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The “Official” Geek “Must Do Before You Die” Checklist

on September 18, 2017

The best thing about being a geek is all the awesome stuff the world has to offer us. So without further ado, here is the Official Geek Bucket List:

  1. Build a functional robot.
  2. Get a car that runs on something other than gasoline.
  3. Know how machines I rely on actually run and have at least a moderate ability to fix them.
  4. Explore a cave.
  5. Identify a hidden superpower and use it (okay, a power).
  6. Convert a non-geek to geekdom.
  7. Become a connoisseur of something (coffee, wine, chocolate are expected, become a connoisseur of the unexpected – like standing desks).
  8. Wear a cape in public.
  9. Become someone who wears fascinatingly strange hats.
  10. Win a Nobel Prize for advancing fandom.
  11. Have more to add to the list? Sound off in the comments section below!
Insights

Recovering Your Lost Passwords | How To Guides

on September 18, 2017

Manage to lose your password?

Need tips on how to get it back? Where are some commonly misplaced passwords and videos on how to solve the issue.

Lost Password on Windows 7/8/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMaMPIJDeJ4

Lost Password on Mac OSX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6AZMk2cy0

Lost Password on Gmail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqEKeJkaGTI

Need help with your password? Sound off in the comments section below and we’ll add more resources.

Further Reading: How to Change or Reset Your Gmail Password

 

Insights

A New Blogger’s Checklist | Technical Guide

on September 18, 2017

When you are new to blogging, the task of setting up and running a blog can seem to be either extremely easy or extremely difficult. If it seems extremely easy, you are probably in for a really rude awakening. If it seems extremely difficult, then you are ready to make an educated decision about setting up, running, and maintaining a quality blog. Regardless of where you, the fact that you are thinking of starting a blog has probably lead you here to this page. There are a lot of things to do to get ready for a quality blog. While this is not a comprehensive list and there are probably things that I have missed, I hope that this provides you with a good list of things to at least thing about when you are setting up your blog.

Research

  1. Pick your niche area. Write about what you know and love.
  2. Research your niche.
  3. Discover similar blogs.
  4. Know your audience and what they want to read about.
  5. Pick a great domain name and register it.
  6. Decide whether you want to host your own blog or go on a blogging site.
  7. Select a blog host.
  8. Select a trusted WordPress page builder.

Monetizing

  1. Decide if you want to monetize your blog or not.
  2. Know when to monetize your blog.
  3. Find ways to monetize your blog:
    1. Pay per click ads (Adsense)
    2. Pay per post ads (PayPerPost, ReviewMe, LoudLaunch)
    3. Flat rate per month ads (Text Link Ads)
    4. Pay per thousand impressions ads (Feedburner)
    5. Donations
    6. Subscriptions
    7. Sell merchandise (CafePress)
    8. Other
  4. Select appropriate channels for generating income.
  5. Select ways to receive money
    1. PayPal
    2. OneBip

Design

  1. Select blogging software (server and client side) to standardize on. Server Side
    1. WordPress
    2. Movable Type
    3. TypePad
    4. Community Server
    5. b2evolution
    6. bblog
    7. blog:CMS
    8. blojsom
    9. Blosxom
    10. NucleusCSM
    11. Pivot
    12. Serendipity
    13. SPIP
    14. .Text
    15. Textpattern
    Client Side (Thanks to WordPress for the list)
    1. blog2go
    2. BlogDesk
    3. BloGTK
    4. BlogJet
    5. Blog Writer
    6. DashBlog
    7. Deepest Sender
    8. Drivel
    9. Ecto
    10. Elicit
    11. Flock
    12. Gnome Blog
    13. JBlogEditor
    14. Journler
    15. MarsEdit
    16. Mo:blog
    17. Plogit
    18. Post2Blog
    19. Post2Blog Express
    20. Qumana
    21. RapidMetaBlog
    22. ScribeFire
    23. Semagic
    24. Vagablog
    25. w.bloggar
    26. WB Editor
    27. Windows Live Writer
    28. WordPressDash
    29. WriteToMyBlog
    30. Zoundry Blog Writer
  2. Tell stories without any code, install Free WordPress Slider – Smart Slider 3.
  3. Become familiar with basics of web design such as PHP, SQL, Java, HTML, etc.
  4. Select an appropriate theme for your blog.
  5. Customize your theme to make it your own or make your own.
  6. Add a favicon or make your own.
  7. Decide on other services your blog will supply:

Getting the Word Out

  1. Make sure your blog has an RSS feed that is easy to find and subscribe to.
  2. E-mail your friends about your new blog.
  3. Write appropriate comments in other blogs that you have relevant content in your blog.
  4. Set up to ping Technorati and other blog cataloging sites. Make sure you claim your blog.
  5. Make a free business cards and hand them out.
  6. Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools.

