It Doesn’t Take a Genius to Choose, Says Samsung

Samsung may have lost the patent battle against Apple, but that doesn’t mean the Korean electronics giant has quieted down.

In a new ad shown that will start running in various US national and regional papers on Sunday, Samsung has stacked the specifications of its Galaxy S III smartphone against the newly-announced iPhone 5.

What’s first noticeable about the ad is its tagline, which is an obvious jab at Apple: “It doesn’t take a genius”. Not only does this reference Apple’s “genius” retail employees, Samsung also implies that deciding between the two devices is a piece of cake.

The Galaxy S III’s list of features is much longer than the iPhone 5, and its specs beat Apple’s latest smartphone in terms of HD resolution, talk time and RAM. It also features near-field communications (NFC) technology — not included in the iPhone 5 — which allows users to pay at checkout with a mobile phone.

The ad also pokes fun at the iPhone 5′s specs wording, dismissing Apple’s new Lightning dock as “a totally different plug”.

Samsung has been touting the capabilities of its devices more aggressively lately, in an attempt to determine iPhone users to move to Android and leave Apple aside.

I personally prefer Samsung over Apple but I didn't like Samsung ad that states: “Our phone is better because our contrived spec list is longer!” The truth is that the bottom half of the Galaxy S III’s specs on this ad are meaningless.

Apparently, although Galaxy S III’s hardware specifications are seen as superior to those of iPhone 5, the latter has already seen great demand in the US, only hours after the pre-order period started.

This shows that iPhone buyers are less interested in the specs sheet of the device than Samsung would have hoped for, and that they are fond of the experience and the ecosystem that Apple offers to them.

Have a look at Samsung’s ad :

It's here: Apple unveils iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 5 isn’t the biggest or most powerful smartphone on the block. But that may not matter to iPhone purists, those who have fallen in love with the original iPhone 4 designs and were horrified at the thought that their precious device might develop a glandular condition and grow to near-tablet sized proportions.

I got to spend a little time with one of the many iPhone 5 phones Apple had lying around the demo room (and in the hands of demonstrators).

 At first glance, I’d say Apple has achieved something remarkable: making the iPhone bigger, more powerful, and possibly even better, without changing the way it feels in your hand.

In case you haven’t seen, the new iPhone 5 looks a lot like the iPhone 4S. It’s got the same curves, the same half-inch-plus margins above and below the screen, the same single button on the face and the same volume and lock buttons on the side, but there are crucial differences, some more significant than others.

First of all, this phone is light. As soon I pick it up, I noted the lack of heft. The iPhone 4 and 4S both feel somewhat substantial in your hands. The iPhone 5 feels different (at 112 grams, it’s 20 percent lighter than the previous iPhone). It’s noticeably thinner (7.6 mm, or 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S). Apple did away with the glass back, which may have helped the phone shed an ounce or so.

That back is now the same brushed aluminum as the edges (or brushed black aluminum, depending on your choice). It looks good and feels great. You won’t miss the glass back.

Apple also moved the audio jack to the bottom of the device; I like it there. It’s a lot more elegant than having that cable jutting out of the top and possibly draping over you screen. That same base also houses the new lightning jack. It’s positively tiny compared to the old 30-pin jack, and it doesn’t care which way you plug it in.

It’s simple, smart touches like this that appeal to me. I’m certain most customers will appreciate them as well.

A New Screen

The biggest and most obvious difference between the iPhone 4S and the new iPhone 5 is the screen. It’s still a super-brilliant, high-resolution Retina display, but this one is noticeably longer than any iPhone that’s come before it.

It’s a neat trick, because, while the screen is now bigger (1136 pixels deep), the phone feels exactly the same in your hands. You simply get more vertical real-estate. On the home-screen, this means another row of app icons.

For apps and content, the screen offers more room to deliver interaction and information. Put another way, the old iPhone had a 3:2 aspect ratio screen and the iPhone 5 has a 16:9 ratio screen.

This will be a better screen for HD movies and TV (for which it won’t have to show black bars on the top and bottom). Some movies aren’t shot in 16:9 (the Avengers is, and it looks great on the new screen), but pretty much all modern TV is.

Apple obviously packed a lot more power into the new iPhone, adding the new multi-core A6 CPU (no one seems to know if it’s dual core or quad core) for faster performance and richer onscreen graphics. The game demos during the unveiling looked impressive — especially Real Racing 3 with the real-time rear-view mirror view. Unfortunately, none of the iPhone 5s in the demo room were loaded with games.

Even so, I did notice that app loads and switching seemed a bit peppier. The new iOS 6 Apple maps looked sharp, especially the 3D flyover, which basically draws 3D-rendered buildings with real photography draped over them in real time.

On the other hand, I did a similar walkthrough on the new A5-based iPod touch 7th generation and it was almost exactly as good.

Big Picture

iOS 6 also brings a redesigned camera. Powered by the A6 chip, it’s supposed to deliver better low-light performance and noise reduction. I couldn’t really test that out in the demo area, but I was able to test-drive the new Panorama mode. The idea is not new: take a 180-degree arc, or even a 360-degree circle of pictures, and the camera stitches them together.

I’ve tried this already on Android tablets and my Sony NEX-5 camera. That said, the iPhone 5’s implementation is good. It offers just enough guidance as your shooting (“slow down,” “move lower”) that almost anyone can create interesting panoramic views.

Siri got a little work done, too. As promised, she can now tell you sports scores and launch apps. I asked her how the Mets did today, and she responded with information and a nice visual for the upcoming game. When I asked about the Giants, she gave me a score for the football team, but neglected to ask if I meant the football or baseball Giants. When I pointed out her mistake, she apologized, but didn’t rectify it.

Siri’s new-found ability to launch apps was pretty impressive. I asked her to launch Passbook and it appeared almost immediately. I got the same rapid respond with third-party apps such as CNN.

No NFC

Passbook looks just as good as it did when Apple unveiled it at WWDC earlier this year. But seems no nearer to becoming a true digital wallet app. Yes, you’ve got important things like plane tickets and coupons, but nothing for making mobile digital payments. Perhaps this is because Apple chose not to include NFC in the iPhone 5.

As with Passbook, many of the best things about the new iPhone 5 may come from iOS 6, which will launch along with the phone and is available as an upgrade for all iPhone owners going back to the iPhone 3GS.

On the other hand, not all of the phones made prior to the iPhone 4S will be able to take advantage of these new features (Siri is one obvious example). They should all see the new iTunes store, though, which happens to look at lot like the Apple TV interface.

I thought it was well organized and more navigable than any previous versions of iTunes on the iPhone.

