Lester Chan’s GaMerZ has announced that he has unleashed the first wave of updates for 11 of his WordPress plugins. These include:

• WP-EMail 2.30
• WP-PageNavi 2.30
• WP-PluginsUsed 1.30
• WP-Polls 2.30
• WP-PostRatings 1.30
• WP-Print 2.30
• WP-RelativeDate 1.30
• WP-ServerInfo 1.30
• WP-Sticky 1.30
• WP-Stats 2.30
• WP-Useronline 2.30

The remaining four plugins, WP-Ban, WP-DBManager, WP-DownloadManager, and WP-PostViews will be updated in wave two. Lester has stated that all of these plugins should work in WordPress 2.5 only and they have not been tested in any version below 2.5. Also worthy of note is that the folder path of some of the plugins have been fixed. Previously, the path was nested in another folder which generated a ton of hate mail for Lester because it broke automatic updates. Now that the path has been fixed, the automatic plugin upgrade feature should work correctly.

*Note* I updated my GaMerZ plugins today on my personal blog through the plugin upgrader in 2.5 and all of them were upgraded successfully.

Lester has been developing plugins for WordPress for quite some time now. We have praised Lester’s work at various occasions and we use many of his plugins actively on this site (including the post rating system you see below). He is a meticulous coder, provides extensive documentation, download options and demos and even provides his own support forums. Please be patient with his server, it takes a while to load the linked page but the downloads are mirrored, so they should be quick.

On my own blog, I’m using at least seven of his plugins. If you are using one or more of Lester’s plugins, let us know in the comments.

WPFreemium

WPFreemium is a two column theme widget-ready theme designed for multi-authored blogs. I integrated full gravatar support into all posts, author profiles and comments.

Greeny2.0

Greeny2.0 is a 2 column widget-ready theme. The theme has a web2.0 look and uses different flavors of the green color.

WP Garden

WP Garden is a beautiful two column widget ready theme which has a nice looking header and footer. The theme makes use of green colors for the links.

StudioPress

Update: Theme Link and Thumbnail removed for reported Copyright Issues with header Image

StudioPress is a two column WordPress theme crafted for photographers. StudioPress comes in two varieties - black and white.

Mini-wp

Mini-wp is a pownce look-a-like theme which is for people who don’t like to post long blog. The sidebar is empty and only contains a note about the author.

Andrea

Andrea is a beautiful 2 column theme which makes use of the blue color. The theme is simple and looks appealing to the eyes.

Three Column Themes

Aviation Journal

Aviation Journal is a simple, three column, widget-ready WordPress theme. Also includes a random header image script.

Serenity

Serenity is a three column WordPress theme. Widget ready, with a Site Map and no sidebar template, as well as custom 404 page.

One Column Themes

R3volution Continued

R3colution Continued is a one column theme. Clicking on the menu image will show you a hidden content area which you can manage using a widget provided in the theme admin section.

Two Column Themes

KeeSheep

KeeSheep is a two column widget-ready theme which is made up of bright orange colors. The theme makes good use of rounded corners throughout the theme.

Elegance

Elegance is a two column widget-ready theme with light colors. It comes with the PSD source files to edit graphics. There’s a cool ajax text loader at the top and other effects.

True Colours

True Colours is a two column fixed-width, widget-ready theme which makes use of sea-blue and green colors.

Corporate

Corporate is a two column widget ready theme. The theme uses a flash based plugin to rotate header images. The rest of theme is simple and uses basic colors. [EDIT] Removed due to copyright complaints.

YG Desire

YG Desire is a 2 column widget-ready themes. Theme uses deep background colors but the content area is plain white for maximum readability.

 Taken From http://weblogtoolscollection.com

W3Counter is your free, hosted website analytics solution for answering the key questions about your website: who’s your audience, how they find your site, and what interests them. There’s no installation, no configuration, and tracking starts as soon as you copy-and-paste a snippet of code into your website.

See who’s talking about you, who’s linking to you, and what your visitors are clicking on now. Don’t wait a day or more for the latest reports — W3Counter shows you what’s happening as it happens. Click here to view competitor comparison chart.

