option. Input the ID of a person on Twitter who you know and respect with similar interests for your niche, and Twitin allows you to review the unique people in their followers and following lists for consideration. The list leaves out known matching contacts to those you already follow.

Review 50 names at a time that include data on followers/following and other detials, and then select check boxes for ones you want to follow. When done, press the follow button to automatically follow persons on the list. When that task is complete you get instant feedback on the success rate.

Finally, Twitin has a locking tool that allows you to selectively lock people on your lists. You can set IDs that you never want to follow as well as those you will never unfollow to prevent deleting them by mistake later. Twitin is great. Don’t get too carried away because Twitter does have API call limits, yet if you do get an error message in Twitin you can likely return an hour later and continue.

This web design related review is for the online video display features at Flickr.com. After uploading personal still photos to my Flickr account, I decided to test the video option. I wanted to see the Flickr video display features including size, quality, and video player layout. The quality and layout were excellent. The size options were a surprise.

The video may be embedded on a blog like here with a choice of sizes including Flickr’s suggested 400 x 300 as shown below, or even your original actual size if larger. The 8 second test video below is our puppy sneezing and the original was 640 x 480.

You may see examples of the different video size, quality, and player features of this same short video on Flickr as follows:

See the small thumbnail 100 x 75 view of the sneezing puppy test video on the tags page at Flickr. Look for the triangle play button to id videos. Yes, the tiny 100 x 75 video does actually play right on the tags page!

The medium gallery displays a 240 x 180 medium size sneezing puppy (Look by date for content dated 4 Sep 2009). This video plays on the gallery page with sufficient detail without going to the permalinked larger version.

Finally, the large 480 x 360 view and permalink page shows the same puppy sneezing clip in HD, and the player and view quality are excellent.

Here’s a summary of my review of the Flickr video display features. The video player display, quality, and size options provide a positive viewing experience. Video duration is limited to 90 seconds maximum and 150mb file size if you have a free account, or 500mb video size for a Flickr Pro account. If you have a longer story to tell, try YouTube. You may learn more about uploading and sharing videos with Flickr on the Flickr video help page of FAQs.

You may want to compare my sample video by viewing longer YouTube videos of my puppy Corky with opening graphics, soundtrack, and narration, also. I was pleased and impressed with the Flickr video display features for short personal video clips including audio.

Hispanic small business owners represent nearly half my clients for custom web design. I’m pleased to announce a valuable resource by Juan Silvera including his Hispanic Small Business Blog at HispanicSMB.com. El Blog de Juan has been online since 2006 providing valuable insight for Latino small businesses.

Some of my clients contact me for a quality custom website that is designed with bilingual content. Once the English version is launched, site owners have the option of translating all pages for visitors who prefer reading content in Spanish.

In addition to announcing the HispanicSMB site, a link has been added to the Small Business Resource Center blogroll for the benefit of my clients interested in learning more about business trends for US Hispanic businesses. Visit their main site for more content including a Latino small business forum, how-to videos, directory, and library for Latino small business owners.