Month: February 2009

Web site support or Help chat

Digsby has a great little widget to allow you to have live chat on your site. Please look below in the right side and I have added this widget to the blog. This allows you to use your existing IM system (I use Digsby) to be a communication tool to your web visitors. You could use this for support or sales. …

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Windows Service : installer

I have not coded a windows service for a long time. The last time I touched a service I used the “installutil” from the framework to install it. I decided to make an IISreporter Service that would push your IIS stats out to a twitter site. In the process I figured it would work best as a service. Since I am …

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Justify purchasing an Iphone

I have to admit that I like my new iphone. I am able to do the things I require of a phone, make and answer calls. But I am also able to do the things that I require from a smart phone, read email (exchange), view calendar, sync contacts, and surf the web. What the Iphone brings to the table is …

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Online help / Chat

There are a lot of online chat / helpdesk programs out there that allow companies to offer live help on their site. In most cases they cost a pretty penny. I have used LivePerson in the past, a great program. It is a bit expensive but very useful. If you are looking for something on the cheap and use IM here …

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Windows Media Center + Netflix = too much fun

I have a HTPC (windows media center vista) hooked to a projector in my basement. It has been great for us to watch movies and play the wii. Recently I added a new plug-in to Windows Media Center called myNextflix (mynetflix) This plug-in allows for us to watch Instant access movies from nextflix. It is great, my viewing pleasure has been …

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Oomph Examples

I have been working with the oomph tool kit and see how this can be a valuable tool.  It can work well for corporate sites and areas where people need to share contact and events.   It really does make the process of posting an event easy and allowing for a great way for people to add these events to their calendars …

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Oomph – Events

Another feature of the Oomph toolkit is the ability to use events and have them be available as ics files (or calendar entries) I am adding an event I plan on attending “Tech Trends with Keith Brophy” in the grand rapids area.  If you look in the Microformat (upper left of the site).  and hit the little Icon   you can …

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My Contact Information – oomph – hcard

I have been testing out the oomph toolkit.  You can read more about this at the Mix09 web site http://visitmix.com/Lab/Oomph.  It is a micro format viewer for web applications.   I have inserted my hcard (contact information) into this page.  Note the little icon in the upper left. Jim Becher Tilde32 [email protected] Grand Rapids, MI 49534 United States 616.828.0327 jimiz.net

SSH – Secure browsing | remote proxy | VPN

I love SSH I’m not sure if there is a better tool out there. It can be used so many ways. I have often been at client locations and been unable to access servers or sites I need to support or do work on. Corporations often block sites that I support and need access to so use my home SSH server …

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Keywords and spending (useful site)

I stumbled upon this site that is pretty interesting. It shows some detail that I was looking for on how sites market keywords and some possible spending trends. It is somewhat accurate. I was able to benchmark the site against a few of the clients that I have done work with. (Keyword spy) http://www.keywordspy.com/overview/domain.aspx?q=jimiz.net I put a link to look at …

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Stimulus plan – Mark Cuban Style

I’m not sure if this plan will work. But I’m excited that someone is pushing the envelope and trying things. I agree , it is the small business and entrepreneurs that will help us further our economy and financial situation. People who are motivated can do a lot of things, in particular they work to make things better. This is a …

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Copying a business model or just design

Here is an interesting discussion / article on copying someones business model or even their design. Is it right to take a working site or design and re-use it or make your business around it. Reading through this the idea behind it is that the company that is riding the coat tails, or copying another business does not know the concepts …

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contacts, contacts, contacts

Google announced sync. I like this move, the ability to sync info into the cloud. Those of us who have used Exchange for a while have had the great feature to have instant sync from a server to your device. http://www.google.com/mobile/default/sync.html (sync) Now people with out an exchange server can now use google to do this for you.

New Project (DIY)

I’m starting a new project to store my DVD’s Wii games and stuff in my basement and wanted to try something new. After a little looking I found an article on lifehacker.com that had a pretty good idea for me. So I’m looking for some large old school Hi-Fi speakers to take ownership of. Anyone in the GR area have something …

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Tools of the trade

Since I finally got a new phone (iPhone) my old blue tooth head-set a jabra BT250 (Info) did not seem to have that great of quality with the phone. I’m not sure if it was because it is 5 years old or that technology has changed. The BT250, as ugly as it is, treated me very well. I used it in …

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