Make Free Calls Online – How? Making calls online is nothing new. There are various software out there to do that task like Skype, Yahoo Voice, etc… These services are normally between two PCs (desktop to desktop, desktop to laptop) but that is not what we are going to cover here now. These free calls we are talking about are going to be between PCs and old school land-lines or mobile phones. Ready?

Just a word of caution, this technique is only available for calls to the US and Canada. If you want to call other places for free, then this post does not cover that. Moving forward…

You’ve probably heard about Google Voice. But since you are reading this post, then probably not Google Voice is a beta service launched by Google last year. As of now it is still in its beta trial stage and that is probably why they are offering their calling services to US/Canada for free. So how do you avail of your free call to any US/Canada land-line phone/mobile?

Follow the steps below:

1. Get a Google Account. For this to work you have to have a working Google Account.
2. Open Gmail and install the Google Voice plugin. You can do this by looking at the left sidebar of Gmail and following the instructions when you click “Call phone”.
3. Once you’ve installed the plugin then you’re ready to rock n roll! Dial the US/Canada number and make sure your PC’s microphone and speakers are working. Or if you want, use your headset.

So that’s really there is to it. These free service is free tentatively until the end of 2011. For calls to other places on the globe, you have to buy credits before being able to do so. Having bought credits and used the service to call non-US/non-Canada countries, I confidently say that the service is working fine and a good alternative to calling on the phone.

How to Mass Delete Pending Comments in WordPress. There are 2 practical ways. One for the technically inclined and one for non-tech savvy users who simply want to get rid of thousands of spam pending comments in 1 go. Let us check out both solutions.

For the general user => How to Mass Delete Pending Comments in WordPress using a Plugin

It’s as simple as that. Here are the steps:

1. Go to your WP dashboard.
2. Click on “Add New” under Plugins and enter “WP Optimize” in the search box.
3. Install the WP-Optimize plugin and you’re all set!

Just play around with the plugin and you should be able to find your way around and delete all those pesky spam comments.

For the techie people => How to Mass Delete Pending Comments in WordPress via PHPMyAdmin

Taking this route has its advantages however small. One advantage is less overhead during WP loading but which has very minimal to no visual effect on users. But then again it’s your choice Here’s what you have to do:

1. Enter your CPanel and click on PHPMyAdmin
2. Select the database of your WP installation
3. Click on the SQL tab
4. Enter this code inside the SQL textbox:

DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_approved = ’0′

That’s it folks! Thanks for reading.

How to Fix a C4Parana Hack. Believe it or not, this site was hacked twice last year. The first one was simply a matter of deleting my administrative login and hence I was not able to login. If this happened to you, you can recover your hacked wordpress login by following the steps I outlined in another blog post. That was last November 2010. But after a month (December), it got hacked again by a Turkish hacker it seems which I am going to call a C4Parana hack.

I don’t know what a C4Parana is but what the hack did was 1) redirect my homepage to “http://maresanat.nl/media/C4Parana/$1″, 2) messed up my WP permalinks settings and 3) hacked my WP login like in the previous hack.

As I said, this happened in December and it has been 2 months since then so I’ll try my best to remember the exact steps to fix this hack. There might be some extra details I did back then but rest assured the steps below would suffice for you to fix the C4Parana hack. Another note though, there might be variations of this hack so please check against the description of the hack above if we were hacked the same way. If not, then follow the instructions with a grain of salt.

Step by step instructions on how to fix a C4Parana hack:

1. Fix your .htaccess file. The redirect of the homepage is done by hacking the .htaccess file. Fix the file if you know how or simply delete it. We’ll create one (or WordPress will…) later. This fixes issue #1.
2. Recover your WP login. I already have a blog post on this. Please check => recover your hacked wordpress login. This fixes issue #3.
3. Fix your permalinks settings. Once you are able to login back into the WP dashboard, you should fix your permalinks settings. Just restore it to what you had before.

It’s really not that hard! Just follow the instructions above and you should be fine. You would do well if you keep in mind the following things as well:

• Always upgrade to the latest stable WP version. Doing so will reduce the security vulnerabilities that WP have.
• Make sure that your .htaccess file and wp-config.php file is not writable and accessible to the outside world. Only you (or any admin) should have access to these files.
• Backup your files and database regularly. If all else fails, you can simply restore your backup if you get hacked.

That’s it. If you have any more questions or suggestions, please comment below.

How to Migrate a WP Installation from One Server to Another via Cpanel. This post would serve as an announcement as well as a “How To”. I recently moved from one hosting service to another to consolidate a part of my domains in 1 of my hosting servers and to reduce costs. It’s never bad to save a bit even if it is just a few dollars .

