So, I’m finally beginning to get somewhere with version 2 of my YouTube Embed WordPress plugin. As a birthday treat to myself I bought Professional WordPress Plugin Development from Amazon.

Now, completion of my plugin is even less likely to be soon as this rather excellent book has just left me with a raft of further changes to make. Everything from coding standards to widget development is covered. I’m only a quarter way through and already there are sticky note bookmarks everywhere – each indicating something I need to look at.

It’s not just this plugin this will affect though, as I will then turn my intention towards all my other plugins as well – starting with my caching and feed plugins which will get major overhauls (as this book mentions methods of performing each with a lot less effort than I’m currently applying!).

Even their section on marketing your plugin has left me with ideas of changes I wish to make – first up, I’m going to see about renaming my existing plugins.

If you’re into WordPress development I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Now, if you’ll excuse me… I have a lot of work to do¹

1. not helped by the fact that events in the last week have given me a great idea for a new plugin – my head is now full of that. Not that I’m going to say what it is [↩]

It’s been a good few years now since I bought my Sony Ericsson K800i. It really was an excellent phone – easy to use, basic functionality and a superb camera – and when it came to give it up (for my Nokia N95), I chose to give it to my wife. And, believe it or not, it was only until recently that she has decided to upgrade – she too liked the simple functionality (she’s not a smartphone or touchscreen fan) and the camera. That decision was made easier by my youngest daughter smashing a chunk out of the corner of it!

And, after much searching, she settled on the Sony Ericsson Elm.

Looking remarkably like the K800i, this is a much slimmer version with the latest Sony Ericsson operating system and an improved camera. This phone is part of the GreenHeart range which uses reduced packaging and recycled parts on.

Packaging wise, the phone comes in a simple cloth sleeve within a small box. The box also contains a simple charger (Sony Ericsson continue to use their own connection format – however the charger that came with the K800i had a “through port” allowing other peripherals to be plugged in at the same time. The Elm charger doesn’t have this), earphones (with microphone) and a small paper safety manual. And that’s it. The full manual is installed on the phone.

Features wise, it’s actually quite good, including GPS, wi-fi, 5MP camera with Xenon flash and various installed apps (including Facebook and SatNav). Many of the apps will display directly onto the home screen as well as in standby (allowing you to read your Facebook updates without having to unlock the phone).

Battery life was always good with the K800i but with wi-fi and the Facebook app switched on the Elm my wife  found it only lasted a day. Switching these off extended it to a more acceptable week.

The Elm uses Micro SD cards rather than the Memory Stick Micro that the K800i did.

The clear screen is a simple 240 x 320 resolution and the rear of the phone sports a 5 MP camera with flash. The pictures are excellent – I’ve always like the cameras, and the camera software, on Sony Ericsson phone and this is no exception.

As I said before, it has various built in apps and more are downloadable (many at quite a hefty price though). Text messaging and surfing the internet is quick and easy and, well, it’s simplicity itself to use.

My wife got this free on a £15 a month contract but you can buy it, unlocked, from Amazon for £118.

Summary of Sony Ericsson Elm

If you’re not after an all-singing and dancing smartphone and don’t get on with touch-screens this is an ideal phone at an ideal price. It’s good to know that phones like this are still being made, and at a reasonable price.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 24th March 2011.

Soluto calls itself “anti-frustration software”. A free program for Windows, and still in Beta, Soluto analyses your PC’s startup process and recommends solutions.

It’s been out for a few months now and I’ve been trying it on a number of computers, running XP and Windows 7 64-bit. All work without an issue.

You install it and it runs during each boot up, timing it and looking at the various startup processes. Simply go into the software for a breakdown of those processes. They are divided into 3 sections – “no-brainer”, “potentially removable” and “cannot be removed.” The latter category mainly includes system software (and Soluto itself). The other 2 you can do something about – either delay (make the program start later, when the computer is idle) or pause (switch off) each. In all cases you can view each program in turn, viewing what information Soluto knows about it, and make the decision yourself as to what you wish to do with it.

In the case of my home PC, running Windows 7 64-bit, my boot currently takes 1:58. Without being overly aggressive, I have reduced this by 3.3. Unfortunately, running Soluto adds 3 seconds so I’ve hardly gained anything.

To be honest, as an “expert user” I know exactly which processed need removing and how to do it and I can often remove more than Soluto can. However, for the amateur “dabbler” this is an ideal solution as it provides all the help you could ask for, including details on what other people did and even allowing you to edit program descriptions.

Lastly, there’s a flashy history screen showing how your boot times have changed over time along with key changes that were made.

Summary of Soluto

A good quality product that really can help the amateur PC owner. However, for the geeks amongst us this may be a frustrating solution and, as the saying goes, results may vary. For a free product, there’s no excuse to not at least try it!

Reviewed by David Artiss on 23rd March 2011.

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