If you haven’t read it yet, go ahead and view my previous post about this Dangerous DNS Problem:

http://www.funkytower.com/2008/08/06/dangerous-dns-problem/

DNS is what has revolutionized and, in many ways, helped create the spectacular online environment we have today, know as the World Wide Web.  We use DNS for virtually everything, from e-mail, to myspace, to online banking, to having internet access itself.  DNS is what converts an ip address (a bunch of numbers that identify a system) to a name like www.funkytower.com, or pop.domain.com, etc.  The flaw which has been found is very scary, as it can potentially change the course of our entire life.  This flaw could allow malicious persons  to duplicate any domain name.

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If you’re like me, you want the look and feel of your computer to represent you.  So, in that, maybe you want your Internet Browser shortcut icon on your desktop to be something else - a picture that you made. Or, you have a website and you want to make a favicon.ico icon to display next to the URL of your website in a web browser’s taskbar (just like FunkyTower does!) You may also want a custom mouse cursor to replace that boring arrow. If you’re like me, you took a picture of your hand in a “finger pointing” position to be your mouse cursor…but how do we take our pictures and make them icons and mouse cursors? Well I have two free programs you HAVE to see to believe: PixelToolbox, and @icon suhi.

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I recently encountered a VERY random problem on my Vista machine.  I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, my Windows Update settings were modified to not download or install updates without me doing so manually - which I hadn’t done in a long time, and I haven’t installed or modified anything.  But, for some reason, IE7 just decided to freeze when I opened it.  I restarted my computer, it still froze; I ran IExplorer with no add-ons, and it still froze.  I used Firefox to do some research and found alot of people have had this problem but no one had a definitive answer.  If running IE7 without add-ons didn’t work, people just gave up.  Well, I have a solution.

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It’s true - to stay safe on the internet, it is always good to have protection from malware, adware, and spyware.  These are annoying, and, quite often, dangerous.  So what do we do to stay protected?  We get programs like SpyBot Search & Destroy, or protection from McAfee and Norton.  We do a scan, the program finds  some problems, you go through the process, and at the end - it shows a few things that couldn’t be fixed, but can be removed.  It warns us that removing that file could potentially make some programs on the computer run improperly.  Without thinking, we delete those files.  The next thing we know, we’re booting up to nothing but a mouse cursor and a black screen.  What happened?  If you’re a Windows user, and this has happened to you - you should read this.

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If you’re like me or anyone on the net, when you have a computer problem, you go to google and try to search for answers.  For some of us, this is an easy task - for others, not so much.  Here are a few tips to help you find your answers using Google alone.

Google is a great source for finding information, they are currently the number 1 search engine in the world.  “Google it” has even become a common slang in terms of searching for something online - from directions, to search-engine searches.  Google is popular for one good reason: they obtain content FAST.  Many of my articles here, on FunkyTower, wind up in Google’s database in less than 24 hours!  In fact, the majority of my website’s visitors are directed here by Google.  So, Google is definately a great source for finding information.

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Having been a webdesigner since the age of 10 (that was 9 years ago, folks) I have been in love with open source.  The fact that you have the the right given to you to modify and change the given program for commercial or personal use is WONDERFUL!!!  That’s why I tried out Wordpress.

I must admit, the first time I tried to run Wordpress, I was confused.  The directions, to me, were confusing at the time so I just gave up on it.  Having come back to it recently to give it’s latest version a shot, the process flew with the breeze.  It was so easy to set up, configure, and mess with - I felt like I was five years old walking around Toys R Us, just playing with all the goodies.

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Have you ever wanted to make fancey buttons that do stuff when you put your mouse over it, but don’t want to mess too much with javascript, and you just can’t afford flash?  Well, there’s an easier way to do it and it’s called CSS.  You may have noticed other articles pertaining to CSS here at FunkyTower, and if you’ve read them, you’ve realized how easy it is to use CSS.  All it takes is a little push into getting started.  So if you want to make fancy buttons for a navigation bar, well here’s the tutorial:

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CSS is such a useful tool in designing your website and adding some functionality to it.  One of the things that turns most “beginner web designers” on to CSS is the ability to customize the color of links.  This is great to avoid having unwanted underlines and the ugly blue default link color.  Well did you know you can create a very versitile navigation bar using CSS?  It’s really quite easy: instead of applying effects to a piece of text - apply effects to a table cell!  In this tutorial you will learn effects regaurding: hovering cell background effects, text effects, button effects, and more!

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Say you’re on the go, out of town, or just can’t get to your computer and access your local calendar app. Or, say you don’t have a calendar app but a datebook and you forgot to take it with you. By now, you’re probably thinking “If only I could be notified by a text message what I’m supposed to be doing!” Well, luckily, there’s a way to do that. It’s called Google Calendar and it’s got a load of features - and, like most of Google’s products, it’s free.

