v 5.0
This is a quick plugin I whipped up while working on another project. Basically, it takes advantage of the fact that WordPress now (as of 2.2) includes PHPMailer to allow you to make WordPress use SMTP.
Requires WordPress 2.2+. To use, download, change extension to “.php”, upload to plugins folder, activate, and configure.
To do: fix any bugs.
I’d tell you tonight was spent playing bocci ball and video games, but this isn’t Twitter. Burn.
We’re horribly mundane, aggressively mundane individuals. We’re the ninjas of the mundane, you might say.
Aaron’s line about Twitter didn’t just get me chuckling, it got me thinking. Continue reading ‘Ninjitsu of the mundane’
The real reason to spend the money on an HDTV.
This is an alpha release of my new User Comments plugin, but it works fine as far as I can tell. To install, download the source code, save it as user_comments.php, upload to your plugins directory and activate it in WP. This plugin will not work with 1.2; a 1.3 nightly is required.
Continue reading ‘User Comments Plugin’
If one were to create “a free calendering [sic] solution aimed at user experience (easy yet flexible) and the ability to see your events anywhere you have Internet access,” and one had experience working with iCal calendars, then:
The former would entice me to give said calendaring solution a try, the latter would ensure I stick around. Now, subscribing to a calendar would make any advertising more difficult, but I don’t think, say, putting one all-day event with an advertisement in the iCal version of the calendar would be so bad. As for the feasibility/difficulty of the second suggestion, I have to admit I’m in the dark, as I’m completely unfamiliar with webDAV.
I guess what I’m really looking for is a webDAV server that also has an online interface, rather than an online calendar with iCal support. That’s probably already out there, but I really haven’t looked at what’s available, and since I know a developer of said calendaring solution, I’ll start there.
An interesting technique for serving up pages with the correct MIME type, as opposed to just a compatible one. Via Pink Socks.
Sometimes I forget I have a Gmail account, meaning days and days can go by without me checking there for mail. Fortunately, weeks and weeks can go by before anybody sends something there, so it works out in the end.
Hopefully this post won’t draw in too much traffic from Googlers, since I didn’t use the ‘I’ word. You know, the opposite of outvite.
As of late I’ve found myself thinking about my personal ‘internet presense’. I have websites, email addresses, IM screen names, etc. These identities–or pieces of my online identity–came together haphazardly at first, but for at least the past year I’ve been trying to instill some order. Anonymity and privacy have played a role in that from the beginning.
Continue reading ‘Anonymity and Privacy’
Thanks to Jay I’m trying out Furl, a quick way to archive web pages of interest.
A discussion about interfering with standard browser behavior over at alexking.org led to the following statement: “You don’t own your visitor’s browsing experience, they do.”
But do they? At least, do they completely? After all, when a user decides to point their browser at any given site, they are inviting the designer of that site into their browser. Furthermore, while the image toolbar in IE, for example, is a part of standard browser behavior, the ability to disable it is just as much a feature of the browser. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean every feature should be taken advantage of; it’s a matter of choice.
For example, look at DVDs. There are a number of DVDs out there which disable the menu, fast forward, and chapter skip buttons until after the previews. Others let you skip the previews, while others just leave the decision to view the previews at all up to you by putting them in the menu. Now, if a viewer really dislikes not having the ability to skip the previews (having standard DVD player behavior changed) then they can choose not to purchase DVDs from companies that do that. Is disabling the image toolbar in IE the same as making somebody sit through movie trailers? That’s a judgement call.
Yes, the visitor does have an important say in things, because a visitor can always decide not to return. The browsing experience ultimately belongs to the visitor, but during his or her visit it is given to the designer for safe-keeping. Remember, possession is nine-tenths of the law. If the designer tries to go too far, though, the visitor can always steal the experience back by means of the back button.
The verdict? I’m not sure there can be a clear-cut rule as to whether this sort of things is ok or not. It depends on the designer and his or her intended audience. Just like so many other things.
