Make the web, make more of it! - Jan 09 Blog Summary

First up, and with this blog being so new, thank you for reading, and a big thank you to my feed subscribers. Hey, I appreciate your support and, as they say, I'll wear it always.

Guvnr.com launched in November and, blog-wise, began to get in the swing of things in the last few weeks. In other words, it can improve.

What I want to know is, what has been useful to you, else would be?

the_guv's sistasite: Setup The Ultimate VPS

"Blank box to top-notch web server"

• plain English copy/paste tutorials with video
• written for VPS beginners and Linux newbies
• perfect for multiple sites, blogs & more
• Fast. Secure. Future-proofed. Cheap-as-chips!
• "Wow!!" "godsend!!" "GREAT!!!" "awesome"

Ubuntu & Debian, Nginx (beats Apache), MySQL, PHP-FPM, Xcache, WordPress, WP MU, Drupal etccccc

Coming up in February...

As well as making a few improvements to the site's architecture, to make it easier to navigate, I've outline-planned some features covering:-

• making the most of Facebook, both for social & business users
• web marketing, using social bookmarking and video sites
• better surfing, with some cracking Firefox plugins featured
• better blogging, with some cracking WordPress plugins, er, featured
• a few software guides & PC tips
• ... and with the Friday post set aside for my fun or unusual site of the week

But. What topics do you want covered? Let me know and I'll see if I can help.

Now here's a quick recap of last months posts, in case you missed anything useful. Seeing as the_guv's blog has just got in the swing of things, I've recapped some posts from late last year, too, in this summary.

Here's to a fine Feb, and thanks again for reading. Olly (the_guv!)

• Friday Fun: Dummies Guide to Parking

  January 30, 2009

  One of the things I love about the web is how random it is.

  Plug any old phrase into a search engine and before you know it you’ve learnt something new, and with absolutely no benefit whatsoever. Top.

  From now on, here at Guvnr.com, I’m going to devote the Friday blog post to some completely pointless [...]

• If it Ain’t Got a Date, Read it at your Fate

  January 29, 2009

  You’re surfing, maybe researching. You need info. And you happen upon some-site.com with, pretty much, the words you need to read. Looks good.

  But. Something sparks your headset and, casting your eye away from the headline or top line or so, you recall it’s a good idea to check the date. [...]

• WordPress Suicide Plugin: Clean a WP Database

  January 28, 2009

  How do you clean a WordPress database of unwanted data, while retaining user or other select information?

  Strip out the database using phpMyAdmin? Sure. But a lazier option? WordPress Suicide.

  Suicide allows you, quickly and easily, to:- [...]

• How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 5 - Video How to: Set Up a Proxy

  January 23, 2009

  If you want to be anonymous in real life, buy a big coat. Online, and for your PC, it’s more complex. Why do it? To shore up your identity, safeguard data, secure eCommerce and give peace of mind.

  This guvGuide helps you find the level of anonymity to suit you, to take control [...]

• How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 4 - Controlling Javascript

  January 22, 2009

  If you want to be anonymous in real life, buy a big coat. Online, and for your PC, it’s more complex. Why do it? To shore up your identity, safeguard data, secure eCommerce and give peace of mind.

  This guvGuide helps you find the level of anonymity to suit you, to take control [...]

• How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 3 - How to Set Cookies

  January 21, 2009

  If you want to be anonymous in real life, buy a big coat. Online, and for your PC, it’s more complex. Why do it? To shore up your identity, safeguard data, secure eCommerce and give peace of mind.

  This guvGuide helps you find the level of anonymity to suit you, to take control [...]

• Review: Obama’s Inauguration Online & the Web 2.0 Generation, a Partisan Party

  If you were in any doubt about which demographic tipped the win for Obama, the online coverage of his big day held a pretty hefty clue.

  For anyone who was in front of their PC, surfing the news, it was apparently hard to tear away from the live video coverage, complete with scrolling user comments, of [...]

• How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 2 -
  21 Tips to Surf Safe

  January 20, 2009

  If you want to be anonymous in real life, buy a big coat. Online, and for your PC, it’s more complex. Why do it? To shore up your identity, safeguard data, secure eCommerce and give peace of mind.

  This guvGuide helps you find the level of anonymity to suit you, to take control [...]

