Wednesday, June 9, 2010

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [June 8th]” plus 9 more

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [June 8th]” plus 9 more

Link to MakeUseOf.com

Cool Websites and Tools [June 8th]

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 08:31 PM PDT

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

List Your Website Here!

 

HotCal – stands out amongst dozens of diet and exercise trackers because of its easy-to-use interface. Once you have signed up, you can track your diet and exercises and maintain a food and activity diary by simply adding stuff from the database. Read more: HotCal: Track Your Diet & Exercise Without Any Hassle.

 

BeeDictionary – Online dictionaries are quite useful. They usually have the most updated word definitions and can be accessed without any required software
– only an internet connection and a browser is needed. One of these online dictionaries, with several unique features, is BeeDictionary. Read more: BeeDictionary: Online American English dictionary With Flash Cards, Pronunciations & More.

 

 

GQueues – Online task managing applications are used by many computer users, particularly people whose work involves a lot of computer usage. Having our to-do list on our computer can be very convenient. While many websites offer task management services, GQueues is a site standing out from the crowd. Read more: GQueues: A List Oriented Task Manager With Google Account Integration.

 

 

In20Years – is an image manipulation website, where you can upload the image of your face and see what they will look like in 20 years' time. The results are often very amusing. We can select our gender, the time we want to forward to (either 20 or 30 years), and whether or not we want to add the 'drug addict' effect. Read more: In20Years: Shows You How Your Face Changes As You Age.

 

 

GTMetrix – If you have a website, you know how important it is to keep improving its performance. GTMetrix is a web analysis tool that tells you about the exact areas where your website needs to be improved. To start just enter the URL and GTMetrix will generate a report. Read more: GTMetrix: Get Performance Improvement Recommendations For Any Website.

 

List Your Website Here!

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


How To Benchmark & Troubleshoot Game Performance Using Fraps

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 06:31 PM PDT

increase video game performanceSynthetic benchmarks are a great tool for finding out how well your computers can play games. They provide a baseline which allows you to compare how upgrades and changes to your computer have improved or degraded performance.

Synthetic benchmarks can also be used as a point of comparison to other systems with similar specifications, which lets you see if your computer is operating the way it should or if there is perhaps something holding it back.

However, synthetic benchmarks are, ultimately, synthetic. In other words, they don’t represent real world performance.


Achieving a very high 3DMark score won’t help you determine your framerate in one particular game. While some games, like first person shooters, often come with built-in benchmarks, many games do not.

Discovering Real Performance

To find out how your computer is performing during real gameplay and help increase video game performance, you can use an tool called Fraps. This tool is commonly used by professional hardware reviewers to find out how well hardware configurations are working in games which don’t have benchmark utilities included.

Fraps is something of a strange tool in that it fills a lot of different niches at once. The paid version, for example, can record video of gameplay. We’re only interested in benchmarking our games, however, so the free version of Fraps will work just fine.

The Eyeball Benchmark

Once you’ve downloaded and installed Fraps, launch the program and then launch the game that you would like to benchmark. The framerate of the game will display in yellow text in a corner of the game. Where the text displays depends on your settings – in my case, I decided to have it display in the lower left hand corner of the screen.

increase video game performance

While you’re playing, keep an eye on the framerate number. If you see that it starts to dip lower than 30 frames per second, pay attention to what you are doing and see if you can find a correlation between that and the dip in framerate. Did you just fire a specific weapon? Did you just change your view? Did you just enter a cutscene? Did you just enter a very wide, open area?

Paying attention to these details can help you troubleshoot your framerate if your game seems to run slow from time to time. For example, if you do find that the framerate number drops signifcantly in an open area you may need to reduce the game’s draw distance so that fewer far away objects are rendered on the screen in order to increase video game performance.

Recording Benchmark Data

You can use the eyeball benchmark to troubleshoot problems with game performance, but if you want to know how a game is running overall you’ll need to record some benchmark data.

increase video game performance

When you’ve reached the area of the game you’d like to benchmark, press F11 to begin. The game will continue to run normally – you can and should play just like you would normally play. By default the benchmark will last 60 seconds, but you can custom that to be longer or shorter as you desire.