The iPhone 5 is, finally, an LTE phone, but until I get it in the real-world it’s hard to assess how much of an impact that will have on day-to-day use. Likewise with the new 802.11N radio; I know it’s going to be faster, but I’d need a lot more real-world use to assess the quality of that connection.

Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 on Wednesday and will begin selling it next week. It also lowered prices for older models. Here's a look at the key differences between the iPhone 5, 4S and 4.

iPhone 5 tech specs:

- Capacity: 16 gigabyte model for $199, 32 gigabytes for $299 and 64 gigabytes for $399, all with two-year service contract

- Size: height: 4.87 inches; width: 2.31 inches; depth: 0.30 inch (124 x 59 x 7.6 millimeters)

- Weight: 3.95 ounces (112 grams)

- Display: 4-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1136 by 640 pixels.

- Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 1.2-megapixel on front.

- Video recording: high-definition (1080p - comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio

- Battery life: talk time is up to 8 hours on 3G. Internet works for up to 8 hours on LTE and up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi. Up to 10 hours of video playback. Battery can be replaced by service personnel only.

- Release date: Sept. 21, 2012.

iPhone 4S tech specs:

- Capacity: 16 gigabyte model for $99, with two-year service contract

- Size: height: 4.5 inches; width: 2.31 inches; depth: 0.37 inch (115 x 59 x 9.3 millimeters)

- Weight: 4.9 ounces (140 grams)

- Display: 3.5-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 960 by 640 pixels.

- Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, "VGA resolution" on front

- Video recording: high-definition (1080p - comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio

- Battery: talk time is up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 14 hours on 2G. Internet works for up to p to 6 hours on 3G, and up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi, one hour shorter than the iPhone 4. Up to 10 hours of video playback.

- Release date: Oct. 14, 2011

iPhone 4 tech specs:

- Capacity: 8 gigabyte model for free, with two-year service contract

- Size: height: 4.5 inches; width: 2.31 inches; depth: 0.37 inch (115 x 59 x 9.3 millimeters)

- Weight: 4.8 ounces

- Display: 3.5-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 960 by 640 pixels.

- Camera: 5-megapixel camera on back, "VGA resolution" on front

- Video recording: high-definition (720p - comparable to an older-model flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio

- Battery: talk time is up to 7 hours on 3G and up to 14 hours on 2G. Internet works for up to 6 hours on 3G and up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi. Up to 10 hours of video playback.

- Release date: June 24, 2010

Over the coming weeks, many will compare the iPhone 5 to a variety of Android devices, including the large and powerful Samsung Galaxy SIII. I’m not sure how the iPhone 5 will hold up. It does not raise the bar much further than competing devices. Its screen is still smaller, its CPU may not be as fast and it lacks NFC.

And yet, I wonder if iPhone customers will care. The iPhone 5 offers myriad differences that will improve their day-to-day smartphone experience, while still delivering one of the most aesthetically pleasing handhelds on the market.

For many, I bet that will be enough. Of course, I won’t have my final say until we get a review unit and pound the heck out of it. I can’t wait.

How to get Wi-Fi access anywhere at any time

It doesn’t happen very often, but there are times when you can’t access the Internet at home. Maybe it’s because service is out, or perhaps you moved to a new place and are waiting for the ISP to get around to installing the new service. In these instances, it’s always good to have a backup plan in mind so that you’ll still have Internet access, even when your main home connection is MIA. However, if you’re currently looking for a backup plan, we have several suggestions to keep in mind the next time you’re stuck without Internet at your main digs.

If driving/commuting is an option…

If you’re able and willing to leave the house in order to get Internet access, there are a bevy of options that you can take advantage of, including some of the obvious ones:

• Coffee shops
• Libraries and bookstores
• Fast food joints
• Hotel lobbies
• Your local university campus
• Gym/fitness center

Keep in mind that using public Wi-Fi at an establishment requires a certain give-and-take. It’s customary and a common courtesy to always purchase something when you take up space at a coffee shop or fast food joint. Better yet, if you tip well and get to know the baristas, no one will give you the stink eye when you plug your surge protector into the wall and pull out your day’s work.

Furthermore, some places that offer public Wi-Fi limit it to members only. You might have to show proof of a library card in order to use your library’s Wi-Fi, or you may have to be a member of the gym if you want to take advantage of the Internet there. It’s always a good idea to call ahead and see what their policies are before you make a solid plan.

If driving/commuting isn’t an option…

If you’re stuck in a situation where you don’t have Internet at home and your car is out of commission (it’s in the shop or your spouse has it), things get a bit trickier. There are still some options that you can consider, some of which require planning ahead and can’t be used at the last minute.

• Places within walking distance: This one’s pretty easy, but if there’s a coffee shop or library within a reasonable walking distance, feel free to make the trek in order to use the Wi-Fi. It’s certainly not a convenience, but you’ll be getting some healthy exercise in while you’re at it. You can also try your apartment complex’s lobby, clubhouse, or leasing office (if you live in an apartment, that is). Most of these places offer free Wi-Fi in their common areas that’s free for residents, so be sure to check and see if that’s an option. 

• City Wi-Fi: Some cities also offer their own Wi-Fi within city limits that’s open and free to locals and tourists alike. Your location is also a factor in this situation, so if you don’t live within city limits, you most likely won’t get a signal.

• Tethering: If you have a smartphone, you can tether your data connection to your computer, giving you full-blown Internet access through 3G/4G data. This is entirely dependent on your phone’s reception, so if you don’t get a particularly good connection in your house, then tethering probably isn’t going to do much for you. However, if it is an option, there are a few ways to go about it.

The official way to get tethering on your phone and computer is to activate the Wi-Fi hotspot feature in your phone’s settings menu. Each carrier is different when it comes to tethering, so monthly charges may vary, but the average cost is around $20 per month for a couple gigabytes of tethering bandwidth, with bigger plans available for a few dollars more, incrementally.

You can also get a dedicated mobile hotspot from the carrier of your choice. Many of the hotspot devices offered are free after signing a two-year contract, so you only have to pay for the monthly plan. Then again, if you don’t already have a daily use for a mobile hotspot, it’s probably a waste of money, since you’ll only use it if your home Internet is out. This is why just activating it on yoursmartphone when you need it is the best option in this case.

• Freedompop: However, mobile hotspots can still be good for this if you go through a service like Freedompop. It offers a free mobile hotspot (with a deposit), and a free allotment of data. Usually it’s a small amount (starting at around 200MB), but you can earn more by referring friends and such. There are no monthly fees, unless you opt for the rollover option, which costs a few dollars per month and rolls over any data left over from the previous month. Freedompop even offers mobile hotspots specifically for home use. These devices allow for multiple users and the opportunity to earn more data by participating in “partner promotions.” Though it is a good deal, there is some fine print, so make sure to read our explanation of the terms and conditions. 

