I have been considering using the SOC blog as more of a blog and posting all of my programming related posts there and leaving this one as more of a general blog. I have some posts coming soon for programming related things and I’m trying to figure out what makes more sense: posting them here where they’ll get a few more eyeballs, or posting them on SOC where the site is all about programming — albeit a programming podcast that hasn’t seen an episode since late 2009.

In short, the future is muddy. Hopefully I’ll be able to shed some more light on things as the next month or two roll on.

That said, I was contemplating this evening whether it would be possible to offer both full and summary feeds from kdmurray.net.  The reason? I wanted to start pushing partial posts to Facebook with a minimum of fuss.

The problem? WordPress only supports one post feed out of the box.

The solution?  Stephen Cronin‘s DualFeeds plugin (which I found thanks to @bluefur on Twitter).  The plugin allows you to create multiple feeds one for full-posts, and a second for post summaries.  This is a very elegant solution to the problem.  Though I wanted to add the stuff into Facebook, I didn’t want to push whole posts because I did want to try and use this to drive some traffic to the site.

Technically the plugin works very well.  I was able to set it up in just a couple of minutes and after about 15 minutes of testing have found that it plays nice with FeedBurner’s FeedSmith plugin, as well as my other feed-related plugin FeedEntryHeader — the latter as it turns out was also written by Stephen Cronin.

If you’ve ever wanted to be able to offer multiple feeds from your site, have a look at DualFeeds.  Works like a charm.

I’ve just run the 2.7 update myself tonight (I swore I’d wait until the full release before putting it on the main blog… but I couldn’t wait anymore) and I’m really liking the changes so far. The fact that I can quickly look at the dashboard and see comment stats, recent everything and pen a draft all at the same time is great.

So far everything looks good, though I did have to deactivate a couple of plugins to make things work as expected.  TinyMCE Advanced was causing some CSS issues (I could fix it I’m sure but… meh).  In addition I had a plugin to replace the category box in the sidebar when posting which isn’t required anymore with 2.7.

Stay tuned here for more of the pros, cons and otherwise of the newest member of the WordPress family.

For those of you who’ve been following the development of the next iteration of WordPress you already know that 2.7 Beta 1 was released last Friday night.

WP 2.7 features some really great refinements to the admin panel which not only make it more useful, they also serve as the building blocks for the next few generations of WordPress.

I’ve been messing around with 2.7 for the last month or so on my WP sandbox and it’s been very interesting to watch the evolution of the menuing system.

I’ll be drawing up a full review for the AGP blog which I’ll post once the full release happens.

If you’re interested in some background you can check out the original post I wrote explaining the experiment.  The key lesson with all of this however is that Content is King (or at very least a Duke) and you need to respect that above pretty much all else if you ever expect to get ranked.

It’s a pretty simple proposition really, I’ll put together what I know about SEO with regular posts to the site.  Hopefully between now and next Friday night I’ll be able to get the site on Google‘s radar.

What are my chances?  No idea, but you can check out the post explaining the Google – WordPress experiment on the new site at kickjoey.com.

It was great to see a few familiar faces like Rebecca and Raul.

I also got to meet some of the folks who I’d only known online.  Duane, John, John & Andy.  Looking forward to meeting lots of other great people tomorrow.

I did forget one thing tonight: Business Cards.  However, I did manage to find a few spare sheets of my Avery business card blanks tonight.  I also discovered (somewhat to my surprise) that Google Docs supports Avery business card templates.

sample business card from google docs

The implementation isn’t quite as slick as MS-Word, but it will more than do in a pinch.  I managed to whip up this snazzy little number in a matter of minutes.  Now I feel more prepared for tomorrow.  Hopefully Dave doesn’t mind that I borrowed the show logo, I promise I’ll promote the show! 

Organize your Photos
This is a relatively time consuming task that I rarely take the time to do.  A “net-outage” is a great time to pour through the photos in your computer and group or rename the files.  If you use a photo organizing program like iPhoto or Aperture on the Mac, or Google’s very popular Picasa on Windows you can use these programs to do much of the tedious file management for you.

