HeadsetOptions Web Design, SEO, WordPress, Etcetra

Did you know there are libraries for PC error codes? I did not, and for good reasons because most times when you do encounter errors, you often hit the reset or reboot and off you go. But that changed a while back when I was trying to recover data from an old hardware and ran into numerous issues that were until that point were unknown. That is when I found www.pc-library.com, a free resource for anyone who needs to know anything related to what system error messages actually mean!

With PC Library, I was able to quickly figure out what ports were being used, and the applications that were associated with specific port numbers. My very first …

Starting an online blog or an online business or an online website is not at all easy. From the domain name registration, to the choice of Content Management Software (CMS), web hosting, website marketing, website promotion, link building, search engine optimization, making money online, search-engine friendly scripts, etc., one requires not just basic knowledge, but in-depth awareness of the latest resources available online.

If you Google web resources, you will see hundreds of sites pop up. Now what does it indicate? Does it indicate that the sites that are on top are the best in that niche? Maybe yes, maybe not.

With more and more webmasters becoming increasingly well-versed with SEO, being on top does not necessarily indicate relevant searches or the …

British Prime Minister’s #10 blog is apparently not honoring the copyright agreement of the theme developer, in spite of the Creative Commons licensing. Theme copyright infringements are a serious issue that many non-themers overlook, mostly because it conveniently services their purpose. The old theme viewer was plagued with this issue that eventually led to creation of a new admin monitored repository. With the growing popularity of WordPress, this issue left unaddressed will only lead to more such goof ups or worse, blatant rip-offs, which will eventually lead to a decline in free quality themes.

Here’s a fluid bubble chart of the Olympic medal count, the coolest online map ever. Move the scale on the top to get a feel of how powerful this flash powered application really is.

One interesting note in the geopolitical context is how in 1980, USSR, the eastern block, Cuba and all the communist governments dominated the show (in the absence of US), but China, which we believe was strongly influenced by USSR, did not medal at all.

As for this year, the larger dots are mostly represented by developed nations, with only a few exceptions.

Two stats caught my attention this afternoon, according to Matt, WordPress page views apparently grew from 1.5 billion to 6.5 billion/month. That is billion with a B. At almost the same time, according to IBM’s X-Force 2008 Trend Statistics, WordPress, as a blog platform is the 9th most vulnerable application vendor. Go figure.

Since Alexa made changes to their ranking algorithm, headsetoptions.org dropped off the top 100K for over 3 months (we are back now), which has not been the case since we started some 20 months ago. The best score for our site was 36K, and on average was around 60K, now we are at around 90K. The drop in the ranking trend was similar to most all technology bloggers; even sites like TechCrunch lost out on the ranking game and were pushed back.

Of course it had no implication on traffic to the sites, but it makes a hell of a lot of difference to folks who rely on such free stats services to invest their advertising dollars, which begs the questions, is Alexa a true representation of reality? Is there a free online tool which is closer to the truth?

When a client of mine upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1 from WordPress 2.5 she encountered an issue where the database will not upgrading, resulting in the “WordPress 2.5.1 is available! Please update now.” flashing in her dashboard and every other admin pages. On initial search of the WordPress support forum, we found the following strings that pointed us in a certain direction:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/172004
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/168964

Neither strings suggest solutions that are easy or safe, however, I urge you check these posts and then search your install via file manager/FTP/WebFTP to ensure you do not have files with the following extensions anywhere within a writable …

WordPress 2.5.1 is already out, so the blog you upgraded last month, is outdated and worse, could be vulnerable. A Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE 2008 1930) which reads as below is now known to be the reason for this hastened release:
An attacker, who is able to register a specially crafted username on a Wordpress 2.5 installation, is able to generate authentication cookies for other chosen accounts.

This vulnerability exists because it is possible to modify authentication cookies without invalidating the cryptographic integrity protection.

If a Wordpress blog is configured to freely permit account creation, a remote attacker can gain Wordpress-administrator access and then elevate this to arbitrary code …

If you are a local, drop in and meet Richmond net entrepreneurs, web designers, and network with folks interested in the internet and technology. Here’s a link to the meet up, sign up for free and stop by. I personally would like to meet some WordPress enthusiasts.

One of the best CSS designer offering free templates has a new home, visit Layoutica and you will see what I mean. David plans on offering among other things free CSS template layouts, premium and free WordPress themes. His sites also has wealth of information pertaining to web design.

As per David, Layoutica.com will deliver useful information for designers and web-developers alike. It will inform readers with fresh news about website templates and web design but also techniques in web-development. What are you waiting for, bookmark it!