Shell Script for Automating WordPress updates for multiple blogs

Posted by james on Nov 27, 2008 in wordpress | 0 comments

Many moons ago I read Joost de Valk’s blog post about upgrading and installing WordPress from SVN. Since then, every blog I maintain I use the WordPress svn repository to check out, and to update using the simple command of “svn sw“.

But even with that ease, it can get a bit tedious to upgrade 10 blogs, for instance.

So, as all “script writers” that are in between TV Series do, I wrote a script to automate this.

Stop Excel Using Scientific Notation on Numbers

Posted by james on Nov 25, 2008 in tips | 9 comments

Excel is brilliant!

It is so brilliant, that it’s helpful.

Excel is SO helpful THAT IT SUCKS!!!

Probably for 99.9% of the general population, all of Microsoft Excel’s cool features that help you format your data into something legible are something really cool. But I think Excel should have a “data only” setting.

What do I mean by “data only”? Have you ever tried debugging data in excel using all the cool functions, etc. to find duplicates, or sort the data only to find that Excel has gone and removed a leading “0″, or changed the number into Scientific Notation?

Apparently Excel has a 15 digit precision limit. But most of the time, I’d prefer it if Excel just treated the number as text until I want it sorted. Am I being TOO fussy?

Anyway, I found a great way to do this in 4 easy steps (once you’ve imported the data as text – see the comment below made on June 7th 2010 for reasons!):

Creating your Google Reader Application with Google Chrome

Posted by james on Sep 3, 2008 in google, interesting | 3 comments

Google Chrome was finally released, and I’ve been playing around with it for a few hours.

I decided to try out creating a “Google Reader Application” by making use of the “Chromeless Chrome” functionality.

In the images (click on them for a larger look) you will see the 4 basic steps to creating the Chrome-less application:

1 – The initial web site (Google Reader) in a basic/standard Google Chrome browser. You can see it’s still in the normal browser chrome because of the tabs and URL bar, etc.

2 – Click on the “page” icon to the right of the URL bar and click on “Create application Shortctuts…”

3 – You will then have a couple of prompts to answer and you can save your shortcut to the desktop. You can see that Google Chrome has chosen the Favicon as the “application icon”.

4 – In this last screenshot you can see what the Google Reader app will look like, now that it doesn’t have the usual “browser chrome”. (See my previous article about Google Chrome for more info on that).

And, we now have a “Google Reader Application“, especially since we don’t really need an internet connection if you’ve enabled Google Gears for this site.

Google Chrome – Google’s Free Web Browser

Posted by james on Sep 2, 2008 in google | 0 comments

Looks like all the MANY, MANY rumours of Google releasing their own web browser have finally come true.

Welcome, Google Chrome. (the link is live, go download Google Chrome)

Some Cool Features in Google Chrome

The developers of Chrome have really gone all out on the performance of this browser, especially with regards to JavaScript. Which is a GREAT thing, considering Google’s biggest apps use AJAX/JavaScript heavily.

One of the things I’m looking forward to seeing is the “Task Manager“. This window shows which tabs (and therefore, which sites) are causing the most CPU usage and memory usage. FireFox 3 really improved it’s memory handling, but every now and again, when I have about 15 tabs open (which I often do, while I’m writing this I have 9 open) FireFox hangs when opening GMail and Google Reader…

Here’s a screenshot of the Google Chrome Task Manager at work (click the image for a full-sized version):

The world has really been “raving” about IE8′s “porn mode“, which Microsoft have officially named “InPrivate”. While browsing in this mode your session will be undetectable (theoretically), and no trace of that session will be left on your computer. Google Chrome seems to have a similar feature, except you can select a specific tab that will browse without leaving any trace of it’s session on your computer. Great stuff if you’re reading personal ads while on your work’s computer.

Tabs and the way we use them have also completely changed. They’ve been inverted so they appear at the top of the browser, but that’s not just a UI change. You can now drag tabs between browser windows, and all of their history goes along with it. Effectively, each tab is it’s own browser (with it’s own URL bar, named “The OmniBox“), so it doesn’t matter where it sits…

Talking about the OmniBox, personally it looks like Mozilla’s Ubiquity has some similarities, being able to search and translate and complete your bookmarks…

Chrome without Chrome

The “Chrome” of a browser is the actual window with the toolbar, the URL bar, the bookmarks/links area.

Google Chrome looks like it now allows you to “create a GMail application”, in that it removes the browser chrome, so that you only see GMail’s website. This means that you hopefully won’t realise you’re using GMail inside a browser.

And, with the speed of the JavaScript rendering engine (and broadband), hopefully it won’t feel like you’re on the internet as well.

Of course, what about if you CAN’T connect to the internet? Well, there’s always Google Gears, which is built into the browser. Now, we only need GMail to support Google Gears. (If you’re looking for an example of the benefits of Google Gears, read my article “WordPress 2.6 and Google Gears“).

