It’s a service that sends an SMS with forex rates to your phone. I don’t have time to finish development. However, it works right now only with EUR/USD. All made in php. Grabs forex data from a free source. Uses a cron job to send the daily sms. I was gonna have a few more abilities, like choosing which pairs you want to send and at what time.
Category: web
Must Have WordPress Plugins
Posted by – October 24, 2009
Here is my list of WordPress plugins I use on my of my sites I deploy:
- Contact Form 7 – This gives you a great looking contact form. Highly customizable with an option for adding a captcha.
- Akismet – Stop spam. This comes with every WordPress install. You need a key for it, register at wordpress.com. It’s free!
- Google XML Sitemap – Add a good XML sitemap for your site.
- WordPress Auto Upgrade – This makes upgrading the most easy thing. No excuse to not keep your site safe and up to date.
- WP Super Cache – I use this on the sites that get a lot of traffic. There is very much a noticeable difference when you use this. It really speeds your site up.
- Twitter Tools – Best Twitter plugin for WordPress. Use this to tweet your blog posts.
- Lightbox 2 – Makes your images show up in a lightbox. Extremely handy.
- Chili Code Highlighter – Best plugin to syntax highlight code. You can see examples of it on my site here, Write on images with PHP
- WPrecaptcha – Akismet and this plugin will stop all spam. Must have.
- WPaudio – This is great if you want to share some mp3s on your site. I use this here on my site, My New Ringtone
What plugins do you use? Leave me a comment!
Online Backup Solutions
Posted by – September 18, 2009
I have recently got the urge to start backing stuff up. I found a couple online companies offering this service so I decided to try them out.
First is a product called iDrive from http://www.idrive.com
iDrive gives free users 2gb of storage. For me this is plenty to backup some important documents. Their little program you download is quite nice. It is easy to use and explore, allowing you to see right away what files you are backing up and how much space you are using.
The three main buttons in their program are Backup Now, Schedule Backup, and Enable Continuous Backup. It has a default scheduled backup time of 5:00AM every day, but that is easily changeable.
The restore feature is nice as well. It will show the files you have stored with them and allow you to choose which ones you whish to restore to your computer.
There is integration with your OS, but under Windows XP I was prompted to install the plugin for it, it didn’t install along with the program. They do have support for Windows, Mac, and Linux. As well as some mobile applications.
Overall, this was a good option to use if you like something with a bit more options and like to tinker with settings to have full control over things, but it seemed like it was just more work than I wanted to do. I give this application a 4/5 stars.
The second application I used was Dropbox from http://www.getdropbox.com
Just from the website alone you can tell Dropbox is more slim and condensed.
They also offer a free 2gb account, which is plenty for me.
I downloaded their application and was pleasantly surprised. Their application is all integrated into Windows. When I want to backup a file, I just drag it into a folder called My Drop Box which they put in My Documents.
They also have a system of synching. You can run it on multiple computers or phones, and when you save files, it can synch to all devices. Pretty handy feature.
Folder sharing is also very easy and makes it great for letting other people have access. For me, this will come in handy when I’m working with people on projects. They have a Public Folder as well that allows anyone to see the files which you put in there.
Dropbox also have some 30 day undo history. Might come in handy if I make mistakes. They also offer an unlimited undo feature called “Pack-rat”.
The online interface for Dropbox is amazing. So simple and great looking. You can upload a folder of images and it’ll generate a photo album. Pretty slick.
I give Dropbox a 5/5 stars and recommend it for sure!
jquery password plugin
Posted by – September 3, 2009
I found this really really simple jquery plugin for registration forms and what not.
It does:
- password metrics (tells you if its a strong password or not)
- submit lockout (user won’t be able to submit form until everything is good)
- minimum strength requirements (user needs to have a password of X strength)
Here is a demo of the script: http://www.thecreativeoutfit.com/freebies/passroids
You can view the options and download it here: http://www.thecreativeoutfit.com/index.php?view=jQuery-Password-Plugin
