Aug/090
2009 Open Source CMS Award – Vote For Wordpress
Voting for the Open-Source CMS award has begun! You can vote for Wordpress in Best Overall Open Source CMS Category and the Best Open Source PHP CMS. The Winning CMS gets $4,000. hp8y274vrx
Aug/090
eyeOS – Cloud Computing Operating System
This week I tried out eyeOS and was amazed at it. No, it’s not Linux. eyeOS is a browser based OS that is written mainly in Javascript, PHP and XML. All you need is a web server with PHP and the other basics. As far as Programs go it has a nice little browser, text editor, FTP client, chat client, word processor, and lots more. In the examples below I have my browser in full screen. To do this press F11.
The eyeOS web browser is ok, it displays webpages in an iframe. It has a bookmark side bar which is nice.
I like the word processor that it comes with, it reminds me a little but of tinyMCE. It can save files as .ODT, .DOC, and its own little format .EYEDOC.
And finally the FTP Cleint. The eyeOS FTP client is similar to filezilla. It has an easy to use host manager, and seems to work well.
eyeOS FTP Site Manager
No, I don’t think eyeOS is going to take the Operating System world by storm, but it sure is an amazing service for certain uses, such as when you are on somebody elses computer and need FTP but don’t want to use windows explorer, or install an FTP client then eyeOS could be very usefull. There is also a program for syncing files from you computer to your eyeOS desktop. To find out more go to eyeos.org; to test out eyeOS you can go to eyeos.info and create an account.
Jul/091
Online Alternatives to Offline Tools
I have discovered some amazing online alternatives to offline application over the past year and thought I would compile them and share them with all the people who don’t read my blog. So here is a side-by-side list of alternatives.
| Offline Tool | Cloud Alternative |
Microsoft Word - Zoho Writer is an online word processor with an amazing array of features. I currently use Google Docs instead of Zoho 
Writer but I might migrate soon.
Microsoft Excel – Zoho Sheet is a really neat web based spreadsheet software. I have never really needed to use any type of spreadsheet software but another web based spreadsheet software is offered by Google through Google Docs.
Digsby/Google Talk/AIM – Meebo is a IM client that allows you to sign into your Gtalk, AIM, Yahoo, Facebook, etc. account and chat from any of them in an interesting javascript window fashion. Meebo also has a Firefox extension.
Microsoft Outlook/Thunderbird – Roundcube Webmail is a nice little web based IMAP client that you can either set the incoming/outgoing mail servers or (here’s where it qualifies as an alternative to Outlook and Thunderbird) enter them in when you login, which with some custom PHP you could add a dropdown down menu with the severs entered in to make it easier. It also can store contact and gmail users should find it very easy to use. Please note that you have to install it on a webserver, All it requires is PHP Mysql and a few minor things, I got it to work on my computer running on a my desktop computer with a self assembeled LAMP. I still use Thunderbird though because I actively keep tabs on eight email accounts.
Microsoft Outlook/Thunderbird – Gmail + Google Apps if you have gmail plus email accounts on another domain you can have them all under one account but with special labels through gmail, if you already have an account, and Google Apps for you domain emails. Google Apps is a free service that allows you to setup gmail account with your domain name, e.g. you@yourdomainname.com. Along with Google Apps you can link together multiple gmail account into one easily and gmail can pull your emails from a POP3 server.
Browser bookmarks – del.icio.us is an online bookmarking site. What makes del.icio.us great is the firefox addon otherwise it would be kind of pointless for me.
DropBox beta This is an amazing service that you install on you computers and set a folder up for it to use (i put mine on my desktop) and it will sync between computers. And you can get extra space by referring friends. Another great feature is folder sharing between users.
Jul/090
7 Plugins for Protecting your Wordpress site
1. Bluetrait Event Viewer logs everything you would want, and not want to know about your site in the admin area. While it doesn’t make your site
more secure exactly, it does provide good information about activity on your blog.
2. Login LockDown stops multiple failed attempts to login to the WP backend for a time.
3. Secure WordPress blocks certain info from non-admins and non-logged in users.
4. TAC (Theme Authenticity Checker) looks through your theme for security vulnerabilities and gives you information about how many static links are in your theme.
5. Wordpress Firewall blocks fishy http requests.
6. WP Security Scan is a very strait forward plugin that scans your entire wordpress install and suggests that you make changes such as changing file/folder read/write permissions.
7. WP-DB Backup this plugin is great if your site ends up getting hacked, you can have it backup your MySQL database to your server or send it via email on a schedule. See also Backup WordPress = 2 Plugins + Gmail.
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