Wordpress Rules: On Your Own PC!

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In a recent post, I outlined a way to create a ‘play area’ for your blog so that you could experiment with designs, themes and plugins to your hearts’ content.

xusb1I forgot about another quite elegant solution that works on your own pc or on a USB stick. It’s called Wordpress on a stick! I won’t repeat what is on that other website, but suffice to say, it uses two methods, one with Webserver On a Stick, and the other with Xampplite.

This isn’t for newbies, but if you are careful, and follow the instructions step by step, you can set up your own blog on your own pc, to test stuff! I’ll include my set up once it’s running!

Two caveats: one, don’t use this for serving pages ON the internet, Xampplite isn’t so secure; and two, don’t confuse the two: if you update one, the other isn’t updated! But those are obvious, right?!

Yahoo + MSN: limited growth factors = a merger of equals?

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Last week the news was all about Microsoft making a bid for Yahoo! InvestorBlogger had already written about this story in January as a great deal for Microsoft, but a bad one for Yahoo!Both companies are struggling with their own issues at the moment. And both companies’ stock prices really haven’t done much in the last five years.

Whither Yahoo?
Yahoo! has had several disappointing quarters of results, and it is struggling to get its new advertising system, called Panama, working properly. In fact, this set of problems caused Yahoo! to miss its earnings targets. Despite some of the stumbles of its online services, Yahoo! Photos (now being closed) debacle being among them, Yahoo! has survived and even prospered as #1 website (as desribed on Alexa). The ability to adapt and grow online has certainly stood this venerable dog in good stead. It didn’t have the deep pockets and universality of ‘need’ that Microsoft has, but it managed to maintain a sizable amount of goodwill among its users.

 

Even in the face of Google, it has maintained its #1 slot as Google grew from being merely a provider of search services to Yahoo! to its very own portal look. And yet Google is still not #1 on Alexa! That is not to say that Yahoo! is without its own challenges: though it has refused Google’s offer, there are still other well capitalized companies out there who could merge with Yahoo! and make a compelling value proposition.

Et tu, M$?
Microsoft is facing an oncoming challenge in a number of fronts. While it is still the engine of growth for the PC world and has just pushed Office and Vista out of the door, the web-centric world is growing much faster than boxed sales of OSes and Office Software. In fact, MS faces three considerable challenges: OS competitors; opensource applications; and lack of innovative spirit – mostly due its size.

And the growth of Linux, Mac and continued use of older PCs on Win98 or XP are all limiting growth of sales for MS. Bill Gates used to say that Windows 98 was XP’s biggest competitor. Well now, XP’s Vista’s biggest competitor. On the Mac front, the Ipod is helping drive sales for Mac systems, as well as having cheaper smaller form Macs. And Linux, innovation on Linux is incredible. There are now hundreds of Linuxes available for download, though none of them is really the primary candidate. Despite the variety, its OSes seem to still be the primary choice for most sales.

officeliveHowever, MS browser share is dropping. At last count, it had already fallen below 80% of the market share, while Firefox had reached a little over 15%. And Firefox isn’t a company that can be bought!

Microsoft is also facing increasing competition on its Office Software. There are an increasing number of alternatives: including OpenOffice, a bunch of smaller, nimbler competitors. So, with so many little competitors and several giant, but tangentially different, competitors, at what point is the tipping point reached for Microsoft?

Yahoo! + MSN = YahooSN?
Who takes over who? In this situation, MS doesn’t really get the Internet, even yet, despite its investments it is an also ran; previous experience of MS takeovers is that they really merge the original company out of existence, leaving a shell of it under MS hands. Hotmail vanished like that, as did Listbot, and countless other smaller companies. Could this happen to Yahoo!? Of course, Yahoo! takes over MS is highly unlikely as Yahoo! has no experience of any OS, consumer or otherwise. Yahoo! couldn’t really do that.

The best scenario would be for MS to take over Yahoo! in a buyout merger. Then reorganise its MSN properties (and all of its online content) into a new Yahoo-MSN! service. Once completed, the new division would be IPO’ed again, leaving the original MS and Yahoo-MSN! as two complete, larger, more clearly defined companies. That wouldn’t mean they compete with each other, but that Yahoo-MSN! would compete directly with Google. Of course, the Google juggernaut would just roll on, with both companies in its path. But smaller, narrower focused, well-capitalized companies would be better placed to innovate in much the same way as Google does, and as MS does not.

Is there an opportunity to buy/sell YHOO/MS stocks and make some serious dosh? What do you guys see? Or should we all just buy GOOG? Comment away!

1. A lot of the initial data comes from http://marketshare.hitslink.com.

Tri-Cities Real Estate: buying and selling great houses

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tricities

In early April, Colleen Lane contacted me and asked to me to review the Tri-Cities Real Estate website, which you can see at the top of the blog, and in the sidebar.

After visiting such a beautifully crafted website, rich in visual media, careful coloring, and pleasing welcome page, I have to say that this website is perhaps the most visually attractive website that I’ve had to review, and I believe it surely reflects the natural beauty of its home state.

Tri-Cities Real Estate, based in Washington State (one of the loveliest states with its low population density, extensive reservations and wonderful scenery), provides Real Estate services in Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland.

I like the URL which is simple and easy to remember. The only problem with the URL is it doesn’t tell you what the website is… but then you likely already know when you visit it. Theirblog is updated regularly, but uses a different theme, so it looks out of character with the rest of the website.

resources

One of the reasons a book like “Rich Dad Poor Dad” has succeeded is by personalizing the story, by creating characters, and events, and narrating the story. People are drawn to a story, rather than to cold, dry facts, lists and explanations; it would be nice if this website could play up this angle of the ‘story’ and show us how Tri-Cities Real Estate really does make a difference in the life of its customers! That would help to show their customers how they actually solve problems.

As a resource, the website is literally stuffed with articles on ALL aspects of moving house, including fixer-uppers, real estate lawyers, and even Debt Ratios. You could spend quite some time just reading around the articles. In fact, all the content is unique as well, and there are some interesting things to play with such as the Google Locator Map, and the search function which had me searching for a lot of nice houses in my (ideal) price range. So joelaneColleen, do you have any good property for a British expat with not much cash?! Well, I found that there are quite a few bungalows (single floor houses), which would appeal to my wife. Why don’t you head on over and check out the fine houses of Washington State. I was also surprised to find that Kennewick’s sister city is YingKo, Taiwan. It’s like a stone’s throw from my wife’s home, and is the home of pottery in Taiwan.

So search away on their website, you can search and register for looking at properties on their website easily and quickly using their search engine. The images, information and website are all responsive and tidy, making it easy to thumb through many properties in your price range. Since their servers are quick, you’ll find it a pleasure, not a drag.

So if you are thinking of Washington State as a place to move to, check out the real estate first, courtesy of Long Term Capital Growth !

Sponsored by Tri-Cities Real Estate.