Pat Walsh IT Services

WordPress theme demos – Pinboard, AutoFocus and MYgRID2

Pat Walsh — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:56:18 +0000

I recently added some live demos of WordPress themes to my website, so you can see them in action.

Currently, there are demos for the following themes:

Pinboard – ideal theme for presenting graphical content, such as product photos, images, designs etc
AutoFocus – demo of the original, free version of the AutoFocus theme, good for photobloggers
MYgRID2 – another theme great for displaying images, in a minimalist grid style

You can also see screenshots for these demos below and also on the page for my WordPress Website All In One package.

I aim to add some more theme demos to the site, perhaps with themes in differing styles to these first three.

My WordPress Theme Demos

Pinboard Theme Demo

MYgRID2 Theme Demo

AutoFocus Theme Demo

Update on Apple / Mountain Lion wifi issues

Pat Walsh — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:20:53 +0000

One of the Apple Support Communities pages I am subscribed to is all about the ‘wifi dropping’ issue people have had when updating to Mountain Lion. This has now reached its 14th page and new issues are added almost daily.

I found that the wifi dropping/connection issues went away when I followed Apple’s recommended settings for Wifi on iOS and OSX. The main thing to improve the situation was changing the security to WPA2.

Wifi Troubleshooting Software

As wifi constantly seems to be a problem – eg signal strength, interference and dropout – I have been searching for software which allows you to check what wifi traffic there is in your location. Up to now, I haven’t found anything useful, but I then read in an IT World article about software called inSSIDer – which is the exact thing I was looking for.

It’s well worth installing to see what wifi traffic there is in your area and what may be causing wifi issues. You can check each wifi channel to see how many other wifi networks are using it – and probably clogging it up – and then perhaps make changes to your wifi setup to try and fix the issues. It also shows you its rating of your connection, in terms of a Link Score – the higher the better.

There are versions available for Windows, Mac and Android.

Top 10 iOS Apps for Business On The Move

Pat Walsh — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:10:46 +0000

This is a personal list of the Top 10 iOS Apps I have found most useful for business, when out and about and on the move, travelling to/from meetings, events, training sessions etc. This includes emails, website stats, travel information, event information, project communications and much more. Every person asked would probably have a different Top 10, but some of these apps would probably feature across most people’s Top 10.

Putting this Top 10 together, I’ve noticed that it’s mainly Apps which allow quick and easy access to information and accounts usually accessed via websites.

1 Mail

Apple’s own Mail App has proved vital when out and about attending business meetings and events, allowing me to keep up with the stream of emails coming into my business Inbox and personal Inbox.

2 Basecamp

Basecamp is a project management, online collaboration and communications platform. Using the Basecamp app allows you to keep in touch with the latest developments on projects you’re involved in. You can access multiple Basecamp accounts if you have them, switching between them as required.

3 Dropbox

Having access to important documents is vital – whether you want to re-read some meeting notes you’ve prepared, read some documentation on the company you’re visiting or read the notes on the event you’re attending.

Dropbox seems to be able to read every type of document I store on it, including PDF, DOCX and XLSX.

One of the most useful features is being able to favourite documents so they can be accessed even when no net connection is available. This is achieved by storing them on your device and you can set the storage limit for this feature.

4 Maps/Google Maps/Citymapper

There isn’t a clear winner for me yet out of these different Apps. I’ve mostly used Apple’s Maps and Google Maps with differing degrees of success. Therefore, I’m going to try out Citymapper and see how it performs when needed. It has the advantage of not just being a Maps App, but also shows you how to get from A to B, plus also easy access to travel information.

5 Fast Analytics

This App is an excellent way of keeping track of your website stats / Google Analytics figures. It allows quick and easy access to stats for Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days and Last Year. You can view a Dashboard to get an overall view, or drill down into the detail to see the Source of visits, the Content visited, the Keywords used to find it, Browser used, Country visited from and Engagement.

6 Zoho CRM

The Zoho CRM App allows easy access to your Zoho CRM info – such as Contacts, Accounts and Events. The App itself is free to download, but you need to pay a small subscription each month (currently $3) in order to access the data.

7 National Rail & London Tube Status

These Apps provide quick and easy access to train and tube information, which is is vital when using them to get about from A to B.

The National Rail App used to be a paid app but is now free. You can easily access train times and the Journey Planner is a useful and fairly quick way of accessing train times and information.

The London Tube Status App is free and a great way to quickly check the status of the Tube lines, showing them all on one status page. A green tick shows you the Tube line is running ok, whereas any problems can be checked by pressing the relevant Tube line name for more info.

