mail chimp: 2012

20 Eylül 2012 Perşembe

Winner announced: $50 Dollar Giveaway contest

Finally the day has arrived to announce the winner of $50 Dollar Giveaway contest which was started on 12-3-2011. I saw a good thrilling craze among participants to win this $50 cash.
So without wasting your time let me announce the winner of this giveaway contest.
Name - Jafar Haider
Congrats! Jafar, You won $50 cash directly in your paypal account. For those didn’t win this contest I have something special for them, they will be getting my e-book “Building Your Own Blogging Business” directly into their inbox after the launch without any subscription.
Participants who didn’t win, just don’t worry because another contest is coming soon so be updated by subscribing to our newsletter from the right sidebar or here

Another contest coming soon

Thesis Header – Design Yourself

Thesis is the king of all WordPress Themes, where as SEO is concerned Thesis Rocks. We can make any changes in Thesis according to our likes whether its customization or optimization.
In this Post I will discuss about Thesis Navigation but before that check few important articles on thesis customization.
how to add background color in thesis navigation menu?
How to add more links in thesis teasers home page excerpts
How to add second menu bar after header in thesis theme?
How to add author avatar with post title in thesis teasers homepage
Navigation Menu is a very important aspect of your Website Design because it is the first look which comes in the appearance when any new visitor visits your Website so It need to be well designed. In Thesis Theme customization, The more you know CSS the more you can design well. Learning every aspect of CSS is not possible in one day so I chooses to go with some Basic inbuilt design options for nav menu in thesis, How can you can use Thesis inbuilt Design Options to get most out of it.
The simple Thesis navigation bar looks like this:

Default thesis navigationIt looks really very boring so lets start to make it stylish. How to Design Thesis Navigation Menu in Header? Go to WordPress Dashboard, under Thesis tab click Design Options. Choose Nav Menu under Fonts, Colors, and More. Now just style up the Nav bar according to the color you like. For the best result I have shown the best color combinations in the screenshot below & The functions of different boxes.

Link Text color: Color of the text link in the nav menuLink Text Hover Color: Color of the text link when you move your mouse over the link.Current Link Text Color: Color of the link text of the page, currently you are switched on. Example you are in Home page so the link color of “Home” at the nav bar with be changed to the color specified in this field.Current Parent link Text color: Color of the Parent links text of the current page.Link Background Color: Background color of all the links except the current link.Hover Background Color: Background color of the link when you will move your mouse over the link.Current Background Color: Background color of the link of the page you are currently on.Current Parent Background Color: background color of the parent links you are current on.Nav Border width: Width of border of nav menu. Default 1px, which is the best for all sites.Nav Border Color: Color of the border in Nav Menu.Sub menu width: Width of the sub menu. Default 1px.Adjust the color according to your site look, in the screenshot I have shown just show the example of color which will suit in all type of websites. Here is the result of the settings which I made.

Colored Stylish Nav MenuNow you have a stylish Nav menu for your thesis theme.

GoTricky invite authors to write for us

Now its time for GoTricky to become Multi-Author blog. As a founder of GoTricky I feel proud to invite authors to join our Tech Team.
I promote guest blogging because it is very advantageous. I myself do guest blogging, here is one the awesome article which I have written in shankerbakshi.com is Top google chrome extension for bloggers

My aim to make GoTricky multi – author is just have fine and unique content here that I can have only from you all.Before joining GoTricky I would suggest you to read our Guest Post guidelines and other details.Now you can Join our Tech Team – Sign up

All about Network attached storage (NAS)

In this article i am going to give some info about Network Attached Storage (NAS). So, without any further ado we will start.
Definition:
Network-attached storage (NAS) is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. As of 2010 NAS devices are gaining popularity, as a convenient method of sharing files among multiple computers. Potential benefits of network-attached storage, compared to file servers, include faster data access, easier administration, and simple configuration.
Source : Wikipedia
How it works:
NAS is a networked group of hard drives. These hard drives are connected to each other through different arrangements it can be logical, redundant storage containers or RAID arrays. They virtually remove the need for separate file sharing servers and can easily provide access to files using file sharing protocols.
For doing all this they need an Operating System. But there is no need for a full featured OS, so a stripped down version of OS is used which can handle the basic input and output operations and is light on system resources.
Example of this type of OS is FreeNAS – a stripped downed version of FreeBSD.
Uses:
Instead of using those huge and complex older systems one can use NAS to achieve more simplicity and cost-effective results. The price of NAS has decreased over the past few years so we can expect more featured NAS products in the near future at a very simple cost.
Advantages:

Compatible with all types of OS, be it Windows or Mac OS X.
NAS are Plug and Play systems and that means there’s a very little configuration to be done.
It’s a centralized storage which makes it easier for the admin to maintain the whole system.

Disadvantages:

A NAS is connected to a single network and there can be many systems connected to the NAS simultaneously, this can affect the efficiency of the data transfer occurring between the systems and the NAS.
NAS is a shared storage and hence if quotas are not enforced by the administrator one user can hog all the storage from the quota of other users.

Some latest NAS drives:

HP Media Vault MV212.
Buffalo LinkStation Mini
Synology Disk Station DS-107+
Drobo DroboShare
D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network

How to add Background Image in Thesis theme Navigation Menu header

This post is little special because with this post I will start video blogging with textual version too. In this tutorial i will explain you about How to add Background image in thesis theme navigation menu at header. I had already covered few tutorials on Thesis Nav in our Thesis Customization category.

Default Thesis navigation without any image looks like thisNow let’s start to add image in thesis nav menu. It is very necessary to choose perfect image for your nav menu because you are adding image to give special effect to your menu so it needs to be well. You need to have image having special effect and larger width.
To add image in thesis nav firstly we need to remove default thesis navigation menu. For that we need to add action in custom functions.php file, copy the code from below and paste it in custom functions.php to remove default thesis navigation menu.
To add code, login to your WordPress dashboard than go to custom file editor under thesis tab from dashboard sidebar than choose custom functions.php file to edit . I will recommend you using any FTP client for dealing with custom functions.php.
/*remove deafult thesis navigation*/ remove_action(‘thesis_hook_before_header’, ‘thesis_nav_menu’);After removing default navigation menu, we need to add another navigation menu with some more functionality. Copy and paste the code for custom functions.php to add new thesis navigation menu.
//place my custom nav above the header add_action(‘thesis_hook_before_header’, ‘custom_nav’);
function custom_nav() {
echo ‘<div id=”nav”>’;
echo ‘<div id=”nav2″>’;
echo ‘<div>’; thesis_nav_menu(); //this is default navigation
echo ‘</div>’; echo ‘</div>’; echo ‘</div>’;
};
Now just we need to add image with some more styling for that copy and paste below in custom.css for styling your nav menu
/* paste in custom.css file */ .custom #nav2{ background:url(“http://gotricky.com/Raj-Sharma/wp-content/themes/thesis_18/custom/images/nav_bar.jpg”); width:950px; height:50x; padding-left:0; float:left; } .custom .nav_container{ padding:0 0 0 0; font-weight:italic; margin-top:0.0em; } .custom .menu li{ border:1px solid #444; -moz-border-radius:3px; } .custom .menu { background-color: none;} .custom .menu ul li{ width:21.9em; } .custom .menu li a{ font-size:1.2em; }
Finlay you have your own New thesis navigation menu with background image. Don’t forget to replace your image link from the above code with your own image.

