GoodBlimey - Home to 2,748 mashups!

Build a Website (for Beginners)

Matt — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:33:31 +0000

Not everyone has the time to learn HTML and CSS, the code that are used to structure and design websites. Many people just want to put one up with no fuss and be done with it. Fortunately, today there are many options to create and build a website without any technical knowledge at all, just a little bit of time and motivation is all that’s required.

There are 3 different options to choose from when you decide you want a website. The complete site building service, the web blog service, and the hire a web designer service. Many of the services in the first two categories I list below as options are free.

Site Builders:

Site Builders allow you to create a complete website, allowing you to focus on creating the content, choosing a look (theme) for your site, and arranging the different elements as you see fit. Many offer more advanced features if you so choose to use them, and some require payment to use certain features. Which one is the best? That’s up to you and what you’re looking for; so check out each one and see which fits your goal best.

Weblogs:

Weblogs, or more simply just blogs, are the popular diaries and journals of the internet where people post about just about anything. Blogs are handy in providing an outlet for anyone to get their word out there for friends, family, or strangers to read. It’s a great way to share travel stories, personal hobbies, thoughts about your favorite team, and much more. Blogs also let you share photographs, music, videos, and other rich multimedia on the web. Visit the Wikipedia entry on the subject to understand what a blog can encompass. Below you will find many services that offer blogs, many which are free and easy to use.

Hiring a Web Designer:

Hiring a web designer, while it can be expensive, can go a long way towards a strong internet presence. A good web designer creates a clean, usable website that is naturally optimized for search engines such as Google. They focus on standards-compliant coding, proper use of whitespace, make sure their site is accessible (for disabled people using assistive devices), and know how to use typography and bold to highlight content.

Unfortunately finding someone such as this is difficult in a sea of bad web designers who think if they just know a little HTML and CSS that that is good enough. Turning to your uncle’s friend’s former roommate for a website design just because it is convenient and cheap can be more harmful than good in the long run.

This is why, when it comes to your money, it is a good idea to shop around and find someone who is good at his craft and is good with working with people who aren’t so knowledgeable when it comes to websites. If you decide to go with this option, do your homework and don’t be afraid to ask for examples of past work. Most web designers love to proudly show off their portfolio. See if their style is good enough for you, and then go from there.

Recommended Google Chrome Extensions

Matt — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:34:58 +0000

Now that Google Chrome supports extensions in the latest builds, we can now extend and make the best and fastest browser on the planet even better. Below is a list of extensions that I recommend and personally love:

AdBlock: Blocks ads on websites.
AutoPager: Popular sites with pages are all put on one page so you don’t have to constantly click to go to each page.
Better Gmail: Features to make Gmail … better.
Clickable Links: Text with http: and mailto: are made clickable if they’re not already.
Google Quick Scroll: Quickly find the passage you were searching for on Google.
IETab: For those websites that only works in IE (banks and government sites for example)
LastPass: Securely save and generate passwords to sites. Stores in the cloud.
Slinky: Google image links go straight to the image, instead of the frame/website.
Xmarks: For bookmark backup and syncing.

Be sure to check out all the other Google Chrome Extensions for others that fit your personal preferences.

Wu-Tang vs. The Beatles

Matt — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:09:33 +0000

If you happen to like the Wu-Tang and The Beatles, you’ll enjoy the mashups available here. Even if you aren’t familiar with the Wu-Tang, it’s still worth checking out, you may end up liking the mixes. There are 27 songs in the Magical Mystery Chambers album, available for both streaming, and the entire album is free to download in just about any bitrate and format you desire.

Don’t forget, there are nearly 3,000 more mashups available here on this site for streaming and download.

Reading on the Web – Tools to Live By

Matt — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:26:12 +0000

If you find yourself reading a lot of articles online, there are certain tools on the web, and for your browser, that will make reading a whole lot easier, and more efficient. Below I will list some tools you should check out.

The first recommendation is a bookmarklet that makes reading articles much easier, and with less clutter. A bookmarklet is a bookmark, that when pressed, executes an action on your browser instead of going to a webpage. There are a bunch of these type of bookmarklets, so it’s best to try them all to see which one you like the best. My personal favorite is the first one:

A handy web service for setting aside articles you want to read later is Instapaper. Instapaper lets you use a bookmarklet to save articles to their service to read it later. There are some nifty features, such as the ability to make the articles more readable (similar to how the above bookmarklets work), the ability to download an article in Kindle or ePub format to read on your eReader, and more. They even offer a free and pro version for the iPhone, which I’ve found to be incredibly handy for catching up on my reading while on the go. A side service of their’s provides recommended reading material at givemesomethingtoread.com.

While Delicious is a handy bookmarking service, it has become incredibly cluttered and slow ever since it was sold to Yahoo. A fantastic alternative is Pinboard.in, which is what Delicious used to be, and then some. It is speedy, easy to use, and allows importing from links from services like Delicious, Instapaper, Twitter, and even email links in. While it is not free, I paid a $5.82 signup fee and it goes higher as more people sign up, it does keep spam off of the service and allows them to keep the service running smoothly and speedily.

DJ Earworm – United State of Pop 2009

Matt — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:17:19 +0000

(Blame It on the Pop) – Mashup of Top 25 Billboard Hits.

Pretty spectacular mix of the top 25 hits on Billboard all in one song. DJ Earworm at his best.

Digital Magazines in the Future

Matt — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:32:58 +0000

A glimpse at what magazines and newspapers of the future will be like in digital form on a handheld device. Very nifty.

Best of the ’00s in TV: Drama

Matt — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:55:20 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

NJ.com has a spot-on list of best drama TV shows this decade. I didn’t get into West Wing, and if you watched The Wire before watching The Shield, you’ll likely find The Shield unrealistic in comparison.

I’m glad to see Mad Men on there (very awesome show) and was pleasantly surprised to see Veronica Mars on there, which was also an engrossing show. Battlestar Galactica was a no-brainer, as well.

If I could modify the list with my choices, I’d take off West Wing and replace it with House.

Be sure to check out the other Best of 00’s lists for:

David Bowie vs. MGMT Mashup

Matt — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:55:56 +0000

You can find a lot more mashups on the Tunes page.

HD Video of 2nd Largest Aquarium

Matt — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:34:56 +0000

Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world – shot on 5dmk2 from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

(Give this some time to load before watching…otherwise you won’t have smooth playback)

This is just one shot.

It was shot at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan.

The main tank called the ‘Kuroshio Sea’ holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

The music is “Please Don’t Go” by Barcelona. Buy this song on the iTunes store.

This was shot using a Canon 5DMKII with a 28-135mm lens.

THERE IS SUCH INCREDIBLE LIFE IN OUR OCEANS….WE MUST PROTECT THEM!

For the best viewing of this video download the 720p HD version and watch it fullscreen! Download it at the bottom right of this page! (you need to be logged into Vimeo to download this file)

For Non-Plus Vimeo users or people without a Vimeo account: DOWNLOAD 720P HD VERSION HERE: http://jonrawlinson.s3.amazonaws.com/aquarium_vimeo.mov (right click, save target as)

(courtesy of http://thelastminuteblog.com )

Mashup Before it was Called a Mashup

Matt — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:06:56 +0000

This is a video of Stars on 45 live doing a Beatles medley back in the early 1980’s. Today this is called a mashup; listen to many more music on our Tunes page.