• Hotspot alternatives: If you’re looking for a mobile hotspot, but don’t like what the major carriers offer, Clear and Karma are two companies that offer good deals on mobile hotspots. Clear has unlimited 4G plans starting at $34 per month, while Karma offers something similar to Freedompop, but it’s a pay-as-you-go platform that costs $14 per 1GB, with no monthly costs.

• Third-party apps: The less ethical way you can tether is using a third-party app through your smartphone, allowing you to bypass the carrier’s monthly charge and tether for free. There are tons of these apps out there, most of which require that you jailbreak or root your iPhone or Android device, but a few apps don’t require any of that. However, apps that don’t require a jailbreak/root usually cost a few dollars, so be aware of that if you plan on taking this route.

• Asking neighbors: If you’re stuck at home with no free Wi-Fi anywhere nearby and you can’t tether, then you’re only option is to suck up to your neighbor and see if you can use their Internet temporarily. If you’ve never met your neighbor, be prepared for them to be a little cautious, but if you explain your situation, they’ll most likely be sympathetic and let you on, depending on how nice they are (and depending on how good the cookies are that you made to bribe them with).

Don’t sweat it too much

Depending on your situation and desperation, it might just be a good idea to embrace the fact that you temporarily don’t have Internet at your house and go do something outside. Of course, some of us need Internet for work or school, but if you’re just looking for an excuse to keep up with your Facebook and Twitter feeds, it might be a good time to re-evaluate your Internet needs and simply take time to smell the roses when the Internet goes down. Go read a book, cook something, or even finish building that model rocket that you’ve been putting off for months.

In the end, there are plenty of options that you can take advantage of if you’re waiting to get Internet hooked up at your house. Depending on how persistent you are, you can get Wi-Fi access if you need to, but there’s no harm in just waiting it out and doing something else in the meantime.

If you do use public Wi-Fi, make sure it’s legitimate and not a fake Wi-Fi network that’s made to steal your personal information. Even if you are on a legitimate public Wi-Fi network, it’s always a good idea to use a VPN to keep your browsing activity safe from lurking eyes

The Scale of the Universe

Zoom from the edge of the universe to the quantum foam of space time and learn about everything in between.

Apple’s iOS 6 Vs Android’s 4.0: Who Comes Out On Top?

For mobile and tablet lovers, the big news from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2012 conference was the official unveiling of their new mobile operating system, iOS 6. Stacked with over 200 new features, we thought why not pitch Apple’s latest operating system against Android’s most recent, just to see which one really is the best. Here are some of the highlights:

Apple has finally ditched Google Maps with iOS 6, and their new map feature may finally come close to the might of the ever-popular Google Maps found on Android 4.0. Having teamed up with TomTom and C3, Apple’s new map feature boasts 3D imaging and turn-by-turn navigation which allows you to arrive at your destination thanks to spoken directions. However, Google Maps have been ruling the roost for years with 3D views, Street View, as well as their own turn-by-turn navigation.

Apple has also added enhanced functionality for Siri with iOS 6. You can launch apps, as well as ask for latest sports scores and fixtures. In addition, you can find out the latest movie listings and book a table at a restaurant. All very innovative and cool. In comparison, Samsung’s S-Voice, only exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S3, is also innovative, but more basic than Siri.

Androids 4.0 introduced some fascinating developments on the camera front. Users can enjoy comprehensive editing functionality, as well as live video effects. There’s also a nifty feature allowing you to use the camera whilst in lock mode. On iOS 6 users can benefit from an added photo stream feature which allows the sharing of photos and photo streams across all devices. Both Android 4.0 and iOS 6 allow users to now chat over 3G and WiFi connections.

There’s a great deal more to consider when comparing the two, user interface, video calling, browsing and security too. Overall though, the inclusion of Apple Maps and a smarter Siri just gives iOS 6 the edge. The downside is that we have to wait until autumn 2012 to find out for ourselves.

Google’s Loss is Yahoo’s Gain. Will Marissa Mayer Make Yahoo Reputable Again?

Shock. Stunned. Amazed. Surprised. This is how users on the Web have been reacting to the news of Marissa Mayer being appointed as the new CEO of Yahoo. And the reason to be surprised is due to the fact that Marissa Mayer was previously working for Google for nearly 13 years, since she first joined the search engine giant (as employee number 20) in 1999.

Kudos to Yahoo, and indeed this is a great move for the company, which has been desperately hunting for the right leader in the last few years with having switched over to three not-so-good CEOs in less than a year and a total of five in the last four years. Yahoo has terrifically failed to shine in the industry, as its competitors grew stronger with innovative services, while Yahoo was left behind with barely anything to offer.

During the era of Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s worst nightmare, the company lost some of the popular services like Yahoo Buzz, Delicious, and Yahoo Geocities, which were either shut down, or were sold away. Yahoo not only lost most of its services during that time, but also it was this point of time where it lost many users to its competitors.

Yahoo has had a rough history. Today, Mayer takes over the CEO’s post, and I’m sure she has that potential to do great things for Yahoo, using her experience from her previous company and having the quality of a perfectionist executive. Sure Marissa is a challenging person who has always strived to take up challenging tasks, however, with Yahoo’s huge drawbacks and poor history, will she be successful enough to rightfully make Yahoo reputable again? Well, I see a very thin chance of that happening.
Marissa at Google

Speaking of Marissa Mayer, let’s look at some of her contributions she has supervised and managed at Google. Mayer has been an engineer, designer, product manager, and executive in her last 13 years at Google, and has also launched over 100 well-known features and products. She was in charge of services like Local Maps and Location Services, and has also supervised products which included Google Maps, Google Earth, Street View and Zagat for desktop and mobile.

Back in 2001, Mayer was a part of the 15 member team who created — recognized to be the most famous motto — “Don’t Be Evil.” She masterminded the layout of Google’s famous, blank, simple search homepage.

In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, a book authored by Steven Levy states that, Mayer was one among the three member team who actually brought out the idea and invented Google AdWords. Today, Google AdWords is one of the main reasons why Google is a billion dollar company. For the record, Google’s total advertising revenues were USD$10.6 billion in the first quarter last year, which is over 90 percent of its revenue.

Mayer was also in charge for the following Google products that are currently used by almost hundreds of millions of users on the Internet: The Gmail Inbox, Google News, and Google Images.

