Blogger help, tips and hacks

Help a Blogger Choose Some Speakers

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Passive Speakers

These are included here only for completeness: nobody should ever consider passive speakers. Little more than a pair of earbuds in a box, these toy accessories are uniformly tinny, rattling novelties. The only thing that sounds worse is the cellphone music that generous teenagers share with you on the Subway.

A close cousin is the active speaker, usually adding a little more oomph with a battery powered amplifier. The only real difference is that they can project the sound a little further, therefore bringing more people into your radius of irritation.

Verdict: Avoid

Extras

Another thing to consider is how you’ll get the music to the speakers. If all your music is on an iPod, Apple’s Universal Dock is a good choice: the line-out will hook into any stereo and it comes with a remote. If you are using iTunes, on a Mac or a PC, the Airport Express will wirelessly stream tunes around the house. Then there are third party options, like Roku’s Soundbridge and the Sonos system, but those can be pricey (and have a lot of extra frills). Plus, you still need a stereo to actually play the music. Of course, there’s always the cheap option: a six foot cable with a jack on each end.

Recommendations in the comments, please. I’m leaning towards a 2.1 setup, but if you can convince me otherwise, I’m happy to change. And keep them cheap.

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Help a Blogger Choose Some Speakers

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Using RSS Newsfeeds to Get the Latest Headlines

This Page
What's a Newsfeed?

What are RSS and ATOM?
Quick Examples
Educational Uses
Who Has News Feeds?

News Organizations
Blogs
Other Web sites
Applications to View Newsfeeds

Preview RSS in Browsers
Newsreaders
Web Services
Penn State Portal
Thunderbird (Win/Mac/Linux)
Google News Alert E-mails

Where to Subscribe
What's a Newsfeed?
A newsfeed is an XML text file which sends information about news items to a newsreader application like the Penn State Portal or by some browsers including Safari 2, Opera 8 or Internet Explorer 7.

What are RSS and ATOM?
These are two specifications (written in XML) which contain news headlines and summarys which can be read by a news reader

Sites with newsfeeds are marked with colored icon links saying RSS, XML or ATOM. RSS feeds are more common and simpler to create, but ATOM feeds may contain more informaiton including images.

You may need a newsreader or feed reader to view these sites. See the Plugins section below for information on obtaining newsreaders.

Quick examples
Penn State Portal Channels - Each "channel" reads a RSS XML file and displays it in the channel
BBC World News - This page uses an XSLT style sheet to display the RSS file in a browser.
TLT Computing with Accents Newsfeed - This page combines RSS with CSS style sheets so it can be readable in a normal browser.
Your Daily Art Blog - Includes a Newsfeed
Language Log - Linguists writing on language news and linguistics phenomena in the media

Educational Uses
Some educational benefits of monitoring newsfeeds include.

Monitoring RSS Feeds can allow students and instructors to gather the latest news and information about key subtopics.
RSS newsreaders enables more efficient scanning of news headlines, so that users can select only a few articles to read in depth.
Top of Page

Who Has RSS Feeds?
Blogs
Many blogs, including Blogs at Penn State, include a subsidiary RSS feed. Look for the Subscribe link or the RSS or XML icon.

News Organizations
Many news organizations contain RSS feeds (often marked with an RSS icon or XML icon). Some examples include the following. To find a news organization's RSS page, look at the bottom of the page or to the side.

Penn State Live
Washington Post RSS Feeds
CNN News RSS
New York Times RSS Feeds
BBC News
Note: You may need a specialized news reader plugin or application to view the contents as a channel. Otherwise, you may see a series of XML tags.

Other Web Sites
It does not require much effort to set up an RSS feed, so many people or organizations have created an RSS feed to provide specialized news stories. Here are just a few random examples.

Stone Pages Archaeology News
Life in the USA - American life described for newly arrived immigrants
Applications to View Newsfeeds
RSS is a technology different from regular HTML Web pages and usually requires special news reader plugins or applications to view RSS feeds correctly. These applications convert a feed to a "channel" with headlines and link to full stories.

Here are some examples of news reader applications supporting RSS files.

Preview RSS Feeds in Browsers
The following browsers have simple RSS Support. They allow to quickly view the content of a feed, but not necessarily manage subscriptions.

Internet Explorer 7 (Win)
Safari 2+ (Mac)
Firefox Extensions/Add Ons Section
Firefox, Opera and Camino also have RSS support but they may assume that you use a separate RSS reader (as listed in the next "Separate RSS Newsreaders" section.

To View feeds
Click any RSS link or enter in any RSS URL with the .xml or .rss extension (e.g. http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml)
Note: In Internet Explorer, you can also click the orange feed broadcast icon ().
Note: In Safari, you can also click the blue RSS icon () in the address bar.
A new window will appear listing headlines and links.
Note: Safari converts addresses to feed:// instead of http://
To Manage Subscriptions
The applications below are recommended if you want to manage subscriptions.

