Moveable Type is open source

No one can deny Blogger's simplicity and ease of use. But there are other options out there that give you more control and offer a wealth of plugins. Another reason for a self hosted blog is to gain access to the AWSTATS for the blog's feed. This lets you know how many readers you have consistently.

Yesterday another blog software package threw their hat in the ring of open source blog softwares out there. Welcome Moveable Type to the open source community.

So, make sure you have looked at all the blogging software out there to decide which one is right for you. I would also like to mention that Wordpress can import from many popular blog formats to your new blog. This feature works amazingly well. Although, don't delete your old blog as your images aren't imported, but just referenced from your old blog.

Enjoy more blogging freedom!

New Google Analytics features

So I just noticed two new features of Google Analytics. It is the ability to compare date ranges and metrics on the same graph. This means you can compare a single stat in two seperate date ranges. Perhaps you wan to compare month to month or week to week on visitors. This would let you see if overall your blog has more visitors at the end or beginning.

Also, you can compare number of visitors to something like bounce rate and see if the two relate or not.

Here is some more blog posting about details on how to use the new functionality. Although Google itself hasn't released the new "beta" functionality.

http://comments.deasil.com/2007/12/13/new-google-analytics-comparison-feature/

Solid State Hard drives

Solid state hard drives are the new wave of hard drive. They are being introduced to the consumer in laptop form first and are now available as an upgrade option from Dell on some laptops. Solid state hard drives are basically Flash cards restructured for use as a hard drive. Why in the world should people consider solid state?

Solid state is far more reliable and fast than current spin disks. There is no mechanical features to break down from wear and tear. The hard drives are also 100 times faster than current spin drives. The big question in a computer is what to upgrade and spend money on. The simple answer is what the limiting factor is. Up until this point adding more memory as much as you could afford was the recommendation.

With the advent of dual core processors the weakest link in the computer chain is starting to become hard drive speed. So, be on the lookout for solid state hard drives. If you can afford it in your next laptop, spring for it. Not only will it be more reliable and faster, but will also double your battery life as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_state_disk

How to distinguish yourself

In this day of affordable digital, more and more good digital cameras are hitting our clients hands. So, we as professionals must continue to expand, grow, and distinguish ourselves. One of the biggest areas of this is the Uncle Joe photographer for weddings.

None of us want to loose out to Uncle Joe photographer. If you haven't picked up a recent point and shoot lately you are missing out. They may not be as high res as our professional cameras, but the bells and whistles allow them to work even in complex lighting situations.

http://www.photopackaging.com/?p=91

This is a useful blog of articles on information for starting out photographers. It is also good for those who have been in business for a while to brush up. Read up and distinguish yourself as a pro.