Blogging, without the need for an internet connection, is much efficient with this program. Install, configure the settings to your blog, create your post and publish with a few clicks when it is time.

This website uses WordPress. Windows Live Writer recognizes your blog variables instantaneously. You can set the categories and pick a publish date like you would when writing a blog entry online using the WordPress interface. It also lets you add photos to your posts and automatically upload the file to your designated upload directory. You can save drafts for later publishing, or publish at any time by assigning a publish date.

This is a free download from the Microsoft website. If you have multiple blogs, you can create multiple accounts in WLW for your blogs. I’ve tried using this software on both WordPress and Drupal without any issues.

If you like writing offline and have the convenience of writing anywhere and anytime, then definitely download this product. For more details on Windows Live Writer, visit:

http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D85741BB5E0BE8AA!174.entry

P.S. Let me know if you’ve come across a similar product for any platform that you’d like to share with everybody. Happy blogging!

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Here’s a few of my favourite apps that are both open-source and fairly good alternatives to handle your day-to-day work:

OpenOffice.org

I have this program installed on another Windows XP computer and my portable USB drive as an alternative to the Microsoft Office. This suite includes replacement for:

Microsoft Word = OpenOffice.org Writer

Microsoft Excel = OpenOffice.org Calc

Microsoft PowerPoint = OpenOffice.org Impress

Google Docs

Using GMail Apps for our domain, we generally upload any document attachments to our Google Docs. Similar to the tight integration of Microsoft’s email client, Outlook, with its Word and Excel, Google’s spreadsheet and presentation tool works great with GMail.

Microsoft Word = Document in Google Docs

Microsoft Excel = Spreadsheet in Google Docs

Microsoft PowerPoint = Presentation in Google Docs

Adobe’s Acrobat.com

As a graphic designer, Adobe products are what our industry tends to rely on. With the whole acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe, even the web programs work seamlessly with Photoshop and Illustrator.

Now with the recent announcement of Acrobat.com, online document handling and collaborating makes it easier for any company to track and add comments to files using Adobe’s ConnectNow, a part of Acrobat.com.

Microsoft Word = Adobe Buzzword

Note-worthy Alternatives

Microsoft Office = thinkfree.com

Microsoft Word with Microsoft Projects = solodox.com

Microsoft Excel = editgrid.com

Microsoft PowerPoint = 280slides.com

All of the above online and offline applications have been personally tested by me on Windows XP, Apple OS X Tiger, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, and Firefox 2.

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Download Firefox 3 today!

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This enactment amends the Copyright Act in order to:

• update the rights and protections of copyright owners to better address the Internet, in line with international standards;
• clarify the liability of Internet service providers;
• permit certain uses for educational and research purposes of Internet and other digital technologies to facilitate technology-enhanced learning, inter-library loans, the delivery of educational material and access to publicly available material on the Internet;
• permit certain uses of copyright material for private purposes; and
• amend provisions of the Act relating to photographs to give photographers the same rights as other creators.

The Toronto Star summed up these reforms as follow:

• you could copy a book, newspaper or photograph that you "legally acquired." But you couldn’t give away the copies. And you can’t make copies of materials you have borrowed.
• you could copy music that you have "legally acquired" on to devices you own. However, you could not copy music you have borrowed or rented. Nor could you give away copies.
• it would be illegal to post a copyright work — picture, song, film — on the Internet without the permission of the copyright owner.
• it would also be illegal to "hack" the digital locks placed on material to prevent their illegal distribution.
• Internet service providers would be compelled to notify subscribers accused of infringing copyright laws by uploading copyright works to the Internet.

Read more about this topic at Canada.com and the Toronto Star.

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• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• Selling The Invisible: A Field Guide To Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Back by Malcolm Gladwell
• Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life by John Heskett
• The E Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

I’d do a review of each but I’m feeling lazy, plus you can get a better synopsis and reader reviews straight from our Amazon.ca affiliate website.

Add your suggestions below. Cheers!

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Design is an integral part of the tools we use daily; from the complex to the most basic item you can find, such as a toothpick.

I came across a slice of trivia in Wikipedia today:

Area code 212 is a telephone area code in New York City.

New York City was originally given area code 212 when area codes were assigned in 1947, because it is the fastest area code that could be dialed with a rotary dial given the numbering plan. At the time, 1 was not allowed as the first digit, the second digit was either 0 or 1, and area codes could not end with 1 or 0.

Every design should have a purpose. Area code 212 addressed two valuable points:

1. determining the shortest and fastest way of navigating
2. overcoming technological or physical limitations by finding a work-around

Pointers to keep in mind when designing your next project!

To learn more about area codes and the North American Numbering Plan.

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A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

Select from a number of open-source software that you can download from the Portable Apps Directory. This extensive directory is group by the following:

• Accessibility
• Development
• Games
• Graphics & Pictures
• Internet
• Music & Video
• Office
• Operating Systems
• Utilities

As stated on the PA website, the advantages of carrying your own Portable Apps are:

• Carry your web browser with all your favorite bookmarks
• Carry your calendar with all your appointments
• Carry your email client with all your contacts and settings
• Carry your instant messenger and your buddy list
• Carry your whole office suite along with your documents and presentations
• Carry your antivirus program and other computer utilities
• Carry all your important passwords and account information securely

Visit the Portable Apps website for more details: http://portableapps.com/

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I do a lot of collaboration online and am always on a constant look out for effective ways of streamlining workflows with few learning curves. Adobe introduced their brand-spanking new SaaS (Software as a Service), Acrobat.com, on June 1, 2008.

According to their initial blog entry, Acrobat.com is:

Acrobat.com is a suite of online services hosted by Adobe that you can use to create documents together and share them with others. It helps people get document work done faster, without email attachments or version confusion, and it makes your documents look great so that you and your work look great, too.

We are starting with three distinctive applications:

• Adobe Buzzword for creating and reviewing documents together.
• Adobe ConnectNow for holding full-fledged online web conferences with up to three people.
• The Acrobat.com organizer for sharing 5GB of files with others online, including the ability to convert 5 documents to PDF and embed your documents in blogs, wikis or other web pages.

Sign-up for free at http://www.acrobat.com

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Rob Boothby of Joyent interviewed more than a dozen technology experts to define what is cloud computing and why it matters to us in how we use the internet for our personal and business needs.

[Source: News.com ]

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Diagram courtesy of Mark’s Blog

As you can see from this diagram, Mr. Seall broke it down into three things that can influence the outcome of your website:

1. Things you can influence
2. Things you can’t influence
3. Relevant measures of your (blogging) website’s success

If we take this observations into account, we can ascertain that in today’s online marketing, all efforts put into SEO only makes up a small portion of our website promotion. Focus on what you can control, such as findable quality content, and see what a world of difference this can make to your website in bringing in traffic and readership to your website.

A business that only measures itself by its profits is unlikely to be successful in the long term. Profits are obviously important, but profit is only one measurement of success, and crucially, it is an outcome not a determiner.

To read more on this topic, please visit Mark’s Blog.

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