Having recently reviewed the WordPress plugins that are available to assist with the current cookie legislation I was dismayed to find a lack of anything simple that would be list out the shortcodes on a site, yet provide some flexibility.
So, I’ve written something. Add the code below to the functions.php file in your theme folder and then use the following shortcode in a post or page…
[cookies]
Simple, eh? This will list all the site’s cookies along with their values. Two further options are available…
[cookies novalue]
This will not output the cookie values.
[cookies] ==> [/cookies]
By providing a value between opening and closing shortcodes you can override the text that is used to separate the cookie name and the value.
I have now updated the script to show the cookies in alphabetical order. In addition the output is presented as an unordered list.
The Targus City.Gear 15 is a top-loading laptop bag, designed for laptops with screens up to 15.6 inches.
I’ve been looking for a new bag for a while. The one I had before was just the right size for 11.6 inch Lenovo but bags designed for smaller laptops also, inevitably, can also store a lot less in total. As a result I struggled to get much into it other than the laptop itself.
The problem is, bigger cases state how big a laptop they will take but don’t give any indication of how they will cope with anything smaller – will me 11.6″ laptop rattle around inside or sit snuggly? Sadly, the only way to find out is to buy one.
Most laptop bags – I prefer the traditional version with handles and should strap rather than a backpack (and messenger bags often don’t contain a huge array of pockets for storage) – are pretty plain but I liked this for the touches of yellow which made it look a little more interesting.
As you can see from the pictures it has a huge number of pockets, including some specific for a mouse and a tablet and there’s a zip-out bag on the side that can be used to hold water bottles too. There’s also a document storage section, a removable mesh accessory pouch and removable CD/DVD sleeves that hold 8 discs. The rear section is padded to make it comfortable when worn over the shoulder.
The whole thing measures 42 x 13 x 44 cm and weighs a little over 1.5 kg. It holds my smaller laptop reasonably well – it won’t fit truly snugly unless you have a bigger one but it still feels appropriate protected.
Unfortunately, there are a few niggles. The overall quality is not 100% – the Velcro on the mouse pocket has come away as has some of the stitching on one of the zips. The shoulder strap is quite a thin material which, at every opportunity, curls – as a result you often have something much narrower over your shoulder and this isn’t comfortable. I should add that I’ve only had it a few weeks. The bag, however, does come with a lifetime guarantee.
I bought mine from TechNextDay.co.uk for a little under £35. Beware of other Targus bags with similar names – this review is for the model TCG400.
Summary of Targus City.Gear 15 TCG400
It has more pockets than you can imagine and seems to just swallow every I put in it. It’s all well protected too. If it wasn’t for the occasional quality issue this would be fantastic value for money. As it is, it’s good.
Commodity prices are constantly on the rise. And right before your very eyes, inflation eats up the purchasing power of the dollar. In almost every part of the world, employment rates aren’t stabilizing but declining. Here, there and everywhere, people try to save as much as they can. The way things are going, there’s no telling when the economy is going to take a turn for the positive.
That is why money-saving sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and a whole bunch of others are gaining prominence. Individuals and businesses alike flock to these sites for deals that will potentially help them make the most of every dollar they’ve got. But are you aware that collective-buying sites are not the only sites that can save you money? Check these seven sites out:
For a business with a growing base of customers, sales people, contacts and leads, a reliable CRM system is a gem. Hand in hand with a corporate intranet that ensures constant communication and engagement among employees, that fosters camaraderie among team members, that promotes efficiency and timeliness of reporting, the duo are dynamite. Unfortunately, not all businesses, especially the smaller ones, can afford a CRM system and an intranet.
Bitrix24 is a free CRM system + intranet combo for companies with 12 employees or less. Yes, you read right. Bitrix24 is free for small businesses with a maximum of 12 employees. Aside from a Facebook-like social intranet function, Bitrix24 features real-time streaming, sales funnel, calendar, activity planner and more. For businesses with more than 12 employees, subscription is at $99 per month.