8 Eventbrite

This App allows easy access to your Eventbrite account, so you can keep track of which events you’ve booked up to attend. It also allows you to Find Events based on location (‘View events near you’) or time (‘Find an event tonight’). The ‘My Ticket’ area lets you see which events you’ve booked and shows details such as Date and Time and Location, with a Map. Some Events will allow you entry by showing your Ticket on your phone, whereas some may require a print of your booking.

9 Twitter

This is a fairly essential App if you’re maintaining one or more Twitter accounts for your business. It allows you to keep up with the latest Tweets and post your own Tweets. It has to be said though, its not the greatest App and I always experience a long delay when starting it up, usually about 4-8 seconds. One of the best features of the App is the ability to switch between Twitter accounts easily.

10 MailChimp

This App allows you to easily access the latest stats on your Email Marketing campaigns performed using MailChimp.

News: April 15 2013 – WordPress website botnet attacks reported

Pat Walsh — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:45:05 +0000

According to a news item on the BBC website and as mentioned elsewhere, there’s apparently a series of botnet attacks on WordPress websites.

The botnets are attempting to use the username admin – a default username in WordPress – and a series of password guesses to access sites.

What WordPress websites are at risk of botnet attacks?

Those which have a username of admin with administrator settings AND which have a weak password.

Quick and Dirty Fix to WordPress website botnet attacks

The quick and dirty fix is to change the password of the admin user from a weak password to a strong password – using a mix of letters, numbers and other characters should achieve this.

Full Solution to WordPress website botnet attacks

This involves creating a new user to use as site administrator and then carefully deleting the admin user.
I’d suggest exporting your content before doing this – just to be on the safe side – using Dashboard/Tools/Export.
Create a new user with a strong password – it will tell you the strength as you type the password – and set the role as Administrator.
Make sure you either know the password for this user or make a note of it.
If already logged in as admin, log out and log in with this new user.
CAUTION: Delete the admin user – making sure you ‘Attribute all posts to’ the new user first – otherwise you’ll lose your posts.
The users list will then show the updated list of users, including the new user you created and no admin user.

News: April 9 2013 – iOS 7 Concept Video

Pat Walsh — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:03:58 +0000

This isn’t so much News as speculation, but there have been a few iOS 7 Concept Videos recently. One of the best ones was created by designer F. Bianco and reported on TUAW.com and also on the Huffington Post website.

News: 2 April 2013 – Downloads added to site

Pat Walsh — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:28:23 +0000

I’ve recently added a Downloads section to the site (under Resources menu) from where you can download a selection of documents including Quick Guides and Glossaries. These are downloadable versions (PDF) of content I recently added to the site.

In order to download the PDF docs, you just need to supply your Name and Email Address. You can also decide whether to subscribe to my email list at the same time.

Downloads – Quick Guides

Downloads – Glossary

Web Usability & SEO Glossary

Download Quick Guide to selecting a WordPress theme for your Business Website

Pat Walsh — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:17:45 +0000

Please complete the small form below to access the Quick Guide to Selecting a WordPress theme for your Business Website PDF download.

Both the ‘Your Name’ and ‘Your Email’ fields are required inputs.
Select also if you’d like to be added to my email list, to receive the occasional email with news on Site Updates, New Services, News Items and similar updates.
Read the site Privacy Policy here.

[contact-form-7]

Download Quick Guide to Web Usability & SEO

Pat Walsh — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:12:35 +0000

Please complete the small form below to access the Quick Guide To: Web Usability & SEO PDF download.

Both the ‘Your Name’ and ‘Your Email’ fields are required inputs.
Select also if you’d like to be added to my email list, to receive the occasional email with news on Site Updates, New Services, News Items and similar updates.
Read the site Privacy Policy here.

[contact-form-7]

Download Quick Guide to Relaunching your WordPress Website with a new theme

Pat Walsh — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:09:56 +0000

Please complete the small form below to access the Quick Guide To: Relaunching your WordPress Website with a new theme PDF download.

Both the ‘Your Name’ and ‘Your Email’ fields are required inputs.
Select also if you’d like to be added to my email list, to receive the occasional email with news on Site Updates, New Services, News Items and similar updates.
Read the site Privacy Policy here.

[contact-form-7]

Download Web Usability & SEO Glossary PDF

Pat Walsh — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:22:47 +0000

Please complete the small form below to access this PDF download.

Both the ‘Your Name’ and ‘Your Email’ fields are required inputs.
Select also if you’d like to be added to my email list, to receive the occasional email with news on Site Updates, New Services, News Items and similar updates.
Read the site Privacy Policy here.

[contact-form-7]