Categories
Urban papercraft

Urban papercraft: Sjors Trimbach

Yes, let’s make a urban papercraft series!

BrickboyThis time I want to point you towards Sjors Trimbach site. He created Brickboy.



You can build a brickboy yourself: visit the site, goto [designs], choose one of you favorite, press [download], print it and start building!
Brickboy serie

If you are more creative then that: you can design a brickboy yourself! Just send a email (I could place the email here, but I won’t because I don’t want to add to his spam …. so goto the site and click on [info] ).


The same comment I gave Shin Tanaka, I’m giving to Sjors: he is holding back some (new) designs, found these using google:
Other papercraft by Sjors Trimbach

And my own custom Brickboy will be added to my wish list. So much to do – so little time.

Shin Tanaka's Brickboy Shin Tanaka made a also a Brickboy!

Categories
Open source / Freeware

Automatic WordPress Database Backup

I haven’t installed a lot of WordPress plugin’s. And till recently I had only 3 WordPress Plugins installed.

Well this is changed: I now have more (I’ll stop counting because every time I install a new plugin I’ll have to change the number…): wp-cron is added to that list.

WP-Cron provides a rudimentary support for scheduled exection of actions; a sort of “delayed action” processing for WordPress. It is nowhere near as robust as the actual UNIX cron facility, but should be good enough to “do stuff” on a fairly regular basis

This plugin has a lot of features, but I only use the wp-cron plugin.
And the reason is backup:

…A plugin you use to backup your database. And this is the most important of blogging: the stuff you write….

Now, without thinking about it, my database is send to my gmail-acount on a daily base.

Categories
Firefox extensions

Helpfull blog Firefox extensions

I am investing way to much time in explaining my frequently used Firefox extensions collection. So to speed this list up, I will dump a group of extensions a once. It’s possible I wrote about it before, but who cares….

[mck] very useful if you need to set a signature or something else you often submit in a textfield.
SignatureSignature – Can be used to insert something in the address bar, on a text box on a web page.

update #1: I replaced signature with clippings because of it’s superior interface, management of clippings.

Clippings – Saves and manages frequently-entered text for pasting later. Text can be pasted from Clippings into forms and input fields without the hassle of retyping or repetitive copying and pasting. Perfect for forms, web mail, blog entries, wiki editing and forum posts.

[mck] spelling / translation tools.
Update #2: Spellbound has been integrated in Firefox 2.0, so only if you use a Firefox 1.5 or so you should use the Spellbound extension.

  1. SpellboundSpellbound – This allows you to spell check forms (e.g. message board posts, blog entries, wysiwyg, etc.) before submitting them. Download directly
  2. RiteOfTongueRiteOfTongue – Right-click on a typed word inside a web form to check if the word is spelt correctly and get alternate suggestions if it is wrong.
  3. Translate PageTranslate Page – Translate Page passes the current page to Google’s Translation Service and was made upon request to directly mimmick a feature of the Mozilla suite within Firefox.
  4. ImTranslatorImTranslator – ImTranslator provides additional multilingual capabilities to Firefox for more efficient communication in foreign languages.

And some I haven’t tested enough to say something about: gTranslate, Translate and translator.

[mck] resize the textarea if your not using the “EditorMonkey” plugin.
update #3: Resizeable Textarea extension 0.1c can be used for Firefox 2.0
Resizeable TextareaResizeable Textarea extension 0.1bResizeable Textarea extension 0.1c (for Firefox 2.0) – A lot of forums and boards provide very smal textareas for new postings.
If you type a longer posting, you have to scroll up and down, to read, what you have writen and to proceed. Download Resizeable_Textarea 0.1c directly.

[mck] very usefull if you find descriptions you don’t know (example: polymath)
WikiPedia Lookup Extension (WLE)WikiPedia Lookup Extension (WLE) – Extension for the Firefox webbrowser which looksup the selected text in Wikipedia encyclopedia and presents the results.

[mck] handy for saving images into different folders.
Save image in folderSave image in folder – This extension helps you to quickly save images into different folders without having to click through your folder structure again and again.

[mck] take screenshots of webpages

  1. Save As ImageSave As Image -Adds the ability to save a page, frame, or part of either as an image.
  2. Pearl Crescent Page SaverPearl Crescent Page Saver – Lets you capture images of web pages in PNG format. The entire page or just the visible portion may be captured.
  3. miscScreengrab – It saves webpages as images by scrolling around and stitching the result together. In particular it also will save just a frame as an image.

Happy blogging!

Categories
Urban papercraft

Urban papercraft: Shin Tanaka

Shin Tanaka updated his site so check http://shin.co.nr/ out.
And he added T-BOY HOODY to the list of paper toys you can customize or design! Just drop Shin one of the following email in his mailbox: “T-BOY HOODY” , “GRITTY” , and “SPIKY BABY”.

I decided to share a “hobby” of mine (read more about my “hobbies”).

But I will only share the cool part of it: I’m talking about urban papercraft.
The cool customizable paper toys who are similar to that of the vinyl scene.

Shin Tanaka is my favorite (well …. I can’t find a lot of builders who approach papercraft with a urban style). I like the simple shapes he uses to create the figures and that they fit on one pace of paper. But what makes him a genius is the fact that he makes DIY paper toys. And it works…. I want to design one too. So this will be added to my wish list. I especially like the GRITTY.

