For those of us who can’t come up with a pleasant color scheme to save our socks, there’s an online tool that may help save your “visual bacon.”

It is called “ColorSchemer” and it allows you to pick a primary color and will then generate a 16-color matching palette showing the actual colors, hex color notation and RGB values.

It also has “Lighten Scheme” and “Darken Scheme” buttons that change the entire palette one color at a time.

The online version is free and there is also a commercial version with a color wheel that looks like it makes color selection a lot less frustrating.

Check it out at ColorSchemer.com

Granted, there are a lot of PC security web sites and companies are falling all over themselves to entice you to buy their latest protection program. However, the guy running AuditMyPC.com is someone who puts their best foot forward and offers free tools to assess you security weak spots — with no strings attached. There’s information about why you should be concerned about “security” and then there’s a support forum where you can ask additional questions and actually get answers.

In fact, here’s a sample of the specific kind of help available on their forum.

===== From Their Forum/Helpdesk ========================

Question: “How do I keep my browser from showing up in my AWStats for my web site?”

The user had few visitors and felt that his activity managing and upgrading his site was skewing his numbers. (I confess, I have a few sites with the same issue! I spend more time on them than all of my visitors put together.)

Answer: (This may look a little jumbled because it’s only part of the answer from their forum. The rest of the thread is at http://www.websecurity.mobi/computer-help/90-awstats-do-no-record-my-pc.html.)

Use AWStats.conf file to block a specific ip address or browser identified by the “useragent” tag.

===================================================================
I added the line: SkipUserAgents=”Mozilla/5.0cr” to the line directly below ‘ SkipHost=”" ‘ at line 259 in home/tmp/~domainname~/awstats.conf
===================================================================

Now, whenever you visit your site, your activity will be recorded, but NOT factored into the statistics, such as visitors, hits, pages, etc. This is because there is no other Mozilla/5.0r (r for roger) except your browser and we are excluding that user agent.

Here’s a couple of paragraphs from their “About Page:”

Welcome! AuditMyPC.com is a vulnerability assessment, privacy test, research and security information site. This site was designed to promote security awareness - free of charge!

The site was designed to be aesthetically pleasing and allow fast and easy navigation. The last thing a user new to security needs is a complicated site littered with hard to read material and nested pages. The information this site provides about your system is available to any site. The purpose here is not to scare, it’s to make you aware.

Personally, I think this is the kind of web site people should use as a model. Yes, they monetize their site using Adsense and a few banners, but there’s more information than advertising. And no, I don’t have a relationship with the web site or its owner. I just think it’s a great web site — low on hype and heavy on resources and help. (Just my two cents worth.)

In the internet marketing arena, it seems like there has been a chasm between what experts and authors teach and what most of us need to make personal and financial progress toward building a business.  You’ve read the books, clipped the articles and attended the seminars.  You get all hyped up, and eagerly try the newest techniques and methods.  Somehow the latest “secret sauce” superduper program is going to turn your ship around.  Ten days later, you’re asking yourself what all the excitement was about.  And, you’ve found another “secret blueprint” that doesn’t seem to live up to its claims.  Your “ship” still isn’t moving very fast.

Michael Cheney, a veteran internet marketer, has produced a video series that helps bridge the gap between wanting and getting.  He clearly lays out what you need to do, how to think, what to eat and most importantly, how to “feel.”  I think this is the first time I’ve run across a well-known marketer who sticks his neck out and actually discusses the more esoteric aspects of becoming successful. 

It’s clear Michael understands the inter-relationships of health, energy, attitude, knowledge, self-discipline and responsibility.  He’s managed to put these concepts in bite-sized pieces (under 5 minutes) that anyone can view, enjoy and understand.  He’s actually quite funny and his messages are on target.  You can view what he’s produced to date at getmomentumtv.com.

If blogging is your passion, then the FireFox + ScribeFire duo is an excellent platform to further your pursuits. ScribeFire 1.4.5 is the latest update to the FireFox add-on that can be used to “remotely” post to your WordPress, Blogger or Windows Live blog while sitting on another web site. It is a call-on-demand tool that remains hidden under a small icon on the FireFox status bar. Unless you know where to look, you’ld pass it up thinking it was a status icon.  But, when you press the button, blogging gets a whole lot easier.

Once you’ve set up your blogs (ScribeFire can handle multiple blogs and has an automated blog setup feature) making a post is as simple as clicking your blog’s link, entering your title, typing your post, then hitting “publish.”  That’s all there is to it.

ScribeFire automatically pulls in your latest posts, the current blog’s category list, and all the “pages” (static pages) from your blog.  You have the option of creating a new post, editing an existing post,  creating a new static page, or editing an existing page.

If you decide to edit an existing page, ScribeFire puts a “Publish as Edit” button at the bottom.  A nice (and smart feature) that will help keep you from “blog confusion” is the “Publish Button.”  When you create a new post, the text on the publish button says “Publish to “YourBlogsName.com”" so you can see where the post is going.  (As you work with ScribeFire and do more of posting without being anywhere near your blog, you’ll appreciate this feature.

Version 1.4.5 added a drop-down font list, support for Wordpress’ “< ! - more - >” tag, and a confirmation dialog before deleting a note.

Screenshot of ScribeFire in action.