Are your Google Chrome HTML5 video controls grayed out or looking wonky?  You can probably fix this by modifying your stylesheet.

A few months ago I noticed that almost every HTML5 video I posted on any blog of mine looked fine in every browser except for Google Chrome.  The video controls in Chrome were grayed out and looked like what you see below.

After investigating the problem for a little bit, I determined that my site’s styling was now playing with the controls on those videos.  Specifically, the “input” element.

To fix this and return everything back to normal, all I did was preface the “input” styling with “form” so that it became “form input”.  Doing that stopped my blog from changing the appearance of the HTML5 video controls in Chrome and my video returned to looking like this:

If you’re having issues with your video controls, try this fix and see if it works for you.  If you fixed it in another way, how did you do it?

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Yesterday I noticed a sticker on the front of my newspaper.  It was an advertisement for a local bank that announced some “$3,000,000 savings spectacular”.  Not much else was mentioned in this advertisement, but a small QR code was inserted at the bottom.

I have an Android phone with the QR Droid app installed, so out of curiosity I scanned the bank’s QR code to see what it contained.  Turns out it was a link to their website with information on their promotion.

This got me thinking a little more on QR codes in general, and if they’re really an effective method of marketing.  For a long time I’ve held the opinion that QR codes are overrated because for them to be useful 3 things need to happen:

1. The user needs to know what a QR code is
2. The user needs to have certain hardware and
3. The user needs to have certain software

And those reasons create a huge hurdle for QR code integration.  You can’t expect a great return on this method if only a small portion of your audience is even aware of what a QR code is.  And if they are aware, they need the technology to process it, e.g., a smartphone.

If you were to show 10 random, everyday people an image of a QR code and ask them to identify it, what do you think the results would be?  I’m betting you would be lucky if even 1 person would be able to recognize one.  It’s safe to say that few people would even know what they’re looking at, let alone know what to do with it.

And if someone does know what a QR code is, they have to have the tools to read the code.  The most common and readily available tool for reading QR codes in today’s world is the smartphone.  Smartphones, such as the iPhone or Android phones, have just recently started outselling “dumb” phones.  QR codes can be scanned with the camera on a smartphone if the user has a certain app installed.

QR codes would most likely succeed if (and only if) the user knows what a QR code is AND has a smartphone AND has a code reading app installed.  I have no data to back this up, but I’m going to go ahead and say that this QR code savvy user mentioned makes up a very, very small percentage of the population.

Eventually QR codes could become more mainstream, and I could see them being very useful in certain situations.  For example, a real estate agent could place a QR code on a “For Sale” sign outside a home.  This code could link to an online video tour of the property and/or provide additional information on the house being sold.

But QR codes have a long way to go before they’re ready to go mainstream.  Until that day comes, I think of them more like a toy that a child loses interest in quickly because there’s something better to play with.

What do you think of marketing with QR codes?

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A worker is not as effective without their tools, and I use a lot of them to get my projects done.  Although I have bought some programs that I use (Photoshop comes to mind), most of the software I use on a daily basis is freely available to download with little or no restrictions.

Want to know what I use and why I use it? Well, here’s a rundown of my “can’t-live-without-them” free software.

Xenu

Xenu, which is properly known as Xenu Link Sleuth, is used to find broken links in a website.  Not only does it locate and list broken links, it also lists all redirected links and creates sitemaps.  When I’m about to work on a project like migrating a website to WordPress, one of the first things I do is run Xenu on the original website to get an idea of what I’m up against.

After I’m done moving content from one site to another, I use Xenu on both sites to verify that nothing was left behind and for aiding in any 301 redirects that may be needed.

SEO Spyglass

If you want information on links pointing to a website it’s hard to beat SEO Spyglass as your tool of choice.  After entering in a website’s URL, this program will list all (well, maybe not every one of them) the backlinks that website has.  It will also list important details regarding those links, such as the anchor text, PR of the website, how many other links are on the referring page, and much more.

