Short URL addresses have changed the way we share links on the internet. Short URLs have their advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is having a link that is easier to share so that more people will remember the link and less of a chance of it being wrongly written. A Short URL can also be useful if you have a limited space to write, for example, in Twitter where the limit is 140 characters. Also, in an email, a short URL isn’t as error prone to having breaks in it than a longer URL.

However there are also disadvantages for short URLs, since you cannot see the end link of a short URL, you can be led to spam or shock sites. However their are solutions to this problem, having a preview link, so that the user knows the end link. Another problem is that if the URL service crashes then all the links registered with that service don’t work.

In this blog post I’ll be outlining my favourite and the most common short URL services and deciding which is the best.

TinyURL

Probably the most common truncator service around. TinyURL has common features such as an easily remembered domain, fairly short URLs, preview link, custom alias and a bookmarklet. TinyURL says it has around 154 million URLs in its database, this doesn’t allow them to have the shortest link (6 characters).

TinyURL is also prone to crashing, since it is the post popular service on the web it receives over 1.5 billion hits a month, this can lead it to get overloaded and crash, meaning your links don’t work.

There are also many features that TinyURL does not have, such as statistics on your URL, being able to register account to keep track of your links and choosing whether a URL is public or private but overall it does the job well.

is.gd

The main drawing card to is.gd is that it creates one of the shortest links. is.gd can create a URL that is only 7 characters (including punctuation). However like TinyURL is.gd lacks a few features, customisation, stats etc.

One feature of is.gd I really like is their bookmarklet for Firefox. This is a little button that sits in the Firefox toolbar, click it and it automatically shortens the link of the page that you are currently on and copies the new shortened link to the clipboard. So with one click you have your short URL ready to be pasted anywhere.

bit.ly

This shortener service boasts features that most sites don’t have. You can to sign up to an account so that you can track all your links, view information for each link, number of clicks etc. It also has common features such as a bookmarklet, easily remembered name and an option for a custom alias.

I really like this service as it combines features and simplicity equally so that the user can have the best experience.

Google Short Links

This is my favourite service and the one I use most often. What I love about Google Short Links is the ability to have your domain in the URL. For example instead of the short URL being tinyurl.com/1234 it is instead ant.geek.nz/1234. This is great for me because when someone sees the short URL they are curious and visit the parent URL (ant.geek.nz) which generates traffic for this blog! Great huh? Other than this Google Short Links has other great features such as statistics for each link, a bookmarklet and an option whether to make the link private or public.

This service is available with Google Labs for Google Apps.

Lenks

Developed and coded by Rowan, Lenks offers features that no other short URL services offer. For example, huge customisation options when you sign up and the ability to put your links in various folders, humour, informational etc. Lenks also gives you the ability to view other Lenk user links via their profile. With AJAX fast speed Lenks is definitely a short URL service to start using.

Of course Lenks has features common to all short URL services. Overall I highly recommend this service!

The Winner

My favourite short URL service is Google Short Links. I love this service as it is used by only me on my domain. It may not have as many features as other services but the features it does have majorly outweigh the features that are missing. Since this is a Google Labs project we can expect to see many more features to come.

Runnerups are Lenks and is.gd. What I love about Lenks is that it is feature rich. It has a lot of features that most truncate services don’t have. Lenks is still in beta so we can expect to see more great things. On the other side is is.gd, a very simple URL truncator, the stand out feature for me is the one click URL shortener feature, this makes it so easy to post a short link. I hope that other services take after is.gd in this regard.

So there we have it! Of course I only reviewed a sample of short URL services, there are many more avaliable for you to test out!

Have fun linking!

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I really do love Mozilla products, the flexibility and features of their products are something truely to be admired. Of course my favourite product is the browser Mozilla Firefox. See my post on Top 5 Reasons to Switch to Firefox. When I got my new notebook I decided to try Outlook 2007, this failed badly on Vista. I was searching for an alternative and due to my awesome experience with Firefox I decided to give its sister, Thunderbird – Mozilla’s email client a go.

