Today we continue our journey to help you find your very own unique design for your K2 and WordPress powered blog. If you haven’t read the first part, please go do that now; I’ll still be here when you come back. For the rest of you go ahead and open up your FTP program, login to your server and get ready to indulge in an intense coding stint. Some of the things discussed in here might get a bit tricky, but no need to fear my contact page is only a click away.

Continue Reading »

2005 is just wrapping up and it has been a great year. Notable events such as the quiet launch of this blog and my first digg to surpassing of over 350,000 hits (leave comments/vote there if you wish). I have published countless how to articles, picked up a Nano, was featured on commandN, met the Digg guys, partnered up with (mt) was accepted into the 9rules network and finally got my hands on that 20″ Apple Cinema Display. Continue Reading »

Michael and Chris have released K2 Beta Two, the next installment of the WordPress theme that powers this blog. That being said, I am going to start the upgrade process which may be rather time consuming as I have modified just about every K2 file. So if you spot any weird things happening around here, you’ll know why. I also plan on finishing up Part 2 of Customizing K2 sometime tonight, but it might have to wait until tomorrow to get published.

Colin from TheUberGeeks.net has a great article discussing and more importantly explaining what feeds are in a way that everyone can understand. This article is a great companion for my highly-acclaimed Getting Started with RSS how to. David Brunelle also has a good tutorial for displaying various RSS feeds on your site. So now that you know what feeds are, try grabbing my feed.

Continue Reading »

The Mac Rumors wiki is at it again. This time they’ve set up a brief guide on squeezing some extra speed out of your Apple rig. Check it out here. I strongly agree with their points about system memory, using widgets sparingly and repairing disk permissions.

With the long-awaited final version of the K2 theme for WordPress coming out before the New Year it is a good time to catch up on some tips and tricks to get your blog looking its best. I am trying to make this post be the definitive guide for helping beginners and amateurs out. A lot of the things covered in this tutorial have been lifted from frequently asked questions or problems within the Flickr Binary Bonsai support forums. After you’ve finished this, be sure to check out part 2 and part 3.

Continue Reading »

Intel has launched the first processor based on the 65nm core. The Pentium D 955 boasts a significantly smaller core from the current 90nm and more common 130nm cores. It supports a frontside bus speed of 1066MHz, similar to the old 3.46GHz EE Prescott chip that wasn’t too popular. The Pentium D 955 Extreme Edition also sports a frequency of 3.46GHz. Continue Reading »

Along with a new version of WordPress, WordPress.org now sports a much needed, redesigned layout. Continue Reading »

By default, Windows XP creates an Administrator account that is usually hidden from fast user switching unless you go to Safe Mode (F8 on boot). If your computer came preinstalled with XP, this admin account likely has no password, making it easy for someone to boot your computer into safe mode and wreak havok. Continue Reading »

With the major release of the widely used blog publishing platform, WordPress, very near there are some things you should know before getting rough and tumble with the new features. Aaron Brazell posted a great list of the 10 most important things a blogger should know about WordPress 2.0 over at problogger.net. Heresay is that WordPress 2.0 comes out Continue Reading »

Reflection.js is a simple piece of javascript that can add some slick looking reflections to any image on your site. All you need to do is add class=”reflect” to the image. If you are using the K2 WordPress theme you can call reflection.js and the requisite prototype.js (assuming you have uploaded it into the K2 » js folder) by Continue Reading »

A few people have asked me which sites I visit daily so I thought I might as well share this information with everyone else. Most of my reads are tech related and oriented so you might find something you like as well.

Continue Reading »

Spice up your blog with some of Matt Brett’s RSS icons. Replace those unsightly orange RSS or XML buttons with the increasingly official Mozilla RSS icon that Microsoft recently adopted. Matt has created a nice package in various photoshop and illustrator formats so you can get it just how you want it. Update: Matt just made an awesome website promoting his icons. Check it out at feedicons.com.

This is the one you’ve all been waiting for; a chance to win a domain name and a year of excellent hosting from my good friends at Media Temple. This year has been good to me and what better way to celebrate the success of this website than give back to the community that made it all happen?

Continue Reading »

I recently found a fantastic article that listed some great ways of speeding up your Windows installation. Many of the fixes were registry edits and got a bit involved. For those people that probably shouldn’t be messing around in the Windows registry, I have compiled all of the registry edits listed in the article into a reg file. All you have to do is execute the reg file below once and you can enjoy such benefits as faster folder access, improved boot times, faster menu loading as well as decreased shutdown time. Save the code below as a .reg file. Once you execute the reg file, reboot. After following those tips, my shutdown time went down to about 3 seconds!

Charles Stroup from 123MacMini and I have created a list of 10 applications every new Mac user should download. These applications should help new Mac users get off the ground and running with OS X. We tried our best to narrow the list down to the most essential applications. Of course, this list could never include all the great applications available on the market, but these are 10 that we could not live without. You can always find more software on MacUpdate. MacUpdate is updated every day, listing the newest updates and releases of Macintosh software. Apple also has a downloads section on their website offering the latest freeware, shareware, demos, and widgets. Now, on to the list!

Continue Reading »

All I want for Christmas is a 20″ Apple Cinema display. I know it’s a lot to ask for but in my field of work it will definitely make things easier. With the extra real estate the 1680×1050 resolution provides, I will be able to have Photoshop, Safari and skEdit open and visible at the same time. Microsoft research actually proves that larger screens increase user productivity up to a staggering 44%. As for cost, with a student discount it’s only $699 and then I’ve got some money from Yahoo! that can go towards it. If this doesn’t work out, my late night work/play habits can be fueled with a Kevin Rose Tea Set.

