Daniel Felice

What Do You Want?

// May 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Buddypress

Checking over my traffic stats for the past few months, I have noticed 95% of you come here looking for BuddyPress. BuddyPress and WordPress MU have been dominating my search engine referrals for a while now so I just want to ask you all, what exactly are you looking for when you come here?

Do you want BuddyPress themes? Plugins? Reviews? News? Thoughts? Comments? Complaints?

Tell me what you want, and I’ll try and give it to you!

An Interview with…Me!

// May 28th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // General

Last week I was asked to answer a few questions for SocialMediaPortal.com in regards to my work on Explore With Me. The Social Media Portal (SMP) is a resource that maps global social media, social networks and user generated content (UGC).

A few times a week they profile various people who deal with social media, and as of today you can see their interview with me!

Check it out here.

News in 30 Seconds

// May 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Buddypress, Wordpress

Just a quick post!

• BuddyPress – Help shape the future of BuddyPress and vote on what you would like to see in future versions of the social networking plugin for WordPress MU. It only takes a second and gives you the chance to tell Andy and the BuddyPress gang what features you would like in the future. Vote here
• WordPress – WordPress 2.8 Beta 2 is out and ready for you to test. I have not yet played with the 2.8, however I am hearing very good things about it. Remember – the quicker you test and post feedback the quicker it will be released! Download Beta 2 here

BuddyPress Theme Contest: Final Week

// May 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Buddypress, Contests

Just a reminder that this Saturday is the final day that you can submit your BuddyPress Themes to the contest over at Free BuddyPress Themes.

After Saturday the pubic will vote for the best themes with the winners being announced on June 15. The winners will receive 12 months FREE WPMU DEV Premium membership (valued at US$250).

If you have just found out about the contest, you better get started!

Travelling with Technology

// May 25th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // General

In a few months I am heading on a month long European trip with my girlfriend. While she is worried about how much she can fit in her backpack, I am worrying about how I am going travel with all the bits of technology that I plan on bringing with me.

As we will blogging about the trip on Explore With Me, we need this equipment to ensure we get our readers as close to the action as possible.

Here is what is on the list so far:

• Apple iPod Touch – Music is essential to get me through the various flights and bus rides. Along with the 5000 songs, the wifi enabled device will keep me online so I don’t miss out on anything important while on the road.
• Canon IXUS 7 Camera – This small point and shoot 7.1 megapixel camera  is perfect to capture all types of scenes while travelling Europe. It is small enough to fit in my pocket so I won’t miss anything!
• Nikon D60 Digital SLR Camera – Slightly larger than the point and shoot, and with a 200mm lens this is probably going to cause the most grief while away. But this is a trip of a lifetime and we want to make sure we take fantastic shots of our time away. We also plan on printing and framing some photos so a camera like this is a must have.
• JVC Everio 30GB HDD Video Camera – Another must have while away, this video camera records to the Hard drive so no need for tapes or discs. It is fairly small and compact so carrying it won’t be an issue.
• Flip Ultra Video Camera – A pocket size video camera with 2GB of memory. This will be used to capture video that will be uploaded to Explore With Me. The camera has a USB “flip” arm that you can plug into a computer and upload videos at the touch of a button.
• Light Weight Notebook – As we will be blogging about our adventure on Explore With Me, we need something to process all the photos and videos and connect us to the internet daily so we can provide updates. We will be connecting to the internet using a 3G USB modem from Vodafone, though it isn’t cheap so time online each day will be minimal. We should be able to use the iTouch if we can find an internet connection to provide more regular updates, so the laptop will only come out at the end of the day.

My To Do List

// May 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // General

Do you ever have so many tasks in your head that you never write down and end up forgetting all the important ones? That always happens to me. Most of my best ideas fill my head when I am not sitting in front of my laptop, and normally in a place where I don’t have a pen to write them down. They end up somewhere at the back of my brain, and then one day I find myself saying “oh I meant to do that”.

Lately I have been flat out working on Explore With Me and the more I get involved in the project the more ideas and tasks come flooding in. Ruth, my girlfriend, also has hundreds of things she wants me to do for the website but it has now gotten to the stage where I get her to e-mail them to me so I don’t forget.

Here is what is on the Explore With Me list:

• Personal Explore With Me Blog
• Public Photo Album
• Invite Friends Plugin
• Travel Planner
• Printer friendly pages
• New Member theme
• Where I’ve Been type plugin
• Integrate with Google Maps
• Cannot remember the rest!

I keep putting the above tasks off because something else always happens to come up that is more important, but now the site has secured a nice investment, I have to start pushing things along.

Yesterday I finally got BuddyPress, WPMU and bbPress working. I then even went one step further and integrated the bbPress theme with my WordPress theme. Best of all it is now all controlled by the one stylesheet and the header, sidebar and footer are shared.

I had been meaning to do that for a few weeks, and when I got around to it, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. It took me 2 hours and it was all done. Have a look here if you are interested, I might write a quick guide if anyone else wants to know how to do it.

What would you want in a travel website? Let me know and I’ll add it to my list!

WordPress 2.8 Beta 1

// May 17th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Wordpress

Just when I thought testing and upgrades were going to slow down for a while, the new beta version of WordPress, 2.8, has been released for download. For those of you who like to keep up to date, then you can download and play around with the new version. I probably wouldn’t run it ona  live site just yet, however if you have a test hosting account lying around then I suggest you give it a go. Just make sure you report any bugs back to the WP team!

