Shai Perednik.com » Build

Google Chrome 3.0.195.33 Stable, 4.0.237.0 Dev… Chromium & SRWare Iron Multilingual

System — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:20:19 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

Google Internet browser without installation.
Download Portable Google Chrome MultiVersion Online on RapidShare (0.4 MB) (Updated for Vista and 7)
Download Portable Google Chrome 1.0.154.65 on RapidShare (8.3 MB)
(md5: c5623348a26942c871cd2cd3e4d51abb)

In first screen of Chrome MultiVersion Online, enter ver number:
3.0.195.33 for Chrome Stable
4.0.237.0 for Chrome Dev
2.0.172.43 for Chrome Stable

Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome.
Download Portable Chromium Latest Online on RapidShare (0.4 MB) (Updated for Vista and 7)

Chromium Latest Online will download latest build (you can run also as updater to check if you have latest).

SRWare Iron is based on the Chromium-source and offers the same features as Chrome – but without the critical points that the privacy concern.
Download Portable SRWare Iron 3.0.189.18153 Beta on RapidShare (8.5 MB)
(md5: d3f6886a7f76920f93bd5b085b71f95c)
Download Portable SRWare Iron 2.0.178.15300 on RapidShare (8.3 MB)
(md5: c53c028e3f3ee9ff584deb1701d32c31)

Download Plugins on RapidShare (2.9 MB)

Extract Plugins: Flash 10.0.32.18 & Gears 0.5.32.0.

Extract and run ChromePortable or ChromiumPortable or IronPortable.
If you want to add parameters, start in incognito mode, not set cache in temp, not delete cache or allow multiple instances: edit *Portable.ini.
Example: AdditionalParameters=–app=http://portableappz.blogspot.com
Settings of installed Chrome, Chromium & Iron should be preserved.

Results in Acid3 Test :
Chrome, Chromium & Iron: 100 %

Go to Source

Google Chrome 3.0.195.33 Stable, 4.0.237.0 Dev… Chromium & SRWare Iron Multilingual originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 13, 2009.

40 Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

System — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:20:58 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

High quality free Wordpress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). However, the quality of freely available themes has improved as well; in fact, some themes are very advanced and professional and can serve as a solid foundation for your next designs.

There are a lot of choices out there for someone wanting to choose a Wordpress theme for their blog. But, that aside, the quality is certainly there, and we are sure you will be impressed with this Wordpress theme compilation.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

AppCloud Theme
A nice e-commerce WordPress theme with a clean and professional look. Built upon 960.gs, with an integrated slideshow, two layouts (horizontal and vertical) for app/gadget images. The theme also includes sections “Featured products” and “Top Selling” and a categorized products view.

Berita (via ThemeCloset)
Berita is a minimalist corporate theme created for companies to prominently display their logo, but the theme could be used for any type of website. It’s a feature-rich theme with a preview slider on the front page and a robust theme administration page.

Magazeen
Magazeen is a two-column theme released specifically for Smashing Magazine readers. The theme has some subtle enhancements that encourage looking at related and new posts, like a related posts drop-down effect for the category link.

Mainstream Theme (via Wootheme)
You have the option of choosing from five different theme colors with Mainstream. Thumbnails are automatically resided and the sidebar is widgetized.

Rusty Grunge
Rusty Grunge is a simple WordPress theme yet still gives you the “destroyed” look. This theme utilizes a fully-widgetized sidebar and has been downloaded over 28,000 times and is featured as a pre-installed theme on Dreamhost’s default installation of WordPress.

Obscure WordPress Theme
A dark magazine WordPress theme suitable for any site niche; also a good fit for a community-based site.

Paper Wall
Smashing Magazine released the illustrated theme Paper Wall last month. The inspiration behind the Paper Wall theme was a designer’s desk, as designers typically put things on paper. It’s a two-column theme with many elements of paper: paper boards, peeling paper and paper “menus”.

Gallery WordPress Theme
a beautiful, free, gallery-style Thematic child theme for WordPress, designed by Christopher Wallace especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. It is extremely flexible and can be used as a starting point for design galleries and portfolios.

Cool Retro
A nice, clean illustrated WordPress theme with a retro-look and nice typography.

Life Collage
Life Collage is a child theme of the Hybrid theme framework. It’s about getting back to the roots of blogging. About sharing our lives. And, about having a little fun while we do it.

Shalom Typo
This theme was designed for the typographic template contest at Smashing Magazine by the German designer David Hellmann. This WordPress theme is based upon this layout. A clean and nice typographic WordPress-theme.

Jungleland Theme (via Theme Lab)
The stylish browns give an earthy feel to this blog making it a good choice for those blogs focused on the environment and nature. It features a photo gallery and a sidebar menu

Monkeypr Theme (via Queness)
Monkeypr is a nicely designed and fun WordPress theme.

Folio Elements Theme (via Press 75)
With its black background, Folio Elements theme will surely make your images and photographs noticed. There is no sidebar, no widgets, no list of categories, no place to comment and nowhere to search. However, if you are looking for a basic carousel-type theme with absolutely no basics, bells or whistles, then Folio Elements might be the one for you.