Features

1. Follow Your Visitors
2. Visitor Identification
3. Navigation Tracking
4. City-Level Visitor Maps
5. Visitor Demographics
6. Web Stats Widgets
7. Customizable Tracking Image

A free account allows you to track one website and view nearly 30 real-time reports on your website activity. Many small website owners remain on the free plan. However, free accounts are limited to websites receiving under 5,000 daily page views. For more, You can signup with pro plan.

Taken from www.smashingapps.com

Are you an advanced JavaScript coder looking for more sites to sharpen your coding prowess? Maybe you’re a web designer wanting to double as a developer (or at least know enough to add a bit of rich content into your designs). Either way, if you’re looking for more information on the topic of JavaScript, the following resources are worth a gander.

Reference, Resources, & Tutorials

DevGuru - JavaScript Quick Reference

DevGuru provides an extensive list of JavaScript syntax, alphabetized similar to a glossary for easy scanning and searching.

TechCheatSheets.com - Javascript Cheat Sheets

A roundup of 10 JavaScript cheat sheets in one place; includes cheatsheets for frameworks such as jQuery and Prototype.

Google Groups - comp.lang.javascript

If you’re looking for a community of JavaScript’ers comp.lang.javascript is an active and helpful community of developers.

jQuery for Designers

jQuery for Designers is geared towards designers who want to learn about the jQuery library to add more dynamic content in their designs.

Freetechbooks.com - Free Online JavaScript Books

In this collection, you’ll be able to download 5 excellent e-books on the topic of JavaScript, all for free.

DZone

Although not purely a JavaScript resource, DZone regularly features articles, tutorials, resources, and news about JavaScript.

W3Schools - JavaScript Tutorial

W3School’s section on JavaScript offers beginning to advanced JavaScript topics.

15 Days Of jQuery

Straight off the home page, 15 Days of jQuery has “Fantastic tutorials and example code that takes you from zero to hero in no time flat“.

The “Mootorial”

//clientside’s tutorial on the mootools framework has a built-in console for you to try out JS code.

Premade Scripts/Code

AjaxDaddy

A collection of downloadable DHTML scripts. AjaxDaddy provides a demo for the featured scripts.

MiniAjax.com

Another site with a collection of DHTML and Ajax code, similar to AjaxDaddy.

JavaScript Kit

Here, you’ll find downloadable scripts, as well as tutorials and guides on JavaScript.

Dynamic Drive JavaScript code library

DHTML scripts organized into 16 categories including Calendars, Image Effects, Links & Tooltips, and more.

DHTMLgoodies.com

Yet another place to get your fix of DHTML/Ajax scripts. They also have a fairly nice and straight-forward Ajax basics tutorial.

4umi useful Javascript

A “database” of useful scripts and code snipplets that are updated fairly often.

Articles & Blog Posts

The Most Complete AJAX Framework and JavaScript Libraries List(124+)

The title pretty much says it all — it’s a huge list of JS frameworks/libraries.

The seven rules of unobtrusive JavaScript

This excellent article outlines seven things to keep in mind when trying to develop unobtrusive JavaScript solutions.

How simple is making your javascript unobtrusive? Easy as Pie.

A basic introductory article on “unobtrusive JavaScript.

The Top 40 Free Ajax & Javascript Code for Web Designers

A list of scripts geared towards web designers (i.e. not a lot of manual coding involved).

How to choose a JavaScript framework

Outlines a few considerations when deciding which JS framework is right for you.

Efficient JavaScript

An article on quick tips for optimizing your JavaScript code.

Ten Javascript Tools Everyone Should Have

A list of JS code snipplets recommended to have in your coding arsenal; among them are numeric sorting and working with cookies.

Serving JavaScript Fast

Optimal tips for serving/loading your JavaScript libraries quickly.

The Great Browser JavaScript Showdown

A comparison of the top 4 web browsers (IE7, Firefox 2, Safari 3.0.4, and Opera 9.5) when it comes to handling JS.

Quick guide to somewhat advanced JavaScript

A guide on Object-Oriented JavaScript coding.

Blogs & News

John Resig - Blog

John Resig is the creator/lead developer of jQuery and author of “Pro Javascript Techniques“.

