what powers my blog or rather should i say web site!

Now that I am finally getting my blog in neat order (there’s still more to do and lack of time) I thought I should show some gratitude towards technology and services that make my site/blog look so cool and fast at a next to nothing cost.

1. WordPress – I do not need to reiterate the excellent FREE service WordPress offers for amature bloggers like my self. Wow and I love the templates! It certainly beats templates offered at Blogger. I am still new to WordPress and I will glorify this service as it continues to impress me.

2. Google Apps – The new domain name http://www.shinydiscoball.net was registered for just $US 10 via Google Apps and partner Enom. I know this is the standard price for a domain name these days but…you get a pretty sweet deal for that price registering through Google. Essentially it’s a FREE service! First of all you don’t just get a domain name with empty spaces to fill in DNS entries but a fully hosted solution with moderate web space and most of all Google powered and hosted mail! Which means I can have anyaddress @ my domain as my Gmail. Sweet huh?

I have to mention that Enom (the actual domain registrar) offers better features than GoDaddy. I have not-for profit web site powered by Google Apps but domain registered with GoDaddy. I was highly disappointed when I realised that they don’t have sub domain forwarding with URL masking? Why?? Enom certainly has this feature and I’m glad Google randomly picked Enom as the registrar. Other thing I noticed was the domain parameter change response time. I was simply amazed by how quickly when I make a change to my domain via Google or Enom settings how quickly it came to effect. Split second after registering the domain it self I was able to access it via my web browser. Maybe my ISP has super sensitive DNS resolvers.. lol back in the days what ever DNS changes you make you’d have to give an hour at least to be safe.

3. Windows Live Writer – Still in Beta, this nifty little FREE (i love free software) tool by Microsoft is THE blog publishing tool. Not too complicated like a web authoring tool or a word processing tool. Simple, elegant, user friendly, only essential features and most of all it works! Still haven’t had any connectivity issues (touch wood) and the publishing aspect is just so seamless.

In summing things up I will be able to have a kick ass looking blog with minimal efforts at publishing as long as the above 3 services continue the way it is =) Long live WordPress, Google Apps and Windows Live Writer… and of course the Internet!