Justin Losh http://www.justinlosh.com Geek, Technology Enthusiast, Student, Gamer Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:03:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 My Open Source Software Choices http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/02/my-open-source-software-choices/ http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/02/my-open-source-software-choices/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:02:14 +0000 Justin http://www.justinlosh.com/?p=71 There are many different applications out there! I’ve posted the list of the current Open Source software that I use. This list might change frequently. As of the date of this post, this is what I am currently using. Also a slight disclaimer: Most of this software is considered Open Source, but they all differ from the licensing they use.

  • Firefox: In my personal opinion, this is by far the best web browser out there!
  • Google Chrome: A web browser managed and created by Google.
  • Thunderbird: Thunderbird is a mail client program similar to Outlook (with a couple plugins) made by Mozilla
  • Pidgin: Pidgin is the open source alternative all in one instant messaging client, also created by Mozilla
  • Filezilla: An open source FTP client.
  • PuTTy: PuTTy is a free telnet/ssh client.
  • WinSCP: A free SFTP and FTP client.
  • Notepad++: A free source code editor, supports several different languages, and is a Windows based application.
  • VLC Media Player: A highly-portable multimedia player. I’ve never had any issues, and this program handles anything I’ve tossed at it!
  • SharpDevelop: An Open Source development framework for .Net
  • Handbrake: A great Open Source multi-threaded video-trans-coder.
  • 7-zip: A  file archive manipulation program. A great alternative to both WinRar and WinZip.
  • Xampp: A windows (and other platforms) Open Source cross-platform web server package.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
]]> http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/02/my-open-source-software-choices/feed/ 0 Wordpress Plugins I use in every install http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/02/wordpress-plugins-i-use-in-every-install/ http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/02/wordpress-plugins-i-use-in-every-install/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:18:52 +0000 Justin http://www.justinlosh.com/?p=61 Since I first started using Wordpress I’ve probably installed it about 150 times, not that I keep track. Ever since that time I’ve first used it, and now until the point I’m at I know what the limits of the software is. On every single install no matter what the is for, or who it is for I use the same core plugins.

Akismet- Akismet has been a great tool provided by Automattic (the creators of Wordpress) free of charge! Akismet does an amazing job helping you to block spam comments from clashing with your comments section on your Wordpress installation.

All in One SEO Pack- The All in One SEO Pack plugin from Michael Torbert, is a must have. This plugin has some quite unique features; it will override your default page title and replace the title with a more SEO friendly title (to your choosing), you can edit all of your meta data, also including your meta data tags.

Exclude Pages from Navigation- This plugin from Simon Wheatley, allows you to create pages and hide the page without modifying your navigation menus without making it a “Private” page within Wordpress.

Google Analytics for WordPress- The Google Analytics plugin for Wordpress is a very simple plugin to manage the integration of your Google Analytics code, without having to modify your website’s code. This is a great plugin by Joost de Valk.

Google XML Sitemaps- Back to SEO again, this plugin creates a XML sitemap for not just Google; but also Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, etc. This plugin makes it a little easier for those search engines to index your website. The Google XML Sitemap plugin is by Arne Brachhold.

Maintenance Mode- This is a very convenient plugin to put up a quick maintenance message to keep users off of your website when you are; developing it, updating, redesigning, etc. You may also choose to let administrators, and even if you want to, your registered users to still access the backend of the website. I personally use a modified version of this plugin, the plugin was create by Michael Wöhrer.

Page Links To- The Page Links To plugin was create by Wordpress’s lead developer Mark Jaquith. When this plugin is active, it allows you to add links to your navigation without modifying your websites code.

]]> http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/02/wordpress-plugins-i-use-in-every-install/feed/ 1 How to better your search on Google http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/01/how-to-better-your-search-on-google/ http://www.justinlosh.com/2010/01/how-to-better-your-search-on-google/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:29:42 +0000 Justin http://www.justinlosh.com/?p=15 Searching Google is as well known as typing your keyword, and hitting “Google Search” or the infamous “I’m feeling lucky”. But beyond just typing your keyword you can do much more, to get the results you want.  Many argue that Google search results are only based on the words you type, but that statement is very false.  Google can narrow down your search results based on the addition of even the simplest of characters and can be extremely useful if the searcher knows what they’re doing.  There are a few tricks that can be used to narrow down your results.

Simplicity- Keep your search simple. If you’re looking for the specific name of a company, a person, or an item, just enter, for example,  “my head hurts” or “headache”.

How will the content be written- Think about how the content of your search will be displayed on the website. Use the words that are most likely to be displayed on the page.

Fewest Terms- Use the fewest terms possible.  Use  keywords such as  “headache” and “medicine” instead of “really bad headache medicine”.

Descriptive Words- Use the most descriptive words in your search criteria. For example, use “ringtones”  instead of “sounds”.

If you are still having trouble finding the search results you are looking for, you can use another feature that Google search offers called “ Boolean searching”.

Phrase Searching- If you are searching for a specific phrase you can do so by searching with (“”) double quotes. For example, “Hershey Chocolate Bar” will search for the exact phrase.
Give it a shot: [“Hershey Chocolate Bar”]

Specific website Search- Google also features the option to search for content within a specific website. You can do so by entering a search term such as “technology” followed by the website’s URL with the syntax “site:nytimes.com”.
Give it a shot: [technology site:nytimes.com]

Terms to exclude- If you would like to exclude certain terms from your search, it’s as easy as typing a minus sign (-) directly next to the term.
Give it a shot: [technology –“blog” site:nytimes.com]

Terms to include- If you would like to include certain terms from your search, all you have to do is type a plus (+)  sign directly next to the term.
Give it a shot: [technology +"blog" site:nytimes.com]

Fill in the blanks- You can use an asterisk (*) as a wild card when you are searching. This simple character acts as a placeholder for any unknown terms.
Give it a shot: [Clinton voted * on the * bill]

The Operator- The last term I will go over is the “OR” operator. When searching, you can use the “OR” operator. This operator will allow searching for specifically, the year “2004” or the year “2005”.
Give it a shot: [San Francisco Giants 2004 OR 2005]

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