You've probably seen the functionality around at certain blogs where you can click on a link at the end of the post that lets you expand the blog entry to show more content. I like that functionality and dasBlog (my blog software) didn't have it so I wrote my own.

With dasBlog you can have a description for the displayed text on the main blog page and then you can click through to the full blog post, but I wanted the ability to expand and contract dynamically right on the front page.

Here is how I did it.  Feel free to take and use and modify whatever you want.  It's offered as is and public domain and yadda yadda.

First, here are the elements you need to put on your page around the content you want hidden/expanded:

<div  class="trHiderControl">
<span onclick="trReveal(this);"  trhidertoggle="false" trID="trRevealer" class="trHiderTopClick">reveal</span>
<div class="trHiderContent" trID="trHiderContent">

<!--content here-->
blah blah
<!--content here-->

</div>
<span class="trHiderBottomClick" trID="trReHider" onclick="trHider(this);">close up</span>
</div>

Set four css classes, most importantly set:

.trHiderContent
{
     display:none
}

and

.trHiderBottomClick
{
     display:none
}

Then include the file trHider.js and you're golden.  The contents of trHider.js are just two functions:

//reveal text inline.
function trReveal(oEl)
{
    if(oEl.getAttribute("trhidertoggle")=="true")
    {
        trHider(oEl);
        return;
    }
    oTopEl = oEl.parentNode;
    for(i=0; i<oTopEl.childNodes.length; i++)
    {
        if(1==oTopEl.childNodes[i].nodeType)
        {
            switch(oTopEl.childNodes[i].getAttribute("trID"))
            {
                case "trRevealer":
                    oTopEl.childNodes[i].setAttribute("trhidertoggle","true");   
                    break;
                case "trHiderContent":
                    oTopEl.childNodes[i].style.display = "block";
                    break;
                case "trReHider":
                    oTopEl.childNodes[i].style.display = "block";
                    break
                default:
                    //nothing
            }
        }
    }
}

//hide text inline
function trHider(oEl)
{
    oTopEl = oEl.parentNode;   

    for(i=0; i<oTopEl.childNodes.length; i++)
    {
        if(1==oTopEl.childNodes[i].nodeType)
        {
            switch(oTopEl.childNodes[i].getAttribute("trID"))
            {
                case "trRevealer":
                    oTopEl.childNodes[i].setAttribute("trhidertoggle","false");   
                    break;
                case "trHiderContent":
                    oTopEl.childNodes[i].style.display = "none";
                    break;
                case "trReHider":
                    oTopEl.childNodes[i].style.display = "none";
                    break
                default:
                    //nothing
            }
        }
    }
}

...and Voila', expand and contract at will.

Example:

Yes.  The rivet has undergone a redesign. 

This has been mandated by our corporate headquarters in Stockholm.  They are in merger negotiations with a major media company and seeing as techRivet.com is the jewel in their crown of websites, they felt it only prudent that we undergo a refresh, as it were.

The direct management team of the website is not undergoing any change so rest assured the high quality content will remain unabated regardless of the outcome of the two media giants merging.

That is all for now.

I've given the entire techRivet staff the day off!  We're off to the company yacht for manhattans and pinochle.

This is a great little utility that allows you to set up your machine at the click of a button.  Get all your favorite apps downloaded and installed in one fell swoop.

InstallPad

Great for when you are going to be setting up a new machine.  No longer do you have to go out and find each one separately and download them one by one.  Set it up ahead of time place the applist.xml file somewhere that you can get it and voila, you're ready to role.

That would be my start up list of apps.

• WinAmp
• CDex
• Notepad ++
• Windows Live Writer
• Sharpreader
• XP Pro IIS Admin
• VLC
• Audacity
• Super
• iZarc
• Gadwin Printscreen
• Explorer XP

This of course does not include the large applications that require CD's for installation such as: MS Office, MS Visual Studio, Paint Shop Pro, Photo Album etc.

This will also be the way I post techRivet's Free Media Pack 2008.  With an InstallPad applist.xml file and link to InstallPad itself.  Brilliant.

Related link: techRivet's Free Media Pack 2007

So. I like blogrolls. 

I think they play an important role in the "atmosphere" a blog projects.  Maybe I'm alone in this but when I go to a blog that doesn't have a blogroll I form an opinion of the blogger.  He starts a notch down for me. 

Now the reason a lot of people advocate against including a blogroll has to do with SEO placement and Google branding your site as a link farm.  This seems a rather sad state of affairs, designing a site on a third party's arbitrary requirements.

Google apparently dings you once your page has more than 120 links on it...holy schmolies by some methods of determining my homepage has over 500 links on it.  That is if you take into account all the "digg" and "stumble upon" links for each entry.  Trimming my blogroll isn't going to have much affect on that result.

If you feel the need to try and stay under that arbitrary link count of 120 then by all means do what you need and that may result in a better Google placement.

