• The new TwentyTen default template
• Header and Background customization
• New Link shortener
• Custom post types for better content management
• AND MUCH MORE!

Read on for the video tour of wordpress 3.0!

Link to official release notes: http://wordpress.org/development/2010/06/thelonious/

Anyways who cares about that, at least the money finally arrived. This is the second time I’m getting money from the net after 3 years. Slow but who cares, it is still money.

Looking forward to the bonding sessions with the class. Hope that the trip will unite the class as one even though we’re a totally non-intact class (well for me at least. almost 3/4 of the time I’m not with my class). Going to Cambodia to do some community service with an Orphanage. So yeah I’ll not only probably be more bonded with some people but also spiritually enriched after the trip.

That aside, WOOHOO I got my first ever google adsense cheque. Waiting for a $50 cheque from Nuffnang that should come within a month (or much more seeing the amount of complaints back then. Some took several months! Hope that is not the case for me).

And lastly, SINGAPORE is playable in Fifa World Cup 2010 South Africa game! How awesome is that? Even though the people don’t even resemble one bit of our national team, it don’t matter. As long as the name is there and the national anthem can be heard it is a great achievement. Time bring Singapore into virtual world cup glory.

P.S I feel the great importance of this milestone and decided to feature it. =)
P.P.S I’m so happy I decided to put a cool interesting fire illusion video I stumbled upon.

There are many hosts out there that come and go within months. SharkSpace obviously ain’t part of that category of hosts and they don’t show any signs of entering such a situation any time soon. So far I haven’t faced much if not any problems at all. Uptime has been perfect, site loading times fast and server load maintained at a near perfect rate. Prices of the plans remained competitive and for such stability the price is totally worth it.

There was a period of time when uptime of my site lingered between 98% to 100% for around a week or so, not sure why but it didn’t really bothered me much since the impact was minimal and I doubt I suffered much lost or any implications during that period. After that particular week everything has been perfect so far.

For the mere pricing of $5 USD a month, SharkSpace not only provide excellent plans but also marvelous support and service. For those looking for a hosting solution, you might want to take a look at SharkSpace.

Hit the jump for the video to introduce some of the features in version 2.9

I quote from the wordpress official blog:

The coolest new stuff from a user point of view is:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Have fun!

Anyways, this year has been fruitful as usual both for the website and my personal life. The website has grown quite a bit in 2009 and has seen an increased in the number of visits per day and month. Of course, some articles received several feedback from others especially some of the game reviews I made. It is nice to see people talk and feedback or simply comment on the article I have written. SwiftWorld also shifted host to SharkSpace and is currently enjoying a very happy and pleasant stay with them. My previous host wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t that great either. Frequent downtimes and frustrating load times spark the idea of moving. Of course I waited till my examinations were over before finally moving over to my new host. It is really good so far in my opinion, going to stay with it as long as the service it renders maintains at such a level.

For those wondering how old exactly is this website, I would say around 2 years old? I don’t really remember when exactly I started the website but according to when the domain was purchased, I would say around 2 years old. Yes, you might laugh at me thinking 2 years such a long time and yet the improvements in terms of statistics of the site is so minimal but I guess it is alright as long as the growth isn’t stagnant. It hurts when you see no progress or no growth at all. Of course if growth is negative it would hurt even more but at this current time, SwiftWorld is growing slowly but steadily. My aim when I started the site was to actually earn some extra mooney for myself. Of course that didn’t work out well at all. But still, I would really love to write and work on my site as a fulltime job in future if possible. Who knows?

Another year gone would mean that National Service is drawing closer and closer. For those who do not know, all male Singaporean are required to attend the army for a period of 2 years. It sucks, and I don’t like the thought of it one bit. Yeah call me a wimp or whatever. I mean I seriously don’t want wasting 2 years of my life serving the army which obviously I have no interest in. There is nothing I can do anyways but continue whining my way trying to survive after the 2 years or so. Of course after the 2 years it doesn’t mean complete freedom anyways. You still have to attend reservice once in a while and stuff like that. Argh, maybe I should fly away to some other place and get citizenship there. Easy to say though, but I doubt it will be possible.

Next year would mean a new start in my education path. The next 2 years will be extremely tough and hectic and I don’t know if I will have enough time to update the site. And the sad fact is next year promises a lot of games I am looking towards to. Games such as Final Fantasy and other stuff I can’t really remember nor want to if not I’ll start feeling depress again. Nonetheless I hope I will do well and not be required to attend any study camp or any of such stuff because it sucks.

