I upgraded to WordPress 2.3 over the weekend and other than a few bumps it seemed to go relatively smoothly. The bumps were very curious and coupled with a melt-down of the server resulted in the site being out of action for a few hours. Eventually everything magically resolved itself, so I’m going to chalk it down to just ‘one of those things’.
One of the new features in WordPress 2.3 is tags, and I’m very happy with the way that they’ve been integrated. The developers have chosen a softly-softly approach, leaving the door open for others to take it further (as detailed by boren.nu). Being one of these others I’ve updated my HeadSpace plugin to make full use of the new 2.3 tagging facilities. HeadSpace takes the default tags further, adding many extra features, which I’ve decided to demonstrate in a short video.
Just over a year ago my long-suffering Windows laptop decided enough was enough and stopped working. As writing software is my profession, and it being the only computer I possessed, I was forced to make a quick-purchase decision for a replacement.
After some research I was going to settle on an Acer TravelMate 8204 laptop, it being a logical progression from my existing TravelMate 800. With money in hand I ventured out and visited a series of computer stores and cubicles in Hong Kong’s electronic forest, before returning home satisfied and with a shiny new computer – not an Acer, but an Apple Mac Mini – a major departure from my original plan, and the beginnings of a voyage into completely unexplored territory.
It’s over a year now since I first tasted the world of Apple and I thought it would be interesting to write about my experiences, the software I’m using, and why my next computer will almost certainly be another Apple.
Recently I’ve been trying to find examples of good modern Chinese music. It’s been a hard search. Most Chinese music appears to be made entirely for the karaoke market. The reason for this is probably one of simple economies – the karaoke market in China is huge. Almost everyone takes part in it, both men and women, young and old. Karaoke centres are vast buildings with hundreds of private rooms where people go to sing on all manner of occasions – with friends, lovers, even on business.
TV is also full of karaoke-style shows. At any moment of the day it is likely that somewhere there is a TV station in China broadcasting amateur singing. It’s taken very seriously, with big competitions and major prizes. Often a popular karaoke singer will go on to start a successful pop career. It even goes deep inside the state with CCTV7 broadcasting the unintentionally funny army karaoke show (or at least, that’s my interpretation of it).
This is a biggie so I’ll try and not write too much. HeadSpace is now running at version 3.2 and has had a thorough overhaul and feature boost that is designed to push it past other meta-data plugins. This includes:
Modularization – everything is now a module and can be enabled or disabled and re-ordered. You can decide exactly what meta-data you are interested in and how it should look
Site modules that affect the whole site and add Google Analytics, Mint, StatCounter, Crazy Egg, and more
Much better tagging, with a smart auto-suggestion that matches similar words
New modules for custom ‘more tags’ and no-index capability
Mass-editing mode that allows you to edit all your meta-data from one page
Importers – now you can easily import data from other meta-data plugins directly into HeadSpace. This includes UTW, SEO Title Tags, and All-in-one SEO
I’ll admit a certain liking towards end-of-the-world movies. For me there’s something irresistible in seeing what happens when everything goes wrong and Bruce Willis doesn’t manage to save the day. It was with delight that I watched 28 Days Later, a 2002 movie by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland about a horrible blood-spitting disease that strikes Britain. Maybe it was the bleak London vistas, maybe it was the unrelenting music and in-your-face video, or maybe it was just the fact that it was a great budget movie that packed a big punch.
With this in mind I looked forward to 28 Weeks Later, the sequel, with great anticipation. Both Danny Boyle and Alex Garland took a back-seat this time, leaving the movie to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. The story starts 28 weeks after infection, and we are introduced to a Britain where the infected have all died of starvation. The American army has been called in to take control of the situation and reintroduce the surviving population back. Gone are the original actors, disappointingly with no indication about their whereabouts. Instead we have Robert Carlyle and his family as the main protagonists, as we follow them into London, entering a survival centre, and then escaping the aftermath as a good situation goes badly wrong.
It would be easy to assume that everyone on the internet speaks English. The majority of software is produced in English simply for the reason that doing so gives it a larger potential audience (or, maybe more appropriately, gives it access into the American market). However, you shouldn’t assume this means everyone reads and writes English at the same level, or that non-native speakers wouldn’t want software in their own language. There is a world of speakers outside of English and now is the time to tap into them.
This guide is another in the Inside WordPress series and will show how to prepare WordPress themes and plugins for localization. Not only will this open up your theme or plugin to more people, but it will contribute to the international reach of WordPress, and you’ll receive the very satisfying feeling of seeing your own work in another language. A little extra effort at the start will soon pay off.
Some important points:
You do not need to speak multiple languages yourself – localizing a theme or plugin just requires modifications to your code, not actual translation of words
The localization process is relatively simple – there is no reason not to localize everything you create!
The guide will be written from a beginners perspective, but will take you through some fairly advanced concepts. As a theme or plugin creator it is assumed that you will be familiar with both HTML and PHP, although detailed explanations will be given at each stage.
If you are a translator you can read the sister article, Translating WordPress, which explains how to take an already prepared theme or plugin and translate it into another language.
This guide is another in the Inside WordPress series and attempts to show how to produce a translation for an already-prepared theme, plugin, or WordPress itself. Even if you have little PHP or HTML skills you can still contribute to making WordPress a truly international experience by providing localizations for existing themes and plugins.
The guide will be written from a beginners perspective and will not assume any knowledge of PHP or HTML (although some will be helpful). Detailed explanations will be given at every stage and you are invited to provide feedback or pose questions.
If you are a plugin or theme writer then please take a look at Preparing A Theme Or Plugin for Localization, another in the Inside WordPress series that is specifically targeted at the steps involved before a translation can occur.
Pings and trackbacks are a way for weblogs to communicate with each other and say ‘hey, I talked about your site’. They allow you to see how far your site has spread, and exactly who is reading your content. By default, WordPress mixes pings and comments together, clogging up the conversational flow and making it hard to follow what people are saying.
This guide is another in the Inside WordPress series and will show how to separate comments from pings and trackbacks. Unfortunately this is not as straightforward as it could be, and no solution exists that doesn’t require some PHP coding and a modification to your theme. This guide will attempt to provide a clear and simple solution to separating comments and pings. It will will be written from a beginners perspective, and will assume a familiarity with HTML and PHP, although full details will be given at each stage.
By the end of this guide you should be able to go from this:
This guide is another in the Inside WordPress series and will show you how to install a WordPress theme. While this is a relatively simple task it is one of fundamental importance to WordPress and is often overlooked. As such it is a potential cause of problems to beginners, and not being able to successfully install themes will prevent you from customising your weblog and taking it beyond the default style.
This guide is another in the Inside WordPress series and will show you how to install a WordPress plugin. While this is a relatively simple task it is one of fundamental importance to WordPress and is often overlooked. As such it is a potential cause of problems to beginners, and not being able to successfully install plugins will prevent you from accessing the very large world of WordPress plugins.
There are three ways of installing a WordPress plugin:
Automatically through WordPress – easiest, some server setup
Manually uploading a plugin through WordPress – medium, some server setup
Manually uploading a plugin via FTP – more complicated, no server setup
After some research I was going to settle on an Acer TravelMate 8204 laptop, it being a logical progression from my existing TravelMate 800. With money in hand I ventured out and visited a series of computer stores and cubicles in Hong Kong’s electronic forest, before returning home satisfied and with a shiny new computer – not an Acer, but an 
I’ll admit a certain liking towards end-of-the-world movies. For me there’s something irresistible in seeing what happens when everything goes wrong and Bruce Willis doesn’t manage to save the day. It was with delight that I watched 
