So what do you think of the new theme? It’s cool right?

We had actually booked at the first hotel as the last time however we ended up in another hotel, which was even 10 times better! Why? Well, at the first hotel (The Loca Blue Lagon) they mixed up our hotel room and gave us a shitty room. A room which was 10 minutes a way from the main pool, bar, restaurant etc.. That’s not the worst part.. They offered us a room with 2 single beds! Yeah.. exactly on our honeymoon!  After complaining we were transfered (almost immediately) to the Palazzo Del Mare hotel which is even more luxurious then the first one! From then on we could enjoy our honeymoon perfectly!

Click here to go to the gallery and view the pictures or click on the picture above!!

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This website is temporarily unreachable for the general audience. Are you the owner or webmaster of this website? Please contact the customer service.

So that’s what I did and told them that I get a “strange message” and asked them what’s going on. After a several hours I got a reply back and they told me that they needed to shut down BioTecK.net because it was overloading the server!
In order to get the site back online they asked me to follow some (security) steps and update Wordpress and every plugin I was using. Perhaps that this was the fault of one of (outdated) Wordpress plugins.. 

So in the last 3 days that BioTecK.net was offline I checked every plugin just to see if it was causing the problem and I couldn’t find any! I also went through every template page in order to see if there are unused html/php codes which could cause the problems, but I still haven’t found the problem!
Ok, I have to say that the website is faster again and therefore I can only assume that the problem is solved. Have you experienced something like this before of have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate and let me know!

In the past I had tried some plugins but they didn’t do the job as I would like to. While surfing on the net today, I found the solution to my “problem”. The solution is actually a plugin called: Miniposts. Kinda obvious! So from today on you’ll see my 5 newest miniposts in the tabbed sidebar which can be found to your right!

So why display miniposts?
Well, minipost can be very handy in case you like to share a link, video or anything else to your readers and you just don’t have the time to write an post about it.  You can also use miniposts to let your visitors know that there’s a new post on one of your other blogs etc. With other words, you can use it for almost anything!

In case you would like to have miniposts on your blog too, just head over to the plugin’s page and follow the instructions there!

After a long time using and having the Entrecard widget in my sidebar, I’ve decided to remove the widget from today on. The reason? Lately I just couldn’t see any real benefits of it and the traffic that stays for a couple of seconds just to click and move to the next site. Beside that, I don’t have any time for dropping.

It was pretty fun at first as I was very new to the blogging world and through Entrecard I’ve found a lot of cool blogs (which I immediately subscribed too) and a lot of cool bloggers too.. Entrecard also brought me a lot of visitors who have been turned into valuable readers/subscribers.

So thanks and no hard feelings Entrecard, it’s just that I don’t see why I should display the widget anymore!
What about you? Do you still have the widget running on your blog?

Anyway, in the meanwhile I had some time to update the gallery page! A lot of people and friends didn’t liked the way the gallery worked and asked me if I could change it… I actually hadn’t thought well about this so I had to look into it. The problem was that I used the build-in gallery option in Wordpress and linked/opened the picture in the attachment page. By doing the whole site needed to be reloaded over and over again which is actually pretty annoying and slow, right? So I had to look for another option.

A picture of Jannie and me on our holiday in El Gouna (Egypt).

After giving it some thoughts and playing around with a dozen of plugins, I actually found the perfect solution: Slimbox!
Slimbox is a visual clone of the popular Lightbox 2 script and to be honest.. this wasn’t actually what I was thinking about when I started but I really like this plugin! It works really simple (download, install and you’re good to go!) and it’s really fast.

Now you are able to view and navigate between the pictures in the gallery very quickly! Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Something which has been deleted from my sidebar is the Blogroll. Well, I haven’t deleted the blogrolls, I just have created a page only for the blogrolls! So from now on you’ll find the blogroll in their own page instead of my sidebar.

So what’s going to replace the blogroll!? Well,I’ve decided to display my 15 Popular posts, which are being sorted by total views. This is a good idea to make sure that new visitors will read those as well..

