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How I Stopped My Desktop Icons From Flickering

There are so many blog posts out there about why people actually start up a blog, I’ve even done one or two myself, so I am not about to bore you with another one. This post is more about highlighting a PC problem that I had to deal with about a month ago. I did s similar post about how I got Safari to work with my iPod Touch, a post that proved to be very popular with the readers, and I know they weren’t interested with link juice because the bulk of the commentators did not enter an url. Some even sent me money in appreciation of all the time I saved them.

If I was into list building I could easily have used that post to help build my list, but I’m not, I’m more for helping people and that doesn’t include writing posts merely to get their details so I can fill their email box with offers promising them ways of increasing their wealth.

Desktop Icons
Image by teachernz via Flickr

Still, I digress. I first noticed the problem when I booted up my PC as it took the form of all my icons flashing on the desktop. Whilst that was an annoyance I decided that I’d look into it after doing my usual bout of commenting. Imagine my surprise when every time started to comment on a blog the page would reload, thereby losing my comment. I thought that perhaps I could write the comment in NotePad or Word and then cut and paste it into the comment form. Nope, that wouldn’t work because all these characters started appearing automatically, mainly the date, making it all a wasted effort.

Now I’m pissed. First I thought that I had picked up some virus or something so I did a scan of the PC and it came up clean. My only other option was to Google my problem. I tried several searches;

  • Why does commenting on WordPress Blogs cause the post to reload? That search was a bust so I tried.
  • Why do characters appear automatically in Word? That also didn’t come up with anything useful, so back to the drawing board.
  • How can I stop the icons from flashing on my desktop? Yep, that one gave me a lot of hits so I had to refine the search some by stating that I was using XP.

It took me literally days to work it out, and I did everything from downloading and running malaware programs to hurling abuse at the monitor, none of which worked, although swearing at the computer did let of a little steam.

I finally came across something that made no sense but I thought I would give it a try. Someone posted somewhere, I wish I made a copy of the link, that perhaps it all had to do with the PC’s display adapter. It turned out to be the correct fix, and if you’re having the same problem following these steps may fix it.

  1. Go to your control panel and click on system.
  2. Click on the (+) next to Display adapters which will show you your current display adapter.
  3. Right click on that adapter and select Update driver…
  4. This will bring you to Hardware Update Wizard. Select the first option, Install the software automatically (Recommended) This may take awhile so be patient.
  5. Several drivers should come up and I selected the first one, which worked fine for me.

That’s it, everything has been fine since. So if your icons are flickering on your desktop or your getting pissed because your commenting keeps getting interrupted by your page refreshing, perhaps all you need do is update your display driver.

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The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

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How To Save Time Replying To Comments

If you’re like me and love to reply to most of your comments you know how time consuming it can be. That being the case you will most likely love this next plugin, WP Threaded Comments. I was using this plugin before WP came up with it’s own version in the latest updates and I continue to use it because I like the way it’s structured when replying to comments.

You may be wondering what this has to do with saving time when commenting,  and the answer to that is it has other useful features which I will get to shortly. As most of you know every time you reply to a comment your whole page loads which not only takes time it also uses a lot of bandwidth not to mention uses a fair bit of CPU on your server. One of the unique features of this plugin is that no longer happens, once you’ve replied to a comment it appears withing seconds without loading the whole page. If you get a lot of comments you can imagine how much time it will save you.

*Time* Ticking away...But that’s not all. It has another cool and very useful feature. Linda from Linda Grace Online, in a comment today, asked me;

How is it that you send notice to my inbox everytime you answer my comments – with what you said and what I said? I see that I’ve clicked on the box to notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail (wasn’t that automatically clicked and I’d have to unclick it if I didn’t want to be notified?) I’ve clicked on other blog’s before and I was notified everytime anyone made a comment, I don’t want know every comment ever made on that post so I stopped clicking. I really like knowing what you comment back and I’d like to do the same thing on my blog… how would I?

Well, the answer to that is, wait for it, the WP Threaded Comments plugin. You can set it up so it’s ticked automatically or you can leave it up to the commentator. It also allows you to change the email message so that you can personalize it. Another cool feature is it allows you to delete comments without going to the dashboard.

If you think this plugin may be of use to you then you may want to head on over to Linda’s blog to thank her. You ,may find her post, How A $6 Mosquito Netting Prevents Malaria And Saves Lives, to be of interest as it’s outlays a very worthwhile cause.