According to Wikipedia, Mayer graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in a symbolic systems and an M.S. in Computer Science. She specifically liked artificial intelligence, which she specialized in both the degrees. She also has a honoris causa doctorate degree in recognition of her work in the field of search from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Fortunately, Yahoo doesn’t have to worry about Marissa’s résumé or education background, since they are all for real, unlike the previous CEO Scott Thompson who faked his résumé.

She was promoted as the Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, after which she was appointed as the Vice President of Local, Maps, and Location Services in 2010.
Google’s Loss is Yahoo’s Gain

The only way Yahoo can make a comeback is by hiring talented and skilled teams, and the first move by appointing Mayer as the CEO seems to be great. However, Yahoo also needs to offer some innovative services and improvise its existing tools. Flickr could have been Instagram today, only if Yahoo had taken it up seriously.

Mayer has the potential and understands the weakness of the troubled company, and if she plays her skills and strengths in a right way — getting Yahoo to sell advertisements — Yahoo could see a positive change in its growth.

According to The New York Times, “As she hashes out Yahoo’s strategy, Ms. Mayer said she is intent on leveraging the Internet company’s strong franchises including email, finance and sports. She also hopes to do more with its video broadband and its mobile businesses.”
Win or Fail? We Don’t Know Yet

Mobile is THE future, and Marissa seems to be going in a right direction on this. However, she could equally fail big time amidst the competition between Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Yahoo has a lot of drawbacks and there is very less scope for improvement; a highly staked job that Marissa has taken up. Will Mayer be successful and bring about a change? I hope so. Yahoo’s co-founder has a lot of appreciation for new CEO, who in a statement said, “She is a visionary leader in user experience and product design.”

Once again, kudos to Yahoo for having appointed Marissa Myer as its CEO. Hopefully, we should see improvements and some great contributions made by the new CEO for Yahoo and help regain its lost reputation.

Why Facebook is Blue in Color?

When you open Facebook, the first thing that you notice is the blue color it uses. Ever wondered why is Facebook so blue in color and not changing its color scheme?

Ever since they started as 'thefacebook', Facebook has stayed with the blue color. Although major changes have been made in the Facebook theme since then, the major unchanged thing has been the blue color.

Facebook from its early days when it was known as  thefacebook

An exciting fact: In its earlier days, thefacebook.com required you to have an  .edu email id to join.

Everywhere from its login page to Facebook groups, you find only blue.

Facebook Login Page. All Blue!

The reason for this is that  Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of Facebook is red-green color-blind and blue is the richest colour for him which he confirmed in an online interview with Leo Laporte.

Another important commercial factor for using blue color is the fact that most colors tend to distract the viewers. Blue on the other hand acts as a transparent background to the main content as visible to the human brain due to which most popular websites tend to use the blue color. It can easily be called a webmaster's favorite color. Blue color is also sometimes referred to as 'Nirvana' for the brain.

All these factors make blue a prominent color on Facebook. 

The Best WordPress Plugins (Updated)

Here are the best WordPress plugins that will add new functionality to your WordPress websites that is otherwise not available in the vanilla version of WordPress software. These are all free and open-source plugins and you can download them from the official WordPress plugins repository.

