Lately there’s been a lot of noise in the media about what experts are calling “vampire power” - that is, the amount of electrical energy being consumed while our electronics are “on” even when we’re not using them. In some cases, even when they are turned off, but still plugged in. One of my favorite tech writers, David Pogue, did a good column on it for his Personal Tech Blog at the NYTimes.com website.

So I’ve been thinking about it a lot, because I work in a small office environment in my home - we have around nine or ten computers, most with multiple monitors, along with a variety of peripherals - printers, routers, hubs, phone systems, etc. A couple of these do need to stay on at night as they run application 24×7, but most are just left on for convenience sake. On occasion I get up at night, and it’s astonishing just how much ambient light is put out by the various LED power indicators that are on. We don’t need night-lights.

In David’s column, he mentions a couple of nifty gadgets to help with this - the SurgeArrest Essential from APC (about $28) that has outlets that can be turned off by a Master switch, leaving some on for those items that can’t be powered down, while cutting power to those that can. He also mentions the PowerKey Pro USB for Mac users that does that and more using software along with it’s power strip, letting you control things with a few key strokes. It’s quite a bit more expensive ($199 for the lesser expensive of two models, $299 for the other), but it could be a good choice if your priority is convenience and features.

I took stock of everything that’s plugged in here, to see what could be unplugged at night with little inconvenience (such as monitors, printers, paper shredder, etc). Even my Time Capsule can be shut down at night, since it backs up every hour, and if I’m not changing files on my computer at night, there’s nothing new to be backed up anyway. There’s enough to shave a few dollars off our monthly electric bill and reduce our energy cost, possibly even enough to pay for one or two of the APC SurgeArrests over the course of a year. For me personally, it’s less about reducing our energy consumption and more about helping the environment - my significant other and I are passionate about trying to reduce our carbon footprint - so I don’t mind the extra cost of the PowerKey Pro USB and would use the extra software features.

I’ll keep you posted on which one we go with (who knows, maybe we’ll try both), and I’ll keep track of our energy savings as well so I can let you know in a few months what impact it’s having on our bills.

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Hot off the presses (as in: I just got an email on this)……TidBits.com is celebrating their 18th anniversary with an incredible sale on all of their eBooks (I own quite a few of them)…..

Read the Announcement

Shop The TidBits eBook Catalog

I’m a long-time subscriber to their regular e-newsletter, which I love. Every issue is packed with information and reviews on Mac applications and utilities, current happenings at Apple and in the Mac community, and interesting technology news. On occasion they offer opportunities to win some terrific 3rd party apps (I’ve been the lucky winner twice - yaay!). I look forward to, and thoroughly enjoy, every single issue.

Their eBooks are extremely well written guides to a wide variety of [mostly] mac-related subjects, with clear and easy to follow tips and instructions. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about your operating system and applications, how to make a podcast, or getting the most out of your iPhone, you should check out these eBooks (they have a lot more subjects too). The best part is that even at their normal prices they are a terrific value, but at these sale prices they should not be missed. And when you buy one, they have an embedded link you can click on to check for updates, which makes it easy (and often free) to stay current.

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Well I had planned to write a post about why I really love Sitepoint, then I get an email from them about a sale they are having until the end of this month on their Kits - buy one, get one free. I already own all the Kits or I’d be warming up my credit card right now, but I can tell you that they are well worth every penny even at full price, so at half off (for buying two), well it’s just a no-brainer.

If you’re fairly new to web design, The Usability Kit is a really good primer on how to do things the right way, whether your building a blog or a full-blown commercial site. It will teach you how to ensure that your site is not just completely standards-compliant, but really and truly user-friendly as well.

And if you’re a fairly experienced web designer who wants to go into business for yourself, then the Web Design Business Kit is a must-have. This one will teach you everything you need to know about being a self-employed web designer, from preparing proposals to developing milestones to delivering your finished product. It will help you avoid mistakes that many new entrepreneurs make.

