Yes, it was a lowly primary, and I stuck with my usual go-to list when it came to picking names out of the hat: Democratic and Female.

While I have your attention, stop using the title Graphic Designer; You limit your audiences perception of your abilities (“They make pretty graphics!”). I prefer the simpler and broader title of Designer. You can use Art Director, UI/UX Developer, whatever works for your audience/customers…

The Real Reason Blockbuster has Closed

From this imgur Source, Cropped and resized for immediate enjoyment.

How to Write Good

1. Avoid Alliteration always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. The passive voice is to be avoided.
4. Avoid cliche’s like the plague – they’re old hat.
5. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
6. Writers should never generalize.
Seven: Be consistent
8. Don’t use more words than necessary. It’s highly superfluous.
9. Be more or less specific.
10. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

Redesigned for a web audience based on this all-caps image I found.

I assure you, this thing is indestructible on the road!

This is for people looking to move their hosted WordPress blogs (blogname.wordpress.com) to a privately hosted WordPress install (as downloaded from WordPress.org).

If you have a privately hosted version, getting your images is as easy as making a local copy of your wp-content folder from your web host. Since there is no FTP access to the hosted WordPress version, you’ll need to use this method to make a local copy of your images.

To be clear, I love WordPress, it’s my hosted blog engine of choice, as I’ve turned quite a few friends and businesses onto the simple blogging engine. It’s well supported, easy, quick and simple. I will continue to recommend it highly to most people looking to take some control over their internet presence.

However, it’s a trap. While I will acknowledge that this missive is being delivered by the very beast I speak of, other WordPress authors will agree: Once you upload images, getting them back in any bulk form is impossible.

Sure, there’s an ‘Export Tool’, but the XML download you can take as a backup only has the text data of your site, not the images. If you use your WordPress blog as a photo gallery (like my friend Hadas), she pays a mighty sum for the annual cost of the pricey WordPress Space upgrades to hold her ever growing online photo database.

I do this about once a year to ensure I have a full backup of my hosted WordPress site. While I am confident of WordPress’ ability to store and backup my data, that’s not always the case, and you are ultimately responsible for your own data and archiving.

(4) Required Downloads

1. Local XML Backup of your hosted WordPress site!

   From your WordPress Dashboard, go to the Tools menu on the left side and select the ‘Export’ option. A screen cap is below:

   

   If this is the ‘convenience’ of cloud storage, there needs to be an easier escape! You’ll note there is a $130 fee for having someone at WordPress do the move. You can save your money by following these directions!

   

   Now you’ll have a file named 'blogname.wordpress.YEAR-MM-DD.xml' on your machine. This is your XML backup of your blog. Feel free to open it in a text editor, and you’ll see how much information it stores in this complex file. Do not make any edits to the file, as you may mess-up the strict formatting and break the import later!

2. Install a _AMP Server package

   The key features being we need the Apache Web Server, the PHP Processing Language and a MySQL Database Server to run the local mirror of our hosted site. This step is pretty platform agnostic – for every operating system, there’s a all-in-one installer for some form of _AMP package (LAMP, MAMP, WAMP).

   LAMP is an acronym that stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. There is a Macintosh version (MAMP) (which I used the Pro version as a demo), and a Windows version (WAMP).

3. Download the WordPress.org Version

   Unzip it, and place the resulting directory in the path of the web host you just installed.

4. Download the WordPress Importer Plug-in

   Download, unzip and place in the ‘plugins’ folder inside the wp-content folder. This little bit of code is going to assist in making a local copy of your hosted images.

Directory Setup

Setup your new local web directory (mine was in Applications/MAMP/htdocs) where the mirror of your hosted site will be stored locally. I unzipped the WordPress install, and copied the contents to this directory.

First, I edited the WordPress config file (wp-config.php) adding the MySQL database name/password, and other site configurations. The technical data was given to me by the MAMP app upon installation.

Open the local WordPress install in a web browser. In my case, the local MAMP webserver was being served on port 8888. In a web browser on my machine, I typed in the address: http://localhost:8888 I was greeted with the typical first-install screen of WordPress.

During this routine, you’ll use the import function to open the local XML file you downloaded earlier. Look for the check box during the initial installation that asks if you want to download a local copy of your images.

