Widgetbox.com is a one stop source for all kinds of widgets for your desktop, website or blog and wherever else you can think of putting these tasty treats. Widgets range from from fun amusement to news feeds and even calculators. Widgetbox is also a community where you are given the tools to make your own widget and share with others.

Widgetbox™ helps people express, connect, create and inform using web widgets that can be easily shared and distributed anywhere on the web. Our community of tens of thousands of widget makers and over 30 million widget users is growing every day. Widgetbox widgets have been on hundreds of thousands of websites. And, best of all, Widgetbox is free!

You ask what is a widget? I know you’ve seen them on your own blog but maybe you haven’t given it any more thought that that. To put it simply, widgets are little bite size morsels of the web. Candy coated to be easily dropped wherever you want and you better believe they wont melt in your hands either

One of the seemingly popular widgets (at least form the sites I visit) is of a virtual cat called Mauki. I decided to share something a bit different since I thought it to be pretty cool that someone put it together (see below )

So don’t hold back go get your widgets now…

I signed up for my Twitter account several months ago, thus becoming a twitterer. Limited to 140 characters per Tweet, I found myself being much more concise in what I was saying.  Ok, i do admit that at times I do resort to SMS speak just to save character space.  What you’re not on Twitter or don’t know what it is?  Check out this small video from CommonCraft.

Twitter has become my link to the world before any other sources.  Twitter is the first thing I look at in the morning to see what peeps were up to while I was sleeping and the last thing I look at before sleeping.  Some call it obsession or addiction, I look at it from different view points. What Twitter is to me is multi faceted

1) It is my link to breaking news from all over

2)  I pick up many tips and hints from other Twittizens.

3)  Entertainment – Many tweets are read out of context and form a new world when brought together with other tweets (very much like a drama or soap opera)

4)  just like any other social site – it brings people together

I keep seeing references to being twitterholics and like any good addiction, I also see more ways being invented to feed the hunger.  I have seen many posts pop up lately sparking the conversation of ‘Do you blog less now that you Twitter?’.  For some thi sis a fact, as the micro-bloggin gof Twitter has moved them away from keeping their own blogs current.  I’m currently somewhere in limbo of being an addict and just an avid user of the service.  How are you using Twitter and are you following ‘phoFuki’ ?

twitter,twitterholic

Every where you go on the net you see these little ad boxes somewhere on a web page.  They are typically a 125×125 pixel spot and gives the owner a chance to showcase their product or web page.  Now you could use many a tool (I use Photoshop and illustrator) to make these little ads.  Not everyone has these tools available to them or maybe you just need something quick and easy.  Enter free125cards.com.  I first learned about this site over at Orangeinks and was instantly intrigued. 

The service is free and is as easy as 3 simple steps. You first select a background. You can browse all the options or you can narrow the field by selecting a base color.  Then you just need to customize by adding your own text.  This is the biggest surprise.  I was expecting just a simple add text feature but you really have some control over the text you add from the font to sizing and positioning.

Once you are happy with the design, save the image and you are presented with a completed product.  Save to your desktop and share with everyone on the net

125card,free,design tool

Every blog you go to has some sort of RSS feed available.  However sometimes visitors don’t know what it is or how they can take advantage of it.  If you’re an avid RSS reader then this post may not be for you but on the other hand, maybe you’ll have some great insight you could leave in the comments below.

RSS or ‘Really Simple Syndication’ feeds are a great way to keep up with some of your favorite blogs.  RSS feeds can be downloaded and read through at your leisure or just simply kept in a single location.  No need to visit every one of your favorite sites to see what’s new.  The feeds are updated when you open your browser and periodically there after as new content is published.  I like to use Google reader as well as the reader in Flock to manage my subscriptions. 

RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication.  It’s a way of transmitting a site’s updated content to subscribers automatically.  RSS feeds allow you to see what’s new on your favorite blogs from a central location.  Open Google Reader (for example) and you’ll see how many new posts have been made in your favorite bogs and then you can read them all from the comfort of a single browser window.  No need to travel to every web site to get your fix.  If you start reading something that you want to see more of, the remaining content is only a click away.

Typically, you will see a graphic like the one in this post or similar offering like at the top of this blog that is a link to subscribe to the RSS feed.  You will generally get two options for subscription, email and a reader like Google reader.  The email option requires you to enter your email address and you will receive in your inbox updates as they are made to the blog.  The more common subscription is through a reader.  There are plenty of options available and you probably already have a few installed. I like the to use the one in Flock (my browser) and an online version by Google. Not only does subscription through a reader make your RSS feeds easier to manage but also makes them easier to consume. 

Subscribing to the site is as simple as clicking on one of those icons. If you visit a site and find the content to your liking, don’t miss out on updates simply because you don’t have time to visit the site that day. Subscribe to the RSS feed and you’ll never miss an update again and you’ll have more freedom as to when you read the new posts. 