Ajaxian - JavaScript

Ajaxian is a news site about Ajax and Rich Internet Applications. Over 850 stories have been tagged under the JavaScript topic.

Snook.CA - JavaScript Category

Snook.CA is Johnathan Snook’s site on the topic of web development. He writes about JavaScript, as well as other web dev topics.

Ajaxlines

Ajaxlines provides news and resources on the topic of Ajax. It currently has 140+ posts tagged under JavaScript.

QuirksBlog

QuirksBlog is part of JavaScript guru/web developer Peter-Paul Koch’s QuirksMode.org. His book ppk on JavaScript is an excellent book to own.

Ajaxonomy - Blogs

Ajaxonomy is a wonderful resource for JavaScript’ers interested in Ajax and other web technologies. It has many posts tagged with JavaScript.

Ajax Bestiary - A JavaScript Field Guide

Ajax Bestiary is a regularly updated blog on JavaScript.

Awesome Frameworks/Libraries

Prototype JavaScript framework

Prototype was one of the first popular frameworks. Several libraries and frameworks are based on Prototype (or still require it).

jQuery

jQuery is lightweight, elegant, and touted as one of the easiest JS frameworks to use.

mootools

My personal favorite.

The Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI)

A big and extremely robust JavaScript toolkit by Yahoo!.

JavaScriptMVC

JavaScriptMVC is a relatively new but very promising framework that offers a lot of unique components and features not found in other frameworks.

script.aculo.us

A robust effects library that’s been used by top websites such as Digg, Feedburner, and Apple; requires the inclusion of Prototype.

Ext JS

Another solid framework; it does have a restrictive license for commercial purposes. Check out the Web Desktop demo.

MochiKit

MochiKit is a robust library that offers a lot of utility functions and effects classes.

Dojo

Dojo is another framework to consider. visit the Spotlight section on the website to see real companies using Dojo.

Additional Resources

Author’s note - April 16, 2008. After the publication of this article, I recieved several recommendations from readers about additional resources that didn’t make the list. I’d like to add even more excellent JavaScript resources worth taking a look at. I’ll add more as suggestions come along.

• Learning jQuery - a multi-author weblog dedicated to sharing information about jQuery. It’s geared at all levels of JS coders wanting to learn about jQuery.
• Mastering JavaScript — concept and resource guide - A great list of resources pertaining to grokking JS.

Got any other resources you’d like to share with us? Make sure to talk about it in the comments section!

Special Thanks & taken from http://sixrevisions.com/

 

The news coming in from some popular publications confirm that social networking sites like orkut, facebook, hi5 are on their way to be banned in India due to security concerns. Orkut had been in the limelight most of the time for the bad reasons and the questions were raised every now an then debating if orkut was worth the gamble in India.


» Tech2 Reports

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“Sites such as Orkut and Facebook allow for heavily encrypted exchanges of information”, a highly placed source at the MHA told Tech2.com.

The government has asked all Indian social networking sites such as BigAdda.com, Yaari.com and Minglebox.com to maintain records of all user activity including “change of status, profile picture, favorite sitcoms etc.” in keeping with the law of the land.

This is a much scarier matter for guys like me who have websites dedicated to orkut. Is it the end? What do you think? Sacrificing Entertainment Websites for the Security of a Nation..A Fair Deal?

» Credits

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Tech2 for making (and confirming) the news public.

Easily turn wordpress into an e-commerce solution. As someone who has used WP-ecommerce in the past, this was a lot easier!

Jesse Stay is a social media guru. He is the co-author of I’m on Facebook–Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook with Jason Alba. This book helps individuals and business owners better manage their lives through Facebook. I asked him to provide ten Facebook power tips:

