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If you’ve been on the internet for any amount of time you’re probably familiar with “spam” in your email inbox. For the uninitiated, spam is an unsolicited commercial message trying to sell you something. Some of this is generated by botnets, groups of hijacked PCs which are working secretly for a botnet controller, sending unsolicited mail using the mailbox of unsuspecting PC owners, or probing websites for security vulnerabilities. Other spam is posted by people who have nothing better to do.
So what does this have to do with WordPress blogs? Well just like you can get spam messages in your inbox, people will leave spam comments on your blog. Unlike email spam, where the target is you, in an attempt to get you to buy something, comment spam generally targets search engines like Google or Yahoo! trying to increase the PageRank of a website.
You are probably aware that Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google pioneered a search technique called PageRank. Basically what it does is, in addition to looking at the content of a page they index, they also look at who links to a page and what that link says. This technology is what made Google very good at returning relevant results, and made it the most popular search engine today. So why on earth would a spammer target a search engine through your WordPress blog? Simples! As Aleksandr Orlov the meerkat would say!
By posting a comment on your blog with a back-link to the site they are promoting, they hope to cash in on the PageRank of your site and so increase the ranking of the target site. With hundreds of bots in a botnet, all probing for open comments on WordPress blogs, they could theoretically get to the top of Google search listings for a targeted key phrase. What is possibly more annoying for the webmaster of a spammed blog, linking to a site which is identified by Google as a problem site, could damage the PageRank of the blog which has been spammed. This comment spam or link spam as it is known can be the bane of a popular WordPress blog.
So how do you avoid getting spammed by the comment spammers? Try the following simple tips:
- Activate the Akismet wordpress plugin
- Install a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing-test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) on your comment form
- Set Discussion Settings to An administrator must always approve the comment
If you are up to editing your web server system files, you can also block the IP address of frequent spammers if you find that a few IP’s are constantly sending comment spam. The easiest way to get rid of these spamers is by blocking their IP address using .htaccess method; adding the following to your .htaccess file:
<limit GET POST>
order allow,deny
deny from xx.xxx.xxx.001
deny from xx.xxx.xxx.002
deny from xx.xxx.xxx.009
allow from all
</limit>
You can list as many sites as you like in the list, putting each one on a new line as above.
By the way Spammers, posting spam to comments on this site will get you an entry on the Google spam report at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport, as we use Google Webmaster Tools. As we moderate every comment before it is posted on the site, link-spam will never see the light of day, so you are just wasting your life.
For legitamate ways to increase the PageRank of your homepage, see our earlier post on the subject entitled Improving Your Search Engine Results
If you are interested in even more imaginative ways to fight link spam, check out Conversation With An Idiot Link Broker, from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land! Click here to read Conversation With An Idiot Link Broker
It was reported by one of our Windows XP users that they were getting a message from McAfee Security Scan® with a request to Check My Security Status. As we protect all of our Windows PCs using McAfee, this message was not out of place, and the user clicked Scan Now. The alarm bells started when the Security Scan reported that there was no anti-virus software installed, which just is not true.
A cursory glance (right click on the Shield in the system tools) shows that VirusScan Enterprise was alive and well on his machine, and the consol showed that the last auto-update was successful. Initial attempts to uninstall the unwanted program using Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs were unsuccessful. Googling the phrase How do I get rid of McAfee Security Scan turned up several suggestions involving booting into Safe Mode or installing anti-malware programs. There were also several suggestions that McAfee Security Scan is downloaded with an update to Adobe Reader, which our user had recently installed.
This is the removal method which worked for us:
- Run msconfig using the Start, Run dialoge
- When msconfig has loaded, click on the Startup tab
- Find the entry for McAfee Security Scan, and uncheck the box
- Then click on Apply
This will prevent the application from reloading next time you start up. Next you need to uninstall the application:
- Call up Windows Task Manager
- Click on the Applications tab
- Click on McAfee Security Scan then click the End Task button
- Fire up Control Panel then double click Add or Remove Programs
- Wait a minute and McAfee Security Scan will relaunch and appear again in Task Manager, just like malware!
