Archive for: test

Stupid Tool Of The Week: Wand to Kill Swine Flu

If you’ve rode the bus, gone shopping or just been in a public area then the chances are you’ve touched the dreaded H1N1 virus. It was probably just some guy sneezing and then hundreds of people touched the same handrail as him. I guess that’s how it spreads. Then, you went home and turned on the family PC and typed out a blog post or just surfed. Now it’s all over the keyboard and mouse. Oh God! We’re doomed!

Not really, because at the end of the day it’s just like the normal flu and 99% of those infected can’t tell the difference and can simply ride it out in bed for a week or so.

However, a new UV germ killing wand has been released and claims it can massacre any H1N1 germs living on a surface. Well, 98% of them anyway. When it’s held a few inches over countertops and other surfaces it kills pretty much any germ living on there or renders them incapable of multiplying. It costs $70 from Hammacher and Schlemmer. Here’s what they said on the product page:

“Also capable of killing MRSA, mold, and dust mites, the UV-C light penetrates viral and bacterial membranes and destroys their DNA, rendering the microorganisms incapable of reproduction and survival. Unlike liquid disinfectants, UV-C light can sanitize keyboards, upholstered furniture, cell phones, or any delicate surface that harbors germs.”

Some may say this is exploiting the fears of millions – but then they’ll probably buy the thing.

WebPageTest.org: Test Your Website for Speed

I recently developed my own blog and it went live the other day following some trouble with the host. Following said trouble I decided to run a speed test for my site to make sure everything was performing as they promised it would. So after a little digging around I discovered webpagetest.org. This website gives you the chance to test you website for performance by entering the few details as seen below in the screenshot.

After hitting the submit button it takes a minute or two to finish testing your website. After this you get some great results such as showing you which type of content is causing delays (ie. Images, Java) so you can remove or compress them. And things like SEO and server response time.

This is a great websites for webmasters to make sure things are running as they should. Check it out at www.webpagetest.org .

To Do List Plugins for Wordpress

There are so many sites out there that are based on Wordpress and have numerous writers, including Crenk. Here at Crenk we sometimes find it hard to keep track about what sites to write about and who is writing about these sites. Previously we used Our To Do List Wordpress Plugin to keep track of these tasks, but since Wordpress 2.7 launched we have had numerous issues with this software and we are interested to find out if there is an alternative.

With the Our To Do List Plugin we are currently finding that we can add new tasks but when it comes to removing or editing these tasks it just does work.

Are there alternatives to the Our To Do List Plugin?