When the benchmark has finished all data about the benchmark will be dumped into spreadsheet files located in the Fraps\Benchmarks folder. Taking a look at this data will tell you important information about how the game performed overall.

Making Sense Of Benchmark Data

The benchmark you recored will result in two spreadsheet files. The first is labeled by the game being played (yes, it usually knows what game you’re playing) the data and the time. At the end you will also find the acronym “fps.” This does not show the average of your frames per second recorded, but rather shows how many frames per second your game had every second.

how to improve game performance

The data here should be fairly consistent overall if the area of the game you benchmarked was also consistent. For example, you should generally receive similar framerates throughout the entire benchmark if you were just walking around a forest. However, if half-way through the benchmark you were ambushed and had to go into combat you’ll probably see that your framerates dip at that point.

The other, more useful file is labeled the same way but instead has the label “minmaxavg” affixed to the end. This spreadsheet tells you your minimum framerate, maximum framerate, and average framerate. My example benchmark probably isn’t the best – I ended up getting into combat towards the end, and framerates went down when that happened.

how to improve game performance

There are a couple important conclusion we can draw from this data. For example, the minimum framerate and maximum framerate shown above are not at all consistent. This tells me that there is something specific which is occasionally slowing down my game. The game I was playing has a lot of special effects which occur in combat, so if I turned down the settings for those effects my game wouldn’t slow down as much and the minimum wouldn’t be so low.

I can also see that my game is, on average, achieving a framerate of 44.2 frames per second. Thirty frames per second is usually considered the minimum desirable average framerate, so I’m doing well in that regard. Performance dips aside, my game is enjoyable.

Conclusion

Fraps is an amazing benchmark utility to troubleshoot and increase video game performance. It gives you the chance to see how your games really perform and it also lets you troubleshot specific performance issues so that you can figure out which graphical settings are giving your computer trouble. Fraps is a free download, so go check it out now.

Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


Post Memorable Videos To Your Blog Where You’re the Star

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 04:31 PM PDT

post your videosThere are many creative ways to make a statement in your blog updates, but putting together something that really goes viral isn’t always easy. Sometimes, even the most powerfully written article goes unnoticed, because the Internet is just overridden with folks writing content, and everyone wants to be noticed. So how do you really stand out and get people to do a double-take when they come across your blog?

The key is to come up with something unique, odd or hilarious. If you can develop something that makes people laugh so hard that they end up in stitches, you can be sure that they’ll forward it to all of their friends.


One type of content is to develop funny “video-casts,” which are basically short one or two minute videos that make a big impact and get people laughing. One awesome resource I discovered that can help to post your own videos to your blog is Oddcast Widgets.

Oddcast is a very cool technology that major brands have used to offer customers the ability to create viral videos that incorporate their own face. Saikat touched on this technology earlier when he wrote about Gizmoz. However, Oddcast takes the technology to a whole new level by allowing you to customize really funny videos with your own messages, or by integrating your own face into famous movie scenes, and letting you post your custom movie videos anywhere online.

OddCast Now Offers Customizable Widgets

In addition to the technology they offer major brands to generate their own viral applications, OddCast also offers regular folks the opportunity to generate their own unique viral video that you can post on your blog, post on social networks or simply email to your friends.

post your videos

The OddCast Widgets page offers a hilarious mix of 19 customizable widgets that you can embed anywhere on the Internet. I have to say, just playing around with these for a little bit, once you upload your first face image and start incorporating it into these videos, you won’t be able to stop. It’s very addictive and extremely funny. If you want to make a real impact or deliver a memorable message in a blog post update – this is definitely the way to do it.

