Chris Pirillo » Internet

What is Dropbox?

Chris — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:48:52 +0000

What is Dropbox? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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We uploaded a screencast from Billy not long ago. He received excellent reviews, so I was only too happy to look at his newest creation. This one will teach you what exactly Dropbox is, what it’s for, and why you should be using it! I use it on a daily basis, myself, and love it! Don’t forget that you could have your screencast featured on my channels. Get to work, and email me your best!

Dropbox is the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online. There’s no complicated interface to learn. Head over to Dropbox and download it to your computer. Then, of course, create a new account if you don’t already have one.

When you are finished installing, you’ll notice a couple of folders already there. There will be a public folder, as well as a photos folder. If you want someone to download a file, drag and drop it into your public folder. It will let you know when it’s finished uploading. Right click it, and copy the public link. Paste that into an Internet browser, and the download box will open automagically!

Dropbox is a free and easy way to transfer files. There are pricing options for larger Dropbox storage space should you need it. I have a large account, as this is how I transfer video files to Kat so that she can get them onto all of my channels for me. I have never had issues with it myself, and recommend the service to all of you.

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Create Your Own WordPress Themes

Chris — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:30:29 +0000

Create Your Own WordPress Themes is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you have a blog, you have a theme. Chances are, you downloaded a theme off the web somewhere. It’s okay that you don’t know how to code your own customized theme from scratch! Very few people are capable of doing this. You want your blog to say “YOU”, but you don’t want to pay a designer a ton of money to accomplish this. It’s a good thing Artisteer now makes it simple for you to create and customize your own WordPress theme with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Everything and anything you can think of that you might want to tweak in your layout can be done easily with Artisteer in just a few seconds. You don’t have to try to learn HTML or even CSS. All you have to be able to do is click your mouse buttons, and decide what look is right for you.

Move your gadgets to a different side. Change up your text with different colors and fonts. Heck, change the header or background image while you’re at it. Don’t like what you’re seeing? Psh! Just click a button and start completely over. It really is that easy.

Best of all, Artisteer doesn’t only work on WordPress. Create designs for web pages, Blogger Blogs, or make professional Joomla! and Drupal templates.

Artisteer is probably my favorite new discovery in a long time. I’m having so much fun that I’ve now created probably 30 different themes, just by playing around. The only limitation to this program is your own imagination. So… get creative!

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Wooden Background Truly Dead
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WicketPixie Open Source WordPress Theme Updates
How to Create a Twitter Background Image
CNN.com!”>Yes, It’s True – I’m Now the Tech Expert on CNN.com!
Do You Need a Better Blog Search Tool?

How to Surf

Chris — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:35:05 +0000

How to Surf is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Most of you know that I am an experienced surfer. I’ve been at it since about 1994, through various platforms and browsers. Yes, I’m an Internet surfer! I’ve never gotten on a physical surfboard, or been on one in the water. However, I did get my own custom surfboard today, courtesy of LeapFish! How cool is this thing?! The folks at leapfish just recently re-launched their site, dedicated to bringing you a single, connected, multi-media experience for both searching and sharing traditional and real-time content.

Of course, since I am talking about surfing, I headed over to LeapFish to do a real-time search to attempt to learn something about it. The first thing I noticed was how amazingly well the results are laid out. Instead of one large and continuous listing of mish-mashed results… everything is broken down into categories right there in front of me. I don’t have to fumble around and click to the “video” tab, or the “shopping” tab. It’s all there.

So I’m seeing news and wiki results first – that’s cool. But I think I want something a bit different. Scrolling down, there are video results next… wait. What the heck is this? Twitter results – in my search engine?! There’s blog results, too!

Yes, you read that right. No, I didn’t typo it or dream it up. LeapFish not only gives you results based on current news stories and dry articles. You’ll also find real-time results based on Twitter and the millions of blogs across the Internet. We already know that those are two of the best, fastest and most reliable ways to get information. Now we can actually find what we need, simply by starting on LeapFish.

There are still tabs across the top of the page, like you are probably used to from other search engines. These tabs can help you narrow down the types of results you’ll see. Do you want only video? Great… they have that. Need some pictures or something from Twitter and Digg? Yep… they have that, as well!

I honestly think you are going to need to try out LeapFish for yourself. Once you do, I think you’re going to want to keep trying it… day after day after day.

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How to Install Your Favorite Windows Software

Chris — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:56:50 +0000

How to Install Your Favorite Windows Software is a post from Chris Pirillo

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The easiest ways to get programs these days is to download them. When I was getting started with software, you had to actually go to a store and buy them. The Internet didn’t really even exist back then! There’s software available for any platform these days, but this video is all about Windows… and the ease with which you can install programs using Ninite.

Choose your software, and let Ninite do the rest. It will download and install your programs with the default setup. It will even say “NO WAY!” to installing toolbars and other such nonsense that some programs try to sneak past you. All Ninite will do is install the latest versions of the programs that YOU choose. Nothing else is downloaded or installed onto your system.

