The idea is to give back to those who provide useful, free plugins for WordPress.

What they’re asking is that anyone that has ever gotten even the slightest benefit from a WordPress plugin to say thank you today by making a small donation to the plugin/developer of your choice.

Yes, I’m one of those people, but this blog is also enhanced thanks to the plugins for others so I’ll be donating as well.

Hopefully this will make you feel as good as it does me – they deserve our gratitude.

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It’s for these reasons that I usually leave it up to many other blogs to pick over its rotting carcass and shriek hysterically at it. One such blog highlighted one of those “light” show business pieces where they were, well, insulting the ex-cast of Friends by pointing out the fact that they’d aged.

After coming across the original Daily Mail article today something in particular took my notice…

Before signing up last year to another sitcom called Cougar Town, things had become so bad careerwise that Miss Cox, who played Monica Geller, applied for a licence to work as an estate agent.

Was it that bad? Well, seconds later I had my answer courtesy of Wikipedia… she was playing a “real estate” agent in the aforementioned sitcom. Coincidence? I’m guessing not. Although no word as to whether the Mail have somehow mixed her fictional and real life characters or whether she applied for a licence so that she could “try” the job that she was acting out. Indeed it was the fact that most actors do the latter that made me look it up.

Who’d have thought that the Mail wouldn’t have taken a few seconds out from their busy schedule of bigotry to check it out for themselves?

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A Dutch gentleman named Bas de Meijer reported a couple of problems via a comment on one of my plugin pages. One I was able to resolve quite quickly and update the relevant plugin, the other was, erm, more difficult to pin down. This was related to another plugin and turned out to be due to me using a PHP command that didn’t work in PHP 4 (which he was using). As far as I know this command is the only one of this type that I’d used and it was a simple job to modify it to something else and get the compatibility. However, to actually work out what it was I had to send Bas a number of different versions of my plugin, each with more and more debug output being added.

The result was the two plugin releases announced last night – indeed, even adding Technorati to Simple Social Bookmarks was his idea. Thanks Bas. But, then again, he seemed to enjoy the experience just as much….

Thanks again for the great job you have done. Not only by designing the plugin, but also by spending a lot of time to debug it with me. It is much easier to say ‘it should work, so you must be doing something right’ or ‘well, upgrade your system’. But you really wanted to make it work. That suites you.

It was a pleasure helping you. I know from myself that I rather would solve the problem, than to switch to something else.

So come on, those who have a problem, report it, but never respond back to me – I don’t bite!

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Unfortunately, it’s under threat. Derbyshire County Council, who own it, are threatening to sell it to a private company to be made into a hotel with much of the grounds to be used as a golf course.

Naturally, as soon as I heard I signed the requisite petition.

However, speaking to a friend, who has also visited the grounds on many occasions, I was set thinking. He believes that selling it is the only way to ensure the house doesn’t crumble away and that DCC doesn’t just end up having to pay hand-over-fist. But surely that can’t be it? Surely there must be a way to save it for the public?

Well, a quick look on the internet proved there was. The Friends of Elvaston Castle are a group dedicated to saving the buildings and grounds for any such private ownership. And reading their site shows that things aren’t always what they seem. They have some grand, but sensible, plans hampered generally by DCC who, amongst other things, won’t release financial details. Yet one of the main reasons for DCC wanting to sell it is because of the costs (and, indeed, my friends main argument).

But let’s just stop there a second. Why should the fact that it costs money each year be a problem? Isn’t that what we pay our council tax for? Should everything pay for itself? Or as the Friends of Elvaston Castle put it…

This must raise the question as to why the Derbyshire County Council can no longer finance the annual maintenance costs of the Country Park when these costs should surely have been budgeted for when the authority annually sets its ratepayer’s council tax for the provision of Countryside Services?

They believe that a not-for-profit trust should take over ownership, ensuring that the house and grounds remain available to the public, yet doing what DCC hasn’t done – promote it! It gets 20% of the annual footfall that Alton Towers does, yet charges a small fee for parking and has nothing but a small cafe and gift shop on site. If DCC is losing money, it’s not trying very hard to prevent it. I guess the handsome income from selling to a private company is more appealing!

