The updating article at WordPress suggest that you should simply overwrite the files on server which is not a bad way, but if you want to decrease the downtime of your site the below method will help you. The downtime occurred with the following method is just for some seconds which is simply unnoticeable. Another misconception with some people is they don’t know that WordPress stores most of the settings in the database. Even the plugin settings are also stored in the database itself. The only thing we have to care is about the “wp-content” folder which contains the themes and plugin’s and the “wp-config.php” file which is used by WordPress to locate the database.

The effective way of updating is not by replacing the current files on server but by creating a temporary new directory & then uploading all the files (except config.php & the wp-content folder) to the newly created directory. Here are the step by step instruction on how to do it without worrying about the loss of data. We are assuming that the WordPress files are stored in the folder named “wordpress” on the server currently.

IMPORTANT: IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER FOLDER OR FILES THAT YOU HAVE CREATED MANUALLY NEEDS SPECIAL CARE AS METIONED BELOW IN 5TH STEP IN BOLD LETTERS.

• Download & extract the latest version of WordPress.
• Now rename the folder where you have just extracted the files with any name like “wordpress-new“.
• Open “wordpress-new” folder and delete “wp-content” folder & “wp-config.php” file from it.
• Now upload the folder “wordpress-new” to the server adjacent to, where “wordpress” folder is located.
• Copy or Move “wp-content” folder, “wp-config.php” file and “.htaccess” file (if present) from “wordpress” to “wordpress-new“. (Also if you have created any files or folders manually, copy or move. This is very important, do not take it lightly.)

By this time your site is up & is ready to be updated. Your site will now go down as soon as you will follow the next step. But this downtime will last just for few seconds. Your site will be up again when you complete the last step.

• Rename the folder “wordpress” to “wordpress-old“.
• Again rename the folder “wordpress-new” to “wordpress“.
• Now go the update link of your blog “http://www.example.com/(path-to-wordpress)/wp-admin/update.php” (Replace example.com with your domain and (path-to-wordpress) with the correct path to you blog where “wordpress” folder is located.

By this time your WordPress has been updated and your site should run properly. You may backup “wordpress-old” folder, so that if something goes wrong you can get it back.

Advantages of this method over directly over-writing all the files:

• Less Downtime of blog: The downtime period of blog is just for few seconds, whereas when over-writing the files it could last for some heavy minutes.
• Deletion of junk: Sometimes the files are not only added but also deleted in new release. Overwriting adds the new files but it does not deletes the files which have been deleted from the new version.
• Less time consumption: In over-writing the files have to be deleted and then the new files are uploaded, while in this method the file does not have to be deleted thus consuming less time.
• Provides Backup: This method keeps files of both old and new version thus providing backup, if something goes wrong you can easily restore your blog within seconds and try again.

Related: Four ways to Blog Offline & their comparison.

Here is the 11 step process with an image flowchart that will easily let you change your name in Gmail/Gtalk. (Click on the image at right to enlarge it.)

1. Sign in to you Google Account.
2. Go to “My Account” Page.
3. Click on Edit Link.
4. Enter your First name & last name here.
5. Click on “Save”.
6. Now open Gmail.
7. Click on settings.
8. Then go to the accounts tab.
9. Click on edit info.
10. Now you can either select the name you just changed in the above step or you can type a new name you want to use for Gmail/Gtalk.
11. Click on “Save”.

That’s it. Your (new) name will appear in Gtalk & will also be attached when you will compose an email.

NOTE: You cannot have different names in gtalk and gmail through a same account.

You can access this iPhone version by pointing your iPhone browser to http://www.google.com/talk. Also you can run this in your browser sidebar as well. Just replace the below URL’s in this trick which we wrote a while ago.

For normal Google/Gmail users: http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/m

For Google Apps users: http://hostedtalkgadget.google.com/a/mydomain.com/talkgadget/m

Don’t forget to replace mydomain.com with your own domain.

The three new sizes are:

• 410×342
• 555×417
• 700×525

The first can be used for embedding presentations in Blogs and sites while the third one is best suited for viewing or while presenting to someone.