Work Ahead

  1. Have a number of posts ready to launch as soon as your blog goes live.
  2. Resist temptation to blast all of the posts out at once.
  3. Plan series and weekly features for your blog.

Monitor Your Blog

  1. Decide on a proper tracking system.
  2. Watch specific information about visitors to your site:
    1. Daily visits
    2. Daily pageviews
    3. Average pageviews per visit
    4. Daily RSS readers
    5. Inbound sources
    6. Popular content
    7. Entry pages
    8. New vs. returning readers
    9. Countries readers from
    10. Web browsers readers using

Maintain Your Blog

  1. Make appropriate changes to better suite your audience.
  2. Keep content fresh so that readers keep coming back.  Update at least a few times a week.
  3. Respond to comments on your posts.

Tips from Blogging Experts

  • Kaitlan Whitteberry, Social Media Manager, and Tiffany Rivers, Director of Marketing of iOFFICE, Inc. offer this. “We have found that while understanding your audience is the ultimate key to success, ensuring the conversation revolves around them shifts the focus back where it belongs. Your job as a blogger is to enlighten your audience with information they haven’t been previously exposed to, but also to ask what they want to learn. You should want to be their ultimate guide. Where they look first when seeking information. If you start by focusing on providing relevant content, that speaks to their needs – your list will grow itself.”
  • Teresa Matich, Copywriter at Clio, says: “When growing an email list, we’ve found it’s most important to keep quality top of mind. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel—we get the best results by consistently delivering quality, on-topic content, as this respects list members by staying in line with what they expect to find. Flooding their inbox with mediocre content simply doesn’t work. Whatever other tactics you use to grow your email list, always put the quality of your content first.”
  • Dana Baardsen is the founder of Agile Trend Media. She shares with us her unique strategy for DynaPro Direct and lets in on her insight: “Growing a brand’s blog is fun, and if it’s not, you’re not doing it right. It’s crucial to be savvy with SEO, feature catchy (not click-bait) headlines, and provide serviceable and accurate information regularly — but it’s even more important to ditch your personal itch to micromanage every piece of content. Here’s why: By allocating energy to public relations and opening up your site to editorial collaborations, you’ll feed new energy into an otherwise one-sided stream of content. What happens when you schedule collaborative blog content regularly? An increase in engagement, views, shares, likes, sales, and fun!”
  • Dave Chesson, lead editor of Gun University says: “Making sure you understand the searchers’ intent, or what it is they truly want when they are searching the internet for an answer, can be a large part to blogging success.  Take for example our article on different shooting ear protection.  The truth is, searchers were looking for a list of ear protection, as well as an understanding of the different types.  If we had just lumped them all together in one list it wouldn’t have served the people looking for in-ear protection or electronic.  So, take a look at your target topic, and ask yourself what it is the shopper or searcher really wants. 
Insights

CMS Roundup | List of 70+ Content Management Systems

on September 18, 2017

There are 100’s of content management systems out there. Here are some popular ones:

  1. AIOCP
  2. Alfresco
  3. anomey
  4. AptitudeCMS
  5. Aqua
  6. b2evolution
  7. BIGACE
  8. Bitweaver
  9. bloofox.com
  10. Bluetrait
  11. Caravel CMS
  12. Clickfunnels
  13. CMS Made Simple
  14. CompactCMS
  15. Concrete5
  16. ConstructrCMS
  17. Contenido
  18. CruxCMS
  19. Cyclone3
  20. Daisy
  21. Diferior
  22. DragonflyCMS
  23. e107
  24. EasyEclipse
  25. eazyPortal
  26. eggBlog
  27. Elgg
  28. Elxis
  29. Enano CMS
  30. Exponent
  31. eZ Publish
  32. Falt4
  33. Frog CMS
  34. Fundanemt
  35. fuzzylime (cms)
  36. gelato
  37. Icy Phoenix
  38. Impression
  39. Indexhibit
  40. Jasmine
  41. Jaws
  42. LoveCMS
  43. Marvelous
  44. MemHT Portal
  45. MiaCMS
  46. Midgard
  47. MonkeyCMS
  48. Nucleus
  49. Nuxeo 5
  50. ocPortal
  51. Omeka
  52. OpenCMS
  53. OpenEdit DAM
  54. Ovidentia
  55. PHPmotion
  56. phpwcms
  57. Pixie
  58. Plone
  59. Plume
  60. Poor Man’s CMS
  61. PuzzleApps
  62. Radiant
  63. Ripe Website Manager
  64. SAPID
  65. Silverstripe
  66. Social Web CMS
  67. SPIP
  68. Spitfire
  69. Textpattern
  70. TypePublish
  71. TYPO3
  72. TYPOlight
  73. vTiger
  74. WordPress (customized)

