TechVivo

How to Install WordPress

Ruchir — Tue, 04 May 2010 06:34:28 +0000

Installing WordPress isn’t complicated as some people may like you to think. In fact, it’s very easy. Now, there are two ways to install WordPress on your web server: the first one being the cPanel route and the second is installing it manually via FTP. The latter method is unnecessarily complicated. WordPress is a breeze to install via cPanel and I recommend you install it the same way.

PS: Click on the images to see them in full size.

Here’s how you can install WordPress in 2 simple steps:

Step: 1 – Choose a Web Host with cPanel

The first step is to choose a WordPress-friendly web host that has cPanel and Fantastico. I personally recommend using HostGator – they have cheaper and better plans than others and their reputation is pretty good too.

Now that you have a host that has cPanel and Fantastico (or already had one), let’s move on to the second step.

Step: 2 – Fantastico

First, login to cPanel:

Then, click on the “Fantastico De Luxe” icon:

Now click on WordPress, under Blogs. Then click on New Installation:

You’ll now be seeing the following:

1. Select the domain you want to install WordPress on

2. Select the directory you want to install it in. Leave it blank if you want to install it on the root domain (like www.techvivo.com)

3. Type your username. You’ll use this to access the WordPress Admin.

4. Type your password. You’ll use this to access the WordPress Admin.

5. You can leave the text boxes under Base Configuration empty as you can edit them in the WordPress Admin panel later.

Finally click on Install WordPress.

On the next page, just click on “Finish Installation”:

You’ll now be presented with the following:

Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed WordPress on your domain! Be sure to bookmark the WP Admin URL (usually “yourdomain.com/wp-admin/”). You can also email yourself the details of the install in case you ever forget.

That was easy, wasn’t it?

How to Install WordPress

How to Download Facebook Videos

Ruchir — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:30:00 +0000

As you might already know, Facebook allows you to upload and embed videos to your profile. What Facebook doesn’t allow you to do is download those videos.

Here’s how to easily download videos from Facebook:

1. The Facebook Video Firefox Add-on

If you’re using Firefox (which you should be), then you should get the Facebook Video plugin to download videos from Facebook. The add-on adds new options on the video page, walls, and your inbox. The great thing is that these new elements just blend in and look like a part of Facebook, as if they were there all along. With this add-on, you can download Facebook videos, convert them to a different format (and then download them), and embed videos to any site outside of Facebook.

Click Here to Download

2. The Facebook Video GreaseMonkey Script

This one is pretty much the same as the Firefox add-on above, in terms of functionality. I personally use the Firefox plugin, but you can use this GreaseMonkey script instead if you want. Also, as its a GreaseMonkey script, you can use it in browsers other than Firefox, such as Google Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer.

Of course, you should already have GreaseMonkey installed if you want to use this script in Firefox.

Click Here to Download

3. KeepTube

But what if you only get the itch to download a video from Facebook once in a blue moon? Well, then Keep-Tube.com is for you. Its excellent for people who either don’t want to add yet another add-on to their Firefox installation or just don’t download videos from Facebook a lot.

All you have to do is copy the URL of the video page, paste it in the URL box, and click download!

There you have it, three ways you can download a video from Facebook.

How to Download Facebook Videos

Internet Download Manager (IDM) Review

Ruchir — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:58:59 +0000

What are Download Managers?

A download manager is a program solely for downloading files from the Internet. Download managers are a must if you download a lot. Not only do they keep your PC organized, they keep you productive. There are many download managers and today I’ll be reviewing Internet Download Manager.

Internet Download Manager

I’ve personally been using IDM for quite a while now, mainly because its user-friendly, and unlike some other download managers/accelerators – which are bloatware really – it has some really useful features.

Keeps Your PC Organized

In Internet Download Manager, or IDM, you can make categories and select which types of files will automatically be assigned that category. For each category, you can also choose the default folder where such files will be stored.

So, you can make a new category called “Images”, assign .png, .jpg, and .gif files to it, choose the “My Pictures” folder as the default folder, and IDM will download any image automatically to the “My Pictures” folder. You can do the same with any other file format.

As you can see, this keeps your PC organized and you don’t have to go on a PC clean-up mission every now and then.

Download Files Faster & Be Productive

IDM is also a download accelerator. Meaning that it splits the file into 4 or more parts and downloads them all the parts together, thus increasing your download speed. According to its website, it can speed-up download by up to 500%! Of course that’s only true if you have high-speed Internet – over 1 mbps. Otherwise, the download acceleration won’t be much.

Resume Files

Like most good download managers, IDM allows you to resume files. The great thing is IDM saves the file’s parts every few minutes, so you’ll be able to resume a file even if your PC crashed while it was downloading.

Scheduler & Queues

This is one of best features of IDM. IDM allows you to group files in queues so it’ll automatically download all the files in the queue, one after another, after you start the queue. You can also setup the scheduler so a queue will start at a certain time, say 1 AM. And you can even set it up to shut down your PC after the queue has been completed.

Speed Limiter

In Internet Download Manager, you can limit the speed at which files are downloading. This way your normal browsing won’t slow down to a crawl while you’re downloading stuff.

Browser Integration & Video/Audio Downloading

When you install IDM, it attaches itself to your browser. This enables you to download files using IDM in one click only, you don’t have to copy-paste the URL in IDM. So, whenever you click a download link, say a .zip file, IDM will start automatically and then ask you if you want to download it.

Another great thing about this download manager is that it can easily download videos and any audio on the web page. Whenever a web page has a video, IDM adds a “Download this video” button to the top-right of the video. This makes it very easy to download videos off YouTube in one click.

The Site Grabber

Site Grabber is a noteworthy feature of IDM. Site Grabber enables you to rip files from a website. You can download all the image files on the site, or videos, or the whole website itself. Although you won’t use it very often, it can be useful once in a while.

The Bottom-line

Sure, it might cost $29.95 but its well worth it. I’ve tested a lot of download managers – FlashGet, Download Accelerator Plus (DAP), GetRight, Free Download Manager (FDM), you name it. IDM trumps them all. With active developers and a boatload of features, you can’t go wrong with this one.

I fully recommend you get it:

Click Here to Get IDM (Internet Download Manager) Now!

Internet Download Manager (IDM) Review

7 RapidShare Download Managers

Ruchir — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:09:48 +0000

I hate RapidShare. With their annoying waiting time, captchas, and other such troubles, who doesn’t? Unfortunately, since RapidShare was the pioneer in the file sharing industry, people use it a lot and we have to put up with its annoyances. Fortunately, I’ve made a list of all the good download managers I could find that would ease your RapidShare downloading problems…

PS: Just before I start, let me mention that all the managers listed here have captcha recognition and will start downloading your files automatically after the wait time is over. So all you have to do is add your file and wait till it downloads; nothing else…

The RapidShare download managers listed below will make your downloading life easier:

Raptor

Raptor was the first ever RapidShare manager I tried out. Its fairly easy to use. All you have to do is click the add button and paste the link to the file. You can insert more than one link too if you want to download several files. Then just select the path where you want to save it and click Start Now. Simple as that!

The thing I didn’t like about Raptor is that it doesn’t have a scheduling option. You can’t tell it to start downloading at a certain time and then stop downloading after a few hours. However, it can restart, shutdown, or hibernate your computer which is great if you leave your PC on at night like me for downloading stuff. It also doesn’t come with an installer, so you can carry it on your flash drive.

Its simple; it may not be the best but it does the job…

Download Raptor

RapidShare Auto Downloader

This is one I used to use before I switched to another download manager recently (covered below). Again, its easy to use and unlike Raptor it even includes a scheduling option. Other features include antivirus integration – it will run your antivirus program and scan the files downloaded automatically. RAD can also shut down your PC after its done downloading files. Unfortunately, it can’t hibernate, restart, or put your computer in stand-by mode.

Its also not portable, unlike Raptor.

Download RapidShare Auto Downloader

jDowloader

After having tested jDownloader, I can say that its the best RapidShare downloader out there! While the interface may be a bit unintuitive, it has a lot of great features. One such feature is that you can group your files into packages which is very useful if you download stuff that’s split into many 100 MB parts as it keeps them organized. Another I should mention is that jDownloader supports more than 40 file sharing services, including RapidShare. You will never need another download manager for a specific service again!

It can shutdown or hibernate your PC, extract zipped/rared files automatically after they’ve been downloaded, and even has the option of reducing the downloading speed (useful when you’re surfing the web and don’t want your speed to slow down). It also has a scheduler, although it comes as an add-on, and it can refresh your IP after specific intervals (useful for those with dynamic IPs) so you can bypass RapidShare’s 15 minute wait automatically.

I will certainly be using jDownloader from today.

Download jDownloader

FreeRapid Downloader

FreeRapid Downloader is another great download manager. Its most useful feature is that it can use a proxy list to bypass those wait times after each download. Its also very easy to use and can check for file existence on the RapidShare server before it begins downloading. And did I mention that it supports many more file sharing services including RapidShare, MegaUpload, DepositFiles etc?

Download FreeRapid Downloader

CryptLoad

Although CryptLoad aims to be the “next generation” of downloaders, its far from it. There’s one main annoying thing about it: it only uses the clip-board to add files. Sure it also features packages, like jDownloader, but it’s almost impossible to move files between packages. CryptLoad isn’t fully translated into English yet, there are some words still in German.

I don’t recommend you use this one…

Download CryptLoad

RapidShare Plus

RapidShare Plus is very light weight (only 82 KB) and fairly basic. It can only download files and lets you choose the download folder, that’s pretty much it. Only use it if you need a light-weight, portable RapidShare download manager for your flash drive.

Download RapidShare Plus

RDown Firefox Add-on

A firefox add-on that downloads files from RapidShare for you. It’s very basic, having only the ability to start and stop. Only recommend for those who download from RapidShare once in a while. Its not meant for those who download RS files often.

Download RDown

For Premium Users: Internet Download Manager

If you are a premium RapidShare user, then Internet Download Manager is the best download manager for you. I’ll be writing a review of IDM in a few days, so stay tuned!

7 RapidShare Download Managers

An Update…

Ruchir — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:23:33 +0000

Hey guys, I know you’re wondering what happened to me and the blog. Well, I got sidetracked and just stopped posting. The great news is that my passion for TechVivo is back and I’ll start writing posts from tomorrow.

Here’s what you can expect in the coming weeks:

RapidShare (amongst other File Sharing sites such as MegaUpload and MediaFire) tips and tricks for making the most out of your downloading experience
Tools and resources for bloggers
Detailed reviews of useful products
Best WordPress themes and plugins
Shortcut lists, resource lists, and cheat sheets
Easy-to-follow How-to tutorials
and much more…

Stay tuned…

An Update…

How to Clear Firefox Cache

Ruchir — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:30:00 +0000

Firefox keeps a copy of certain elements on the web pages you visit, such as images, to load pages faster the next time you view them. In Firefox, it’s very simple to clear the cache. Here’s how you can clear Firefox’s cache in 2 easy steps:

Step: 1

On the menu bar, click on Tools. Then click Clear Private Data from the drop-down menu.

Step: 2

Now make sure Cache is checked. Uncheck all other options. Finally, click on Clear Private Data Now.

Voila! Your browser’s cache is now cleared!

How to Clear Firefox Cache

How to Open .docx Files and Documents

Ruchir — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:48:38 +0000

Microsoft introduced the .docx format in Word 2007. Even though the new software has its perks, it has one major problem currently. The problem is that previous versions of Microsoft Word can’t open the .docx format, and as many people still don’t have access to Office 2007, they can’t open .docx files and documents.

Here are some different ways you can open .docx files and documents:

1. Microsoft Compatibility Pack

If you have older versions of Word, then download the Microsoft Compatibility Pack to open your .docx files.

2. Convert to .doc Format

Another way to open .docx documents, without installing any additional software, is to convert the .docx files to the .doc format using an online service such as Docx Converter. Using Docx Converter, you can convert your docx file online for free. Then you can open and edit the .doc file using OpenOffice or any version of Microsoft Office.

3. Open XML File Converter for Mac

If you have a Mac with Office installed, the Open XML File Converter for Mac will convert your files so you can open and edit them in Office 2004 and Office v. X for Mac.

4. Word Viewer – If you don’t have Word

If you don’t have Word installed at all, then download Word Viewer. Word Viewer will let you view, print, and copy .docx (and .doc) files.

How to Open .docx Files and Documents

21 Essential WordPress Plugins

Ruchir — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:52:39 +0000

WordPress is nothing without its plugins, they are an integral part of any WordPress blog. Due to the overwhelming choice of WordPress plugins, though, it can be nerve wracking for any person to select the important ones for their blog.

So here I present to you 21 Essential WordPress Plugins. Your blog is incomplete without these:

1. All-in-One SEO Pack

The All-in-One SEO Pack is the ultimate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plugin out there. It automatically optimizes your blog for search engines, and has several options for the more advanced users.

2. Akismet

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not, and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s Comments admin screen. With the ever increasing amount of spam on the web, you’d be dumb not to get this plugin.

3. FeedBurner FeedSmith

The FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin detects all ways to access your feed (e.g. yoursite.com/feed/ or yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php etc) and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed, and optionally, your comments feed as well.

4. Google XML Sitemaps Generator

The Google XML Sitemaps Generator plugin generates an XML sitemap of your WordPress blog. Ask, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN support this format. Having an XML sitemap and submitting it to the search engines that support it can really increase your blog’s search engine visibility, especially when it’s new.

5. WordPress.com Stats

WordPress.com Stats is a traffic statistics plugin that shows only the most popular metrics a blogger wants to track – such as page views, referrers, top posts & pages, search engine terms, and clicks – and provides them in a clear and concise interface.

6. Sociable

Sociable automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages, and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites.

7. WP Super Cache

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Digg Effect and the Slashdot Effect. They can cause a server meltdown, and if you’re on shared hosting, get your ass kicked out. To Digg-proof your blog, get WP Super Cache. It reduces the load on your server b generating static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog.

8. One Click

The One-Click plugin allows you to upload themes and plugins straight to your WordPress blog from the browser. Just upload the zip file, and it’ll automatically unzip the contents and install the plugin for you. Now you never have to use FTP again!

9. Dashboard Widget Manager

Ever felt your dashboard was too cluttered? Then download Dashboard Widget Manager. It allows you to remove unnecessary widgets from your dashboard so it’ll look clean and load faster.

10. Exec-PHP

Exec-PHP lets you execute PHP code in posts, pages, and in the text widgets of your sidebar.

11. Google Analytics for WordPress

The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin lets you insert the Google Analytics code automatically throughout your blog. It discounts your own visits, automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links, and downloads. It even allows you to track AdSense clicks, add extra search engines, and track image search queries.

12. Lighter Menus

Lighter Menus creates drop down menus instead of the regular admin menus for WordPress, so you can browse items in one click. It’s fast to load, adaptable to color schemes, and comes with some sleek icons.

13. PageMash

Customize the order of your pages, manage their parent structure, and hide them, all using PageMash. It features an Ajax drag-and-drop administrative interface, and is a great tool to re-arrange the order of your pages quickly.

14. Simple Trackback Validation

The Simple Trackback Validation plugin helps to eliminate trackback spam by performing a simple a simple but effective test on all incoming trackbacks.

15. WP-Spam Free

Fed up of all that comment spam? Stop wasting time checking and clearing your Akismet spam queue every day and download WP-SpamFree. It will eliminate 99% – 100% of the comment spam you receive. Yep, I’m not joking. And it does it without captchas! WP-SpamFree uses a combo of JavaScript and cookies to stop the spambots. Since 99% of the spambots out there can’t process JavaScript, they won’t be able to submit comments. It also doesn’t slow down your blog one bit.

From the day I’ve installed WP-SpamFree, I’ve received zero comment spam! I highly recommend you get this one, unless you’re masochistic.

16. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) inserts a list of related posts below each post on your blog, and in your blog’s RSS feed. It’s extremely configurable, and a must-have.

17. Contact Form 7

Even though there are tens of contact form plugins out there, I’ve always liked Contact Form 7. The problem with most contact form plugins is that either they are too simple or way too complex. Contact Form 7, on the other hand, is extensible yet easy-to-use. It supports Ajax-powered submitting, multiple forms, CAPTCHAS, and Akismet spam filtering.

18. Manageable

Manage allows inline editing of the date, title, categories, tags, status, and more of both posts and pages without ever having to leave the “Manage” admin section. No need to load each post or page individually. Simply double-click anywhere in the post or page row and when you’re done, press enter.

19. WordPress Database Backup

You should always backup your WordPress database regularly. However, doing it manually every time can be difficult and time consuming. The WordPress Database Backup plugin lets you easily backup your WordPress database tables. You can even schedule a backup, and it’ll email the file to you every day!

20. OIO Publisher

OIO Publisher is the ultimate ad management plugin. It’s great for those who want to sell ads on their blog by themselves. The great thing about OIO is that it removes all the hassle one gets from self-selling ad space: you only have to approve purchases. OIO Publisher handles everything else. Using OIO, you can sell reviews, links, ads, and even your own products! Heck, it even allows you to create your own affiliate program, so other people can sell your ads and products for you.

21. SRG Clean Archives

The SRG Clean Archives plugin displays your archive listings in a clean and uniform fashion, that’s search engine and user-friendly, on a dedicated page or in your sidebar. If you’re still manually updating your archives page, stop doing it!

(Photo credit: teddY-riseD)

21 Essential WordPress Plugins

How to Open a Rar File

Ruchir — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:58:15 +0000

Wondering what that “Rar” file was that you recently downloaded? And how do you open it anyway? Well, look no further as in this article we’ll cover what Rar files are and how to open them.

What Is a Rar File?

Rar files are just like Zip files, they are both compressed archives. Just like a .zip file, a .rar file can contain many files and folders. It can also compress them using mathematical algorithms so that the files in it use much less space than they would otherwise.

The .rar is one of the most popular compression formats out there. In fact, it has become the standard for sharing files on file sharing sites and services like RapidShare, MegaUpload, and BitTorrent. People mainly prefer Rar because its compression algorithm is better than Zip and other file fomats.It creates much smaller archives, and more importantly, it allows you to split your file into multiple archives. In fact, the .rar format is a great way to save space on flash drives with small storage capacity. Because of such great qualities, the Rar is also a great way to backup your important files and folders.

Unfortunately, Windows (or any other Operating System, for that matter) doesn’t have built-in support for the Rar file format. So you can’t extract or “unrar” Rar files right out-of-the-box. Fortunately, a few good software programs do exist that allow you to open Rar files easily.

Here are two such programs, for Windows and Mac OS X respectively, with which you can open a rar file:

Open Rar Files on Windows

BitZipper

Supports Multiple Formats

BitZipper is a software program made to handle all sorts of archive formats. Not only can it open Rar files, but it can also open over 40 other archive (whether self-extracting or normal) and encoding formats (such as 001, 7z, ace, arc, arj, bh, bzip2, bz2, cab, chm, chw, cpio, deb, dmg, doc, enc, exe, gz, gzip, hfs, hxs, iso, jar, lha, lzh, lzma, msi, ppt, rpm, tar, tbz, tgz, txz, uu, uue, war, wim, xar, xxe, xz, xls, z, zip, zipx, and zoo)! With BitZipper, instead of having to install multiple programs to open such a multitude of archiving formats, you can now open all these with just one single program.

File Viewer

Unlike competing software programs, BitZipper has a built-in file viewer that allows you to view many image file formats – such as TIFF, JPEG, GIF, ICO etc – before you even extract them.

Simple, Familiar, and Easy-to-Use

The interface of BitZipper is very simple and easy to use. It kind of resembles the Windows Explorer. Just like in Windows Explorer, you can drag and drop files into and out of archives. It also provides easy-to-use wizards for creating and extracting archives and for creating backups. No more having to fiddle around with complex-looking interfaces.

Bulk Processing

BitZipper also supports the processing of many archive files at once. So if you want to extract 20 different archives then you can do so with BitZipper all at once. No more having to open each archive one-by-one.

Tab Feature

This is one feature I like the most about BitZipper. I’ve yet to see this in any other program that allows to open rar files. The tab feature works just like the tabs in your web browser – you can open each file in a new tab and work with them simultaneously by just switching between tabs.

Advanced Search

Finally, with BitZipper you can also search within the contents of the files within your Rar file without extracting it.

BitZipper is the best archive management software progam I’ve come across and certainly the best one that opens rar files.

Click here to download BitZipper

Open Rar Files on Mac OS X

Coming Soon…

How to Open a Rar File

How to Convert WMA to MP3 for Free

Ruchir — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:48:43 +0000

So you want to convert your Windows Media Audio (WMA) files to MP3? Fear not, here’s how you can convert them into the MP3 format, for free, in three easy steps:

Step: 1

Download and install FormatFactory.

Step: 2

After it’s installed, open the application. Click on Audio in the left column, and then click on All to MP3.

Step: 3

Now the window shown above will appear. Add the files you want to convert to MP3 and click OK. Finally, click Start on the main application window to convert your WMA file to MP3.

Depending on the file’s size, the process might take a few seconds. When it’s done, you can find your new MP3 file in My Documents > FFOutput (unless you changed the output folder, of course).

So, there you have it. You’ve now successfully changed your WMA file to MP3, for free.

How to Convert WMA to MP3 for Free