ScribeFire Blog Editor

ScribeFire, an extension of Firefox ®,
enables users to easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into
their blog(s), post entries, take notes, and optimize their ad
inventory, directly through the Firefox browser. (As I have just done ) :)

ScribeFire QuickAds

Simplify your ad management while maximizing your revenue with
ScribeFire QuickAds. Our program allows you to place ads on your site
that are fully optimized by pulling the highest paid ads from over 100
ad networks. Learn more here.

One of my favourite Firefox addons, ScribeFire, is beta testing what sounds to be a great addition to their already powerful blog editor. Named QuickAds, its giving webmasters the ability to place fully optimized ads on your site from many networks and making them available to mange in one easy place, no more going around to different ad sites and managing your ads,its all in one space now and never been easier to place an ad on your blog wherever you want it. After signing up and installing the new beta it was really a simple matter of point and click where you want the ad to appear in your blog. Now i will say at present there are only 3 ad sizes available, the reason given ” these are the ad units our sales team has had the most success selling direct into so running these sizes gives your site the best chance at maximum revenue results” well i can understand that but considering the layouts of many blog templates these days the sizes are just a little ill fitting, especially in my case, but its not stopping me from hoping they will add a couple of more size options as I can see this is going to be a great way to managing ads on our blogs. Can’t wait to see it released publicly. But for now if you’re a blogger interested in placing ads on your blog, register now for ScribeFire QuickAds, its going to be big!

ScribeFire currently supports the following services:

• WordPress.com (http://www.wordpress.com)
• LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com)
• Windows Live Spaces (http://spaces.msn.com)
• Performancing (http://www.performancing.com)
• Jeeran (http://www.jeeran.com)
• Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/)
• MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/)
• b2Evolution (http://b2evolution.net)
• Splinder (http://www.splinder.com/)

In addition to the hosted services mentioned above, ScribeFire also
supports custom blogging platforms which are usually blogging software
hosted on your own server.

The currently supported blogging platforms are:

• WordPress (http://www.wordpress.org/)
• Movable Type (http://www.movabletype.org/)
• Drupal (http://www.drupal.org)
• Textpattern (http://www.textpattern.com/)
• Roller (http://www.rollerweblogger.org)
• Blogger (http://www.blogger.com)
• MetaWeblog API (Any blogging software that implements this API)

blog post here http://blog.scribefire.com/2008/07/01/scribefire-quickads-is-born/trackback

Pretty cool tool this Feedjit widget! ;) here’s a list of visits by country to the Den (another thing that’s pretty cool os I posted this using ScribeFire, an extension for the Firefox web browser, which is also very cool! Kudos all around!

Geo-Traffic today on garazon.com

United States [55%]
United Kingdom [9%]
Cyprus [3%]
Australia [3%]
India [3%]
Philippines [2%]
Ireland [2%]
South Korea [2%]
Canada [2%]
Vietnam [2%]
Netherlands [1%]
Austria [1%]
Saudi Arabia [1%]
South Africa [1%]
Puerto Rico [1%]
European Union European Union [1%]
Germany [1%]
Greece [1%]
Singapore [1%]
Italy [1%]
Poland [1%]
Thailand [1%]
Spain [1%]
Slovakia [1%]
France [1%]

