Tag: Blogging Tips

Moving, Graduating, Take your blog with you.

In your dashboard, under ‘Options/Reading’, you need to check that the number of posts under ‘Syndication feeds’ is set to At LEAST the number of posts in your blog, and that the feed is set to ‘Full text’ before saving it as an .xml file.(look for the xml link in browser bar or meta somewhere in your theme header/sidebar/footer)

In your new blog at “wordpress.com” or “edublogs.org” for example simply import the .xml file and you are back in business.

Sadly, once you are no longer a student at St. Jerome’s your blog is gone. (Usually I don’t get around to cleaning things up until the fall, though).

cool smilies

😎

The following smilies have an extra space after the first character so you can see them here in text form. Remove the space and the smiley appears in published posts.

‘ : )’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘ : D’ => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
‘ : -D’ => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
‘: grin:’ => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
‘ : )’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘ : -)’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘: smile:’ => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
‘ : (‘ => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
‘ : -(‘ => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
‘: sad:’ => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
‘ : o’ => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
‘ : -o’ => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
‘: eek:’ => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
‘ 8 O’ => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
‘ 8 -O’ => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
‘: shock:’ => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
‘ : ?’ => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
‘ : -?’ => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
‘ : ???:’ => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
‘ 8 )’ => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
‘ 8 -)’ => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
‘: cool:’ => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
‘: lol:’ => ‘icon_lol.gif’,
‘ : x’ => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
‘ : -x’ => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
‘: mad:’ => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
‘ : P’ => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
‘ : -P’ => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
‘: razz:’ => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
‘: oops:’ => ‘icon_redface.gif’,
‘: cry:’ => ‘icon_cry.gif’,
‘: evil:’ => ‘icon_evil.gif’,
‘: twisted:’ => ‘icon_twisted.gif’,
‘: roll:’ => ‘icon_rolleyes.gif’,
‘: wink:’ => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
‘ ; )’ => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
‘ ; -)’ => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
‘: !:’ => ‘icon_exclaim.gif’,
‘: ?:’ => ‘icon_question.gif’,
‘: idea:’ => ‘icon_idea.gif’,
‘: arrow:’ => ‘icon_arrow.gif’,
‘ : |’ => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
‘ : -|’ => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
‘: neutral:’ => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
‘: mrgreen:’ => ‘icon_mrgreen.gif’,

🙂 => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
😀 => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
😀 => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
😀 => ‘icon_biggrin.gif’,
🙂 => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
🙂 => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
🙂 => ‘icon_smile.gif’,
🙁 => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
🙁 => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
🙁 => ‘icon_sad.gif’,
😮 => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
😮 => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
😮 => ‘icon_surprised.gif’,
😯 => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
😯 => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
😯 => ‘icon_eek.gif’,
😕 => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
😕 => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
😕 => ‘icon_confused.gif’,
8) => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
😎 => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
😎 => ‘icon_cool.gif’,
😆 => ‘icon_lol.gif’,
😡 => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
😡 => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
😡 => ‘icon_mad.gif’,
😛 => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
😛 => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
😛 => ‘icon_razz.gif’,
😳 => ‘icon_redface.gif’,
😥 => ‘icon_cry.gif’,
👿 => ‘icon_evil.gif’,
😈 => ‘icon_twisted.gif’,
🙄 => ‘icon_rolleyes.gif’,
😉 => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
😉 => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
😉 => ‘icon_wink.gif’,
❗ => ‘icon_exclaim.gif’,
❓ => ‘icon_question.gif’,
💡 => ‘icon_idea.gif’,
➡ => ‘icon_arrow.gif’,
😐 => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
😐 => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
😐 => ‘icon_neutral.gif’,
:mrgreen: => ‘icon_mrgreen.gif’,

New Widgets for Widget Enabled Themes

Quick SMS has evolved into “Snow-Mobile.” It’s still a cell phone text messenger, though.

Created a “Snowblower.” Look at snowflakes for a demonstration.

Enjoy.