Yoga Printmaking to build muscle memory

Enjoy this video. It is speeded up so you will watch the whole process. You will get the idea. Silence, repetition and following the instructor's voice allows the student to be with doing. It stops the student from analyzing everything and trying to create the perfect print. Happy Printing!How to make a gelatin Plate for printmaking - the video

Quick video on the basics of gelatin printmaking

Gelatin printing artist trading cards - a short video

48 second slideshow of gelatin prints by linda germain and why she loves it.

Gelatin Printmaking tips page

Or Take the next gelatin printing workshop

Kickstarter for inspiration

Every so often I check our kickstarter for inspiration and ideas. Happiness .... hmmm that is a good idea.
How to make a gelatin Plate for printmaking - the video

Quick video on the basics of gelatin printmaking

Gelatin printing artist trading cards - a short video

48 second slideshow of gelatin prints by linda germain and why she loves it.

Gelatin Printmaking tips page

Or Take the next gelatin printing workshop

Gelatin Prints for Sale by Linda Germain

I have added some new gelatin prints and mixed media originals to my website for purchase. Check them out. If you like them but do not need to buy art today please tweet and share them with your friends. Who knows they could find a new home near you. :)

I am excited to share that I will be teaching a Marathon Gelatin Printmaking session in Austin Texas in April 2013. Cathy Savage and the Women Printmakers of Austin have invited me to Texas to share all I know about the process. So if you are in the area sign up early to save a little money.

How to make a gelatin Plate for printmaking - the video

Quick video on the basics of gelatin printmaking

Gelatin printing artist trading cards - a short video

48 second slideshow of gelatin prints by linda germain and why she loves it.

Gelatin Printmaking tips page

Or Take the next gelatin printing workshop

Scribbles in ink and Charcoal with Gelatin Printing

I thought I would try combining the scribbles/drawings and printing at the same time. Charcoal sometimes lifts and transfers. The speedball ink dries really fast so it was easy to work back and forth between drawing and printing. No need to wait for things to dry.
How to make a gelatin Plate for printmaking - the video

Quick video on the basics of gelatin printmaking

Gelatin printing artist trading cards - a short video

48 second slideshow of gelatin prints by linda germain and why she loves it.

Gelatin Printmaking tips page

Or Take the next gelatin printing workshop

New Gelatin Prints to share

I have added a few more gelatin prints to my ART by Linda Germain blog. I am enjoying mixing it up. I have added some drawing, screen printing and paint to some of these prints. Check them out. Maybe you will find one you like.

How to make a gelatin Plate for printmaking - the video

Quick video on the basics of gelatin printmaking

Gelatin printing artist trading cards - a short video

48 second slideshow of gelatin prints by linda germain and why she loves it.

Gelatin Printmaking tips page

Or Take the next gelatin printing workshop

My BrainShark to the Rescue!

We've all heard it before. There are students who do well by reading directions, while some need to hear directions, and still others need to both see and hear them. Adults, undoubtedly, are no different. Have you ever taken the time to send a detailed email only to find out that the recipient didn't read every word as carefully as you wrote them? It can certainly be frustrating when your thoughtfully composed message just doesn't do the trick, but what can you do? . . . Enlist the aid of a brainshark, that's what!

Mybrainshark.com is a wonderful website that allows you to upload written content to your free account, add narration, background music, even survey questions, and share with your contacts. You can add your voice to documents, PowerPoint presentations, videos and photos by using your computer's microphone, or your cell phone. Share your file by distributing a link, embedding it in a blog, wiki or web page, or via QR code. Twitter and Facebook users can also share their work through their favorite social networking site, or (and this is my favorite) email contacts directly through the mybrainshark website. Then, with the simple click of a checkbox, you'll receive an email notification each time your work is viewed. Invest in a Pro account, and get access to even more features. Never again will your colleagues, or your students, miss the important details of your message.

Take a look at the sample presentation below. I know you'll want to give mybrainshark a try, and once you do, I'm confident you'll be a fan. My Brain Shark truly is the easy, free way to make online video.

Listen to this post, or download mp3

Blabberize.com … It Speaks for Itself

It isn't every day you find a classroom resource with usefulness that speaks for itself, but blabberize.com does just that--quite literally. Visit the website, play the sample blabber on the home page, and I'll bet the bank that you'll have a smile on your face before it's over. The friendly talking llama entertains and inspires, and will most assuredly convince you to to create your own "blabber."

With Black History month in full swing, and Presidents' Day just around the corner, I'm guessing that there are more than a few oral reports on the horizon in many classrooms. This year, instead of having your students talk about famous Americans, try having them talk as famous Americans. Upload an image to the blabberize website, use the tool provided to select the lower jaw, and record or upload a narration. With no additional effort, you will have created an amazing talking picture.

Blabberize lets you make the ordinary written word something extraordinary. Oral reports, book reports, announcements, invitations, instructions, … blog entries, all become a lot more interesting when they're blabberized. Really. Judge for yourself. Which do you prefer? More importantly, which would speak to your students?

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A Voki for Your Valentine … or Your Vocabulary Lesson

If you've been paying attention to the news in the U.S. lately, you know that President Obama made quite a splash recently for singing just a few measures of an Al Green song during a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater. Those few seconds of song garnered the attention of news stations around the country, not just because it was good, but because it was unexpected. Thanks, Mr. President, for reminding us that a little novelty can go a long way towards getting the attention of your audience.

Short of breaking into song in your classroom, you can add a little novelty by using a fun site like Voki.com. An individual account at Voki.com is free, and easy to use. Choose a character from the variety available at the site and make adjustments to hair color, eye color, etc. Select a background or upload your own, and you're ready to give your Voki a voice. You can upload saved audio, or record your own message using your computer's microphone or your telephone. You can even make use of the text to speech feature and have your character speak what you type. No matter how you add audio, your character will not only move its mouth as it speaks the words, its eyes will follow the movement of the mouse on your page. Once complete, you can share your message by email, or embedding in a blog or wiki. Whether you make one to send to your Valentine or for your vocabulary lesson, your Voki is sure to get your message to its intended audience. Be sure to visit Voki.com to view the collection of lesson plans and see all the ways a voki can get the attention of your students … without singing a single note.