Send Baby Mail Messages To Get Your Point Across

The first widget that I’d like to cover is actually the best, in my opinion. It’s called BabyMail, and if you loved the old viral dancing baby videos, you’ll love this widget. It lets you create your own talking baby message in your own voice, and the baby will deliver your message for you in a video that’ll have your friends rolling on the floor with laughter.

post your videos

The first step in creating this widget is to choose which baby you want to deliver your message. You can choose between a mix of girl babies or boy babies, or better yet – upload a picture of your own baby! Then, you can type in a message that you’d like the baby to speak, which will result in a digitized voice.

post your free videos

A much better approach is to record the message in your own voice. Hearing your voice coming out of this baby’s mouth is a riot! Then, when you’ve got the video working and sounding the way you want it to, you can share it.

post your free videos

All of these widgets allow you to share them out in three ways – either send it as an email, embed it into a blog or social network, or just get the URL that you can send to friends or post in Twitter.

Avatarize Yourself

Another widget that’s actually fast becoming one of the most popular Oddcasts is the one that McDonald’s created as part of their Avatar promotion. With this widget, you can upload a photo of your face, and then resize it and position it in preparation to become an Avatar.

post your free videos

Just resize your face, and position it so that it is proportioned just about the same as the sample image to the left. Many of these widgets also have you place “position points” on the image of your face so that the application knows where the sides of your face, chin, nose and eyes are.

funny viral videos

Once you’re done customizing your image, just click submit. Within seconds – there you are, completely Avatarized!

funny viral videos

Your Avatar actually blinks and turns its head. You can change the emotion of your Avatar to happy or angry, change the background, and you can add a text message at the bottom of the image. Then you can share it out to any site, or download an image that you can actually use as your “avatar” on your Internet profiles!

Other Cool Things You Can Do With Oddcast Widgets

The majority of the widgets on the OddCast site are actually real movie scenes where you can incorporate your image as a star of the movie. When you integrate your face (or even better, a friend’s face) into the movie, it makes for some pretty hilarious scenes. For example, here I am in a Terminator scene.

funny viral videos

Check out those biceps! And here I am in Office Space, one of my favorite movies, explaining to the company executives how, on any given workday, I only get about 15 minutes of actual work done.

And in the last bit of fun I had for the night, I decided to make a star appearance in the movie Robocop. There’s just something really funny seeing your head mounted on top of this crime-fighting robot.

Other movie scenes that you can star in include Alien (where you become the alien bursting out of the poor guy’s body cavity), the Omen (where you become the evil little boy), City Slickers, Dodgeball and more. Choose any of these widgets, incorporate any face that you like, and you’ve got yourself a memorable clip that your website visitors or social network friends will surely find worthy of forwarding!

Have you ever used Oddcast or similar services that let you customize funny video clips? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


How To Easily Stream Your MP3 Audio Files To Anywhere

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 02:31 PM PDT

how to stream your audio for freeDon’t you wish you could listen to your collection of MP3s from any computer without toting around a thumb drive or MP3 player?  What about sharing the music with others?  Wouldn’t that be cool?  Also, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to share podcasts and other similar soundbites on your website or another social media page?

All of this could be done if only you could stream your MP3 audio files for free, and embed the player.  Well, it is now possible and even made easy by a new tool called Iradeo.

how to stream your audio for free

You might be thinking that there are services out there like Orb and JukeFly that allow you to stream your audio for free from your computer to the Internet.  Yeah, you can do that if you want, but you’d better leave your computer on and hope it stays online because you’re hosting your own music in those cases.  What about Nutsie that lets you sync your iTunes collection on their server?  Great thought but what if you don’t use iTunes?  And that doesn’t let you embed a player wherever you want.

In the last paragraph I spoke of a few other services.  Among those choices you were given the ability to stream your music from your home computer (Orb and JukeFly) or a third party service (Nutsie).  Iradeo does things a bit differently.  They allow you to stream MP3 files hosted on a web server.  In other words, if you have webspace, you can stream your MP3s from there instead of using a third party or your own computer’s resources. So in essence they are only providing the platform to stream.

All of those details aside, Iradeo is the simplest way how to stream your audio for free.

Sign Up For & Set Up Iradeo.