- In Task Manager, click McAfee Security Scan, then End Task again
- In Control Panel, immediately click Change for McAfee Security Scan, then Remove
If you have found this program installing itself without your conscious intent or consent we suggest that you voice your disapproval to Adobe. If enough people post their disapproval of this forced installation of annoying software to Adobe, they might just change their policy.
To any Adobe directors reading this, let me be the first to admit that you market some brilliant software, which is a credit to your company. Why risk your excellent corporate image with this offensive and shoddy software installation tactic?
For anyone else who is installing or upgrading Adobe Flash or Reader, take special note that there is an optional McAfee Scan listed in the installation that must be unchecked if you do not want to install McAfee Security Scan.
I was recently working on a MacBook Pro (2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, with OSx 10.5.8) when the dreaded dark screen goblin paid a visit. I had actually left the machine to make a cup of coffee, and the screen was dark when I got back. Well not completely dark, as the faintest outline of the authenticate dialogue box was visible if you looked hard enough.
The unusual thing is, I could see that the machine was still running, as I had a second display plugged into the external graphics adaptor, and the screensaver had been showing there. Moving the mouse pointer to the second display stopped the screensaver, and I was able to successful log on, even though I could not see the main screen. This brought up the desktop on the external display, which showed that machine was still running.
After I Googled MacBook Pro Dark Screen, which showed lots of people have had the same problem, I concluded that there are a lot of expensive sounding fixes involving changing Screens, Inverters and Reed switches! I really want a simple, no cost, fix for the dark screen problem. I tried the recommended F5 keyboard backlit dim followed by F6 brighten sequence, but to no avail. I also tried a Command-Option-P-R sequence, as someone suggested that it might be a power management problem.
The idea that the MacBook Pro power management may have become confused gave me an idea. Yes I know that is anthropomorphism, but sometimes it helps to understand what is going at a higher level of abstraction, without bothering about details like facts. So having made that mental leap, I tried the following sequence:
- Repeatedly press F5 until the keyboard went dark
- Pull out the magnetic power connector.
- Close the lid as if putting the MacBook Pro away for the night.
- Open the lid and reinsert the power connector as if waking it up.
As if by magic, the machine sprang back to life and displayed the login box, and all was well. This was the first time I had experienced the dark screen without resorting to rebooting to fix it. Celebrations all round!
Now logic would suggest that pressing backlit buttons F5 and F6 could have no impact on the screen. Pulling out the magnetic power connector has never made a difference to the dreaded dark screen before, nor has closing the lid and reopening it. How about the sequence of steps, exactly as listed? Well I have never tried it before, in my recollection, so perhaps it is the sequence? We will see, next time the dark screen occurs.
In the meantime, if anybody actually knows what causes the dreaded MacBook Pro Dark Screen, or repeats my sequence and has it work for them, please let me know. You can click here to contact me via TechCo Support, or post a comment below.
Remember that all sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic! Have a Happy New Year!
Everyone has heard about viral marketing right? You know, where a marketing campaign uses social networks to increase brand awareness and boost product sales. Who would have guessed that a man in a gorilla suit playing the drums would have been one of the most talked-about ads of the decade?
The term viral comes from the spread of information, and hence brand awareness, by word of mouth or self-replicating viral processes, which is analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. The power comes through fans downloading and forwarding the ad to friends. Some notable examples are:
Bear Fight – John West Salmon
Released in November 2000, and starting out as a nature documentary, this witty ad quickly turns into a fight between a man and bear over a salmon. The bear was in fact a stuntman in a 7ft-tall bear suit from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Written by Paul Silburn and directed by Daniel Kleinman, this was one of the first ads to use the viral power of the internet.