I had to adjust the permissions on the web server’s directory to allow it to create new directories for the incoming downloads. Since this is a local instance, and you’re machine is probably behind a firewall, you can set very loose permissions (777) without too much fear of being hacked.

Keep your browser open while it works, and depending on how prolific of an uploader you are, this might take minutes to hours.

I had 1,600 images, and I knew it was gonna take a while, since WordPress decided to save 3 sizes of each image. Expect your hard drive to quickly fill up with thumbnails. Mine took around 40 minutes to download over 1 GB of data.

When it was done I was given this message:

Not surprisingly, the files were very large PDF files which failed due to the time it took to load them. I downloaded the few errant files directly, and replaced them in the (new) local mirrored directories.

Here’s the screen shot of the final directory structure, with images back to this blogs beginning in 2009.

Once you’re finished, you can delete the _AMP install with impunity, and keep your local mirror of your images safely on your own machine. With this directory structure and the initial XML file, you can quickly make an exact mirror of your older hosted WordPress blog.

Are you gonna Backup your WordPress blog today? Leave a Comment!

Emeco makes solid aluminum chairs that will last forever. The padding and outer coverings, however, suffer greatly from age. I’ve bought a bunch of distressed older chairs under the guise of refurbishing them. I finally got around to finishing one, and I took pictures to prove it!

The Before Pictures

It was covered in it’s stock black perforated coated canvas, which had cracked with age. The padding was crushed to it’s thinnest size, and yellow dust escaped from the ventilation on the bottom of the seat every time you sat down – the padding has disintegrated to dust.

Tools Required:

• Pliers
• Flat-head Screwdriver
• Chisel
• Can of Spray Tack
• Rubber Cement

Materials Required:

I bought my new seat and back covering material (it’s blue pleather) from Baldwin Fabric & Leather down on Fabric Row here in Philadelphia. A linear yard cost me $14. I bought the 1″ padding from WalMart.

Disassembling the Chair

Flip the chair over and set it where you can work for a moment.

Remove the bolts from the underside of the seat, so you can remove (and retain) the hardware. You can see the yellow dust of deteriorated padding gumming up around the bolt.

Save the seat hardware. I’m missing an entire section – there should be four!

Removing the Old Covering

Once you get the hardware removed, you can lift the seat from the aluminum frame and set it aside for removing the old covering.

Pay special attention to these bolts, we need to save them while we remove the covering and padding.

Using the chisel or screwdriver, pry up these tabs around the circumference of the seat.

Get them so the fabric is clear, and there is room to work.

Pull up the old fabric and release it from the steel plate.

I used the chisel to hack and pull off the old padding, which is matted and solid and often flakes into yellow powder. I worked inside a garbage bag to keep the detritus afoot, and it did a good job of keeping my area clean.

Refinishing the Seat Back

Remove the two screws that hold the seat padding to the aluminum frame. The back should lift off by tilting the bottom out, then pulling the back down and away from the seat back.

I dunno if the intricate stringing of the backing is stock, or another reupholstering from before. A few snips and tugs, the old backing is quickly removed.

I used the metal plate as a template on the new backing. I cut it to size and notched the turns, and then used rubber cement around the perimeter to help lock the backing.

Refinishing the Armchair Rests

You can remove the armchair covers as well from the two screws on the bottom. Use this opportunity to clean them up and maybe spray paint them the new upholstery color. As it was, both of these chairs had broken armrests, and were now fixed by glueing in place, so I cannot remove them.

Adding the Padding

The corner bolts are inserted and covered with tape before I apply the padding. I then sketched the outline onto a 1″ thick piece of padding, and trimmed away the extraneous with a serrated knife. I used the spray tack on the top of the final, cleaned steel plate seat, then applied the rough padding.

Pay special attention here. Any odd cuts or defects in the padding will show up once the cover is stretched over it. While it doesn’t need to be perfect, try and round the edges and smooth steep curves. A serrated knife works wonders, I was wishing for an automatic knife cutter to get super-smooth beveling.

Invert the padding chair top onto your backing, and stretch is tightly around the chair. I applied rubber cement to both the fabric inside, as well as to the bottom of the chair seat, and allowed them to dry. I then trimmed the covering to a it’s minimum size, and folded and hammered it around the perimeter of the seat, using the old steel tabs to lock it into place. I folded the cover fabric to get a nice firm reinforcement.

The Finished Product!

