We've moved!

If your wondering why we haven't posted in a long time, that's because we've been busy setting up Tech Talk 4 U on it's own domain. We have know switched over to that and will not be posting here anymore. We will be posting over there. Where's over there?

Tech Talk 4 U.com

See you there.

My Guest Post

Over the weekend fellow blog Everybody Go To decided they would allow some guest blogging, as they were going to be busy. So being the good community fellow I am, I decided to help out, and submitted my latest post (Top 16 WP plugins) to them. I guess they thought it was pretty good, as they posted it. You can view it on their blog at: www.everybodygoto.com/top-16-wp-plugins.

Last I checked it had 14 diggs, and a few comments.

The Top 16 Wordpress Plugins

To a lot of people starting a new blog can seem like a gigantic task. And not that it isn't, it is. You have to worry about hosting it, what theme your going to use, what content to post, signing up for the half-a-gazillion things you might or might not need, ads, and, those plugins. Well to make your life simpler I have compiled a list of the top 16 wordpress plugins. I think these 16 are great for making your blog more functional, and user friendly, in a faster time. {No guarantees, individual results may vary.} So, without further ado, I give you the top 16 WP plugins. {By the way, did i mention these are all free?}

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Plug Installer ~ This is the first plugin you need to get, as it helps you install all the rest.

WP e-Commerce ~ Perfect if you are selling anything from your blog, like those Alexa traffic rank tee shirts with your site name.

WP Post Rating System ~ Your readers can rate your post on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the best.

Gregarious Bookmarking ~ The ultimate social bookmarking plugin, integrated with Share This.

WP Movie Review and Ratings ~ Simple, write about movies and you need this plugin. Integrated with Internet Movie Database.

Author Highlights ~ Highlights the comments/replies to comments made by the author, just so you know who's who.

Edit Comments ~ Users can edit their own comments, an alternative to a bad word filter.

Dash Notes~ So you can remember that post you wanted to write. It's Canadian!

Digital Fingerprint Beta2 ~ Protects your content from being stolen. Someone let John Chow know about this. {Also Canadian!}

WP Ads~ An add for showing Banner and Contextual ads.

WP Table ~ Since the WP visual editor has no table function, this plugin adds one.

Ad Man~ Add ads before/in-the-middle-of/after your posts.

Contact Form 7 ~ A simple contact form plugin, that supports multi-forms, etc.

Transpose Email ~ With this spammers won't be able to grab your mail-to: links.

Since Last Visit ~ A handy plugin that display the number of Comments and Posts since your last visit.

Easy PayPal ~ Accept "If you liked this post, buy me some beer/coffee/milk" payments.

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Have fun and start pluggin'!

A $500 Cash Cow

My recent web explorations have lead me over to the fine grazing at the pasture of JohnCow.com. Now these guys definitely have a cool web host. Their web host is sponsoring a cowpetion, and if you hadn't allready guessed it, the prize is....$500.00!

This is your chance to win basically anything you want! Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, iPhone, Ipod, if you can name it then they'll pay it. They really must have mad cow disease. If this sounds cool to you, don't get left behind. Head over to their mad cow blog for mooore. This is my official mooo of an entry, who knows..maybe i'll be writing my next post from an iPhone! After that i'll call my web host..

[Pic courtesy johncow.com]

Google Update

Quick update on Google.

Google street view: has added another 4 major cites, creating a total of 9 U.S. cities, as reported by Google LatLong.

Gmail: has tallyed up another couple g's of storage, bringing the total to 9 gb (9030mb). Apparently there was great surprise about this with gmail users, (I guess thinking it was a trick of the light).

Gdrive: this is a new service, allowing you to bring together your gmail, and Picasa accounts into one place. Rumor has it that Google Docs and Spreadsheets will be added next. Though Google has many free services, this is not one of them with plans as follows =

~6gb ($20.00 per year)

~25gb ($75.00 per year)

~100gb ($250.00 per year)

~250gb ($500.00 per year)

via Google checkout.

{ image courtesy Google Systems}

Blog Contest

Here is a cool little blog contest I found. The contest is being hosted by fellow blog Everybody Go To; they are giving away an autographed USB Drink Cooler signed by John Chow, and a USB Tech Lamp. Yeah, they’re really into USB stuff over there.

To join go to: Everybodygoto.com and leave a comment.

Rules and restrictions apply. Many will enter few one will win.

Virtual Dimension

Do you find yourself switching programs a lot? Then Virtual Dimension is for you. You can have unlimited desktops, with different names, wallpaper, and hot keys for easy switching.

The preview window allows you to see all your desktops, and drag apps from one to another. The tray icon is great for accessing all of the functions. VD has a transparent function to make windows transparent, and you can easily make one window always on top. Virtual Dimension works on Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP and possibly 95*, the transparent function only works on 2000/XP

*[they weren’t too sure of this..but who as 95 anymore?!]

In my testing I found that having different icons on each desktop didn’t really work, but everything else worked fine. I am a big fan of virtualization, and this is a great virtual product. If you use a lot of programs when you work, then this is definitely for you.

4 U: virt-dimension.sourceforge.net

Time to switch from my “blog” desktop to my “fun” desktop..

Screenshot Pilot

Screenshot Pilot is an excellent little screen capture app, that allows you to capture and save images in 7 formats, including .png, .bmp., .tiff, and . jpeg.

As with most screen capture utilities you can take the screen shots in different shapes, but with Screenshot Pilot, you can also capture windows under the cursor, and menus under the cursor. It also allows you to take multiple shots, while auto saving them in between with auto generated file names.


In short [this post was short..] this is a great free utility, and very handy. However you will get a few more features if you go with another, paid, capture app. Try it out and let me know what you think.

4 U: colorpilot.com