Windows Live Writer
Written by
David Dunn on January 7, 2008 – 5:43 pm - 1,711 views 
Ever since I started blogging on FerrariDave back in November 2007, I have used WordPress’ admin section to write my blog posts.
As most of you bloggers will be aware, it isn’t the most advanced tool in the world.
While looking around other blogs, I found that a lot more people were using Windows Live Writer to create their posts. This made me realise that there must be some reason why people are switching.
First and foremost, Windows Live Writer means that the blogger can create their posts anywhere, whether they have access to the internet or not. It also means that you don’t need to use bandwidth every time you want to create a post, loading up all the dashboards etc. in the admin section.
Once I started using Windows Live Writer (yes, I’m using it to create this post), I found that when you are writing a post, it shows it as though you were viewing it as a post on your blog.
This, to me, is a huge advantage as WordPress creates the posts in the default font and the CSS file depicts what the font should be once on your blog.
Ultimately, this means that you have to guess how big your paragraphs are and guessing isn’t always the best option!
Inserting pictures is also made easier in this as you can see exactly what it would look like on your page and how the text is wrapping round it. Whereas on WordPress, I found myself having to save and continue with the post, previewing it to see how the text and images are looking.
These are about the only features I have explored in Windows Live Writer but the rest looks very promising including Plug-ins.
If you would like to give Windows Live Writer a go yourself, click here and download it from Microsoft. I think it’s one hell of an improvement in comparison to the traditional WordPress methods.
If anyone has any cool tricks for me, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
If you use anything better than Windows Live Writer I’d also love to hear from you as I’m always open to improvement!
| 2.5 |
Tags: blog, blogging, live, program, review, tool, windows, writer
Posted in blogging | 3 Comments »
Buy a Blog Review
Written byDavid Dunn on January 7, 2008 – 5:10 pm - 673 views I recently signed up at Buy Blog Reviews and have just today received the confirmation that my blog has been approved to give reviews.
Thought it would be pretty cool to have a go at this - yes, I’m probably not the most amazing person in the world to review a website or blog but I’m happy to have a go.
You don’t really have much to lose as a review from FerrariDave will cost you only $10 per blog for the time being. If you are interested in me having a go, click here to be taken to my page on BuyBlogReviews.
I really appreciate those who do purchase this service. Bear in mind that I’m very new to this sort of thing 
| 2.5 |
Tags: ad, blog, buy, review
Posted in blogging | No Comments »
Libra - Library Organiser Software
Written byDavid Dunn on December 31, 2007 – 8:24 am - 1,648 views Have you got a large collection of books, CDs, movies and/or games? You could probably do with some sort of library software to help you organise your collection easily and effectively.
This is where Libra comes in. It works pretty much like any of the other library-type software currently available for download. However, the main difference with this is that it’s free!
To find software that does exactly the same job as this, you would struggle to find a version that is not trial-limited and very expensive after the trial. This is where Libra differs, it’s completely free for non-commercial use!
One function I find really handy on Libra is it’s ability to use a webcam attached to your computer as a barcode scanner. Usually you would need a proper hardware barcode scanner to do the same job. This is something else you are saving money on for using this software and not one of it’s competitors.
Are you often finding your DVDs/CDs/Games/Books missing from your collection after someone has borrowed then? Never able to remember who you borrowed them to?
I know I’m often finding that some of my DVDs have gone missing, now I can remember that I borrowed them to someone but I can never remember who or when I borrowed them out!
Libra will keep track of all the things you have borrowed out and let you know due dates for each item. This should assure that you never lose any of your stuff again!
Among other great features, you can also share your whole collection online so that your family and friends can view what you have and see if they would like to borrow any. You could of course just use this to show off if you have a particularly big collection!
If you would like to give this software a go yourself you can download it by visiting the Libra website. The current version is 0.9.2 BETA, bearing in mind this is still in BETA it’s a very impressive piece of software!