I liked Thunderbird, it was great, reliable all the basic features I needed but there was one thing lacking. Yes, the supurb features of Gmail.

So the other day I decided to make the switch, it was the easiest switch I have ever experienced. On Thunderbird I was using IMAP with Google Apps so all my emails were there, beautifully intact.

Reasons I switched to Gmail (Google Apps).

Labels

This is an awesome feature that most people don’t know about. You can basically make “labels” to label your incoming messages on where they are from. For example every night this website is backed up and a copy is sent to me by email. I really don’t want to receive these emails everyday so I archive them straight away and a notification shows up on my label that my backup has been received.

Filters

Labels cannot work without this important feature. Filters lets you filter your message depending who it is from. For example all my Facebook, Twitter etc notifications are directed to their respective labels and do not even hit my inbox. As soon as I receive an email from Facebook it is automatically archived and sent to the Label, it never shows up in my inbox.

For anyone with overcrowded email problems, this is probably the best email management tool I have ever come across.

Amazing Search

This has got to be my favourite feature in switching to Gmail. The awesome functionality of Google search is applied to email. I can search by from, subject, body of the message or even label! Thunderbirds inbuilt search feature was really hard to deal with. Google search for Gmail is awesome for anyone who wants to find email fast.

Keyboard Shortcuts

This is a huge productivity booster. All I have to do is click a few keys and I am away composing, managing or sending email. For example all I have to do is press “c” an magically the compose window shows. There are heaps of shortcuts though, I am planning to learn them all slowly so soon enough I will have learnt them all.

Spam Filtering that Actually Learns from your Actions

Spam is a huge problem these days. With Gmail I get very few spam messages a month. I also get very few normal messages that go into the spam folder. However with the very few messages I tell Gmail to mark it as spam or to not and it actually learns. No spam filter system is fool proof and Gmail does a great job of combating spam.

These are my favourite web Gmail features. Of course there are other great ones such as Chat, Contacts and Labs however I think these universally apply to most people. There are also awesome Gmail features whether you use an email client or not, such as awesome security, spam filtering etc.

So what are your favourite Gmail features?

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So in just over a week exams start for high school students sitting NCEA around the country. These are the exams that count for real credits and will decide what classes you will do next year and if you will get into university. So to make this post of value I’m going to give you a few quick tips to help you revise/prepare for these exams. These tips are thanks to Cambridge Students

Where to study

Creating good conditions to study in can help you make the most of the time you spend revising. Here are some suggestions:

• Find a quiet place to study and make sure you are sitting comfortably
• Make sure your desk is well lit
• Keep background noise to a minimum
• Avoid studying in an area where there will be distractions (like television!)
• Have everything you need to do your revision to hand before you start

Practise mock exams

Look for exam papers from previous years and have a go at answering all the questions without any help during the time allotted for the actual exam. Practise-exams are a great way to help you uncover any weaknesses you might have, as well as help you soothe those exam nerves.

Last-minute revision tips

Although time may be short, you can still make a difference to your grade. Try and prioritise; do what you can.

• Use your revision tools (prompts, diagrams etc) to check final facts
• Keep calm and consolidate your existing knowledge rather than trying to learn new topics
• Don’t stay up all night revising; being overtired will not help you to do your best

If all else fails, procrastinate and hope for the best!

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Last night, I got a Twitter update from Wordpress, saying that the first beta release of version 2.7 was out. This version promised a huge GUI upgrade and many other cool features.

So with the help of a fantastic plugin called InstantUpgrade (which is now obsolete due to to Wordpress having this inbuilt feature) I quickly updated my blog. The obvious huge change was the visual design. All the actions are now on the left sidebar with drop down menus making it easier to find what you want when you want. The overall feel of the admin panel is much nicer due to the matching soft colour tones.