Head to Iradeo and sign up for an account.

how to stream your audio for free

Once you finish filling in the fields and have signed up, you will be taken to the dashboard.

how to stream audio

Notice that you will need to go to the settings page to set some things up before the player will be ready to go.  Head over to the settings page and begin to set things up.

how to stream audio

One of the fields labeled “Audio Location” is not looking for your city and state, believe it or not.  It is looking for the online location of your MP3s (we will be setting this up in the next step).

Also head to the Profile page to add information there.

how to stream audio

This will help the public find your “station.”

Set Up Your MP3 Folder In Your Webspace.

Since Iradeo streams from your webspace, you must create a directory and upload the MP3s that you want streamed.  You will also have to upload a “txt” file containing all of the names of the MP3’s in it, one per line.  You’ll need to name it whatever you are told to in the sidebar of the settings page.

how do i stream audio to the internet

Once you have everything set up (account, profile, MP3s) you should be able to go back to the dashboard and preview the player.

how do i stream audio to the internet

This is also where you grab the embed code from.  Just pop this code wherever you want your player to show. Now you can stream MP3s anywhere and to anyone just using webspace and Iradeo.

What other uses can you think of for a service such as Iradeo?   Do you have your own Iradeo station?

MakeUseOf has teamed up with zozi to provide you (and a friend) a FREE 7-day, trip to New Zealand. Sign up now!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


Hot Tech Deals [June 8th]

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 01:30 PM PDT

If you’re in the market for a new computer, laptop, mobile phone, games and other accessories; don’t waste your time searching online. We’ve taken the liberty of locating the best tech deals and unifying them into a single post for your convenience.

For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.

  1. Toshiba Satellite Core i3 Dual Core 2.13GHz 16″ Laptop for $499
  2. Lenovo ThinkPad L412 Core i3 2.13GHz 14″ Laptop for $539 with coupon code “USPTHINKSALE”
  3. Lenovo ThinkPad L512 Core i3 Dual 2.13GHz 16″ Laptop for $539 with coupon code “USPTHINKSALE”
  4. Lenovo IdeaPad U550 Core 2 Duo 1.3GHz 16″ Laptop for $599 with coupon code “USPU55607″
  5. Dell XPS 8100 Core i7 Quad 2.8GHz PC w/ 20″ LCD for $1,080 + $19 shipping
  6. HP Pavilion HPE-150t Core i5 Quad Core 2.66GHz PC for $705 with coupon code “SVMB39487″
  7. Dell Inspiron 570 Quad Core 2.8GHz Desktop PC for $550 + $19 shipping
  8. Refurbished Sony VAIO Dual Core 2.5GHz All-in-One 20″ PC for $600 + $30 shipping
  9. Refurbished Unibody Apple MacBook Pro Laptops from $929

Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set

Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 20,000 fans already!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


How To Add Live Web Pages To A PowerPoint Slide

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 12:31 PM PDT

add live web pages to powerpoint slideThe new web is constantly changing with updated information every few minutes. Take Twitter streams for instance; if you are a busy Tweeter, then there's something new with each blink of the eye. Now, how do you capture such evolving web pages on a PowerPoint slide?

Linking to a web page via a URL is a simple but so old world. Instead you want a PowerPoint solution that lets you stay within the presentation and showcase a web page in its full browsing glory.


That's where LiveWeb, a little free PowerPoint add-in comes into the picture. LiveWeb will add live web pages to a Powerpoint slide and refreshes the web pages in real-time during a slide show. You don't have to go outside your presentation to show your audience a web page.

It is just like using your presentation as a browser. It goes without saying that you need a live internet connection for the live experience (and a good stable one).

A Small Download & A Simple Installation

LiveWeb supports all PowerPoint versions starting from PowerPoint 97 to the latest 2010. Downloading and installing the LiveWeb add-in is a quick affair. The add-in is just 51KB in size.

In PowerPoint 2003, installation of the LiveWeb add-in is from the Tools – Add-ins menu.

In PowerPoint 2007, you have to follow the path: Office Button – PowerPoint Options – Add-Ins – Manage (PowerPoint Add-ins) and click on Go to bring up the box that installs add-ins.

add live web pages to powerpoint slide

A macro security warning pops up. Enabling macros allows the installation to go through.

add live web pages to powerpoint slide

Inserting A Web Page On A Slide

Inserting a 'Live' web page on one of your slides is a simple 3 step process with the LiveWeb add-in.