Continue Reading »

Crucial has been in the RAM industry for a long time but they have only recently started to appeal to those wanting high-performance memory, such as gamers. Crucial has entered the mainstream high-performance RAM market with their recent Ballistix memory line which boasts high speed and stability. Crucial has generously sent over 2 512MB sticks of DDR400 Ballistix and I am going to put them to the test.

Continue Reading »

I recently stumbled on a nifty site from del.icio.us popular. lab.rails2u.com/bgmaker takes in a few parameters and can instantly create a dynamic background for use anywhere.

Everyone has visited a site from time to time that will annoyingly change the size of your browser. There’s a quick solution to this problem. Copy the following code and save it as a bookmark. You can adjust the width and height by editing Continue Reading »

ZDNet put together a great list of the top Web 2.0 moments of 2005. Check out the article.

It’s been a huge year for the Web! A time of renewed optimism in Silicon Valley and an incredible number of new web applications. In a sense it all started with Google’s IPO in August 2004, the success of which was a positive and affirming lead-in to 2005. We then witnessed a renaissance of startup activity, acquisitions and intense VC interest in the Web throughout the year. Here then is my list of the top ten defining moments for the Web in 2005.

Continue Reading »

This post is just to let everyone know that in a few short days I will be holding a contest of sorts. I’m not exactly sure what the contest will be yet, but I know the prize will be one year of excellent webhosting and a domain name via MediaTemple’s new hosting giftcard. My goal is that the winner will receive the prize by Christmas. Send all of your friends and family here and tell them to stay tuned. Until then take care.

I mentioned a while ago how Apple had released its new image editing software, Aperture.
Mike over at TheUberGeeks.net, another great 9rules site, analyzes a new nifty feature in Aperture, tags. Well they are not actually tags, Apple brands them as Keyword Sets that can be added to images similar to how I add Technorati tags to my blog posts. I would love to review Aperture, however it has some rather beefy system requirements in the video card category so my mini isn’t up to the challenge. Check out Mike’s article here.

Finals are over and I’ve got a plane to catch in exactly 12 hours. Now if only I could fit all of my junk in my suitcase and backpack. Airport security tomorrow should be a blast: a suspicious looking young fellow, 2 computers, LCD screen, 2 external hard drives and more cables, power adapters and dongles than Best Buy. For those of you wondering where the tech stories are, you can expect the real content to come back in full force very soon.

Continue Reading »

Finals began this week and my first was Calculus 3 at 8am. I had been studying nonstop since Saturday and woke up at 4am this morning to get some more studying in. However the final was brutal; it was more intense than anything I have ever experienced. The professor said the practice final was supposed to be very similar to 80% of the actual final… Continue Reading »

Have roommates or going to be working with your PowerBook in the library? There are several reasons why you might want to disable the startup chime that notifies you when your Mac comes to life. There are two methods Continue Reading »

Google’s Gmail email service now sports a new feature for displaying RSS feeds, dubbed Web Clips. You might remember this name, as it is the same name Google Desktop uses to refer to RSS feeds. Web Clips for Gmail were announced a long time ago sometime during the summer but they were finally stable enough to release to the general public. You can check out the what’s new page for Gmail here. Essentially, you subscribe to a bunch of feeds and everytime you Continue Reading »

A future version of Mozilla’s email client, Thunderbird, will receive tabs as reported by ZD Net. You can check out this new feature in Thunderbird 1.6 Alpha 1 available from Myk Melez, a Thunderbird developer. Tabs work much the same way as they do in Firefox and Continue Reading »

Along with the new redesign that ushered in a slick, one column layout, I decided to take a stride and get my code XHTML valid. I am proud to announce that this website now runs valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional code. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself at W3C. The next step would be attempting to go for XHTML 1.0 Strict but that’s a whole different kind of beast.

Continue Reading »

After using that new Mac of yours for a while, you might want to give it a unique feel and customizing various aspects of the operating system to your liking. The easiest method is to change the icons of your hard drive or other applications. You can find some exclusive icons at many websites such as InterfaceLift.com.

Continue Reading »

It seems like someone releases another cool use for Google Maps every week. You have likely seen the ever popular Frappr service, based off of Google Maps. After Google Released the API for their popular Google Maps service, integrating maps into your site could never be easier. This article shows you how to embed a customized Google Map into your website or blog.

Continue Reading »

LinkSys, a popular company specializing in router and other internet devices, has always been up to spec with producing high quality routers. For the longest time, their WRT54G wireless router has sold extremely well due to low price and its ability to be hacked for increased functionality. The WRT54G has a huge fanbase, with people constantly writing new Linux firmware for the router. Hacking the firmware can make this router perform and have the same abilities as a $600 router as stated by Wi-Fi Planet here. Increases in operating range, using the router as a bridge or extender.
Continue Reading »

If you’ve glanced at my sidebar recently, some things are changing. I’ve added a background graphic to the sidebar headlines, but more importantly some AJAXified goodness. Click the Open/Close buttons and play around. I’ve been messing with what is essentially an AJAX toolkit from Script.aculo.us. If you want to play around with AJAX in your K2 installation, I recommend checking out this article. Otherwise, this might see the light of day in the next release of Deviance so just sit tight. Continue Reading »