Pedro B » Computers

My Previous Post…

Pedro — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:38:50 +0000

: Alcohol and Blogging

My previous post attempting to defend my sister’s honor is a good example of why there should be breathalyzers on computers. Google has a feature in gmail called Mail Goggles that prevents you from sending stupid things via email when you are annebriated. I wonder if theres a WordPress plugin…

In other news, I found a plugin that easily turns your WordPress install into a mobile-friendly version for when someone visits you on a browser from a cell phone. It works very well and is super easy to install.

Google Voice Is Nothing Short of Incredible

Pedro — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:36:14 +0000

I like to consider myself fairly savvy as far as gadgets and technology is concerned. It takes a lot to impress me and I rarely find something that makes me say “Wow!”

Google Voice did just that. I’m sure everyone has heard by now that Grand Central was purchased by Google. Recently Google decided to transfer/upgrade Grand Central accounts to Google Voice, another one of those Google services that is still in Beta mode and not quite available to the masses.

Let me give you a quick run down. Google Voice lets you have a telephone number. They call it a “number for life.” So you give that number out to people rather than your actual phone numbers. You can login to your Voice account and change a bunch of settings, such as where phone calls to that number go, whether or not they go to a screening service first, maybe some callers are on a safe list and go straight through. I have had this set up for a couple of years now and it comes in handy. All of my whois info for my domain names have that number. I give it to pretty much everyone. It all used to be at Grand Central before. So when someone calls that number, based on my settings, they are either directed to a screening which asks them to say their name or they go straight go my phone. If they are screened first, I get a call asking if I want to talk to this person, send them straight to voicemail (and I can listen in on the voicemail, and have the option to answer during the voicemail) or ignore the call.

All of these options were available before Google even acquired Grand Central. Google being Google has taken things a step further. They have integrated this service with my Google account and now I have my contacts from my email address mixed with my Google Voice account. And I don’t have to login to Grand Central to access my account. I access it along with my email and other Google services I use, such as Google Reader. I tell you there are plenty of reasons to fear Google but damn they make it difficult to not use! Yeah I’m a junky as far as Google is concerned.

Along with the upgrades I just mentioned, there were a few I hadn’t really paid attentiopn to. Today I got a phone call from somebody trying to sell me something. I let it go straight to voicemail as usual. I didn’t even bother listening to the message. These voicemails get emailed to me and I can listen to them on my blackberry if I want or listen to them on my computer later on.

So after the call I got an email on my phone from Google Voice, just like I used to with Grand Central. When I opened the email I was FREAKIN’ AMAZED. The email message didn’t just have a “play” option to listen to the voicemail, it TRANSLATED the voicemail to TEXT and displayed that text in the message of the email! Just like that I knew what the message was and deleted the email. And I was stunned.

So obviously it’s beneficial for Google to translate this message to text for me. With text in the email Google can now serve ads that are relevant to me while I am reading my email. If it was just a message that said “play” and didn’t have anything about the actual message the ads would be meaningless to me. Kind of like the same problem Youtube is having with Video. So Google has invested probably like a million dollars, or something crazy, to be able to translate my voicemail messages I get from Google Voice into text. And I love it.

Another feature they have added is the ability to send and receive text messages from my Google Voice phone number. Insane! Now there is no reason why I shouldn’t give this number out rather than my real cell phone number. Am I just another pawn in Googles grand scheme to take over the world and own us all? I just might be but man it’s hard not to love their services.

New Ways To Get Phished

Pedro — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:24:16 +0000

I have a really old three character aol screen name. For some reason, three character screen names are desirable to teenage kids that sit at their computers all day and want to be “hackers.” They try to find different ways to steal screen names that they want using “spoof” pages, or phishing attacks. Why do they want them? Because they are mentally incapable of rational thought, but that is for a different blog post entirely.

Because I have this screen name I get these phishing attacks pretty often and I get to see a lot of the new phishing schemes that scam artists use. Recently my inbox at this email address has been filling up with lots of what appears to be spam. Lots of spam at the same time and from different “companies.” Most email services have a button or text to click when you want to report an email as spam but these messages had that in the body of the email. When I clicked the link to report as spam, I was taken to a page asking me for my login info. I checked out the url and sure enough, it was a spoof page.

