Dave McComb's Blog

The Chronotronix V400 Nixie Tube Clock may be one of the most elegant alarm clocks I have ever seen. This blend of electronics and style lends it well to the high-end geek lifestyle.  Though it begs the question: “Is $415 too much for an alarm clock?”

- via Nixie Clock | Chronotronix V400 [Buzz-Beast]

As the major video sites switch from using Flash for video towards using HTML5, you should think about doing the same on your WordPress blog.  By using the <iframe> tag instead of the <embed> tag it ensures that your video will be displayed for people on a computer, iPhone, iPad or whatever else may be coming down the road. Basically, it helps to future-proof your site and make it as accessible as possible.

The problem with using the iframe tag with WordPress is that (for security reasons), the iframe tag disappears when switching from Visual mode to HTML mode, and back again.  This can be very frustrating when you think you embed a video only to find out that it has disappeared from your post.

Luckily, WordPress plugins come to the rescue.  There are several plugins that allow you to properly use iframes in WordPress. The most popular of these seem to be: Embed Iframe, IFRAME Embed for Youtube and Insere Iframe.

While the other two may be worth checking out, I went with the last of these, Insere Iframe, because it was the one with the most flexibility and also allowed the easiest rewriting of the iframe code you will get from sites like Youtube and Vimeo.  Once you install and activate the plugin, you get a new [iframe: ] tag to use in your posts.

Here are two examples of how to copy and change the iframe code:

Using Vimeo Iframe Video Code in WordPress

Vimeo will give you iframe code that looks like this:

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14269383" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe>

With this new plugin, you simply change that code to:

[iframe:  src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14269383" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"]

Using Youtube Iframe Video Code in WordPress

Youtube will give you iframe code that looks like this:

<iframe type="text/html" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KDv5hnQ9ADk?hl=en_US" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Change that code to:

[iframe: type="text/html" width="400" height="325" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KDv5hnQ9ADk?hl=en_US" frameborder="0"]

That’s it. Simple and future-proof. I’d recommend making the switch now.

If you use Gmail all the time like I do, then there are two great add-on products that you really need to install.

The first is Rappaportive. I’ve been using this software for awhile now and it is really cool.  What it does is try and pull the contact information from anyone who emails you from various social media sites (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.).  If it finds information, it will display it along the right-hand side of your Gmail window.  This includes things like their photo, location, and links to the various social networks they have profiles on. It’s really great to see a photo and information about the person you’re emailing, especially when you may have never met before.

The second is Cloud Magic. Cloud Magic is a plug-in for Firefox and Chrome that adds super fast searching to Gmail. Yes, Gmail does have Google’s search built in,but Cloud Magic improves on Google’s search by through a number of things. First, it uses a floating toolbar that allows you to search without having to open a new tab. This is extremely useful when composing an email and needing to find some relevant bit of information to include. It also allows you to link all your Google App accounts and search through the email in each of those accounts as well as the one you have open. (I have about 6 different Google Apps accounts, so this is extremely useful).

You can find out more about Cloud Magic in the video below:

Both tools are incredibly useful and add a lot to the Gmail experience.

I made the switch from Mac to PC just over a year ago, and I couldn’t be happier with my decision.  I love my MacBook Pro and most of the Apple software is amazing.

That being said, I’ve never really liked iPhoto.  I tried to use it, organize my photos with it – really get into it. Unfortunately, it just didn’t seem intuitive to me.  Luckily, Picasa for the Mac is available and in my opinion, it’s the best photo manager around.  In Picasa, things just seem more intuitive and straightforward. Folders are organized effectively. Using Collections is a breeze. Uploading to Picasa Web Albums is free and easy (1GB of space is free and 20GB only costs $5 for the year.)

Now, the latest version of Picasa adds online photo editing with Picnik, batch uploads to  Picasa Web Albums, some meta data improvements, and a very cool feature called “Face Movies” which allows you to create a video from anyone’s photos which will always display their face in the middle throughout the entire photo slide show.  You can check out the one I made here:

I’d recommend dumping iPhoto and getting Picasa now.

- via Picasa 3.8: Face movies, Picnik integration, batch upload, and more [Google Photos Blog]