As I signed out my Hotmail this morning, and as it redirected to MSN, I found an article feature: “Week in Review – Stand out Stories & More” with three links [Hostages Rescued] [7 Ways to Get Rich Faster] [Don't Say this in an Interview]. 7 Ways to Get Rich Faster caught my very attention, not because I wanted want to get rich or die trying, but because I wanted to read what Bill Gates told to his stuff to rewrite about him, knowing that they’ll not mention his name in the story, but in some case, it may be the route that he exactly started from his wealthy life.

It starts with:

If you want to make big money, you’ll probably have to take big risks, but there are ways to make sure your payoff is worth the danger. Here’s how to be smart about it.

Though it is a kind of interesting thriller, chasing money is an adventure that I never thought of.
May be, you are interested in this, and if you really care about getting large sum of money in months, go to MSN Money and Continue reading it…

This is not yet another new theme. It’s very Options theme, which, Justin Tadlock laid before, but I got my hands dirty with the code, modifying pretty sum of code lines, then, I created some cool face (flavor/style), which I thought was very, very interesting. I called this “Old Me”, because I had no clue for what to call it. Loll, I see that your heart guesses my age. I’m not that old you think. I’m already in my twenties.

We did it!

We set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With your help we reached 8,002,530 downloads.
You are now part of a World Record and the proud owner of the best version of Firefox yet!
Don’t forget to download your very own certificate for helping set a Guinness World Record.

And finally, I’m proud Firefox user, this is my very own certificate.
[enlarge the image] [Download Firefox3]

I’m not paid by Clicky for advertising their service and not their affiliate as you cannot see an affiliate ID in the link, but I write this because I enjoyed using it, tracking all the events taking place on this tinny blog, though I had lost my authority over the live Spy ―A service that tracks the real time events on your website. But I can still see what my visitors are doing on the site.

I was motivated to write this post by some visitor who tried to reset my password while surfing on my site, he executed system files including /wp-config.php and the current theme templates, but he encountered with HTTP 404. The report below is that Clicky recorded during his activities, his IP address was terminated for known reasons:

Visitor detail

IP address: xx.xx.xx.xx
IP lookup: ARIN / RIPE
Language: English
Location: Halikko, Finland
Oper. System: Windows
Web browser: Firefox
Resolution: 1280×800
Javascript: Enabled

[-] Below are some of his activities… The serious system files he executed were terminated by me…

I could block that visitor, but since username “admin” has no power for system settings, I let him visit my site again. I’d appreciate that visitor’s friendship since s/he’s funny person.

Update: Banned him for lifetime after s/he attempted weird activities.

Now, I don’t know how to say it in Chinese.

May be someone would need my tips below.

How to identify your Windows XP version:

To identify your Windows XP version, re-read the end user license agreement and check whether you’re using SP1, SP2, etc, follow the steps below.

1. Hit Start menu and click “Run”
2. In the RUN dialog box type winver.exe
3. Hit Enter

You can also try these:

1. Open a folder (any folder i.e. My Documents) and then go to Help -> About Windows (The version number and more information will display on the About Windows box.)
2. Right Click on my Computer -> Properties -> General Tab

How to remove Desktop Icon background colors in XP

It’s sometimes annoying when you lose the control over your operating systems, Windows XP has hidden techniques to overcome some issues like when your desktop icons stick with some ugly background color that covers parts of your sweet wallpaper. See below to solve that problem.

1. Right click on “My Computer” on Desktop -> Properties
2. Choose Advanced Under Performance Settings
3. In the Visual Effects tab->Tick Use drop shadows for icon labels on desktop -> Apply, -> OK -> OK
4. Right click on a blank space on your desktop -> Arrange Icons By -> “Uncheck” Lock Web Items on desktop

This will bring your sweet settings back…

Machine revolution

As I’m the network administrator and Intranet master of this crowdie company, my main job is to monitor the wishy-washy packets OR these ugly motherfucking PCs will (all) go to maintenance mode, and hopelessly I’ve to check every single, old and dirty PC. This is what happened earlier last week when the server went down. Yes, the worst thing happened to me last week, when MySQL ceased work and when restarting the server another strange thing appeared and resulted disk crash with data loss.

It took me three days to buy a new hard drive and to restore previously lost data, and, finally, I replaced the old NIC with a new DLINK technology.

Every single machine started a riot. I never thought of jealous machines. Damn, I upgraded all of them and the trouble seems to be shot.

