What is FreeNAS you say? Put simply, it's is an operating system based on FreeBSD that brings with it a snazzy web interface for management, and all the protocols you need to share files between Windows, Mac and Linux. In other words, a perfect solution for your digital bookshelf. Let's get to it.

While you could (eventually) learn to code Arduino projects yourself and make your Arduino do almost anything, you can also simply piggy back off open-source projects already available (that's what this budding Arduino user has done). Programming knowledge isn't required to get started with an Arduino. You just need a little patience. Project complexity varies, but most can be accomplished exclusively with an Arduino and a computer.

One great value of Google+ is that it makes a great platform for cultivating visibility. If your organization is hoping to “save a seat at the table” in between sales calls, one way to do this is to create compelling content that nurtures your business relationships by educating your community and by making them the hero in their own story. Said differently: If you want to nurture leads while they’re still at the wide end of the sales funnel, using Google+ is an effective addition to your content marketing strategies.

Using Google+ for Content Marketing

First, realize that Google+ indexes any post you submit to the “Public” sharing option, meaning that the information in such a post is searchable in Google (the search engine, not the social network) within a few hours. This means that if you wanted to write about being the “best restaurant for kids in Milwaukee,” as part of your post, it would become searchable content. So, let’s extend that.

It’s not enough to write a post that just says “AJ Bombers is the best restaurant for kids in Milwaukee.” I mean, you can say that, but it won’t be that interesting for people coming along to read it. Instead, you might consider writing a post about “7 Reasons AJ Bombers is the Best Restaurant for Kids in Milwaukee,” wherein which you talk about the features of the restaurant such that a parent would be able to recognize the value for themselves. Because you can include videos, I would do so. For instance, I’d show off the “P-Nut Delivery System”:

If you can’t see the video click here.

Why? Because any kid seeing that thing will immediately start pestering their parents that they MUST go to a place that delivers peanuts via a steel BOMB flying overhead and smashing into a target.

Mix It Up A Bit

You can post text, video, photos, links, and place information on Google+. Using a combination of those post types is probably the best way to get the most attention. For instance, in my tests, if I post only text, I get one level of response. If I add a photo to the post, I get almost 50% more engagement, every time.

You can’t post video and a photo, for instance, but if you post video, I’d include a few sentences about what the video is about, and/or maybe some useful search text. I’d also include a link to whatever might be pertinent, as well. If you do place data, be sure to include a photo, maybe something candid. This helps people engage a bit further, as well.

Build an Editorial Calendar

If you want to incorporate Google+ into your content marketing strategy, I’d consider building an editorial calendar, even if you use it just lightly. For instance, if you post something like the post above, that comes off as a bit heavy-handed in the self-promotion department, I might do an interview with a restaurant guest as my next post, or maybe something off-topic, or maybe a non-work-related video interview with a server or a chef. I don’t know about you, but wouldn’t it be a bit more interesting to know that the person who made your burger is also a competitive street luge racer?

You can build an editorial calendar in a spreadsheet, or on a Google calendar, or wherever. The point is, when you lay out the month in some kind of visual format, you’re less likely to overwhelm your audience with a specific kind of post. Would it be helpful to see a sample? Here’s something super simple:

Editorial Calendar – Sample

Monday 1: Post photo from weekend showing leaves changing.
Monday 2: Video clip from ESPN College Game Day coverage.
Monday 3: Article link to post about grass fed beef findings.
Monday 4: Re-share a community member’s post (pass it forward).
Tuesday 1: Write up new menu changes (w/photo of new fries).
Tuesday 2: Congratulate Tim on winning local “Best Of” award with link.
Tuesday 3: Video post about watching baseball at our bar.
Tuesday 4: Off-topic. Anything.

Break That Down

You’ll see that, in this example, I recommend 4 posts a day. That’s to cover a 24-hour community. Also, posts on a service like Google+ flow through the stream pretty quickly. It’s probably not overwhelming to your readers to see 4 posts from you a day, and judging by the content I mentioned above, it wouldn’t be that hard to get those kinds of posts up.

So, in my example, I’d map out at least a week worth of content, and maybe use that as a way to look at how this ties to the rest of my marketing efforts, too. For instance, if I’m trying to get more people onto my email newsletter, maybe I’d make that the “call to action” on one or two of the posts, and see if I could get more takers from my Google+ community. Also, if you’re having a seasonal event, you can spread content about that event between your email newsletter, your blog, and also your Google+.

Feel like too much? It might be, to start. But it depends on what you’re doing, your goals, and what you’re hoping to accomplish with Google+.

Does This Work for Your Industry?

Technically, yes. You can post content of whatever kind to whatever industry. If you’re selling storage to big tech companies, this works. If you’re selling legal advice, this works. If you’re selling education to students, this works.

But How Does This Get Me New Prospects?

However, what this doesn’t accomplish is that it doesn’t rustle up all kinds of new customers. This isn’t lead generation work at this point. This is community nurturing work. This is helping to cultivate visibility. However, when you have prospects, and when you have people looking around to better understand you, and wondering if they should do business with you, can you see how the above content might help the process?

Save Your Seat at the Table

In between sales activity, we have to have something to talk about. Sometimes, we use that time to seek referrals. Other times, we use that time to nurture our existing customers. Some times, we use it to help guide our prospects closer to a sale. It’s up to you what you want to do with it. But this is one way of building up that content.

