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“Website Grader” scores your website based on Content, Marketing, and Speed

amp — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:32:46 +0000

Website Grader

Search engine optimization has become one of the most important and blatantly juiciest parts of the Web 2.0 movement. Since massive changes in the way search engines work and with the help of Googles part in sparking the movement there has been a wildfire of new strategies for reaching the #1 spot on search engine result pages.

Some can agree that back in the day when AOL 3.0 and Dial-up was running the show that the most important parts of a website that mattered were speed, optimization, and relevant material. One: I didn’t want to wait 20 minutes to download these 100+ pages of Goldeneye 007 gameshark codes; Two: I didn’t want to spend 5 minutes waiting for a website to load and then find out it’s not what I was looking for.

The Website Grader gives your website a score by, you guessed it..grading and giving scores to various categories and sub-categories of your website (or someone elses) for a complete average. Basically, you end up with a test score.

The various subjects and categories it grades on include but are not limited to:

Content and Blog Analysis, Grade, and Recent Articles with Retweets and Inbound Links.
Optimization Tips based on Metadata, Headings, and Image Summery showing how many images your page contains.
Domain information.
Promotion and Marketing information including del.icio.us bookmarks, Link Tweet Summary, and a Twitter Grade.

Each of these, including the ones I didn’t mention can all contribute to the usability and promotion of your website which could ultimately lead up to more traffic and useful input. Keep grading, keep optimizing.

http://www.websitegrader.com - The Website Grader

Photoshop Tutorial : Adventures in Tilt-Shift Photography

amp — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:22:11 +0000

Tilt-Shift Effect

Tilt-shift photography has been around for nearly 43 years and is still popular today. Granted, this tutorial isn’t about what you would call “true” tilt-shift photography but rather simulated but still achieves the same effect with more control.

Recently it has been used the most in taking a photo of a real-life environment and digitally editing it so that it looks like a model (see : miniature faking). This tutorial aims to teach you how to achieve this effect using Photoshop along with a few very useful pointers.

Original Stock Photo : “Bridge” by thadz on sxc.hu (stock-xchg)

Use SuseStudio to Create Customized OpenSUSE Linux Distributions

amp — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:12:49 +0000

In our previous post about customized Linux Distros we got you to a web app for creating customized linux distros based on ubuntu.

Maybe you’re not an ubuntu fan but an OpenSUSE fan..Well we still have another one for you.

Make your way to SuseStudio. It’s my personal favorite.

You get a nice intuitive ajax/jquery powered GUI and interface specifically designed to help you customize your very own openSuse distro.

Although at this moment they are constantly reaching their capacity and the only way you can gain access is by requesting an invitation from them. As far as I remember it did not take very long (maybe a week or two at most?) to get my invitation. From then on you can sign in using your google account and others.

Picking Your Purpose

The first part is where you decide what the purpose of your build will be. Will it be a server? Will it be a desktop GUI environment? What are you going to use it for?

These are all the thoughts I had going through my head when I first started customizing my version of OpenSUSE.

You get to pick between Server, GNOME Desktop, KDE Desktop, Just Enough OS or Minimal (for the most part). Again, this is just a baseline of what your disc will contain.

The rest of the software configuration is up to you later on in the setup of your custom OpenSuse LiveCD or install disc.

You will get to start out on the general configuration tab where you get to choose network settings and have it set as static, DHCP client, and whether or not you want the firewall on by default. as well as default language, keyboard, and time zone. You will also have a chance to edit the default users.

Root will of course be there by default with a default password of “linux” which should be changed. You can also add and delete extra users, set their passwords and home directories as well as their groups.

Customize Look

One of the phases that may come next (or later if you don’t care for it much) is to customize the look and feel.

This basically amounts to setting a custom logo and setting a custom wallpaper for it to use by default.

Unfortunately in terms of customization of looks this is pretty much as far as it goes since there is no *desktop theme* customization feature (for now anyways).

