Sunday, July 31, 2011

My current desktop setup.



Looks pretty cool doesnt it?  It's an interactive Heads Up Display (HUD), with current time, date, weather info, network and disk usage statistics, functional media played controls, links to commonly used folders, programs, and websites, and more.  I love the look and functionality of it.  So much cooler than having icons cluttering up my desktoip.

To achieve this you need 2 things, rainmeter and a skin called jarvis.  Rainmeter is available at: http://code.google.com/p/rainmeter/  and the jarvis skin can be found at: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=jarvis+rainmeter+skin#/d36eee6

Once you download and install both of those, you can customize the skin by right-clicking different sections and going to variants, which will allow you to open up a .ini file where the variables are stores, so if you installed photoshop(for example) to a different directory than default, you can point the link to your installation.  You can customize all the clickable links and point them to wherever you like.

Unfortunately the media player controls seem to only work with winamp, but i installed winamp just so that part of the HUD would work.  It was worth it in my opinion.  I might still do some more customizing on this later, but we'll see.  Let me know what you think.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Blackbuntu

I recently installed a new operating system called Blackbuntu.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Google+

I recently signed up for the latest social network, Google+.  Right now it isn't open to the public so you need an invite to get in on it.  I must say it looks like a facebook killer to me.  I haent had much time to play around with it but so far I like the way it's set up and some of the cool features.

I'm posting this from my phone right now but in the future I'll probably do a more in-depth review with screenshots.

It allows you to put people in different groups, called circles.  Then when you post something you get to choose which circles can see it.  So you can still have your family or your boss as a friend but you don't have to share everything with them.

There are some other neat features as well but I haven't really tested them all out yet.  It allows for the creation of virtual hangouts using your webcam and then any friends who join you in the virtual hangout can videochat with the other people there.  So that seems pretty cool to me.

I just wanted to take the time to post something here since I've been too busy to write anything lately.  I'll try to write some more later or tomorrow if I can.  Thanks for reading.

Monday, June 13, 2011

FaceNiff

This is going on both of the blogs I can post on. 

Saturday, June 4, 2011

How to Make Moonshine

It takes time and practice before you can whip up a good batch of moonshine that will be safe enough to drink, but making your own alcohol is one of the most enjoyable ways of breaking the law so here's how you do it.

Step 1, Mash
Buy 5lbs of cornmeal and make a mash by adding 20 gallons of boiling water and 20lbs of sugar.  When the mash has cooled to "warm" add 1.5oz of yeast.  Put this in a warm place for about 3 days to ferment (or until the mash stops bubbling).  After this, the mash will be converted to carbonic acid and alcohol, called "sour mash".

Step 2, Distillation
Distill your mash by heating to 173 degrees F. in a copper moonshine still.  At this temp. the alcohol(ethanol) rises to the top of the still and travels to the cooling part where it condenses and can be collected.  It will be a transparent liquid the colour of dark beer.

Step 3, Singlings
The first liquid to condense will contain volatile oils and should be discarded but after that the liquid can be collected in glass jars called "singlings".  The liquid from the end of the run is referred to as "low wine" and is onle about 10% alcohol so you should add this back to the mash and distill again.  Stop distilling when a tablespoon of low wine thrown on a naked flame won't burn.

Step 4, Distill Again, and Again
Empty the mash.  The ethanol collected in the first singlings will have the highest prof, and the proof level drops progressively after that.  All of your singlings will need to be distilled one or two more times to get rid of any impurities.  After three distillations, some of your singlings should contain ethanol up to 150 proof.  That's 75% alcohol.

Enjoy.  Here's a picture of one type of still to help you get started.


Tuesday, May 31, 2011

still pretty busy lately

I do want to get back in the habit of posting regularly again, despite how hectic things have been lately...so for now here's an infographic that i found interesting.  I promise some decent new content soon.  Nice to see I still have some followers :)  Thanks guys!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Returning to blogging

Well, since moving back to Florida my life has been incredibly chaotic and I just haven't had any time to write a blog or keep up with any of the blogs I follow.  This explains my lengthy absence and lack of new posts.  Also, I've had a terrible bout of writers block and just couldn't think of anything to post on here.

But now I'm getting settled in and used to being back home and I think I'll have enough time to start posting again so I hope some people will decide to come back to following me.  I've come up with some ideas to write about and we'll see how it goes.

My posts might be shorter and formatted more poorly than in the past because many of them may be written from my phone.  For example this post is done using the blogger app on my samsung epic.  I figure if my life is overly hectic, I can at least take the time to draft a few paragraphs every day from my phone even if I can't sit down at my laptop and do things right.

As for following other people, I may not always have time to comment on all the blogs I follow, but I should be able to read each of yours daily and check out articles and links even if I don't always comment.

So, with this explanation, consider me back, and wish me luck sticking with it when life gets hectic.  Thanks, as always, to my loyal suporters.  In closing, here's a picture of my kittah, Sebastion (I couldn't take my texas kitty "Crescent" with me when I moved).


Monday, April 4, 2011

My Day in a Picture

I spent 12 hours with this view today:






Sunday, April 3, 2011

Joe Walsh!

Wnet to a concert last night.  Saw Joe Walsh, and he was really good.  Def worth seeing if you ever get the chance.  Click below for some pics.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Posting from the Middle of Nowhere.

Well I moved out of Corpus Christi today, finally.  There were a few delays, but I worked everything out and I'm glad to be out of there.  Still in Texas for now, staying at my mom's place for a little bit.  She lives in the middle of nowhere and I kind of like it out here.  A bit hard to get internet access but I managed to wifi tether my phone with like a one bar signal. 

Sorry to the person who asked for pics of my stuff in the comments on my last post, it's all packed up now, so you'd just see a couple pieces of luggage and boxes.  I'm tired after the long drive up here, so thats all I'm going to say for now.  I'll do the rounds of checking people's blogs who commented and then I'm going to crawl into a mouse hole and pass out.  :)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

progress on moving.

Well, all my stuff is packed.  I thought i was going to get out of here today, but it looks like i won't hit the road until tomorrow.  I'm going to go stay with somebody for a few days before i leave texas and set up a rental car.  I don't have much stuff to move so it should all fit in a car without a problem.  Not too much else to say right now, but I did say I'd start trying to get back to being more active on the blog.

Friday, March 25, 2011

I guess I should get back to blogging.

I feel like I've taken a long enough break and probably lost some followers for it, but I'm back now and I'll try to start updating regularly again.  I've been very busy, very stressed, and not feeling very well, but things are looking up.  I'll be moving back to Florida very soon and I'm excited about that.  It'll be nice to go home after a few rough years in Texas.

Anybody have any experience moving cross country?  I don't have much stuff to transport but I was thinking a rental car/van/truck, might be better than a uhaul type of vehicle.  I could use some tips or suggestions from anybody who still reads this.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Taking a short break.

Sorry about the incosistent updates to the blog lately.  I've been stressed over personal stuff and just haven't had much to write.  Somebody close to me got arrested recently and another person I know got shot and died, so I just need some time off.  I'll get back to doing more regular updates in a day or two I'm sure.  Thanks for all of your continued support.  I'll still be checking your blogs when I can.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Hipster Traps

It may seem cruel to hunt them, but left unchecked, the hipster population would grow at an exponential rate.  This would put an enormous strain on our nation's supply of smug superiority, and it would greatly increase the chances that you would be forced to talk to one of them at a party.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Smoke em if you got em.

Here's something for the smokers in the audience.

Friday, March 11, 2011

How To Make Money From Inflation


Inflation is a phenomenon that occurs when extra money is created - either printed or blipped into existence. When the supply of money is inflated, the price of everything rises. It's hard to see how this kind of phenomenon can be taken advantage of, but there are many ways. One way that I know of is called the debtor's method.


Thursday, March 10, 2011

How to make C-1

Because I can't think of a good topic to write about, I was thinking maybe an insane one would suffice.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Another Blog.

I recently joined another blog as a guest writer, but it hasn't been getting to many views or followers or anything, so I just wanted to make a post about it on here and see if there's any interest. 

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Some Useful Effects

People like me to post blog tips so here's a couple I picked up recently.

Monday, March 7, 2011

A neat new gadget.

Well this is kind of neat.  I found a chat gadget for my blog that will send any messages you type into it directly to my instant messenger account.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

No Regrets

So I was walking home from the store earlier and a car sped by driving sort of recklessly.  It made me think what if he hit me, and I died tonight.  My next thought was, wow I would really regret not dismounting one of my hard drives before I left the house.  That was it.  I actually think I'd be totally okay with dieing randomly if I'd dismounted my hard drive first.  No other serious regrets in life.

So I'm curious, if you were to die tonight, would you be satisfied with your life?  Is there something you wish you'd done but never got around to it?  What, if anything, would you regret doing or not doing?

ib4 "paint a self portrait" & "build a house"

Friday, March 4, 2011

Napalm

It's pretty easy to make napalm, here's how.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Busy Schedule.

I've been unbelievably busy this week and it doesn't look like tomorrow will be any better.  This is why my posts have been crappy lately.  I got a few jobs to go to, and then some other problems to deal with that I don't like to talk about on my blog.  So I apologize if I haven't been following everybody's blogs as closely as often as I'd like to.  Work should slow back down in a couple of days and I'll get back to the usual routine though.  In the mean time I'll leave you with some work related humor.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Bacon, as a Thermal Lance?

Bacon is good stuff but did you know it can cut through solid steel?

Monday, February 28, 2011

Randomly Generated Posting

I knew I'd be replaced by a machine eventually.  I just didn't think it would be so soon.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

What's On That Clipboard?

Today I ask all my readers to post whatever random thing is on their clipboard.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Evil Captcha

So, I think my captcha is trying to get me to kill people.  This is why you should turn captcha off on your blog.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Don't mess with Anon.

So I found this today and thought it was pretty great and wanted to share it on here...

Thursday, February 24, 2011

300 Followers!!!

I just want to thank all my followers for their continued support.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

How to LOIC

Don't really know what to write about today, so I'm going to teach how to DoS a website using LOIC.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Happy Birthday Nailbunny

It's my friend's birthday today and I don't have anything else cool to write about for now, so today's post is going to be just for wishing her a happy birthday.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Save some money.

I went to the store today and saved a bunch of money so I thought I'd share the deals with my readers.  To my knowledge, these only work in the US, so i apologize to my foreign readers.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Snakes in the Tubes!

Seriously, there are snakes in the tubes!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Paypal Buttons Revisited

A couple people have asked me how to make it so paypal will not show your email address when you use a donation button on your blog/site.  So in response to these questions, here's how.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Samsung Epic First Impression

I got a new phone today, a Samsung Epic.  First thing I did was root it and install custom firmware and so far it's working out great.


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Encryption Pt. 2 (hidden volumes)

Yesterday I covered basic file encryption, and it got some good responses.  So today I'm doing a follow up with some slightly more advanced features in truecrypt.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Encyption Pt. 1 (File Containers)

Ok, I've been saying I'll post something on file encryption for a few days now, so I'll get started with a pretty basic way to do things that should work well in most situations.  I titled this "part 1" because I may do a "part 2" on some more advanced ways to do things, but I'm not sure yet.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Singles Awareness Day

Happy S.A.D. or valentines day, or whatever you want to call it.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Security Tips

I've posted all the useful blogger tutorials I can think of, so I was thinking about branching out and writing some tutorials about other computer/IT subjects.  I just got a new 1tb hard drive for my birthday and the first thing I did with it was encrypt it (which took 38 hours, but 1 tb is a lot of space).  This gave me the idea to write a tutorial on encryption and security.  So I'll put that up soon if there's any interest.  I would do it now, but I'm not done yet.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Happy Birthday Self

Today is my birthday, so instead of making any kind of meaningful contribution to this blog, I'm just going to post a couple of youtube videos on the subject of birthdays or whatever.

Friday, February 11, 2011

My Friend Rick

Once again I don't have much to say, so I thought I'd let my friend Rick have a word with you.  Here's what he has to say.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Pop Goes the Comment

Yesterday I was asked how make comments appear in a smaller, popup window, so today I'll cover that.  It won't make for a very long post but I'm always happy to answer questions, so keep em coming if anybody has anything else they want to know.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Adsense 101

Well here I am again with not much to post about, so I'll just answer a question from yesterday.  I was asked "could you do a tutorial on adding the ads to the bottom of the page because I don't want them in my face when I'm commenting and I would like a sleek look."  Many of you probably know this already, but for those who don't I'm always happy to answer questions.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

After the Break

Want to make your blog load faster?  Want to help your followers who have a slow connection or are opening up 50 blogs at once?  A couple people have asked me how to make a blog display an intro paragraph with a link to read the full post, and I think it's a great idea for a tutorial.  It's also really easy.  Click to read how.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Clearing Things Up.

I'm feeling kind of lazy tonight so just a quick tutorial on making the background to your posts invisible, so it doesnt block the view of your blog background...

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Squeaking my Mind.

A few people have mentioned my new Squeak a Comment logo, and I'd like to say thanks for giving me something to post about.  It's so much easier when I don't have to think of a topic myself.  I might cover reaction buttons too if there time, or maybe tomorrow.

A word of caution, don't attempt this if you haven't selected a layout.  If you're using default settings I'm pretty sure your code is different.

A few posts ago I covered making a banner for you site using cooltext.com  I used the same site for the post a comment message, because you can use a picture instead of just text.  So I'm not going to go over all of that again, but if you need help go back and see this post.  Just make the text a little smaller when creating your pic for comments.  I used the same style and font so it would match the site banner.

...so anyways, take your picture and upload it somewhere.  i used http://www.picturestack.com/ because it's easy and they keep your pictures indefinitely.

So, you got a picture uploaded with your new message?  Good.  Now lets put it in your blog.  Log in to blogger, go to design, edit html, and check the box for expand widget templates, as seen here:

hit ctrl+F and look for <data:postCommentMsg/>  this appears in 2 places and you'll need to replace both of them.  so when you find the first one replace it with <img src='http://www.picturestack.com/878/814/octcooltext50yS7.png'/> but make the address point to the picture you just uploaded uless you want to use mine and have people squeaking on your blog too.
After you change that, hit the button for find next occurrence and change the second one too.
Once you've changed all the codes from <data:postCommentMsg/> to <img src='http://www.picturestack.com/878/814/octcooltext50yS7.png'/> then hit preview(you won't be able to see the change in the preview but just make sure you don't get any errors) and then hit Save Template and your done.  You should have a nice new comments graphic/text thing.

You don't have to use an image, you can supposedly just replace <data:postCommentMsg/> with text that you want it to say, but i got errors when i tried to do that.  your mileage may vary.

You may want to change your footer to match your new Comment entry text if you're doing a theme, like AnonyMOUSE making everything say squeak or whatever.



This is easier since I don't think you need to change any code to do it...




this'll bring you to a nice little popup where you can change these settings.
While you're there I might as well cover reaction buttons too.  You see it a couple settings down in that last picture but theres a bit more to it than that.  If you want these, go ahead and check the box, and/or click edit next to that setting to change what the buttons say.  Now if you're using the default blog template, they should just show up, but if you have a custom layout its back to the html editor and expand widget templates(see above).

 This time find the code: <data:post.body/> and immediately after it paste in the following code:
<span class='reaction-buttons'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showReactions'>
<table border='0' cellpadding='0' width='100%'><tr>
<td valign='center'><span class='reactions-label'>
<data:top.reactionsLabel/></span>
</td>
<td><iframe allowtransparency='true' class='reactions-iframe' expr:src='data:post.reactionsUrl' frameborder='0' name='reactions' scrolling='no'/></td>
</tr></table>
</b:if>
</span> 
 I put my code a little further down it looks like but I don't recall why...anyway, here's mine so make yours look something like this:

Preview to check for errors, save it and you're done.  That concludes this post because I really don't feel like writing anymore.  I hope this helps somebody out.  It's not too difficult and I did my best to break it all down into manageable steps without making this post too long.  Let me know how it works for you if you try it.  I know it might seem like a lot but I covered a few different mods so...get what you can out of it.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Stumbling in the Right Direction.

This is sort of a follow up or correction to my last post about StumbleUpon.  I'm still new to blogging and while the method i discussed yesterday does work, this way is better.  A couple people asked about other buttons like reddit, and similar services.  This handy trick should cover all services in one fell swoop and hopefully we'll all get even more traffic! 

So apologies to anybody who used yesterdays method, you can leave it there or just go back and remove that line from your code.  Lets get to it.  I haven't even tried this out yet, so I hope things go according to plan, as I know sometimes putting these things in a gadget can reduce functionality.

1.) Log in and go to design then add a gadget:

 2.) Search for: Sociable, click the +
3.) Set options, I recommend vertical to maximize visibility of this gadget, but horizontal looks better IMO.
4. Add it and preview changes, to make sure it works.  If you see this, save changes.
Wow, that's a lot of services for 4 easy steps.  Also I noticed yesterday that if you put the stumbleupon code into it's own gadget element, it will only get people stumbling to your main page.  Not with this gadget!  This gadget lets people stumble to each post that's submitted, as seen here:




That URL is for a post, not the main blog!  So this gadget rocks, and it's easy to add!  Now I just gotta make accounts for some of these services so I can submit my pages and get people "liking" em.  Just made a technorati acct and they want me to put the code: ESWAZ7P9PXFW into a post, so just ignore that. :)

This is probably enough for one post, but you see those reaction buttons at the bottom of my posts now?  If you don't know how to add those, I'll cover that in tomorrow's post if there's any interest in the subject.  I thought they were cool.

Enjoy the extra traffic sources!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Stumbling along.

A good way to get some extra traffic to your blog is a site called "stumble upon".  Stumble upon lets users input keywords and then takes people to a random site matching those keywords.  So if somebody was interested in weblog tutorials or chemistry, theres a chance it would take that person to my blog, because i have posts that were submitted to stumble upon, with those keywords.

Before I get to that though, somebody asked me how to make comments appear in a popup window.  So i'll run through that real quick.  Log in, go to Settings, comments, look for the setting for comment form placement and set it to popup as shown below:






Moving on, creating an account with stumbleupon is pretty straightforward, so hopefully you can all get through that without helpful screenshots.  Just go to http://www.stumbleupon.com/ and click the big button that says "Join for free" and fill out a short form.

Once you have an account it's time to add their code to your site, so it'll work with your blog.  I like to put it in the footer like this:



Some people embed it in their posts, but that looks kind of sloppy to me, but if you know basic html you can play around with it's placement a bit and find what works for you.  If not, here's how to set it up the way i did mine. Log in to blogger, go to design > edit html, and click expand widget templates as seen below.



Once you've done that, you'll see a bunch of nonsense in the window below that, so just hit ctrl+F to do a search.  Type in postquickedit (if you get multiple hits, the one you want is below where it mentions "quickedit pencil" but it should be the first result).  Create a new line below the one that mentions postquickedit, and paste in: <script src='http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=3'/>
Your code should now resemble this:



I should mention that the code I'm using is for the button style I currently use but there are different styles.  I think this one looks best in the blog footer but if you want something else you can change where it says s=3 to another number from 1-6.  i might try s=2, because i like that style button too.
When you're done click preview to make sure you dont get any errors and to see how it'll look.
You can see I changed it to s=2 so when i hit preview I see the new style at the bottom of a post:
I'll keep it this way, so now close the preview window/tab and click the button for save template:


For reference I'll inclue a pic of what buttons correspond to the different numbers in the code.

