In the last few blog post we talked about:

• How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way
• Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain

Now we can talk about setting up WordPress, although this probably won’t be a long topic.  I feel it is necessary to help people feel less stressed in setting up a blog.   Most of my family don’t have a clue how I set mine up, and I am thinking they are uncomfortable because this is foreign to them.   I intend to try to easy everyone’s stress levels by explaining it in a more relax atmosphere.

As most people will know I started my blog 3 Years ago, and haven’t stop blogging sense.   Some would call this what a blogger does.   I call this an experience, because what I’ve learned over the last three years is priceless.  As you can tell when I started my blog I was clueless about how to blog.   Over the 3 years I’ve learned a lot and a glad to be part of the blogging community.   It’s been a long process but a really fruitful one.

Photo by: Terry Mun

Now I am wanting to pass the experience onto new users on.  Most people will expect a website management to be hard.   Creating a website even harder, here I will talk about installing it.

One way to install WordPress is through some Hosting providers website tools they offer to install WordPress for free.   They basically use a script to install WordPress.   Usually they are a version behind the last release of WordPress, now since WordPress has also integrated upgrades you can easily upgrade after your install the older version.

The other way is just as simple, You can install it using an FTP upload.  Now I am so glad WordPress has a tutorial for this.  I had to use it at least once in the three years to install WordPress.  You would however have to download the WordPress zip file and make a sub directory, calling it WORDPRESS and extract into that then upload that whole directory to either your main or sub directory.   If you’d think it is hard, I would argue it isn’t.    This way only took me 10 minutes at best to upload and install.

Anyway you choice is a quite a simple setup, If you follow the instructions and tutorial step by step.   There should be no problems.   Although no matter how good you are there have been problems in the past with installation and that might need to be dealt  by the hosting provider technical support.   Each hosting provider should have a way to contact them to resolve and you should not hesitate to call them for technical support they are there to make you succeed.

In the next blog post we will talk about Securing You WordPress Blog and why.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

So you wroke up with this problem, of can’t find the program called updater.exe or it tries to access the internet.  Here are some things you should check out to make sure it isn’t a virus:

• Hijackthis –  This will help determine if a virus changed the program.   You would need to check to see where this so called Updater is by search for it.
• Firewall and Anti-virus Software –  You should check to see if you have the updates for that or if you don’t you should have them installed.
• Do an online scan — This might also reveal if there is a virus or not.

It is most likely a Windows function but you should be cautious when things like this happen and you should check to make sure it is what it says it is.  Some people from WOW have had this problem in the past.  So it could just be a program that didn’t update the right way or a Trojan or Virus.  You should use Autopatcher to patch your system to  be sure it is up to date.  Remember if the system isn’t patched that gives the Virus people a chance to install malware into your system and you know you don’t want that.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

So you have a website and you’d like the site to pay for itself. That can be arranged it however depends on your website performance. You see you won’t make a lot of money if you don’t have several things going for you. I thought I share with you my experience with making money through Adsense. As you saw, I made enough money to pay for the website for 5 years. It isn’t hard to make money it is however very difficult to keep getting the money. Most people don’t know the tricks to making money with Google’s Adsense.

I’m here to help you out a little with understanding it and getting even more money from your adsense.   So here we are 3 months into to putting Adsense seriously on my site and let’s take a look shall we:

As you can see I started off quite slowly as I figured out how to best do it but gained momentum after that.    First Month I made $17.19 and the Second Month I made $45.57, the last month I made $64.99 totaling $127.75 leaving me with 16.75$ from the few previous months that I tinkered with Adsense.   So where do you start?  I found that to be the hardest part, because of the complexity of where I could put the ads.   I tried having strips breaking up the text in my blog post that really didn’t get me hardly any clicks.  Then I started to incorporate the Adsense into the posts.  I learned how to do it through a great blog post and I’ll talk about that later.   Here’s what you need to know right now though:

• Create good content –  This goes without saying that if you don’t have good content people will never find your site.   There are a multitude of ways to create content.   Some of the most useful for me is How-to, finding a Niche, and Also just blogging about what you passionate about.   These will often draw people to your website.
• Gjaylaramieet people to link to your post –  This will help with search engines because they do some math to figure out if your a real site and how trustworthy your site is on the internet.
• Use Microblogging –  It is well known people use Twitter, Friendfeed, and others a like to tell people what they post about.   It can be great place to help promote your blog and get people to come more and more to your site.
• Try not to annoy the users with Ads — This is the most important if you want people to come back to your site you should make sure you don’t send people away from your site.  People will not want to come back if you annoy them to much.   So it is essential that you keep them happy.
• Find a good blog theme — A good theme helps bring people to your site by making it easier to read and find what they are looking for.  You might also consider making a sneeze page to keep people coming back to your site.  This will help your readers and make it more of your own.  You might also want to buy a theme for your blog sooner or later.

