I’m going with the Home Premium version, check out the comparison and pick yours!

PS: As if news of Windows 7 isn’t good enough, there’s news of Windows 8 already!

As part of my “bit”, as mentioned in one of my previous posts on poverty, I continue to support Bhookh.com in their endeavour to provide one cup of staple food to chronically hungry people. Their means of achieving the cause in itself is very commendable – from their FAQ,

What happens when I click on the “Give Free Food” button? Does it cost me anything?

Two things happen when you click on the button:
1) your click is registered with our computer server and is added to the daily results,
2) it moves you to the ‘Thank You’ page where tiles bearing the names of that day’s site sponsors are displayed. There is absolutely no charge to you; the food is fully paid for by the sponsors.

How does the site work? Who pays for the food?
The site’s sponsors pay for your daily click. The sponsors purchase tiles on the website for a certain amount of time. Bhookh.com then tabulates the number of people who click during that time frame and bill the sponsor for the appropriate amount.

In a nutshell, all you need to do to contribute and do your bit is to go to Bhookh.com and click on the big green button and unknown to you, a hungry stomach is being filled and you are being silently thanked for it. If you’ve read this post till this point, it means that you care, and the least you can do is to click through to Bhookh.com and make a difference in somebody’s life. See you at the other end.

To lighten myself up after the ordeal, I read up on Caroline’s post on “If Making Money Online Was a 9-5 Job” which did a good job to cheer me up. Humour always helps in getting you out of the dumps.

John leverages his 10+ years of experience online to make some very interesting observations on a few successful strategies to make money online and discusses their possible scope today, in case you would want to take some inspiration from them.

If there’s anything that I detract from the wonderful software that Wordpress is, its the fact that sometimes when I write a post, it looks like its “ready-to-go” in the Editor, but once its published, the layout looks completely skewed and not at all the way I’d meant it to look. This is particularly so when you try to publish a step-by-step tutorial such as mine on how to upgrade your theme to be compatible with Wordpress 2.3. Believe it or not, the toughest part in writing the tutorial was to get the alignment right! (I do believe it still needs some work though). Therefore, it was little wonder that I’ve decided to take Monika’s advice and give the Windows Live Writer a try. I’ll write a post about it once I’ve tried it myself.

MyBlogLog is growing in popularity each day with more and more blogs using the widget to display their readers, including myself – Ryan has made us all a very Web 2.0 looking badge that you could use in case you don’t want to display your readers’ faces.

If you’ve ever wanted to have a go at editing files of your Wordpress installation, but were too intimidated to do so for the fear of breaking your blog, Sumesh shows you how to install Wordpress on your computer so you can easily make changes and at the same time, be sure that you won’t ruin your actual blog.

When you’ve edited the files to your liking and made them look exactly like how you’ve wanted them, why don’t you show them off to others by writing great content, without making any spelling errors and submitting them to the Top 11 Digg-like Sites For Bloggers, Designers, And Web Developers?

When the visitors do come, which I’m sure they will, here are 69 Tools to Monitor, Measure, and Track Your Website from Steven.

In Your Home – Conserve Energy

1. Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.
2. If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms.
3. Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120.
4. Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket.
5. Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods.
6. Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.
7. Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .
8. When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door.
9. Clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.
10. Unplug seldom used appliances.
11. Use a microwave when- ever you can instead of a conventional oven or stove.
12. Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot.
13. Reverse your indoor ceiling fans for summer and winter operations as recommended.
14. Turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use.
15. Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refridgerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.
16. Only use electric appliances when you need them.
17. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
18. Keep your thermostat at 68 in winter and 78 in summer.
19. Keep your thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter when you are away
20. Insulate your home as best as you can.
21. Install weather stripping around all doors and windows.
22. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
23. Plant trees to shade your home.
24. Shade outside air conditioning units by trees or other means.
25. Replace old windows with energy efficient ones.
26. Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.
27. Connect your outdoor lights to a timer.
28. Buy green electricity – electricity produced by low – or even zero-pollution facilities (NC Greenpower for North Carolina – www.ncgreenpower.org). In your home-reduce toxicity.

