Tech Geek

Understanding the WordPress API key

July 16, 2009
Thumbnail image for Understanding the WordPress API key

Most people develop an interest in the WordPress API key when they discover Akismet, a handy plugin that handles comment spam.  Unfortunately, in order to activate this plugin (and some others), you have to have something called a WordPress API key, and the process of acquiring one can be a little confusing.  Here are a [...]

Read the full article →

Understanding avatars and gravatars

July 12, 2009
Thumbnail image for Understanding avatars and gravatars

Have you ever noticed how on some blogs, when people leave comments there's a small photo or icon that appears next to all of their comments?  Have you ever wondered how to make your own photo/icon show up next to your blog comments? Those little photo/icon things used to be (and sometimes still are) called [...]

Read the full article →

Using categories and permalinks on your blog: A simple approach

July 9, 2009
Thumbnail image for Using categories and permalinks on your blog: A simple approach

When I first started blogging, I ignored both categories and permalinks.  I didn't really understand what either was for, but I just wanted to get my blog up and running and figured I'd worry about them later.  Now that I've been thru several different blog incarnations (both mine and others), I have a better understanding [...]

Read the full article →

Understanding RSS and Web Feeds

July 6, 2009
Thumbnail image for Understanding RSS and Web Feeds

For a long time I had a vague understanding of RSS as something that let me know when one of my favorite blogs was updated, but always felt a little unclear on some of the basics.  Here's a short explanation of RSS, and of web feeds in general. A web feed is useful for a [...]

Read the full article →

How to move your WordPress blog to a new host

June 26, 2009
Thumbnail image for How to move your WordPress blog to a new host

A few days ago I had the opportunity to move a WordPress site from one hosting company (1and1) to another (HostGator).  You can find a number of "here's how I did it" descriptions of this process online, most of which differ from each other in small ways.  I found this thread in the wordpress.org support [...]

Read the full article →

Dansguardian: Internet filtering software for Linux

March 30, 2009
Thumbnail image for Dansguardian: Internet filtering software for Linux

Even though I had installed Linux on my home computer a couple of months ago, I hadn't set up user accounts for my kids yet because I wanted to install internet filtering software, and the process is a little intimidating for newbies.  Once I finally got around to it, however, installation wasn't that difficult, so [...]

Read the full article →

Migrating from Windows to Linux

March 20, 2009
Thumbnail image for Migrating from Windows to Linux

A couple of months ago I installed Ubuntu on my home desktop PC, configuring it with a dual-boot option so I can either boot my old Windows XP system or my new Ubuntu system.  I was impressed enough with it that I decided I wanted to also install it on my laptop PC, which is [...]

Read the full article →

Understanding Skype

February 8, 2009
Thumbnail image for Understanding Skype

I've had a Skype account for a few years now, but I've only recently begun to use it on a pretty regular basis.  The event that kicked off my increased use of the service was when my wife signed up for a Skype account about a year ago; since both of us spend a good [...]

Read the full article →

Finally trying out Linux

January 18, 2009
Thumbnail image for Finally trying out Linux

As someone who has often been frustrated by the MS Windows virtual monopoly on PC operating systems, I've been wanting to try out Linux for a while and have finally gotten around to it. Linux is a free, open source operating system for PCs which first came on the scene back in 1991. It was [...]

Read the full article →

I just converted my site to WordPress

December 22, 2008
Thumbnail image for I just converted my site to WordPress

I recently converted my website to WordPress.  Previously, I had a somewhat standard website format, which had a link to a blogspot blog where I posted all my miscellaneous work-related musings.  This worked okay, but I decided I wanted a format that had my blog posts integrated more closely with my other site content, so [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →