12 Witnesses » Tech Stuff

50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory

art rogers — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:11:03 +0000

If there is one thing that churches (that aren’t mega churches – and sometimes even the megas…) frequently fail at doing, is creating layers of communication that actually communicate.

The one thing you communicate is whether or not you know what you are doing and most churches scream, “We’re oblivious!”

Interested in improving? Check out 50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphics Design Theory.

The lessons are fairly simple and easy to browse.

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If there is one thing that churches (that aren’t mega churches – and sometimes even the megas…) frequently fail at doing, is creating layers of communication that actually communicate.

The one thing you communicate is whether or not you know what you are doing and most churches scream, “We’re oblivious!”

Interested in improving? Check out 50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphics Design Theory.

The lessons are fairly simple and easy to browse.

Creating a Color through Black and White Picture

art rogers — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:01:40 +0000

I featured some pictures last week during Phriday Foto that had everything Black and White except the only important person in the picture, my daughter. Turns out this is pretty easy and can be done with a free program, so I thought you might be interested in learning how to do it.

First, you need Gimp. Gimp is a FREE graphics program like Photoshop, which is expensive. Gimp is not quite Photoshop, but for free, it rocks. Also, it works on either Mac or Windows. I first learned about it from Frank Turk who has a Gimp University blog with loads of tutorials.

Simple directions are first, followed by detailed directions and screenshots.

Simple Directions

Create a duplicate layer: Layer->Duplicate Layer
Desaturate the top layer: Color->Desaturate (pop up window->desaturate)
Erase the top layer where you want color to shine through: Tool->Eraser
Save As your picture in the format of your choice.

Detailed Directions

I’m going to post pictures of the progress as we go through. Click on the pictures you see in the article for a full sized picture.

For this process, I picked a Christmas Parade picture in which a very colorful lady presented a profile, but she blended somewhat with the other spectators in the original picture.

(Click for Larger Pic)

For well done graphic work, everything is done in layers, so get used to adding multiple layers to an image. To create a duplicate layer, you need to select the layers menu and then duplicate layer from that menu.

(Click for Larger Pic)

This is going to give you two layers in the layer menu toolbar.

(Click for Larger Pic)

Next, you want to take all the color out of the top layer, which is called desaturatization. The easiest way to do that is to drop down the color menu and choose “desaturate.”

(Click for Larger Pic)

You’ll get a pop up with several options. Just click the big desaturate button.

(Click for Larger Pic)

This will give you a Black and White layer over the color layer.

(Click for Larger Pic)

Then select the eraser tool from the tool tray, select the brush size you want and erase where you want the color to bleed through. (The more precise way to do this is to create a mask that will create a selection around the place you want to erase, but this is the quick, easy and dirty way to do it.)

(Click for Larger Pic)

When you are done, from the file menu, click “Save As” and save the image. I created this by naming it “color through BW.jpg” and it automatically took me through the process of exporting it as a jpeg image.

(Click for Larger Pic)

Simple directions are first, followed by detailed directions and screenshots.

Simple Directions

Create a duplicate layer: Layer->Duplicate Layer
Desaturate the top layer: Color->Desaturate (pop up window->desaturate)
Erase the top layer where you want color to shine through: Tool->Eraser
Save As your picture in the format of your choice.

Detailed Directions

I’m going to post pictures of the progress as we go through. Click on the pictures you see in the article for a full sized picture.

For this process, I picked a Christmas Parade picture in which a very colorful lady presented a profile, but she blended somewhat with the other spectators in the original picture.

(Click for Larger Pic)

This is going to give you two layers in the layer menu toolbar.

(Click for Larger Pic)

Next, you want to take all the color out of the top layer, which is called desaturatization. The easiest way to do that is to drop down the color menu and choose “desaturate.”

(Click for Larger Pic)

You’ll get a pop up with several options. Just click the big desaturate button.

(Click for Larger Pic)

This will give you a Black and White layer over the color layer.

(Click for Larger Pic)

Mac in Black|Phriday foto 07-04-08

art rogers — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:56:42 +0000

Sorry, no patriotic pictures of flags, kids or picnics. Not even fireworks.

Some of you have noted that I was having trouble with my laptop over the last couple of weeks. Turns out, the motherboard fried. I took it in to a local Nerd Herd to confirm the suspicions and found out that, as expected, all was without hope.

I had backed up my information on an external hard drive I had purchased for our home, so there was no loss of data. Just the grind of having to restore everything from a backup.

