18. 11.

There are plugins to download for these areas:

• Comment management
• Post related
• Admin related
• Security
• Developer
• Twitter
• Feed related
• Tweaking plugins
• User related
• Spam management
• Social bookmarking
• Google Map related
• Mutli-language translation
• WP Mobile Edition - PDA friendly interface for your blog

The quality is so good that I downloaded almost all of them. See for yourself then…

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35 Superb WordPress Plugins to Enhance Your Blogs

17. 11.

I’ve been adding articles to this site from time to time and I think I ought to make a plug for the company I work for, which is working on making renewable energy available to everyone. Hey, Mark okayed it, so plugging your company must be cool! ; )

Shameless Plug for BeUtilityFree

Take the idea of energy sustainability and apply it to what are probably your largest energy uses: your home and car. That’s the approach of BeUtilityFree. Take a look at what we do at www.beutilityfree.com. (I’m the webmaster as well as a renewable energy installer, so I’d love to hear feedback on what you think of the site at brett_s AT BeUtilityFree.com.)

The grand plan is to start out by reducing the amount of energy you use through replacing your current fixtures and appliances with more efficient ones, or designing your new home with efficiency built right in. Then you can buy a much more affordable renewable energy system that will cover your modest needs.

Once you own your means of production, you start getting paid back through avoiding the ever-rising cost of fuel, selling renewable energy credits for your production, taking tax breaks and utility incentives and maybe even selling excess energy.

We sell energy-efficient appliances and lighting and renewable energy systems like solar electric, solar hot water, wind power, hydrogen cogeneration and ethanol stills. We’ll design renewable energy systems, install them or just sell the components to those who have the skills to set them up themselves.

Our special, can’t-find-them-anywhere-else items are Nickel-Iron batteries, the Superior Solar Storage Tank and our 3″ and 4″ column Ethanol Stills.

We are hoping to unveil a few exciting things in the near future. Among them are:

• A turn-key ethanol plant. Just put feedstock, water, enzymes and yeast in one end and watch the fuel pour out the other. We’re currently testing enzymes for cellulosic production so that making ethanol can be as inexpensive and sustainable as possible.
• A Purchase Power Agreement plan that lets anyone get solar energy from their rooftop without any up-front investment. We’d retain ownership of the solar system and sell you the energy at a rate lower than the utility company’s.

If we can get everyone to pump renewable energy into the grid or unplug and make their own energy sustainably, we’ll have taken a huge step toward getting this climate problem licked. And if everyone owns the source of their energy, we can all get out from under the thumb of the utility company and the US Oil War Machine and get back to making a poistive difference in the world.

Brett

12. 11.

As most of you have probably noticed, I’ve been mega-busy over the last couple of months thanks to a combination of my day job, health issues, moving home and recently getting engaged and trying to plan a wedding. I had to put a lot of things on hold, but I think I’ve managed to get everything back under control and I can now start posting again regularly.

Things have been so busy that I haven’t even had time to read my personal email. I’ve just spent 5 hours clearing out my email and in amongst all the other emails was a request from Philip from MS Windows Home Server asking me to update the list of Wordpress plugins in use on this site. Hopefully this list will be of use to other users. If you are using any plugins you want to recommend to other readers, then please leave a comment below.