While Blogging

Me? I like linking to things that interest me.  I like linking to a few of my "online allies" as I call them.  Friends in the real world and online that I have met or hooked up with.  If that impacts my ability to get crawled by Google...well FIGHT THE POWER MAN!

While Surfing

If I find a blog I really like and want to head down a link trail, I am interested in what blogs they link to, I want to follow their lead.  I want to go to places that they advocate.

It helps me find the nooks and cranies that interest me.  It dissapoints me when I come across a really interesting blog and he has NO blog roll...It's like finding a dead end in the superhighway.  I'm left shaking my head and wondering what the blogger was thinking.

And like I said my opinion of the blogger goes down a notch.

techRivet Poll: "I will live to the ripe old age of..." Will be closing today.

I'd like to welcome aboard two new contributors to the mighty techRivet: Kedar Dhuru and Justin Davey.

Justin comes to us as an online editor of TVSnobs.com and also blogs on his own site over at Emerging.  Welcome aboard Justin!

Kedar is an engineer with an anti-spam company in good ol' Sunnyvale California.  Welcome aboard as well Kedar.

I look forward to both your contributions to techRivet.com.

- bump -

I am going to take this opportunity, while there is an influx of new eyeballs from the weblog 2007 awards underway, to tell you all that techRivet is always interested in having more contributors on board.

If you are interested in writing for the rivet please drop an email to: editor@techrivet.com.

Ok...maybe not quite, actually, precisely a win...ok maybe we were a bit off the pace of engadget and gizomodo...ok a lot.  But we weren't in LAST place.

w00t! techRivet Rules!

http://2007.weblogawards.org/polls/best-technology-blog-1.php

It's for the South African Blog Awards 2007, but it could just as well be a symbol for the generic Weblog Awards 2007.

I found it over here: Ideate - a South African blog.

Via this link: stii.za.net - another South African blog. - Go check it out.

-bump-

-bump again-

vote here

We here at the palatial headquarters of techRivet.com would like to thank the academy and all the little people.

the 2007 weblog awards: Finalists Announced

This is an honor that proves the old maxim of "Vote early and vote often"...I mean "the cream will rise to the top."

'nuff said.

We here at the palatial headquarters of techRivet.com would like to thank all the visitors to the site.  Here is a nice graph that shows said growth.

So everyone else already has a "Best Free Software" list out there and we here at the grand headquarters of techRivet really can't add much new info. techRivet has a post dedicated to a free media pack: techRivet's Free Media Pack 2007, which is cool but for the full list of all the free stuff out there we'll defer to others who have already done the legwork.

What we CAN provide is a meta-list of those sites for you, our devoted reader, to more easily find what you are looking for.

So without further ado, here is

techRivet's Meta-list of Freeware lists of Freeware Applications!

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities

I might call this the definitive list. But with the way things change?... more sites to choose from the better. He certainly provides the most background information and reviews of the software. It's an even handed take on products.

For example the review of "Best Free Digital Editor" qualifies the recommendation depending on experience of the user. Gimp for experienced users, Paint.Net for inexperienced.

XP Freeware - A Windows XP Freeware Guide

An excellent list covering a wide variety of categorized applications with descriptions and in some cases mini-reviews.

Highlighted find: Celestia - A free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

oh and check out the sister site: XP Games

winaddons.com

Great Broad list of categorized applications. Ranging from wallpapers to dev tools to system utilities. Pretty much everything.

Highlighted find: PopTray - email notification app.

Scott Hanselman's 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

Like the title says geared more towards the developer than anything else. An awesome and powerful list. If you are a developer and haven't read this list, get off the schnide boy!

damn, it's a long list.

Chi3 Hacklab

A very comprehensive list that covers multi-OS many many categories. Titles and category only no descriptions.

Martin's list(s) of (free) stuff

A tight list of good apps.

121space list of freeware.

Long list, categorized.

Boring PC mag list...

They do provide a description with the apps for ya.

The primary Tech site is of course:

techRivet - http://www.techrivet.com

The pretenders are:

TechCocktail -  http://www.techcocktail.com/blog/
TechCrunch - http://www.techcrunch.com/
TechDirt - http://www.techdirt.com/
techDuke - http://www.techduke.com/
techfold - http://www.techfold.com/
tech-hive - http://www.tech-hive.com/
techingmeout - http://www.techingmeout.com/
techJive - http://techjive.net/
TechJuicer - http://www.techjuicer.com/
TechJunction - http://eequalsmcsquare.com/technews/
TechMambo - http://www.techmambo.blogspot.com/
tech mixer - http://www.techmixer.com/
Technacular - http://www.technacular.com/
TechNayak - http://riteshnayak.com/blog/
TechNibble - http://www.technibble.com/
TechnoSailor - http://technosailor.com/
Techpuddle - http://techpuddle.com/
tech&tonic - http://www.techandtonic.com/
techUntangled - http://www.techuntangled.com/

So. techRivet's been up now for 4 months and I think it's time for a review.