With the added pain of a whole new system. :)

Yep. I’ve done it. I went over to the “dark side.”

Yours truly is now sporting a brand new Macbook Black. No, not the Pro Series laptops, but I’m happy with the one I have. I know some are getting those high end laptops, but I have no idea how they have the money for it. Here’s a picture of the glowing white Apple on the back in the darkness of my home office as I take a break from working on my sermon.

I haven’t completely grasped the organizational structure, but they tell me it makes more sense when you do “get it.” I pray I “get it” soon.

I will say, though, that it is fast. Much faster than my old XP machine and light years ahead of my wife’s Vista machine. Yikes. That looks like a complete waste of money now. She waits and waits for it to do ANYTHING, but this Macbook just flies through whatever you tell it to do.

Also, shutting down and booting up is AWESOME. It’s almost NO TIME!

I still have to convert my iPod over to mac sync now. I have no idea how well that will go, but I hope it goes as easily and quickly as importing all of my music from the external hard drive into iTunes. Drag, drop and wait 20 mins to convert tons of audio, video and everything else. Done.

Oh. And it is light. It’s not the “Macbook Air,” but it is probably half the weight of my former laptop.

Finally, thanks to the advice of David Phillips, we got the extended warranty, which takes the 1 yr hardware and 90 phone support to 3 years each. David said that you should always do this with a laptop, because the manufacturers don’t allow you to simply buy and replace broken parts. If you break something, particularly something important, you have to send it in. Pretty soon, it is cheaper to simply buy a new computer.

Of course, that is how we got to where we are now, so we learned our lesson.

I’ve set up Firefox already and imported all my bookmarks with the Foxmarks Add-On. It syncs your bookmarks, personal structure and all, to the net and allows you to log on and bring them to another computer using Firefox.

Final thing: The whole “it just works” thing that mac users always throw around to pc users when their stuff is grinding and glitching… they don’t seem to be lying.

There you have it, boys and girls. Another one goes over…

As for the foto, I know it’s not much, but it is my first effort with the mac and using iPhoto with my Canon DSLR. I like the program. It looks promising. I’ll reserve judgement to see if it is as good as Adobe Lightroom, which is what I have been using.

You can check out my pre-Mac pics at the ol’ photoblog.

Comments

July 4, 2008, Robert Dando writes: and now you know that with deeper rooted conviction that the most passionate Baptist Identity folk, us Mac users know - we are right! Rob - UK [Mac user too :) - oh and Baptist pastor as a sideline :) ] oh - and happy colonies day !
July 4, 2008, Marty Duren writes: "Welcome, Anakin." Marty Durens last blog post..Taking a Break
July 4, 2008, art rogers writes: Rob - I love the English sense of humor. Thanks. :) Marty, if I'm Anakin...
July 4, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Welcome, You know what they say..."Once you go Mac, you'll never go back!" I love mine Kevin Busseys last blog post..What would Jesus fly?
July 4, 2008, Bart Rhea writes: Anakin?
July 4, 2008, Bart Rhea writes: Skywalker or Solo?
July 4, 2008, Joe Kennedy writes: Declare your independence from Microsoft, Art.
July 4, 2008, Hip Opinion writes: I'll never go Mac... Never, never, never :) Unless somebody buys me one for my birthday LOL Hip Opinions last blog post..What’s the difference between AA and church?

Sorry, no patriotic pictures of flags, kids or picnics. Not even fireworks.

I had backed up my information on an external hard drive I had purchased for our home, so there was no loss of data. Just the grind of having to restore everything from a backup.

With the added pain of a whole new system. :)

Yep. I’ve done it. I went over to the “dark side.”

I haven’t completely grasped the organizational structure, but they tell me it makes more sense when you do “get it.” I pray I “get it” soon.

Also, shutting down and booting up is AWESOME. It’s almost NO TIME!

Oh. And it is light. It’s not the “Macbook Air,” but it is probably half the weight of my former laptop.

Of course, that is how we got to where we are now, so we learned our lesson.

Final thing: The whole “it just works” thing that mac users always throw around to pc users when their stuff is grinding and glitching… they don’t seem to be lying.

There you have it, boys and girls. Another one goes over…

You can check out my pre-Mac pics at the ol’ photoblog.

