Messing with WordPress

Last night, on another WordPress blog I have, I started deleting plugins. What started this was the fact that I had installed a plugin, but had changed permissions and had forgotten to change them back (I hate it when I do that!) during a testing phase.

Checking my real time logs, I discovered that yahoo was spidering a directory I didn’t want spidered. This sent me into panic mode: I’m normally very careful about what I tweak, and putting things back the way they were when I’m done.

So, I started deleting plugins, and uploaded more than a couple of blank index files, and updated all of my robots.txt files to keep robots out of where they don’t belong:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /wp-content/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/

User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
Disallow:

Today, I created a post, and noticed I forgot something after publishing, went back, added it in real quick and wanted to make sure the Comments and Pings were selected in the Discussion box.

The discussion box was gone. Poof. Bye bye. Nowhere to be seen.

I started backtracking everything I did last nite. Usually I just backup the whole folder, don’t know why I didn’t this time, wasn’t thinking I guess.

Long story short: I got my discussion box back, but not where it was originally. It’s like box #3 on the hierarchy of boxes on the right side of my write screen.

At least it’s back.

Rounded Corners and Adsense

Adsense is offering rounded corners for publishers. I must say I rather like the idea: and I’ve never been fond of borders before. Once you log into Adsense, and create your ad, you will see a corner styles option.

Check it out.

Block IPs With Geo Targeting

Here’s an excellent little tutorial on blocking IPs with geo targeting. Note:

You need to be running your own server or VPS with access via SSH in order to implement it. If you ask nicely, your hosting company may install it for you.

Once installed, you can use it on a per site basis.

Really cool. I have several sites that this would be handy on.

[tags] Block IPs With Geo Targeting, tutorial, ssh, hosting[/tags]

Videos On The Web

I’m not a big fan of videos on the web. The last thing I want to do is watch a video telling me how to do something – I like print. If I’m learning something, I’ll print the document and read it several times.

And, I’m seeing more and more, the people who so helpfully offer the videos, don’t offer text to go with it. So, I won’t bother with the site period, I’ll go somewhere else.

Videos on the web are not the be all/end all of everything. I realize it’s the next so-called big thing. I’ll take print, thanks.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been known to spend hours on youtube.com. But not to watch instructional videos. I watch videos on the web that are going to make me laugh. For instance: check out this average joe blow video:

I mean, Star Wars and Cockatiels. You can’t go wrong with that!

HP LaserJet 1018

The HP LaserJet 1018 is a compact, and inexpensive, alternative to pricier laser printers, perfect for the small home business or work-at-home parent.

The HP 1018 costs anywhere between $130.00 and $160.00, an excellent deal, making it comparable in cost to some high end inkjets. If you’re looking for high quality black and white printing, the HP 1018 is the answer for you.

This small black-and-white printer is fast (up to 12 pages per minute) and provides clear, quality print for a fraction of the cost of other printers.

The HP cartridges for the HP LaserJet 1018, running about $70 for a new cartridge, seemed expensive at first. But with an estimated 2000 pages per cartridge, they last 4 times as long as an inkjet cartridge. So for the cost of 2 inkjet cartridges, you can get the print output of 4, without running ink, streaks, and some of the other problems associated with inkjets.

To add to ease of use, the HP LaserJet 1018 is plug and play compatible for Windows XP, using a USB cord to connect with the computer.

The cost of the new print cartridge was a bit of a turn off at first, but after shopping around, I was able to find a recycled cartridge for less than the cost of new inkjet cartridges.

Additional paper trays would have been nice, but for the price it’s an excellent printer.

[tags]printers, hewlett packard, HP LaserJet 1018, black and white[/tags]