Archive for January, 2007
Blogging from Microsoft Word 2007
Jan 31st
This post was written in and published FROM Word 2007. Word ‘07 has a built in blogging feature to make our lives a whole lot easier. No more messing around with the built in Text Areas of blogging interfaces. Now I can work seamlessly from an application I am coming to enjoy.
No I am not being paid to write this. I just want to let you know how easy it was to set up.
Recently I installed Office 2007 and happened upon the ‘Blog This’ option in the right- click context menu. Being as how this machine is pretty vanilla, I wondered where it came from so I clicked it. Instantly, Word 2007 popped up with a configuration screen for my blog. Since my blog is not hosted I wondered how easy it would be to setup. This is a walkthrough how to tutorial for making blog posts (blogging) from Microsoft Word 2007.
That is a small clipping of how it looks from inside of Word 2007.
Here is the Manage Accounts menu.
If you do not have an account setup already you will have this screen show automatically.
I host my own blog and use the WordPress ‘cms’ from wordpress.org
Next I selected Other from the drop down menu. Then click Next
Next you will be presented with the New Account Screen
From the drop down menu I selected MetaWebLog
Then fill in your details.
If you are hosting your own Wordpress installation, more than likely your Blog Post Url will be something like http://www.myblog.com/xmlrpc.php
Enter your User Name and Password that you use to log into your blog. Checking Remember Password just saves time, and isn’t a smart idea if you share your computer or others have access to your computer.
Click Picture Options. You will get a new pop up.
Again, if you are hosting your own site then these settings could be different. Your upload URL could be the same as above. With many Apache installations the ftp upload won’t show ‘public_html’ or any other folders unless you have created them. If you enter it similar to above it will end up in the images folder. The source URL is the URL Word uses to link to the uploaded file. You might have to toy with it a little bit but once you get it, you’ll know. Do some sample posts to test it out, changing one item at a time for troubleshooting purposes.
Clicking OK should have Word test registration with the blog, if you entered FTP (Picture Options) then you might be asked for a username password. If you don’t know these for your ftp ask your provider.
Click OK. Write a test post and click the Publish button.
VOILA!
NOTE: You can also Publish as Draft in case you have some other Wordpress plugins you want to mess with before publishing. Either works just as well.
Once you can successfully publish from Word, play with the Insert ribbon a little, it is customized for the blogging activity.
This post was written from Word 2007. The screenshots were made using Microsoft OneNote 2007’s handy ’screen clipper’, they were also resized in word as well. Comments and Suggestions are welcomed.
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Testing Microsoft Word 2007 Blogging Feature
Jan 31st
No need to fret I am just testing Word 2007’s blogging feature
Spider Like Boat
Jan 31st
Hey Marketers, pay attention
Jan 31st
Slashdot pointed me to an article about the 7 ways a company can be mistaken for a spammer.
The basics from the article are:
- Ignoring “unsubscribe” requests
- List “repurposing”
- Providing unclear privacy checkbox instructions, and ignoring users’ responses
- Losing track of internal desktop and server machines that can be used against you
- The article tells about a company that had found an old piece of hardware, under a desk, in a janitors closet that had been doing the dirty work for someone else, scanning thousands of IPs per minute.
- Not keeping addresses and databases up to date
- Having vulnerable mailer forms on your website
- Working with non-reputable third-party mailers
From the slashdot comments khasim provides some insightful advice
“#1. Since you’re sending out HTML email anyway, why not put the unsubscribe button at the top of the message? If you’re going to be funny and make it an “unsubscribe from this particular spam run” then you need to add a second button, again at the top of the message, that will unsubscribe the recipient from ALL of your mailings. ALL of them. Not most of them. Not some of them. Not everything except the ones the marketing department really wants to get out. ALL OF THEM.
#2. If that’s too much work for you, try an automatic opt-out program. Send a message once a month saying that you’re still subscribed
… but that your subscription will end on (insert date) of this year UNLESS you click on the “continue my subscription for another year” button at the top of the message or copy this URL to your browser.”
Companies moving to “dumb” terminals, homes next?