So, apologies to my friend, selling to a private company is NOT the best approach. Maybe if all other avenues have been exhausted then it could be a final route to take, but it’s quite obvious that this has not happened. But we mustn’t think that because a local council can’t support a local amenity, then this is the only solution – there are usually groups of people willing to take on such a challenge.

In the small village that I grew up, stands the last working windmill in Nottinghamshire. I don’t know how many hours of my life I’ve spent there. But today it stands desperately in need of help. For something like this, there probably isn’t a private option¹. In this case they are already run by a “Friends” group, but even they are struggling. Local fund-raising isn’t enough and a recent theft of metal from the building has left them even worse off. Consider the millions of wasted pounds every year from government and you wonder why this kind of thing is allowed to happen in the first place.

But I’ll leave the last words to The Friends…

Through our own research and enquiries, we believe that the Elvaston Castle Estate, run on sound business practices which have been proven successful by both trusts and local authorities in other areas, will not only protect vital public open space but also contribute to giving our citizens an improved society in which to live.

1. unless somebody wants to have the sails removed and turn it into a house

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Sadly, although I paid for a guaranteed “before Christmas” delivery, it never turned up.

Unfortunately, and you only find out when this situation arises, the only way to contact “BMG Burp” is via an email address. But I did and received no response to my enquiry. I emailed them again and, this time, my email bounced with an error.

Their website is still taking orders and, indeed, they’ve updated the site today with their latest “testimonials”.

And I’m not the only one – there’s a blog and Twitter account for those people who haven’t received theirs yet. The author ordered theirs the same day, but appears to have had a bit more of a response from the company than myself.

Now, I’m not reporting this to stop people buying – I don’t think the company is dodgy. My older daughter received one from them, and it was ordered the same day. However, when ordering online, it’s always worth checking the process for if problems do occur – just an email address is not sufficient. I’ve tried “Googling” for a phone number, but I can’t find one.

All I’m left with now is to attempt, via Google Checkout, to get a refund.

Update #1: Google Checkout contacted BMG Burp and they immediately updated my order status to say it had now been despatched. I wonder how I now go about getting a refund on the “guaranteed for Xmas” postage?

Update #2: I got home a few hours after writing the above to find it had been delivered. Strange that the status had only been set to “despatched” after it had turned up. None-the-less, and if you read the comments for this post, you’ll find that it was not send until the 31st December and the postage was a lot LESS than what I paid. I, and many others, have been taken for a ride!

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But, now it’s 2010 and it’s time to get back to some work.

First off, some resolutions. No, not those “get fit” type of resolutions that don’t survive January. In this case, it’s my resolutions for what you’ll find coming up from this site in the coming year….

1. Less personal rants, unless it’s about customer service.

I think I’m a pretty fair minded person, and I think I’m not overly harsh with those who give bad customer service. None-the-less, more news-worthy rants (political, etc.) are going to reduce. Why? Well, take a look on any forum discussing similar subjects these days and you’ll find a plethora of ignorant views being spouted by people who think they know better than anyone else. And I don’t want to end up sounding like one of those people.

For example, I don’t wish to get into the recent announcement that people paying fines are going to pay £15 to subsidise support for victims of crime. Don’t get me wrong, I believe victims of crime should be supported and helped all they can. The thing is, people recieving fines rather than going to court are generally not those leaving behind victims. If I speed a little and get caught on a camera I’ll end up paying. If I speed and run someone over, I’ll end up in court and not have to pay. But which one involved a victim? Another well thought out piece of legislation.

Equally, I’m not going to rant about driving north up the M1 last Tuesday at 11am and finding that during the 20+ miles of 50mph restricted motorway there was not ONE workman present. Just some skips and temporary huts.

But I will rant, for example, about Phones4U who attempted to sell me a new mobile phone, claiming to buy out my existing contract and all for a fee no different to my current monthly cost. Only to find out later that they wanted to clobber me for a ridiculous amount each month in insurance.