For anyone who needs (or just really wants) to improve traffic to their site (in particular anyone who sells products on the web) you can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars by learning to do your own Search Engine Marketing instead of paying someone else (who may not even be doing it right), you really nee the Search Engine Marketing Kit. The company I work for used to spend over $6000 per month to a SEM firm, but now we do it ourselves for a small fraction of that.

And last but not least, any commercial site should have a good email marketing campaign - it’s important to avoid doing common things that can get you labeled as a spammer, and to know the laws of email marketing, which is where The Email Marketing Kit comes in.

I don’t normally like to “plug” products, but these kits are such a good value normally, and a great value right now, that I wanted to share them with you before the sale is over. According to the email they sent me, quantities are limited so don’t delay! (Now that’s an example of a good email marketing technique!

All of them have Sample chapters that you can download to preview before buying if you choose to.

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WHOO HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!! ……(laughs so hard I’m crying too)…..this is without a doubt one of the funniest things I’ve seen lately…..okay so maybe I DO need to get out more…..

I just love this site GeekCulture.com and in particular their Joy Of Tech cartoon…….it always helps to start my day off on the right foot.

Click on the image at left to open the original at the JOT site in order to read these funny warning labels…..caution: some of these may remind you of you…..

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Quite a few of my “Mac” buddies have been asking me if I use [Leopard's] Time Machine and what I think of it, how it compares to Backup (Apple’s other backup application), and how I like my new Time Capsule, which I’ve been using for about a month now (I went with the 1TB model, which I’ll explain in more detail in a different post). Although I do read other people’s reviews, I try to stay open-minded and give myself enough time with something new before I form an opinion of my own, and for me a month is about right.

Well, there’s a lot to cover. And even though Time Machine and Time Capsule work together beautifully (as they were made to), they are two separate products, so I think it’s best to review each separately. I’ll start with the easiest of the two, Time Machine and do my best to compare it to Backup. I still use both applications and I’ll explain why following my comparison. Read the rest of this entry »

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Need some *ahem* protection for your Apple iPod, iPhone, or Keyboard? Then you have to check out iSkin’s Spring Cleaning Sale going on now to the end of April.

I have several of their keyboard skins (for both my PowerMac and PowerBook) - primarily because here in Arizona you just can’t stay ahead of the dust and the iSkin keyboard skins do a great job of keeping my keyboards clean, so I don’t have to.

They even has a few varieties of their Revo Case for iPhone on sale (I use one for my iPhone and love it - you can read my review of the Revo Case here). I highly recommend this case for anyone who is even slightly prone to dropping phones.

Great styles, great prices, what’s not to love? Excuse me, but I’m off to do a little shopping…..

(P.S. This is a completely uncompensated plug for iSkin, just because I love them XOXO)

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Well, the site is anyway. In honor of CSS Naked Day (April 9th), I’ve removed the styles from my blog.

The idea is to promote Web Standards, (x)html compliance, good semantic markup, and just plain old usability. In other words, without the styling (and often layout) provided by CSS, can your site visitors still find their way around your site easily? Is your navigation clear and prominent? Do you use proper headers and titles? Remember, those with visual impairments don’t see your pretty styles anyway.

I must admit, it feels quite strange, and I feel very exposed, but I think it’s worth it to make the point, and it also has me rethinking my current theme’s styling, which I’ve been wanting to update for some time. I imagine before the end of April I’ll find some time to give it an overhaul.

Stay tuned! I’m currently writing a review of Apple’s Time Capsule and how I’m using it with Time Machine to keep two Macs backed up - I’ll be posting that in the next day or so.

Brrrr! Can someone turn up the heat in here?

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Well more like a “washing and drying” than a ‘licking’, but my point is that recently I was even MORE impressed with Apple’s iPhone…..

My significant other, Rod, was doing some laundry the other day (it’s his chore - mine is cooking), and he neglected to check the pockets of his jeans before they went into the washing machine…….yep, his iPhone was in there. It got transferred into the dryer as well, still in his pocket, and tossed about for around 45 minutes or so. It went unnoticed until Rod was folding his newly clean jeans later that day.