  • From the Insert menu on the Ribbon, click on Web Page in the LiveWeb group.
  • The LiveWeb wizard opens up. Enter the URL of the web page that you want to display.

embed web pages in powerpoint

  • In the next page, you have the option of enabling a refresh of the web page. A second option enables the placement of a temporary PowerPoint autoshape over the slide to eliminate the whiteouts between page refreshes.

embed web pages in powerpoint

  • The last step allows you to set some size and position parameters for displaying the web page on your slide optimally.

embed web pages in powerpoint

  • Clicking on OK closes the wizard and now your slideshow is ready to display the web pages that will be refreshed in real-time.

Your slideshow now resembles a full screen browser without toolbar controls. In fact to use the commands for browsing, you have to right click on the browser object.

You can change the properties of the web page slide anytime from the Edit Page Property button on the LiveWeb menu. The size of the inserted web page can be changed by dragging the corner handles of the browser object. You can use the remaining area of the slide for inserting any other PowerPoint element.

Some Uses Of Using A Web Page Within A Slideshow

I went searching for this app when I had to prepare a slideshow on environmental pollution. Instead of showing static images, I decided to use the topical example of the BP oil spill. Integrating a few web pages from BP's own site and others like Reuters and National Geographic helped me show how the popular media is discussing the issue. Extending it to catch real time Twitter net chatter also helped to make the presentation more interactive.

When a slide serves like a web page, many uses can be found for it; from education to displaying information. How will you stretch the utility of the LiveWeb PowerPoint add-in?

Image Credit: HikingArtist.com

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


6 Possible Signs Your Cell Phone May Be Tapped

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 11:31 AM PDT

We all have them. Cell phones have grown to become an extension of our lives. When’s the last time you left the house without your cell phone? Chances are it was an accident. It is no secret that we use our cell phones way too much. We have become too dependent on these devices and their capabilities.

I’m not trying to scare you, but do you know how easy it is to tap one of these phones? That is to say, if someone wanted to, they could listen in on your conversations, read your messages, and yes, even monitor your location through GPS. Privacy is a growing concern with today’s technology, especially with how we communicate.


Tapping someone’s phone without their permission is illegal but it still happens anyway, usually without the owner’s knowledge. It’s not likely to happen to you, but in case you have your suspicions, here are some simple tips you can follow to tell if your cell phone is being tapped.

Is My Cell Phone Tapped?

There are a lot of reasons someone might want to listen in on your phone calls. Whether it’s a nosy boss, an angry spouse, a thief, or just some prankster, your privacy can be invaded through your cell phone. If your phone is tapped, it would even be possible for someone to listen to your conversations through your phone, even if you’re not on it.

This list is a few simple ways to check for a possible cell phone tap. These aren’t fool-proof by any means, so you should always be careful while using your phone. I will also list some steps you can follow to maintain your privacy.

Your Battery Temperature

One indicator of a possible phone tap is the temperature of your battery. Feel your cell phone if you haven’t used it for a while. If it feels warm, this means your phone could be still in use, even if you are not on a call.  Please note however that heat may be from overuse. Your battery being hot is only a potential sign if your phone has been powered down for a while.

Phone Not Staying Charged

Having to charge your cell phone more often than normal is another potential sign. If you haven’t used it any more than usual, your phone could be in use when you aren’t using it. When a cell phone is tapped it loses its battery life faster. A tapped cell phone is constantly recording conversations in the room, even when the phone appears to be idle.

You can use an app like BatteryLife LX or Battery LED (iPhone) to monitor your phone’s battery life and history over time.

[Note]: Cell phone batteries tend to lose the ability to stay charged over time. If you’ve had your phone for over a year, your battery may be going bad due to overuse and constant charging over time.