SimpleCart(js)
SimpleCart(js) is another child of the Thematic Wordpress framework. The theme requires WP E-Commerce and is a flexible way to showcase products with the grid framework. The theme features a rich wood background and simple white content area.

Glassic
A simple clean WordPress theme with the focus on typography and simplicity. Released by Abdullah Ibrahim exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

Zinepress Theme (via Well Medicatedi)
Zinepress is a two column magazine style theme. There is a nice sidebar with enough space for ads and for your widgets. It is hand coded and has valid XHTML STrict 1.0 and CSS Level 2.1. The developer has successfully tested this them with IE 6.0+, Firefox 2+, Opera 9+, Safari 3+, and Chrome 0.2+. Suggested Wordpress version is 2.7 or higher.

Futurosity Aperio Prototype
Futurosity Aperio is a clean straight-forward blog theme built on Sandbox

Futurosity Vero (via Theme Meme)
Built on Sandbox and Blueprint CSS framework, the Futurosity Vero is a minimalist theme. Near the top of your home page, your most recent and featured post will be displayed.

PolaroidPress (via Tutorial9)
PolaroidPress, as you might guess from the name, plays on the usage of “polaroids” in the theme that display your random images. It’s a simple two-column theme with an airy feel.

H5
The H5 theme is more of a proof-of-concept theme to show designers how to show theme designers how to design with HTML5 and CSS 2.1. It’s a bare-bones theme that’s perfect as a building block for creating your next Wordpress theme.

Inuit (via CSS Reflex)
Inuit makes use of a lot of whitespace and preview images for each post on the homepage. The theme also comes integrated with Twitter and Flickr.

Wu Wei
Clean, modern and minimal. The theme was based on the Taoist concept of wu wei: knowing when to act, and knowing when not to act. The theme is built on the principles of the grid system.

Modfolio
Modfolio is a child theme of Modularity, a theme framework for Wordpress. Modfolio is another portfolio theme with an extremely dark layout. The theme has 10 potential homepage layout combinations with different colors and element positions.

Cardeo Minimal
A minimal three-column theme with plenty of white space and gray text.

Album Theme (by Brian Gardner)
Album theme is one of the many beautiful templates offered by StudioPress. Some included features are SEO optimized, widget ready, automatically sizes images for thumbnails, and ad ready. This theme is not free, but they do include the PSD file.

Album Theme (by Allan Cole)
Auto-focus is a blog theme designed for photographers to showcase their work.

Mystique (by Digital Nature)
This sleek one column theme has a flexible-width, threaded comments, and an adjustable header.

Manifest
Manifest is a straight-forward one column blog. It has no widgets or sidebar, but gives you a nice clean approach that focuses on your content.

Debug Theme (by Joost de Valk)
When your WordPress installs fail and you need more information, the debug theme is perfect. On the home page, it displays the important URL’s, editor, memory setting, etc. On sub pages it shows the page type, all the query vars that are set and the SQL query for that particular page.

Calmdream WordPress Theme
A very clean and simple layout for magazine layouts.

Portfolio Theme (via WPESP)
Portfolio is a two column blog theme which can be described as a minimalist. This modifiable design will make your own portfolio look great!

Blog Theme
The Carrington Blog-style theme is filled with advanced features like widgetized sidebars, AJAX loading of content, stylish galleries, customizable headers and colors.

Mobile Theme (via Carrington Themesl)
The Carrington Mobile has a beautiful design supporting advanced touch browsers )Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Pre)./p>

Pyrmont V2 Theme (via WP)
Pyrmont V2 is a two-column theme with a black background that could very well make your photographs and designs stand out.

Destyle Theme
Destyle is a magazine-style WordPress theme. This is another theme packed with useful features such as: multi-level superfish dropdown menu, ad management, predefined CSS styles, customa page templates, Twitter and Flick badges on sidebar and automatic image resizing.

ImpreZZ
A dark, three-column theme that gives the second column a third dimension.

Would you like to see more similar lists on SM?

Your opinion is very important to us. There are literally hundreds of similar lists on various design blogs. We are trying to do our best to present you only the best of the best, collecting useful links over months. Would you like to see more similar lists in the future? Or should we drop lists altogether and focus on more original content?

Would you like to see more similar lists on SM in the future?(polls)

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40 Free High-Quality WordPress Themes originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code [Programming]

System — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:03:37 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.

Since the invention of the internet, programmers have been using it to discuss software development techniques, publish tutorials, and share code samples for others to learn from and use online. If you’re curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources.

First Things First: Don’t Get Hung Up on Choosing a Language

A common pitfall for beginners is getting stuck figuring out which programming language is best to learn first. There are a lot of opinions out there, but there's no one "best" language. Here's the thing: In the end, language doesn't matter THAT much. Understanding data and control structures and design patterns does matter very much. Every language—even a simple scripting language—will have elements that you'll use in other languages as well and will help you learn. In classes I took to get my degree in Computer Science, I programmed in Pascal, Assembly, and C—languages I never actually got paid to program in professionally. I taught myself every language I've used in my career, reusing concepts I already knew, and referring to documentation and books to learn its syntax. So, don't get hung up on what language to learn first. Pick the kind of development you want to do, and just get started using one that works.