SEO Spyglass has free and paid versions, but I’ve always used the free version.

Notepad Plus

I can’t sing enough praises for Notepad Plus.  It is, in my opinion, the best text editor out there and it’s completely free.  There’s an enormous amount of plugins available which extends its usability.  I use it for just about anything I can do that involves text or code.  I might seriously rethink my life priorities if Notepad Plus was taken away from me.

Handbrake

Need to put some video on your website? Handbrake is one of the primary tools I use for that.  It is an awesome free tool for converting a video file into the H.264 format and will even optimize the file size so it uses less bandwidth.  Before I ever put a video online I always run it through Handbrake to ensure that I’m publishing web-friendly videos.

ffmpeg2theora

If I’m creating HTML5 video, then I need to create at least 2 versions of the same video.  I will need a mp4 version (made with Handbrake) and an ogg video version (which I create with ffmpeg2theora).  This is a command line tool, so it’s probably not suited for people who need a graphical interface.  I formerly used Miro Video Converter to create ogg video files, but have since embraced ffmpeg2theora as my converter of choice due to its increased flexibility.

Audacity

Audacity is a free and open source audio editor.  I don’t use this all that often, but I do use it all the time for one client in particular.  This client records interviews with industry leaders, and has me combine the audio recording along with pictures to create webcast videos.  The audio recording usually needs to be edited, so I use Audacity to cut out parts and also to modify the sound levels.

IETester

Internet Explorer is often a curse to web designers and developers.  If you build websites then you know that what you made may look nice in Firefox but looks like a hot mess in IE.  IETester is a great program that allows you to view a website in multiple versions of IE, from IE5.5 all the way up to IE9.

This is some of the free software I use to do what I do; what free software do you use?

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Some talk has been spreading on the possibility of Firefox experiencing a massive decline.  TechCrunch recently posted on this conversation and I can’t help but agree with the pessimistic side of this conversation.

Firefox is a fantastic browser, there is no arguing that.  I’ve used it for years and I have become quite comfortable with it.  Millions of other people who use this browser will tell you the same thing.  That being said, I see Firefox’s future as being a bit grim.

The world of computing has been gradually drifting towards devices that are lighter and more portable.  These smaller devices don’t pack the power that their bigger brothers do, so apps that require less resources are becoming more and more popular.  The demand for a lighter web browser will end up eating away at Firefox’s userbase.

Firefox is known for using more memory and more CPU resources than other modern browsers.  On a desktop computer this isn’t often noticeable, but it becomes readily apparent on smaller devices such as netbooks.  Try operating Firefox on a netbook and then compare it with Chrome.  You will see that Chrome performs much better on systems with limited resources.

The amount of Firefox users has already seen a decline because of the rapid adoption of the lightweight and speedy browser from Google, Chrome.  Not only that, there has been a small and steady rise in Safari users.  Over the past 5+ years, Firefox has taken a huge bite out of IE’s market share, and now they are about to experience the exodus themselves.

Mozilla has some big plans for the 4.0 release of Firefox, but it may be too little and too late to stave off the inevitable decline.  The increased attention towards Chrome, Safari and even the hype surrounding the upcoming IE9 signals rougher times are ahead for Firefox.

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The following information uses a newly created Adsense site I created on Burkitt lymphoma as an example. While the information is sound, your mileage may vary.

Building a website that is designed to bring in revenue from the Adsense ads you place on it can be a worthwhile project that can bring you a seemingly endless supply of extra revenue.  But if you go about this process in the wrong way, you’ll find that the results you were after may never materialize.

I separate this process of creating sites designed for Adsense into three steps, and I will focus on the first and most important step in this post.

Keyword Research and Competitiveness

Choosing the right keyword or niche is of vital importance.  There is no point in launching a brand new site within a highly competitive and broad market because the chance of your new site ever attracting any attention is slim to none.  No, you have to target narrowly defined niches with little to moderate competition if you want to stand a chance.

