Somehow Jeff Atwood, who might be expected to be mostly good at programming, has become one of the best examples of how to write a good blog.  His essays just seem to hit all the right notes in terms of content, size, style, you name it.  So when he gives tips on blog writing, you'd be wise to listen..

I started out in early 2004 as a blog skeptic. But over the last four years, I've become a born-again believer. In that time, I've written almost a thousand blog entries, and I've read thousands upon thousands of blog entries. As a result, I've developed some rather strong opinions about what makes blogs work so well, and what makes blogs sometimes not work so well.

I'd like to share some of the latter with you today, in a piece I call Thirteen Blog Clichés...

http://www.codinghor...archives/000834.html

I put out a new product a couple of weeks ago. This new product has so far won 16 different awards and recommendations from software download sites. Some of them even emailed me messages of encouragement such as “Great job, we’re really impressed!”. I should be delighted at this recognition of the quality of my software, except that the ’software’ doesn’t even run.

Talks about the unethical practice of the so-called download sites which don't even care to review the submissions and blindly issue a "5-star" award to every entry irrespective of whether it is genuine software or junk. Quite an interesting read!

http://successfulsof...oftware-awards-scam/

Here's a little program i made for myself to automatically rename subtitles files to match video files because i was tired of doing it by hand. I guess this program will not be very useful to english-speaking people but it might be to the others.

Here's the situation : you have a folder containing a few episodes or a whole season of a (100% free to download ) tv show. You download subtitles files for it and you realize the names of the of the video files and the names of the subtitles files don't match (ie Serie.s01e12.avi & Serie1x12.srt). If you want your media player to automatically load subtitles, you have to rename every subtitles files by hand.

Back in June Ashley reviewed a free application called the Windows Sidebar Styler. It’s a nifty little application that gives users the ability to style the sidebar with different skins. Yesterday a new version was launched, and one of the big new features is a sidebar resizer. Instead of gadgets overflowing onto multiple pages, they will then show up in multiple columns.
...
Windows Sidebar Styler is described as an application that takes advantage of new technology introduced with Windows Vista to provide “extensions to the existing functionality of Windows Sidebar.” In other words, it allows users to tweak their Sidebar so that they’re presented with a customized interface. Today I’ll be explaining how to style your sidebar through the use of Windows Sidebar Styler and Sidebar Styles from WinCustomize.

Link: http://cybernetnews....ze-the-vista-sidebar

Original review: http://cybernetnews....dows-sidebar-styler/

Various tricks to maximize your Starbucks Coffee experience.. personally i just drink tea at home.

The ghetto latte joins a pantheon of hallowed Starbucks hacks. Tim Harford of Slate contributed a classic to the genre, "Starbucks Economics: Solving the Mystery of the Short Cappuccino," where he revealed that the best-tasting cappuccino, the short cappuccino, is not on the menu. When Starbucks introduced its store locator, someone devised an effective delocator, which directs you toward independent cafes. The site Consumerist recently explained how to get a Tazo Chai Latte at half the price.

http://www.slate.com...id/2172288/fr/flyout

Sometimes I need to send an email which comes to my phone as an SMS. It would be handy to know when I have reached the 160 character limit as I type in real-time or even if I paste. Does anyone have an idea how this can be done and only show when I use Outlook Express (or Outlook) or when I use IE or FF for example. I don't need it when I am typing in Notepad.