You may all remember that roughly 1 year ago, I wrote this little blurb about black friday deals here. I thought this year I would elaborate further and explain why the topic interests me so much.

Origin

For those of you who don’t know, Black Friday (sometimes referred to as “Green” Friday is a day when most stores sell enough merchandise in one day to turn a profit for the year, essentially going in the “black.” From age 16-21, I worked at a very well known and established toy retailer. Having said that, I feel I have a lot of insight on the subject and can prove a worthy ally when it comes to navigating this day.

Tips From A Pro

Here are some tips from a pro (yours truly) that will help you have a safe day.

1. Stake Out: Stores have limited quantities of “door-busters” so get there early – I’m thinking 2-3 days early.
2. Be Prepared: Bring a sleeping bag, water, food, warm clothes and an attitude. People cut in line when your guard is down. It’s your job to resolve that. Using the advice of Sarah Palin – “Go Rogue.”
3. Stop if you hear screams: When the doors open at 5am, if you hear someone screaming, chances are you’re all trampling someone. Stop! Allow store personnel to access the person(s) and then safely resume your frantic run for that latest Pokemon game little Johnny “has” to have.

Now, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. If you’re really prepared, chances are you found that you can actually buy the same item from the store online, get free shipping and have it with a lot less hassle. You see, retailers realize that the in-store experience is slowly dying. That’s why they created sweet-spot deals for e-shoppers, knowing very well that people will be just as cut-throat online to get deals as in the stores. What retailers they won’t tell you, is that Internet sales make up almost 50% of gross Black Friday sales, so in actuality, they are hoping you’ll shop from home. Now granted, they may not get you with an associated sale item, but they still move product and that’s all that matters. Plus, if you can’t find it at your favorite store, chances are Amazon, eBay, or other web outlets will have quantities in stock.

What I’m saying here is this – if you do a little research online and find the right coupon codes, you can get the same great deals without the hassle. Black Friday is an absolute zoo, from 5am – 12am. There is really no reason to be a part of it, unless you like that kind of thing. Plus, do you REALLY want to be on the evening news plowing into your local Wal*Mart?

Pre-Setup:

1.) Generate a certificate request (CSR) and private key – CD into /etc/httpd/conf/ and run the following command to generate a CSR (Certificate Request File) and private key. The private key file will be named {domainname}.key and the CSR will be {domainname}.csr.

openssl req -new -nodes -keyout {domainname}.key -out {domainname}.csr

You will now be asked to enter details to be entered into your CSR.  What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.  For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter ‘.’, the field will be left blank.

—–

Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: US
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: New York
Locality Name (eg, city) []: New York
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: {companyname}
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []: www.{domainname}.com^[1]
Email Address []: {emailaddress}

Please enter the following ‘extra’ attributes to be sent with your certificate request:^[2]

A challenge password []:
An optional company name []:

[1] NOTE: The certificate will NOT match non-www records. You’ll need to make sure to redirect all non-www requests over to the www, or buy a wildcard certificate whill will work for any *.(domainname) instance.
[2] NOTE: Please find out if the CI (Certificate Issuing Company) would like the certificate request password protected. Most DO NOT. If they do NOT want it password protected, hit ENTER and leave the fields BLANK.

—–

Your CSR will now have been created. Open the {domainname}.csr in a text editor and copy and paste the contents into the online enrollment form when requested.

2.) Forward off the .csr file you have generated to the CI (certificate issuing company). They will email you the new certificate. They will also email you a ca certificate. This tells the client’s browser that the CI is vaild. You should rename that ca file to ca-{domainname}.crt and also the private key needs to be moved into the ssl.key folder which is located at:

/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/

You will want to copy the private key that was generated with the certificate request in step #1 to:

/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/

You will want to copy the ca file that was sent from the CI to:

/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/

See the config below for how this should look.

Server Configuration:

1.) Setup an IP Based Host – This means that the server responds to a unique IP address not configured for any site except for the one the certificate will be used: (Port 443)

<VirtualHost 12.34.56.78:443>

2.) Add the following lines to the apache conf for that site directly under the specified ServerName:

<VirtualHost 12.34.56.78:443>
ServerName www.{domainname}.com

SSLEngine on
SSLProtocol all
SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP:+eNULL
SetEnvIf User-Agent “.*MSIE.*” ssl-unclean-shutdown downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/{domainname}.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/{domainname}.key
SSLCACertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/ca-{domainname}.crt

<Files ~ “\.(cgi|shtml)$”>
SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</Files>
<Directory “/home/httpd/cgi-bin”>
SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</Directory>

CustomLog /var/log/httpd/ssl_request_log \
“%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \”%r\” %b”

<Directory /var/www/html/{domainname}>
SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
Options FollowSymLinks Indexes ExecCGI
AllowOverride None
</Directory>

RewriteEngine On
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/{domainname}
</VirtualHost>

Restarting Apache

You must completely stop and start apache for the certificate settings to be absorbed in apache:

sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl stop
sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl start

If you restart the server, for some reason, apache won’t sever “all” connections, so it is advised you stop and start.

