Monthly Archives: August 2010

Beta test on your free time

As relaxing as the summer vacation can be, there are occasionally times of extreme boringness when finding an activity to occupy your time with can be a challenge. Besides managing this blog, lurking social media sites and spending time with friends/family, one hobby I have taken up is testing beta products for companies such as Netgear and Norton. Other than directly influencing the features and quality of the product, the biggest benefit of joining one of the many programs listed below is that you are awarded for your contribution at the end of the testing period. In a majority of the tests I have taken part in, we were allowed to keep the item that was being tested. Software companies such as Norton often handed out vouchers for free one year subscription to their internet security. 

Transferring a WordPress site between hosts

Recently, we decided to switch our hosting provider due to issues relating to uptime and server speed. The entire process of transferring our WordPress installation between hosts was documented and turned into a video tutorial to aid others wishing to do the same thing. The tutorial is about 8 minutes long and covers everything from backing up the data to changing the DNS settings. The end benefit of using the technique demonstrated in the video is, your visitors will see absolutely no downtime as you transfer between hosts.