Another thing which has been changes is the re-placement of “A Year Ago”. From now on you can access this from my tabbed sidebar. I figured that this was a better place to display it, right next to recent posts, popular post and post from a year ago!

So with this chanegs I’m once again very happy when it comes to my sidebar! I hope you’ll like the changes too.

So yeah, today is the first anniversary of BioTecK.net and it’s time to celebrate! I actually wanted to hold a contest or a give way around this one, but due the lack of time I wasn’t able to do so. Remember my post about how fast time flies, Another Week Passes By…!? It sucks that I still can’t buy time anywhere! Anyway, maybe some other time!? 

Now 1 year later, BioTecK.net got a PR2, some post pages even have PR1, 708 posts, 2120 comments & counting, received a lot of Blogging Awards (Sorry if I didn’t pass on the awards!!), got some very nice reviews and much more!

So I guess it’s time to say THANK YOU  ALL, yes every 177.233 one who have visited BioTecK.net the past year and a ::hug:: for helping me get this off the ground! I hope this year will be even better then the last year!

Twitter updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and will be delivered to everyone, who have signed up to receive them. You can change that in your settings if you don’t like that.

So I signed up for a Twitter account a couple of days ago and meanwhile I have found a great plugin which updates Twitter as soon as I write a post on my blog or when I create a new post and save the post without publishing it. By now I’m looking for a plugin which updates Twitter whenever someone writes me a comment on my blog. So if you’re using such plugin or you know where I can find one.. Please let me know!

Anyway.. This way you can follow we on Twitter too! All you have to do is click on the badge below, which I have created yesterday, and follow me on Twitter!

PS: If you would like to use the badge too.. be my guest!

1. A new domain name!
I have registered a new domain name! This time I’ve chosen for a international domain name instead of .nl! 2 years ago when I started blogging I only wanted to blog in Dutch, but after a while I decided to go international and began writing in English! So you see that’s why I didn’t like the .nl domain name cause it might “scare” the visitors!

2. A new design!
Finally I’ve found a really nice theme and tweaked it to my needs!
I’ve kept the colors cause I still like the colors very much!
I have checked and doubled checked everything in the theme just to make sure that there aren’t any errors/bugs! So if you find any errors/bugs just let me know and I’ll fix it right away!

3. A new and faster server!
And last but not least: A new and faster server! I’ve a new server which is much faster than the old one! So I think you’ll notice the speed!

So I welcome you on BioTecK.net and enjoy your stay!

So what I’ve done for ArtiWorld in the past 6 weeks??

• I’ve designed two A5 advertaisments:
  This ad is for a Magazine called “The Wedding Guide”. The Wedding Guide is a magazine about wedding, and anything related to weddings!
  The other ad is for a magazine which I forgat the name of! Anyway, the magazine is a b2b magazine about team-building, entertainment, interviews and much more.

• 3 banners for website usage:
  2 for the new website called Artiest.nu. On Artiest.nu you can book Dutch artists and in the future some international artists.
  1 for the digital ad of ArtiWorld which is produced by another company.

• I’ve made 3 HTML e-mail templates for use in Outlook.
  This one is for mailing from the AgendaChecker account.
  This one is for mailing from the Artiest.nu account.
  This one is for mailing from the ArtiWorld account.
• I also have done some major adjustments on the website of the company, such as adding pictures, sounds and video material but also editing sound and video material of artists/bands which have a presentation on the companies website. In case you wonder how many artists/bands have a presentation on the website?? Currently 497 artists and still counting! So imagine what I have gone through; Finding usable material, editing them and putting them on the website!