Are you on Google+ yet? If not, it’s free. Swing by Google+ and claim your account.

And if you want to connect with me, you can find me here, or just follow me via this Widget:

Most Linux distributions come with the md5sum utility so installation is usually unnecessary. We are going to use the Ubuntu 8.10 LiveCD for the following example:

Check the iso file

Manual method

First open a terminal and go to the correct directory to check a downloaded iso file:

*

cd download_directory

Then run the following command from within the download directory.

*

md5sum ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso

md5sum should then print out a single line after calculating the hash:

*

24ea1163ea6c9f5dae77de8c49ee7c03 ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso

In addition to using many other Google services, I am exploring Google Wave and what it might do for me and people I work with.

Wave is a difficult service to "just jump into" (or so I find it). Here, therefore, are a set of resources that might prove helpful to others:

We can reciprocal follow all of the people who follow us: it is nice for them and it’s a practice that used to be done in the very early years of Twitter usage when there weren’t many people using Twitter. However, with the tens of millions of users on Twitter now, and:

all of the online services sending marketing spam
services providing countless and useless mass followers (who are not interested in you)
services that do automatic mass reciprocal following for you
automatic tweeting of marketing messages by renting out your account for a few bucks (aka “sponsored tweets”)
the proliferation of annoying, machine-generated auto-DM messages
the phishing scams and malware being spread by DM’s, and
the pollution of your timeline with a very low signal-to-noise ratio of meaningless trivia overpowering the occasional helpful tweet

But what is AppArmor? AppArmor is a security module implementation of name-based access controls. In other words, AppArmor protects your system against the exploitation of program flaws and compromises. This protection is done via profiles that will set a program to either “complain” or “enforce” against wrong doing.

In this article I will show you how to install AppArmor and how to use it to set an application in either “complain” or “enforce” mode.

TrueCrypt is an open source software that helps you set up and maintain an on-the-fly encrypted volume. On the fly encryption means data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention.

step-by-step instructions for installing EtherPad, the open-source real-time text editor recently acquired by Google

Ubuntu Personal Package Archives (PPAs) are APT directories provided by third parties on Launchpad (Ubuntu's third-party developer platform). This is where the latest and greatest software is bundled into a Debian package and made available for download. The likes of Google and the Wine community are well known for using this service, so if you'd like to take advantage of their hard work and install some cracking new software for your Ubuntu, read on...

The big advantage of using a PPA over simply downloading a package from the project website is that you can update it using Synaptic as if you'd installed it from the main repositories. Also, the update will verify itself using a GPG signature, so you can have the added peace of mind that the package you install is genuine and that it has downloaded and installed correctly.

Wen spricht man an?
Natürlich kann man eine Liste von 100 potentiellen Sponsoren durchklingeln und wird dabei auch eine gewisse Erfolgsquote haben. Die Strategie, die für uns am besten funktioniert habe war jedoch nach thematisch passenden Sponsoren zu suchen.
Warum?
Es geht beim Sponsoring nicht darum Geld irgendwohin zu schieben, sondern einen Mehrwert zu generieren - das geht natürlich am besten, wenn das Thema passt. Ausserdem können sich die Sponsoren dann vor Ort besser einbringen und sind in der Regel mit dem Ergebnis am Schluss zufriedener. Zufriedene Sponsoren sind potentielle Sponsoren für das nächste Mal.

Ubuntuzilla is a python script that checks your system for Mozilla software (Firefox, Thunderbird, or Seamonkey) and update them to the latest version released from Mozilla server. It also comes with an update checker that periodically performs automatic checks and updates to keep your system up-to-date with possible changes in the Mozilla website and release servers.

With the new versions of GIMP there is a menu called “GEGL Operation…” with a bunch of more or less interesting image operations. GEGL will be the graphics library for the future GIMP releases and brings 16bit support among other features to GIMP, when the transition will be completed.

Before you install Drupal and begin using it, it’s a good idea to get an overall sense of what it is, and how it works. This section gives you the big picture, helps you to frame how you think about Drupal, and assists you in determining whether it’s a good fit for your project. This small investment of time up front will help you immeasurably in the long run.

You might prefer to have a clean system on reinstall but sometimes it is nice to reinstall applications from a previous machine/setup. Keeping a backup list of packages will make this a snap. Just give your package manager a list of all the packages you want it to install and let it rip.

Here are the backup and restore methods for each of the major distros/package managers

Hugh Dubberly assembles a compendium of over 100 design processes / models. All laid out in a beautiful PDF. That man doesn't get enough credit…

descriptions of design and development processes, from architecture, industrial design, mechanical engineering, quality management, and software development.

"Everyone designs. The teacher arranging desks for a discussion. The entrepreneur planning a business. The team building a rocket"

There are three parts to the EeeUser website, the blog or Home page, the Forums and this, the Wiki.

would be valuable for Microsoft to continue down this path of providing well-defined and public interfaces (as opposed to vendor point-to-point deals) so that other blog and wiki vendors could integrate with the platform

cool

beginner's guide to RSS explaining what RSS is and how to best use it

an overview to get started with Gears without wading through dozens of pages of documentation yourself