I’ve started a series on how to create a blog aggregator using WordPress at Blogging Fu (I finally got around to doing my first post, whoopee!). As the self-appointed administrator to the first Sabah blog aggregator Giuk.net (OK, not really self-appointed but I got the approval from its domain owner, mrBadak, to be one), one of my responsibilities is to verify each and every application that got through the registration form.

I verify the following manually before adding it to the blog aggregator:

1. A working blog feed: I don’t really care whether it’s a full or summary feed, as long as it’s a legible and well-formatted feed according to the popular standards such as ATOM and RSS.
2. A link back to Giuk.net using the exact HTML codes and keyword link.
3. Some form of content that could indicate to me that the blog owner is definitely a Sabahan.

Matter #3 above drives me crazy. I do a lot of blind-guessing on this one, because:

1. The blog owner may blatantly declare that (s)he is a Sabahan, which I can accept at face value, regardless of the fact that it may be a big, fat lie; or,
2. The blog contains posts with that certain Sabahan flair (e.g. dialect, Sabahan slangs, expressions of the word bah strewn about), which would also convince me, although that can be easily faked; or,
3. The blog owner is someone whom I’ve personally met or know, which rarely happens and is my safest bet in ensuring (s)he qualifies for the aggregator (and which, BTW, would be a good reason for you to turn up for the upcoming Sabah Bloggers Gathering this Hallow’s Eve).

Help me, peoples! What would be a good way to verify that the blog owner claims who (s)he claims (s)he is? Gimme your bright ideas, I beg of you!

Having been impressed with the demo at the recent Microsoft TechNet MSDN Roadshow here in Kota Kinabalu early September, I decided to install the freely-distributed Windows 7 RC installer on my just-repaired Acer Aspire One netbook almost immediately afterwards, and have been installing and testing many software almost non-stop since then.

I’m so psyched that Windows 7 performs as well as, if not better than, Windows XP! Not only were there no hardware and device conflict, but many of the software I used in XP is still compatible with 7! I’ll be honest and admit that there were very very small occasions where I encountered the dreaded BSOD, but those were entirely my fault since I installed certain software *cough virtualization cough* that were not compatible with my CPU, against Microsoft’s and Intel’s warnings, and again those errors were very few and far between.

As a blogger, my main concern was whether I’d still be able to use XAMPP and TortoiseSVN for my WordPress sandbox and plugin development, specifically for the Top Commentators Widget(TCW). Boy, am I glad they work on 7!

The screenshot above shows my Windows 7 desktop with the XAMPPLite program running Apache and MySQL. I’m also re-setting the TCW repository with TortoiseSVN to continue with my WordPress development, specifically the GEDCOM plugin and another plugin which will be simple but surprisingly useful – the latter will also be my first attempt at developing an AJAX-powered app.

So, yeah… I hope this lame excuse is enough of a good reason for the lack of posting in this blog

BTW, I’m typing this post via Windows Live Writer (which is bundled with the free Windows Live Essentials if you’re wondering how to get it). If this program screws up with the formatting, then this will be the last time I’ll be using WLW, otherwise I’ll be sticking to this as long as there are no better decent and free offline blog editor that comes along. I’m currently not using ScribeFire, since Mozilla Minefield doesn’t support it yet (yeah, don’t install FireFox on Windows 7, it’s very unstable).

Hope to do more posts concerning my WordPress plugins and Windows 7 experience soon.

Yep, this is what happens when the wrath of the terrible twos descended upon thou. It used to look like this, looking sweet and pretty and all:

I would like to believe that all hope is not lost. I’ve sent it for repairs yesterday, and am still waiting for a quote from the shop. I’m honestly expecting a price that’s at least half the amount of what it’s bought for.

In the meantime, I’m seriously reconsidering replacing the Number 69 hand grenade that my two-year old son owns (disguised as his milk bottle) to something with a little more padding, maybe a mile thick. Anyone knows where I can get one?

Earning my Microsoft Certified Professional credential in July was a great, great start to the second half of this year (another four exams, and I’m on my way to getting the coveted Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) title!).

All that is not without the expense of over-utilizing this often under-used brain of mine. I now dream of dotted decimals, binaries, subnets, DHCPs and CIDRs and other stuff that hurts my head, without even trying. Plus, the often hot, haze-filled sticky sleepless nights due to my kids getting sick one after another, makes me one cranky and blog-lazy momma.

Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, though, I was able to micro-blog once in a while. So, don’t fret if you don’t see any new posts in this blog. Just keep you eyes on the sidebar on your right for my latest Tweets, or in case you’re wondering if I’m still alive.

Gotta get this blogging gear warmed up and re-started….

I admit that I’m so far off when it comes to social networking sites — I just can’t keep up. So you can’t imagine how crazy I went when, while in my mood to listen to David Foster’s songs, I searched and found a site that’s not only a social networking site, but also a music sharing portal!

Imeem! (I can already hear the guffaws coming out of most of you)

If you haven’t heard of the site, though, then I sympathize with you and understand your plight.

Anyways, the site is filled with all sorts of music you can imagine. You build your playlists from the assortment of songs already in there, then share it out with others in your network. The streamed songs are amazingly fast, and extra options such as linking to your Twitter status makes Imeem fun to use.

But if you just want to download some MP3s, MP3Raid is the place to go. You have the option to purchase and download full albums for darn cheap prices, going for as low as 90 US cents per album. I think that’s an awesome deal. They even accept PayPal, which is very convenient for me and I’m sure is for you, too.

Do you have any free music sites that you know and would like to share with me (the legal ones of course)?