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WordPress: Looking at the Activity Log

When I last wrote about the site at the end of January, I mentioned that I’d installed an activity monitor. Logging is not a standard feature of WordPress, so you’ll need a plugin. The one I chose is the Aryo Activity Log. It’s now been running for two months, and I have drawn a number of conclusions. The information below uses data gathered since January 31st 2016. The conclusions are: Updates are frequent, so don’t ignore them In two months there have been two core updates, and 16 plugin updates. If we extrapolate that out to cover a three year period,…
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Networking 2015: Saying goodbye to Cisco

For the past five years I’ve been in a relationship that I’ve had no business getting involved with. That is, with Cisco networking equipment. Back in 2010, a friend decided to begin learning Cisco and to obtain his CCNA with a view to becoming a network engineer. Because I can’t resist fiddling with technology, I soon picked up enough to build networks, and eventually had built four of them using Cisco routers and switches. Unfortunately, there’s a  few downsides to using Cisco, which I’ll cover below. In part two of the Networking 2015 series, I’ll introduce the technology I’m replacing…
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Oh no! I’m using WordPress (and I quite like it!)

When I bought this domain eight years ago, I looked at a few CMS platforms, but none of them did what I wanted at the time, so I built my own. Since then I’ve always looked at WordPress and it’s ilk as being the lazy way to build a website, and if I’m honest, I still do. Why then you might ask is this site proudly using WordPress to display content? That’s simple, I no longer have the time. When I was at university, I had virtually unlimited free time, and developing a website was a useful application of what…
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CallamMcMillan.com is 7

At seven years old, CallamMcMillan.com can now be considered technologically midlle-aged. And now, like many things that have grown up, people are starting to give the site more attendtion. Admittedly some of it unwanted, thank you very much spammers. There are a couple of searches on Google for which this site comes up on page one. Searches that have nothing to do with my name or this site. One of my biggest successes is the article talking about how to connect a Cisco router to a BT Infinity fibre connection. For some searches on that, this site shows up as…
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Taking a tough line with Spam Comments

It’s been a few weeks since I really had chance to work on anything for the website. Which is not to say that I have given up with it, just that I have been somewhat busy with other bits and pieces in my life. What I haven’t been able to avoid though is the sight of how messy the comments sections now looks. I don’t like the old way of publishing on the web where I talk at you and you choose to read or not without ever getting a chance to feed back. So I have always designed my…
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CallamMcMillan.com has a twitter feed!

One of the perennial problems of keeping this website up to date with content is finding the time to write it. Also, an entire article to a single thought or observation seems wasteful of our time. So, despite my reservations about the value and usefulness of Twitter, CallamMcMillan.com now has its own Twitter feed – @CallamMcMillan. You can follow us, check it out at http://twitter.com/CallamMcMillan, or add that address to your favourite RSS reader to keep up to date. Also, please note that the reader widget on the homepage can be a little flaky in some versions of IE.

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Introducing: Mitul Patel

As I promised when I launched this site, I would get guest writers to help me out. Today I would like to introduce the self-proclaimed professional trouble-maker Mitul Patel. Mitul is a few weeks away from completing his masters in Computer Science at Loughborough University where he is completing his thesis project titled “Simulating mobile nodes in ad-hoc systems.” Outside of university Mitul is studying for his CCNA and is looking to become a full time network engineer. Mitul also enjoys lock picking, white-hat security and interesting TV. Mitul’s computer setup includes an overclocked Sandy Bridge i7, five monitors, a…
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Your Search Queries 20/02/2012 – 26/02/2012

One of the great things about Google Analytics is the vast wealth of information it makes available to me. I can see for instance what search queries I am getting listed for, and some of them I can give a simple answer for, so here goes! Last week you searched for: 2nd Week: 01234 765093 / Computer virus phone scams See my article here 2nd Week: Raspberry Pi <something> Finally, some news, they have released the model B which is available to pre-order from RS and Farnell depending on where you live with deliveries starting soon. Also, the model A…
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Your Search Queries 13/02/2012 – 19/02/2012

One of the great things about Google Analytics is the vast wealth of information it makes available to me. I can see for instance what search queries I am getting listed for, and some of them I can give a simple answer for, so here goes! Last week you searched for: 01234 765093 / Computer virus phone scams STOP! It’s a scammers phone number. They will call you up claiming to be from Microsoft or someone, they’ll con you into installing a back door for them to get onto your system before compromising it and holding it to ransom –…
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