BESTSALVIA.INFO

FAP842: Illegal downloads of textbooks, Free Stuff Friday

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Boston Globe: Faced with soaring prices for textbooks, cash-strapped students have discovered a tempting, effective, but illicit alternative - pirated electronic books, available for free over the Internet.
+ It’s not just textbooks that are being downloaded improperly. Ed McCoyd, director of digital policy at the Association of American Publishers in New York, said a survey in May located about 1,100 titles available illegally online, including novels and books on current events.
+ But textbook piracy is particularly seductive, McCoyd said, because students are often hard-pressed to pay for academic books that can cost more than $100, three times the price of most other books.
+ Well duh. College is more expensive than ever, the economy’s in the toilet, and every other expense is through the roof. What did you expect?
+ The Student Loan Network does not condone infringement of intellectual property, but stay tuned in August for our cheap textbooks eBook
+ Inside Higher Ed: Undersecretary of Education Sara Tucker’s plan, students would find out almost immediately after submitting their much shorter federal student aid application — truncated to just 9 questions from the current 102 — exactly how much federal grant, subsidized and unsubsidized loan and tax break funds they would qualify for, based on their adjusted gross income and number of family members. (Right now students find out at that stage, usually in January or February, only how much their family is expected to contribute, which may discourage rather than encourage students to go to college, Tucker said.) The awards would be indexed based on an as-yet-undetermined formula — something like the average cost of attendance at a four-year public institution, for instance — that would essentially set a maximum amount of federal aid for which a student could qualify.
+ The sources of federal aid would be greatly streamlined. Federal grant aid, which now flows through about a dozen programs (and rising), would be consolidated into just the Pell Grant Program, providing an additional $1.7 billion that would increase the maximum grant by $370, Tucker said. (No Perkins Loans, no Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, no SMART Grants.) What the student loan program would look like is unclear, Tucker said, given the recent turmoil in that sphere. Work study and education tax breaks would continue to be part of aid packages, the latter particularly for upper-income students.
+ Still some work to be done, but that’s some progress

Scholarship Update
+ Show Us Your Art Scholarship
+ Submit a picture of a drawing, painting or other mixed media project of your original work for a chance to win $1,000 scholarship. Deadling is July 23, 2008. No purchase necessary. Open to anyone who is a resident of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia or Canada (excluding Quebec) has access to the Internet, and is 13 or older at the time of entry.
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site
+ Plus, embarrass yourself for $1,000 with our Scholarship Idol contest

Free Stuff Friday
+ Borders free 12 oz beverage with cafe purchase
+ Pill pockets for pets
+ Degree for men
+ Clorox for colors
+ Free sample stuff like this is ideal for dorm rooms
+ YouTorrent legal torrents
+ My favorite iPod Touch and iPhone apps
+ Facebook, Tap Tap Revenge, Mocha VNC, MyStreets, Shakespeare, Instapaper, Last.fm, Pandora, MySpace, Twitterific, Epocrates, and REMOTE. zOMG.
+ Google Elections Video Search gadget
+ 20 healthy foods under $1

Free Song of the Week
+ A tribute to Heath Ledger’s Joker
+ Madsumo, There’s So Many Ways I Can Kill You

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
+
+
+

Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

Reminders
+
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ Open an FDIC-insured savings account today!
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid discussion forums
+ Get FAFSA news at the FAFSA blog
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

ShareThis

Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Newsfeed via email.

Mad Men, 30 Rock in Running for Emmys (NYT)
The nominations for television's biggest award, the Emmy, were released on Thursday morning, adding more fuel to the argument that much of the best creative work in the medium is now being done on cable, and to the perception that shows do not necessarily need big audiences to be celebrated by the television academy. EW: Mad Men's 16 nominations led all drama series and included nods for outstanding drama series and a best actor nod for John Hamm, while 30 Rock led all comedies with 17 nominations, including outstanding comedy series and actor nods for Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. Variety: The hangover from the writers strike is reflected among the winners and losers in this year's Emmy noms derby, writes Cynthia Littleton. Variety: By nominating some of the most deserving series of the year, the TV Academy may be sacrificing ratings for credibility, writes Michael Schneider.

Tony Snow Funeral Held in Washington (Fox News)
President Bush fondly remembered Tony Snow Thursday, telling mourners at Snow's funeral that the conservative commentator-turned-White House press secretary "amassed a rare record of accomplishment." "He knew the job of a reporter was vigorous. He understood the profession and always treated it with respect," said Bush. WaPo: Snow was the first working journalist in almost 30 years to take the spokesman's job, after stints as conservative columnist, commentator, and speechwriter. TVNewser: David Gregory gave a four minute tribute to Tony Snow at the end of Race for the White House last night, following a day when he attended Snow's funeral.