Delay in Shutting Down

When shutting down your phone, if you face issues such as a delay, the back light remaining lit for a time after being shut down, or refusal to shut off, your phone could be tapped. Always be aware of inexplicable activity on your phone. Since phones are made up of hardware and software, however, this could also be caused due to a glitch in the system or some kind of internal problem as well.

More Strange Activity

While turned on, does your phone ever light up, shut down, power up, or install a program on its own? Strange activity such as this could also be a sign of someone else controlling your device. Note that this can also happen due to interference during the transmission of data.

Background Noise

When on a call, a tapped phone will often include background noises. Usually in the form of echoes, static, or clicking, these sounds can either be caused by interference, a bad connection, or someone else listening in. If you ever hear a pulsating static noise coming from your phone when you are not using it, however, you may have a problem.

Distortion

If you are using your cell phone in close proximity to other electronic devices, like a television, and the other devices become distorted, this could be a sign that additional hardware is installed in the cell phone. A lot of times this distortion is normal, but if it is happening while you’re not on a call it could be something to watch for.

What Can You Do About This?

For tips on what you can do if you are ever in this situation, as well as a visual display of some of the signs mentioned above, I invite you to watch this YouTube video entitled, Is Your Cell Phone Bugged?:

 

Engage in Disinformation

If you suspect your phone conversations are being recorded or tapped by someone you know, you can engage in disinformation to confirm this. Tell someone you trust some “personal” information about yourself on your cell phone. If you find out later that others know the information then you know someone may have been listening.

Get Assistance

If you have reason to believe your cell phone is tapped, take it to your cell phone carrier for assistance. The police are also an option as they have equipment that can test your phone for a bug, but you should only go this route if you are fairly certain of a phone tap.

Conclusion

I would like to restate that the chances of your phone is actually bugged are very slim. A lot of the phenomena I’ve mentioned here can be explained by phone overuse, bad connections, or interference, but they are signs to look for if you are worried. If you’re a good Samaritan, the chances are good that your phone is clean.

If you want to be safe, you should lock your phone with a password and keep it around you at all times. When you aren’t using it, you can remove the battery to ensure that no one can listen in. No matter what is done to a phone, removing the battery will protect you.

Was this article helpful? I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments below!

Bah Humbug, stevegarfield, rickremington

Our latest mega giveaway: zozi is sponsoring a FREE 7-day, wine-tasting trip in New Zealand for two. Here’s how you can sign up. Contest ends June 25th.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


How To Move Your Wordpress Blog To Another Host

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 10:31 AM PDT

00 2 WP Logo.pngFinding the perfect webhost is more or less similar to a general love story. While there are cases of love at first sight, most people have to go through disappointments and broken hearts before finding the one that we want to spend the rest of our life with.

There are also stories about finding your true soulmate while already with somebody else. Should you break up and leave your current partner to be with “the one”? Or should you keep the current compromised relationship just for the sake of avoiding complications?


Even though changing webhosts might be less complicated than changing spouses, it is still problematic. And it’s even more difficult if you have a long established blog hosted there. Moving databases could be a nightmare for the common people like the most of us.

Fortunately, if your blog is Wordpress, it’s easy enough to learn how to move a Wordpress blog from one webhost to another.

The Manual Method

By default, Wordpress provides its users with a method to transfer the blog should circumstances require it. This feature is called “Export – Import” and is located under the “Tools” tab on the sidebar.

To save your data to be used later in another blog, click the “Export” link.

how to move wordpress blog

You will arrive in the “Export” page. The explanation paragraph basically explains that the exported file you are about to create is in WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR).

Choose the author from the drop down menu. If your blog has multiple authors and you only want to export posts from one of them, you can use this option. Other than that, just leave the option to “All Authors” and click the “Download Export File” button.

how to move wordpress blog

Your browser will download the data in an “.xml” file. Keep the file somewhere save to be used later.

how to move wordpress blog

Now, assuming that you already have another Wordpress blog ready in another host, we’ll continue to the next step.