Wordpress Plugins I Use

• Admin Big Width v1.0 by XoraX - enlarge your wordpress administration.
• Akismet v2.1.8 by Matt Mullenweg - Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. The number one anti-spam service for WordPress.
• All in One SEO Pack v1.4.6.14 by Michael Torbert - Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog.
• Bad Behavior v2.0.23 by Michael Hampton - Deny automated spambots access to your PHP-based Web site.
• Brian’s Latest Comments v1.5.10 by Brian Meidell - This shows an overview of the recently active articles and the last people to comment on them. Original idea and code fixes contributed by Michael Heilemann.
  If you have Dunstan’s Time Since installed, this plugin uses it for the title=”" attributes on the comments and posts. Extra caching and 2.x table variables added by Donncha O Caoimh, http://ocaoimh.ie/
• Commentluv v1.99 by Andy Bailey - Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog in their comment. Just activate and it’s ready. Will parse a feed from most sites that have a feed location specified in its head html. See the Settings Page for styling and text output options.
• Dean’s Permalinks Migration v1.0 by Dean Lee - With this plugin, you can safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website,and even doesn’t hurt your google pagerank.
• Extended Live Archives v0.10beta-r18 by Arnaud Froment - Implements a dynamic archive, inspired by Binary Bonsai and the original Super Archives by Jonas Rabbe. Visit the ELA option panel to initialize the plugin.
• FeedBurner FeedSmith v2.2 by FeedBurner - Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
• Google XML Sitemaps v3.1.0.1 by Arne Brachhold - This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Configuration Page
• MCEComments v0.4.5 by Thomas Au(MK) - A simple hack to enable WYSIWYG editor TinyMCE on the comment field.
• Mint Popular Posts v1.0 by Yaakov Ellis - Creates a list of popular posts based on an attached Mint tracking system. Set your options here.
• Paged Comments v2.7.1 (2008-07-14) by Keyvan Minoukadeh - Breaks down comments into a number of pages
• Samsarin PHP Widget v1.3.2 by Chris Pettitt - A text widget with support for including PHP.
• Show Top Commentators v1.05 by Nate Sanden - Encourage more feedback and discussion from readers, by rewarding them every time they post a comment! Readers with the most comments are displayed on your Wordpress blog, with their names (linked to their website if they provided one).
• Shutter Reloaded v2.1 by Andrew Ozz - Darkens the current page and displays an image on top like Lightbox, Thickbox, etc. However this script is a lot smaller and faster.
• Simple Tags v1.5.7 by Amaury BALMER - Simple Tags : Extended Tagging for WordPress 2.3 and 2.5 ! Autocompletion, Suggested Tags, Tag Cloud Widgets, Related Posts, Mass edit tags !
• Subscribe To Comments v2.1.2 by Mark Jaquith - Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Based on version 1 from Scriptygoddess
• Text Link Ads v2 v2.0.1 by Justin Klemm & Matthew Drouin - Really Simple Web/RSS Advertising For Personal or Commercial Use
• Viper’s Plugins Used v1.12 by Viper007Bond - Allows you to display alphabetically what plugins you have enabled on your blog in either a table or unordered list. Also allows you to set custom descriptions for the plugins in the output.
• WP Ajax Edit Comments v2.1.2.0 by Ronald Huereca - Allows users and admin to edit their comments inline. Admin and editors can edit all comments.
• WP Super Cache v0.7.1 by Donncha O Caoimh - Very fast caching module for WordPress. Once activated, you must enable the cache. Based on WP-Cache by Ricardo Galli Granada.
• WP-PageNavi v2.31 by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan - Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog.
• WPvideo v1.10 by Antonio Perez - Allows you to insert online videos in your post by providing the video url between the tags. Also allows download the video (using DownThisVideo!) with a link below the video.
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin v2.0.5 by mitcho (Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine) - Returns a list of the related entries based on keyword matches, limited by a certain relatedness threshold. New and improved, version 2.0!

wordpress plugins

7. 11.

I’m probably completely, totally jinxing myself by posting this, but if everything comes together as I hope, this place is about to get a lot more interesting. Of course not that you, dear reader, ever found it uninteresting.

Watch this space!

5. 11.

Using WordPress as your blogging software or even content management software is pretty easy, even for blogging software newbies. Personalization is what makes WordPress stand out, though. Not only can you use code to add functionality to your site, but you can also use any one of literally thousands of plugins to add features you want or need as well!

While I generally use around 30 plugins for this site, I do have a favorite… hands down — RSS Footer.

