As a result, I often find some little known Free Downloadable or Online Features that could be of use to almost anyone to make their computing experience a little bit better and more productive.

This is just such a find…

Windows Vista has had it’s Service Pack 2 released for quite a while and is stable at this point (at least from my POV). So, it is time to make it permanent to free up about a half a gig of disk space. This can be accomplished in only 3 pain-free steps.

First: Open the Run Window, either by going to the Start-Accessories-Run or by using the Shortcut keys Window +R at the same time. You get this window.

Second: Type in compcln.exe and click OK. That will bring you to the Command Prompt with the Operation ready to go.

Third: Type Y and hit Enter and you are done. You just recovered somewhere around 500,000MB of space on your Hard Drive.

Be aware: This is a permanent deletion of the backup of your SP2 file and makes your current SP2 configuration permanent and can’t be undone. Make sure you really want to do this before you hit Yes!

I hope you find this tool to be something useful in your daily computing experience.

If you find something you think should be included, please use the comments below or use my Contact Form to let me know and I will be sure to check it out for inclusion in a future article.

While the RAM installed on your computer is fixed, you can increase the Virtual Memory to allow your system to use some of your Hard Disk space as if it were RAM.

These 5 steps will increase your VM for just such a situation.

1. Go to the Control Panel and Click on the System settings.

2. Then Navigate to Advanced System Settings (on the left hand side)

3. When there, Open the Advanced Tab and click the Settings Button in Performance

4. There you will again open the Advanced Tab and you will see your current Virtual Memory settings. Click Change.

5. Pick Custom size and add Low and High end of your Virtual Memory as needed. Once you add the additional VM, Click Set, Ok and continue to back out that way Clicking Apply and or Ok as necessary.

Now you are ready to Stream your Audio or Video files whenever you want without waiting for the Buffer to Fill every few minutes.

Although this is for Windows Vista, the same basic steps apply for other Window Operating Systems as well.

I have spoken with a lot of business people with at least some web presence recently. They all have a fair grasp of the importance of using RSS Feeds and e-mail subscriptions to further their reach on the internet.

However, more than a few of these business people DON’T even have their Company Logo on their Feeds.

I did a short, step by step ScreenCast to show just how easy it is to add a Logo to Feeds.

See, I told you it was easy. Now, go put your Logo on Your Feeds too.

BTW, if you’re reading this in RSS or e-mail, click here to see the ScreenCast.

How do I look up a DNS(Domain Name System/server) name or IP(Internet Protocol) address from my desktop?
(You must be connected to the Internet to look up a DNS name or IP address even though you are using Windows.)

• In the Start Menu, Open the Command Prompt.
• At the Command Prompt, type nslookup, a space, and the IP address or name (eg. nslookup microsoft.com)
• Then press ENTER.
• You get Your Result
• When finished type exit, then press enter

Pretty simple, but…

What to do if you are scraped?

• Try contacting the author through their about or contact page (if they even have one)
• Leave a comment on your post (that’s on the offending blog)
• Look up their IP address on http://allwhois.com/ and report them to the host
• Send a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint
• If they are running Google Ads (and the probably are) click the Google Ads link and report them as scraping your content

Other than that, you might consider doing what I did on my Working at Home on the Internet blog (click the link for my alternate solution). It worked for me!

Here’s how you can set up an AdSense campaign to show after one post per page. The example has the Ads showing after the second post, but you can set it up after any post number you like. And this also works on Category and “Next” pages without any other changes being made to your code.

Go to your index.php in the Presentation folder of your WordPress Dashboard.

And look for:

<?php if (have_posts()) >
  <?php $postCount=0; ?>
  <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post();?>

And IMMEDIATELY BEFORE it put this bit of code:

<?php
$postnum = 1;
$showadsense1 = 2;
?>

Go a little further down in the code and look for this (at the end of the content statement)

<?php endwhile; ?>

And place this bit of code RIGHT BEFORE that statement:

<?php
 if ($postnum == $showadsense1)
  (your AdSense code  goes here)
$postnum++;
?>

It’s as simple as that. There should be no need to make any changes if and when you update your WordPress version, but you will have to remember to redo the code if you change your Theme.

