Michael Grace » Review

Buzz Is About Conversations

MikeGrace — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:39:09 +0000

Some people have been sticking their noses up at the latest release of Google Buzz. While I agree that there are many things that need changing and improvement, I also think they might not have taken the time to actually use Google Buzz long enough to understand it’s strengths. I have found through my few days of experience that Buzz is all about conversations, and conversations is what it does best. When viewing the Buzz stream in Gmail, comments show up real time and allows for a real conversation. I have been able to have fun and quick conversations with some of my Twitter friends that wouldn’t have happened on Twitter, or at least not the same way.

I have also been impressed to see Buzz pulling my flickr photos intelligently into my buzz stream. I had 3 photos of our new front door being replaced on flickr that I posted via 3 separate tweets and all 3 got grouped together in the same buzz.

With the way Buzz facilitates conversation and does some intelligent work with managing other social network data, I really think Buzz will become a powerful player in the social networking world.

Get Incredible Designs with Preston Lee

MikeGrace — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:40:22 +0000

Sometimes picking a designer is like finding a good restaurant, you either have to go there and try the food or ask a bunch of your friends where the best place to eat is. Well, I’m your friend and I found an AWESOME restaurant!! Actually, not a restaurant but an awesome designer!!! His name is Preston Lee and I highly recommend you follow his blog, join the conversation with him on Twitter, AND use his ninja rock star design skills for what ever you need designing for. I recently had Preston design some business cards for me and I was floored with the whole experience and the results. Quick results, rockin designs, and was a ton of fun to work with.

I just recently started following Preston on Twitter and had him do my business cards but I already feel like we have been friends for a while. I couldn’t have asked for a better design that truly reflects my personality, my goals, is very professional, and everyone loves my card when I give it to them. If you’re still not convince about his skills and commitment to design, just check out his blog and you will find that Preston is well on his way to the top of the design industry. Anything from website design to business cards, Preston is your man for the job. So, from a friend to a friend, I promise you that you won’t be disappointed!

Contact him now via Twitter @prestondlee

or on his contact page on his blog

Design by Preston

Some Site Designs I Like

MikeGrace — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:36:07 +0000

I recently found a site that features well designed sites and I have picked a few that stood out to me.

https://www.redbrickhealth.com/

http://www.studio7designs.com/

http://www.veboolabs.com/

http://www.divvoted.com/

http://thegreatbeardedreef.com/

http://emotionslive.co.uk/

http://www.wpcoder.com/

http://blogfullbliss.com/

http://www.jeromem.net/

http://www.silverbackapp.com/

http://francescomugnai.com/

http://nicolaswill.com/

http://wheeloftea.com/

http://www.christophe-peyras.com/

http://stoodeo.com/

http://www.futurice.com/

http://gotsleeves.appspot.com/

http://beakapp.com/

http://yodaa.com/

http://www.sjlwebdesign.co.uk/

http://codebutton.com/

http://koormann.de/

Level Out Podcast Volume Tool

MikeGrace — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:34:53 +0000

Ever wonder how to level sound volume on a recording or podcast? The Levelator is a super simple application for Mac or Windows to level out sound volumes on a podcast recording. Mike Farmer and I use it for our podcast over at http://technologyforlearning.info and it works wonders for the times when we accidentally move away from the microphone. It’s free and it works great so what are you waiting for? Go download it from their site at http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator

My Go-To WordPress Plugins

MikeGrace — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:44:21 +0000

Just a quick and dirty list for a few of my friends my favorite WordPress Plugins that I use on almost every installation that I do.

Akismet
AntiVirus
AskApache Password Protect
CSS Naked Day
Fancybox
Google XML Sitemaps
jQuery lazy load plugin
List Drafts Widget
Page Links To
Really Simple CAPTCHA
Spider Tracker
WordPress Related Posts
wp-cache
WP-IE6update
WP Security Scan
Electrical Outlet Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/grendelkhan/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Personal Browsing Stats with about:me Firefox Add-on

MikeGrace — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:03:41 +0000

about:me is one of the coolest and cleanest add-ons I have seen. I get to feed my stats fetish with my own browsing stats. Just install the add-on and type “about:me” into the address bar. Information on top pages overall, top pages per hour, download stats, and much more.

Spezify – Serving Up Search Fresh

MikeGrace — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:47:17 +0000

Spezify does a good job of representing search results visually and it’s kind of fun. The big thing I like about Spezify is the navigation response with the keyboard arrow keys. Try it! Left… right… up & down. Maybe if the results returned more of one kind of result based on the direction you navigated instead of just loading more results, it would be more useful. Example: If I do a search and I want to see what people are saying about the latest whatever, I’ll probably be searching for tweets. So, if tweets are shown above the middle of the returned search result screen, when I navigate up, I would expect the engine to return more tweet results rather than a potpourri of media and sites. Overall, I like what they have done but I think it needs a bit more work before it will actually get used for a lot of searching.

Best Domain Registration Site / Service

MikeGrace — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:40:10 +0000

NameGuard

I have used several different sites and services to register domains. NameGuard is hands down the best domain registration site and service I have ever used. After registering several domains with NameGuard I wonder why I ever used all the other sites out there.

Why

FREE Privacy Protection!!!
- Many other services charge extra, each year, for this service
- If you don’t get privacy protection all of your personal information ends up in the whois directory for that domain. Bad!
Industry standard pricing on domains
accepts paypal or credit card for payment
Change DNS name servers at time of registration
Extremely fast registration time

NameGuard Advantages

Even though the girl doesn’t come with every domain name registration, NameGuard provides some of the best services I have seen yet. Click on the girl to read their list of advantages.

This post may seem like I may be making money through some affiliation program but I make nothing from this post other than helping others enjoy the same great benefits of a great domain registration service while protecting their personal contact information

Best Countdown for Blog

MikeGrace — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:06:32 +0000

This is the best free countdown widget that I have seen yet that is easy to configure and put on any blog. Looks good, easy to insert, minimal ads, and its FREE! I don’t use these contdown widgets on my blog very often but sometimes they are really fun to have. Make yours at http://www.countdownr.com/

countdown widget

Would work well on blogspot (blogger), WordPress, TypePad, and many more.