TECH RESET » Web-Based

Finally a GOOD free online fax service: Hello Fax

Admin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:01:57 +0000

Several times a year, I still come across some business or organization that requires their forms be signed and FAXED back (no, they won’t take a scanned doc), and since it’s been years since I’ve owned a fax machine, I just search for some online fax service. In some cases, the free services will include their ads on the actual fax (very unprofessional), but many other times I’ll just pay a couple bucks to buy some credit just to get it over with.

But now, Hellofax has figured out a reasonable freemium model and it’s getting bookmarked.

Print to anywhere using Google Cloud Print

Admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:28:21 +0000

Just installed Google Cloud Print on my PC. Installation was easier than even plugging in a USB printer.

By connecting your printer with the Google Cloud you will be able to print to your printer from any computer or smart phone, regardless of where you are. Just activate the Google Cloud Print connector in Google Chrome and your printer will automatically be available to you from Google Cloud Print enabled web and mobile apps.

My new favorite screenshot tool

Admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:54:19 +0000

In just a matter of a couple of weeks, I’ve discovered three different screenshot capturing tools, each one better than the next… and my new favorite is ScreenCatch. A tiny 193KB tool.

Captures the entire screen with a single click and then allows for cropping before uploading the image and hosting it for free.

Easiest way to install apps on a fresh Windows install

Admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:42:34 +0000

Most definitely the easiest way to install all your basic apps after a fresh install of Windows is using Ninite. You simply go to the website, select some popular apps you would install anyways (like Winamp, iTunes, Firefox, Adobe Acrobat Reader, uTorrent, WinRar) and the site checks for the latests version of those apps and then gives you a package to download of all of those apps, and then runs all their default installations disabling all the annoying installation options like ad-ware, toolbars, etc. And done!

Best software you may have not heard of

Admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:18:05 +0000

Great topic over at reddit.com asking “What’s your favorite software that no one has heard of“. I’m discovering and discovering a lot of gems as we speak.

Online Event Ticketing Services Compared

Admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:10:57 +0000

In trying to help out my friends that were promoting some events (with 300-1,000 attendees and tickets ranging from $15 to $25), I did some research to compare the various online ticket service alternatives.

Of course all these services provide you with the basic ticketing process, email collection, and credit card processing through internal or external integrates merchant accounts from PayPal or Google Checkout. And then most of them also have the “cool” features social networking integration (like links to help promote your event on Facebook).

Eventbrite seems to be the most popular service right now, but maybe it’s just because their custom subdomain URLs like ‘[yourevent].eventbrite.com’ are just so noticeable when people promote them. They do have a lot of features, if you really need them all.

But in the end, it comes down to total commission rates and/or fees, and when you are doing a few hundred tickets that might be $500 in extra savings or profit to you or your attendees.

So here’s a quick summary of the pricing schemes of March 2010 (in many cases, doing the simple math on the number of attendees you have and your ticket price will make one of these choices stand out as a superior choice for your event).

Eventbrite – 2.5% of ticket face value plus $0.99 per ticket. An additional 3% if using Eventbrite credit card processing or regular merchant fees if using Paypal or Google Checkout.
Brown Paper Tickets – $0.99 fee for tix under $9.99 and $1.99 fee per ticket for tickets above $10. That’s it! No credit card processing fees after that. Plus you can get a batch of hard tickets printed to sell in person for $0.10 each plus minimum $6 shipping.
Eventbee – $1 flat fee per ticket plus external credit processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout).
Ettend – Interesting pricing model here: $24/month for two active event listings, no per ticket cost, and then just the external credit card processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout). Pricing details here.
Eventat – No per-ticket fee while in beta plus external credit processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout).
Guestlist – No per-ticket fee while in beta plus external credit processing fee % (like Paypal or Google Checkout).

The above are great for simple events like concerts, shows or raves, and not necessarily something like a trade show, conference or seminar (where you might be collecting more user information, have many tiers of pricing or be sending out regular communications; for that there are better alternatives like RegOnline).

CMS/Blogging software packages not needing a database

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:53:10 +0000

I run this site on Wordpress but a small project came up where I wanted to research some database-less CMS / blogging alternatives (still need PHP, just no databases to store the content).

After researching this a bit, the two I’ll be trying first are:

GetSimple
SkyBlue

And some others I came across and may try next:

Fixed: Gmail Notifier Won’t Connect

Admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:43:33 +0000

I use Gmail Notifier on my desktop PC so that Gmail handles all mailto: links, but I don’t really care for it as a notifier. But if you do install it and get the error message ”Cannot connect to your mailbox”, it may be because you’ve set your Gmail account to only use https, which the notifier is incompatible. So Google has a Windows registry fix/patch for that. Problem solved.

Web-Based Favicon Generator

Admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:36:56 +0000

If you have a site or blog site, don’t forget to add a custom favicon. Go to the web-based favicon.cc, draw your icon in a 16×16 grid, preview in real time, and export your finished favicon.ico. Or search the pre-existing database for some icon that fits your site’s topic. Then just upload it to your site’s root directory. In most cases, your browser will automatically find the favicon.ico. Otherwise you can just add this line of code to your site’s : . Done!

Domain Name Ideas and Research Tools

Admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:09:26 +0000

Here’s a few tools I’ve found the most useful when trying to think of domain names:

Instant Domain Search – searches domain name availability in realtime, as you type.
MakeWords – generates random real-sounding words according to your parameters.
Dot-o-mator – combines your desired word/topic with cliche industry prefixes and suffixes.
GoDaddy’s expiring domains – there are some gems to be found in there.
And of course there’s always the trusty thesaurus.

But one of the most useful things I’ve done is kept an excel file (or text file also works) of cool sounding words and ideas that I’ve been brainstorming with for over five years now. Unfortunately for you, I consider that document too ripe with fresh ideas to give away.