Comments

July 4, 2008, Robert Dando writes: and now you know that with deeper rooted conviction that the most passionate Baptist Identity folk, us Mac users know - we are right! Rob - UK [Mac user too :) - oh and Baptist pastor as a sideline :) ] oh - and happy colonies day !
July 4, 2008, Marty Duren writes: "Welcome, Anakin." Marty Durens last blog post..Taking a Break
July 4, 2008, art rogers writes: Rob - I love the English sense of humor. Thanks. :) Marty, if I'm Anakin...
July 4, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Welcome, You know what they say..."Once you go Mac, you'll never go back!" I love mine Kevin Busseys last blog post..What would Jesus fly?
July 4, 2008, Bart Rhea writes: Anakin?
July 4, 2008, Bart Rhea writes: Skywalker or Solo?
July 4, 2008, Joe Kennedy writes: Declare your independence from Microsoft, Art.
July 4, 2008, Hip Opinion writes: I'll never go Mac... Never, never, never :) Unless somebody buys me one for my birthday LOL Hip Opinions last blog post..What’s the difference between AA and church?

Segway inventor Kamen with new invention for wounded veterans

art rogers — Sat, 31 May 2008 05:01:55 +0000

Dean Kamen, creator of the Segway, has a new invention that is amazing. He developed it at the request of the US Government in order to help wounded Iraq Veterans who are coming home without arms. It is a prosthetic arm that has highly sensitive tactile ability.

Follow the link, watch the video. It is amazing.

Blogging Update

art rogers — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:01:47 +0000

Updating the status of my blog and the overhaul. Precursor to the post on templates in my "Better Blogging" series.

Think Skaters are Slackers?

art rogers — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:47:23 +0000

Give up your preconceived ideas. These guys are techy enough to eliminate their boards from this video. It’s amazing.

What else might you not know about skaters?

Did you know that more kids skateboard than every other sport in the US?

Comments

May 3, 2008, Steve writes: That's pretty cool, but it looks more like they shot everything against a green screen and added the backgrounds in. The skaters just look out of place. At about :45 in, the skaters look too far off the ground.
May 3, 2008, art rogers writes: That may be for certain parts. I'm not sure. I suspect that they painted their boards green and washed them out that way. I would find it hard to believe that the rail sliding shots were sans rails. But the point is, that they did some pretty interesting video editing. That says something about their abilities that runs up against many folks' preconceived notions about skaters, I think.
May 3, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: I know that I have many in my church and I need to reach them.

Give up your preconceived ideas. These guys are techy enough to eliminate their boards from this video. It’s amazing.

What else might you not know about skaters?

Did you know that more kids skateboard than every other sport in the US?

Comments

May 3, 2008, Steve writes: That's pretty cool, but it looks more like they shot everything against a green screen and added the backgrounds in. The skaters just look out of place. At about :45 in, the skaters look too far off the ground.
May 3, 2008, art rogers writes: That may be for certain parts. I'm not sure. I suspect that they painted their boards green and washed them out that way. I would find it hard to believe that the rail sliding shots were sans rails. But the point is, that they did some pretty interesting video editing. That says something about their abilities that runs up against many folks' preconceived notions about skaters, I think.
May 3, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: I know that I have many in my church and I need to reach them.

Link Load 04-18-08

art rogers — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:01:59 +0000

Links from tools to weird stories, amazing videos and so much more.

WordPress 2.5 and plugins

art rogers — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:31:54 +0000

If you are new to blogging or don’t know much about hosting a blog on your own site vs. blogspot or even wordpress free services, you can check out my rundown from last year that will give you the basics. There are a few changes of specific info from then, but just a few.

I am really diggin’ WordPress 2.5. Kevin Bussey said he hated it over on Marty Duren’s blog, but I think he just hates change. He’s such a stick in the mud, he probably still likes his worship with all hymns and just the 1st, 2nd & last verse sung to a Hammond B3 Organ with the vibrato wailing.

Anyway, 2.5 is awesome in a lot of ways, but I’ll just tell you a few of my faves.

The Visual Editor is MUCH better and you don’t have to do the shift-alt-v thing to get the extra buttons.
In the Visual Editor, you can post media to your server by uploading pictures, audio or video. I’m still using flickr and podpress for most of this, but I am experimenting and have found hosting the pictures on my own server is a little easier and a lot more flexible than it used to be.
Big fave – You can embed video from Youtube or other similar hosting site via the Visual Editor. WordPress used to really not like you embedding streaming video. You used to have to write it in the html side of the code and publish it immediately. If you ever changed anything in the post, the video would quit. This makes obsolete the embedify plugin that I was previously using to do the same thing, but it only worked with Youtube (I think – I never tried it with another service).
The plugin page will check if you need to update your plugins and will do it for you with the click of a link, rather than forcing you to overwrite a file with ftp.