Blog Update

As for the blog, my theme developer has released a new update of Options theme, the best free magazine style for WordPress on earth. It’ll take few days to hack the theme and replace this crooked one.

Old but Interesting story

I got a new story from old book… Yes, but lovely to read, at least lovely for me and so sweet to share with you. It’s being written long ago, I cannot estimate the year they put it together, but it scattered along the time and I’m going to collect the pieces and put-it-together again.

For now, I’m feeling tired and dizzy. I’m going to take rest.

Take care

Because it takes a lifetime to receive all the HOT things wondering around the emails, I’ve received this email after years since the first push.

The email:

would u send it back!!
هل تتفضل بارسالها مره اخرى

Interesting to See If You Send this Back
يهمني ان أرى اذا كنت سترسلها مره اخرى

What would you do if every time you wanted someone they would never be there?
ماذا ستعمل اذا في كل مره تحتاج لشخص ما ولا تجده أبداً؟

What would you do if for every moment you were truly happy there would be 10 moments of sadness?
ماذا ستعمل اذا كان لكل لحظه تكون فيها حقاً سعيد يقابلها 10 لحظات من الحزن؟

What would you do if your best friend died tomorrow and you never got to tell them how you felt?
ماذا ستعمل اذا مات أعز أصدقائك غدا وأنت لم تخبره أبدا عن شعورك له؟

So, I just wanted to say, even if I never talk to you again in my life, you are special to me and you have made a difference i n my life.
لذا أردت فقط أن أقول ، حتى لو لم أتكلم معك مره أخرى في حياتي ، فأنت من أصدقائي الخاصّين وقد كان لك تأثير في حياتي

I look up to you, respect you, and truly cherish you.
أقدرك وأحترمك ، وأعزك حقاً

Send this to all your friends, no matter how often you talk, or how close you are, and send it to the person who sent it to you.
أرسلها الى كل أصدقائك مهما كنت تتكلم معهم في الغالب أم لا أو كنت قريب منهم ، كذلك أرسلها الى الشخص الذي أرسلها لك

Let old friends know you haven’t forgotten them,
دع أصدقائك القدماء يعرفون أنك لم تنساهم ابداً
and tell new friends you never will.
وقل لأصدقائك الجدد أنك سوف لن تنساهم

Remember,
Everyone needs a friend, someday you might feel like you have NO FRIENDS at all, just remember this e-mail and take comfort in knowing somebody out there cares about you and always will.
تذكـــر
أن كل شخص يحتاج لصديق ، ويوماً ما من الممكن أن تشعر فيه أن ليس لديك أصدقاء أبداً ، فقط تذكر هذه الرسالة وكن مطمئن بمعرفة أن هناك شخص ما مهتم بك وباقي كذلك

I’ll Always Be There
سوف أكون دائماً بجانبك

In times of trouble,
في أوقات الصعاب

In times of need,
في أوقات الحاجة

If you are feeling SAD,
عندما تشعر بالحزن

You can count on me.
بامكانك الاعتماد علي

I will give you a wink,
سوف أعطيك دافع

Until you smile,
حتى تبتسم

give you a hug,
أعطيك حظن

And stand by your side.
وأقف بجانبك

I’ll be there for you till the end,
وسوف أكون هناك لك حتى النهايه

I’ll always and forever, be your friend!
وسوف أكون دائماً والى الأبد صديقك

GOOD LUCK!
حظاً سعيداً

*Photo by Tim Gatto

I started thinking of that certain topic one week ago when a customer asked me about it. As I browsed around I got one reason to empower my view; Ben Bleikamp got the proof: Blog Architecture: The reason I’m ignoring your blog.

Ben says:

• It’s hard for me to find your best posts. I came to your blog because you wrote something interesting and someone linked to it. Prove to me you have done it before and I’m more likely to come back. Put a related posts plugin on your single post pages so that when someone clicks through they can say “Oh look, this guy wrote about the same topic a few times…maybe I should read those posts too.”

Aha, Related Posts Plugin is nice, but it’s not the end solution. There are different ways to bring that content forward. My favorite technique is calling all those nice posts by tag…

To show your newbie visitors where your best stuff lies, you need to TAG these posts with something like “best-of”. Next, you should find a room in the home page just somewhere in the sidebar or create a standalone page, the decision is just yours. Give that room one short and attractive name, I prefer “Hall of Fame”, but as I said, whether you call it “Hall of Fame” or “Hell of Fame”, the decision is yours again.

