It’s brilliant. An evil overlord must always be ready to flee the scene quickly…

Why sync with SVN?

If you carry the latest version of your files on a USB stick, the day will come when you lose all your files. USB sticks are small and portable which makes them prone to loss or theft. What you should carry on your USB stick is the ability to access the latest version of your files. FTP or VPN are two ways to access your files, but SVN has many advantages over them if you’re working with and changing files frequently (read/write!).

What are the advantages of SVN over FTP and VPN?

FTP, VPN and SVN all have different purposes. If you’re working on the development of software, SVN is the clear winner because it will track changes made to your files and allow you to revert to an earlier version if necessary. If you work on the same files from a few locations or if you are part of a team of developers, SVN will also make merging the files together extremely easy.

If everything you have read so far makes sense, then you might be interested in another debate, Git vs SVN – Which is Better? Otherwise, just keep reading.

Why use a USB stick? Can’t I just download an SVN client, get my files and start working?

If you lose your USB stick, then yes, you can use an SVN client to get your files and begin working. This however is unnecessary overhead. By using your USB stick you can sit down at any computer and immediately begin working. If the computer has network access you can first get the latest version of any changed files. If the computer doesn’t have network access, you can still work on the version saved on the USB stick and then merge this with the latest version the next time you do have network access.

Time is money. How do you expect to finance your evil operations if you splurge your time? Carbon-14 isn’t about to stop decaying every-time you twiddle your thumbs.

Are there other advantages to using a USB stick for development?

Another advantage to using a USB stick for development is that you don’t need to save any files on the computer you’re using. If you’re working on private documents or proprietary software it is especially important not to leave behind source code! Working from the USB stick is much more convenient because you don’t have to constantly delete all your files when you’re done. Just take them with you. (If you’re forgetful and your project is private you should also consider encrypting the data on your USB stick…! Read my Top 5 Things to Put on Your USB Stick)

Getting started: Install Rapid SVN on your USB stick

Put a copy of Rapid SVN (http://rapidsvn.tigris.org/) on your USB stick so that you can connect to your SVN repository and access the latest version of your files. When you’re ready to work, checkout the latest version of your files into a folder on the USB stick.

When you’re done working on a file, add the latest version back into the repository. Your USB stick and the repository will now both have the latest version of the file. If you lose the USB stick, your files are safe. If you move between computers, your privacy is safe. If you go offline, you can still work.

It’s the perfect mobile development solution.

This is all great information assuming I have an SVN repository. How do I create an SVN repository?

First you need to decide if your project is open source or private… If your project is open source, there are many free SVN hosting providers available. I use Google Code for my Looble Labs projects (http://code.google.com/p/looble/) and GitHub for Battle City. Below are some free SVN hosting providers for open source projects:

• http://code.google.com/
• http://www.assembla.com/
• http://github.com/ (Not SVN… Read more about git http://git-scm.com/)

What if my project is Private? Can I still use SVN? .

If your project is private (not open source) there are still a few free options available. Below are some free private SVN hosting providers:

• http://unfuddle.com/
• http://www.codespaces.com/
• http://www.xp-dev.com/

Can I host my own SVN repository on my computer?

Yes!

Subversion is an open source version control system. You can download the latest version at http://subversion.tigris.org/. You can find installation instructions at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.intro.install.html

Git is also a free open source version control system. You can download the latest version at http://git-scm.com/. You can find installation instructions at http://book.git-scm.com/

Should I use SVN or Git?

In my opinion, SVN and Git are both excellent options. I use SVN for my Looble Labs projects and Git for Battle City. For more information read Git vs SVN – Which is Better?

Related posts

• Git vs SVN – Which is Better? (16)
• Top 5 Things to Put on Your USB Stick (6)
• Take Over the World with wRisk, Open Source Battle City? (0)
• Software (0)
• Save the Battle City Server – Make a Donation! (4)

Congratulations, you’ve just bought a new 32 GB USB stick! It’s awesome. Back in ‘99 you would have sprained your back lifting this many gigabytes, and now, you hold it in the palm of your hand in all its glory. But wait… now what?

What do you actually do with your USB stick?

There are many different things to do with a USB stick. Be creative! Below is a list of the top 5 things your USB stick must have:

#1 – RETURN IF FOUND.txt

If your USB stick has important documents, pictures or playlists then a RETURN IF FOUND.txt file is a must have. Use BIG CAPITAL LETTERS so the file name stands out.

What should you write in the text document? That’s up to you. Some people write their mailing address, others leave a phone number, some offer a reward. Mine says:

“If found please contact me via http://twitter.com/deceth to arrange return. I’ll gladly buy you a brand new USB stick as a thank you! Thanks. I really appreciate it!”

#2 – Install Portable OpenOffice (or any other portable application!)

Portable applications are great because they allow you to take the software you need anywhere you go. If you’re working on different computers such as at home, at work, at university, at a library, at a café, or at a friends house, then a portable application will save you the hassle of downloading software the computer you are using is missing.

Other times, you won’t even be permitted to install software on the computer you are using! Having a portable application on your USB stick is a good way around that problem. I have OpenOffice installed as a portable application on my USB stick and love it. I’ve never been unable to open a document I wanted to work on.

Visit PortableApps.com for a whole list of applications you can install on your USB stick. With Portable Firefox your bookmarks and settings will follow you anywhere you go. With Portable Linux, you can take your whole desktop with you! Visit http://portableapps.com/

#3 – Install True Crypt for encryption

Not everyone will return your lost USB stick, especially not if they stole it. If you have important private information on your USB stick, True Crypt will allow you to encrypt it. True Crypt is open source and can be used as a portable application, meaning you can decrypt and access your files all from your USB stick, no need to install any software on the computer. Get True Crypt at http://www.truecrypt.org/

#4 – Get TiddlyWiki, a portable wiki all in a single file

TiddlyWiki is a single html file which acts and behaves like a wiki. You can add content, edit, save, tag and search very easily. It is the perfect portable tool for taking notes and organizing information. If you’re taking notes during class or during a meeting, TiddlyWiki is the perfect tool for scribbling down that first draft. Get it at http://www.tiddlywiki.com/

#5 – Install a game… like Battle City!

It’s great to work hard, but even better to procrastinate! Keeping a game saved on your USB stick ensures entertainment is always right at your fingertips. Battle City is the perfect game to save on your USB stick because its open source! If caught playing a game in class, just let the professor know you are actually performing quality assurance testing. Get Battle City at http://battlecity.looble.com

Related posts

• Take Over the World with wRisk, Open Source Battle City? (0)
• Save the Battle City Server – Make a Donation! (4)
• R.I.P Good Friend, You will be Missed (0)
• Major Update for BattleCity (0)
• Looble Top 5 of 2007 (0)

If you’re like me, you fantasize about reaching the front page of Digg. Who wouldn’t? All the traffic, the glory, the fame… I submit an article to Digg every now and then, hoping, wishing, that this time will be different, that this time the diggers will digg, not bury. Somewhere along the way I started to wonder, are the diggers ever coming, do they even exist? Maybe Digg is just a figment of my imagination created by the matrix to keep me occupied while my body is harvested? Who knows… One thing is for certain, Digg is not the only evil preventing me from achieving world domination … In fact, my archives were burying me far worse than Digg!

What are Archives? How do I Punish them for Failing me?

Unfortunately archives cannot be banished or beheaded like your ordinary minion. Archives are the void where old blog posts and articles go. The underworld of your blog…

As your articles age, they fall deeper and deeper into the abyss. The worst part is that your archives don’t discriminate between good and bad articles, they suck everything into the void and bury some of your best writing for eternity. That’s a long time.

Any good overlord needs to be able to summon his/her best demons at any given time. If peons visiting your blog can only find your 5 or 10 most recent posts, then your archives are burying you worse than Digg. It’s your responsibility to turn your evil archive oppressor into a powerful minion, an ally, by making your best content accessible all the time.

How do I turn my Archive into a useful minion?

I’m glad you asked. Take a close look at Looble… It’s by no means a perfect blog, but it does have a few essential qualities of a successful empire. Here is how I keep my best content ready for unsuspecting peons passing through my lands:

1. Use Simple Tags Wordpress Plugin for Related Posts

By using the Simple Tags Wordpress Plugin for related posts, suddenly articles buried deep in my archives have an opportunity to bubble back up out of the void whenever they are relevant. If someone finds my current article interesting, giving them a list of related posts could be exactly what they are looking for! This is a great way for me to increase page views and convert more peons into loyal followers and minions. It’s a win-win situation, because I win twice.

2. Start Using Tags

Tags are great because you don’t have to worry about keeping them neat, they are inherently chaotic by nature. Over time, you will end up with thousands of different tags, and that’s great! Always keep your categories clean and meaningful, but tag your posts with anything and everything! Using the Simple Tags Wordpress Plugin, I then display a list of tags at the end of every post. Clicking a tag will bring up a list of all articles that share the tag. This again gives old posts an opportunity to be summoned out of the underworld when a peon is vulnerable to it’s content. Remember, converting peons to followers is essential to building a powerful empire.

3. Internal Linking Within Blog Posts

When I write a new post, I often include a link to a related article I have already written. For example, if I write a post about Blogging for Dummies, I might I might include a link to If you Clone, You’ll End up Alone. This gives me an opportunity to send peons to an older post which is as good as the one they just read or better. It’s a way of adding icing to the cake to help convince the peon Looble is an empire worth joining.

Don’t forget, good internal linking will also help search engines better crawl your website, help increase your page rank, and help increase your page views and readership!

Tux by manjari!

Other Ideas to Prevent Quality Content from Being Hidden

1. Have a “Top Posts” or “Popular Articles” List.
2. Get the Articles plugin by Alex King
3. Make category pages easy to browse by using excerpts rather than full posts.
4. Don’t have too many categories!
5. Show links to your archives by year or by month it doesn’t matter. Just make sure your readers know there is more!
6. Link to your articles in social media sites like StumbleUpon, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, or delicious.
7. Link to a relevant article when commenting on a blog instead of to your blogs main page.

Have another idea? Please comment!

If you’re new here, now is the time to comment, to show your overlord you are worthy. How do you prevent your articles from disappearing into the nether regions of the internet? I’d love to know, steal your ideas, and re-publish them.

Don’t worry, I’ll give you credit. I’m an evil overlord, not a stupid overlord.

If you’re a serious Web Developer, chances are you will always have your digital cameraready when visiting local customers. Clients love having their websites personalized, so if you’re making a website for a flower shop, you’ll want to get in shots of your clients store and best products to display on the website!

Now is the time to take advantage of the great prices on memory cards for your camera! This 2 GB Memory Card is available right now for $10.98! Thats an incredible price which I doubt you’ll be able to beat anywhere! My 512 MB card cost me over 50$ less than 2 years ago.

So how big is a 2 GB Memory Cardanyways? The amount of pictures you can fit onto your memory card depends a lot on the quality of the image. Here is a little table to give you a better idea which shows the amount of pictures you can fit on a card given the card size and the quality of the image measured in mega-pixels.

Photo Quality	128MB	256MB	512MB	1GB	2GB	4GB
2 Megapixel	134	268	552	1119	2245	4494
3 Megapixel	120	240	490	996	2000	4000
4 Megapixel	60	119	245	497	999	1998
5 Megapixel	48	95	195	395	800	1595
6 Megapixel	44	88	180	366	735	1471
7 Megapixel	39	78	161	327	657	1314
8 Megapixel	35	69	143	290	582	1164
10 Megapixel	26	53	109	221	444	887
12 Megapixel	20	40	83	169	339	678

As you can most certainly see, a 2 GB Memory Cardis likely more than enough to capture all the pictures you need in order to create the perfect website design. You’ll even have room left for holiday pictures with friends and family!

If you’re looking for a new digital camera to go with that memory card, I recommend Cannon’s 7.1 MP PowerShot Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom. I have had a Cannon digital camera for 2 years now and have been extremely satisfied with it. They are excellent camera’s, very easy to use and have an excellent grip that fits right into your hand perfectly.

While I don’t recommend you try confirming what I am about to say, I can also state from experience that Cannon camera’s seem to have a magical ability to survive being dropped. Again, please do not try testing this as you may not have the same luck as I was fortunate to have with the same camera on several occasions!

If you’re going to invest in a Digital Camera, I also suggest checking out DigitalShutters.com which will help you understand your camera better and which will give you some great tips for improving the quality of your images!

What is RSS?

RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites. RSS allows users to receive the latest posts from all of their favorite websites in one place.

How to Use RSS

Get an RSS Reader – If you’d like to receive updates from all of your favorite websites via RSS you will need an RSS Feed Reader.

There are many free feed readers available online. Two of the most popular web-based feed readers are Google Reader and Bloglines. Both are fairly easy to use and will automatically retrieve the latest news from all of your favorite websites for you.

Feed readers work a lot like email. As you subscribe to feeds you will receive new entries in your reader from the sites you’re tracking. These entries will be marked as read or unread just like with email. When viewing entries you’ll have the option to read them directly in the feed reader or the option to view them on the the actual website they originate from.

Don’t want to Use an RSS Reader? Email is an Option

If the above explanation all just seems a little too complicated for you then please don’t worry. Many sites also enable you to subscribe to RSS feeds via a more familiar medium – Email.

Unsubscribe at Any Time

With RSS Feed Readers or Email subscriptions you are in full control of the content you wish to view. You can unsubscribe from a feed any time you want.

Subscribe to LOOBLE

If you’d like to receive new Looble.com blog posts in your RSS Reader or in your email inbox, then please subscribe to the LOOBLE RSS feed:

Subscribe to Looble via RSS

Related posts

• My Work Blocked Gmail, Now I’m Less Productive. Good Job! (3)