I checked my stats just now and my jaw dropped, after just over 1 year of blogging, I have finally gone past the million hits a month mark!

I’ve also noticed my Alexa rank go to lower and lower numbers over the past few weeks too. As I write this it is at 61,627 which puts me in the top 7000 websites in the UK. rule brittania!!

It looks as though not much has changed in the way of which posts are most popular, just how much more traffic they get.

I think it’s time I released a new plugin. It’ll be the contest notify one that you might see drop down on this post. It frees a spot for a featured post and allows you to continue writing posts without worrying about dropping the contest post too far down the screen so it doesn’t get enough attention.

Hopefully that can take me up a few more hits or so!

Take a look at the screenshot of my current stats page below..

that’s 1 million 8 hundred and 19 thousand 502 hits so far this month

by golly!

I started this blog with the tagline “get hits or die tryin” as a bit of a joke but I never imagined this site could get so busy. I attribute most of it to being an internet god my CommentLuv plugin and remote script that does the fetching of the last blog post.

A few people have asked why the script that does the fetching is held remotely on my server and it’s because of my new plans that are starting to come together (mwuhahaha!). The AJAX platform independent version of CommentLuv and associated member site will be soon, the AJAX version is the reason behind the remote script. This way I’ll be able to code a CommentLuv plugin that only requires the user to be able to add a javascript reference to the head of their template, no Wordpress core code needed at all. Things will start to rok soon enough!

Thanks to everyone for continuing to visit FiddyP, I do it all for your (comment)luv

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’ve had another few days of intensive coding and completed a few plugins that can help with the new theme.

I can’t believe that only last week I was feeling burnt out with coding! All I needed was a little “I wonder if I could …” php demon in my ear and I was off. Everything else has suffered though, I have barely talked to anyone in the past 3 days. I haven’t even answered any text messages! lol. I must be a hermit

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

1. new plugin: Custom scripts per post
   It’s not good to have unnecessary javascript includes loading on every page if only 1 page or post uses it so I wrote this to allow me to have tutorial or example posts that use custom javascript included in the head of the page. Now if I want to include some javascript on a particular post (like the CommentLuv check) then I just add the urls to the custom field of the post entry page. Sweet.
2. new plugin: Close comments on a particular post after a given date
   This was inspired from the regular contests I run. Especially ones that are time specific. Now I just add a custom field with the date and time I want comments to be closed. The plugin does all the checking and displays a message below the form to say when comments will be closed
3. new plugin: Notify box for current contests
   I especially like this one, it displays a sliding div notifying the surfer if there is a contest open. I just select the category “current_contest” on the new post I want to be displayed. This allows me to have a contest open and still be able to add new posts without the contest post going out of focus, plus I think it looks pretty cool!
4. updated plugin: Retreive a picture from Flickr
   I’ve updated this so I can spit out a picture from flicker by searching for terms given, title of the post, tags of the post or even just a random one. I added the ability to output directly including a given class with one echo command.
5. updated theme: front page code
   I added a check to see if a post has a specific image url in it’s custom fields, if it has then it uses that instead of the flickr search
6. updated plugin: Lotto results display
   I changed the parsing routine so it doesn’t get tripped up by strange things in the source of the source
7. updated theme: Fat boy!
   I widened the main content area so code can be displayed nicely. Plus it looked a little thin!

Not bad, I even finished before the weekend. Now I have no more excuses to get on with ‘real work’ lol!

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Euromillions has rolled over AGAIN, the prize is up to a MASSIVE 88 millions Euros!!

I’m a member of VWD and as such, I get BOTH lucky star numbers guaranteed to be matched for my elottery euromillions syndicate meaning that my syndicate only needs to match the 5 main numbers and all the members of the syndicate become multi-millionaires!

To celebrate this wonderful opportunity to completely change your life forever, I am re-opening the regular contests that go on here whenever there is a rollover.

Just enter your guess in the comments for the two lucky star numbers that you think will come up on this Fridays Euromillions draw and if you match both numbers, you win the prize shown!

The contest is open to everyone in the world (even USA who can’t join in the fun of buying a syndicate position with vwd) and the closing date is Friday 29 August 2008. Comments will automatically close at 6pm on the day of the draw so get your guess in as soon as possible!

Leave your guesses in this format:

my numbers are 2 & 9

You can play the Euromillions online with VWD here

Only non-US residents can apply for an online syndicate position

If multiple people match both numbers then multiple people win a prize each!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Rhys from GospelRhys.co.uk made some really interesting points about a recent report that the North of England was beyond repair and they should all just come down here to London where everything is smashing (windows) all the time!