Technorati Tags: feedjit, scribefire, garazon, widgets

I’ve intended to do a post about the iPhone before I ever had one, but have always put it off. Well with the new release being announced and the new software update soon scheduled I guess now is as good a time as any. I also seem to have a few more thoughts about it all now to share as well. First the title of the post says it all, I do love my iPhone! :) I do love gadgets and from the moment the iPhone came into being, I wanted one. I could never justify spending that much money for one though. Still think it was overpriced to begin with, but they did soon drop the price from its debut of $599 to $499, but it was still out of my reach. Well this past January I got one of the best birthday presents ever when my daughter and son inlaw Tracey and James got me one!! I’m sure most have seen one or how they work. And they do live up to the hype in my opinion. Could they be improved? definitely! I was a bit disappointed to realise you couldn’t take a video on them, nor is MMS supported, and there isn’t even a basic audio recording ability built in! I maybe can understand the video capability and MMS being left out, but no audio notes? It’s a phone for Pete’s sake, you speak into it! How can you not be able to record your voice? Well these things missing aside I still love it and it does perform well, a nice email client, GREAT touch keyboard, a nice camera, a Safari web browser that views actual web pages instead of a mobile version (you can still choose mobile versions of most sites too if you want, but I like the real view), and a YouTube video playe built in as well. Along with all this it’s an iPod as well storing your audio and videos by way of iTunes. Over all the most impressive thing is its ease and simplicity of use. Oh and it’s a phone too, ;) I just like it, a lot! :)
Today they announced the release of the new iPhone, a blazing 3G version, which has been long awaited, especially those in other countries that are having access to this higher speed standard. It’s really only available here in the States in selected large metropolitan areas, which Currituck County ain’t! ;) Well i’m not really so interested in that so I’m not wanting to run out and upgrade this one I have. And I think that most of the new software available on the new ones I will be able to get anyway when they release the 2.0 software version in early July. (It was scheduled for today, hence my reason for having the iPhone on my mind) The Apple site has a preview of the new goodies, but sadly I dont see any reference to any of the ones I was thinking were lacking in the original being included in this upgrade. :( but that’s yet to be seen. They are also opening an Apps Store where you can get programs to download to your phone, costs ranging from Free to $9.99. well there’s where we will see what cool things we can look forward to, maybe even an audio recorder :) well that’s to be seen in July too. I’m excited though and can’t wait to have a look. The only thing that didnt set so weel with me was the price of the new iPhone.. $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB one. well yes its a lot cheaper than anyone expected, and I’m sure there will be more fanfare and clamor when they go on sale than was the original! Ohdon;t get me wrong, I am truly happy for someone getting it 200 dollars cheaper than what this one was!! I just wish mine was that price!! bet my daughter does too! lol
Well while I’m writing this I may as well add a wish list of things I would like to see at some point with all these upgrades.

• Video recording
• MMS capability
• Audio notes
• Copy and paste
• Landscape mode in Text
• Forward in Text
• Save pictures from a  website

Well its not hurting to wish is it. I have already seen some nice upgrades in the latest relase and the ones promised in version 2.0 look great as well. Let’s see what July 13th brings :)

just installed the wphone WordPress plugin and giving it a trial run. Nice interface and easy to use, but will it post? We’re about to see ;)

Hey it works :) Ok so I’m easily amused! lol Well my iPhone will load the regular admin interface just fine on the Safari browser, but its a long load time especially when on Edge instead of WiFi and this gives me a quick and easy way to publish a post from wherever I am. Not that I am makinga lot of them to begin with , but you never know when i may have some breaking news to share with the world! Speaking of which, the fiancee visa petition has been officially received and now just waiting to hear the decision I guess! I was hoping some kind of official update from USCIS would be arriving, and it soon may be. I just got the certified mail certificate back yesterday saying they received the application… well stay tuned :) and wish us luck

I was just reading this post from ZDNet, Google launches Friend Connect with mixed reviews , and it caught my interest. Well first as a site owner its an ideal way to make just about any site into a social site very quickly and easily. Well they always say easy don’t they, copy and paste some code, etc… well it should work on most sites that allow you to edit html and allow iframes. Friend Connect was just launched a couple of days ago. It’s not being released yet to the public, but there is a preview release sign up link to add your name to the list on their site (remember doing this with GMail?! That turned out to be a pretty good venture I think! ) There’s a preview video, a couple of example sites set up, as well as it already being integrated in one or two existing sites. it looks very promising to me. well not just as something to make your site easily a social one, but one that opens up the web to possiblilites we haven’t yet imagined. it will be more than a passive web in that regard. Imagine just having to remember one or two identities and passwords! And being able to share what you do on one site with another, or not. as you see fit… I welcome it personally as long as we still have the ability to stand back and be a passive user too and not become just a statistic on some hit counter or how deep I followed the links on some ad goal set up on a website… ok that all happens anyway, signed in to anything or not~ ;) But I do like the idea of it and have always been a proponent of the OpenID movement. Just makes sense and makes things simple.. I like simple :)  Of course this being the launch of something new, it will be a work in progress and it seems for now its a bare bones sort of thing with not much control on the aesthetics and tying it into your sites look, but I’m sure as development goes forward we will be able to integrate it seamlessly in a spot on our pages. I’m impressed a lot here lately with the way these large companies now are finally beginning to realise the enduser is fed up of having to feel like he or she has to choose one place over another as their favourite social site, there are always those diehards who will praise myspace over Facebook or vice versa,, well each has its own followers,just they cant interact, well couldn’t i should say. I did see the other day that its now possible to add your Myspace profile and comments to your Facebook profile, and again vice versa. Well that alone was great for me. Oh I am not a big fan of either of them really, but I have family here in the US that uses only Myspace and then Alison and her family and friends are all on Facebook there in the European Union. Well now whichever site I am on I can see at a glance if a new comment has been added to the other.. well i should say it worked a few days ago. As of yesterday Facebook has now banned Google from accessing it so I dont know if thats affected the Facebook/Myspace connection in any way or not. Facebook is saying its protecting its users info as the reason. Well in my opinion thats up to the user isnt it, Facebook is very big on these third party apps to add things to your profile and each one you add is accessing that same info if you opt in to use it. whats the difference? I want to opt in to Friend Connect. I think in this case Facebook has put up a wall that may keep the info in, but it wont keep its users inside for long when they all realise its a whole new web out there. ( shades of the Aol broswer anyone?) Well i will be following this closely and cant wait until its available. I’ll be able to keep up nicely with all my friends, all 7 or 8 of them   LOL ;)

