I’ve got Facebook, WordPress, Consuming, Mt St. Helens and more.

• How to Know a Good Fan on Facebook Finding out who your best fans are and rewarding them.
• America’s Mantra – Consume, Consume, Consume – How to find happiness from activities other than shopping. I’m on an anti-consumption kick and enjoyed this article.
• Complete Guide to WordPress 3.0 Awesome New Features – A great article by Digging Into WordPress about the upcoming features in WordPress 3.0.
• 10 Sites Developers Should Have in Their Bookmarks – Yep, just what the title says.
• How to Quit Facebook Without Really Quitting Facebook – An article about creating a very minimal profile with as little information about you as profile. I suppose this is so you don’t have to worry about privacy issues and still be able to stay in touch with your “friends”.
• Mt. St. Helens – 30th Anniversary Photos – This week was the 30th anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption. It’s of those big events I remember from when I was a kid like the Challenger explosion and the shooting of John Lennon.
• If life was like a 8 bit video game
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social Lists 5/23/10

Why back in the dark ages of this site I wrote an article about how to create a delicious bookmarks page. This is a page with a piece of javascript provided by delicious and is pulling my bookmarks that are tagged with WordPress.

Well, call me dense but there is a WordPress function called Fetch Feed that can be used to do the same thing and can actually be used to pull any RSS feed to your templates without the use of a plugin.

Sometimes I wonder why it takes me so long to notice things like this. I guess I don’t really study everything WordPress can do unless I am specifically searching for a solution.

Anyway, I was going through my feed reader, which is a rare occurrence these days, and came across this article about adding a flickr gallery to WordPress without a plugin. And I thought, “why didn’t I realize this function existed?” and “what could I use it for?”

I realized it was a perfect alternative for listing bookmarks rather than using the delicious snippet of javascript.

The code provided by the Codex as an example is the following:

<h2><?php _e('Recent news from Some-Other Blog:'); ?></h2>
<?php // Get RSS Feed(s)
include_once(ABSPATH . WPINC . '/feed.php');

// Get a SimplePie feed object from the specified feed source.
$rss = fetch_feed('http://example.com/rss/feed/goes/here');

// Figure out how many total items there are, but limit it to 5.
$maxitems = $rss->get_item_quantity(5); 

// Build an array of all the items, starting with element 0 (first element).
$rss_items = $rss->get_items(0, $maxitems);
?>

<ul>
    <?php if ($maxitems == 0) echo '<li>No items.</li>';
    else
    // Loop through each feed item and display each item as a hyperlink.
    foreach ( $rss_items as $item ) : ?>
    <li>
        <a href='<?php echo $item->get_permalink(); ?>'
        title='<?php echo 'Posted '.$item->get_date('j F Y | g:i a'); ?>'>
        <?php echo $item->get_title(); ?></a>
    </li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

Now I’m sure you’re all thinking, “Ok. That’s great Kim. Thanks for throwing that load of goop at us.” But, it will work fine with most templates and only two parts of it need to be changed.

1. Change Recent news from Some-Other Blog to a title that makes sense.
   

   <h2><?php _e('Recent news from Some-Other Blog:'); ?></h2>
   

2. And you put the url to your feed where it says http:http://example.com/rss/feed/goes/here
   

   // Get a SimplePie feed object from the specified feed source.
   $rss = fetch_feed('http://example.com/rss/feed/goes/here');
   

3. You can also change the number of items that are pulled by the feed but that isn’t necessary. Change the 5 to the number of items that you want.
   

   // Figure out how many total items there are, but limit it to 5.
   $maxitems = $rss->get_item_quantity(5);
   

When I started this post I mentioned using fetch feed to pull delicious bookmarks. I got the rss feed for my bookmarks with the tag wordpress and placed it in the footer of this page. If you scroll down to the bottom you will see the result of the code in the footer. This could be used in sidebar widget, if you are also using a plugin like Exec-PHP that allows code in text widgets or you could create a custom page template to display feeds.

Can you think of interesting uses for this? So far, I’ve been thinking about a custom news page or a custom lifestream page that pulls in feed from the social networking sites that you use.

