Archive for May, 2007

Nah, it’s really named “Paris”, but that’d be pretty funny :). Anyways this theme is geared towards ladies since there aren’t many themes for them yet. For some reason the graphic in the top left corner reminds me of someone from France - no idea why. This theme has a tan post area, black back ground, and spots of red thrown around here and there. The theme was sponsored by three people; Ventrilo, Jewelry Supplies, and Directory Online. Like always, please keep all sponsored links in tact if the theme is downloaded. The theme has been uploaded to Wordpress’ theme website, and a demo is available here. If you’re interested in downloading it, here’s the direct download link.

A method of life is a sleek Wordpress theme. It’s mostly blue, and has a white back ground. It’s a two column theme on the main page, and single column when you view a single post. Adsense is integrated in to the side bar with decent blending, so there’s minimal work needed. It’s sponsored by MySpace Stuff and Hot Fix Rhinestones. Please keep all sponsor links on all themes I release. They’re the only ones that keep me releasing free Wordpress themes. If you’re interested in a demo run of the theme, it can be found here. If you’d like to download the theme, you can do so from the Wordpress website.

For as long as Gaim has been in existence, the passwords you store are in plain text. All can be found in in ~/.gaim/accounts.xml. If you’re on Windows, it might be in your user’s local settings. This can pose as a security risk if you’ve accidentally installed malware, or even have someone snooping around. Gaim’s (now pidgin) makers are fully aware of the problem, but don’t see it as a huge risk. In fact in their F.A.Q they show a clear bias towards Linux, and cite that as the reason they see no need to change the current system. However, if you’re a password freak, then there are some options.

There is a plugin to encrypt gaim passwords. It’s a safe means of password storage and can be installed fairly easily. It operates on the same basic principles Firefox uses to store their passwords. It encrypts them and sets a master password to access them. In fact they even claim to use the same type of encryption as Firefox. According to their site the master password is stored in memory, thus preventing malware programs from ever accessing it. There are of course rare instances where a program can attatch itself to Pidgin and read its memory.

This plugin will work on Windows operating systems, as well as GNU/Linux.

This is a free Wordpress theme that was coded for the latest version of Wordpress. The background is black, the post area is white, and there are blue images. The heading is text so you can easily swap what you want it to say. Included is the full PSD to change anything you want on it. I ask that you keep all sponsor links, as they are the only things keeping these themes free. This theme isn’t widget ready, however, most future ones will be hopefully. It’s a standard two column theme, and the side bar is on the left. Enjoy it, and all future releases :) This theme was sponsored by enQuira, and Myspace Layouts

If you’re interested in the theme, you can download it here. There is also a demo installation on that link as well.

If you’ve ever owned a Wordpress blog, you know that the amount of spam comments is ridiculous. I get a couple thousand spam comments per week, and checking through Akismet to find false positives would be nearly impossible. Shifting through comments, there is a clear pattern of spam. A lot of them use bbcode for forums (currently not supported by wordpress). Others simply put a hundred blogspot links in the comment area. This plugin simply blocks obvious spam comments using the following criteria:

• Matching the bbcode pattern [url=http://domain.com]domain[/url]
• More than 5 links in one comment (can be adjusted based on personal preference).
• Contains certain words associated with spam such as Viagra (can remove and add words).

If by chance there is a false positive, the user is greeted with an error message telling them exactly what’s wrong, and what needs to be removed from the comment in order for it to be posted. Combined with Akismet, this is a powerful way to fight spam. This method blocks about 70% of the spam I receive daily. Using Trackback Validator cuts down on an additional 10-15% of spam. That plugin makes sure the people giving you track backs are actually linking to you before the track back goes in to the queue.

The spam filter plugin has a few cool features in the admin panel which helps control spam even more. It lists all the spam by words, and allows you to delete spam based on certain words. An example would be:

asphost4free (1) (delete spams with this word)

Asphost4free happens to be the iresonsible web host that’s allowing the spammers to host their trash. Clicking that link in the admin panel would allow me to delete all spam comments that have the word asphost4free inside of them. This also gives you a good list of keywords that you might want to consider blocking in the future.

The only thing I can suggest for this plugin is a better admin panel. Currently to adjust the link counts than can be in a post and the black listed words, you need to edit the PHP file manually. While not difficult, it’s definitely harder than simply clicking a few buttons in the admin panel :).

Via Cavemonkey