I numbered them for you in red.  I don't know why they don't go in order but whatever...

The number displayed next to the SU logo is how many people like it or recommend it.  The higher the number, the more chance you have that your blog will get stumbled to.  At first though, the badge won't have a number, it will say Submit.  You(or somebody else) has to submit the page to stumbleupon by clicking the button.

Note, on your blog homepage, all of these will submit your blog homepage.  When you click on an individual post, then you can submit that post.  Always double check the URL you're submitting to make sure it's just the link for your post and not a link to a comment or anything like that.for example when i go to my january archive i see:
but that won't subit the post it's under, it would submit just the archive page.  It may be possible to work around this but i think you'd have to edit your code every time you post and get new code from stumbleupon for each new post and I didn't want to do that, so this method is the best i've found.

When you click submit, you'll be taken to a page like the one seen below where you choose relevent keywords and if it's safe for work and then it gets added to their database.
So then I'd click submit and people can now stumble to my january archive page.  Once you have an account with stumbleupon, if you see the button on somebody's page that you follow, click the button and you'll be taken to a page or popup like the one below, and you can then click i like it, to help out the person whose blog its on. 
Even without anybody "liking" my page, this has been one of my best sources of traffic to this blog, so it's well worth doing, but if i see this on any of your blogs, i'll be sure to take the few seconds needed to "like" your mainpage and your post.  We can all get more traffic this way.

Results:


If you feel this post is unclear or need additional assistance, or run into any problems, just let me know in the comments and I'll help out if I can.  Let me know if you guys like this or found it helpful.

That's all for now.  See ya next time.  :)

*******************************************************************************
EDIT: ugh, this post is now useless. sorry everybody who already put it in.  this method does work, but i just found a better way to do things...i'll post it in tomorrow's update which should go up at midnight CST.  I still have some things to learn myself...

so if you were thinking about doing this, don't; wait for the next post for an easier solution with more features.

I've only been blogging for a couple weeks so i don't know all the tricks yet.  *Squeak*

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Another Whiteknight Post!

Anonymouse Blog is filmed live before a studio audience...  

On today's show we'll cover interior decorating!  OOH! AH!
Umm a few people have asked me to go over some tips for tweaking the way a blog looks, so I'll cover some basics of that, maybe change/improve mine a little bit as I go.  We'll see how long this gets and maybe I'll make a part 2 or something if there's enough interest in it.  I have more helpful tips for getting more views to your blog too, but that post keeps getting pushed back as I get requests for things and try to help out.  So lets see what happens here...

Ok, first up I guess I'll cover simple banners.  Why use plaintext for your blog title when you can have it in 3d or glowing green or something.  If you have leet photoshop skills feel free to skip ahead but I'm personally too lazy for that so go to a site like http://cooltext.com/ and you can generate a neat banner with your blog name.  This is pretty easy to do, just click on a banner style, i chose "nova" and then change the text and colours if you want as seen below.  click render when you're done.


This will take you to a page where you see your new banner and under it a link titled Download Image.  Click the link and save it somewhere.  Then hop over to blogger, log in and follow along with this pic to go to Design and click edit for the header thing.


This should take you to the following screen, where you should click browse,select the image you just created, set the setting to "instead of..." and click save.  See pic if you get lost:


Hmm I liked my old one better...oh well, i'll fix it later.  That was pretty easy though right?  I don't really feel like doing this right now, but I'll cover a few more basics now and then see how I feel maybe do some more stuff with it tomorrow.  Also keep in mind the size of the banner you create, I had to resize mine in paint, but that shouldn't be too hard for you guys.  If you need help let me know.

Ok, some other random tweaks.  Backgrounds are easy. Fire up your favorite search engine; I use bing or google, and do an image search for something related to your blog or just something shiny and pretty, whatever.  save it. and go to the design tab and click template designer:
forgot to circle it in paint but i'm too lazy to fix that...moving on.  I don't even know what to make my background so I'm just going to keep the current one and reupload it.  (EDIT: just changed mine, thanks to http://epicwallpapersandart.blogspot.com/ for the new one.)  first off when you get to template designer, pick a template that goes with the general color scheme you want to save yourself some work.
then go to the background tab/button/thing on the left...Click that part where it says none and then you can browse the default choices or click upload to upload the one you just downloaded.
The scroll with page option (see below) determines what happens when users scroll down your page, does the background appear fixed or can they scroll down in the background too.  set it however you want.
then click apply to blog in the upper right corner and you have a shiny new background.


Ok, that's the basics.  If you want more on this subject I can follow this up with more tomorrow, or you can play around with it yourself and try tweaking little things like font colours, just don't use anything hard to read. If most of you know how to tweak your settings already I'll go on to posting some other more helpful tips for everybody.  

I feel like this stuff is pretty self explanatory but I know some people wanted me to go over it, so I don't mind helping those few who asked.  Feedback is always appreciated.

So tune in next time and i'll be back with some more umm...words and pictures!  Same great time, same great channel, and now a word from our sponsor...


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

helping CoDgirl with her comments.

it could be a setting but i doubt it is.  i noticed your problem and thought it was just me at first.

check these settings, make sure they match up with this:






if that doesnt fix it and i'm guessing it won't  try this move: go to the Posting tab, then edit posts, click edit next to one of them.





at that screen, underneath where you see the post typed out, click Post Options, make sure reader comments is set to Allow:





if this still doesnt help you let me know and i'll edit it or review other setting with you.  this would be easier over some sort of im client though, let me know what you got and you can im me.

I Guess People Like Blog Tutorials...

My last post got mostly positive comments so I guess I'll give some more tips.  I'm thinking this time I'll cover paypal donations, and the top 10 followers gadget.  Both are pretty easy to add.  So get ready for my l337 MSpaint skillz.

For the a neat gadget that lets you keep track of your top 10 most active followers, log in to Blogger and go to to the "Design" tab.  Click on "Add a Gadget" as seen here:


in the window that pops up, click on "Add your own" like this:





Copy and paste: http://xmlgadgets.com/ig/top10.xml into the form. and then click Add By URL.

Title it whatever you want and click save and you're done.  Easy right?  Ok, let's tackle paypal next.  I got my first donation just the other day which I'm very thankful for.  So set up a paypal acct, if you don't have one, and log in if you do.  In the bar at the top, click Merchant Services, and then under the section for Create Buttons, click on Donate.  See pic for reference:





This will take you to the form for creating the button.  You can customize it if you want, even use your own image for the button(which i considered) but paypal has good brand recognition, so lets stick to the default for now.  All you really need to enter is your organization name/service.  Just use the title of your blog, and you can change other settings if you want.





Click on "Create Button" and you'll be taken to a page with some freshly generated code. See?




Select it, press ctrl+C to copy it.  Now we log in to blogger and go to Design and Add a Gadget (see first pic), but this time we're going to select HTML/Javascript.  So scroll down and look for this(click the plus sign):

Paste in the code you copied from paypal and title the gadget whatever you like; click Save and you're all done, you should have a shiny new paypal donation button.




I got at least one more helpful little blogger tip up my sleeve but I think I'll save it for tomorrow.  This seems lengthy enough for today.  Or I could go back to posting random explosives and weapons and junk if you guys prefer...feel free to let me know in the comments.  If you found this useful or anything drop a comment about that too, it helps me feel validated. :)

Thanks for following.