15 Wordpress Plugins worth considering



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WordPress For Dummies (Paperback)

By (author) Lisa Sabin-Wilson
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There are literally thousands of word press plugins. I’ve listed the ones here that I am considering using after much reading. I will test them out and then verify for you how well they work.

Tranposh – (Top pick works great) Translation plugin Translation Filter version 0.3.6 by Team Transposh. The development site link is good. This plug in has an options page. Wow, 52 languages are supported. The widget gives a list of flags with the language name in the language supported. Good. But the list is expanded and not in a drop down list. The translation takes about 30 seconds. Its longer than most but it happens before your eyes without opening another window. It also does not miss the feeds. The feed post titles are translated. Words in the Amazon feeds are translated. When flags alone are selected in the widget the 52 flags are on 5 lines which is a small area. Hovering over any flag give the name of the language in that language. When translating the page into Arabic the entire layout reversed so that it reads from right to left.

Intense Debate Comments – enhance and encourage conversation on your blog or website. Full comment and account data sync between IntenseDebate and WordPress ensures that you will always have your comments. Custom integration with your WordPress admin panel makes moderation a piece of cake. Comment threading, reply-by-email, user accounts and reputations, comment voting, along with Twitter and friendfeed integrations enrich your readers’ experience and make more of the internet aware of your blog and comments which drives traffic to you!

WP Super Cache – This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts. The static html files will be served to the vast majority of your users, but because a user’s details are displayed in the comment form after they leave a comment those requests are handled by PHP. Static files are served to: Users who are not logged in; Users who have not left a comment on your blog; Or users who have not viewed a password protected post.  99% of your visitors will be served static html files. Those users who don’t see the static files will still benefit because they will see regular WP-Cache cached files and your server won’t be as busy as before. This plugin will help your server cope with a front page appearance on digg.com or other social networking site.

Digg Digg Integrate “Digg”,”Reddit”,”dZone”,”Yahoo Buzz”,”TweetMeme(twitter)”, “fbshare(facebook)”, “Polladium”, “StumbleUpon” and “Delicious”Into Wordpress Content.

Social Bookmarks The Social Bookmarks plugin for WordPress adds a list of XHTML compliant graphic links at the end of your posts and/or pages that allow your visitors to easily submit them to a number of social bookmarking sites. Furthermore, the plugin adds a section in the WordPress Dashboard that lets you customize it. You can enable/disable social bookmarking sites and exclude specific pages from the plugin. Also, you can add additional sites by uploading Site Packs to the plugin directory.

Ad to any: Share/Bookmark/Email button – Help readers share, save, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, and over 100 more social bookmarking and sharing sites. The button comes with AddToAny’s customizable Smart Menu, which places the services visitors use at the top of the menu, based on each visitor’s browsing history.The E-mail tab makes it easy to share via Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, AOL, and any other web-based e-mailer or desktop program. The Add to Favorites button (or Bookmark tab) helps users bookmark using any browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.). Individual service icons let you optimize your blog posts for specific social sites. Choose from over 100 individual services.

Amazon Product in a post – Amazon Product In a Post Plugin is used to to quickly add a formatted Amazon Product/Item to a post or page by using just the Amazon product ASIN (also known as the ISBN-10). What can you use it for? With this plugin you can: Add any Amazon product or item to an existing Post (or Page); Monetize your blog posts with custom Amazon Product and add your own Reviews, descriptions or any other thing you would normally want to add to a post – and still have the Amazon product there; Easily add only the items that are right for your site; Add the product to the TOP of the post content, the BOTTOM of the post content, or make the post content become part of the product layout (see screenshots for examples); If you have an Amazon Affiliate account and you don’t think the available Amazon widgets are that great or are what you need, then this plugin might be for you.

Find Me On – The Find Me On sidebar widget displays icons for all of your social network profiles. Includes 73 Social Network options, 16px or 32px icon size, and three icon styles, including sexy-style. NEW Supported Networks: * Apple NEW! * BrightKite NEW! * Facebook Fan Pages NEW! * Diigo NEW! * Friendster NEW! * Google Talk NEW! * Google Wave NEW! * Identi.ca NEW! * Hi5 NEW! * Imeem NEW! * iLike NEW! * Jaiku NEW! * Koornk NEW! * LiveJournal NEW! * MyYearbook NEW! * Multiply NEW! * Photobucket NEW! And many more.

Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.

Google Analytics for Wordpress – The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links and downloads. It also allows you to track AdSense clicks, add extra search engines, track image search queries and it will even work together with Urchin. In the options panel for the plugin, you can determine the prefixes to use for the different kinds of outbound links and downloads it tracks.

Google Analytics Dashboard – gives you the ability to view your Google Analytics data in your Wordpress dashboard. You can also alow other users to see the same dashboard information when they are logged in or embed parts of the data into posts or as part of your theme. This plugin does not provide the tracking code for Google Analytics. For that you will need to use a plugin like Google Analytics for Wordpress.

Fast and Secure Contact Form for WordPress – . This contact form lets your visitors send you a quick E-mail message. Blocks all common spammer tactics. Spam is no longer a problem. Includes a CAPTCHA and Akismet support. Does not require JavaScript. Easy and Quick 3 step install.

Next Gen Gallery NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a Flash slideshow option. Before I start writing the plugin I study all photo and picture plugins for WordPress, I figure out that some of them are really good and well designed, but I missed a simple and easy administration back end to handle multiple photos, galleries and albums.

Notifixious Plugin – This plugin allows you to notify your readers on their Instant Messaging (AIM, MSN, GTalk, ICQ…), Email or SMS when you publishnew posts! It also adds a widget to your blog to allow your users to choose on which channel they want to be notified! Why do you want your user to be notified when you publish a new article: Increased loyalty; Faster spread for your posts: it’s actually immediate; RSS is somehow broken: your readers (do they all know RSS?) have to start a reader to know that you published a new article; They can Digg, Twit’, Share on Facebook or save your post to Delicious;

Seo Friendly Images – SEO Friendly Images is a Wordpress optimization plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set. Additionally this makes the post W3C/xHTML valid as well.

ALT attribute is important part of search engine optimization. It describes your image to search engine and when a user searches for a certain image this is a key determining factor for a match.

TITLE attribute play lesser role but is important for visitors as this text will automatically appear in the tooltip when mouse is over the image.

WP colorful tag cloud – WP Colorful Tag Cloud allows you to display a nice tag cloud using different colors. Colors are customizable and depend on tags weights (meaning occurences) and sizes. A lot of other customization parameters are available.

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December 8th, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: Uncategorized, Wordpress | Leave a comment

Foreign Language Translation Plug-ins for Wordpress Websites Reviewed



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Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary (Electronics)

List Price: $79.99 USD
New From: $41.50 In Stock
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I have 18 wordpress blogs all written in English but read by native speakers of other languages. To make it easier for my readers I want to find a plug-in which will give my readers an option to translate my blog into their language. I did a search for “translat” in the wordpress plug-in install database and was presented with 36 pages of plugins. Starting on page 36 and working my way back I found 12 potential plug-ins. To test these translation plugins I used Google Chrome as a web browser on a windows 7 machine. My web pages are being hosted on Linux Servers running PHP 5. My wordpress version is wordpress 2.8.6. Here is my analysis of each translator plugin:

Applied Language Solutions: Free Translation Plugin Version 1.0 By Sam Philpot. There is no settings page and no widget. When I went to my Blog Page I could not find the translator on wordpress or in the settings menus. This is another plugin that is supposed to show flags in the sidebars. It offers translations into only 8 languages and one of them that I need, Bulgarian, is missing. This plugin did not work when I activated it. Will I use it?  NO.

Auto Translator: Version 0.1b by Thom Skrtich. The URL to the plugin site is broken. There is no settings page. Once I installed this plugin 6 flags appeared at the bottom of one of the sidepanels. There is no option to move it although I could do that by inserting it into the code. I don’t want to do it for 18 or more sites. When I click on a flag the site is translated by Google Translate with the Google bar across the top. This plugin is pretty much worthless unless the languages you want to translate into are one of only 6 languages. Will I use it?  NO.