Within your new WordPress blog, click the “Import” link on the sidebar under the “Tools” tab, and you will arrive at the “Import” page. There’s a list of import options showing types of blogs that you can import your data from. Choose “Wordpress” at the very bottom of the list.

move wordpress to new host

At the next page, you’ll have to determine the location of the data file. Click “Choose File” button and browse around. After you find the file, continue by clicking the “Upload file and import” button.

move wordpress to new host

That is pretty much it. The process can’t go easier than that. You’ve just learned how to move a Wordpress blog from one location to another.

The method can also be used to add posts from one blog to another. Very useful if you want to merge several blogs into one. Another possible usage is to back up the data of your blog(s).

The Automated Backup

The steps explained above are quick and simple, but it has one disadvantage: the process is manual. It means that if the blog that you are taking the data from is updated after you do the export, you’ll have to repeat everything all over again, manually.

There’s another option that you can do to automate the backup process: using a Wordpress plugin called “WP-DB-Backup“.

move wordpress to new host

After installing and activating the plugin, it’s immediately available in the sidebar under the “Tools” tab.

how to move blog to new domain host

On the Backup page, go to the “Scheduled Backup” section at the bottom of the page. You can choose the backup schedule according to your preferences, write down the email address to send the backup to, and click “Schedule backup” button to save the settings.

how to move blog to new domain host

The backup of your blog will arrive in your inbox regularly according to your chosen schedule.

how to move blog to new domain host

However, the format of the backup is “.sql” (compressed into “.sql.gz“). This requires an extra effort in restoring the database to your blog and can’t be done from within the WordPress blog like the previous method.

To import the backup, log into your webhost account and go to phpMyAdmin (or another similar database management that your host uses), click the “Import” tab, choose the database file by clicking the “Choose File” button, and finally click “Go” button to start importing.

06 Import database.png

Have you ever moved your WordPress blog from one host to another? Do you know other methods of moving your blog?  If so, please share using the comments below.

Got Questions? Ask Them Now for FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


3 Smart Visual Search Engines To Find The Images You Want

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 09:31 AM PDT

visual search enginesSearching for images has long been a neglected feature in common search engines. You had to rely on good tags, otherwise it was difficult to find just the right image. Tracing images across the net was out of the question.

Today, algorithms exist that enable search engines to find similar images or exact copies. Moreover, it is possible to search within videos, which requires a massive amount of computing power.

In this article I introduce three smart visual search engines, that support similarity search, reverse image search, and video search.

MUFIN

visual search enginesMUFIN stands for Multi-Feature Indexing Network. The MUFIN search engine’s forte is similarity search in large databases. It compares images as a whole and searches based on color structure, color layout, scalable color, edge histogram, and homogeneous texture.

In the demo you can search 100 million Flickr images.

You start by searching for a general term and all images with a matching tag will come up.

image search engines

In the next step you pick an image and click “visually similar” to find images that are alike.

visual search

Since the visual search engines doesn’t recognize objects within the picture, the result will not be convincing in each and every example. This is also reflected in the rating. Lower numbers indicate a higher similarity.

Below is an example with very high similarity.

image search engines

This demo shows the capacity of the search engine. Unfortunately, the database is comparably small, thus not many highly similar images can be found.

TinEye

image search engines

TinEye is a reverse image search engine, meaning you can upload an image or provide the URL and it will search for all locations of that very image. This way you can find the origin of the image, its usage, different versions including higher resolutions, or modified copies of the image.

Rather than keywords, metadata, or watermarks, TinEye actually uses image identification technology. When you submit an image, the search engine creates a fingerprint of that image and starts scanning its database for matching images. TinEye’s database comprises over 1.5 billion images, thus it should be able to find copies on all popular websites.

For this demonstration I had it search for the MakeUseOf logo. You can sort the search results by “Best Match”, “Most Changed”, or “Biggest Image“.

free image search engines

Suresh has previously profiled TinEye in his article Searching For Images With An Image.

A similar search engine is ALIPR, however, it is not as convenient to use as TinEye. Apparently it also requires a minimum image size to work, which is why I couldn’t search for the MakeUseOf logo.