Sidenote: I used to have a cat that would fetch. If I shot a rubber band across the room, she would chase it, pick it up in her mouth and bring it back to me so I would throw it again.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

How to Add a RSS Feed Without a Plugin Using the WordPress Fetch Feed Function

1. Victorian Ghost Picked Up By Google Street View So, take a look at the photo and the article – what do you think? Is it a ghost? If not, what do you think it is?
2. Obama Depressed, Distant Since ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Series Finale If you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan, you will find this article by The Onion amusing. Be careful though it may contain inadvertent spoilers if you’re not up to date with the series. And, even if you aren’t a scifi fan, I highly recommend this show. So say we all.
3. 15 Useful WordPress Tricks to Make Your Theme Even Better – This article lists useful WordPress tweaks such as automatically changing the copyright year, disabling comments on posts older than a month, and how to display a list of allowed comment tags. If you’ve been visiting for awhile, you’ll see that I did the tweak to show the html tags that can be used in the comments. This was only something I’ve been meaning to do for at least 6 months.
4. Play game, plant tree – In this online game with an eco theme you shoot at things that are bad for the environment, such as SUV’s and a junk mail company. Your scores are then totaled to go towards planting trees. It takes a lot of points to get a tree plant but you can combine your scores with other players.
5. You’re Not a Social Media Expert You Idiot – This article discusses how self-proclaimed experts are not experts and the different social media types that you will encounter on twitter.
6. Before watching this video I had never heard of Glenn Beck and I wish I could continue in my ignorance but Colbert has some great lines in this one.

   The Colbert Report	Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
   The 10/31 Project
   comedycentral.com
   Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

7. This is the promo video for the upcoming Popcap Game, Plants vs Zombies. It’s just so bizarre and cute and strange that I had to include it. It’s not my type of game but this video almost makes me want to play it.
   

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 4/5/09

• The Monster List of Freelancing Job Sites – Are you looking for some freelancing work or just want to earn some extra cash? Well, Freelance Switch has compiled a huge list of freelancing job sites. Have fun and go earn some extra money.
• WordPress TV – If you’ve watched all of the WordPress tutorial videos I’ve linked to recently, you can start watching WordPress TV. An online “channel” devoted to all things WordPress.
• Game Industry Tweet – Well, you all know that I love video games so here is the list of Video Game Industry Professionals on Twitter. Their stats don’t show that they are great about following back but it might be a great way to get some extra info about your favorite game or company.
• Make the Move From Feedburner to Google – Well, as you probably know Google has owned Feedburner for awhile now. And Google is requiring that you move your feeds by the end of February. (You will be assimilated). ProBlogDesign has an awesome step by step guide that makes the process super simple.
• Inauguration Photos – Flickr has a set of Inaguration Photos through the years. There are photos of Kennedy, Taft, Wilson and many many more.
• Cats In Sinks – Earlier this week I walked into the bathroom and discovered Capt. Courageous curled up in the sink as pictured below. This then made me remember a website totally devoted to photos of cats in sinks. Apparently it’s something cats like to do.
  
  
• Old Calendars Never Really Go Out of Date – I was surprised to discover that there are only 14 combinations in the Western Calendar, so if you are a packrat, eventually that old calendar will be current again. I don’t have any old ones as my daughter and I usually cut up the photos/pictures for art projects. This then made me remember a particular Simpsons episode. Who knew Homer was so wise? ;-)
  
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 1/25/09

]]> http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-12509/feed/ 10 http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-11809/ http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-11809/#comments Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:12:34 +0000 Kim Woodbridge http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/?p=2225 Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 1/18/09
]]> Well, finally. Here is the first installment of (Anti) Social Lists in 2009. I’ve meant to do one the last two weeks but I wasn’t online enough to have enough interesting links to include. This week I have information about html 5, WordPress tutorials, the WordPress 2.7 interface, PSD to HTML tutorials, freelancing, cleaning a coffeemaker and Jeff Starr’s thoughts on Twitter. I posted some of these links on Twitter, so you may have already seen them, but they are worth repeating.
• 5 Exciting Things in HTML HTML hasn’t had a major revision since 1999 back when we were all stressing about Y2K. But don’t hold your breath because HTML 5 isn’t due until 2012. The W3C definitely doesn’t work fast. HTML 5 plans to include more precise ways of describing the structure of a web page. For example, we currently use the p tag to designate a paragraph but 5 will also include tags for header, navigation footer, sidebar and content. It almost sounds like HTML 5 is going to be more blog like. Read more of the article if you are interested in this topic.
• 30 Excellent WordPress Video Tutorials – Umm … this is just what the title says. There are videos on all topics. Useful and helpful.
• WordPress 2.7: Guide to the New Interface – This site includes a link to a guide to the new WordPress 2.7 interface. The guide is a downloadable pdf.
• Thoughts on Twitter from Jeff Starr of Perishable Press – Jeff Starr has written his thoughts on Twitter. It contains a lot of truths and quite a bit of humor. I especially enjoyed the part about “whats his name” from TechCrunch who doesn’t follow anybody.
• 12 Fantastic PSD to HTML Tutorials – A couple of months ago I had a hard time locating one decent tutorial on this topic and now ThemeForest has gathered 12 all in one location. This is very useful for web designers.
• 4 Online Freelancing Jobs You Should Approach with Caution – This is SO true. I highly recommend avoiding the client who says it’s going to be an easy 10 minute job. It won’t be easy, it will take a lot longer than 10 minutes, and you will lose money. My thought is if it’s so easy, do it yourself.
• How to Clean a Coffee Maker – My coffee make was in deplorable condition and I couldn’t quite remember how to clean it. I knew it was vinegar / water combination and this article helped me do it properly. I can’t live without my coffee – I don’t drink it to stay awake, I drink it to stay alive ;-)