Google Docs [via Official Google Docs Blog]

Youtube has also launched a Indian blog which can be found at http://in.youtube.com/blog. You can access the Indian version of youtube at http://in.youtube.com/.

What’s Happening? : Spammers have attacked the public in a new way. They use your mail address to send you spam. When the mail arrives in your inbox, the spam bots filters them and move them to Spam folder cleaning up your inbox. Good enough! But as those mails have been sent from your mail id, Gmail also puts them in the sent folder also marked up as unread. We still are not sure that – Is Gmail adding those mails to sent folder? OR Someone has got access to my account? Note: The above theory is only an assumption, I have taken.

And if those mails are added to Sent folder by Gmail, then I guess that it is a major bug in Gmail.

How can spammers send me a mail without accessing my account? : Well I must tell you, this is a major loop hole in mailing system. It is very easy to send a mail from anyone’s mail id to any other person. All you need to have is your own domain setup, some smart scripts and a tricky mind.

Is there anyway to stop all this? : Well not yet. Just keep changing your Google Account password every week and create stronger one’s (more than 8 characters) each time. If its a bug in Gmail then Googlers should immediately act on it, Otherwise this may create a big problem for millions of Gmail users.

What do you say? : I’m looking for comments to this post. What do you think – Smart Spammer OR bug in Gmail?

The plan will allow unlimited calls to land-line phones in 34 countries for $9.95 per month, said Don Albert, vice president and general manager for Skype North America.

But today when I checked the price of the Unlimited World plan on Skype’s site, the rates were different there. I saw banner that was showing a price tag of $12.95 per month for Unlimited World plan. Even few hours ago lifehacker also wrote an article with $9.95 as price.

The Unlimited Country plan banner showed a total of $5.95 per month per country. This $3 difference is still a mystery that – Has the rate been increased in just one day? or Skype has different rates for different locations?.

The skype-to-skype calls remains free as always.

1. Mobile View – m.orkut.com:
Finally the orkut mobile version is here, but Google didn’t officially launched as it has some bugs in it. Mobile version allows you to check your scraps, view your friends profile, scrap to your friends, accept or reject a friend request, see updates, etc.

To open orkut mobile site simply visit m.orkut.com. Orkut Mobile View may be used as another way to bypass restrictions to orkut, but only if *.orkut.com has not been blocked by your provider.

It also has some keypad shortcuts that let you browse quickly like 3 for (F)riends, 7 for (S)crapbook, etc. however this may not work on every handset or every browser.

Credits for discovering Orkut Mobile are via labnol via Rahul, InsideOrkut and Haochi.

2. Low Bandwidth Mode:
This mode is like general orkut but the difference is it loads without images. Only your own image will load while browsing orkut. However when you open a scrapbook, instead of showing images of the scrap authors it shows an option to display image of the author of that scrap. If you click on it, the image will be fetched from the server using AJAX.

Also the birthday updates are shown in a calendar form. Well I don’t think that this feature can reduce bandwidth, instead if these updates in simple text form might have been useful.

To enable this mode follow the steps mentioned below:

• Login to your orkut account.
• Click on “Settings” in the left Column.
• Then under low bandwidth section, select the option “show the low bandwidth version of orkut”.
• Click on “Update”.
• Done!

This view is suitable for those who are using dial-up or who have limited bandwidth.

Related: How to access orkut from office or college, where orkut is blocked?

The chat bar will be seen on every facebook page & tour chats will be saved as soon as the page changes. Now the notifications will also be seen on this bar only. While chatting your friends mini-feed notifications will get in the conversation.

It will also let you know who is online or not. You can customize your status or you may go offline in chat while you just prefer surfing facebook. You won’t have to build your buddy list again, all your facebook friends will automatically configured.

The development team is working hard on privacy of users & thus they have postponed its release. The lines from facebook blog are “Before we jump head-first into this new real-time approach to Facebook, it’s worth spending some time thinking about privacy. Conversations are one-to-one, completely private, and only between Facebook friends. The message history is saved from page to page, and even between login sessions, but it is not logged permanently.”

I’m lovin’ this movie, obviously. The high-def version is definitely recommended for anyone with broadband, since the embedded one seems over-compressed. - Gabe Rivera (Techmeme Owner)

You may download high resolution movie here.