1) Squarespace
Squarespace
This is my favorite of the bunch. It’s not free. Pricing starts at $8 per month. That’s what a lot of us pay for shared hosting, so it’s pretty reasonable. This system is very user friendly and the menus and dialogs are very Applesque. One of their claims to fame is that Kevin Rose uses it. They also feature some really nice designs.

2) Brightegg

Brightegg is also a paid service (they do offer a free package) with pricing starting at $19 per month. If you happen to be a designer, they have a program where you can make money by submitting your designs. Another great thing about Brightegg is that they have a private label service.

3) Weebly

This site builder is totally free and features some nice designs. They offer a developer API that allows some extended functionality.

4) Synthasite

Finally we have Synthasite, a completely free site builder that offers (like the others) a design, hosting, and custom domains (custom domains cost money).

These are all great products and for canned websites, they have some very impressive designs and features. For free or for the cost of hosting, you can slap nice site together in minutes.

• A list of posts sorted from newest to oldest
• Permalinks for stories
• Syndication (RSS/Atom)
• Comments

So here’s the question: does a blog have to have all of these attributes to be classified as a blog? What am I missing?

You see, I’ve been saving files to my DropBox for a few months now. It’s become such and integral part of my daily computing experience that I don’t think about it. The reason I don’t think about it is because it’s a trouble-free product and the experience is totally natural.

I think this is probably the high-point of any product or service; the ultimate benchmark for quality and usefulness. When something is so good you totally take it for granted an forget about it. That’s when something is truly valuable.

Another example of this phenomena is with my hosting company. I really put a lot of time into researching what host to use for my product, but no matter how great the deals were at competitors, no matter how good the reviews where, I still had to deal with a nagging truth in the back of my mind. I have never had to think about my current host. I don’t think about them because they are so good that I forget about them. Because of that, I stuck with them and I’m glad I did.

I’m not sure what this means, but it seams like there’s a pattern here. While not every product is best forgotten, there are some things in life you just don’t want to think about (like web hosts and file syncing) and when you don’t have to think about them, you probably found a good one. What do you think?

There’s a real problem with content management systems. I’m not talking about the big enterprise platforms. I’m talking about the basic content management software that simple web sites need and use. They often do too much. That’s right. Modern content management software does too much.

For example, I have a friend with a pretty average technical acumen. This friend needed a simple website for an organization that he had started and I, being a web nerd, decided to help him set up a site. So we did the usual. I went to Godaddy and bought a suitable domain along with a basic Linux hosting account, while he stared over my shoulder in wonder. I found a template for his site and we paid a fair price for a nice pre-made design. So the next step was to get him up and running with a cms so he could manage all of his content without needing any further assistance from me.

My first instinct was to go with Drupal. I have tooled around with Drupal in the past and it has a good reputation among the web-savvy. So I installed Drupal, started configuring the site and I soon realized, this is way more functionality and configuration than my friend needs. Not to mention, it’s way more than he can handle. A little time with Joomla presented the same dilemma. These systems have too much complexity; too much functionality; too much configuration. Not only that, but working with the template frameworks of these systems was going to be a nightmare. Remember, I already spent some money on a pre-made template for this site. I was going to have to make the template fit the cms. Not fun.

So, with all these issues before me, I realized why so many developers end up rolling their own cms system. It’s because what’s out there is more than a simple site needs. A simple website needs a simple cms. Don’t get me wrong, Drupal, Joomla, Worpress and the like are all great systems and they have their markets, but often they are more complex than necessary for small sites. Another major issue with the standard content management system is the need to have a database running on your server and the need to install software. It’s always a problem to have to patch your cms because of some update, or deal with setting up a database to run your cms.

Just like software is moving more and more from the desktop to the cloud, it seems advantageous that server based systems might do the same. Instead of installing 10 versions of WordPress on the sites of 10 of your clients, on 10 different servers (all separate, all requiring maintenance), why not host your content in a central location? This way all of your client’s content is in one place and there are no software installations or databases to maintain. Centralizing content makes good sense. Using a CMS as a services makes good sense.

I realize there are lots (thousands) of content management systems out there and there’s no one system that’s right for everyone, but I think that Clover Content is right for most small sites and for people who manage a lot of sites for clients. Anyway, that’s why I boostrapped this startup and entered the arena. Let me know what you think.

I came across this post about Chrome at Computer World and thought it was pretty funny. From the article:

Then, last September, Google Chrome came into my life. I admit I was totally infatuated.

She was sweet. Good looking, easy, and uncomplicated, just the way I like them. And she had something extra, something indefinable. Call it the Google magic. Whatever it was, I was hooked.

We went everywhere together. Sometimes I’d have 20 or 30 tabs open at once. She was a free spirit, and nimble as hell. I loved the cute little button that let me quickly open new tabs and the way she showed me thumbnails of my favorite sites; I didn’t even have to ask. And if I needed a little private time, no problem – she’d open an incognito window for me and quietly step away.

I thought it would be a three-day fling. I never imagined we’d move in together.

But when you showed up, it got ugly. She hated it when another browser came into the room. And not just you; Safari, Flock, Opera, even IE during those desperate moments when a Web site just insisted on it. My system would freeze tight and I’d have to crawl under my desk and yank the power cord. It was humiliating.

So I made a difficult decision. I made Chrome my default. I committed.

Now, Mint has one of the best user experiences on the web. From a developer’s standpoint, I’m amazed at the things this app can do and just how smooth it is. The design is great as well. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend you give it a shot.

There are a few requirements to enroll in the program: Your startup has to be younger than 3 years old, make less than $1 million per year in revenue, be web-based, and you must be enrolled by a network partner.

For an early stage startup with little cash, this is a great way to get full access to Microsoft development tools and server software. You can even use things like SQL Server in your hosted, production environment under the program, which goes a long way if you use their database.

I found a local network provider to give me enrollment access and I’m really impressed with how much software is available. It’s no joke. You pretty much get everything Microsoft offers for free. So, if you’re like me and you use the Microsoft .Net platform for your startup (even if you don’t), check out BizSpark to help you get off the ground.

http://vidgets.viddler.com

As you can see by my example below, I was able to quickly create a collection of 20 of my videos which had the ‘coffee’ tag. Very cool stuff.

http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/

• FastStone Capture (screenshots)
• Launchy (launching programs in seconds)
• Picasa (photo management and manipulation)
• Karen’s Replicator (backups)
• Irfanview (quick image viewing)

I’ve left off the basics like Photoshop and Word, which means that everything above is a free product. What are your favorite must have apps for Windows XP?

1. Use the Reset Button. When you are in a Photoshop dialog (for example, the Image… dialog) you can press the Alt key on your keyboard (Option on the Mac) and the Cancel button will change to a Reset button and you can change back to whatever settings you altered.
2. Press Alt / Option to turn Brush into Eyedropper. When you are using the Brush tool, you can hold down the Alt key and the cursor will become an eyedropper allowing you to make quick changes to your paint color.
3. Using the Eyedropper outside of Photoshop. Did you know that the eyedropper tool in Photoshop works outside of Photoshop? Yeah, it does. To do it: choose the eyedropper tool and click inside your image. Then drag anywhere on your screen to select a color from anything visible on your screen. More details are at creativebits.
4. Use the Alignment Buttons. If you have multiple objects and you want to line them up you can easily do so by linking them together and using any one of the alignment buttons that appear when you have the move tool selected. This tip is great for lining up multiple text strings or shapes.
5. You can change the brush size by pressing the bracket keys repeatedly. This one is handy for quickly changing your brush size. Simply pressing either ] or [ and it will adjust the brush size by 10 units. Thanks to Ward at Mister Shape for this tip.

Read my other 5 Photoshop tips.