I like to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to help find a profitable niche to build a website on.  You use this online tool by entering in a keyword or phrase, and Google lists that term and related terms along with other information such as the number of monthly search queries (guage the traffic) and the average cost per click that advertisers pay.

The key to finding a good niche to develop on is to find the keyword phrase that receives at least moderate traffic while not being overly competitive.  Results to avoid look like this:

The Google information listed for my example site on Burkitt’s lymphoma is:

Now you probably noticed that the competition level for my site is high, but a high competition level isn’t always a bad thing; they can be overcome in the right situations.  If you run a Google search for “burkitt lymphoma” there are only about 500,000 pages listed.  That’s a little more than I would have liked to see, but not enough to stop my efforts.

In contrast, the keyword “attorney” in the first image has about 150 million listings related to that keyword.  I wouldn’t even think about trying to get a brand new Adsense site ranked in that mess.

After you discover a search term or multiple terms that are reachable, check into the average CPC (Cost per click) for the term.  Obviously, the higher the monetary amount the better.  I wouldn’t even mess with a term that had an average CPC of 5 cents; I’m looking for terms that pay a few dollars or more per click.

After doing this research you should hopefully have at least a few terms chosen that would be ideal to create an Adsense site for.  Now you need a domain for them.

Go to whoever you register websites with (I currently switched to NameCheap instead of Godaddy) and search for a domain based on your keywords.  For example, if your chosen keyword phrase is “camera surveillance equipment”, then you ideally would want the domain “camerasurveillancequipment.com”.  If the .com domain is not available, then try for .net or .org.  You could maybe even go with a .us domain name, but that’s as far as I would take it.  I don’t recommend other extensions such as .biz or .info for our purposes in this.

So if all goes well, you will have narrowed down a niche to target and have now acquired the keyword rich domain names to go along with them.  What’s next, you ask?  That will be the topic of the next post!

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I recently bought a netbook, an Asus EEE PC.  I have enjoyed the portability and usefullness of this little laptop so far, but getting used to the smaller 1024×600 screen resolution took a little getting used to.  The smaller screen size has been most noticeable while web browsing.

Because of the smaller screen size, there is a much smaller viewing area when surfing the web.  I’m always looking for ways to improve things, so I didn’t wait long to start changing how things worked on my netbook.  Here are some before and after shots showing the changes I made and the gain in screen space.

Click image for a larger view

Click image for a larger view

The most direct method of increasing the viewable screen space on Firefox is to get rid of any unnecessary toolbars.  For my purposes, I have removed the status bar, the tab bar, and I combined the bookmark toolbar with the menu toolbar.  This whole process took less than two minutes and increased the amount of valuable screen real estate on my netbook.

Remove the Firefox status bar

To accomplish this simple step just click on “View” in the menu bar and uncheck “Status Bar”.  Immediately after doing this you will notice that the toolbar running across the bottom of your browser disappears.

Uncheck this option

Remove the tab bar

When only one tab is opened in Firefox I don’t see the point in having the tab toolbar taking up space on the screen.  You can remove the tab bar from always showing by navigating to “Options” then “Tabs” and unchecking the “Always show the tab bar” option.

Uncheck this option

Move the bookmarks toolbar to the top

I could have just removed the bookmarks toolbar in Firefox, but I prefer to keep it around for quick access to sites that I frequently go to.  Instead of removing it, I minimized it and combined my bookmarks with my menu toolbar.

To do this, first right-click on your menu toolbar (the area where it says “File”, “Edit”,“View”, etc.) and select “Customize”

A little option window will then popup and all your bookmarks located in the bookmarks toolbar will be condensed into one icon.  Drag this icon to the end of your menu toolbar.

Click image for larger view

If you have a lot of bookmarks on your toolbar like I do, then minimizing what is shown may be helpful.  I removed the text name of my bookmarks, leaving only the favicon of the website showing.  The favicon for my bookmarks is enough of an indicator for me to separate them.

