Merry Christmas

Hello,

I probably won’t be posting any more tutorials or posts to this blog or my website throughout December 2009, but I will be back in the New Year!

Until then:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Few New Site Features

Hello,

 

This post is not a tutorial, but a post to inform you about some of the new features on my website.

• When you visit the homepage, you will now see a bar which runs along the bottom of your screen, this will contain a related website link.
• When you login to your account, a message will appear, displaying all the latest news. This will be dsiplayed as a CSS Modal Dialog Box.
• Plus more!

Check it out for yourself! http://www.mytutorialz.isgreat.org

I will be making tutorials showing you how to achieve the features above on your own website!

Review Of Windows 7: Winner Or Loser?

Hello,

 

In this post, considering I have just bought Windows 7, I thought I would compile an article which reviews the new features of Microsoft’s new OS.

 

Desktop:

The first contact you will have after installing Windows 7 is the desktop, as you can tell from the screenshot above, quite alot is different, i.e. the taskbar. Let’s have a look at this in greater detail!

 

Taskbar:

Yes, this is one of the biggest updates of the taskbar I have seen. Instead of displaying the full programme name, only the icon is displayed. In the example above I am hovering over the Internet Explorer tab, in which I have 3 browsing tabs open, just by hovering over the IE logo, a screenshot of all tabs open in IE is displayed.

When you right click on a specific icon (in this case iTunes) a programm-specific menu is displayed – with items such as “Shuffle all library” and “Shop on iTunes store”, these factors increase the ease of access.

 

Start Menu

At frist glance, you could say that the taskbar looks the same as in Vista. Well you are wrong – take another look, you will see that your default programmes for E-mailing and internet browsing are no longer displayed above the line – in fact the line has gone!! This leaves you with more space to pin more items that you frequently use to the start menu, this again leading to faster access to the items you use the most.

In addittion, if you take a glance at, say the Adobe Dreamweaver label, you will see that a “>” is displayed, if you hover over this, in the sidebar of the start menu, the most recent documents opened with Dreamweaver will be displayed.

 

Windows XP Mode:

Just a few notes:

Windows XP is mode is only available on Microsoft Windows 7 Proffessional and Ultimate (Which I Use). It is also required that you download this extra content from the Microsoft Website.

 

Yes, if you have programmes which only work with Windows XP, you are in look (if you have Windows 7 Proffessional or Ultimate) you can download the extra content, and run Windows XP inside Windows 7.

 

Documents Browser

In Windows 7, even the document window got a make over! As you can see, in the sidebar, there are now more links to:

• Your favourites
• Your library (e.g. Documents, Pictures)
• Computer
• Network

I feel that this is a very easy tool to help you navigate around your files and folders.

 

A Few Bad Points:

• In Windows 7, the parental controls software has been removed, however, you can download Windows Live Family Safety (similar to parental controls) - this can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.
• It may take you some time to get familiar with the new look operating system, especially the taskbar (to be honest, this baffled me for a while.)
• If you have portable devices (such as iPods, USBs and phones) your computer will need to install the driver software again.

 

My Overall Personal Opinion:

Well, in just under 490 words, I have managed to summarise the best new features of Windows 7, and overall it would be a good idea to upgrade to the new OS. Why? well, if you are a user of Windows Vista, you will be familar with the UAC (User Account Control), this became very annoying after a while, in Windows 7, this feature has been removed (or you can turn it off!). Also, this latest release also appears to speed up your PC. You also get the new IE 8, which is a bonus – as this runs quite fast!

 

My Rating:

4/5: Excellent, however you may struggle at first to get familiar with the new features, this shouldn’t take long though!

 

Thanks for reading my review!

Using .htaccess To Password Protect A Directory

Hello,

 

I recently posted a .htaccess tutorial to MyTutorialz, check it out here:

http://www.mytutorialz.isgreat.org/tutorials/tips/protectusinghtaccess/index.html

How To Be A Good Blogger

Hello,

 

I thought as though I am getting around 150 views on my blog everyday, I would create this article – based upon what I do.

Be catchy:

Yes, attract the people you want to read your blog, the most common way that people find blog posts is through a search, whether that be a web search or blog search. So the first contact people will have with your blog is the title and a small sentance from the blog post. In order to attract attention, make your title small, but very informative. Say you are writing an article about baking a cake.

You Shouldn’t Use The Title:

How to make  a cake using the method featured on this article.

You Should Use:

Follow my steps for a gorgeous cake!

You see, although it may be long, it is still shorter and more appealing than the first.

 

 

Keep Relative:

If your blog is about tutorials (like mine) keep it about tutorials, don’t al of a sudden start posting about who you think might win the X Factor, or anything like that. If your blog is about tutorials, let it stay like that basically!