Got any you want added to this list? Let me know in the comments section below!

Products

USB PC Repair Kit Resource List

on September 18, 2017

PC Repair System

I was thinking a PC Repair Toolkit Resource Section would be nice. There are a variety of free and/or open-source tools for file recovery, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, system info & system maintenance.

With a wide open description of the system, I was free to put in pretty much whatever I wanted to.

System Contents

There is a lot of work from different people that go into the applications in this system. In general, I just put the system together and make it work as one. This is a list of all the programs on the system, giving credit where credit is due.

Insights

Maximizing Cell Battery Life in Emergencies

on September 10, 2017

We all have been in the situation of a long day in the airport or even just out and about in a strange city and our lifeline to our work and family is starting to fail us. It does not help the current situation that the proceeding night we did not put our phone on the charger.

It is important to indeed let them know you are not in your favorite pub but just your phone battery has decided to fail you at the worst time.

What are some immediate actions you can take to send those last emails or touch base with your family?

Saving Your Battery Power

One of the current dilemmas of our generation is why the hell can we fly across the globe, travel to the moon, and now we can personally fly with a jetpack but we still cannot pull together enough intelligence to produce a battery that lasts more than half a day. Due to our obvious addiction to smartphones, it is a questionable scenario to say the least.

Consolidate the Energy

First thing to understand is what uses the most power on your phone?

Optimizing the phone and ring settings are going to be the first step in combating early battery die off. Most phones are similar in what consumes the battery and also newer phones will offer a click of a button to turn on such applications as “Ultra data Saving Mode” and the ability to limit background apps.

The data saving mode should be under the data usage section in the settings. Apps running in the background that have updates and push notifications (Especially Vibrating) such as Facebook are going to drain your battery faster than a fat kid chasing an ice cream truck.

Switching to airplane mode allows for less energy to be used when the phone is constantly trying to pull gps coordinates or trying to connect wifi in low setting situations.

If you are going to be using the phone, then it is better to turn off the gps manually as it is one of the biggest battery drainers. Dimming the screen should be turned off with the data saving mode. However if needed to be done manually you can go under brightness and slide it down to the lightest setting.

Preventive Measures to Take

If you are lucky enough to have thought ahead before the catastrophe of dying communication, then you are one step ahead than most people. There are a couple of things you can do to be prepared for the dying battery scenario.

Buy a Power bank

Power banks are essential nowadays with our arsenals of gadgets we use on a daily basis. They are simply a “bank” where you are able to store energy and then utilize it later for most any usb device that needs to be charged.  

Carry a Power Cord

Most Airports and some newer coffee shops will have a public outlet that is easily accessible to any person buying their products. This can be a gamble as in popular places it can be hard to find an outlet not being used during busier times. Another way to get around this is to plug your usb cord into your laptop assuming their is power left on the pc.  

Buy a USB Hand Crank Charger

Nothing beats good old sweat and muscle when there is no power within reach of your setting. A hand crank allows you to manually generate power by rotating the crank and a moving magnetic field pushes the electric current through a coil of wire.

What if the Phone Stops Working after Charged

You have charged the battery on your phone and taken all troubleshooting measures to only find out your communication machine has decided to stop working. After you calm down from Facebook withdrawals, it is time to either find a replacement or look online for a cell phone repair store.

 

Cloud
InsightsSaaS

The Best Digital Nomad Software for Staying Productive on the Road

on September 10, 2017

As a digital nomad, it often seems impossible to stay focused and productive while out on the road. And this can easily become your truth if you fail to utilize the best productivity resources at your disposal.

Instead of waging war on your mind because the nomadic lifestyle is calling you and you just don’t feel like working, utilize the best tools available to you to ensure your work is done so that you can continue funding your nomadic life.