To remove or modify the text name/description of bookmarks in the bookmarks tab, right-click the one you want and select “Properties”.

In the Properties area I removed all the text in the “Name” field and left that area blank.  Doing this leaves only the favicon in place.  I went through and removed all the name fields for my individual bookmarks, and by doing this, was able to fit all my bookmarks easily to the right of the menu toolbar.

Anyone using a netbook or other small screen device can gain from following these steps to increase their screen space in Firefox.  If you have taken steps to increase the viewing area of your browser, what kinds of things have you done

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Recently I started using encryption for many more of the outgoing emails I have been sending.  Now since I’m easing back into this and I’m quite sure that my clients and associates are probably not set up to handle email encryption, I have only opted to add a PGP digital signature to my outgoing mails.  But soon, very soon, I plan in implementing a system where 90% or more of my outgoing emails will be fully encrypted.

The other day I was asked by a client why he was seeing these encryptic messages in the emails he had been receiving from me.  I briefly explained to him that for some time I have been uncomfortable sending some content through the normal email channels unencrypted and open to any prying eyes.  I told him that what he was seeing in my emails was just a digital signature; if he had my encryption key then he would be able to always verify if the email he received under my name was actually from me.

Some people question the use of email encryption, saying that the only people who encrypt their emails are those who have something to hide or perhaps they are maybe even involved in some nefarious activities that they want to keep hidden.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

Reasons to use email encryption could be any of the following:

• You are sending confidential information, such as credit card numbers, passwords, etc. and you want only the recipient to be able to view them.
• You are emailing your colleague about changes in the code to your new project and don’t want it “leaked”.
• You value your privacy and want to prevent any government agency or cyber-criminal from intercepting your email and reading the contents.

If any of the above reasons appealed to you, then you should seriously consider enabling encryption for some or all of your email correspondence.  Heck, if it makes you feel like a super spy for doing this, then that’s a good enough reason as well!

I am not familiar with encryption methods on a Mac, but I do have a good understanding of how to accomplish this in either Windows or Linux.  Let me break down the steps that I took to secure my emails and see if they work for you.

First of all, you’re going to have to have an encryption program.  Most linux distributions include GPG in the default install (a beautiful thing if you ask me), so Linux users are already setup from the getgo.  I would recommend Windows users to download GPG4win, which is a great utility for GPG encryption.  After you have the necessary encryption software, then you have to create a key.

Creating an encryption key is relatively simple.  Whether you’re using Linux or Windows, there should be an easily identifiable spot in the GPG program to create a new key.  You will have to enter a name for the key and an email address associated with that name, and also a password to unlock the key.  In my case, I used “Rob McGuire” and my email address of rob@robmcguire.net to go along with it.  The program will churn away for a little while creating a secure key for you.

I should note that the encryption level of these keys are incredibly powerful, BUT they are really only as strong as the password you used when you set it up.  Try to make a key that is easy for you to remember, but also try to mix it up somewhat; add capital letters, numbers and even symbols if you can.

After you have created an encryption key, you are halfway there to encrypting your emails.  Now you just need to enable email encryption to your email program.

My email program of choice is Thunderbird, and I feel that it has the simplest, most direct route of enabling this feature.  All I had to do was install the Enigmail extension for Thunderbird, and select the encryption key I wanted to use in the options panel.  You can choose from several different options, but since I’m only digitally signing my emails for now (until I can convince some clients/associates to set this up on their end) I only selected to sign my emails with PGP.

So now, whenever I send an outgoing email from my rob@robmcguire.net email account, I am prompted for my password and then the email is digitally signed (proving that the email originated from me) and the email is sent.  Easy as pie.  The process would be just the same had I chosen the option to encrypt the entire email message as well as the attachments.

