Featured Wordpress Plugin: W3 Total Cache

On 02.16.10, In Blogging, Cool Apps, Web Development, By John Rockefeller

Let me be straight with you: Every Wordpress blog on the web should have this plugin installed.

And, no, I’m also not being paid to say that. :)

W3 Total Cache is exactly what its name suggests: A total caching solution for Wordpress blogs. Wordpress is a good publishing platform and content management system (CMS) but runs into problems quickly when more than a few visitors hit your site. Even moderately busy websites can buckle under the strain of the database connection pools, stylesheets, Javascript, and HTML that Wordpress uses.

Some of the neat features that W3 Total Cache includes:

  1. “Minifies” CSS, Javascript, and HTML by removing all whitespace. To see an example, view the source code of this page. This means there is less data to send to viewers of your website which also means your website loads faster.
  2. Final output is cached and then re-served to the next viewer without having to rebuild. This means that in many circumstances, your blog might only be recreating your site dynamically once an hour. Otherwise, the cached version will be served, greatly increasing the performance and stability of your site.
  3. Uses advanced disk caching techniques to cache output or can also take advantage of Memcache technology (if supported by your server) to increase speed even more.

Before W3 Total Cache I was a fan of WP Super Cache. And before that, I used WP Cache. Neither of the latter two can hold a candle to the capabilities and caching power of W3 Total Cache.

For more information on how this plugin can increase your website’s performance, take a look at W3 Total Cache on the Wordpress Extend website.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 
6 Comments
Leave A Response

How to Network in a Web 2.0 World – Part 2.0

On 01.22.10, In Freelancing, Social Media, By John Rockefeller

Note: This is a continuation of part 1 of How to Network in a Web 2.0 World. Please read the first blog post on the subject before proceeding with this one.

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve got profiles at the 3 most popular social networking websites, it’s time to put them to good use. To do that, we’re going to leverage the equalizing power of the Internet to gain access to high-profile people in the markets you’re selling your services to or working in. You will be amazed how accessible CEOs and other top-tier people are on services like Twitter and Facebook.

Your Brand

Branding is an entire industry by itself and far out of the scope of this blog post. However, we can tackle a small part of it to get you on your way. The easiest way to help brand yourself is to have a consistent image that you’re delivering to people who see you. This way, they will remember you and associate you with that image. Think Coca-cola and you likely think of a red sign with white text. Or Nintendo brings up imagery of Mario.

Be sure that your profile picture is the same across all of the social networking sites you’re a part of. This way, when people see a thumbnail of your profile pic, they will remember who you are and associate you with it.

Another trick is to always use the same nickname or handle on every service. For example, my handle is Rocky1138. If you search for Rocky1138 on Google or Yahoo or Bing you will see a lot of the websites I write on or tweets from Twitter.

Facebook Vanity URLs

When adjusting your profile on Facebook you are presented with the option of creating a “vanity URL,” which is a word you associate in the Facebook website address with your Facebook profile. This is an easy way to make your Facebook profile memorable to people. For example, my Facebook profile is located at http://www.facebook.com/webprogrammer. Whenever anyone goes to that link, it will take them to my Facebook profile. Pick a good Vanity URL such as your name or something easy to remember that you wouldn’t mind putting on your business cards.

Twitter

Twitter will connect you with very important people around the world and give you access to those who can hire you or contract your services in the future. An easy way to get hold of the best people in your industry is to use a website like WeFollow.

WeFollow will show you the top Twitter accounts in the world for a search term you type in. If you type in “php” you will get 1,602 people you can follow, including the #1 twitterer which is coincidentally the person that invented PHP. After using Twitter for a few weeks to build up a tweet history, spend a day and a half to follow the entire list of people in your search. If even half of them follow you in return, that’s still potentially hundreds of like-minded people that will be listening and watching your tweets.

I have gotten plenty of work from people who’ve been following me on Twitter and got in touch with me because of something I tweeted about. This is a great way to get work.

I hope this has helped moves you forward in networking in a web 2.0 world. There’s still plenty more we can do, so keep an eye out for part 3 on the horizon.

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 
2 Comments
Leave A Response

Learning PHP Using Google Wave

On 01.15.10, In Cool Apps, By John Rockefeller
Google Wave
Image via Wikipedia

Tonight at Guelph Coffee and Code I walked the group through the first steps of learning PHP. Because our projector was unavailable, I substituted its functionality with Google Wave. Even though I’ve had access to Google Wave since the summer, this was the first time I had truly used the service.

When I first heard about Google Wave, the idea seemed intriguing enough. I had a hard time figuring out exactly what it could be used for. I’m a huge fan of Gmail and other Google communication tools including Google Apps, so I had faith they’d pull something cool off. However, my first few attempts at trying it were met with less than stellar results.

Truth be told: I couldn’t quite see how it could help me communicate with my friends and colleagues any better than Gmail. So, a few days after receiving notification of my acceptance into the world of Wave, I abandoned it and went back to my life with E-Mail.