Well, those are just the top vote getters at the moment.

I also want to give you a new list of plugins that I am using. Joe Kennedy put up a list and it reminded me of a lot of changes that I have made in this area, so here they are:

Akismet – The anti-spam plugin that comes with WordPress.
All in One SEO Pack – This plugin is a Search Engine Optimization tool that will hlep your posts get found and, hopefully, read.
Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter – Inserts a copyright tag at the bottom of your post when read in a feedreader.
Anti Spam Image – This plugin is no longer available on its host site, but might be found if you search for it. It puts the number/alphabet image input box by the comment section to keep spam programs from filling my comment section full of offers for porn and medications without a prescription. Very necessary, in my opinion (The plugin! Get your mind out of the gutter). Other plugins offer similar options.
Bad Behavior – This is anther anti-spam plugin that monitors ip addresses for frequent attempts to access and post to your site and shuts them down cold. When it is working, it rocks. Unfortunately, it sometimes messes up, like the time it shut me out of my own blog and I couldn’t even log in to the editor. It’s not doing that right now, but it is corrupting my category tables or something, so it is in time out (deactivated) for behaving badly. Hopefully, an update will patch it up and let it get back to shutting down spammers. I’ve just upgraded to the latest update (Monday night), but it is still living up to its name, so it is still in time out.
Countdown Timer – This is a fun little plugin that lets you count down to something that you might be writing about. Our big trip to Vietnam was the last thing I put up. The downside is that the time and date function don’t work right, so you have to figure how far it is off (I think about 2 hours behind) and set your event for the appropriate wrong time so it will show the right time. A little high maintenance.
Feed Statistics – Most of our blogs are read in feeds, but they aren’t counted by Statcounter codes that we embed in the page. This plugin lets you see some information about how many people are grabbing your feed, and which posts they pick up.
Google Sitemaps – This plugin creates a sitemap for the Google to pick up when it scans your site. That’s beneficial, because it helps Google decide if your post is relevant to searches that others are performing and this will cause relevant searches to rise in the search results.
inline RSS – One of two rss feed scrapers that David Phillips installed to scrape the feed of my photoblog and put the titles as links in the sidebar of my blog. If you need help, ask him. He’s pretty cheap tech support. I don’t know which of these scrapers is actually doing the work, but I’ll link to the other one when it comes up. (This is all alphabetical, you know.)
Maintenance Mode – This plugin allows you to stop others from accessing your site while you do upgrades or mess with the template.
Move Comments – Allows you to move comments from one post to another. This is handy if someone says something brilliant but it relates to another post.
PodPress – Plugin that turns your blog into an audio or video podcast. It’s awesome and easy.
Slashdiggalicious – This puts a bunch of icons for social networking sites that allow a reader to post a link to your article to those sites.
Subscribe to Comments – Allows readers to subscribe to emails updating them on comments posted to an article you’ve written. This is particularly helpful for people who are wanting to follow a discussion, but don’t want to check back all the time.
ToDo List Plugin – Let’s you create a ToDo list in the dashboard of your blog, so that you can keep up with stuff that you want to do, like modify some part of your template.
WordPress Stats – Keeps track of hits, etc. for your WordPress blog. Doesn’t track IP addresses, if you need that sort of thing, you still need Statcounter.
WordPress Automatic Upgrade – This plugin will walk you through an upgrade of WordPress software when it comes out. It works very well, and you don’t have to be a geek to upgrade your software. By the by, upgrade your software, because not upgrading it leaves security breaches that can expose your blog to hacking.
WordPress Database Backup – Creates a backup of all your data so if something goes wrong and your host accidentally wipes out your blog, then you can reload it and not lose everything. I have been close on several occasions and have lost a few things that weren’t backed up. Nice to have everything else still here.
WP-RSSImport – The other scraping plugin.