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Fall in love with LiveBinders

If you are an experienced teacher with more than a few years under your belt, chances are that you have a bookshelf or file drawer filled with the materials that you use year after year. After all, why reinvent the wheel when you have one that actually rolls pretty well? Now, though, in addition to your resource books and printed materials, you also have bookmarked websites and Word documents and PDFs and videos and podcasts--all of which relate to a particular unit, and most of which are stored in various places online or on your computer's hard drive. If only there was a way to keep all of your resources neatly organized and easily accessible in that 3-ring binder there on your shelf. (Insert audible sigh here.)

You may not be able to store your digital files in a 3-ring binder, but you can store all of it in a livebinder! LiveBinders.com is an awesome site that makes organizing your teaching materials easier than you ever thought possible. Every binder you create with your free account can be divided into tabs and subtabs, each of which can hold virtually any sort of digital content. Add text, images, documents, PDFs, calendars, videos, web links, widgets . . . whatever. Use html to embed material in your binder, and use html to embed your binder (or a whole shelf of binders) in a web page--a tidy little package, indeed.

In addition to the two binders I have embedded in this blog, I have binders with professional development resources for workshops I present; class lists, seating charts and emergency info for substitutes; and one that contains web links with log in hints for my students. These examples, however, just scratch the surface of the potential uses for livebinders. Create accounts for your students (from sub-accounts of your Gmail) and livebinders become portfolios of their work. Planning a vacation, or a wedding? Use livebinders to organize flight, hotel, and rental-car info; or wedding dress, catering, and florist details. Anything that needs to be organized, needs to be organized in a livebinder. Add the "LiveBinder It" bookmarklet to your browser's toolbar, and adding content to your binder couldn't be easier.

Visit LiveBinders.com and take a look at some of the amazing work that our generous colleagues have chosen to share at the site. Even if you decide not to create a binder of your own, I promise you'll find some remarkable treasures that will cause you to fall as madly in love with livebinders as I have.

Here's a sample of the binders on my shelf:

Well . . . look at this!

Thanks so much @baileybunch13 for this great post on LiveBinders! baileybunch6.blogspot.com/2012/01/fall-i…
— Tina and Barbara (@LiveBinders) February 25, 2012

My pleasure, ladies! Always happy to spread the word about my favorite resources.

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Use SumoPaint for Picture Perfect Summer Fun

Okay, so maybe you're not able to travel this summer--not everybody can. But, each of you can make it look like you've had wonderful adventures worthy of the envy of your friends and relatives through the magic of photo editing.

PhotoShop, of course, is a wonderful, well-known photo editing program, but for those of us who don't have access to the pricey program there is an economical alternative that can give equally remarkable results. Create a free account at sumopaint.com, and you can begin creating superimposed photos that look amazingly realistic, and will help you create the illusion of world travels or epic adventures.

Once you click on the Start Drawing button you will be directed to your canvas and tool palette. There's much to explore, with lots of drawing and shape tools with which you can easily create some amazing works of art. Just as with Photo Shop, you can create your artwork in layers, and add effects using the Layer and Filters menus.

Under the File menu you'll find Import to Layer. This command will allow you to import photos that you have saved to your computer, or from a web URL. So, go ahead. Import a photo of the Taj Mahal, for example, and then import a photo of yourself or your family into a new layer. Now use the lasso tool to carefully trace around your outline, go to Select and choose Inverse. Now use the Edit menu to Cut away anything that was in the picture with you, and suddenly you are in Agra! Yes, using the lasso tool takes some practice, and a lot of patience, but I assure you the results you get are well worth the time and effort. What's that you say? The proportions aren't quite right? Adjust your size using the Free Transform tool.

When you are finished working, you can use the Save button to store your work on the SumoPaint site, or go to File and Save to My Computer if you're using the site without having created an account (I usually have my students use this option). If yours is a work still in progress, be sure to save your art as a .sumo file to maintain the layers you created. Saving as a .jpg or .png file will merge the layers into a single picture file. If you save to the Sumo Paint site, notice that one of your options is to Publish to Facebook. Isn't that the perfect way to keep your friends up to date on your global getaways?! Happy travels, everyone!

Listen to this post, or download mp3

Even up a horizontal menu with javascript

Often I receive a design which calls for some arbitrary number of menu items to be spread across a horizontal navigation menu not evenly, but each with the same amount of padding between the text and the divider on each side.
Simple text representation:
| text | longer text | mid-text | t |

Padding is easy, it goes on the link. Nominally you then just adjust it as necessary once you know what the final text items are. (I usually assign any extra space to li:first-child a );

Unfortunately different browsers will
- display the same font slightly wider
- calculate/render elements with slightly different widths

Which means your perfectly calculated style will either fall short or push the last menu item over the edge.

My solution is to initially set the padding fairly small, and then expand it on page load with a little javascript. This is progressive - the site is still perfectly usable if you don't have javascript turned on, it may just look a little lopsided.

Basic navigation structure

<div id="navigation"> <ul id="menu"> <li>< href="">text</li> <li>< href="">longer text</li> <li>< href="">med-text</li> <li>< href="">t</li> </ul> </div>

Basic styling

#navigation { width: 980px; } #navigation * { margin: 0; padding: 0} #navigation li {float: left; list-style-type: none;} #navigation a { padding: 0 10px; } /* if you do end up with a spare px through rendering this next rule makes sure the RHS of your menu sits pretty. .ie-last is added to older versions of IE using feature detection*/ #navigation li:last-child, #navigation li.ie-last { float: right; }

The javscript (jQuery)