• Search Regex – This adds extremely powerful search and replace capabilities to your blog. You can find and replace almost any kind of data stored on your WordPress site including post titles, excerpts, comments, and meta data. It even supports regular expressions.
• Redirection – If the URL of an existing post has changed or if an external site is linking to a non-existent page on my site, I can create redirection rules and automatically forward all the incoming traffic to the right pages. Simple 301 is also a good alternative.
• Yoast SEO – This is probably the only SEO plugin you need for your WordPress blog. It helps you create better titles, you can block duplicate pages (like archive pages) from search bots, and it also adds the necessary meta tags required for more search-friendly Google snippets. The new releases also integrate Twitter Title Tags and Facebook Open Graph tags.
• W3 Total Cache – This is possibly the best caching plug-in for WordPress and it will definitely help improve your site’s page speed score. I was previously using Hyper Cache but W3 Total Cache does much more – it lets you minify scripts, cache database queries, add expiry headers to static images and more.
• 404 Email Notifier – This sends you an email notification as soon as a visitor lands on a 404 page on your WordPress website. The email messages have details about the visitor’s IP address, what browser they are using and the referral URL that led him to that broken link.
• SlideShare – This helps you easily embed SlideShare presentations in blog posts with the help of short codes – see samples. Update: This maybe optional as WordPress core itself supports SlideShare embeds through oEmbed.
• Smart YouTube – This lets you embed YouTube videos in blog posts using standing video URLs and the embedded player can be customized. It adds a thumbnail of the embedded video in the RSS feed and the same plug-in can also be used to embed videos from Facebook and Vimeo.
• YARRP – The related posts plug-in adds links to old stories that may be contextually related to the content of the current article. It also helps expose your archived content to search bots.
• WP Optimize – Use the WP Optimize plugin to clean-up your WordPress database tables. It can remove post revisions, trash spam comments and also optimize your MySQL tables so that it works more efficiently and also consumes less space.
• Adminer – This will help you manage your MySQL databases from the WordPress dashboard itself. You can run SQL queries, browse tables or perform database optimization. Less complicated than phpMyAdmin.
• Authenticator – Enable 2-step authentication for your WordPress blog, similar to Dropbox or your Gmail account. Authy is also a good alternative for enabling 2-factor authentication in WordPress.
• WP-DBManager – This plugin will help you backup your WordPress database manually or you can set up a scheduled job for automatic backup and the database files will be sent to your email address at set intervals. Advanced users can use WP-DBManager to run SQL queries against their WordPress database without the phpMyAdmin tool. There are other plugins that can save backups to Amazon S3 and Dropbox.
• Debug Queries – Is your blog slow? Use the Debug Queries plugin plugin to determine which MySQL queries are taking more time to execute and thus slowing down the blog.Debug Bar is another related plugin org that shows PHP warnings, queries and other helpful debugging information in the WordPress admin bar.
• P3 Profiler – Use the profiler plugin to figure out which WordPress plugins are slowing down yor website. It generates a pie chart detailing the time it takes to run each plugin while loading the various pages of your site.
• Auto Post Thumbnail – WordPress added support for Post Thumbnail Images in WordPress 2.9 but if you have been using WordPress for long, thumbnails may not be associated with your old posts. Use the Auto Post thumbnail plugin to automatically generate thumbnails for such posts using the first image found in the post content.
• Regenerate Thumbnails – When you change the default size (height and width) of post thumbnails (or featured images) on your blog, you can use this plugin to regenerate thumbnails with the new dimensions.
• Google XML Sitemaps – Since you want Google and other search engines to know about each and every page of your WordPress website, you need an XML sitemap and this plug-in lets you generate one in a click.
• XML Video Sitemap – The plugin generates an XML Sitemap for your WordPress blog with all the YouTube videos that are embedded in your blog posts. I am also using XML Sitemap for Images and XML Sitemap for Mobile.
• Date in a Nice Tone – This plugin offers an alternate way to display dates in your blog posts. It displays the amount of time – like “a few days ago,” or “in the last month,” or “over a year ago” – that has passed since a post or page was published.
• SyntaxHighlighter Evolved – If you regularly embed code snippets in your WordPress blog posts, this plugin will help you highlight the syntax of the source code in different colors for more comfortable reading. Supports all popular programming languages.
• Pubsubhubbub – This will help you beat content scrapers using Fat Pings. When you publish a blog post, it will instantly ping Google and that is a strong signal to the search engine that you are the original author.
• Bing 404 – If someone lands on a 404 page for which redirection is not yet enabled, this plug-in will display links to relevant article on the error page. For example, a 404 page likelabnol.org/googledocs will have links to my Google Docs articles.
• WP-Associatizer – This plug-in will automatically rewrite any Amazon URLs in your posts to use your Amazon Associates ID.
• Template Tag SC – WordPress offers numerous template tags – like wp_list_pages() or wp_tag_cloud() – that you can use in your theme files. The plugin will help you insert the sam template tags directly in your blog posts or pages using Short Codes.
• Limit Login Attempts – It logs the IP address and the exact date & time when a user is trying to log into your WordPress and also keeps track of unsuccessful login attempts. You can automatically lock out users after they have made ‘n’ unsuccessful login attempts.
• CF Shortcode – This helps you insert custom fields inside your WordPress posts using the visual editor. This comes extremely handy when you want to add custom JavaScript inside your WordPress posts.
• Advanced Excerpt – The post excerpts in WordPress are fixed at 55 words and often displayed with [...] ellipsis at the end. This plugin lets you to specify a custom length of excerpts, you can get rid of the ellipsis and the excerpts can be configured to have full sentences so that there are no weird cuts.
• Threat Scan – If you are every notic any suspicious activity on your WordPress site, use the Threat Scan plugin to automatically scan your PHP files and your WordPress databse for any malicious code that may have been injected through the backdoor.
• Nice Search – This creates neat permalinks for your WordPress search pages. For instance, /?s=wordpress%20plugins will be redirected to /search/wordpress+plugins.
• AssetsMinify – Google’s Page Speed guidelines suggest that the best way to make your web page more responsive is to minimize the number of files that must be downloaded when the page is loaded. You can use the Minify plugin to combine and compress all the JavaScript and CSS files and make your website faster.
• Options Optimizer – As you install plugins, new entries are added to the wp_options table. When plugins are uninstalled they are supposed to clean up their options but some may skip that part eating memory. The Optimizer plugin will help you get rid of these orphaned entries.
• File Monitor – The plugin will monitor your WordPress installation folder and will send email alerts when any file is added, deleted or modified on your server. Use this with Senitelfor complete peace of mind.
• Quick AdSense – While the title is AdSense, this plugin can be used to insert JavaScript based ads from any network anywhere on your blog pages including middle of the content. This can also be used for serving responsive Google Ads.
• CodePress Admin – The Posts screen inside your WordPress dashboard display the post name, category, tags but with CodePress, you can add new columns to the view displaying meta data associated with the posts. For instance, you may show featured images next to the post title or even the value of a particular custom field.
• Site Monitoring with Google Docs – This isn’t a WordPress plugin but should be a part of your WordPress arsenal. When the site goes down, you will get an instant email notification and an SMS alert through Google Docs.

The 101 Most Useful Websites

ere are the 101 most useful websites. An expanded and annotated version of this list is now available as an ebook.

The Most Useful Websites and Web Apps

The sites mentioned here, well most of them, solve at least one problem really well and they all have simple web addresses (URLs) that you can easily learn by heart thus saving you a trip to Google.