Comments

April 8, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Yeah, I finally got it installed or I should say Micah Fries did. It does look nice.
April 8, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Thanks for the new toys too! U da man!
April 8, 2008, art rogers writes: Hey, Kev. You've got some cool plugins. What are you using?
April 8, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: I just screwed up my dashboard by installing some of them. I can't get back in my plugins or manage my posts. Uggh!
April 10, 2008, Marty Duren writes: Art- Thanks for the heads ups. Kevin- Please tell me which one(s) to avoid. If you guys haven't checked out David P's new template, give it a look. Cool stuff.
April 10, 2008, art rogers writes: Kevin was having problems with Podpress, but you are already podpressing, so it isn't a problem for you. When something like this happens, it is usually a template issue. Marty, you should use the automatic upgrade plugin to walk you through the upgrades, since you haven't upgraded since the stone age. It'll take you through backing up your files, downloading new ones, etc. That all happens step by step, or you can click one link and it will do everything for you. I've got a LOT more stuff about effective blogging that I've learned over the last week or so. More info coming.
April 10, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Micah discovered podpress messed mine up.
April 13, 2008, Global Fusion writes: Hi Art, Thanks for the nice list. I rather go with RSS Footer plugin from Joost http://www.joostdevalk.nl/wordpress/rss-footer/ instead of Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter. The main reason? You can customize better your message and links. For tracking I am trying Wassup http://www.wpwp.org. Works great as a basic analytics tool for WP 2.5. Best of all, so far it is not messing up my other Analytics software. Keep on expanding that list please. Cheers!
April 13, 2008, art rogers writes: @ Global Fusion: GF, Thanks for the perspective. Actually, as of this week, I have dropped Angusman's for a whole new plugin (new to me, anyway) and I'll explain that this week. I appreciate the encouragement, because I am getting ready for a TON of tech posts on blogging called, "Better Blogging". I hope you will add your thoughts...
April 15, 2008, Global Fusion writes: @Art, I am anxious waiting for your post. I am sure you will be sharing interesting information about blogging.

Anyway, 2.5 is awesome in a lot of ways, but I’ll just tell you a few of my faves.

The Visual Editor is MUCH better and you don’t have to do the shift-alt-v thing to get the extra buttons.
In the Visual Editor, you can post media to your server by uploading pictures, audio or video. I’m still using flickr and podpress for most of this, but I am experimenting and have found hosting the pictures on my own server is a little easier and a lot more flexible than it used to be.
Big fave – You can embed video from Youtube or other similar hosting site via the Visual Editor. WordPress used to really not like you embedding streaming video. You used to have to write it in the html side of the code and publish it immediately. If you ever changed anything in the post, the video would quit. This makes obsolete the embedify plugin that I was previously using to do the same thing, but it only worked with Youtube (I think – I never tried it with another service).
The plugin page will check if you need to update your plugins and will do it for you with the click of a link, rather than forcing you to overwrite a file with ftp.

Well, those are just the top vote getters at the moment.

I also want to give you a new list of plugins that I am using. Joe Kennedy put up a list and it reminded me of a lot of changes that I have made in this area, so here they are:

Akismet – The anti-spam plugin that comes with WordPress.
All in One SEO Pack – This plugin is a Search Engine Optimization tool that will hlep your posts get found and, hopefully, read.
Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter – Inserts a copyright tag at the bottom of your post when read in a feedreader.
Anti Spam Image – This plugin is no longer available on its host site, but might be found if you search for it. It puts the number/alphabet image input box by the comment section to keep spam programs from filling my comment section full of offers for porn and medications without a prescription. Very necessary, in my opinion (The plugin! Get your mind out of the gutter). Other plugins offer similar options.
Bad Behavior – This is anther anti-spam plugin that monitors ip addresses for frequent attempts to access and post to your site and shuts them down cold. When it is working, it rocks. Unfortunately, it sometimes messes up, like the time it shut me out of my own blog and I couldn’t even log in to the editor. It’s not doing that right now, but it is corrupting my category tables or something, so it is in time out (deactivated) for behaving badly. Hopefully, an update will patch it up and let it get back to shutting down spammers. I’ve just upgraded to the latest update (Monday night), but it is still living up to its name, so it is still in time out.
Countdown Timer – This is a fun little plugin that lets you count down to something that you might be writing about. Our big trip to Vietnam was the last thing I put up. The downside is that the time and date function don’t work right, so you have to figure how far it is off (I think about 2 hours behind) and set your event for the appropriate wrong time so it will show the right time. A little high maintenance.
Feed Statistics – Most of our blogs are read in feeds, but they aren’t counted by Statcounter codes that we embed in the page. This plugin lets you see some information about how many people are grabbing your feed, and which posts they pick up.
Google Sitemaps – This plugin creates a sitemap for the Google to pick up when it scans your site. That’s beneficial, because it helps Google decide if your post is relevant to searches that others are performing and this will cause relevant searches to rise in the search results.
inline RSS – One of two rss feed scrapers that David Phillips installed to scrape the feed of my photoblog and put the titles as links in the sidebar of my blog. If you need help, ask him. He’s pretty cheap tech support. I don’t know which of these scrapers is actually doing the work, but I’ll link to the other one when it comes up. (This is all alphabetical, you know.)
Maintenance Mode – This plugin allows you to stop others from accessing your site while you do upgrades or mess with the template.
Move Comments – Allows you to move comments from one post to another. This is handy if someone says something brilliant but it relates to another post.
PodPress – Plugin that turns your blog into an audio or video podcast. It’s awesome and easy.
Slashdiggalicious – This puts a bunch of icons for social networking sites that allow a reader to post a link to your article to those sites.
Subscribe to Comments – Allows readers to subscribe to emails updating them on comments posted to an article you’ve written. This is particularly helpful for people who are wanting to follow a discussion, but don’t want to check back all the time.
ToDo List Plugin – Let’s you create a ToDo list in the dashboard of your blog, so that you can keep up with stuff that you want to do, like modify some part of your template.
WordPress Stats – Keeps track of hits, etc. for your WordPress blog. Doesn’t track IP addresses, if you need that sort of thing, you still need Statcounter.
WordPress Automatic Upgrade – This plugin will walk you through an upgrade of WordPress software when it comes out. It works very well, and you don’t have to be a geek to upgrade your software. By the by, upgrade your software, because not upgrading it leaves security breaches that can expose your blog to hacking.
WordPress Database Backup – Creates a backup of all your data so if something goes wrong and your host accidentally wipes out your blog, then you can reload it and not lose everything. I have been close on several occasions and have lost a few things that weren’t backed up. Nice to have everything else still here.
WP-RSSImport – The other scraping plugin.

Comments

April 8, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Yeah, I finally got it installed or I should say Micah Fries did. It does look nice.
April 8, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Thanks for the new toys too! U da man!
April 8, 2008, art rogers writes: Hey, Kev. You've got some cool plugins. What are you using?
April 8, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: I just screwed up my dashboard by installing some of them. I can't get back in my plugins or manage my posts. Uggh!
April 10, 2008, Marty Duren writes: Art- Thanks for the heads ups. Kevin- Please tell me which one(s) to avoid. If you guys haven't checked out David P's new template, give it a look. Cool stuff.
April 10, 2008, art rogers writes: Kevin was having problems with Podpress, but you are already podpressing, so it isn't a problem for you. When something like this happens, it is usually a template issue. Marty, you should use the automatic upgrade plugin to walk you through the upgrades, since you haven't upgraded since the stone age. It'll take you through backing up your files, downloading new ones, etc. That all happens step by step, or you can click one link and it will do everything for you. I've got a LOT more stuff about effective blogging that I've learned over the last week or so. More info coming.
April 10, 2008, Kevin Bussey writes: Micah discovered podpress messed mine up.
April 13, 2008, Global Fusion writes: Hi Art, Thanks for the nice list. I rather go with RSS Footer plugin from Joost http://www.joostdevalk.nl/wordpress/rss-footer/ instead of Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter. The main reason? You can customize better your message and links. For tracking I am trying Wassup http://www.wpwp.org. Works great as a basic analytics tool for WP 2.5. Best of all, so far it is not messing up my other Analytics software. Keep on expanding that list please. Cheers!
April 13, 2008, art rogers writes: @ Global Fusion: GF, Thanks for the perspective. Actually, as of this week, I have dropped Angusman's for a whole new plugin (new to me, anyway) and I'll explain that this week. I appreciate the encouragement, because I am getting ready for a TON of tech posts on blogging called, "Better Blogging". I hope you will add your thoughts...
April 15, 2008, Global Fusion writes: @Art, I am anxious waiting for your post. I am sure you will be sharing interesting information about blogging.