1. You can syndicate your blog. Through Facebook Notes, you can import one RSS-syndicated site, and items fed via RSS will appear on Facebook, to all your friends via the News Feed. This can also be done for each Facebook Page you create, in the same manner as your regular Facebook account. For information, see my blog post on the subject.
2. You can post images and set your status via your cell phone. Just add the “Mobile” app, and soon you will be able to add photos you take with your cell phone’s camera, by simply sending it to mobile@facebook.com and registering your phone with Facebook. You can also receive and send statuses directly to Facebook via SMS. SMS features are supported by almost all carriers but T-Mobile, and even with T-Mobile you can still send photos and check Facebook through your cell phone’s web browser.
3. You can post “Polls,” or “Surveys” to different demographics. Click on the “Business” link in the footer of your Facebook account, then click on “Facebook Polls,” and you’ll soon have access to create your own polls, of which you can target towards certain age groups, interests, and other demographics, and track the results. You can even set a budget of how much you want to spend for the entire Poll. Polls are $.25 a response. You can also create a Poll by clicking on this link.
4. You can track available demographics directly in Facebook. Similar to Polls, you can use Facebook Insights to find out how many people are within a certain demographic on Facebook. To get there, click on “Business” in the footer, then “Facebook Insights.” Click the “Get Started” button, and then act as though you are creating a Page or trying to advertise another link. Under the audience tab, you can click around on the various form options, and it will tell you how many people are within that demographic.
5. You can track your friends’ statuses via RSS. On your main page after you login to Facebook, click on “see all” next to “Status Updates.” On the right-hand side you’ll notice a “Subscribe” link - click on that to add your friends’ status updates to your RSS Reader and keep in touch with everything they are doing, very similar to Twitter!
6. You can post Flash and HTML directly in your brand’s Facebook Page. Facebook Pages (that’s with a capital “P”) are a way you can create a “Profile” for your business. Facebook gives a few more options for Facebook Pages however, one of those being you can add Flash and HTML direct to a Page, similar to the way you would do for a MySpace Page. This Flash or HTML can replace the main image on your Page, giving you one more venue to broadcast your brand to your Fans. You can learn more details about this in my post here.
7. The largest demographic on Facebook is the 25 and older group. Believe it or not, per Facebook’s own statistics, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is those ages twenty-five and older. Facebook is quickly becoming not just place for friends to meet friends, but for business users, baby-boomers, and even the elderly like Guy!
8. Through a Facebook Page, you can track the traffic of a brand’s Profile. Once you create a Facebook Page, be sure to visit your Page Manager on the left after logging into Facebook. There, you can track valuable statistics about your Page: number of visits, Male-to-Female ratio, Page Views, and more. If you aren’t getting what you want out of your Facebook Profile you may want to consider creating a Facebook Page.
9. You can tag anyone in a posted note, video, or photo. Often the first instinct on videos, photos, and especially notes in Facebook is to tag only the people in the subject uploaded. There is nothing I am aware of in Facebook’s Terms of Service stating it is illegal to tag people that aren’t in the photo, video, or note. I personally like to use this for my blog posts, tagging those of my friends I would like to get attention from. See how to do this here.
10. Give others an easy-to-remember link to your Facebook Profile. Through SocialToo.com! - by registering at SocialToo.com and following the instructions to link it to Facebook, you can have yourusername.socialtoo.com automatically redirect to your Facebook Profile. This can be an excellent way to tell your friends how to find you on Facebook.

Jesse has many more tips, so keep checking here to stay at the cutting edge.

Taken From http://blog.guykawasaki.com

AuctionAds Publishers,

AuctionAds Publishers, we have a great way for you to promote AuctionAds and earn 5% affiliate referrals. Spread the word (using your affiliate link) that we are offering an instant $25.00 balance to all new publishers who sign up for AuctionAds! New publishers just need to sign up and they will receive a balance of $25.00 automatically.

Please note if you signed up with us previously and have never earned a payout we will bump your current balance to $25 too! Our minimum payout is also being raised to $50 but everyone who hasn’t earned a payout to date will be halfway there already! By publicizing this promotion on your blog using your affiliate link you can take advantage of receiving 5% of all revenue generated by new AA publishers you refer for a full six months. Thanks again and look for more AA news soon.

Many of you have already been made aware that eBay has begun migrating their affiliate program from Commission Junction to an in-house affiliate program, the eBay Partner Network. This is great news for all ShoppingAds users as their new solution is more flexible and efficient in helping us deliver more income for everyone! We will continue to run just as before, but please be aware that there may be a possible slight reporting delay as eBay finalizes this transition.Also, just a friendly reminder that effective February 2008, payouts will  take place on the 4th of every month and  include all the earnings from the entire previous month.

Thank you for your continued business and support!