WebGrrrl.net, Home of Lorna Timbah On-line

KompoZer can’t open PHP files in Ubuntu? Yes, it can!

Lorna — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:01:30 +0000

Allow me to rant before I get to the actual content of this post (if you prefer not to read it, skip right ahead to steps on solving the problem):

My foray into the world of Ubuntu since installing it in my Acer Aspire One did not come smoothly.

No, I’m not talking about its installation, which was a breeze. Nor was it about hardware compatibility; the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) distribution made sure that all my hardware worked immediately.

My actual challenge was to choose the right software that would fit my needs, and they were many! Holy cow, if I knew how many free software was out there for Linux, I would have switched sooner!

My main chagrin about a few of these software is its user-friendliness, not in terms of software usability, but in terms of documentation.

Take, for example, getting KompoZer to open PHP files. I did the usual configuration of having all files with the .php extension to open with KompoZer, but KompoZer defiantly denies it and kept prompting me to select a different program (you know, the equivalent of Open With… in Windows).

I found that the KompoZer extension called HandCoder would do the trick; all I needed to do was to download HandCoder from its site and add it via KompoZer’s addon manager.

The problem was… there was no fracking download link! Instead, there was only one link with the word “download”, which points to HTML Tidy, which I was not interested at all. I was hard-pressed to find the place to download it, only to find hours later (through a very short description somewhere within the page of some other KompoZer / Nvu extension description) that there is actually a link there, although not very obvious. Alright, I better stop ranting or else I won’t be able to finish this blog post.

To open PHP files in KompoZer for Ubuntu, follow these steps:

In the Files and Folders view, right-click on any PHP file.
Select Open With / KompoZer. Or, if you don’t see KompoZer listed, go to Other Application and browse to /usr/bin/kompozer.
Visit the HandCoder website, and click on one of the flags (based on your language preference) to download the XPI file (or just click here to start the download). Click on the flag to download — hah, who freaking knew?! Remember where you save it.
Open KompoZer. In the menu, select Tools / Add-ons.
In the the Add-ons window, click the Install button on the bottom.
Navigate to the location in your computer where you saved it, select the HandCoder XPI file, and click the Open button.
Once you see HandCoder listed under the Extensions section, close the KompoZer program and reopen KompoZer again.

You should now be able to open PHP files with Kompozer in Ubuntu.

Paid posts are out of my life

Lorna — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:40:14 +0000

I’ve tried to quit paid postings for quite some time now. However, I realized that paid-to-posts are a blogger’s answer to quick money, and the temptation to fund my sudden shopping splurges get the best of me at times. So, I succumbed to several paid posts, which I would receive by the end of the week and nicely be more enough for me to have my lunches at fancy restaurants for a week or two.

After going through my other online income sources for last month, I finally decided to put my foot down and stop paid posting programs for good. It’s a liberating decision, because finally I don’t have to work so hard to earn money online. My sudden repulsion to go online while I’m pregnant certainly wouldn’t help if I rely solely on paid posts.

Of all my online earnings, paid to post programs are the only online revenue streams that constantly need my effort and time. The rest are all passive income. I’m so glad that AdSense, Chitika and TextLinkAds are working out for me; these programs have really spoilt me. I love passive income!

I’m glad I’m so good at organizing my posts with paid links, so cleaning out those pages were easy peasy. So, don’t expect to see anymore of my paid posts here.

A thrilling Sabahan Bloggers Gathering 2009

Lorna — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:12:19 +0000

Since last night, I’ve been busy uploading and tagging, tagging and uploading photos and videos of this year’s fine Sabah Bloggers Gathering. Seriously, I don’t know where to begin, so I’m just gonna do my story-telling in bullet-form. But before that, here’s how I looked like.

I am Soulja Grrrl. Get it? *ROFLs to self*… Dressed to kill, coz I’m a mean grrrl. And playing too much Half-Life: Counterstrike will do this to you. I also made it a point to have an “official” pose to make things more tacky, like so.

Enemy spotted! The first costumed guest I saw as I went out the elevator was a Japanese-uniformed dude. And he had no weapon! Dead meat
My action plan was to get to know as many people as I could, under the pretense that I wanna take pictures of each and everyone who came to the gathering. AND EVERYONE FELL FOR IT! MUAHAHAHAHAHAH! Seriously, though, everyone was so cool, and you can count only a handful out of more than 100 guests didn’t come with costumes. I really enjoyed taking pictures of and with everyone. You peeps really rocked the house!
The Allies ruled! It was three Allied US Army soldiers versus one Japanese Axis soldier sans ammo. But I’ll exclude the masked terrorists (you people know who you are). And luckily our War Correspondent was neutral, though he did don a US Army colour. Yeah, lucky Axis guy The cool thing was us army troops – Charlie, Vera and I — were lounging together in the same table. That’s the spirit — stick together, team.

More photos!

I sat with Margaret as well, coz she was one of the few people that I know personally. You know how DIFFICULT it is to do some ice-breaking alone. I dragged poor Margaret along wherever I went so that I didn’t feel too embarrassed to introduce myself, and have her be my official assistant photog! Heheheh Margaret, you’re a lifesaver!
So glad I met up with more familiar bloggers, namely Chegu Carol, Alus, Pai, Massy and Alvin Ting. Siok!
I was psyched to meet the performers for Sabah Bloggers Gathering this year, as they are well-known nation-wide as well. However, I did not expect to NOT recognize Alvin MY of Infinatez. I even asked him who are you, and what is your blog’s name? Oh god, that is embarrassing now that I think about it. Because, honestly, he is way more good-looking in real life than his promo shoot at SBG’s web site. Thank goodness he’s such a gracious guy. Loved his performance, too!

More photos!

Performances by emcee Jonathan Tse and supremo guitarist Roger Wang did not disappoint. Jonathan’s simple but melodious music is simply melodious (hihih on the almost-pun). Yes, I’ve heard his songs online and, I’ve got to admit, his voice complements his songs very well, and I see a bright future for Jonathan’s music career.
And Roger. I’d like to call him the Andy McKee of Asia, but he’d probably wouldn’t want to be compared, because Andy is Andy and Roger is Roger. In any case, words do no justice to his classical and fingerstyle compositions. When he plays with just his guitar, it’s magical.
Imperial International Hotel did not spare any expense when it comes to theming up the place for Halloween! Food, decor, and servers are all in character! Now you know where to go when you need to organize your next big bash. Don’t believe me? Check the pics below.

For the full set of photos and videos I took that night, head over to my Flickr’s SBG2009 set.

I’ll save this space right here to give a shout-out to the bloggers and non-bloggers who I’ve met and taken pictures of/with at Sabah Bloggers Gathering 2009. I can’t do this right now, coz I have loads of tagging and uploading left to do on my Flickr and Facebook photos and videos.

Now, for my obligatory shout-outs (those that I didn’t mention above): Amy @ Life Here ‘N’ There, Earthy Emily @ Chronicles of a Taurean Lady, Sheila @ She Says, Dazeree @ The Sky’s The Limit, Joan @ Joan Says, Fairy Fenelly, Vienne @ Life Is Wonderful and hubby (?), RaggaMan Clerence, BuliBahKalauKo peeps, Aleaf @ I’m Not a Green Bag, Ricky @ hushmonkey, Kinky Jasmine, Jacq @ Caneeliea, Wei Chuen, (more coming).

Thanks to the organizers for giving us the time of our lives, and especially all of you party-goers for making Sabah Bloggers Gathering a happening party and a night to remember.

@webgrrrl’s got new feature: Twitter Lists

Lorna — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:50:29 +0000

Honestly, I have no idea what to do with Twitter Lists as of this moment, but it’s nice to see that the option is made available for me to use once I figure it out. A post in Marketing Pilgrim suggested that it could be treated like a blogroll, i.e. collection of favourite Tweeters based on a theme. The trouble is, as pointed in another of their posts, having such lists will probably attract a bunch of whiners. For example, if you create a list of WordPress Experts and I don’t see my Twitter handle in that list, then doggone it I’m swearing you and your Twitter followers off to Twitter hell! It’s kind of in the same lines as people who whine that I’m not following you anymore coz you don’t follow me even though I’ve followed you and read your boring tweets for days and you still don’t care, nyeh nyeh boo hoo.

Yeah, whiners.

I created a list called Blogging Fu, just for the sake of it, although I have a feeling that I might be deleting that one soon. Since Twitter did say that I shouldn’t tweet about it yet, why bother having one?

I wonder if anyone of you reading this blog are seeing this option? Are you planning on using it, and how?

Sabah Bloggers Gathering 2009 is near!

Lorna — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:13:31 +0000

Oh em gee, Sabah Bloggers Gathering is barely a week away! What makes this year’s gathering special is that it’s held on Hallow’s Eve, and you bet everyone’s gonna get crazy with their costumes!

Speaking of costumes, the theme is suppose to be anything really freaky looking, but I’m not planning to dress like that. I worry that my kids may have nightmares when they see their mom dressing up as a boogie (wo)man. Therefore, I am dressing up as something else but no less grrrl-looking, and I’m keeping it to myself till that night comes.

The hot and hunky organizers are doing a great job, yet again. Venue will be the the scenic loft of the classy Imperial International Hotel, in the heart of Kota Kinabalu city. Local supremo guitarist Roger Wang, and Alvin from the Malaysian reality show group Infinatez will be joining the list of entertainers for the night’s show. And, will Nuffnang and our wonderful bloggers from Tawau make a surprise appearance?

So for those of you who are in Kota Kinabalu and would like to crash the party, entrance fee is just RM20 per head. If it’s anything like last year, get ready to delight yourself with some scrumptious food and gourmet/premium desserts! It’s so worth it just for the food itself!

I’m off to pick up my kids, and then do some costume shopping, see you all there!

WebGrrrl.net now an URL shortener with YOURLS

Lorna — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:41:26 +0000

My penchant for using long titles in my blog posts, and my now active involvement in all things Facebook and Twitter, drove me to install this nifty but challenging plugin called YOURLS. I took for granted that this was going to be one of those normal WordPress plugins you get to install through the dashboard.

But it’s not.

My number 1 mistake was thinking that all I had to do was install the WordPress plugin version of it and it will run immediately. Nope, it doesn’t work that way. You actually have to download the package and FTP everything into your web folders. Next, you need to do some manual configuration for both the database and config file, then run it the first time via the admin panel, and ONLY THEN should you install and set up its complemental WordPress plugin within your WordPress dashboard. And I’m explaining these in way too simplistic terms.

My number 2 mistake was to not understand enough the statement in the FAQ that says “You cannot install YOURLS and, say, WordPress, in the same directory” because YOURLS needs its own .htaccess file. I ignored that and tried anyway. Didn’t work, of course.

I tried to rectify it by reinstalling everything into its own subdirectory (e.g. http://webgrrrl.net/z/), as advised in the FAQ.

Guess what? IT DIDN’T WORK, EITHER!

But then, I had a light-bulb moment — why not set YOURLS up under a subdomain instead?! And that, ladies and gentlemen, did the trick. I hazard a guess that since my WordPress was installed in my root folder, my blog’s mod_rewrite settings were waging war against YOURLS’s, which in turn causes the shortened URL not to work. In any case, I’m fully satisfied with using the domain z.webgrrrl.net for my personal URL shortening service.

I’m currently using YOURLS / z.webgrrrl.net for this blog as well as Blogging Fu. My favourite option in YOURLS is its bookmarklet ability. Whenever I’m on a web page that I want to tweet and get its URL shortened, I just click the bookmarklet on my browser, and it will automatically bring me to z.webgrrrl’s console for me to generate the short URL. Nice.

Hey, by the way, did you get it? z.webgrrrl? As in Ze WebGrrrl? Hahah, hahahah!

Reminiscing the growth of WebGrrrl.net, and how would you describe your blog?

Lorna — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:08:20 +0000

Have you ever looked back at your old blog posts and think, dang, I am good! Those were not the words I would use when I did exactly that these past couple of hours, but it’s close enough.

It’s now a little past 4 years since the inception of WebGrrrl.net in September 2006 (I bought the domain name a little later, though, around November 2006, I think). She’s grown up quite nicely since then. One thing I like about this blog is that the content is more focused. Still, I’m a little disappointed that I lessened my ranting that would have included anything non-WordPress, non-blogging, non-Internet, non-Web related. No regrets, though.

Except that there are a few posts that I wished I hadn’t posted. Namely ALL those posts concerning the Malaysian reality show sensation Akademi Fantasia. Blech.

The rest of my posts, I like. The few impressions I get when I read back on my blog posts were:

I can be damn funny… some times.
Wow, those sites/links/plugins/whachamacallits really are cool… I wonder how I found them in the first place?
I can be SO good at monologue-ing.
WebGrrrl.net has personality.
WebGrrrl.net rocks!
I am so full of myself.

I hope you love your blog as much as I do mine.

Update: So 2009-2006 = 3 years. So I didn’t exactly get an A in math. So sue me.

A personal discourse on blogging

Lorna — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:21:00 +0000

*This may or may not be based on a true story*

Late 2006

Person: What’s that? *pointing at my computer monitor*
Me: Another web site I just made. It’s called a blog.
Person: *blank face*
Me: Just another online site for me to rant my stuff. And I finally got a domain name!
Person: *blank + don’t care face*
Me: I had to spend a little, though, for that and my hosting.
Person: *you’ve gotta be kidding face*

Early 2007

Me: You know, I’ve just found out a way how I can make money out of my blog.
Person: What? (as in what’s a blog again?)
Me: Yeah, they call it paid to blog. I just post some stuff, put links in it and then they pay me.
Person: How much?
Me: 5 bucks a post.
Person: Hrmph.
Me: US dollars.
Person: *blank + don’t care face*
Me: And it’s not like those HYIP, E-gold stuff you’re doing. There’s basically no risk involved.
Person: *you do what you want to do because I don’t care face*