While it’s true that the logo is not the business, the logo, in more ways than one, represents the business. And more often than not, the logo is what customers visually remember a company by. Having a logo designed specifically for the image you wish to project means cash, sometimes, hundreds if you’re intent on hiring a professional logo designer. Even with online crowdsourcing sites that boast of the lowest possible logo rates, you’ll end up shelling out at least $100.
With Logaster, regardless of your designing capability, you can design your own logo for free. And with a nominal subscription fee of just about $5 per month, you get extended services like business cards, envelopes, letterheads, etc.
Some people may argue that a name is just a name. But if it’s a startup we’re talking about, a name isn’t just a name. The name you choose for your business or website has marketing, branding and online implications. Careful consideration, therefore, is a must.
PickyDomains is a naming/branding service with a 55,000+ contributor base. To avail of the service and start receiving suggestions for parameters you specify, all you need to do is sign up, pay the $50 fee for a name or domain (a slogan costs $75) and wait. If none of the suggestions match your criteria, you pay nothing.
Low-cost air fare and online ticketing are perhaps the most ingenious innovations in the air travel industry over the last decade or so. CheapFlights, Orbitz and Expedia are three of the go-to sites for cheap air fare. JetRadar, however, doesn’t stop at cheap. The company, first tested in Russia, aims to provide cheaper air tickets to its customers. JetRadar functions as a meta search engine that combs through listings of 728 individual airlines, travel agencies and major flight sites to get the best possible deals.
What a lot of people don’t know is that airline companies keep the best deals to themselves through their corporate websites, prompting consumers to constantly check their sites for such deals. JetRadar’s radar will be working high and low to guarantee every possible deal available is publicly known.
James Bond is perhaps the most famous spy out there. Unfortunately, James Bond is just a character from Ian Fleming’s imagination. But even if James Bond were flesh-and-bone, he might not agree to corporate spying – too flimsy for a hotshot like him, especially if it doesn’t involve cliff hangers or pretty women.
But seriously, in the business world, competition is here to stay. This essentially is what prompts companies to constantly innovate and stay at the top of their game. But “spying” on competition can cost a lot of time and marketing dollars. Good thing there’s iSpionage, a website that manages competitor campaigns and advertisements, monitors affiliates, bridges search engine gaps, etc.
And instead of having to go through numerous search data via a number of “spying” tools, with iSpionage, the moment a competitor move is detected, an alert promptly finds its way into your e-mail inbox. Monthly subscription to the service starts at $59 per month.
For anyone on a budget, coupons are a sweetheart. RetailMeNot is an online coupon service for bargain hunters. Users log in to the site using their Facebook, Twitter or e-mail account to share, rate and track savings. RetailMeNot provides a number of excellent deals for both local and online shopping. Plus, it is one of a handful of sites that offer printable coupons for restaurants within your vicinity.
If you’re a freelance web developer, programmer, designer, carpenter, administrator, electrician or artist working full-time, SideJobTrack is the tool for you. With SideJobTrack, you get to track the jobs you do and perform invoicing functions at the end of every job or whenever it’s necessary. You even have the option to customize your invoice templates and estimates.
SideJobTrack’s reporting function is perhaps its best feature. With just one click, you get a breakdown of the money you have so far received. You can also view client transaction records, including the number of projects attached to a client, the number of hours worked, the amount you’re owed, etc. And to sweeten the deal even more, SideJobTrack is absolutely free.
One of the biggest challenges for every startup is finding initial customers. Many companies invest thousands of pounds creating a new product only to fail almost immediately, without ever achieving a user-base large enough to truly test an idea.
Others waste months developing complex new technology, and upon launching, quickly find out that they’ve made very big mistakes or solved the wrong problem altogether.
A new site, named Erli Bird, is due to be launched soon with the aim of helping solve these problems by allowing startups to find the right early adopters, incentivize product evangelists, and quickly learn from their customers, iterate, and build more compelling products.
Through Erli Bird, startups will be able to showcase their product and connect with new users. By offering incentives to early adopters to try new apps, websites, and tech gadgets, startups can quickly build a sizable user-base, gather valuable feedback, and improve their product.
Other sites are out there to help out, financially, the startup company – Kickstarter immediately springs to mind – but I’ve never come across one that is there is support the company finding interest, customers and generally people who will talk about and help promote their product.