01. screenr.com – record movies of your desktop and send them straight to YouTube.
02. ctrlq.org/screenshots – for capturing screenshots of web pages on mobile and desktops.
03. goo.gl – shorten long URLs and convert URLs into QR codes.
04. unfurlr.come – find the original URL that’s hiding behind a short URL.
05. qClock – find the local time of a city using a Google Map.
06. copypastecharacter.com – copy special characters that aren’t on your keyboard.
07. postpost.com – a better search engine for twitter.
08. lovelycharts.com – create flowcharts, network diagrams, sitemaps, etc.
09. iconfinder.com – the best place to find icons of all sizes.
10. office.com – download templates, clipart and images for your Office documents.
11. followupthen.com – the easiest way to setup email reminders.
12. jotti.org – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses.
13. wolframalpha.com – gets answers directly without searching   – see more wolfram tips.
14. printwhatyoulike.com – print web pages without the clutter.
15. joliprint.com – reformats news articles and blog content as a newspaper.
16. ctrql.org/rss – a search engine for RSS feeds.
17. e.ggtimer.com – a simple online timer for your daily needs.
18. coralcdn.org – if a site is down due to heavy traffic, try accessing it through coral CDN.
19. random.org – pick random numbers, flip coins, and more.
20. pdfescape.com – lets you can quickly edit PDFs in the browser itself.
21. viewer.zoho.com – Preview PDFs and Presentations directly in the browser.
22. tubemogul.com – simultaneously upload videos to YouTube and other video sites.
23. dabbleboard.com – your virtual whiteboard.
24. scr.im – share you email address online without worrying about spam.
25. spypig.com – now get read receipts for your email.
26. sizeasy.com – visualize and compare the size of any product.
27. myfonts.com/WhatTheFont – quickly determine the font name from an image.
28. google.com/webfonts – a good collection of open source fonts.
29. regex.info – find data hidden in your photographs – see more EXIF tools.
30. livestream.com – broadcast events live over the web, including your desktop screen.
31. iwantmyname.com – helps you search domains across all TLDs.
32. homestyler.com – design from scratch or re-model your home in 3d.
33. join.me – share you screen with anyone over the web.
34. onlineocr.net – recognize text from scanned PDFs – see other OCR tools.
35. flightstats.com – Track flight status at airports worldwide.
36. wetransfer.com – for sharing really big files online.
37. hundredzeros.com – best-sellers that are currently free. More ways to download free Kindle books.
38. polishmywriting.com – check your writing for spelling or grammatical errors.
39. marker.to – easily highlight the important parts of a web page for sharing.
40. typewith.me – work on the same document with multiple people.
41. whichdateworks.com – planning an event? find a date that works for all.
42. everytimezone.com – a less confusing view of the world time zones.
43. gtmetrix.com – the perfect tool for measuring your site performance online.
44. noteflight.com – print music sheets, write your own music online (review).
45. imo.im – chat with your buddies on Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, etc. from one place.
46. translate.google.com – translate web pages, PDFs and Office documents.
47. kleki.com – create paintings and sketches with a wide variety of brushes.
48. similarsites.com – discover new sites that are similar to what you like already.
49. wordle.net – quick summarize long pieces of text with tag clouds.
50. bubbl.us – create mind-maps, brainstorm ideas in the browser.
51. kuler.adobe.com – get color ideas, also extract colors from photographs.
52. liveshare.com – share your photos in an album instantly.
53. lmgtfy.com – when your friends are too lazy to use Google on their own.
54. midomi.com – when you need to find the name of a song.
55. bing.com/images – automatically find perfectly-sized wallpapers for mobiles.
56. faxzero.com – send an online fax for free – see more fax services.
57. feedmyinbox.com – get RSS feeds as an email newsletter.
58. ge.tt – quickly send a file to someone, they can even preview it before downloading.
59. pipebytes.com – transfer files of any size without uploading to a third-party server.
60. tinychat.com – setup a private chat room in micro-seconds.
61. privnote.com – create text notes that will self-destruct after being read.
62. boxoh.com – track the status of any shipment on Google Maps – alternative.
63. chipin.com – when you need to raise funds online for an event or a cause.
64. downforeveryoneorjustme.com – find if your favorite website is offline or not?
65. ewhois.com – find the other websites of a person with reverse Analytics lookup.
66. whoishostingthis.com – find the web host of any website.
67. google.com/history – found something on Google but can’t remember it now?
68. aviary.com/myna – an online audio editor that lets record, and remix audio clips online.
69. disposablewebpage.com – create a temporary web page that self-destruct.
70. urbandictionary.com – find definitions of slangs and informal words.
71. seatguru.com – consult this site before choosing a seat for your next flight.
72. sxc.hu – download stock images absolutely free.
73. zoom.it – view very high-resolution images in your browser without scrolling.
74. scribblemaps.com – create custom Google Maps easily.
75. alertful.com – quickly setup email reminders for important events.
76. picmonkey.com – Picnik is offline but PicMonkey is an even better image editor.
77. formspring.me – you can ask or answer personal questions here.
78. sumopaint.com – an excellent layer-based online image editor.
79. snopes.com – find if that email offer you received is real or just another scam.
80. typingweb.com – master touch-typing with these practice sessions.
81. mailvu.com – send video emails to anyone using your web cam.
82. timerime.com – create timelines with audio, video and images.
83. stupeflix.com – make a movie out of your images, audio and video clips.
84. safeweb.norton.com – check the trust level of any website.
85. teuxdeux.com – a beautiful to-do app that looks like your paper dairy.
86. deadurl.com – you’ll need this when your bookmarked web pages are deleted.
87. minutes.io – quickly capture effective notes during meetings.
88. youtube.com/leanback – Watch YouTube channels in TV mode.
89. youtube.com/disco – quickly create a video playlist of your favorite artist.
90. talltweets.com – Send tweets longer than 140 characters.
91. pancake.io – create a free and simple website using your Dropbox account.
92. builtwith.com – find the technology stack of any website.
93. woorank.com – research a website from the SEO perspective.
94. mixlr.com – broadcast live audio over the web.
95. radbox.me – bookmark online videos and watch them later (review).
96. tagmydoc.com – add QR codes to your documents and presentations (review).
97. notes.io – the easiest way to write short text notes in the browser.
98. ctrlq.org/html-mail – send rich-text mails to anyone, anonymously.
99. fiverr.com – hire people to do little things for $5.
100. otixo.com – easily manage your online files on Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.
101. ifttt.com – create a connection between all your online accounts.

Book: The Most Useful Websites

The Most Useful Websites book offers a collection of 150+ undiscovered and incredibly useful websites to enhance your productivity.
You can enjoy my book on your Windows PC, Mac, Phone or Tablet without requiring a Kindle.

Changelog and Updates

The following websites were part of the original list that I published in December, 2010. Unfortunately, these sites are either no longer available or have been replaced with better alternatives.

01. virustotal.com – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses.
02. isnsfw.com – when you wish to share a NSFW page but with a warning.
03. truveo.com – the best place for searching web videos.
04. tabbloid.com – your favorite blogs delivered as PDFs.
05. warrick.cs.odu.edu – you’ll need this when your bookmarked web pages are deleted.
06. tempalias.com – generate temporary email aliases, better than disposable email.
07. whisperbot.com – send an email without using your own account.
08. errorlevelanalysis.com – find whether a photo is real or a photoshopped one.
09. google.com/dictionary – get word meanings, pronunciations and usage examples.
10. wobzip.org – unzip your compressed files online.
11. namemytune.com – when you need to find the name of a song.
12. snapask.com – use email on your phone to find sports scores, read Wikipedia, etc.
13. pastebin.com – the site has been blocked in India.
14. encrypted.google.com – Google now redirects all logged-in users to the https version of google.com by default so this is no longer necessary.
15. bounceapp.com – replace this with a version that works on mobile.

How to create A Huge File

You can create a file of any size using nothing more than what’s supplied with Windows. Start by converting the desired file size into hexadecimal notation. You can use the Windows Calculator in Scientific mode do to this.

Suppose you want a file of 1 million bytes. Enter 1000000 in the calculator and click on the Hex option to convert it (1 million in hex is F4240.) Pad the result with zeroes at the left until the file size reaches eight digits—000F4240.

1. Now open a command prompt window.
2. Enter the command DEBUG BIGFILE.DAT (replace the name of the file as you want) and ignore the File not found message.
3. Type RCX and press Enter. Debug will display a colon prompt. Enter the last four digits of the hexadecimal number you calculated (4240, in our example).
4. Type RBX and press Enter, then enter the first four digits of the hexadecimal size (000F, in our example).
5. Enter W for Write and Q for Quit.

You’ve just created a 1-million-byte file using Debug. Of course you can create a file of any desired size using the same technique.

Who is Still Using Windows XP, and Why?

The launch of Windows 8 is on the horizon, releasing later this year. Microsoft assures us the user experience with their new OS will be better than ever before, however; would it surprise you to learn that more than 3 out of every 10 PC users are still using Windows XP, an OS that is a full decade old? It’s true, and here’s why.