Bens Translator: version 1.4 by Ben O’Sullivan has an option page. The options page has many options. You can chose between flags or text and how many flags are displayed in a row. Translated pages are Cached. This plugin will translate into 27 different languages. A widget is created which you must place in a sidebar. The flags are very small and hard to see. RSS Feeds where not translated, they remained in English. The translation did not open a new window. Although there was an option to show the languages in text instead of flags that option did not work. Will I use it?NO.

EHT Translate: version 0.1 by Emilio Gonzalez Montana has a setting page with 9 languages listed as your possible base language to start from. The only other option is to show a frame or not to show a frame. There is no widget. After installing it I cannot find it on my blog page. This plugin does not work with the most updated version of wordpress 2.8.6. Will I use it? NO.

Global Translator: Version 0.0.2 by V.J. Catkick: http://www.vjcatkick.com/?page_id=6575 Easy to install. There is no settings page. This plug-in gives you a widget that you can then place in one of your sidebars. It is powered by Google Translate. In the widget there is a drop down list of 35 languages that your page can be translated into. The problem is the languages listed are listed in English. When I translate the page into Bulgarian and then look at the drop down list, all the languages are in Bulgarian. I don’t think this is appropriate. Each language should be written in the language the reader speaks. Also the page has the google translate bar across the top and I don’t want that there. On the plus side, the translation works fast. Will I use it? MAYBE.

Google AJAX Translation: Version 0.5.1 by Libin Pan, Michael Klein, and Nick Marshall. The link to the plugin home page goes to wordpress.org. I tried the settings. There is no widget. There translation text and flags do not show up. I suspect it does not work with this version of wordpress. Will I use this plugin? NO.

Google Translator: Version 0.0.2 by C. J. Catkick. The link to the plugin site is good. There is no settings page. The widget can be renamed. Once placed it give translate from dropdown list and translate to dropdown list. All languages are spelled in English. The google translate bar is across the top of the page once the page is translated. Will I use this plugin? probably NOT.

Kish Translate: version 1.7 by Kishore Asokan. Has a rich setting page. Background color and borders and text color can be set from the settings panel. Pages are translated and then cashed into a language directory. There are 24 Languages available. The link to the programmers page is broken. A search of the programmers web sites turns up no information about this plugin. Apparently it has been abandoned. Will I use it?  NO.

Translate: version 1.2 by Brian Fegter. After reading the programmers web page it appears this plugin is more for translating small sections of the web page and not the entire site. Upon activation a translate page list widget was created. The setting page says “click language name to make default” but no languages are listed. I added language but still they did not display. Will I use this? NO

Translate This: version 9.03.12 by Andrea Olivato. There is no settings page. The link to the programmers web site for the plug in was broken. No widgets were created. Will I use this?  NO

Translator: version 0.2 by yellingnews has a setting page with one setting – the name of the widget it occupies. After activating it I could not find it on the web page or in the settings. The languages are all in English and the translation uses google translate with the google bar across the top. Will I use it? Probably NOT.

Transposh: Translation Filter version 0.3.6 by Team Transposh. The development site link is good. This plug in has an options page. Wow, 52 languages are supported. The widget gives a list of flags with the language name in the language supported. Good. But the list is expanded and not in a drop down list. The translation takes about 30 seconds. Its longer than most but it happens before your eyes without opening another window. It also does not miss the feeds. The feed post titles are translated. Words in the Amazon feeds are translated. When flags alone are selected in the widget the 52 flags are on 5 lines which is a small area. Hovering over any flag give the name of the language in that language. When translating the page into Arabic the entire layout reversed so that it reads from right to left.    Will I use this plugin?  YES!

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December 5th, 2009 | Tags: , , , | Category: Blogs, Uncategorized, Wordpress | 5 comments

Languages Relevant in 2013



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Modern Programming Languages: A Practical Introduction (Paperback)

By (author) Adam Brooks Webber
List Price: $77.00 USD
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When searching for programing language trends I ran across a survey done by Red Canary a programming blog. After a year of voting over 25,000 people voted on the top languages for 2013.