PS. Thanks for your patience, if dropping Quick SMS borked your theme with a fatal error it’s not all that fatal. Click on “Sidebar Widgets” in your Dashboard and all is well again.

Out,

D. Sader

Hotlinking Images? We have all done it. Warnings!Warnings!Warnings!

When adding an image to your page with a link to an image on another site, you may get unexpected results. This is called hotlinking: when images appear to be embedded on your page, but are simply linked to someone else’s page.

Advantages: no bandwidth or disk quota used from your account because you are not storing/delivering the image here.

Disadvantage: many “smart” sites forbid and display a 404 error. Some may just limit to a finite number, say 5 visits per day. Unscrupulous sites will surprise your visitors with a redirected hotlink path to images you didn’t want to show. YIKES! Hence, HOT- linking, as in play with fire? … gonna get burned.

The ethics of “hotlinking” can be equated to the ethics of stealing an image without the original author’s permission. Look for a “you are forbidden” message. But that’s not all, a web server can simply detect a hotlinked image and replace it with anything they like. Be warned, if I can program the snowotherway server to refer all attempts at hotlinking to a 404.html file, so can any other. Judge wisely, test and retest a “hotlinked” image before committing it to publication. Unscrupulous webservers fight this “theft” in unscrupulous ways, so be very careful.

Now, a smart web host, like snowotherway, will use server settings to eliminate the practice of “hotlinking” into your file folders to “steal” our bandwidth. And, no, I won’t refer redirects to “unscrupulous” images.

Commercial sites like Amazon.ca, and imdb.com, may even encourage the practice of hotlinking for obvious commercial reasons. But they are huge, have tonnes of bandwidth, and they may profit if you follow an image from their site.

Conclusion, a human is the only judge of what a picture image on the ‘net looks like. No computer or software can actually “see” an image. So be warned, what you tell another site to deliver in an image to your web page, may not be what your visitors get.

Out,

D. Sader

Found snow mold

I have noticed some themes generate error messages under certain conditions. I am trying to fix code so broken themes, widgets, and plugins work perfectly.

The most popular errors in the server logs are when widgets are used to display content you haven’t created yet. For example, including a recent comments widget in your sidebar, before you actually have any comments will result in an error message. I included a Links widget in PingoLino, but I didn’t have any links, hundreds of errors.

Trying to sort out which errors I need to pay attention too, and which errors are merely the result of carelessness is tougher than I expect.Feed validator helps.

If you notice errors occurring in a particular theme, widget, or microcontent, let me know ASAP. Show me while you are at school.

When activating a new blog, don’t be in a rush to delete the default Mr. WordPress links or Hello World posts or comments. Having empty posts or comments or empty Blogroll causes errors to be reported as well. Most errors vanish after content, links, categories are added to your blog.

I’m certain you’ll see a rash of bizarre behaviour if you allow anyone else to be an administrator, author, contributor of your blog, I did in testing. If user A and user B both administer the same blog, all links/content appear on the pages they are supposed to, but when user A tries to Manage Links or Posts, only A’s posts and links appear and can be edited. This merely confused me, causing momentary panic, then confusion. Add users to your blog at your own risk. Do not make them Administrators, unless you know what you are doing and why. Anything you actually delete from your blog is gone. But stuff can be hidden in very many mysterious ways. Take care.

D. Sader

Snowsuits for Grades 9-12

Something very new has been built into iblog, “snowsuits.”

Be up to date with your posts.

Hand in an up to date “Assessment Data Sheet.”

If you think you can handle the responsibility, and if I think you’ve got the skills, I’ll enable your access to “snowsuits.”

D. Sader
(Fed your inner geek lately?)

Do you want to send free text messages to a cell phone?

Look for the Quick SMS widget on any theme that has sidebar widgets. Mine works(vmobile.ca). I need someone to verify that the Telus Mobility widget works, too. If your provider is not listed, and you want it, let me know. Receiving texts messages on my cell phone, for me, is free. It’s sending them that costs me a dime. How much is Telus to send/receive? The Quick SMS widget lets me send at no cost. You can put any number(10 digits), so behave. Enjoy, report abuses to me.

D. Sader