Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook

Isn’t it cool to interface musical instruments and technology? My husband is a musician (and guitar freak). He says that versatility is “in,” and so are “alternate tunings.” He flipped when he saw someone combining the two.

He’s rather excited about this new development from Fender guitars with their VG Stratocaster.

It’s an interesting concept– with the turn of a knob, you can have instant, alternate tunings. I’m impressed that you can even get 12-string guitars sounds from this model.

Before, and with “regular” guitars, you have had to manually turn the keys at the headstock to tune the instrument as you wanted. This is why at concerts you sometimes have seen a squadron of guitars behind the singers, and why the guitarists are always changing guitars. Different tunings for different tunes.

I prefer the sound of nylon strings and classical piece anyday, but my husband is what I call a Guitarzan and is up on all the latest guitar news. Outside of the invention of the electric guitar in 1936, it seems guitar makers have been slow to introduce high technology into their instruments. Looks like, the times they are a-changin’!

I love StumbleUpon. It’s a type of social network, but of websites, not people. Created originally as a Firefox addon, it has expanded into a whole community meetinghouse. There’s a great toolbar you can download at the StumbleUpon site. You can start up an account with StumbleUpon, choose your interests, and surf websites under those topics. But it has a catch:

StumbleUpon will only take you to the websites that have been submitted by StumbleUpon users.

So, there are gaps. If users have not submitted a good deal of, say, travel blogs, then the surfing of your interest in travel blogs will be quite brief. I posted about this here, at my travel blog.

At the StumbleUpon website, you can download the handy toolbar and learn all about it there. I’m here to show you how to install the StumbleUpon button to each and every post in your Blogger blog. If you have a different kind of blog (like Wordpress), do a Yahoo! search and you’ll find a plethora of tutorials to help you there. Or you might find this helpful.

What you need to do is tinker with your Blogger template here. The first thing you need to do is get the SU button and download it. You need to upload it onto a photohosting service in your own account (say, Photobucket). You can find an assortment of buttons here at SU’s site.

If you have an old Blogger blog, there are some good instructions here. But if you have a New Blogger blog, those directions won’t work for you.

Once you’ve got your SU button uploaded, go to your Blogger Layout page. Click “Edit HTML.” Look for the small checkbox that says “Expand Widget Templates” and check it. The page will reload right away. Now, before you start changing your template, be sure to save it. Click on the link “Download this template” and save the file to a safe place in your computer. Should your template tinkering go wrong, this template can be uploaded and you’ll have your old template back. (It is also a good idea to save any important widgets you have. Blogger wipes out widgets whenever you change your template).

OK, so in the template html code box, you’re going to carefully scroll down, maybe halfway or so, looking for this line of code:

<div style=’clear: both;’/> <!– clear for photos floats –>
</div>
<div class=’post-footer’>
<p class=’post-footer-line post-footer-line-1′>

Below that area, put this in:

<!– StumbleUpon Button Begin –>
<a expr:href=’”http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=”+ data:post.url + “&amp;title=” + data:post.title’ target=’_blank’><img alt=’Stumble Upon’ src=’YOUR_STUMBLEUPON_PHOTO_URL_HERE’/></a>
<!– StumbleUpon Button End –>

Where you see the YOUR_STUMBLEUPON_PHOTO_URL_HERE, put in the URL of the little StumbleUpon button you’d uploaded to your photohosting site. Be sure is is inbetween the apostrophes in the code above, and be sure it begins with http://

Before you click on “Save Template,” click on “Preview” so you are sure you have the button just where you want it. Now, everyone’s template is different. If the button is in the wrong place for you, try putting the StumbleUpon button code in a different (but nearby) area. Because I have a photo of my signature at the end of each post, and I wanted my SU button after my signature, I had to paste the code below the URL for my signature.

When you are sure you have things just as you like, click on the “Save Template” button and the changes will be saved and made permanent.

It is not hard to add a button (or anything) to the code. For me, the hardest thing is getting it exactly where I want it, because I am picky.

Now, whenever anyone browsing your site thinks your post is worth sharing, they can add it to StumbleUpon’s collection of favorited sites. And if you enjoy an exceptionally good post on a blog, be sure to stumble theirs, too!

A web development agency is not only responsible for coming up with new web templates for the site, but is also responsible for its seo. Using powerpoint templates is the thing of bygones. Anyone with even a basic web development degree can work out a beautiful script in no time. The use is as easy as taking a prepared resume template and entering your details. With more web development courses, you can mould any template as easily as a cv template.

There are some good thoughts and a bad testimony over at The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far. A friend of hers has had blog content stolen and plagiarized.

So where the recording industry and big government now, for us, the little guy?

Rrrrright.

A few weeks ago, I’d found that someone had plagiarized my travel blog’s account of our trip to Cooperstown. The creeps. What concerns me(not to downplay anything else, however) is the theft of photographs and such. I’d read that if you upload your photos to Google, then Google has permission to do with them as they please, forever. Surprise, surprise. Flickr has authority for as long as you leave your photos on their service. It’s a very touchy issue. It is also skewed (still no surprises) to protect the greedy corporation and punish the little guy. How can the recording industry slam consumers like they do and yet plagiarism and theft goes unnoticed as long as we are victims?

