July 29th, 2010
FeedReader, in my opinion, is the best RSS reader available (and it’s free). I have used it for many years without any problems at all … until recently; I encrypted my hard-drives and everything worked as expected except FeedReader. I was getting an error like ‘internal gds software consistency check (can`t continue after bugcheck)’.
- Image via Wikipedia
I uninstalled and then reinstalled FeedReader however I still received the error messages/popups.
Why the GDS FeedReader Error Occurs
FeedReader uses the Firebird database to house the various settings and information. The most likely cause of the ‘GDS’ error is that the database is corrupt. The solution to the FeedReader error is to repair or replace the SQL database (i.e. the Firebird database).
How to repair FeedReader after the GDS Error
The two options for resolving the FeedReader error are to repair the database or to completely uninstall FeedReader and then reinstall:
Fix the FeedReader Database
FeedReader includes a Backup Utility which, besides backing up and restoring the database, assists with database repair and optimization. The database holds such information as which articles in feeds have been read as well as other settings (it’s therefore preferable to repair the database rather than reinstall the application).
To run the FeedReader Backup Utility:
- Close FeedReader (you may need to go to Task Manager to do this).
- Click the Start button on your taskbar.
- Select All Programs.
- Click the FeedReader folder and select ‘FeedReader Backup Utility’.
- At the least ensure that ‘Fix possible database errors’ is checked however it is thoroughly recommended to ensure that ‘Tidy up database’ and ‘Make backup’ are also selected.
- Click the Details tab and make a note of the ‘Backup file location’.
- Click Start.
If a database repair doesn’t work then it will be necessary to completely uninstall and then reinstall FeedReader.
How to (completely) uninstall and reinstall FeedReader
Unfortunately, the database and/or reference information isn’t removed when FeedReader is uninstalled using the application uninstaller. If wanting to completely uninstall or reinstall FeedReader then all referenced to the database and the database itself need to be deleted.
Follow these steps to have a ‘clean’ install of FeedReader:
- From the Windows control panel, uninstall FeedReader via ‘Program and Features’ or however else you usually uninstall software.
- In Windows Explorer go ‘c:\users\YourLoginName\roaming’ (this location may be different depending on your Windows setup) and delete the FeedReader folder.
- In Windows Explorer go ‘c:\Program Files’ (this location may be different depending on your Windows setup) and delete the FeedReader30 folder.
- Install the latest version of FeedReader.
I certainly hope that this article on how to deal with the Feedreader gds error has helped!
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Tags: Atom, error messages, feedreader, firebird, how to, rss, rss reader, Software, sql database | 
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July 28th, 2010
WordPress.com is hugely popular as a Blog host. Simply put, WordPress.com gives free hosting for Blogs using the latest release of the massively popular WordPress GPL software. For those wanting a Blog with a limited set of options then WordPress.com is an excellent choice. People or organizations requiring their own domain name, integration with other software and a huge amount of configuration and extensibility options then a self-hosted solution using software free to download, install and use from WordPress.org is the answer (WordPress.com does provide some upgrade options for various fees).
To most people and organizations, the software or solution used doesn’t matter much as most are concerned with total cost of ownership, reliability (and quality) and meeting requirements. This is precisely the reason that WordPress has done so well; it is simple to use, is equally reliable and feature packed for individuals’ right to the largest organizations and is very cost effective. To illustrate just how popular WordPress is, some statistics are provided below for WordPress.com (WordPress.org stats are not included in the information below):
WordPress.com Popularity
New WordPress.com Posts per day: 350,000
Total number of WordPress.com Posts: 200,000,000
New Blog comments per day (excluding Spam comments): 400,000
Blogs on WordPress.com: +- 11,500,000 (there are +- 13,800,000 active installations of the WordPress.org software with over 100,000,000 Plugin downloads)
Number of people who visit at least one WordPress.com hosted Blog per month: 260,000,000
Number of WordPress.com hosted Pages viewed per month: 2,000,000,000
Most popular WordPress.com Blog languages: 66% are in English, 8.7% in Spanish, 6.5% in Portuguese and 3.5% in Indonesian.
WordPress.com changes to themes per day: 35,000
Number of Flickr images embedded into a WordPress.com Blog per day: 40,000.
Number of YouTube images embedded into a WordPress.com Blog per day: 50,000.
Number of Photobucket images embedded into a WordPress.com Blog per day: 30,000.
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July 27th, 2010
I have installed WordPress hundreds of times. Besides the very occasional minor non-WordPress issue, the installs have always worked fine. Until yesterday …
New WordPress but CSS gone CRAZY
I had a domain name that forwarded to another but I decided I wanted to create a WordPress powered Site for the domain. I cancelled the forward on Godaddy Domain manager and set the DNS nameservers as the Godaddy recommended servers. I then installed WordPress at the required Godaddy shared hosting folder (this method has always worked fine in the past).
I noticed that when viewing the homepage or the dashboard of the new WordPress install (i.e. http://www.example.com and http://www.example.com/wp-admin) the styling was as if no CSS was evident (the layout, fonts, colours etc. didn’t look ‘right’). I changed the theme but that didn’t help, I reinstalled WordPress and that didn’t help, I changed the DNS nameservers and I spent hours on the Web trying to find a solution. Also the CSS/display problem wasn’t unique to a computer or Browser; the same problem was there with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome and on multiple computers.