Blog Something
I find that one of my biggest impediments to getting a bunch of blogging done is my rather short attention span.  When I’m online researching a story for an article I tend to get lost surfing the Internet looking for new and exciting things.  Being offline for a few hours, or  even a couple of days, can provide you extra time to focus on getting that article written, or in some cases provide inspiration for a whole new article (or two).  I managed to a get a couple of good articles out of my unexpected “grey mode” period.

Write a Letter
We’ve all said it at one time or another, often when frustrated or annoyed, “I’m going to write a letter!”  Well, here’s your chance.  Bring up your favourite word processor, or text editor and bang out some phrases that are sure to convince your audience that you’re right (and that you should get a free case of coke the next time you shop there).  Letters to politicians or other elected officials are also great candidates.

Play a Game
Assuming you have games on your computer which aren’t of the MMO variety playing them can be a great way to kill some time.  A couple of games that I’ve purchased over the last couple of years are Escape Velocity: Nova (EV:Nova) and WingNuts 2.  Both of these games are sci-fi shooters, with EV:Nova extending the genre with trading and other somewhat less violent activities.  EV:Nova also supports a wide ranging plugin architecture that will allow you to download (prior to the network outage, of course) plugins from other players to extend the game or cheat the system.

So there you have it.  A few ways to get your geek on without access to the cloud.  So the next time you find yourself in a coffee shop and don’t feel like paying exorbitant fees to check your email.  Try out a cloud-free activity.  Hey you might even find yourself more productive!

I saw a rather significant spike in traffic as millions of Gmail users checked out the blog, and a few hundred of them clicked through on the trackback which showed up as a result of the post.  Go figure.

It’s been a long month but after a couple of early glitches and a fight between WordPress 2.6 and PodPress the first official episode of the AGP is out.

We all missed doing regular shows during the forced hiatus and it showed in the show.  There’s a lengthy out-take at the end of the show.  If you haven’t subscribed to the new feed yet, do it now! Either by RSS or through iTunes.

After some searching on Google and the WordPress.org forums, I came across a relatively easy fix.  To restore this button, and add a few others, you can install the TinyMCE Advanced plugin.  TinyMCE is the editor that’s built in to WordPress’ visual editor.

Once the plugin is added, all the functionality you had before will be restored, along with a ton of cool new neato features!

Essentially what it boils down to is WP has separated cookies used for accessing the admin interface through HTTPS (SSL) and regular unsecured HTTP.  This allows for login information and the login cookie to be secured through the encrypted stream on every access.

The details are in Ryan Boren’s blog and get into a fair bit of detail.

What I’m wondering is if you folks find any value in me re-posting this stuff on the blog?  Shoot me a note in the comments.

When CityTV arrived on the scene to do a story about the burglary, Charlebois says that he “refused [a reporter's] request for an interview….[and] asked him to leave.” Charlebois did, however, say that he “had taken pictures of the perpetrator and was looking forward to posting them on [his] Flickr site”; the reporter “was interested in seeing them,” so Charlebois gave him his card, but, he says, not permission to use the shots in any way. [torontoist]

The photos are of a man who allegedly tried to break into the photographer’s home.  After posting the Creative Commons licensed photos to a couple of groups on Flickr, they were run by CityTV on their newscast without providing any attribution despite the fact that they were aware the Charlebois had taken the photos.

It took nearly nine months for the CBSC to make its ruling.  In my opinion, the fact that it doesn’t actually compel CityTV to fix their mistake but merely acknowledge it fails to uphold the spirit of the CC license.  As Duane Storey observed:

If I were to use CityTV footage on my blog without attribution, I would bet I would get a nice cease and desist letter forcing me to take it down in no time. That they think the laws should be different in each direction seems characteristic of most large media conglomerates these days. [duanestorey.com]

This sentiment seems to be shared by a number of individuals including Charlebois himself.  Must it be up to independent media such as bloggers and podcasters to show the “professionals” how to properly attribute work?  Was this simply a case of laziness on CityTV’s part or is it a symptom of a deeper disdain for those who don’t actually get to carry a press credential?