From an old Kiss FM Radio UK print advertisement.

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Welcome to Anonymous April

We’ll have a series of posts that are a bit alternative in nature. We’ll discuss ways to remove yourself from the cogs of society and the internet at large in an effort to reduce the amount of information about you available for sale on the internet.

Ran across this startling proof of concept from Matteo Spinelli’s Cubiq.org. It’s called the Underpants Project. As the explaination clearly states, that your computer, and more specifically, the customization of your system offers enough information about you to personally associate your computer to your online activities, and furthermore, your identity.

Even with a VPN and on different network, your browser has a fingerprint of your personal customizations (plug-ins, fonts, resolution…) that make tracking you on multiple sites very easy. No cookies are stored on your local machine!

How so?

There are a million tiny details that make up your computer configuration, and while they may be similar to others, they are wholeheartedly unique to you. That weird freeware font you installed can be the tenuous connection that identifies you!

Please read the explanation in full to get a better grasp of the underlying technology here. This should be a wake-up call to those who think they can still surf anonymously!

Below are some examples of things you can do to anonymize your network experience. Each step offers more restrictions, and better protection!

1. Using a mobile device helps – iPads and Smart Phones are largely the same. You can still be tracked by IP, but the uniqueness of your browser configurations is largely unchanged.
2. If your computer offers multiple user accounts, establish a new one, with no (or false) identity information attached to the account. (Use the Fake Name Generator if you’re at a loss)
3. Do not install most browser plug-ins. (AdBlock Plus, sure. Flash, No. Bookmark manager, no.)
4. Use a font manager to handle fonts, otherwise, use the default set that comes with your computer.
5. Run with Javascript off, and disable the Flash plug-in.

Once you’ve established your new ‘anonymous’ account on your machine, please check the Underpants Project and follow instructions in order to see if you’re still susceptible to uniqueness attack.

Look at those bulls and cows line up at the titty bar! Must be feedin’ time!

Our Menu

Salad

Fellow Dinner Table Guests

Dessert

Welcome to Anonymous April

We’ll have a series of guest posts that are a bit alternative in nature. We’ll discuss ways to remove yourself from the cogs of society and the internet at large in an effort to reduce the amount of information about you available for sale on the internet. On tax-day, this article is surprisingly appropriate!

The Problem with Bank Accounts

While it might be easy to simply carry your cash to your local bank and have them deposit it, it’ll surely look suspect, unless you have a good reason to do many cash deposits to a consumer account.

You’ll need to provide them with an Identification, your Social Security Number, and a Signature to open an account. All are hard to fake, and leave evidence behind of your presence. Plus, all transactions will be reported to the IRS come years’ end. No need to give the IRS any reason to suspect!

The Benefits of International Postal Money Orders

A single US Postal Service backed International Postal Money Order costs $1.50 for up to $1000 in value, it’s the best way to convert cash into a deposit-able, anonymous and transferable resource, with some governmental guarantees that the money is good. It’s also good in Canada & the rest of the world, where it might end up. If you’re doing business with other state citizens, you can probably substitute regular Postal Money orders.

An envelope full of identical Money Orders with $1000 on each is a sure way to look professional, and still keep the transaction liquid and light. Most won’t suspect you forged a International Postal Money Order, therefore it’s as good as cash.

Four Simple Cash Rules:

1. Get a Safe that cannot be carried away.
2. Do not store cash at home.
3. Do not store product at home.
4. Prepare to lose everything you have on hand at once.

Welcome to Anonymous April

We’ll have a series of guest posts that are a bit alternative in nature. We’ll discuss ways to remove yourself from the cogs of society and the internet at large in an effort to reduce the amount of information about you available for sale on the internet.

There’s plenty of good (and bad) reasons to stay anonymous on the internet, and even more so in real life. If you embark upon this noble profession of dropping off the map, I’d suggest you start to build a new anonymous identity. Consider the massive number of potential illegal acts your about to embark upon. You need to remove yourself from the illegal doings and create a legitimate-looking front identity.

We’ll refer to nearly any sort of identifying content as a ‘burner’, which is slang for a disposable cell-phone with pre-paid minutes used by street-level dealers to talk to the hierarchy of the organization. When they use up the minutes, they get tossed, to prevent tapping or tracing. While you might not like being associated with such a noble profession, the simple fact is, most street dealers are smart enough about leaving no trails.

