May 25, 2008

How to Remove Your New Blogger Navigation Bar

If you have ever had a blog on Blogger you would have realized that it is very easy to setup, it’s very user-friendly and one more thing, they are self obsessed!

Here I show you how to remove the annoying NavBar, don’t worry about breaking their TOS because it does not state anywhere in the terms that it is a violation.

All you have to do is open the template code (Dashboard > Layout > Edit HTML and paste the following code on the template:

#navbar-iframe {
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none;
}

Save the settings and reload your web page and your Navigation Bar should have vanished!

May 16, 2008

Black Hat Search Engine Optimization

Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:

* breaks search engine rules and regulations.

* creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site.

* unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.

A lot of what is known as black hat SEO actually used to be legit, but some folks went a bit overboard and now these techniques are frowned upon by the general SEO community at large. These black hat SEO practices will actually provide short-term gains in terms of rankings,
but if you are discovered utilizing these spammy techniques on your Web site, you run the risk of being penalized by search engines. Black hat SEO basically is a short-sighted solution to a long-term problem, which is creating a Web site that provides both a great user experience and
all that goes with that.

Black Hat SEO Techniques To Avoid

* *Keyword stuffing:* Packing long lists of keywords and nothing else onto your site will get you penalized eventually by search engines.

* *Invisible text:* This is putting lists of keywords in white text on a white background in hopes of attracting more search engine spiders. Again, not a good way to attract searchers or search engine crawlers.

* *Doorway Pages:* A doorway page is basically a "fake" page that the user will never see. It is purely for search engine spiders, and attempts to trick them into indexing the site higher.

Black Hat SEO is tempting; after all, these tricks actually do work, temporarily. They do end up getting sites higher search rankings; that is, until these same sites get banned for using unethical practices. It's just not worth the risk. Use efficient search engine optimization techniques to get your site ranked higher, and stay away from anything that even looks like Black Hat SEO.

May 10, 2008

A Simple Blogger Tag Cloud Widget

Here's a simple hack for a custom Blogger widget. This is the code for the simple tag cloud. Feel free to copy and modify the source as you see fit. It's a mix of JavaScript and Blogger Code, so it is only functional as a Blogger Widget.

Code:
<b:widget id='TagCloud' locked='false' title='Tags' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:title'>
<h2><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content' style='text-align: justify;'>
<script type="text/javascript">
//Variables:
var max = 150; //max css size (in percent)
var min = 50; //min css size (...)
var showCount = 1; // show counts? 1 for yes
var minCount = 1; // what is the minimum count for a Tag to be shown? 1 for all.

//Begin code:
var range = max - min;

//Build label Array
var labels = new Array();
<b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
labels.push("<data:label.name/>");
</b:loop>

//URLs
var urls = new Array();
<b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
urls.push("<data:label.url/>");
</b:loop>

//Counts
var counts = new Array();
<b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
counts.push("<data:label.count/>");
</b:loop>

//Number sort funtion (high to low)
function sortNumber(a, b)
{
return b - a;
}

//Make an independant copy of counts for sorting
var sorted = counts.slice();

//Find the largest tag count
var most = sorted.sort(sortNumber)[0];

//Begin HTML output
for (x in labels)
{
if(x != "peek" &amp;&amp; x != "forEach" &amp;&amp; counts[x] >= minCount)
{
//Calculate textSize
var textSize = min + Math.floor((counts[x]/most) * range);
//Show counts?
if(showCount == 1)
{
var count = "(" + counts[x] + ")";
}else{
var count = "";
}
//Output
document.write("<span style='font-size:" + textSize + "%'><a href='" + urls[x] + "'>" + labels[x] + count + "</a></span> " );
}
}
</script>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>


Installation:

If you already have a Labels page element installed, skip to step 2.

Step 1: Install the Labels page element by browsing to your template settings:



Click "Add a Page Element" in the column you wish:



Then find the Labels page element and click "Add to Blog":



Step 2: Replace the Labels page element widget code with the custom tag cloud code above.

First navigate to your templates source under your template settings:



Then check off "Expand Widget Templates":



Search for the Label page element you are replacing by searching for widget code. It will look something like this
<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Tags' type='Label'>
but id and title maybe different, so use your browser's search tool and look for type='Label'.

Delete the Label widget code from the start to the end marked by
</b:widget>
and replace with the custom Tag Cloud code from above.


May 2, 2008

How to Enable and Activate Administrator Account in Vista and then Unhide or Show in Welcome Screen

Windows Vista has built-in administrator account that is disabled and hidden by default, just like Windows XP how to show administrator account in XP. But unlike XP where any normal user account designated as Administrators group will have the same privileges as administrator account, in Windows Vista the administrator account is true super user account (equivalent to root in Unix/Linux). One advantage or benefit for using administrator account to login to Vista is admin is not subjected to UAC (User Access Control) restriction.

To activate the administrator account in Vista, follow these guide’s instructions:

1. Logon to Windows Vista with normal user account username and password (must belongs to Administrators group).

2. Click on Vista Start button, and type cmd in the Start Search box.

3. Right click on the Cmd returned on the search results pane above, then select Run as Administrator.

4. In the Command Prompt window, type the following text at the command line to set a password for administrator account. If you want to use a blank password for the Administrator account, skip this step.

net user administrator password

Replace password with the actual password string that you have chosen. Press Enter when done.Note that if your computer is a member of domain controller or has enabled complex password requirement in Local Security Policy, you will have to pick a really hard to remember password mixed with symbols.

5. Next type the following command and press Enter to activate and enable Administrator account:

net user administrator activate:yes.

6. The process should completed with the following message:

The command completed successfully

7. If not success message is returned, repeat the process again.

8. Logout from Vista by choosing Log Off or Switch User.

9. Click on Administrator icon and logon with the password you selected.

May 1, 2008

Unhide the Administrator Account in Windows XP

In every installation of Windows XP there is a built-in and default administrator user account named Administrator, which is equivalent to super user or root in Unix system. However, if you have set up another user account in Windows XP, the Administrator account will be hidden, cloaked and invisible in User Accounts or Computer Management.

To see the Administrator account, you have to boot the Windows in Safe Mode. However, you can modify the Windows registry so that the Administrator account will be shown at Windows XP Welcome screen for you to select, in the Control Panel's User Accounts and in the local user lists in Computer Management.

1. Launch Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList in the
Registry Editor.

3. Double-click the Administrator key in the right pane.

4. If the Administrator key doesn't exist, right-click on the above
tree in the pane, choose New, DWORD Value, name it Administrator and press .

5. Type 1 in the Value data box, and press .

Note: To launch User Accounts in Control Panel, you can go to Control Panel -> User Accounts, or click Start -> Run, and then type Control userpasswords and press Enter.

Once you unhide and reveal the Administrator account, you can change its picture or assign it a password or change the password. In addition, on the next boot to the Welcome screen, the Administrator account will be visible, along with all of the computer's other user accounts.