Mobile Phone Optimized WordPress: Thanks to a tip from Amit, I found a quick and painless way to optimize a WordPress blog (or any blog with a feed for that matter) for use with a mobile phone. The trick is to use Google’s excellent mobile news readers to display your blog. The resulting content is not only lightning fast, it is also well formatted and relatively easy to navigate. To see for yourself, craft the following URI in your browser. http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/[Your Feed URI] This is the optimized mobile version of Weblog Tools Collection. Once you have the feed, just create a link on your blog for readers to follow and/or bookmark. Of note is the excellent WordPress Mobile plugin from Alex for those who like a one stop shop.

Deconstructed WP admin theme: Read about this new admin theme on BloggingPro and had to check it out. Deconstructed is a highly minimalistic simple theme for the WordPress backend that is focussed on responsiveness and cleanliness. The menu highlight is a little bright for my taste (as has been noted by others) but the theme is worth a looksee. Installation is simple via a plugin and the author welcomes changes and modifications to the original theme.

Netenberg has released version 2.10.4 r12 of their popular one click install package called Fantastico De Luxe. Fantastico De Luxe is the most widely used application installer throughout the webhosting industry. One of the reasons why it is so popular is that it gives users the ability to skip the process of uploading files and configuring databases and instead, replaces the process with a much simpler one step process. Many WordPress installations have been performed through Fantastico. However, there are a few disadvantages when installing WordPress in this fashion. First, when WordPress releases an update, the folks at Netenberg have to go through the update and add it into the new version of Fantastico. The amount of time this takes can vary, but I believe if the release contains significant security patches, the Netenberg team tries their best to get the update out as soon as possible. Another disadvantage is […]

Two Column Themes Orange and Black This is a widget ready two column theme with contrasting colors. It makes use of orange and black colors. Content area is quite big allowing to fit in more content, sidebar is to the left of the page. Sidebar comes built in with Recent Entries and Recent Comments so you do not have to install those plugins. Demo | Release Page | Download Simpleton Simpleton is a two column theme which makes use of simple colors. The theme comes built in with recent comments and recent themes. The sidebar is big enough to fit in two rows of information. The theme is widget ready. Demo | Release Page | Download UnGrid UnGrid is a three column theme based on grids which is widget ready. The theme features an integrated banner management and a featured about section. Font color is a bit light and could […]

As January inches to a close, WordCamp Dallas is approaching from right around the corner. WordCamp Dallas is managed by Charles Stricklin who is known as being the host of the popular podcast, (The WordPress Podcast). The event will begin on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 from 9:30 AM-5:00 PM and on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 from 9:30 AM-4:00PM. WordCamp Dallas will be held at the Frisco City Hall which is located at 6101 Frisco Square Blvd Frisco, Texas 75034. At the time of this writing, there were 261 tickets remaining. Each ticket costs $20.00 and nets you the following: coffee and munchies both mornings lunch both days t-shirts to take home (or to wear one or both days!) So far, the list of confirmed speakers are as follows: Matt Mullenweg Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell Alexander Muse Aaron Brazell Lorelle VanFossen Mark Ghosh John Pozadzides Thats right folks, your very […]

Matt Cutts has published an article which highlights three different ways to secure your WordPress installation. The first tip involves locking down your Admin directory. Matt configures his .hatccess file so that only his IP address is allowed to access the WP-Admin directory. For the second tip, you should create a blank index.html file to place into your wp-content/plugins directory. Not doing so allows your plugin folder to be wide open, giving nosy people an idea as to what plugins you have installed. Matt’s third and final tip involves subscribing to the official WordPress development blog – http://wordpress.org/development/feed/ As we should all know by now, this is the best way to stay up to date. Matt also offers a bonus tip where he suggest removing the line of code within your header.php file that publishes your WordPress version. All of these are excellent tips. But what do you do to […]

If you are currently using the latest release of the WP-Forum plugin, listen up. The websec security team has discovered a vulnerability within this plugin that can be exploited by malicious users to conduct SQL injection attacks. According to Secunia: Input passed to the “user” parameter in the WordPress installation’s index.php script (when “forumaction” is set to “showprofile” and “page_id” to a page with the “<!–WPFORUM–>” tag) is not properly sanitised before being used in SQL queries. This can be exploited to manipulate SQL queries by injecting arbitrary SQL code. This vulnerability when exploited successfully allows the individual to retrieve usernames, password hashes, and email addresses for all users, including administrators. However, the user has to have knowledge of the proper database table prefix. This vulnerability has been confirmed in version 1.7.4 which is currently the most recent version available for download. Description: WP-Forum is a WordPress plugin that enables […]

Three Column Themes Blue Lily Blue Lily is a three column theme which is quite simple and attractive, the main background is a striking blue with green color for the header. The navigation menu is right on the top of the page making it easily visible. Content area is big enough and has a gray background. There are two sidebars which you can use to show off additional information. Widget Ready: Yes Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock. Validations: Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional | Invalid CSS with 1 error Demo | Release Page | Download Blue Dream Blue Dream is a three column theme with a graphical header and rounded navigational menu on the top of the page. The theme comes built in with RSS icons on top of the page to make it easier to subscribe to feeds. […]