Archive for June, 2008

Better Feeds Plugin for WordPress

June 30th 2008 Posted to Site Development

When I talked about customizing the length of your WordPress feed I mentioned that I was using the More Feed Excerpt plugin in an effort to force WordPress to split RSS feeds at the “more” tag.  After talking to the developer of the More Feed Excerpt plugin, George Notaras, I decided to take his advice and give version 1.99 of Ozh’ Better Feed plugin a try.

At that time it would be fair to say the Better Feed plugin was quite rough or “unpolished” at the very least.  All of the features worked but the lack of an administrative interface forced you to dig deep into the PHP code to edit variables and template text.  The plugin included a function to put related Categories in the RSS feed’s footer but I had to cobble together my own function to display a list of related Tags.

BUT… fortunately for you version 2.0 of the Better Feed plugin has just been released and it provides a great new admin interface and a Related Tags feature …
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Going Mobile

June 24th 2008 Posted to General

Believe it or not, I’m a fairly low-tech guy who doesn’t even own a laptop or a cell phone, but I’m looking to change all of that and I need your help.  I’d like to get some new portable electronic equipment so I can access the web while on the road.

So far, I think I need:

  • A cell phone.
  • A laptop.
  • A GPS.
  • Maybe a camera for decent still images.
  • Any combination of the above.

Do you love your laptop?  Are you silly for your cell phone?  Gaga for your GPS?  Crazy for your camera?  If you have some recommendations for this Traveling-Tech-Neophyte I’d appreciate any advice you could give.  No insight too small.  Thanks.

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Hurling Hues

June 20th 2008 Posted to Images

My front page had WAY too much boring black and white text so I thought I’d “throw-up” some colorful images from the SWF used in the Hexadecimal Color Fading Array article. I like how almost any 3 random colors seem to go together well when used in a gradient.

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Comment Policy, Do You Need One?

June 18th 2008 Posted to Site Development

After writing 2 posts about the Ajax Edit Comments WordPress plugin, and receiving an e-mail from a reader who was wondering why I was editing comments, I thought it was salient point in time to develop a comment policy for PixelWit.com. But where should I begin?

The first thing I did was read a bunch of articles about blog comment policies like:

Then I ‘perused’ (the literal sense of the word, look it up if you must) approximately a dozen comment policy examples like these …
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Ajax Edit Comments, New Features Added

June 10th 2008 Posted to Site Development

A few days ago I reviewed Ajax Edit Comments for WordPress and I really liked what I saw. Since that time the plugin developer Ronald Huereca has stopped by, listened to what people had to say, left a comment explaining his choices, and then promptly released his next version for evaluation. The new Ajax Edit Comments 2.1 Pre-Release Candidate is out and ready to be tested.

If you’re a WordPress blogger, I highly recommend installing this plugin to ease and simplify comment editing for both site administrators and site visitors. Plus if you try AEC RC 2.1 right now, there’s a pretty good chance that your reasonable feature request will make it into the next version of the plugin.

Give it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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PixelWit: The Early Animations

June 06th 2008 Posted to Flash

They say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” so I thought I’d flatter Senocular a bit by stealing his “Senocular-The College Years” concept and showing you 2 of my “early” (i.e. bad) animations.

My first early animation is called “Ouch” and I’m proud to say that it’s brilliantly awful. It follows the travels, travails and tribulations of a man with dangerous ideas in the midst of dangerous times. Deemed far too dangerous for society he is forced to pay the price. Did I mention the bit about danger and whatnot? Yes, yes indeed, Danger!

It is with great pleasure that I bring you, “Ouch”: …
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Ajax Edit Comments, WordPress Plugin Review

June 05th 2008 Posted to Site Development

I recently installed the WordPress Ajax Edit Comments plugin and I have to tell you that I’m quite impressed with Ronald Huereca’s work. The Ajax Edit Comments (AEC) plugin makes editing comments super simple for site visitors and administrators.

Setting up the AEC plugin is a breeze thanks to a clean administration interface featuring a wide variety of well explained options. Once installed, WordPress administrators who log into the Comments Administration section will see a new “Edit” link next to every comment (red highlight added for emphasis):

Ajax Edit Comments Admin Interface

Pressing the “Edit” link brings up an Ajax window like the one below: …
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