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Fredric is a web developer based in Chicago who hopes to one day start a foundation to support young, Black males in programming and computer science.

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‘beyonce falls and the world held its breath’ edition : tech news 7/25

July 25th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

beyoncélisted as number 5 of the top search terms in google, apparently the beloved beyoncé fell on her shite the other day while going down some stairs. while i surmise it was probably because of some ridiculous high heels she was wearing, all i can say is that karma sure has a cruel sense of humor. it wasn’t a year ago that good ol’ michelle williams fell during a performance and the other two destiny’s children didn’t even bother to help her up. i’m sure there is a youtube video of it somewhere. updated: video here

dah well. on to the news…

as reported back during the 6/6 tech news post, amp’d mobile is officially going under on july 31st. not much more to say about that. (via engadget)

extremetechalthough it’s probably aimed at novice techie looking to become an intermediate techie, i found this article that details the top 5 tech mistakes that one should avoid. they include:

  1. leaving your wireless network unprotected
  2. failing to update firmware
  3. failing to update drivers
  4. installing memory modules in the wrong slots
  5. failure to provide enough airflow in your computer case

interesting list and a lot of details of how to avoid. number 1 is probably one that everyone should read, at least. number 5 is easily the most sound advice. whether purchasing an external hard drive or custom computer, heat is the enemy of all electronics. make sure that thing is in a cool place with a good fan attached to it, if possible. (via extremetech)

coding horrorspeaking of custom computers, one popular tech blogger has an excellent 4-part write-up on how to build your own pc and how to safely overclock the cpu. for the newbies, overclocking means to tweak the settings of your computer’s brain to make it work faster without buying anything new. his key point, obviously, is doing critical testing and making sure you have the best fans and heatsinks. remember, remember! heat is not your friend. be sure to check out part IV where he has a nice parts list, including where to buy, for the conservative, moderate, and extreme builder. (via coding horror)

There Are 5 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by ybpreader on 25 July 2007:

    I dunno if I agree with #1 on the tech tips list, free wireless has saved me on quite a few occasions!

  2. Comment by Fredric on 25 July 2007:

    actually, surfing on free wireless is pretty unsafe. it’s like being on the computer with a million people looking over your shoulder.

    packet sniffing, a way to intercept the websites you go to, is a widely available and free method for anyone. someone could get your IP and MAC address, pretend to be you, see what websites you visited, and get all the usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information you’ve typed in while being on the internet.

    if you’re going to surf on free wireless, don’t go to personal banking sites, don’t check sensitive email, and clear your cookies and cache. this won’t fully make you safe, but its a start.

  3. Comment by Martin Lindsey on 25 July 2007:

    Fredric, different coding question. Give us WordPress newbies a simple step-thru in four or five steps of how to download a wordpress theme.

    I’ve gotten as far as knowing which directory to send it to but I don’t know how to actually do it. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

  4. Comment by Fredric on 26 July 2007:

    hey martin.

    i would start with this article first to familiarize yourself with the steps.

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes

    the meat of the article is:

    1.) find a theme
    2.) download the zip
    3.) unzip the files on your local machine (a folder will be created)
    4.) ftp the folder to the /wp-content/themes/ directory
    5.) log into your wordpress admin page and go to the ‘presentation’ tab, then ‘theme editor’ sub-tab
    6.) select your theme from the drop-down and presto!

    side note: i’ve been considering networking with other bloggers to host, update, and maintain their blogs to form a network with ybp. would you be interested in something like that?

  5. Comment by Martin Lindsey on 27 July 2007:

    Definitely interested. It would help the technical learning curve immensely and I could focus more time on writing.

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