There are several different kinds of software development you can do for various platforms, from the web to your desktop to your smartphone to a command line. In this article, we’ll outline some of our favorite starter tutorials and resources for teaching yourself how to program for each major platform. We’re going to assume you’re a savvy user, but a newb when it comes to wrangling code snippets, so we’ll keep things at the beginner level. Even just following through a beginner programming tutorial, you’ll be happy to see how far you can get.

Desktop Scripting

The easiest way to try your hand at programming for your Windows or Mac desktop is to start with a scripting or macro program like AutoHotkey (for Windows) or Automator (for Mac). Right now hardcore coders throughout the Lifehacker readership are yelling at their monitors, saying that AHK or AppleScript are not "real" programming. That may be true—technically these types of tools just do high-level scripting. But for those new to programming who just want to get their feet wet, automating actions on their desktop, these free tools are a fantastic way to start—and you'd be surprised at how much you can do with them.

For example, Adam developed the standalone Windows application we all know and love, Texter, using AutoHotkey, so this scripting language is capable of far more than just small-scale automation projects. To get started with AutoHotkey, check out Adam’s tutorial on how to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut using AutoHotkey. (Then, check out the source code for Texter to see the innards of a full-fledged AHK-based Windows application.)

Web Development

Instead of being bound to specific programming languages and the look and feel of a particular operating system, you can put your killer application in the browser and run it in the cloud, as a webapp. Welcome to the wonderful world of web development.

HTML and CSS: The first thing you need to know to build any web site is HTML (the page markup that makes up web pages) and CSS (the style information that makes that markup look pretty). HTML and CSS are not true programming languages—they're just page structure and style information. However, you should be able to author simple HTML and CSS by hand before you begin building web applications, because a web page is the frontend to every webapp. This HTML tutorial is a good place to start.

JavaScript: Now that you can lay out a static web page with HTML and CSS, things get fun—because it's time to learn JavaScript. JavaScript is the programming language of the web browser, the magic that makes dynamic in-page effects go. JavaScript is also the stuff of bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Ajax, so it’s the key to making all sorts of web goodies. Start learning JavaScript here.

Server-side scripting: Once you're good at making things happen inside a web page, you're going to need to put some dynamic server action behind it—and for that, you'll need to move into a server-side scripting language, like PHP, Python, Perl, or Ruby. For example, to make a web-based contact form that sends an email somewhere based on what a user entered, a server-side script is required. Scripting languages like PHP can talk to a database on your web server as well, so if you want to make a site where users can log in and store information, that's the way to go. Excellent web development site Webmonkey is full of tutorials for various web programming languages. See their PHP Tutorial for Beginners. When you’re ready, check out how to use PHP to talk to a database in WebMonkey’s PHP and MySQL tutorial. PHP’s online documentation and function reference is the best on the web. Each entry (like this one on the strlen function) includes user comments at the bottom which are often as helpful as the documentation itself. (I happen to be partial to PHP, but there are plenty of other server-side scripting languages you might decide to go with instead.)

Web frameworks: Over the years, web developers have had to solve and resolve the same problems and rewrite similar code to build dynamic web sites. To avoid making everyone reinvent the wheel for every new web development project, some programmers have come up with development frameworks that do some repetitive work for you. The popular Ruby on Rails framework, for example, takes the Ruby programming language and offers a web-specific structure for getting common web application tasks done. In fact, Adam used Rails to build his first serious (and impressive!) web application, MixTape.me. Here’s his take on how to build a web site from scratch with no experience. Other popular web development frameworks include CakePHP (for PHP programmers), Django (for Python programmers), and jQuery (for JavaScript).

Web APIs: An API (Application programming interface) is a programmatic way for different pieces of software to talk to one another. For example, if you want to put a dynamic map on your web site, you want to use a Google Map instead of building your own custom map. The Google Maps API makes it easy to programmatically include a map in a page with JavaScript. Almost every modern web service you know and love has an API that lets you include data and widgets from it in your application, like Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Maps, and the list goes on. Integrating other webapps into your web application via API’s is the final frontier of rich web development. Every good, major web service API offers thorough documentation and some sort of quick start guide to try it out (here’s Twitter’s, for example). Go crazy.

Command Line Scripting

If you want to write a program that takes textual or file input and outputs something useful, the command line is the right place to do it. While the command line isn’t as sexy or good-looking as a webapp or desktop app, for rapid development of quick scripts that automate processes, you can’t beat it.

Several scripting languages that work on a Linux-based web server also work at the command line, like Perl, Python, and PHP—so learning one of those baddies makes you conversant in two contexts. My path never took me too far down the Perl road, but I taught myself Python using the excellent and free online book, Dive into Python.

If becoming a Unix ninja is one of your programmer goals, you absolutely must get good at shell scripting with bash. Bash is the command line scripting language of a *nix environment, and it can do everything from help you set up automated backups of your database and files to building out a full-fledged application with user interaction. Without any experience writing bash scripts beyond a dozen lines, I wound up developing a full-on personal to-do list manager in bash, Todo.txt CLI.