Now maybe the fact that we use no harsh chemicals in our wash (I use Shaklee’s Get Clean line of earth-friendly cleaners) contributed to the iPhone’s survival, and maybe - just maybe - the fact that there were other clothes in with the jeans kept the iPhone from getting banged around too much in both the washer and the dryer, but really - how many cell phones do you think would survive that? The iPhone still works like a charm without so much as a hiccup.

We’ve had other cell phones that had the same or similar treatment (Rod tends to forget that he keeps his phone(s) in his pockets) - some have been washed, others have been dropped into the toilet, a few into a lake (yeah, two in one week went into the lake) - and NONE of them came thru it still in working condition. Motorola, Samsung, Nokia - they’ve all died after even the briefest exposure to water. We’ve been thru a lot of cell phones in the last decade.

The Apple iPhone is the first one that has proven it’s value over and over again. And now I know it can survive Rod. It’s a keeper!

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What a weekend this has been! If you read my last post, you’ll know I was in Frisco, TX attending WordCamp Dallas 2008 on Saturday and Sunday. I’ve absorbed so much new information about WordPress that I’m afraid my brain is spilling over a bit, like when you pour a beer into a cold glass and it foams more than you expected - stick your finger in it quick unless you want a mess!

I’m still amazed at how much value was packed into this terrific conference. And as a bonus I got to meet some of the people whose blogs and podcasts I subscribe to and read frequently……like Charles Stricklin and Jonathan Bailey of The WordPress Podcast, Mark Ghosh of Weblog Tools Collection, and Jeff Chandler from Jeffro2pt0, the inimitable firecracker Lorelle Van Fossen (from whom I have learned much thru her Blog, Lorelle On WordPress and who is one of the nicest, warmest people you’ll ever meet!), and of course the one and only “Mr. WordPress”, Matt Mullenweg (a founding developer of WordPress and the President of Automattic, the company responsible for both WordPress and Akismet. All of them were very approachable, warm, friendly, and very generous with their time and expertise.

I’ve no doubt that if you do a search on “WordCamp Dallas” over the next few days you’ll find tons of blog postings from other attendees, filled with reviews of the sessions and accompanied by the numerous photos and videos that were taken during the last two days. One site, Mashable.com, even streamed much of it live.

If you’re a WordPress fan, then no doubt you’re already aware that the long-awaited and much touted version 2.5 was released on Saturday (the 29th), and the first hour of the program on Saturday was devoted to a presentation by Matt Mullenweg on the new version and it’s many nifty new features and improvements. I’ll be upgrading this week, and will post a followup on my experience of it sometime next week. I have a number of blogs I manage for others that I’ll be upgrading as well, so it’s going to be a busy week - and that’s in addition to my “day job”.

If you’re not currently using WordPress, as either a blog or a CMS/site building tool, I highly recommend that you check it out. Personally I think it’s the greatest thing to come along since, well since the internet. Highly flexible and customizable, it allows novices to quickly construct their own home on the ‘net, and still allows advanced users to add as much sophistication as they wish.

Other standout presentations (that had me taking copious notes as fast as my fingers could type) were John Pozadzides’s “45 Ways to Power Up Your Blog“, Jonathan Bailey’s excellent discourse on “How to Prevent, Detect, and Stop Content Theft” (something I have been a victim of so I plan to implement a number of his suggestions), Lorelle’s meaty lecture on “WordPress Power Tips” (she had her book “Blogging Tips: What bloggers won’t tell you about blogging” there too - they were going fast but I managed to get a copy and devoured most of it in my spare time and on the flight home - well worth the price!) And of course Charles and Jonathan’s live recording of the WordPress Podcast - very fun to watch.

One other notable item of interest - I was really struck by how many Mac users were in attendance - at most conferences I attend I generally only see around 10% to 15% of the laptop bearers holding Macs - at WordCamp Dallas 2008 this number was north of 50% from what I could see, and I would guess that nearly 90% of the audience had their laptops out during the entire event - most were taking notes, some were doing “live blogging” and chats to report on the event, many were participating in the live group Twitter. It was, in short, a blast. An educational blast.

If you didn’t make it there this year, I encourage you to consider going next year - I learned a lot and met so many nice people this year that I know I won’t miss the next one!

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