Your anonymous identity is disposable. Sure, it may have taken some time to setup, but this is minimal in relation to potential jail time. Prepare to dump any and all knowledge or information about these created identities like bubblegum wrappers.

While I’m on the subject, never write anything down. It may help your feeble memory, but it’s strictly evidence for the Police. Leave no trace! (this goes double for the internet – no Facebook posts, or files named ‘My Coke Clients.xls’)

Feel free to encrypt the data and store it on your laptop or cell phone. This may help your beleaguered memory and help remind you of your second identity!

If you want, you can generate a fake identity, then use this generic info to fill out any/all forms required when crafting a background for your new anonymous digital identity.

Burner Email

Using a public computer terminal with no available cameras pointed at you, signup for a free email using any one of the popular services. I’d suggest Hotmail, for it’s sheer number of throwaway accounts. You’ll need to login and check the account at least every 90 days in order to keep it active. Put these visits on your calendar (cryptically noted, I’d hope), and maintain them if you want to keep your anonymous self alive.

Burner Phone

The fact of the matter is, there’s a ton of personally identifiable information about you already associated with the phone number you now have. If you’re remotely serious about maintaining privacy, and keeping a safe distance from trouble and the law, get a new number.

Go pick up a SIM-card based sub-$20 disposable phone. I prefer T-mobile, but AT&T also sells them, put $100 cash on the balance of the card. When they ask for your name, give them mine: ‘Russell Bell’. You now have 1000 minutes to use over the next year on your new anonymous phone. Since they charge you for incoming or outgoing minutes, you’ll need them.

Set a date in your calendar one year ahead to renew or re-up the phone minutes if you feel safe and unobserved. If you decide to re-fill the minutes, do so at a storefront paying in cash. Consider if you use the electronic teller’s, that there is probably a camera taking your picture as you do business. Wear a low-brim hat and try to cover the lens of the camera on the machine to protect your identity.

Removing and destroying the SIM card is your only option for total data removal! Do not think a phone tossed into a river, or simply crushed is enough. The SIM card holds all the important data and is subject to illegal search by police if detained!

Also, consider that most phone providers will recycle the phone number within 2 months after you discontinue payment or reach your contract end (1 year of service).

The strength in this is anonymity. The Law can’t secretly find out all the phone numbers available to them in a room, only trace by number.

By purchasing cheap (near-disposable) phones, you also guarantee a lack of features, like GPS receivers. As time goes on, this inexpensive feature will be ubiquitous on all devices.

Burner Phone Number

Sign up for Google Voice using your burner email, point calls to your new burner phone. I’d suggest choosing a phone number in an area code that is well out of your own nearby area, as this will make it harder to track, and will make you appear able to flee at a moment’s notice.

Since you can immediately re-direct all calls to a new burner phone as needed, you can switch phones as quickly as you’d like.

Don’t assume that Google will protect any info you give them, so setup your Google Voice number to not accept voicemails, or leave a simple message stating such. Have a friend of the opposite sex record the message, to throw off voice analysis & identity tracking.

Give out your Google Voice number to new prospects. Inform your clientele with this simple script:

Here’s my number [Google Voice], feel free to call me [give explicit hours].
As you are familiar with my business, there’s no reason to leave a trail of evidence.
Therefore, do not leave me a voicemail, or your personal info on this line.
I’ll see you called, and call you back at my next opportunity.
Do not text me, do not ask for anything over the phone, no code words.
Ask to meet, then we’ll set the time and place.

Quick Note on Returning Calls

Use Google Voice to dial out, or return calls from within Google Voice’s system, to protect your Caller ID identity. (which is your Burner’s Cell number)

Cover Your Ass

Keep the ‘burner’ phone turned off when not is use, as it can be pinged with some accuracy. They can triangulate your position, to within 30 feet, using modern antenna services and operator access to your number.

That’s not as bad as the built-in GPS in more modern phones, and the ability to share your location down to the 5 foot radius! This means cops will come knocking on your door!

Live in a populated area, like a city, residential complex, or high-rise. Harder to find the needle in the haystack. If you live in the boonies, expect easier tracking, as they’re less suspects per mile.

Remove the SIM when charging, as a last defense. Prepare to destroy the chip within by cutting across the metallic pad in diagonal cuts. You’ll destroy the underlying chip storing the data.