Click here to watch John West Salmon ‘Bear Fight’
Cadbury’s Gorilla
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk 2007 Gorilla advertising campaign was heavily popularised on YouTube and Facebook. This ad had a massive impact, being viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube, spawning numerous spoofs and winning a string of awards for its director, copywriter and art director Juan Cabral.
Click here to view Cadbury’s Gorilla Advert
The Return of Monkey – PG Tips
When PG Tips wanted to revise the Monkey character and reconnect with its advertising heritage, they called on copywriters Mark Waites, Ben Mooge and Al Maccuish, along with Mother creative directors, Rob Saville and Mark Waites to produce a witty storyline. In the first ad from January 2007, Monkey returns drenched and dishevelled as a mascot on the front of a truck. Ten thousand people signed up to Monkey’s MySpace page within the first few weeks of its launch.
Click here to watch PG Tips ‘The Return’
T-mobile adverts
Real-life aspiring musician, Josh Ward, has been challenged by T-Mobile to put together a band of hundreds or even thousands of musicians, using its free unlimited texts and internet on mobile for life rewards on pay as you go. Josh appeared in the first part of the campaign in September 2009 which saw real people being stopped in the street and asked what they would do with free texts for life. Josh, who was originally filmed on his way to a gig in London’s Brick Lane, said he’d use free texts for life to set up a superband – so T-Mobile challenged him to make his dream a reality. Since he started his quest, over 24,000 people have logged onto Josh’s MySpace profile and his videos have had more than 6,000 views on YouTube .
Click here to view T-mobile What would you do with free internet for life?
Comparethemarket: Comparethemeerkat
One of my personal favorites is the meerkat ads on TV from VCCP. Aleksandr Orlov is an aristocratic meerkat, and the founder of www.comparethemeerkat.com, which is constantly being mistaken for the other site, which is in no way similar! The character is voiced by Simon Greenall, and Aleksandr now has in excess of 600,000 Facebook fans, and 31,230 Twitter followers last time I looked. The insurance site increased its market share of UK insurance comparison site visits by 76% between January and August 2009. Not bad for some cute but simple puppets and a good idea. It even has a great jingle which just goes round and round in your head all day – com-pare-the-meer-kat, dot-com! Simples!
Click here for the Official Compare the Meerkat Advert
Click here for the Official Compare the Meerkat Bloopers
Although marketing experts acknowledge that the basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable, the successful campaigns can be spectacular and have world-wide impact. If you are planning a viral marketing exercise, you just better be prepared for it to be a success!
Featured WordPress blog: Brazen Careerist – Advice at the intersection of Work and Life
This week we are visiting a blog which is a wonderful place to draw inspiration if you are a writer or blogger, and highly entertaining for everyone, even if they are neither. It is titled Brazen Careerist, by Penelope Trunk, with the subtitle Advice at the intersection of Work and Life. It contains such gems as “if you want to be an idea person, you should sit down and write an idea first thing in the morning”.
Penelope Trunk is the founder of 3 internet companies, most recently Brazen Careerist, a social network to help young people manage their careers. As an entrepreneur she got a column in a national magazine and started giving advice in places like Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and the London Times. Her career advice now appears in more than 200 newspapers.
As she points out in Penelope’s Guide to Blogging, a blog is a great way to figure out what you want to do with yourself because writing regularly is a path to self-discovery. For that blinding insight alone she deserves a visit, but believe me, the rest of the site is filled with the same sort of wisdom which bloggers, job seekers, and Internet savvy in general should be immersed in every day.
Another point she has made in her blog is that personal responsibility is the most important trait of a successful career. This is one right out of our business coaching manual and a sentiment we have been able to identify with in other ventures such as life coaching and presentation skills training.
Would be bloggers would befit from reading Penelope’s post entitled What makes a blog successful? This contains some interesting views about why you should blog; we might even make it required reading on our Getting Started With WordPress training!