•  

  And, finally, a really cute photo of Capt. Courageous, which explains why it takes so long for my daughter and I to get our hats and scarves on in the morning.

   

  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 1/18/09

]]> http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-11809/feed/ 22 http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/5-unpopular-anti-social-articles/ http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/5-unpopular-anti-social-articles/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:12:56 +0000 Kim Woodbridge http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/?p=2065 Post from: (Anti) Social Development

5 Unpopular (Anti) Social Articles
]]>

The first couple of months that I had this site I only had one visitor. Well, only one that I knew of. So many of my articles went unloved and unread.

It’s not that the articles are SO bad. Well, maybe just a little – my writing has definitely improved. It’s just that no one knew they existed. They were out there all alone floating about the Internet.

Since I’ve been highlighting articles from the past, such as 5 WordPress articles and 5 Twitter articles, I decided to showcase 5 unpopular articles. Maybe they will find a little love now.

I should note that my criteria for selecting articles were ones with no comments. It’s entirely possible that they were wildly popular and that the readers were so stunned by my brilliance that they were unable to comment.

1. Shared Netvibes Page as Lifestream – When I first started this site I thought one of my main topics was going to be lifestreaming because I’m very interested in it. I wrote a number of articles on the topic but quickly tired of it and there are others, like Mark Krynsky who are covering the topic is a more complete manner. But Netvibes as a shared lifestream? Why? Actually, I just took a look at it and it does show what I’m going online with photos, bookmarking, videos, etc so maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.
2. Fav Thumbs – Visualize Your Delicious Bookmarks – This is a review of Fav Thumbs, which is a visual representation of Delicious Bookmarks. It’s pretty cool but I’ve never really used it and it’s slower than just searching the regular ones.
3. Time Tube by Dipity – A YouTube Timeline – I’m not sure what else to say about this one – the title basically says what it is. You can create a timeline of YouTube videos with a search, by manually entering them or with a RSS feed. I created one of Mirror’s Edge videos because that is a video game that I have been looking forward to even though I know it will frustrate me to no end. And yes, I know the game is out but the PC version isn’t being released until January.
4. Get Invited: 4 Ways to Obtain Access to Beta Sites – I’m really not sure why I even wrote articles back them – the titles provided plenty of information. For awhile last summer I was into trying out new sites so I wanted to get beta invites. I’m not so interested anymore – I’m overloaded on sites to test and really don’t have the time.
5. Wordle – Generate Word Clouds from Text, RSS, and del.icio.us This online utility allows you to generate a word cloud based on bookmark tags, an RSS feed or input text, such as lyrics to a song.

There you go. My 5 crappiest articles or perhaps my 5 articles that left all potential commenters speechless.

photo credit: kevindooley

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

5 Unpopular (Anti) Social Articles

]]> http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/5-unpopular-anti-social-articles/feed/ 24 http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-121408/ http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-121408/#comments Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:12:23 +0000 Kim Woodbridge http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/?p=1934 Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 12/14/08
]]> Busy, busy, busy … 4 links and a video this week. We’ve got business advice, being useful on Twitter, a guide to social media etiquette, creating a free ebook, something that is going to push me over the edge next year and how to be more like the grinch.
• I’m Not A Bloody Fortune Teller But…. – Business advice from Cath Lawson that you help you start 2009 on the right foot. Just remember, it doesn’t matter what you stick up the turkey’s butt.
• What’s in it for Your Followers? How to be Useful on Twitter – Tips for providing value on Twitter. Make sure, however, that you don’t let people take advantage of you.
• Social Media Etiquette Handbook – I don’t agree with everything in this guide but it’s a great guide to social media etiquette on Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed.
• A Simple Guide to Compiling a Free E-Book – Joanna Young’s guide to compiling a free eBook. It’s simple and it covers it all.
• Coffee Shortage in 2009 – I’ve been hoping for a better year in 2009 but with a coffee shortage I don’t think it’s going to be. ;-)

A funny video from Tim Brownson of A Daring Adventure, in which he shares with us 10 ways to be miserable.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 12/14/08

]]> http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-121408/feed/ 8 http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-12708/ http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-12708/#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:10:33 +0000 Kim Woodbridge http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/?p=1731 Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 12/7/08
]]> This week we have sources for free images, grief counseling for bloggers, living car-free in LA, a new WordPress plugin and the types of people to unfollow on Twitter. Enjoy!
• Enhance your blog posts with free high quality images – A guide to the best free high quality stock images.