Add-ons

Nowadays, modern webapps and browsers are extensible with with bits of software that bolt onto them and add features. Add-on development is gaining in popularity as more developers look at existing software, like Firefox or WordPress, and think “But if only it could do THIS…”

You can do a whole lot in any web browser with just a mastery of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Stylish user styles are created with the same bits of code that make regular web pages, so they’re worth learning even if you just want to tweak an existing site with a small snippet of code.

More advanced browser add-ons, like Firefox extensions, let you do more. Developing Firefox extensions, for example, requires that you’re conversant in JavaScript and XML (markup that’s similar to HTML, but way more strict in format). Back in 2007 I ran down how to build a Firefox extension, a skill I picked up after I stumbled upon a free tutorial.

Many free and well-loved web applications offer an extension framework as well, like WordPress and MediaWiki. Both of those apps are written in PHP, so comfort with PHP is a prerequisite for getting started. Here’s how to write a plug-in for WordPress. Developers who want to ride the cutting edge of Google Wave can get started writing gadgets and bots in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and Python. I wrote my first Wave bot following this quick start tutorial in one afternoon.

Web Development for the Desktop

The best part about getting started programming in one context is when you can take those skills and apply them elsewhere. Learning web development first is a great way to start because now there are ways to put those skills to work on desktop applications, too. For example, Adobe AIR is a cross-platform run-time environment that lets you build your app once and release it to run on the desktop for every operating system AIR runs on. AIR apps are written in HTML, Flash, or Flex, so it lets you apply your web development skills in a desktop context. AIR is a great option for deploying desktop apps like one of our top 10 apps worth installing Adobe AIR for.

Mobile App Development

Mobile applications like the ones you run on your iPhone or Android smartphone are all the rage right now, so you may have dreams of striking it rich in the iTunes App Store with the next killer app. However, for the new coder, diving headfirst into mobile development can be a rough learning curve, since it requires comfort with advanced programming languages like Java and Objective C. However, it’s worth checking out what iPhone and Android development looks like. Check out this simple iPhone application development example to get a taste of what iPhone developers do. Android apps are written in Java, and here’s a friendly video tutorial of what building a “Hello Android” application workflow looks like.

Patience, Elbow Grease, Trial and Error

Good coders are a special breed of persistent problem-solvers who are addicted to the small victories that come along a long path of trial and error. Learning how to program is very rewarding, but it can also be a frustrating and solitary experience. If you can, get a buddy to work with you along the way. Getting really good at programming, like anything else, is a matter of sticking with it, trying things out, and getting experience as you go.

This article is just one self-taught programmer’s top-of-mind recommendations for beginners. Experienced programmers: What did I miss? No matter your skill level, add your thoughts and recommendations for beginners to the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, thinks the best programmers are self-taught. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

[Sponsored]

NEC

Ads by Pheedo

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Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code [Programming] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Google Go: An Open-Source Programming Language

System — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:03:23 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

Google’s dominated search, online document collaboration, e-mail, telephony, and more, so why not programming, too? The tech giant has announced its own open-source, object-oriented programming language, called Go.

The Google Open Source Blog says that “Go combines the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++.” (If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it.) “Typical builds,” the blog continues, “feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C.” Go supports multiprocessing, as well as true closures and reflection.
The Go Web site (golang.org) explains
the rationale behind creating Go, mostly citing the change of the
computer landscape that’s occurred over the past decade or so that’s
seen very few (if any) major systems languages spring up: more powerful
PCs, many of which use multicore processors; increased dependency
management in software that’s not reflected in the “header files” of
C-based languages; the growing desire for dynamically typed languages
(such as Python and JavaScript) instead of type systems such as Java
and C++); and the poor support for concepts such as garbage collection
and parallel computation.

Google says that Go takes full
advantage of modern, multicore hardware; that it simplifies dependency
analysis and avoids the overhead present in C-style languages (such as
files and libraries); that Go’s type system has no hierarchy, which
saves the programmer from having to define relationships between types;
and that Go is fully garbage-collected and naturally supports
concurrent execution and communication.

If you’re interested in
getting started with Go, or you just want to learn more about its inner
workings, Golang.org is loaded with tutorials, manuals, FAQs, and other
documentation for easy assimilation. There’s
even a section devoted to C++ programmers who want to learn Go. Also
there to be found are code samples, such as the traditional beginning
to all studies, “Hello, world!”:

05 package main

07 import fmt "fmt" // Package implementing formatted I/O.

09 func main() { 10 fmt.Printf("Hello, world; or ???????? ?????; or ????? ??\n");

11 }

It’s
way too early to tell, of course, what the impact of Go on programmers
or programming will be. But we have a feeling that in this way, as in
so many others, quite a few people will fall behind Google and look at
this as a convenient way of writing programs for modern hardware. If it
won’t spell the end of the various programming languages in common use,
it will undoubtedly represent at least the start of a major C change.

Go to Source

Google Go: An Open-Source Programming Language originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Is the LinkedIn Platform Dead?

System — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:00:51 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

LinkedIn, the business social network, hopped on the platform bandwagon this time last year by opening up its network to developers. It was a move I was excited to see Reid Hoffman’s crew make. LinkedIn, unlike some of the other professional networks that came before it, is actually very useful. It’s a great way to reach people within large companies, and an even better tool for recruiting and finding like-minded business people. Any extension of such a platform, therefore, was great news in my book. So how has it fared thus far?

Let me put it this way: The LinkedIn platform is no different than the Florida real estate market — neither have any building going on. And that is why it gets a solid D from me. D is for disappointing, by the way.

LinkedIn opened up its platform using Open Social and called the effort InApps. (It remains in beta.) It had half a dozen partners, among them SlideShare, Box.net, Tripit and SimplyHired.

How many new partners have launched apps on LinkedIn since then? How about none! And how many apps are there? I just counted again — there are eight approved apps on the web. Eight. And no, that doesn’t include the ones made by LinkedIn itself, including the recently launched SAP Community Connection. A new Twitter-focused app tentatively called TweetIn is likely to make its debut soon. The only other two major developments that I have seen are partnerships with BusinessWeek and The New York Times.

From what I hear, third-party developers have had a tough time working with LinkedIn; an inability to link to the company’s data set is a big issue, according to my sources. The moribund nature of the LinkedIn platform should be a warning to every single developer out there: For companies, sometimes opening up a platform is little more than an easy way to get cheap press.

LinkedIn is looking to make some changes. Last month, when it announced that it had 50 million professionals on its network, our friend Marshall Kirkpatrick quipped that it was still a roach motel. In response, Adam Nash, VP of search & platform products at LinkedIn, left a comment saying: “I think you’ll be quite happy with our plans for improvements to our APIs. Stay tuned.”

Apparently those plans include the recent poaching of Paul Lindner from Hi5, a social network that’s going through an identity crisis of its own. Lindner is a contributor to Apache Shindig, the OpenSocial back end used by everyone except MySpace.

To me, what’s most incredulous about LinkedIn’s open platform fail is that it’s all taken place under the leadership of CEO Jeff Weiner, who was one of the key proponents of social search when he was at Yahoo (back when Yahoo still had search). Even then, he was open to the notion of open platforms and social networks — in other words, he had the right ideas. With LinkedIn, he had the right platform. Too bad the company hasn’t been able to make it truly social.

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Is the LinkedIn Platform Dead? originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Build a Massive HDTV Antenna for Long Distance Gains [HDTV]

System — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:41:43 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

One of the great things about digital television is also one of the not-so-great things. When you get the signal, it’s crystal clear. When you’ve a weak connection, you’re out of luck. Boost your reception with this monster homemade antenna.

If you live far from urban centers but you’d still like to pick up some over-the-air digital stations, you’re going to need a pretty sizable antenna. Earlier this year we shared a great antenna design with you, based on the Gray-Hoverman model.

The model you see here is what results when a little Gray-Hoverman antenna visits the beach, gets washed into a deep trench outside of Tokyo filled with radioactive waste, and emerges again, ready to wreak havoc on the world. Well, all except for that last part. This massive build, based on the Gray-Hoverman model, can pick up signals from around 60 miles away, making it suitable for either boosting your local reception or picking up signals from areas you’ve never called home.

If you’re put off by the size of it, it is possible to put this style of antenna inside an attic. You’ll lose a bit of reception, but you’ll avoid your neighbors whispering about the mutant antenna on your roof. Check out the full build guide at the link below.

Build a Large DB8 HDTV Antenna: Big Bertha [via Make]

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Build a Massive HDTV Antenna for Long Distance Gains [HDTV] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.

Allmyapps Bulk-Installs Your Favorite Apps, Makes System Rebuilding Less Painful [Installation]

System — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:41:19 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

Windows/Linux: One of the most irritating things about reinstalling your operating system is installing all the non-OS applications you love. Allmyapps lets you select all your favorite apps and roll them into a bulk installer to make rebuilding easy.

At Allmyapps you can browse over a hundred popular applications in a dozen categories to build a master list of applications you want to install. You don’t have to install immediately after building your list, you can save your list for later installation. Check out the video below to see how Allmyapps works:

For another great time-saving bulk installation tool, check out previously reviewed Ninite. Have a way to get your favorite apps installed quickly? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Allmyapps is a free web-based service and provides bulk-installation on both Windows and Ubuntu Linux.

Allmyapps [via MakeUseOf]

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Allmyapps Bulk-Installs Your Favorite Apps, Makes System Rebuilding Less Painful [Installation] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.

Chromium Installs User Scripts as Extensions, Bodes Great Things for Chrome [User Scripts]

System — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:40:58 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

The nightly builds of Google Chrome’s open-source foundation, Chromium, includes a feature that might mean great things for Greasemonkey fans. Click on a user script file, such as at UserScripts.org, and Chromium asks to install it as a working extension.

Judging from the developers’ discussions at the Chromium wiki, Greasemonkey, or at least some kind of user script support beyond the current, very geeky installation method has been a hot topic. The latest builds tackle user script support by re-mapping them into extensions, automatically activated at their relevant sites. You can give it a test by installing the latest Chromium build in Windows. We’ll assume this feature will make its way very soon to those keeping updated on Chromium builds for Mac and Linux.