A couple of weeks ago, my missus said she needed to visit her brother up north for a week to help out with his shop.

She was dreading it! She’s lived in London for yearsnyearsnyears and couldn’t possibly imagine that anything outside of London exists, our conversations would go like this…

her: “it’s so farrrr”

me (jokingly) :“um, only if you don’t live there. Your brother lives there and it’s not far for him!”

her (not laughing) :“but what if I need to buy something?”

me:“well, they have shops, buildings and some towns even have banks in them. I’m sure you’ll be okay”

It’s like this with her daughter too. The look of abject horror on her face when I once suggested we could all move somewhere outside of London was historic!

Ok, so this isn’t what she looked like but it’s close!

I grew up in Devon so I’m not chained to London like most people that live here. London is not England, it’s a country of it’s own (and should be conquered). Londoners think they can get away with anything because “it’s Lundin”, it pisses me off….

me: hey! those two bendy buses are blocking the entire yellow box junction

Londoner: ‘dats Lundin mate. busy

me: but, that other one went through a red light and now all the cars can’t get through

Londoner: s’alright, they can use the pavement

me: < sigh >

or

me: this traffic is horrible! I’ve been stuck for an hour leading up to this junction

Londoner: it’s a busy road

me: BUT ITS 4 AM!!!

Londoner: ‘dats Lundin mate. busy.

Rhys made some bullet points about how to recognize a northerner coming to London, things like

# If we suddenly make noises to you on the train, it does not mean we’re a terrorist about to blow it up, nor are we a paedophile, nor are we asking for your wallet. It’s called a “conversation”.

So, here’s a list of things that those oop north can use to recognize Londoners..

• if there are two cashiers and one long orderly queue, they will be blind to the people standing in line and assume that the other register is for Londoners. If anyone objects, they’ll be subject to a big argument (but no one will because they’re too polite)
• two lanes leading to the round-a-bout? They will use the lane with the least cars ALWAYS (even if it means going around the ’bout once)
• It’s perfectly okay to put their washing machine on at 11pm and then the dryer at 2am if they’re staying in a flat because everyone’s awake all the time in London and the traffic drowns out the sound of everything else
• The louder the stereo in a car, the harder the man driving it
• It’s perfectly acceptable for a Londoner to swear loudly anywhere
• Due to their belief that anything outside the M25 and Essex isn’t London so therefore must be a ghost town from 1970, they will ask things like
• “Do you accept credit cards here?”
• “Do you open on Sundays?”
• “Is there anywhere to park?”
• “Why is that river water see-through?”
• They drive on the outside lane of the motorway AT ALL TIMES
• If you give them too much change in a transaction, then that’s your fault. There is no chance they’ll point it out and give it back
• Litter must never be placed in a bin. Bins are a security risk. Someone’ll eventually pick it up from wherever they throw it so don’t worry
• If a parked car is within 20ft of their parking space, it’s okay if they happen to just slightly bump it with their car to get it in the space. No need to leave a note for the owner of the scratched car.
• Hazard lights to them mean “I can do whatever I want with this vehicle even if it means driving on the pavement or through the childrens park”
• They can consider themselves better than others if they choose the baked beans that cost five quid a packet
• They will complain if they have to wait longer than 2 minutes for the next bus
• They look confused when they get paper money in their change at the pub
• Driving 30 miles to anywhere is too far
• A grunt is polite conversation

LOL! there’s many more things I’ve noticed Londoners do that can only be attributed to being resident in a high-crime, low-policing, dense benefit, expensive, dirty and deluded city.

Anywayyyys, back to the missus.. I took her and the mother-in-law up to Lancaster, left them there to stay a week and drove back. It took 3 hours to get from Lancaster to the end of the M1 (a distance of 215 miles) in NW London and then another 2.5 hours to get from there to my house (a distance of 5.7 miles) (oh, and I had to pay an 8 quid congestion charge to do the last 0.5 miles to my house)

I phoned her every day and it went like this..

Day 1: “it’s so boooorrring!”

Day 2: “I can’t sleep at night, it’s too dark”

Day 3: “I still can’t sleep, it’s too quiet”

and it soon changed…

Day 4: “We drove to BlackPool and had a meal for 4 for twenty quid!”

Day 5: “We drove to Manchester and had a great time, it only took 45 minutes to get there!”

It takes us longer to drive from our house to Oxford street and park (a distance of 1.5 miles)

Day 6: “Oh the scenery is so beautiful here, we went for a walk!