Naturally there are those of you who may not want to use this plugin because your blog is already top heavy with them and you can’t bear to ditch one to replace with this guy. Well don’t worry, you can do the same thing from within the WordPress Dashboard by going to the comment section. I don’t know how long this feature has been there, I only noticed it the other day. Anyway, under each comment you will notice several links that will allow you to unapprove, reply, quick edit edit, spam or trash a particular comment. Well that reply option will do the exact same thing.

Hope you’ve found this post to be of use.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!

An Aussie Husband Shows His Wife He Cares

I don’t know what I would do without email. Sure I get a lot of spam and and heaps of people running one scam or other but I also get a lot stuff that makes me burst out laughing. This is one that I found to be extremely funny, but that may be because of my Aussie humor. I’ve posted it just as I received it. What do you think, did you find it to be funny?

A note from a compassionate, loving and caring Aussie husband…

LOOK AFTER YOUR WIFE…..

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the patio, drinking beer and watching my wife mow the lawn.

Cheryl from next door saw us and was so upset that she came over and yelled at me, “You lazy prick! Sitting there drinking beer while your poor wife pushes that ancient lawn mower around! Get up off your fat arse and give her a break !”

I thought ‘Shit woman!’ Took another swig from my stubby, wiped the cold foam from my lips, lifted my sunnies, stared directly at this nosey cow and told her in no uncertain terms to sod off and mind her own business. I told her my wife had green fingers and that she really enjoyed gardening.

After a few days I felt really bad, so I went out and bought her a ride-on mower to show my sensitive side. I’m really proud of the deal I got and also very proud that my wife can now sit down while mowing the lawn. Yes guys, we should take good care of our wives… then maybe they’ll take good care of us.

I’ve attached a picture below…hope it comes through OK

Heck, if nothing else it shows off our Aussie ingenuity!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!

The Results Are In! Disqus Does Cost You Comments

I did a post not all that long ago that’s turned out to be one of my top ten posts. I conducted a poll on that post in order to find out whether or not Disqus was actually stopping people from commenting on blogs. To date I’ve had 105 people vote. The question asked was Have You Refrained From Commenting Because It Was A Disqus Blog? to which 55 (52%) replied no and 50 (48%) replied yes.

I find that quite staggering. You can almost say that there is a 50/50 chance that people are not commenting on a Disqus blog. So, if you’re starved of comments at the moment and you’re running Disqus, then perhaps you should rethink your choice of commenting system.

Some like DiTesco commented that they voted no, not because he liked Disqus, but because,

there are too many blogs that I like and belong to friends that are Disqus powered and I am taking that extra mile to comment.

Unfortunately not everyone is willing to go that extra mile. There were a lot more comments that you may find interesting, both for and against, but when you consider those results I’m glad that I decided against Disqus and stuck with the one that comes with WordPress.

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!


I reckon there are a lot of people out there who think it’s a great idea to do all their printing themselves, especially considering the quality of printers and such. I mean, all you have to do is go out and purchase the right program and paper for your printing needs and your set to go, right? Wrong!

Take it from me, that’s what I thought when I first got into business. Off I went and I purchased the right software and stationary and I thought I was set for printing out some professional business cards. After days at the computer and much trial and error, the best I could come up with was amateurish to say the least. There was no way I even considered using them either because I wanted to impress my customers, not give them something to laugh at.

The problem is that as good as printers are these days they’re still nowhere as good as what the professional use. That’s why photos that you print at home tend to fade over time where photos that you’ve had printed professionally look as good today as the day you had them printed.

That was only business cards! After that there was no way I would ever attempt professional glossy brochures or flyers! What I learned the hard way was that if I needed professional printing done then I needed to have a professional working for me, one who used top quality equipment.

Business being what it is today there may be times when you need something done quickly, so it’s great that there are places like nextdayflyers.com who can guarantee that as long as print ready files are completed and approved by 6 PM PST they are printed and ready to ship out the next business day. If you live local, 18711 South Broadwick St. Rancho Dominguez, CA, you can even drop in an pick up your order.

I could go on and on but the best thing for anyone interested is to go online to see all they have to offer. You can design your job online or you can upload it to them in the knowledge that they will do their utmost to fulfill your needs.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!
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