I’ve prepared two similar PHP codes depending on where you’re going to hook it up; one for the sidebar and one for standalone page.

Traditionally the sidebar is narrow place and putting excerpts over there is bit awkward, so we’ll only list the TITLES of the best posts. Look at the code below:

The PHP Code for the Sidebar

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< ?php
    // Query posts
    query_posts(array(
    'tag_slug__and'=>array('best-of'),
    'showposts' => 10
    )
    );
    // The loop
    if(have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : the_post();
    ?>
 
    <li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="< ?php the_title(); ?>">< ?php  the_title();?></a></li>
 
    < ?php endwhile; ?>
 
    < ?php endif;?>

Hmm… The above code would be nice for the sidebar as I stated before, however, many bloggers would like to create a standalone page to hold that data, and as standalone page is a large room, we may include many useful information such as date published, author and excerpts in the code, so it’s enough for a new visitor to understand easily…

The code below is based on a custom page in the default WordPress Kubrick Theme, but you can do it with any theme.

I called this page bestof.php and saved under /wp-content/themes/default/ so the absolute path is /wp-content/themes/default/bestof.php.

The PHP Code for the Standalone Page

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< ?php
/*
Template Name: Best Of
*/
?>
 
< ?php get_header(); ?>
 
<div id="content" class="narrowcolumn">
 
<h3>The Hall of Fame</h3>
 
<strong>This is a hall of fame for the Best Contents of this blog, in which our readers voted as the best.</strong>
 
< ?php
// Query posts
query_posts(array(
'tag_slug__and'=>array('best-of'),
'showposts' => 10
)
);
// the loop
if(have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : the_post();
?>
<div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
 
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to < ?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">< ?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<small>< ?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> @ < ?php the_time('H:i:s') ?> by < ?php the_author() ?></small>
 
<div class="entry">
< ?php the_excerpt('Read More...');?>
</div>
 
</div>
 
< ?php endwhile; ?>
 
< ?php endif;?>
 
< ?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '<p>', ''); ?>
 
</div>
 
< ?php get_sidebar(); ?>
 
< ?php get_footer(); ?>

Brief Description:
The PHP code above queries all the posts under the TAG SLUG “best-of”, then it controls the amount of posts required to show; 'showposts'=> 10 only shows the last 10 posts under the slug [best-of], so if your tag is "famous" and you want to show the last 20 posts, then change 'tag_slug__and'=>array('best-of'), to 'tag_slug__and'=>array('famous'), and 'showposts'=> 10 to 'showposts'=> 20.

Demo: Check the “Best of” Tab at the upper corner of my sidebar.

How to

Sidebar
The sidebar part is easy to understand, it needs only to copy or include the contents of best-of-sidebar.php to the sidebar.php.

Standalone Page
Putting the best of contents in standalone page is different and totally unfamiliar to WordPress beginers. You need to download the zipped folder at Download 2, extract the zipped folder and find bestof.php, copy that file (bestof.php) and paste in /wp-content/themes/default/.

Next, go to WordPress admin panel -> Write -> Page. Make a title for your page, leave the “Page” textarea empty and then scroll down and find “Page Template Panel”, then choose “Best Of” from the Dropdown. Look at the image in the left…

Download:

The downloads below contain two parts. Download 1 contains one file, best-of-sidebar.php and Download 2 contains one file; bestof.php.

Download 1 (Sidebar Code): best-of-sidebar.zip

Download 2 (Standalone Page Code): bestof.zip

The final email message sounded like this (translated version):

“We are aware that you’re still doing your unwelcomed activities. This is the second warning, and we will take the last decisions once you ignore this warning.
We warned you earlier and it seems you’re still on your wrong and awkward path. We told you that you’re calling a disaster to yourself, and you’ll meet a heavy, heavy penalty that you’ll pay a price.

This [message] seems to be the final [warning]. We know you, we monitor every step you take to forward and watch you all the time. We’re serious; we think your activity will waste your life.”

The above lines were followed by a telephone call from “Unknown Number”, threatening the same, the voice was unfamiliar, but still, I have no idea about it as I don’t know what motherfuckers they are…
I wonder if there’s someone counting my steps all the time… I wonder if there’s [at least] someone hating me… I know I’ve lots of enemies in the field, and I’ve known that for years, but this is strange…
But, I’m not going to cease my activities, anyway, by an anonymous sender’s warnings, whether they’re going to KILL me or not, and I’m greater than someone being threatened.