I can’t think how it could get any easier than this, other than if the service could read your mind and know what programs you want without your having to click anything. Ninite has excellent choices, as well. I recommend – and use – many of them already! Choose your favorites in the following categories and get ready for easy install:

Web browsers
Instant Messaging programs
Media Players<
Photo/Graphic Editors
Document creation and editing programs
Anti-Virus programs
Runtime utilites (such as Java)
Utilities
Compression programs
Developer tools

The list is very good, with excellent choices… and it sticks them all into one nice, neat little installer.

If you know of any other easy ways to get the latest and greatest software, I’d love to hear about it.

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Google Seattle

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:22:28 +0000

Google Seattle is a post from Chris Pirillo

I was invited to tour Google’s new Kirkland campus this morning (which, if you didn’t already know, is in the Seattle area).

It was interesting to see where some of our favorite Google tools are actively developed.

That being said, I was most impressed with Google’s cafeteria. Specifically, the section naming conventions.

They’re serving up giggles and nibbles, yo!

This company is all about the geek…

…all the way down to a LEGO’ed logo.

How to Choose a Domain Name

Chris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:08:19 +0000

How to Choose a Domain Name is a post from Chris Pirillo

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The problem with registering domain names isn’t the registration process. They’re fairly inexpensive, and easy to register. The problem is that all the good names and addresses are already taken. Finding a decent one is sometimes a bit of a challenge. This is the reason I have created this new site – to help you find possible names for the perfect site for you!

This site is exceedingly easy to use. Give it a web address (news article, blog post, etc). The site will scan that web page, pull out two random words, and slap a .com on the end of the words. It will tell you whether or not the address is available. It will even ask you how many results you want!

If a site is already registered, there will be a large red X next to the result. If it’s not, there will be a link you can click to take you to a page that helps you buy it for yourself! All you have to do is plug in any address that exists on the web that deals with the topic matter you’re looking at creating a site for. How much easier can it get?

This is great to help you save time while trying to come up with the best possible name for your new venture. It will also save you the headache you’ll get from brainstorming for hours on end trying to think up something unique. Take a moment and check out our domain thinktank for yourself.

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Sonos

Chris — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:55:05 +0000

Sonos is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I am able to change the music I’m listening to throughout my house by controlling it from one small little tool! This is one of the best things I’ve used in quite awhile, for sure. The Sonos Controller gives you instant access to all your music and all the rooms in your house, with just the touch of a finger… even from my iPhone!

Turn off what’s playing downstairs while you’re still upstairs, or change the song playing in your bedroom while you’re in the living room. You don’t have to aim the remote at anything in particular, since it’s all wireless… and works seemingly like magic! Play the same song in every room of your house – or different things in different rooms, depending on what everyone wants to hear.

The best part of all is the many different ways you can listen to music with Sonos. Listen to the music collection on your computer, or a free Internet radio station. Or better yet – subscribe to a music service (I use Rhapsody), and listen to that. The possibilites are nearly endless.

These are simple to use out of the box – you don’t have to be a gadget genius to figure it out! There’s really no reason I can think of that you wouldn’t want one of these.

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How to Make Music

Chris — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:07:53 +0000

How to Make Music is a post from Chris Pirillo

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iNudge is probably the coolest new website I’ve come across in quite awhile. You can make a composition of music on your own, and share it with others. You might remember when I demonstrated my Tenori-On awhile back. iNudge is very similar, only it’s online – and free!

iNudge is so easy to play with. Select 1 of 8 different Sound Patterns from the small Matrixes icons. Use your mouse to draw notes on each 16 Step Matrix. For each Pattern, adjust Volume, Mute, Clear, or set Audio Pan from Left to Right. Click on the Tempo numbers and click up or down to change the overall Tempo.

Once you have created your masterpiece, you can easily share it with others. If you click “get and share”, it allows you to send the link to your music by email, or get an embed code to spread around in various communities you may be a member of!

I’m no musician by any stretch of the imagination. But, I love to make music!

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What’s Your Favorite Screen Saver?

Chris — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:04:24 +0000

What’s Your Favorite Screen Saver? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Even when I have something important to talk to you about, I still find my Inbox overrun with the same question – “What screen saver do you use?!”. For whatever reason, that appears to be a burning question in our community. Instead of recording a video today on some deep, intellectual topic, I decided it was best to discuss these screen savers and soothe the question fires. So – where DO I get those awesome screen savers?

I happen to be using screen savers from Really Slick Screensavers. The screen savers there are available for both OS X and Windows – and will cost you nothing but the time it takes to download the files! They’re seriously cool and fun. I admit to sitting and staring at them at times… totally forgetting to do any work!

So now you know what screen saver I’m currently using. Today – this is my favorite, and what you’ll see on my monitors. Tomorrow – who knows? I tend to change it up a bit, depending on cool new things I find.

If you know of even better screen savers for OS X than what you see I have now, email me a link. I’ll definitely check it out.

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Do You Need to Buy or Sell a Domain Name?

Chris — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:49:50 +0000

Do You Need to Buy or Sell a Domain Name? is a post from Chris Pirillo

Consider buying – or selling – domain names using the hottets domain auction house on the Web – Go Daddy Auctions! Go Daddy Auctions has up to 50% lower commission fees than other leading auction houses, so you keep more of your money!