In Your Home – Reduce Toxicity

29. Eliminate mercury from your home by purchasing items without mercury, and dispose of items containing mercury at an appropriate drop-off facility when necessary (e.g. old thermometers).
30. Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals.
31. Buy the right amount of paint for the job.
32. Review labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water or a little more elbow grease.
33. When no good alternatives exist to a toxic item, find the least amount required for an effective, sanitary result.
34. If you have an older home, have paint in your home tested for lead. If you have lead-based paint, cover it with wall paper or other material instead of sanding it or burning it off.
35. Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers.
36. Have your home tested for radon.
37. Use cedar chips or aromatic herbs instead of mothballs.

In Your Yard

38. Avoid using leaf blowers and other dust-producing equipment.
39. Use an electric lawn- mower instead of a gas-powered one.
40. Leave grass clippings on the yard-they decompose and return nutrients to the soil.
41. Use recycled wood chips as mulch to keep weeds down, retain moisture and prevent erosion.
42. Use only the required amount of fertilizer.
43. Minimize pesticide use.
44. Create a wildlife habitat in your yard.
45. Water grass early in the morning.
46. Rent or borrow items like ladders, chain saws, party decorations and others that are seldom used.
47. Take actions that use non hazardous components (e.g., to ward off pests, plant marigolds in a garden instead of using pesticide).
48. Put leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. Yard debris too large for your compost bin should be taken to a yard-debris recycler.

In Your Office

49. Copy and print on both sides of paper.
50. Reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips.
51. Use mailer sheets for interoffice mail instead of an envelope.Use mailer sheets for interoffice mail instead of an envelope.
52. Set up a bulletin board for memos instead of sending a copy to each employee.
53. Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence.
54. Use recycled paper.
55. Use discarded paper for scrap paper.
56. Encourage your school and/or company to print documents with soy-based inks, which are less toxic.
57. Use a ceramic coffee mug instead of a disposable cup.

Ways To Protect Our Air

58. Ask your employer to consider flexible work schedules or telecommuting.
59. Recycle printer cartridges.
60. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
61. Report smoking vehicles to your local air agency.
62. Don’t use your wood stove or fireplace when air quality is poor.
63. Avoid slow-burning, smoldering fires. They produce the largest amount of pollution.
64. Burn seasoned wood – it burns cleaner than green wood.
65. Use solar power for home and water heating.
66. Use low-VOC or water-based paints, stains, finishes and paint strippers.
67. Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated for your vehicle.
68. Paint with brushes or rollers instead of using spray paints to minimize harmful emissions.
69. Ignite charcoal barbecues with an electric probe or other alternative to lighter fluid.
70. If you use a wood stove, use one sold after 1990. They are required to meet federal emissions standards and are more efficient and cleaner burning.
71. Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible.
72. Join a carpool or vanpool to get to work.

Ways to Use Less Water

73. Check and fix any water leaks.
74. Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets.
75. Don’t wash dishes with the water running continuously.
76. Wash and dry only full loads of laundry and dishes.
77. Follow your community’s water use restrictions or guidelines.
78. Install a low-flow shower head.
79. Replace old toilets with new ones that use a lot less water.
80. Turn off washing machine’s water supply to prevent leaks.

Ways to Protect Our Water

81. Revegetate or mulch disturbed soil as soon as possible.
82. Never dump anything down a storm drain.
83. Have your septic tank pumped and system inspected regularly.
84. Check your car for oil or other leaks, and recycle motor oil.
85. Take your car to a car wash instead of washing it in the driveway.
86. Learn about your watershed.

Create Less Trash

87. Buy items in bulk from loose bins when possible to reduce the packaging wasted.
88. Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient. About 33 of what we throw away is packaging.
89. Buy products that you can reuse.
90. Maintain and repair durable products instead of buying new ones.
91. Check reports for products that are easily repaired and have low breakdown rates.
92. Reuse items like bags and containers when possible.
93. Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.
94. Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones.
95. Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and cling wrap.
96. Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags.
97. Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently.
98. Reuse packaging cartons and shipping materials. Old newspapers make great packaging material.
99. Compost your vegetable scraps.
100. Buy used furniture – there is a surplus of it, and it is much cheaper than new furniture.