Go ahead subscribe to my feed

rss,feeds,rss feeds,subscriber

Thanks for all your kind comments on the new theme.  Justin definitely has some great stuff out and keeps updating them for everyone to use.  If you get a chance, head on over and wish him a happy belated birthday. 

Upon changing my theme and getting all my plug-ins situated and layout just right, I hit a wall.  It was not a major issue but something I wanted to use since it was already built into the theme. I’m talking about the popular posts feature.  There are many plug-ins to create a popular post feature but this theme calls for the popularity contest plug-in.  After I realized I needed another plug-in I downloaded it straight away and this is where my patience started to get tested.

I installed the plug-in to find that it would do nothing upon activation.  I read for possible errors but this there was simply no action after clicking on ‘activate’.  After a little reading at the publishers web site, I realized that I had downloaded an older version (Duh!), so I promptly got the latest version and uploaded to the server.  I clicked activate and Bam! another brick wall "Error. The plug-in has caused some sort of error’  Great now what?  I turned to Google and hoped that there was quick solution.

I found several entries on the error and possible fixes on Justin’s site as Alex King’s site(the maker of the plug-in).  The conclusion I reached is that if you had the plug-in installed before upgrading to wordpress 2.5  then you could easily change some of the code in the plug-in and it could work (see below).  However, this was my first time installing the plug-in.

Apparently, the main problem comes from the plug-in trying to create a table within the database and it doesn’t seem to be able to do this. No big deal, you just need to mak ethose tables yourself.

I found this bit of info over at WP Forums. You need to manually create the two tables in your wordpress database (it sounds much scarier than it really is).  You need to login in to your phpMyAdmin or similar mySQL server control panel.  From there you will open a query window and copy/paste the following code.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `wp_ak_popularity` (
`post_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`total` int(11) NOT NULL,
`feed_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`home_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`archive_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`category_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`single_views` int(11) NOT NULL,
`comments` int(11) NOT NULL,
`pingbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
`trackbacks` int(11) NOT NULL,
`last_modified` datetime,
KEY `post_id` (`post_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `wp_ak_popularity_options` (
`option_name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`option_value` varchar(50) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

Execute the query and the tables should be created for you. 

You need to change one line in the plug-ins php.  Just use the built in editor in wordpress to open popularity-contest.php and scroll down to line 59. Replace

require(’../../wp-blog-header.php’)

with

require(’../wp-blog-header.php’);

Now you can go back to your plug-in list and activate.

[UPDATE}  Looks like someone has been able to find an even easier way of getting around this compatibility issue.  Head on over to WPGuy for the easy fix.

poularity contest,wordpress,alex king

Check out XKCD.com for more great comics!

My posting has been a little on the light side over the past few weeks.  Some say it could be the rise in micro blogging services like pownce or twitter.  That could be part of it, for me I think it has more to do with the focus or direction of this blog.

I’ve struggled over the last few months to try and keep this blog as focused as I can and unfortunately in the process have not posted many a great posts.  I definitly belive that you should always follow what you are passionate about and have found that I am limiting myself by trying to create too narrow of a focus of this blog. 

Over the next few weeks you will see a new look (maybe a couple..), posts that will probably still be techcentric but also other stories of my adventure through the nets and IRL.  I hope you find the changes to your liking and of interest

direction change,blog,blogging

The rumors started almost as soon as the iPhone was released last year, that a newer improved version would be following soon.  Many had speculated that it was coming for the holidays last year as Apple slashed prices on the hot selling iPhone by 30% and very early in its initial release.  Of course, no 3G iPhone was released. 

All year I have been hearing talk of a 3G iPhone coming by summer to be launched inline with many other countries that have yet to release an iPhone.  Now the rumors are swirling and are becoming louder with each passing day.  Over at Engadget, it is being speculated that we should see the new iPhone by June or July (that’s the most reliable part).  Other reports are speculation on size, shape and other features.  Let’s not forget about the dual video camera that Kevin Rose talked about on diggnation.  The biggest news as of late is that AT&T may actually discount the handset with the signing of a contract.  A practice that has been in place for many years in wooing subscribers. 

I’ve had my iPhone for a while now.  Actually the longest I have ever gone without switching to another phone for even a short period of time.  With the exception that I have more bars than any other carrier but the worst service, I have been very happy with the phone.  Yes, it is lacking in a many features that it should have had from the outset but they are niceties and not critical for my use.  I do at times miss my Blackberry, alas my email addiction has been replaced with Twitter so all is not lost.  I’m not so sure I’ll be jumping on the initial release this time around (still stewing form the last time) so how about you.  Will you be jumping on the first boat or will you wait it out this go around?

3g,iphone,apple