With that said, let’s take a look at the most popular productivity resources available right now.

As soon as you start using them in your business, you’ll notice a major difference and focus, motivation, and productivity problems will become things of the past that you’ll gladly wave goodbye to in your rearview mirror.

Trello

Are you trying to manage multiple projects while living the digital nomad lifestyle?

If so, Trello will feel heaven sent!

This project management tool can honestly organize everything. It’s perfect to manage to-do lists, and it can easily help you keep projects, campaigns, and individual tasks organized and on point.

When you begin using this app, you will never miss a deadline again. You’ll always know when the next part of a project is due, and you’ll leave yourself ample time to work on it well ahead of schedule.

Clockspot

When living the digital nomad lifestyle, using Clockspot in your business is an absolute must. And this is especially true if you are managing multiple people working on multiple projects at the same time.

This program allows your freelancers and virtual assistants to “clock in” and “clock out” from anywhere in the world.

Plus, it lets you input specific project information at a task level, so you’ll know exactly how much time your staff takes whiling working on a particular project. And you can use this information to bill accordingly.

Not only that, this software makes it easy to generate payroll reports, overtime pay, and it will even manage workers’ time off.

And our absolute favorite thing about the software is lets you see which employees of yours are working in real time.

Slack

Many digital nomads work in collaboration with team members located all across the globe. It’s often difficult to keep in contact with the members of your team as you travel around the world.

It’s easy to set up Slack groups online. Add team members to specific groups, and you can even open up numerous chat rooms based on specific topics or categories.

Plus, this software makes it possible to directly message members of your team so you can communicate with them one on one, in real time, when necessary.

Google Drive

Google Drive is an incredible backup tool for a number of reasons.

For starters, it’s a great way to stay exceptionally organized. And since organization is so crucial while working on the road, having a tool like this at your disposal is nearly invaluable.

We also highly recommend Google Drive because you get 15GB worth of storage space for free, which is a lot better than their competitor Dropbox.

Plus, with Google drive, you can have multiple people working on the same project files at the same time without any confusion.

If you are working on a large project and multiple people need access to the files, storing them on Google Drive makes it possible for everyone to work together in unison without having to email files back and forth. That can get very confusing and it’s obviously something you would rather avoid.

Google Drive makes it possible to avoid project chaos and confusion.

Text Comparison

GlobalVision Text Inspection compares two unlike documents to manage the accuracy of text along the artwork, document, and packaging creation workflow. It’s perfect for making sure there aren’t any unintended changes as your text moves from your copy document to artwork to print.

Conclusion

While living in the digital nomad lifestyle, you need to do everything in your power to stay focused, organized, and motivated. Using the productivity resources recommended today will make your life a heck of alot easier while traveling around the globe.

Development

How To Mess Up An App in 3 Steps

on September 10, 2017

It’s so easy to make senseless mistakes when outsourcing the app development process. One minute you’re riding high and feeling like a million bucks when you suddenly realize you goofed big-time and made a huge mistake or three. Hopefully this never happens to you, but it’s possible so pay attention to the cautionary tale we’re about to share with you today.

I imagine you’ll be kicking yourself if you make dumb, easily avoidable mistakes!

Instead of leaving your app development project vulnerable and at risk, learn from our fictional friends and avoid making other people’s mistakes.

So pay attention to a simple three-step process specifically designed to completely mess up your app development project! Once you learn from the biggest boneheads in the biz, you’ll know how to avoid making the same mistakes.

Step #1: Did You Ignore the Time Zone Difference Again?

Our whiz bang team outsourced their app development to an overseas developer with a nine hour time zone difference. Great job! I’m sure they saved a bundle, right? They better have because they just turned their app development project into a living hell!

Guess what? The developer has every intention to work on the project during her normal 9 to 5 business hours. Since her 9 AM starts at their midnight, our crackerjack team is going to have plenty of sleepless nights in the coming months. Congratulations for making such a foolish move! Time mastery is different for each individual.

They may convince the developer to meet them halfway so they don’t have to completely throw their schedule off until development is complete. But there’s no guarantee she’ll do anything to alter her work schedule.

So dear reader, if you do plan to hire somebody outside your time zone, you better figure out how you’re going to effectively communicate with your developer with this huge time zone difference standing in your way.

In a perfect world, your development outsourcer will have at least 4 to 6 hours’ worth of overlapping time during the workday. So you really should steer clear of any developers on the other side of the world. Otherwise you’ll be working while your developer is sleeping and vice versa. You seriously need to avoid this at all costs to spare your sanity!