VideoSurf

free image search enginesVideoSurf is a complex search engine filling the niche of video search. Like TinEye it doesn’t rely solely on tags to find content. Rather, it depends on computer vision algorithms that allow it to scan the video for relevant results.

As with traditional search engines, you enter keywords to initiate the search. Then you can refine through the top and left hand menu. The top menu will suggest other keywords and in the left hand menu you can select types of content, shows, durations, time posted online, and providers included in the search. In addition, you can search the results by relevance, popularity, newest, oldest, longest or shortest, and season/episode.

For the demonstration of this visual search engine I selected the “full visual summary” view, which includes preview images of the video that you can jump to. But you can also switch to the traditional grid view.

free image search engines

We have previously covered image search engines that you may be interested in. Please check them out:

Which image search engine do you like the most?

Image credits: mcleod

Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 20,000 fans already!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


Use Soluto To Improve Your Windows Boot Up Time

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 08:31 AM PDT

improve windows boot timeDoes your Windows machine take a long time to boot up? (Insert snarky “switch to Linux” joke here). Well a company has developed a remedy to improve Windows boot time, and it is called Soluto.

The way the application works is simple. It installs, then it asks you to reboot and then it watches your boot time and tells you what is taking up the majority of that time. It allows you to pause the item (does not start up again until un-paused) or you can delay its startup. It will wait until the initial set of applications is loaded before attempting to start your delayed applications.


This program works well for techies and entry level computer users alike. If you are an expert user you can take action on all your items and have a great list to work from on speeding up your boot up. A novice would be able to pause the items that they know they do not use or have already uninstalled.

For instance Roxio's burning suite starts up automatically but do we need it to? Photoshop and Acrobat also start processes automatically and don't forget all the applications that call out to see if there are new versions available. Everything starting up at once causes your machine to act slow.

Soluto wants to remove the frustration from computing. You can also enable a Frustration Detection mode that will analyze your machine at any given time and it will tell you what is wrong.

To begin we will visit their website and download the application. You can do so from this link here.

improve windows boot time

Click the big green download button and install the application. When it is complete you will see the following message requesting to reboot your machine. You can either have Soluto initiate  your reboot or choose to have it run when you manually restart the next time.

improve windows boot time

When your machine starts back up you will see a little page curl at the bottom left hand side of your screen as your boot process is recorded.

reduce windows boot time

Next Soluto will analyze the applications in your startup list. It will then categorize them on the next screen.

reduce windows boot time

After about 5 minutes Soluto returned with a chart of my boot process. It showed me that my boot time is a little more than a minute and a half. It loads 53 items during this time. The 53 applications were broken down into 3 categories. The categories are no-brainer, potentially removable and required.

reduce windows boot time

To improve Windows boot time, I ran through each of the No-brainers and delayed the ones I knew I might need at some time and pausing the ones I knew I would not use again.

For example I know I use Java sometimes so I clicked the delay button. This waits until the startup process is complete before launching this application. I then saw TurboTax listed in my no-brainers and I clicked pause. After all I will not be using that again this year. The application explains what the process is and recommends what you should do. Then it goes one step further and shows you a pie chart as to what other users did. I found the recommendations sound.

optimize windows boot

As I continued pausing and delaying options I saw my numbers start to decrease. You can then restart and give it another go. You can compare your history with the history button at the bottom right hand corner of your screen.

optimize windows boot

I was able to shave 23 seconds off my potential boot time and I got my 53 applications down to 37 as you can see below:

optimize windows boot

The other option that I mentioned earlier about ongoing frustration research is accessible via its system tray menu. By right clicking on it you can enable Ongoing Frustration Research and then when your computer slows down you can open the same menu and choose My PC Just Frustrated Me.

solMenu

I randomly launched it and what it does is scour your processes that are running and reports back the most likely cause of the culprit.

sol

You can then use that information to troubleshoot via trial and error! In the past I have covered an application called Autoruns that helps with startup applications and Justin covered BootTimer but I like this MUCH better!

How do you cope with your startup time? Do you have a favorite application that helps you tame your applications? Mac and Linux users, do you have issues related to this?

NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles


No comments:

Post a Comment