Free Desktop Wallpaper
I made this after seeing one of those “My other car is a…” license plate frames while driving to work. I thought it would be fun to make something for my laptop at work. Enjoy!
My other computer is a mac.
Manage your multiple IM accounts with one App – Digsby
I’ve been using Digsby for nearly a month now and finding it extremely useful. Digsby recently released an update which drastically reduces the memory requirements. The application allows you to easily connect many of the most popular IM accounts such as Yahoo, MSN, GoogleTalk. Plus, it allows you to connect to Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. Having all these apps wrapped in to one package is terrific!
Free Open-Source Virtual Machine
Want to run a second or third operating system on your computer, but don’t want to pay for fusion or parallels? Try, VirtualBox from Sun. It’s free and open source!
Excellent resources for eLearning
A list of some very helpful sites for elearning developers:
- http://www.adlnet.gov/ (scorm)
- http://www.aicc.org/ (aicc)
- Creating Content with Adobe Flash
- http://www.elearningweekly.com
- http://www.ostyn.com/resources.htm
My presentation on using SCORM in Adobe Flash from the Plateau Insights 2008 Conference. This utilization of SCORM is specific to the Plateau LMS.
- insights_breakout_session_flash_scorm_20080916
- A sample Flash SCORM 1.2 file (requires Adobe Flash CS3)
I’ll be uploading some Flash samples by the end of the week.
What’s All The Fuss Over Google’s Chrome?
Okay, I get it. Google has a new browser and we’re all supposed to go crazy with joy. I will agree that it is very fast and looks clean. Mac users should take a look at WebKit while we wait for a Mac version of Chrome. Why do we need another browser..? We don’t, but Google needed to make one and here’s why.
- Money… I’m listing this as the first reason because money talks (as they say). Google was essentially giving away the delivery mechanism to a revenue stream that it can tap itself back into. For those of you that don’t know, here’s an example. FireFox makes money every time you search and click one of the ad links in the results. Google can keep more of that money for itself if you use their browser.
- Delivery… Google has many great online products and services, but they do not control the way in which you access these things. What would happen if all of a sudden Microsoft, Apple and/or Mozilla decided they no longer wanted to play nice with Google? How would you get to their online products and services. If I am a shareholder (I’m not), I would be very afraid of this possibility (albeit remote). Hey, you never know. Strange things have happened… No one ever thought Apple was going to survive just a few years ago, but check them out now!
Final Words… I find it a bit interesting that Google is using WebKit as the engine for their browser just as Apple is for their Safari browser. Pretty darn cool! Also, I don’t think my two reasons listed above are the only reasons for the Google browser, but I do think they may have been near the top of the list. Lastly, would argue the most significant functionality of the application at this point is that you can save a page as an application. I know I’ll be creating a few “applications” for things like gmail and Google Calendar!
What Really Happens if You Fall into a Black Hole?
The world’s largest scientific instrument, the Large Hadron Collider, will be switched on in Switzerland on Wednesday. A few people are worried that the LHC may cause the world to be swallowed up by a black hole, especially when it starts to operate at full force in the spring. What would happen if you fell into a black hole?
read more | digg story
XR-3: World’s 1st Build-it-yourself Hybrid Car for $25k
Robert Riley
’s XR3 is an incredible machine that is able to achieve over 125mpg on biodiesel and a whoping 225mpg in hybrid mode. With its sleek composite shell and ultra-efficient engine we were expecting to see a stratospheric price tag, however we were stunned to hear that the you can build it yourself for around $25,000!
read more | digg story
WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin is Fantastic!
I’ve been testing the Automatic Upgrade Plugin for WordPress the last few weeks. I have used it for the last two WP upgrades 2.6.1 and 2.6.2. So far it has worked flawlessly to provide simple and seamless upgrades. I do follow each step in the process without ever selecting the option to “skip” a step. I should add that I have actually run four upgrades successfully as I am using this plugin on two separate WP installations.
On a third, separate installation, I was not able to successfully run the upgrade. I’m not surprised though as this instance is behind a firewall and running on a Windows server.
WordPress Batch Categories A Must For Any Blogger
I was in the process of moving many of my tech related posts from my dontlookhere site to my new site (here), when I discovered how painful it was going to be to categorize and tag all the entries. After a quick search, I found Batch Categories from RobM. It’s not perfect, but it’s close. This little plugin saved me a ton of time (re)organizing all my tech related posts and tags. The only drawback so far with this plugin is that it doesn’t seem to be fully CSS compliant with Firefox and Safari. I have not yet test on a PC using Internet Explorer yet, but I’d prefer to not have to use a PC if possible. The problem it has is with the navigation not showing properly. See my pic below. Other than that, kudos to Rob for building a great plugin.
Batch Categories Plugin CSS Navigation
I love icons, especially when they’re free!
Found a link to this site while doing my weekly roundup of lifehacker.com. The blossom icons look great! You can find even more here.