Another cool feature I have found is Quickpress, this lets you write a blog post right in your dashboard

and quickly and easily update your blog without any complicated hassle. Wordpress has also added a feature called Turbo which allows for use with Gears. This will let you store most of WordPress’ images, scripts, and CSS files locally on your computer. This speeds up page load time. Another productivity tool that comes with Wordpress, is the ease of uploading plugins. You can either search for plugins from the Wordpress website or upload them, this is straight from your admin panel. So if you are at a computer without an FTP program you can still easily add plugins to your blog.

However with a beta release there are still going to be features that have not been included with this release. This beta release is for users to try out and find bugs etc. Already I have changed some CSS of my theme and now I cannot access the editor. I’m sure this will be fixed in the final release, due November 10.

So what is your favorite feature in the Wordpress 2.7 beta 1 release?

Since so much effort is put into writing and managing your blog, losing it can be even worse than loosing your whole hard drive.

So basically the other day, my blog died. I spent an hour trying to restore it but my Wordpress database was corrupted and I hadn’t backed it up since two months ago. So from then till now I have been trying to desperately repair my database and thanks to a few free tools and people I have succeeded.

However this has been a huge pain and wasted a lot of my time which could be spent doing many other things I have to do, so this is basically what I learnt from my blog FAIL.

1. Backup your database every night

Your database is the brain of your Wordpress blog, it contains all the posts, comments, tags, categories, modifications, settings etc. Without this you would have no blog so this is a must do. I use a plugin called WP-DB Backup, which emails me a copy of my database every night. So if a problem ever happens It won’t be to much of a problem to restore it.

2. Have the latest version of Wordpress running

This post mainly applies to Wordpress blogs, but can be used universally. Newer versions of Wordpress constantly fix up security holes and bugs in your blogging platform. Having the most up to date version of your blogging platform running means that you will have the best protection offered at that moment. Instead of struggling to upload the newest version each time it comes out there is a plugin called Instant Upgrade for Wordpress which will easily take the files from Wordpress and upload them to your blog with very little work done by you.

3. It’s not really the end of the world

It may feel like it but its not. All it is just a pain. If this happens to you and you havent followed steps listed above then take a deep breath and get to work. If you have a RSS feeds then your actual posts arent really lost as all the content is still in your feed.

So save your time and energy, a few moments spent now will save you a lot of time in the future.

NB: In the diagram the word ‘modem’ should be replaced with ‘router’

Getting the best out of your router is what every geek strives for. You want that top notch download and upload speed. Even if you don’t need it, you want it and its worth a lot of effort.

So over the past week I have been playing with my Linksys WAG54G modem/router and been having a lot of fun. However I have been unlucky increasing Wi-Fi speed to my laptop around 10 metres away. I tried DD-WRT to try ‘hack’ my router to run to its maximum potential, however it wasn’t compatible with my particular version.

It took me over a week to really point out the obvious, my router was positioned extremely badly, it was nestled under computers, printers, wires and plants. So being the geek I am, I decided to run a few tests on whether the change in placement of the router would increase my speed.

So from these results we can see that placing a router just half a metre higher can double your speed. Try this trick before you try any other of those ‘tin foil’ or ‘mega-booster’ ones. I’m certainly looking forward to improved speeds.

So you have created an awesome website that you want to get up and on the internet? How? Firstly this is not a post on how to create a website. I am not going to go to in depth about this, if you need any help don’t hesitate to contact me.

Buy a Domain Name

A domain name is basically your home/address on the internet. This is the key to looking professional to have a domain such as yourname.com, instead of yourname.someone.com as this can easily link to someone else’s site, which will detract traffic from your site and help either your competitors or domain name provider. I am not going to go into detail about choosing a good domain (that will be covered in another blog post). A good domain provider will be reasonable (no more than $15 USD a year) and provide a great service. I use Dreamhost which is a great site for all my needs, they provide Domain name forwarding (forward your website to another), URL Masking (make your visitors think they are still on your original site) and of course Domain name servers (the link with your domain and hosting.) If you buy your domain and hosting from the same company you shouldn’t have to worry about this. There are also other popular Domain registrars/hosting sites such as GoDaddy, BlueHost and Homestead.