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NOTE: NEW FIX AVAILABLE HERE: http://www.funkytower.com/2008/09/22/dreamweaver-mx-and-vista-fix-insert-tables-best-fix/

If you’ve upgraded to Windows Vista and have installed your old Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, you are bound to  run into some compatibility issues.  For many web designers, using tables is a huge asset for designing a web page.  Though you can do many of the same things using <div>, tables is fairly easy to use.  The only problem is, Dreamweaver MX and Vista = no inserting tables.  Is there a fix to this problem?  Why, yes there is.

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If you have a blog, and you’re looking to share your thoughts with more people, and network with other bloggers, Technorati is supposed to be a good source - and I’m sure for many it is.  Unfortunately they have a horrible system for “claiming” a blog.

“Claiming” your blog is verifying that YOU are the owner of the blog.  It would be a good thing if you could actually claim your blog!

Many users try to claim their own blog, but Technorati’s system won’t let them.  They get an immediate error message for no real reason.  When users contact the customer service, they don’t respond with a solution or reason why the users can’t claim their own blog.  Some people made it public by posting threads on Technorati’s discussion boards mentioning Technorati’s inability to create a decent claiming system and their lack of responding to e-mails sent to customer support.  As it turns out, TONS of users are experiencing this problem.  There have been reply after reply to these thread topics.

Seems that once Technorati’s administration got word of it, they claimed their faulty customer service on a “backlog” that they’ve been experiencing - I didn’t even know this was word.  I think the only thing that would cause them to have a “backlog” is they just stopped responding to people’s e-mails.  NOW they want to go back and address the issue since it’s been made public.

The reason I say THAT is now those topics aren’t open for discussion anymore.  I guess Technorati is tired of being embarrassed on their own website.  I still see more people posting new topics about the problem though.

Technorati needs to do two things - stop disregaurding e-mails or expand your customer support so you can start responding to people’s requests, and develop a better system for claiming a blog.

I tried to submit a blog to network with other bloggers, and I can’t claim my own blog.  I sent Technorati an e-mail, but I don’t expect an e-mail back.

What Do You Think?
Do you have the same problem?  Perhapse you have a solution to this problem!  Whatever you have to say, let me know about it, I’ll be happy to respond to your e-mail :)  So go ahead and share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment or contacting me at david@funkytower.com

Take it easy,
David Crandall

Ever wanted to make your own animated cartoon?  Ever try softwares like Flash that can be too expensive or too time consuming, or sometimes too confusing?  Well there’s this really cool website I heard about that lets you make your own cartoon straight from your web browser, and its free.  This website is called GoAnimate.

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Search engines can be a great tool to help drive traffic to your website. Here are some ways to help get your website in search engines without having to spend any money.  Do all of these, and your website will be in search engines for sure. 

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I have to take this time for commending the greatest company that a web designer. blogger, or any individual in need of web hosting services. That company is Esosoft Corporation.

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Sick of having a mess of USB cables that are device-specific?  If you have an MP3 player, an iPod, or any small USB capable device - you know what I’m talking about:  Proprietary USB Cables.  If you have enough devices, pretty soon you’ll have a whole drawer full of them and you won’t have a clue which chord goes to which device.  Luckily there IS a solution.

I was just browsing around the interweb today and decided I have a few devices that don’t connect to my computer using standard USB cables, and it would be really nice to have an adapter for them.  Looking around, you can find single adapters for around $10 a piece.  That seems a bit too pricey for me, so rather than looking for a couple of seperate adapters, I found a little travel USB kit.

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The iPhone.  An amazing little gadget that seems to be in the hands of almsot everyone now.  Apple has made a huge comeback over the last decade and have begun expanding….but are they ready?  Is Apple moving too fast?

Think about it, Apple was so used to being in the low 5% of computer sales and were eventually taken out of most schools.  Now their computers are a standard in digital audio and video recording and design, and they have expanded to newer products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iTouch which have become a huge success…for now, at least.

The Apple message boards have had numerous posts recently about a problem effecting the iPhone OS 2.0 and OS 2.0.1. 

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Welcome to part 2 of this article!

So now that we’ve covered templating in our last tutorial, here are some other tips for making your webpage move faster.

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Do you have a website, blog, or message board online?  Designing it yourself?  Awesome!  That’s really wonderful to hear!  What’s that?  You say your website moves slowly compared to other websites with just as much, if not more content?  Well here are some tips to get your website running smoothely and quickly!

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We all know of the dangers of the internet, especially if you’re a Windows user.  Viruses and spyware lerk in every corner watching and waiting to eat and destroy our data.  Luckily there are software and services to protect us!  The bad part about this, is the leading companies feel the need to charge us to stay safe on the internet!  Why?!  You would think, something so drastically essential to our every day use of the computer and the internet would be free, right?  Well, there are some free alternatives out there, you just have to find them.  In this post I’ll list some info on free anti-virus and anti-spyware alternatives to big name, and sometimes expensive, protection.

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