1. Use the Reset Button. When you are in a Photoshop dialog (for example, the Image… dialog) you can press the Alt key on your keyboard (Option on the Mac) and the Cancel button will change to a Reset button and you can change back to whatever settings you altered.
2. Press Alt / Option to turn Brush into Eyedropper. When you are using the Brush tool, you can hold down the Alt key and the cursor will become an eyedropper allowing you to make quick changes to your paint color.
3. Using the Eyedropper outside of Photoshop. Did you know that the eyedropper tool in Photoshop works outside of Photoshop? Yeah, it does. To do it: choose the eyedropper tool and click inside your image. Then drag anywhere on your screen to select a color from anything visible on your screen. More details are at creativebits.
4. Use the Alignment Buttons. If you have multiple objects and you want to line them up you can easily do so by linking them together and using any one of the alignment buttons that appear when you have the move tool selected. This tip is great for lining up multiple text strings or shapes.
5. You can change the brush size by pressing the bracket keys repeatedly. This one is handy for quickly changing your brush size. Simply pressing either ] or [ and it will adjust the brush size by 10 units. Thanks to Ward at Mister Shape for this tip.
6. Pressing the shift key constrains proportions when you resize objects. Simple yet obviously not everybody knows this one. If you don’t hold shift, it stretches. Honestly, I think Adobe products should automatically hold proportions.
7. Using the erase or pen tool, you can press erase once and then holding down the shift key press somewhere else to draw a straight line: Simple yet effective and works with other tools like the pen tool.
8. Shift + Backspace fills a selection. Yup, another super-simple one. It’s the same as going to Edit… Fill…
9. Set your Units of Measurement to pixels. If your artwork is destined for on screen display you should set your Rulers to display units as pixels (it can display inches or whatever unit of measurement that you might want). Often times when I receive someone elses Photoshop file that has guides in it, I find the guides are not snapped to the edge of the pixel. This is because the guide was placed when the unit of measurement was something other than pixels.
10. Use the sharpen tool on photos. Especially if your photo is destined for web use (or email) and you just resized a big picture to small dimensions. It makes your photos crisp and makes everything and everybody clear. I wrote more about this in April.

If you do not have enough pixel data to get the print size and resolution you need, then you’ll have to resample the image and Photoshop will create new pixels. This often results in poorer quality print results, so you need to judge which is the lesser of two evils: the loss in quality from reduced resolution or the loss in quality from resampling.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/l/bllps502d.htm

That’s where Resampling comes in. To cut to the bottom line, “resampling” means “making things up,” or perhaps “guessing.” Granted Photoshop makes educated guesses, but especially when adding pixels to increase resolution, that’s what they are, guesses. If the camera didn’t capture it, or the scanner didn’t scan it, the information to fill in those new pixels has to come from somewhere, even if it is out of thin air. Unlike on TV, crime detectives can’t extract details from film that were never captured in the first place.

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/resizing-resampling-photoshop.html

1. Pressing the shift key constrains proportions when you resize objects. Simple yet obviously not everybody knows this one. If you don’t hold shift, it stretches. Honestly, I think Adobe products should automatically hold proportions.
2. Using the erase or pen tool, you can press erase once and then holding down the shift key press somewhere else to draw a straight line: Simple yet effective and works with other tools like the pen tool.
3. Shift + Backspace fills a selection. Yup, another super-simple one. It’s the same as going to Edit… Fill…
4. Set your Units of Measurement to pixels. If your artwork is destined for on screen display you should set your Rulers to display units as pixels (it can display inches or whatever unit of measurement that you might want). Often times when I receive someone elses Photoshop file that has guides in it, I find the guides are not snapped to the edge of the pixel. This is because the guide was placed when the unit of measurement was something other than pixels.
5. Use the sharpen tool on photos. Especially if your photo is destined for web use (or email) and you just resized a big picture to small dimensions. It makes your photos crisp and makes everything and everybody clear. I wrote more about this in April.

That wraps up my Photoshop tips for today. Thanks for attending class.

Calendar Express 2 – Robust system with a full administration panel and multiple categories and different display options (weekly, monthly, yearly events view).

Easy PHP Calendar – Simpler than Calendar Express in its visual appearance and administration. I really like the way this system works. With some hacking around you can get it to display any number of months on a page and change colors and fonts. One plus, also, is that you can install WYSIWYG text editors (you do it yourself).

Know of any others? It’s tough to find a decent one.

Macromedia info on the upgrade. As of this morning I couldn’t find it on Amazon.

Next week I am going to be building several sites for some realtors and have been searching for software that might be useful. Stuff like listings software, lead management software, and related.

Mostly for my reference, here is one interesting piece of software I have seen. It is called Open-Realty and appears to be an open source project.

So what I’m looking for are suggestions for software under $200 that can be installed on our server to manage the click throughs, track clicks, and impressions, and serve statistics. Many thanks. Below are some of the ones I have taken a gander at.

PHPAdsNew (alternate link with screenshots), WebAdverts, phpBannerExchange 2.0. Any others? Please leave a comment.

Update: Some recommendations are AdsTrack, BannerSimple.

I’m not entirely sure how the dolphin pictures on their new web site fit in however they look friendly so I’m sure it’s safe.

We pause for commercial break while I kill a huuuuugeeee roach!!! Done.

You can be sure that I am going to try this trick. I have two LCDs already, a G4 tower I’m not using too often, and this will be very slick.