I am looking for a photo watermarking program. I have been for about six months now. Haven’t found too much (I prefer free!). If you come across a good one, please let me know.

Here’s a handy-dandy list of tools found at websites that are very helpful for web- and blog-building. It’s a list I’ve kept tucked away for my own work, but I’ll leave it with you if you promise to take good care of it.

HTML with Style
All About.com Web Design
CSS Basics
Color Schemer Online
HTML Color Names
WebMonkey
Browser-safe Web Palette
Visibone Color Lab
Official Seal Generator
Cool Text Graphics Generator
Brilliant Button Maker
Adam Kalsey’s Button Maker
Flooble.com
Better Fonts.com
Fontica.com
Javascript Kit
Free Stock Photos
Free HTML Editors
Design Meme

You might want to bookmark this page or the links that will be helpful for your projects. I use them frequently, and in the next few posts about customizing your blog, I’ll be referring to these tools from time to time. Enjoy!

I’ve seen a lot of ugly templates out there in the the blogosphere. It ain’t pretty. The Blogger default templates are OK… but boring. In preparation for my upcoming series on How to Customize Your Blogger Blog, I’m going to assign you a little homework. I’ve presenting you with a list of websites that offer free Blogger templates. There are a lot to choose from. Some are better than others, of course, and not just in style. Some are easier to use, easier to customize, and some are in other languages. Here’s my list:

Gecko & Fly
Free Blogger Skins
Blogcrowds
Final Sense Blogger Templates
Template Panic
50More Beautiful Blogger Templates from Mashable
Free Blogger Templates
Blogger Templates Directory
Blogger Templates.org
Free Blogger Templates

I personally recommend the great choices from the first three links.

Tip: if English is your first language, get a template in English.

I had once downloaded and installed a template made by a Spaniard. It was a beautiful template, and I can read Spanish. Mostly. But after playing with it, I decided I didn’t want the template anymore. When I went to a new (English) template, I found some traces of Spanish still in my widgets html. So my date read “lecha” for a while until I finally noticed it, lol.

Anyway, look around at the templates in the lists below. Get a plan and I’ll soon show you how to fix up your boring, default blog into something that says you.

I’m in the process of blogging a few tutorials about how to customize your blog. I know the past few posts have been about free programs- I’ve had these ideas for a while and I wanted to get them off my chest! I’ll be posting a large series of tutorials as soon as I have them together. Stay tuned!

Outstanding. Incredible. Spectacular!

I’m talking about the lists of free educational software to be found at Owl & Mouse. We have downloaded all their programs and my kids have benefitted from it in innumerable ways.

We really enjoy their geography programs. I have the children go over them from time to time, even when we are not doing geography lessons. The programs are so simple, yet so customizable. You can have the child practice his skills locating continents, countries, states, capitals, landmarks, physical features, and more. The game is played like a jigsaw puzzle, and the child drags and drops the puzzle piece on the map where it belongs. There are different settings where you can make the game harder (for example, by eliminating borders) which makes it great for older kids. I can’t rave enough about the geography programs.

Owl & Mouse also have other programs for little learners, and some are online games. There are letter-learning games, reading games, build a medieval castle game, build a town or village game. These are great for very young children. Hey, grandparents, these are great for when your little grandkid comes over and laments that he or she is “bored.”

We’ve enjoyed Owl & Mouse programs for years. I think your kids will pick up a lot with them, too. What have you got to lose, anyway? It’s free!

If there is one Google product you had to have, it would be Google Earth. I thought everyone had heard of Google Earth, but I was talking to some folks recently who’d never heard it! I like the program so much that I wanted to be sure to mention it.

The family has used it countless times. My kids are geography experts now. I have used it to map our travels, and my husband likes to look at air bases around the world. It is truly an amazing program.

You can find anywhere in the world (even your property). I love looking at other countries and cities, like the city of Amsterdam in Holland with its gorgeous canal system, and the Thames in London.

Google Earth has many other features besides looking at the earth’s surface. You can skew your view to look across (it’s a little cheesy looking because it’s computer generated, but the Grand Canyon and Rocky Mountains still looked neat). You can zoom all the way out and spin the earth with your mouse cursor (fun). You can track your journeys, as Google Earth will measure distances and place markers for you (a virtual pin board). It will show you major (and some minor) attractions in localities. And best of all, it will show roads, boundaries, names of rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges, and everything! It’s great and we love it.

You have to have an online connection to view Google Earth. I have been offline and it does work, but the maps will only show what is in your computer cache, and no new material.

When the family members are home for the holidays is the perfect time to accumulate and organize genealogy information. I’m the big family researcher, and I’ve got tons of papers, files, folders, photos, and documents. My grandmother left behind reams and reams of all the information she’d uncovered. I have slowly, over the course of five years, been going through it and trying to digitize it to share with everyone. It’s a long process.

I’ve tried a couple of geneaology programs– I even paid for one– but the one I’ve been happiest with is the free PAF, or Personal Ancestry File. There’s a new version out (5.2.18.0), which has multi-language capabilities, and even gives you the ability to download the stuff onto a PDA.

