Note: The Freelance Jam podcast has been discontinued. This week I discovered Freelance Jam, a podcast for web freelancers. The iTunes description is "Freelance Jam is the show for independent professionals who build the web. Hosted by Brian Casel (@casjam) and Dave Yankowiak (@daveyank) with guests from across the web industry. Topics include freelance business, […]
Note: CONGA is now offline. Looking for a technology group or event in West Michigan? CONGA maintains a list of these groups, as well as a calendar of events. I added this calendar to my personal Google Calendar so I don't miss any events. I've met some brilliant people doing innovative things through these groups. […]
HTML, XHTML & CSS For Dummies by Ed Tittel My rating: 2 of 5 stars I can’t recommend this book; there are several that do are better for introductory HTML and CSS. It’s quite broad, covering many Web technologies, but it’s not very deep. It focuses on HTML and CSS, but also touches on scripting […]
These are the best sources of free audiobooks I've found. Most of their books are in the public domain, and many are classics. For more recent books, check with your local library; many let you download audiobooks, even from home. My local library, Herrick District Library, provides audiobooks from several sources. Where do you get […]
Microsoft Office includes a comprehensive help system. In each Office application, such as Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, there’s an easy way to search for help. The simplest way is to press the F1 key, which also works in most other Windows programs. You can also click the blue question mark near the top of […]
If you hand-sort your email, you’re living in the past! You should use rules to automate your email management. Intro to rules in Outlook A rule is an action that Microsoft Outlook performs automatically upon incoming or outgoing messages, based on conditions that you have specified. You can create a rule from a template, from […]
Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours by Julie C. Meloni My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a decent introduction to HTML and CSS. Its main advantages over other books of this type are the full color examples and syntax-highlighted code snippets. The explanations and examples are simple and easily understood. […]
WordPress All-in-One For Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Cory Miller, Kevin Palmer, Andrea Rennick, Michael Torbert My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the broadest, most comprehensive WordPress book I’ve read so far. It covers more than WordPress for Dummies, because it deals with everything from administration to design to development. I skimmed the first […]
Note: IDrive for WordPress is no longer available. Use ManageWP, Solid Backups, or another solution. I have a new WordPress backup plugin recommendation: IDrive for WordPress. I previously recommended the Backupify plugin, but my backups have been failing, and Backupify told me its plugin is no longer supported. I've used IDrive for backing up PCs […]
Sams Teach Yourself HTML5 in 10 Minutes (5th Edition) by Steven Holzner My rating: 2 of 5 stars This short book contains 10 brief lessons covering some of what's new in HTML5: drawing with the canvas element, dragging and dropping, form controls, video and audio, and storage. Each lesson introduces elements and their attributes, briefly […]
WordPress Bible by Aaron Brazell My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a comprehensive WordPress book; topics include getting started, plugin development, theme development, content management, and maintenance. I’m a web designer who creates WordPress sites for small businesses, so I focused on SEO, plugin recommendations, and theme development, and skimmed plugin development. My […]
I thought my post 9 best WordPress podcasts for WordPress tips, reviews, news included all the active WordPress podcasts, but Dustin R. Hartzler left a comment recommending his podcast, Your Website Engineer. I've listened to several of the recent episodes, and so far I'm impressed! There've been 31 episodes since it started in December 2010. Give […]
