Sillybean

Archive for July, 2009

New WordPress plugin: Import HTML Pages

This plugin will import a directory of files as either pages or posts, according to configurable settings. You may specify the HTML tag containing the content you want to import (e.g. <body>, <div id=”content”> or <td width=”732″>) or the…

Posted on July 31 2009, 2:09 pm in Blogging, Web Design, WordPress · 7 comments

New WordPress plugin: Recent Posts with Excerpts widget

I’ve written a widget that lists your most recent posts with excerpts, optionally limited to a category. The number of posts and excerpts is configurable; for example, you could show five posts but include the excerpt for only the…

Posted on July 26 2009, 7:16 pm in Blogging, Web Design, WordPress · 1 comment

Whitewashed

Someone noticed that the cover of Justine’s new book doesn’t match the story. Oh, Bloomsbury. (ETA: Justine responds with a great entry on how disappointing this cover is, and how little control authors have over the marketing of…

Posted on July 22 2009, 5:12 pm in Elsewhere · 4 comments

Boobtastic magazine covers do not exist in a vacuum

Boobtastic magazine covers do not exist in a vacuum — commenter Gwen posts the most thoughtful, comprehensive response to the Realms of Fantasy cover controversy (scroll up, if you missed it) that I’ve yet seen. Also worth reading is

Posted on July 22 2009, 2:47 pm in Elsewhere · comment

The Breaking of the Vessels

The Breaking of the Vessels — in which Cat Valente is awesome. “But despite its absurdity, this is a myth about writers that persists, over thousands of years. That metaphor for what it feels like when the writing is going…

Posted on July 21 2009, 5:18 pm in Elsewhere · comment

Where I was yesterday

The Beau Monde organized two house tours. I spent yesterday knocking around the grounds at Tudor Place:

Tudor Place exterior

Which has trees like this:

Tudor Place trees

And today I’m back in the hotel for RWA National. Follow that for live…

Posted on July 16 2009, 10:36 am in Conventions, Writing · comment

Word Unmunger (HTML cleanup) Automator script updated

For years, I used Luke Francl’s Word Unmunger to strip the gunk out of Word-generated HTML files (an occupational hazard when you work in higher ed). I fell out of the habit when I started working more on application…

Posted on July 9 2009, 11:16 am in Macs, Techy Goodness, Web Design · comment

How I lost my health insurance at the hairstylist’s

How I lost my health insurance at the hairstylist’s

Posted on July 8 2009, 2:04 pm in Elsewhere · 1 comment

New WordPress plugin; new WordPress site

My new Next Page plugin provides shortcodes and template tags for previous, next, and parent navigation in pages. It’s a feature I’ve wanted for a while, and a post in the support forum finally made me figure out…

Posted on July 5 2009, 1:37 pm in Blogging, Web Design, WordPress · comment

Previous and Next links for pages

Next Page options screen

Ever want to let your visitors browse your pages in order? You’ve probably discovered that previous_posts_link and next_posts_link don’t work on pages.

I’ve written a plugin, Next Page, to solve the problem. You’ll get an options…

Posted on July 5 2009, 11:27 am in WordPress · comment

Why you don’t need to roll your own link shortener

permalink-default-setting

Everyone wants the shortest links possible, mostly thanks to Twitter. There are a number of tutorials on creating your own link shortening service, and for WordPress sites, the Link Shortcut plugin is the most popular option.

You don’t…

Posted on July 4 2009, 9:48 pm in WordPress · 1 comment

Trying to be… V?

jackson-v

There have been jokes for years about Michael Jackson’s plastic surgery, and how he’d never be as pretty as Diana Ross. I just found him painful to look at since he’d so drastically altered his face. Now, of course,…

Posted on July 1 2009, 5:16 pm in Absurdity · comment

Free-market food fight

New college-educated NY street food vendors are doing Sharks vs. Jets with the old hot dog guys. “The owners of Street Sweets both left six-figure jobs to build their business, and the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck is driven by…

Posted on July 1 2009, 10:49 am in Elsewhere · comment