Comma Separated Link List

A thread at some random forum asking how you make your WordPress links look like “this, this, this” popped up in my tutorialtastic referrers, so I figured I’d post how I do it here.

Firstly, you’ll want to alter the way WordPress displays the links. I do so using the following snippet:

<ul class="inlinelist">
<?php wp_list_bookmarks('category=##&after=.</li>&title_before=0&title_after=0&categorize=0&title_li'); ?>
</ul>

…where ## is the id of my links category; swap the after=. to after=, for a comma separated list.

Note the inlinelist class on the <ul> tag: this is how I make it appear as if it’s a paragraph instead a long list. I simply style the tag using CSS. This’d go in your stylesheet as follows:

.inlinelist {
list-style: none;
margin: 0 0 1.5em 0;
}
	.inlinelist li {
	display: inline;
	}

If you haven’t reset the “padding-left” on <ul>s earlier in your CSS, you’ll want that as:

.inlinelist {
list-style: none;
margin: 0 0 1.5em 0;
padding-left: 0;
}
	.inlinelist li {
	display: inline;
	}

…to make sure it displays the same in all browsers (because some indent links with padding, and some with margin) too.

That’s it. Not very complicated

cURL to bypass allow_url_fopen off

One of the requested features for NinjaLinks was to allow users to specify a link button that will be used to link back to a site instead of / as well as normal text. As the button will be hosted on a remote server, I was thinking of using cURL to bypass allow_url_fopen restrictions. (Yes, button WILL be ran through as many security/validity checks as is humanely possible.)

However, I then wondered which is faster, and whether I should in fact use cURL as standard and only fall back on the various fopen/etc functions if cURL is off? Mat/Rich/Dee etc.. looking at you guys here

I’ve no idea why I left this specific part until nearly the very end of the script, I guess it seemed a good idea at the time.

Using SEO to ‘Steal’ Hits?

On July 17th this year, a chap called Marshall asked “Will Mainstream Users Ever Learn About The Browser’s Address Bar?“. He was of course referring to the kind of average Internet user that opens up their browser, and types what they’re looking for straight into a Google homepage/the search bar built in to their browser. Anyone who’s ever watched their grandparents — or maybe even their parents — use a computer will know there’s nothing new about this browsing “technique”. I’m sure there’s probably a statistic for the amount of users who never type URLs directly, and I’m sure it’s high.

Given how quickly knowledge spreads on the Internet, it is no surprise therefore to see advertising companies applying this logic to their campaigns. Internet promotion, and more recently, television advertisements are encouraging users to search for “xyz” online rather than providing a specific URL. One particular ad’ that I recall quite vividly is for the Royal Navy. The careers advert ends with search for ‘navy jobs’ online, and as an Internet user this stuck in my mind more easily than a complex URL might have.

While I’m always excited to see any company embracing what is actually the norm rather than forcing a user to do it “their” way, I can’t help but consider the possibilities of abuse that are being opened by this approach.

There are many people who make a small fortune marketing their skills as a SEO consultant. So what is to stop one of these SEO experts from using an advert — funded by someone else altogether — from boosting their own rankings? Assuming they have the know-how and networking capabilities to successfully target a given set of keywords or keyphrases for normal clients, this same knowledge can be applied to ’stealing’ high rankings away from someone else. The result would be a boost in the organic traffic from search engines, because of the probably unrelated advert, and all without spending a penny themselves.

I don’t have the time to even begin trying it out, but I can see that if we are going to start accommodating regular users habits more readily, we have to consider the potential consequences too.

I haven’t posted because…

I was abducted by aliens.

I went on a round the world tour on the back of a donkey.

A giant spider wrapped me in a silken web, and refused to let me go.

I ate too much chocolate, exploded, and have been in hospital having my organs sewn back together.

A portal to another world opened up in my garden, and I’ve been off exploring a different solar system.

…honest.

What up, my homies! (Or Something…)

Hi-dee-ho!

No thanks to the 150 or so spam messages in my inbox, here I am, online at last. Apparently I pissed someone off enough for them to want to sign my e-mail address up to 100+ newsletters. I’m guessing they didn’t count on the fact that in 3 clicks, I could run a filter on my inbox to delete them all. It’s then easy to set SpamAssassin to reject any future mails with “newsletter” in the body (yes, I care that little about false positives.) In fact, it probably took longer for them to sign up than it did for me to get rid of the mails. Aw, please try harder next time, n00bs.

Incidentally, this does make me wonder how mailing lists are regulated across the world. At work, we’re required to double opt-in users, with a single opt-out. This means that fake sign-ups are weeded out, which reduces bandwidth on our side, and limits the annoyance for the user (if its possible to have limited annoyance with bloody mailing lists). I’m guessing that’s not the same everywhere, as only a small fraction of those in my inbox were “Please confirm…” mails.

Anyway, moving swiftly on, my short break (including time off work, woot) is now over and thus all will return to normal tomorrow. Unfortunately.

Aside from visiting family, I have spent the past few days chilling out. I’ve actually played with my Wii for the first time in months, although have got stuck at a spot in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I’ve done the Forest Temple, got all the tears of light (or whatever they are) in Kakariko Village, tamed Epona, and learnt how to sumo. On heading back to Kakariko, one of the kids was stolen. I’m now on my horse chasing the baddie, with several other baddies on wild boars around me. I’ve tried chasing and ignoring the boar-riders; getting off my horse and killing the baddies that are riding the boars; running around in circles like a complete idiot… yes, I’m none the wiser. (Hints, please!)

In completely unrelated news, the recent bad weather (almost constant rain) has done wonders for my runner beans and yet the said same rain is killing my cabbages. Drainage is identical, I’m wondering if it’s more likely related to the depth of the soil and the size of the plants (one would assume that bigger plants ‘drink’ more water?) It’s not going to matter sooner or later anyway, because the bloody slugs are upping their game somewhat. I’m going to have to re-start my midnight campaigns with a torch and bucket of salt.

Still, I have a weird and wonderful collection of veg growing now. Turnips and radish in an old baby bath, some sort of chinese cabbage (if I recall correctly), cauliflower, my peppers and tomatoes, runner beans, courgette still going strong, lettuce, bunching onions and beetroot. Not bad for my first year of growing. (If any of you are thinking of starting a veg plot, I do have some book recommendations. Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom should be your very first purchase, with Grow Your Own Veg by Carol Klein a close second.)

I think the best part so far is the look on people’s faces when I tell them that I’ve recycled a plastic baby bath as a make-do planter. It was one of the many items of crap left in our garage when the previous tenant moved out. Unfortunately, going back to my mention of drainage earlier, it only has the one hole. I’m thinking of investing in some fold up planters (they have proper holes) for next year though, even if they are too conventional.

I bought a new pair of boots this month, to protect my little toesies from the rain when I’m walking to work. Regressing to my childhood somewhat, I decided a pair of Dr Martens would be most appropriate (I lived in a pair of worn out classic black Docs as a kid). I wanted their proper padded-ankle walking style boots but those were unavailable, so I decided on these boots in “TAUPE + PERGAMERIA IRIDE”. They’re probably the most feminine thing I own. Unfortunately, the backs of the heels are a bit stiff — as demonstrated by the large blisters on each foot — but it shouldn’t take too long to break them in.

So I think that’s about it for me? You’d have to hope so, with the amount I’ve waffled about…