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In The Rooms

I believe that most of us have friends or even family who are suffering from one form of addiction or another. I personally know of people who need help with smoking and drinking while a friend is addicted to gambling. None is like David Duchovny, addicted to sex, as far as I know.

These people actually need help and support, which is why a lot of them join support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. Well, just now, I got to know that we can easily find updated lists of InTheRooms Meetings for Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meetings and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings.

What I like about these lists is that they are in wiki form which means that anyone with information could update the lists; or even suggests new fellowships. As a form of control, users have to be registered with the site and revisions will be reviewed and approved by the moderators of the site.

By the way, InTheRooms is actually a social networking protal just like the fellowships mentioned above, but happening online. This isn’t to say that if you participate in InTheRooms, you could quit your fellowship meetings. Many of the users here look for support in addition to what they are getting from fellowships.

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Bing Indexes Twitter

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, looks set to take on search giant Google, with their new search feature by indexing Twitter. For a start, they are indexing prominent Twitterers, and Bing users who make a search may pick up information from Twits from these people.

On one hand, this is an advancement and we have additional sources of information available through using a search engine but what worries me is that when more Twits are indexed, we may be fed with misinformation like in the recent celebrity hoax following the sudden death of Michael Jackon, where even 80’s pop star Rick Astley fell victim to.

Well, I guess it is up to Bing’s technology to filter out the random Twitter chats from solid information and provide users with something worth our time checking out.

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Webhosting Choices

A friend asked me to host my blogs with him, for the second time today. I was miffed as I have already told him previously that I am happy with my webhost right now and I see no reason why I should switch to another host.

I do not take Website Hosting lightly because my livelihood depends on my blogs and websites and I certainly cannot take the risk of having any unnecessary downtime which would happen when moving them to another host. I would, of course, support his business if I didn’t already have reliable yet cheap webhosting but I guess, he is too late in approaching me and at this point, I have no plans to subscribe to yet another hosting package.

Pickaweb.co.uk is a leading webhosting company in the UK, offering budget-friendly webhosting services. Whether you are looking to host a personal or business or professional website or even an online storefront, which you could easily set up with tools provided by Pickaweb.co.uk, they have just the right hosting package to meet your needs.

Most importantly, besides the low cost, hosting with Pickaweb.co.uk, you are assured 99.9% guaranteed uptime as well as full time round the clock technical support. These are the things I would want from my webhost.

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WP-Admin Permission

I found out, once again, thanks to my wonder webhost, that the problem with my inability to access my WordPress dashboard where I was erroneously directed to a “Page Not Found” was the permission of my wp-admin folder. Somehow, like the problem I faced earlier with 500 Internal Server Error, the permission of my folders was all changed to 777 instead of 755.

My wonderful host not only helped me to troubleshoot the problem but also helped me to change file permission as well as taught me how to do it so that I will know what to do next time.

What makes me wonder, though, is how come these affected blogs could have file permission changed just like that when I didn’t even do anything to my blogs; I didn’t make changes to my WordPress or plug ins. Heck, I didn’t even update my blog with posts. I am so puzzled.

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Convenience Of Home Shopping

By a strange turn of events, I have not stepped out of the house for more than a month already. No, I am not ill. The thing that amazed me is that even without going out of the house, I could still survive.

Of course, I have family members to run errands for me but for a lot of other things, I resorted to the web, especially shopping. Even I am amazed at the wealth of goods and services I could purchase online, from apparel to home medical supplies to personal care items.

I am so grateful for this convenience, you know. I wonder how people from my parents’ generation survived without this convenience and freedom to shop even at home and have goods delivered to their home!

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MSN Web Messenger Retires 30 June, 2009

And I am not missing it! I don’t think that I have ever used it before, actually, since its launch in August, 2004. Perhaps it is just the way I am connected to the internet. I use my desktop or laptop most of the time and both have MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger installed and ready to connect once my systems are connected to the internet.

When I am on the move, I have my mobiles with me and I would hardly use MSN or Windows Live Messenger. If my battery could withstand being connected to the internet for long hours, Fring would be the order of the day.

Today, 30th June, 2009, not only is Microsoft retiring MSN Web Messenger, we will also see the retirement of Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft Money and sadly, Microsoft OneCare.

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Websites Crack Under Michael Jackson News

Following news of Michael Jackson’s hospitalization and subsequently, death, Google, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and even Wikipedia servers were all tested to the maximum thanks to web queries from fans of Michael Jackson who all wanted to know the latest updates. My friends on Facebook were all trying to provide “breaking news” and there was no need to search for news on media sites or entertainment blogs.

Music websites like Amazon and iTunes all saw a tremendous surge in sales of Michael Jackson albums and tracks which strangely, propelled Michael Jackson with the the kind of popularity that has eluded him for years and which he has continuously tried to recapture even till the end of his days, culminating to a 50-night show in London which would now never happen.

I also grew up listening to Michael Jackson and I guess like everyone in my generation, we are all web savvy people now who treat Google, Twitter and Facebook as our online homes, who would hit the web whenever we are looking for information, especially when we needed confirmation on big news like the death of Michael Jackson.

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