The Playground

Meme: Wikipedia Names Your Band

2009-02-22T07:43:55Z

A new meme is making the rounds that is fun and actually very good. The Buzzfeed version says:

<blockquote>New meme: here's a totally random way to make your new random band's new random album cover. Post one! Go to "Wikipedia." Hit "random" and the first article you get is the name of your band. Then go to "Random Quotations" and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. Then, go to Flickr and click on "Explore the Last Seven Days" and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.</blockquote>

And here's mine:

Name of Band: Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man

Album Title: Out of a Job

Album Cover:

Overloaded with MP3s? Sell Them on Bopaboo

2008-12-13T23:32:26Z

If you have loads of unwanted tunes on your PC then there's now a way to get cash for them. Bopaboo is a new marketplace that provides users with a legal way to buy and sell digital music, and offers you a place where you can make money selling your previously purchased digital music. To get started, you upload your unwanted MP3s, set up an online store, and name your price. Sellers can promote their Bopaboo Store on their own websites or social networking profiles. Unfortunately, the Private Beta is available only to users from the United States.

Site Maintenance and Housekeeping

2008-11-28T12:49:12Z

I spent the better part of tonight cleaning up around 50 posts on Toni's Corner of the World that weren't displaying in the monthly archives properly. The headings were there, but that's all. When I checked to see what the problem was, it seems that all the entries that had ASCII code inserted had errors, and I had to use the character instead of the code. In most cases it was an apostrophe, or three dots, or a copyright symbol. For some reason I ended up with that black triangle with a question mark in the middle.

While I was fixing those errors I came across lots of bad links on the older entries. I upgraded to Movable Type 4.2 recently, and changed the format for the entry names. Instead of 0005328entry_list.php they're now called entry_list.php (without the leading numbers), and so any links to other entries were returning the dreaded 404 page. I've managed to clean them up from September 2006, but I'll need to go back to December 2004 and check the links on each entry. A time-consuming task.

Checking your entries for errors is a normal part of site housekeeping which we all need to do from time to time. Usually I don't look at old entries on my blogs and it's easy for errors to go unnoticed.

TypePad Anti-Spam: The Best

2008-11-09T09:49:18Z

The image on the left is a system-wide snapshot from October 25, followed by a snapshot from today. Obviously the spammers are loving my sites more and more, because the default on all my blogs is to delete the spam after 14 days. There's definitely been an increase in the number of times I've been hit.

TypePad Anti-Spam is doing the best job of all the anti-spam tools I've used on Movable Type over the last 4 years, and I've used quite a few different approaches over those years, sometimes relying on MT but most often relying on plugins or a combination of plugins, including comment challenges. I posted how pleased I am with TypePad Anti-Spam very recently, and have written numerous posts on the virtues of other plugins over time, but I can't stress enough just how good this latest Movable Type product is. I've had no spam comments, but plenty of trackback spam, and TypePad Anti-Spam hasn't missed a beat marking the nasty ones.

Broadband Speed Test

2008-10-30T12:41:54Z

If your internet connection seems slow or you're just curious about your download or upload speeds, it's quick and easy to test and compare your results.

Speedtest.net is a broadband connection analysis tool with a huge selection of geographically dispersed testing servers. Speedtest.net measures the performance of your broadband connection. At the end of each test, you are presented with the download (the speed of data from the server to your computer) and upload (the speed of sending data from your computer to the server) bandwidth speeds. The tests are performed completely within your web browser over HTTP (just like normal web browsing).

Out of curiosity, I took the broadband speed test tonight and was impressed with my results. The interface is graphic, so you can click anywhere in the world to check your speeds. My first test was close to home and fairly quick. I was surprised with the second test, being half-way across the world and the download speed was quicker. After checking the result summary page, however, I was disappointed to see that my connection speed is only half as fast as other users who have the same ISP, and only one-third as fast compared to an Australia-wide comparison.

Speed Up Your Boot Time

2008-10-11T00:38:53Z

If you're like me, then you have a mile-long list of programs that start when your Window PC boots. You can delay some non-essential programs so they don't run until later, making your Windows boot a whole lot faster.

Startup Delayer allows a user to place a delay on each of their startup programs, so that they each have time to launch before another begins making demands on the disk and CPU. It is very simple to use, just drag a program from the listing to the white bar below. A line will appear indicating how long it will be from startup before this program begins. Drag another program to a different spot, and there is a second line. Drag the lines around to lengthen or shorten the gaps. You can also choose to autospace each application. Any program not explicitly delayed by you starts up normally.

TweetBeep for Twitter Users

2008-09-21T07:19:59Z

If you're a Twitter user and you want to know who's talking about you or your site, then TweetBeep is for you.

TweetBeeps will send you an email when a tweet matches your keywords. This sounds like a great idea for tracking lots of discussions. It will even search for a mention of your site if the link has been shortened with sites like tinyurl or urlshrinker.

You can add alerts for your name, your nickname, your website, your product, your company, even your passion.

Signing up is quick and easy. You can base your alerts on a domain, or on keywords, and add as many as you like.

Typepad Anti-Spam Doing A Great Job

2008-09-19T12:21:21Z

I've had lots of problems with spammers over the years and have tried a number of different products and plugins trying to fight them off. Typepad Anti-Spam is doing a fantastic job, as you can see from the number of blocked comments and trackbacks. There's 8 blogs on this system and so far nothing has passed through that shouldn't have. Sometimes I've had to "unspam" a comment or two, but that's rare.

TypePad AntiSpam engine learns from your behaviour and gets smarter every time you report spam. If an unwanted comment ever does slip through, click the "Report Spam" button in the Comments screen and it will adapt to ever-changing spam techniques.

TypePad AntiSpam is available as a free plugin for bloggers on other platforms, including TypePad, Movable Type and WordPress. Just download the free plugin and get configure it with a free API key.

Tips for Safer Computing

2008-09-18T09:41:00Z

Browsing the web and downloading files is normal use for all Internet users. Make sure you are protected with good anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall. Surprisingly, some people have none of these security tools in place.

Be wary of files that you execute as they may contain a malicious application. This method of infection is commonly used by hackers.
Disable file/printer sharing whilst not in use as this may provide an opening for hackers to gain entry to your PC.
If in use, secure your File/Printer sharing with permission accounts and passwords to make unlawful entry more difficult.
Do not run unnecessary applications that require an internet/network connection. Leaving them running in the background is like leaving your front door open.
Get a Firewall. Firewalls are a useful tool for blocking attacks and preventing illegal entry into your PC as they monitor and inform what comes and goes from your computer.

Google's New Chrome Browser

2008-09-03T09:24:25Z

Today Google released its first Web browser, called Chrome. An online comic book published on Monday gives a run-down on why Google thought users were ready for a new browser.

Features

The address serves all your browsing needs: web search, web history, address bar and gives suggestions as you type.

Every time you open a new tab, you'll see thumbnails of your most visited sites, most used search engines, and recently bookmarked pages and closed tabs.

Drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs how you want.

Every tab you're using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won't take anything else down.

Incognito mode for private browsing.

Google Chrome warns you if you're about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website.

Just click the star icon at the left edge of the address bar and you've bookmarked the page.

Import settings from your existing Web browser: bookmarks, passwords and browsing history are all brought over.

Hover over a link and information appears in the status bar. It only appears when needed.

And best of all, it's fast.

Drawbacks

If you're a Firefox user like myself you have an arsenal of add-ons that you've come to rely on, and already I'm missing a couple of these. Since Chrome was only released today, there's none available yet.

The browser history is not as extensive as other browsers so bookmarks will bloat.

Conclusion

I'm sure there'll be other disappointments but so far I'm impressed. I like the clean, uncluttered look, the fast page loads and the new tab feature. Blog posts about Chrome are popping up all over the Web since this is a Beta release, we can only expect more improvements to follow.

Notepad Chaos Theme for Movable Type

2008-08-31T06:39:17Z

For the last 4 days I've been trying my hand at converting a theme designed for Wordpress (a php-based blogging platform) to be used in Movable Type. It's been a really frustrating 4 days to say the least. The theme is truly beautiful and fully worth the effort, though it is limited from expansion due to the design itself. It would make a lovely theme for a personal blog. I created a test blog to view the modifications and to make sure it all went together properly, and I'm happy with the result.

I had to do some heavy modifications on some of the MT templates and minor modification on the theme, most notably, the date tag. For some unknown reason I couldn't get this to display fully, so I've made another little post-it note that I think looks better anyway. I've packaged it all up into a plugin that I hope can be made available to the wider MT community. I'm waiting on permission from the designer, Evan Eckard, and Smashing Magazine to allow me to do this. For any Wordpress users, the theme is available for free.

Creating a plugin for the template set was made very easy after looking at how Jim Ramsey did the same thing for his Mid-Century Template Set. I hope to be able to make it available once permissions are in place.

Update:Notepad Chaos has all the permissions and is now available for download. I've tested it as a new install, and also as an template upgrade on an existing blog on MT4.21 Pro. Let me know in the comments if you have any problems installing it.

Fix for Latest DNS Exploit

2008-08-14T10:56:49Z

Page errors have continued to plague me, even after changing my DNS servers. A timely tip from PC World, Free Fix for the Latest DNS Exploit, has saved the day, and since I followed their advice, my online experience is once again an enjoyable one.

It turns out that a simple switch of one of your network settings will protect you from the DNS exploit. Just change your system (or your router) domain server configuration to bypass your ISP's domain servers and use those offered by OpenDNS. It's a two minute process and the steps are explained on the OpenDNS site.

After adding the OpenDNS domain name servers to my router, I haven't had a single page load error. OpenDNS has lots of other features that might also be useful, like site statistics, content filtering, adult site blocking, domain blocking and domain whitelisting. For anyone with a website and a static ip address, these features would be very handy. And best of all, it's free.

Address Not Found Page Load Errors

2008-08-10T03:39:50Z

I've been plagued with the "Address Not Found" errors for the past few weeks and it's been very frustrating trying to get to the root of the problem. Most of the sites are ones I regularly visit, so the error had me scratching my head. Sometimes removing the "www" from the site name would work, and the site would load. Today, my home page wouldn't load and nor would my usually reliable workaround.

I changed my DNS servers and discovered a great site that will give you the three closest DNS servers to your IP address. I thought this helped, until another error page popped up, but the pages are displaying correctly now with only one page refresh. Other suggestions from various forum sites did not work, and this doesn't seem to be a Firefox issue. The same problem has occurred using Internet Explorer and Opera.

Survey for People Who Make Websites

2008-07-30T08:45:45Z

If you're a designer, developer, information architect, project manager, writer, editor, marketer, or someone else who makes websites then this survey is for you. A List Apart is conducting another survey to determine the working conditions of people who make websites. Last year nearly 33,000 people took the survey. It only takes 5 minutes and the results will be an interesting read when ready later in the year.

Web of Trust Addon for Firefox and IE

2008-07-16T02:20:53Z

WOT Web of Trust is an addon for Firefox and Internet Explorer that keeps you save from online threats like spyware, adware and viruses. It gives warnings about online scams, sites with adult content and spam. It protects you from unreliable online vendors, phishing attempts and identity fraud.

You can check the reputation rating of your favourite sites, and recommend or report sites.

This is one of those "can't live without" addons that is a must for every internet user. Just now as I was looking for the link to the WOT site, I typed in www.wot.com, and was presented with the following warning:

Please follow the links or use www.mywot.com