Version 1.2 of the Simple Feed List plugin has been launched!

This update includes two essential changes..

1. Some people were finding that their web site’s security was preventing this plugin from working due to restrictions on the use of the file_get_contents PHP command. This has now been replaced with an alternative method, which has also improved the speed of the plugin as well (improved by up to 50%!).
2. Use of CDATA within a feed was causing blank descriptions (and, in some cases, titles) to display. This version works around this.

Full details can be found on the plugin’s dedicated page.

If you’re using the Hibernate function (and I’m talking XP here, not sure if this applies to Vista as well) one of the things desperately missing is a matching button in the “Turn Off Computer” menu. You click on it and get options for everything else, but not to hibernate.

Well, not very well known, is that if you press the Shift key whilst on this menu the Standby option will magically change to Hibernate (this is assuming you have the hibernate option activated!).

OR you can add the missing button to the menu. Here’s the code to do this…

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\Shutdown]
"ShowHibernateButton"=dword:00000001

And to turn it off again…

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System]

Both should be saved as .reg extensions and executed – they need to be run only once. The first script adds a new entry into the registry and the second script removes it again.

Alternatively, download the scripts here from.

You may have noticed the site go offline earlier. You may have even seen it appear as a default, and empty, WordPress blog. Or you may have just received an error.

It was my fault.

I was attempting to “shore up” the security on the site. One such change didn’t work and in trying to manually back the changes out, I accidentally, erm, deleted some of the live databases. Oops. And I hadn’t made a backup for weeks (yes, I know).

I had no choice but to restore from that backup. Thanks to the Google’s site cache and the cache in Google Reader I was able to reconstruct all the lost posts. In some cases I haven’t been able to find out the exact times they were posted, due to Google Reader only showing a date on recent entries.

Next up, I’ll be restoring comments and page changes.

And, yes, I’ll be backing up.

Moral to us all… backup. Backup. And backup.

Update

A few hours later and I’ve restored it as best as I can. Some comments have been omitted and, well, user counts and the such will be lost

Version 1.1 of the Simple Facebook Link plugin has been launched!

This update adds bit.ly to the list of URL shortening services that the plugin can make use of. Thanks to Helgi Hrafn Halldórsson for the suggestion.

Full details can be found on the plugin’s dedicated page.

Version 1.3 of the Simple Twitter Link plugin has been launched!

This update adds bit.ly to the list of URL shortening services that the plugin can make use of. Thanks to Helgi Hrafn Halldórsson for the suggestion.

Full details can be found on the plugin’s dedicated page.