Tag: Wordpress

Awaiting WordPress 2.5

This site is proudly powered by WordPress (WP).

Wordpress LogoWith lots of updates going on into the core of wordpress install, particularly with the upcoming WordPress 2.5, a lot of features are being introduced. I’m afraid there will come a time that WordPress would not be as lightweight but functional as it used to be. WordPress users are asking for features left and right specific to their needs. The WordPress team, it appears to me, are moving towards satisfying all those requests by the various users in one package, that is WordPress.

Continue reading Awaiting WordPress 2.5

Blogging at Your Own Domain Name

A discussion over at The Blog Herald, some people adversely decide whether they should spend (waste?) time reading blogs that have url’s ending in “.blogspot.com” or “.wordpress.com”. To some, these url addresses bring negative connotations as to the contents of the blog, although this may not always be the case.

Everyone, indeed, can just simply create a new blog over those sites (blogger and wordpress.com) anytime for free. How sure can you be that the blog created from these sites you have bumped into is current, meaning maintained regularly and that the blogger was serious about it (which takes me back into wondering what’s the idea behind http:/deloittephilippines.multiply.com). Who would like to browse a blog who’s only content is “Hello World!” anyway? Continue reading Blogging at Your Own Domain Name

Database Error – Surviving the Disaster

Yesterday, we had a very bad day. Our database just simply failed. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it was only a good thing I had a back-up last Saturday morning. Nevertheless, I lost some comments especially from Val, regarding the NBA, etc. Also, my entry regarding Yahoo! Mail offering unlimited storage space wasn’t included in the back-up. So if you’re a subscriber by email, and thought you received that post twice, this is the main reason, the database failed and I had to re-post it.

My good friend Val and I had a really interesting conversation last Saturday, so I felt compelled to just re-post our conversation then here in this very entry.

Post Title: A Glimpse at the NBA Playoffs

Val: It’s been rumored that Jermaine O’neal will be traded to LA Lakers. Deuts and Sherwin any opinion about this?

Val: It appears to me that San Antonio will win the title this year. Duncan remains dominant and Parker and Ginobili are playing extremely well for both series against Denver and Phoenix. I agree with Sherwin that Detroit Pistons have the best chance to beat a western superpower but still I think Spurs will be the likely victor in this match up. It maybe a different story should Big Ben still a Piston. Looking at the teams defeated by Detroit, both teams have no dominant big men as compared to the Spurs have to offer. To argue that Dwight Howard is a dominant player is an idea that I don’t agree for the time being because experience wise he is not yet there. As compared to Spurs, they showed us how to stop Phoenix even with the dominance of Amare and defended the perimeter well with the likes of Carmelo and A. I.

However a championship match between San Antonio and Detroit is something that I am not excited about. These are few of the teams that are boring to watch. No acrobatic moves, no fast break dunks, not much three points shoot out, not much cross over moves.

It looks like you are watching Jorelle playing NBA Live. In fairness to Jorelle I was guilty too. In NBA Live 2004 I tend to rely more on half court offense even I have a clear fast break. Beginning NBA Live 2006 I learn to use the USER control (I used cpu control in 2004) and this change my game style. Now I employ the run and gun theme which of course is fun to watch and play.

deuts: Great analysis there, Val! It’s nice to see the views of other people from a different perspective. You’re lucky to be so sure! hehehehehe

di ko na rin maintindihan sinulat ko! hehe gusto mo ibalik natin ang mga NBA Live days eh! para malaman natin kung sino tlga ang magaling! hehehehe

Val: sige tamang tama bibili kami laptop sa June

Post Title: The deuts.net Annual

Val: congrats on your first anniversary. When are you coming back? You still owe me a cup of of coffee and ensaymada. hehe

deuts: Instant coffee? hehehe

Sado! NBA naman tau, Detroit ako sa Finals.

Val: sige. ganito na lang basta pustahan tayo sa finals either detroit or cleveland sau sa akin either san antonio or utah. deal?

deuts: cge deal! so pag nanalo ako, quits na tau. pag nanalo ka, dalawang starbucks at ensaymada bibilhin ko, isa sau, isa sakin! bwehehehehhe

Val: wala namang dayaan. ginagamitan mo na naman ako ng talino mo e

Lesson of the day: Always back-up.

Latest in deuts.net

There are the recent news that I want to share:

  1. It is yet 25th of the month, and deuts.net has already breached the 1 gigabyte monthly bandwidth usage for the month of January 2007.

    This is actually according to my control panel. Statistics shows that this month is the highest bandwidth usage since May last year, considering that I’ve not even made any major back door editing of the site (and other subdomains and parked domain under it), and thus burn some bandwidth.

  2. Deuts.net achieved a PR of 4 in Google’s Pagerank during this month.
  3. Recently, I received an email from Link Text Ads (LTA) notifying me that they have already approved of my application.

    Needless to say this, but during the inauguration of this site, simultaneous to my application with google adsense, I also applied with TLA. That time the latter denied my application citing that there was not enough traffic in my site. So, I sticked to adsense.

    I haven’t made any follow-up with TLA since then regarding my application. But, lately, they emailed saying I can now be one of the publishers. It must be because of the PR of 4, huh?

    I haven’t figured out yet, though, how to publish their ads here in my wordpress site, and where exactly to show it. It can wait, anyway.

  4. I completed my first 50 posts in igb.net forums. Thus, I availed of their free hosting.

    igb.net is a webhost that offers free hosting to their members. It only requires a member to post at least 50 responses in their forum to avail of the free hosting. If you also wish to avail of their free hosting, you can visit their site here.

    Now, since I have a spare domain, which is jotuvillo.com, I used it for my igb.net host. What I plan with that site is maintain a more personal blog, and also post pictures of my everyday life. I’m also planning to create a photo gallery in that host. Just watch out for it.

  5. Just this week, the latest version of wordpress was released. It’s version 2.1.

    I still have to prepare deuts.net to upgrade to wordpress 2.1, though. Updating all the plugins, backing up the database and the files, and preparing the theme requires a lot of work (I guess) and of course, time. It can wait, anyway (again!).

So, to my regular visitors, enjoy browsing deuts.net! 🙂

The Challenge that Failed Me

The Math Challenge Plugin I used to employ to combat comment spams generated by spam robots failed me. And that is the reason why I’m dumping it.

I’m not exactly sure whether the comment spams that entered my akismet filter were posted by individuals, because there were so many of them, or the plugin must have just been defective. Nevertheless, I’m removing it and instead, have spam karma 2 purge those spam after 2 hours. Yeah you read it right, 2 hours. I may not even have the time to review those comments whether there are valid ones erroneously filtered by the two comment spam plugins.

Now, then, I would like to request my commentators who may find their comments not able to come through in the article they are commenting on to notify me via the contact page. This is very important and I want you to know that I value your comments very much that I don’t want them lost.

Moreover, I can now re-activate other javascript plugins like post-ratings, etc., that I once deactivated to give way to this inutile plugin.

A Math Challenge Plugin

Spam comments has always been a problem in the blogosphere. Akismet and Spam Karma 2 are two of the most common spam protection plugins for wordpress blogs. What these plugins do, however, is simply catch spam comments and put them in queue for the administrator’s moderation.

Spam in blogs (also called simply blog spam or comment spam) is a form of spamdexing. It is done by automatically posting random comments, promoting commercial services, to blogs, wikis, guestbooks, or other publicly-accessible online discussion boards. Any web application that accepts and displays hyperlinks submitted by visitors may be a target.

Adding links that point to the spammer’s web site artificially increases the site’s search engine ranking. An increased ranking often results in the spammer’s commercial site being listed ahead of other sites for certain searches, increasing the number of potential visitors and paying customers.

Source: wikipedia

Spam comments are usually done through a program and/or machines. They are normally automatic once they’ve bookmarked your site. Now, although Akismet and Spam Karma 2 catch those spams and prevent them from being posted directly to your comments, they do not prevent them from reaching your comments (worse, they don’t cook them for breakfast! hehe). They help keep spam from being published, but not from reaching your comments.

As a result, you’ll need to check your admin panel regularly and browse through the captured spam comments for any erroneous catch. This is surely irritating, especially if you’re encountering an average of 10 to 20 spams per day (much worse is the case for other more popular sites).

Continue reading A Math Challenge Plugin