Buy Website Hosting

Website hosting is the place on the internet where your website is stored for everyone else to view it. Here are 5 important points to choosing a great webhost.

1. Don’t be cheap – This never works. Before I found Dreamhost I had been through around seven different webhosts that seemed great but had false promises and never suited my needs. Such as too little space, wrong programming languages, banned file types etc. This brings me into my next point.

2. Assess your needs first – Think of what you will need for your website and go with that. If you need any special programming languages such as java or Perl make sure your webhost offers it. If you think that you need 150mb of space, go with 250mb as your website can rapidly grow and you don’t want to be left with no more space. As mentioned earlier be sure that your website doesn’t ban selected file types such as .zip, .doc, .pdf or .exe. As you may need those file types and will have to resort to hosting them on an external website.

3. Don’t pick a site that sounds too good to be true – Because it probably is. Website hosting sites that offer unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth often are dodgy. They are either are too expensive, can steal your credit card details or have another catch. Stick with what you need not what you want.

4. Thoroughly read through the Terms of Conditions/Service – This is where most Web hosts sites catch you out. You are probably paying for something you don’t want. Such as if you wanted to create a proxy server or a secret forum, web hosts often don’t allow that and will cut your website with no refund. Stay safe and read through the Terms of Conditions to know exactly what you are signing up for.

5. Read many reviews on your potential web hosting sites – This will help you greatly as most users have experienced the advantages/disadvantages that you will experience. It is also great for others opinions on what you are going to put your hard earned money into.

Again I use SmokyHosts for my web hosting as well. The other sites mentioned above also provide great website hosting services.

Download an FTP Client and Upload Your Website

To transfer your website to your webhost you must use a FTP client, (FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol) this is your door towards uploading and updating your website. There are many great FTP clients out there, (they should all be free) my favourites are FileZilla (made by the people who make the popular browser Mozilla Firefox) and SmartFTP. These are both free and very easy to use.

Once you have downloaded just enter your FTP details that you should have received in an email when you signed up for a webhost, enter those into your FTP client and add your sites files to the relevant directory. For updating your website you can change/add/replace different web files and reload them.

You’re Done!

It may take 24-78 hours for your website to become live (depending on your hosting company and ISP) then your website should show up at your chosen domain name. Just sit back and watch traffic increase. You may also want to add your website to Google.

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If you would like more information about what Twitter is and what it can do for you then click here.

The great thing about Twitter is the use of third party applications with Twitter. The Twitter web interface really isn’t the most convenient way to tweet for us all (however there has been a great redesign). In this blog post I will outline my favourite Twitter web apps, these are great not only for tweeting but for finding information and fun from ours, our friends and the Twitterverses tweets.

TweetStats:

TweetStats is one of the best statistical tools for Twitter out there. It lists many stats about the way, you tweet, when you tweet and even what you tweet. TweetStats gives you statistics on how many times you tweet a month, aggregate daily tweets, aggregate hourly tweets, interface used and so on.

Another awesome feature is the TweetCloud. Basically like a tag cloud, but words that appear most often in your tweets. Best of all you can look up the stats of any Twitter user you know. The only downfall is if you want to refresh your stats, you can only do that every 8 hours and you have to retype in your username, except for that it really is an exceptional service.

Twitterfeed:

If you run a blog then Twitter is a great tool to direct traffic to your posts. As we all know its a huge pain to remember to tweet our blog posts. With Twitterfeed the hard work is done for you.

Twitterfeed can automatically check your blogs RSS feed from 30 minutes intervals and you can specify how many blog posts it lists. You can also change the opening text such as “New Blog Post:” for your kind of blog.

TweetWheel:

Twitter can also be about building a community of like minded people. However its a pain looking through your friends followers and so on to see who follows who. TweetWheel really simplifies this problem, by creating a unique wheel you can really see who know who on your Twitter profile and who you should maybe stop following.

