Not many blogs have a search highlight plugin installed. I don’t know why because it sure helps your readers to quickly lay their eyes on the keywords they are searching for. At least i sure do appreciate a search highlight plugin activated on a site, forum or blog because i can quickly scroll the page and focus on what i’m there for: a couple of keywords. That way i don’t need to pay attention to other time consuming content. If you use Firefox browser it’s easy to hit the CTRL+F buttons and search for a some keywords. Why do that when you can have them marked by this plugin.

A highlight plugin basically applies some stylishing to your searched keywords. You might ask yourself if this plugin highlights the keywords for which a person searched on let’s say Google and landed on your page. Of course it does ! Not only that this plugin highlights the keywords searched from within your blog with the basic built-in search widget (or even a separate plugin), it also highlights keywords searched for on different search engines. The plugin i am refering to is called WP-Highlight and it’s very easy to install and to customize. It is compatible to WordPress versions as far as 2.3.3.

All you need to do is to install the plugin (if you don’t know how check out the official guide) and nothing more !

If want to customize the highlight effect on the keywords feel free to edit wp-highlight.css. For example on this blog, i have removed all the different colors (because the default ones were too messy) and kept just one single color that matched my blog design.

Here is my wp-highlight.css file:

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@charset "utf-8";
/* CSS Document */
.hilite, .hilite1, .hilite2, .hilite3, .hilite4, .hilite5, .hilite6, .hilite7,
.hilite8, .hilite9 {
background-color: #C2C2C2;
border-bottom-color: white;
border-bottom-style: dotted;
border-bottom-width: 1px;
}
#highlight_info {
left:0px;
z-index:-50;
width:2px;
height:2px;
bottom:1px;
}

Download WP-Highlight Plugin

You can see a demo on my blog.

If you encounter problems you can always head to the support forums.

PHP Speedy is a script that minimizes your js and css files in order to reduce your blog’s load time. If you don’t believe it check out the links below:

• Test page without compression
• Test page with compression

As you can see (you might want to check your Net Firebug stats) the page on which PHP Speeedy is activated is displayed a lot more faster ! The same thing applies for a WordPress installation. However if you encounter different problems be sure to refer to the author’s page and have a quick look-up on what’s to be done if something goes wrong. Leon (the author) seems to be a nice guy and quickly replies to the ones who ask for help or guidance. Keep up the good work Leon !

I recommend setting up a filter and excluding the external javascripts (such as ads, etc) because of the risk that they won’t show and/or behave normally. A part of feel free to minify your internal css and js files and see how thing work out.

Download PHP Speedy for Wordpress or download PHP Speedy standalone version

It seems like it is a trend to set up your Firefox browser in order to have a great browsing enhancement. Nowadays a great role in that browsing habitat is played by your RSS subscriptions. More or less if you want to stay tunned to what’s new you have to be subscribed to some RSS feeds or newsletters. Honestly, i prefer the RSS feeds because you don’t get your inbox full every day and you keep your spam folder clean.

Firefox is the application i use in 80% percent of the time i spend in front of my PC so i need to have all the necessary functions at hand. One of them is an RSS reader. I don’t like to use some third-party apps just for the simple fact that i want to be connected with my feed subscriptions.

Wizz RSS is a Firefox extension that reads RSS and Atom news. It practically creates a new tabbed sidebar in your browser that shows your RSS subscriptions. The Wizz sidebar has three main parts: a tree based directory structure (like the Bookmarks sidebar), a section to view the latest RSS news and a third section for previewing the content of the hovered news.

You can also configure a “Watch List” and search for RSS news. Some basic filtering is available such as “Show/Hide read items”. A built-in, tabbed structured options window is available.

You can choose to e-mail yourself the latest headlines from your RSS subscriptions. Also you can choose to be alerted whenever a new RSS article is available. A customizable shortcut key combination with which you can show or hide the Wizz sidebar si also at hand.

Below is a screen capture of the Wizz RSS extension.

