<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Image P tag remover
Description: Plugin to remove p tags from around images in content outputting, after WP autop filter has added them. (oh the irony)
Version: 1.0
Author: Fublo Ltd
Author URI: http://fublo.net/
*/

function filter_ptags_on_images($content)
{
    // do a regular expression replace...
    // find all p tags that have just
    // <p>maybe some white space<img all stuff up to /> then maybe whitespace </p>
    // replace it with just the image tag...
    return preg_replace('/<p>\s*(<a .*>)?\s*(<img .* \/>)\s*(<\/a>)?\s*<\/p>/iU', '\1\2\3', $content);
}

// we want it to be run after the autop stuff... 10 is default.
add_filter('the_content', 'filter_ptags_on_images');

Save that to your wp-content/plugins folder and activate it via the dashboard.

A story posted this morning on The Next Web reported on a website that highlights just how little thinking goes into so much of what gets posted on social networks. The website, called “We Know What You’re Doing“, aggregates publicly available data from Facebook and Foursquare to call out what can only be viewed as stupid behaviour.

The main page of the site shows a list of status updates from Facebook, divided into four categories: Who wants to get fired?, Who’s hungover?, Who’s taking drugs, and Who’s got a new phone number?. Using Facebook’s Graph API the site is able to pull in actual status updates for each category, complete with a profile photo, first name, and last initial for each user. (I’ve blacked out the names on the screenshot below, but they can be seen in full view on the site).

In another section the site posts actual Foursquare checkins at users’ homes, complete with a photograph of the house or apartment building from Google Streetview. And another section called “Facebook friend checkins” presumably does the same thing as the Foursquare section, but I was unable to access it without granting access to my own Facebook account (which I’m not prepared to do).

At the top of the page, the site proclaims in large type: “We know what you’re doing…”. Then at the bottom of the page it says: “…and we think you should stop.”

The creator of the site calls it an “experiment”, stating “This website is intended to demonstrate the privacy risks that social networking has”.

Indeed.

There are two main takeaways from this experiment:

1) Use privacy controls

You see those “Privacy Settings” on your account? Use them. In Facebook you can even create custom settings within your network, so that different “friends” within your network have different levels of access to what you post. And you can even do it on a post-by-post basis. (I don’t use Foursquare so I’m not sure what privacy options are available there, but if you use Foursquare, look into it.

2) Think before you post

Even if you’ve adjusted your privacy settings, take a second to think about who might see your post, and how it might reflect on your reputation. I’m not saying you should censor yourself or pretend to be someone you’re not – I’m sure I’ve posted things before that have raised a few eyebrows. Just be prepared to explain your judgment if you have to, and to deal with any consequences.

As a general rule: don’t use social media to badmouth your boss, your company, your clients, or for that matter your friends or family members. Save those conversations for the pub or the dinner table (or better yet have a civil, face to face conversation with those concerned).

In short, use common sense.

Fortunately there’s a fix for this – which is probably old news by now to some readers, since Firefox 7 was released in September 2011. But it’s still an issue today in version 12. It also bit me sort of hard yesterday when I left the http:// out of a couple of links in an HTML email newsletter that was sent out to over 1,000 subscribers*.

So here’s how to display http:// in Firefox:

Type about:config into the address bar.

Filter for browser.urlbar.trimURLs,

then double-click it, so it’s value turns to “false”.

And that takes care of that. Now the http:// appears in the address bar, and will be included when you copy and paste the url.

* Regarding the email: I tested it using Outlook 2010, which apparently does not require http:// in the code to recognize urls. So the links appeared to work just fine for me. But the editor of the newsletter uses Outlook 2003, which does require http://. So he noticed the error, but not before the email was sent. Gah!

(Email standards… C’mon! I’m sure I’ll have more to say on that subject in future posts…).

Make sure you have jQuery loaded, then include this in your JavaScript file:

$('a[rel="external"]')
    .click( function() {
    window.open( $(this).attr('href') );
    return false;
  });

Now you just need to add rel="external" to any anchor tags that you want to open in a new window (e.g. <a href="somedomain.com" rel="external">some link text</a>).

(Update: Apparently using target="_blank" is valid in HTML5. But this JavaScript method will still work too).

