Sometimes I’m dense. I didn’t notice that Wordpress had stopped incorporating the automatic database backup feature as of the latest couple of versions because I have my backup emails filtered to go into their own folder where they don’t clutter my inbox.
It wasn’t until a site had trouble and the host re-installed a day-old backup [...]

Sometimes I’m dense. I didn’t notice that Wordpress had stopped incorporating the automatic database backup feature as of the latest couple of versions because I have my backup emails filtered to go into their own folder where they don’t clutter my inbox.

It wasn’t until a site had trouble and the host re-installed a day-old backup (losing a number of visitor comments and even one post) that I realized I didn’t have backups coming on that site. Because I’d upgraded to a version that no longer has Backup built in.

Check your WP installs and add the backup plugin if you need it. If your database is huge and you have trouble getting it through email, tell it not to save your spam filter or stats tables from plugins - they tend to store hoardes of data, and that is stuff you can live without in the event of a crash.

WebWorkerDaily recommends a little freeware app called FireTune. It’s not an extension - you run it on your computer while Firefox is closed, and it automatically tweaks it for speed, according to whether you have a fast machine and connection, a slow machine and connection, or one of the combinations in between.
I’ve now been using [...]

WebWorkerDaily recommends a little freeware app called FireTune. It’s not an extension - you run it on your computer while Firefox is closed, and it automatically tweaks it for speed, according to whether you have a fast machine and connection, a slow machine and connection, or one of the combinations in between.

I’ve now been using it for three days, and I do notice a measurable improvement, especially at launch. Everything seems to load a bit more quickly. I think this one is definitely worth downloading and trying out.

Via Code and Coffee, I found a little freeware app that is seriously reducing my eyestrain: ClearType. There’s an online tool and a downloadable version. I downloaded.
It’s a very easy install. Then there’s a wizard that’s a lot like a trip to the eye doctor: you choose which print sample looks best to you out [...]

Via Code and Coffee, I found a little freeware app that is seriously reducing my eyestrain: ClearType. There’s an online tool and a downloadable version. I downloaded.

It’s a very easy install. Then there’s a wizard that’s a lot like a trip to the eye doctor: you choose which print sample looks best to you out of a couple of groups, and then you’re all set.

This is the one thing I really missed from my days on a Mac - those beautiful, crisp fonts that look just as good as the type in a novel.

Well, I’m calling this an anti-spam tool because that’s what it’s helping me do. It’s the Show IP Firefox extension, and it causes the IP of sites to show in your browser toolbar. But what’s really cool is the menu you get when you click the IP address in the toolbar. Right and left clicking [...]

Well, I’m calling this an anti-spam tool because that’s what it’s helping me do. It’s the Show IP Firefox extension, and it causes the IP of sites to show in your browser toolbar. But what’s really cool is the menu you get when you click the IP address in the toolbar. Right and left clicking bring up two separate sets of tools. With them, you can:

• Instantly report the site to Netcraft for monitoring
• Do DNS, IP and domain lookups
• Copy the IP address to your clipboard so you can input it wherever you want for research

Of course you can do all this without the plugin, but it’s just so much easier with.

You know those really annoying three ancient posts on your blog that the spammers hit over and over for whatever reason? This plugin lets you set all posts over a certain age (as defined by the last time any approved comments were posted) to have their comments moderated - or shut down. You can decide [...]

You know those really annoying three ancient posts on your blog that the spammers hit over and over for whatever reason? This plugin lets you set all posts over a certain age (as defined by the last time any approved comments were posted) to have their comments moderated - or shut down. You can decide how many days old a post thread should be before this happens, configure it differently for “popular” posts, defined by how many comments they’ve had approved (again, you set this number).

I’ve set this up on two sites that keep getting hit.

I was having a great time using the Zoho office plugin so I could open Zoho Writer and Sheet files in Word or Excel, work on them in Office, then save them to the Zoho server. The Zoho server can be slow, and Office apps run much faster on my computer. Plus, Excel has that [...]

I was having a great time using the Zoho office plugin so I could open Zoho Writer and Sheet files in Word or Excel, work on them in Office, then save them to the Zoho server. The Zoho server can be slow, and Office apps run much faster on my computer. Plus, Excel has that auto-finish feature that makes it complete what you’re typing if it seems to match something you’ve typed before.

Then it stopped working in Excel. Just plain stopped. When I tried to reinstall it, I couldn’t uninstall the plugin because it has some sort of problem changing the register DLL files. I’ve searched online and found no solutions. Other people have the same problem, and even reinstalling Excel didn’t help. I think the register files need editing, only I don’t know how.

So now I’m using the Zoho Desktop Widget, which puts their version of Writer and Sheet on your desktop. Sign in, and you can grab your stuff from the Zoho server. It also saves to the Zoho server, and it does run a bit faster than Notebook runs in Firefox for me.