Nathan Campbell – Page 230

10 WordPress Plugins I love

I love WordPress for much the same reason that I love Firefox (and almost the same reason that I love the iPhone – except that it’s not Open Source). Plugins. Plugins make the world go around. There are 8070 WordPress Plugins in existence today. That’s a lot. They do a lot of stuff.

I’ve found ten that I will install on any blog or website I build using WordPress – and I’m planning to use WordPress for any blog or website I build ever. A few of them do almost exactly the same thing. But I keep them installed as a permanent testing phase for cool things I can use elsewhere.

These aren’t in order of usefulness or importance. They’re all good. I’ve left off all the popular ones that everybody should install straight off the bat (the Akismet spam filter, WP-Super Cache, and anything SEO related (I use this one)). These are the fun ones that make your life easier and your blog better.

Post Highlights – The little box on the right of my homepage with nice pictures and a link to an old post is produced using this plugin, there are a couple of options that do the same thing – but this one didn’t clash with a couple of my other plugins. So I installed it.
Sexy Bookmarks – The little icons at the bottom of each post which let you share my work with the world via a bunch of popular bookmark services come courtesy of this baby. They look nice. I like them. I’d like more people to press them.
Shashin – I installed this last weekend. It’s a great Picasa to WordPress plugin. It’s really easy to use.
Insights – this bad boy lets you search old blog posts with ease while you’re creating a new post. It means if I want to link to something I’ve written a long time ago I don’t have to search through the archives using the site search feature and then copy the link… it also lets you search other blogs, for videos, for images (from Flickr), for News, Wikipedia articles and books…
IntenseDebate – I know some people hate my comment platform. But it’s the way of the future – and you can just deal with it or get on board. IntenseDebate lets you link your comments to your Facebook Profile, Twitter Account, IntenseDebate Account, or just your website. It lets people rate your comments. It has its own plugins. And it lets you embed YouTube videos into your comments. I like it.
Sliding Panel – has anybody ever hit the little thing that says “open” in the black menu bar at the top of the page? No? Oh well, if you had you would have found a really cool jquery powered sliding panel. It looks nice opening and shutting. I could just sit there and do it all day.
Twitter Tools – When I decided to re-enter the world of Twitter I did it using this plugin that has so many features that I’m unlikely to use. But its core functionality is also really useful. Especially if you’re like me – and want the benefit of posting your content onto Twitter without the hassle of actually visiting the site.
Wibiya Plugin – You can never have too many options to let people share or search your content can you? Wibiya is the little bar that sits on the bottom of the page. I’ve had it installed for ages. I’m not sure that anybody actually uses it. But if you bothered you’d be surprised at how handy it is.
Post Star Ratings – This puts the stars at the bottom of the posts so that you can tell me if you like, or don’t like, what I’ve written without having to navigate the commenting system. It’s similar to I Like This except that giving a post one star is a way to voice your displeasure.
What would Seth Godin Do – I like the idea of converting people who land on a post via Google into people who subscribe to everything I have to say. So I installed this plugin that welcomes first time visitors with a nice little message and an invitation to subscribe.

Do you use WordPress already? Have you got any favourites that aren’t on the list?

January 23, 2010

What to give the Bible Geek who has everything

So you bought your family Bible geek the Proclaimer (audio Bible) last Christmas. Now what? What could possibly have more geek cred than a solar powered talking Bible?

Well, in the interest of providing you as many alternatives to just your run of the paper mill physical Bible, here is Bible Navigator X – the Bible for XBox.

Here’s a blurb from the launch Media Release:

“This application will bring the Bible into people’s living rooms and onto their televisions in a completely new and innovative way,” said Aaron Linne, B&H Publishing Group’s executive producer of digital marketing. “The Xbox isn’t just secular entertainment anymore. We can use technology that other people developed to study Scriptures through a new medium. Some people are just more comfortable with a controller in their hands than a book.”

Not convinced that this is how you should be reading the Bible? This hilariously serious (and vaguely trinitarian review) from a gaming website will get you over the line.

The best lines are about the themes the program comes with:

“This one has green paint splattered all over it. You’d think that most people who’d be reading the Bible, or care enough to pay money for a version of the Bible on their XBox would probably be upset where there’s junk spilled all over the Bible, or maybe that’s just me.”

“This one is the oddest one of all. There’s a giant fake coffee stain down there. So, I mean, who’s going to set their coffee cup down on the Bible.”

January 23, 2010

Spiritual dinosaurs

Some people are worried that Avatar is promoting pantheism. Dinosaur Comics captured, in six frames, the reason I don’t think pantheism will ever catch on (past that odd new age spirituality movement)…

later still, t-rex sits down to write, but only gets a few hundred words into "Ten Thousand Jerks! The true story of the flu currently inside my body"

January 23, 2010

Tangible Twitter

I’m using Twitter again (feel free to follow me). I stopped for a while because I didn’t have the time or patience to bother with it. But now I’ve set up little automated things that import anything I bookmark and everything I post here. And I can post what I’m listening to on iTunes as well. Exciting stuff. I like that I’m contributing to the noise to signal ratio on Twitter (on the noise side of the equation).

But that’s not the reason I’m posting this. The reason I’m posting this is to draw your attention to this infographic that considers the voluminous amount of information currently residing on Twitter’s servers. And imagining what would happen if you turned it into paper. This was put together by GOOD.is. They make good infographics.