Pastoral Blogging: Claiming feeds, switching readers and podcasting

art rogers — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 03:43:45 +0000

I am considering switching from Bloglines to Google Reader as my primary rss feed reader. If you don’t know what that’s all about, read this post: Pastoral Blogging, Pt. 7 (I hereby stop numbering them and will name them from now on…)

Anyway, this is not really brought on by Bloglines at all. It works well, adapts very well to the mobile internet on my Treo and is still the biggest feed reader. Google Reader is rapidly on the rise, however. The change is being brought about because My Yahoo homepage, which has been my homepage for a looooong time is trying to transition to keep up with iGoogle – another homepage, similar to My Yahoo. Well, Google also has online shareable docs, calendars, blogsearch, pictures (to compete with Yahoo owned, Flickr) and, of course, this reader. That’s just to get you started – there’s ALOT more.
Well, I am already using Google for those other things, excepting Flickr, so when Yahoo tries to force me to shift to its new beta My Yahoo page and I find that my email and fantasy sports teams are unsupported modules at the new version, so I switch back, but not without a hassle.

On a whim I check out iGoogle (available with free google account) and start adding modules. Guess what? I can check my email from the iGoogle homepage. Yeah my Gmail (google mail) but also MY YAHOO MAIL. I can check my Yahoo mail from the google homepage but I can’t from the new My Yahoo homepage. Errr…. Just a suggestion, Yahoo, be ready to roll before you start something like this.

Anyway, since it looks like I am going to be moving over to Google for a homepage, I might integrate my reader into iGoogle as well.

As I went through that process I found that I can import all of my feeds as they are from bloglines. In Bloglines, go to “edit” and at the bottom of the left hand column, click export feeds. Save the “export.opml” file to your hard drive and then upload it in the Google Reader. That simple.

Regardless of whether or not you switch, however, you might want to claim your feed at bloglines. It’s under My Account -> Publisher Tools. You need to find your feed, integrate some code and then authenticate.

In a mostly unrelated topic, I settled on an audio plugin to help with post Frank Page’s Q&A session with Tulsa Metro. It is PodPress, and it gives you tons of stats about downloads vs. plays vs. feed reads. Really good stuff, if you want to upload some audio. I tried another one, but it didn’t work. PodPress is low maintenance and clearly the way to go. it you want to get a little more high maintenance, you can list your audio at iTunes with Podpress, but even if you don’t, PodPress creates an rss feed that people can use to subscribe to audio that you upload. Bottom line: if they are on your blog, they can subscribe to your podcast, and if they aren’t, they are not likely to find you at iTunes because that is like a needle in a haystack. Of course, this plugin is for WordPress blogs.

Be good. I’m going to see Marty next week, so I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll blog, set some stuff to drop while I’m gone or just take some time off. Most likely the latter, but we’ll see.

Comments

October 20, 2007, Joe Kennedy writes: I like Google Reader a lot. Just so you know.
October 23, 2007, Lu writes: I started to switch over to Google Reader until I realized it only gives you a snippet of the post and you have to go to the blog if you want to read the whole thing. I'm really lazy and prefer to read straight from Bloglines and only go to the blog if I either have something to say, or if the post isn't showing up right/is hard to read. Messes up the blog's stats, I know. But oh well. Anyway, that's all I had to say. Except that I'm still reading regularly 'cause you always have good stuff -- just reading on Bloglines. :)

Anyway, since it looks like I am going to be moving over to Google for a homepage, I might integrate my reader into iGoogle as well.

Comments

October 20, 2007, Joe Kennedy writes: I like Google Reader a lot. Just so you know.
October 23, 2007, Lu writes: I started to switch over to Google Reader until I realized it only gives you a snippet of the post and you have to go to the blog if you want to read the whole thing. I'm really lazy and prefer to read straight from Bloglines and only go to the blog if I either have something to say, or if the post isn't showing up right/is hard to read. Messes up the blog's stats, I know. But oh well. Anyway, that's all I had to say. Except that I'm still reading regularly 'cause you always have good stuff -- just reading on Bloglines. :)

Photoblog

art rogers — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:01:10 +0000

Just for my own amusement and my family’s ability to get to my pictures online (some are of my family), I have created a photoblog as a subdomain. If you would like to access my photoblog, you can do so here:

photoblog.twelvewitnesses.com

With the help (as always) of David Phillips, this blog is a direct connect to a flickr account set up for just this purpose. It siphons off the photos, sets and recent uploads, as well as any I mark as favorites, which I have not done. The home page is a full sized picture of whatever I uploaded last, which you can cycle through backward at full size. An easier way is to look at the sets of pictures, which will launch thumbnail pages. If you click on a thumbnail, a larger size will appear and you can scroll through the set, forward or backward, if you like.

