Like a lot of “Dummies Books”, this book is indeed comprehensive. It’s a detailed introduction to blogging for a noobie to your typical active blogger wanting to learn more.

This book was written in 2008, so its reasonably current. However I think this is one of those Dummies Books the publishers need to update annually. Readers should always look for the latest possible edition of blogging books, as popular technology changes so often. RSS, comment spam, social networks and pod casting are all reviewed in the book as well.

Two of the larger chapters in this book offer some of the main points for business blogging and advertising. This book does not however offer a “get rich quick scheme” but it does offer enough basics to get started with affiliates, Adsense, TextLink Ads, Adbright and so on. Many screen pictures and sidebars explain complex concepts clearly.

I would recommend this book for noobs all the way through to novice bloggers. Intermediate level bloggers looking to brush up on the basics would probably enjoy adding this as a good reference on the bookshelf. Advanced bloggers wont find much here, though that’s to be expected its a Dummies Book after all!

This is probably the best blogging book targeted at beginners, this one indeed offers the most bang for your buck and really does do a nice job in holding your hand along the way.

Buy the eBook from eBooks.com!

Official Website

The computer security tool is a scanning suite for windows 2000/XP machines that checks your system for known flaws, unnecessary services, security holes and vulnerabilities that firewalls and anti-virus software don’t cover.

Pros: Simple to follow. The tool updates automatically each time it’s launched.

Cons: In basic mode, the tool doesn’t actually tell you what it’s fixed until after it’s done, which means some service you are using might stop working.

Verdict: A great and simple tool for non-boffin who wants a secure PC.

Have you tried this tool? What do you think of this tool?

Compact digital cameras are generally easy-to-use “point and shoot” cameras, but a $500 one will easily satisfy the needs of your average happy snapper. More expensive Single Lens Reflex (SLR) digital cameras have interchangeable lenses - offering much more versatility - and they tend to respond much faster than compact cameras. Many people buy digital SLR cameras to make use of the lenses already in their film camera bag.

Prices are those recommended by the local distributors in New Zealand, always shop around for the best deal.

Olympus Mju Mini S

Official Website

RRP: $549 NZL

Olympus’ tiny Mju Mini S is the second smallest of the bunch and is certainly the most stylish. It start quickly and is easy to use, but has few manual options for advanced users. When taking shots indoors, the Mini S has an acceptable shutter lag and the screen is sharp and clear in low light. Despite being a 5 Megapixel camera with a maximum resolution of 2560×1920, its 5×7 print lacked some fine detail in the shadows and the colors were slightly over saturated. Annoyingly, by default, every time you switch off the Mini S it reverts to the medium photo quality settings.

Pros: Easily fits in shirt pocket and has a water resistant casing. Comes with a rechargeable battery and 16MB xD memory card.

Cons: Only 2x optical zoom with no viewfinder. It doesn’t come with carry case, it won’t take off-the-shelf batteries and only captures 320×160 15fps video.

Verdict: Cute and easy to use - great for quick snaps, but those looking for advanced features and top-quality photos will be disappointed

Rating: 4/5

Nikon Coolpix 5600

Official Website

RRP: $499 NZL

Nikon’s Coolpix 5600 is a small but chunky 5.1 Megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom that comes with two rechargeable AA batteries and a charger, meaning you can buy cheap batteries in an emergency. Advanced users will appreciate the optical viewfinder but lament the lack of manual options (you need to spend more to get a fully-featured Nikon). It still has 16 modes for different lightning conditions and produced one of the best 5×7 prints of the bunch, at 2592×1944, but the color contrast was a little now. The CoolPix 5600 has a very low light, but the screen can look a little grainy.

Pros: It has 14MB of onboard memory and warns you when photos are blurry, and it can capture 640×480 video but only at 15fps.

Cons: It doesn’t come with a carry case or memory card, and the screen looks grainy when lining up shots indoor.

Verdict: A good quality camera for those who want something small and don’t need manual options, but still demand good image quality.

Rating: 4½ / 5

BEST IN THE TEST

Canon Powershot A95

Official Website

RRP: $629

Canon’s Powershot A95 is one of the biggest cameras in line-up, but it out-guns the competition. A 5-megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom, it has an optical viewfinder and full manual controls, along with 21 preset modes. The Canon’s 21 present modes. The Canon’s 5×7 test print, at 2592×1944, was clearly the best of the lot - extremely sharp with good color reproduction. This camera has low shutter lag and a bright, clear screen in low light. The screen folds into the camera for protection when not in use, but the large, heavy body makes it a poor choice for those who just want a little camera for quick happy snaps.

Pros: The screen folds away for protection, plus it comes with a generous 32MB Compact Flash memory card and full manual options.

Cons: Big and Heavy, it takes four AA batteries but doesn’t come with rechargeable or a carry case and only captures 640×480 video at 10fps.

Verdict: If you’re looking for the best quality photos, and don’t care about small or cute, this is the camera for you.

Rating: 5/5

Kodak Easy Share C340

Official Website

RRP: $449 NZL

The Kodak Easy Share C340 is one of the cheapest 5 Megapixel, 3x optical zoom digital cameras available. Kodak sells an optional cradle for transferring photos to a computer or directly to a mini printer, but the 1.6 inch screen is disappointingly small for reviewing shots. The C340 is designed for ease of use, with on-screen instructions and a dedicated button for taging photos you want to keep (but it isn’t compatible with the Digital Print Order Format standard). Unfortunately it has limited manual settings. Its size and weight are middle-of-the-road, it has average shutter lag times, and its 5×7 test print at 2576×1932 was also mediocre, with thin lines appearing very jagged.