An example: darkimey X GRITTY
GRITTY darkimey
One of the master himself: QRCOD GRITTY
GRITTY QRCODE

So if you have some spare time try one of these: the custom designed paper model collection especially made as a canvas for graffiti writers and designers who want to present their work for public! Or design a SPIKY BABY or GRITTY

Basic Spike from the SPIKY BABY [SERIES 3] – box
SPIKE basic

SPIKE bichorabioso << An example from bicho

The only “comment” I have about Shin that his portfolio-site doesn’t let us see everything he made in the past: he also made some papercraft based on figures from Michael Lau (Michael Lau creates bad ass figures!!): Davy (red), Davy in different colors, SF.M.L.F, and a “Special Paper Model Download Page” in English.

Update #1: An article about Shin Tanaka can be found Pingmag – The Tokoyo-based magazine

Categories
Firefox extensions

Spelling Firefox extensions

As I said before… I’m not a great speller in my native tongue, and I’m even worse in a foreign language!

And I suggested to use tinySpell for people who recognize this problem. The problem with this program is that it only works on Windows and at this moment I’m working on Linux….

So I started to look for a Firefox extension solution.

And the first extension works almost the same as tinySpell:
RiteOfTongueRiteOfTongue – Right-click on a typed word inside a web form to check if the word is spelt correctly and get alternate suggestions if it is wrong. Then select the word from the pop up menu to change it. The words are obtained in real-time over the Internet using the dictionary service from Dict.org.
Downside of the extension is that it checks realtime, so if your internet connection is slow or Dict.org is, your answer (correct or wrong) will come slowly.

The other works like the on line translators like AltaVista Babel Fish, Worldlingo, Systran etc….
ImTranslatorImTranslator – ImTranslator provides additional multilingual capabilities to Firefox for more efficient communication in foreign languages.
Downside of the extension is that is a slow extension with al lot of advertisement in it and when I selected a word I wanted to translate used right click to translate, it disappeared from the textfield….

And one promising extension which doesn’t seem to work with Firefox 1.5 … there is a trick to get “old” extensions to work but I haven’t tested it (read read explanation from ffextensionguru. or perhaps tech.thicke.org)
Wow this is a powerful extension, thx ffextensionguru for helping me on my way.
SpellboundSpellbound – This allows you to spell check forms (e.g. message board posts, blog entries, wysiwyg, etc.) before submitting them.
What even more interesting is the ability check in different language. This extension can also be used to check in my native tongue (Dutch) so check out the language dictionaries available.

These extension are submitted to my frequently used Firefox extensions collection.

Categories
Misc

Some different styles for my logo

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Categories
Firefox extensions

Resizeable Textarea firefox extension

Very quickly after I started writing for my blog, I stop using the “EditorMonkey” plugin.
This plugin is a default install with WordPress, which turns the normal WordPress textarea into a WYSIWYG editor using TinyMCE or FCKeditor.

And the that’s the reason I stopped working with it, WYSIWYG editors don’t work like I want them to.

But if you stop using the visual rich editor when writing, you also lose the ability to resize the textarea where you write your post. And that means if you write a long post, you have to scroll up and down, to read what you have writen…. very annoying

I found a nice Firefox extension which fixes this problem:

Resizeable Textarea
Resizeable Textarea extension

A lot of forums and boards provide very smal textareas for new postings.
If you type a longer posting, you have to scroll up and down, to read, what you have writen and to proceed.

Original Resizeable Textarea extension (Firefox 0.9 – 1.0.1)
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=2796

Same extension but for Firefox 1.5 (0.1b)
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/005752.html

Another extension that is part of my frequently used Firefox extensions collection.

Categories
Firefox extensions

Firefox Extension Backup Extension

Another extension that is part of my frequently used Firefox extensions collection.

FEBE
Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE)

FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up — It will actually rebuild your extensions individually into installable .xpi files. Now you can easily synchronize your office and home browsers.

FEBE backs up your extensions, themes, and (optionally) your bookmarks, preferences, cookies. and much more

There is realy not more to say about this extension. I find it very usefull to have the same tools that I use at work, also at home.

Categories
Misc

Top 10 Hot Dutch Companies

More a post for the company I work for (Fabrique): IN10 Bureau Top 10.

It’s in dutch, so if your interested: we are runner-up. And second place is first place losers so next year we are #1.

Categories
Misc Open source / Freeware

Starting with WordPress and blogging

Oke you have a fresh WordPress installed, your ready to go…

And then you ask yourself: am I ready for blogging?
Is this all I need, is there something I’m forgetting?

Well if I may give you 3 4 tips: 3 4 wordpress plugins I am using and are extremly usefull.
You could call it my “Top 3 4 WordPress plugins” and yes I know that a lot of people can come up to a total of 10 WordPress plugins but for now I’m not using more than these 3 4.

  1. Askimet
    A plugin for keeping spam from your blog. This plugin will save you a lot of time once your blog is visited (indexed) by a search-engine.
  2. WP-slimstat
    Is a statistic plugin. And I must confess: I am a slimstat junkie! This is the first thing I do when I’m logged in. And I can get this information straight from my WordPress administration interface. Read more about it.
  3. WordPress Database Backup
    A plugin you use to backup your database. And this is the most important of blogging: the stuff you write. It’s accesable from your WordPress administration interface. In WordPress 2.0 the WordPress Database Backup is include by default.

Update #1: After writing about wp-cron I came across some discussion about wp-db-backup, and it seems to be removed from the default WordPress package. Hmmm, it doesn’t matter: I still recommend this plugin!

So:
I Askimet
I
I WordPress Database Backup and wp-cron