To read more from this entertaining blogger, click here to visit Brazen Careerist
One of the most frequent questions a new WordPress blogger will ask is “How do I change the Theme?” or “How do I alter the appearance of my WordPress site?”. This post will take you through the simple steps to changing the appearance of your site. After completing this exercise you will be able to download and activate a new theme for your WordPress site.
First of all, log on to the wp-admin pages using the account details you used when setting up, or an account with Administrator role. On the left Menu click on Appearance and the Manage Themes page will appear.
The current theme will be displayed at the top, and any alternative layouts will be displayed under the heading Available Themes. If this is a fresh installation, there will likely be one one alternative, which will be WordPress Classic.
You can see what your current blog would look like using the Classic theme by clicking on the Preview link under the thumbnail view. After a few seconds your current blog will be displayed in the WordPress Classic style. If you wish to change the appearance of the site to Classic, then you can do so by clicking on Activate WordPress Classic at the top right of the preview screen, and you will be taken back to the Manage Themes page. The rest of the world can now see you blog in it’s new style.
As there are thousands of WordPress themes available for free, the next step is to see what themes appeal to you. Click on Add New Themes (under the Appearance menu item) and the Install Themes page displays.
You can Search for themes by keyword, author, or tag, by entering the string in the search box and clicking Search. Enter a string and search to see any themes which match your criteria displayed in the Search Results. At this point you can either:
- Select Preview to display a sample of it on screen.
- Click on Install, to see a small view of the screen, then click on Install Now, to add the theme to your blog.
If you select Install, you should see a number of messages somthing like the following:
- Downloading install package from…
- Unpacking the package.
- Installing the theme…
- Successfully installed the theme…
Afterwards you will be offered a choice of Actions: Preview, Activate or Return to Theme Installer. Selecting Return to Theme Installer will take you to the Install Themes page so that you can search for another theme. Finally clicking on Themes will allow you to return you to the Manage Themes page, where you will see your new thumbnail picture under Available Themes, or as your current theme, depending on your earlier choice.
Congratulations, you are now able to download and activate a new theme for your WordPress site. In the next post in this series, we will look at How To Manage Plugins in WordPress. Happy blogging!
As it is less than one month to Christmas, we have decided to list some of our favourite tech gadgets to help you fill stockings over the festive season
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Mario Kart with Wii Wheel (Wii) – Wii Remote Not Included
- The Wii Wheel transforms the Wii Remote controller (not included) into a steering wheel that feels natural in anyone’s hands, while the Wii Remote and Nunchuk; controller offer a classic control style for the Mario Kart veteran. In either configuration, players can perform speed-boosting tricks with a shake of the Wii Remote.
- Players can race as their favourite Nintendo character, or even as themselves! Mario Kart Wii lets players race with their personalized Mii; characters. And racers will see other Mii characters they have created cheering from the sidelines on some race courses.
- Players can compete with up to three friends in their living room. Or challenge up to 11 opponents via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in the biggest Mario Kart race yet. All tracks and modes of play are available via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and players can visit the Mario Kart Channel to compete in tournaments, check rankings, see when their friends are playing and download ghost data.
- Cruise new tracks and arenas or tour classic courses from Super Mario Kart;, Mario Kart; 64, Mario Kart;: Super Circuit;, Mario Kart;: Double Dash!!; and Mario Kart; DS. Tired of riding on four wheels? Bust out one of the new motorbikes for special tricks and techniques.
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Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board (Wii)
Wii Fit Plus solus is the ultimate upgrade for your Wii Fit. For those who do not have Wii Fit yet they can get all New Wii Fit Plus, and as well as experiencing all these features of the original Wii Fit. Wii Fit Plus will offers all the features of the original application with the addition of all new features to make your workout more productive and personal, as well as some great new fun games. Wii Fit Plus is a great way to let everyone in the family combine fitness with fun.
Wii Fit Plus has loads of new features, including:
- Aerobic Exercises: New Additional Jogging Courses, Ste Rythum Remix all-new songs.
