geoff manning

Win Your Way In! Bad Beat on Cancer Charity Poker – February 21st

Geoff — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:29:15 +0000

The Twitter Poker Tour is having it’s 3rd charity event in conjunction with Bad Beat on Cancer to raise fund for the Prevent Cancer Foundation! You can win your way into all three events plus win a free month subscription to the DeucesCracked poker training website! This entire prize package is valued at $100.

All you have to do to participate is paste the following into your blog or website:

Help Put a Bad Beat on Cancer!
On February 21st, 2010 the Twitter Poker Tour is teaming up with Bad Beat on Cancer to raise money to benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Join the TPT and a host of Full Tilt Red Pro’s starting at 6PM ET on Sunday the 21st to raise money and awareness for cancer prevention!

For more information visit the Bad Beat on Cancer Charity Event page.

Please see the contest page for full details!

All I Want for Christmas in 2009…

Geoff — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:14:29 +0000

….is for YOU to consider making a donation to a charitable foundation. Give what ever you can, $1, $5, $10, etc. There is no such thing as a donation “too small”.

Here is a list of my favorite charities to get you thinking:

Jimmy Fund

Since its founding in 1948, the Jimmy Fund has supported the fight against cancer in children and adults at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, helping to raise the chances of survival for cancer patients around the world.

PreventCancer.org and Bad Beat on Cancer

The Prevent Cancer Foundation empowers people to prevent cancer. We envision a future where cancer incidence and mortality will be significantly reduced through preventive measures….The mission of the Prevent Cancer Foundation (formerly the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation) is the prevention and early detection of cancer through research, education and community outreach to all populations, including children and the underserved.

St. Jude Children’s Hospital

St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric treatment and research facility. Discoveries made here have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. With research and patient care under one roof, St. Jude is where some of today’s most gifted researchers are able to do science more quickly.

MSPCA

The MSPCA-Angell is a national and international leader in animal protection and veterinary medicine and provides direct hands-on care for thousands of animals each year. Founded in 1868, we are the second-oldest humane society in the United States. Our services include animal protection and adoption, advocacy, humane education, law enforcement and world-class veterinary care.

I’m Officially a Wordpress Plugin Developer

Geoff — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:25:14 +0000

I had a need for a wordpress plugin to manage the Twitter Poker Tour poker league Leader Board and Schedule. I sent along my project plan to John Hawkins (@vegasgeek) of 9Seeds to have him give me an estimate for getting it created and after a few conversations I realized that it was no small task. Having more time than money to dedicate to my poker/web related projects I decided to give it a go myself.

Had the project been smaller or my budget bigger, I would have had John and 9Seeds do the work. I’ve met John in person at a charity poker tournament in Vegas (via @PokerVixen) and he’s a speaker at Wordcamp conferences around the country. So I knew he would understand the project from both a poker and a wordpress standpoint.

I’ve written several PHP/MySQL based web apps in the past for a variety of clients/employers and I am certainly above average when it comes to Wordpress (self-hype). So once I got over the hurdle of interfacing a PHP/MySQL based web app with Wordpress then I was back in my comfort zone.

And after all that, the WP Leader plugin was born! It is a wordpress plugin that will allow poker webmasters and poker league administrators to manage their online or live leagues. The plugin can manage seasons, events, players and poker rooms on the backend and can display Leader Boards, Event Schedules and Event Results on the front end.

So, I guess I’m a Wordpress Plugin Developer, sortof.

Wordpress Plugins for a Better Life

Make a Difference in Someone’s Life this Christmas

Geoff — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:09:30 +0000

I’ve long toyed with this idea. I am sure it’s nothing new and people probably do it all the time, but for anyone looking to buy me Christmas or birthday presents, I would like them instead to make a small donation to my favorite charities. I’m an impulse shopper and at times spend foolishly so if there is something I *really* want, I’ll buy it for myself.

Well, this is the year that I will try to stick to my guns. Yesterday, my mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I kindly asked that she make a donation to the Jimmy Fund for my only present this year. I will give the same answer to everyone who asks this year.

I don’t recall exactly when this video came out but it always keep’s me inspired to give to the Jimmy Fund. I don’t have anyone in my family or circle of friends that have children suffering from cancer, but as a father I can’t think of many things that could possibly be worse.

What are your favorite charities to give to?

Twitter: Hashtag Etiquette

Geoff — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:02:14 +0000

Nearly every Tuesday or Thursday, and sometimes randomly, someone tries to start a new Twitter meme by using the #tpt hashtag for a variety of things: Third Person [Tue/Thu], TwitPic [Tue/Thu], and others. The Twitter Poker Tour has been using the #tpt hashtag for over a year and it is counter productive to both the TPT and the new meme to share a hashtag as it causes confusion.

What is the etiquette for dealing with hashtag “pirates”. Should the burden be on the person who would like to start the new meme to research and choose an unused hashtag? A simple Twitter Search for #tpt shows the hashtag is alive and in use. Or should the burden be on the current “owners” or users of the hashtag to ask that they pick a new hashtag?

What are your thoughts on this?

Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon

Geoff — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:12:40 +0000

The telethon is now over and the Jimmy Fund raises over 4 million dollars in the past two days. The proceeds from this will go to fund cancer research and to help make the lives of children and families dealing with cancer have a sense of hope.

My friend emailed this to all of us yesterday during the final drive of the charity telethon where the Jimmy Fund was trying to reach it’s goal of 5 million in these tough economic time. I hope you can find time and a little money to still donate.

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Just called and made a donation to the WEEI telethon (http://www.jimmyfund.org/eve/event/redsox-radio-telethon/default.html). We’re all lucky at the moment to have happy and healthy kids. I cant even imagine any one of our children having cancer. SHIT… I have a hard time when my daugter has a cold. It’s time to open up the wallets and give a little love. I dont look at this as money to make my kids feel better…. I look at it as an insurance policy to prevent them from ever needing to know what the Jimmy Fund is.

I know that you’re all busy and have a lot on your plates. I also want you all to know that I’ve been laid off, don’t have any income but still find it important enough to give to this charity. Hell.. we all drop $100 like it’s nothing on a bachelor party. Why not drop the same for something that matters.

Think about it…. imagine your life without your kids. Imagine seeing kids walking to the bus without your child there. Imagine sleeping through the night without your offspring calling you by name. I hate asking people for money. This is the only time I think it’s important.

Think about where you spend your money…

* a coffee a week is about $100
* one lunch a week is about $350
* a beer at a bar a week is about the same.
* what is a tank of gas cost?

I’m not a religious person and never will be… but I do believe that what comes around goes around.
Stop thinking, click on the link and give some money. If $5 is all you want to give… thats fine. Just text “gosox” to 20222. Five bucks…. thats it. thats all I’m asking. That’s less than one beer at Fenway.

We all know someone who has had cancer. Stop hemming and hawing. Have a set of fucking balls and give some damn money. The current total is 4.3 million dollars. My unemployed ass just called 800-738-1234 and donated on behalf of my kids.

For those that live around here and listen to 850 AM WEEI and I dare you not to give. For those that live far away… find it online and listen. I mean… really listen.

For those that can’t give… I understand. For those that do… I would love to hear about it and … THANK YOU.

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Corporate Blogging

Geoff — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:57:06 +0000

In my day job I work for an online home furnishings retailer OrientalFurniture.com. We are in the process of upgrading our ecommerce platform and redesigning the site to provide new functionality and an updated look and feel.

We are currently rebranding and carrying out our new marketing efforts and one key aspect is our new Interior Design blog. This new blog will focus on Asian Style with categories for Buying Guides, Style Tips and Cultural Spotlights.

This blog will be a lot different to manage than my personal blogs as it will be the blogging persona of our company. Also it is a blog in a traditional industry. Hopefully the niche interior design angle will let it standout and allow us to create unique content.

Stay tuned

Blogging from iPhone

Geoff — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:27:01 +0000

I am blogging this from my newly downloaded Wordpress app for the iPhone. The HTML markup has to be done manually but it is a great little app.

I will get the most use out of it from the comment management functionality. I suppose it will also be good for drafting new posts and then finalizing them from my laptop.

TweetSuite Errors and Troubleshooting

Geoff — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:54:53 +0000

I ran into more issues getting this to work properly so I switched to another TweetBack plugin. I like the TweetSuite implementation better so I will try to get it working on another one of my blogs (this one perhaps!). Thanks for reading!

I was having a lot of trouble getting TweetSuite to work properly on the Tweet Vegas website. After some tweaking and researching I finally got it to work. Here is a list of issues/pointers to keep in mind while integrating it.

“Tweet This” button will only appear on posts published after the plugin was installed. There is a table called WP_ShortURLS which is populated with the different iterations of the short urls for the post (bit.ly, tinyurl, etc). The records are inserted upon the publishing of the post. Therefore previous posts will not be available in this table. You can unpublish then republish your post to see it work.
You need to set the permissions on the TweetSuite plugin folder to 777 or else the dynamic “Tweet This” image cannot be created.
I had an issue where the “Tweet This” image wouldn’t show up when there were zero tweetbacks. I added this line to rt-gif.php

if($count<1) { $count="0"; }

I added it directly after line 4. Your results may vary, this was an issue I came across. There is likely a more elegant solution, but it worked for me!

If you do not set your twitter handle in the TweetSuite settings, but leave the default “admin” then your tweetback will default to appending “from @admin” at the end. You can see this in action here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=from+%40admin

Hopefully this will come in handy as you install TweetSuite.

URL Encode a Twitter Status Message

Geoff — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:18:26 +0000

You may have seen Twitter contests where to enter you need to “Click Here to Retweet” a certain message. Here is how it is done!

You can add a custom message to the Twitter URL as a link like so:

http://twitter.com/home?status=Custom%20Message%20Here

When you click it, you will be brought to your Twitter home page (if you are logged on already) and the status box will now say “Custom Message Here”. Obviously you can put in whatever text you wish to be displayed.

What do you do if you want to put spaces, hashtags, slashes and other special characters in your message? You can use an URL Encoder like this to do the work for you.

When you encode the URL, be sure to append it to http://twitter.com/home?status=

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