$(document).ready(function(){ //distribute menu items to fit page width cont_width = $('#navigation').innerWidth(); //container width var nav_width = 0; //space taken up by items as rendered menu_items = $('#menu > li'); $(menu_items).each(function(){ nav_width += $(this).outerWidth(); }); space = cont_width - nav_width; if(space>0){ //relies on default padding being set up correctly in the stylesheet link_padding = parseInt($(menu_items).first().children('a').first('a').css('paddingRight')); num_items = menu_items.length widen_each = space/num_items; //float while(widen_each>=1){ //expand all items each_side = widen_each/2; each_side = Math.floor(each_side); if(each_side>=1){ // ie widen_each >= 2, add to both sides equally link_padding += each_side; widen_each -= each_side*2; space -= each_side*2*num_items; $(menu_items).children('a').css({'paddingLeft':link_padding,'paddingRight':link_padding}); } else { // ie 1 <= widen_each < 2, add 1 to the right widen_each -= 1; space -= num_items; $(menu_items).children('a').css({'paddingRight':link_padding+1}); } } if(widen_each>0){ // some amount of space cannot be evenly distributed as whole px //expand last item to take up any remaining space last_item = $(menu_items).last(); while(space>1){ //in the browsers that are causing trouble we need to leave a px free. each_side = space/2; each_side = Math.floor(each_side); if(each_side>=1){ link_padding += each_side; space -= each_side*2; $(last_item).children('a').css({'paddingLeft':link_padding,'paddingRight':link_padding}); } else { space -= 1; $(last_item).children('a').css({'paddingRight':link_padding+1}); } } } } );

~~~
A pure CSS approach is to use display:table-cell (see this article at SitePoint).

fckeditor file browser not sending proper xml response

A site I help maintain suddenly stopped letting the client link to files using fckeditor, alerting that "The server didn't send back a proper XML response" when the file browser was opened.

This is one of the rare occasions Internet Explorer returns a more helpful error message than Firefox - it included the information that the XML request error (actually the http response code) was OK (200).

After initially checking such thing as server settings and response-type/encoding headers I set to perusing the actual returned xml in Firebug and spotted a suspicious looking square where there should have been a regular character. Turns out the client had uploaded a file containing a character which must not exist in utf-8 - specifically an em-dash ( &mdashl )). The xml lists filenames as attributes of "file" nodes, so the browser was getting to this character, failing to recognise it, and declaring the XML response invalid.

Changing the filename resolved the problem. I didn't encounter this possibility described elsewhere while I was googling, so here it is.

Managing multiple monitors in Windows 7

Only recently did I attach a second monitor* to my Windows 7 box, and set about trying to configure it with multiple wallpapers. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be supported natively :( Luckily an acquaintance pointed me at Display Fusion (disclaimer: affiliate link).

Being an earning and responsible developer I opted to pay for the application after the 30 day trial license expired, although I don't actually use any functions that aren't available in the free version (multiple wallpapers, hotkeys to move windows between monitors). Still one day I might want to customise those hotkeys, or one of the may other functions yet unexplored.

*I admit, mostly so I can watch fullscreen video while still keeping an eye on what is happening online. But it has improved my productivity and reducing the amount of alt-tabbing I do has to be better for my wrists.

Mailchimp reconciliation

I spent much of today doing a basic implementation of the Mailchimp API into a client site. Individual actions can almost be copy/pasted from the examples but there is one more complicated wrinkle - the customers can unsubscribe from the newsletter via Mailchimp so periodically the two databases need reconciled.I suspect the proper way to do this is via a webhook for instant results but for today I just put a section in the daily cron. It worked first time which I was pretty pleased with.

[API class included at beginning of file]/** * mailchimp reconciliation * @var string $key * @var string $list * @var object $api */$key = 'your-api-key';$list = 'your-list-id'; //"Testing Activate"$api = new MCAPI($key);/** * @link http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/api/rtfm/listmembers.func.php * api listMembers($id, $status='subscribed', $since=NULL, $start=0, $limit=100) * @var array $remote_records */// 1000 records should be plenty to start with$remote_records = $api->listMembers($list, 'subscribed', NULL, 0, 1000); if($api->errorCode){ echo 'Unable to sync with Mailchimp - error '.$api->errorCode.': '.$api->errorMessage;} else{ /** * @var array $members * @var resource $local_records */ $members = array(); foreach($remote_records['data'] as $d) { //we put the data value in the key so we can easily remove it with unset() later $members[ $d['email'] ] = 1; } /* debugging print_r($remote_records); echo "\n"; print_r($members); echo "\n"; // */ $local_records = mysql_query("select user_id, email from users where newsletter = '1'"); /** * unset local newsletter flag for people who have unsubscribed * remove them from remote recordset */ if($local_records && mysql_num_rows($local_records) > 0) { while($l = mysql_fetch_assoc($local_records)) { if(!isset($members[ $l['email'] ])) { // has been removed from mailchimp mysql_query("update users set newsletter = '0' where user_id = '{$l['user_id']}'"); echo $l['email']." removed \n"; } unset($members[$l['email']]); } } /** * if there are any records remaining in remote recordset check for a matching local email and update */ foreach($members as $email => $n) { mysql_query("update users set newsletter = '1' where email = '$email'"); echo "$email added if a matching user exists \n"; }}

Useful queries for moving Wordpress between subdomains

Background: recently had to move several wordpress installations from a server where they had been set up as site.[domainname] to a server where they were to be the more usual www.[domainname] . This required tracking down a number of references in the database and changing them.
All together now:
UPDATE `wp_options` SET option_value = replace( option_value, '/site.', '/www.' ); UPDATE `wp_posts` SET post_content = replace( post_content, '/site.', '/www.' ); UPDATE `wp_posts` SET guid = replace( guid, '/site.', '/www.' ) where post_type = 'attachment'; UPDATE `wp_postmeta` SET meta_value = replace(meta_value, '/site.', '/www.' );
Individually with explanations:
UPDATE `wp_options` SET option_value = replace( option_value, '/site.', '/www.' );
To change the site_url and also any template settings that use a full-url reference to a resource. Also check for these in template files.

UPDATE `wp_posts` SET post_content = replace( post_content, '/site.', '/www.' );
Fix links to other pages in the site and also any files or images which aren't included as attachments

UPDATE `wp_posts` SET guid = replace( guid, '/site.', '/www.' ) where post_type = 'attachment';
You shouldn't change the guids of posts because it can mess with RSS feeds (may or may not be a problem depending on the site). But attachments representing attached images or files do need to have their paths changed. More information in the Wordpress codex which doesn't consider the case of a subdomain changing.

UPDATE `wp_postmeta` SET meta_value = replace(meta_value, '/site.', '/www.' );
This gets elements (often design elements like a page specific banner or sidebar image) which have been attached to posts/pages as custom fields

~~~
The other thing to be very aware of is that all the search engine links (and any other incoming links) to the existing site will point to site.[domainname]. Make sure to set up a "site" subdomain on the new server and 301 redirect it to www.[domainname]

Source of Inspiration: A Film by Linda Blomqvist

From the website:

SOURCE OF INSPIRATION is a 14-minute documentary portrait about Roland Pantze, a Sami artist living alone in the untouched wilderness of Lapland in northern Sweden. Remote living allows him the undisturbed space for his philosophies on life and a continuous source of inspiration for his art. Roland represents a generation that in its time has transitioned from the ancient to the modern world; lavvus (Sami alternatives to tipis) have become houses, skis have become snowmobiles, and oral tradition the Internet. In this new world he has found his own oasis, and through him we explore the possibility to live a life in another pace and rhythm, in which convenience has been replaced with an unbroken connection with nature.

Watch it here.
(This reminded me so much of far West Texas's Big Bend.)

September Newsletter

Just sent out the third newsletter for the year about my upcoming literary travel writing workshop, new articles for writers, podcasts galore, the best from the blog, and more.

If you're a subscriber, you got the password to download the free ebook, C.M. Mayo on Creative Writing, the Best from the Blog. More free ebooks for subscribers will be offered soon.

To receive the next newsletter, which will probably go out in mid November, and will include news about several new iBookstore interactive multimedia ebooks and more Marfa Mondays podcasts and Conversations with Other Writers podcasts and who-knows-what, sign up right here.

Visit the newsletter archive here.
Read my take on writers' newsletters here.

Is Anybody Else Tired of Owning Stuff?

Check out this blog post by Charles Hugh Smith.