The Prodigal Software

Following in the footsteps of Windows 98 and 2000, which each had their share of issues, XP was hailed as being the most stable and easy-to-use product Microsoft had put out since Windows 95. In the five years between XP’s release and Vista’s, it lived up to its hype through regular and convenient software updates.
If It Ain’t Broke…

As both home and business users became used to XP, it became less and less likely that any significant improvements could be made with new software. This was reflected in the widespread release of office technology that was compatible with XP. The more invested corporations and individuals alike became in its use, the harder it would be to convince anyone a shift was worthwhile.
 

Vista Backlash

The only criticisms many had for XP were security issues. Microsoft promised a serious security upgrade with Vista, and for the most part, they delivered. But after word got out about the incorporation of intrusive DRM technologies, the higher system requirements, and the incompatibility issues with pre-Vista hardware and software, adoption was extremely reluctant. Many never “upgraded” at all, and for those that did, it was once bitten, twice shy.
Time to Change

Windows 7 resolves nearly all of the problems with Vista, but there’s a lot of work to be done to convince XP users to make the switch. XP has become expensive to maintain compared with upgrading to 7, however, and this may be the driving force behind a shift in the market. Another factor will be Microsoft’s removal of support for XP, including security updates and hotfixes, in April 2014. Anyone who relies on a computer knows how important it is to stay current when it comes to potential security problems.

In the tech world, you can’t stay behind for long, and many who mistrust Windows 7 will likely change their tune once they give it a shot. Hopefully the transition will be more painless than it has in the past!

How to Crack the Account Password on Any Operating System

Computer passwords are like locks on doors – they keep honest people honest. If someone wishes to gain access to your laptop or computer, a simple login password will not stop them. Most computer users do not realize how simple it is to access the login password for a computer, and end up leaving vulnerable data on their computer, unencrypted and easy to access.

Are you curious how easy it is for someone to gain access to your computer? If so, read on to see the technique one might use to figure out your computer password.

Windows 

Windows is still the most popular operating system, and the method used to discover the login password is 

the easiest. The program used is called Ophcrack, and it is free. Ophcrack is based on Slackware, and uses rainbow tables to solve passwords up to 14 characters in length. The time required to solve a password? Generally 10 seconds. The expertise needed? None.

Simply download the Ophcrack ISO and burn it to a CD (or load it onto a USB drive via UNetbootin). Insert the CD into a machine you would like to gain access to, then press and hold the power button until the computer shuts down. Turn the computer back on and enter BIOS at startup. Change the boot sequence to CD before HDD, then save and exit.

The computer will restart and Ophcrack will be loaded. Sit back and watch as it does all the work for your. Write down the password it gives you, remove the disc, restart the computer, and log in as if it were you own machine.

Mac

The second most popular operating system, OS X is no safer when it comes to password cracking then Windows.

The easiest method would be to use Ophcrack on this, also, as it works with Mac and Linux in addition to Windows. However, there are other methods that can be used, as demonstrated below.

If the Mac runs OS X 10.4, then you only need the installation CD. Insert it into the computer, reboot. When it starts up, select UTILITIES > RESET PASSWORD. Choose a new password and then use that to log in.

If the Mac runs OS X 10.5, restart the computer and press COMMAND + S. When at the prompt, type:

fsck -fy

mount -uw /

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

dscl . -passwd /Users/UserName newpassword

That’s it. Now that the password is reset, you can login.

Linux

Finally, there is Linux, an operating system quickly gaining popularity in mainstream, but not so common you’re likely to come across it. Though Mac and Linux are both based on Unix, it is easier to change the password in Linux than it is OS X.

To change the password, turn on the computer and press the ESC key when GRUB appears. Scroll down and highlight ‘Recovery Mode’ and press the ‘B’ key; this will cause you to enter ‘Single User Mode’.

You’re now at the prompt, and logged in as ‘root’ by default. Type ‘passwd’ and then choose a new password. This will change the root password to whatever you enter. If you’re interested in only gaining access to a single account on the system, however, then type ‘passwd username’ replacing ‘username’ with the login name for the account you would like to alter the password for.

Conclusion

There you have it – that is how simple it is for someone to hack your password. It requires no technical skills, no laborious tasks, only simple words or programs. The moral of the story? Encrypt your data to keep it safe. Don’t use only a password, but actually encryption, such as Blowfish or AES-128. There are a number of programs that can do this – TrueCrypt for Windows, or the native encryption found on Ubuntu, creating a disk image in Mac, etc.

Hibernate - Enable or Disable (restore or delete the hiberfil.sys file)

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable hibernate and restore or delete the hiberfil.sys file inWindows 7 and Windows 8.

When hibernate is disabled, the Hibernate option is missing from the Start Menu (Windows 7 only), Shut Down Windows dialog, Power menu (Windows 8 only) and the Advanced Power Plan Options.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

Note

By default, the size of the hidden protected OS hibernation file (C:\hiberfil.sys) is 75% of the total amount of installed RAM on your computer.


Tip

You can set your computer to either use or not use the Hybrid or Hibernate sleep mode option from the Advanced Power Plan Options.
In Windows 7, you will only see Hibernate listed in the Start Menu power button arrow menu if you have Hybrid turned off in the Advanced Power Plan Options.

OPTION ONE 

To Enable or Disable Hibernate in a Elevated Command Prompt

1. To Enable Hibernate
NOTE: This step will restore the hiberfil.sys file, and the Allow hybrid sleep and Hibernate after Power Options underSleep.
A) Open a Elevated Command Prompt.

B) In the elevated command prompt, type powercfg -h on and press Enter.

C) Close the elevated command prompt.

D) If you would also like to have hibernate turned on, then you will also need do to step 2 in OPTION FOUR below.

2. To Disable Hibernate
NOTE: This step will disable hibernation, delete the hiberfil.sys file, and remove the Allow hybrid sleep and Hibernate afterPower Options under Sleep. This will also disable fast startup in Windows 8.


1. Open a Elevated Command Prompt.

2. In the elevated command prompt, type powercfg -h off and press Enter.

3. Close the elevated command prompt.


OPTION TWO 

To Enable or Disable Hibernate in Registry Editor
1. Open the Start Menu, type regedit in the search box, and press Enter.

2. In regedit, navigate to the location below.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power

3. In the right pane of the Power key, double click/tap on HibernateEnabled, and do step 4 or 5 below for what you would like to do.

4. To Enable Hibernate

NOTE: This step will restore the hiberfil.sys file, and the Allow hybrid sleep and Hibernate after Power Options underSleep.

A) Type in 1, and click/tap on OK.

B) Go to step 6.

5. To Disable Hibernate

NOTE: This step will disable hibernation, delete the hiberfil.sys file, and remove the Allow hybrid sleep and Hibernate afterPower Options under Sleep. This will also disable fast startup in Windows 8.

A) Type in 0 (zero), and click/tap on OK.

B) Go to step 6.

6. Close regedit, and restart the computer to apply the changes.

7. If you would also like to have hibernate turned on, then you will also need do to step 2 in OPTION FOUR below.


OPTION THREE

To Turn Hibernate On or Off in Power Options


NOTE: This option does not disable hibernate, but only turns it on or off for your power plan.

1. Do either step 2 or 3 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Turn On Hibernate

NOTE: You could also use a hibernate shortcut to manually put the computer into hibernation instead or in addition to this option.

A) If you have not already, then you will need to enable hibernate using either OPTION ONE, OPTION TWO, orOPTION THREE above first.

B) Open the Advanced Power Plan Settings for your power plan, then expand Sleep.

C) Under Hibernate after, set the Setting (Minutes) to how many minutes you want your computer to sit idle for before it goes into hibernation.

D) Go to step 4.

3. To Turn Off Hibernate 

NOTE: If you disabled hibernate using OPTION 1, 2, or 3 above, then there's no need to do this since Hibernate after andAllow hybrid sleep will no longer be listed in your power options.
A) Open the Advanced Power Plan Settings for your power plan, and expand Sleep.

B) Under Hibernate after, set the Setting (Minutes) to Never.

C) Under Allow hybrid sleep, set Setting to Off.

D) Go to step 4.
4. When finished, click/tap on OK.

That's it.

All about installing and Configuring WordPress

WordPress is perhaps the best free, open-source blogging script, provided with the ultimate flexibility of using your own server and domain name, without the compulsion to display any credits/links.

WordPress is the most widely used blogging software, powering more than 70 million blogs.

All right Sparky, let’s install WordPress

It must be installed on a web hosting server. For the fastest possible install, I recommend using paid hosting as you simply click on a button (usually in CPanel->Fantastico) to get it running.
The above is the easy way of installing WordPress and having a blog ready in 5 minutes.
If you like to install your blog manually (which is recommended for experienced users), follow the simple steps:

1. Get domain name and hosting
   Hosting providers can be easily found from the wordpress.org website’s recommended list. Most hosting providers will give away a free domain, or you can buy one from name.com, godaddy, bigrock, etc.
2. Access the cPanel or other management utility on your hosting account.
3. Create MySQL database
• Click on MySQL Databases, click Create New Database (name it anything you like, note it down)
• Create a new user and assign all permissions to this user on the previous database. Note the name of user as well.
4. Access the file manager or use FTP.
• Download the latest wordpress installation zip from wordpress.org
• Upload it to your server through the file manager.
• Unzip it in the directory “public_html”, or if you are more experienced and know what you are doing, chose any directory you like.
• IF you used FTP, you’ll need to upload the unzipped files.
5. Go to http://your-domain/ or if you chose a custom directory while extracting, go to that path.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions.
• When asked for MySQL database name and user name, enter what you noted earlier.
• For MySQL server, enter localhost (this will work in 99.9% cases. If not ask your hosting company for this)
• Choose the admin accounts username and password.
• DO NOT CHOOSE “admin” as the username (this makes it easiest to hack into your blog)
• Choose a title for your blog, a description, a valid email, and make sure to tick on make my blog visible on search engines (obviously, if you intend to do so)
7. Go to the settings menu and make sure all settings are according to your preferences.
• Create a Backup User User With Administrative Privilege
  Though not necessary, it is recommended to create a new user so that just in case someone thinking himself to be smart tries to compromise your blog, you can gain it again.
• Change Blog Title & Tag Line (if you didn’t do this earlier)
  Your blog is not “just another wordpress blog”. Make it unique and give it a nice title and tag line, so that people visit it more than a single time. To do that go to Settings -> General and update the information there.
• Disable Option For Anyone To Register
  Unless you want people to register and spam your site, you do not require this feature, go to Settings –> General and uncheck the checkbox next to “Anyone Can Register” and save it.
  If you want to make an interactive blog, with comments, and don’t want to moderate loads of spam, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND using disqus commenting system (don’t worry, it’s all free and takes seconds to setup. Just search for disqus in Plugins->add New->Search)
• Setup your Timezone, Date & Time Format
  On the general settings page, setup the timezone for your country and change the date & time format that you’re most comfortable with (I like dd/mm/yyyy).
• Configure Writing  Settings
  Go to Options –> Writing and configure how you want the write panel to display, and also other options related to converting content and correcting improper HTML in the post to be XHTML valid (recommended if you have a habit of copying html content from other websites).
• Remote Publishing
  If you plan to publish posts from a client like word or any other external editor, you will have to enable remote publishing, without which you will not be able to publish using a external tool or device.
  If you want to blog using email, you can also set that up on this page.
• Add Ping Servers
  Whenever you publish a new post, people will not have dreams of you posting it. Luckily, WordPress allows bloggers to automatically ping loads of services whenever you publish a post.
  In the Settings –> Writing options page you can enter a list of Update services WordPress needs to ping when you write a new post.
  
  
• Setup Reading Options

By default WordPress will show the latest posts on the home page, however you can also show a static page instead of it (recommended if blog is your home page), to change this go to Settings –> Reading and change the default page that should be shown when someone visits your website/blog.

You can also change the number of posts that will be displayed on each page of your blog and the number of posts that should be shown in the RSS feeds.

You can also set whether to show full or partial content in feeds, I suggest you keep it as partial content. (as full content is easy to be scraped by content scrapers)

• Commenting, Trackbacks, Pinging & More

Whenever you write a new post for your blog, your post may include a link to another site. WordPress provides you with an option to automatically notify the other blog in the form of a trackback or pingback.
Similarly, other blogs may link to you and decide to notify your bolg. In this case WordPress has the ability to provide to send you trackbacks & pingbacks.
If you do not want this functionality,  you can go to Settings –> Discussions and disable it.

You can also customize if you want to allow other users to comment on your posts, the criteria for allowing users to comment on your posts and so on.
The avatars displayed for  commentators/you can also be changed on this page.

• Setup Media Options For Images
  Whenever you upload a image to your blog, WordPress will re-size and display it accordingly, if you want to change the size of the thumbnails you can go to Settings –> Media.
• Permalinks
  It is a wonder full feature of WordPress  it allows users to setup how the URL for your blog posts should look like. Optimized permalinks settings are really good for SEO.
  In addition to the available templates, you can also setup custom permalinks by using tags. An exhaustive list can be found on wordpress.org
7. That’s it. Go to Posts->Add new and get rollin!  (You may want to remove the sample post and sample page wordpress includes for testing)