by Jonny | May 20, 2012 | Updates
I’ve recently just experienced something which has inundated my experience as a person who runs websites that are online. Security is a big thing and as soon as you let your guard down, there are people out there who will go out of their way to find ways to exploit websites which haven’t been updated. i.e. Easy targets
Since I’ve been working full-time, my main website armour.ws faced a few attacks from people trying to upload .html files which contained phishing websites, mainly or only to do with banks.
I first noticed this when my web host informed me and when Google also informed me. I’m not surprised at-all if they’ve penalised my website. But all that matters is that I’ve secured my website.
I’ve totally re-installed WordPress on that site, backed up everything again, looked at the MySQL database for any anomalies and I’ve started anew with the design to ensure that it wasn’t the theme/design causing any cracks in terms of security. I’ve also installed a few firewall scripts for WordPress, essentially a tool which will scan all my files for any anomalies.
I just let my guard down, stopped updating my website and suddenly I find myself being attacked. Now things should be okay, but I’ll say something, it would have been a lot easier to keep my site updated from the start. I spent most of the day making modifications, backing up, optimizing the MySQL database and changing a few aspects and fixing a few things on the website itself.
I will also stress, as would other experienced webmasters, MAKE BACKUPS constantly. You never know when you’ll need a backup to help you out of a disastrous situation.
by Jonny | Feb 6, 2012 | Updates
Today, I just noticed pagerank updated.
Unfortunately, my pagerank 4 website (Armoured Vehicles) got ranked down to pagerank 3. However, my other websites went from having no pagerank to moving up. Or for example, this blog went from being pagerank 1 to pagerank 2, while my space website went from pagerank 0 to pagerank 2. Although not a total loss, I’m a little disappointed about my Armoured Vehicles website.
I can’t blame the system, since I haven’t updated the sites content in a while and I haven’t done any advertising for that site. Plus, it is a little hard to get the word out for a site like that. Also writing writing articles for it, is a little tenuous to say the least. While for this blog, I can speak more of mind and write about any subject. – Where with my other site it is more limited. However the fact of the matter is that I’m getting more traffic for my other site than this, so obviously that niche is much more popular, although I’m seeing sharp increases in traffic for this blog.
But I’d just like to see my Facts On Space website get somewhere, perhaps to the stage I’ve got my armoured vehicle website.
Who knows?
But hey, I don’t pay too much attention to pagerank, although it has slipped down, I’m more concerned about keeping traffic coming in, on a steady basis.
by Jonny | Jan 26, 2012 | Updates
If you have been reading my blog, which likely isn’t the case, you’ll have read that I went back to my parents place for Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year. I took a few pictures here and there, and they were large files which meant they needed compressing before I could upload them to my blog. I looked at a few software’s and most if not all I came across either placed a watermark on your image (As it was the free version of that particular software I downloaded) or you had to compress files, one by one; a timely process if you have lots of images. I have my laptop, on which I had already installed a software before-hand called “Fast Stone Image Viewer“.
As you can see from the image above, there are lots of options and this may look complicated, especially if you are only looking for a simple image compressor to compress your large files. However this gives you lots of options. For example, as you can see in the image above, you can add a border to give off a nice effect around the image itself.
You can also see me highlighting with my cursor on the “Batch Covert” option in tools, once you have highlighted the images in the Fast Stone Image Viewer browser. Simply click that and you’ll be brought to this part of the program:
From the above image, you can see that it has all the images listed on the right hand side. You can make additional changes, such as adding a border, changing the names of the files etc in batch and generally selecting the best options which you want personally. This tool is very handy. It has compressed my images from around the size of 3-4mb to 1mb. (While keeping a very high resolution of over 2xxx by 2xxx) You can of course make the resolution smaller, which will significantly cut down the size of the file, while seeing no reduction in quality.
Best thing of all about this software? It is free. When I mean free, it isn’t that bullshit, which comes with Ad-ware or you do not get messages popping up all the time suggesting you to buy the “pro version”. This is totally freeware. Although they do sell a version which you can buy, you really don’t need it, if the above is all your are looking for.
You can download the software on their website here: http://www.faststone.org/
by Jonny | Jan 25, 2012 | Updates
I’m becoming very lazy when it comes to blogging.
I have two websites which operate on the basis of blog type posts and they take a long time to make. I have to research about a subject, find reliable sources and then create an article out of them; either debating pro’s and con’s etc. Especially so for my Armoured Vehicle website. I’ve also been really lazy with my FactsonSpace website. Although my armoured vehicle website has seen increases in traffic, I haven’t really done anything for my FactsonSpace site, other than this week, I created a forum for it here. However that isn’t finished yet.
I need to look at ways of advertising my FactsonSpace website since I believe that is the real money maker out of all my websites. Considering its future potential and that space is a limitless subject which is highly interesting. But I’m no expert, so perhaps when I get my cheque from Google I’ll hire a writer to help me out there. I can see that website going big if directed well; which at current I’m not doing too well at.
by Jonny | Jan 25, 2012 | Updates
In light of Chinese New Year/Lunar New year, I changed the design of this website to something different. I was getting tired/bored of the old design; it had a few issues.
Plus, with this design I am able to do more – in terms of back-end changes and I think it looks better – all in all.
Old design:
New design:
Although when I look back at these screenshot’s, the first doesn’t look too bad; if I am honest. However I like change especially this change, I feel my website looks more modern.
New logo:
The sub-logo or slogan says “Welcome to my life!” in Mandarin. I feel the language looks visually beautiful, so I used Mandarin for this reason.
Although most of this blog is in English, hopefully if anyone asks about what it means, they would have either of read this or they can alternatively just ask me. : ) Though I doubt many people read my blog anyway. 😛