What We Did

Using Google Wave, the group followed along with my presentation of syntax and functions and contributed their own code snippets and links. I was able to quickly type example PHP code into the wave and have it appear on their screens as I was typing it instead of all at once when sending the message. The removal of the wait-message-wait-message barrier is critical to its success in groups. It’s just as easy as talking.

This sort of instant chat has been done before, however, most notably with ICQ chat back in the 1990s. But, back then we weren’t quite the society were are today. Have to give credit where credit is due, though.

I knew it was going to go well when after pasting my first code block into the wave, the others in the group started to modify the code without me prompting them. After returning from the fridge, there were already 3 or 4 new lines of code directly beneath mine were with perfect syntax. It was fun!

Is It E-Mail 2.0?

To be perfectly honest, I am not sure. I love Gmail and it will take a lot to move me away from it. Perhaps its a case of uncertainty with respect to how it will interact, if at all, with Gmail in the future.

Even after tonight’s experience, I still have a hard time defining Google Wave or identifying its place in my communication paths. But there are two things I know for sure: It’s great in groups and makes an excellent discussion platform when your projector is down.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 
1 Comments
Leave A Response

Wireless in Welland, Ontario, Canada

On 12.29.09, In News, Opinion, By John Rockefeller
City of Welland Ontario
Image via Wikipedia

Over the holidays this year I’m in Niagara staying at my parents’ place. Used to working at the Red Brick Cafe in Guelph, I was worried heading back to an area without a focus on tech would mean staying in the basement to do work. I searched for a few hours online and talked to some folks to figure out where the wireless hotspots in Welland are.

I couldn’t find much.

So, I figured I would list wireless hotspots I had found in the area to let those who come after me to know where they can get some work done in a comfortable environment.

The List So Far

Cafe on Main

Where: 91 East Main Street.

Hours: Mon-Fri – 8am to 5pm, Sat – 9am to 3pm, Sun – Closed.

The best cafe experience in Welland, bar none. Take the #9 or #10 bus to the downtown terminal and walk a block toward the historic bridge. Located directly across from the courthouse, it offers a quiet and comfortable atmosphere and includes a fireplace. If you’re in the area and are looking for a place to get a good latte, this is it!

Seaway Mall Food Court

Where: 800 Niagara St., Welland, Ontario, Canada (view map)

Hours: Mon-Fri – 10am to 9pm, Sat – 9:30am to 5:30pm, Sun – 12pm to 5pm

Seaway Mall’s food court has several wireless hotspots and some work better than others. I had great experience with SSID SeawayMallA but almost none with SSID SeawayMallE.

Cafe Mochaccino in Seaway Mall

Where: 800 Niagara St., Welland, Ontario, Canada (view map)

Hours: Mon-Fri – 10am to 9pm, Sat – 9:30am to 5:30pm, Sun – 12pm to 5pm

Great (and inexpensive!) cappuccino but no in-house wireless. Using Seaway Mall’s wireless required me to sit at one of their tables just outside of the cafe.

That’s it, for now. Expect this post to grow as time goes on and more wireless hotspots are discovered. And, by all means, if you find your own wireless hotspots in Welland please list them in the comments!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 
3 Comments
Leave A Response

Cloud Folders Increase Productivity

On 12.26.09, In Cool Apps, By John Rockefeller
Dropbox on Linux
Image by elecnix via Flickr

Being a web developer, I usually use several different computers on different operating systems across the lifetime of any project. Personally, I have 5 computers plus one server: Access to a Vista PC, a Windows 7 virtualized installation, my main Mandriva Linux desktop, a Eee 701 PC with Eeebuntu, a Mandriva Linux laptop, and a FreeBSD development server.

Moving files from one computer to the next used to be a time-consuming and ultimately prohibitive process. If I wanted to, say, take a break from working on my PC and work at the Red Brick Cafe for a few hours, I’d have to download my work files to a USB memory card then export the MySQL database and do the same transfer again to the USB memory card.

Or, I could burn a CD. Of course, how does one get the updated files back off the laptop and onto the PC when arriving back at home? This arduous process basically meant that freedom of choice in the work environment was severely hampered and was often more trouble than it was worth. But not any more.

Enter Dropbox.

Dropbox is a free service that is basically a shared folder in the cloud. It makes sharing files amongst any computer, whether it be Mac, Linux, or Windows, easy as drag and drop. And I really mean that. I love things that speed up my work processes because the less time I spend in administration mode the more time I can accomplish tasks in programming mode. Dropbox exemplifies this manifesto.

Any file you put in the Dropbox folder on a computer will instantly be available on any computer that install Dropbox on. Even better, revisions are kept so if you make a mistake with a file and don’t have backups, you can pull the file in question from the archives to restore it. What makes Dropbox different from any other revision or archiving setup is that this is all done without any administration by the user. Literally if you drag a file into the folder, all this stuff is done for you. No committing changes, no crazy hoops to jump through.

Oh, and the 2GB storage starter account is completely free. It’s the one I use daily. I don’t even think I’ve hit 25% capacity yet.

Take a look at Dropbox at http://www.dropbox.com/

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 
1 Comments
Leave A Response
« Previous Entries
Go To Top »