I’ll also rant about Carphone Warehouse and Marks & Spencer, both of whom have not responded to customer service emails that I sent, oh, about 2 months ago.

That kind of thing.

2. More Android

Well, I still plan to get an Android phone next month, so expect lots of reviews and suggestions for accessories and software – the kind of thing I did when I got my Netbook.

I was thinking of turning my hand to Android apps, but I believe that they’re written in Java so I’ve suddenly gone off the idea.

3. More WordPress Plugins

Yes, they will continue and will come as a 2-prong attack.

First, I’ll be continueing to update and maintain the existing plugins – this will include planned updates to Simple Feed List, Simple Readbag List and Simple TTIW List (mainly around caching). I’m sure I’ll also be adding more shortening services to Simple URL Shortener as well.

Second, I’ll be releasing some new plugins.

At the moment I’m working on one to assist with embedding YouTube videos into your blog. Yes, yes, I know there are loads available. Indeed I have one installed for this site. However, all those I’ve come across are either way too complex for simple video embedding OR are nice and simple but have certain limitations (for example, playing HQ video).

And this plugin will not be part of the “Simple” range as it will include, amonst other things, an options screen.

There are a few of my existing plugins that would benefit from an options screen – if I add one, though, they will become a new plugin, developed side-by-side with the existing version.

I’ve also had a few calls for a personal plugin that I use to be made available. If you look in the sidebar (not sure which side, I keep changing it!) you should see a section named “Find me online”. Under that is a number of icons for social sites – click on these to display my profile for that site. I’ll (again) add an options screen and a lot more sites.

If anyone has any requests for any of these, let me know.

4. Updating the Online Tools

That online tools section of my site is currently a little under-utilised. I’d like to fix that, so I’ll be looking to add some more pages. I’ll also be updating those already there, especially the CSS compressor, after a recent review.

5. Arsing around with this blog’s layout

I’ve done it throughout 2009, so I may as well be upfront now

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…blogger David Artiss was pleasantly surprised that he had some BBC bods commenting on his Wii post and more so that we’d linked to him from the blog

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I was, however, even more surprised to come in this morning and find that the same post had been referenced on the BBC website!¹ I suspect they’ve not seen my update though, where I had constant problems with bandwidth problems and the resultant pausing of playback.

Oh well, 15 minutes of minor fame…

1. in case you’re wondering how I knew, I use Google Alerts to inform me of any reference to my site

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Here is the official BBC description…

Affectionately comic drama about the British home computer boom of the early 1980s.

Legendary inventor Clive Sinclair battles it out with ex-employee Chris Curry, founder of Acorn Computers, for dominance in the fledgling market.

The rivalry comes to a head when the BBC announce their Computer Literacy Project, with the stated aim of putting a micro in every school in Britain. When Acorn wins the contract, Sinclair is furious, and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum computer.

Home computing arrives in Britain in a big way, but is the country big enough for both men?

Clive Sinclair was played, brilliantly, by Alexander Armstrong and Chris Curry by Martin Freeman. However, I was particularly excited to see Steve Furber included (played by Sam Phillips).

Micro Men - Steve Furber on the very right

In a magical twist that would make many geeks salivate, I’ve met Mr (or rather, Professor) Furber as I’m good friends with his daughter. So, after last nights show I thought I’d ask her what he thought of it and how accurate it really was.

They got his character wrong – in real life he’s not a chain smoker or someone who eats Chinese food with wire clippers. Although he did describe it all as  “a jolly romp”!

He also wasn’t personally responsible for wire wrapping all those joints, and if he was he’d like to point out that he wouldn’t use a soldering iron!

Not that he told his daughter a great deal about the show (she’s not sure if he had any involvement in it) – he only told her it was happening on Tuesday in a ‘you might want to watch this…’ way! But he says the major facts are true although, sadly, Hermann cut the wire about 3 hours before the BBC people arrived rather than 3 seconds, so there was some dramatization.

Who’d have thought it?

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