Links directory
I’ve installed a new WordPress plugin to create a links directory. It’s a smart idea and I haven’t seen anything like it before in WordPress. I had no trouble installing it.
It’s based on the principle of enabling reciprocal links between web sites to generate extra traffic for both parties. It could also be used as a personal directory.
I prefer Yahoo Bookmarks for saving links to my favorite web sites, so I’ll use the plugin as it’s intended for reciprocal promotions, except for the handful of favorite sites I’ve entered so far to create some listings.
WordPress spam prevention
Everyone hates spam, except I suppose the spammers themselves. I’ve had trouble with spam for years but I finally seem to be winning the battle.
My first layer of protection on this WordPress site is Akismet. When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to the site it is submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down.
When the plugin catches something as spam it saves it in the database for 15 days in case I want to check it out manually and then automatically deletes it.
It has been known for Akismet to make false identifications. I used to scan the captured spam to check and as the numbers skyrocketed this became rather cumbersome. Read more
Squash
I had a hit of squash today for the first time in 15 years. It was at the YMCA for Michael’s birthday, playing against kids and solo practice.
I used to be a pretty good at squash. I peaked when I was about 17. After that I played irregularly except for a solid season at Bairnsdale in 1987.
I played one more competitive season at Maffra in 1990 but I’d lost fitness by then. After that I just had a couple of social games in Melbourne and Ceduna.
I’m probably fitter now than I was in 1990 but I’ll definitely feel some soreness tomorrow. I started shakily today on the court but was hitting the ball well by the time we finished. I’ll think about taking up squash again. It’s great exercise.
Pizza mix-up
Juliet is working four or five nights a week now at a local restaurant. I went to Perth yesterday, which fortunately was a day off for Juliet. We agreed beforehand to have pizza for tea.
We don’t have pizza very often (once every couple of months) so it was a treat to save time and plan for more time together.
I arrived home at 6.30pm and Juliet was out. According to Kathleen she was picking up the pizza.
Nearly 40 minutes later she came in complaining about Dominoes for not having the order ready when she got there. Apparently they had no record of it.
Coincidentally, Eagle Boys had rung our place a few minutes before asking when would Juliet be coming to pick up the order she requested for 6.10pm?
Obviously she had gone to the wrong shop to collect the pizza. We finished up with six pizzas; dinner for two nights in a row with leftovers for the weekend.
AFL 2007 season predictions
It’s that time of year when AFL followers get excited about the coming season. St Kilda fan Ray Dixon has unsurprisingly, but perhaps somewhat tragically, tipped his under-performing Saints to win the big one in September.
One good thing about having a new coach is that St Kilda will presumably develop a new game plan. The old one didn’t take them very far.
Having no real interest in the AFL, apart from a fleeting fancy for the Lions, I can take an objective view.
Grand final: Sydney v Fremantle.
Top eight: Sydney, Fremantle, Adelaide, Bulldogs, Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Geelong, West Coast.
Wooden spoon: North Melbourne. Brownlow: Chris Judd.
Biggest news: Kangaroos relocate to Gold Coast.
Biggest controversy: Top AFL officials (not players) test positive for drugs.
I’ll open the time capsule in September to see how I fared.
Victorian pioneers
James and Elizabeth Gorey were Victorian pioneers. They left Ireland before the potato famine and arrived in Port Phillip (Melbourne) before the gold rush when the population was about 15,000 people.
They were assisted immigrants under a scheme sponsored by the New South Wales colonial authorities.
James and Elizabeth originally settled near Bulleen, north east of Melbourne, and later moved to Malmsbury near Kyneton. Read more
Yahoo! Mail unlimited
Yahoo! Mail is nearing its 10th anniversary and to celebrate the company has announced it will offer unlimited storage with its webmail accounts.
This is significant news and puts Yahoo in elite company with some smaller providers.
I have felt for a while the big names would move in this direction and I’m guessing it won’t take long for Gmail to follow.
I’ve had Yahoo! Mail for about seven years now but became hooked on Gmail a couple of years ago. Yahoo! Mail Beta was an improvement and the unlimited storage is a winner.
I have a paid account with Yahoo which offers 2GB storage. As the free and paid accounts will both be unlimited I expect the commercial version will continue to be ad free and perhaps offer some other features.
All Yahoo! Mail accounts will progressively be given infinite data space from May onwards.
Gifted and talented students
Western Australia has a program to address the special learning needs of gifted and talented children in years 5, 6 and 7. It’s called Primary Extension and Challenge (PEAC).
I’m proud to say young Michael was selected for the program last year and again this year.
Today I met with a year 7 group preparing to publish a newspaper. I spoke to them about writing for newspapers and developing content ideas for their target audience.
The co-ordinator told me beforehand they are a group of 12-year-olds going on 16 and that proved to be the case. They were a bright, enthusiastic group who obviously wanted to learn.
It’s great to see the education system identifying these kids and supporting them.
Online slideshow creator
I started noticing a few slideshows appearing on different blogs and wondered how they were created.
There’s a free service called Slideroll which enables users to easily upload photos and create slideshows using various effects. There is an option to add background music from Sonific.
I haven’t tested all the features yet, but it’s free, easy to use and a lot of fun. Here’s a slideshow of James and Margaret, embedding the code on my web site, or you can see my Slideroll page here.
Wireless router dies
I checked my email this morning on the new Vista PC and my internet connection was fine. I was browsing when the connection suddenly dropped out.
I checked the laptop, which the DI-524 D-Link wireless router hooks up to, and it had no connection either.
I established that I was able to regain a connection by disconnecting the router and just using the ADSL modem.
I tried resetting the router and followed all the troubleshooting tips, but nothing was able to fix it. All the display lights were flashing and shining in the right places. I just couldn’t ping the IP address.
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