Some of the best customizations to a site are built through thinking about the users of a particular site. When users log into BuddyPress they are automatically redirected to the homepage and are often left with a “what now” feeling.

Users love to be able to customize their profile and blog easily, so it only makes sense to add easy to use navigation menus to logged in users landing pages. I created the following code to make it semi-easy to add a edit profile menu.

The menu has been tested with BP 1.0.1 and WPMU 2.7.1

We’ll look at each link individually first

Here is the full code in a unordered list that is only displayed to logged in users.

Now you can wrap it in a div and style to your liking. If you would like to use it as a widget I recommend downloading the Samsarin PHP Widget, which allows you to add PHP to certain widgets.

One last css design hint, the default BuddyPress widget title is styled as class=”widgettitle”

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Traditionally desktops have been leading the way in gaming performance, but now there are many different mobile versions of video cards. Hands down the fastest card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M.

Power consumption is always a concern when using a laptops so Nvidia released the NVIDIA® HybridPower™ options with the GTX 280m. HybridPower switches to a integrated low-power GPU to conserve the battery life.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M Benchmarks

1. 3DMark 06 – 11767
2. Far Cry 2 SXGA very high – 40FPS
3. Call of Juarez high XGA 4xAA – 33FPS
4. Crysis XGA high – 44FPS

Not too bad for a laptop! The system used in the test was the following.

• Clevo M980NU 18.4“ barebone (pre-production sample)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M with 1024 GDDR 3
• Intel Core 2 Duo X9100 3.1 GHz CPU
• 2 Gigs DDR3
• 320 GB 5400 U/min HDD
• Vista 64 Bit

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Adding code to your WordPress post can be easy and pain free… or it can be a huge hassle! I originally thought it would be easy enough to just add a new plugin that will allow code to be wrapped in a tag, which will output the exact text that was entered.

I unfortunately found out that many of the plugins available for this need, don’t always seem to work correctly.

If you’re going to be constantly displaying code in almost every post, you may want to try out the plugins that are available. However, if you are just going to be displaying code every once in a while, I highly recommend you use the simple text converter HTMLizer by www.onlinetools.org.

Display Code, The Easy Way

HTMLizer is a simple form that converts all of the special characters in your code into HTML standard code. Its as simple as copy, paste, cut, and then paste. Now that is much easier then spending 30 minutes trying to get a plugin to behave.

Try out HTMLizer and let me know how it works for you.

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Disclaimer – This article is my opinion and is based solely on my experience with Fused Network over the past year. I am not affiliated with Fused Network and will receive no compensation for referring you too them.

Finding a reliable and affordable web hosting provider can be a difficult and daunting task. One reason is that it is very difficult to find a unbiased review, as many people choose to join the affiliate network for a provide and then attempt to convince people to sign up so they can get a percentage of the profits. This leads to a diluted review base and makes it difficult to know who to trust.

I am just going to say it right out from the start, Fused Network has been reliable, dependable, and honest in every regard since I joined them nearly a year ago. Needles to say, they are one of the best web host providers on the web and here is why I hold that too be true.

5 Reasons Why I love Fused Networks

1. Friendly, Timely, and Reliable Customer Service

Since day one I felt like I was part of the Fused Network family. When I needed support they responded in less then 3 minutes, every time. David and his team are one of the friendlies support networks I have ever talked with through email. Their genuine and fast replies have always kept our site running consistently, without a hitch.

2. True 99.9% Server and Site Uptime

Our Site literally has a 99.9% uptime. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even think about our site having downtime, which allows me to go on trips, visit friends, or wash my car all without having to worry about our site not being available to our readers. The one exception to this over the past year was when our site was down for a bit and we were offered a free month of hosting to compensate. I declined, as it was a trivial amount of downtime and I honestly like to support them as a company.

3. Honest and Quality Hosting Packages

At Fused you get ample disk space and plenty of bandwidth. None of the “unlimited everything attitude” where companies claim to give you the sky and more. Nobody needs unlimited space and bandwidth, in reality it is just a marketing tactic to convince people into believing that they are getting something special. Avoid host like that, they usually have crowded servers and horrible support.

4. Powerful Servers with The Best Software

Cpanel – Check
Lamp – Check
Easy Script Installer – Check
MySQL 5 & PHP 5 – Check
SSH Access – Check
Free Nightly Backups – Check

You get everything, except the kitchen sink.

5. You Get What You Pay For

Fused Network is a steal. They may not be the cheapest hosting provider on the web, but no matter what package you select it will be worth every penny. They will even move your current site over to their system and ensure zero downtime, all for free, when you sign up.

If your in need of a host, you can’t go wrong with Fused Network. If you do sign up, I guarantee you’ll see why I wrote this possibly over the top appraisal.

More Info On Fused Network

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We are just about halfway through 2009 and laptops\notebooks are still gaining popularity over the traditional desktop computer. The main reason laptops are becoming more popular than desktops is the fact that laptops are continuing to grow in power while still providing the portability we all have grown to love.

Deciding on what laptop\notebook is right for you can be a very daunting task. I did some research to weed out the best cost vs. performance laptop you will need. The first laptop is recommended for the home or office user that doesn’t intent to play games on their new machine. The second is a great laptop for gaming, yet is still reasonably priced under $1000 dollars.

Disclaimer: The State of Affairs received no direct compensation for writing this articles and is in no way directly affiliated with Lenovo, Msi, or Newegg.com.