This is a fairly new tactic for acquiring my personal information that I have not seen or heard of before. Basically, “Phishers” are disguising phishing attempts with spam mail, which is annoying enough. So when someone tries to take steps to keep from recieving messages from that sender, they are instead giving their login information to scam artists.

The lesson is to always check a URL before typing in your personal information into a a web page! Hackers are always looking for new ways to get us to give up our personal information.

Using eBay To Find Domain Names

Pedro — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:08:40 +0000

I guess you can use eBay to find anything really but any time I spend on it is usually to find domain names. There is a ton of crap that one must sift through when searching for anything on eBay. Learn to use the Advanced Search Options that eBay offers. As far as searching for domain names goes, I usually use the “minimum bids” feature and set it to “2.” This will make the search only display domian names that have at least two bids. That takes all the hard work out of sifting for quality domain names!

I have a few Build a Niche Stores that I’ve setup around domain names I’ve found very cheap on eBay. Here you can see an example of an advanced eBay search for domain names.

The Internet and Your Privacy

Pedro — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:06:55 +0000

The issue of privacy is always coming up where the Internet is concerned. Most times, if you interact on the world wide web at all, there is a good chance you can be found by someone looking for information on you.

I read an article that touches on how easy it is to find information on individuals on Robert Scoble’s blog yesterday where he talks about how to socially network if you are laid off. Robert gives advice on how to present your online image effectively in order to get the job you want. I find it interesting that his post only talks about cleaning up your image about and not trying to hide yourself online. Basically he’s assuming you will be found and that you want to be found.

I know he’s a techy and using a geek mentality about this but honestly if I’m looking for a job I don’t want my employer to see me online. The problem is we enter our name into everything. I set up an account with LinkedIn sometime in the beggining of this year and have never logged in since but that is the first thing that shows up when I Google myself. I know LinkedIn is geared towards networking but shouldn’t they warn you during registration that your name will be spidered and indexed by the search engines? I don’t mean just the Terms of Service, I mean a big box I can check if I decide I don’t want my full name available.

Web users are becoming a bit to insensitive to online privacy. If you use Google regularly (I do) then it pretty much knows everything about you. What you buy, what you’re interests are, who you interact with. It’s a sign of the times when a potential employer can go digging for dirt on you just by typing your name in to a Google field and hitting “Search.”

Using Recommission To Find Expired Domain Names

Pedro — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:58:36 +0000

In the interest of transparency, I would let the readers of this article know that I have an interest in the topic of the following article. Other than being a regular user of Recommission’s system, I am related to the Owner/Operator of the Site. He’s my brother.

Every morning, before I head off to work, I check Recommission’s Expired Domain List to see what is on the chopping block for that day. Recommission updates its expiring dictionary list every morning so there are always interesting domain names to find and if I’m quick I can backorder one before anyone else does.

I wrote an article before on using different systems to backorder domain names. In this post I will focus on why I use Recommission to find and acquire expiring domains.

Find Expired Domain Names

I’m a big believer in picking up dropping domain names because domain names always seem to rise in value.

Expiring Dictionary word .com’s are always winners and Recommission makes finding those easy. Even if I can’t backorder from that system at least I know it’s dropping and I can jump over to another backordering system, like Pool, and backorder it there. When I use Pool though, I always make sure the domain name is worth the $60 backorder price tag.

Recommission also features a list of expiring three character domain names. These include three letter, three number and CCC (character character character) combinations. I love grabbing three character domain names. Check out 3character.com to see why it is a good idea to own 3 character domain names. Three character domain names in the .com and .net extensions are long gone and increasing in value every year. Right now is a great time to pick them up as they have declined in market value because of the current economic situation.

Recommission also lists expiring 4 letter .com domain names. Four letter .com domain names have all been registered as of November of 2007. With the climb in value of three letter .com domain names, some companies have focused on acquiring and developing four letter .com domain names. If you do decide to collect a few of these, avoid combinations that include the letters Q, X, Y, Z. These letters most difficult to use as acronyms.

I have looked at other sites on the web for a place that will show you Dictionary lists of expiring domain names but I have not found one as of yet besides Recommission. Every site I find concerning ordered lists of dropping domain names always charge to see their lists. Recommissions system is free to use as of the time this article was written and should remain so for quite awhile.

Domain Names and Registered Trademarks

Pedro — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:45:37 +0000

I have been using the BANS (Build a Niche Store) system for about three months now and, as I’ve said before, it’s an exciting affiliate marketing tool.

One of my BANS sites is a niche that involves Lego sets and has the word ‘’LEGO” in the domain name. I have been purchasing domain names for two years now and own a few that include registered trademarks in the name. An example would be NFLAnalyst.com. Obviously, NFL is a trademark of the National Football League and, if the NFL cared to, they could take it from me. I have to admit that I have known for quite awhile now that the owner of a registered trademark can claim trademark infringement. There are tons of webmasters that use trademarked names as a part of a domain name. But I honestly never thought companies cared that much. I feel pretty dumb now.

This morning I received an email from a representative of “The LEGO Group” advising me that I have to release one of my domain names to them or face legal action. This representative tells me the following:

The effect of your use of the LEGO mark as part of your domain name, create the false and misleading impression that you are authorized, licensed or approved to provide information about, or goods or services with respect to, the LEGO Group’s products or the LEGO Group itself.

At first when I read the email i was pretty pissed. The domain name mentioned in the email is one of the first I used to setup a BANS system. I have put in a lot of effort with it as it involves a niche that I am pretty interested in. In the last month or so i have been reading a blog about the Build a Niche Store system by a guy named Dave. Dave has a lot of good advice for new BANS users and posts daily tips for his readers. Using his advice, I have included lots of pages of unique content, incorporated a WordPress blog into the site and did what I could to get backlinks for my site. Since I set the site up in November as a freshly registered domain name it has received a PageRank 3! This is an accomplishment for me as it is not easy to be ranked that quickly for me normally.

So naturally for LEGO to just send me a letter telling me it will no longer be mine, I was mad. Unlike a few other sites I have had to transfer, I will not be able to use 301 redirects and enjoy the PageRank juice from the old domain. LEGO will take the domain name and let it resolve to nothing probably. But I understand right now that this is my fault. I should not have registered a domain name with a registered trademark. Developing the domain into a website was an even bigger mistake as that makes the domain more valuable. I will certainly not do this again.

I’m trying to look on the bright side of things with this. For one, I incorporated a blog in a sub domain for this BANS install. I always wanted to make the domain name resolve to a WordPress blog and use the BANS system in a sub directory, as Dave recommends. I’ve been meaning to do that but I hate changing URL’s and setting up redirects. Also I have decided to make the site even better with more unique content and landing pages. So now I can do all these things with a brand new domain name that does not include any registered trademarks.

Moral of the story would be to avoid developing a website that includes a registered trademark, unless you own that trademark of course.

I Will Now Purchase Music Through iTunes

Pedro — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:05:43 +0000

DRM Music

Apple has announced that it will now sell DRM (Digital Rights Management) free music soon. This is the main reason why I would refuse to pay for music from iTunes as it would mean that I could not play the music on anything other than Apple’s hardware, namely my ipod. The death of DRM was officially announced today at the Macworld conference.

DRM pretty much died everywhere else in the last year except for iTunes and not because Apple wanted to keep it. Apple has been trying to lose DRM for a few years now but didn’t convince the industry until they agreed to use varied pricing. This means that not every song will be .99 cents anymore. Prices are going to range from .79 cents to $1.29.

The real kicker about this deal is that if you want to free music that you have already purchased from Apple of DRM lunacy you have to pay .30 cents a song. Booya!! Right to the nads. This is why DRM music is so lame and why in the years I’ve owned an ipod I purchased 1 song from Apple. Amazon has had DRM free music for a year now.

Your First WordPress Blog

Pedro — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:54:15 +0000

WordPress Blog

I have gone into the WordPress Content Management System before, but now I am going to elaborate a bit with tips for your first WordPress Blog installation. WordPress is very easy to setup and begin to use. Here I will offer some suggestions and recommendations for getting the most out of your first WordPress blog.

Here is a list of what I will be covering in this post. This may be a bit more comprehensive than what you need so feel free to jump forward to the place where you are at in your first WordPress blog.

WordPress Setup

Domain Name
Hosting
Installation

WordPress Settings

Discussion Settings
Permalinks
Changing Permalink Settings

WordPress Theme

Picking a theme

WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress Plugins
Installing WordPress Plugins
Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Your First WordPress Post

Categories
Tags
Meta

WordPress Setup

Picking a Domain Name

I go a bit deeper into picking your first domain name in a different post, but I will recap – Make sure you will love it forever and try to go with dot com!

Web hosting Service

I also touched on picking a web hosting service but this is much easier than picking your domain name. There are thousands of web hosting service out there so due some searching and make sure you know what you want out of your new web hosting service.

WordPress Installation

For your first WordPress install there are a few different ways to get setup. If you have chosen Hostgator as your web hosting service then setting up WordPress is just a few clicks away!

To install WordPress with Hostgator:

First login to your cpanel using the login information provided from Hostgator to your email address. Navigate to the bottom of your screen and look for the Fantastico Icon:

Fantastico Icon

Your cpanel may look different but the Fantastico Icon should be the same. Click on it and you will be taken to Fantastico’s Navigation page where you can select different scripts to install:

Fantastico Navigation

Click on “WordPress” and you will see a new screen where you are given a brief description about WordPress and where you will see the option for a New Installation:

Fantastico WordPress

Clik on “New Installation” and you will be taken to a screen to enter basic settings for your new WordPress installation.

Fill in the basic settings for your first WordPress blog here. By default, the “Install In Domain” option will have your domain name in that field.

The next option is “Install In Directory.” Here you can decide if you would like to install in the root of your domain or if you would like to install in a sub directory. For example, if you want to have your blog show up in Http://www.yourdomain.com/blog instead of http://www.yourdomain.com than you would type “blog” in the “Install in Directory” field.

The other options are pretty self-explanatory. Fill in the login information you want to use to login to your blog and your user nickname and email. The “Base Configuration” options are not super important as you can change them later when you login to your blog.

Fantastico WordPress Options

Manual WordPress Installation

You can also setup WordPress manually. First Download the latest version of WordPress. Then follow the installation instructions included with the WordPress download. WordPress has one of the easiest installation processes available but if you are still having problems, visit the WordPress Website Troubleshooting guide.

WordPress Settings

WordPress makes this very easy but there are a few things out-of-the-box that you should change for your first WordPress Blog.

Permalinks

One of the first things to change will be your Permalink settings. Go to “Settings > Permalinks” and change to either “Day and Name” or “Month and Name.” It is very important to change your Permalink settings from the default for a few reasons. The first is that search engines will be able to read and understand what your posts are about. The other is that users will be able to tell what your post is about by glancing at the URL.

The other default Settings for WordPress depend on you. Check the Discussion settings to change any comment settings for your blog and then the General settings to personalize a bit.

WordPress Themes

The ability to easily extend the WordPress system is what separates WordPress from other Content Management Systems. The community of WordPress developers have created, and continue to create, thousands of WordPress themes that are easy to download and install. A theme allows for personalization of your first WordPress Blog and helps you stand out from the crowd. Download WordPress themes for free and try them out on your WordPress installation.

There are also many sites online that offer further customization for a fee. This is something to consider once your WordPress blog is more popular or making a steady income.

WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plugins add to your blog and help you add almost anything you can think of. Extra sidebar widgets and many back-end plugins help you personalize your blog even more.

Installing WordPress Plugins

Downloading and installing WordPress plugins is very easy to do. Log into to your WordPress blog, navigate to your “Plugins > Add New” page and there you can search for plugins that are right for your Blog. WordPress even lets you install plugins right from your plugins panel! No downloading to your computer necessary.

Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Here I will list a few must-have WordPress plugins. Some, in my opinion, are essential to getting the most out of your blog, regardless of whether you are using it to make money. Others are only necessary if you are monetizing your blog.

Akismet – Akismet is a must for every WordPress installation. Akismet blocks “Spam” comments used by bots to automatically comment on hundreds of different WordPress blogs at the same time. I have spoken to a few new WordPress users who did not have the Akismet plugin turned on and were bombarded by comment spam. It is very discouraging to see porn and gambling links being posted in your comments section and may turn a first time blogger off from WordPress. It does require getting a WordPress account but it’s free and does not take much time.

All in One SEO Pack – I love this plugin. All in one SEO Pack gives you the ability to generate Titles, Descriptions and Keywords for each of your posts and let’s you block the search engines from crawling through potentially duplicate content. What I just described might be confusing to a new WordPress user but that’s what makes All in One SEO Pack so important. You don’t really have to understand those things to use it. It is ready out-of-the-box and is very easy to use.

Google XML Sitemaps – Another must-have WordPress plugin, Google XML Sitemaps generates a XML compliant Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It is very easy to install and setup and is another tool that helps you forget about the search engines and focus on writing unique content.

Here are a few more plugins for more advanced WordPress bloggers.

First WordPress Post

Your first WordPress post can be about anything you want it to be but here I will list a few tips for your first post and subsequent posts.

WordPress features an awesome WYSISYG (What You See is What You Get) editor that let’s you write great posts without knowing HTML. Play around with the icons in the editor and you can be writing posts with links, pictures and different types of text in no time!

The title of your first post should be a quick description of what your post is about. You should have your title in your post more than one time and you should write it in different ways in your post. So going by those rules you should probably decide on your title after you write your post. It is good to write your title in before hand, just go back to it and be sure it describes what your post is about.

Use the “Category” option that WordPress provides. Your WordPress blog will only have the “Uncategorized” category at first. You can add new ones to the right of your “Add New Post” panel. Categories should be pretty generalized. If your writing about George Bush, your category might be “Politics” or “News.”

Tags are another feature that you should use when writing your first WordPress post. The “Tag” is also to the right of your “Add New Post” panel, just above “Categories.” Tags should be much more specific to the topic you’re writing about. In the example above, if you were writing about George Bush your tags might be “George Bush” or “President.”

The most important thing to remember when starting your first WordPress blog is to have fun with it. Write about things you are interested in and that will keep you interested in your blog.

Picking a Domain Name For Your First Blog

Pedro — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:09:25 +0000

Your First Domain Name

You should consider picking your domain name one of the more important decisions for your first blog. It is not difficult to change content from a blog over to a new domain name, especially if you are using WordPress, but it is certainly not convenient and should be avoided if possible. So let’s focus a bit on choosing a domain name for your first blog that you will love for a long time.

First of all I will discuss domain extensions, or TLD (Top-level domain.) There are quite a few domain extensions available and it’s very important to remember that dot com is, and will be for quit a while, king. If you acquire myfirstblog.info, you can expect your returning visitors to type in myfirstblog.com in their web browsers with the expectation of finding you. It is a simple yet undeniable fact that dot com is directly associated by average internet users as the default domain extension. Average users don’t always understand the logistics of domain extensions and why typing in myfirstblog.com doesn’t take them to the same page as myfirstblog.info and often times they will just move on if they don’t find you right away. With that said I highly recommend registering a dot com as your domain extension for your first blog. Also, avoid dashes in your new domain name. When is the last time you typed a dash in your web browser?

As far as what your first blog’s domain name should be, it really depends on you more than anything. My recommendation to someone registering a domain name for the first time is to make sure your domain name is something that you will love, even five years from now. Try not to register a domain name that is related to a passing fad or something that isn’t going to be around to long.

Your own name is a great example of something that you will love forever. Registering your name as a domain name assures that your domain will not “Get Old” or “tired.” A nickname a few friends call you may not always last. A good example is how excited Mark Wahlberg gets when he hears the term “Marky Mark.”

Availability of Your Domain Name

Your own name may not be available as a dot com or as any other major domain extension. In that case, you may want to consider variations of your name. For instance, if your name is John Smith and johnsmith.com has already been registered, than you could try jsmith.com or johns.com. Be patient with looking for the domain name of your first blog and understand that since dot com is king, it is also the least likely of available domain extensions to be available.

If you would like to support us, use Nameram as your registrar for you first domain name.