Miscellaneous

101. Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time
102. Once your cell phone is charged, unplug it from the charger!
103. Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5
104. When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door
105. Unplug seldom used appliances
106. Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refrigerators, for example, use significant more energy than newer models
107. Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods
108. Use electric appliances only when you need them
109. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
110. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work
111. Replace old windows with energy efficient ones
112. Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible
113. Buy green electricity – electricity produced by low – or even zero-pollution facilities
114. Eliminate mercury from your home by purchasing items without mercury, and dispose of items containing mercury at an appropriate drop-off facility when necessary (e.g. old thermometers)
115. Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals
116. Review labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water
117. Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers
118. Have your home tested for radon
119. Minimize pesticide use
120. Turn off computers and other appliances when not in use
121. Copy and print on both sides of paper
122. Reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips
123. Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence
124. Use recycled paper
125. Use discarded paper for scrap paper
126. Encourage your school and/or company to print documents with soy-based inks, which are less toxic
127. Telecommute!
128. Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated for your vehicle
129. Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible
130. Join a carpool to get to work
131. Check and fix any water leaks
132. Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets
133. Don’t wash dishes with the water running continuously
134. Install a low-flow shower head
135. Replace old toilets with new ones that use a lot less water
136. Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient (about 33 of what we throw away is packaging)
137. Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones
138. Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and wrap
139. Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags
140. Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently

Don’t miss Tree Hugger’s “How to go green” series for the final 32 tips – they cover a wide-range of topics from gardening to outdoor sports.

The Sources

If you haven’t checked the post yet, the contest is to blog about your favourite charity institution. I’m assuming that the non-activity is because it offers a prize that you cannot directly profit from. Like the rest of the contests in the giveaway, a winner is randomly chosen and awarded a prize money of $1000. The “catch” that probably dissuades participants is that the money will have to be donated to the charity institution that you mention in your post.

I’m not trying to sound noble, but I do make it a point to donate a modest part of whatever money I make online to the needy. There’s no charity institution that I particularly support though, it has always been random people that I find on the streets who I feel truly cannot make a living for themselves.

That said, there is one organisation that I’ve come across that really takes a novel approach to tackle poverty. Bhookh.com has tied up with a few multi-national companies and setup a system in such a way that one click of yours can donate a cup of staple food to an impoverished person. While it is something that doesn’t take you a long time to do, it probably keeps a human alive. I came across this site a few months back and honestly, to this date, I feel a pleasant sensation flowing through me whenever I click the button that saves another human-being.

Sometimes in life, a small thing that you do affects the life of another in a big way. Even if you don’t donate in the thousands, every small bit helps. Like the old adage goes, “Little drops of water, make a mighty ocean”. My question is, do you have it in you to contribute a few drops?

Update: In a few hours, the comments count has increased from 0 to 18, but we could still use a few drops from you!

If you hate FTP more than your boss, this one’s for you. The Writer’s Manifesto recommends a plugin that could save you a few minutes when you’re blog-hopping and suddenly found that ultimate plugin or theme that you were just too lazy to rip-off borrow.

If you are anything like me the lazy type, you would certainly do yourself some good by using the All in One SEO Pack to increase search engine visibility. But if you’d rather do it yourself, The Million Dollar Blog has a very comprehensive article that could set you on the right path.

I’m sure most of you would have had freelance stints going in the past and some of you would still be having it. Honestly, it makes for a quick way to earn some cash. If you’ve given it up for the lack of regular projects, you would want to look up the post by Web Design Business on how to keep your pipeline filled.

If you’ve ever been stumped as to what to post tomorrow, you would do well to find out what Steven has to say in his 12 Ways to Avoid Blogging Burnout.

I never seem to have enough of StumbleUpon lately, but all my posts have been putting it in very good light. Here’s a humourous post by Internet Marketing Mind which puts it in “bad light”.

When you’re through with all the serious reading, here’s one from GnomeyNewt about Google that should lighten up your day.

From this weekend on, I’m planning on adding a weekly link roundup. In keeping with the blog’s motto, this would give you more exposure to the best on the web.

If you are new to blogging and looking to make your mark in the Blogosphere, Steven shows how Standing Out in a Crowded Blogging Market has its advantages.

Shoemoney shows How to make money from a blog with $100 promotional budget.

If you’ve been a blogger for 30 seconds, you’ll know the importance of RSS subscribers. Blogoscoped gives you the latest update on the developments coming up in Google Reader.

