Testing the new WordPress version 3.6 beta and new WordPress Theme Twenty Thirteen.
Please feel free to contact me (jon@moongrabber.com) if you run into any problems, or you have any other feedback about the new look of the site. Thanks!
Using Artificial Intelligence to clean up radar images
forecast.io has an interesting blog post about their Dark Sky forecasting system and the process they use to remove noise (such as ground clutter) from radar images.
Here’s an image showing the system in action:
Worldwide Internet Usage mapped using a Botnet
Not entirely accurate, but very cool research paper and visualizations showing global internet usage as seen by a botnet.
Google has decided to close down the Google Affiliate Network!!! - http://googleaffiliatenetwork-blog.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-update-on-google-affiliate-network.html
Designing Plain Text Email
Plain text emails can look good too!
Recently I’ve been spending quite a bit of time designing and building HTML email templates, but the plain text version of the email always seems to be an afterthought (or ignored/forgotten about entirely). Don’t forget about your plain text email the next time you’re building an HTML email campaign.
Why spend time and resources on a plain text version of your email? MailChimp has a great article covering some of the most vital reasons for a plain text version, including:
- Some people prefer text emails, in fact they may even block or disable HTML emails from displaying.
- Email spam filters have gotten much more aggressive over the years, and many filters scan both the HTML and plain text content for possible triggers (not having a plain text version at all could be an even bigger spam flag).
- Many email applications are still severely out-dated and lacking in support for even basic HTML rendering. Some of these applications even default to the plain text email if an HTML issue occurs (especially on mobile devices).
So what can you do to spruce up your plain text email template? Check out Campaign Monitor’s Designing for the Inbox articles, especially Chapter 2: Designing Plain Text Email.