Redstone to Speak in Dan Rather Suit (NYO)
Dan Rather and his lawyers were back in a Lower Manhattan courthouse yesterday for yet another round in Mr. Rather's ongoing $70 million civil lawsuit against his former employers. Over the course of a 45-minute hearing, tempers occasionally flared as the lawyers for both sides argued over a number of issues, ranging from the scheduling of depositions to the transparency of the discovery process. NYT: If CBS's motions to dismiss are rejected, a trial could begin before the end of the year.

continued...

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Mozilla has issued updates, all rated as “critical” for both the Firefox 2 and 3 browsers. Firefox 3 receives three patches, the first for Mac OSX, to stop a potential attack by a malformed .gif file. The second fixes a flaw in the uniform resource identifier (URI) that could let external apps access the computer. The final Firefox fix addresses the way the browser handles CSS code. Without the fix, it’s possible for a crafted CSS object to crash the application then allow remote code execution. Two pair of updates for Firefox 2 address the URI and CSS issues. With support for Firefox 2 ending

Read | Permalink | Email This | Linking Blogs | More Images | Computing

FAP844: Nursing shortage, cheaper textbooks

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Inside Higher Ed: An annual survey by the National Retail Federation to project back-to-college spending by college students sees a 7 percent drop this year, to $599.38, from $641.56 last year, Reuters reported. With college students paying more for gas, there is less money available for other goods.
+ US News: Textbook prices, which have nearly tripled in the past 20 years, may finally start to decline thanks to some new laws, technology, and upstart companies. Undergraduates who take advantage of the new alternatives could easily slash their textbook costs in half this coming academic year. That means the typical student could save more than $300. “We’re making progress,” says Nicole Allen, who heads the affordable textbook drive for the Student Public Interest Research Groups. “Things are changing for the better.”
+ New laws, eBooks, open source, and rentals
+ Reason #5: piracy is easy. 31 seconds to find the book mentioned in the article on a DVD with 235 other textbooks, and no, I’m not going to tell you how, but that’s how easy it is
+ $83 on Amazon

Scholarship Update
+ Connecticut League for Nursing Scholarships
+ CLN has a scholarship program for state residents enrolled in an accredited, CLN supporting member nursing education program in Connecticut. Awards are presented at the annual Student Day, held in late fall every year.
+ Students in Diploma nursing programs are eligible after completing the first year of the two-year program.
+ Students in Associate degree nursing programs are eligible after completing the first year of the two-year program.
+ Students in Bachelor’s degree nursing programs are eligible after completing the third year of a four-year program.
+ Students in RN to BSN nursing programs are eligible when entering the senior year of study, verified by the dean or director of the program
+ Students in graduate nursing programs are eligible after successfully completing 18 credits in the nursing program, verified by the dean or director of the program The number of scholarships and the amount of each reward is determined by the Scholarship Committee and based on the amount of money available and the applicants’ qualifications.
+ $25,000 total
+ October 10 deadline
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Mail Bag
+ Chris writes in: My mom, who is just turning 60, went back to school for nursing, and because her grades are so good in the prep classes, she’s been accepted into the actual program.
+ My mother currently works at the hospital full time as a unit clerk, and makes just over $17/hour, and after taxes and retirement, she brings in just under $1,000 every two weeks.
+ Her tuition for the course will actually be covered by the hospital and student loans, so that’s not a problem at this time.
+ The brick wall we’ve hit comes from the course itself. It requires 40+ hours per week in class time and real-world experience. Real-world experience is basically interning without pay. She would have to change her work schedule to evenings and weekends, and would be lucky if she could handle 20 hours/week.
+ At her current pay, her income would be reduced to roughly $1000 / month.
+ Her living expenses amount to roughly $1800 / month.
+ She needs to come up with an additional $800 / month for 9 months. Then she would return to work full-time for the summer. Then she would complete her second year where she would again need $800 / month for the next 9 months.
+ Since this technically isn’t ‘tuition’, where would we start to look for this kind of money? Obviously grants and/or scholarships would be the optimal choice, but most are geared for young people with their entire lives (or at least several decades of productivity) ahead of them. Any idea where to start looking for seniors grants/scholarships?
+ Barring ‘free money’ and your own $10K scholarship, what are her other options, short of selling her house in this down market? I’d appreciate any direction or links you could send our way.
+ Today’s scholarship, of course
+ This is a unique time and opportunity for your mom due to a severe shortage - demand is on your side
+ Connecticut has had a major nursing shortage looming for quite some time
+ Contact CNA, CLN, CT DHE, and the administrators of every hospital nearby, and ask if they have a program for COLA issues exactly as you’ve described
+ Would someone exchange a promissory note for $7,200 or more in exchange for X years of service?
+ Check out Three Rivers Community College nursing scholarships directory

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
+
+
+

Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

Reminders
+
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ Open an FDIC-insured savings account today!
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid discussion forums
+ Get FAFSA news at the FAFSA blog
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

ShareThis

Gigi’s back boys! Our deluxe and delovely club-kid turned mother of two and visual artist is starting a new art group in Chicago, the Salon des Artistes Indépendants.