I’ve enjoyed taking pictures since I was a kid. My Mom was a professional photographer, so I grew up around it.

I use a Canon Rebel xti DSLR to take the pictures and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to process the RAW data, which is the way I record the digital data.

Flickr now also receives photos through email. This will allow me to post pictures I take with my camera immediately to my photoblog, which I look forward to doing. Camera phones have revolutionized culture, it seems. If you have a flickr account, you have a secret email address that will receive your photos. Login to flickr and go to www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail/.

Wait, there’s more. The photoblog is photoblog software, but I might also like to upload pictures from my treo to this WordPress powered blog – the main domain site – and post a short article to go with it. I can do that, too, though it is a different process. It also works with blogger, typepad, moveable type and other blogs styles.

If you would like to post to your blog from your phone, you have to first set up the interface with flickr and your blog. You can do that by going to www.flickr.com/blogs.gne and following the process there.

After you get that set up, then go to www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail/blog/ and get the add on to your secret email address that will receive your email picture, post it on your flickr site, and then send it all to your blog as well.

Should be fun for random “out and about” posts, but also could be interesting when live blogging a conference.

Enjoy.

[HT: Mark Ghosh]

Comments

September 17, 2007, Rev. Michael writes: Well...if you really are taking requests for your photoblog...(I gotta remind my kiddos where they come from) First, NO MORE RICHARD HARRISON! It scares my children! Truthfully, I love Richard and it warmed my heart to see a pic of him but don't tell him that. :) Only sadness was the lack of Judy. My first request will be that of the Golden Driller. If you really get bored...a shot of ORU, downtown Tulsa reflected in the river, the pedestrain bridge at the riverparks, any Rib Crib, any Braums sundae (you can eat it after shooting it!), ...I'm overdoing it just a little huh? Art, there was a great spot in south Tulsa next to Shadow Mountain where you could get a pretty good view of Tulsa at night. Off of 61st you go behind some offices to a strange, multilevel, unused, unattached parking lot. Go up to the highest point by car then walk up the little hill. My friends and I used to hang out up there on many a Friday and Saturday night watching the lights of the city. There may be better spots I don't know of but I always thought it was a pretty nighttime view of Tulsa from the south. Or just the Golden Driller will be fine. :) God bless.
September 17, 2007, Art Rogers writes: My back fence separates that hill from my backyard, actually. It is fenced off, now, though. I can get close, and, in fact have a couple of pics that are not very good from the highest level parking lot that I could get to. Not at night, though. I'll look to it as an upcoming project.
September 17, 2007, Art Rogers writes: It is fenced off all the way around, I should say. Not just my backyard fence.

photoblog.twelvewitnesses.com

I’ve enjoyed taking pictures since I was a kid. My Mom was a professional photographer, so I grew up around it.

I use a Canon Rebel xti DSLR to take the pictures and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to process the RAW data, which is the way I record the digital data.

Should be fun for random “out and about” posts, but also could be interesting when live blogging a conference.

Enjoy.

[HT: Mark Ghosh]

Comments

September 17, 2007, Rev. Michael writes: Well...if you really are taking requests for your photoblog...(I gotta remind my kiddos where they come from) First, NO MORE RICHARD HARRISON! It scares my children! Truthfully, I love Richard and it warmed my heart to see a pic of him but don't tell him that. :) Only sadness was the lack of Judy. My first request will be that of the Golden Driller. If you really get bored...a shot of ORU, downtown Tulsa reflected in the river, the pedestrain bridge at the riverparks, any Rib Crib, any Braums sundae (you can eat it after shooting it!), ...I'm overdoing it just a little huh? Art, there was a great spot in south Tulsa next to Shadow Mountain where you could get a pretty good view of Tulsa at night. Off of 61st you go behind some offices to a strange, multilevel, unused, unattached parking lot. Go up to the highest point by car then walk up the little hill. My friends and I used to hang out up there on many a Friday and Saturday night watching the lights of the city. There may be better spots I don't know of but I always thought it was a pretty nighttime view of Tulsa from the south. Or just the Golden Driller will be fine. :) God bless.
September 17, 2007, Art Rogers writes: My back fence separates that hill from my backyard, actually. It is fenced off, now, though. I can get close, and, in fact have a couple of pics that are not very good from the highest level parking lot that I could get to. Not at night, though. I'll look to it as an upcoming project.
September 17, 2007, Art Rogers writes: It is fenced off all the way around, I should say. Not just my backyard fence.

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