If you run a WordPress website and you want your site to be more friendly when viewed using a cell phone we found a plugin that makes it pretty easy. It’s called WordPress Mobile Pack and it’s available through the WordPress plugin library. After you install this plugin you choose one of the built in mobile themes and set the method of detection and your set. When a mobile device accesses your site it is automatically detected as such and displays your condensed mobile site formatted for the small screen. Regular visitors using a computer browser will see your normal site.  There is a link that you can enable or disable put at the bottom of your site allowing users to switch between the mobile or standard theme so you always have the choice.   This works real nicely for most WordPress sites but if you have a magazine styled front page or a custom design of some sort it may not display well for your home page and there is not much you can do.  All in all the plugin is very nice and you should check it out HERE!

WordPress Doesn’t release new versions just for fun so make sure you update your WordPress Website Now!

Remember this is not a regular release and should only be used if you know what  you are doing and make good backups.  There is always the possibility of problems and bugs with beta versions.

WordPress creates it’s own entries to the .htaccess file so if you decide to play around make sure you backup your original and don’t delete the WordPress entries.

Here’s some examples…

If you are tired of getting the same spam comments from a specific user over and over again you can ban the ip address like this by adding the following code to your .htaccess file:

 Create an IP Banlist

allow from all
deny from 145.186.14.122
deny from 124.15

Prevent Hotlinking

Tired of people using your bandwidth by putting the images hosted on your server on their website? Add the following code at the bottom of your .htaccess file to prevent hotlinking.

Options +FollowSymlinks
#Protect against hotlinking
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www.)?domainname.com/ [nc]
RewriteRule .*.(gif|jpg|png)$ http://domainname.com/img/stop_stealing_bandwidth.gif[nc]

NOTE: The following article explains better methods to “prevent” hotlinking:
Link building secrets by Maurizio Petrone

Block All Requests From User Agents

It’s possible to block all unwanted user agents that might be potentially harmful or perhaps just to keep the server load as low as possible.

#Block bad bots
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^FrontPage [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Java.* [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Microsoft.URL [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^MSFrontPage [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Offline.Explorer [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^[Ww]eb[Bb]andit [NC,OR]
SetEnvIfNoCase user-Agent ^Zeus [NC]
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=bad_bot

Redirect Everyone Except Specified IPs

If for some reason you would want to deny everyone or allow only a specific group of IP addresses to access your website, add the following code to your .htaccess file:

ErrorDocument 403 http://www.domainname.com
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 124.34.48.165
Allow from 102.54.68.123

SEO Friendly 301 Redirects

If you’ve transferred domain names or wish to redirect a specific page or pages without getting penalty from search engines such as Google, use the following code:

Redirect 301 /d/file.html http://www.domainname.com/r/file.html

Creating a Custom Error Page

Are you as tired as me of the default layout of 404 error pages? Well now you can easily create your own and refer to it like this:

ErrorDocument 401 /error/401.php
ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.php
ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.php
ErrorDocument 500 /error/500.php

Set Default Email Address For Server Admin

Using the following code you can specify the default email address for the server’s admin.

ServerSignature EMail
SetEnv SERVER_ADMIN default@domain.com

Disable Display of Download Request

Usually when downloading something from a web site, you’ll be prompted if you wish to open the file or save it on your hard-disk. To prevent the server from prompting users wether they wish to open or save the file and to just save the file, use the following code:

AddType application/octet-stream .pdf
AddType application/octet-stream .zip
AddType application/octet-stream .mov

Found this and other useful web development info here:

http://devmoose.com/

New Free WordPress Theme

This theme could be any type of website you want.  Perfect for Professionals, Personal Bloggers, Small Business, Clubs, or just about anything.  It’s simplistic but using the built in features and some choice plugins you could have a pretty nice website

• Two Column design with one sidebar
• Orange, Brown, Gray and White
• Includes Full Sheet Page Template with NO Sidebar
• Horizontal Menu Bar with drop downs
• Vertical Menu Widget can be pages, cats, or custom.
• Shortcodes for Ads or other quick content placement
• Theme Options Page under Appearance in Dashboard
• Widget placement in content space and footer.
• Footer text and link area.

Free Download…  2012 Orange and Brown Theme (21)

This is a maintenance release that fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that also affected version 3.3.

Always stay up to date with WordPress as releases like this include security updates and if they issued a release it is important.

Click Here to download the latest version or update automatically through your dashboard.

–

A lot of development goes towards security and it is always a good idea to upgrade to the latest version for that fact alone.  PLUS! There’s the new dashboard layout and admin functionality that make this an extra nice upgrade.

It’s Almost Here.

WordPress is just about ready to release their latest version 3.3 which has just passed the beta stage and advanced to Release Candidate 1.  This says that an official release is just around the corner.  So get ready to enjoy the nice new features this new version brings.

http://wordpress.org/news/2011/12/wordpress-3-3-release-candidate-1/

Easier Uploading with File Type Detection

Instead of needing to click on a specific upload icon based on your file type, now there’s just one. Once your file is uploaded, the appropriate fields will be displayed for entering information based on the file type.

Drag-and-Drop Media Uploader

Adding photos or other files to posts and pages also got easier. You can now Drag files from your desktop and drop them into the uploader. Add one file at a time, or many at once.

More File Formats

They’ve added the rar and 7z file formats to the list of allowed file types in the uploader.

WordPress 3.3 will be out soon so here’s a look at the new admin sidebar functionality.

Flyout Menus

The Dashboard Sidebar will take on a new look.

It speeds up navigating the dashboard and reduces repetitive clicking with new flyout sub-menus. The sidebar stays put. As you hover over each main menu item in your dashboard navigation, the submenus will pop out, providing single-click access to any dashboard screen.  Nice!!

http://wordpress.org/news/2011/11/wordpress-3-3-beta-3-available/

• intitle:software will provide you all the websites that contain the word “software” in their name.
• allintitle:software for Windows will offer all websites that contain the entire expression in their name.
• link:news.softpedia.com will present you all the sites that contain a link to news.softpedia.com.
• related:news.softpedia.com shows you the sites that are similar with news.softpedia.com.
• info:www.softpedia.com displays some interesting information about www.softpedia.com.
• location:romania provides all the sites that corresponds with the text you typed located in Romania.
• movie:softpedia will present movie related information about softpedia.
• weather:Bucharest, Romania displays the current forecast for Bucharest, Romania.
• phonebook: Softpedia Team will offer Softpedia Team’s telephone number, if it is included in US white page listings.
• site:gdscomp.com will show you all pages indexed from this site.