Some of the things they promise include…
Erli Bird will feature a community of thousands of young, tech-savvy early adopters.
Three to five exciting startups will be featured each week.
You will be able to get to know the founders and understand their vision and passion.
Users will be offered unique incentives and promotions to try new apps, websites, and tech gadgets.
I think it sounds fantastic. The site is is due imminently but, meantime, you can sign up to be told when it’s available.
Google Drive has been out for a few weeks now and I’ve been using it since the day of release on multiple machines. To all intents and purposes, Google Drive is just like Dropbox but integrates with Google Docs, has less features but more space.
So, just like Dropbox you install it on each PC that you wish to access your drive content on. There are also smartphone apps available too. It creates a folder (and you can choose where to locate it) and anything you place in that folder is synced across all devices. It’s also available online via the new Google Drive website too. As it syncs a system tray icon animates – the animation is done via change of colour and its subtle I rarely notice it (not necessarily a good thing!).
Software is available for PC, Mac, ChromeOS and Android. An iPhone / iPad app is due.
Google Drive has replaced Google Docs and any files you had on that system has been transferred. Indeed, on your first sync you’ll find those documents appear in your PC folder (although you can switch this off). Click on this and it launches the usual Google viewer/editor.
By default you get 5GB of storage, a lot higher than Dropbox’s 2GB. However, by getting friends and family to join you can easily, freely, get the Dropbox figure up – mine is at 7GB at the moment (and can go up to 18GB).
$10 a month or $100 a year (give or take a cent) will get you 50GB (plus referrals) on Dropbox. $20/$200 will get you 100GB. In comparison, with Google Drive $2.49 a month will get you 25GB and $4.99 will get you 100GB.
This is a bit of a bargain – the cheapest deal by Google Drive works out at 5 cents per GB per month. The cheapest Dropbox account is 17 cents. One thing to know, though, is that with Google Drive the free account is separate from any Gmail or Picasa storage. You actually get 16GB of free storage in total across all 3 systems. The additional storage plans for Google Drive, though, includes Picasa so if you use this a lot for photo storage you might find any additionally purchased storage being used up by that.
None-the-less you can’t argue with the upgrade price. If you need a LOT of storage Google Drive is definitely the cheapest option but for free storage you have to consider the additional Dropbox storage that you can get with referrals.
Right, let’s get back to features. True to Google form they are rather lacking. Dropbox will give you file versioning (so you can retrieve an older version of a file), an easy way to share from the desktop, and URL sharing of files (great for sharing files from your website!). Google Drive has none of these. Sharing is done, as it was with Google Docs, by going to the website and setting it up. Dropbox allows you to set proxies and bandwidth limits. Again, Google Drive doesn’t1. Both allow you to selective share which folders will be sync’d.
As usual with Google it’s a “no frills approach” with a distinct lack of features. Dropbox has definitely got the best feature list and, if you don’t need much storage or can get a number of referrals it’s definitely the best option. However, if you need more space or you simply don’t need the better sharing options and the 5GB free account is enough then Google Drive is worth a go. Personally, I’m using both!
Reviewed by David Artiss on 23rd May 2012.
and odd that a product which is surely aimed at the commercial market as well as the home doesn’t have proxy options – this may mean it won’t work in many businesses [↩]
Top
7 Niche Sites That Save You Money When It Matters
Photo credit: Tracy O
Commodity prices are constantly on the rise. And right before your very eyes, inflation eats up the purchasing power of the dollar. In almost every part of the world, employment rates aren’t stabilizing but declining. Here, there and everywhere, people try to save as much as they can. The way things are going, there’s no telling when the economy is going to take a turn for the positive.
That is why money-saving sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and a whole bunch of others are gaining prominence. Individuals and businesses alike flock to these sites for deals that will potentially help them make the most of every dollar they’ve got. But are you aware that collective-buying sites are not the only sites that can save you money? Check these seven sites out:
1. Bitrix24.com
For a business with a growing base of customers, sales people, contacts and leads, a reliable CRM system is a gem. Hand in hand with a corporate intranet that ensures constant communication and engagement among employees, that fosters camaraderie among team members, that promotes efficiency and timeliness of reporting, the duo are dynamite. Unfortunately, not all businesses, especially the smaller ones, can afford a CRM system and an intranet.
