http://www.dejagib.com/blog/2008/07/31/melanie-walke-jamaican-world-leader

Jamaican Melanie Walker now the favorite for the 400m hurdles in Beijing.

Transformation packs allow you to change various features of your Windows XP installation including the theme, wallpaper, boot screen, login screen and mouse pointer. There are several such packs for download from Geek Needs at this link: Transformation Pack Round up for Windows XP | GeekNeeds.

I started a blog on blogger but there wasn’t the sense of creativity I needed as everything was more or less done for me. I decided to buy my own domain name and get a hosting package so I could have more of a challenge and have more options to tweak my blog. I tried Drupal, Joomla 1.5, PhP Website and Word Press. Being new to all this stuff, I had quite a hard time figuring out how to work each program. I finally settled on WordPress as it was much easier to learn for a beginner like me and it has a vast resource of themes, widgets and plug-ins.

This is a quick review of my WordPress 2.6 installation.

1. Most hosting packages provide you with CPanel which gives you simple tools to create and control MySql databases. Log into your hosting account (I did mine through fastdomain) and create a MySql database. Create a username and password, writing down the database name, username and password for one of the next critical steps.
2. Download the WordPress 2.6 from WordPress.Org.
3. Extract the file using your favorite zip program.
4. Now here is a critical step. You will have to search the unzipped folder for a file called wp-config-sample.php. Use an editor software of choice (WordPad, Notepad, etc) and open the file. Remember the database name, username and password you wrote down in step 1? Now is the time you’ll need them.
5. Scroll down to define(’DB_NAME’, ‘dbname‘); // The name of the database
define(’DB_USER’, ‘dbusername‘); // Your MySQL username
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘dbpassword‘); // …and password
define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value Replace each variable in bold type with those you wrote down in step 1 exactly as you see it in your CPanel. It is important to write down the exact name. Mine came out as examplec_wordpress26 and username as examplec_brian even though I only input my database name as ‘wordpress26′ and username ‘brian’. The database name is therefore ‘examplec_wordpress26′ and username ‘examplec_brian’.
6. Save the file as wp-config.php.
7. Using your Ftp software of choice (I use filezilla) upload the WordPress 2.6 folder to your desired folder on your host server. If you would like it to appear in your root and come up when you type http://example.com then upload it to your root folder. If you do not want it to in your root you may upload it to a different folder like example.com\wordpress in which case you will have to type ‘http://example.com/wordpress’ for the homepage.
8. You will then need to go to the WordPress administration page by using your browser to go to http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php (if you put wordpress in your root) or example.com/yourfoldername/wp-admin/install.php if you placed it in another folder.
9. You then click on First Step, and it will bring you to a page asking you what you want your blog title to be as well as your current e-mail address. Once you click submit, you will be given a temporary password. Write this down so you can log into your WordPress blog. Go to settings—general to change the major settings.
10. You can start writing your posts and pages, uploading themes, widgets and plugins. There are countless amounts of each to keep you fully occupied and allow you to do whatever you want with your blog.

Happy Blogging!

Whichever blog application you use, please make an extensive search of themes and templates until you are satisfied that you have chosen the right one. You DO NOT want to change it later as you will be adding code and scripts as you go by. You will have to re-insert all these codes if you change themes or templates, which is an arduous task.

I learnt it the hard way with my pixelpost template for my photoblog. There are certain html codes that were inserted for some add-ons. To change the template, I now have to remember which add-ons needed codes, find the installation documents for them online and re-insert the codes to it back to full functionality.

Think about moving from house to house every week (or however often you change themes/templates) and having to change each house to look exactly like the previous one. The home improvement guys would have to come in and tear down everything in order to make it look exactly like the previous house. That’s exactly what it is like to make these changes to themes or templates, especially after you’ve inserted some amount of add-ons to customize your site.

Spend your time using the search engines for your themes and templates. There are literally thousands of free themes online or you may be able to write your own. Here is a guide:

1) Colors - it is recommended to use either white black or grey as the main color and as few of other colors as possible.