You should be able to copy/paste the above code with no problems, just remember to put YOUR AdSense code in place of “(your AdSense code goes here)” or it will never work.

Questions or problems can be left in comments and I will answer them there so others will know the answer to your question too.

The question, which is the subject of this post was:

“This might not be what you want posted here – but I think that people need to know more about SEO – the general stuff. Why it is important, some of the costs associated, not all web designers offer that…etc.”

In order to answer these questions within a question, I will break it down a little bit.

1. SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. In other words, it is how people can best find your site when using Google, Yahoo, MSN or any of the other Search Engines by typing in certain search terms or “Keywords”.
2. Cost is not an object. It is free if you think you know how people will try to find the services, articles or products you offer. A suggestion I would make is to try to find your site on SE’s by using different terms to see what you get. Again, it’s free.
3. The unasked question is How to go about it. This is where the Meta Tags come in. They are located in the “head” php in the presentation portion of your template.

Most templates will include a Meta Description which is derived from your “tagline”. An example of this would be:

<meta name=”description” content=”<?php bloginfo(‘description’); ?>” />
  <meta name=”author” content=”Joe Hauckes  / My Computer Back in Service – http://mcbsconsulting.com” />
(you can add your own description in place of the bloginfo, but don’t make it too long)

The other is the Meta Keyword which is where you put words and phrases you think people will use to find you. Another example from MCBS:

<meta name=”keyword”
content=”help,DSL,Setup,php,online,offline,adapt,programs,install,hardware,software,
computer,consulting,internet,” />

Probably the most important is not within tags, but using the right “Keywords” within your content. If you write good content with a good mix of what you want people to find, they will come.

Just remember, none of this happens overnight, it takes time.

When your readers stop by on an individual post you probably would like them to read some of your other posts. But when they get to the end of your article the only thing they see is <- Previous or Next ->.

Why not give them an idea of what your “Previous post” is by adding the Title of the Article they would be reading?

First look in your Single Post php for your navigation class, it looks something like this:

<p class=”pagenav”><?php previous_post(‘%’,'« Earlier’, ‘no’); ?> | <?php next_post(‘%’,'Newer »’, ‘no’); ?> </p>

Using the same class designation (ie p class=”pagenav instead of div class=”navigation”) insert the following code:

<div class=”navigation”>
            <span class=”alignleft”><?php next_posts_link(‘& la quo ; ‘. __(‘Earlier Entries’)) ?></span>
            <span class=”alignright”><?php previous_posts_link(__(‘Newer Entries’).’ & ra quo ;’) ?></span>
        </div>

Save the code and go look at the navigation links at the bottom of a post, it should give you the Titles of the “previous” and “next” posts. You may have to make some minor adjustments to get the look you want, but it should work just fine. (Be sure to remember, there are no spaces in (& ra[la] quo ; )

If you don’t have a single post php, look for the navigation code in your Index php right after your content info.

When you copy & paste code sometimes it doesn’t work.

This happens because sometimes you aren’t getting the “real” code. You are getting the “viewing” code instead of the actual characters that the computer reads.

As an example:

When the code calls for…

?>
<div id=’preview’ class=’wrap’>

so the computer knows where the “divider” is and what class the “preview” is and how it works, this is what the computer needs to run the code correctly.

But when you code it for viewing, it looks like this…

?& gt;
& lt;div id=’preview’ class=’wrap’& gt;

to the computer.

Does that sound confusing? Well, that’s what happens to the computer when it tries to read the “view” that we see instead of the “real”code that it needs. It gets confused.

So, the next time you Copy & Paste some code and it doesn’t work right the first time, try Typing the exact code you see in the text. The odds are that the code is right, but you are getting the “view” code instead of the “real” thing.