Nothing more to say already, hope year 2009 has been a wonderful year for you. For those that felt 2009 was terrible, don’t worry there is always a 2010 to look forward to.

[image by: RunnerJenny flickr]

I search long and hard, looking for a host that is affordable and reliable. No point paying a dollar a month and then the server shuts down after a month. Reading forums and other people’s reviews, I decided to give SharkSpace webhosting a try. SharkSpace started in the year 2004, so I guess they do have some experience in this field. Their pricing is fantastically reasonable as well. To add on, they have an ongoing 50% off life discount that is currently available for certain plans. I’ll review the host based on first impression, my experience so far with their support and of course whether the server is performing for the price or the promises they made.

If you visit their site, you will be greeted with a pleasant web design. The colours are good and their mascot is cute. It is an animal (a shark) therefore it gets bonus points (since I like polar bears and they are animal as well).  Why is a web design important for a web hosting company? Firstly, it is the first impression it gives people. If you’re greeted with a design that is merely text and nothing else, would you even want to try the host out? First impression means a lot in business and for everyone. A good first impression in this case would convince a buyer to try out the service. A bad impression would simply put him off even with the numerous good reviews by people. SharkSpace has no problem in this department and the first impression they give me is fantastic.

Hosting plans are neatly presented, information on the webhost are detailed and sufficient. Everything was great in terms of design and presentation. With that said, I had to use the live support for some queries regarding the host and other payment issues. The live support might be a problem for some, especially those living in the time zone totally opposite to that of their main headquarters. This is simply because they only operate during usual office hours (8 am to 5 pm Central Time and is closed on Sunday) This meant that it is opened from around 11 pm to 7 am for me, Singapore. Therefore it was hard to communicate with their sales support at the start and I didn’t really feel like submitting a ticket for the trivial matters I had in mind so I just waited during one of the fridays to ask.

Their live support is fantastic. As in I didn’t have any major issues so far so whatever I’ve asked are simple questions but they are adequately answered and I’m always left satisfied when I close the window. Staff are polite and helpful, and I must definitely say patient for I asked several questions over and over again because I was rather cautious and worried for it is my first time shifting host and stuff. I did try their ticket support for some issue regarding the host background and stuff and they replied within 20 mins? (They say ticket would be replied within an hour and their current average support time is 10 mins) Something to take note was that the ticket sent was flagged (by myself) as low priority and still it got answered really quickly. Hmm, that is something really really good. Oh and their ticket support (technical department) is opened 24/7, meaning they will help you within an hour or much much less.

With that said I finally purchased a plan and started moving my stuff from my previous webhost over. The account creation was instant as soon as you pay the money. I receive the email regarding my account information within seconds after the payment by credit card was done. Everything went very smoothly. Transferring was fast and the uploading speed etc were great. For my internet connection to upload at around 100kb/s was amazing. cPanel was provided (even though I do not use much of it) and is a bonus for all. Fantastico is fantastic even if I didn’t use it. As in I’m just stating a general statement because cPanel is by far my most preferred control panel.

Uptime up till now is at 100% and of course things looks fantastic. The future is bright and I believe I’ll be back with another review by year end (not end month cause I think I’ll give it more time) and in that review I’ll be positive and happy. I’ll rate the host on their plans and pricing when I feel that I’ve been long enough with the host because some host promises so much yet they give so little or simply close down the next day. SharkSpace doesn’t seem to fit into that category but still I believe time will be an evidence to whatever I’ll be stating in future. For now, I rate the service and the hosting so far a 8.5/10. A 1.0 taken off because of live support not being 24/7 and a 0.5 because nobody is perfect.

Link to Host: SharkSpace Webhosting

The past weeks were basically examination weeks (the week before the previous). Nothing but exams, studying, exams and it repeats till the Friday before the last (I’m getting confused over the phrasing here.). After that, I was basically a free bird flying around looking for fun and joy, peace and laughter. Of course you might want to ask about the battle I had gone through. I’ll use an analogy. I’m like a captain of a ship that is in war, the ship is sunken but I’m still alive swimming to safety. Hmm, what a confusing analogy. Anyways, the results are in already, I do know of my results and I did below average.