I summarized the results in the header picture above on this web site. Here are the numbers again for each language on a scale of 0 to 9.

Python 8.1
HTML/CSS 7.6
Javascript 7.2
Java 6.9
Ajax 6.8
C# 6.6
.Net 6.2
Ruby 6.2
C++ 6.1
PHP 5.9
C 5.6
PL/SQL 4.7
Transact-SQL 4.5
Perl 4.4
Flex 4
ObjectiveC + cocoa 3.8
Haskell 3.6
Visual Basic 3.5
LISP/Scheme 3.5
Erlang 3.5
Lua 3.4
D 3.3
Delphi 2.9
Smalltalk 2.9
SAS 2.6
ABAP 2.5
ADA 2.4
Cobol 2.3

Source: http://www.redcanary.ca/view/top-10-programming#comment-23303054
and the summary of the survey is available at http://www.redcanary.ca/view/top-programming

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November 19th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Programming Languages, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Beware of “Pizza Techs”



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Upgrading & Fixing PCs For Dummies (Paperback)

By (author) Andy Rathbone
List Price: $21.99 USD
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“Pizza Tech” is a derogatory term that legitimate PC repair businesses use to describe low-priced, fly-by-night computer repair people who repair computers for just enough money to buy pizza and beer. Their rates are extremely low and reflect their lack of technical qualifications, business registration and ethics. They see nothing wrong with using or installing pirated, illegal or unlicensed copies of Windows or computer programs and will offer to install them for a very low price or for free. So why beware of them?

Their lack of ethics and working for cash under-the-table aside, they can make a real mess of your PC and end up costing you far more than you bargained for. After they have finished with your computer, you may end up having to call a qualified technician to undo their handiwork, fix the original problem as it should have been the first time, and possibly recover your trashed data. One of my customers was charged more than the price of a brand new PC to repair her old computer – after a Pizza tech spent six hours working on it while his tag-along child ran unsupervised throughout her house!

Some Pizza Tech customers may find that their system will not pass Microsoft’s periodic validation checks, leaving them with a system or software they can no longer access without paying Microsoft to make it legal. And would you trust your personal data to the prying eyes of someone patently dishonest, with no morals or principles? Can you be confident that your computer will be free of password-stealing keyloggers, trojans and spyware after a Pizza Tech is done with it? Theft of credit card data and identities is rampant. One of my clients had $13,000 removed from his bank account without his knowledge or approval, so it’s not a hypothetical risk!

After returning from vacation last year, I received a call from one of my customers asking me to come and repair his computer, half-jokingly admonishing me to never go away and leave him alone like that again. In my absence, he had called someone else to fix a problem and swore he’d never to do so again. I said it can’t hurt to try another tech, to which he replied “Oh yes it can!”  To reduce the risk of it happening again, I have added Remote Desktop Support services that enable me to fix most problems remotely and still enjoy a vacation once in a while.

How can you spot a Pizza Tech, other than by unbelievably-low prices/rates and offers of free or low-cost software? Ask if they are a registered business and charge taxes on repairs. All computer repair businesses in Ontario are required to collect PST and those with revenues over $30,000 are required to collect GST. Ask for their business registration number for verification. Will they give a receipt and provide proof of identity?

Do they have a website with their own domain name (e.g., businessname.com or .ca) and does it have their business street address? (A small claims court summons can’t be served to a P.O. Box!) Is their phone number in Canada411’s Reverse Number Lookup? If neither of the above, how do you expect to retrieve your computer or contact them in case of a problem or dispute? Do they have testimonials on their website by people whose names you can find in Canada411 or are they fictitious? Depending on the answers to the above, you will have to decide whether or not they are legitimate, qualified and trustworthy.

There is nothing wrong with shopping around for someone to repair your computer, just make sure he/she isn’t a Pizza Tech.

Written by Larry Sabo of Sabo Computer Repairs http://sabocomputerrepairs.com/PizzaTech.aspx

Use with permission.

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November 16th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | 2 comments

What is a systems analyst?



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How to Do Systems Analysis (Wiley Series in Systems Engineering and Management) (Hardcover)

By (author) John E. Gibson, William T. Scherer, William F. Gibson
List Price: $89.95 USD
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What is a systems analyst?

