Under one minute, enough time for someon e to look at without going to sleep.

If anything goes wrong, it’s easier to handle an exported xml file than to be fiddling around with databases. It’s also extermely handy, wonderful in fact, if you’re moving from one domain to another

Know how to export your WP content?

1. Go to your Dashboard

2. Scroll down to Tools

3. Click on the Export link

4. Follow the instructions

Remember where you saved it!

If you haven’t done this before and you’re moving content to another site, it’s probably easier for you to save the file to your desktop so that you can find it again with no trouble.

I have a few little folders in my documents called ‘smooth-stuff-export’ etc. The xml files are dated so you can always take your last xml file for importing elsewhere. (Every now and then I remember to delete earlier export files).

Importing your WP Content

To import to another wordpress, simply go to your new home and use the IMPORT button

Photographers must have proper accreditation of their work and, if they don’t, you can find yourself in deep trouble up that proverbial creek. It’s easy enough for them to find their work using Tin Eye.

So let’s see how we credit images on Flick’r

1. First, find your image

I’m going to use this image of Pompeii which I found on Flick’r.

OK, I’m in Flick’r and I’m looking at this lovely photo. When I right click on the image I see this message

You are free:

to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to Remix — to adapt the work
to make commercial use of the work
Under the following conditions:

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work

Terrific, I know I can use it!

2. So I download the photo and then upload it to wherever I choose but, in its new home on the web, that photo must have the proper credit. I have to attribute the work.

3. Now I need the link so I can give the proper credit. The url of that page on Flick’r is http://www.flickr.com/photos/ndrwfgg/6642717263/ so I could link directly to the page

4. Wrap the hyperlink code around that url.

You start with

and you finish that link by adding the name of the link and closing the tag

You can change the wording in the text to whatever you want

I like to use the photographer’s name

Squidoo Users

The Polaroid Module

I find the easiest way to handle credits with the polaroid module is to add a text module, put the image attribution into it and move the module up to just under the polaroid. I leave the text module untitled.

There is a place on the Polaroid Module to credit images but, frankly, I’ve had so much trouble with its bugs and more bugs, that I prefer the simple text module credit.

Paste the title of the image in the field provided
Paste the url into the field provided

It’s not a simple task to make a lens on lensmaking. The first thing you have to focus on is your audience.

Steven Vella came up with How to Create a Squidoo Lens

In this example, Steven chooses to describe to beginners how to create a lens from the ground up.

Let’s have a look at How to Create a Squidoo Lens

• How new is new? Steven concentrates on the very new and talks to someone who has never made a lens before

 

• How web-savvy are they? Steven talks of creating a unique Squidoo location. Does everyone know what this means? A few modules further down he explains – Set your Lens URL: This is a unique location for Squidoo to display your lens from It would probably be easier to say – this will be your address on the web.

• The second thing you have to get clear is what builder a beginner uses. Does the ‘create a lens’ button take you to that particular builder, the Wizard? Perhaps it does for newbies.

• Rate your lens – it’s not explained clearly here the difference between G and R ratings when it comes to Squidoo. R ratings significantly reduce the chance of a lens ever being found. If a lens is made with an R rating, no one can see it unless they sign up to become a member, and not too many people are going to do that just to look at a web page. If a surfer happens to already be a Squidoo member, then they must have their Safe Surfing button disabled. The best course of action is to make only G rated lenses

Steven starts off with

Welcome, please look around.

In this lens, see step-by-step how to create a Squidoo lens and the questions that Squidoo asks along the way.

Also, check out the related lenses (in the right-hand side margin) about how to:
choose a topic
optimise your lens and
get it search engine ready.
In this way, you can contribute faster to the Squidoo knowledge resource.

There’s a disclaimer here which gives the impression that this lens will remain static and not be updated to reflect changes in Squidoo

What I’d like to see here is

1. The image cropped and adjusted so that it’s 250p X 250p as requested by Squidoo HQ. This size isn’t mandatory but I always try to comply with their requests

2. Alteration of the check out the ‘related lenses’ – these change when the lens is reloaded unless they’re all chosen by the lensmaster

3. Length of the introductory module. The introductory module is just that – an introduction. This is where you catch the attention of the surfer, you have a maximum of 60 seconds to attract them to read further. Make it short and sweet.

4. That disclaimer. I would change it something along the lines of “Should the Squidoo process change, then the lens will be updated to reflect those changes” or, more simply, “If Squidoo changes the way to make a lens, I will update this lens to show the newest way”. Or leave out the disclaimer altogether. (Leaving it out would also make the introduction a better length)

Which brings us to the question of language.

People don’t read online, they scan. Language should be plain English. (Not everyone is a native English-speaker). Short sentences and old-fashioned everyday English are easier to read. For example, the subjunctive “should” can be replaced with “if”.

Let’s continue down the page on this lens

Tags - As we move further down the page we find a module about Tags. Steven is giving us a description of tags, but not really for Squidoo tags. The tags in Squidoo are for internal purposes. I would recommend here the Workshop Add-On for Firefox and Chrome from squidutils.com With this add-on, the tags are coloured and you can see which tags are popular (green) which tags are semi-popular (yellow) and which tags are orphans (red). Adding popular tags boosts your chances of being listed in other peoples’ Discovery Tools.

Some suggestions
Images. Most of the images of a lens in progress are fairly difficult to make out. They would be better linked to a much larger image

WIP There’s a good spot at the end of this lens to describe the process of WIP. The most common questions asked by new lensmasters is why their lens is red and why their lens has gone back to red.

