Flickr lets users post photos directly to their blogs via the “Blog This” button, however you’ll get a confusing “incorrect username/password” error if you forget to enable a key WordPress setting.

In order to publish Flickr photos to your WordPress blog, you must enable XML-RPC. If you don’t do so, Flickr will report “incorrect username/password” when you try to configure your blog in your Flickr account settings. If you are sure your username and password are correct, as well as your API endpoint URL, then what this really means is that Flickr and your blog were unable to talk to each other because XML-RPC is not enabled.

This post in the Flickr help forums describes the solution.

1. Log into WordPress
2. Go to Settings → Writing
3. Put a mark in the checkbox next to “Enable the WordPress, Movable Type, MetaWeblog and Blogger XML-RPC publishing protocols.“
4. Click “Save Changes”

Once that’s done, head back to Flickr, configure your blog, and try the “Blog This” feature once more.

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Many people in the market for an Apple notebook often ask “what’s the difference between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro?” This question usually arises after one checks out the tech specs and concludes that the 13″ MacBook Pro’s specifications are very similar to those of the MacBook, which is $300 cheaper. In this article I will outline the major differences between the MacBook and MacBook Pro with regard to what’s currently available in the Apple Store as of January, 2010.

Battery Life

Both notebooks have a battery life quoted at 7 hours on a single charge. The 17″ MacBook Pro advertises 8 hours of juice.

Construction and Durability

Both notebooks have a “unibody” construction meaning the case is cut from one solid piece of material. The Pro model boasts an aluminum case for increased durability.

Display & Graphics

Screen Size —The MacBook comes in just one size: 13″. The MacBook Pro starts at 13″, but there are also 15″ and 17″ models available. Photographers and videographers are good examples of customers who would probably be looking for a large screen.

Display Quality — both notebooks have a back-lit LED display.

GPU — Both notebooks have the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. The 15″ and 17″ Pro models also have the GeForce 9600M for improved performance.

External Displays — both computers have one Mini DisplayPort for hooking up an external display, including Apple’s monster 30″ Cinema Display.

Input

Both notebooks have a full-size keyboard and the new glass multi-touch trackpad. The MacBook Pro’s keyboard is illuminated, and has an ambient light sensor capable of adjusting display brightness to match your environment.

Memory

Both notebooks use DDR3 SDRAM, however the MacBook is expandable to 4GB while the MacBook Pro can be upgraded to 8GB of memory.

Networking & Wireless

Both notebooks feature 802.11n wireless networking and a gigabit ethernet jack.

Optical Drive

Both notebooks have a SuperDrive capable of burning CD and DVD discs.

Ports

The MacBook Pro has an SD card slot, which the MacBook does not. These cards are commonly used in digital cameras. Both notebooks have two USB 2.0 ports. The 17″ MacBook Pro has three USB 2.0 ports. The Pro model also has a Firewire 800 port, which the MacBook does not.

Processor Speed

The MacBook’s processor is 2.66ghz — the same as the entry-level 13″ MacBook Pro. The upgraded 13″ as well as all of the 15″ and 17″ models have faster processors.

Storage

All MacBook and MacBook Pro models have storage options up to 500 GB. In addition, the Pro models are available with solid state drives. These are hard drives without moving parts, which are more expensive but feature faster performance and increased durability.

Photo by Steve Keys used via Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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Microsoft’s Bing search engine has a promotion called “Bing Cashback” which you can use to save money on online purchases. Most of the discounts are about 5%, but some can go as high as 10%. I once saw a particularly expensive camera listed at 20%. In order to take advantage of this promotion, use Bing to search for the product you wish to purchase.

1. Go to Bing.com and search for the product.
2. Look for the Bing cashback icon in the “Sponsored Sites” areas.
3. Click the cashback link

These promotional links usually take you to large retailer or auction sites such as eBay and BestBuy. On eBay, you’ll see the “Microsoft Cashback” graphic appear at the top of the page. At other sites like AT&T and Best Buy, a pop-up window will ask you to enter your e-mail address in order to get the cashback reward.

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Your IP address is a number that identifies your computer its network. To learn more about what an IP address is, read “What is an IP Address?” You are probably dealing with two different IP addresses: an internal IP address which identifies your computer on your home network (if you have a router), and a single external IP address assigned by your ISP that identifies all computers on your home network to the outside world.

Finding Your External IP

Finding your external IP address is pretty simple because there are a lot of websites that will tell it to you. If you do a search for “what is my ip” you’ll find a lot of them. Many of the top results will do the job, but will also show you a lot of ads and pop-up windows. Whatismyip.org displays your IP and nothing else.