Gigi and other artists decided to come together to form the Salon to produce a gallery effect that wasn’t tethered to a certain theme or limited in scope. The Salon des Indépendants is basically a fancy French word for an outsider artist collective.

Gigi and her friends are sick of being told that their art is great but that it “really isn’t what we had in mind” by gallery owners so they mounted this first event.

It is by invitation only so the only way you are going to get an invite is if you email us and we plead your case to Gigi. She’s tough and she doesn’t want you drinking all her PBR, so be convincing of your love for art and we’ll see what we can do. I can’t make any promises though.

Are you looking at these wonderful pictures Fausto took of Gigi? She really is a supermom model. Gigi is so creative that she took one of our Digitally Delicious t-shirts and made a wonderfully tight-fitting black dress out of it. Hot!

Her daughter hates when she shaves her head but we think she is so lovely bald. Now, her daughter doesn’t really mind that her mom shaves her head, she just likes it when she wears a wig on it.

America, the U.S. Space Program needs your help! NASA is asking it’s visitors to the Houston Space Center to donate samples of their urine to help test out a new type of space toilet. This is kind of embarrassing. I’m sure in intergalactic space that aliens are laughing at us. Come on, Mars’ slogan after all is “Mars Needs Women” and ours is “Earth Needs Pee.” in reality though, nothing is like pee except pee. Pee has certain qualities that just can’t be reproduced so if they are going to get space toilets to work properly, they have to use the right stuff.

It seems fish are all over the news these days. Scientists have found that most animals (including our own species) ability to communicate using sound draws its origins to the grunts and chirps made by fish! The neural network that forms our speech center was created millions and millions of years ago. Even today some fish still use grunts to attract a mate.

Meanwhile in New York, one fish was taking this talking thing a bit to far. A talking carp predicted the end of the world. A fish that was destined for the knife proclaimed in Hebrew that the end was nigh and that now was the time to repent. Oy veh! The fish mongers didn’t take heed of the vociferous carp and it ended up becoming the Jewish delicacy gefilte fish. It could be worse.

Catfish walking down the street is not an everyday occurrence but it’s not unheard of in Florida. A woman saw a catfish trudging across her street and thought it was odd but then she looked further on and saw some thirty catfish emerging from the sewer, cross the street and kept on moving. The catfish used their dorsal fin to propel them much like we use our legs.

So there we have it, our speech, our fear of the almighty and the ability to walk all come from fish.

The voice inside your head that tells you to go for it- Feast of Fools.

Check out today’s sponsor:

Gay, Sexy, Healthy- Lifelube.org
Your “big tent” guide to gay men’s health,
from sex and drugs to Faeries and Bears
Your friendly concierge for all that’s gay, sexy and healthy.

Featured Music:
Katy Perry - One of the Boys: iTunes | Amazon | Site

RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE ON: GOOGLE

Share & Save

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

After I blogged recently about wanting to try TiVo, I was sent a unit to review for a few weeks. I’ve been wanting to try it out, so this was a great opportunity. With certain software, you can take programs you record on TiVo and transcode them on your computer. You can then turn them into videos you can watch on pretty much any device. All the DVRs I’ve had are boxes unto themselves, they couldn’t be networked in any way. By networking my TiVo, I can then do as I described, to create videos I can play on my computer, iPhone or any other device I wanted to use. Here are a couple of programs you can use to accomplish this.

TiVo Butler is an application that can track programs from multiple TiVo devices that you have on your home network. It’s free, and allows you to browse the recordings you’ve made on your TiVo. You can download them, encode them and much more. TiVo Butler is only available for Mac OS X.

However…

TiVo Playlist is the Windows equivalent. Everything that you could hope to do with your TiVo, you’ll be able to do with ease using TiVo Playlist.

1. Retrieve TiVo Now Playing lists over an ethernet connection and calculate total recording time and disk space used
2. Support for multiple TiVo units
3. Estimate free space remaining given the capacity of the TiVo hard drive(s)
4. Display either full List View or Folder View
5. Mouseover Title shows description of recorded show along with Year Released/Air Date, Actors, Director, etc.
6. View graphical representation of disk free space and space used by either recording status or recording quality
7. Export of Now Playing lists to CSV files for use in other programs such as Microsoft Excel
8. Batch downloading of recordings to PC (even from multiple machines)
9. Tested to run under Windows 2000 and XP Pro and reported to run under Windows 98/ME, XP Home and Vista
10. Works best at screen sizes 800×600 or larger if running 96dpi, or 1024×768 or larger if running 120dpi
11. Downloads to FAT32 partitions support up to 4Gb filesizes, NTFS partitions support files > 4Gb (Windows 2000/XP/Vista only)
12. Access via HTTP/HTTPS and requires TiVo software version 7.1 or newer

You know how to email me, if you have other DVR or TiVo software or tips to pass along to me! I’ll be glad to check them out and share them with the community.