So what happens if I send an encrypted email to someone who doesn’t know what’s going on?  That is also simple to fix if they are also using Thunderbird.  The recipient would have to also install the Enigmail extension for thunderbird and then all they would need is my public key to decrypt messages I’ve sent to them as well as encrypt message back to me.  My public key allows them to decrypt without knowing the password, and they can also send an encrypted email message back to me using my key without knowing the password.  That’s pretty convenient.

There are a few ways of getting my public encryption key to the recipient (not the private key; the private key will always stay with me!).  I can export the public key and attach it to an email to them, but I’ve been using a much more passive method of getting my keys to other people.  Enigmail has a feature where you can upload your public key to one or more public key servers and other people can search those key databanks to download and import them to their computer.

So let’s say that I import my public key to the pgp.mit.edu keyserver.  I then tell the recipient to search for my email address on that keyserver and then they will be able to locate the key, import it to Thunderbird, and from then on they will have no problem decrypting my messages or verifying my digital signature.

Many people think that the process for encrypting or decrypting emails is a difficult thing, but it’s actually quite simple if you follow these few steps.  And email encryption isn’t limited to Thunderbird; other email apps support this and you can even use it in Gmail in Firefox as long as you install the FireGPG plugin.  I have a friend who uses Gmail along with the FireGPG plugin and it runs very smoothly for him.

If any of you want to go ahead and try encrypting your emails through Thunderbird, I definitely recommend it.  And I do know that the steps I described are rather brief, so if you have any questions or run into any problems, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll see if I can help figure it out for you.

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To get a competitive edge in this world it can really help to have a solid educational background. It is no coincidence that the people who are most successful in their fields also have an extraordinary amount of knowledge and insight in their respective areas of expertise.  Anyone wishing to become a savvy internet guru should quickly add the following sites to their RSS reader if they haven’t already.

Blogging

Problogger

Without question, Problogger should be the first blog you visit to learn everything about effective blogging. Darren Rowse has been publishing blogging gold for several years now, and has helped countless others succeed with their blogs. A virtual wealth of information can be found here, and no topic related to blogging has been left uncovered. A recent post on 7 questions to ask on your blog to encourage more reader engagement is a good example of the finer techniques that bloggers should learn and incorporate into their own blogs.

Daily Blog Tips

It is always good to balance your intake of knowledge through multiple sources, and Daily Blog Tips is an excellent source for just that.  Daniel Scocco covers everything about blogging, from the basics of blogging for beginners all the way to more advanced topics such as design and monetization.  Be sure to check out the top 5 blogging misconceptions to get a taste of what you’ll find at this gold mine of blogging information.  The longer you dive into this site, the smarter you’ll become.

Copywriting

Copyblogger

Great blogging and great writing go hand in hand, and one of the best places to get a handle on writing brilliant copy is at Copyblogger.  A cornucopia of some of the best minds on the internet contribute their time and wisdom to this blog and this has resulted into becoming one of the most visited copywriting blogs on the internet.  Everything even remotely related to copy is discussed on this blog, and the amount of information freely given here is overwhelming.  With gems like this, this blog is not one you can afford to miss!

Angie’s Copywriting

Angie’s Copywriting is a hidden treasure trove of information on copywriting with a specific angle on the business side of it.  Angie Haggstrom is a successful copywriter with a track record of satisfied clients.  On her blog (as well as on others) you’ll find her dishing out platters of wisdom that are yours for the taking.  Besides her focus on the business side of copywriting, you’ll notice that she doesn’t just offer bite-sized pieces of information, she gives you the whole plate.

Marketing

Jim’s Marketing Blog

Jim Connolly has produced one of the best marketing blogs through the use of clear and structured writing that is chock full of some of the best marketing advice you can find.  At his site you can find detailed information on marketing tips that work as well as techniques that don’t.  Jim freely offers his expertise on a variety of topics, from how to boost your profits to successful blog marketing and much, much more.  You can get a rock solid foundation in marketing by bookmarking and visiting this site.