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BuddyPress is a new program that is in dire need of some SEO optimization. Luckily there is a new plugin that is going to take a lot of the duplicate content and title tag issues out of the picture for us BuddyPress site developers.

Seo for BuddyPress: a great plugin

The new plugin is called Seo for BuddyPress and was created by Sven Lehnert. With Seo for BuddyPress you can enter

• Titles
• Descriptions
• And Keywords

for the following pages:

• Profile Pages -profile, activity, blogs, friends, groups, wire
• Groups Pages – groups home, groups wire, groups forum, groups members
• Events Pages from the bp-events plugin
• Bb-dev Youtube & Flickr pages
• Your own buddypress pages, such as your profile

Also the plugin comes with these great special tags to automaticly insert the user name, group name, or event name.

• %username%
• %groupname%
• %eventname%

I highly recommend you install Seo for Buddypress on your BuddyPress site. It has worked flawlessly for me and appears to be headed in the right direction for future updates.

The big G will love you for it.

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Myspace has teamed up with a few sponsors, such as Toyota, to start a contest for all Myspace Music users where users have a chance to win a exclusive record contract. Sounds great right? Sounds great indeed, but the fine print says otherwise.

By Joining You Are Submitting

Few music contest contestants ever read the fine print or the rules that drive the contest they are joining. This goes for Myspace contests or a tv show such as American Idol. Unfortunately, not only do the contest strip you of your rights, once you actually win the contracts they just take even more rights away.

Here is the first example of the rights you forfeit when you enter this new Myspace Music Contest. Taken from section 5 which states:

In consideration of a Submission being reviewed and evaluated for this Contest, each Entrant hereby grants to the Contest Entities the non-exclusive irrevocable, fully paid, universal license to use, copy, sublicense, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, publish, delete or display such Submission, or any portion thereof, including to the extent applicable (a) any information, biographical data, and material (e.g., the “Creative File”) submitted by Entrant in connection with the Contest; and (b) all video, audio, photographs, text, graphics, statements, any other creative materials, and quotations of or by Entrant and furnished by Entrant as part of this Contest (the “Material”) included in and/or submitted by Entrant in connection with the Contest), in any media now known or hereafter devised including, but not limited to all forms of electronic media, print media and all forms of internet and wireless protocol.

Boom, bam, and your music is no longer your music. Simply by entering your song in the contest, you no longer have exclusive rights to your music.

Myspace can now take your song and:

• Sell it
• Remake it
• Distribute it
• All while paying you nothing

This next excerpt is in regards to your identity\band, also from section 5:

In addition, by participating in the Contest and providing a Submission, each Entrant hereby grants permission (except where prohibited by law) for the Contest Entities to use Entrant’s Submission, name, likeness, voice, quotes, comments, biographical information, photograph and/or image for the purpose of advertising, trade, or promotion without further compensation or consideration in any and all media now known or hereafter developed throughout the universe.

From the date of your submission, you will have given Myspace and Toyota the rights to use your image, name, lyrics and other personal content FOREVER without payment.

Lessons and Reflections on Musicians Rights

The main lessons to take away from contests like this are to read the fine print and know what rights you’re giving away. If you’re comfortable giving away everything you submit in hopes of that small chance of wining, then by all means, take that chance. I, for one, am not going to censor my music and give it away to Toyota for a chance to win a highly restrictive record contract.

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Here is another new Elgg theme that is based off of Pete Harris’s, Elgg example theme framework (1.0). This theme requires Elgg 1.5 and is released under a GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

This theme is the same as my previous two themes, but with a different color scheme. With Natural Brown I used neutral colors that resulted in low contrast.

*Notes – As before, renaming the theme will cause it to break. Also if you are adding text to the front page in Administration>>External Pages>>Frontpage, the information pages are reversed e.g. Lefthand is Righthand and Righthand is Lefthand

Download Natural Brown 1.1

Change log:
1.1 – Fixed missing homepage titles
1.0 – Initial release

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Installing Elgg themes is a relatively easy task, but at times can be a bit confusing. One example would be the white-screen-of-death which has a way of sneaking up on us Elgg users. Here is a Quick rundown of the steps needed to install your new theme and some steps to help if the installation doesn’t go too smoothly.

Steps to Install Your New Elgg Theme

1. Extract the contents of your downloaded theme zip file to the Mod directory in your Elgg install. By default your file structure should look something like this

   elgg/mod/your_new_theme_folder

2. Log into your Elgg installation as a administrator
3. At the top, navigate to Administration >> Tool Administration
4. Look for your new theme in the list of installed toolsplugins and click enable
5. Last but not least, find your new theme in the the list again and click the link called “bottom”

The reason for the final step is to force the theme to be loaded first instead of all of your other plugins. Definitely a good idea.

Troubleshooting a Theme Gone Wrong

If your new theme or current theme ever leaves you with a white blank screen and you cant access your site simply:

1. Backup the theme, if you have made changes
2. Delete the new theme directory
3. Now your site should revert to the default theme
4. If it doesn’t, your new theme is probably not the issue
5. You can now attempt to reinstall your theme

If your looking for a new theme right now you may want to try out one of my two new themes: Custom Blue for Elgg 1.5 and Custom White for Elgg 1.5

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Washington and Oregon have both started free recycling services for computers, monitors and TVs this year and both are having great success with the new service. Finding the locations and hours for these locations is another story though.

This is a complete list of all of the locations in Portland where you can bring your computers, monitors or TVs too. As a note, you may want to call the locations ahead of time in regards too peripherals such as mice, keyboards, and speakers.

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