Before you get too amped, though, it must be said that support is still rudimentary. Scripts that mostly replace one thing on a page with another seem to work fine, but those that pull off custom themes and page manipulations are touch and go. In other words, the more Greasemonkey-specific functions appear in a script, the less likely it is to work in Chromium. That said, it’s reassuring to see some of the great Grease realm opened up to the up-and-coming browser.

DealingWithGreasemonkey – A new plan for how to handle Greasemonkey user scripts in Chrome [Chromium Wiki via Google Operating System]

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Chromium Installs User Scripts as Extensions, Bodes Great Things for Chrome [User Scripts] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.

DIY 9V Battery-Powered USB Charger [DIY]

System — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:40:41 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

Sure you could go buy a USB charger off the shelf, but what fun would that be? Try making one yourself with a little help from a 9V battery and a few extra components.

This simple hack on a standard 9V battery is an easy one to undertake. It’s pretty straight forward, and all it requires is a quick solder to finish things up. It will give you power on the go and a sense of accomplishment for the day upon completing it. Hit up tech weblog anythingbutipod for the simple diagram to make your own.

The battery-powered USB charger isn’t an altogether new idea. We’d be remiss not to point out previously mentioned Minty Boost, the classic Altoids-tin-cum-battery-powered charger.

How to Build a 9v Battery Powered USB Charger [anythingbutipod via Gizmodo]

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DIY 9V Battery-Powered USB Charger [DIY] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.

Getting Started With Content Management Systems

System — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:00:25 +0000

Automatically pulled from Google Starred

The need to update websites faster to keep content fresh has been ever growing. Ever since the first business owner wanted their Web designer to update their website faster, content management systems have played an important role on the Web. Why does this matter to you? How do you know if your company is ready?

In this article, we will look at how to tell if your organization needs a content management system. We will also give you information on the abilities of content management systems to help you better understand what they can do. While content management systems may seem complex, their entire purpose is to streamline your workflow and make your life easier.

A content management system allows you to create, manage, store and edit massive amounts of content without any HTML programming skill. Because you are able to edit your content from any computer with an Internet connection, you no longer have to rely on third-party developers or companies to keep your website up to date. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Every company would like to reduce costs and increase productivity.

Also consider our previous articles:

10 Things To Consider When Choosing The Perfect CMS
Goes over what features to look for when choosing a content management system.
10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites
Explains the mistakes we all make when running our websites. The nature of those mistakes varies depending on the size of your company. As your organization grows, the mistakes change. This post addresses common mistakes of large organizations.
Developers Toolbox
Offers tools and resources to help you achieve your goals at a more hands-on level.

1. What Is A Content Management System?

If you have never heard the term before, a content management system (CMS) is a Web-based solution that makes it easy for a company to manage website updates internally. For many companies, updating a website is not something to look forward to because it can be a lengthy and, over time, expensive process. Most companies search for easier means of accomplishing their goals. The solution that many large and small companies have found is a CMS. The easy-to-use application allows your company to control its online identity with little to no knowledge of Web design.

Do I Need a Content Management System?

While you know your business better than anyone else, if you answer Yes to any of the following questions, your company would likely benefit from using a CMS-based website.

Does your company update its website content frequently?
Does your website contain over 10 pages?
Do you constantly outsource simple website updates to third parties?

Although building your website with a CMS may not save you money up front, if you need to be able to manage your own content in a timely manner, you will certainly be cutting costs in future. You will increase your organization’s speed while reducing its effort. With a CMS accessible from any computer with an Internet connection, you will speed up the process of approving, publishing, and updating.

Some CMS’ have in-page buttons to speed up the process of editing content, while preventing users from accessing the admin interface.

Because a CMS has built-in organizational features, content is easier to find and nearly impossible to lose (unless you delete it by accident). You no longer have to spend a lot of time on simple tasks or duplicating your efforts. All of your content is created, managed, published and edited from a single location with very simple, easy-to-use tools. Because using these tools requires very little training, you can start managing your content almost immediately.

If you have identified your business goals and recognized that your website will play a role in them, you should begin the process of implementing your own CMS. There is no set list of requirements for a content management system because each organization has unique needs. Keep your requirements to a minimum, but be sure to allow for the future growth and demands of your company. Enlisting the help of a Web design and development company to assess your needs is a good idea.

2. Essentials Of A CMS

Three key elements that every CMS has, one way or another, are templates, content and meta data. Understanding how these three elements interact with the other CMS features is important: the template is the graphic wrapper of your website; without the actual content, you would have no need for a website; and the often over-looked meta data helps with search engine optimization.

An example of a CMS theme that has the same look and feel on every page.

Templates control how your content looks on the page and are extremely helpful when you have to produce a lot of pages (10+). The template is a graphic wrapper that usually looks the same on every page of the website, regardless of the content. It makes your website’s look and feel consistent. When you want to change the template (say, the color or an image), you have to make the change only once and it will be reflected on every page of your website. Popular CMS’ such as WordPress and ExpressionEngine have many free or premium templates available online that can reduce the cost of and help you customize your system.

