June 5, 2009 at 15:44
· Posted in php, wordpress
I just discovered and installed a very nice WordPress plugin, WordTwit. The main purpose of this plugin is to tweet your new blog posts on Twitter, together with a link to the new blog post.
So far nothing too shocking new, but the latest version (2.0.x) of the plugin adds the option to use your own blog as url shortening and redirecting service. Think tinyurl.com, is.gd or one of the gazillion alternatives out there.
Now that is really cool. Except it didn’t work for me.
Turns out that there was a little bug if your blog is not served off the root or your domain, but a sub directory instead (which is /blog in my case).
So, a patch (shortened link, noticed?) solved this and all should be set to go now.
Oh and this post is serving as a test post for the Twitter update…
Popularity: 6%
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Tags: bit.ly, is.gd, TinyURL, Twitter, wordpress, WordTwit
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June 5, 2009 at 11:58
· Posted in blog
Actually, Twitter spammers aren’t funny at all. But sometimes they use such stupid names and avatars that you wonder who in their right mind would ever follow them.
A common way these spammers try to get your attention, hoping you will follow them, is just start following your twitter account “at random”. Now one day I found the following two low lifers, with apparently opposite intentions, in sequence in my followers queue:
These followed me in sequence, too stupid to be true?
Now I’m pondering which one to pick, the pathetic diet promoter or the fat cheesy one?
Seriously, advice to those who create such spammy accounts: don’t waste the effort, you make me laugh at very best if I don’t outright block you.
Conversely, if you’re a human being and like to follow my sometimes random tweets, you’re still more than welcome to follow me (@jlapoutre) on Twitter!
Popularity: 5%
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Tags: spam, Twitter
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April 6, 2009 at 11:08
· Posted in blog, events, wordpress
CSS Naked Day 2009 April 9th
It’s already a tradition started in 2006 by Dustin Diaz: CSS Naked Day, on April 9th.
Many many blogs and sites will strip all CSS during 24 hours (effectively 48 hours for international compliance) and show the content “unstyled” as if no CSS existed.
A great opportunity to show off how your site structure stands if all styling is removed, from the official website:
The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words. It’s time to show off your <body>.
Are you using WordPress? Then join the movement by simply installing this CSS Naked Day plaugin for WordPress by Aja, activate it and you’re ready:
CSS Naked Day plugin for WordPress automatically strips off XML/HTML stylesheet references, embedded stylesheets and inline styles—all without editing your template! It also provides a function to determine whether it is the 9th of April on the recommended worldwide 48-hour CSS Naked Day period or just your local 24-hour period if ever you want to automate a message telling viewers why your site is in the nude.
Then head over to the CSS Naked Day website to add you to the list of participating sites.
Follow CSS Naked Day on Twitter!
Popularity: 16%
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Tags: css, Dustin Diaz, HTML, web-standards, wordpress
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March 27, 2009 at 10:37
· Posted in webdev, wordpress
It makes much sense to use WordPress for a simple content site, consisting of just a bunch of (static) pages which need to be updated once in a while. For example, I used this approach for the (Dutch) website of Kinderfysiotherapie Den Haag Centrum.
WordPress gives you a handy-dandy Content Management System (CMS) and there are lots of available templates to base your design on.
Compared to the default configuration, you need to put some effort in the setup to use pages for the site’s navigation rather than blog posts, but this can be done by setting some options and tweak the menu structure of the template, which is all documented fairly well elsewhere (Customising WordPress – twine).
Then comes the inevitable moment that you want to add a somewhat more dynamic news section to the site. It makes sense to use the excellent blog system, which WordPress essentially is, but then “inside out“, embedded in a news page rather than the primary site feature.
There are a few possibilities here, but I settled for the Inline Feed plugin. Once activated, this plugin displays a list of your posts in any content area, with a few configurale options like sorting order and length of title etc.
Now you can use the excellent native WordPress authoring and publishing system for posts for your news section, with all hidden gems like RSS feed generation, optional comments and all gazillion plugin powered extras.
Popularity: 25%
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Tags: cms, Content management system, content site, kinderysiotherapie, wordpress
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March 16, 2009 at 09:39
· Posted in blog, innovation, semweb, wordpress
Since about three months ago, when I started using the Zemanta wordpress plugin, the uptake has been huge. Searching for “Related articles by Zemanta” on google gives now 110k+ hits.
To me, this is currently the most practical example where semantic web technology really does make a difference. Just like with Twine, the real benefit of this technology lies in the background, where associations are made and retrieved, “just in time”. All without bothering end-users with ontologies, RDF and SPARQL endpoints. Using Zemanta, all these bloggers are benefiting from the ever increasing web of linked data to enrich their blogs. And the benefit may well be mutual: by carefully selecting the auto-suggested related articles and imagery, you as a blogger tell implicitly what categories your post matches to, thus linking back to the very same pool of linked data.
Give it a try yourself, get the Zemanta plugin (many platforms are supported) and share your experiences!
Popularity: 17%
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March 2, 2009 at 11:25
· Posted in blog, experiment
I just found out (not surprisingly, through Twitter) that Skittles turned their website inside out (so to say, in my words).
They replaced their content pages by what others are saying about them: their twitter stream (live search for #skittles), their entry at Wikipedia, their friends at Facebook and more (videos at Youtube, pictures at Flickr, you get the idea).
The own Skittles content is reduced to just one floating content banner, providing minimal information (as if it were a IAB banner box) and also functions as “glue” between all linked social sites.
The linked content seems not to be filtered, the Twitter feed at least displays profanity just as entered.
So what is this?
- A stunt which will last just for a day or so
- Crowd-sourcing at its most extreme
- The end of internet marketing as we know it…
In other words, is this indeed a brave move or just plain stupid? The Twitter jury is still out…
- By now they have removed the twitter stream as home backdrop, got a bit too hot maybe.
- It appears that Modernista was far ahead with this concept: Modernista! letting others define its identity about a year ago.
Popularity: 12%
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Tags: Facebook, Flickr, marketing, skittles, social media, Twitter, Wikipedia, Youtube
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