January 23, 2010

When you prank you begin with “do Remi”

If you took the Annoying Devil character from Balls of Steel and combined him with the Chaser, and then made that combination French you’d end up with someone a lot like Remi Galliard. I’ve posted some of his stuff before. I think he’s funny. Especially when he gets on the field with sporting teams.

He has been doing his thing for ten years. Here are some highlights.

January 21, 2010

Pet sounds

There’s a character in Douglas Adam’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency who made his mark in computer world by writing a program that turned financial spreadsheets into music.

This guy wrote a program that turns pictures into music – taking the RGB values of every pixel and converting them into a three note harmonic.

It sounds clever – clever enough to be worth patenting. Only somebody else has already done that. So he’s closed down the program that used to be online. One day though people. One day I will hear the sound of turtles… they don’t actually make noise.

January 21, 2010

Bowl the zombies over

If zombies are taking over your neighbourhood and you want to welcome them with a piece of good old fashion hospitality you might want to serve up your delectables in a dish that looks like this…

From Etsy…

January 21, 2010

Know where you stand when you fall

Just in case you were wondering about the post death pecking order – chances are you’ll (until judgment day at least) be at the bottom.

When I use the word “chances” I don’t mean to suggest that there is any probability of zombies, ghosts, or vampires coming after you. But if you’re writing fiction and want to produce better characters then this will at least help you put things in perspective.

From here.

January 21, 2010

Crayola’s Law

Where do they get the colours from? Who knows. But since the history of crayons Crayola’s colour range has doubled every 28 years.

Image via weathersealed.com

From here, via here.

January 21, 2010

The bread of life

An artist who was perhaps tired of unverifiable claims of Jesus appearing in believer’s daily bread has recreated the crucifixion using slices of toast.

From here.

“British artist Adam Sheldon recreated Jesus’ crucifixion using some pieces of burned toast and a scraping knife. His work of art is now on display at the Anglican Church of St Peter, in Lincs.

33-year-old Adam Sheldon took on the project at the request of his mother, who worships at St. Peter’s Church. Before starting work on his 1.8 ,meters long, 1.1 meters wide masterpiece, Adam scraped the Last Supper on three pieces of toast, to perfect his technique.

He used a regular toaster to burn the pieces of bread, then dried and flattened them so they would fit in a giant frame. Using a scraping knife he managed to create the lighter parts of the artwork, and darkened the background with a blowtorch.”

January 21, 2010

I like traffic lights… except when they are red

Why has this idea not been put into practice yet?

Traffic lights with a progress bar. Brilliant.

From here.

January 21, 2010

Character checklist

If you’re like me you know all about narrative, have grand plans, but fall at the most basic hurdle. Naming and developing characters. I am terrible at coming up with names that I like. But even worse at developing a character past that point. It’s why I steer clear of writing fiction.

Wikihow has a handy guide.

And a video. Which is boring. Don’t watch it.

January 20, 2010

Status Memes: Compare, contrast, and do neither

Two different statuses quoting the same statistics…

asked Jesus,”How much do you love me?” Jesus replied “This much”, and stretched his arms on the cross and died. If you believe in God put this in your status. 97% of you won’t put this in your status. When Jesus died on the cross he was thinking of you. 3% of you will stand up for him and put this in your status!!!

97% of teens would cry if they saw Robert Pattison (Edward Cullen from Twilight) standing on top of a sky scraper, about to jump. If you’re one of the 3% who would sit there eating pop corn screaming “DO A FLIP YOU SPARKLY F$#%^T!” then copy and paste this as your status haha this is funny!

There’s something fishy going on here.

So I wrote this one. I kind of hope it starts a Facebook revolution:

97% of status updates are from the 3% of people who copy and paste or follow the crowd. Come up with original and interesting stuff about yourself or stop thinking your status is making a difference. Facebook is for self promotion and posting of embarrassing pictures. Not for sharing your knowledge of the radio alphabet and stupid statistics. If you’re sick of the degeneration of Facebook statuses don’t copy this.

January 20, 2010

Tiny Teddy Art

My clever little sister (number 2) made these Tiny Teddy Pictures for your enjoyment and edification.

January 20, 2010

Sharing is caring

Because I like experimenting with just about every feature you can add to a website (this may well come in handy one day when someone asks “how can I get people to be able to share my stuff on Facebook without copying and pasting a link”) I’ve added a little “share on Facebook” button to the top right of each post. This is pretty cool. It lets you post stuff you like straight to your profile so that all your friends can also read it. And it keeps track of how many times something has been shared. If there is no little speech bubble above the button with a number in it it’s because nobody has shared the link.

Here are four reasons you should click the “share on Facebook” button.

It will make me feel better about myself.
It will make the number change.
It will get more people coming to this page who will then click the button to make me feel good.
Those people will think you’re brilliant and capable of finding all sorts of funny things on the Internet. You can vicariously benefit from my dedicated procrastination.

I don’t know how long I’ll keep it. But I haven’t culled any of the other plugins or things I’ve installed to get more people here – even if I’m the only person who clicks and shares my stuff. It’ll be depressing if things only ever get shared once (especially if that once is by me) so at that point I might remove it. But seriously, without trying to clamour desperately for your attention, how hard is it to click on a star (you don’t even have to like the post to do this), and click on a button once in a while?

If you are reading this, and you have a Facebook profile (which you need to be able to share the post on Facebook), and you’re not a fan of St. Eutychus yet – then do ~~yourself~~ me yourself a favour and get on board the juggernaut.

January 20, 2010