The Thomas Stories

July 24, 2018July 28, 2018

Thomas wants to buy Bitcoin!

Thomas isn’t that much of a tech-geek, but he likes to read the news. Recently he has read a lot about Bitcoin, and how it is the currency of the future. He isn’t so convinced about that, but if it turns true, he doesn’t want to stand on the sideline watching.

Thomas has some money set aside for investments. This is money that he can afford to lose, but of course, he hopes it will get more, not less. He has recently read about lots of cryptocurrency exchanges, but they all seem complicated, and they all require you to own Bitcoin before starting. Thomas doesn’t have any Bitcoin, making it impossible for him to trade on such exchanges. Isn’t there a simple way in which he can just go and buy some Bitcoin?

How to buy Bitcoin — Thomas wants to buy his first Bitcoin – Source: Pixabay

An easy way to buy Bitcoin?

Thomas looks for information online, and there are two websites he can read about that seems promising. The first one is eToro. But, he quickly closes his eToro browser window as he discovers that you do not actually own the Bitcoin you buy there, you only trade with the value of Bitcoin.

Then Thomas surfs to the Coinbase website. This is a very user-friendly website, and Thomas likes the design. It is different than the complicated exchange sites. He needs to register and confirm his identity, but once this is all done, he is ready to buy his first Bitcoin.

Thomas likes the fact that he can buy Bitcoin using his VISA/MasterCard and get it all arranged at once. He cannot buy an entire Bitcoin as CoinBase has limitations for purchases with VISA/MasterCard on new accounts, but he can at least buy a little bit.

A few days later he is happy that he didn’t buy more because he discovered that using a bank transfer to CoinBase he can buy with a much lower commission, and he can actually buy an entire Bitcoin. He transfers some money from his bank account to CoinBase, and two days later the money has arrived and he is the happy owner of one Bitcoin. And, since he transferred more money than he needed to buy a Bitcoin, he also bought one Litecoin and one Ethereum.

Now Thomas sits back in his chair, relaxing, and hoping for the Bitcoin price to moon!

Thomas has bought his first Bitcoin — Thomas is ready for the future, he now owns a Bitcoin. Source: Unsplash

Thomas how-to-buy Bitcoin instructions video:

July 23, 2018

Thomas wants to watch Hulu abroad

Thomas has a valid Hulu subscription, but he cannot watch it during his summer holiday in France. Now he looks for a way to watch Hulu overseas.

Thomas has spent his last days in Nice in France. He has been swimming in the sea, eating delicious food, and spent some hours shopping. He is incredibly tired, but suddenly it comes to his mind, that a new episode of The Handmaid’s Tale has been released on Hulu. He opens up his laptop, connects to the WiFi connection available in the hotel, and visits hulu.com.

Can I watch Hulu abroad? — Thomas is ready to watch The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu

He is ready to stream, and he presses the play button. He waits for a few seconds, but after the waiting is over he doesn’t see Offred and Commander Waterford, but this stupid message.

hulu overseas — Thomas is unable to watch Hulu in Europe – what’s wrong?

Thomas was really hyped up about the new episode, and now he is sad and sorry. He isn’t the kind of guy who takes a no for an answer, so he starts looking for a solution. Is there a way in which Thomas can make the Hulu website believe that he is located in the USA?

Thomas cracks the Hulu from abroad code

Thomas has heard about VPN providers and IP addresses before, and at first he thought getting an American IP address would solve all his trouble. After all, if Hulu finds out that Thomas has an IP address in the United States, then it should work, shouldn’t it? Well, it doesn’t! He reads about how lots of VPN providers are blocked by Hulu, and only a few are still working. But, which are the ones working?

Thomas has looked around here and thre, and in the end he finds an article which says that ExpressVPN is a VPN provider that has been working constantly for the last years with Hulu. Thomas decides to give it a try. He visits the ExpressVPN website, signs up and downloads the ExpressVPN application. He is very relieved to see that they have a 30-day full refund policy, as he can ask for his money back if it doesn’t work.

The entire process only took a few minutes, and now Thomas connects to a server in the USA with ExpressVPN. He decides to restart his browser after making the VPN connection, and now he visits hulu.com again. He is nervous, because he really wants it to work. But, he has heard of scams and companies trying to steal his money, so he is not entirely sure about whether or not he can trust ExpressVPN.

Thomas tries to watch Hulu again

Will it work this time? Thomas gets to the site for The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, and he presses the play button. He waits for a few seconds (it seems like forever), and the something happens. What happened? Take a look beneath!

Thomas is happy, and he is to busy watching the episode, so he doesn’t have much time to complete this article. But, he hopes the way he solved this problem will help you solve the same problem as well, no matter where you might be in the world.

July 23, 2018July 28, 2018

How to publish old WordPress posts with SteemPress to Steemit?

Thomas has just installed Steem Press on his WordPress blog. From now on new posts will be published on Steemit automatically. But, is there a way to publish old posts as well?

Thomas is a happy and enthusiastic blogger. But, he loves spending his time wisely, and now he is looking for a way to publish his old WordPress posts to Steemit using SteemPress. It is great that the new posts will be published automatically after installing SteemPress, but what about the old posts?

Thomas has thought about the topic for a while, and he wonders if he should delete his old posts, copy the content, and then republish them all over again. In that way, the posts will be published to Steemit, and at the same time exist on the old blog like before. It could work, but it is not a very efficient method. Thomas isn’t happy with the solution.

Thomas gets ready to delete some old posts

While waiting for a better solution to show up, Thomas starts looking through some old posts. He wants to delete a couple of them, and that is when Thomas discovers an amazing little text.

Wow - I can publish to Steem from the post overview in WordPress! — Wow – I can publish to Steem from the post overview in WordPress!

While looking for something else, Thomas suddenly discovered the text “Publish to Steem” in the post overview. Here he can simply select old blog posts and press “Publish to Steem,” and the posts will be published automatically.

There is a maximum of one post per five minutes, so Thomas quickly discovers that it will take a while for all his posts to get published, but it is still a very efficient way to publish old WordPress posts to Steemit.

At first, the article doesn’t seem to get published. That is when Thomas realizes that he has set a delay for posts to be published on 2000 minutes in the SteemPress options. He decides to keep it this way, but at least he understands why the articles aren’t published on Steemit right away.

Thomas is very happy, and he looks forward to seeing his new and old blog posts on the Steemit platform.