Yesterday I wrote a long post venting about the issues that 10.5.6 has brought to me and to my Macbook Pro. I was having a problem with mail crashing every time I loaded a message with an attachment. Well, I am delighted to report that the issue has been fixed thanks to a user by the name of Til-Berlin on the Apple discussion forums:

In the end I found out that I have two Mail.app on my HDD. Apperently I was using a old updated (which reports also as 3.5). Deleting it and using only the one at /Programs solved my issue. I believe this is the application file from the Combo Update.

~ Til-Berlin (Link)

I looked at the version of Mail I was using from my Dock icon (Mail Menu > About Mail) and noticed that my version was 3.5 897.2/903.3. This is the problem. The current version of Mail is 3.5 903.3 only! I did a quick spotlight search on my mac to find 2 versions of Mail, one was the currupt one that I was using, and one was the good version (3.5 903.3.) I removed the bad one (3.5 897.2/903.3) and then added the good one to my dock, and opened it up. IT WORKED!

Til-Berlin suggested to reinstall the combo update after all of this, but I didn’t have to do this.

I hope this helps everyone who is having problems. You can check out my other post with fixes and details on the problem here: http://atlchris.com/582/os-x-1056-i-hate-you/

In this guide, I am going to show you step by step, how to upgrade to a 4GB RAM kit on a late 2008 model (Uni body Aluminum) Macbook Pro. I am upgrading my 2.4GHz/250GB Macbook Pro from 2GB of RAM up to 4GB. Th process is very easy, but you still need to take it slow so you don’t damage your beautiful Macbook Pro. I believe this same method will work on the new uni body Macbook too, but I have not confirmed this.

BEFORE YOU START:

I would recommend you do this on a table, in a uncarpeted room, doing this on carpet can create static electricity which can fry your whole machines. Also, make sure you shutdown, NOT SLEEP, your Macbook Pro. Finally, disconnect all wires (USB, Firewire, Power,…)

Start by flipping you Macbook Pro over. Be sure to put something under it so you don’t scratch it. I would use some sort of anti static cloth. I am using my neoprene case.

I have received a couple emails from my readers asking me what plugin I use to generate my archives page. Well, truth be told, my archives page is not a plugin. I hard coded that page using Wordpress’ built in template tags. Since there is a lot of interest in this page, I decided to post a walk through of how you can recreate my archives page on your own blog.

All of the code below is show via images for posting reasons. Click the images to view the high res versions of the code. If you would like to cut and paste code, find the link the the text file containing the full code in step 10. I would advise against cutting and pasting because this code is specific to my custom templete and will not display correctly on your blog. It is better to understand everything below so you can customize it to your site.

1. The first step to creating your archives page is to understand how the Wordpress template system works. I would recommend your read up on the Wordpress documentation before you proceed. http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes
2. What you want to do now, is locate your template directory which is normally at: http://www.yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/yourtheme
3. We now need to create a new file called archives.php and upload it to this directory. This file should be blank, but have the name and extension of archives.php.
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Over the years, I have blogged, designed, and developed for many websites, and I have developed a very good knowledge of marketing on the internet. Being a blogger myself, I know how hard it is for present day bloggers to get noticed in the overly populated blogging industry of 2008.

On that note, I would like to present my methods of marketing a blog in 2008. There are hundreds of ways to market a blog these days and I am going to address a few of my favorites.

Create a Brand

Darren(link) of ProBlogger(link) recently posted an article and video about this topic. In his video he discussed how important it is to present yourself and you blog in a consistent way. Many bloggers these days think design is everything, and redesign every few months trying to keep their site new and fresh, while this can help, I feel it hurts more.

Your blog needs to be a brand, that is consistent with its topics, design, and marketing. I am currently in the process of developing a brand for this site. I have recently ordered business cards with the same logo and color scheme as the site, when it comes time to change the design of the site, I will not flip the design overnight, I will take small steps and transition my readers into the new design. Having a solid brand will help people to associate your content with a reliable source which will lead to more return viewers and increase viewership.

Technorati

Technorati.com is an excellent source for new blogs trying to break into the mainstream. A large amount of my sites traffic comes from Technorati, and its directory services. One of the first things any blogger should do when marketing a new blog is to claim it on Technorati and fill out the blogs profile completely with keyword rich descriptions, and associate it with a lot of different but targeted tags. Technorati is a great way to spread the word on your new blog, and it is totally free and mostly automated once you complete the sites setup.

Digg

Digg.com can be an amazing source for new bloggers, Digg can bring hundreds of thousands of hits to your site in a matter of a day if you have “great content.” While most bloggers already know about Digg and utilize it, many of them make the mistake of spamming Digg which will do nothing but hurt you when you really have an article that is front-page worthy. Don’t post every story on your blog to Digg, post the ones that you feel people will really enjoy reading. If your story is Digg worthy, let your readers Digg it and submit it, don’t force it on them. Submitting a story to Digg then shouting it out to your thousands of Digg friends will not get you on the front-page. Put a dig button at the bottom of your post and let your readers determine if it is Digg worthy.

In this guide, I am going to show you step by step, how to upgrade ram in a early 2008 model Macbook Pro. I am upgrading my 2.4GHz/200GB Macbook Pro from 2GB of RAM up to 4GB. Th process is very easy, but you still need to take it slow so you don’t damage your beautiful Macbook Pro.

BEFORE YOU START:

I would recommend you do this on a table, in a uncarpeted room, doing this on carpet can create static electricity which can fry your whole machines. Also, make sure you shutdown, NOT SLEEP, your Macbook Pro. Finally, disconnect all wires (USB, Firewire, Power,…)