Here’s a pic of an example with Google Reader (so that I didn’t have to go blanking out all my email addresses for a GMail example). Click for a full-size version of the image:

(All these features are obviously available for any website, not just GMail).

The Usual Suspects

And, of course, along with the 2 cool features above, there seem to be some other more expected features, like “Autocomplete in your address bar”, funky favourites, and built in functionality that you needed extensions in FireFox to do.

Interesting Notes about the Development

You could probably just read all this from the comic (linked to below), but here are a few things that stood out.

The testing of the browser took place on millions of websites. But, probably not only the little lame homepages that would obviously look good (or look bad?). Because Google caches so many web pages while crawling the internet, AND, because they rank web pages, they know which ones have more chances of being visited, and they have easy access to them. So they were able to run automatic (and manual) tests against MILLIONS of sites.

The JavaScript Virtual Machine is supposedly SUPER FAST! Of course, that means browsing your mail in GMail and reading my blog in Google Reader just got a whole lot faster.

References

So, to see other people’s opinions on this, go visit Philipp Lenssen’s “Google Blogoscoped” blog.

You can also read Google’s official announcement.

Or, read the comic from Google with more info about Google Chrome: Google Chrome Comic (or download the PDF version – which doesn’t seem to work, oh well).

And, I’m eagerly awaiting Matt Cutts’ post with more info for advanced users (which I would consider myself ). He’s apparently been using the browser for a while now, so he should definitely know his stuff.

Final Thoughts

I guess it’s a good thing that Google and Mozilla signed their ad deal recently, renewing the deal until 2011, because with Google’s brand behind them, this will DEFINITELY give FireFox and hopefully Internet Explorer a run for their money.

It all benefits us, because the more competition, the more we’ll get from the browsers while trying to be won over…

Speaking of competition, I can’t wait for a Mobile Google Chrome. All I can say is, when that comes out, Opera Mobile and Opera Mini (which I love) better watch out…

Updated my plugins – Please Read This!

Posted by james on Aug 16, 2008 in wordpress | 0 comments

I’ve updated my 3 WordPress plugins:

WordPress Generic Statistics Plugin

Please Link 2 Me

Hotlink 2 Link

I fell prey to the whole “serializing serialized options”. In the words of DD32:

Ahah! One of those people who insist on passing serialized data to update_option()…

Honestly: update_option() serializes any non-string data thats passed to it allready, get_option() will unserialize on return as well, In some cases you can end up with PHP double-serializing the string which while your code works fine with, it can create higher load on PHP..

My advice to all plugin developers: Just pass the data in and let the API do the serializing…

(Nothing really negitive towards you meant by this message)

(That wasn’t directed at me, but I did learn from it)

So, please update.

Warning

BUT! And this is a BIG BUT!

This upgrade will corrupt any previous settings you had. I’m really sorry about this. And believe me, any pain you go through because of this, I’ve already felt. I just had to upgrade 12 blogs, and manually re-add the settings that were removed.

Opera Mobile 9.5 is SLICK!

Posted by james on Jul 24, 2008 in internet | 0 comments

I’ve been playing with the new Beta version of Opera Mobile 9.5 for a few days now, and I must say, it is just plain COOL!

For all you iPhone geeks out there, this one’s not for you, thank goodness. At least us Windows Mobile (and other mobile OS owners other than the iPhone) have something you don’t.

So, what do I like about the new version of Opera Mobile?

Cool Opera Mobile 9.5 features

• It’s REALLY quick and extremely responsive
• It looks good. Remember, “pretty” is a feature for me
• It’s REALLY easy to use and move around in
• It seems to render web pages as well as a desktop browser in most instances. (The Google AdSense site is a problem that only Opera Mini seems capable of overcoming and logging into)
• Can use AJAX in most cases
• Browser URL auto complete
• The uploading and downloading of files works extremely well.

Here’s a video I created so that you get a (VERY rough) idea of what Opera Mobile 9.5 looks like.

Please excuse the quality. The video capture software I used for my HTC TYTN II (MyMobile) seems to speed things up quite drastically. And Windows Movie Maker widened the video, so it’s not in the correct proportions.

Anyway, enough excuses, watch this and let me know what you think

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Video

What don’t I like about Opera Mobile 9.5

The main thing I don’t like about how this new version of Opera Mobile works is the scrolling of pages. I think it’s something that Opera Mobile has always done, and something that Internet Explorer Mobile finally changed in WM 6.1.

When you scroll down a page, it only scrolls down half a page. This REALLY bugs me, especially when reading a page with a lot of text, because after scrolling down half a page, my eyes have to hunt for the line where I left off before scrolling down.

I’m not sure if it’s a “feature” I’m supposed to get used, but proper scrolling was one of the best (and for me, most noticeable) features in Opera Mini.

Final Thoughts about this browser

Overall though, I REALLY like this browser, and recommend it to everybody. I can’t wait for the final version as I’m sure it will be even better than the beta.

WordPress 2.6 is out and it’s Turbo Charged

Posted by james on Jul 15, 2008 in tips, wordpress | 0 comments

It’s finally here. And a month ahead of schedule.

Why am I so excited for a new release of WordPress?

If you read my “Google Gears and WordPress” post, you’ll see. Working from a South African internet connection (the miserable iBurst to be exact), I REALLY appreciate the fact that it is now MUCH quicker to do things like place images and links inside my posts.

What else is new in this version of WordPress?

Here’s a video to highlight the major changes:

• Post Revisions: Wiki-like tracking of edits
• Press This!: Post from wherever you are on the web
• Theme Previews: See it before your audience does
• Word count!
• Image captions
• Bulk management of plugins
• Full SSL support

For descriptions of these, visit the WordPress Development blog.

Hotlink 2 Link WordPress Plugin

Posted by james on Jun 18, 2008 in wordpress | 22 comments

Here’s a new plugin I’ve written for WordPress users who want to benefit from everybody who hotlinks to their images.

A little background on HotLinking

If you write an article and place an image in your post, that image most likely sits on your web server. Every time somebody views your post, that person’s browser will download the image.

If somebody else likes this image, they can put it in their own article in 2 ways:

Vernon Koekemoer having his 15MB of Fame

Posted by james on May 28, 2008 in funny | 1 comment

The saying used to be “15 minutes of fame”. Now, thanks to the online world, it’s 15MB of fame. Well, maybe even 15GB of fame thanks to broadband connections.

Everybody knows Chuck Norris, but if you’re South African and you’ve been online recently (or you’ve seen the latest Vodacom ad), then you might have heard of Vernon Koekemoer!

Who is Vernon Koekemoer?

His real name is Cassie Booyse, but that’s obviously not how South Africa knows him.

To rest of us, he’s Rambo Guy from H2O!

Why is he famous!

Good question.

Here are a few examples of his online fame:

- He’s appeared on Sky News

- He has his own Facebook profile

- He’s been interviewed on locally produced Kwela (anybody care to translate it?)

- He’s appearing on a lot of billboards as part of adverts (which you’ll see if you watch the above interview).

How did Vernon Koekemoer start?

All of this started thanks to a great photo apparently taken at the H2O rave.

Personally, I thought the photo was a fake.

But if you want to SEE fake photos of Vernon, go visit RamboGuy.co.za! He seriously is our own “little” Chuck Norris

Speaking of which, have you seen the latest Nandos ads with Vernon? There’s even one where he greets Chuck!!!

I really hope Vernon is getting something out of this. He seems like a nice enough guy.

WordPress 2.6 and Google Gears

Posted by james on May 24, 2008 in wordpress | 21 comments

ANOTHER UPDATE: WordPress 2.6 is out. When you’ve finished reading the article below (which I recommend ), come watch the video about it’s new features in my post “WordPress 2.6 is out and it’s Turbo Charged“

So, there I was, having just upgraded my local Windows installation of WordPress so that I could update one of my plugins when I noticed a new piece of text on the top right hand side of my screen:

“Speed Up!”

Little update: It would appear that this has now been renamed to “Turbo”

Who is WordPress to tell ME, the king of speed on a PC, to SPEED UP!?!?!

But, always one to improve on a process, I clicked it, and this is what I saw:

What is Google Gears?

Google Gears is a browser add-on from Google that enables web applications such as Google Reader and Google Docs to feel more like an offline application like MS Word or Excel.

It does this by storing information on your machine allowing you to read, edit and update “data” from the internet without actually being connected. And then, the next time you connect to the internet it synchronises with the website, uploading any changes you’ve made, and downloading any changes/updates that have been made on the site.

At least, that’s the very basic explanation of it.

Google Gears and WordPress

So, how about an example, using your friendly neighbourhood blogging platform?

Having installed the Google Gears plugin for my browser, I clicked the “Enable Google Gears” button, and this is what I saw:

As you can see, my browser is downloading all the information it needs so that WordPress doesn’t need to connect to the internet for certain information.

What has WordPress made faster

As a side note and introduction to what has been sped up, here’s a little rant.

I personally LOVE the changes that were implemented with WordPress 2.5.

But, some of the new features (and features I’ve just started using now that I use the Visual Editor) just aren’t as cool thanks to the not-so-great internet speeds in South Africa.

For example, if you want to create a link. Every time you click the link icon in the editor’s toolbar, it has to download the same stuff over and over…

Well, it looks to me like the WordPress Google Gears implementation has solved that. The link and the “insert embedded media” popups are now instantaneous!

Thank you to whoever decided to do this.

It also seems that switching between each “pane” in the admin section is a LOT faster… Believe me, working on the South African tubes (via iBurst), this makes a HUGE difference!

Google will be PROUD!

All I can say is, this is going to give Google Gears the much needed attention that they’ve so far been lacking. Especially since out of all Google’s products, it’s only the Google Reader and Google Docs products that utilise Google Gears.