Darren Rowse discusses Full Or Partial RSS Feeds – The Great Feed Debate.

If you’re surprised with the traffic that StumbleUpon provides, Copyblogger provides tips on Writing for StumbleUpon: High Impact Content “Above the Scroll” in Four Easy Steps

When you have more than one blog, it can end up being quite a handful to manage them. John Chow shows you how to Manage Multiple Wordpress Blog From One Control Panel.

1. Find your niche

Its almost a cliche now, but it still doesn’t lose its value – finding a topic that both interests you and is popular makes for the first pillar of success. If the core area of your forum is not popular enough, you would find it very difficult to bring people together and get them to contribute. When potential members come to a forum for the first time, one of the first things they notice is the existing member/post count. Ironic though it is that only if you have members will posts grow and only if there are existing posts/members will more join – a typical catch-22 situation. Now, if you atleast know something about the topic, you could join into the conversation so that it looks like there’s some activity at the forum.

2. Choose your forum software wisely

I see this question asked hundreds of times on popular forums – “Which is better among phpBB/SMF/IPB/vB?” Well primarily, its a question of whether you can dole out the money for a commercial product such as IPB/vB (at the time of writing this post, IPB costs $149 and vB costs $160) or not. If you can’t, you’re reduced to choosing between phpBB and SMF – out of which I would choose phpBB any day – which is just my personal opinion (which means you can’t sue me if you use this information and get hurt!). If you are among the lucky few who can, its a close contest between vB and phpBB – again, I would pick phpBB any day as an overall package especially since phpBB3 is out. Settling into a forum solution before you start the forum is a good idea so you don’t have to change to another forum software after establishing yourself – its a rather painful process and your forum cannot be guaranteed to work top-notch in future. That said, a common trend that I’ve observed is that people start out with phpBB/SMF and move on to vB/IPB if/when they are successful.

Note: Even if you cannot afford hosting your forum yourselves, please do NOT signup with a free forum host that slaps a ton of ads in return for hosting your forum – those days are out with sites such as HostingDelivered offering quality, free phpBB3 forum hosting without displaying any ads.

3. Eat what you can digest

A common mistake that most new forum owners make is to create a lot of forums/categories under the assumption that more forums give more choice to members to post – its one sure-fire way to go down the internet black-hole! It really gives a bad impression to look at a forum and see a lot of zeroes under the Number of Posts column! When you start out, create not more than 4-5 forums. As more members join and make posts, keep adding forums and expand.

4. Spread the word

With thousands of websites created each day, its tough to even get a toe-hold on the internet, which is why you should take the time and effort to market your forum in your niche. For starters, look for similar blogs in your niche and ask them to do a review, do a link exchange with similar websites, you could even consider an Adwords campaign to get that initial burst of traffic if you have some dough to spare.

5. Offer Incentives

Lets face it, there are zillions of similar communities on the internet highway – why would members want to post at yours? What makes you stand out from among the others that would entice your members to post? Yes, you guessed it – give them a piece of your pie. While some offer “One Time Offers” (an offer that you get only once) for signing up, there are other forums that share their Adsense Revenue with their members. Pioneered by Shawn Hogan of the DigitalPoint Forums, it is used by many others such as AuctionCUT which is an eBay forum and is fairly successful in attracting regular posts.

6. Forum Posters

If it still doesn’t help, try using hired forum posters to give your new forum a push in the right direction. As much as it is against “ethics”, its more of an accepted “practice” now – almost all new forums created in the near past would have used forum posters invariably, barring a lucky few. Forum Posting has almost grown into an industry in its own rights as there are established forums flaunting services! If you do decide to go this way, make sure that the posters you hire agree to creating a username of your choice – the simplest way to find if a forum has paid posters is to look for a few names that are popular as paid posters! Although it doesn’t mean a lot, it does taint your brand, and you would want to minimize that!

7. Maintain a “personal touch”

Its always appreciated by a new member when they are welcomed to a forum and are thanked for a helpful post made – it works to create that personal appeal as well as an ego-boost which converts to the member spending more time on your forum which is ultimately good for you.

I think I’ve covered some of the more important aspects of creating a community – if you feel I’ve missed any, feel free to let me know in the comments.