Right now, you can enjoy Go Daddy Auctions for half off of a one-year membership! Head over to Go Daddy now, and click on Auctions at the top of the home page. Please enter source code: auction3 during checkout to receive your savings!

You’re likely going to buy and/or sell a few domains over the next year. Why not make use of the auction that Go Daddy offers, and save yourself a ton of hassle – and money!

How to Improve Internet Explorer

Chris — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:22:24 +0000

How to Improve Internet Explorer is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Back in the day, I used to love Internet Explorer. It was awesome… up until version 4 and above. A lot of people out there still use IE, and will continue to do so. You can install a new plugin that Google has released – and have your install of Internet Explorer kick serious browser butt once again.

Installing the new Google Chrome Frame plugin will allow you to still run Internet Explorer. But, instead of using the IE rendering engine (the way that HTML and objects are rendered) this plugin will supplant it with Google’s engine. This is so much faster, and will make web pages look even better.

You don’t need Google Chrome’s web browser installed. You can simply load this plugin, and everything will run faster and better from within Internet Explorer – including javascript! You can also start using open web technologies – like the HTML5 canvas tag – right away, even technologies that aren’t yet supported in Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8!!

So if you have friends and family who insist on using Internet Explorer, go ahead and install this plugin for them. They’ll never know you did it, and they’ll be raving about how much faster and better their IE is running!

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How to Educate Yourself for Free

Chris — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:25:26 +0000

How to Educate Yourself for Free is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Like many college students, I drank a lot. I drank so much, that I had to take out a second loan to cover the cost of all the soda I bought. That’s really all I drank. I just have never been much into alcohol, not even in college. College costs a lot – certainly far more today than when I was attending. Is it worth it anyway? Absolutely, it is. A college education and a degree are priceless in many ways. But how the heck can you pay for an education these days?

Sites like OpenCourseWare Consortium can save you a large sum of money. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model.

Even though you don’t receive a degree or certificate, you are still educating yourself at no cost. There are any number of courses and types of things that you can find and learn on sites like this. All it’s going to cost you is the time it takes you to go through the material.

Education is a good thing, whether you pay for it or not… and whether you get a piece of paper at the end of the learning. What matters in this case is that you have expanded your mind, and broadened your horizons.

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How to Create Your Own Font for Free

Chris — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:50:36 +0000

How to Create Your Own Font for Free is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Fonts are awesome. I used to scan my own little characters into the computers and create fonts with an expensive program. The fonts could then be used in a web browser, or even a word document. If you’ve always wanted to create your own fonts but can’t afford expensive programs to help you, you’re in luck! Community member Daniel has passed along a resource to let you make your own font for free!

fontcapture lets you create a font from your own handwriting. There’s no software to download and install, all you need is a printer and a scanner. Simply fill in the font template, scan and upload it to their website, and download your completed font. The fonts you create using fontcapture can be used on both Windows and Mac computers!

I did this prior to creating this video, and it really works! It was simple to do, and a lot of fun. My friend Natasha does some web designing. She remarked that this turned out so well, it’s like something that would take a designer a week to do using expensive software! It really does turn out that good!

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How to Protect Your Content with Copyright for Free

Chris — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:37:40 +0000

How to Protect Your Content with Copyright for Free is a post from Chris Pirillo

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When you copyright your material, you are claiming it as your own so that others can’t copy or use it without permission. Joseph sent an email to me recently, letting me know of a website that will help you copyright your content for absolutely no money! Thankfully, Joseph has his own personal site registered here, and his content is protected. His site was recently copied without authorization. Thanks to MyFreeCopyright, he was able to get the other site shut down.

It’s fairly simple to use this service, as well. Upload your original creation securely, and the site will create a digital fingerprint of it, store the fingerprint in a database and sends a copy of the fingerprint to you in an email. The email contains the verified date; the fingerprint verifies the digital creation, and your email address verifies it belongs to you. Your creation is then registered and protected.

A note: you MUST keep the email that contains the fingerprint in it in order to make a claim at any point in the future as to the validity of your content.

You don’t want others stealing your content. You’re the one who did all the work. This service is easy, and free. There’s no reason for you not to copyright what you’ve done! Protect yourself and get your digital fingerprints made today.

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How to Play Quake Online

Chris — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:17:43 +0000

How to Play Quake Online is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I bet I know what you’re thinking right now. You’re probably wondering why you’re watching this video, instead of pwning noobs on Quake right from within your browser. Oh – you didn’t know you could play Quake this way? Well now you do!

When you go to Quake Live, you’ll need to install a browser plugin. And then – play the game. Seriously, I’m not kidding. QUAKE LIVE is a new and multiplayer game experience that offers game players of all skill levels a totally free and easily accessible multiplayer game and community through a single website.

I played this prior to recording the video. I was able to pwn people – but only because I had it on the easiest settings. I’m just not a very good gamer, I know. But that’s ok, it’s still a lot of fun. There’s tons of different game settings, including changing your music and video options. It runs right from within your web browser… you don’t have to install an actual game. Because of this, it works on any operating system.

If you have an Internet connection and a web browser, you can play Quake online and get an excellent gaming experience.

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.