Late 2007

Me: Hey, I got 30 bucks in my PayPal!
Person: *wow that’s a lot…not… face*
Me: Wow, and that’s just one program per month. If I do a few of these programs, I might just get a hundred bucks a month!
(a few days later)
Me: That PayPal money just went into my credit card account. RM100 plus. Not bad, huh?
Person: (quiet)
Me: Were you able to take out your money from your E-gold and HYIPs?
Person: (quiet)
Me: Scams again, huh?
Person: (quiet)

Early 2008

Person: Are you still making money from your blog?
Me: Yep.
Person: How much?
Me: Almost a thousand Ringgit a month now.
Person: Oh.
Me: I’m thinking of doing a few more blogs. They call it niche sites. Looks like a good way to make money, as long as I have the time to blog.

Mid 2008

Person: I wanna make a site about making money.
Me: You should try blogging. I can set it up for you.
Person: Sure.
(a month later)
Me: Why aren’t you updating your site?
Person: I’ll get around to it. I’ll do a whole bunch of updates at one go.
Me: OK.
(another month later)
Me: Are you sure you want to do this blog thing?
Person: I dunno. Looks hard.
Me: *rolls eyes* … You haven’t even started.

Late 2008

Me: Oh, my God! Check out my AdSense! USD100 finally! And that’s just from one blog! Plus my paid postings… yes!
Person: Great! How do you take that money out?

2009 – recently

Me: Where did you go?
Person: I’ve been hanging out with my friends. We went shopping for some gadgets and stuff. They say they’re spending all those with their money they get from their blogs.
Me: *keeps eyes on netbook and blog* Good for them.
Person: I wanna have a blog.
Me: *keeps eyes on netbook and blog + you’ve gotta be kidding face*
Person: I just don’t know what to blog about.
Me: *keeps eyes on netbook and blog* Just blog about anything. Like they do. Like I do. I’ll help you set yours up, and buy you your own domain while we’re at it… just make sure you update, OK?
Person: *excited* … I’m getting the digicam you wanted.
Me: *snorts sarcastically* Yeah, sure.

Much more recently

Me: You haven’t started your blog.
Person: I’ll get around to it. I’ll do a whole bunch of updates at one go.
Me: *snorts sarcastically* Yeah, sure.

——————-

Lack of blog update equals better visitor retention and traffic?

Lorna — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:53:00 +0000

I’m not making this up. At least on my blogs (WebGrrrl.net and my other niche sites), this seems to be the trend.

Take a look at WebGrrrl.net’s Google Analytics one-year comparison for the month of September. My blogging activities were considerably more last year than this year, yet I’ve noticed a marked improvement on the bounce rate. In Google terms, “a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert.” Looking at the stats, this means that once a visitor reads one post from my blog, there is a 99% chance that the visitor will stay in my blog and go read the next post, instead of going to other sites.

I’m surprised that WebGrrrl.net was able to achieve a low bounce rate, due to the fact that the blog content isn’t well-focused. I take bounce rates seriously especially on my niche sites, because this means that my visitors are digging deep into my blog content, hence the chances of them clicking on my ads are higher.

One stats you don’t see in the screenshot above is my traffic sources. Visits from search engines to WebGrrrl.net have increased by almost 20%, and I’m seeing a similar improvement with my currently-idle niche sites. Everyone who’s into monetizing their web sites know that search engine visits are like hearing your shop’s doorbell ring every time a paying customer comes in.

I’ve yet to really sit down and study all these data I’m getting, but if it’s anything like the advice Grizzly gave, saying that you make more money by not updating, then there should be a big fat nose-inflating grin slapped squarely on my face.

Oh, wait. Yeah, there is

Top Commentators Widget v.1.2 now up

Lorna — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:04:25 +0000

Another TCW update has been posted in WordPress.org’s Plugins Repository to include two new additions based on user requests.

Show top commentators between certain dates: This option was requested by James Pearse of Avon School District, MA. In his e-mail, he included a link to his school’s blog, demonstrating the idea that having your name displayed in the site and getting listed in the top commentators’ list not only can be used to increase traffic to your blog, but more so to help generate interest and participation on the posts among your site visitors. What a delight it is to see how something as small as TCW can contribute so much to learning and education. It makes developing WordPress plugins that more worthwhile for me.

Open links in a new window: I received a surprising number of requests lately, both through the WP.org Support forum and e-mails, asking me to include this option in the widget, so there you go – pretty straight forward at that.

As always, feedback and bug reports are appreciated. Do so in the WP.org’s Support Forum (preferably) and remember to tag your post with the words top-commentators-widget, or drop me a line via my Contact Form.