Is a systems analyst degree a computer degree or a business degree?
Is a systems analyst more of a programmer or a manager?

There are as many job descriptions for a systems analyst as there are jobs. It is difficult to quantify what a “systems analyst” does in any one firm. However, there are prevailing themes in the job descriptions. The theme is the process. The systems analyst looks at, evaluates, and designs systems or rules of work flow or data flow through a company. From capturing the data to storing it making it into knowledge and presenting it to the users for decision making or for more data to be entered.

A systems analyst does not necessarily need to write code but they should be versed in some programing so that when they need data from a program they do not write in, they can come to understand what is needed to get the data out. In my personal experience I was programming in KMAN years ago which is a database based on the C+ language. I needed data from our mainframe. I don’t program in COBOL but I was able to read the programs in order to explain the the mainframe programers what data sets I wanted for download to my PC.

On dbforums http://www.dbforums.com/microsoft-sql-server/992777-systems-analyst-job-description.html SCIROCCO explains that a systems analyst is responsible for
“the efficient capture of data from its business source
the flow of that data to the computer
the processing and storage of that data by the computer
the flow of useful and timely information back to the business and its people “

This is a great description, simple and to the point.

However a very detailed description is available for download at hrvillage.com http://www.hrvillage.com/hrjobdesc/SystemsAnalyst.htm

Here it is quote from that recommended site:

SUMMARY

Responsible for the operating system and associated subsystems. Provide system-level support of multi-user operating systems, hardware and software tools, including installation, configuration, maintenance, and support of these systems. Identify alternatives for optimizing computer resources.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Collect information to analyze and evaluate existing or proposed systems.
2. Research, plan, install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade operating systems.
3. Research, plan, install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade hardware and software interfaces with the operating system. Analyze and evaluate present or proposed business procedures or problems to define data processing needs.
4. Prepare detailed flow charts and diagrams outlining systems capabilities and processes.
5. Research and recommend hardware and software development, purchase, and use.
6. Troubleshoot and resolve hardware, software, and connectivity problems, including user access and component configuration.
7. Select among authorized procedures and seek assistance when guidelines are inadequate, significant deviations are proposed, or when unanticipated problems arise.
8. Record and maintain hardware and software inventories, site and/or server licensing, and user access and security.
9. Install, configure, and upgrade desktop hardware and peripherals to include; network cards, printers, modems, mice and add-in boards.
10. Work as a team member with other technical staff, such as networking to ensure connectivity and compatibility between systems.
11. Write and maintain system documentation.
12. Conduct technical research on system upgrades to determine feasibility, cost, time required, and compatibility with current system.
13. Maintain confidentiality with regard to the information being processed, stored or accessed by the network.
14. Document system problems and resolutions for future reference.
15. Other duties as assigned.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Assist personnel of other departments as a computer resource.
2. Provide on-the-job training to new department staff members.
3. Provide computer orientation to new company staff.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS

1. Basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills required. This is normally acquired through a high school diploma or equivalent.
2. Knowledge of company supported hardware, software and operating systems to include configuration and connectivity. Ability to investigate and analyze information and to draw conclusions. Ability to plan, implement, test, and troubleshoot system software. Ability to develop systems solutions for operational problems. Knowledge of computer flow charts and of programming logic and codes. Ability to determine computer problems and to coordinate hardware and/or software solutions. Ability to communicate technical guidance and instruction to users on the use of PC and/or mainframe applications and systems. Ability to write technical instructions in the use of programs and/or program modifications. Records maintenance skills. Knowledge of computer security procedures and protocol. Knowledge of federal copyright laws as they pertain to the use of computer software. Ability to determine the nature of computer hardware and systems software problems, and to communicate technical guidance and information to users. Ability to learn and support new hardware, software and operating systems. Work with users requires interpersonal skills. This is normally acquired through a combination of a Bachelor’s Degree and three to five years of programming and/or system analysis experience.
3. Responsibilities may require evening and weekend work in response to needs of the systems being supported.

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November 6th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Category: Job Descriptions, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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