I do enjoy beautiful and useful things. Alas, most of the rest of it is made in China. I think that's much of the problem. Not that there are not many beautiful and useful things made in China! But scads of what we buy today -- clothing and household electronics, especially-- is just junk, poorly made, and more likely than not by people who are either close to slavery or maybe even, and once you're done with it, unless you want to pay to store it because you've got some pesky chakra attachment to it, it's not worth $5.

At Goodwill recently in Silicon Valley, I was there when a woman drove up in a late model open-roofed Jeep ferrying the great sausage roll of an oversized Oriental carpet. The Goodwill worker told her, "It's too large, they'll probably recycle it." She pouted. "I should have Craig Listed it!" But in a split second she said, "Oh well." Then she hopped in her Jeep, and blazed out of the lot.

P.S. How to Declutter a Library: The 10 Question Flow Chart, ye olde blog post by Yours Truly.
And: Decluttering Your Writing Or, The Integrity of Design.

Links: DosankoDebbie, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Seth Godin, Carla Marina Marchese

DosankoDebbie's Etegami Notebook In the beloved Japanese tradition, Debbie's etegami are both gorgeous and charming. Seriously, click on that link and feast!

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman on North Korean Writers in a Land of the Rising Sun

Seth Godin on Choosing Your Own Category (Before They Choose for You)
P.S. This is why I maintain a website with an author bio. (Ayy, people come up with the nuttiest ideas. Now there's another novel...)

Watch this brief and well-done video about backyard beekeeper and honey sommelier Carla Marina Marchese.

P.S. Now that we're all educated about artisanal honey, the next step is providing quality transparency in beeswax. A lot of the beeswax out there is recycled (hives are often stocked with starter frames) and plumb packed with fungicides and such. None of it is labeled.

Guest-Blogger John B. Kachuba on 5 Literary Ghosts

John B. Kachuba is the author of seven books-- four of them about ghosts and ghosthunting. A Certified Ghost Hunter, he is also a frequent speaker on paranormal topics on radio and TV and at conferences, libraries, and universities. Kachuba teaches Creative Writing at Ohio University and Antioch University Midwest and is also a faculty member of the Gotham Writers Workshop. Recently, Kachuba entered the world of e-book publishing with his paranormal novel Dark Entry and a collection of four short stories in Ghost Stories.
So we've got the ping pong thing going with the guest-blogs. A while ago, Kachuba contributed a guest-blog post for this blog on Top 5 Spooky Sites; just last week, I guest-blogged for his blog, The Metaphysical Traveler, on table tipping, according to Don Francisco Madero (yes, that Madero, Mexico's "Apostle of Democracy").
So now, back to you, John-- and just in time for Halloween!

FIVE LITERARY GHOSTS
By
John Kachuba
When my good friend C. M. Mayo asked me if I would be interested in writing a guest blog I jumped at the chance. After all, it’s almost Halloween! What better time to read a few creepy tidbits from the Ghost Professor? Since I’m now working in paranormal fiction and exploring the role of ghosts in literature down through the ages, I thought I’d share with you five of my favorite literary ghosts, including one of my own creation.
So, here they are, not necessarily in order of creepiness:
JACOB MARLEY – Although there are Three Spirits of Christmas in Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, technically none of them are ghosts since they were never flesh-and-blood mortals as the rest of us (at least I’m presuming you are all flesh-and-blood mortals). Poor, miserly Jacob Marley, the former business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge is the only true ghost in the story.
Weighed down by the chains of greed he forged in life, Marley’s role is to warn Scrooge to amend his avaricious ways before it is too late. Despite Scrooge’s initial belief that the apparition before him is nothing more than “a slight disorder of the stomach . . . an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato,” Marley’s piteous moans and chain-rattling soon convince Scrooge that his unwelcome visitor is indeed a haunting ghost.
Marley’s visitation fits neatly into the rationale we ghosthunters use to explain why ghosts haunt us. Earth-bound because of transgressions and crimes committed while they were in the flesh the ghosts must somehow make amends for those trespasses before they can “cross over” into a place of eternal rest.

Thurber House

“BIGFOOT” – The ghost in James Thurber’s funny short story, “The Night the Ghost Got In” is both unseen and unnamed, but since it loudly manifests itself by “walking around the dining room table downstairs,” Bigfoot seems like an appropriate name for it.
What I like most about this story is that it really happened. Thurber swore until his dying day that on the night of November 17, 1915 a ghost stomped around the table downstairs and then “started up the stairs toward us [Thurber and his brother Herman], heavily, two at a time.” I’m not going to give away the ending; you’ll just have to read the story, but it’s definitely worth the time.
The house in which the haunting occurred still stands in Columbus, Ohio, where it is now part Thurber museum and part literary center. I visited the house and wrote about its ghost—which apparently, is still there—in my book, Ghosthunting Ohio: On the Road Again. The TV ghosthunters from TAPS conducted an investigation at the house with inconclusive results. It would have helped had they read Thurber’s story.
PETER QUINT and MISS JESSEL – Two of the Ghost Professor’s favorite phantoms, this spectral duo is at the heart of The Turn of the Screw, penned by Henry James. Fascinated as he was by ghost stories, James tried to elevate them above the stereotypical “screamers” and “slashers.” In the Preface to his final ghost story, “The Jolly Corner,” James wrote that he preferred to create ghosts that were eerie extensions of everyday reality—"the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy."
What is fascinating about The Turn of the Screw is that only one character, the unidentified Governess, sees the two malevolent ghosts, although she suspects that her two wards, Flora and Miles, also see them. The Governess discovers that her predecessor Miss Jessel had engaged in a sexual relationship with Peter Quint, also employed at the manor and it seemed likely that Quint had also abused the young Miles and other members of the household. But Quint and Jessel are dead as doornails, so why are they still hanging around?
The reader begins to wonder whether the ghosts are actually there or whether they are the mental projections of the Governess’s own emotions and feelings of sexual repression. In other words, are the ghosts all in her head? This is a question that every ghosthunter has to ask whenever a ghost is alleged to be present. It is not at all uncommon for one person on a paranormal investigation to “see” a ghost, while the others in the group do not. The mind is completely capable of creating ghosts where none exist and a competent ghosthunter must rule out that possibility before declaring a location haunted.
Ghosthunter or not, if you have not yet read The Turn of the Screw, run—do not walk—to the nearest library and read it. I’ll wait.
MR. SIMMONS – I included the ghost of Mr. Simmons from my short story “Home Is Where the Spirit Is” because in this story we see the ghost experience from the ghost’s point-of-view. Everything we know, or think we know about ghosts, comes from our own perception and we never pause to wonder what it is the ghost is feeling or thinking (assuming ghosts feel or think). None of my ghosthunter friends seem to think outside the coffin, as it were, and treat ghosts as though they were creatures alien and exotic.