With These tips and tricks you too could be on your way to having a great blog.   I would be willing to bet that soon I will be triple that amount if I keep up with what I am doing.   I hope you tell people about this blog and let people know how good this blog is for you.   Remember only you can prevent virus infections.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

I’ve had Roboform for the last few months checking it out working with it seeing what is the pro’s and cons of it. Here’s what I’ve found out.

Limited number of passwords for non-license (Limited to 10 passcards – login information and password) — This doesn’t surprise me in fact once I’d started using it I had to buy it. You see I’ve got so many places I like to visit and so many logins it isn’t easy to track them all. This helps me login to each and everyone of them very easily. Although if you only have a limited amount of sites the free version will work well for those people too.

Defeats Key loggers — This is good for those who have family members who use the same computer just in case someone installs a virus that tries to steal your sensitive information. Can be put on a portable thumb drive with use to a library or open platforms. This also will prevent key loggers from getting your login information.

Generates strong passwords — This is a must in my field, I’m so tired of having to come up with a password. Now this is generated on the fly. Click a button and you have a password generated. Tried this out on several sites that would tell you how strong it is and all of the said excellent.

Works with Firefox, Internet explorer, and MSN/AOL — Now being that I don’t have a MSN or Aol I do not know this I have however tried this on Internet explorer and Firefox very easily. It works well with Vista no major problems. I have tried it with Google Chrome and it seems not work at all with it. I do not know if they will start supporting it and only time will tell!!

Backing up your passwords — it is really easy to back up your passwords database on Roboform. Just copy and paste and your done. No needing to find a hidden Directory, Roboform Database for Vista is in the My Documents folder under “My Roboform Data” Folder. All you need to do is copy that to a USB key and no worries Roboform automatically encrypts the passwords so without the Master password you can’t use them.

No need to remember Passwords — Yes that is right you no longer have to worry about remembering your passwords all you have to do is click a button and Roboform fills the required input forms. It can be annoying if you use the free version because you only can save 10 passwords then the rest you will have to remember.

Easily speed through login screens — This is the best part of Roboform because no more having to type in the site you need to go to login. Roboform does that for you without any problems. You just pick where you want to go and Roboform takes you through and fills the information in before you know it. I absolutely love this feature because You don’t have to type in the place you want to go it will automatically take you there.

Roboform has several version — Roboform can be made portable and also be put on PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant) or a Mobile Phone(Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, or Blackberry). This is great for those who need to have your passwords on more than one type of device. Keeps it safe like big brother still need a master password to get to it. It also makes it just as easy to surf to the important websites with ease.

Download Roboform:

• Roboform
• Roboform2Go

To Buy Roboform:

• Roboform
• Roboform2Go

I strongly recommend this to anyone who has problems remembering passwords or want to upgrade there passwords to the next level.  This will ultimately protect you far better than trying to remember all your passwords.   This however is a personal and this will not protect you 100% but will get far closer to the 100% than just doing it alone.  Remember only you can protect your sensitive data and nothing else can stop password stealing 100% of a time.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

So you bought a modem, and you’re not getting the speed you expected.

Yep it is unavoidable to not get that broad band speed you expected from buying a Cellular Modem and you want to learn more about what can affect your upload/download speed on the modem.   Each carrier has there own specific speeds or usage.  We will go through each and everyone one them talking about the kinds of speeds:

• EVDO — is known as Evolution-Data Optimized and is most commonly around the major city areas. It is sometimes consider 3G and is considered the fastest in the industry. Although there are always going to be debates on who is the fastest, it really doesn’t matter because of the limitations of the networks.
• GPRS — General Packet Radio Service and is also part of the 3G network but requires different frequency to acquire the signals from the tower. This is used in lower end of companies due to the fact it is easier to maintain than EVDO, but the speed is still comparable to all the other 3G family because of the interdependency of the connectivity.
• WiMAX — Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and The technology provides up to 75 Mb/s symmetric broadband speed without the need for cables. The technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard (also called Broadband Wireless Access).

There are so many of them to talk but each of these can help you understand what the differences of these are and what do they mean.  My cellular modem is using EVDO from Cricket Wireless and have not had any major problems yet.   Others would use GPRS or WiMax or even the others, but it still is important in understanding each has its own speed and flaws.

