February 2008

I’ve been using Picnik for a while now. In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s an online photo editor. It’s a good one, too. It’s got some terrific features, like being able to edit your Flickr (and other photo sites) photos “on the fly”. No need to download, edit, upload.

Until now, they offered a premium service for $24.95 a year which added a whole bunch of other advanced editing facilities. From today, you now get most of that for free, although free in this case means it’s now ad supported.

I can’t see the ads being a problem for most people, but for those who really can’t stand them, you can still opt for the premium no-ads option.

This is a great move by Picnik and I can now see them becoming THE place to go to edit your photos online.

I was yesterday lucky enough to have my very first Guest Post published on ProBlogger.

The article is titled Pros and Cons of Niche Blogging and covers pretty much what you’d expect with that title. Being the author of 6 mostly niche-subject blogs, I figured I’d picked up a few tricks over the years, so it seemed the ideal subject. It’s attracted 24 replies so far, which I’m very happy with.

If you ever get the chance to create a Guest Post on a popular blog, I’d thoroughly recommend it. As you might expect, it attracts a few people to your site but, more importantly, it gets your name around and can also open the doors to a few new contacts. I’ve already had people contact me directly as a result of that one post.

Many thanks to Darren of ProBlogger for giving me the opportunity.

Okay everyone, I’m looking for a new host, so suggestions please.

I’ve been with Dreamhost for about a year, but it seems I’ve outgrown them. My main blog, which has about 2,100 unique visitors a day, is apparently bringing their server to a halt. I’ve tried as many optimisations as I can, but the bottom line seems to be that, unless I run a bog-standard Wordpress installation, with virtually no plug-ins or modifications (which is what can make it unique), their machines can’t keep up.

I’ve been looking at the Media Temple Grid, amongst many others. The only problem is, when you start looking at comments about virtually any host, there are as many people saying “This is the best host on the planet” as there are people saying “I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole”.

What I’m looking for is the ability to cope with 2,100 visitors a day (and hopefully more soon), the ability to run an Ad Server (I’m currently using OpenAds, or OpenX, or whatever their name is this week), a forum (currently using phpBB3) and maybe some other stuff in the future.

Any help gratefully received!

The only (and I mean only) thing that has annoyed me with my newly purchased MacBook Pro, namely the problem with the first keypress not being detected when the machine hadn’t been used for a few seconds, has finally been resolved with a firmware update from Apple.

I can confirm that now all is well with the keyboard, which officially now makes the MacBook Pro the best machine I’ve ever owned. If Carlsberg made laptops…

You can get the update via MacUpdate (and I’m sure many other places).

Anyone who knows me will know I’m something of a chess addict. You can find me regularly on GameKnot and RedHotPawn (I love that URL!) with the user name - not too surprisingly - Psionmark.

I’ve recently created a new chess site - The Chess Player - powered by PHPChess, and I’m looking for some testers to make sure it’s all running smoothly. If you’re interested, just head over to the site and sign up. It’s all free for the time being and anyone signing up at this stage will retain a free account.

Thanks in advance