Either way the customization is one of the more exciting aspects because you know someone, even if it’s just you, will see it each time it’s booted up.

Appliance Settings

At the appliance tab of the configuration menu you can customize settings as if you were going to run it as a virtual machine.

Select memory size and amounts, add Live installers, VMWare support as well as Xen support.

Startup

Startup configuration is…well, startup configuration. Although it sounds promising it only allows the configuration of the user modes and whether or not you want it to show a customized EULA.

The EULA part I like as well as choosing which run-level it starts in but I still think it needs some more customization to startup.

The run levels you have to choose from… Single User (1), Multi user / No Network (2), Normal Console (3), and Graphical (5).

The software customization tab is obviously the most useful piece of this entire “distro-generator”. Add software packages, add programs, add repositories, etc. It’s all there and it’s all for the adding (or removing).

Software

This of course is the main feature of any distribution authoring/editing/remixing web-app or third party software.

..and alas, the easiest part is building the distro because of course all you have to do now is wait.

You can have it built a few different ways. ISO format for easy burning, VMDK for virtual machine disk images as a quick loading type (also a good way to test it), a Xen guest or a USB thumb flash drive.

Since there’s a few different ways to have it built it really cuts back on the whole *oh great I have to convert it 4 times* factor.

Building the Image

Also, after it is done being built, you can have susestudio open it in a virtual machine-esque web app for up to an hour. You can then SSH to it and use the desktop GUI (if required) to check it out and make sure everything is A-OK before you download it.

Plenty of tools out there but OpenSUSE Studio is by far my favorite.

Go sign up for OpenSUSE Studio invites.

Use Reconstructor to Create Your Own Customized Ubuntu Live Linux CD/DVD

amp — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:45:26 +0000

Reconstructor

Once again another free (up to a point) web application for use for customizing a Linux distribution for whatever you want.

Reconstructor isn’t as pretty as some of the other Linux distro customization services I’ve seen but it gets the job done. You still have the ability to customize the way it looks, operations, modules, addons, etc.

For the amount you can do it is certainly useful. Not to mention it has been around since before 2007.

Reconstructor is a GNU/Linux distribution customization and creation toolkit. It allows for the customization of the Ubuntu andDebian GNU/Linux distributions. Customizations include boot logo image and text color, wallpaper, themes, icons, applications, and more.

To start using Reconstructor (it’s free) go to https://build.reconstructor.org and signup.

The reason I said it is free up to a point is that they do charge for the service but they give each account a $5 limit per month (for free). Anything over that will have you paying up front for it.

Here is an overlook of their “Fees” page…

Fees

The following are the fees for using the Reconstructor services. Please note: each account balance will get up to a $5 credit each month (ending balance after credit will be no more than $5). Each transaction will deduct from your account credit. To add more funds, click the “Add Credit” button in your account details window (accessed by clicking your username in the upper right after you login).

Upload and store a project file: $0.02 per MB per month

Build a project: $0.30

Download a built project: $0.45 per GB

Priority build service: $5.00 (enabled for one month) Note: This charge is prorated based upon the remaining days in the month.

Project Hosting

File storage: $0.45 per GB per month

Download: $0.35

So yes for a one or two time use I would say the service isn’t that bad. There’s still a lot of customization you can do and a lot you can get out of it. However, the entire fee thing isn’t really the best but you have to understand the kind of loads you can put on servers when doing these kinds of operations.

Reconstructor

Some Free Photoshop Brushes – Courtesy of the Internets.

amp — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:10:21 +0000

Here are some good Photoshop brushes I have come across. Some are from deviantArt while the rest can be found out on the blogosphere.

Ink and Paint

3D Halftone

Coffee Stains

Hi-Res Splatter

More brushes are available for download. Just click the “Continue Reading” link below.

Dried Blood Splatters

Retro Arrows

Vector Dots

Equalizer

Vector Brushes

Swirl Brushes

Swirls II

Damaged Death