Step #2: Don’t Forget to Send Your Developer 100 Emails a Day!

Thank God their developer is in another time zone! Otherwise she’d end up strangling every member of our dingbat team if they were within a reasonable distance. The easiest way to force a developer to put a hit out on you is to constantly email questions, whine about silly concerns too often, and constantly ask for different updates – you know, the things you paid this dev to take care of.

By over-communicating with your developer, you may have the best intentions at heart, but you’re actually sabotaging your project. Your developer needs to enter the zone and not be bothered at all during the workday. Your constant interruptions are making it impossible for her to make meaningful progress on your app development project. So if that was your goal, touché! You did a fine job!

Step #3: Testing! Who Needs Testing?

Those sly devils! They thought they’d avoid testing altogether to save a couple of bucks. They failed to put services that do error monitoring in place, and they never even thought about hiring an in-house testers to make sure their app was up to snuff.

 

Now that they’ve officially launched and their app is actually making some headway in the marketplace, they’re getting dozens of angry emails every five minutes from unhappy customers! Why? Their app has a million bugs, it freezes constantly, and some of the best features don’t even work!

They shouldn’t have tried to scrimp on testing and error monitoring and neither should you. Now they have an angry mob in front of their office with torches and pitchforks ready to burn them at the stake! I bet they wish they bothered to test their app before launching, right? They’ll never make that stupid mistake again, or so I hope.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed our fictional three-step app developing process. If you go this route and follow these instructions, you’re bound to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars, develop an app that’s a complete piece of garbage, and piss off every customer you’ve ever had! If you want to go the right direction, high-quality software development, we encourage that more and wish you good luck my friends!

Products

What’s So Special About Projectors?

on September 10, 2017

Total Immersion
A novel will allow you to enter a world of your own imagination. Once you get to a certain “fugue” state, you’re able to segue through the scenes in a given narrative in such an immersive way it really seems like you’re living in that work of fiction’s universe. But not everyone learns to read well enough to get so immersed.

Meanwhile a film allows you to experience an even greater sense of immersion. Instead of proactively advancing the speed of the plot’s unveiling with your ability to read, the film itself pulls you along. It’s the difference between riding a bicycle and a roller coaster.

But there’s a limit to immersion. If a film is immersive, you’d think virtual reality would be even more immersive, but the truth is that in the back of your mind, you’re forced to hold onto reality. If you don’t, not only can it be unhealthy, it can kind of mess with your head. Plus there’s the nausea factor.

Beyond dreaming, film represents a perfect balance of immersive storytelling and freedom. Yet when you watch a film, there are certain ways to get into its narrative which will make you even more involved in the story. If you’re on the market to set up your own home theater system, there are a few things to keep in mind.

The Sound System
Certainly your sound system will be a big part of it. You’ve certainly heard of that immersive
innovation “surround sound”. This makes it feel as though a raptor from Jurassic Park is in the room with you, or you’re on the deck of a star destroyer chasing the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field. You want the sound right.

However, a film’s point is primarily concerned with the visual aspect. To such a degree, as a matter of fact, that propaganda has become more effective than ever in modern times. You’ve heard the maxim “seeing is believing”. Fictional narratives today are so intense, many people use them to inform their real lives.

So if you really want a home theater system that is as immersive as possible, you want a home theater system that has excellent picture. To that end, you may want to think larger and wider than traditional television screens. You can get a more immersive experience more cost-effectively using projectors.

When you’re looking for movie projector screens, you want a solution like those available from ProjectorScreen.com, a site which boasts: “Over 40,000 screens and accessories to choose from.” With a projector, you can increase or decrease the size of a film you’re watching. Additionally, these can be directly connected to computers.

Surprising Options
With a projector, there are options which are cost-effective and also not too large. Some are even pocket-sized. You can use them to portray a film on your roof, then lie back and watch it unfold from the comfort of your bed before drifting off to sleep.

Then there are video games. These are a big part of modern society. It seems like everyone has one favorite game or other these days. With a projector, you can make that video screen larger than ever. Now, certainly, the brightness can be an issue; but there are many screens which are visible in day or night.

And let’s be honest: if you’re really doing things right, you’ll be watching the film in a darkened room to begin with! That’s the way to do a movie right. If you haven’t considered the advantage of projector screens, today they’re certainly worth considering!

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