Why is RSS Footer such a great plugin? For starters, you can add just about any text you can imagine to your RSS feed’s footer! Start thinking ads, links to posts you want to feature, copyright information, contact information, inspiring quotes - the sky’s the limit!

RSS Footer Options - Click for a Larger Version

Installation is a breeze and getting started using this plugin couldn’t be any easier!

The options for RSS Footer are straightforward - type in what you want to display in your footer (HTML is allowed), then note if you want this content to display before or after your posts in an RSS reader like Google Reader or Bloglines. You can also decide if you want to include a link back to the post you wrote, so your RSS readers can click on the link and be directed back to your homepage - or scrapers (the bad guys who steal your content) must link back to your site.
And that’s it! RSS Footer does exactly what its name says - and does it without a lot of complicated jargon or settings. If you are looking for a way to display links to some of your best posts to your RSS readers, generate more buzz for your website or Twitter page or add affiliate links, RSS Footer is the plugin for you!

Don’t Forget! Enter the Ultimate Geek Girl’s Blog Contest TODAY!

Use RSS Footer to Personalize your RSS Feed

Articles with Related Content:

• Update on PingCrawl - Adding Pingbacks Automatically to WP Posts
• Top 5 Features in WordPress 2.7
• WordPress 2.6 Released a Month Ahead of Schedule
• Use Commentluv to send some Comment Love
• 11 Ways to Monetize Your Blog

4. 11.

Google Chrome Browser

Later today Google is expected to release a new web browser based on Webkit (what Safari uses) and Firefox. I feel that it will be a welcome addition to the browser wars.

I used Firefox, but have notice a lot more browser crashes with 3.x than previous versions and it feels quite laggy sometimes even on a Quad processor machine with 3gb RAM. It gets to the point sometimes where I just load up Safari or Opera to surf sometimes.

IE just sucks. I ONLY use IE for site testing during web development and for the “best” experience accessing my day job’s Outlook Web Access (OWA) for email. Other than that, IE is not a part of my day to day browser use.

If this Google takes the best of Webkit and Firefox and makes it “better, faster, stronger”, then I will use it. Of course I will be frank on my review of it and will do my best not to be biased since I use Google almost exclusive for my search needs, Email (Google Apps for Domains), Analytics for stats, etc.

I will post up a review once I get my hands on it and can put it through it’s paces.

I think Google will have more downloads of this browser in the first 24 hours than Firefox did on it’s 3.0 launch day if it posts up something on the front page of Google. This could be huge.

2. 11.

Amazon has acquired twelve year old Canadian company Abebooks (formerly the Advanced Book Exchange), the companies just announced. AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books focusing on used, rare and out of print titles for sale by independent booksellers - it currently has 110 million books for sale from 13,500 sellers.

The company has been around since 1996 and fills a niche for Amazon in hard-to-find or out-of-print books. Rather than hold its own inventory, it acts as a digital marketplace for established booksellers.

AbeBooks also owns 40 percent of LibraryThing (a social app for keeping track of your books and finding other like-minded book lovers). Whereas Amazon is an investor in Shelfari. Now Amazon will own a piece of both of those competing startups.

AbeBooks CEO Dr. Hannes Blum sent an email out to its booksellers today talking about the acquisition, saying the company would continue to operate as a stand-alone business. The email is below; the press release is here.

Dear Booksellers,

AbeBooks has reached an agreement to be acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. This is a major landmark in the 12-year history of AbeBooks.

AbeBooks will continue to operate as a stand-alone business with all aspects of AbeBooks’ bookseller and customer experience remaining intact. AbeBooks’ headquarters will remain in Victoria, BC, Canada, and our European offices will remain in Dusseldorf, Germany. We will continue to support both our international marketplaces and our domestic marketplace here in Canada. I will continue to lead AbeBooks.

We expect this change to allow AbeBooks to expand its offerings and introduce new features and services to enhance the book buying and selling experience. Amazon is committed to further developing the AbeBooks brand and building upon the success of the past 12 years. This is not the first time AbeBooks has changed hands since being launched in 1996. Hubert Burda Media, a German media company, took a majority shareholding in 2003.