Pros: Cheap and easy to use, it runs on two AA batteries, has 16MB of onboard memory and the screen looks great in low light conditions.

Cons: The screen is small, it doesn’t come with a memory card, battery charger or carry case, and it only captures 640×480 video at 13fps.

Verdict: An easy to use camera for those who don’t need the smallest camera or demand the best picture quality.

Rating: 4/5

Fujifilm FinePix S5500

Official Website

RRP: $599 NZL

Fujifilm’s FinePix S5500 sports an impressive 10x optical zoom but has only four megapixels and a maximum resolution of 2272×1704. Clearly trying to be a baby SLR camera, it has a digital viewfinder, full manual features, and captures TIFF images. Unfortunately the 5×7 test print was the grainiest of the lot, although it had the screen has a red tinge in low light conditions. The FinePix S5500 tries to do too much - it can even capture voice memos and act as a Web cam - but it crams in features at the pense of image quality.

Pros: Great optical zoom with an adaptor ring for optional lenses, it comes with a 16MB xD memory card, captures 640×480 video at 30fps.

Cons: Big and heavy, it has a tiny 1.5 inch screen, takes four AA batteries but doesn’t come with rechargeable or carry case.

Verdict: Provides loads of features for those who budget won’t strech to a digital SLR, but falls short on image quality.

Rating: 3½/5

Which one do you think is the best camera you prefer to buy?

In order to receive more comment, you obviously need good amount of visitors. If you have atleast 100 visits a day and no one is commenting on your blog, you know that there is something wrong. Try these great plugins and i hope it might you in increasing comments:

1. Show Top Commentators: This Plugin encourages discussion from your readers by displaying their name (linked to their site without a nofollow tag if desired) and number of comments on the sidebar. The Plugin also gives you the option to reset the list every hour, day, week, month or year.

2. Brian’s Threaded Comments: This plugin adds a ‘Reply to this comment’ link to every comment. When you use the reply link, your comment is placed directly under the comment you replied to. This plugin helps increase comments, makes it easy for people to reply to comments and prevents readers from scrolling down to look for answers to their questions.

3. Subscribe to Comments: This plugin allows commenters on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. This encourages readers to come back and take part in the conversation.

4. Better Comments Manager - this plugin allows you to respond to comments on your blog as you moderate them in the comments area of WP’s back end. So instead of seeing a comment come in, having to then visit the post and responding from there you can simply hit ‘reply’ from within the comments section and you’ll be taken to a page where you can leave a responding comment. It also puts a ‘view all’ link in your comments area that allows you to quickly see all the comments on a post - still staying in the back end of WP.

5. Comment relish: This plugin sends a thank-you email to your blog’s first time commentators. This encourages them to come back again and comment regularly.

6. Link Love: This plugin turns off nofollow for all commenters who have made at least 10 comments. The number of comments is configurable by changing a variable in the plugin.

Alternate (NoFollow Free) - This Wordpress plugin remove the “nofollow” attribute from your wordpress blog’s comments (precisely from the author’s links) and/or from the comments text links and it inserts (if you want) an image band at the top of your pages with the phrase: “NOFOLLOW FRE” to encourage your users to submit comments. The last release includes new options to replace the nofollow only when the author posted X comments before…

7. WP Comment Moderation Notifier - get notified on your desktop when a new comment comes in that needs moderation

8. Threaded Comments - A good way of helping readers to have more dialogue in their comments.

9. WP Ajax Edit Comments: This plugin (for WP 2.1+) allows users and admins alike to edit comments on a post. Users can edit their own comments for a period specified by the Admin, and Admins can edit all post comments. This plugin can help reduce typos on reader comments and at same time encourage more comments from them.

10. Get Recent Comments: This highly configurable plugin displays the most recent comments in the sidebar. You can make the plugin to link the recent commenter’s site along with an excerpt of their comment. Linking to the commenter’s site can encourage them to comment even more.

11. Live Comment Preview: This plugin will display a live preview of your readers comments as they type. To install the plugin, just activate it!

12. Comment Quicktags: This plugin inserts a quicktag toolbar on the blog comment form that will help your commenter’s to easily make thier comment in bold or italics, or to insert links.

13. MyAvatars: This plugin displays the reader’s MyBlogLog avatars besides their comments. This may not help in increasing comments much, but readers may like seeing their avatars on your blog. :-)

Hope this will help you in increasing comment section of your blog. So which technique helped a lot in increasing your comment field?

Source: JohnTP, ProBlogger

Filemaker Pro 8

RRP: $A499

Official Website

Filemaker Pro offers a number of new features, from direct PDF creation of database reports and improved search and send capabilities to pre-prepared Starter solutions that let you easily create a number of professional and home databases.

Pros: Powerful but easy for consumers and small business user.

Cons: Customizing solutions may be tricky at first. The application may hog memory on windows system.

Verdict: Filemaker Pro 8 is a powerful and flexible database package that’s easy enough for most people to use.

What do you think of this software? Does your company use this software?

I found it while i was googling random stuff. These are really quite good plugins that you can use to stop spam in you mail box.

1. Cloudmark SafetyBar - Outlook Spam Filtering Add-On

Cloudmark SafetyBar is a great and easy to use junk and phishing mail solution with an excellent spam detection rate and an even better record of avoiding false positives.