This is the typical layout of a WYSIWYG editor, which has features that are standard in word processors today, such as bolding, italicizing and justifying paragraphs.

Content is created, managed and edited independent of all other CMS elements. Content could be anything from the text on your “About” page to the photo on your company press release. All content is normally managed through a WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) that has integrated photo uploading tools. This helps you create new pages on your website, manage and edit existing pages and assign pages to multiple areas without having to copy them.

Facebook does an excellent job of pulling an external page’s title and description meta data when you post a link to it on a fan page or wall.

Meta data plays a key part in search engine optimization (SEO). The great thing about a CMS is that it makes it nearly impossible for you to forget to add this information, thus helping your website’s search and index ranking on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Meta data contains such information as category, author, publishing date, title, brief description and keywords.

One great use of meta data is for automatically adding a title and description to links posted on social media websites such as Facebook. This not only saves you from having to retype this information but keeps your content relevant as well. This information can also be pulled by search engines and any other website where your website is listed, so make sure to put some thought into writing it.

3. CMS Features And Functions

Content management systems come with many standard features to help you create, manage and edit your content. In addition to standard features, additional features can be added to the flexible system framework. These additional features are often referred to as add-on modules or plug-ins. Because a CMS is very flexible, you can use it for a simple website with little content or expand the features to support a complex website with a lot of content. Here is a nice list of high-profile companies that use a CMS for their websites, which will give you a good idea of how far you can expand these systems.

Standard Features

These features are what make your content management system so extensive and highly flexible. They allow you to publish, edit and organize content and manage members, and they contain a variety of built-in security features.

With these straightforward tools, you can see how easy creating and managing your content is.

Publishing is made easy with the in-depth features of a CMS. Without any knowledge of HTML programming, users can create, manage and schedule content with ease. These powerful tools help free up time within an organization by streamlining the whole process. A user can create content, set the category (i.e. the section in which it will be published) and then set it as a draft for later review.

Once the content is reviewed, it can be scheduled to be published, say, seven days from then. Once you have reached that step, the rest of the process is automated. You can write and complete a week’s worth of articles ahead of time and take a vacation without having to worry about publishing new content, because it will publish itself (if you have done your part).

Typography often causes headaches for writers, especially if the writers are not HTML savvy, but the task is made easier with built-in text editors. With most CMS’, your text can be automatically formatted to produce XHTML-valid typography. This saves you the hassle of hand-coding every piece of content and leaves the “fun” bits to the system itself. If you paste disallowed characters, such as curly quotes, bullets or accents, from text editors like Microsoft Word, they will automatically be converted into an HTML-valid equivalent.

Another great feature that many CMS’ include is automatic linking. This feature saves you from having to manually link URLs that you add to your content. All of these features are useful because they make your workflow more efficient when you create a lot of content. And if you prefer to enter your own HTML code every time because you don’t trust the automated process, you have that option as well.

Organization is a key part of maintaining a website. With a CMS, all of the content is stored in one place, only once, and is accessible from any location with an Internet connection. Content can be saved in a number of states, such as draft, published and archived. So you can keep unfinished and finished content in separate places, with different attributes. This is especially handy if you like to write content ahead of time and want to be able to easily find it when it comes time to publish.

Draft: this is work in progress and is not visible to the public.
Published: content that is visible to the public.
Archived: previously published content that is tucked away in a safe place, away from the main navigation. Typically used with blogs.

Member management helps you control all aspects of your website’s users. As an administrator, you have full control over how many people can access your website and how much control they have themselves. This can be extremely useful for a large company, where many people (author, editor, publisher, etc.) are responsible for creating and maintaining content. You control how many hands are in the cookie jar at each stage of the creation process.

Administrator: has complete control over all users and access to all of the website’s administration features.
Editor: can publish and mange their own content as well as other people’s content, etc.
Author: can publish and manage their own content.
Contributor: can write and manage their own content but cannot publish it.
Subscriber: can read content, view and write comments, receive newsletters and so on, without being able to edit anything.

Build-in security measures give you one less thing to worry about. You no longer have to worry about session management, robots trying multiple passwords to hack your account or losing data when processing forms. Almost every CMS has different session management configurations, so you can set the preferences that fit your security needs.

With the built-in “multiple password denial” feature, you can make sure that multiple users cannot access your system simultaneously with the same log-in credentials. In addition, you can automatically lock out users after several incorrect password attempts and allow forms to be submitted only once. This helps prevent loss of data and attempts to hack your system via password.

Additional Features

You can integrate add-on modules, or plug-ins, into your CMS to add value, improve accessibility and increase functionality. With the right combination of features, you can create a website that fits your business plan and helps your company achieve its goals. While the number of additional features that you can add is endless, we will focus on the major ones here.

GoMediazine is a great example of blog integration.

Company blog functionality helps keep your website fresh and can be a very useful marketing tool. While CMS’ have evolved into complete website solutions, they were originally intended to manage blogs. Most blogs were used as personal diaries or breaking news outlets. Adapted to business use, they can be very useful for letting customers and clients know about what’s new and exciting with your company. If you sell products, you can announce new items or sales. Some businesses, such as GoMedia, use their blog purely as a community-building tool to publish educational information.

