Monthly Archives: May 2012

May 30

WordPress Spam Humor

Light post today, nothing too serious for a change. I’ve been noticing that the amount of spam on my blog has been increasing lately.

This spam spike upsets me, however I can’t be too angry when the comments are so complimentary! A few gems…

My incredibly long internet research has now been honored with sensible content to share with my neighbours… Thank you again for a lot of things.

I enjoy you because of your own work on this site… Enjoy the remaining portion of the year.

I got the birth signs today thank you very much they look fabulous.

Too bad some of these pictures look to have been dcoroted… For you who are genuinely interested in the study of the existence of Giants, check out a Biography of the Early Years of Wild Bill Hickok, I believe it’s on page 254… Just the word of an enterprising Indian Scout, Pony Express rider, Indian Fighter, and Wild West Show entrepreneur, what could be more trustworthy?

Eli, I didn’t read this posting bfroee the conference. Congrats!.. Having read your postings and met you in person, I believe that you will be an excellent lawyer.

We have wood blinds in the living/dining room that are old but we are just going to put more wood blinds up there.

I watched the movie Soul Surfer with my kids and their fernids… Gob Bless you all!

I love what you guys will almost always be up too.

…we’re happy to give advice about navigating law school to a fellow labirrian.

If you want more, Greetings I am so excited I found your welbog is dedicated entirely to funny spam comments like these.

May 25

Favorite Smartphone Apps

I’ve been pondering the range of possibilities the ubiquitous app store holds, and also thinking that after two years of Droid ownership I’m probably not optimizing my phone as best I could. Checking email, chatting, navigation and searching the web came naturally, but other tasks like using the calendar for scheduling, downloading a budgeting app, and taking notes took a lot of getting used to. I still haven’t branched out to things like QR codes yet.

As a librarian and fan of new technologies I should be ashamed to say I have never scanned a QR code, but I’m not sold on the promise of instant access and relevant information. I find myself drawing a parallel to the zoo key I got when I was a kid:

Not my actual zoo key, mine had a monkey.

I remember being highly entertained by the technology, which to a young kid seemed mysterious – put the zoo key in a slot and the talking storybook told you about the animal exhibit (and if there were other kids you had to run or they’d get to the storybook first). The product, on the other hand, was a somewhat clunky form of information dissemination – a slow-talking voice that held you captive waiting for it to finish. QR codes seem to be the same kind of clunky – most of the time I feel I can get information faster and better if I find it myself.

I will acknowledge that I may be close-minded on the topic though, and in that light I’d like to ask for suggestions and tips from other smartphone users on which apps make the most of the technology we carry in our pockets all day. Here are my favorites:

5 Favorite/Most Used Apps

  1. EEBA (Easy Envelope Budget Aid) – user-friendly, customizable budgeting on the go
  2. Amazon PriceCheck – scan, photograph or speak the name of a product to price-match
  3. US Bank – so nice to pull up account info and transfer funds away from the computer
  4. Out of Milk – save multiple shopping and to-do lists, check items off as you go
  5. Flashlight – nothing fancy, no silly colors or flickering lighters, just a really bright white screen

5 Favorites from a Librarian’s Perspective

  1. Good Reads – I ‘cataloged’ all my books so I can see whether I already own something
  2. Amazon Kindle – sign in to your Kindle account from your phone, auto-syncs new items
  3. Dictionary – dictionary & thesaurus
  4. Google Reader – I’d be lost and bored without the ability to check my RSS feeds
  5. Sticky Note Widget – I keep short notes on things I hear and ideas for later

What are yours?

May 20

The Static Web and the Future

What will be the place of the static web as the world of dynamic web pages, APIs, portals, and web and mobile applications develops?

Content management systems, as well as a whole host of resources for automatically generating dynamic code, help programmers create websites and mobile apps that adapt to their users’ needs and preferences, presenting a unique online environment. As they say, why stand when you can sit, why use someone else’s interface when you can dictate your own experience?

Internet users, and especially smartphone owners with the web at their fingertips, have become accustomed to interactive websites, customizable content and information not only in the palm of their hand but organized to their specifications. I can’t remember the last time I went to a site like weather.com now that I can use Google’s in-browser forecast app on my phone. I’m also more than a little perturbed that Pinterest still hasn’t released a mobile app – a few years ago I would have been ecstatic that I could use a browser on my phone at all, and now dynamic mobile content is so ingrained in the way I interact with the web that it seems strange to not be able to pin things from my phone. It could be argued these days that a site hasn’t even fully launched yet if it doesn’t support mobile browsing and/or have an app.

There are still plenty of reasons to create and use static websites – as Ada Ivanova for Speckyboy Design Magazine says, static sites are great low-maintenance options for small sites and inexperienced webmasters. They’re great options for the average personal or small business website, or for informational sites where the content doesn’t change often, but with a participatory culture and the emphasis on dynamic content to encourage recurring traffic, static sites are definitely becoming the minority.

Even the programming languages necessary to create web applications and dynamic sites are presented in fun, interactive ways – if you’re interested in learning, check out Code School’s TryRuby.org with an in-browser tutorial and RailsForZombies with videos and exercises.

May 10

Import Google+ to RSS Feed in WordPress

I was playing around with my blogroll and decided I had too many links. I decided to find out how to import articles from Google Reader (my feed reader of choice) into an RSS widget on WordPress. Sounded easy, ended up being a bit of a pain thanks to broken hacks and a proliferation of outdated information. Here’s my easy, working-for-now solution:

  1. Sign up for a Google+ account – 3 clicks and you’re done if you already have a Google account
  2. Go to Google Reader and share a few items with the +1 button at the bottom of each post:
  3. Click ‘Add names, circles, or email addresses’ and select ‘Public’:
  4. Go back to Google+, click ‘Profile’ in the left-side navigation bar, and make sure your items posted properly.
  5. Next get your Google+ user number from the URL, shown in bold: https://plus.google.com/u/0/111071894876922243184/posts
  6. Paste at the end of this URL to turn it into an RSS feed: http://gplus-to-rss.appspot.com/rss/111071894876922243184
  7. If all went well you’ll get a standard RSS subscription page and you can use the link however you like.
  8. To embed the feed in a WordPress site, go to your dashboard and click ‘Appearance > Widgets’. Drag the RSS widget to the sidebar:
  9. Expand the widget, drop in the URL, give it a name and save your changes. Voila!
May 5

Million Short

Million Short is a search engine that automatically removes the top 1 million hits (or 100k, 10k, 1000, or 100 according to your preference). The result is a surprisingly relevant list of resources you might otherwise never have discovered due to newness, lack of SEO, or poor keyword tagging. It levels the playing field for your average internet denizen who may have valuable things to say but wouldn’t ordinarily be able to compete with popular sites that often monopolize the first page.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the popular sites, this type of search might provide unique perspectives and new venues of information, especially for often-repeated queries or those with limited initial results.