Category: Cool Stuff

CTC – Version 4.1 Released

Just a quick release to add a feature and fix one. The new feature is the ability to randomly sort the tag cloud. This option will show a completely different order of the tags to each visitor to your site. Not really earth-shattering, but it was asked for, so there it is.

The fix is in relation to the use of categories in the cloud. Due to laziness on my part, I released version 4.0 before thoroughly testing this aspect of the plugin. The problem was, your category links were being treated as tags, and therefore not getting a valid link created for them. This has now been fixed.

As always, you can find the download and comment on the plugin on the CTC page.

CTC – Version 4.0 Released

Hot on the heels of version 3.1 (and the very minor 3.2) comes the all new version 4.0 of my configurable tag cloud widget for WordPress 2.3+. What makes it new, you ask? Well, how about the ability to include your WordPress categories in your tag cloud? It’s a feature that people have been (erroneously) assuming CTC supports for a while, but I never could get it to work…well, now I have. It’s as simple as adding another parameter to your template tag, or clicking a radio button in the widget admin. Give it a try, I’m sure you’ll like it!

Also new in this release is some tweaks to the color functions. Prior to this version, if you wanted your tag cloud links to use the same color as the rest of the links in your site or sidebar, you had to manually enter the color definition in both the min and max color fields or parameters. No more. Now, if you leave both colors blank, your tags will be the same color as the rest of your links. If you only use one of the two fields, your tag links will all be that color.

As always, you can find more info and the download (and leave your comments) on the CTC page.

Off-site Backups and Amazon S3

After losing two hard drives in rapid succession, I figured it was time to start giving some serious thought to my backup plan. I have been rsyncing my documents, pictures, and active projects folders to my local Debian server for a while now so neither drive loss was that critical, but it drove home the fact that while I like to think my systems are bulletproof, there’s no such thing. At that point, I decided I needed a robust off-site backup plan.

I started looking at the various free services that were available. I tried a few of them, but the biggest drawback was most locked you into a proprietary application for performing backups. The notable exception here was Omnidrive, which I used for a while and liked, until they upgraded their software and it stopped working on OS X. The other major drawback to the free services was the available space. Most providers only give you a gigabyte or two for free, and then charge you beyond that.

Since I was going to have to pay to get the amount of space I needed, I started looking at real offsite backup providers. I found several that offered what I was looking for, but none were within my price range. While researching the various options, I came across Rob Rohan’s article about how he used Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3 for short) as a back-end for a server backup plan.

After looking at how much (roughly) it was going to cost per month, I started using S3 last month as my primary off-site backup destination. I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome at this point. I followed Rob’s technique for the most part, but skipping the database backup stuff since I don’t need it (but I might start doing it, you know, just in case). The first backup took forever of course (we’re talking almost 5 gigs being pushed up my cable connection), but the subsequent sync operations fly.

And the price? Well, my first monthly bill was $1.42, broken down thusly:

  • $0.15 per GB-Month of storage used – 2.478 GB-Mo – $0.37
  • $0.10 per GB-all data transfer in – 4.632 GB – $0.46
  • $0.18 per GB-first 10 TB/month data transfer out – 0.097 GB – $0.02
  • $0.01 per 1,000 PUT or LIST requests – 55653 Requests – $0.56
  • $0.01 per 10,000 GET and all other requests – 46 Requests – $0.01

As you can see, it makes for a very cost-effective backup solution.

Some apps I found useful for working with S3 (Note: OS platforms listed after each app):
Jungle Disk – Windows, OS X, Linux
S3 Browser – OS X
Cockpit – Windows, OS X, Linux (requires Java)
S3Sync – Windows, OS X, Linux (requires Ruby)

CTC – Version 3.1 Released

Just a quick note to let everyone know I have released version 3.1 of my Configurable Tag Cloud plugin. This isn’t a major update, it just adds the ability to output the links for the cloud to an array for further processing. I have included a simple example over on the CTC as well as the new version for download.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly should you have any problems or questions.

New WordPress plugin: Post Links Redux

I’m working on a theme for a well-known webcomic (sorry, can’t say which yet), and needed the post navigation template tags in WordPress to behave differently. No one could point to an easy way to get them to work the way I needed them to, so I whipped up a quick plugin that changes the way these tags work. For more information and to download a copy, please visit the Post Links Redux page.

Also, I added a new menu entry to the navigation links at the top of the page. If you’ll notice, there’s now an entry for “wordpress” up there. If you click on this link, it will take you to a page that lists all my publicly-released WordPress extensions (plugins, widgets, themes, etc). There are only two entries on that page at the present (CTC and PLR), but there are more to come (including my first public theme for WordPress)…stay tuned… 🙂

CTC – 1,000 Downloads and Counting!

Many thanks to the WordPress community for pushing my humble little widget/plugin past the 1,000 downloads mark since I added it to the official WordPress plugins browser. As of this morning, it has been downloaded 1,002 times since November 28th. YOU GUYS ROCK! 🙂

Black and White Shrub

I’ve been on a black and white photography kick lately. I don’t know what triggered it, but I can’t get enough of well-done monochrome photos. I did this one tonight based on a photo I took of a Lilac shrub in my front yard.

B&W 1

I did quite a bit of manipulation in Photoshop to the original shot to get this output, but I think the results are worth it.

Design Vitality WordPress Theme Competition

So I decided to enter Design Vitality’s WP theme competition. Even if I don’t win any of the prizes (and they’re some doozies…first prize is $1,000 and second is your choice of an iPhone or a Wii), it still gets my name a little farther out into the world.

The winners are chosen by votes at the contest website, which is linked below, so give me some vote love if you like my entry. My theme is called “Blue Shift”. Voting opens on or around November 30, but he’s got a lot of good info on his site for designers.

Go here to vote: WordPress Theme Design Competition