But ghosts are simply people without bodies. Shouldn’t we treat them with the same respect we treat other people and shouldn’t we care about them as we care about other people? Consider their circumstances. One day they’re among their friends and loved ones enjoying everything the world has to offer and the next day they find themselves cut off from all the people they knew and loved, in some place that is not the natural world they once knew, a place where the laws of science and nature that once governed their lives have been dramatically altered. Can you imagine the fear and confusion they must feel? I tried to imagine those feelings in Mr. Simmons, the ghost in my short story, which can be found in my e-book Ghost Stories.
I don’t know how well I’ve captured the thoughts and feelings of the ghost but maybe someday I’ll come back and let you know.
ARTURO CRUZ– My late friend and mentor Louis Owens wrote several wonderful novels in which his Cherokee/Choctaw heritage plays an important part. In Nightland an old Cherokee named Siquani finds himself dogged by the ghost of a young Navajo named Arturo. The young man had been involved in drug smuggling when a double-cross resulted in a murdered Arturo being tossed from a plane over the New Mexico desert. His body comes to rest in a tree.
Arturo stumbles across Siquani’s trailer in the desert and an unlikely—and funny—friendship is formed as the old man teaches Arturo how to be a ghost. At one point, Siquani engages the ghost in a game of checkers:
“You play checkers, Arturo Cruz?”“Damn right. But I think one of the rules of being a ghost is I cannot move things.” He pushed at the chair, but his hand went right through the wood. “I could perhaps tell you where to move my pieces, and you could move them for me.”“Good. I’ll get the board.”As Siquani started back into the trailer, Arturo Cruz shouted after him, “How do I know I can trust you to move my pieces?”
This passage brings up a question that continually haunts us ghosthunters: what are the rules of being a ghost? It seems that ghosts can make noises (footsteps and rappings in particular) but they can’t speak. They can blow out candles and seem to be able to move small objects, but not larger ones. They are supposedly incorporeal yet they have the ability to scratch, pinch, or touch ghosthunters. The Ghost Rules seem vague, at best. Even the Ghost Professor is perplexed.
*Nightland by Louis Owens, published 1996 by Dutton: New York.
--- John Kachuba
++++++
---> For the complete archive of Madam Mayo guest-blog posts, click here.
---> Recent guest-blogs include author Joan Young on 5 Unexpected and Inexpensive Tips for Healthy Living; Ellen Cassedy on 5 Links to Learn Yiddish; and Dylan Landis on 5 Magnetic Spaces.

Running Light Reviews - Cyclops CYC-MHC-W Micro Mini LED and Pelican Mini Flasher 2130

Last winter, I really enjoyed running with eGear Guardian Strobe Lights. They were bright, reliable and seemed to clip to me in any number of ways. Unfortunately, "I cleaned up" one afternoon, and managed to put the strobe lights somewhere, though for the life of me, I couldn't imagine where. I knew the only way I'd ever find them again was if I went on to Amazon and ordered replacements.

As long as I was getting some new lights, I figured I might as well try out some other options. The Pelican Mini Flasher 2130, with it's multiple clips looked intriguing, as did the Cylops CYC-MHC-W Micro Mini Led hat clip light. So I went ahead and ordered these guys.

Naturally, two days after they arrived, I found my stash of Guardian Strobe lights. Still, it never hurts to try something new, right? Here's what I thought of each light.

Here's the lights for comparison's sake:

(That's the Cyclops, Pelican and finally the Guardian)

Pelican Mini Flasher 2130

I had high hopes for this guy. Pelican is a well known brand, and the clip configuration looked awfully impressive. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes, I realized it wasn't as a good a fit for me as the eGear lights. Having two different clip options is nice, but neither of them is as robust as the one on the Guardian. The Guardian also appeared to give off a brighter mulch-directional burst of light, so the exact positioning of it mattered less. I also like that the eGear can be switched into an always on light instead of just a strobe, simply by flipping over the batteries.

There may be scenarios (on a life jacket, perhaps?) where the Pelican is superior, but as far as I can tell, running isn't one of them. I'll stick with my Guardians.

Cyclops CYC-MHC-W Micro Mini Led Hat Clip

My experience with the Cyclops was almost the complete opposite of the Pelican. The first thing I noticed is just how light this guy is. It trivially clipped to my hat and I couldn't tell it was there. And with 5 LEDs, this guy is bright! The quality, especially considering this is a $6.00 item, is outstanding. The clicky on-off switch works well, and gives a reassuring click when you turn it off or on.

I've taken it on a couple of night runs so far, and it's definitely become one of my essentials (that and a whistle, of course). It makes running in the shadows of bridges and on dark bike trails a much pleasant experience, and I've got to think it makes me stand out to oncoming traffic (be it car, or bike).

I'm not much of a flashlight guy. When I go backpacking, I bring my favorite little Photon-X light keychain light. Anything else seems like overkill. In fact, I'm usually the guy complaining about folks turning on lights and ruining my night vision. But, given the tiny size of the Cylcops and the convenience, it may just have to tag along on my next trip. I could clip one to the bill of my hat and probably not even notice it was there.

This guy is a winner.

Review: Rory's Story Cubes

Rory's Story Cubes are about as simple a toy as you can get. They're 9 dice with random pictures on each side. The idea is to use them to spark stories - whether they are used together or individually. There aren't any official rules to play with them, though there are some suggested games.

I first busted them out last school year when our 7 year old came home with vocabulary terms he needed to write sentences for. Frequently, his sentences would be little more than definitions. Say he had to use "discover" in a sentence, he might right down "Discover is when you learn something new." A fine sentence (for a 7 year old), but where's the pizazz? Aha! I thought, time to bust out the story cubes. He can use them as inspiration?

Yeah, not a good idea. I quickly learned that they were a distraction, not inspiration.

On a few other occasions, I took them out to play with, but for whatever reason, they were a dud.

That is until a couple of weeks ago. I've found that if I need a few minutes of entertainment, I can quickly build a story by using the following approach: roll the cubes, pick one that inspires a bit of the story, tell it until I run out of ideas (usually about 10 seconds...), roll them again, and repeat. The boy enjoys the story, and the cubes make them easy to craft.

With practice, he'll be able to do the same thing, though, it's tougher for a kid to do than I would have thought. I think that's because I can pull from a whole heap of stories (oh look, the fish cube came up -- I'll introduce a talking fish...), that he just hasn't heard yet.

It's also been fun to work together to build a story. We start by rolling all the dice, pick one, tell part of the story. Then, we take it out of rotation, and continue the story with the remaining dice. We repeat this 9 times, and we're done.

This is definitely one of those toys that I had high hopes for and was initially disappointed with. They not magic, and won't instantly make your kid a lover of story telling. But, I'm thinking this can be a fun little filler, and great to travel with, too. Definitely worth holding onto and experimenting with.

Geocaching as visual exercise

Took the boy Geocaching while Shira was at the gym this morning. We sought out a tiny little cache hidden in Pentagon city.

