Another Great WordPress Theme Site

December 31, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

Believe it or not (!!), I’ve started up some new blogs! :D So I spent quite a few hours looking over my options. I checked out Drupal, Joomla, and b2evolution platforms for possible choices… but Drupal was difficult to manage and had very limited choices. Joomla looked too complex, and b2evolution was too plain. So I reverted back to WordPress. When it comes to blogging, I really need a variety of nice themes. I’m willing to slog through technicalities and database manipulating, but when it comes to nice themes, I draw the line. By FAR, WordPress has the best themes around. And there are plenty of exceptional-quality themes, too. Here’s one: Template Lite WordPress Templates. (This is not a sponsored post!). I have used some of their themes, and I think they are beautiful. They are very artful, and free! I’m going to use one o their new ones, Sunset Farm, on my new blog very soon. I’ll be sure to let you know about the grand opening. ;) Check out Template Lite for free WP themes. I’m very impressed with what’s there.

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Posted in blogs, Wordpress. Tags: , . 2 Comments »

Too Lijit to Quit!

June 20, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

I’ve been using the Lijit Search Engine widget for a few of my blogs for a few months now, and I have to say: I LOVE IT!

Lijit is a plugin for WordPress, Typepad, and Blogger blogs. Any blogger who writes informatively really should have this widget– Lijit is so impressive and so powerful that a blog would seem empty without it. I have Lijit installed on several of my blogs (including this one), and it is perhaps the most effective on my travel blog, New York Traveler.net. That blog is filled with information, photos, videos, tips, and links to thousands and thousands of bits of information that I could not otherwise organize. Lijit gives visitors the ability to thoroughly search that blog for even the smallest bit of information (everything from pet supplements to hurricanes!).

Lijit on New York Traveler

The Lijit widget is 100% customizable. And you can see from the screenshot above that I have included the ability for readers to search not only my travel blog, but all my Flickr photos, my YouTube videos, and mo other blogs as well. And when the Lijit window pops up with search results, there is the ability for readers to search my blog for relevant information, for content (photos, videos, etc), my network (other blogs in my blogroll) and etc. And lijit includes small screenshots with the search results, too. It’s a really professional look. Here are some screenshots showing a quick search I did on “erie canal.” (more…)

Posted in Blogger, blogs, free stuff, search engines, Wordpress. Tags: , . 1 Comment »

Free Photo Editing Software

April 21, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

I found another very nice (and free!) photo editing software program: Photoscape. It’s very nice. It’s  a lot like Google’s Picasa, but without… Google. Which I prefer.

Here’s the self-described key features of Photoscape:

    Viewer: View your folders photos, slideshow
    Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
    Batch editor: Batch editing multiple photos
    Page: Make one photo by merging multiple photos at the page frame
    Combine: Make one photo by attaching multiple photos vertically or horizontally
    Animated GIF: Make one animation photo with multiple photos
    Print: Print portrait shot, carte de visite, passport photo
    Splitter: Divide a photo into multiple parts
    Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
    Color Picker: Zoom in screen on images, search and pick the color
    Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
    Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG

I just love the batch editing ability. I process hundreds of photos at a time sometimes– takes me HOURS. Resizing or sharpening all at once is such a time saver. I love Photoscape! And the price can’t be beat.

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Posted in desktop publishing, free programs, image editing. Tags: , , . Comments Off »

Free Online Converter

January 22, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

My kids have discovered the delights of digital video. I have a Samsung digital video recorder that I use for business, so I don’t like them to use it. But my cell phone has a video recorder, and the latest craze amongst the kids is taking short “Lego animation” videos with it. Problem we’ve encountered is that the cell phone video format is .3gp, while our computers will only read .avi, .wmv, .wav, and .mpeg3 and mpeg4. I have no good converting software, and we were out of solutions until one of the kids found some online converting software. It looks pretty cool! It’s free to use– just beware of the pop ups when you click the site. Have your pop-up killer ready, lol.

It’s ZamZar. It was able to convert the .3gp file into a .wmv file easily enough. So the kids are happy. This is a good site to keep bookmarked!

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Posted in conversion programs, educational programs, free stuff. Tags: , , . Comments Off »

PicApp for Free Photos

December 6, 2008 — Mrs. Mecomber

I have been trying to incorporate more photos into my blogs, but taking them myself and going through the uploading is such a hassle sometimes. PicApp is something I found. It’s a site with loads of free photos for the taking. Be sure to read the terms of service and FAQs before using the site, though! PicApp says there is no fee to use their service, and they are in the process of making a way for people to actually make money with them.

I tried out the photo search– I tried “cat” and I came up with all sorts of results. I was going to embed the photo here, but after I tried, I noticed a Google AdSense ad in my post under the photo. I do not want an AdSense ad in my post, so I removed the image. I find this element of embedding photos with such ads very offensive.

You can embed their photos for free, if you give them your email address. Or, you can register. I tried to register, but the captcha wouldn’t take. I tried five different times on two different browsers and it wouldn’t go, so I assume it’s something wrong on their end. Bummer.

So the idea of embedding free stock photos is great, but like I said, they’d better dump the AdSense ad if they want to have any means of success. That is just TOO intrusive to be acceptable.

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Posted in free stuff, image editing, photo editing. Tags: , , . Comments Off »

Hotlink– Please!

November 10, 2008 — Mrs. Mecomber

Blog Pictures | acobox.comThe time has come! Wow I found a terrific website! I think it’s about time for something like this, and I am very excited to use it! It’s called AcoBox.com. It’s a portal for bloggers who love to have blog pictures within their posts (like me). The problem with a blogger (like me) posting photos the “old way,” is that I have always had to search for an image (and make sure its not copyrighted from me using it), save it to my computer, upload the photo to my photo hosting site, fanagle with that, and insert the code into my post. It is a tedious chore.

Well, here comes AcoBox.com. They already have a large selection of photos to choose from. You register to use the service (if you are a blogger, you need to include your blog url in the form), and you can hotlink their photos on your blogs. All their photos are licensed and optimized for websites. And the photos are very nice, too. Here’s one I tried:

It’s a pretty cool service. I’m all for efficiency– I see so many of the same photos clogging up places! And I hate tinkering with endless photos all day long.

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Posted in free stuff, how to, image editing. Tags: , , . Comments Off »
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