This version 5 has a lot of improvements, almost too many to list. There’s something for everyone, and almost every top requested feature has been implemented. G+me should work quite well for all of us.

I normally prefer to make incremental updates to G+me over time instead of releasing a big update. But I was pushing a lot of risky changes and the beta testers were a tremendous help.

What’s new

Top-requested features:

• Clicking the G+me icon goes to Google+ notifications
• Option to increase the number of teaser lines in a collapsed post
• Mute button on a collapsed post
• Collapse bar at the bottom of posts in expanded mode
• Option to collapse all comments by default
• Option to turn on/off the mouse-over post preview in list or expanded mode
• The date/time of a post is back
• Compatibility with SGPlus, Usability Boost, Google+ Tweaks (except for “Fixed Navigation: All Navigation”) is back
• A new separate version of G+me for those who want even more safeguards to their privacy: G+me (PARANOID Edition). It has fewer features, but now you don’t have to take me at my word when I say that G+me does not and never will track your browsing history.

New features:

• A new clean look, which by default blends into the vanilla Google+ style
• Tracks read posts; plus a mark-as-read button on a collapsed post
• Re-shared posts show the original author
• Icons for all types of posts: mobile, check-in, games, photo, video, link
• A marker for posts shared only to limited circles
• Ability to show photo thumbnails in the summary of a collapsed post
• Button to mark all posts as read in list mode
• Button to collapse/expand all posts in expanded mode
• More key shortcuts: ‘v’ opens embedded links and shift-C expands long comments
• The extension has been internationalized and translated to many languages
• Finally, a separate options page (See below for screenshots). This also means you can now freely hide the G+me icon if you want.

As always, G+me can be found at the Chrome Web Store. It will automatically update after a few hours if you already have it installed, or you can force an update.

What’s next

The next updates will have radical new features. Stay tuned…

Preview of the options pages

Today, Google+ seems to have changed its code and broken the extension Replies and more for Google+. It’s indispensable to me, and seeing how it hasn’t been updated in a while, I patched it temporarily until the author, Matt Mastracci, can release a general update.

To install:

1. Go to Tools > Extensions and disable the original version
2. Install this patched version: [No longer available]
3. You’ll have to re-enter all the options
4. Refresh all Google+ tabs

IMPORTANT
There are no automatic updates. So if the original developer updates his extension or I update this patch, you will have to know about it and update manually. I suggest you follow both of us (Matt and Huy) on Google+.

1. Go to Tools > Extensions and either disable or uninstall this patched version
2. Re-enable the original version
3. Refresh all Google+ tabs

Footnotes are a convenient way to write blog posts without overwhelming the reader with details that only a few would be interested in.¹ I use the WP-Footnotes plugin to easily append footnotes into WordPress.

Some people have called for the ability to embed footnotes anywhere in the post or page. You know me, I try to answer the Bat-Signal when I’m not kicking it with my entourage.

So I implemented a [footnotes] shortcode.²

Footnotes:

1. I need to take a shower asap. See, you didn’t want to know that.
2. Actually, pretty simple fix.

Get the goods

Download from https://github.com/huyz/wp-footnotes.

I synced the Subversion repository at the WordPress.org Plugin Directory, so that I’ll be able to easily merge any upstream changes.

If you can’t hang with the filenames that Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and 10.7 (Lion) generate when you do screen captures, here’s the multi-step process to turn the unfashionable “Screen shot 2011-07-05 at 5.38.53 AM.png” into a humble but stylish “screenshot_2011-07-05_05.38.53.png“.

1. Change the date format to 24 hours, if applicable, by customizing the Medium times format under System Preferences > Languages & Text > Formats > Times > Customize > Medium. ¹
2. Run:¹
   

   defaults write com.apple.screencapture name "screenshot"

3. Edit the appropriate localization file as root (change English to your language):²

   sudo vi /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings

   
   comment out the old filename template and replace with a new one:³
   

   /* Format screencapture file names */
   /* "%@ %@ at %@" = "%1$@ %2$@ at %3$@"; */
   "%@ %@ at %@" = "%1$@_%2$@_%3$@";

4. Restart the SystemUIServer:
   

   killall SystemUIServer

Footnotes:

1. Source: everydaymacsupport.com
2. Source: macworld.com
3. I tried "screenshot_%2$@_%3$@" but that didn’t work

The vim text editor is distributed with a very nice, but not well-known, less replacement which allows you to quickly and easily page through files or standard input, with full color syntax highlighting based on the type of the file.  You don’t need to know how to use vi/vim to use this pager; the keybindings are similar to less's (just hit q to quit).