We actually found it relatively quickly. Here's what it looked like:

Thing is, I've passed this cache running dozens if not hundreds of times. Geocaching, then, I realized is all about actually seeing the environment you're in. Sure, each geocache provides you with a latitude and longitude, but that only gets you to the general vicinity. Then you're observation skills have to kick in, looking for something just a little out of place.

For me, it's an exercise worth conducting as often as I can. And while I 7 year old doesn't quite appreciate it (he was bummed the cache didn't contain toy he could swap for), it's a lesson I'm hoping he'll pick up through osmosis.

Not a HAM Radio Guy, But if I was, Here's My Dream Setup

I know almost nothing about HAM Radio -- but I know a nifty system when I see it. I give you QRP: a radio broadcasting philosophy that is based on very low power operation. The result is that you can carry a complete broadcasting and receiving long distance radio station in your pockets.

See what I mean?

Amazing to consider that you can broadcast and receive messages hundreds of kilometers away using double AA batteries (or perhaps a 9 volt) and a transceiver the size of an Altoids or tuna tin.

Oh, and kit to build the transceiver is somewhere between $9 and $40.

Sure, there are limitations, like only being able to send and receive Morse Code. But still, given all the advantages, I'm really surprised these setups haven't made the leap from hacking novelty to useful emergency kit item.

I know that when we have some hiccup in the DC area, like say a mostly harmless earthquake, the cell phone networks are almost immediately swamped and can remain so for hours. Seems like the perfect time to bust out a setup like this and check in with loved ones. The setup could be small enough to be stored in the trunk of a car or at your desk, and setup when needed.

But then again, what the heck do I know? Anyone with HAM or Radio experience want to chime in here?

Around Arlington - Butterflies, Cozies and Climbing

Nothing too exotic, just a few snapshot from a walk this afternoon.

Sure was nice of this guy to hold still and let me snap some shots with my camera phone.

The Street Sign Cozy Activist is at it again. I wonder how many more I'll be able to spot in Arlington? I'm not sure what the purpose of these guys are, but I'm on board with it.

Check out this funky climbing structure located in a tiny park off 1st St S. My fear of heights kept me from exploring it too much, but I expect our 7 year old will go to the top without a second thought.

My Brother David mentioned this park and structure to me a while ago, but I actually saw it for the first time today.

(The photos of the climbing grid don't really do it justice - it really does have some height to it)

Connected to the Connector to the Connection to the System

“The users want some changes on the ticket form,” Bucky, the smiling intern said. “I was told I should talk to you.”

Jesse laughed. “Oh, I know that form well.”

Their company tried to give interns interesting projects. They didn’t simply use them as cheap labor for scut work, like cleaning up the documentation site or taking notes during meetings. No intern was ready to tackle anything complex without help, and that’s where their mentor came in. The mentor was an experienced developer who could provide guidance and sanity-check everything the intern did.

Years earlier, Jesse had been the intern. The service desk had just switched to a new ticket tracking system, “Ultra,” that the users hated. The ticket entry form required users to dig through acres of drop-down lists every time they used it. They wanted a simplified version that only prompted for their one required field.

Jesse did a little research with his mentor and learned the ticket system was supposed to be extensible via a web service. They decided the easiest solution would be to point an InfoPath form at that web service. It would make maintaining the form easy, and wouldn’t require any real code. The users also had experience with InfoPath, so once they heard Jesse mention it, they decided the UI must be in InfoPath.

Jesse began by calling the Ultra admins. “I was hoping you guys could tell me how to access the web service for our deployment.”

“Web service? There is no web service.”

Jesse assured them there was an API. After a long discussion that repeatedly included the question “What did you say you were trying to do?”, the admins vetoed his idea. “There is a web API,” they admitted. “Irregardless, you can’t use it. We can’t guarantee it won’t break between releases, so only one application may use it: UltraConnector.”

Not the answer Jesse wanted, but it gave him a starting point. He talked to his mentor and then found the dev behind the UltraConnector application. Where was it? What was it? How could he use it?

“You can’t.”

UltraConnector monitored an FTP site. When issues were detected on the mainframe, a suite of monitoring applications pushed a flat-file to that FTP site. UltraConnector processed the flat-file and created tickets based on its content. “But that share is used for a number of apps, and we don’t want any more accessing it.”

Jesse wasn’t ready to learn the mainframe’s non-standard COBOL dialect just to send tickets to Ultra. Taking his sanity into his own hands, he climbed the thousand steps to the offices of the Ancient Greybeards, the mainframe programmers who had worked for the company longer than he’d been alive.

One of the Greybeards pulled down a dusty binder of arcane knowledge. He flipped through it, nodding sagely at the cryptic scratchings. “Our failure monitor process can create tickets. It logs a ticket for any failed operation. If you were to attempt to write a file to a nonexistent directory, that would trigger an error.”

There was more to it than writing a file, because there was a lot of metadata they needed attached to the ticket. But the Greybeards were wise, subtle, and quick to anger. They knew how to make the monitor dance without changing a line of code. The only problem was that to write files from a custom application, one needed to use a proprietary socket library to talk to the mainframe. There was no way they could license it for every user, which meant Jesse was left to implement his final solution this way:

The user fills out the SharePoint hosted InfoPath form and hits submit.
The submit button posts the data to Jesse’s custom “TicketGenerator” web service, which references the socket library.
TicketGenerator connects to the mainframe and attempts to write a file that can’t be created.
The mainframe monitor detects the fault and sends a flat-file to the FTP site.
UltraConnector checks the FTP site every 15 minutes, and converts unprocessed files to API calls on the Ultra system.

Jesse built the system, showed it to his mentor, and then released it to the users. To his shock, not only did it work, but the users loved it. Despite the fragile arrangement, it never dropped a ticket. Jesse had a job offer before his internship ended, and despite his experience as an intern, he accepted it.

Two years later, everything came full circle.

“I built that form,” Jesse told Bucky, “but when I show you how it works, don’t hold it against me.”

How to Use a Rode VideoMic Pro with a Canon T3i

Rode (properly spelled RÃ˜DE) produces one of the most popular professional video shotgun microphones used today. The VideoMic Pro is the one shotgun microphone I would recommend over all others for DSLR videographers searching for an alternative to the often lacking built-in microphone available on DSLR cameras today.

In addition to having a superior sound quality to much of its competition, it can be mounted by way of cold shoe and a 3/8? thread for boom pole mounting, as well.

All you really need to use the VideoMic Pro with your camera is a 3.5mm minijack into you camcorder, DSLR, or audio recording device.

The problem many folks face when first setting up the Rode VideoMic Pro is figuring out how to adjust the settings on their cameras for best sound quality. DSLRs have a habit of overcompensating using automatic gain, and the T3i is no different. In fact, the original firmware for the T3i doesn't have much in the way of manual audio settings at all.