Bitrix24 is a free CRM system + intranet combo for companies with 12 employees or less. Yes, you read right. Bitrix24 is free for small businesses with a maximum of 12 employees. Aside from a Facebook-like social intranet function, Bitrix24 features real-time streaming, sales funnel, calendar, activity planner and more. For businesses with more than 12 employees, subscription is at $99 per month.
2. Logaster.com
While it’s true that the logo is not the business, the logo, in more ways than one, represents the business. And more often than not, the logo is what customers visually remember a company by. Having a logo designed specifically for the image you wish to project means cash, sometimes, hundreds if you’re intent on hiring a professional logo designer. Even with online crowdsourcing sites that boast of the lowest possible logo rates, you’ll end up shelling out at least $100.
With Logaster, regardless of your designing capability, you can design your own logo for free. And with a nominal subscription fee of just about $5 per month, you get extended services like business cards, envelopes, letterheads, etc.
3. PickyDomains.com
Some people may argue that a name is just a name. But if it’s a startup we’re talking about, a name isn’t just a name. The name you choose for your business or website has marketing, branding and online implications. Careful consideration, therefore, is a must.
PickyDomains is a naming/branding service with a 55,000+ contributor base. To avail of the service and start receiving suggestions for parameters you specify, all you need to do is sign up, pay the $50 fee for a name or domain (a slogan costs $75) and wait. If none of the suggestions match your criteria, you pay nothing.
4. JetRadar.com
Low-cost air fare and online ticketing are perhaps the most ingenious innovations in the air travel industry over the last decade or so. CheapFlights, Orbitz and Expedia are three of the go-to sites for cheap air fare. JetRadar, however, doesn’t stop at cheap. The company, first tested in Russia, aims to provide cheaper air tickets to its customers. JetRadar functions as a meta search engine that combs through listings of 728 individual airlines, travel agencies and major flight sites to get the best possible deals.
What a lot of people don’t know is that airline companies keep the best deals to themselves through their corporate websites, prompting consumers to constantly check their sites for such deals. JetRadar’s radar will be working high and low to guarantee every possible deal available is publicly known.
5. iSpionage.com
James Bond is perhaps the most famous spy out there. Unfortunately, James Bond is just a character from Ian Fleming’s imagination. But even if James Bond were flesh-and-bone, he might not agree to corporate spying – too flimsy for a hotshot like him, especially if it doesn’t involve cliff hangers or pretty women.
But seriously, in the business world, competition is here to stay. This essentially is what prompts companies to constantly innovate and stay at the top of their game. But “spying” on competition can cost a lot of time and marketing dollars. Good thing there’s iSpionage, a website that manages competitor campaigns and advertisements, monitors affiliates, bridges search engine gaps, etc.
And instead of having to go through numerous search data via a number of “spying” tools, with iSpionage, the moment a competitor move is detected, an alert promptly finds its way into your e-mail inbox. Monthly subscription to the service starts at $59 per month.
6. RetailMeNot.com
For anyone on a budget, coupons are a sweetheart. RetailMeNot is an online coupon service for bargain hunters. Users log in to the site using their Facebook, Twitter or e-mail account to share, rate and track savings. RetailMeNot provides a number of excellent deals for both local and online shopping. Plus, it is one of a handful of sites that offer printable coupons for restaurants within your vicinity.
7. SideJobTrack.com
If you’re a freelance web developer, programmer, designer, carpenter, administrator, electrician or artist working full-time, SideJobTrack is the tool for you. With SideJobTrack, you get to track the jobs you do and perform invoicing functions at the end of every job or whenever it’s necessary. You even have the option to customize your invoice templates and estimates.
SideJobTrack’s reporting function is perhaps its best feature. With just one click, you get a breakdown of the money you have so far received. You can also view client transaction records, including the number of projects attached to a client, the number of hours worked, the amount you’re owed, etc. And to sweeten the deal even more, SideJobTrack is absolutely free.
Share this:
Like this: