Tag Archives: Tips And Tricks

The most important writing tool I own: a notebook.

April 24, 2008 by aaron
Bloggers by definition are writers. They may not write stories, but they write enough to fill many books. It doesn’t matter whether you blog about yourself or random and esoteric topics that only matter to you (cough: guilty). You are still a writer. If you write about yourself, you are writing an autobiography. If you write about current events, you are a journalist. If you write anything at all, you are a columnist, a historian, a science writer, or whatever title you want.
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Changing the hosts file in Vista

April 20, 2008 by aaron
In Vista, normal users are not allowed to save the hosts file, so the easiest way to edit it is to run notepad as an administrator. Go to start and either search for “notepad” or go to All Programs > Accessories Right click “notepad” and select the “Run as Administrator Option.” Once Notepad opens go to File > Open and browse to “C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc” Set the file filter to “All Files” Select and Open “hosts” Edit it and save it.
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TED: Think Globally, Act Locally

April 8, 2008 by aaron
I’ve linked to TED for quite a while in my sidebar and I urge everyone to subscribe to TED’s video RSS feed if you are even remotely concerned about the world and people around you. TED talks tends to focus on the grand scheme of things, but this talk by Yossi Vardi talks focuses acutely on the local issues that plague many bloggers. The topic of this talk effects at least 50% of bloggers and all bloggers who care about the future of the world should not only watch this video, but also take immediate action.
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8 Tips for Improving the Content of Your Writing

April 14, 2007 by aaron
The content of writing is separate from style and structure because content is what you write not how you write. The following tips apply just as well to academic essays as to blog posts, so feel free to cherry pick the suggestions that apply best to your writing. Pick an an interesting, significant topic. Too many times posts are done on something insignificant or unoriginal. It doesn’t really matter if you write a gorgeous tutorial or a powerful, inspiring and riveting essay if it just explains something most people already know about.
Read More ⟶

Victory over GMail–Inline Images.

April 25, 2007 by aaron
I’ve wanted to be able to add images to my emails inline (one that appears with the text, not as a separate attachment) for a long time, and today, thanks to WordPress I finally figured out how to do it. Open GMail, go to compose mail, select the “Rich Formatting” if it isn’t your default. Open your WordPress Admin Panel, go to a new post, select the Visual Editor (you may have to turn it on under your user preferences) Write your email in the WordPress Visual Editor, and embed the image into the new post (or just embed the image).
Read More ⟶

Improvements for Stattraq plugin.

April 29, 2007 by aaron
Ever since I originally started using Stattraq a few things bothered me about the way it worked. Here are the fixes to a few of them. Include pages with posts in your stats. Open stattraq.php Find: global $doing_rss, $p Replace With: global $doing_rss, $p, $page_id, $pagename, Find: if (($p != &#039;&#039;)){ $p = intval($p); $article_id = $p; } Replace with: if (($p != &#039;&#039;)){ $p = intval($p); $article_id = $p; }elseif (($page_id != &#039;&#039;)){ $page_id = intval($page_id); $article_id = $page_id; }elseif (($pagename != &#039;&#039;)){ $reqpage = get_page_by_path($pagename); if ( !empty($reqpage) ) $article_id = $reqpage->ID; } To add a list of all Pages that link to your site grouped by Website (excluding Google): Open “wp-stattraq/reporter/summary.php” Find: <?php echo PrintTimestamp();?> </div> <div id="queryTerms"> Before Add: <table id="referrersTable"> <thead> <tr> <th>#</th> <th>Referrer</th> <th>Pages</th> </tr> </thead> <tfoot> <tr> <th>#</th> <th>Referrer</th> <th>Pages</th> </tr> </tfoot> <tbody> <?php if($results){ $i=0; foreach($results as $row){ preg_match(&#039;/(http.*?\:\/\/.*?)(\/.*)/&#039;, htmlentities($row->ref), $matches); $ref_array[$matches[1]][] = $matches[2]; } while( list($site, $pages) = @each($ref_array) ){ if(strpos($site,&#039;google&#039;) ==false && $site != &#039;&#039;){?> <tr class="<?php echo ($i % 2 == 0 ?
Read More ⟶

The most important writing tool I own: a notebook.

April 24, 2008 by aaron
Bloggers by definition are writers. They may not write stories, but they write enough to fill many books. It doesn’t matter whether you blog about yourself or random and esoteric topics that only matter to you (cough: guilty). You are still a writer. If you write about yourself, you are writing an autobiography. If you write about current events, you are a journalist. If you write anything at all, you are a columnist, a historian, a science writer, or whatever title you want.
Read More ⟶

Changing the hosts file in Vista

April 20, 2008 by aaron
In Vista, normal users are not allowed to save the hosts file, so the easiest way to edit it is to run notepad as an administrator. Go to start and either search for “notepad” or go to All Programs > Accessories Right click “notepad” and select the “Run as Administrator Option.” Once Notepad opens go to File > Open and browse to “C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc” Set the file filter to “All Files” Select and Open “hosts” Edit it and save it.
Read More ⟶

TED: Think Globally, Act Locally

April 8, 2008 by aaron
I’ve linked to TED for quite a while in my sidebar and I urge everyone to subscribe to TED’s video RSS feed if you are even remotely concerned about the world and people around you. TED talks tends to focus on the grand scheme of things, but this talk by Yossi Vardi talks focuses acutely on the local issues that plague many bloggers. The topic of this talk effects at least 50% of bloggers and all bloggers who care about the future of the world should not only watch this video, but also take immediate action.
Read More ⟶

8 Tips for Improving the Content of Your Writing

April 14, 2007 by aaron
The content of writing is separate from style and structure because content is what you write not how you write. The following tips apply just as well to academic essays as to blog posts, so feel free to cherry pick the suggestions that apply best to your writing. Pick an an interesting, significant topic. Too many times posts are done on something insignificant or unoriginal. It doesn’t really matter if you write a gorgeous tutorial or a powerful, inspiring and riveting essay if it just explains something most people already know about.
Read More ⟶

Victory over GMail–Inline Images.

April 25, 2007 by aaron
I’ve wanted to be able to add images to my emails inline (one that appears with the text, not as a separate attachment) for a long time, and today, thanks to WordPress I finally figured out how to do it. Open GMail, go to compose mail, select the “Rich Formatting” if it isn’t your default. Open your WordPress Admin Panel, go to a new post, select the Visual Editor (you may have to turn it on under your user preferences) Write your email in the WordPress Visual Editor, and embed the image into the new post (or just embed the image).
Read More ⟶

Improvements for Stattraq plugin.

April 29, 2007 by aaron
Ever since I originally started using Stattraq a few things bothered me about the way it worked. Here are the fixes to a few of them. Include pages with posts in your stats. Open stattraq.php Find: global $doing_rss, $p Replace With: global $doing_rss, $p, $page_id, $pagename, Find: if (($p != &#039;&#039;)){ $p = intval($p); $article_id = $p; } Replace with: if (($p != &#039;&#039;)){ $p = intval($p); $article_id = $p; }elseif (($page_id != &#039;&#039;)){ $page_id = intval($page_id); $article_id = $page_id; }elseif (($pagename != &#039;&#039;)){ $reqpage = get_page_by_path($pagename); if ( !empty($reqpage) ) $article_id = $reqpage->ID; } To add a list of all Pages that link to your site grouped by Website (excluding Google): Open “wp-stattraq/reporter/summary.php” Find: <?php echo PrintTimestamp();?> </div> <div id="queryTerms"> Before Add: <table id="referrersTable"> <thead> <tr> <th>#</th> <th>Referrer</th> <th>Pages</th> </tr> </thead> <tfoot> <tr> <th>#</th> <th>Referrer</th> <th>Pages</th> </tr> </tfoot> <tbody> <?php if($results){ $i=0; foreach($results as $row){ preg_match(&#039;/(http.*?\:\/\/.*?)(\/.*)/&#039;, htmlentities($row->ref), $matches); $ref_array[$matches[1]][] = $matches[2]; } while( list($site, $pages) = @each($ref_array) ){ if(strpos($site,&#039;google&#039;) ==false && $site != &#039;&#039;){?> <tr class="<?php echo ($i % 2 == 0 ?
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