- Muscle Exercises: 3 New Muscle Exercises.
- Yoga: Includes 3 New Poses.
- Balance Games: Heading, Ski Jump, Ski Slalom, Tightrope, irritating maze, Penguin game,
Snowboarding, and meditation.
- Training Plus: Skateboarding, Rythum Kung Fu, Dungeon Jogging, many more.
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A common question which is often asked of our support staff is “After Installing WordPress how do you customize it?” So it is about time for More WordPress Configuration Tips, to take you to the next step.
First of all, log on to the wp-admin pages using the account details you used when setting up. In order to make the site your own after installation, we suggest that you customize WordPress by completing the following steps:
In the WordPress General Settings (Settings, then General)
- Set up your Blog Title and Tagline, if not already to your liking
- Set the Date Format by clicking on one of the existing examples, or setting a Custom format; we normally use a custom j F Y to show the date in UK format 30 November 2009
- Click on Save Changes
In the WordPress Writing Settings (Settings, then Writing)
- Change the size of the Writing window if required
- Check WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically
- Add any further Update Services to which you wish to subscribe (For more about this, see Update Services on the Codex.)
- Click on Save Changes
In the WordPress Discussion Settings (Settings, then Discussion)
- Check Users must be registered and logged in to comment in Other comment settings
- If You are particularly keen on keeping a tight rein on comments, check An administrator must always approve the comment Before a comment appears.
- Click on Save Changes
Once you are ready for your Blog to see the world (or is it the world to see your Blog?), in the WordPress Privacy Settings (Settings, then Privacy)
- click on I would like my blog to be visible to everyone,
- Click on Save Changes
In the next installment, we will show you how to install your new WordPress theme, in order to change the Appearance of your WordPress Blog rather than the default theme.
Book Review by Bruce Thompson
Harley Farmer – Cause Publications Ltd – ISBN 978-0-9526144-0-9
The Reaper’s Rainbow by Dr Harley Farmer is a brilliant detective yarn with an intriguing and compelling plot.
A mysterious illness begins killing strategic individuals in the financial sector and the police believe that Al Qaeda are unleashing a new weapon to cripple our economy. Detective Karen Fraser teams up with Doctor Michael Blandford a former Infection Control Doctor at the hospital where patients start dying.
Together they establish a specialist team of unlikely bedfellows to hunt down the culprit. Gordon Campbell runs a computer security company whose high tech facilities becomes a focal point for their intelligence gathering and international communications.
At first sight you might be tempted to think that it is another story with a superbug as the threat, and faceless terrorists as the enemy. However, after the dramatic opening sequence, I realized that the science is bang up to date, and completely plausible. What is more, the real enemy is lurking in the corridors and boardrooms of hospital trusts everywhere.
I can relate to the bureaucracy that the author describes so vividly. I have heard those same legal arguments, which corporate lawyers utter in all sincerity, but which tell you that they have truly lost the plot. When faced with the intransigence of “the system” which would rather follow procedure than risk success, I have experienced the deep feeling of frustration to which the characters are exposed.
Surely it couldn’t possibly happen? As people started dying, I started to get that funny feeling which I haven’t felt since reading Jaws by Peter Benchley.
This is an exciting book, which kept me up late at night to find out what happened next. It is all the more gripping because it is so believable, and really could happen. I will not spoil the suspense by telling you the ending, but after you have read this book you might think twice about your next visit to a hospital for anything more than parking your car.
The bugs are real, and people are literally dying in their thousands every year from exposure to them. The products and solutions cited really do exist and were developed to break infection cycles. You really must read this book. Then I suggest you send a copy to your local MP and recommend that they read it too!
Harley Farmer is a PhD Virologist and presenter who lectures at international conferences. For more on the MRSA superbug which has become endemic in British hospitals, and a possible solution, see NewGenn controls MRSA in animals and NewGenn supplying products that control and kill the H1N1 Swine Flu.
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