What are you doing to me Apple? Well maybe not the whole of Apple. But the Apple software division. The reason for my Apple-dislike – Apple software update trying to push Safari with iTunes and Quicktime. I understand why any company would try to combine various software packages together. But software companies should understand the issue from a consumers’ perspective before making privacy policy decisions. Just because I use (maybe even like) one software product does not necessarily mean I will start using all their products.
Let’s talk about Apple’s Software …

Picnik is an excellent web-based tool for editing images online. But this application has more features than what meets the eye. The Firebox browser extension for Picnik allows you to take a one click screenshot of any webpage. This feature might fail to impress at first glance. But ask yourself a question. How difficult is it to take a screenshot of a website that does not fit in your browser window. Instead of taking multiple images of different sections of the website use the Picnik Firefox plugin. After the install …

OpenX is an open-source ad management platform. I wrote an overall review of OpenX (aka OpenAds) in my last post which discusses the benefits of the platform and also points out some of the cons. One of the most important uses of OpenX is rotating banners. Banner rotation is very easy with OpenX. But unless you know how to do it you might find yourself lost in documentation. It consists of 2 steps.
STEP 1: Launch Your Advertising Campaign
Follow steps to launch your first advertising campaign. This is explained in details …

People abuse and kill their computers every day. This is causing PC’s to become extinct at a rapid pace. Here are a few ways to increase the rate of decay of your computer.

Not installing antivirus or spyware protection on your computer.
Not defragmenting the hard disk. Its effects are most visible if you never defragged from the time you bought your PC.
Downloading any mp3 or exe files that your friends email you or send to you over instant message.
Not using a password for your account or the …

The most commonly asked question by all novice webmasters is how to rank well in Google. But before you can rank well with Google, or any other search engine, you have to understand how they work. Not just the interface of Google or what it says on their FAQ pages. It is in the interest of all bloggers, webmasters and even Google that everyone gets a clearer picture of how Google works behind the scenes. There are 3 parts to how Google delivers quality results each and every time.
Part 1: …

Wordpress has released a major upgrade to the 2.x lineup. Wordpress 2.5 has several new features and a completely redesigned administrator area. But before you upgrade to the latest and greatest you should know a few things. Only after testing on a demo blog you should make the switch to your primary website. I rushed to upgrade to WP 2.5 and paid with a broken install and half working plugins.
How To Upgrade
Wordpress has their official upgrade procedure on hot to go about upgrading your installed files and MySql database. But …

SEO or Search Engine Optimization consists of a few simple steps that any new webmaster can follow. Then how did it become a million dollar industry? Simple. Marketing. By pouring thousands of dollars into a non/semi-existent industry the SEO firms managed to carve out a market for themselves. Does this mean SEO does not exist? Of course SEO exists. But it comprises of following a few best-practices to help search engines crawl your website easily.

Why you should not pay SEO firms?
Understanding how search engines operate is the first step. A …

RSS readers come in all shapes and forms. There 2 basic differences between the types of RSS readers. You can either use a desktop feed reader which downloads all your feeds to your computer or you can use a web based reader which displays feeds in a browser window. Let’s look at the pros and cons of both types.
Desktop RSS Reader
A desktop RSS reader is an application that you download and install on your computer. There are several options available to choose from. NewsGator, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire are 3 of the …

The internet is growing at exponential rate. It is very difficult to keep up with your favorite news and websites on a daily or weekly basis. News aggregators like Google News constantly update important stories. Popular blogs publish 20+ posts every day. This process goes on 24 hours. It is very easy to be overwhelmed by the information overload. RSS solves this problem quite well. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It simplifies information gathering and processing and ultimately makes you more productive by delivering more information in less time.
Information …

Are you one of the lucky ones to get a Wii this Christmas? Then stop playing Wii Tennis, Golf, Bowling and try flying through Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D using your Wii remote. Brian Peek from MSDN blogs shows how you can take advantage of this feature. From his blog …

WiiEarth — Wiimote Interface for Virtual Earth
Normally this control is loaded via the web browser and allows interaction with a keyboard, mouse, and Xbox 360 controller. In this article, we will take the Virtual Earth control out of the web …