Posts Tagged ‘WordPress’

Wordpress.Tweetmeme.com infected with spyware

Monday, December 28th, 2009

I stumbled on this site a few weeks back after it picked up http://wordpress.tweetmeme.com which basically collates all the tweets related to wordpress… a great resource for sure.  I had this sitting on my IE window today and suddenly it redirected to another location… see the screenshots below.  I believe that the advertising network they use for their banner ads is infected with a malicious ad that redirects you to the site shown.  I’ve no way to contact these people direct so I’m blogging this so that others will know.

Going to the site can produce the following redirect

clip_image001

Regardless if you press OK or Cancel you get the following which looks real but is in fact inside your web browser

 

clip_image001[4]

 

Again regardless of what you press you get the following screen – notice it’s a Windows XP dialog box… I’m running Windows 7 ;-)

clip_image001[6]

Again regardless of what you press it will try to install what is sure to be spyware… and the loop goes on.

clip_image001[8]

Tags:
Posted in Blog | 4 Comments »

Wordpress Images and Live Writer

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

image Today I solved the problem I’ve had with Live writer not being able to publish images to my WordPress blog.  I’m here in Redmond with other MVPs from around the world and I was talking to Terry – the dude behind WeGotServed… not – that’s not the comedy of “Are You Being Served”, but a Windows Home Server MVP.  Terry runs his site on WordPress also.  Anyway long story short Terry had a similar issue and he found the solution here.  There’s some changes in WordPress that require you to run a SQL command to extend the database.  Did that and now woohoo, I can now blog from Wordpress WITH images without the pain.  Thanks Terry.

Tags: ,
Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »

WordPress for Dummies

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Reviewed by Ben Love from Grassroots IT

I should know better. I know I should. Or more accurately, I should at least pretend that I know that I should know better. Or something like that. I’m an IT Pro with a dirty little secret. Wanna hear? I’m a sucker for a Dummies Guide. There. I’ve said it. Please don’t judge me. I know I should like mucking around in spec guides, deep dive how-to’s and RFC’s, but seriously, have you ever tried to read that stuff?

What I want is something that will cut to the chase, tell you 90% of what you probably want to know, use simple language and point you to where you can find more if you need more details. True to form, the latest release by Dummie’s author Lisa Sabin-Wilson doesn’t fail to deliver.

It was fortuitous that “WordPress for Dummies” arrived courtesy of Wayne Small (www.sbsfaq.com) when it did. I’d been considering a refresh of our corporate website for a while, but wasn’t overly excited about having to work with the existing platform. After talking with Wayne about his new WordPress based site, I thought some further investigation was warranted.

The WordPress platform came to life in 2003 as the successor to a personal publishing system called b2/cafelog. Since then it has grown to become arguably the most popular self-hosted blogging tool in the world which, as I was to learn, is also a formidable CMS platform for less ‘bloggy’ sites. Sabin-Wilson’s publication guides the reader through an easy introduction to WordPress, including options to either self-host, or use the hosted wordpress.com offering. Beyond this the majority of the book is devoted to how-to-use topics on the various sections of the WordPress product. Sections such as “Inserting media files into your post” and “Making your post links pretty” provide an easy to read introduction to help get beginners up and blogging in no time.

One of the great features of the WordPress platform is the flexibility provided by the truly astounding range of often free Themes, plugins and other customisation options available. Sabin-Wilson provides a brief introduction to the range of options available, and then sets the reader loose to explore with a list of recommended sites for further reading. In my case even more tantalising was the chapter on “WordPress as a Content Management System”, or in other words, WordPress as a less-bloggy-than-usual site. Worthy of a book on its own, this topic is given 27 pages that barely scratch the surface. What it does provide however is a true Dummies Guide experience, giving you just enough of a firm but gentle push to get you moving in the right direction.

All in all, a classic Dummies Guide. The language is conversational and easy to read, the technical details sufficient, but ultimately leaving you wanting more. In my opinion, the perfect introduction to a new technology.

 

Tags: ,
Posted in Reviews | 2 Comments »