Configure the top widget – Home Featured

In your widget area, drag the Delicious Slider Widget across to Home Featured

Now configure the Slider Widget

Your personal computer (PC) is an important purchase, and quite an expensive one too.

With the advances planned for PCs and wireless technology, it’s only a matter of time before PCs are considered a basic household appliance.

A PC is usually a fairly tough piece of machinery but it’s possible for computers to be brought to a premature death by the environment where they’re kept.

When it comes to taking care of a PC, maintaining it and keeping it trouble-free, the media most often warns us about protection from viruses and back door intruders. Because of this emphasis, it’s easy to forget that there are many external things that can just as easily cause damage to a PC.

Things in the home such as dust, humidity, water and even power surges can all cause your computer to break down.

When you bring a PC into your home, think carefully about where you put it

Firstly, never keep your computer too close to the humid areas of your home, such as the bathroom and the kitchen.

Humid air contains minute droplets of water which can settle on the electronics of your PC. Over time, humid air will cause rust and corrosion inside your PC, creating a host of problems.

Use a surge protector to protect against spikes in your electrical current. Power surges are sudden peaks in voltage that happen from time to time and that can damage your computer.

PCs should be plugged directly into a surge protector and then the surge protector plugged into the power outlet. If you live in an area with high lightening activity you will be at even more risk from power surges.

Since dust and moisture exist in every home, it’s important to regularly clean your computer to remove any excess dust. Cleaning your computer will protect the electronics.

If you see a large build up of dust around your computer fan, it’s a sign that there’s probably a large build up of dust inside your computer as well.

To resolve this, hold the hose of your vacuum cleaner against the outside of the fan and gently suck out the dust inside

Thanks to Zath for the image

I’m no gadget freak. You can’t call me an early adopter and you certainly won’t see me in a queue at 3.00 am waiting for the newest whatever.

Then again, on first hearing the rumours about Kindle Fire, I was pretty keen to get my hands on one.

I’m having second thoughts.

Firstly, it won’t be available in Australia for some time.
We get encouraged to buy our gadgets locally. But have you looked at the price of a Kindle in the big Australian electronic stores? They like to add an extra $30, or $40 or even $50 to the price. OK they have their overheads to cover, but my heart doesn’t really leap with eager anticipation of chipping in for the advertising expenses of Dick Smith.

Secondly, what would I really use it for?
Would I watch movies? TV shows? Read glossy magazines? The quick answer is No. I use Kindle for books, of course, books and more books.

I’ve been using Kindle for PC for a long time. The books I’m currently reading are in my little notebook for handy reading on the bus and, when I’ve finished, I remove them.

The books are still there, in my free Amazon digital content storage in the Amazon Cloud (aka online). A number of books I keep in my desktop

Kindle Fire is for media junkies with a busy lifestyle. If you love having books and magazines and thousands of different music choices with you at all times, and want them all in your handbag or – literally – in the palm of your hand, the Kindle Fire is the perfect choice. Plus, it’s only $199

Guess I’m not a media junkie. I’m just a reader. What I’m buying for myself is the Kindle Touch

Kindle Touch gets a write up on Gizmodo

We leave links to our favourite lens and very often to our blogs. This is a backlink of course and, although it’s not a very important one, it’s a backlink just the same.

But do you actually look at someone’s sig? Do you follow a link?

To be truthful, I rarely do. There are just so many of them!

I’ve been playing with my links a little, alternating various lenses and watching visitors and I’ve discovered a way which entices people to pop over to one of my pages. It’s been just six weeks of my little trial but the results are encouraging.

I have only ONE link in my signature.

It’s not an ordinary link which displays the url of my choice, it’s a sentence describing the url.

For example, the first two weeks I used The Terrible and Tragic Tale of the Minotaur and ended up with a surprising number of visitors to an old lens.

Next, I went for Won’t you Tennessee Waltz with me?. Another nice little number of visitors.

For the next fortnight I’ll be using Want to be the Hostess with the Mostest? Try an Ancient Roman Murder.

So, if you want to pick up a few visitors, using just one link in a sentence might be the way to go.

But I hate looking for themes!

Hundreds of pages turn up in Search and most of the links on those pages are pure unadulterated crap.

I’ve found only a handful that actually work.

Here’s Halloween in Blue from ZCed

This theme doesn’t natively support menus, but you can use the “Custom Menu” widget to add any menus you create to the sidebar. So make yourself a menu.

There’s an ‘Options’ available under Appearance if you want to set up some little ads.

This is a simple classic theme with the colours of Halloween as a backround plus a scary graphic. This theme is from the pretty good collection at Themes for Blogs

There are two or three other Halloween themes at Themes for Blogs but I haven’t downloaded and tried those. When I do I’ll give you my opinion.

In the meantime, Happy Haunted Halloween!

With Google+ moving from field trial to open beta phase, anyone can join the site.

Sign up to Google+

According to Google, this new social networking site has been created with an aim to give the users a real-world like experience while they share stuff on the web.

Since its initial introduction in June 28, 2011, over 100 improvements have been added to the product, which roughly amounts to 8-9 product enhancements each week.

Selective Sharing
Google+ incorporates a Circles feature, in recognition of the fact that all relationships are unique. This feature allows users to create different groups like “buddies” group, “colleague” group, “parents” group and likes.

So you can selectively share information with different groups of people. Users can easily drag-and-drop their contacts into self-created Circles and just like in real-life, users are allowed to share some thing with their “college buddies,” while keeping it a secret for their parents.

Google+ button
You can add the Google+ button to your website (just like I have it on mine) Add the + button to your web pages

There’s a lot more to Google+ – you’ll just have to join to find out!