If you have any comment about the software or use another piece of software for the same job, do let me know
Don’t forget about the Entrecard competition!
| 2.5 |
Tags: beta, collection, library, review, software
Posted in review | No Comments »
Goals for FerrariDave in 2008
Written byDavid Dunn on December 27, 2007 – 8:13 pm - 334 views Just been going through my Bloglines and reading my inundated amount of feeds which I neglected over the festive period. A post caught my attention and I went onto the website to have a read. This kinda ties in with my last blog post about my stats last month.
This was the post that caught my attention.
Really enjoyed reading through this post and thought it would be a great idea to do a similar thing (although noticeably smaller goals) for this blog. More information about this can be found on Daily Blog Tips, where Online Tech Tips got the idea from originally.
- Increase daily unique visitors
Would ideally like to increase this to about 500 per day as I’m currently averaging around 110 uniques per day. - Increase RSS subscribership
I currently have 15 subscribers to my feed according to Feedburner. I plan to have at least 100 subscribers by the end of 2008. - Number of weekly posts
I would like to see myself blogging about 2 or 3 times per day in 2008, meaning that I should have something about 14-21 posts per week if everything goes to plan. - Alexa rank
According to Alexa, I currently rank at 987,460. I would like to see this improved in any way shape or form, don’t mind how much, just an improvement over the coming year would be great. - Google pagerank
I don’t have any PR at all according to Google Toolbar, therefore, I would like to see my pagerank at PR1 by the end of the year. - Monthly revenue
Although this isn’t paramount, I would love to be earning something for blogging. If I want to be really adventurous (yes I know, I’m unlikely to meet this, but who said I couldn’t have dreams in this list?, I would like to be earning $100 per month. To be honest though, anything would be great, enough to cover all of my costs would be pretty damn good! - Interview some people
Whether these people be other bloggers, other famous people on the internet, or just random people, I would love to talk to some people and blog about it. - More competitions
I’d like to run a competition on FerrariDave at least every few months, with half-decent prizes. Would be even better if I could fund these prizes with income generated by the blog itself!
Would love to know what goals you have for your website or blog in 2008 if you would like to comment. Or if you have any suggestions on the goals I have posted above, please let me know via the comment tool. Thanks in advance!
Will be cool to look back over these goals at the end of 2008 and see how I’ve done. Crazy to think of where I’ll be in a year’s time.
| 2.5 |
Tags: 2008, blog, goals, review
Posted in General | No Comments »
Tonight’s Top Gear
Written byDavid Dunn on November 11, 2007 – 10:21 am - 131 views Another really good and, as usual, funny episode of Top Gear. Nice to be back to the usual studio episode following last week’s show in Africa. Not at all saying that the Africa episode was bad, just unexpectedly unusual.
First up, was nice to see that Richard was still thinking about his little Oliver from the Africa trip, he’s having it shipped over so expect the piss takes to continue from James and Jeremy about his bit of holiday romance.
Another creative and interesting test was Richard in the Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster. This started off with the usual comparisons with the coupe version. However, things turned a little more creative when introduced a man on roller skates, with jet packs, to race against (I doubt the Top Gear team would dare ask Richard if he would like a go on the roller skates with a JET pack!). This ended in the Aston Martin winning the drag race with the guy on the rollerskates not too far behind.
Tonight, Simon Cowell also had another go in the reasonably priced car (the Lacetti this time instead of the Liana). Again, he did very very well knocking Gordon Ramsay off the top spot with a pretty quick lap of 1:45.9.
Last but not least was another one of the famous Top Gear races. When it was first announced, I was slightly puzzled as to how they were going to fit their typical race into the 20 minutes of programme that was left. They did manage to fit it in as it wasn’t one of their typical races - this one was across London. Even though it was a rather short race, it involved not only the three main presenters but it also included The Stig using public transport.
Unfortunately, this one didn’t end like the others, the car didn’t win this one :-(. No, it didn’t even come second, it was last behind; public transport (The Stig), a boat (Jeremy) and a cyclist (Richard).
That’s the end of decent television for another week!
| 2.5 |
Tags: review, Television, top gear
Posted in Television | No Comments »