The “less.vim” pager in distribution had bugs and annoying quitting behavior that I fixed.  I also made it work like less -F by having it quit immediately after displaying, if the specified single file is less than a screenful.  There’s no need to page something that’s less than one page, right?

Get the Goods

You can download from https://github.com/huyz/less.vim.

Alternatives

There is an alternate fork of less.vim called vimpager which seems to have some other nice features¹, but it doesn’t fix the core problems in “less.vim”.  I may integrate the two sets of changes.

You can also continue to use less by pre-processing the input with source-highlight.

Footnotes:

1. It can be set as $PAGER as it’s a complete replacement. It displays man pages, perldocs, and python documentation properly. It works on many systems including Cygwin.

The Death of the Java Applet and its Aborted Rebirth(s)

It’s a bit depressing when people ponder the comeback of the Java applet.  Java in the browser is dead.  That’s why this post makes absolutely no sense.  I know you want to discuss HTML5.  You won’t hurt my feelings if you google your way out of here.

WordPress — Applet Bully

This is like beating a dead horse: WordPress also does it best to nuke anything resembling an <applet> tag.  Some have figured out that you can protect an applet by putting the <applet> and enclosed <param> tags all on a single line.  But if you switch from the Visual to the HTML tab in the “Edit Post” page or if you update the post while on the wrong tab, the applet markup will still disappear. Not good.

Enter java-applet-embed

Anthony Mattox has released a well-written plugin which solves the problem of embedding Processing applets. Surprisingly, no one has done the same for embedding any arbitrary Java applet.  The markup and implementation would be almost identical.

Forking and converting his plugin was a matter of hours, and I submitted it to the wordpress.org plugin directory.

An alternative solution would have been to use a plugin such as TRUEedit, which allows you to enter anything in a post or page if you are an Admin (or in the case of multisite, a Network Admin).  But this new Java applet plugin inherits a number of automatic features from the Processing applet plugin:

• It lets you upload JAR files into the WordPress media library, as with any image.
• It offers several loading modes, including one by which the visitor has to click before the JVM and applet are loaded.  No use pissing off your visitors by forcing Java to start as soon as they happen onto your web page, right?
• It works for multiple types of browsers.
• Thanks to the integration of Oracle’s Deployment Toolkit, it can offer to download the Java Plug-in (this probably needs more testing) or update it if the required JVM version doesn’t match (this feature hasn’t yet been implemented but it easily could be, if there is demand.)

Get the Goods

If you’re willing to risk your viewers yelling at you for using dinosaur technology, then download this java-applet-embed plugin from the wordpress.org plugin directory or download/fork the latest development sources from github.com.

Best sharing buttons for WordPress

The Sharedaddy plugin may very well become the standard for adding share/like buttons to self-hosted WordPress blogs.  It’s authored by Automattic, the creators of WordPress, and offers the same functionality as what you’ll get on the blog host wordpress.com. It comes bundled with the indispensable Jetpack plugin. Its strong points are a drag-and-drop interface, a focus on only the most popular sharing services (other than Twitter and Facebook, who the hell actually uses all the share buttons you see on the web?), and importantly, click-tracking integration with WordPress.com Stats, which is another module of Jetpack.

I want Google to be my +1

The only short-term problem is that it currently doesn’t support the recent Google +1 button.  Marco Newmann extended Sharedaddy to add it, so there’s no need to wait for the inevitable Sharedaddy update.

But Marco’s plugin doesn’t work quite right.  So I modified his modifications to make the button work consistently with all the other services:

• I reverted to the “smart button” terminology instead of talking about “count”.
• All 3 major display styles (smart button, non-smart with text, non-smart without text) are supported, as much as feasible.
• The smart button is always medium-sized, and the non-smart button is always small-sized.
• In all display styles, the buttons and text are cropped and aligned properly, both within the WP Admin and on the rendered web page.

Get the goods