Install Wizz RSS for Firefox

What this script basically does is to display random images from a given folder. You can use this script to display some rotating affiliates banners, ads, sponsors banners, or even display a random header for your WordPress blog. Here you have three examples of scripts. The first one displays random pictures, without links, just for a given image extension, the second one displays random images with links, also just for a given image extension and the third one displays images with links with all kinds of image extensions.

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<?php
$images = array(1=>1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
for ($i= 0; $i < 3; $i++) {
$nr[$i] = array_rand($images,1);
unset($images[$nr[$i]]);
?>
<img src="http://images_path/imagename_<?php echo $nr[$i] ?>.png" width='image_width' height='image_height' alt='image_alt_text' />
<?php
}
?>

The above code displays 3 (out of 5) non-duplicate, randomly selected pictures. Unfortunately a disadvantage of this script is that it can only display images of a given extension; in the above case png. Also the images must be named like in the following example: imagename_1, imagename_2, imagename_3 and so on. And of course, you don’t have the possibility of adding some links to your images.

The next code is pretty much like the above one but this one let’s you specify some links to your images. “link1″ is associated to imagename_1.png, “link2″ to imagename_2.png, etc.

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<?php
$images = array(1=>"link1", "link2", "link3", "link4", "link5");
for ($i= 0; $i < 3; $i++)
{
$nr[$i] = array_rand($images,1);
$link[$i] = $images[$nr[$i]];
unset($images[$nr[$i]]);
?>
<a href="<?php echo $link[$i]; ?>">
<img src="http://images_path/imagename_<?php echo $nr[$i]; ?>.png" width='image_width' height='image_height' alt='image_alt_text' />
</a>
<?php
}
?>

The following script however is more practical. It allows you to display images with different extensions (png, gif, jpg, bmp, etc.) You will need one file to define your images names and their corresponding links.
For example let’s say we have 7 images, each image having its link.

imagename_1.gif:http://linkforimage1.com/
imagename_2.bmp:http://linkforimage2.com/
imagename_3.png:http://linkforimage3.com/
imagename_4.jpg:http://linkforimage4.com/
imagename_5.jpg:http://linkforimage5.com/

Name the file somethink like 19832asdfasfd.qu132u1; purely random.
Here comes the actual script.

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<?php
$file = '19832asdfasfd.qu132u1';
$fp = fopen($file, 'r+');
$counter = fread($fp, filesize($file));
$images = explode("\n", $counter);
 
function get_name($object) {
	$x = explode(":",$object);
	$name = $x['0'];
	return $name;
}
function get_url($object) {
	$x = explode(":",$object);
	$total = count($x)-1;
	$url = $x['1'];
	for($i=2;$i<=$total;$i++)
		$url .= ':'.$x[$i];
	return $url;
}
function show_banner($images, $nr)
	{
			$img = get_name($images[$nr]);
			$url = get_url($images[$nr]);
			echo '<a href="'.$url.'" target="_blank" ><img src="linktoimagesdir'.$img.'" border="0"/></a><br/>';
			unset($images[$nr]);
	}
$i=1;
while($i<4) {
	$bn[$i] = array_rand($images);
	show_banner($images,$bn[$i]);
	unset($images[$bn[$i]]);
	$i++;
}
?>

Save this to index.php and place the file with the script in a directory located on your server. To show the rotating images on a certain page you need to call index.php

<?php
include (' pathtofile / index.php ');
?>

You can also call the file with the require_once function or an HTML iFrame.
If you need any assistance feel free to leave me a comment and i will get back to you.

What is PayPerPost ?

Regarding the publishers (in this scenario the publishers are the bloggers), as the title of this post states, PayPerPost is an online service that provides numerous possibilities of generating revenue with their blogs.

Regarding the advertisers, PayPerPost helps them build a brand name, ca generate an important amount of traffic to their websites and of course many other. If you are an advertiser and seek more information regarding these aspects, at first be sure to read PayPerPost’s code of ethics.

However in the next few lines we will concentrate on PayPerPost’s capability of being a great friend when it comes to earn some bucks with your work on your blog.

How can I earn revenue with PayPerPost ?

It’s very simple ! All you have to do is to join the program and blog about things you like to get paid ! It’s that simple ! PayPerPost Marketplace is defined as a self-service marketplace where you can get paid for blogging about different services, websites and products.