A Solution to a WordPress Problem
This is not the first time that this error has been experienced when installing WordPress and it is, as mentioned, not specific to specific computers or Internet Browsers (or Webhost i.e. not just Godaddy shared hosting). During my Web search for a solution I arrived at many forums where this problem is discussed with various potential solutions however none resolved the issue for me. I eventually discovered a solution after noticing a few forum responses recommending certain .htaccess hacks which may work. Although none of the solutions provided in the forums worked for my WordPress problem, I managed to find a solution through trying a few .htaccess hacks which, in desperation, I hoped may work.
WordPress .htaccess Problem Resolution
The solution for this WordPress display problem is as follows in the two steps below:
1. With a text editor create a file named .htaccess in the root of your WordPress install (if an .htaccess file already exists then ignore this step and continue with step 2).
2. Save the following in the .htaccess file:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
These .htaccess lines above basically send browsers and searchbots to index.php of your WordPress install. AskApache has a good explanation for those interested in further .htaccess information.
Good luck and please let me know if this resolves your WordPress CSS problem.
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July 23rd, 2010
I have tried Telstra and Optus 3G USB sticks and have had problems with both. I therefore recently purchased a Vodafone Mobile Broadband USB Stick (model K3765 and made by Huawei). I followed the instructions about installing the software however I kept getting an error when inserting the 3G modem:
Mobile connection not possible.
-Set your current mobile device as the default device in the ‘Manage Devices’ view
-Ensure that no other programs are using your mobile device and try again in a short while
-Delete the device in the ‘Manage Devices@ view, add it back again, and then try connecting.
If this error persists, please contact Support at your mobile network operator.
Support information RAS error code 680
Here is how I managed to (finally) get the USB stick to work (instructions for Windows Vista):
- Go to ‘Control Panel’
- Double-click ‘Device Manager’
- Expand ‘Network adapters’
- Alternate-click ‘Vodafone Mobile Broadband Network Adapter (Huawei)’.
- Click ‘Uninstall’ then ‘Ok’.
- Remove the USB 3G stick and reinsert.
There are apparently multiple things that may cause these USB sticks not to work but the procedure as above got mine working.
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Tags: Broadband, how to, huawei, instructions, mobile, mobile broadband, mobile connection, modem, optus, telstra, usb sticks, Vodafone |
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July 23rd, 2010
Rich Snippets (the term Google uses for Microformats, RDFa and Microdata) is used by many larger organizations. Rich Snippets is essentially data that conforms to a specific standard so that machines may understand the data. For example, say that I want to write a review, then I may use the hreview Microformat standard to review a product or service. Search Engines are then able to understand that it is a review, what rating I give to the product or service and even the exact product or service I am reviewing. The Search Engine will then be able to amalgamate the various ratings from all over the Web for that specific product or service.
Online reviews are becoming a major reason for a person buying (or not buying) a product or service as people come to trust individual reviews and ratings more than adverts. It makes sense then for Website owners to embrace common standards such as Rich Snippets and for the Search Engines to use this data in the SERPs.
Until recently however, there was no standard for describing reviews in a machine readable way. Resnick, Zeckenhauser, Fiedman and Kuwabara described in their paper ‘Reputation Systems: Facilitating Trust in Internet Transactions’ that an obstacle to distributed feedback systems is the lack of portability between systems of reviews. The hreview Microformat addresses this shortfall by providing portability of reviews.
With Google announcing that it has started to index and display Microformats, RDFa and Microdata in SERPs it makes sense, from an SEO perspective, to format reviews and contact information according to Microformats, RDFa or Microdata standards. Many larger organizations are already displaying relevant data formatted per the necessary standards such as Amazon.com reviews being in the hreview format. There are also companies providing hreview format services for organizations such as LouderVoice.
A cool free Tool that Google provides assists with visualising how Microformats, RDFa or Microdata rich Webpages may look in the Google SERPs.
A review of the Google Rich Snippets Testing Tool is provided below in Microformats hreview format (click for how the Rich Snippets Testing Tools views the review below):
Rich Snippets Testing Tool is a good start
Jul 23, 2010 by Gary
Google provides many helpful free tools for Webmasters. These tools typically assist in making Website content more Search Engine Friendly. One of the lesser known Tools provided in Webmaster Tools by Google is the beta version of the ‘Rich Snippets Testing Tool’. This Tool will become ever more relevant to Webmasters and SEO experts as Rich Snippets (Microformats, RDFa and Microdata) is indexed and displayed further by Google in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). If your Webpage has Rich Snippet data then all one needs do is put the URL into the Tool and click ‘Preview’. How the Microformats, RDFa or Microdata information will then be displayed in the SERPs is shown. Unfortunately however the types of Rich Snippets identified and displayed by the Tool is still limited. For example, hreview meta will display however hcard data won’t. From a Search Engine Optimization perspective, Microformats, RDFa and Microdata data will increasingly become more important. The Google Rich Snippets Testing Tool will become more important as more Rich Snippet data is shown in the SERPs.