• Grief Counseling for Bloggers – David Bradley wrote this article when I was complaining about losing my page rank. It’s a humorous look at how bloggers react when events, such as lost passwords, dropped page ranks, and a decrease in RSS subscriptions, occur.
• Car Free Mondays: A Series Featuring Car Free Women in LA – Siel, at Green LA Girl, has been writing a series about women who live in LA and don’t own cars. I don’t own a car, but I live in a big city with good public transportation, and it’s fascinating for me to read how women are living car-free in a city where supposedly everyone drives.
• Top Ten List of People to Unfollow on Twitter – Many lists of top 10 users on Twitter have been written – 10 Ten in Social Media, Top Ten Environmentalists, etc. In this article, Shannon Whitley lists the top ten types of people to unfollow on Twitter. It’s funny and true.
• Contact Commenters WordPress Plugin – Our friend Ajith has released a new plugin called Contact Commenters. This plugin provides an easy way to email your commenters based on a variety of different criteria such as All Commentors on a Particular Post, All Commentors in last X number of days, etc. I helped Ajith test the plugin and it works great!
• 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content – Chris Brogan wrote a great list of tips and suggestions for writing better articles for your blog.

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(Anti) Social-Lists 12/7/08

]]> http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-12708/feed/ 18 http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-113008/ http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-113008/#comments Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:12:02 +0000 Kim Woodbridge http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/?p=1595 Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 11/30/08
]]> WordPress, WordPress, WordPress. Oh, and a personality test for your blog and a SEO guide from Google.
• 100 WordPress Tutorials from Beginning to Advanced Well, this is just what the title is telling you. If you want to learn more about WordPress, video tutorials have been collected into one central location.
• Typealyzer This is like a personality test for your blog. Put in the URL and get the results back. I got

  ISTP-The Mechanics

  The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

  The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

  I found this link through kuanhoong’s blog.

• 10 Myths of Blog Marketers Debunked The Inquisitr discusses 10 myths about blogging frequently told to us by blog marketers. Beware the snake oil salesman. I’m a little late on this article – it should have been included last week.
• Google Releases Official Search Engine Optimization Guide This is a downloadable Search Engine Optiomization pdf from Google. Too bad I didn’t have this a couple of weeks ago. Let’s see if I can master google’s rules.

• WordPress 2.7 Plugin Compatibility The ever growing list of plugins compatible with WordPress 2.7. Be sure to check this list before you upgrade.

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(Anti) Social-Lists 11/30/08

]]> http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-113008/feed/ 20 http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-112308/ http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/anti-social-lists-112308/#comments Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:24:05 +0000 Kim Woodbridge http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/?p=1413 Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social-Lists 11/23/08
]]> Just 5 links this week but they are all quality ones. I collected more during the week but then pulled some of them. A commenter noticed that I was being especially negative lately and I decided to remove some of the snark. This week I’ve got Gimp tutorials, information about WordPress 2.7, using the WordPress visual text editor, free eBooks, and an article about blogging from Copyblogger.
• 30 Exceptional Gimp Tutorials and Resources – Last week I posted a tutorial for Photoshop and Gimp. Ajith mentioned that he wanted to learn Gimp so I located this list of resources in my bookmarks. If you want to learn all kinds of special effects with this free open source software, this is the place to start.
• 8 Common Sense Tips For Writing Clean WordPress Blog Posts 8 Tips for Using the Visual Text Editor in WordPress. This is an awesome guide and one I know I’m going to refer people to frequently.
• Is Blogging Keeping You Poor – Copyblogger discusses how hard many bloggers work for little reward. Possible solutions are partnerships and delegation.
• 10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.7 Aaron Brazell, from Technosailor, takes a comprehensive look at WordPress 2.7, which is due out at the end of the month. This is the best guide I’ve encountered so far as all of the pertinent information is included in one location.
• 145 MUST READ free business related eBooks A great selection of free ebooks. There is something for everyone here.

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(Anti) Social-Lists 11/23/08

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