• How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 1 - Anonymising Your PC

  January 19, 2009

  If you want to be anonymous in real life, buy a big coat. Online, and for your PC, it’s more complex. Why do it? To shore up your identity, safeguard data, secure eCommerce and give peace of mind.

  This guvGuide helps you find the level of anonymity to suit you, to take control [...]

• Enable the Phishing Setting for Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome & Safari Browser

  January 18, 2009

  Phishing is a scam to obtain sensitive data, employing misleading emails and websites. All those spammy emails you get asking you to update your online banking details? Phish.

  If you inadvertently click through one of those emails, your properly configured web browser will detect a scam, alert you and report the fraud. In-browser protection will [...]

• How to Disable Windows XP Services

  January 17, 2009

  Microsoft is well-known for bloating it’s operating systems with a bunch of “services”. These little programs run in the background, slowing down your PC. I reckon about half can be either turned off, else set to run only when needed, greatly improving performance. I show you how, and it’s dead simple…

• Preview: How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC

  January 16, 2009

  Quick heads-up. Because coming up, next week, here with the_guv…

  A comprehensive guide, spread over 5 posts, each detailing in non-geek-Greek, easy-to-follow bullet points:-

  • Mon: Anonymising your PC (Part 1)
  • Tue: Tips to Surf Safe (Part 2)
  • Wed: How to Accept Cookies (Part 3)
  • Thu: Controlling Javascript (Part 4)
  • Fri: Video How-to: Set up a [...]

• Video: We Are Living in Exponential Times

  January 15, 2009

  If you’re one in a million in China. There are 1300 people like you.

  If MySpace were a country, it would be the world’s 5th largest.

  The first commercial text message was sent in 1992. Today, the number sent exceeded the population of the planet.

  By 2013, a super-computer will be built exceeding the computational capability [...]

• jQuery Birthday, 1.3 Born, OpenSource Lives On

  January 14, 2009

  Cruising about, looking for some material about javascript for a post I’m writing, and I find this post at Ajaxian.

  "Happy Birthday jQuery! v1.3 is Released"

  Well, maybe it’s nearly Friday, I just cashed a nice check and had a cute glass of whiskey, but I wanted to show my appreciation for jQuery, John Resig’s [...]

• Happy New Year, Snappy New Site & a Ton of New Content

  January 9, 2009

  OK, so we’re all turkey’ed out and glad to be back at work. Sure, I was really thinking that last week on the ski slope. And I guess this is one of those years we face with a certain degree of trepidation.

  Hey, you never know. Maybe Microsoft will go out of business, [...]

• Video How-to: Add a Favicon

  December 5, 2008

  If I had a Big Mac for every favicon tutorial out there, I’d be dead. But hey, I needed a favicon, and I figured a video illustrating the process may come in handy for some folks, so here goes.

  What is a favicon, and what’s it for? I explain that here and in the [...]

• Windows “Authenticode” Nag Screen

  November 20, 2008

  Seen this nag screen? Or rather, this scare screen, from Microsoft? Let me answer that! If you install software from a vendor that hasn’t been “approved” by Microsoft, you have. “Approved”, one could argue, is another word for “conned.” And you and I, the software users, are left confused. Don’t be! [...]

• Now Reselling Lunarpages Hosting, but why?

  November 19, 2008

  So you need an ISP, a server to host your website or blog? Else you’re paying too much at the moment, with no thrills or poor service. But where do you start to research your new host? Here at Guvnr, I’ve done the research for you, and me.

  Cheaper - and infinitely better. Fact is, [...]

• Video How-to: Subscribe to Content Feeds

  November 14, 2008

  The best thing about the web is its role as an information resource. Need some help? - the web is where. But all that info gets daunting, and that’s where subscribing to RSS feeds comes in. This article, complete with illustrative video - my first guvUtorial - will get you started with feeds to improve [...]

• Perfect Windows PC Install

  November 5, 2008

  Want a fast, cheap-as-chips, bullet-proof dream machine? Here’s how…

  The Perfect Windows PC Install may involve a bin, buying a Mac instead and using that. Else installing Linux. Then again, for many reasons a Windows PC is what you need, or rather what you want - ‘the devil you know’ and all that. OK, fair play. [...]