Other Notes

Keep in mind that your locations for installing the certs, paths to apachectl can be completely different then what we have listed here. Find your locations and amend this document to best fit your needs.

Over the many deployments of Wordpress and Wordpress MU, we have found that our clients are constantly requesting the ability to sort content at the category level without editing the core of their templates.

Today, we present our latest plugin titled, “Smart Category Ordering.” The plugin that we are releasing is a modified version of a plugin we developed for WNET.org and their various Wordpress platforms.

This plugin extends the built in content sorting that you can control via your templates by allowing you to control it via the Wordpress admin. The plugin works strictly at the category level, and does NOT work with the home page, as that is not a category.

The “Smart Title” option strips the leading “a”, “an” or “the” from the post title when setting the ordering. Additionally, per sorting definition, you’ll define the number of posts per page (default is 10) and whether your category sorting is confined to a single category or the category + all children.

*Note* You should set a (catch-all) sorting option which acts as the default sorting method for the rest of your site. By default, Wordpress sorts by post date in descending order.

How To Install

First, you’ll need the plugin. You can download it here. After you have completed the download, follow these short steps:

1. Upload ’smart-category-ordering’ to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Set your sorting options

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the “Smart Title” option and how is it used?

When sorting by “Smart Title”, that option is there to the leading ‘a’, ‘an’ or ‘the’ from a post title when sorting. This is the only difference between “Smart Title” and “Title.”

Over the many deployments of Wordpress and Wordpress MU, we have found that our clients are constantly requesting the ability to post HTML that the core of Wordpress does not support. Mostly, it is HTML used for video embedding, but it can also be enhancements to existing HTML tags that are supported.

Today, we present our latest plugin titled, “Extend KSES.” KSES is a reference to the file that controls HTML that Wordpress allows. The plugin that we are releasing is a modified version of a plugin we developed for WNET.org and their various Wordpress platforms.

This plugin extends the HTML functionalify of the Wordpress kses.php file, which states the allowable HTML that the post/page content editor will accept. It allows the site administrator to check pre-defined HTML tags that can also be allowed via the editor. Tags include: `object`, `embed`, `param`, `iframe`, `map` and extensions have been added to the `div` and `img` tags.

Keep in mind, that by checking a tag, you are making it acceptable to post said HTML and save it. If your users also post content, it is important that you make sure you are not enabling any malicious HTML from wreaking havoc to your environment. If there is a tag that is missing or that you would like us to add and support, feel free to leave a comment below.

How To Install

First, you’ll need the plugin. You can download it here. After you have completed the download, follow these short steps:

1. Upload extend-kses to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Check the boxes next to the HTML tag you wish to enable and click save options
4. Paste HTML code into the HTML version – NOT the visual version – of the post/page editor and save.

Frequently Asked Questions

What tags are currently supported?

1. `div` tag extended to allow for `id` child tag.
2. `embed` tag is now fully supported, including the following children tags: `style`, `type`, `id`, `height`, `width`, `src` and the entire `object` tag (including children).
3. `iframe` tag is now fully supported, including the following children tags: `width`, `height`, `frameborder`, `scrolling`, `marginheight`, `marginwidth` and `src`.
4. `img` tag extended to allow for `usemap` child tag.
5. `map` tag is now fully supported, including the following children tags: `name` and `id`
6. `object` tag is now fully supported, including the following children tags: `style`, `height`, `width`, the entire `param` tag (including children) and the entire `embed` tag (including children).
7. `param` tag is now fully supported, including the following children tags: `name` and `value`

Design Team: “Our web site looks ok in all of those other browsers, but just not right in IE8.”

Announcer: “Well, now it can!” “With the NEW X-UA-Compatible meta tag <meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=EmulateIE7″ /> , get your pages looking JUST RIGHT on your local IE8 browser.”

Design Team: “Seriously!?! There must be a catch?”

