Preventing Spam on vBulletin Forums

Spam is an ever present problem on the internet. Be it regular old email spam, blog comment spam, or in our case community spam it’s an issue for all of us. I’ve been asked more than a few times why [...]

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How To Host Blogger on Your Domain

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Blogger Logo

Blogger Logo

Self Hosted WordPress is all the rage these days, in fact this is what we run here at Almost Geek. However there are other options for hosting a blog on your own domain, Blogger is one of them. WordPress and Blogger are two of the largest blogging platforms on the internet. What many people don’t realize is they’re able to run a Blogger blog on their website should they desire which is great for business sites as your not sending your traffic offsite to a blog hosted on a blogger sub-domain.

There are some distinct advantages to using self hosted Blogger over WordPress they are:

  1. Blogger requires little technical knowledge there are no upgrades to preform as there is with WordPress.
  2. Blogger can hosted pretty much anywhere as it doesn’t require PHP or a database.

With advantages of course comes disadvantages:

  1. Blogger has no add-ons to change the functionality of your site. WordPress has an entire site of plugins.
  2. Your pretty much limited to Blogger’s default templates unless you know how to edit CSS which more than likely out of your realm of expertise if your considering Blogger.

The decision is yours;  Blogger is simple and easy to use set and forget. WordPress has a bit of a learning curve and requires regular security pataches but is infinitely customizable.

For the scope of this tutorial we’re going to work cPanel with putting your blog on a subdomain. A subdomain is simply something.yourdomain.com, you probably want your blog to be blog.mydomain.com The reason for this is to future proof the blog, should you decide to use mod_rewrite  in the future or you already are we don’t want your blog in a sub directory of your main site as it will cause conflicts. Most hosts allow your to make sub-domains, if you don’t see the add sub-domain option in cPanel email your host’s support.

Login to your domain’s control panel @ yourdomain.com/cpanel and click on subdomains. You may want to add the sub-domain then go to bed and setup the rest of blogger in the morning, this way the new sub-domain has time to register with the DNS system (this doesn’t cost you a dime).

Add Subdomain on cPanel 1

Add Subdomain on cPanel 1

Next your want to name your subdomain, I choose blogger.almostgeek.com. After choosing the name you want to change the Document Root to /blog or whatever you feel is best. Be careful here as by default cPanel adds /public_html/, you have to change it and remove the /public_html section. As mentioned above in order to future proof you don’t want it under your current website’s directory, public_html.

Add Subdomain cPanel Configuration

Now we head on over to Blogger and register @ Blogger.com if you already have a Google or Gmail account sign in with that. The process is pretty self-explanatory here are some screenshots to follow along with.

Blogger Signup 1

Blogger Signup 1

Blogger Signup 2

Blogger Signup 2

Blogger Signup 3

Blogger Signup 3

In the following screenshot you will want to click “Advanced Setup Options” drop down and choose setup a custom domain.

Blogger Signup 4

Blogger Signup 4

Here on middle of the page, you will want to click ‘Already Own A Domain? Switch to advanced settings’

Blogger Signup 5

Blogger Signup 5

On this screen you need to put in the sub-domain you made in cPanel, ex. blog.yourdomain.com. This is where waiting overnight to complete this process will pay off, if you do it too soon you will get an error.

Blogger Sign Up 6

Blogger Sign Up 6

<rest of the sign up process including FTP information>

How To Sync Bookmarks Across Multiple Computers

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For those of you like me whom have more than 1 computer that they regularly use keeping everything in sync is a constant headache. For files, I mostly use Dropbox (review forthcoming) which works very well but bookmarks are a separate beast they’re locked in your browser’s profile some where deep with in your

Moving pictures to a new cell phone

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If you are anything like me you have tons of pictures on your phone that you would like to keep when you move to a new phone. Last week, I ordered a Nokia E5 from Straight Talk which will arrive here tomorrow. Since I’m transferring service from my current Samsung 404G to activate the new phone I’ll have no way to get pictures off my old phone.

I’m simply picturing messaging myself but instead of sending it to phone number I put my email address in the To: field of the picture message. When the new phone is activated I’ll just forward the messages back to that phone. Easy peasy.

Updating websites faster from the command line

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OS X Command Line

If you’re lucky enough to have run your owner server or have ssh access on your shared account this thread over on Admin Extra is right up your alley. My buddy Mike asked about updating sites faster by downloading and unzipping the files right on the server. Michael Biddle replied with a concise tutorial so check out the thread: http://adminextra.com/threads/since-were-talking-about-ssh-clients.5079/

The cavets only are the method mention will overwrite everything so if have a custom favicon or file they will be overwritten. Mike suggested downloading the package to your computer first, removing any files you don’t want changed, and re-zipping everything, then uploading the ZIP to your sever and following Michael’s tutorial. Sounds like a good plan to me. Why I didn’t think of that, I don’t know but I frequently use Michael’s method when installing new sites.

For those of you unfamiliar with SSH (secure shell) check out this other thread on Admin Extra for an introduction and brief primer: http://adminextra.com/threads/ssh-clients.5051/

Start New Habits With Google Calendar.

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Google Calendar has cool built in reminder features to remind you of an event . You can setup an email, SMS, or Pop-up reminder. I find SMS (text message) reminders to be most helpful. As someone who grabs my phone and reads my texts from overnight before my feet hit the floor in the morning, texts from Google Calendar are a great way to remember something you need to do first thing in the morning.

My new habit was taking a daily multivitamin. The bottle had been sitting on my dresser for over a year and had expired. I threw the old bottle out and made a New Year’s resolution to take one daily. I had bought the vitamins with the best of intentions but since I don’t take medication aside from the occasional antibiotic I never remembered it.

Enter Google Calendar. I set up taking the pill  as a daily recurring appointment at 7am with a text reminder an hour before. When I wake up the text is there to remind me. It took me about 3 weeks to get into the habit and not need the text in the morning.

I also use this feature for reminders when I’m out and about. Say I’m going to the laundromat and need to stop for groceries on the way home. I’ll set it as an event with a text reminder 2 hours from now. No more shopping lists for me on short trips. :)

Preventing Spam on vBulletin Forums

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Spam is an ever present problem on the internet. Be it regular old email spam, blog comment spam, or in our case community spam it’s an issue for all of us. I’ve been asked more than a few times why I rarely complain about spam on my boards and could I offer some suggestions. Here I am writing this tutorial. It’s because two vBulletin mods have been working great in tandem for me. Stop The Bots and vB Stop Forum Spam has cut spam instances on ODJT down to almost nothing. The best way to stop spam is to stop spammers from registering in the first place.

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