The bookselling community has been a vital component in our success, and we are grateful for your continuing support. We will be happy to answer questions about our new ownership and what the future holds. A bookseller Roundtable will be held on Thursday August 7th at 2:30pm PDT/9:30pm GMT/7:30am AU where I and the Director of Sales & Account Management, Shaun Jamieson, will answer any questions you might have. In addition, the ‘Ask AbeBooks a question’ folder will continue to be available for ongoing questions from the seller community.

We realize this is important news for our community, and we are confident that this acquisition will greatly benefit AbeBooks’ sellers and provide us with many opportunities for future growth.

For more details please see the official release posted today.

Regards,

Dr. Hannes Blum
President and CEO
AbeBooks

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Technorati Tags: business, media, news, market

1. 11.

I’ve mentioned a bunch of times how much I hate spam and how pointless it is (since most programs block it). Well, I got this unbelievably long spam comment for an old post. Spammers will generally do this because older posts aren’t monitored as closely and their comment as well as the backlink to a garbage site will stay up a bit longer.

Instead of deleting the comment the way i usually do I decided to play johny adlibs with it. So check out the replacement phrases:

Allah - -Al Davies, Rightful Leader of Zamunda
Islam - Albino Bearcat
Iraq - jersey shore
Christians - baby kittens
christian - overmedicated female bodybuilder
jews - baby gorillas
jew - 14 year old boy from the bronx
holocaust - mixed martial arts fight
america - 15th century el salvador

now check out the actual comment: it appears after the post.. obvi

31. 10.

I’m holding a Nokia 6121 loaded with Vodafone’s MusicStation software, and to be brutally honest, I’m largely disinterested in the music and software. There are, however, two things about Vodafone’s latest musical forays that interest me in a big way.

Firstly, I’m very interested to see what my 13 year old nephew makes of MusicStation. I’m quite happy to admit that I’m not in the target market for MusicStation. I use an iPhone, perfer to listen to my music on a home stereo, and get hold of my music from a mixture of original CD ripping, and DRM-free downloads (more on that later). My nephew on the other hand, treats his Sony-Ericsson phone in the same way that I remember my father using a transistor radio. He carries it everywhere, and it seems to be constantly emitting loud, tinny music (although thankfully not the mix of Radio New Zealand National Programme and Concert Radio that brings back embedded memories of many hours weeding the vegetable patch in Papatoetoe).

I’m not sure where said nephew acquires his music from, but I imagine it is a “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangement with various shady download sites. This is where my interest is really piqued by Vodafone’s MusicStation. At $2.50 per week - a fraction of pocket money for a modern 13 year old - and with trivially simple access to download music directly to the phone, I see MusicStation as one of the first serious, viable competitors to pirated music. If he can grab the latest track, for ‘free’, during a school lunch break, why would he wait until hometime to search for, download, then transfer the track to his phone?

I really think Vodafone are onto a winner in this market segment, and good on them for pricing it so competitively.

The second interesting development is the availability of DRM-free tracks on vmusic.co.nz. DRM-free is a Good Thing, especially in light of the recent Walmart DRM shutdown. If you have been ignoring the DRM naysayers, you should pay attention to the Walmart fiasco, because it speaks to the root of the problem with DRM: someone else controls your access to the music you have purchased. As Cory Doctorow puts it: the only people harmed by DRM are the people that legitimately pay for their music.

My interest is dampened slightly by the price of DRM-free music: NZ$1.99 per track. I understand that this compares favourably on a per-album price with most physical CDs, but my (completely unresearched) argument is that until DRM-free tracks are down at the sub-50cent level, we won’t see a significant impact on music piracy.

Overall, Vodafone are making some very interesting and effective headway into the music market, and if I understand the PR language correctly, we haven’t yet seen the end of their entertainment market innovations.