Let’s say you’ve got your WordPress web site hacked. What to do?

Today, one of my clients’ websites got hacked. The homepage was a simple text message, no page was accessible. What are the steps to make it back again the way it was before? Download WordPress from WordPress.org web site and put it again. Update the database, if/when requested. Recreate wp-config.php from wp-config-sample.php. Temporarily set a different theme (you will put it back again, of course). Check in admin if the widgets section of the web site has a malicious code (it was the case at my client’s web site). Check the homepage / other pages for malicious codes. If you have a database back-up, recover it from there. If there is still a problem with the site being hacked, recover all the files in wp-content folder from a back-up. Change the passwords of: WordPress admin / other admin-class users. CPanel. (if different than CPanel) FTP users. Install security plugins (more than one).

How to learn?

I liked the fragment from this article a lot: Nu o sa mai “tocesti” niciodata. Desi toata lumea stie ca la medicina pierzi noptile invatand, daca dai de un curs care trebuie tocit, evita-l. Cauta in schimb o carte despre materia aia care sa poata fi citita cu placere. Intotdeauna e una la biblioteca. Si o sa o citesti cu placere pentru ca oamenii care au scris-o iubesc ceea ce fac, iar dragostea trezeste interesul si pentru informatia cea mai arida. Prefera metoda asta chiar daca auzi ca la examen profesorul vrea sa scrii cuvant cu cuvant dupa cursul lui. Nu e adevarat. Iar in felul asta, facultatea o sa treaca foarte usor. (Vlad Stroescu on MedLive) What he says is the following – in school, you have two basic options: You can learn things by heart, forcing yourself to remember things. You can read things with pleasure, with enjoyment, being happy with what you read. Instead of focusing to remember most things in a text book, you should rather focus on reading things which give you pleasure. While most people would think that the first option is not only implied by default, but also mandatory, the author says he is comfortable to suggesting this as a viable alternative to memorizing things.

Double checking vs. Typing twice

Let’s say someone gives you a written note with a bank account. Let’s say you’re a teacher and have to calculate averages for 30 pupils from 4 different exams at a respected university. Let’s say you’re an accountant, and have 40 bills to put into an accounting system. Each of these situations should leave with little room for any error, and with big problems if you do something wrong (money are put into a different account, a pupil does not join the university and, finally, you do wrong things in accounting). How to make sure you’re right about inserting the data correctly? A classical solution would be „insert & check”. The thing is, most people would be affected by confirmation bias – „Oh, I wrote 19,275, and here it is on the original paper – 19,275. This must be right!”. Therefore, to be absolutely sure everything is correct, most people would check more than one time. But the final feeling would still be of uncertainty – „What if, still, I am wrong?”. I would suggest a solution which is more efficient time-wise, and, likely, with a better final peace of mine – „This must be right!”. The solution involves inserting the data two (at extremes, three) times. So, instead of making an Excel with all the pupils’ data, make 2 (even 3) Excel spreadsheets. In the end, there are automated solutions which check for differences. Even a fast ALT + TAB between two open windows with the same data should give a good result. In …

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How to pick a short, quality domain name which doesn’t exist already?

In the last years, I have bought getseoideas.com, fiieficient.com, getaresultnow.com, olivian.ro & olivianbreda.com. This year betterish.com, audithink.com, oliii.com. While they’re not the greatest web site one could have, they’re, as „betterish” implies, OKish and, at times, betterish than other options. How to create your own? Find a keyword which clearly defines your web site – SEO / efficiency / results / Olivian / Olivian / better / audits / Oli. Try to find an exact match domain. Olivian.ro is an example. Try to adapt the words using either of these methods: Add some letters – Oliii.com. For this, wordoid.com is an excellent tool. Add full name – OlivianBreda.com. Create complex sentences (I don’t recommend this method anymore, the first three web sites are closed, I don’t consider they represent my current ideas anymore -getseoideas.com, fiieficient.com, getaresultnow.com). Play with words – betterish / audithink (again, wordoid.com). Everyone would want o.ro or o.com, or something like that (very short). Even just SEO.com or results.com would be better. Since you can’t have this, try the next bext thing. Also see: 12 Rules for Choosing the Right Domain Name – Moz Seth’s Blog: The new rules of naming PS: Also see: Should I Rebrand and Redirect My Site? Should I Consolidate Multiple Sites/Brands? – Whiteboard Friday – Moz PS, 2015.07.30: Also see: Domain Name Generator For Perfectionists Business Name Generator & Domain Name Search PS, 2016.08.25: Also see: 8 Rules for How to Choose a Domain Name – Whiteboard Friday – Moz PS, 2018.02.05: Also see: Domain Search Bulk domain search – Cheap bulk …

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How to buy a cheap .com domain name for two years?

There are online promotions which help buy a .com domain for 1-3$ USD, instead of 10-14 USD, which is the regular price. How to have this price for two years in a row? The trick is to combine: Buy cheap domains for the first year (current deals include GoDaddy.com for 2 USD or buying from a lesser known registrar for 1 USD). In the second year wait for a thing like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, which should give you a „transfer to us” option of 1-3 USD (I used NameCheap.com). Combining these two should give you a .com domain for around 2-6 USD for two years. The offer is far greater than any regular individual offer you might get. (as I know of) If you care for quality, pick NameCheap (as suggested by Lifehacker.com readers). P.S.: I recently bought betterish.com, audithink.com, oliii.com by this method and last year I’ve bought „transfer to namecheap.com” domains. P.S. #2: Last evening I went to buy oliii.com from GoDaddy.com for 2 USD. Previous to this, I had bought audthink.com. The thing is, you could typically only could have bought a single domain for 2 USD (one per client). But if you made your shopping cart without being logged in, applied the discount, when you logged in with your address & card data, the basket still remained at 2 USD. I did 2 or 3 tries like that. Then I came to buy the domain. Surprise! It costed 4,000 USD. Four thousand. I looked on the Internet and I found Network …

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Random.org – there are better solutions

Random.org - there are better solutions

I see from time to time people using random.org web site, filming sweepstakes. The solution is rather poor – you could film as many sweepstakes as you want, until you get a valid number. The alternative? Create a list of persons, make it public, provide it to the web site, and let the web site announce it after a few days. So, the mechanism is like this: 100 people join your contest. December 10 the contest ends. December 10 – you put the list on a web site, public. December 12 – the winner is extracted from the list and you announce it. Much more difficult to arrange something, in this case. Better solutions – 1, 2.

Cum gestionezi o pagină de Facebook?

Cum gestionezi o pagină de Facebook?

Găsiți în video-ul de mai jos răspunsuri la dilmele următoare. Cum schimbi cover photo. (Dimensiuni – 851 pixeli lățime x 315 pixeli înălțime) Cum setezi username. www.facebook.com/username https://www.facebook.com/help/www/203523569682738 Cum schimbi avatar. (atenție la dimensiuni, lăsați margini sus și jos) http://ustandout.com/facebook/size-facebook-profile-picture-thumbnail Cum programezi un articol în viitor + milestone. Cum plătești un mesaj. Merită să faci asta? De văzut: http://www.jonloomer.com/2012/03/08/how-to-create-and-subscribe-to-facebook-interest-lists/ / http://lollipoplocal.co.uk/facebook-interest-lists Ce setări să faci pentru pagină – Posting Ability / Privacy Controls / Post Tagging / Replies / Roluri de administrator? Cum să pui poză în articol? http://www.jonloomer.com/2013/09/11/facebook-link-thumbnail-image-dimensions/ Frecvență postări. Automatizare mesaje cu http://www.rssgraffiti.com/ / http://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/ / http://mailchimp.com/features/rss-to-email/.

De unde să cumperi accesorii și nimicuri electronice chinezești online? DX.com

De unde să cumperi accesorii și nimicuri electronice chinezești online? DX.com

Răspuns: DX.com. Am cumpărat de 4 ori până acum. Caracteristici: De cumpărat prostioare de care nu îți pasă și nu ai nevoie de ele în următoarea lună. Livrările ajung de obicei în 2-3 săptămâni, uneori 5. Livrează prin Poșta Română, cu toată neplăcerea ce decurge din asta – contact cu funcționarii. E relativ sigur, dar te poți păcăli uneori, au multe produse, uneori gafează în descrieri, uneori, pentru că cumperi o nimica-toată, te grăbești și iei altceva. Mi-am cumpărat cablu audio 3.5 – 3.5 (leagă microfon extern de cameră video) la super-preț (am luat vreo 3 cabluri, de lungimi diferite, până la 10 !!! metri). Foarte mare stocul. Nu prea răspund OK la customer service, le-am cerut să unească două comenzi în una, a fost un proces complicat. Răspund la toate mailurile. Notă – de văzut și: De ce să cumperi de pe dx.com?: Olivian Breda

Concluzii (personale) după Black Friday-urile de anul ăsta

Concluzii (personale) după Black Friday-urile de anul ăsta

black-friday

 

Fapte:

  • EvoMAG au avut cele mai mari reduceri, și, probabil, au mers în pierdere la unele produse.
  • F64 au avut reduceri OK pe partea de fotografie, dar produsele cu adevărat populare erau și prin alte părți.
  • eMAG au avut reduceri bunicele, însă ceva mai mici ca anii trecuți. Probabil au renunțat la profit, și au obținut unele reduceri de la furnizori.
  • Dacă cumperi de la PC Garage, știi că plătești un premium că ai încredere și e site de nișă. Nu te duci la PC Garage pentru preț. Prețul lor de la promoții e mai mare decât prețurile standard ale altor magazine. Dar sunt OK ca brand.
  • Magazinele brick-and-mortar – Domo, Altex, Flanco – au avut reduceri OK, dar nu neapărat ceva senzațional.
  • La restul nu prea m-am uitat / nu am considerat că am încredere în garanție & servicii.

Alte concluzii – ce voi face eu?

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How to have a better speed at uploading 10 YouTube videos?

Let’s say you go to an event and you make 10 different videos. You want them all uploaded on YouTube. How can you make the process faster? The trick is simple – instead of having a single tab in your browser in which you upload the videos, one by one, you should rather open 5 tabs and upload two videos in each. While the speed won’t exactly be 5 time faster this way, the total time will be much smaller. Another trick is to group uploads into tabs by size – so the biggest file should have its own tab, and the smallest files should all be grouped in their own tab.