Technology
Covers everything from programming to design, to general internet and technology issues.
New Hot Sauce Weekly Podcast Episode
There's a brand spankin' new episode of Hot Sauce Weekly, the first podcast dedicated to hot sauce, fiery foods, and BBQ. This episode features a great interview with Joe and Robin Leicht of Flaming Joe's. Also, I provide my weekly sauce review, this time featuring the fabulous Ott's Wing Sauce.
So if you're craving great hot sauce industry coverage, be sure to download and listen to the audio podcast every week by subscribing today! You may ask, "how can I do so?" Well, you click on the RSS Feed link to download it to your feed reader or podcast catcher, or subscribe via the iTunes Feed.
Love what you hear? Please tell all your chilehead friends and family about Hot Sauce Weekly! And please vote for Hot Sauce Weekly both on Podcast Alley and iTunes - it's super simple and it will only take you 30 seconds.
Chileheads to Follow on Twitter
Unless you're a Twitter veteran, you may or may not know that for the longest time the chilehead community has been slow to adopt the social networking service. There has been a large contingent of both the BBQ world and foodies in general populating Twitter, but they're not specifically hot sauce and chile pepper fanatics. Thankfully, that's beginning to change.
Below are what I consider to be the most interesting fiery foods people to follow on Twitter. They're manufacturers, bloggers, spicy foods fans, and chile experts. Some may post or tweet a lot (perhaps a bit too much in a few cases!) and some hardly post at all, but I think they're all worth a look.
Please keep in mind that these are only hot sauce/chile related folks listed. If you're interested in BBQ Twitterers, a good "starter" list can be found here...
Thinking of Starting Up a Blog? Here's How to Pick Your Subject Matter
For me, it started around 2007. I had been a website developer for ten years, and had already dipped my toes in the proverbial waters with a technology/programming blog called Developers Workshop in 2001-02. (Remember it? I didn't think so) But I'd been kicking around the idea for some type of personal blog for years afterward.
At the time I was also maintaining a website advertising my website-building services and occasionally made the sporadic update on this and that, so I thought, "Why not? I'll add my random thoughts to the front page." Long story short, after coding some pages in PHP and setting up a MySQL database backend, my makeshift blog was ready for debut at ScottRobertsWeb.com.
From the offset I wanted the blog's focus to be evenly split into three categories. The first would be technology, which would encompass everything from programming tips to interesting happenings in the world of computing. The second category would...
World's Biggest Alarm Clock
Personally, I think this "alarm clock" would get annoying real fast. I would actually have a different use for this.;-)
How to Have an Unsuccessful Blog
Enough with vying for success. I know what you really want deep down - a blog that fails! Who cares about gaining and retaining an audience? That is SO 2008. Being utterly and completely disastrous with your blog endeavors is the new hotness. Follow all of these wonderfully ineffective tips, and no one will care about your site or ever visit it...
Fighting Writers Block
Everyone gets it, and it's totally unavoidable: the painful and dreaded Writer's Block. It doesn't matter if you blog about your kids, write about local business and politics, or talk about your favorite heavy metal bands; at one time or another you'll run smack into a creativity brick wall with ostensibly no way around it. Not to worry, though, here are some tricks that will help you blast through that barrier and allow yourself to finish your article...
Spreading the Link Love Around
Okay, this isn't the most earth-shattering news, but I have added a website field to the comments section of each page. What's even better is that the website linked from your comment name will NOT have the dreaded "nofollow" tag. Yep, I'm giving any link to your site a little bit of link love (just please return the favor every now and then;-)).
Look Out Twitter, Here Comes Flutter!
The next big thing in social media:
Awesomely Creative Logos That Will Inspire You
Smashing Magazine has gathered 50 different absolutely brilliant logos from corporations and organizations that will make you think second-guess what your previous definitions of the word "creative" is. All are vivid, colorful, and clever; and most have imagery that reflect the company's name.
Take a look at the logo above for Fold It; not only does it display "folds" in the letter "f", but the folds themselves turn into a letter "i", making the initials of the name. Presented in an ultramodern font, cool colors and gradients, and you have the epitome of one slick logo.
Link: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/01/drawing-inspiration-from-creative-logos/
Need Help Managing Twitter? Here's More Than 100 Twitter Tools
Overwhelmed by Twitter? Do you wish there were some sites and tools that will help you better manage your account, your friends and followers, and be more productive?
Here's a list of more than 100 Twitter tools. While it's certainly not comprehensive (there were a few sites I noticed that were missing even upon a quick study), this list contains most of the useful resources you need to get you on your way to better tweeting.
.50 BMG Armor Piercing Incendiary Round Vs. 18 Hard Drives
Ever wondered how many hard drives does it take to stop a .50 BMG armor piercing incendiary round? Sure, we all have!
Here's a link with a video that gives us that answer.
Follow Me on Twitter
If you have a Twitter account, feel free to follow me. I usually tweet about updates to my blog, the latest hot sauces and foods I've tried, and whatever is on my mind at the time. I promise I don't spam...too much.;-) My username is scottroberts.
Also as a reminder, you can subscribe to my RSS feed if you wish to stay up-to-date on my website postings.
5 Ways to Get Usability Testing on the Cheap
One of the the most gregarious errors any web developer can make is not testing his or her website for usability. If your site visitors can't properly navigate and find how to accomplish tasks, how can you expect them to keep coming back?
SitePoint has posted a nifty little article outlining five great ways to get usability testing for free or for low cost: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/11/25/5-ways-to-get-usability-testing-on-the-cheap/. In addition to trying out some of these avenues, don't neglect researching usability websites yourself, such as Jakob Nielsen's useit.com, to get a better understanding of the basic practices of web usability, web design, and user interfaces.
Graphical User Interfaces of the Future
I absolutely love to see people's visions of technology and GUIs of the future, which have included everything from the fifteen year-old "You Will" TV spots from AT&T to Minority Report. It's quasi-science fiction/science fact like this is what inspires today's designers and engineers to create tomorrow's interfaces.
The following are two cool shorts which include nifty "gee-whiz" elements of manipulating computers and the artificial universes inside of them.
World Builder
A man builds a virtual world using holographic tools for the woman he loves:
Microsoft Office Labs Vision 2019 - A Glimpse Ahead
Microsoft envisions fluid and ever-changeable user interfaces we might have ten years from now.
25 Tips on Increasing Your Blog Traffic
You may want to do it for money, you may do it for vanity, or you may just have a lot of great ideas, stories, and information you wish to get out to the masses, but everyone wants to get more eyeballs looking at their blog. Other than telling their grandma or co-worker to view your blog, what are some of the other ways of driving traffic?
I've given you several ideas to help you get started...