• Peak traffic day: May 11. There were 3,343 page views and 1,825 visitors. Far and away the biggest day.
• Low traffic day: eh there've been some low twenties unique visitor days, typically Sundays
• total posts: 73
• Alexa Ranking: 547,909
• technorati ranking: 289,803
• Most commented post: Joost Invites - but ya gotta earn it.

Most popular posts:

Most un-appreciated posts

1. Brain implants, wetware and accelerating change.
2. Job v3.0 - 21st Century Jobs
3. The Moon and NASA and us
4. The Drake Equation - variable: ne not a catchy title.

Traffic comes mostly from:

1. stumbleupon.com
2. google.com
3. cascadeclimbers.com
4. digg.com
5. blog.scifi.com
6. thehotfix.net

Best linked in site (friends):

1. cascadeclimbers.com
2. blog.scifi.com
3. thehotfix.net
4. thepugetnews.com
5. blog.speculist.com

Thank you and now I return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

So I'm not going to put together a big comprehensive list of free software applications available for you, that's been done many times here are some links for that:

• Martin's List of Free Stuff.
• Best Free Utilities
• Scott Hanselman's 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
• PC Mag - The Best Free Software
• 121space - Ultimate list

Update here is a great list of everything.

• Mohawke's Best of the Best Free and Open Source Software Collection

In fact there are too many ones to choose from.  How do you know what to use?  Well I may not know the best (and if you have suggestions please let me know) but I have some that work great for me.

What I am going to put together is a media pack.  A suite of applications, if you will, that satisfy all your media needs.

techRivet's Free Media Pack

1. Audio:
   1. Listening: WinAmp. I've tried a bunch. Windows Media Player, iTunes, Media Monkey, MusicCube, Songbird...etc. And I keep coming back to WinAmp. It simply works. It synchs with my Creative:Zen flawlessly and is easier to use than the software that came with the player. I guess it doesn't have a few of the bells and whistles...but to play music it's king.
   2. Ripping: Free Rip MP3. Fight the power. No MS or Apple empire here man. Just rip at the bitrate you want, where you want it. Easy.
   3. Burning: I actually use a non-free app for this so I am looking for suggestions.  I use Nero because it came with one of the CDR drives I purchased last year. Suggestions Welcome.
   4. Manipulating: Audacity.  You can record anything you want with this.  I record my vinyl records onto my computer.  I have even recorded a song from a DVD onto my comp as an MP3 (a barbie song for my daughter)  I just took the line-out from the dvd player and voila'. Easy.  I am surprised how often I end up using this app.
2. Video
   1. Watching: Use what you want, no big deal in my opinion.  But the best free non-commercial app out there is VideoLan's VLC media player.  This thing plays ANYTHING.  The UI is very 1995 but everything else about it is golden.
   2. Converting: Just found this one and it has been the impetus for this post - Super.  This app will apparently convert anything into anything.  I had been trying to convert this one MP4 file into a DivX file using Dr. DivX but I just couldn't get it to pick up the audio track.  Well I downloaded Super and BANG! done and done.  DivX sa-weet.
   3. Ripping: eh?  Nero again.  Suggestions Welcome.
3. Graphics
   1. Managing: Picasa, duh!
   2. Manipulating: For the quick and dirty use Paint.Net.  If you have some skillz and want to do more use The Gimp.  I actually have a for pay app for this (Paint Shop Pro from Corel).   I'll include both in the pack.
4. 3D
   1. Now I don't have the time to mess with this but I'm just gonna throw it in cause it's so cool. Blender. You wanna make your own 3d movie? Well here you go.

And just so you know how helpful we are here at the Rivet I've gone ahead and put all these files together in one handy ZipFile. 

Here it is: techRivet Media Pack - (75 MB so you may want to get the pieces you want...).  That link appears dead, I will work on a new location today.  Anyone have any suggestions?

This is a living list so any and all advice and comments are welcome.

Update: While in the process of writing this little article I wanted to find a place to put the techRivet Media Pack without impacting my download restrictions at godaddy.com.  I thought it even money that I could find a free place for online storage.  I thought there might be someplace, but no way would it allow for a 75 MB file...Well there is a place: openomy.  It was touch and go as I uploaded, but I tested the download and it looks like it works fine.

Interesting it appears to be backed by Amazon's S3 storage service.

Update: Well openomy appears to not like that file anymore, I will find out what is going on.  Meanwhile I'll look for alternate locations.  Anyone have any great ideas?  Free online file storage and download?

Update: I know the issue now.  You need to sign up with openomy and be signed in and then you can download the entire pack.

It is a new look and feel. 

What do you think?