centre{source}
INTERACTIVE AGENCY
Ripping DVDs to MPEG format - A world of easy formats :)
Shout out to my friend, Sunny Patel, for passing along a great utility for both Windows and Mac users. Now everyone can rip their DVDs to an easier to use format, MPEG, thanks to a great program called MediaFork (formerly Hand Brake). It will rip DVDs to MPEG, thus making them MUCH easier to put on your iPod, Apple TV, generic Media Center, etc, etc. We are one step closer to making it easy to take your digital assets anywhere, anytime.
Innovative Helpdesk/Ticketing System
A friend recently recommended: http://www.cerberusweb.com
It is a very popular (and affordable) email management solution for help desks & sales teams. It is a bit complex, so you’ll want to take a moment to review the features and consider ways to synthesize it for your business. It appears that everything is managed through email and you have certain email addresses that customers and prospects use (or that it recognizes).
There is workflow, tagging, team resolution, and an integrated knowledge base. Instead of typing an article into the knowledge base, simply answering a client’s problem would give you the ability to ‘Tag’ and file that email into the Knowledge base.
Blacklists: What they are and how to avoid them
If you thought that anti-spam protection for your incoming mail would alleviate your e-mail problems forever, think again – another issue that can cause more than a few headaches are DNS BlackLists (DNSBLs), sometimes also called RBLs (Realtime Black List). DNSBLs are not a new idea, but their usage is increasing rapidly. In short, a DNSBL is an innovative use of DNS to provide access to lists of IP addresses (or other info). These lists are created on varying criteria — for example, the IP address was caught sending spam, or it’s owned by a company known for supporting/sending spam. Or perhaps the IP address hosts a mailserver not following the rules, or a web/proxy server that has been compromised in such a way that it could be used to send spam. In this way, common sources of spam can be compiled into these lists and checked by a mailserver before accepting mail. If you show up in the blacklist, your mail is rejected.
As the spam-war has escalated, DNSBLs have become a double-edged sword. They have probably saved SMTP from being utterly inundated with spam to the point that it’s useless. However, blacklists have also been forced to get increasingly aggressive. It’s not uncommon for an organization to find itself blacklisted, even if it didn’t overtly send spam (that it knows of). If your organization becomes the unlucky member of a DNSBL, you’ll find that most (if not all) of your email is rejected by the outside world because you’re now considered a spammer. The worst part is that you may have no idea why you were blacklisted and no idea how to get de-listed!
USB Drive 101: Actually making it useful
I’m now the proud owner of a 2GB USB Drive & I wanted to share a few tips/tricks I’ve learned for getting the most use from it! I want my USB to provide a self-contained computing experience that I can take with me. When I pop it in, I want everything that I’m comfortable with at my finger tips :) I’ll help you setup your USB drive to address the following needs (no order):
- Sensitive Data Storage - Examples include financial info, passwords, etc.
- Email Access - Allowing you to comfortably check your mail from anywhere
- Synchronization - As storage amounts increase, more data can be backed up
- Buddies/Contacts - Instant messaging to friends is available anywhere
- Office & Productivity - Work on docs, spreadsheets, and presentations
Open Source Office can handle Blackberry
CentreSource has jumped on the Blackberry bandwagon! After complaining for months that I spend too much time with email, I gave up trying to avoid the problem and simply decided to further my addiction :) We purchased three new Blackberry 8703e’s and have now started the painful process of getting them to work in our Open Source environment. That’s right, Blackberries in a world without Outlook and Exchange. The verdict? It works, but not great.
20 Things Gamers Want (circa 2006)
I’ll admit it… I am a big gamer. I, CEO/President of CentreSource, love to sit back and immerse myself in a great game (alone or with a friend). While I could wax about the therapeutic value of games & their overall role in our stress-laced work force, I’ll save that for another day :) Instead, I thought I’d give you one of the funniest & best written articles I’ve seen on the current state of the gaming industry. Most of his points show that the industry is developing software in a box (or a crate if you read the article!).
Cool Javascript: Lightbox, Greybox, and Thickbox
The web continues to impress me when I stumble across things that are relatively simple, yet done in such an elegant manner I can’t help but notice. This was the case when I discovered the Javascript overlay techniques of Lightbox, Greybox, and Thickbox.
Lightbox
Lightbox provides functionality to overlay images (with effects) onto your website - without using Flash or other plugins. It is perfect for creating a beautiful image gallery, while still maintaining easy control over your images! Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself: Lightbox JS v2.0
VH1: The lost Mac Ads
The new mac commercials are great - especially given their crafty delivery of undertone messages about PC users. On the other hand, these parody commercials are hilarious as well. Tit for Tat baby… tit for tat.
PHP Frameworks: 57 and Counting…
I made a fatal mistake… I thought I could start investigating PHP Frameworks and determine a clear winner. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that there is no clear winner… no clear Mr. Popular… and even worse, no clear source of info to even get started. Well, I hopefully made a nice step towards fixing the latter issue - I gathered every PHP Framework I could find and compiled them into a list at Wikipedia. Going forward, hopefully others will find this list useful for starting their investigation. Oh yeah - one more thing… Did I mention there were 57 Frameworks I found???? Give me a break - how in the world can the PHP community get enterprise traction if we don’t settle on a standard. No wonder RoR is rising in popularity so fast…
FrugalReader.com: My Custom Development Experience
Gene McCabe, owner of FrugalReader.com, was kind enough to be a guest blogger this week. He shares his experience in working with a development firm (CentreSource) to develop the latest version of FrugalReader.com. For anyone looking to read an honest, realistic experience about Custom Web Development, I encourage you to read Gene’s commentary.