Separate RSS News Readers
If you wish to follow a newsfeed regularly, then a newsreader is recommended because they indicate new headlines and they allow you to organize your RSS feeds into category folders. Some common freeware news readers include:

Feed Reader (Windows)
Net News Wire Lite (Mac OS X) - There's also a for-fee full version
Straw (Linux)
RSS Info List
To subscribe to a news feed, find the New Channel or Subscribe button command, then copy and paste any URL ending with the .xml or .rss extension. The new "channel" will be added.

Use the folder option in each package to create categories for newsfeeds. Folders will typically list new headlines in each category; you can then click inside the folder to see individual subscriptions.

Web Services
There are also online services which let you subscribe to and organize your feeds. The advantage is that you can access your newsfeeds from any computer, but the data is stored off your computer and can be lost. Like the freeware applications, these usually include folder category support. Common ones include:

Bloglines.com
Google Reader
Top of Page

Penn State Portal
Each channel on the Penn State Portal is an RSS feed. The links for the headlines direct you to an HTML page with the full news story. Below is an example of the My PSU News channel with headlines.



Each headline links to an HTML page of the story on the external Penn State Live site. read more [...]

Details of Google’s Latest Security Hole

I’ve now received confirmation from Google’s Security Team that the latest vulnerability Philipp posted about has been fixed. After carrying out some investigations of my own, I believe this is the case – so I’m going to share with you what the problem was and how I was able to exploit it. In doing so, I hope to educate other developers about the potential flaws that can occur in growingly complex web applications.

In summary, I was able to create a page that was hosted on a google.com domain, which is something that should never be allowed to happen. Because of this vulnerability, I was then able to use a simple bit of code to steal someone else’s Google cookie and access their Google services.


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Latest Updates for PicasaPrint

Updates to Picasa are made on an ongoing basis. These updates may include bug fixes, performance enhancements, additional hardware/device support and other improvements.

To make sure you are running the latest version of the software, follow the manual update instructions below. If your software is out of date, you will occasionally receive automatic alerts when you open Picasa that updates are available. You may choose to update at that time. Please note that we don't always auto-update people when new builds are available since some builds contain fixes and/or improvements that are only relevant to a small percentage of users.

How to manually install or upgrade Picasa:

On Picasa Home, click the download button at the top of the page.
Follow instructions to run the program and install. (You do not need to uninstall first.)
Any previous edits you've made will be preserved.
LATEST UPDATES:

Version 2.7, Build 37.49 - March 06, 2008

Improved performance for new Intel chips.
Translation fixes for Hungarian and Chinese.
Fixed a case that would result in an error when capturing images from webcams.
Version 2.7, Build 37.36 - October 30, 2007

Added support for 11 additional languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Filipino, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Thai, Vietnamese.
Version 2.7, Build 37.32 - October 02, 2007

Fixed a case where corrupted AVI files could cause a crash.
Fixed a case that would result in a "This account is not enabled for Picasa Web Albums" error.
Version 2.7, Build 37.29 - September 13, 2007

Added support for RAW pictures from the Canon 40D.
Fixed a case where certain RAW pictures appeared overexposed.
Full-screen preview using Ctrl-Alt now works again.
Fixed a case where uploading to Picasa Web Albums could result in an immediate "failed to connect" error.
Version 2.7, Build 37.23 - August 21, 2007

Added support for 7 additional languages: Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, and Ukrainian
Fixed a problem with Picasa jumping to the wrong picture after deleting a picture
Fixed two issues which could cause a "Failed to Connect" error when logging into Picasa Web Albums
Fixed a case in which an error could result when opening pictures with third-party products
Fixed problems related to Picasa Media Detector not disabling properly
Version 2.7, Build 36.60 - June 26, 2007

Support for geotagging integration with Picasa Web Albums
Added more metadata to JPEG when exporting and uploading photos
Version 2.7, Build 36.40 - May 3, 2007

Minor update to RAW
Fixed a case where updating thumbnails message would incorrectly appear.
Updated version number for international installs.
Version 2.7, Build 36.37 - April 24, 2007

New RAW processing engine with support for more cameras and improved color.
New color engine for "tuning" fixes.
Added support for Google Photos Screensaver.
Improved BlogThis! reliability.
Version 2.6, Build 36.19 - February 13, 2007

Improved support for Vista.
Fixed a problem with Timeline and Slideshow on Vista Aero mode.
Improved reliability of uploading to Picasa Web Albums.
Updated icons.
Version 2.6, Build 35.97 - December 12, 2006

Fixed a problem with naming conventions of temporary files during install.
Version 2.6, Build 35.94 - December 7, 2006

