Switch from Blogger to WordPress in 6 steps

If you are an avid blogger, most likely you started off on an amateur basis with free services like Blogger and over time acquired a large number of following and have decided that maybe it’s time for you strike off into your own domain and get www.MYSITE.com instead of MYSITE.blogspot.com. Well, that may be a wonderful dream and all, but consider some glaring problems with doing the switch if you didn’t plan ahead.

First off, your old blog will probably be abandoned. At most, you may insert a new link to point visitors to your new blog. But all the search engines that have linked to your old blogs will continue to link to them and not to your updated blog, and that may be a problem because you will need to rebuild all your ‘reputation’ all over again. In particular, all those Google-generated visitor traffic won’t be able to reach your new blog, which means you’re basically starting over from scratch all over again. AdSense revenue will tank as a result.

Blogspot

Secondly, your RSS feed will die, and readers who have been following your feed will most probably just delete the non-responsive feed and move on. Don’t underestimate the amount of people who use RSS as a way to keep track of their favorite web spaces.

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Use Privoxy as an Internet Filter and Ad-Blocker

I have recently made the shift to Google Chrome and missed the Ad-Block extension dearly. Chrome currently does not support a streamlined interface for providing plugin support unlike Mozilla Firefox, so I am left wanting for a way to bust the ads that keep appearing in my page.

My attempts at looking for a way around this problem yielded a way of switching on developer mode for Chrome and then using a Userscript to do the same thing.

Privoxy

Unfortunately, the whole process is rather clunky and did not really work. Happily, I stumbled upon something called Privoxy, and it’s an absolute godsend which I will now heartily recommend to anybody who’s on the Internet often. Even if you have adblock software installed on Firefox, you should check out Privoxy all the same because it’s a whole new concept of Internet filtering.

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Microsoft Zune HD battles iPod Touch

After many months of waiting, the Zune HD, Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s iPod Touch, has finally landed in the United States and a few other areas around the world. Microsoft were pushing for simultaneous release across the globe, but logistical problems prevented that, so the Zune HD will be launched in stages.

Zune HD marks a significant step forward for portable media players, combining powerful hardware components such as an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) multitouch screen, an NVIDIA Tegra HD processor and HD Radio capabilities with software advancements such as the new Quickplay menu, a well-featured Web browser, and engaging music and video playback features to deliver a new portable listening and viewing experience. The device is also capable of output of 720p high-def content to a HDTV.

Zune HD

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HP Pavilion 2009f LCD Monitor

The HP Pavilion 2009f LCD monitor is sleek, shiny and ergonomically designed. With just a flip of the base attached to the bottom of the screen, it can stand alone in an upright position on a table or any flat surface. Alternatively, the base can be removed relatively easily and be mounted on the wall. What I really liked was its stand that had a special swivel thingy attached to it, so it was swivel-able! Try this on a Dell monitor, it won’t even budge…

HP LDC Monitor
Purposely put the wide-screen HP LCD side by side with my old Dell LCD monitor, for comparison. I didn’t have a spare display card on the computer and was too lazy to hook up the Dell monitor to my notebook, so it’s off.

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Malaysia’s Internet Filtering and Censoring

Guess what, Malaysia made it on to the front page of Slashdot! The story however, is a bit less pleasant. Recently the Malaysian Government have announced they are planning to implement and enforce a set of Internet filtering schemes that many are saying is similar to China’s failed Green Dam Internet filtering initiative. Are we witnessing a slow transition away from free speech?

Censorship

When Malaysia set up the Multimedia Super Corridor, Tun Dr Mahathir guarantees that there will be no censorship whatsoever of the Internet. He has the foresight to understand that technology companies overseas such as Microsoft, Cisco and other Silicon Valley heavyweights are very sensitive about operating environments and wanted to remove as much barriers as possible in order to encourage foreign investments to flow into the country. Now it appears that under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib, all that will be undone.

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PeerBlock covers your P2P and downloading tracks

In the United States, many organizations don’t take too kindly to your downloading of copyrighted materials without paying the copyright holders some cash. Hence organizations like the RIAA and MPAA have taken many illegal downloaders to court to sue them for infringing copyright. One of the ways that these organizations establish a case against you is to join the ‘torrent’ and see if you are actively downloading and sharing the material.

RIAA

Once they successfully establish a connection to you and start downloading data, its pretty much an open and shut case when it goes to court in terms of evidence needed. They simply need to track your IP address, send a subpoena to the company providing you your Internet access to cough up your personal information. To combat this problem, a program called PeerGuardian2 (PG2) came along and promises to alleviate some of your headaches.

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iPod Touch 3G, Apple Tablet? Rumor mills start churning

Back in the end of 2007, people were already heavily speculating on an Apple Tablet being worked on that would be the first of its type to come out from Apple but ever since the patent filings for the idea of such a device by Apple, not much have been revealed and indeed two years down the road we have yet to see even a whiff of the mythical beast.

Apple iPod Event

But it appears that with Steve Jobs back at Apple, news that the tablet is true after all have started to emerge. Stories about analysts having personally handled the device have surfaced and claims that the device will be unveiled in September and available later this year and to add some credibility to the report, it was claimed that other ODMs have frozen their product development to see what Apple has in store, possibly so that they can attempt to make a copy of it at a much cheaper price. To be honest, they are probably playing it safe and trying to see if anything new is coming out, which the most certainly will, bringing us to the next rumor, the iPod Touch 3G.

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Playstation 3 redesigned: PS3-Slim

Ever since before the big Electronics Entertainment Expo 2009, industry analysts have harped on the Playstation 3’s surprise to be a $100 price cut that would bring the console back into competition.

Of the next generation consoles, PS3 remains the most expensive and the tough economy have made sales of the much cheaper Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 brisk while Sony struggles to regain market dominance. However, the ‘bombshell’ released during E3 was not the much anticipated price cut but a new motion control device, which was rather interesting but didn’t really translate to people going out to streets and buying a PS3.

PS3 Slim

Well it appears that the price-cut rumor is true after all, just a few months over due. And the best part is its not ‘just’ a price cut but a completely new redesigned PS3 called the PS3-Slim, which in line with its name means a smaller package which looks sleeker along with the much expected $100 price cut for the two models currently available, bringing it to $400 and $300 for the 160GB and 80GB system respectively. The more expensive model also comes bundled with an original copy of Uncharted, a popular game for the console.

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Blind Testing your Search Engine: Yahoo, Google or Bing!

This pretty cool website allows you to run a blind test on the three major search engines at the moment, Yahoo, Google and Microsoft’s Bing!. Now, search results have always been a very tight competition between tech companies as it is probably the main website that people visit and being ‘famous’ for providing consistent and reliable search results can mean very huge profits just by virtue of driving traffic to your website.

Search Engines

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New Smartphone Dell Mini 3i

Dell recently revealed their new smartphone which is.. .not really that smart. Dubbed the Mini 3i, it resembles the iPhone is many aspects, from the rounded edges to the chrome plating at the back, bringing back memories of the iPhone 2G, along with the easily scratchable chrome plating. Seriously, those things seem to develop scratches the moment they are exposed to air. It’s as if you could see it scratching itself. 🙂

Dell Mini 3i

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