Day 7: “do you think we could get a house here?”

By the time I picked her up she was like a new woman, she looked like she’d managed to get some decent nights sleep. She had her head held up and was smiling, until at least 10 miles away from our house, at which point she reverted to the “omg it’s so hard to live” attitude that pervades through London.

Within a day she’d forgotten all that outside of London could offer and could be heard to say things like ,” wow, these eggs are cheap at 50 quid a dozen!” or “lets just pop into Oxford street.. put your wallet in your zipped pocket and be sure to lock the car 5 times and pass me my stab vest”

I don’t think London is the be-all and end-all of a city in the UK, it sucks, it’s expensive, it’s crime ridden, it’s dangerous after dark, it is wasteful, it’s full of chavs who claim benefit and don’t vote but expect the “gavamant” to do something about the crime that their own kids are causing.

I swear, as soon as all my work can be done remotely. I’m goin oop north!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Version: 1.98(updated on 21 August 2008)

PLEASE UPDATE IF YOUR VERSION IS BELOW 1.98

Comments are a wonderful thing to receive on your blog, adding the dofollow plugin is one way to reward but why not place a link to their last post under their comment, with CommentLuv, you can do that automatically! This is an excellent way to promote comments from your readers.

example:

The CommentLuv Wordpress Plugin will visit the feed of the comment author and attempt to scrape the last post they made and display it under their comment, this way you can encourage people to join in the discussion of your posts and give something back straight away.

The plugin looks for a feed at the site given in the URL field of the commentform, if you have an auto find feed then it should find it.

The plugin retrieves your last post at the time of the comment being posted and appends the extra text just before the comment gets saved to the database, this way it doesn't put any extra load on the database or server other than the effort required add another 60 or so characters to the comment content.

Instructions:

1. Download
2. unzip
3. upload php file to plugins directory
4. Activate

what? you was expecting something complex?

You can see if CommentLuv can pick up your blog by entering your url in the field below

url
Attempting to contact your blog... please wait

You will need to view this as a single post for the check to work

Check the settings page in the dashboard for style and ouput text options.

If a site doesn't get it's feed found, check the sites loading time or source to see it has a proper feed location specified before asking for support.

Check the settings page after installation to see if CURL is enabled on your hosting

*** For maximum exposure and benefit when commenting on CommentLuv enabled posts, read this excellent post about turning off Feedburner redirects

Once you've downloaded and installed your CommentLuv plugin, tell every visitor you pass on the luv with this badge

You can use this code:

Here's another badge made by Byteful Blog

You can use this code:

And another made by BioTek.net

You can use this code:

A comment author can make the plugin display debug information by including [debugon] anywhere in their comment and the plugin will display a breadcrumb of all the things it tries to parse the feed at the author URL.

You can find support for this plugin in the support forums

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’m really pleased to announce that the old theme for FiddyP has gone bye bye, it was a great theme and it was really nice to know that no one on the planet had it too. Now, I have spent some time with wp-remix 2 developer edition and I can report that it is good, real good, so good I could nibble its’ ear.

I particularly like how it has so much sexy css built in and you can create new pages and edit the template on the fly and choose which sidebar you want.

There's some custom code put here and there and that’s whats taken all the time, the rest seems to flow together so easily and I’m really looking forward to adding some great content like the ajax tutorial series and a whole bunch of new nested pags with online tools and scripts.

Here's an example of the flickr plugin.. following is the most recent picture from flickr that relates to a search for "fifty pence"

using tag of "fifty"

using the tags of this post (dynamic)

using the title of this post (dynamic)

The best thing is, it'll try and search for the terms given, if nothing comes back then it searches for matches on any of the keywords, failing that, pick the last one on the public feed..

I had a little trouble getting the api to work with my api key but I think I have figured it out...although some of the text searches bring back something that doesn't look like it relates but it's got one of the keywords in the description. It's nice on the front page though and saves me having to find/download/resize/upload ones just for prettying up the home page.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I finally got around to having a day in front of the pc to do my new theme, I've been fiddling and playing about with the template code for ages and it's really starting to come together!

I've even written a few custom plugins for it..

A latest picture from flickr relating to the title of a post on the front page

new lotto results with added links!!!

a custom script include in the header per post (using custom fields)

updated commentluv again

I am pretty sure I'll get some sort of working theme up by the weekend if I get some more time, the biggest hurdles are done though. The rest is just prettying up.

Hope to see you soon!!

Popularity: 1% [?]