Check out your Google page rank

The quick free link of the day? A site to check your site's popularity, keyword popularity and more. It loads so slowly it timed out, but it's worth a quick peek.

Local Denver business NewsGator offers award-winning products for extending your online presence

NewsGator
They tout business value through social computing. I will take a look at some of their products (the ones targeted to small businesses and individuals) in the near future.

For developers, they offer the NewsGator Widget site.

Getting started with Feedburner

http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/

Feedburner enables you to expand the reach of your website or blog. People can subscribe to it and receive updates by email, through a news reader, or via a web portal like iGoogle or My YAHOO. You can also deliver your content as widgets for cell phones and other mobile devices.

Signing up for Feedburner is a snap. Yes, it is owned by Google, and yes, I think that is nothing but good. But those who dislike Google will likely want to use digg or some other service.

More free images

Morguefile.com offers a wide variety of user-provided images. The authors provide guidance on how you may use their pictures. The site is undergoing a revision, and as of December 4, we could not gain access to the beta site. That should change soon, and there are images available in the interim.

http://morguefile.com/

Open clip art: freely usable, user-contributed clip art

http://openclipart.org
What a nifty idea - create an archive of user-cntributed clip art free to users. Graphics have to be public domain images according to Creative Commons. You can look at images, review images and, if you are so inclined, post your own images (obviously not someone else's work).

Guidelines are here.

Randy Pausch, a true Tigger, has died

The professor who gave the Last Lecture to a packed auditorium and, eventually, six million viewers around the world has passed away from pancreatic cancer. I feel the same way I did when my grandfather died. GrandPops was so vibrant and healthy and full of life that I felt sure if anyone could live forever, it would be him. Randy Pausch had a wonderful life, made some spectacular choices when faced with a short runway at the end, and embodied what a professor and a father should be. His wife and children are in my thoughts. His page is unreachable at the moment. He chronicled his vital signs in an utterly straightforward manner as the disease progressed, and retained his remarkable upbeat voice throughout.

Randy Pausch talked about being a Tigger versus an Eeyore in life, and I think that is a wonderful metaphor. Now I am off to download Alice, the programming language for children he stewarded, to introduce my son to a new skill in Professor Pausch's honor - and have fun doing it.

PS Here is his lecture on time management, which he seemed to think was going to be his legacy before all "this" happened.

Maid Brigade of Denver does everything well

Maid Brigade is the service for those of us who have to clean up BEFORE the housekeepers get here. We've been out of town for most of the previous month -- except for a party for my now-ten-year-old son and the days I waited for the Sears guy. My house is a mess.

A messy house does not usually bother me that much, but also have company coming tomorrow. Since my clothes dryer has been out of service for ten days, I am frantically doing laundry, and my house was utterly disorganized when they arrived. Now it sparkles and everything is neat.

Maid Brigade teams are conscientious, polite, experienced, and very nice.

They call the day before to confirm a two hour window of arrival, and they send surveys or leave cards after asking how the service was.

They do things I don't expect, like clean encrusted detergent off of the pour spout on my clothes washer.

They use 'green' products that are safe for children and pets and gentle on those with allergies, like my husband.

They ask me to walk through the house and make sure everything is satisfactory.

I *love* these guys - they do everything right.

Maid Brigade of Denver

Local	(303) 369-6243
Fax	(303) 496-6243

3435 S Yosemite St Ste 100
Denver, CO 80231