What PayPerPost Direct practically does is to put you in contact with different advertisers with whom you then can negociate without any third-party interventions. If all goes well and the advertiser hires you for the given task you’re on good path.

Of course you can earn some revenue with the referral program but by far a great opportunity is the “Review my post” option. Here comes the good part. This option basically is one of the best earning sources for bloggers out there ! It adds a badge that says “Review my post” after every post on your blog. When another person clicks that badge and joins PayPerPost network they will have a special opportunity that consists in a review on their blog about your post ! After that person completes the article he will get paid and you also get $7.50 ! It’s like “you scratch my back and i’ll scratch yours”.

When you want to search for new jobs all you need to do is to head to the “Opportunities” section and browse all the opportunities to find the ones that match your profile and get to work.

A great startup resource for the ones who want to learn more about PayPerPost’s marketplace is PayPerPost University.

Conclusion

PayPerPost with it’s marketplace is a rather good choice if you plan to earn some cash with your blog doing with you like. The following image says it all, doesn’t it ?

Adobe AIR has a great amount of potential and i believe many Web Apps (if we may call them that way) will port at least some of their main functionality into an AIR application. Now you can benefit from the great, free service of Google, Analytics directly from your desktop without using a browser.

Google Analytics AIR currently it is at it’s beta stage but i must say it shows off pretty much everything you might need, at least for the moment. Practically with this AIR app you can access your Google Analytics account directly from your desktop without needing to open a browser.

It has a neat animated interface, great user-friendly approach, almost the same functionality as the original browser version. The profile manager section can help you define multiple accounts and easily switch between them. And of course there’s more to come ! Also a great feature is the possibility of having multiple tabs while you browse your reports. This can be of great use if you need to swap between tabs and consult different reports. Also powerful data grids that allow you to filter your displayed stats are present. Finally the possibility of exporting to PDF, XML and Excel is always at hand.

Knowing the fact that both Google Analytics AIR and Adobe AIR are currently beta versions it’s good to see that no major bugs are present. In order to install Google Analytics AIR you must install first Adobe AIR.

Download Adobe AIR beta 3

Download Google Analytics AIR beta 3

 Here are some screen captures and a tiny screencast that show how to install and use the above mentioned.

YouTube Softinquiry 

I have tested this script on phpbb2 and phpbb3 and it works like a charm. If you have one, make sure you exclude your private section (for example t.forum_id != 4, where 4 is your private forum’s number). You can include this in your blog’s sidebar, a portal or a website. You can apply different filters by playing with the WHERE condition. Basically this script generates a table which is populated from the phpbb’s database according to the conditions which are imposed.

Of course you can customize it’s output by modifying the $query variable. If you are a newbie and need a quick php Where clause reference as you want to get a hang of the operators, check this one out: PHP MySQL Where Clause

Finally here’s the script:

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 <?php
    // How Many Topics you want to display?
    $topicnumber = 5;
    // Scrolling towards up or down?
    $scroll = "up";
    // Change this to your phpBB path
    $urlPath = "/forum";
 
    // Database Configuration (Where your phpBB config.php file is located)
    include 'forum/config.php';
 
    $table_topics = $table_prefix. "topics";
    $table_forums = $table_prefix. "forums";
    $table_posts = $table_prefix. "posts";
    $table_users = $table_prefix. "users";
    $link = mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuser", "$dbpasswd") or die("Could not connect");
    mysql_select_db("$dbname") or die("Could not select database");
 