• DishTVforPC.com.
• PCTV4Me.
• Voices.com - The Online Marketplace For Voice Actors.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yc9I2ll-Swc"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yc9I2ll-Swc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

• I Think I Want a TiVo?
• Do You Have Your Free DTV Converter?
• Who are the Internet’s Top Video Producers?
• How do you Deal with Old Technology?
• What was the First / Last Movie you saw in a Theater?
• What’s the Geekiest Show on TV Today?
• Is the Adobe Media Player any Good?
• Top Five Things to Look for when Buying an HDTV
• Do you Watch “TV” on the Internet?
• How to Buy an MP4 Player

Chris

What Software do You use with TiVo?

If you're using an HTC Touch or Mogul from Sprint and the launch of the iPhone 3G has got you thinking you're using yesterday's handset, an announcement today could put a smile on your face. Sprint has announced a free software update for the HTC Touch handset that brings EV-DO Rev. A mobile broadband to the smartphone, along with enhanced GPS capabilities, the mobile version of the Opera Web browser, and an onscreen 40-key QWERTY keyboard that offers an additional op

Read | Permalink | Email This | Linking Blogs | More Images | Mobile

Mozilla has issued updates, all rated as “critical” for both the Firefox 2 and 3 browsers. Firefox 3 receives three patches, the first for Mac OSX, to stop a potential attack by a malformed .gif file. The second fixes a flaw in the uniform resource identifier (URI) that could let external apps access the computer. The final Firefox fix addresses the way the browser handles CSS code. Without the fix, it’s possible for a crafted CSS object to crash the application then allow remote code execution. Two pair of updates for Firefox 2 address the URI and CSS issues. With support for Firefox 2 ending

Read | Permalink | Email This | Linking Blogs | More Images | Computing

Exercise-oriented video games aren't new, but Wii Fit is certainly the most technically advanced one yet. Fun games like snowboarding, Hula Hoop, and tightrope keep it from being tedious. The ingenious Balance Board tracks your center of gravity, and although we're skeptical about its fitness evaluation criteria, a few weeks of use has noticeably improved our balance. We wish you could save your own workout routines, and we advise against taking it too seriously as a fitness tool, but overall we're impressed with Wii Fit, and the Balance Board has lots of potential as a controller.

Read | Permalink | Email This | User Reviews | Linking Blogs | Gaming & Accessories

FAP841: Read your student loan applications before you sign

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Star Tribune: A class-action lawsuit has been filed against St. Paul-based student lender Northstar Higher Education for allegedly breaking its contract with student borrowers.
+ The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, says the lender broke its contract by eliminating its “T.H.E. Repayment Bonus” — a 0.75 percentage point interest-rate reduction — to cope with the credit crunch.
+ “While Northstar might be facing financial difficulties comparable to other banking institutions, this does not provide it with carte blanche to breach its contractual obligations,” said the suit, which is seeking monetary damages and contractual interest-rate reductions for anyone who had a loan with Northstar on Feb. 18. The suit was filed on behalf of plaintiff Jennifer So of California by the law firm of Kabateck Brown Kellner.
+ Northstar has yet to receive a copy of the complaint. But in a statement, General Counsel Mark Lindgren said: “Northstar takes its obligations to its customers seriously and believes it has fully complied with the terms of its agreements. In particular, Northstar has always sought to provide its customers with the benefits from the T.H.E. Bonus but has never guaranteed that the bonus would be available under any and all market conditions.”
+ Borrower benefits are never part of the promissory note - read it carefully
+ Always, always, always READ a contract before you sign it
+ There might be a clause in there about your first-born child, and it’s legally binding

Scholarship Update
+ Brickfish Honest Foods Ad Scholarship
+ Design an Honest Foods magazine ad and your layout could be the inspiration for all the company’s marketing materials. Winner receives a $500 scholarship. Deadline is August 21, 2008. No purchase necessary. Open to anyone who is a resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, has access to the Internet, and is 13 or older at the time of entry.
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

JobCast
+ The buzz is building again about the social media resume
+ Job market worst for college graduates in years
+ Use social media to differentiate yourself
+ Example social media resume
+ The social media resume does NOT replace a traditional resume
+ Potential for discrimination
+ Are you on LinkedIn?
+ Watch this LinkedIn session!
+ Grab a copy of our How to Write a Killer Cover Letter eBook

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
+
+
+

Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

Reminders
+
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ Open an FDIC-insured savings account today!
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Financial Aid discussion forums
+ Get FAFSA news at the FAFSA blog
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

ShareThis

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

During the course of the average weekday, we record videos here on the live stream. Sometimes, I run out of ideas of what to do. So when I threw it out to the chat room for suggestions, Fireworks came up with a good one. He wanted me to check out AuthorStream. On AuthorStream, you can upload, share and discover PowerPoint presentations. Let’s look at the features available to you with your free registration.