Upgrade Your Firmware

The first step to using the Rode VideoMic Pro with a Canon EOS 600D (T3i) is to upgrade the camera's firmware to version 1.0.1 or greater. Instructions as well as a download link can be found here. The most current version of the T3i's firmware is 1.0.2, which can be found here.

Once this upgrade is complete, you should be able to modify the gain control settings through the main menu with little difficulty.

While we're on the subject of firmware, I'm a huge fan of a third-party plug-in called Magic Lantern. This plug-in adds live audio monitoring to the T3i so you can keep track of your recording levels while recording is going on. This isn't something you get out of the box, which was a huge disappointment considering there is no audio out jack for monitoring on the T3i. Keep in mind this camera is primarily intended for photos.

Hooking Up the Hardware

Take a moment to attach your VideoMic Pro to the shoe at the top of your T3i. There is a thumbwheel that should allow you to loosen and fasten the microphone to the shoe. Make sure it's snug as nothing makes more noise than a loose microphone.

Plug the VideoMic Pro's audio jack into the microphone jack as indicated in the image above. It'll be the bottom most port located on the left-hand side of the camera towards the lens.

Menu Settings

The next thing you'll need to do is go into the camera's video settings. To do this, turn it on and spin the control wheel around to video. Once you've done this:

Press the Menu button on the upper-left area of the back of the camera.
Hit the right direction button on the lower-right area of the back of the camera until you're over the second red camera menu. Two little red squares should be next to the camera icon in the tabs. (See above picture.)
Using the Set and direction buttons, switch Sound rec. to Manual.
Navigate to Rec. Level (just below) and hit the Set button.
Use the left direction button to bring the cursor between 1-4 points after far left. This will bring the gain down and allow you to use the microphones +20 dB boost feature for better audio quality. You can scale this up if needed, though most indoors recording can be done within 5 notches from the far left. (Furthest left level is absolute mute).
Hit Set to save your changes and select Menu to get back into the video recording mode.

You can use the audio monitor in this menu to have your subject test the level you're setting. Once you begin recording, you can't change this until recording has completed. Get your levels right here before you do any actual recording.

Microphone Hardware Settings

When recording, you'll want to play around with the options available on the back of the VideoMic Pro, but for me the best options have been setting the tip switch to the far right (causing a low frequency drop off) and the bottom switch to the far right (+20 dB boost).

This, coupled with the low manual audio gain settings in the camera, gives me the perfect audio levels almost every time. You may not want the drop off if what you want is to keep the room noise or an air conditioner in the track, but it's the best option for me if I'm trying to capture clean vocal audio without a lot of the background noise in-between speaking.

This should get you up and running. Do you have any questions regarding the VideoMic Pro or the Canon T3i? Please leave them in the comments section below and I'll try to answer them in a future article.

Photos: Ryan Matthew Pierson

Cloud Computing: from hype to reality

For many of us in the IT industry there is a certain feeling that cloud computing is finally taking a grip on UK businesses, more companies seem to be taking the plunge into the cloud and putting a greater number of applications into the cloud.

But how significant is this change and is it reality or just perception? Are we genuinely seeing greater mainstream adoption?

Last year, the cloud landscape was at a tipping point, several years of vendor hype and industry expectation had taken its toll. Despite great promises of cost and efficiency savings, uptake was still limited and reservations remained. Companies were aware of the benefits cloud offered, but were hesitant to move towards full-scale adoption.

However, in 2012 Cisco can confirm that cloud adoption has indeed seen a phenomenal increase, with an average of 31 per cent of all IT applications and services in the cloud, up from just seven per cent in 2011.

Cisco has been watching the development of cloud adoption closely and recently published the second of its annual CloudWatch reports which reveal the opinions on cloud computing amongst IT decision makers within businesses in the UK, across key industries: finance, retail, service providers, healthcare and government.

The Reality of Cloud

When cloud was first introduced, there was an air of industry confusion around what actually constitutes cloud computing, however this initial blur seems to be clearing and cloud is moving up the CXO strategic agenda. This year's primary driver behind companies adopting cloud services was the reductions in costs. With the hype around the cloud subsiding, the perceptions around using cloud are no longer based on media and vendor messages but are being drawn from actual experiences.

The 2011 hype resulted in a huge amount of expectation on cloud, and glitches or service outages are far less acceptable now. However, most companies' expectations were exceeded (70 per cent) this year (up from 34 per cent in 2011), and positive experiences like these are now likely to drive further investment in cloud.

Changing Cloud Formations

There is an array of cloud options now available to organisations. It is no longer a simple choice of adopting one type of cloud; companies must ensure the correct cloud service and deployment method is selected to meet their business needs.

To date the growth of cloud adoption appears to have been predominately driven by private cloud, as shown by the fact 54 per cent of private cloud models were deployed this year alone. Hybrid and community clouds still have very comparatively small uptake, but there has been a definite surge of interest in these two models. Community cloud models are particularly topical at the moment, with the introduction of G-Cloud by the government, aiming to dramatically reduce the costs and maintenance of ICT services in the public sector.

Cloud preferences are likely to continue to fluctuate, as the market continues to mature and customers become more confident and shrewd about the choices open to them.

Cloud and Big Data

Big data has been hugely topical in the last few years. It has been highly publicised that all types of organisations are experiencing a data explosion, which is putting strain on IT departments to manage and store this vast amount of data. Big data, has therefore, been a significant driver of cloud adoption as companies struggle with how to store, manage and protect this data.

It is critical for organisations to have instant access to these large quantities of data, to successfully achieve their business objectives. However, this is a major challenge for companies, along with effectively analysing this data. Cloud computing enables companies to overcome these challenges, and it could be argued that cloud computing is in fact increasing the demand for real-time business insights, due to data being accessed and consumed through various devices anywhere, at any time.

The capability of cloud alongside the sheer power of big data analytics represents a fascinating fusion of two innovative IT trends, and the full impact of these two trends has yet to be explored.

Where next?

In the last year the industry has made significant headway in proving that cloud is a safe, reliable and attractive proposition. Security concerns with cloud are still a strong factor in deterring organisations to adopt cloud, however, these fears have decreased dramatically this year. A bigger challenge now is shifting organisational mind-sets and ways of working to make the most of the enormous opportunities that cloud offers.

The number of organisations adopting cloud will no doubt continue to grow over the next few years. However, whilst the future of cloud computing looks very positive, such rapid maturing of a technology is likely to cause some growing pains. As companies branch out to alternative cloud models, it will become even more evident that there is no one-size-fits-all cloud solution.

Cloud can be consumed in multiple service and deployment models to fit individual organisation's requirements. Whether to adopt cloud is no longer the most important question, but it is now more vital what cloud model you choose for your business, irrespective of what the most popular model is.

Ian Foddering is the Chief Technology Officer and Technical Director for Cisco in the UK and Ireland. Together with his technical teams, his key objective is to work with Cisco's Customers and Partners to articulate how Cisco's architectures and solutions can be applied to drive business transformation.