One problem with TweetWheel is if you have a slow internet connection and follow lots of people and your friends follow lot of people it can take an age to load the page.

TwitPic:

The old saying goes “a picture can paint a thousand words”, a tweet can only say 160 characters. This is where TwitPic comes to play. TwitPic gives you the ability to share photos with your Twitter friends easilly.

You don’t even need a unique login, TwitPic utilises the Twitter API so the only login you have to give is your Twitter login. Photos are a breeze to upload and share.

Twitscoop:

Twitscoop is quite a cool service which can be a source of some fun. Twitscoop shows in the form of a “tweet cloud”, telling you trending topics in real time. For example A search can often show up word such as “2am”, “3am” etc as people realize that the are up late.

Twitscoop describes there process as:

Through an automated algorithm, twitscoop crawls hundreds of tweets every minute and extracts the words which are mentionned more often than usual. The result is displayed in a Tag Cloud, using the following rule: the hotter, the bigger (no joke here).

Quite a unique service that should definately be checked out.

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If your viewing this post in an RSS reader please come check out ant.geek.nz for my new design.

It’s been a long couple of months but I think I have now found my footing. Let me give you a very short background story on this blog.

Wordpress: June/July 2008- I started off with this blog but didn’t ever get any traffic or anyone really reading it so I tried and I gave up.

Tumblr: August 2008- I gave Tumblr a try as I had paid hard earned money for this domain and I didn’t really want it to go to waste. What I liked about Tumblr was the ability to not have to create long posts, as I could simply post a picture or a video. However I really missed a self hosted blog platform as there were little customization options for Tumblr.

Wordpress: September 2008- I missed Wordpress. I missed the huge customization options, the themes, the plugins, the self hostedness.

So i’m back, and really am better than ever! The initial problems I had with Wordpress are now gone, I now have reliable webhosting thanks to Arkhalon and to match I have a great new theme and now a huge drive for writing which I am sure won’t be going any where anytime soon.

So let me fill you in on the changes you will be seeing on my blog:

• Header: Now I have a much more appealing header that clearly tells you what this blog is about: “Ant”, short for Anthony, the creator of this blog. I now have a Social Media tab and a contact tab. We can now connect in more ways than before and if you want to contact me I now have a neat little PHP contact form.

• Sidebar: Pretty much the same as before but firstly much more simple and stylish. Also for my Twitter sidebar widget I now have a small Twitter web 2.0 icon.

• Body: This is the part of my blog thats ultimate focus is content. The font changes and colours are now much nicer so while your reading great content you can look at a great design.

• Footer: I’m a strong believer in an informational footer. There are three elements in my footer. The About Me page is for the reader to get to know the writer, which is me, it’s just a short snippet and there is always more information on my About page. Second is my Recent Posts section where you can find great content written by me and third is my Flickr feed, I love photography so hopefully this will integrate a link between my Flickr page and blog.

There we go! I’m really happy with my new updated blog and am looking forward to updating it with awesome content often! What I really want from you guys is feedback. I want to know EVERYTHING, what you think of my posts, the redesign etc. So please comment, discuss and enjoy!

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National Party’s leader John Key has been labeled clueless by the search engine Google.

If you go onto google.co.nz then seaches “clueless” under “pages from New Zealand” then press enter or “I’m Feeling Lucky” You will see John Key’s website as the first result.

Not once is the word clueless mentioned on John Key’s website. This technique is known as “Google Bombing”. Where an undesirable word has been linked with a person. George Bush has also been “Google Bombed” with the word “Miserable Failure”.

Auckland computer programmer Rochelle Rees emailed friends a year ago asking them to link “clueless” with John Key’s website. “But at the same time the word describes John Key’s performance”.

There is not much John Key can do to stop this though. Google said that it would not alter bombing as it wants to keep the integrity of its search engine.

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