Auto Post Thumbnail
Automatically generate the Post Thumbnail (Featured Thumbnail) from the first image in post (or any custom post type) only if Post Thumbnail is not set manually.
WP DB Backup
Google Analytics for WordPress Yoast
PubSubHubbub
W3 Total Cache
WordPress SEO Yoast
WP Facebook Open Graph protocol
This link has MOre usefull plugins if your needs match : http://www.labnol.org/software/must-have-wordpress-plugins/14034/
We have to focus on the front end, which generally all over the web takes 80% of the load time. The server actually takes about 20% of time to load.
Lets say a webpage takes, 10 seconds to load, out of these 10 seconds, the webpage is generated by server within 2 seconds and our browser (irrespective of which one it is) takes 8 seconds. This was observed by Steve Sounders
Thats why we need to focus on the front end and most importantly this is really easy to accomplish as compared to server changes.
Check if you are doing gzip or not, gzipwtf.com
Visit HTML5BoilerPlate and check the .htaccess file to get the GZIP Compression code.
Copy and paste that code in your .htaccess file and it will work.
Browser cache and Server Cache
W3 Total Cache plugin,
Expire header, this rule in .htacces file tells the browser that the broser should KEEP the files and save it for some time (days, months), this rule can be applied to every file, CSS,images, etc.
However in this case, if there is a change in the CSS, images, the images wont change on some one elses browser until the time expires Or they clear cache from their browser.
OR We intentionally break the Cache by versioning your static files also known as “Auto-versioning” as described in detail here: http://derek.io/blog/2009/auto-versioning-javascript-and-css-files
This means that we can change the name of the CSS files in versions and
Quick way to do this, same as gzip compression, get the cache code from HTML5Boilerplate and put it in your htaccess file
We should allways reduce the size of the images by optimizing them:
* Save for web and devices (Photoshop)
* imageoptim.com Software for Mac
* pnggauntlet.com for Windows
Or use CodeKit (for Mac) to reduce the size of the images
Also here is an awesome alternative to CodeKit for Windows: http://mhs.github.com/scout-app/
Thanks to comment here: http://css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/111-get-yourself-preprocessing-in-just-a-few-minutes/#comment-170838
We can use image sprites http://css-tricks.com/css-sprites/ instead of multiple images for css.
A really cool tool to generate Sprites: http://sprites.me/
http://identity.mozilla.com/post/32395255498/announcing-the-first-beta-release-of-persona
Way to go Mozilla, its plain simple and easy.
Just recently I wanted to know the registration procedure for an .edu domain. I was more than amazed to get the details of the procedure and got to know that mostly the registration of .edu domain is restricted on the basis of geography.
The .edu domain is one of the seven original top-level subdivisions of the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). The .edu domain is intended for accredited post-secondary educational U.S. institutions. It is managed under the authority of the United States Department of Commerce. Source: Educause
In the words of a layman, just the way we have
In very similar manner, .edu is meant for Educational institutions, however, this is the domain limited to registration for US institutes Or Institutes who are recognized by US rating authorities.
“The .edu domain was originally intended for educational institutions anywhere in the world, when it was launched in 1985”
However, in 2001 the US Department of Commerce made Educause, the registrar of this domain extension. Since, this valueable extension became exclusive to institutes in United States.
Educational institutions elsewhere, CAN still get the domain registered, however the procedure and investment is tedious.
The following are the requirements as per Educause FAQ:
Eligibility for a .edu domain name is limited to postsecondary U.S. institutions that are institutionally accredited, i.e., the entire institution and not just particular programs, by agencies on the U.S. Department of Education’s list of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies.
Some institutes in India, have managed to get the edu domain, e.g. Amity.edu. This must be after managing to get the accreditation.
Education, is universal and ICANN being an entity serving the internet for the benefit of mankind, how can such a domain be exclusive to US only ?
I do understand that NOT having such an extention would not make any big difference, however, when the original intent of launching this extension was being global, why these restrictions ?
Just the way we have .COOP extension which is available for any registered Cooperative without any geographical restrictions.
People all over are voicing to Educause here, not sure when will they make it available to the global institutions.
Today Apple’s CEO Tim Cook released a letter to its customers
To our customers,
At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.
There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.
While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.
Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.
Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO
It is unfortunate to see such a defective product to be launched with such a fanfare in the market, when people the tech world the media and die-hard Apple fans who line up at stores before the launch of the iPhone and other Apple products were expecting so much from the product.
Disappointment and frustration from the product could not be explained to the level which actual iPhone 5 and iOS6 users have been through.
iPhone 5, being one of the most anticipated device of 2012 was disappointing in features that it lacked, be it NFC or other features.
However, the iPhone 5 was actually the first product that i have ever seen which was launched with such an in built defect with the OS (Maps) .
Steve Jobs when he had released a defect in the iPhone screen, that it got scratched when people put their keys in their pocket it would scratch the screen surface, he directly contacted Wendell Weeks CEO of Corning, which manufactures the famous Gorilla Glass and the glasses in iPhone were changed when the launch was near in June 2006.
This was the dedication that he had put in to get the best product with the perfect finish to the consumers. Now, we find this totally missing here in case of launch of iOS6.
iPhone 5 was proudly launched with the iOS 6 where Apple was proudly flaunting the removal of Google Maps and including its Own built of Apple Maps, with data from Waze and TomTom (Source: TechCrunch).
What proved was completely disgusting, the maps were pathetic and social media responded.
Checkout some amazing defects at : theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com
This apology by Tim Cook to iPhone users is just weird, it actually tells users that
we remove Google Maps as we replaced with a faulty one, saving us thousands of dollars (Probably) so that we could crowd- source the data and use it, till we are improving it, you can use alternatives
Other blogs may find this apology humble because it mentions Google Maps and other map providers. Were the Apple users going to sit and watch the release of a fixed map ? they would have and many have started using other map options. Transport services realized the pain of iOS6 users and physical maps were distributed for the convenience of iOS6 users:
Only few things i can wonder is: