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If you’re like me, you’ve found WordPress to be a great CMS, but it’s lack of calendar functions and lack of calendar plug-ins has been…disheartening.  You may have also found that trying to embed some HTML into the WordPress editor to be hit of miss.  Now you can emded a Google Calendar with little or no HTML foo (aka skills).

Required tools:

• A web browser with tab capabilities (like Firefox).
• A Google Calendar you’d like to share with the world.  (You can sign-up here)
• A copy of Wordpress where you have permissions to create pages.

Steps:

1. Log-in and start to write a page.  Syntax may be different depending on your version of the program.
2. In a new tab head to your Google Calendar and you will be a down arrow.  When you click on it there should be a menu there.  Click on “Calendar Settings”.  The tab you should be on is “Calendar Settings”.   Scroll down and you should see “Embed this calendar”.
3. By looking at the HTML code in the box under the “Embed this calendar” seting you’ll see an iframe, which essentially allows a window within a window.  When someone heads to your site and sees this calendar they will be looking through your site to Google’s site.  Depending on the template you have in WordPress that window may need to shrink or get larger in size.  There is quite a bit of data in that HTML box.  What you should really look at is the area where you see, width=”800″ height=”600″.  Copy the code.
4. Next head to your other tab with the WordPress “Write Page” set up.  Put what you’d like into the Title of the page.  Something like “My Calendar” would be fine.
5. Now click on the HTML in the GUI bar or HMTL tab (in newer versions of WordPress).  Edit the code, to scale, making sure it fits in your site.  You can cut the size in half (400×300), into quarters (200×150) or any deviation of the 800×600 scale. Paste the code into the box and hit “OK” (in older versions).
6. Hit “publish” and enjoy.

If you find the calendar is too big or too small based on your template simply go to “Manage – Pages” and edit the HTML so that the Google Calendar fits into your site.

written by tom

This past Friday the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of XM and Sirrius satellite radio services.  The FCC is the government agency in charge of the regulating the public airwaves, which both services use.

Other groups, who are also regulated by the FCC found this merger to one that is not in the public interest.  NPR said in a statement, “The FCC’s approval of the merger of Sirius and XM undermines public radio and, in turn, the public’s access to our services.  While NPR, other public radio producers and public radio stations have had long and mutually-beneficial relationships with both companies, this new monopoly – wielding unprecedented control over spectrum and without the mitigating conditions we sought – will limit the public service mission of public radio and dilute the significant investment our community, our audience and Congress have made in HD radio technology.  The public interest is not being served in this decision.”

For many years local terrestrial broadcasters have been progressing toward HD Radio technology, which was meant to compete with the two services.  The advantages of the HD broadcast is that the programming would still be developed for a local audience by local broadcasters.  The satellite services, by the nature of their delivery system, never do that.

Many terrestrial broadcasters cite the need to serve their local community, as part of their FCC license.   Back in the early 90s when the FCC first approved the use of the satellite radio services, this was not part of the plan. One of the reasons why the FCC did approve the two services was so that there was no monopoly.  Now ten years later the tune has changed in Washington.

Over the past ten years the two companies spent billions of dollars acquiring the technology and talent to compete with one another.  In arguments to the commission, both XM and Sirrius mentioned how they are low in funds and no longer go forward with their operations in the black.

Opinion:

If paying for radio wasn’t enough reason to not get Sirrius or XM, perhaps now the fact that there is a monopoly would help change peoples’ mind. 

written by tom

`Microsoft is spending nearly $300 million on a new ad campaign to fight against the barbs getting thrown at Windows Vista, it’s latest operating system.  The new “Discover Windows Vista” campaign was unveiled at a developers conference last week and has web site to back the ads.

The page entitled, “Windows Vista: Look how far we’ve come” is humbling for a company that dominates the software market.  The lead statement of the page says, “But we know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn’t work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn’t always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product.”

Although some may buy into the “Earth is flat” idea, many are enjoying Microsoft’s lack of success.  Since the launch of Windows Vista in 2007 Apple has continued it’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign, with precise sharp humor about Microsoft’s OS.  For a short time Microsoft tried to battle that campaign and failed.

The Discover Vista website does not fail to mention that Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor, is a great operating system.  That statement is followed up with the fact that XP is over 7 years old.  The page also mentions how, in the beginning, Vista had issues with hardware and software compatibilities.  That has been solved, according to Microsoft.

Changing people’s minds seems to be the biggest challenge here for Microsoft, perhaps that’s why it’s spending a third of a billion dollars on advertising to convience people that Vista isn’t as bad as some say.

written by tom