Announcer: “There’s no catch! You don’t even have to REMOVE THE DOCTYPE!!!!! Just let X-UA-Compatible work for YOU!”

Design Team: “WOW!”

Announcer: “Act now, before this meta tag is GONE FOREVER… or replaced by IE9’s own version. Here’s how to order.”

New features include:

• New wp-admin interface allows you to toggle plugin settings. Options are (Always show profiling when logged in as an administrator?) and (Allow the ?show_queries=yes parameter in URL to show profiling?)
• Enable / Disable profiling on the front end when logged in as administrator (user Level 10) to the wp-admin interface.
• Enable / Disable ?show_queries=yes $_GET parameter via wp-admin config to allow / prevent url request for query list.
• Check whether WP_CACHE and SAVEQUERIES are set on the back end – display success / failure notices and suggestions if one is missing.
• Checks if define(‘WP_CACHE’, true); is present. If not, provides plugin suggestions for DB caching.
• Plugin automatically enabled if your user has Level 10 permissions (administrator) by default.
• If user Level < 10 or not logged in, you can continue to pass ?show_queries=yes via the url if you are not logged in.
• Sets define(‘SAVEQUERIES’, true); in plugin should it not be by default.

Front End View:

Back End View:

Download It:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpdb-profiling/

With all of the WordPress deployments we have developed for our various clients, we’ve seen a recurring trend with the plug-ins we tend to use. While we do develop our own custom plug-ins at times, we also rely heavily on the global WordPress community and the free offerings from several talented developers. Below are some of the WP plug-ins we’ve not been able to live without.

• WP Super Cache
  Written by Donncha (the creative force behind WordPress Multi-User (WPMU), this plug-in generates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After an HTML file is generated, your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.
• Batcache
  Written by Andy Skelton, Batcache uses Memcached to store and serve rendered pages. It’s not as fast as Donncha’s WP-Super-Cache but it can be used where file-based caching is not practical or not desired.
• Google Analytics for Wordpress
  Written by Joost de Valk, the Google Analytics for WordPress plug-in automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links and downloads.
• All in One SEO Pack
  Written by hallsofmontezuma, this plug-in optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines
• WPDB Profiling
  Yes, while it is true we wrote this plug-in, we use it heavily in larger deployment environments where the blog(s) will see heavy traffic. It ensures that caching is indeed taking place and allows us to debug any non-cached plug-ins.
• Wordtube
  Written by Alex Rabe, this plug-in is great for posting video to a blog in a matter of minutes.

So those are our favorites. What are some of yours?

We are pleased to announce our first publicly released plugin for WordPress.  Too often, we have found the need for full database query profiling on a page by page basis. Using this tool allows us to optimize projects & plugins that are in development.

This plugin will give you the total number of queries to the db per page, as well as the total time it took to render those queries out to the page.  Additionally, line by line each individual query will display with the originating SQL statement, time executed and the function call used to execute the query.

This is especially handy if you are debugging a slow WordPress install and can’t seem to locate the cause of the load. It is also a great way to identify plugins that may not have proper caching enabled or supported.

We hope you will find it useful as it has made our daily work with WordPress much easier.

To install, copy the folder into your plugins folder and enable it via the WordPress Plugin Manager.  Since it uses a $_GET parameter, just append to the end of your url “?show_queries=yes” and you’ve got profiling. Don’t forget to follow the readme.txt file and add “define(‘SAVEQUERIES’, true);” to your wp-config.php file.

You can download the plugin here!

In 1989, Johnson’s initial idea was “reborn” by a small Chicago family man, Clark W. Griswold, who was attempting to have the happiest family holiday since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny Kay. Griswold’s display touted 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights, although he was never able to perfect the settings resulting in an absence of the little lights twinkling.

In 2005, an electrical engineer Carson Williams set up a light show in the front yard, driveway, windows, and roof of his house. It took him about two months and 3,000 lights. The lights were synchronized to the song “Wizards in Winter” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and the show was free for anyone passing by who tuned to a specific low-power FM frequency on their car radio. Williams was able to power his display with a various array of lights totaling roughly 3000.

In 2008, Robert and Raquel Cox from Pittsburgh, PA went “Emeril Lagasse” on the tradition and threw in a little too much pepper. The result? 210,000 lights, 3 month of hanging lights and 6 month of computer programming. So behold, the craziest light show to date, and the marvel of a $5000-10000 electric bill. Recession what?!?