TechyGamer.com » Off Topic

Google search for images updated

The Stanz — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:44:18 +0000

If you've done an image search lately you might have noticed that Google has improved their image search significantly. Some of the new features added allow for refining your search results based on color, type, and size. It appears that they have done away with the "Gooooogle" type page results and opted for a simplified scroll and load approach seems easier and efficient to scan through. Some of these features were already available on Bing unbeknownst to me at the time. Bing may not be the search engine of choice but they are certainly adding some original ideas that even google can appreciate.

-The Stanz

Adding a favicon to your WordPress blog

The Stanz — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:00:51 +0000

If you're like me and have a wordpress blog but do not have a neat little "favicon" for your blog yet - I will point you in the right direction. The process is very simple and can be done in a few minutes.

What is a favicon?
Wikipedia's definition - "A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a website icon, shortcut icon, url icon, or bookmark icon is a 16×16, 32×32 or 64×64 pixel square icon associated with a particular website or webpage."

The purpose of a favicon is used to uniquely identify your website while browsing through bookmarks.

First, before we begin you will need to find an image that you would like to use for you favicon. I simply opened paint and used the letter "TG" and saved the image for a very basic favicon.

Once you have your image, you can use a generator to convert your image to the standard size and format needed for a favicon file. You can use any of generators out there on the web. I used the aptly named "Favicongenerator" which also includes the rest of the steps needed to apply your new favicon, I will list them here for convenience but please read my note at the bottom before proceeding.

Click "Click Here to Download Your Favicon!" above. After downloading, simply upload favicon.ico to your root directory.

Copy and paste the following code to the section of your webpages:

Note: I have found that my particular theme did not need any additional work except placing the favicon in my root directory as well as in the particular theme folder.

-The Stanz

Is your ISP up to par

The Stanz — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:03:21 +0000

Recently I've had to deal with Time Warner technical support trying to diagnose a problem with my internet service. After a few hoop jumps using their automated system I was finally able to obtain communication with a live person. Within a few moments I was able to convince the technical support representative that I had been experiencing what seemed to be packet loss but the problem was intermittent so of course I was asked to call back when I was having the issue which is understandable.

I would only really notice this when engaging in internet heavy activities such as playing online games with my playstation or 360. Since it is impossible to diagnose the connection using either of my gaming consoles, I obviously turned to my PC. First, I know from experience that they will tend to blame my router so I remove that from the equation - then I ran diagnostic testing from my PC using services such as pingtest.net. I noticed a considerable amount of packet-loss, somewhere hovering from 1% to 5%. I immediately contacted technical support and I was transferred to my local technical support representatives, they were able to run testing from their end as well and verified that they had indeed seen a considerable amount of packet-loss as well. Finally they agreed to send a technician out to my location (for what I am not sure) but when that time came I was unfortunately plagued with the flu so I had to cancel. I will be contacting them again this week to reset an appointment but for now I am still dealing with an intermittent poor connection.

Does your ISP stack up well?

Here are my results as of this post: (not bad today)

The Stanz

Off Topic – Flu Season (Vitamin D)

The Stanz — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:57:47 +0000

I, like many others this season, have fallen victim to this year’s strain of the flu. Since I have been bedridden for the last few days, I used that time to educate myself on the illness and the flu in general. This is where I stumbled upon this video. It’s an interesting take on a (I assume) experimental way of treating the flu and/or preventing it. I’m no where near a medical expert or know if the information he is providing is accurate but it’s definitely an interesting video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ycdbSsnAU

-The Stanz