Finding Your Internal IP

You need to check your network settings in order to find the internal IP address that has been assigned by your router.

• Windows: Click Start → Run → enter “cmd” and hit Enter. At the command prompt, type ipconfig and hit Enter. Look for “IP Address” or “IP v4 Address”.
• OS X: Go to System Preferences → Network → Advanced → TCP/IP. Look for “IP v4 Address”.

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A signature can be configured for all outgoing Windows Live Hotmail messages through the “mail options” area.

1. Click “Options” near the top left corner of the screen. A small menu will pop up.
2. Click “More Options“, the last choice in the menu.
3. Click the “Personal e-mail signature” link.
4. Enter your signature into the text field.
5. Click “Save”

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You can set up a signature in Yahoo! Mail through the “Options” menu.

1. Click “Options” near the top right corner of the screen. A small menu will appear.
2. Click “Mail Options” — it’s the first choice.
3. Click “Signature“.
4. Click the radio button labeled “Show a signature on all outgoing messages”.
5. Enter your signature text into the text field. If you want some more advanced options such as bolding, colors and other font controls, click “Rich Text”.
6. Click “Save Changes”
7. Wait for Yahoo! Mail to confirm your changes have been saved, then click “Back to Mail”.

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You can set up a signature that will be added to all sent messages in Gmail through the “Settings” area.

1. Click the “settings” link located at the top right corner of the browser window.
2. You should land on the “General” tab. If not, click “General”.
3. Scroll about half way down to the “Signature” section.
4. Click the radio button next to the text area.
5. Enter your desired signature text into the text area field.
6. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Save Changes”.

The text you entered into the form field will be appended to the end of each outgoing message as your signature.

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Verizon Wireless recently took the liberty of modifying Blackberries in order to drive customer search traffic to Microsoft’s Bing. Here’s a Reddit post by a Blackberry user who overslept because the stealth install crashed his phone and prevented his alarm from sounding in the morning.

If you would rather use Google on your Blackberry, “Use Bing * Or Any Search Engine * From Your VZW Blackberry” by Jim Gerace on the Verizon PolicyBlog has a few tips: hide the Bing icon, search via Google’s site (and add a bookmark for it to your browser), or install Google’s Mobile App.

If you want to completely remove Bing from your Blackberry, that may be a little more difficult. This poster on the Blackberry forums says that it is not possible to block these service updates. A few posters on the crackberry forums have some instructions on removing the application and hiding its icon.

Photo by Honou, used via Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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What is a .tmp file?

A file with the .tmp extension is a temporary file. When a program needs to record data which only needs to be available for a limited amount of time, it may choose to record this information in a temporary .tmp file. Sometimes the contents of .tmp files are easily accessible, and other times they are not.

From time to time, an application may need to record some data or a piece of information which will only be used for a limited amount of time. Many software developers make use of .tmp files to store this temporary data. Often times, operating systems will keep all of these files in a central location. For example, you’ll find a lot of temporary files in C:\Windows\temp on a Windows system or in /tmp on many Unix-based systems.

Is it safe to delete .tmp files?

Maybe, maybe not. People often wonder if they can delete temporary files in order to free up disk space or increase performance. In some cases it may be perfectly safe to delete a .tmp file while other times, doing so could cause problems with one or more applications. It’s difficult to tell when this will happen.

Instead of deleting temp files through Windows Explorer, Finder or another file manager, look for an option within an application to delete temporary files. For example, opening the “Internet Options” dialog box through Microsoft Internet Explorer reveals an option “Delete Temporary Internet Files”.

Applications

You really aren’t meant to open .tmp files directly. The contents of some may be in plain text and therefore accessible via a text editor. Editing the contents of a .tmp file may cause problems.

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What is a .DLL file?

DLL stands for Dynamic Link Library. These files contain reusable components employed by many different programs.

Software developers like implement projects in a modular fashion. Say there’s a task that needs to be performed at different times, by different parts of the system. There’s no sense in making a different copy of that task for each use case. Instead, the software developer will generalize the procedure for the task and place it in the “library”. Think of this in terms of a real-world library. Many different parts of the system can access the library, and whenever one needs to perform that task, it will borrow those instructions from the virtual library and execute them. And when the software developer needs to make changes to how this library function operates, he only needs to update the one copy stored in the library.

So these .DLLs are like books in a library of code. The functions handled by .DLL files are used by many different pieces of software on your computer. You indirectly make use of them when you go about your daily computing tasks, but almost never need to access their contents directly.

Applications

As we’ve said, .DLL files are used by many different applications. They are system files whose job is to work in conjunction with your software, meaning you would never need manually access a .DLL file. Making changes to one of these files could actually have negative consequences for your computer.

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