Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook

I haven’t tried this out yet, but it looked so interesting and I have some readers who love graphic design that I thought I’d give you a heads up on this. There’s a little 3D modeling and animation program available for download called the Anim8tor. It looks really nice! I’ll bet kids would have a blast with it. The author says it’s not “professional” grade, but it’s free and it looks like a ton of fun. He put a lot of time into it and I think it’s great when developers offer their creations for free.

There’s texture support for bump maps, soft shadows, spotlights, fog, and more, for graphic files such as .BMP, .GIF, and .JPG formats. It looks like a great beginner’s tool. I know my young son, who loves creating graphics on the computer, would love this. I intend to download it and try it out. Soon. I hope. My son has a math book to finish, and that’s really the only reason why I haven’t tried it yet! LOL.

One quick reminder: when you download files–any files but especially executable files like those that run programs– always be sure to run a scan through your anti-virus. and always make sure your anti-virus is updated. Almost all software is safe, but it definitely pays to check and double-check. hotel deals are nice to have, but you don’t want them popping up in browser pop-ups, all over the place, because you didn’t scan and now you have spyware! Be sure to always scan your files.

I’ve pulled away from Blogger for the most part (at least for the blogs I monetize), but I do still have a few blogs with them, and I do still pay attention to what they are doing. The latest feature just released is the ability to pre-schedule posts. Wordpress has had this feature for a long time, and I’m glad to see Blogger take it on. It’s a wonderful feature, and I use it a lot with Wordpress. This is from their news release post:

Scheduled post publishing, which we talked about testing on Blogger in draft last month, is now live for everyone. If you set a post’s date into the future, Blogger will wait to publish until that time comes.

Have you ever wanted to announce something on a certain date but knew you wouldn’t be at a computer to make a post? Or you wanted to keep posting regularly but knew you’d be on vacation for a few weeks? Scheduled post publishing is here to help you out.

There are a few extra steps to take for “bumping” posts, but anything is an improvement here.

I kind of lost repect for Blogger after hearing that Google was arbitrarily deleting or suspending accounts they didn’t feel were “worthy.” Sure, some sites were probably spam– I’ve come across a lot of them– but not all of them were! If you had a harmless blog about the wonders of wood shutters and dared to monetize your blog without Google’s AdSense, you risked deletion. With a week after I heard about Google’s actions, I hopped on over to Bluehost web hosting and Wordpress. The transfer from Blogger to Wordpress was agonizing, but the risk of losing a year’s worth of posts just because I monetize my blogs was too great.

Anyway, Blogger is introducing new features every few months, it seems. They are doing a good job of keeping up with the big dogs. And Blogger is a terrific place for a beginner blogger. Plus, it’s still FREE!

I am a member of Entrecards (although not for this blog– just my five others, lol!). I thoroughly enjoy the traffic it has brought me as well as the wonderful new blogs and bloggers I have discovered. I’ve made some true friends through the community. I have to admit that I’ve also seen some real doozies out there, too– some use EC to peddle their acne treatments blogs (how can you have a blog devoted to one thing, eludes me!) but most Entrecarders are there for the social networking aspect. I love it! Entirely new blogs, widgets, and tools are being spawned as a result of EC. I was very excited to read about a new toolbar called Sitehoppin, created by an Entrecarder and especially geared toward EC hoppers. It’s in the beta, but I have the honor of being able to beta test it with my Firefox browser. The concept and the style is outstanding. I’ve been waiting for another toolbar to enter the scene to rival StumbleUpon, and it looks like Josh Whitford’s invention may do it. You can read about it and see a tutorial video here.

It still has a few bugs yet (that’s why the call it “beta”!). The toolbar timed out on me a few times. I also notice that there is no category for the Entrecard Home & Garden section. My New York Renovator is in that category, so until it’s fixed, my most popular blog won’t be showing.

But users can submit blogs! There’s just too much to describe here– check out Josh’s site and watch the tutorial. I’m expecting great things from this toolbar!