So does it matter if I am I’m close to the tower?

In short yes but as long as you have a couple towers in the are it shouldn’t really matter.  You should still get the speed you thought you were going to get when need it.

Is Cellular modems really Broad band?

In truthfulness the true broad band speed is actually FIOS and Cable right now because they can handle he download and upload speed.  Most companies consider broad band to be something faster than dial-up.

So How do you get better speeds?

Each network is different, it can vary from time to time due to network congestion or if they are having problems with the network.   Some things to consider when you are getting bad speeds are updating your modem in one way or another.   You might also consider checking out your area to find all the cellular towers are and to be able to direct the modem in the right way.  You can also try to purchase a cellular antenna to better get what speeds your looking for.  That might get you some better speeds than what you were getting.

These tips and tricks will better get your speeds up on your modem.   This should also help you understand the truth behind broad band.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

This is really a sad day for people,  According to NPR themselves they are laying off 64 position and 21 other positions.   I’ll quote:

Companywide, NPR is laying off 64 people and eliminating 21 other positions that are currently vacant. NPR News will still have more than 800 employees on staff, including about 300 journalists.

[Via NPR]

This is another Layoff that people don’t want to hear about but will.   NPR isn’t laying off a lot of people but they have been doing the news for quite some time.   I feel bad for all the people that are getting laid off and had to tell people about this little development.  If you like what you see, I’ve got some great tips and tricks for people looking to get hired.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

This just came from USA Today, According to them and I’ll quote:

Office Depot plans to close 112 underperforming retail stores in North America over the next three months. In addition, 14 stores will be closed in 2009 as their leases expire or other lease arrangements are completed, it said.

The retailer will also close six of its 33 distribution centers in North America, and says it plans to open about 20 stores in 2009, down from an earlier estimate of 40.

[Via USAToday]

Although this isn’t talking about layoffs but this will greatly impact people who will be jobless due to the closings.   SO I wanted to talk about how many per store,  I estimate it will be like 20 people per store on average.   So that will be around 2,500 people will be jobless in the stores and I don’t know how many people will be jobless from the distribution center.   If you want to check out my other posts just click here.  If you search my site you will find even more tips and tricks to better help you be ready for the job market.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

In my recent post, I talked about a Virus that is circulating around on Facebook.  It is know as the Koobface virus and has been changed a little by the programers.   So I what is Techworld saying, just this:

In fact, Koobface is now using one of Facebook’s own features against it, Lovet said. The latest variant uses Facebook’s ability to redirect web links to drive users to malicious websites, often hosted on Geocities.com, Lovet said.

[Via Techworld]

If you have been victim to this little virus, you should check out my Virus removal page and download the programs that should fix this little virus for good on your system.  You should also check out my Previous post I also have some good tips and tricks to prevent the user(YOU) from getting hit by this virus in the first place. This virus is a Good social engineered virus, so please be careful.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

Trojan-PSW:W32/Sinowal.CP drops and loads a password stealing component on the infected system and tries to steal account information from it. It also tries to steal information that is required to access certain online banks’ and online payment systems’ websites.

[via F-secure]

It seems to be a very hard virus to remove but there are ways to get rid of this virus.   Some tips and tricks to get rid are:

• Check out my Anti-Virus Page
• Computing.net
• The Geek Police
• How to Detect Sinowal

This are the beginning steps to get rid of a Virus but it will be a really hard virus because it wants to stay in your system.  You should also Restart in Safe mode and Try to remove that virus that one.   You will also want to disable your system restore due to the fact that it will be in there and might come back if you restore your system.  Just some simple tips to help keep you safe on the net.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

So you have all this mail you want to back up in case something terrible happens to your hard drive.  So here is ways to backup your email and other programs in Vista.  I think Vista has a new way of keeping program profiles in an hierarchical setup.  So what is the HIDDEN directory it is:

C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Now as you can see your Thunderbird profile is in a hidden directory in the AppData Directory.  You can easily get to the hidden directory by typing %appdata% {enter} in the search bar of Vista.  Now How do you backup and restore.   The program I use to backup is GoodSync.  I send the data to the cloud and when I need it I can restore it back to the directory. Now what about restoring, if you have to do a complete re-install of Thunderbird you can always copy over the back up to the Thunderbird Profiles directory and install Mozilla Thunder bird and it should see it.   If by chance you load up Thunderbird and you have to re add everything you would have to delete everything in that directory and then restore from the back up.