    $query = "SELECT t.topic_id, t.topic_title, t.topic_last_post_id, t.forum_id, p.post_id, p.poster_id, p.post_time, u.user_id, u.username
    FROM $table_topics t, $table_forums f, $table_posts p, $table_users u
    WHERE t.topic_id = p.topic_id AND
    f.forum_id = t.forum_id AND
    t.forum_id != 4 AND
    t.topic_status <> 2 AND
    p.post_id = t.topic_last_post_id AND
    p.poster_id = u.user_id
    ORDER BY p.post_id DESC LIMIT $topicnumber";
    $result = mysql_query($query) or die("Query failed");									
 
    print "<marquee id=\"recent_topics\" behavior=\"scroll\" direction=\"$scroll\" height=\"170\" scrolldelay=\"100\" scrollamount=\"2\" onMouseOver=\"document.all.recent_topics.stop()\" onMouseOut=\"document.all.recent_topics.start()\">
    <table cellpadding='3' cellSpacing='2' width='350'>";
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
 
    echo  "<tr valign='top'><td><font face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" size=\"1\"><font color=\"#FFCC00\"><b><a href=\"$urlPath/viewtopic.php?f=$row[forum_id]&t=$row[topic_id]&p=$row[post_id]#p$row[post_id]\" TARGET=\"_blank\">" .
    $row["topic_title"] .
    "</a></td></font></b><td><font face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" size=\"1\"><font color=\"#C0C0C0\"> by: <a href=\"$urlPath/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=$row[user_id]\" TARGET=\"_blank\">" .
    $row["username"] .
    "</td><td><font face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" size=\"1\"><font color=\"#C0C0C0\">" .
    date('F j, Y, g:i a', $row["post_time"]) .
    "</td></tr></font>";
    }
    print "</table></marquee>";
    mysql_free_result($result);
    mysql_close($link);
    ?>

Feel free to use it as you want. If you have any questions just drop a comment.

What is an excerpt ?

First of all, for the ones who don’t know what an excerpt is, i will try to explain this term in a couple of words. An excerpt can be referred to as an extras (in our case maybe even a summary). Of course this is not the official definition. However i am sure you will understand what the word “excerpt” means by reading the rest of this article.

Advantages

There are a couple of solid reasons of why you might want to use excerpts. The ones i could think of as i am writing are the fact that your index page will have a smaller load time (especially if your posts include videos, pictures or other embedded multimedia objects), you’ll display only the article title and a brief summary or an extras that will tease your readers which hopefully will get you more page views. This way your visitors will have the chance to choose which article to read. This is great in contrast with let’s say a huge article on the index page that doesn’t represent an interest for a particular segment of visitors. That article will definitely discourage maybe annoy your visitors but also that particular article can be of great interest for some. People love to choose ! Let them choose which article will it be !

Disadvantages

I have seen numerous blog articles out there saying that the main disadvantage of using excerpts is that your feed will contain just posts excerpts which could annoy a great part of your feed subscribers. Of course we don’t want that ! As a solution you might want to try Excerpt Editor plugin. What this great plugin does is to create a single place from where you can manage all your excerpts ! You can also set up excerpts for different pages. A great variety of excerpt related options is now at your fingertips. However i’ve discovered a bug in the current version (1.0). If you have the “Excerpt for each new post…” option enabled when you will publish/edit an article after you submit it your page will go blank. The article will be pulished/edited without mistake but this can be very annoying. A solution for this problem is obviously to disable the option i was telling you about. I have noticed the plugin developer and he is well aware of this problem and will fix it in the next release.

So that is the main disadvantage i could think of (again, while writing this post). If you know other advantages/disadvantages i haven’t brought up feel free to leave a comment.

Conclusion

Overall the central idea is pretty clear: in order to offer your visitors the well deserved power of choice and to have a fast loading first page you should use excerpts. Of course in the end it is all up to your judgement.

First of all i’d like you to know that a neat phpbb3 style isn’t defined by it’s shiny header or other brand-related eye candy that will probably be removed once you decide to use that certain style. Keep in mind that a great style should be simple, easy to use, fast, stress free and of course nice looking.

In conclusion: don’t mind the header because you’ll probably remove it with a themed one anyway, don’t let the imageset change your mind because it’s very easy to replace it, don’t mind the impressive background because chances are very high that you’ll need to change that too. Its more than likely that right about now you’ll be asking yourself the question: “Ok, then what should i look for ?”. The layout. Make sure the layout is fully stylished and that no areas are left behind so that your users will have a pleasant bugs-free experience. Also make sure that it’s an easy to customize theme so that you won’t have any problems changing different aspects. Be aware of the third-party javascript’s that may be needed or any other auxiliary stuff.

