Digsby = IM + Email + Social Networks

Jonathan Snook gave me the heads up on this one. It totally slid under my nose and I didn’t even see it in my search for Multi-Protocol Chat Clients and Free Software List.

I may have to do some more research on these and come up with another review. Since that post back in 2006 about chat clients…things have changes, names have changes, Social Networks have popped up all over the place. So, for now I will just update my lists and then re-list the multi protocol chat clients that i would recommend to you (in no particular order)

I use Miranda at work.
I use Pidgin at home.
I am going to try out Digsby ASAP.
Another one I want to try soon is Instabird.

I never use Trillian any more.

When I am in my Mac world, Adium is of course my first choice…but I heard some good things were coming along with Fire before they decided to call it quits.

Anyway…Enjoy this update. Leave me a comment and let me know what you are using…what you like and/or dislike about it.

I’ve been ‘testing’ website stats software, sites, js, etc for a while now. They all show about the same thing. Although I would love to support such a wonderful app like Mint (not the Money Management site), I just can’t bring myself to pay for it and I’ll tell you why here shortly.

First and foremost is . It’s one of the first and best free site tracking apps out there…but it’s just not for me at this stage. It’s more geared towards large scale, corporate websites. Not my personal blog. I will always keep an account and I might even keep the tracking code on my site just so I can peep on over at the reports they provide. But this is not my favorite any longer. Good, but too much for my needs.

Slimstat: This at one time was a favorite of mine, but hasn’t been updated or touched in a long while by the creator. I’ve also moved away from these types of analytics tools because I’d much rather not have to install, manage, and look for updated versions. I like the idea of just installing a few simple lines of code (JavaScript) and letting them worry about updates, maintenance, etc. Same goes with the above mentioned .

Counterize or Counterize II: this is a WONDERFUL Wordpress Plugin. If you want something simple, installable, and pretty much just turnkey (plugin activation), then this is what you want for Wordpress. It’s easy to install, activate, and read straight from your Wordpress Dashboard. But, as I have said before, I do not want something that needs to be installed. Good, easy, but just not what I am looking for.

: This one quickly became one of my favorites when it first came out…with a Web 2.0 look and feel about it…and also became one of my least favorites just as fast. I don’t know what it is, but something about the site/Dashboard just isn’t doing it for me in the ‘Show me my stats in a cool way’. Good, but not good enough.

Not much to talk about this one. Tried it because a friend said they liked it. It’s bland, not fun to look at, and just flat out isn’t good to me. Sorry, but try again.

mapsurface was once a real cool widget that popped up on top of your site. It was heading in the right direction, but then sold out to some other company. I haven’t seen any new enhancements or updates in a few years. I am removing this from my site now…with a sad face because I had high hopes for this nifty little gadget. ByeBye mapsurface!!

: this was very cool when it first came out…but it’s not doing things for me that I can’t get some place else…Google or one of the two following I am about to talk about.

Well, hmmm…feedburner is trying to be a do it all service. I am still watching over their stats/analytics portion and I will report on this one at a later time. But so far so good!

By far my most favorite of all listed above. The delivery is great, the site is great, the content is great, just about everything is great. I know what I am looking at, and looking for, and it’s easy to find. They even have a real cool Windows/Mac app that streams real time responses to you when someone hits your site…called Snoop! I can go on and on, but I won’t. Just go check this out. I am more than positive this will also be one of your top two analytic tools. (Side Note, for me of course, and for what I need. Google is just too bloated, Reinvigorate gives me just what I need).

I know there are several more, but I have not tried them. I do not intend to try then any time soon either, but here is a list of some others that I have heard good things about:

• StatCounter
• ShinyStat
• AWStats
• Piwik

Yes, this was a very informal sort of a review. I guess my main point was to make a list to start with, and then to justify to myself (if to nobody else) which one or maybe two that I should keep. I hope you find this list a little bit useful. If you know of others, please let me know in the comments. I am always up to trying new ones.

Now, off to write about my methods to monetize my site…and what I have tried and what I think I am going to go with.

If you have ever needed to extract the .rdl file from SQL Server Reporting Server, it’s not very easy. The physical .rdl (Report Definition List) is not stored anywhere on the server file system. It’s stored in the Catalog table inside Report Server. So, I am sure there are several ways to get this…but I was pressed for time and asked someone that I knew was a lot more knowledgeable on the subject. Steve gave me this link: Reporting Services Scripter

Which has solved all my issues. Now it’s time to give it a run!

Most of you know that I fully support the open source world, while I hack away as a ‘jack of all trades’ developing currently in .NET (C# and ASP.NET). I also don’t mind NOT having to pay for things like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I have both because I love to support and there are soooo many tutorials out there that even an amature can pretty much achieve a goal. I do most of my graphics in AI or PS.

But, I also love to use Inkscape and GIMP. These are the two open source rivals to the Adobe line. And let me tell you this…if you don’t mind the minor learning curve, you can do anything and everything you can do in these two free graphic software that you can do with Adobe’s AI and PS. Now, I should also let most of you know that Inkscape is Vector based and GIMP is Raster. To most that doesn’t mean much so I won’t go into technical details.

Anyway, the main reason for this post is to let those of you know that the GIMP just released a new and improved version: 2.4

I’ll load it up here in a few days and give it a spin. Maybe I’ll write a review this time!

I’ve always been a member of Newsvine since it started a couple years ago. I thought it was a brilliant idea and wished I could have done something like that. Now look at them! They’ve grown to an outstanding size at a pace that blows most other news sites out of the water. You want up to the minute news on just about anything, you can go there, sign up, customize your own news area, and watch it all come streaming into your browser. Not only that, you can seed (get it? newsvine) any articles you want. And to top it all off, you can write your own columns/articles! How sweet is that! Now just about anybody can publish. Wait, is that a good or bad thing? I’ll let you decide, go check out what I have done over there so far. Nothing of my own, but I’ve created an area for Texas Tech (Newsvine) that’s so far just been mainly sports.

I’ve also taken out the Categories list below, and switched it to something I am toying with. I am mixing the newsvine site with my site, creating an always updated area for Texas Tech. I’ll eventually move this to my Texas Tech link, but for now this is a good way to test for future reuse. Just take a look below and you’ll see a list of items that you’ll see on the Texas Tech Newsvine site.