Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Why is the ‘Update Now’ link in AWstats missing?

Posted on May 18, 2017

Question from Francessa H.: Hi Rick. I have a problem with my WordPress blog and I hope you can help me fix it.

I recently moved by blog from another web host with CPANEL.

When the blog was on on the old server I could click the “Update Now” link in AWstats and it would immediately update my blog stats. But the “Update Now” link has been missing ever since I switched to the new host.

How can I get that link back? I like checking my stats a couple of times each day and without the update link I have to wait for the stats to be updated over night.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

8 essential Twitter privacy tweaks that you should make right now

Posted on May 18, 2017

As you probably know, it’s getting harder with each passing day to protect your privacy on most major social media websites.

Some venues are worse than others, but they all seem to be getting more invasive with the passage of time.

While Facebook’s privacy issues are well-known, many Twitter users are unaware that they need to lock down their privacy settings as well.

The purpose of this post is to highlight several essential privacy tweaks that can make your interactions with Twitter safer and a bit less invasive of your personal and professional privacy. [Read more…]

Scam alert: The popular ‘Unseen’ browser extension has started spawning SPAM popups to ‘go.mobifoth.com’

Posted on May 15, 2017

Has your web browser started spawning popup windows that display a web page with the SPAM URL go.mobifoth.com?

If so, the culprit is likely the popular browser extension “Unseen”.

If you’re unfamiliar with this extension, you can read more about it in this post that I wrote a while back. [Read more…]

Q&A: Would you recommend setting up my own web server?

Posted on May 13, 2017

Question from Paul: I have three blogs (each in a different niche) that currently receive anywhere from 4,000 to 20,000 visitors per month. The two largest blogs have started loading really slow.

All three blogs have been hosted with Godaddy for about four years now. I know it’s time to move them to a dedicated server but the cheapest plan I can find is way out of my budget.

My question is do you think it would be a good idea to move them onto my own server? I have a spare Gateway DX4860-UB32P with 8Gigs of RAM that I can install Red Hat Linux and Apache on. I also have a 60 Mbps Internet connection with Charter.

Do you think this would be a good setup to replace my Godaddy hosting? I make a couple of hundred bucks from my blogs each month but I’d like to eventually make it full time and quit my job so I don’t want to make a big mistake.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

ATTN iPhone Users: Your favorite app might stop working after Apple releases iOS 11.

Posted on May 12, 2017

Do you have a favorite app that you’ve been using on your iPhone or other iOS device for years?

If so, there’s a chance that it might stop working after you update your device to iOS 11 after it’s released this fall.

Apple is planning to end support for legacy 32 bit apps beginning with the release of iOS 11. That means any 32 bit apps that you’re currently using will stop working on your devices after you update them to iOS 11. [Read more…]