Disadvantages of shortening URLs
Posted on April 5, 2011 under Blogging, Internet Tips | Leave a comment
A couple of days back, I was involved in a heated discussion with a friend. He was going on about the merits of URL shortening services. Being a man of habit, I had to take the opposing view. The result was actually quite enlightening and by the end of the highly animated argument I had managed to convince him (Yay! I won). I came up with the following disadvantages of shortening a URL… maybe you can add a few to this list.
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Can you use Lightbox with AdSense?
Posted on March 9, 2011 under Blogging, Web Design, Web Development | Leave a comment
Lightbox is a simple, unobstrusive script
that showcases images by superimposing them on a web page. It’s easy to use and can be installed on standard web sites and blogs. Check out my post that showcases the illustrations of popular celebrities by Pablo Lobato to see how Lightbox works; click on a thumbnail to display the larger version of the image. However, I was hesitating in using Lightbox on the site because the web pages also have Google AdSense ads. More »
Get your photo beside blog comments using Gravatar
Posted on August 13, 2010 under Blogging | 3 Comments
I’ve seen photos displayed with the comments on many blogs. How does one get an image to appear? Are these people members of these blogs? Also, even though others have their photos, I get an image with blocks and triangles and sometimes even little cute looking monsters.
Portia Steele
The ideal way to have your photo displayed along with blog comments is to create a Gravatar. The free Globally Recognized Avatar service requires you to make a profile, upload a photo or an avatar and associated it with an email address. This gravatar image / photo is pulled from your profile and shown along with the comment you post on a blog. However, please note that the email address you submit when posting a comment should match the one in your profile on the Gravatar service.
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Captcha definition – Why are you asked to type the two words?
Posted on July 16, 2010 under Blogging, Internet Tips, Other, Web Development | 8 Comments
It is very difficult to figure out the purpose of the mixed-up wavy letters in the two words. I think I have them right, in fact, I know I do in some cases. Please explain the point to me.
Anne Lawson
Why are the two words one is required to type when registering always so fancy in design? It’s hard to read them.
Maja Novak
What is Captcha? Definition and a super quick intro
Anne and Maja are referring to what is known as Captcha, or more correctly, Text CAPTCHA. Nowadays you find them almost everywhere on the net… both popular and the not-so-famous web sites and blogs. And there is one right on this page – scroll down to check it out.
Captcha is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer
(source Wikipedia). In layman’s terms, the aim of the text Captcha is to offer a puzzle which only humans are able to solve. Typically, text Captcha has a set of randomly generated alphanumeric characters that are wavy, battered, crossed with lines and / or close to each other (almost overlapping).
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WordPress spam blocked!
Posted on November 18, 2009 under Blogging, Internet Tips | Leave a comment
This is a follow up to what I wrote in an earlier post on how to stop spam on your WordPress blog by using reCAPTCHA security text. So was this plugin able to block WordPress spam?? Did the wavy security text prevent the automated programs that were filling my inbox with unsolicited messages concerning “manhood” pills? Here are the results after a couple of weeks.
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Add MP3 song on web page
Posted on November 12, 2009 under Blogging, Internet Tips | 1 Comment
AudioPlay from StrangeCube.com lets you add an MP3 song on a web page and is so simple and customizable that even people with the most basic web development skills can use it. But before I tell you all the fine details, click on the small ‘play’ symbol below to hear a song.
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Stop spam on WordPress blog
Posted on November 11, 2009 under Blogging, Internet Tips | Leave a comment
I created a ‘blog section’ on this web site a month back. WordPress was an obvious choice because I could install it in less than a minute via the Fantastico script library in the control panel provided by my web hosting service.
As the traffic to the blog section increased, my mailbox was flooded with spam comments. I had earlier been able to curtail spam from the other pages of the site using reCAPTCHA on the feedback forms. Could I use the same to stop spam on this WordPress blog? As luck would have it, I found the reCAPTCHA plugin for WordPress. So if you too are fed up with spam on your blog, here is what you need to do.
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