Those are just the “small” things that I’ve done, but my major job is making a demonstration video.. That’s a hell of job which I’ll start Monday. Why a delay of 6 weeks? Well, as you might know I still have to do one master exam! This time I have to do this at my internship company. But before I actually can start with this project my school have to look at the project and decide if it’s a good project for me or not! So finally, yesterday I got an e-mail from school and they gave me green light for the project! So now I can start at this project! So from Monday on, I’ll be focusing on making a demonstration video of a application called “AgendaChecker”. AgendaChecker is an online calendar made and optimized for the use of artists (which have there own websites) only. The artists have to sign in, fill in the forms like name, e-mail adres, when they can perform, when they go on vacation and much more. When everything is filled probably and all good, the artists can download 3 html pages (which I co-operated and designed) and put them on there own websites. From there the customers can view and check the dates of the artist and book them with the same tool. Sounds complicated right?? That’s why I’m going to make a demonstration video!

Anyway, I still have a long way to go, and a lot to do for this last project.. So wish me luck…

Ow, I also have updated my portfolio in case you didn’t noticed!

The second things which had been changed is a new category called: Tips & Tricks. In this category you can find Computer Tips & Tricks for an easier and better computer experience…

That’s all folks!

If you want to view the PDF of the Chinese brochure, just click on the image here below. *You’ll need Acrobat Reader to view it.*

So what can you do against spam?? Well, If your e-mail address has found its way into a spammer’s database, there is practically nothing you can do to get it out again. However, there are still numerous things you can do to protect yourself against spam, even if you can’t avoid it completely!

Treat your personal data with care
Treat your e-mail address with care. Be careful who you give your e-mail address to (e.g. in chat-rooms), which listings you join and which websites you sign up to. Always think about whether you want to pass on all the data you are asked for when registering on a website, or only that data which the website operator has marked as compulsory.

Take note of data protection policies
Read the policy which is laid down on many websites regarding how visitors’ data is handled, and only pass on your data if you agree with the appropriate regulations. Pay particular attention to whether the website operator states in their policy if they will only use the data for their own purposes of if they may pass it on to third parties. On registration pages, also watch out for boxes which have already been checked and allow the company to provide you with “product information”. Many Internet providers now give you the option of specifying whether you want to receive publicity material or not.

Special marking in directories
When making an entry in a public directory, you are often given the option of checking a box if you do not want to receive unsolicited advertising.

Multiple e-mail accounts
Using a second or third e-mail address can help reduce spam attacks. Keep one or more e-mail address in reserve which you always give out when you suspect that you may be troubled by spam from the recipient (e.g. when entering competitions, registering on a new website etc.). If, however, you do not receive any spam or you know that it is a serious provider, you can always give them your second e-mail address at a later date. This helps to some extent to separate spam e-mails from those you actually want to receive and enables you to collect them under a separate e-mail address. That’s what I always do, I have this e-mail address which I use as my spam e-mail, but as you can see that’s no guarantee on not getting any spam!

No chain e-mails
Never take part in games or practical jokes which are forwarded by e-mail to other users. Do not pass on hoaxes (e.g. virus warnings). If you want to send an e-mail to more than one user, put these e-mail addresses in the bcc (blind carbon copy) field so that they cannot be viewed by anybody else. If somebody sends you an e-mail with a number of visible addresses, alert them to this bcc procedure.

No read notifications
Codes can be hidden in HTML e-mails which notify spammers when somebody has read their e-mail. The spammer can then see that your e-mail address is valid. Switch off read notification, use an e-mail program which also allows you to deactivate HTML or add a plug-in to Outlook or Outlook Express which you can use to turn off HTML.

No opt-out
Spam e-mails often contain a link whereby you are supposed to be able to unregister from the address list. On the contrary, this actually confirms to spammers that your e-mail address is valid and you are sent even more advertising.

No visible e-mail addresses on websites
Address collectors search through websites for e-mail addresses. If you have your own website (like me), it is recommended that you hide your e-mail address. Use contact forms (with spam protection!) or another alternative method so that visitors to your site can get in touch with you.

Filters/Tools
It is possible to filter out spam to a certain extent, or to use special tools to delete spam without having to spend time and effort doing it yourself. E.g. it is advisable to filter mails containing executable file extensions in attachments.

Access protection
Protect your server against unauthorized access from outside by instigating appropriate technical and administrative measures (firewall, correct use of passwords etc.) so that it cannot be misused by spammers as a relay for sending spam.