New features include:

• New Theme Installer routines
• Add CodePress syntax highlighting to Theme and Plugin editors
• Add Documentation(function) lookup to Theme and Plugin editors
• Use “Custom Header” for menu text and revise Default theme to reflect change
• Separate Comments into a separate postbox, from Discussion postbox, on the Edit Post screen
• Make tags accessible without Javascript on the edit screen
• Don’t ask for confirmation when marking a comment as spam
• Don’t notify post author of own comments
• Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns as set via the Screen Options tab
• Make titles into links in Dashboard Right Now module (this was in 2.7.1)
• Improved Admin icons (grey-to-transparent shadows)
• Update Blue Admin Color Scheme
• Press This improvements UI, quoting fixes, plus ability for Contributors to use Press This
• Add column “Rating” in Administration > Links > Edit
• Improve installer to help people entering wrong email addresses
• Improved Widget user interface
• Allow editing of all plugin files (Ticket 6732)
• Improved Plugin search (this was in 2.7.1) on Administration > Plugins > Add New
• Per Page option for plugins
• Move “Install a plugin in .zip format” to new Upload tab under Administration > Plugins > Add New
• Show absolute date instead of relative date for scheduled posts
• Fix tags suggest for post quick edit and bulk edit
• Permalink editor changes and fix for pages
• Autosave post/page when pressing Control/Command+S
• Add toggle all button to the Gallery tab in the uploader
• Support more than one gallery on the same page
• Add per page option to Screen Options for comments, posts, pages, media, categories, and tags
• Overhaul of LiveJournal importer (also add define WP_IMPORTING)
• Import category descriptions for Administration > Tools > Import > WordPress
• Show Tools menu for all users so they can access Turbo
• Check for new version when visiting Administration > Tools > Upgrade
• Fix most popular link category list
• Add description field for tags
• WAI-ARIA landmark roles to added to WordPress Default theme
• “Choose a city in the same timezone as you” for Timezone in Administration > Settings > General
• Remove My Hacks option from Administration > Settings > Miscellaneous
• Hide email addresses from low privilege users on Administration > Comments
• In upgrade process, provide better explanation for database upgrade message
• Enforce unique email addresses in Add/Edit users
• Make user_nicenames unique during registration
• Add “Send this password to the new user by email” option to Administration > Users > Add New
• Don’t set user’s Website url to http:// in Administration > Users > Add New
• Hide things that need to be available to screen readers via offscreen positioning
• Use invisible class for hiding labels and legends
• Use a semantic class name for text targeted to screen readers

For a more complete list of features check out the 2.8 Codex. Download WordPress 2.8 Beta 1 here.

Giving Something Back

// May 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // General

When I first started blogging and running my own websites, I relied a lot on the communities built around the various services I was using for help. Take WordPress for example, I asked about 5000 questions on the forums, I asked questions on PHP forums, on IT related forums.

I pretty much taught myself everything I know when it comes to web site design, so in the early days, and even now, when I ran into issues there no was around me who I could ask, so I turned to the forums and support groups. I find it easier to learn from breaking things rather than reading books and guides, so much of my design and coding was based on trial and error so therefore I always found myself in some nasty situations.

More often than not, someone has had the exact same problem as you, so a quick Google search normally brought me to the answer I was looking for, and most of those answers were found on forums or other blogs.

I don’t think I would in the position I am currently in at the moment if I didn’t have this help from people who were willing to help me, and hundreds of other people in the same situation as myself. For me anyway, learning from someone else is most effective.

Lately as I have gained the experience, knowledge and confidence I have been trying to help as many people as I can, because that is how something as great as WordPress, BuddyPress or any open source piece of software gets better. Helping others is also a way I can give back to the community who helped me in so many ways.

BuddyPress Theme Contest

// May 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Buddypress, Contests

Looking at my search engines stats, you are probably here becuase you searched for “BuddyPress Themes” or something similar, so I am taking this opportunity to remind you about the BuddyPress Theme Contest that is currently running.

Thanks to WPMU DEV Premium, we are offering you the chance win 12 months premium membership valued at US$250. All you have to do is submit your original theme and let our visitors decide which theme deserves this fantastic prize offered by the guys at WPMU DEV Premium.

Karaokefreezone.com have also offered to give 2 free t-shirts to the winner in each category!

Here is how the contest will be run:

• There are 2 categories in which you can submit a theme for; Home theme and Member theme
• Submissions will be open from April 30 – May 30, 2009
• All submitted themes will be uploaded to FreeBPThemes.com on June 1, 2009 for public voting
• Voting will commence June 1 – June 14, 2009
• The winners will be announced June 15, 2009
• 12 months FREE WPMU DEV Premium membership (valued at US$250) will be awarded to the theme with the most votes in each category.

How to Enter:

• Design an original Home or Member BuddyPress theme
• Submit your theme to FreeBPThemes.com using our online form by May 30, 2009

If you are thinking of designing a member theme, then check out the Skeleton Member Theme.

It is as simple as that!

Freelancer

// May 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // General

I have decided to start to advertise my services to attract some web work. I have been doing more and more Wordpress/BuddyPress work in recent weeks and it is something that I would like to do more of. I have been getting a lot of work from word of mouth through the BuddyPress website, and even Twitter.

Aside from BuddyPress and WordPress I am available for web design work (remember that?), graphic design and photo restoration.

I have not advertised any rates as each job is different and needs to be quoted separately, so feel free to send me an e-mail if you have any questions.

Check here for more details.