I’m basically like the bottom few of the class but still, I’m rather happy with some of the marks I got. Really don’t know if I’ll get to talk to the principal or something because of the marks but well, at least I pass every single subject. That however is not enough, and tomorrow 27/10/09, the principal wants to talk to the whole level about it. Hmm, let’s hope it ain’t too unpleasant. Argh, how am I supposed to compete with the 6 As people coming in next year? I’ll be in classes of elites and I’ll probably be the lowest. But I have to persevere for I do not have any certification or anything with me now since I’ve taken the route of the through train. Nevermind about that, I’ll probably be able to take the subjects I want but now here comes the part where I’m really scared of making a choice. To go with computer sciences or take another science? Computing and stuff ain’t that recognized in Singapore for sure, and the job I want in future probably will not be possible in Singapore but are dreams and interest that important? Or should I think more practically? Bah, I rather not think about that now.

Putting my academics aside, time to talk a little about the website and some of the changes. I’ve been facing downtimes after downtimes with my previous host. Terrible loading times and serious problems with it that are left unresolved. Well, my webhost was fantastic in support. They tried their best to help me but the problem still couldn’t be solved. It was weird, my site was the only site down while the other sites on the server had no problems at all. I didn’t want to move or transfer my site over to a new webhost for it was my examination period but once it was over, I decided to give a new host a try.

I’ve moved to a host that received several positive reviews from many of their customers. Read forums for recommendations and stuff and finally place my trust with the webhost named SharkSpace. I’ll be doing a review soon about the process and what my first impressions were of the host. And maybe follow up with a 1 month review then a half a year review and lastly of course the yearly review. I’m really hoping that the host will not face much problems whether financially or whatnots, I’ve seen many host come and go within months and I hope this wouldn’t be the same with SharkSpace. Anyways, after shifting the problems were indeed solved. Talked with my previous webhost and they told me my downtime and long load times were due to some of the implications of the hacking attempt previously (yes swiftworld was hacked once). Oh well, glad everything is fine now.

Nothing else much to talk about my personal life or the site. Just want to say that tennis is indeed tough to play (for me at least). Had my virgin try today and bleh, I totally suck badly at it. Maybe I’ll improve one day after endless hours of practising.

[image by: Robb North]

I’m glad that the invention of “google” is available now. It is so useful that within minutes of researching I found the answers to my problem. Some people say that this particular problem often happen within shared hosting accounts. The server basically gets mixed up with the different users and something goes wrong (I think. Not sure if I comprehended correctly). There are two ways to solve this, call your service provider asking them to delete it. OR, follow the method I have used for myself.

Basically these files becomes undeletable for you do not have the permissions to do so. For some reason the permissions of this files get messed up and viola, you can’t delete them. However, the power of php comes to save the day. A simple php file helps you to alter these permission of the files allowing you to once again take ownership of them.

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<?php
   function rchmod($parent, $dmod, $fmod) {
         if (is_dir($parent)) {
                 $old = umask(0000);
                 chmod($parent, $dmod);
                 umask($old);
                 if ($handle = opendir($parent)) {
                         while (($file = readdir($handle)) !== false) {
                           if ($file === "." or $file === "..") {
                                         continue;
                                 } elseif (is_dir($parent . '/' . $file)) {
                     rchmod($parent . '/' . $file, $dmod, $fmod);
                                 } else {
                                         $old = umask(0000);
                                         chmod($parent . '/' . $file, $fmod);
                                     umask($old);
                                 }
                         }
                         closedir($handle);
            }
         } else {
                 $old = umask(0000);
                 chmod($parent, $fmod);
                 umask($old);
         }
    }
    rchmod('thestupidfoldernamethatdoesnotletyoudelete/', 0777, 0666);
?>

You just have to upload this php file into the folder where the item you want to delete lies. For example it is the folder name “delete” in /usr/polar/swiftworld/swift/delete, you have to upload your php file within /usr/polar/swiftworld/swift/. You then run the php file and it will change the permissions for that folder and the contents within. You just have to change the folder name within that script and add additional lines if you want to change the permissions of more than one file.
Have fun and hope that it helps you. Remember to delete the file after using for now you know php files are so powerful, god knows what happens when bad people gets their hands on them.
Credit goes to the drupal community where the solution was found.

A picture tells a thousand word. It draws attention, creates interest and of course allows readers to visualize much better. I’ve known about Google Adsense’s rules of not having images beside their advertisements. However, what I didn’t know was that the ban was due to those images resulted in making many people decide to click the advertisement. Yes, to think of it, I did once click on some advertisements due to the pictures beside it (totally unrelated pictures actually). So to put these thumbnails together with your awesome titles, wouldn’t that generate a surge of interest within the reader?

