I’ve recently got a new work laptop (actually a hand me down present from the company) and it’s pretty liberating to get to work anywhere and surf the web. It’s my first laptop, after all. Quickly, though, the novelty of freedom gave way as a harsh reality set in- I’ll have to setup my work environment just like at home. I already problems with the development setup. I’ve already installed PHP and MySQL on an Apache server. I can code websites anywhere now. But my existing work files haven’t been moved yet. All my blogging ideas, new website templates, images, and Wordpress themes are in my home computer only. What’s worth a personal work setup if you don’t have your personal work with you?

Unfortunately I don’t have any version of Windows that allows Remote Desktop work so I’m stuck moving files back and forth (for now). With my recent switch of topics for this blog, I am working on another new theme. It’s going to be different than the previous themes this website has used, but it will contain common elements that might remind you of them. For now I cannot work on this theme from my laptop because, being a genius, I never thought to upload it as an available theme for this site, therefore being able to work on it from anywhere. I’ll have to remember to do this when I get back home, so that I’ll be able to access my website contents from anywhere.

So the next time I post, you just might see a new design up. And Zero Dominance will begin anew.

Here’s something I don’t normally talk about, but this one is just a curiosity. I usually stay away from e-books. Well, not ALL e-books…but at least those that don’t come from a very well-known or reputable source, and especially those that don’t benefit anyone financially, other than its creator. Sitepoint’s books, which are neither of these, are reputable and written specifically by professionals in many areas. Normally I wouldn’t bat an eye at e-book ads that fall on someone’s web page but one had a cover so awesome it had to be described as cheesy-cool. Here comes the Traffic Transfomer!

Yes, it’s yet another traffic generator e-book, but at least the author used a not-so-banal cover to stand out. For that I would give him props, but my judgement is reserved on the actual product. If I were to be nit-picky, that’s not an actual Transformer, but more like an unlicensed bootleg toy from the mysterious reaches of the far east. And don’t go visiting his site expecting to find a bigger picture of the cover, if you’re curious (you’ll also get a nasty pop-up when you leave the page). So it’s an interesting cover, but I cannot tell (and won’t bother) if it’s worth the time, so the following question will be left unanswered. Traffic Transformer: more than meets the eye, or scammer in disguise?

There are web directories for websites, so not surprisingly there would be a bunch of RSS directories springing up in order to supply heaps of RSS feeds from many different blogs and other websites. If you don’t know where to find the right places, submitting your RSS feed(s) to directories can be a tedious task. Well, no more I say. I managed to hit the jackpot* with this great article from DotSauce. They have rounded up 55 RSS directories for you to check out, and most of them don’t require an account to sign up! I stumbled this article like a drunken fighter, and there’s no doubt that a lot of other people liked it too (check out the backlinks in the article’s comment section). It’s probably the most useful article for my blog that I found this week.

Are these directories worth your time?

*The Bad Server tax takes away 20% from this jackpot meaning that 20% of the links may be invalid now. So the list isn’t perfect, but it’s still not bad for a list of 55 websites. Remember, you don’t have to register an account to use most of them. You should go ahead and try submitting your feeds to all of them if you have 30-45 minutes to spare. This is promotion for lazy people, and consistent results are not guaranteed, but you really have nothing to lose here. I have no clue on what the PageRank for any of these pages are, either, but maybe I’ll check ‘em out later with some online PR tool. I’ll also let you know how my subscriber base has changed later on, when I update this article. Happy linking and clicking!