PAF is GEDCOM compatible– a must for any serious genealogy program. I’ve been pleased with PAF. I’ve been able to upload my PAF/GEDCOM files onto RootsWeb easily, too. You might like this if you are still pencilling things into charts and notebooks.

I downloaded this last year and had the happiest time with it! It’s Desktop Snow for Windows. It’s a “free trial” program (the program costs $10). It has no limitations but it does have a nag screen. It is customizable– you can have light snow or blizzard snow. You can choose the have the snow build up on the bottom of your desktop, and have the wind blow it away. It really is adorable.

I had it on a computer with barely enough memory, and the program ran OK. But when I had several big programs open (like Firefox, OpenOffice.org, and a media player), the snow stuttered a lot. You can shut it off or turn it on at will. Whoever made this program did a really good job. Fun!

No one can imagine using internet without cable today. Having broadband is as important as having a computers software to keep the system running. An internet phone is of no use if on dialup. A lot of scripts take ages to upload and thus contribute to loss of a number of software patents.

In Desktop Utilities, Part 1, I quickly breezed through some of my favorite programs for everyday computing, and offered a review and a link. In this post, I’m continuing the saga.

1. AdFree 3.2.
This is a teent-tiny little program that takes charge of your HOSTS file. If you go to the website, you’ll see that the creator is not supporting AdFree anymore, because the Firefox browser has some ad-blocking features built in. However, what if you use Internet Explorer? The intrusive and sometimes obscene ads are the main reason I left IE and never went back. However, some of my family members still use IE, and for them I have AdFree.

It downloads on your computer and reconfigures your HOSTS file. Your HOSTS file in your computer is the first thing Windows checks before getting an IP number. If your computer receives information to block (not show) a certain IP number, it won’t. In this way, AdFree (and other such ad-blockers, like AdBlockPlus in the Firefox browser) tell your computer to block certain IP numbers– the IP numbers of ads on a webpage. Most ads on a webpage are “third-party” ads, which means that they are coming from another site, usually an advertising company site. Think of it as Flickr or Photobucket. You insert the IP (in the form of html code) in your own website to enable your reader to see your photo.

The website MVPS has an excellent, if complicated, explanation. This website also offers a free ad-blocker that does the same thing as AdFree. For novices, I recommend AdFree. Since AdFree isn’t being updated anymore, you can add IP numbers yourself. AdFree program gives you this capability. You can even block entire websites.

Ad-blocking is a science, but it’s not rocket science! A little reading around can help you immensely. Check out AdFree and experiment with it. I has made our internet experience much more pleasurable.

2. Pop-Up Stopper
Scroll down the page and look for the “free” version. The name explains it all, sweet and simple. Firefox and Internet Explorer say they get all the popups, but I beg to differ. I get popups when I surf. This is a handy-dandy little program that has protected my kids countless times. It’s very easy to configure. You can set it up as you like. I have it set to “high” to block all popups unless I hold the Shift key down on my keyboard. It’s small, and it will start up when you start up your computer. I’ve had it for many years.

3. PDF995 Creator
Need to create PDFs? Not willing to shell out $200+ for behemoth Adobe? Here’s a free suite of programs that will enable you to do all sorts of things with PDFs. I have all the programs, because I make a lot of my own worksheets. The most popular is the conversion program– this will make your regular documents into PDFs. It does it through the “print” feature of your word processing program, so don’t be alarmed if you see no program icon in your desktop. Think of it as a widget for your word processor.

Note: be sure to download both the “PDF995 Printer Driver” and the “Free Converter” for the following to work:

To use it, let’s say you’ve written a letter to your Aunt Marge and you want to convert that document (.doc, for example) into a .pdf. In your word program, go to File and look for Print. The print popup window gives you a choice of your printer in a drop-down menu. Click the drop-down menu and look for your pdf995. Choose that, go through the “OK” motions, name your document, and you’ll have a .pdf document saved.

PDF995 is not free, not exactly. You can pay for it, or you can continue to use it forever with a nag screen everytime you use it. The nag screen is a little irritating, and it opens up an Internet Explorer browser to the website sometimes, but I endure it. I’d rather endure this than the fees, even though the fees are not extravagant at all.

PDFEdit995, another part of the PDF995 suite, enables you to extract individual PDF pages from a big PDF document of many pages. It’s handy of you need a copy of one page in a set of many.

It’s a great bunch of programs.

4. EssentialPIM
This is a wonderful, simple Personal Information Management system. It is fun to use, it looks great, and it can handle your most crammed schedules. You can have To Do lists, it will print your data, and will even encrypt your data. I have tried other organizers, but I like this one the best. It’s colorful, too, so it’s fun to use.

5. FreeRAM XP Pro
This program has received good reviews from CNet, and I have used it on all my computers, too. It’s a great program to beef up your computer and give it a little speed, until you get some real RAM in there. It is customizable, too, but you have to know what you are doing. You can always leave it at the default settings. It made a difference on my computers that didn;t have enough RAM, until I installed more memory.

This is the end of the second series. Stay tuned for Part 3!