mutube

smrtr: Learn Smarter Not Harder

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: smrtr.

smrtr is collaborative learning, quiz and study tool. Take quizzes, track progress and receive recommended study aids to build your knowledge. Ideal for students, professionals or general-knowledge know-it-alls alike - focus your learning where it’s 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 this could change the way you learn forever!

Look forward to hearing what you think!

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.

Adsense Manager v1.0 Released

Adsense Manager is “Yet Another Adsense Plugin” which helps you manage the Adsense ads on your Wordpress site. Unlike other Adsense plugins however, Adsense Manager generates the code automatically for you. Now you can create, edit and position Ads all from within your Wordpress admin panel. On Wordpress Widgets enabled blogs you can also drag the Ads around your Sidebar to position them as you like.

The plugin is currently fairly young (compared to some of my plugins) but it should be fairly stable and bug free. Feedback and suggestions for improvements are always welcome.

More information is available here…

IM Online v3.4b Released

Wordpress’ most popular IM status plugin has made it the grand old age of v3.4. The latest version is the result of a fast run of development following the rewrite for v3.0 and brings added stability, intelligence and accuracy to your online status notifications.

New to the v3.x branch

• Status checking now carried out within the plugin, providing for caching of status and intelligent server switching on failure.
• Improved reliability, auto-selects servers based on previous success in getting a positive reponse (online/offline).
• No delay to display online status on the page
• Up to 7 accounts for display, configurable order

Version 3.4b specifically addresses a number of early implementation bugs and improves on the intelligence in the status-server switching code. IM Online now remembers which servers are most likely to give good online/offline responses and automatically uses them next time - saving checking time and preventing poor results.

Upgrading

Upgrading is easy and is highly recommended to anyone using a previous version of IM Online.

Comments and suggestions welcome as always! Thankyou for helping make IM Online one of the most popular Wordpress plugins around.

Great North Run, Oct 1st 2006

Me and my missus (Louise) are set to run the Great North Run this year to raise money for the Anthony Nolan Trust. Anthony Nolan organise the UK’s largest bone marrow register for people with leukaemia and similar life threatening illnesses. It costs about £70 to get one person on the register so our combined pledge of £700 would get 10 more people registered.

That’s quite a bit of money. We’ve got £290 so far and have elaborate plans to raise a bit more, but we’d really appreciate any help you can give. It’s for a good cause and we need all the encouragement we can get to do the whole 13miles!

Maybe you’ve enjoyed using my Wordpress plugins and want to give something back. Maybe you just enjoy giving away your hard earned cash.

Either way, please give generously!