It is also a good idea to backup all the roaming directory from time to time.  This way you have every important program needed in case of a problem with your drive.    These are just a few tips and tricks to keep your data safe from having problems in the long run.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

If your have been having problems with Flash Players stoping after 2 seconds of playing.  I have a few ideas to try to get rid of the problem.  It used to happen all the time with Vista in the early days.  Here’s what I did to occasionally get the flash player to work:

• Cleaning out the Prefetch Directory! — Having seen this from time to time. If you have programs startup that might need to be refreshed this will refresh them so that they run like new. You occasionally can get programs that will load in a odd way and this will fix that also.

• You want to be more anonymous? — Cleaning out your cache on your browser can sometimes fix the problem. It’s like anything else it can sometimes be corrupted.

• Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! — Having seen this with my own two eyes, if you have a viruses or malware on your system that too can cause problems with playback of flash media.  So just double check making sure you don’t have any viruses.
  

• Adobe Flash tips and Tricks! — Also having found this out.  Adobe actually keeps the flash video on there servers cached or sometimes somewhat buffered to help with playback.  Clean the cache out at the source sometimes fixes the problem also.

Now having used some of these tricks to get flash players to run has on occasion worked for some strange reason or another.  Although I don’t know if this will fix the 2 second playing video problem I get the feeling it should since in theory it has everything to do with cache and corruptions of the files. If you can come up with some other tips or tricks to fix the problem let me know!!

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

With the Recent Comcast deciding to declare how much of bandwidth you can use.  I decided to talk about how to limit your bandwidth.  So Here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of your bandwidth:

Chapter 1 – Understanding your Wireless Router : This is a must.  This chapter talks about how to access your router and and how what is an IP!!

Chapter 2 — 10 Ways to keep your wireless router Secure – This one will help with those pesky neighbors who are leeching of your internet and Bandwidth!

Chapter 3

• Turn off Auto Update to Unimportant programs : Having several programs checking for updates can start to add up.  Although this is a small amount of bandwidth.  It will give your that extra amount.
• When not using your Internet turn off your Modem : This one is the most useful because when your not using your internet just turning off the modem will prevent you from using to much bandwidth.
  
• Use a program like AppSnap to update your programs : Having told you that you should stop auto-updating on some of programs.  Here is how you can update manually.  This little program will check most of what you have installed on your system and will let you know which ones have available updates.  This should be done once a week or every other week!!
• Use a Program like GoodSync to perform backups : Know that some people have backups in the cloud this will greatly reduce the amount of bandwidth your system will use to upload to the cloud.  Get an E3 Amazon account and use the program to back to E3.
• By an External Backup Hard Drive : This option is also good for people who have the need for all the bandwidth possible.  Buying an external hard drive for use as backup is also a good idea so that way you don’t depend on your internet bandwidth.   Just remember when you do a backup take it off site just in case of a fire or earthquake or something like that.   Might be time to buy a Safety Deposit Box, and use that.
  

In an Upcoming post I will be discussing the program or tools you need to  monitor your bandwidth!  This is going to be a must for thos who need to monitor you monthly bandwidth per month.  I will be looking into some of the options available to you for free.

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.

So We’ve talked about how to get Vista to shut down better.  So I thought we talk about getting Windows XP programs to run on Vista and be more stable.  You can do this with Windows XP, ME, 2000, NT,. and 95 programs.

• Run the program in compatibility mode – This is something Vista comes with now for running old programs in Vista. To do this you will have to do some minor things.  Go to where the program is and right click on the program.  Select properties>compatibility.  Select “Run this program in compatibility  mode for:” Select  windows Operating System that you think would work with the program.

• Run the program as Administrator –  This is a really good tip and trick to sometimes get programs to run with vista.  It goes hand in hand with the last one.  Right click on the program and select “Run as Administrator”.  I find some old programs don’t know about the kernel protection in Vista and you need to give them permission to use the kernel for the program to work.

• Give the program special access –  Yes this one takes a little skill but should fix some of the problems with vista and old programs.  Right click on program and select properties.  Select security, and then select the group you want to associate with it.  I always suggest putting it in the administrator group because of the problems with Vista and the kernel.

These few tips and tricks will greatly increease the likely hood of a old program to run in Vista.  Now remember if you have a Vist x64 Version you might need to do the Run as Administrator more than not.  I am not sure why I just know it is sometimes required.  Let me know what other tips and tricks you use with Vista and I’ll be sure to pass them along!!

©2010 . All Rights Reserved.