1. BF_Vista

An interesting looking style based on subsilver2. Neat looking icons and plenty eye candy even for a Web 2.0 lover. PSD files for logos are included. Rotating background images feature (you just need to include your background images in the /images/bg folder and the script will do the rest from there). Unfortunately the transparency effect may slow down browsing. Show/Hide toggle buttons would be nice for showing and hiding sections. Overall it’s a nice looking style but i think it’s a little hard to customize it by following a different theme approach other than Vista.

Demo

Download BF_Vista and background package.

2. AeroBlue

Another style covered by Vista theme. Really intuitive imageset however in the inner section of a sub forum the posts related icons are too small. Nice looking hover effect added to the search field as well as post list and forum list. Numerous PSD files included. Fixed and fluid width versions are included.

Demo

Download AeroBlue

3. CodeBlack

A black, simple and fast style. Good looking imageset and interesting “Offline/Online” text showing in the profile row. Also numerous PSD files included. There’s nothing much to say about this one as it’s plain and simple. I almost forgot to mention that it’s really easy to apply a certain theme to it.

Demo

Download CodeBlack

4. X-Treme

A lot of Photoshop and CSS went into this one. Unfortunately it takes a little bit long to load the graphics set. Great looking, ideal for gamers clans forums. PSD files for logo, matching avatars, matching ranks and signature are included. Also smilies and topic icons are available (with instructions on how to use). “Liveclock” javascript is also included. Many instructions files are available (which is great). I’m not pleased by the hover effect on the posts list. Great threads icons are available (big and shiny).

Demo

Download X-Treme

5. SkyBlue

Some imageset problems (nothing big) but overall it’s a neat style. Check out this other article of mine if you’re into this style.

Demo

Download SkyBlue

6. bo2Soft

Clean blueish interface with nice looking round corners. Maybe the best looking imageset (finally a custom icon_topic_latest.gif) yet with original icons like “New topic”, “Post reply”, “profile”, “e-mail” and many more. Easy to apply a different theme approach.

Demo

Download bo2Soft

7. Proglass

If you are a fan of prosilver this blueish prosilver interface with nice a looking blue imageset is the thing for you. It’s very fast, simple and easy to use. However the typically fact for prosilver is the right aligned user profile. If you want to align it to the left you shouldn’t run into severe problems but if you do make sure you drop me a few lines and i will get back to you with the solution. If you like this style you might want to give it a try to Proglass Red which has a cooler imageset. Logo PSD included for the red version.

Demo for Proglass or Proglass Red

Download Proglass or Proglass Red

8. Smooth Blue

Huge amount of blue (maybe too much?). Original imageset with cool buttons and icons. Hover effect is implemented ok but is slowing down the browsing of the forum. Metal like round corners. Unfortunately the demo forum is very slow.

Demo

Download Smooth Blue

9. N.Design

Rotating header. Unique and very appropriate imageset. An old school, simple, fast and whiteish style.

Demo

Download N.Design

10. Ubuntu

An ideal themed style for your own Ubuntu community. Simple, fast and easy to use. Oh, and of course brown is the color.

Demo

Download Ubuntu

Neat prosilver based styles are hard to find (maybe because they are harder to style) but let’s face the fact that there are some eye cactchy subsilver2 based styles. If you have any suggestions or have a cool style of yourself feel free to drop in a few lines.

The well known DC++ client, ApexDC++ has come to version 1.0.1 which is said to mark two years of development and hard work.

The latest version has numerous stability improvements, fixes, changes and a couple of new features in addition with the merge between ApexDC and StrongDC++ 2.12 . You can view the official changelog for more details.

You can customise ApexDC’s interface by using translations, toolbars, themes and emoticon packs. Remember to check if the version you are using is compatible with the package you want to apply.

If you are already using ApexDC++ and want to upgrade to the latest version without loosing any data make sure you follow the Upgrade Guide.

I’ve been using ApexDC++ for more than one year and i can say that this is without doubt the most stable, user-friendly, intuitive and easy to use DC++ client ever tested by me (wait till you see the small amount of resources this program uses).

Download ApexDC++ 1.0.1 from the official page.