Connections Reloaded v3 Connections Reloaded is a two column, fixed width theme derived from the Connections theme by Patricia Müller. The theme is gravatar ready, widget ready (with custom widgets) with support for custom header images and SEO titles and a options page for easy customization. BlueBubble Two column, widget ready theme with a ready made jQuery/PHP based contact form and an options page for easy customization BlogStarter BlogStarter is an emptied out WordPress theme that can be used as a starting point for custom themes. Version 2.0 has some great improvements, including compatibility up to WordPress 2.8.6, a cleaned up CSS system, and a re-organized functions.php Be My Guest Be My Guest supports widget, threaded-comments, theme-options and translation is ready. Also including page-navigation with multi level dropdown menu.

In somewhat of a tradition, I’d like to take an opportunity to spread my thanks considering Thanksgiving is only a day away here in the U.S. There is plenty to go around but this year, I’d like to especially thank those who translate WordPress, Plugins, and Themes into different languages. While I don’t know the technicalities involved with the translation process, I know the importance these translations have for the WordPress Project. These translations enable WordPress to be used all across the world in their native tongue which is awesome and really expands the reach of the software. The last time I checked, WordPress was available in about 66 different languages. All of these translations are possible thanks to volunteers. These translators are the primary reason why WordPress has an international following. However, there are more than 66 different languages in use across the world today and if you’re interested […]

WordPress has a pretty decent role management in place, which allows you to create users and assign them certain privileges and functionality. However, there are few things which you cannot right now with it, for example, creating new roles, modifying role privileges and so on.

Here comes yet another way to be notified of new upgrades for WordPress in case you need one. Google has announced that they will be using their processing power to scan the source code of websites to look for the version number of the publishing software they are using and send them a notification through Google Webmaster Tools letting them know that an upgrade is available. In the case of WordPress, the meta tag was moved  to the core of WordPress in 2.5. Therefor, anyone running a version of WordPress from 2.5 and above should have it displayed in their source code unless it was either removed or edited out through an action in the functions.php file such as remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’); Also, some plugins have been created that removes the version info as well, typically security related plugins. Speaking of security, the security through obscurity argument regarding the public display […]

New Plugins Additional image sizes With this plugin, users can add and remove intermediate image sizes. The plugin can also make copies of existing images with these new sizes. Online Leaf Online Leaf presents a new standby engine for all WordPress blogs. Once installed, it will detect any user inactivity on the blog and cover the blog with a dark screen, which darkens the colors and hides animations and effects, so that the monitors do not waste energy displaying these untill activity is detected again, which happens when the mouse is moved across the website. Updated Plugins Smooth Slider Smooth Slider is a WordPress Plugin for creating a dynamic slideshow for featured posts on a blog. SEO Ultimate This all-in-one SEO plugin can handle titles, meta, noindex, canonical tags, 404 monitoring, linkboxes, and robots.txt. Version 1.3 adds anchor text customization for the “more” link in posts. WP Super Cache WP […]

It was not meant to be. I had high hopes for Intense Debate but the drawbacks outweighed the positives in our case. I was really looking forward to a few of the features that I thought might bring more interactivity to the blog and encourage readers to have meatier discussions. As you notice below, we have turned off Intense Debate and gone back to the original comment form. Below is a list of the some of the features I was really looking forward to and our experiences with them. I would like to preface this discussion by saying that I screwed up the install by adding this blog onto the wrong account and that added to some of our woes. The account bug that followed (we received some help via the support email) was caused by my fat fingering. Better overall look and feel of the comment section of a […]

THF204 Three column, simple clean theme with two widgetised sidebars. BlackLens BlackLens is a black, white and pink theme with a floral decoration in the top right of the page. Its a two column theme with a left sidebar and support for widgets. Filmix It supports gravatars, is widget-ready, Adsense-ready, dark, modern and clean. Tiki Time 3-columns, widget-ready, Adsense-ready, and supports gravatars The Hives Three column, widget ready theme with a rotating carousel, lifestream and related posts.

A tutorial to help you create a Microblog on your main WordPress blog without using any additional plugins or themes.