Category: WordPress

WordPress is my favorite Content Management System (CMS). Once in a while it helps me make some extra money. Once in a while it helps me look at the problem from a different perspective. But even when it doesn’t, I still enjoy using it for this (and a few other) websites. And I enjoy interacting with the community. I use this category to share bits and pieces which are WordPress related.

Xhtml Friends Network

Xhtml Friends Network (XFN) is yet another area of the blogging world. XFN is a technology that can be used to build human relationships networks. Basically, it is an addition to XHTML standard, which allows to mark URLs with a number of relationships, such as acquaintance level, wheather you’ve met a person or not, if he is a part of your family and wheather you are working with him or not.

The URL marking is really easy, but I wouldn’t have bothered with it, unless WordPress supported it. In fact, I’ve learned about this technology from the WordPress. It supports the XFN by default and provides an excellent management interface in the links administration section.

I have therefor marked all my links in the sidebar with appropriate XFN tags and I have also submitted my site for spidering.

Blogroll separated

My blogroll grew a bit lately and started to slow things down. I’ve decided to move it to a separate page – Blogroll. I’ll keep only a handful of links on the right tab. In case you want to see more, there is always a link to it on the sidebar, as well as in the navigation bar.

If you are wondering how I integrated the blogroll like this into WordPress, here’s how I did it:

  1. Create a separate page in WordPress admin.
  2. Update .htaccess file to properly handle permalinks for the new page.
  3. Install and activate WordPress PHP Exec plugin
  4. Export BlogLines profile via PHP Exec plugin, like so: 
    <phpcode>
<?php
   include ('http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=leonid');
?>
</phpcode>

Note: change ‘leonid’ in the above URL to your BlogLines username.

Installed del.icio.us Smart Tagging Plugin for WordPress

I’ve installed del.icio.us Smart Tagging Plugin for WordPress. Here is a brief explanation of what it does by the author:

As you may have noticed, there are lots of little checkered images in my blog now. These are links to my del.icio.us tags. I decided it would be interesting if my blog was smart tagged so people who read entries on this blog could visit my del.icio.us links on the subject to learn more about what I am discussing.

Installation of this plugin should stimulate me into supporting my del.icio.us bookmarks – adding new ones and tagging old ones properly.

WordPress bits

As a new user of WordPress I spent some time studing and customizing it. I’ve seen some really nice resources along the way that I want to promote and be able to find easier later on. For this reason I am writing up this post with links to stuff that I liked. Hopefully it will also be useful to other people trying out WordPress.

Continue reading WordPress bits

Authentic Asian helps non-Asians better understand Asian culture

Wuhan is the greatest WordPress theme ever. Wuhan is the theme I use for this website. While changing a few minor bits here and there, I’ve noticed a README file in the theme directory. Here is what it said:

I don’t have a wishlist. I don’t need donations. If you enjoy this, please consider putting a link to
my website on your blog. It’ll be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

Meng

P.S: To make it even easier for you, here’s the code:

<a href=”http://www.authenticasian.com”>Authentic Asian</a>

=)

*******************************************************************
Theme Name: Wuhan
Theme URI: http://wuhan.authenticasian.com/
Description: Inspired by Macromedia website. Built based on Kubrick.
Version: 0.4
Author: Meng Gao
Author URI: http://wuhan.authenticasian.com/

The CSS, XHTML and design is released under GPL:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php
*******************************************************************

Of course I could not NOT link to the site. While at it I decided to check it out and see what this guy was all about. I expected nothing more than just another blog with a bunch of posts about everything and anything and mostly computers and WordPress. But what I found was totally different. I found something I was looking for for some time now – a high quality blog about Asian (Chinese mostly) culture. Here is an excerpt from the About page:

Asian culture is becoming increasingly prevalent in America and Europe in the recent years. Yet people who use chopsticks, practice kungfu or eat sushi do not necessarily understand Asian culture better than an average American. To this end, I hope to start a website that will help non-Asians better understand Asian culture.

I recognize that there are many ways in which Asian culture can be explained and demonstrated. After much contemplation, I decided to start off with something specific: tattoo or t-shirt designs featuring Asian art or calligraphy.

…

Apart from that, I also plan on writing articles to showcase certain Asian cultural products, such as martial arts, musical instruments or Asian cuisine.

Everyone knows how much I love Chinese culture, so it is almost needless to say that not only did I link to it from this post, but I also subscribed to the RSS feed.