KnowThis.com

KnowThis.com is a virtual encyclopedia of marketing and marketing concepts.  Anyone wanting to expand their knowledge of the principles of marketing would do well from becoming a frequent visitor to this site.  Everything from the pure basics of marketing all the way to more advanced and detailed concepts are thoroughly covered.  If you only had the option of visiting one marketing site, then this one would be a worthy candidate and should be high on everybody’s list.

SEO

SEOmozBlog

SEOmozBlog is truly a reference guide for all things related to search engine optimization.  Even the most minute details of getting a website to rank higher in Google, Yahoo and the rest can be found within these pages.  A variety of authors contribute to the information pool, and there is plenty of input from visitors as well.  Check out a recent posting on solving crawl priority & indexation issues to get an idea of what you can expect.  This blog can easily turn anyone into a SEO wizard in a short amount of time!

SEO Book

This is probably a favorite SEO site for many people, and Aaron Wall has created quite a following with his ability to dish out valuable tips and advice relating to the search industry.  SEO Book also has multiple authors who provide lengthy discourses on how to tame those beastly search engines.  This blog alone could provide you with 100% of your USDA daily SEO requirements, as their recent posting on information pollution demonstrates, so this is one blog you can’t forget to include in your RSS reader.

Technology

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is one of the most popular sites on the internet and the frequent originator of breaking news related to the tech industry.  When you need to learn more about the latest gadget or what’s happening in Silicon Valley, this site should be your destination.  TechCrunch is frequently updated throughout the day and you’ll never be out of the tech loop by being a frequent visitor to this site.  You’ll always stay informed with TechCrunch, one of the most shared and tweeted sites online.

Technology Review

One of the titans in the tech field is MIT, and they don’t disappoint with Technology Review.  Between the site and their blogs, everything related to science and technology is touched upon.  The combination of TechCrunch and Technology Review will provide a person with an overwhelming amount of information and keep their knowledge current in all circles of technology.  Their recent posting on ocean mixing provides a good example of what to expect from this site.

Social Media

Mashable

Can you even imagine trying to gather information on social media without including Mashable?  Mashable also has numerous contributors to their site and a highly involved base of visitors.  If anything is happening in the social web you can be guaranteed that Mashable will be reporting on it.  Anything you ever wanted to know about any social or web service can be found here and this site has quickly become the haven for any and all social media experts.  Check out a recent posting on Gmail postcards to get a taste of this popular site.

Social Media Today

Social Media Today is another site that will provide you with your daily allotted requirements of social media news, tips and information.  No social media diet is complete without digging into the articles here, as their recent posting on 20 questions to start a social media discussion will attest to.  Highly readable and easily digestible, Social Media Today should be a target for anyone involved with or related to social media.  Try it and I think you’ll agree.

Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/willhale/ / CC BY 2.0

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Have you heard of Square, the new payment service from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey?  Square is a new payment system which allows regular people to accept physical credit card payments by simply using their mobile phone.

In a way, it appears to be very much like PayPal which allows people without merchant account to accept credit card payments from others.  But the ability to accept credit card payments through PayPal is limited to online transactions.  That is not the case with Square.

Square allows its users to accept a physical credit card payment, which is something you cannot do with PayPal.  All it takes is a little piece of hardware that you plug into the audio jack of your phone and you could process credit card payments quickly and easily.

A huge bonus with Square is that there are no contracts to sign and no monthly fees.  Anyone buying something from you can have the receipt sent to them via text or email.

Currently, Square is in limited release, and the only phones supported at launch are the iPhone and the latest Android phone.  Expect this to spread quickly to other phone models like wildfire.

Should PayPal be worried about Square?  They would be fools not to!  Square is looking to have all the capabilities that PayPal does, but adding the ability for Joe Everyman to accept payments in person straight from their phone is going to change the way business is done for many people.

It should be interesting to see what PayPal does in the near future to counter the coming of Square.

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