New autoupdate behavior for Windows Vista support.
New CD/DVD-burning engine (supports more devices).
Improved upload reliability to Picasaweb.
Added support for 18 new languages.
Added XMP metadata parsing.
Fixed many crash bugs.
Rolled-up fixes from 32.97 and 32.95.
Version 2.5, Build 32.97 - November 14, 2006

Fixed IE 7 video upload.
Fixed Orkut uploading problem.
Fixed bad GPS data the first time you save a non-JPG photo.
Version 2.5, Build 32.95 - October 9, 2006

Fixed an issue with corrupt gif files causing excessive CPU usage.
Fixed issues with uploading videos to Picasa Web Albums for accounts with upgraded storage only.
Version 2.5, Build 32.94 - September 15, 2006

Share photos online - Upload photos to Picasa Web Albums for easy sharing on the web. When viewing your friends' albums online, you can even download them right back into Picasa on your own computer.
Nested Folder View - Now you can choose how to display folders in Picasa.
Save Changes to Disk - Now you can save your edits and have access to them in other programs, but we also provide an automatic backup that lets you revert to the original at any time.
Screensaver - Show starred photos in a collage, or pan and zoom your Web Albums photos. Choose between four presentation options to display your best shots.
Geotagging - Tell Picasa where you shot each photo, and view them on a 3-D globe in Google Earth.
Larger thumbnails - Our thumbnails are slightly larger, so photos are clearer, and we've improved speed as well.
Updated RAW support - We support more cameras and RAW formats (including the Canon 30D, Nikon D200, and DNG).
Other goodies - Improved caption editing. Starred photos organize automatically into a special album. The bottom row of buttons can now be configured to suit your needs. The "Just raw frames" option lets you export time-lapse sequences in the movie maker. Plus, don't forget to check out the "Tools" > "Experimental" menu for other things we're trying out.
b28.10 January 26, 2006

Added 25 new interface languages -- Picasa is now available in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Filipino, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Catalan, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. When you start Picasa, the software will automatically match your system's native language. To change the language in Picasa, go to Tools > Options. Change the language using the pulldown menu on the "General" tab. You will need to close and re-open Picasa to see your changes take effect.
Picasa now supports Internet Explorer 7.
Fixed problems with UNC path drives.
b27.66 November 10, 2005

Fixed corruption problem for Canon 5D RAW files.
Fix for problems importing from a scanner.
Fix for problems exporting a webpage to a network drive.
Fix for problems exporting a webpage to 4 or 8 character folder name off of the root drive.
Fix for problems with special characters in your Gmail password (users would receive a "login incorrect" error).
Fixed hotkeys.
Fixed crashing on TIFF files with JPG compression.
b27.60 October 11, 2005

Support for Nikon D50 RAW files.(note: color balance may not be correct).
Fix for problems backing up read-only files (they were getting backed up, but would not show as having been backed up in the Picasa Backup Set).
Windows 98: Fixed not being able to expand directory trees inside the Folder Manager.
Windows 98: Fixed CD burning bug.
Windows 98: Fixed Picasa not scanning files on your desktop.
b2.1 September 19, 2005

Multiple interface languages – Picasa is now available in Chinese (simplified and traditional), Dutch, English (U.S. and UK) , French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. When you start Picasa, the software will automatically match your system's native language. To change the language in Picasa, go to Tools > Options. Change the language using the pulldown menu on the "General" tab. You will need to close and re-open Picasa to see your changes take effect.
BlogThis! - Post a photo to your blog in one click. Picasa's new "BlogThis!" button replaces the "Blogger" button and allows you to upload your photos directly to the Blogger web editor, without the need for a Hello account. To use, select a photo in Picasa and click the "BlogThis!" button. (If you do not have a Google Account for Blogger, follow the steps on-screen to create one.) When you are signed in to Blogger, the web editor will open. Click "Publish" to post your photo to your blog.
Print CD covers – Turn any photo into cover art. Click the "Print" button. Go to Tools > Options > Printing. Select "CD Cover Size" and apply. "CD Cover Size" is now one of the print layout choices.
Improved RAW handling – Picasa supports more RAW formats and cameras in this release, with improved color-balance support and faster speed. Work with your highest quality files from these camera manufacturers: Canon (.CRW, .CR2), Nikon (.NEF), Olympus (.ORF), Pentax (.PEF), Kodak (.DCR), Sony (.SRF), Minolta (.MRW), and Fuji(.RAF). New models supported include the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT (aka the 350D), Pentax *istDS, Konica/Minolta Maxxum7D (aka the Dynax 7D).
External drives - Find photos on external drives using Picasa. Simply go Tools > Folder Manager to choose whether Picasa should scan a connected external drive to find photos. When you unplug and reconnect, Picasa will find your photos instantly (with no scanning), and will also preserve your albums.
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