• Send to YouTube If you had set up ‘Rehearsed Timings’ or have recorded audio ‘Narrations’ in your PowerPoint file, they would automatically be available in a video format (MP4 or M4V) which can be shared on YouTube via send to YouTube feature.
• Share on iPod via iTunes Your presentations will also be available to be downloaded in iTunes. Your viewers can then sync their iPods and have your presentations available even when they are not online!
• Download PowerPoint As a viewer, you can now download PowerPoint files if their respective authors have given their permission to do so. This is a great feature for those who like presentations and want to use a slide or two to enrich their own.
• Featured Audio/Animation Presentations Cool presentations get featured and you can view them categorized as Featured Presentations, Featured Audio Presentations and Featured Animated Presentations.
• RSS Feeds Subscribe to the RSS feeds for categorized groups of slideshows as well as customized feeds for users and tags.

So… instead of emailing a Presentation to someone you need to collaborate with, why not use AuthorStream? You could even use Google Docs or MindMeister. Heck, for that matter, why not check out something like Drop.io?

• Real Estate Investors - Discover How To Raise Cash For Re Deals.
• The Ultimate Source For Practical Creativity.
• 7/24 Sales Lead Generation.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y8a4IqxV1yU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y8a4IqxV1yU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

• Creating Presentations on the Web
• Tips for Better PowerPoint Presentations
• Conference PowerPoint Presentations
• Create Ringtones for your iPhone using Garage Band
• Crash Bandicoot Nitro Cart 3D Video Review
• How to Update Software on the iPhone
• Do You Have VNC on the iPhone?
• Do You Want to Make your own iPhone Ringtone for Free?
• What is the Best iPhone Astronomy App?
• Do You Know Where to Find the Best iPhone Apps?

Chris

Can You put a PowerPoint Presentation on an iPhone?

Want to understand what the current mortgage and banking mess is all about? This show, which I produce and co-host, helps to explain what is going on and why. -- Douglas

---

This week brought the collapse of Indymac Bank. Their collapse wreaked havoc in the financial markets, but it can have a greater effect on individual depositor's stress levels. This could be witnessed in the unnecessary bank run on Indymac this week.Many people do not realize they should not keep more than $100,000 in any bank. Insurance only covers up to $100,000 in deposits, any amount over that is negotiable to as low as 50 cents on the dollar. But for those who have a smaller amount on deposit, don't worry, you will get every penny back.

We also discuss Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's current troubles and why they are so important to the housing market.



If you have any questions you would like us to answer on our show, please call our listener line at 714-519-7833 or email mortgagepodcast@gmail.com.

Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Newsfeed via email.

Friday Night Lights Comes Back From the Near-Dead as 'A Brand New Show' (LAT)
Heading into their third season, the cast members of the long-threatened NBC drama Friday Night Lights said today that they acutely feel the gratitude that comes with being pulled back from the brink of cancellation. "It was sort of like we were thrown a life ring," actor Kyle Chandler said of the deal NBC struck with DirecTV to split the series' production costs and distribution rights.

Trib Buries News in Redesign Test (Crain's Chicago Business)
The new face of the Chicago Tribune is taking shape, as staffers at the newspaper put the finishing touches on a prototype set for a test run in the next few weeks. The Tribune Co. will try out some dramatic changes in the 161-year-old broadsheet in a Saturday edition by early August.

Newspaper Companies Should Cut the Dividends (CJR)
Ryan Chittum: It's clear newspaper companies won't be able to keep up dividend payments at their current levels. No industry could when its sales are falling at or near a double-digit rate -- and soaring dividend ratios are often a sign for investors that a cut is in the offing. But why pay dividends at all?

continued...

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

WordCamps in Africa, China, and the Philipines. WordPress is spreading. WordPress 2.6 is out with only a few problems, and a lot of cool features and improvements. The Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition is now closed and there is a great list of Plugins for you to vote on. Lots of news on WordPress 2.6. WordCamp UK is this weekend, and there are some record breaking WordCamps coming up. Jeffro2pt0 bids the WP Weekly Podcast good-bye.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.6 Released:WordPress 2.6 has been released. It is a mandatory release and you should Download WordPress 2.6 now. I’ve included a lot of the new features in past issues of the WordPress Wednesday News and highlights and commentary include:

• Google Gears (Turbo) to speed up your interaction with the WordPress Administration Panels by “local server” caching - storing the files on your computer (not offline blogging - yet). Lloyd Budd explains how it works and privacy issues.
• Post Revisions to track changes to your blog post and go back to previous edits if necessary.
• Press This, the new version of the Press It function, which allows fast blogging from whatever page you are viewing, such as a YouTube video page including the video embed code automatically.
• Theme Previews for a real look at what a Theme will look like before deciding.
• Word Count helps you track how many words you’ve written in your blog post.
• Integration of the Media Library with the WYSIWYG Visual Editor including toggling between the new Flash and classic uploader, and the ability to upload media in the full-screen mode.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of images within the photo galleries.
• The ability of adding Image captions to images.
• Improvements to the Plugin update notifications.
• Customizable default avatars so your blog commenters will never go faceless.
• Improved security on several levels to help protect your blog, including SSL and Cookies handling, moving from a single cookie to triple cookie setup for better security. Jacob Santos covered authentication issues from another perspective.
• Joseph of Random Networks covers some of the XML-RPC and AtomPub changes in WordPress 2.6, as does Dougal Campbell along with WordPress blog APIs in general.
• Ozh covers what WordPress Plugin authors need to know about WordPress 2.6 and their Plugins now and in the future. Konstruktors Notes covers how WordPress 2.6 makes improvements to how JavaScript and CSS files can be added to the WordPress <head>, which can cause problems with some WordPress Plugins, but also make it easier.
• For a listing of WordPress 2.6 bug fixes, see the 2.6.1 roadmap.
• Hack WordPress reminds us the importance of upgrading WordPress to prevent and protect your blog from security flaws and for the feature improvements.

The announcement also included some interesting information about the release of WordPress 2.6. Over 75 people contributed code to this version. That is a huge team that deserves all our applause for their hard work!

Upgrade with the Automatic Upgrade WordPress Plugin:WordPress Automatic Upgrade WordPress Plugin, which makes upgrading easier, has been updated to work with WordPress 2.6.

WordPress 2.6 Issues: For the most part, there have been very few problems reported with upgrades of WordPress 2.6.

• There is an easily fixable issue that impacts those using index.php in their permalinks, something you shouldn’t need to do.
• If you are having a problem with a WordPress Plugin after upgrading WordPress, check the Plugin author’s site for news and information on the status of the Plugin. There have only been minor issues with Plugins.
• For those who do not like the new Post Revision feature, Lester Chan (Gamerz) has a Plugin to turn it off.

WordPress 2.5 Branch No Longer Supported: The announcement of the release of WordPresss 2.6 came with the news that WordPress 2.5 will no longer be supported. It is nearly identical to the new version and has little impact on Themes and Plugins.

WordPressMU Beta Release:WordPressMU 2.6 beta 1 has been released to work with WordPress 2.6 features and includes a change in the version number from 1.6 to 2.6 to match WordPress, improved spam proofing on the sign up page, object cache changes to improve efficiency and speed, and many more bug and security fixes. WordPressMU is the WordPress version that runs multi-user blogs like WordPress.com.

WordPress Meets iPhone:WordPress for iPhone is a an iPhone-native WordPress client and supports WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress blogs. There is a screencast video showcasing its usage. There are also examples of how the WordPress iPhone works with Prologue and Mdot.

Do You Blog By Email?Ozh brings up blogging by email and asks readers if they are using this long time core feature of WordPress. Are you? Would you like to see it improved? Join the conversation.

Looking Back Into the History of WordPress:Keith Dsouza of Weblog Tools Collection shares “Evolution of WordPress: B2/Cafelog to WordPress 1.0″, a history lesson on how WordPress grew out of B2/Cafelog in the early days.

WordPress Mug Contest:WordCast is having a WordCast Mugshot Contest with winners winning WordPress mugs and other prizes. To enter, you must share a picture of your favorite mug.

WordPress Plugin Competition: The Weblog Tools Collection’s WordPress Plugin Competition for WordPress 2.5+ is over for entrants and now it’s time to check out these hot and innovative WordPress Plugins and rate your favorites. Here are most of the final entries:

• Role Scoper
• Dodo
• Broken Links Remover
• Yank Widget
• WP125: Easy 125×125 Ad Management For WordPress
• WordPress Image Browser Extender
• Vent - add events to your blog
• Tabbed Widgets Plugin
• Snazzy Archives
• Show Me Options
• PayPal API Subscriptions
• Idealien Category Enhancements
• Flickr Gallery
• Editor Extender
• Attachment Extender
• Snazzy Archives
• Media In Response
• Invite Friends
• FlareSmith
• Click Tracking Plugin
• AnyVar
• WP Sentry: Private Posting Plugin
• MultiSiteManager unleashed
• WPMU plugin: Vote2Publish
• WPMU plugin: rePost
• SlideShare Plugin
• Live Blogroll
• Dk Obama Slideshow Plugin
• WP Wall
• ComicPress Manager
• PhotoJAR: Base
• tWPtter ~ WordPress Microblogging
• New WP Comment Remix Version
• Sidebars
• PostGroups v1.1.0
• WP Easy Uploader
• One Click Upgrade and Backup All WordPress Blogs
• Current tags
• PostGroups
• Manageable
• ZdMultilang
• Post Tabs
• MailPress
• Great Real Estate
• WPMU Plugin Commander
• SEO Smart Links
• Adminimize
• DL-MENU Tab generation and dynamic colorschemes
• Content By Country
• Automatic Timezone Plugin
• Simple Flash Video WordPress Plugin
• Sermon Management WordPress Plugin for Churches
• Reflex Automatic Blogroll WordPress Plugin
• Fun with In-Context Comments WordPress Plugin