// Register widgets
if (function_exists('register_sidebar')) {
   register_sidebar(array(
        'name' => __('Widget Name'), // Change this to your own name
        'id'   => 'widget-id', // Change this to your own id
        'description'   => __( 'This is a custom widget.' ), // Change this to your own description
        'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="%2$s">',
        'after_widget'  => '</div>',
        'before_title'  => '<h3>',
        'after_title'   => '</h3>'
     ));
}

Then add this the theme file(s) where you want the Widget to appear:

<?php   /* Widgetized area. */
if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Widget Name') ) : ?> // Match 'Widget Name' with the name of the registered Widget you are using.
         // Some text to display when no widgets have been added.
         <h3>Widget Area!</h3>
         <p>This is a Widgetized section.</p>
         <p>If you can see this you need to go to <strong>Appearance > Widgets</strong> in your WordPress admin and add some widgets.</p>
<?php endif; ?>

Now when you go the Widget manager in your WordPress Admin you can add some widgets.

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/myfile.pdf" onClick="javascript: _gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/downloads/myfile']);">

Now when the visitor clicks the link to download the file, Google Analytics will record it as a pageview. By prefixing each file name with /downloads/, you can then easily identify and filter these pageviews in your Google Analytics reports.

(T)he rules of SEO aren’t magic or arbitrary. They’re based on the goals of a search engine, which is to find relevant results. Relevance implies genuineness, and genuineness implies trust. So, shockingly, you should try to make your site’s content trustworthy, genuine and relevant. All of the rules have come about due to their utility in detecting those three positive metrics. Good SEO is a by-product of not being a dick on the internet.

Well said.

First I should clarify that I’m talking about the self-hosted version of WordPress, which is the open-source software package that users download from WordPress.org and host on their own server. There’s another version at WordPress.com, which is a commercial blogging service hosted by Automattic. Both run the same software, but apart from that they’re quite different. (There’s a comparison of the two versions at http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/, if you want to know more.)

Here are what I find the major benefits of WordPress to be, and why I think you should consider using it for your website or blog:

It’s free

WordPress costs nothing more than the time it takes to download the software from WordPress.org and install it on your server. In return you’ll get a powerful, highly functional content management system for your website or blog.

It’s easy to set up and manage

Once you’ve downloaded the software, you can have a functioning website in a matter of minutes, and the WYSIWYG editor makes it easy to publish your content without touching a single line of code.

It’s extensible

WordPress is essentially a framework that is meant to be built upon and improved. There is a huge collection of WordPress themes and plugins available for customizing the design and functionality of your site with the click of a button (literally). If you want to change the ‘skin’, or design of your site, simply activate a new theme from the Appearance menu in the dashboard. And if you need to add some extra features like photo galleries, integration with your Twitter feed or Facebook page, or give your site enhanced security, there are plugins that will do that for you.

It can be a website, a blog, or both

WordPress began as a popular blogging platform, but has grown into a powerful content management system capable of managing entire websites, too. Removing the blog from the homepage, or taking it off your website entirely, is simply a matter of choosing the appropriate setting from the dashboard.

It’s search engine friendly

WordPress is built with clean, semantic code that makes it easy for search engines to index your content. It also comes with built in tools such as custom “permalinks” that let you highlight relevant keywords and phrases in your urls, which search engines like too. And many premium themes come with options to add custom page titles and meta descriptions to your posts and pages – both important elements for search engine optimization. And if your theme doesn’t come with these options already, there are several good SEO plugins available that will add this functionality.

It’s well supported

WordPress is open-source software, backed by a massive community of passionate designers, developers and general enthusiasts from around the world who are working to make sure the software only improves with each new release. WordPress is also very well documented, and the support forums are an invaluable resource for finding solutions to problems, as well as getting (and giving) tips and tricks.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Got anything to add? Let me know in the comments!

To do this, you’ll need Photoshop and a picture, preferably one that is significant to your project (like a banner). If you’re project doesn’t use any pictures, find one with a few general colours that you think could work.

Open your picture in Photoshop. For this demonstration I’m using the banner from my personal site. I’m planning to revise that site soon anyhow, so this might give me a head start.

Select Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic from the main menu.

Change the cell size to increase the pixels of each colour square. The larger the pixels, the fewer colours you’ll get. Play around with it until you get a range you like. Keep in mind what each colour will be used for (backgrounds, headings, link states, etc.). This will help you decide how many colours you need in the palette.

Click OK, and presto! You have a colour scheme.

Now all you need to do is use the eyedropper tool to get the hex codes for each colour.

Schweet.