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July 31st, 2009
Archive
Archive for July, 2009
Catching Twitter Spammers – TweetBlocker
July 31st, 2009
All you twitter spammers BEWARE. TweetBlocker is here!
Aimed at being a spam fighting twitter application, TweetBlocker helps you weed out the spammy twitter accounts. On the homepage, you can check for any twitter users spam grade. Grades are from A to F with Grade A giving you a clean chit while Grade F indicating you might be a spammer.
You can login to the site and get a personal spam report which displays a detailed ranking of all the people you follow on twitter. You can easily block twitter users you think are spammers. Since TweetBlocker uses twitter oAuth, you should have no problem giving the site a try. Besides, its for a good cause.
The site provides an API for application developers to retrieve a twitter users grade as well as report a user as spammer.
There’s a bookmarklet which makes reporting spammers a breeze.
Quickie
- Check any twitter users spam grade
- Get your own personal spam report
- Uses twitter oAuth for authentication
- Bookmarklet for easy spam reporting
- API available for twitter application developers
Source : twi5.com
What are the Twitter limits?
July 31st, 2009
From the Twitter Help
Twitter started with a few limits based on various parameters, and they’ll be adding more as time goes on. They reveal some limits only when you reach them, and tell you about others in advance. Twitter currently applies limits to any person who reaches:
- 1,000 total updates per day, on any and all devices (web, mobile web, phone, API, etc. )
- 250 total direct messages per day, on any and all devices
- 150 API requests per hour
They’ve also placed limits on the number of people you can follow. The number is different for everyone, and is based on a ratio that changes as the account changes. If you hit a follow limit, you must balance your follower/following ratio in order to follow more people- basically, you can’t follow 50,000 people if only 23 people follow you. Based on current behavior in the Twitter community, They’ve concluded that this is both fair and reasonable.
Netsearch strategy to troubleshoot wordpress
July 31st, 2009
There are a variety of ways to search for the information you need. The biggest problem is finding the “words” that describe your problem. The next biggest problem is limiting your search to only WordPress resources or sites. Let’s look at how to do this.
Sometimes it’s easy to search using keywords because the problem you are having tells you what is wrong with it. Copy the most important words from the error, paste them into a text editor and take a good look at them. Here is an example:
Warning: main(/home/atlantis/public_html/wp-includes/ functions.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/stargateatlantis/ public_html/wp-settings.php on line 67 Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required '/home/atlantis/public_html/wp-includes/ functions.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php: /usr/local/lib/php') in /home/stargateatlantis/ public_html/wp-settings.php on line 67
Hidden within this information are the key words you need to help you get the answers.
Opening the files referenced, like functions.php, might help, but other files are often processed long before it gets to functions.php or wp-settings.php and the line number related to the generated file is not necessarily the line number in those template files. It might get you close, but maybe not.
From this error, though, you have some critical information to help you with your search. You know the names of the files that are causing the grief:
- functions.php
- wp-settings.php
These are part of the keywords that you will need to be looking for.
The specific errors are failed to open stream and failed opening required and they both happen within the wp-settings.php file. Maybe the problem isn’t in the functions.php but in the wp-settings.php file? And you see the words “failed” and “open” in both errors. That’s a clue.
Create a search in your favorite search engine that included the words:
wordpress failed open wp-settings.php
This should get you started on narrowing down the problem.
But not all keywords can be so easily found. If the problem is with CSS or HTML, you can include the specific tag or selector that has the problem, but this might not be the problem at all, so you need to hunt for words that describe your problem.
If there is a difference in your web page layout in Microsoft Internet Explorer and another browser, then search for information on Internet Explorer layout bugs. If you have a consistent error in the different browsers in the layout, which part of the layout is it affecting? The sidebar, header, post content, or comments? If the problem is the image in the header not showing up or not working right, then search for wordpress header image to start, then add the specifics like wordpress header image missing to narrow things down.
Where do I get help on Wordpress ?
July 31st, 2009
Besides the helpful WordPress forums and Codex, there are many sites dedicated to helping WordPress users use WordPress even better. WordPress help is everywhere. So how do you find it when you really need it?
The WordPress FAQ provides extensive answers to frequently asked questions. We’ve even included a document on how to use the WordPress support forums to get better results on your requests for help.
Before posting in the forums, since it is run by volunteers working hard over long hours when they could be doing something much more constructive, maybe you should start with a search.
To increase your search capabilities, you can add the Codex Searcher Plugin and search the Codex from your WordPress Administration Panels. Click on one of the search results and the page will open in a new window or tab so you can have the article open while working on WordPress.
What are Wordpress plugins ?
July 31st, 2009
Plugins are cool bits of programming scripts that add additional functionality to your blog. They offer new addition to your blog which either enhance already available features or add new features to your site.
Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress. The majority of WordPress users don’t require Plugins, or only require a few, such as Plugins dealing with comment spam or customized post listings. Other users enjoy the varied options Plugins provide such as frequently updated weather reports, post word counts, rating systems, and more. Since the choice in Plugins is vast, and chosen based upon the needs of the user, they are not incorporated into the core of WordPress.
WordPress Plugins are designed by volunteers and are free to the public. Plugins listed in the sources below have usually been thoroughly tested and considered “safe”. But remember, Plugins are the responsibility of the author and the user, and they are typically works-in-progress as WordPress grows and expands.
If you want to develop your own plugins, there is a comprehensive list of resources at Plugin Resources.
Yuck ! Virus in my USB !!
July 31st, 2009
The most easiest way to get your computer infected with a computer virus is to use your friends USB on your computer. You just copied a few songs and got all the computer viruses and worms for free
Ever wondered how does these virus “automatically” infect your computer as soon as you insert the USB? Well, its the magic of autorun.inf file in the USB drive. All the startup information of the virus is written in the autorun.inf file so that its the first program that runs when you insert the USB. You can read more about autorun.inf at this wikipedia page.
But now there is no need to worry even if you don’t know the syntax of the autorun.inf files. You can use AutorunEater to protect your computer from these virus.
How To Use AutorunEater To Stop Viruses In Infected USB Drives?
1. Grab the latest version of AutorunEater here.
2. Install it. Then right click on its icon in the notification area or system tray and click on Add Billy To System Startup option.
That’s it. Now AutorunEater will automatically start with Windows. It continuously scans all the removable drives just like an antivirus program scans your system files. As soon as you insert a USB drive, it will scan it for all the autorun.inf files and will prompt a warning window if a malicious autorun.inf file is found. You can then delete the file and the poor virus will never get a chance to infect your system
Source : HackTrix
Are Meta Tags needed for wordpress sites ?
July 30th, 2009
A good question to ask is if meta tags are still necessary. They used to be more helpful, providing important information to the Internet browser. As browsers became more sophisticated, they stopped needing a lot of hand holding in order to figure out if your site is in English or Chinese.
Some search engines don’t use the meta tag information any more because many people abused it. In fact, meta tags may not represent the content of your site. But, it still doesn’t hurt your status with search engines if you make use of these little bits of information, and do so truthfully.
Without a doubt, content is the biggest contributor to search engine page ranking, so if you want to raise your rankings, make sure you have quality content.
Keywords meta tags, on the other hand, are still used by some search engines to categorize and rank your website. Those engines compare the keywords with the content, giving you “points” for having your keywords match your content. Keywords are one of the most important meta tags you can add to your WordPress site.
Become a Twitter Ninja
July 30th, 2009
How Twitter changed my life
July 29th, 2009
