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.

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.

  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 have always maintained that no matter what theme you are using it’s always best to change it in some small way so as to make it your own, so that it’s different from any of the other blogs out there. This is just another way to make your blog stand out from the rest, so that when people visit you they know without a doubt they are on the right blog.

The best way to do this is to change your header image. This is easily done if you’re using FlexSqueeze as all you do is point to the directory with your header image file. It’s still pretty easy if your using a normal theme as long as you choose one that has an image in the header

The first thing you do is to find the name of the image being used. It may be header.jpg but it could be anything. Rename that to headerold.jpg so that you can keep it as a backup. Now all you need do is upload your new image that you’ve named the same as your old image and voila, you have a new header. It’s always a good idea to keep the same dimensions so that it doesn’t screw up the rest of your theme.

So where do you get a new header image? You could search the net looking for a free one or you could pay for one at a site such us Dreamstime, which also has free stock photos.

The problem with those options is that someone else may be using the same image and so once again your blog theme is not truly unique. The way to get a really unique banner is to make your own, and that isn’t as hard as it sounds as long as you have a digital camera. Most of the headers I use are from photos I’ve taken, including the one I am using now. You can see the original photo on my Photos2Blog blog.  I almost used this one as my header;

As you can see it was taken from the same photo, and I may even use it at a later date.

So, you see, it’s not all that hard to change your header, and it’s another of the many benefits from hosting your own blog, and if you ever decide to go that route I always recommend BlueHost because it’s the one I use.

That particular photo was take with my Panasonic Lumix.

  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!

Hey guys, it’s reached 41c here today so I reckon we are going to have a real bitch of a summer. It’s so damn hot in this office that even the thermometer died from heat stroke. At least that’s what I thought, but it turned out that the damn batteries are flat. Either way it’s damn hot in here.

Anyway, all this damn heat is going to result in a short post, one whose only intention is to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope that next year will bring you some of the things you’ve been wishing for, let’s face it if we’re greedy we’ll probably end up with nothing.

Here’s to good health and a blogging good year.

Should I be lucky enough to attract some comments with post, don’t be surprised if I don’t reply to everyone individually.

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!

Hey guys, it’s Christmas morning here in Australia, and the kids, 21 year old son and an almost 18 year old daughter are still in bed.

I shouldn’t even be on right now and I reckon the wife would have a few words if she found out but I just had to pop in to wish everyone a fantastic Christmas, and I hope that everyone has a blogging good year.

Oh, it wouldn’t be the same if I din’t leave an ad in the post for someone to click on, and I know no-one will but that the heck.

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 would like to thank Rose for her post Christmas Holiday Themes For WordPress, as it motivated me into giving WassupBlog a Christmas theme. This would be my third theme modification, as I’ve already made one for Easter and Halloween. Naturally, the FlexSqueeze theme makes it all so easy that I actually look forward to playing around with it to blend it in with the holiday seasons.

The first thing I had to do was to find a suitable header. I finally decided to borrow one from another theme as I felt it set the right mood. Then I reduced the width of the blog so that it would display the Santa image that I chose for the background.

Adding An Image To Comment Box

I thought it would be pretty cool if I could jazz up the comment box a little by adding some snowflakes so I had a little look at the CSS file to see what I could do. For those of you who were wise enough to purchase the FlexSqueeze theme I thought you might like to know how I did it.

You will need to edit the ‘style.css’ file and I strongly urge you to make a backup before playing around with it.

First find the following lines;

#commentform input, #commentform textarea {
padding:5px;

Below that add the following;

background: url(images/bg-snowflakes5.gif);

Substitute ‘bg-snowflakes5.gif’ for whatever file you want to use as your background, remembering that the file has to be uploaded first in order for it to work. This is a cinch using the upload feature that comes with FlexSqueeze!  I suggest you use a very light colored file otherwise people will not be able to see what they are typing.

Adding An Image To Your Post Background

To add to the Christmas look of the blog I decided to change the background of the post area, and for this I chose a lovely snow scene. If you would like to do something similar to your blog then once again you will need to add a little bit of code to your ‘style.css’ file.

Find the following lines;

#content {
width:935px;
position:relative;
float:left;

Just below that enter the following line.

background: url(images/bg-snow-scene.jpg);

Once again substitute ‘bg-snow-scene.jpg’ by the image you’ve selected.

It is important to remember that these modifications to the ‘style.css’ file of this  theme will most likely not work on your theme. These modifications can still be done on most themes but you will have to find the right areas that need to be changed.

Apart from these style.css changes all other changes were done via FlexSqueeze‘s option page.  The images were all obtained from Free Web Images And Clipart , except for the header which I got from leadcamp.com.

Oh, one last thing. In case you are wondering how I got it to snow, it was by using the Let It Snow plugin.

EDIT: I’ve deactivated the plugin as I noticed it caused a bit of drain on the CPU, and possible made the blog somewhat slower. Even so, I reckon the blog may still remind people of Christmas.

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!