The Electrorack website is a great example of seamless e-commerce integration.

E-commerce integration makes the user experience on your website a very comfortable one. Being able to sell products and services from within your website would be ideal for any business. Some companies, including Electrorack, have seamlessly integrated their e-commerce solution into their CMS. The user doesn’t even notice that they are jumping from one platform to another because the look and feel are so consistent.

The DesignByHumans website has a great integrated user-based community.

Discussion forums are a complete community-building solution that helps your website’s visitors exchange ideas. Users can create topics, offer feedback on existing topics and interact with other users. How you use a discussion forum depends entirely on your needs. Design by Humans uses its forum to post company news and to let their artists and customers interact for free.

This website has a photo gallery set up on its system for album postings.

Photo galleries are used by millions of people around the world. Online photo sharing is becoming this era’s scrapbooking. With the increase in social media use, people can easily send everyone they know a link to their latest photo gallery. The Memory Museum can display photos easily through the customized gallery on its photography blog. Businesses can use this feature to showcase recent events or feature products. By organizing and displaying photos from within your CMS, you can have all of your content in one location.

National Geographic has an intuitive integrated video management system to help users view their video content through the Web.

Video management helps you organize, edit and distribute video content. You no longer have to upload videos to YouTube or Vimeo and then manage them separately. You can manage your video content just as you manage your website’s pages. You can upload almost any kind of video and then share your albums and videos on your website and on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Digg.

CMS’ vary in the video management features they offer. But most let you upload multiple files at once (in batch) and automatically create thumbnails. Once videos are in the system, you can track viewer behavior as well as feature content based on popularity. National Geographic integrates videos into its articles and offers them separately for others to embed on their own websites.

Apple offers extensive multi-language support and uses multiple URL extensions to differentiate content.

Multi-language support lets you offer content in multiple countries within a single CMS, allowing visitors to choose their preferred language. While most small companies do not need this feature, it can be helpful. The support features may not actually translate content (and if they do, they won’t do an accurate job), but they do let you feature content in multiple languages, which is extremely useful for corporate websites that operate globally. Because Apple operates in many countries, it offers its website in many languages.

RSS feeds typically show excerpts of content and images (if any), as shown above.

RSS feeds are a really simple way to syndicate the content on your website. With the explosion of RSS readers, which constantly check a user’s favorite websites for new content, RSS feeds have become essential. It does not matter whether you update your website daily or monthly, your readers will be sure never to miss an update. Millions of websites publish RSS feeds on a regular basis, and yours should not be an exception. With people’s attention spans shrinking along with their free time, letting users choose the content they want to read through an RSS feed is helpful.

A newsletter can be a great way to reach out to users who are interested in your content, especially if yours is designed as well as TV Guide Daily Scoop’s.

Newsletters/mailing lists are an extremely helpful feature, especially if you have a lot of users or want to expand your base. Many mainstream users still do not use an RSS reader, and some of them may prefer to receive your content in their inbox rather than by visiting your website every few days. You can integrate newsletters into your system and set the feature’s functionality. Usually, you will be able to manage subscriptions, create a template, compose the newsletter in a WYSIWYG editor, manage your archive and track open/click results.

Google Analytics shows detailed information on your website’s visitors, at no charge.

Statistics/tracking is an essential feature for any website. To effectively run and market a website, you need to know as much as possible about your visitors. Analyzing whatever data is available prepares you to achieve company goals, focuses your marketing initiatives and converts visitors into regular users. You will have information on how many people visit your website, where they live, what content they view and much more. Google Analytics is one of the most widely adopted analytics programs that are available for CMS’. Its popularity is partly due to the immense amount of information it provides about your visitors for free.

Where Can I Find A Content Management System?

You know the size of your organization and how much you can spend on a CMS. These factors are good indicators of where to start your search. Actually finding one can be a daunting task, but if you have a clear idea of what you are looking for, you can quickly weed out the options that don’t fit your needs. Finding a solution that helps your business achieve its goals is important. Many businesses, large and small, use all kinds of different CMS’ to manage their content. Start your journey by using the resources listed below.

Further Resources

Check out the following related articles and resources:

45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires
You are much less likely to overlook important aspects of your website if you follow this checklist, which covers content, usability, accessibility, standards and more.
15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website
Lists some important things to check before taking your website public.
10 Designer’s Checkpoints To Be Aware Of
A list of things every designer should know about their website.
List of Content Management Systems
A list of notable content management systems that can be used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation. Many of them are built on top of other content management frameworks.
Compare Multiple CMS Solutions (technical)
This is a community service for anyone looking for a means to manage website content.
Many useful resources on how to design and develop for these CMS’, including many free templates:
How To Improve Your Branding With Your Content
Branding experts speak the truth when they say that a winning brand communicates why you are your prospect’s only solution. If you can’t achieve that, at least convey why you are your prospect’s best solution.

(al)

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Getting Started With Content Management Systems originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.