For this tutorial, I am assuming you a know a thing or two about making backups(database and file) via CPanel and about FTP. If not, then I suggest you go learn them first, they are not that hard. If you are all set, then here is the step by step instructions to migrate a WordPress site from one server to another via CPanel:

1. Backup the database. Now, there are a number of ways to do this but I prefer to do it via PHPMyAdmin. Backup your database by logging into PHPMyAdmin and exporting the database into a .gz file. If you are unsure how to do this, follow the official WP how to backup your database instructions.
2. Backup your WP files. This can be done via the file manager. Select the root folder containing your site and click ‘compress’ from the clickable options above.
3. Create a new database on your destination server. To make things just a bit easier, you may opt to name the database the same as the database you just backed-up. This way, you don’t have to update much later in the wp-config.php file.
4. Import your backed-up database into the new database. Remember step #1? Well, just import the file(database backup) into the new database via PHPMyAdmin.
5. Add domain to Add-on domain list. Make sure to fix the folder structure as well.
6. Restore backed-up WP files. Restore the files via the file manager into the new folder just created in step #5.
7. Update wp-config.php in new server. Update the database name, username and password.
8. Update DNS of domain via registrar. Get the new DNS of your new destination server and update them via your current domain registrar.
9. Wait. Nameserver propagation usually takes a few days so just sit back and relax.

The steps outlined above involves some downtime since we would have to wait for the nameserver propagation to finish which usually takes several days. If downtime is an issue, you can modify the steps above by adding these steps after step 6:

1. Allow your old server to access the new database in the new server. You can allow this by going to Remote MySQL on the new server and adding the domain or IP address of your old server.
2. Change your wp-config.php in the old site to point to the database on the new site. So, instead of accessing stale data, your site can access update information while waiting for the nameserver propagation to finish. The only downside is this could be a bit slow sometimes.

So the these are the steps to migrate a WP installation from one server to another. If you have any questions, feel free to comment/ask below.

Black Friday Deals Online 2010 – Mitsubishi WD60638 60″ 3D Ready Home Cinema DLP TV. According to Circuit City, this is the best of the best deals out there! Why? When compared to the prices of BestBuy, Frys and Newegg, buying it from Circuit City will save you as much as $400! Not only that, if you buy it online, you get to shop in your PJs.

If you simply want a new TV set, then this is the perfect deal for you. If you are a technical techie person, here are the features you might want to know.

Mitsubishi WD60638 60″ 3D Ready Home Cinema DLP TV Features:

• Display Area: 60″
• Display Type: DLP
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080
• Screen Refresh Rate: 60Hz
• Signal Compatibility: 1080p
• Input Video Signal: ATSC
• QAM
• NTSC
• DLP Features: Plush 1080p
• 6 Color Processor
• Sub-Frame Rate: 120Hz
• Lamp Power: 156 watt
• 3D Ready: Yes
• 3D Emitter: Yes
• Condition: New
• Features: 3D Glasses Emitter
• Speakers: 2
• Inputs: Composite
• Component Video
• HDMI
• RF Input
• Outputs: Analog Audio
• Digital Audio Out
• HDMI Ports: 3
• Power Consumption: 212W
• Height (inches): 40
• Height with Stand (inches): 40
• Width (inches): 58.8
• Depth (inches): 19.3
• Depth with Stand (inches): 19.3
• Unit Weight: 74.1 lbs.

Get ready to boost your entertainment pleasure with this new baby and enjoy full high-definition viewing. Get it from Circuit City Online now.

Are you looking for Civilization Network Tips? Well if you are then you have come to the right place. But before that let me clarify that we are talking about the Facebook version of Sid Meier’s Civilization game. This game is not out yet but once it is, I will post tips and links to other sites containing worthy tips, strategies, tactics or maybe even cheats

One tip I can give right now is that expansion is a big must. Like in the real desktop Civilization game, if you don’t expand early and fast, you will lose out in every aspect of the game because you will not get the resources you would need if you have claimed real estate early. Not only that, you would have less population thus less productivity.

In Facebook, I would assume it would be the same thing. And like any other FB game, neighbors would play a vital part of the strategy. So right now in the pre-beta release of this much awaited FB game, my tips is to expand early whether socially (via adding as many neighbours as possible) or functionally (claiming real estate early … if that is ever part of the game which it should be…).

I also know of a site being created as early as now which would serve as a repository of strategies, tactics or simply tips to the much-awaited Civilization Network game. The site is Civilization Network Tips.