The original idea, code etc all belong to this site:

BuildInternet

The original article:

Display Thumbnails for Related Posts in WordPress

With that said, this post is actually to help some people out who wanted some kind of modification to the modification. Basically the idea and code given in the article above (buildinternet) requires the blog owners to use a custom field. That, is very troublesome for it simply meant that every single article you have to fill in one more extra blank. For those bloggers who actually have been doing so (due to their theme and whatnots), it is completely fine. However, what about those bloggers that never does such things? Would it mean that they have to go back to the mountains of articles they have written long ago to add in the custom field? It would be extremely taxing and time wasting.

With me and many other bloggers falling into that category, we wanted the process to be automated. Yes, after I read the article I immediately went tweaking the code to try emulate the automated process I wanted. I ain’t a professional coder nor do I actually have little knowledge in coding (PHP in this case), but a little research and some testing does wonders.

This whole modification is based on the plugin called “Yet Another Related Post Plugin” (YARPP). Without that, you cannot proceed any further.

Without further ado, the modification to the modification (largely based on the code on buildinternet):

Download the YARPP Plugin

As said earlier, the modification we are about to do is based on the plugin itself. Download the plugin else you have to create a whole related post plugin yourself which this guide have no use helping at all.

Download TimThumb

TimThumb is required to create the necessary thumbnails etc for the related posts. Download it and upload it into your website. For me, I’ve placed the script itself into a folder called “scripts” in my theme folder.

Create a Template File

Upon successful installation of the plugin, you will realise that it allows a template system for displaying the different related posts. You can look through the different examples they provided and it might just give you more inspiration for better stuff.

For now, create a file named “yarrp-template-anythingyouwant.php” in the root of your theme folder. So basically if you’re using a theme called “whatever”, it would be in “/wordpress/wp-content/themes/whatever”. In this file, it will basically contain the structure of how the related posts are displayed.

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<h4 class="meta">Other articles that might interest you</h4>  
 
<?php if ($related_query->have_posts()):?>  
 
    <div class="related-posts">  
         <?php while ($related_query->have_posts()) : $related_query->the_post(); ?>  
 
<li>                 
                 <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
 
				<?php $id =$post->ID;
					$the_content =$wpdb->get_var("SELECT post_content FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE ID = $id");
					$pattern = '!<img.*?src="(.*?)"!';
					preg_match_all($pattern, $the_content, $matches);
					$firstimage_src = $matches['1'][0]; ?> 
 
				<?php if($firstimage_src != '')  : ?>  
 
					<img src="<?php echo bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/scripts/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $firstimage_src; ?>&amp;w=150&amp;h=90&amp;zc=1&amp;q=100"
    				alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
 
				<?php else : ?>
 
					<img src="http://swiftworld.net/defaultthumbnail.png" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
 
                 <?php endif; ?>  
 
                 <?php the_title(); ?></a>  
 
</li>   
         <?php endwhile; ?>  
     </div>  
 
 <?php else: ?>  
 
     <p>No related posts found</p>  
 
 <?php endif; ?>

What the code simply does is if related posts exists, it will go through each content of the related posts and select the first image it sees. TimThumb then creates the necessary thumbnails and resize accordingly.

What you must need to edit are lines:
20: Change according to where your script is, leave the <?php echo $firstimage_src; ?> in place and lastly edit the width and height of the image that is generated. w for width, and h for height. The ZC and Q are stuff that you do not really need to temper with. You can read up at TimThumb’s website on what they actually does etc.

25: Image when no first images are found in the content. Basically the default images to put in should there not be any at all in the article.

This code is just an example of how it the modification actually works. You can change edit and modify to suit your own needs.

Customize Modification with CSS

The CSS is taken directly from buildinternet, all credits to them. Edit to suit your own needs as well.

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/* Related Posts */  
div.related-posts {clear:both; text-align:center; margin:10px 0px 0px 0px; padding:0;}  
div.related-posts li{width:150px; float:left; display:inline; margin-right:15px;; padding:0;}  
div.related-posts img{clear:both; padding:5px; background:#F7F7F7; border:1px solid #DDD;}  
div.related-posts a{clear:both; display:block; border:none; text-decoration:none;}  
div.related-posts li{font-size:12px;}

Activate the New Template

Go into the YARPP options page and under Display Options, check the box of Display using a custom template file. Select “yarpp-template-whateveryouwant.php” from the list. Save changes.

See and do necessary adjustments

Refresh your pages and adjust the template accordingly. For more fancy designs and stuff, you’ve to figure that out yourself.

CREDITS TO:
BuildInternet
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/246893