simple stat counters

After doing some investigation for a client, on which hit counters are the easiest to use and implement on a simple website, I found that the following hit counters were some of the easiest to implement and are all free. Although I would use more comprehensive stat counters for more professional sites;

http://www.statcounter.com/free_hit_counter.html

http://www.freestatscounter.com/free-counter.asp

http://www.hit-counter-download.com/

Clam Antivirus

If you are looking for free Antivirus software then ClamWin Free Antivirus is a free solution that seems to work very effectively. It even picks up some viruses that some of the more well known antivirus software seem to miss. You get new definitions downloaded everyday, and also come with a free addin for Microsoft Outlook. One drawback it that it tends to take a while to run.

http://www.clamwin.com/

Free PDF writer

I stumbled across free PDF writing software today. It works well with printing from all Windows based programs as far as I can tell and have not had it crash out on me yet. Check it out at;

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

Google Reader

If you have a Google account, Google offers users an online RSS reader. It provides an import feature so that you can import from other RSS Feed programs.

You can view each feed separately through the "Subscriptions" link or by default a combination of all of your subscribed feeds in the main view. Best of all there are a number of keyboard shortcuts to scroll through your feeds. (I.e. spacebar to move through each news item)

http://www.google.com/reader/view/

I am going to keep trying RSS software in the future so stay posted for reviews of each of the pieces of software if you’re an RSS enthusiast.

csamp - colour picker

To find the RGB or Hex colour of any screen element “csamp” is a great freeware tool for doing so. It is the smallest and most efficient I have found. Simply install then a small icon will appear with the rest of your task icons. If you need to find a colour simply click the tool and drag the pointer over the colour that you want the value of. As a developer you can imagine how useful this is on many occasions. Download at;

http://www.netreach.net/~gavin/gavsfreeware/csamp.htm

Google checkout service.

Google has launched a new service called Google checkout. It allows users that are signed to have a single account for making purchases online, with stores that offer the Google checkout service. This is done by having you credit stored with Google.

It is solely for US residents at the moment, but hope that it will make it to the Australian shores soon.

Check out the Tour at;
https://checkout.google.com/buyer/tour.html

Google Checkout;
https://checkout.google.com

Google checkout stores;
http://www.google.com/buy/m.html

Meta Tag keywords tip

When setting your websites META tags one trick you can use to gain higher placements for specific keywords is to slightly misspell the keyword that you want. For example if you type "Domian Services" instead of "Domain Services", then having the keyword "Domian" as a keyword will increase the chances of you site getting coming up in the listings.

Pluck - RSS Reader

If you love RSS then you will love "Pluck". Pluck comes as an extension for either IE or Firefox, and appears to users as a bookmarks side bar. It is quiet simple to use, only takes minutes to setup and allows you to add RSS feeds with a simple method of entering the feed name and feed URL. Once you have added a few feeds the feeds are aggregated, once the feed name is clicked in the left hand side. This saves download time as some RSS aggregators tend to download all feeds.

Pluck provides you with three ways to view the data, by day, by week, or by month so that you can isolate the latest feeds. There is also a "Find Feeds" link to search for more feeds.

Check it out at http://www.pluck.com

Adding a link to del.icio.us

If you have a website and want to enable users to add a link to there del.icio.us account then you can add the following code to your site. Please check the values relevant to 'subske's blog' as these are the values that you should update to tailor the bookmark link to your needs.

Get Code

Here is an example of the link;

Add link to del.icio.us

SMS Pup - free SMS

If you want to send free SMS in Australia then SMS Pup is a good way to go. You basically receive 1 free SMS for each promotion that you click on, which is sent to you from via email from SMS Pup. The good thing about them is that they tend not to send heaps of emails so you don't receive bucket loads full of spam.

Other services they offer are SMS Broadcast, SMS to Email, Email to SMS, SMS to Landline and SMS Speak;

http://www.smspup.com

del.icio.us bookmark manager

If your looking for an online bookmark manager then del.icio.us is a fairly new online bookmark manager. It can be used to replace your current bookmarks, and as it is online, will allow you view and update your bookmarks from any machine.

It uses 'Tags' instead of categories, like a standard bookmark manager, which makes those bookmarks that could come under two categories allot easier to find and file. The search allows you to search your own as well as other people bookmarks, which have been made public.

There is also an extension for IE and Firefox so that you can easily add bookmarks to it while you are browsing.

Check it out at;
http://del.icio.us

Windows document storage tip

If you are the only Windows user, and using Windows OS, it is a good idea to keep you data in a custom folder rather than in the "My Documents' folder. This helps prevent data theft should you be hacked, as most hackers head straight to the "My Documents" folder. It is also a good idea, as if you ever go and remove old profiles, from you computer, you prevent the chance of having you data deleted if you remove an incorrect profile.

Opera Browser - On Mobile

If you are tired of using the standard web browser software, on you mobile, I suggest that you give Opera Mobile a try.

I have had a play with it and it seems to be very stable as well as allot easier to use than any of the standard mobile browsers that come with you phone. I tried out the one for the Symbian OS and found that the page rendered allot quicker, and with much greater success than any of the other browsers. Best of all the phone browsing is more secure, and the bookmarks function is easier to use.

Unfortunately you have to pay $24 US to use but you can get a 14 trial at;
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/

Cheap SMS with Skype

Skype 2.5 now has SMS capability. You can now send SMS's to anywhere in Australia for 0.071 euro, which is approximatly 12c per SMS. Cheap!

Launch applications from browser

Here is a trick to launch applications form IE, using a windows shortcut

To test this out for yourself do the following;

- Right click on the Desktop and create a new Shortcut
- Point the shortcut to any executable file -- such as C:\Program Files\Winamp\Winamp.exe
- Create a shortcut called www.winamp.com
- Start IE and type "www.winamp.com" into the address bar

There you go winamp launched from your browser.. This tip only works for applications that have shortcuts on the desktop as far as I can tell, so you still need to maitain a shortcut to the application there. Might be usefull for some web applications.

free web hosting

Good free web hosting is few and far between these days. There used to be loads around but I can't seem to find that may these days.

Here is one I stumbled across just the other day. I setup an account and tested them and they seem to be very reliable and best of all are completely free, providing you don't generate too much traffic.

You get a 30mb account and are able to run CGI scripts. If you do start getting allot of traffic they send you a bill, however their rates are very reasonable.

Check them out at;
http://www.memebot.com

Skype - Fixed Numbers

Most Australian Skype users may know this but for those who don't you can now enable "SkypeIn" and allocate a fixed number to you account. (“SkypeIn” - is basically incoming calls). You even have the ability to setup a voice message box.

“SkypeIn” numbers are sold on a subscription basis:
a 12 month subscription is €30 and 3 months is €10.

In my opinion Skype is the cheapest solution about, however to be honest I haven’t checked out many of the other options.

http://www.skype.com

idont - for those who dont follow the herd

For all those people that don't have a ipod, check the new option for SanDisk. The 6gb ipod alternative labelled the e200 seems like a true competitor for the ipod, check the URL's below for more details;

http://www.idont.com/
http://www.cnet.com.au/mp3players/