Speedtest.net is a site I use often to check my dsl speeds. I dont know if its the most accurate or if any  of them really are but it seems to be a least consistent in the results. Of course speeds will vary depending on your connection and what type, as well as how many people may be on your same line. If nothing else its something to pass a few minutes while surfing the web and pretending like you’re some kind of geek ;)  If you have your own server they have a Speedtest Mini shockwave and javascript package that enables you to plce a mini test on your own site.

This is very cool picture plugin for Live Writer that turns an image into a Polaroid style pic with the ability to rotate it in either direction with incredible ease. Its available here for anyone using Live Writer to post to their blogs. So for an example I obviously have to use one of my favourite photos of my beautiful bride to be.

Hope she wont mind! :) Well she shouldn’t as its a great picture! I made this black and white from an original which was taken in Cyprus on our trip to the village in Omodos. You can see the original here. It was just outside the church there in the village square and the colours in the original were wonderful. I just felt this was one of those that makes an excellent greyscale pic too. You may notice the crossed fingers emoticon in this post which was added by another great little plugin that’s free the plugin gallery on Windows Live. It loads the same emoticons that are in use on Live Spaces, which I really am not a fan of, but I have to admit that I like the way MS has of late seemed to be playing a little nicer with its competition, but I guess its all about money in the end and they are realising now that end users have an incredible selection of software and social networking apps from which to choose. Amazing really to look and compare today to what is available to us now from even a couple of years ago. I can remember a time we had spent hours on MS sites and groups just getting a picture to show in a post, now those ‘red x’s’ are generally a thing of the past.  so far things have come, and so much more yet to come~ well like my Brit and I ! :) the good times haven’t even started!! see you soon my almost Americano! :) love you! XXX 

I was toying with Live Writer again this evening and I am actually very impressed with it and what it can do, now that I finally have it set to where it it works with my WordPress installation on my site. To be honest I have gotten to the point of being fed up with the bloat of most M$ stuff but I like this. And whats cool about it is I can also use it with my blogger sites as well! the only thing I was having trouble with was having to go back to the admin section on my site after posting to add the tags, but just looking around a little deeper in this program and found out I can actually do that from here too! it’s under “View>properties” the box comes up and I saw a space to enter keywords and I gave it a try and Voila! it added the keywords as tags! YEA!!! This old man is still learning crap! LOLNow if I can just figure out how to make the proprties dialog open automatically when the program opens I will be set! well now all I have to do is find where to put the code to show the tags with the post and I will be even happier!

I’m still sort of in shock this is a Microsoft program working and playing so well with others! You hear all the talk of the battle between Google and M$ and it seems LiveWriter has a leg up over google in that regard, wish it was working the other way around, I would dearly love for Picasa to be able to make a blog post to a site other than blogger, or do they and I have missed it?! Well it wouldnt surprise me if I did miss it, this old brain of mine is most always in lala land with my beautiful Alison Michelle! :-) xxxxx love ya baby!