mutube

spenglr: Learn Your Own Way

This site has been sat quiet for a long time, hosting howtos and information on my wordpress plugins. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve been sitting here doing nothing.

For the past few months I’ve been working on a new project: spenglr. Developed by myself and Cael Jackson, this site is set to revolutionise the way students conduct their own learning. By providing organised online exams, combined with automatically recommended resources to fill gaps in knowledge, the site allows students to focus their learning where it is needed most.

All this, and it’s community generated too. Following the example of wikipedia, the site allows everyone to contribute their own questions, build their own exams and form their own groups on topics of their choosing.

Take a look at the site and leave feedback here. It’s early days, but we think this could turn into a genuinely useful application of web2.0 technology. Look forward to hearing what you think!

Getting Started with AdSense Manager 3.x

AdSense Manager 3.x is the latest update to the popular WordPress ad management plugin. More than a normal gradual update, version 3.x represents an almost complete rewrite to support a number of changes in the Google AdSense service and the recent explosion in new blog-targeted ad networks. As of writing, AdSense Manager 3.x now also supports Adpinion, AdRoll, AdBrite, Commission Junction, HTML Code, ShoppingAds and WidgetBucks.
More »

WidgetBucks CPM Location Filtering

The new widget advertising network from WidgetBucks has been getting popular recently for the higher click through rate and potential earnings. To maintain the amounts advertisers were willing to pay, they recently switched CPM ads for international traffic. Unfortunately this means that non-US & Canada visitors get lower earning non-targeted ads.

Until WidgetBucks targets non-US/Canada traffic better or provides Google-style “alternate ads”, it would be useful to be able to show something else to non-US/CA users in an attempt to maintain relevance.
More »

AdSense Manager - New features, interim update

Users of the AdSense Manager for Wordpress may be interested in an update from Kaspars Dambis which brings Google’s new Rounded Corners and Ad Slot Ids. These features will all be rolled into the updated AdSense Manager v3.0 coming shortly, but in the meantime Kaspar has provided a download of the updated plugin.

AdSense Manager v3.0 should be along in the next week, so if there are any other updates you would like to see let me know!

WordPress Plugins Moved Home

To keep hosting costs on this site down (following the loss of Ad income) the following WordPress plugins are now unsupported:

AdSense Manager, Blog Juice, Blogtimes with Icons, IM Online, Infocon Widget, Quick SMS and Update Manager.

All the above are now hosted on Wordpress Extend.

The one exception to this is Throttle
which currently remains at home here while I complete the FAQ files.

AdSense Manager v2.0 (Beta) Released

A new version of AdSense Manager is now on limited release as Beta. This new version includes the most requested new features:

• Referral Units (Text & Image)
  Referral units can be added by entering the CPA code (and format for Image referrals). These can be taken from the Google AdSense code generator manually. For an easier way to do this, see Code Converter below.
• Copy Ad to New Ad
  Allows you to make duplicates of previously created ads to modify slightly
• Direct Code Ads
  If you prefer to manage your Ads using Google’s online service you can use this method to save pure code into the AdSense Manager system.
• Code Converter
  To make it easy to import settings into configurable Ad units, you can use the Code Convert (found in the Direct Code Ads section) to transfer code into a manageable Ad unit.

If you’re happy with Beta software (it may break) please download, test and submit your bug reports. If everything goes well the full release will be coming over the coming weeks!

Thanks for all your support & feedback.

Free SMS Text Messaging via Email

Most mobile providers provide a method for sending SMS messages to handset by email, although many do not publicise this capability. Messages sent to these specially formatted email addresses are forwarded directly to your mobile device. In effect this service gives you free SMS messaging from PC to mobile phone.

It can take time to get this information direct from your mobile provider, so I’ve compiled a database of all known SMS Email addresses used by the major international networks.

To get your own personal SMS Email address, use the automated form to generate your own personal address.

Migrating Email Accounts in Outlook 2003

Ever find yourself wanting to copy emails from one Outlook account to another? Say maybe someone moves on to another job and you want to keep a record of what’s been done, or your company is reorganised and departmental emails need to be seperated up.

If you’ve ever tried to do this in Outlook 2003 you’ll have been banging your head against a wall trying to figure it out. It may be that newer version of Office provide this function automatically (I don’t know, I use OO.org) but many offices do not upgrade to the latest Office software regularly. For that reason, here’s a step by step guide to save you half an hour of your life.
More »

Developing with WP-Plugins SVN

The new wp-plugins.org adds extra incentive for plugin developers to use SVN.

There are a number of detailed SVN guides available, as well as an entire online book. But for casual plugin developers wanting to get the benefits of using the system most of the information is over detailed or not specific to the wp-plugins.org system. This tutorial covers adding and updating plugins through the wp-plugins.org SVN.
More »

KDE fileprotocol+transportprotocol://

While getting started using the new wp-plugins.org SVN I was looking for a quick way to download the contents of an SVN to local disk. This can be useful when doing research on methods employed by other plugins or for getting a local development copy where SVN access is unavailable. Under KDE you can normally access any remote location using the standard URL format. For example, an SVN (using the svn://) protocol would normally be accessed using the URL style svn://svn.wp-plugins.org.
More »