I’m partial to Flickr myself.  One of its advantages is the large community around it that helps to support each others photographic endeavours.  Another is the more recently added Piknic photo-editing service which allows you to make changes and adjustments to your photos directly on the website.

I recently put together this quick “how-to” for a friend of mine and decided that I might as well share it with the world.  Without further ado, here is a step-by-step how-to on adding Flickr images to your WordPress blog.

1. Open the page of the image you want in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmsquared/2195515600/
2. Click on “All Sizes”
3. For most blogs, the “Medium” sized image is usually sufficient.  Its largest side will be 500px with the other scaled to match
4. Right-click the link marked “Download this image” link and “Copy Link Location” (Firefox) or “Copy Shortcut” (Internet Explorer)
5. On your blog, click the “Add Image” button in the editor 
6. Paste in the Image URL from #4 (WP will pick up dimensions automatically)
7. Done!

To add links back to the image in Flickr…

1. Go back to the Flickr page, right-click the “Back to the Flickr photo page” link in the top-left and select “Copy Link Location”
2. In WordPress click on the image that’s been added to your post, and then click the “Add Link” button in the editor.
3. Paste the URL for the Flickr photo page
4. Done!

I have installed it on the sandbox where I’m playing around with the Options theme and won’t be applying the upgrade here until I’m ready to move everything over, including the theme.

The biggest complaint from most is the redesign of the admin pages.  People don’t like change.  There is added functionality and a brand new layout to the admin screens.  After having played with it for only a couple of days, I find myself fumbling around a bit still… but overall the new look isn’t too bad.

Many of the links I used most often are now displayed in the main admin toolbar (blue links) while the less often used links are in the grey bar at the top of the page.  These are the high-level nav buttons like the dashboard.  I think this design will indeed prove effective for people who spend quite a bit of time in the admin console, but will be more difficult for casual users to adopt.

I’ll be posting updates to both the Random Image Selector plugin and the Admin Links Widget in the near future to ensure compliance with the WP 2.5 code.

The trouble had been finding the right WP theme.  Many of the ones I like visually didn’t have enough support for gadgetry & widgetry.  Being the geek that I am, this is something I prize.  Secondly, and more importantly to some, I wanted a theme that would actually pass XHTML validation and be a bit less of an SEO roadblock (that, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist geek).

I found, though a fortuitous series of bounces the Options theme by JustinTadlock. XHTML compliant, full of widgetable sections and completely customizable through CSS.  Perfect.  Now I just have to get some help with the design work… ’cause I suck.

After nearly 9 months of Google Adsense, I’ve managed $3.56.  Since Google requires $100 in your account before they will pay out, I’m on schedule to be paid out in Late 2028.  A bit too late to cover costs of blogging (though it would make a nice almost 50th birthday present.  :razz: )

The Amazon and TTZMedia affiliate programs have also had similar results with a payout from TTZ media due sometime in 2048… and that’s only a $25 payout.

In short, I don’t get enough traffic, and my readers on average aren’t the type to click on enough ads (hell most use Firefox and AdBlock Plus!) to provide an income stream.

An added bonus: the site loads faster now!  :mrgreen:

I’ve always been a bit of an “admin” guy… ever since I found a fun summer project of setting up my own BBS, the old modem kind not the new-school telnet revival.  I’ve always gravitated towards this type of thing, because it gives me a chance to “look under the hood” and see how things work.

Anyways, if you’ve got some time, pop over to Ho Yummy in the next couple of weeks and see what’s going on.  I may even slide in a review of my own! 

Hi,
we considered this blog post as a claim and updated our site.

Now we are giving a reference and link to photographer under full sized photos.

Thank you
Flickr Fight Team

Great News!  I have to believe that this was simply an oversight that has now been corrected.