Jan 30th
This is not an ad
From the slashdot article, companies are gradually making a move towards ‘dumb’ terminals also called thin clients. For business whose computers do not need a lot of processing power this is a smart move for many reasons. The original article gives many reasons why a switch may be in your best interests. Some of them being physical security, if the server running all the processes and storing ALL the information is locked away and secure, the desktop terminal can be obliterated without any loss of data. Data security is protected.
I see this trend eventually picking up faster in homes. You media centers and desktops, most home computer users do not require tons of processing power but do enjoy having access to their music, video, pictures, and the internet when and where they want it. Laptops with wireless can be expensive and can suffer physical damage if carried around open too much. If you just downloaded a new movie on your desktop but want to watch it on the home theater system there are solutions. Or let us say you just looked up a recipe upstairs but the kitchen is downstairs, wouldn’t it be handy to have a display down there as well.
I foresee $200 touch screen thin clients (with built in speakers and smart buttons for on screen keyboard, calculator, swivel webcam, microphone, etc) being marketed in the next 5 years to consumers, these would be smart in the sense that they can tie in via wireless or wire home networks to the main computer without additional hardware and ‘maybe’ some software for the host computer. These can be put virtually anywhere; the kitchen, the bathroom (to catch up on news), the garage, and rechargeable mobile tablets for the livingroom and so on.
Imagine, you just paid 2-8 grand for a high performance desktop but you do not want to be limited as to where you can use it. Would you mind spending another $350 for a rechargeable thin client tablet that ties into it? Come on engineers is this REALLY that hard to design? When you get around to designing it, design the charging station to be a 2 in 1 table top/wall mounted solution.
Agnostic? Try this one
Jan 29th
Our world is comprised of millions of variables in the human species alone. One of major forces that has shaped humanity and our world is religion. This message is for the Agnostics, the Searchers. Supplementology.org speaks about a new religion that combines science and scripture. The founder, Rev Sidney Smith founded Supplementology after a downward spiral that started with the brutal raping and murder of his partner and led to drugs and alcohol almost ending his life. 
He did not experience an epiphany but instead realized that he must seek answers. His quest led him to many discovers and realizations that he wants to share. One of the cornerstone’s of Supplementology is the Nine Norms which cover everything from free will and choice to family raising and education. There are many free texts to download from the site so you can judge for yourself the veracity this holds in your life.
 
Vista Check in
Jan 29th
Earlier I bragged about having Vista. Now for a followup. For the most part I am impressed. When I installed Vista it kept all my files and programs. But as I checked my Processes and System usage I was using about 1GB of ram continuously. I decided this wasn’t acceptable and probably had something to do with everything I had installed.
In an effort to go pure. I installed a vanilla copy with no third party programs. It ran like a dream! I love it. Being as new as it is there are a few little quirks, but for the average home or business user these quirks will not get in your way. However, if you are like me and love to have every friggin program you own installed then you will have some problems.
This is my advice to anyone that wants to move to Vista. Rent, buy or borrow an external USB hard disk. Move ALL your irreplaceable files over to it. This includes all your photos, documents, personal videos, source code, etc. Once you have moved all your “OMG My computer crashed it’s lost forever!!!” files to the back up disk, format your old drive and install Vista on it. Once up and running, scan your old files for viruses before moving them back.
DO IT! It will save you a lot of headaches and guessing. Plus you get a clean install.
Time for class…
Some history about Life Insurance
Jan 29th
According to this article, Life Insurance “dates back to 5000 BC in China and 4500 BC in Babylon as an element to reduce the life risk of the traders”. Modern Life Insurance started in the 17th century protecting traders. The first American Insurance company was founded in 1732 in Charleston, SC providing only fire insurance. Life insurance was not offered in the US until 1760. Prior to the Civil War, many companies even insured slaves. Eventually this policy was voted out by share holders.
Bush will go Bananas
Jan 29th
In 2008 keep your eye open over Texas. This Wired Article tells us that Montreal artist César Saez plans to launch a Giant Banana Shaped Balloon over Texas. From the article
“The astrofruit is an artistic commentary on the absurdity of American politics — especially Texan-style kookiness, says Saez.”
The project, “Geostationary Banana Over Texas“, is estimate to cost $1 million, the balloon will steer itself randomly over Texas and after about a month the Sun’s radiation will eat away at the outer layer and eventually it will burn up before touching the earth again.
Now stop monkeying around (I couldn’t help it)
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