Charity, Computing & Internet

Charity Website

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As if my internet activities are not enough, I just volunteered to set up a website for a temple that my father is an advisor to. I felt that without a web presence, they are not able to spread their name and provide knowledge on what Taoism is. Also, since we have many charitable activities, it would be a good idea to provide an easy way for the public to support such causes.

As this is a charity website, I have decided to bear the costs of domain name registration, web hosting, web designing and maintaining the website. I have got the name already and am in the midst of looking for cheap web hosting. I have read web hosting reviews on some of the major web hosts but I cannot yet make up my mind since I am trying to find the cheapest.

My friend told me to go with Lunarpages because she has had good experience hosting with them but I am not so sure yet. I still would like to make comparisons by myself instead of letting others decide for me. Whatever it is, I am trying my best to keep cost as low as possible since I would be forking out the money from my own pocket.

Once I got this settled, I will start looking for a web designer. HHmmm I wonder if there would be anyone who would not mind doing it for free.

Blogging

Blogger bX Errors

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Months ago, I wanted to change the layout of my Blogger blogs. I was happily searching for Blogger layouts that I like. I specifically wanted only XML files since I was still using Blogger Classic with HTML files and I felt that I must be missing all the great features that the new Blogger offers. My friends were telling me how easy it is to place whatever we want on the sidebar by shifting them into place.

I thought that since I have a little time on my hands, it’s time to do a little house cleaning on ’em Blogger blogs. You know, all those java scripts that we are forced to place on our blogs really made them load so slowly.

Once I got my layouts ready, I was very excited about changing them but I have been facing error after error, which I subsequently searched on the web and found, too late, that I am not the only one facing this, that I thought, why did I even bother searching all over the web for nice layouts when I could not even use them because of Blogger bX-code errors?

Anyway, after trying (TRYING is the right word) to change my layout multiple times, I gave up. I made reports to Blogger too. It seems that each time I am thrown an error, the bX-code is different. I figured that it should be the same if I was trying to do the same thing and failed, right?

If you are also facing problems with your Blogger blog, it’s a good idea to report the error code to Blogger through this bX-code reporting form. I understand that the “engineers” will only work on a problem if enough people are reporting to them.

WordPress Issues

WordPress 2.6.2 Is Out

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As expected, even before I found time to upgrade my WordPress to 2.6.1, a newer patch is released. As usual, there are bugs to take care and this makes me wonder all over again why a program is released before extensive testing among a trusted software test group.

From what I read, most of the vulnerabilities are from the member registration feature, yet again. So if you have a WordPress powered blog that allows readers to register, you have no choice but to install this latest patch to close the security holes.

When I first started my self-hosted blogs, I kept this option of registering open. I did not know better. However, once I found out that there’s a security issue with it, I decided to disable it once and for all. I certain cannot afford the time nor the expertise to keep checking it people with bad intentions came and registered with my blogs!

Computing & Internet

Connected At All Times

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I need to be connected to the internet at all times because of work. In today’s IT age, I feel as if everyone is the same but was a little surprised to discover that a neighbor, who is a doctor, is not. I told him that my friend in the United States, Paul, told me that most doctors have equipped themselves with PDAs and smart phones so that they could have access to medical resources on the web at all times.

Let’s say they wanted to check up on something called Acute COPD Exacerbation, they could just log in to Epocrates Online and read the possible symptoms, suggested treatments, prescription, dosage and possible drug reactions with other medication that the patient may be on.

I think that more doctors here should be made aware of such free resources on the web so that they could make the most use of the information available in their “pocket”.

“This announcement was paid for by Epocrates.”

Computing & Internet

40 cents Increase For .com, .net, .org and .info Domains

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Gosh, it seems like just yesterday when there was a price increase for domain names. That prompted me to renew all my domains for five years. Since then, I have acquired even more domains and now I got the news that come 1st October, 2008, .com, .net, .org and .info domains would increase by another 40 cents.

This puts the price of my .coms to $9.69 per year, assuming I am not using a coupon code. Luckily I always managed to look for a coupon code before buying, renewing or transferring my domain names. Savings may be slight but it all adds up especially when we own multiple domain names!

So it looks like I will be renewing my domain names for the next few years again to avoid paying 40cents extra EACH domain name a year! But I just calculated, this renewal will cost me about MYR1000! F@rk loh!

Computing & Internet

Living In The IT Age

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I think that school leavers are so lucky to be living in the age of internet technology. When I was at that age, I really wanted to be a flight attendant but I did not have resources and did not even know how to be trained to be a qualified flight attendant.

These days, girls who dream of an exciting flight attendant career could just surf the internet for information. They could check out a flight attendant school online and make enquiries or read the experiences of a flight attendant from a flight attendant blog and learn what the job really entails.

I wish that I had easy access to such abundance of information back then. I know that I would have the advantage over other girls if I had the training and paper qualification of being a flight attendant. My life would have taken a very different path; the path of a high-flying, jet-setting career girl!

If you are dreaming of such an exciting career as a flight attendant, you should check http://aha.edu, the website of a flight attendant school.

Blogging

Blogs Dismissed

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As expected, most bloggers who have been with PPP for a long time now have had their blogs dismissed by the network. Well, the thing that everyone who is affected is unhappy about is because there is no reason given on why a particular blog is no longer qualified.

Of course, this just means that a blog will have no chance at all to improve and ask for a re-review. Like I said, I hate the finality of it. Can you just hear the bang of a closing door?

And as expected, there are some bloggers who are so bitter that they are going to remove all posts that have been paid for from their blogs. This will mean that advertisers will not get what they wanted. Yes, they KNOW it is for a 30-day live post but they WANT permanent links.

I also know that some bloggers will not be removing these old paid posts, but will be unlinking them all. Eh…. they have plenty of time on their hands now, don’t they? Why continue to provide link juice at the expense of their own PageRank?

Note: This is an observation post and is in no way critical of the network that I have been with for almost two years. 😀

Random Thoughts Off My Mind