Having Trouble Publishing Code in Posts and Comment? If you publish code in your WordPress posts and comments, WordPress may think it is code. To prevent code acting like code, WordPress automatically filters it out of the posts and comments, as does many other blogging and CMS programs. To publish code as content, see Writing Code in Your WordPress Posts and Writing and Publishing Code in Your WordPress Blog Posts.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress Wednesday News: WordCamps in Australia and Hawaii, Security Check Plugin, Google Gears, Lots of Plugin News and Tips, WordPress 2.6 News, and If Not WordPress, What?.

WordPress Podcasts

WordPress Podcast:The WordPress Podcast: Episode 43: Out Of Date Blogs Hacked, All-In-One Seo Gets Dropped, Then Picked Up covered those topics and the development of the Crazy Horse new WordPress Administration Panels interface, Batcache, HyperDB, WordPress Plugins, WordPress 2.6, and security issues.

WP Weekly Podcast: This week saw the Final Episode Of WPWeekly with Jeffro2pt0, a fun WordPress weekly live show. The final episode includes a rare interview with Alex King, one of the hottest Plugin developers and WordPress fans. The Alex King Theme Competition and other contests and WordPress Community efforts are legendary, and he continues to produce and support some of the most popular WordPress Plugins. What a great send off. Good luck, Jeff, with your future with Performancing!

WordCast Podcast: The 20th episode of WordCast featured Lorelle on WordPress in the longest podcast they’ve ever recorded. Topics included WordPress 2.6, favorite books for bloggers, blog advertising, Matt Mullenweg, and a lot of blogging and WordPress talk. Lorelle also shares her favorites: WordPress Comment Ninja and Akismet Anti Spam FireFox Greasemonkey Scripts for WordPress. The next issue, WordCast 21: Purple Knuckles, featured WordPress 2.6, WordPress.com versus WordPress.org, and more WordPress Plugins.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordCamp UK Rocking:WordCamp UK is on for this weekend and is filled with some of the best of the best in WordPress and blogging from the area:

• Benjamin Ellis
• Chris Garrett
• Gurbir Singh
• Ian Covey
• Jonnya
• Mike Little
• Nick Garner
• Peter Westwood
• Rich Boakes
• Richard Williams
• Sam Bauers
• Simon Dickson
• Simon Wheatley
• Tony Scott

Tickets are required for WordCamp UK, so hurry before they are all gone.

Record Breaking WordCamps: We’ve got some record breakers coming up for WordCamp events. There are 5 WordCamps set for this September, and three will all be on September 27: WordCamp Utah in Salt Lake City, WordCamp Birmingham in Alabama, and WordCamp Portland in Oregon. Three WordCamps are scheduled so far for October. It’s going to be an autumn stuffed with WordCamp and WordPress fun.

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar as found on the WordPress Roadmap and the WordPress Meetup Group Listings (subject to change).

• The New York City WordPress - July 19, 2008
• WordCamp UK - July 19-20, 2008, Birmingham, UKVENUE CHANGE
• Boston WordPress July Meetup - July 24, 2008
• The Dallas/Ft. Worth Area WordPress July Meetup - July 26, 2008
• WordCamp San Francisco 2008 at Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF - August 16, 2008
• WordCamp South Africa - Cape Town - August 23, 2008
• WordCamp Philippines - September 6, 2008
• Blog World Expo, Vegas - September 20-21, 2008
• WordCamp China - Beijing - September 20-21, 2008
• WordCamp Utah - Salt Lake City - September 27, 2008
• WordCamp Birmingham - Alabama - September 27, 2008
• WordCamp Portland, Oregon - September 27, 2008
• WordCamp New York - New York - October 4, 2008
• WordCamp Toronto - October 4-5, 2008
• Podcamp and WordCamp Hawaii - Oct 24, 2008
• MinneWordCamp - Minneapolis - November 15, 2008
• WordCamp Australia - Sydney - December 6-7, 2008

WordCamp San Francisco August 16: August 16, 2008 is the next WordCamp San Francisco, considered by many to be the premier WordCamp event. This year, it appears it will be only one day instead of two, but details are still coming. It will be at the Mission Bay Conference Center this year.

WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere: A WordPress Meetup is a frequent meeting of WordPress fans. A WordCamp is a day or two long event with sponsors and dozens if not hundreds of WordPress fans gathering annually. If you would like to sponsor or host a WordCamp, check out the new official site for tracking WordCamps is WordCamp Central, which includes instructions and guidelines for running a WordCamp. If you would like to start a WordPress Meetup group, find a meeting place and announce it among your friends, and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress, as many track WordPress event announcements there.

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

Mark Ghosh of Weblog Tools Collection asks “How many Queries are too many?” in a WordPress blog. In summary, the issue is how many queries to the WordPress database are made by WordPress Plugins and WordPress Themes and what impact that has on the database, server load, and user experience. His experience with his popular site gives a great example and he asks you to chime in with your experiences.

Must Have WordPress 2.5 Plugins:Mashable: 20+ Must-Have WordPress 2.5 Compatible Plugins has been released with some great Plugins in their listing. However, they are a week short since WordPress 2.6 is now out. Fortunately, most WordPress 2.5 Plugins will work with the new version.

Interesting WordPress Plugins: Here are some interesting and unusual Plugins I stumbled on recently:

• Related Posts by Categories für WordPress is in German and is a WordPress Plugin that creates related posts in the same category as the current article.
• Tagline Rotator WordPress Plugin randomly selects a tagline from a list and displays it under your blog title.
• Show125 WordPress Plugin by X-OR WordPress Widget is a widget that gives you more control over easily adding 125×125 pixel ads to your blog in ad blocks.
• Duplicate Post Checker WordPress Plugin checks for duplicate content before you publish.
• Version Creator WordPress Plugin adds your blog’s design version number, name, and note, so you can entertain or inform your visitors on which version your blog is in its development.

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

Do You Say “WordPress Plugin” on Your Plugin Page? I’m finding a lot of WordPress Plugin authors are not using the word “WordPress Plugin” in their Plugin’s official page, nor within the text. Remember that “WordPress Plugin” is a popular keyword search term and if you aren’t using it, your chances of being found drops. Avoid separating the two words like “WordPress Blah Blah Plugin” and keep them together such as “Blah Blah WordPress Plugin” as the closer the terms are to each other, the more important they are. Most people search for “how to do blah WordPress Plugin” when they search, so help them find you by using the words and keeping them together. And it’s Plugin not plug-in, something you connect to electricity.

WordPress Techniques and Tips

Here are some more interesting WordPress tips I’ve uncovered:

• Justin Tadlock - Making Authors Template Page
• JJ and the Kids Podcast - Episode 6 - Edit the Config File
• Server Load Button for Blogs
• WordPress Category Page Hacks
• WordPress - Make your blog your management system
• WordPress Hack: Using WordPress Conditional Tags

Want to Write a WordPress Tip and See It Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress Community News

Get Your WordPress Mug:I love my new WordPress mug and shared my love with a lot of people recently. Go get yours at the WordPress Shop along with t-shirts and hoodies. Don’t want to buy one? Enter the WordCast Mugshot Contest and you could win one, alone with some other fun schwag.

Found a Bug in WordPress? If you find a bug in WordPress, report it by following the instructions in Reporting Bugs on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users.

Give Something Back to WordPress:Jeff Chandler of Weblog Tools Collection has written “24 Ways To Contribute To WordPress” with suggestions on how to get involved in helping WordPress development. If you would like to help with the WordPress Codex, the official online user manual for WordPress users, we need you. If you would like to contribute to WordPress as a volunteer in the WordPress Support Forums, testing, coding, and more, see Contributing to WordPress. If you would like to help improve WordPress by reporting bugs, please report them via the WordPress Bug Report form. Your help is needed to ensure WordPress works.

Vote for WordPress Ideas: There is still time to get your vote in for ideas on upcoming versions of WordPress in the The WordPress Ideas section. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.

Looking for a WordPress Expert? If you are looking for a WordPress expert, try the WordPress Consultants list from Automattic, the WordPress Jobs listings, and the WP-Pro mailing list.

WordPress Installed For Free:Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress) is a free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.

Don’t Use WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: It’s about respect. Please use WordPress names right because WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s domain name or URL unless you have permission of Automattic and WordPress. Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “Wordpress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

• WordPress Wednesday News: WordCamps in Australia and Hawaii, Security Check Plugin, Google Gears, Lots of Plugin News and Tips, WordPress 2.6 News, and If Not WordPress, What?
• WordPress Wednesday News: Your Own Song in the Plugin Competition, WordPress 2.6 Beta and First Looks, WordCamp UK New Location, Batcache, Naked Themes, and More
• WordPress Wednesday New: Planet WordPress Canada, WordPress Plugins Contest, Crazyhorse, BuddyPress Default Theme, Blog Hacked, Sitemaps, and More
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress Blogs Hacked, Plugin Competition is Hot, BuddyPress, WordPress Sayings, and Lots of WordPress Plugin News

WordPress News Sources

• WordPress Planet
• WordPress Development Blog
• WordPress.com Blog
• Weblog Tools Collection
• The WordPress Podcast
• Lorelle on WordPress
• Planet WordPress from Planet Ozh
• WordPress Publisher Blog
• Planet WordPress Canada

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the Blog Herald or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.

---

Each Wednesday on Blog Herald is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com