File compression is the tried and true way to make a large file fit in a smaller space. Back in the 1980’s, it was imperative because storage costs were much higher than they are now. In 1990’s, storage costs came down, but with the rise of online files, compressed files were a solution to slow bandwidth. Even today, with flash drives, bandwidth caps, and email attachments, file compression is extremely important.
The most popular form of file compression is the ubiquitous .zip standard. It was invented by a company called PKWARE and is arguably one of the most important file technologies in history. PKWARE has brand new product now called SecureZIP Express. It is a robust .zip technology with the added benefit of encryption. It utilizes strong encryption to keep your files secure. You can find out all about it at www.securezip.com.
To help promote this revolutionary way of encrypting and compressing files, they are running a special contest called Decrypt and Drive. Just install the software and then try to decrypt a message. You can play every day and you have a chance to win some great prizes. You can find out all about it at www.DecryptandDrive.com.
Here’s a press release about it, if you want to find out more information:
PKWARE, the inventor of the .zip standard, is giving away a non-commercial use license of SecureZIP Express and the opportunity to win great prizes in the new “Decrypt and Drive” contest! With SecureZIP Express you can compress/decompress and encrypt files that you store or send. Compressing files is a great way to save storage space, especially on thumb drives and CD’s, and we all have files we should be securing!
The software also includes a digital certificate so you can exchange files securely with others without using passwords. Only the person the file was encrypted for can open it when you use a digital certificate. The software is fully licensed for non-commercial use and has no toolbars or spyware! For years, PKWARE has given free .zip software away and wants as many users as possible to receive the benefits of SecureZIP.
PKWARE is giving away great prizes including a Honda scooter, bicycles, Wii games, gas cards, and more! Visit www.DecryptandDrive.com to play the game daily and/or download the free software. You need to have SecureZIP, and the digital certificate it installs, on the computer you play the game from. You can also get SecureZIP Express at www.securezip.com Good luck! Hope you win something cool!
I have talked about Dragon NaturallySpeaking a couple of times here on this blog. I actually use from time to time to make posts and keep track of my notes. I just dictate into my mp3 and when I am at my computer, I just have DNS parse the audio file and turn it into text. It’s surprisingly accurate, even though I am using the older version 9.
I am really stoked about this program and I’d love to see more people benefit from it. I’ve got a great video here for you to take a look at as well as a pretty interesting blog post about DNS that I snagged from the net. Have fun!
In this YouTube video, you can see a blogger using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred to write a blog article with in WordPress.
The author of The Love You Make, is using this voice recognition software after having the software for just a few days. She writes this great little article that’s about 280 words long in about two minutes and 45 seconds. That translates into about 165 seconds of typing, or 1.7 words per second. That means she’s typing a little over 102 words per minute with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Plus, she’s just getting started with the software!
Dragon NaturallySpeaking has come a long way over the last decade, and now can enable people to type at 150 words per minute. I myself, have clocked version 9 at 167 words per minute, and I’m seeing even better results out of version 10. The software is extremely accurate, and can make many of your typing chores exceptionally easy.
As a blogger myself, I am able to write longer articles, with more complete thoughts on a subject in a significantly reduced amount of time. I have been working to challenge bloggers to try Dragon NaturallySpeaking and see if they can use it to help improve their writing. I think bloggers have an enormous amount of potential, and I always look for tools that will help them unleash that potential.
I think that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a great tool that can definitely help bloggers increase the value that they offer their readers. I can envision a blogosphere where bloggers are able to take the time and provide insights into their wisdom and experience and ideas easier and faster because they can get their thoughts out quickly and completely using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
I hope you will consider using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It has a price point that starts at about $99. This is the version that you would use if you only use the software with your computer. If you intend to use the software with a pocket voice recorder, which could enable you to have your MP3 files of your voice transcribed into text, then you may also want to consider opting for the Preferred version of the software. The Preferred Version starts at about $199 and has many options.
I personally recommend the preferred version, but I do understand that times are a little tough financially for many people including myself. I still recommend it, because I do believe that you will see a significant return on your investment. Spending $100 or even $199 on Dragon NaturallySpeaking will enable you to type at 100 to 150 words per minute. It has been my experience that you will not get as tired from typing, you will not suffer from eye strain as much and as a result will experience fewer migraines or headaches, and you will be able to move around your office, your home, or your work environment because you will not be locked in front of your computer sitting in a chair typing and mousing around with your fingers.
I do believe that Dragon NaturallySpeaking can help you to be a better writer, to write as a more in-depth blogger, to produce better content, and to produce more content. I believe this because I have seen it myself.
Please consider watching this Dragon NaturallySpeaking video so that you can see for yourself just how well Dragon actually speaking works.
Sincerely,
Brett Bumeter
Softduit Media
PS I wrote this 575 word article using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. It took me about three minutes to write and about three minutes to edit. Even with editing time, that’s 95 words a minute!
There are many great ideas out there on increasing web traffic and we have talked about them here on several occasions. It seems every time I write up an article on ways to increase web traffic, I will come across more ways to get traffic.
First off, don’t waste your time on 125×125 banner type exchanges like Entrecard. Basically, you visit other people’s site and then they visit yours, but it doesn’t quite work out that way. You end up visiting more sites than the number of visitors you get. Not only that, but the visitors come in for mere seconds and do not even know what your site is about. I ran Entrecard for awhile, but it was a huge waste of time and bandwidth.
Ok, so back to the idea of increasing traffic. If you are not using the StumbleUpon toolbar than you are missing out on a great way to get traffic. If you have got some great pages, then by all means stumble them. You’ll get people visiting your site and bringing you steady traffic. You’ll also be pleasantly surprised with the quality of traffic.
Another great idea for increasing web traffic is to submit all of your decent posts to Digg. By doing this, you’ll get some search engine juice which helps in search engine, but if the article is good, you’ll get Digg traffic itself. It doesn’t hurt to submit to other sites as well.
This brings us to a great way to increase web traffic. Increase your search engine rankings. Write articles that rank well in search engines and get the link needed to get high in the search engine results. Get as many links as you can and exploit them.
Lastly, I want your suggestions. Tell me some ideas to increase the traffic to your sites that have been effective for you.
For a project that I am working on, I need to be able to put videos online and then be able to control the videos and the brand image associated with the video. I don’t have a big budget to work with so I have been looking for a solution to hosting my own videos onsite.
Youtube doesn’t work for this project because of the lack of control of the videos. I’d hate for a competitors video to pop up and get people to click away. This means that I have to recreate my own mini video site. To this end, I came across some nice open source scripts and packages that help me make my own video site.
Once I have everything up and running, I will share the site and the exact code I used to make the site a reality.
Now that many businesses are online, web hosting has become one of the most important parts of a business. Sure a domain name is important, but the day in and day out performance of the business is directly dependent on the quality of the web hosting. If you’ve got great hosting then you will be more profitable and you won’t lose customers.
It used to be that finding web hosting was difficult. There were too many factors to consider, but with webhostingrating.com, things are much easier. They’ve got reviews and information about many different hosting companies and types of hosting. For example, they have lists of the best blog hosting and the best forum hosting. If you need hosting, you really need to check them out.
