kwout is a new service where you can “grab” a screenshot of any web page. Sample below:
Here’s their website: kwout | A brilliant way to quote
I can do the same thing manually. But this is a bit quicker.
Category: blogs
WordPress is top blogging platform
Problogger is a site for blogging experts.
Here are the results of a recent poll of their users:
… two varieties of WordPress being used by 51% of ProBlogger readers.
This site runs on free WordPress.org software.
Rumours persist that WordPress.com will be acquired by someone, perhaps Yahoo!. Gladly the system is too good, too far evolved, to be ruined by anyone. Even Microsoft couldn’t destroy WordPress.
how blogs work
In case you want to start your own.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
my new website for Frederick Nicolas
Dana and I put together a new website for her husband Fred.
Fred competed the 1996 Olympics for France in Gymnastics and then went on to expand his repertoire. He’s done stunt work, dance, and coaching. He has a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
You can find Fred listed in the Guiness World Records under Rope Climb
Currently Fred is performing in Le Reve, at Wynn Las Vegas. He’s has a tremendously physical role.
Check out the new site:
FrederickNicolas.com
(Adjusting the wide of your window changes the layout.)
It’s my first website not primarily white.
Just today I met with Garth. We’re contemplating a NEW LOOK for his website.
NOW … Boing Boing TV
Boing Boing is perhaps the world’s most popular blog, winning the Bloggies in 2004 and 2005. It features Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz and Xeni Jardin.
Boing Boing Boing is their fabulous, but infrequent, audiocast.
NOW … Boing Boing TV.
screenshot of a most intriguing woman
WOW! Their internet TV show is just as weirdly fascinating.
You have to watch this, their first episode: Visions of the Future/Listography – Boing Boing TV
Boing Boing – blog
Boing Boing Boing – audiocast
Leo Laporte and me – great minds think alike
My favourite Tech pundit Leo Laporte has set up a new blog as a HUB for his vast on-line presence.
I was pleased to see he chose WordPress (the blog template I use) and a very similar theme as RickMcCharles.com.
Great minds think alike.
My name is Leo Laporte. I’m a technology journalist and podcaster and this is my blog.
I have a number of other sites including Leoville.com, my home page, TWiT.tv, my netcast site, and TechGuyLabs.com, my radio show site. I also maintain microblogs at Pownce and Jaiku and a tumblelog at Tumbleo.com, but nearly everything of interest that I have to say will show up here. …
I live in Northern California with my wife, Jennifer, my two teenagers, Abby and Henry, my little Papillon dog, Ozzy, and cats Dusty and Chester. …
For more information about how this site was made visit the Colophon.
Of course I subscribed by RSS instantly.
how to track over 600 blogs a day
Talking to Bill Wallace yesterday, I learned he’s a fan of Google Reader.
For me it’s the best thing Google offers aside from their search engine. Google Reader is fantastic.
Power blogger Robert Scoble can manage over 600 RSS feeds using Google Reader. That means he keeps track of what’s new on over 600 websites.
Wow!
By comparison, I have 238 feeds and there’s no way I can come close to following them all. (Not all my RSS feeds are blogs. Some are flickr photo streams, YouTube video streams, news sites, and more.)
Google interviewed Scoble on how he does it. (Perhaps I’ll try his “river of news” skimming method.)
see the video – Google Reader: Robert Scoble
Interestingly, Scoble in June mentioned two major problems with Google Reader: Lousy SEARCH and the fact that you cannot check your feeds when offline.
Since then, Google Reader added an offline function called Google Gears. But Lousy SEARCH? Shame on Google!
If you want to try Google Reader yourself, check this video tutorial.
travellers love Gadling
Man, it makes my head spin just to think of all the things we’ve covered, the gazillions of articles we’ve read and written about, trips we’ve done, blogs we’ve reviewed, snarky thoughts we’ve had on everything from airlines to zippers. And all the amazing folks who have joined up to make gadling one of the best travel blogs out there.
I see nonsense on the internet that blogging has “peaked”.
What about the long tail? Cumulative wisdom?
From the Gadling photo pool – the most beautiful city I’ve seen – Istanbul.
Blue Mosque – flickr
… OOPS.
Gadling is long past 10,000 posts. I missed that milestone as I have so many others.
group project management – Basecamp
Keith joked, “Rick wants everything on the internet to be free.”
Not true.
I want everything to be bought and sold in micro-payments. Like the fraction of a penny Google is paying me for you opening this page on your computer. (They hope you will click on one of their eight advertising links.)
Google is making billion$ on these tiny transactions.
The problem with you or I selling something on-line is that some geek in a basement somewhere will offer it for free.
How do you compete against free?
I store over 6000 photos on flickr. And happily pay US$25 / year. That’s an amazing value / transaction. Some of the best money I’ve ever spent.
There are free photo hosting sites. But flickr is so much superior, I’d rather pay.
You can host blogs for free, but I recommend the US$10 / year WordPress plan including domain name. A much better value than free anywhere else.
There are many free project management websites and software tools. But I’m testing one called Basecamp. It’s got a free limited version — but I’ll likely upgrade to the pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-need, US$12 / month version if it works as reported.
Project management and collaboration
Collaborate with your team and clients. Schedules, tasks, files, messages, and more.
Basecamp is part of the 37signals suite, considered best in class at what they do.
You can try to convince me to use cheaper (or free) software. But first read this article: Why You Shouldn’t Compete With 37Signals
I’ll check out Basecamp and the other 37signals products. And report back here.
Buddhist grottoes in China
One of my favourite blogs over the past months is Walking the Wall, a classy, entertaining and fascinating travelogue posted by a couple hiking the Great Wall of China.
They’ve posted great photos of astonishing works done in the name of Buddha. I enjoyed the caves of Dunhuang and Datong so much myself back in the late 1990s that I thought I’d pass this on.
Of all the Buddhist grottoes we’ve visited – Dunhuang, Matisi, Jintasi and Shikong – we’d have to say we had the most fun at Yungang Grottoes near Datong. Not that the works were as gorgeous and beautifully preserved as at Dunhuang; they weren’t. Nor were the grottoes set against a spectacular mountain backdrop like those at Matisi and Jintasi, or a private, intimate experience like we had at Shikong.
What was so enjoyable about Yungang, and what we hadn’t experienced before, was that we were able to wander about the caves more or less unrestricted. We weren’t required to hire a guide, we could linger as long as we liked, and we could take photographs wherever we wanted.
Rick McCharles 