 

 

Layout:

Ahh, yes! A good layout, helps improve how the information on the page is sorted, the clearer (and more informative) the page, the more likely the reader will return and subscribe!

 

Be Heard!

Yes, if you can try and connect your blog with Twitter (if you are using WordPress, see this article!) this way titles of blog posts will also be posted to Twitter, this will lead to more visitors on your blog.

 

 

Social:

Gain more popularity, by posting replies on Facebook, MySpace etc. By saying, checkout this great blog post: (YOUR LINK HERE). This will lead your friends to your blog, however they may (or may not) know if it is your blog!

 

Well, hopefully these tips have helped you!

Oh, and thanks for adding another hit to my stat counter!

What I Believe Is A Virus On Twitter

Hello,

 

I thought I would post a quick bulletin, as one of my Twitter accounts (not the MyTutorialz) has been ‘hacked’ after I used a service called WannaFollowMe.com.

If you have used the service to get more followers, read the tips below:

1. Change your Twitter password.
2. Report as spam to Twitter.
3. Say sorry to your followers (as the virus automatically sends out advertisements, like ‘Get More Followers Now! Visit: http://www.wannafollowme.com’)

Also, this service does not help you to ge more followers in any way.

Be safe!

Why Create A Blog?

Blogs have become quite a popular resource, for both publishing content to, and reading content from. Many people are still wondering whether or not to create a blog, a few of the reasons why you should create a blog are listed below:

 

Get Noticed Quicker:

When you publish a new post to your blog, it is more likely that the content from that article will appear quicker in teh major search engines than when you create and upload a new page to your website. A wider range of tags are also indexed for each individual blog post. Thus leading to more possible traffice for your blog.

 

A Wide Range Of Themes:

If you create your blog with WordPress (like me!) You can easily select, and modify if you wish, a large range of CSS-enabled templates. You can also design and upload your own blog template for personal or world-wide use.

 

Widgets:

From my own experience from blogging with WordPress, I know that there are alot of customisable side bar applications, such as Twitter feeds. Take a look down my sidebar, you can see many widgets, such as tag cloud, search, categories and RSS feeds.

 

So, WordPress Or Blogger?

Blogger:

Good Points:

Blogger requires no signup if you already have a Google account, all you have to do is choose your blog address and create a password, authenticate and then you are up and running!

 

Bad Points:

Unlike WordPress, Blogger has a very small range of templates available for use, in fact theres only about 7. It is harder to publish a post, and there is a small range of widgets, quite complicated to udnerstand.

 

WordPress:

Good Points:

There is actually alot of good points for WordPress, a very easy and clean dashborad, alot of widgets and templates, password protection, publishing to Twitter, quick publishing and more.

 

Bad Points:

There is oonly one possible bad point for WordPress, the fact that it can be slow loading the dashboard.

 

Well, what are you waiting for? Go and get blogging!

Example Bad Page

Hi!

 

Today, I created (and uploaded) an example page, this page demonstrates how not to design your webpages, there are also tips on what and what not to do when it comes to designing and publishing your website.

 

Check it out:

http://www.mytutorialz.isgreat.org/badpages

 

Thanks!

HTML Emails For Beginners

 

In this guide, I will show you how to take your first steps to designing your first HTML email.

The first thing you need to do, is log into your email client.

Now follow these steps:

1

Compose a new HTML Email.

2

Copy the below code into the HTML view.

<TABLE id=table borderColor=#000000 height=353 width="100%" border=5>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD bgColor=#0000ff colSpan=2 height=83>
<H1><FONT color=#ffffff>My Newsletter</FONT></H1>
<H3><FONT color=#ffffff>The Official Newsletter</FONT></H3></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD width="72%">
<H2><SPAN>About Time</SPAN></H2>
<DIV id=lipsum>
<P>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum semper dui at lorem facilisis nec convallis nibh placerat. Morbi consectetur diam ac dolor iaculis faucibus a non libero. Quisque a blandit sem. Etiam faucibus dolor eu eros fringilla suscipit. Vestibulum quis eros vitae leo fermentum scelerisque. Nulla bibendum suscipit orci a pharetra. Pellentesque vel dolor nec eros iaculis ornare. Nulla facilisi. Suspendisse potenti. Cras dapibus malesuada lorem nec feugiat. Ut vitae quam a mi ultricies malesuada id eu diam. Integer nec metus elementum felis rhoncus scelerisque. Aenean ut mauris quam, varius porttitor purus. Mauris faucibus tempor nulla, nec aliquam enim posuere a. Nulla neque augue, vestibulum id dignissim at, iaculis nec nisi. </p>

<P>&nbsp;</p>

<P>Aliquam volutpat auctor ornare. Maecenas convallis varius massa, vitae ultrices enim vehicula vel. Curabitur quam felis, adipiscing nec dapibus sit amet, venenatis posuere ipsum. Suspendisse tincidunt porttitor diam, sed eleifend arcu ornare vel. Cras nulla est, mattis mattis accumsan quis, adipiscing mollis felis. Proin nec eros risus. Phasellus lobortis nisl vel lectus placerat non eleifend tellus posuere. Duis sollicitudin diam et orci dignissim ac egestas massa volutpat. Sed ultrices est et est rutrum nec blandit diam dictum. Ut luctus malesuada metus id lacinia. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Pellentesque fermentum erat sed elit consectetur non elementum urna aliquet. Donec mattis lorem nec quam dignissim mattis. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. </p>

<P>&nbsp;</p>
</div>
</TD>
<TD width="28%" bgColor=#000000 rowSpan=2>
<H2 align=right><FONT color=#ffffff>Sub Feature</FONT></H2>
<P align=right><FONT color=#ffffff>Yes, this is quite a good idea to have a sub feature box here. Within thin this space you could have an advertisement, navigation links, new blog </FONT><FONT color=#ffffff>posts or anything you would like!</FONT></p>
</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<H2>Finally</H2>
<P>Duis quis libero erat. Nam tristique dui turpis, ut dictum tortor. Curabitur ultricies nisl vel ipsum adipiscing vitae sodales purus consequat. Nunc varius, massa non dapibus facilisis, magna augue fermentum sapien, nec laoreet lacus dolor at tortor. Praesent porttitor bibendum ipsum, id faucibus risus posuere sed. Nunc ullamcorper suscipit elit, tincidunt viverra elit tincidunt eget. Morbi vel ipsum lorem, quis scelerisque augue. Cras sed metus enim, eu lacinia nulla. Donec ultrices neque at nulla facilisis a vestibulum dui posuere. Pellentesque vestibulum libero ac risus iaculis lobortis. Curabitur malesuada scelerisque velit, eget laoreet mauris sagittis eget. Nam metus nibh, lacinia vitae gravida a, elementum at lorem. In nisl sem, tempor lacinia tempor vel, lobortis in purus. </p>

<P>&nbsp;</p>

<P>Suspendisse eget massa orci. Pellentesque tellus lorem, aliquam id gravida sit amet, sodales congue ipsum. Sed pulvinar purus et lacus varius sed pretium augue rutrum. Pellentesque pharetra mi at arcu lobortis tincidunt. Pellentesque in tristique metus. Proin semper vestibulum quam, quis lobortis diam bibendum consequat. Integer consectetur lorem suscipit felis malesuada lacinia. Vivamus cursus mi eget odio imperdiet et pellentesque dolor iaculis. Nullam rhoncus nisl metus. Vestibulum mattis laoreet tortor nec lobortis. Pellentesque sollicitudin adipiscing euismod. Praesent porta tempus consectetur. Donec lacinia mi dignissim nisl rutrum ac varius elit scelerisque. Vestibulum in nunc vel enim posuere auctor. Suspendisse ut luctus sem. </p>

<P>Mauris pretium justo vel leo pulvinar tincidunt. Nam vitae sem mauris, rutrum accumsan ante. </p>

<P>&nbsp;</p>

<P>Phasellus lobortis nulla eget enim pulvinar vitae dignissim nisi scelerisque. Fusce lectus risus, sollicitudin in hendrerit id, ornare quis erat. Donec ultrices fringilla elit quis tincidunt. Duis scelerisque, ipsum id imperdiet feugiat, purus risus tristique massa, et vestibulum nisl lorem sed purus. Aliquam laoreet pellentesque eros ac sagittis. Nullam sit amet enim nisl. Vestibulum sit amet massa mauris. In ac leo id purus consequat malesuada non vitae ligula. Nunc ultricies sagittis mattis. Proin at tristique nibh. Aliquam sed libero nisi, nec tempus nibh. Suspendisse potenti. Nam iaculis elit in nisi facilisis ut ullamcorper metus placerat. Donec fermentum euismod eros vitae molestie. Nulla facilisi. Vestibulum facilisis sagittis leo, eget mattis lacus elementum in. Nam congue feugiat scelerisque. </p>
</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD bgColor=#666666 colSpan=2 height=26><br>

<H4 align=center><SPAN>My Newsletter&nbsp;© 2009, All Rights Reserved.</H4></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

This should give you the below result:

My Newsletter The Official Newsletter
About Time Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum semper dui at lorem facilisis nec convallis nibh placerat. Morbi consectetur diam ac dolor iaculis faucibus a non libero. Quisque a blandit sem. Etiam faucibus dolor eu eros fringilla suscipit. Vestibulum quis eros vitae leo fermentum scelerisque. Nulla bibendum suscipit orci a pharetra. Pellentesque vel dolor nec eros iaculis ornare. Nulla facilisi. Suspendisse potenti. Cras dapibus malesuada lorem nec feugiat. Ut vitae quam a mi ultricies malesuada id eu diam. Integer nec metus elementum felis rhoncus scelerisque. Aenean ut mauris quam, varius porttitor purus. Mauris faucibus tempor nulla, nec aliquam enim posuere a. Nulla neque augue, vestibulum id dignissim at, iaculis nec nisi.   Aliquam volutpat auctor ornare. Maecenas convallis varius massa, vitae ultrices enim vehicula vel. Curabitur quam felis, adipiscing nec dapibus sit amet, venenatis posuere ipsum. Suspendisse tincidunt porttitor diam, sed eleifend arcu ornare vel. Cras nulla est, mattis mattis accumsan quis, adipiscing mollis felis. Proin nec eros risus. Phasellus lobortis nisl vel lectus placerat non eleifend tellus posuere. Duis sollicitudin diam et orci dignissim ac egestas massa volutpat. Sed ultrices est et est rutrum nec blandit diam dictum. Ut luctus malesuada metus id lacinia. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Pellentesque fermentum erat sed elit consectetur non elementum urna aliquet. Donec mattis lorem nec quam dignissim mattis. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.	Sub Feature Yes, this is quite a good idea to have a sub feature box here. Within thin this space you could have an advertisement, navigation links, new blog posts or anything you would like!
Finally Duis quis libero erat. Nam tristique dui turpis, ut dictum tortor. Curabitur ultricies nisl vel ipsum adipiscing vitae sodales purus consequat. Nunc varius, massa non dapibus facilisis, magna augue fermentum sapien, nec laoreet lacus dolor at tortor. Praesent porttitor bibendum ipsum, id faucibus risus posuere sed. Nunc ullamcorper suscipit elit, tincidunt viverra elit tincidunt eget. Morbi vel ipsum lorem, quis scelerisque augue. Cras sed metus enim, eu lacinia nulla. Donec ultrices neque at nulla facilisis a vestibulum dui posuere. Pellentesque vestibulum libero ac risus iaculis lobortis. Curabitur malesuada scelerisque velit, eget laoreet mauris sagittis eget. Nam metus nibh, lacinia vitae gravida a, elementum at lorem. In nisl sem, tempor lacinia tempor vel, lobortis in purus.   Suspendisse eget massa orci. Pellentesque tellus lorem, aliquam id gravida sit amet, sodales congue ipsum. Sed pulvinar purus et lacus varius sed pretium augue rutrum. Pellentesque pharetra mi at arcu lobortis tincidunt. Pellentesque in tristique metus. Proin semper vestibulum quam, quis lobortis diam bibendum consequat. Integer consectetur lorem suscipit felis malesuada lacinia. Vivamus cursus mi eget odio imperdiet et pellentesque dolor iaculis. Nullam rhoncus nisl metus. Vestibulum mattis laoreet tortor nec lobortis. Pellentesque sollicitudin adipiscing euismod. Praesent porta tempus consectetur. Donec lacinia mi dignissim nisl rutrum ac varius elit scelerisque. Vestibulum in nunc vel enim posuere auctor. Suspendisse ut luctus sem. Mauris pretium justo vel leo pulvinar tincidunt. Nam vitae sem mauris, rutrum accumsan ante.   Phasellus lobortis nulla eget enim pulvinar vitae dignissim nisi scelerisque. Fusce lectus risus, sollicitudin in hendrerit id, ornare quis erat. Donec ultrices fringilla elit quis tincidunt. Duis scelerisque, ipsum id imperdiet feugiat, purus risus tristique massa, et vestibulum nisl lorem sed purus. Aliquam laoreet pellentesque eros ac sagittis. Nullam sit amet enim nisl. Vestibulum sit amet massa mauris. In ac leo id purus consequat malesuada non vitae ligula. Nunc ultricies sagittis mattis. Proin at tristique nibh. Aliquam sed libero nisi, nec tempus nibh. Suspendisse potenti. Nam iaculis elit in nisi facilisis ut ullamcorper metus placerat. Donec fermentum euismod eros vitae molestie. Nulla facilisi. Vestibulum facilisis sagittis leo, eget mattis lacus elementum in. Nam congue feugiat scelerisque.
My Newsletter © 2009, All Rights Reserved.

Quite A Nifty Website

As I was searching through the vast world wide web today, I cam accross a very good website, named “Countdown To The Year 3000.” Enabling you to countdown the years, months, days and minutes to the year 3000. You can also embed a timer on your website.

Here’s the link:

http://www.year3000.totalh.com