2) Style – you want the photos to be the star so make it as simple as you can.

3) Number of Columns- depends on the type of blog. If it is going to have widgets, you may start thinking 2 or 3 columns.

4) Attractiveness- has to be attractive to pull viewers.

5) Sidebar/Widget ready- not all themes can take widgets.

6) Make sure it works well for its intended use- If you are going to write a lot of text, don’t choose a dedicated photoblog application such as pixelpost, sylverblog or atom photoblog. Instead, choose a blog application that can easily be converted to photoblog use such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla. I highly recommended WordPress, not because it’s the one I use, but because I have tried all three and several more. If you are going to run a community based, text heavy photoblog, then Drupal is the choice. It is perfect for community sites.

7) If you would like a specific type, eg. A tech theme, personal website theme or a simple template.

Make sure it is ad ready if you inend to place ads in the future.

9) Size (how quickly it takes to load)

10) If the size pictures you use can fit on the pages without cropping the image – This is very important, there are some themes that cut off a piece of your medium sized photo because the sidebar is too wide.

It may take some time to choose, but in the meantime, you may write content and save it or upload photos until you feel you have the right theme or template. You can then publish the accumulated material and you have a website with lots of content to start with!

Happy blogging!

Here is an entertaining video of of a guy using his football (soccer) skills to create mischief in the streets of London.

Jamaicans continue to do well in international sprinting leading up to the Olympics in Beijing when Melanie Walker posted a world-leading and personal best time of 53.48 seconds at the Herculis Grand Prix in Monaco on Tuesday, making her the favorite for the event at the Olympics.

Her closest rivals are Americans Tiffany Williams (53.54) and Sheena Tosta (53.58), and the field is wide open as several ‘big-guns’ in the event will not compete. these include two of the 3 medalists from last year’s World Championships (Australia’s Jana Rawlinson and Russia’s Yulia Petchenkina), along with China’s Huang Xiaoxia and American Lashanda Demus (who was the world leader until Melanie’s performance on Tuesday).

Walker has silver and bronze at the World Junior level in this event but failed to advance to the final of the event at last year’s World Championship. She has been steadily improving ever since and seems to be peaking at the right time.

Jamaicans are optimistic that this Olympics will be their best with our best chances expected to be in the 100m men (Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell) , Men’s 200m (Usain Bolt), Womens 100m (Kerion Stewart, Sherone Simpson, Shelly Ann Fraser, Womens 200m (Veronica Campbell), Melanie in the 400m Hurdles. They are also expected to do well in the relays, especially the 4×100m for both men and women.

This video was shot at the recent Jamaica national trials, evaluating the Jamaican testing programme and gives a brief history of drugs in track & field.

Firefox 3 is made to work with all types of connections, fast & slow. ADSL users will get a kick from this method of increasing their browser’s speed.

matt-helps | Firefox 3 super speed increase

Having computer problems? Before you call the repairman, check out this handy site that offers a FREE computer repairs flowchart for diagnostic and repair guidance. Fix it yourself…..it could save you some money in these tough times.

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Jamaica Olympic committee chairman Mike Fennell today disclosed that a Jamaican athlete has tested positive for a banned substance. Neither the athlete nor the substance was named but Mr. Fennel went as far saying it was not one of the popular athletes.

Notwithstanding, i am extremely disappointed with this result as I don’t want others to think that we are this good because we are cheats. Anyway, it is better the athlete is caught now, rather than to embarrass the country in the Olympics.

Olympic Stadium Under Construction

photo credit: Theo W L Jones

A CVM television news report aired tonight pointed to the men’s 100 meters due to the fact that on the Olympice committee’s website, only one name has been ommitted from the original team and it was an alternate runner; not one of the top 4. The top 4 was Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater and Marvin Anderson. CVM reported that only Julian Dunkley’s name was missing but also stressed that it could be an error on the part of the committee.

Let’s hope that no more bad news hits us before or during the Olympics.