Now I like WordPress, I do – but when I get a new blog put up, and spend an hour or so tweaking it the way I want, then standing back and admiring my personalized site on the Internet, I definitely do NOT think of it as ‘just’ another blog. It’s mine, my efforts, and it’s special – and personal. So why build in a message that trivializes the work of the person making the blog?

Oh, I know what you’re saying – we can change it so easily. True – but then why are there 233,000,000 results? Are their WordPress blogs ‘just’ not like ours?

And dictionaries agree with me on this – here’s a sampling of definitions for ‘just’:

• Merely; only: ‘just a scratch.’
• Simply; only; no more than; ‘they were just interested in making money’
• Only or merely: ‘He was just a clerk until he became ambitious’

And so on.

But we aren’t making ‘merely’ another WordPress blog – we are making a place on the web. It’s not ‘just’ a blog – when we set it up, when we personalize it, or even when we finally change that message – so why have the message at all?

Let WordPress Central know you’d like to see something different, and post your preferences for what you’d like to see here – even if it is for ‘just’ leaving off the message’s ‘just’!

For quite some time I’ve used the old fashioned way of adding code – work in the HTML editor, the switch to the Visual editor and paste in code so that it formats it “HTML safe” (like changing the test ‘less than’ in code from < to &lt;)

But with a new plugin, my code can be quickly formatted to look right for a variety of computer languages, and with minimal fuss. For example, in C/C++ code I just wrap the code with [c]…[/c] and the  formatting is done for me, including line numbers and color coding.

To view it, drop by just about any page on my tech blog UtopiaMechanicus.com (I write a lot of code examples there). The display for each code section is almost entirely up to the plugin – I only added the surrounding code entries, and of course, changed the settings to suit my blog (dark background colors, for instance).

To give it a try:

• Search on “SyntaxHighlighter Evolved” in your Admin Plugins; Add New tab.
• Install and go to its settings.
• Adjust them to suit (if at all).

Add code with the encircling tags (and NO switching to the Visual editor). As I mentioned, [c] and [/c] are C/C++; [php] is for PHP, and so on (the plugin links you to a list of codes if you need a different one).

The plugin has so far jazzed up my pages and made maintenance easier. If you have a lot of source code (of any language), consider adding it to your site – and format more easily!

I’ve talked in the past of the dangers of using ‘just any’ theme out there, and of course you should always update your blog as soon as a new security problem is fixed.

But are plugins an issue?

Now I’m not reporting about a specific plugin here, one that is doing bad things. However, the potential IS there, and here’s some reasons why:

• A plugin, when activated, has access to all of WordPress, and to your site. MYSQL info, Admin passwords (encrypted, although it’s not hard to replace it with one of your own choosing via their plugin – or even add a new user), user lists, and even files on your site.
• Even a deactivated plugin still can be called on your site. At the very least, you can call a plugin directly via a URL and get an error message which reveals a bit about your site; at worst, the plugin will actually do something independent of WordPress.
• Open source does not mean ethical, legal, honest. I can conceive of a plugin that has buried in it is some nasty code. And to add insult to injury, by calling it Open Source, this bombshell can appear on the WordPress plugins site, ready to automatically download and install.
• Even a ‘good’ plugin may have problems due to security (after all, look how often bugs crop up in WordPress itself). For example, if the plugin author doesn’t follow strict security rules when writing the plugin, there can be leaks. Combined with it being Open Source, someone may read the source code and use those leaks to crack open a site.

So with so many potential issues, what should you do?

• Go for trusted. If a plugin has been in use for months, and the programmer is respected, that’s a plus. If the plugin is brand new and unknown, that’s a minus. Not that new plugins can’t be good – but unless you know about plugins in general, you might have a problem, which leads to our next point.
• Ask your tech person. Someone who knows PHP and WordPress tech can tell you if the plugin is odd or not. It’s time consuming to go through a plugin line by line (I know, I do my fair share when vetting them for my ActiveBlogging members), but essential.
• Use few plugins. The fewer you use, the fewer security issues you have to check over.
• If you program your own plugins, program securely. Learn about PHP security. Read all you can on the topic. And make your plugins bullet-proof. Even a line like this at the top helps:

  if (!defined('WPLANG')) exit();

  This call checks if the WPLANG value is defined, which it is in WordPress; but if you call this plugin directly, it isn’t, and fails silently.

• Delete unused plugins. Log into your site and remove any you aren’t using if at all possible.

The issue of security is a huge one – and like anything on your website you need to be on guard against broken ones. It’s a real shame, but that unfortunately is the price you pay to be on the ‘wild west’ of the Internet.

They are the comments like ‘like your blog’, or ‘bookmarked it’, or the more obvious ones with a quick comment before a page of links: ‘enjoyed your site (link to viagra) (link to porn) (link to cialis) (link to porn) etc’,

Your definition of spam comments may vary, but mine is very simple:

If they didn’t write something relevant to the blog post they commented on, it’s spam.

If I’m talking about a plugin, it doesn’t matter if they are having problems finding places for government grants – no relevancy, it’s gone.

Ask me about permission to use my feed? They can contact me directly (the link labeled ‘contact’ does wonders). And if it’s a real person, then I pity them: if they can’t figure out how to borrow a free-for-all feed, giving them permission won’t help.

However, I make fun because all of these are spammed comments from real machines, not real people. And I know because I’ve tried a fun little plugin that takes care of all my spam woes and deleted all of these (at least until spammers get wise and improve their systems).

The plugin, Cookies for Comments, by the talented Donncha Caoimh (of WP Super Cache fame) checks to see if a spammer is automated; if so, the comment is lost. Otherwise, it’s passed through.

The plugin is easy to use: download from his site, install, and activate (of course, you can get it directly and install it from WP Central via the Plugin’s Add New tab in Admin – search on ‘cookies comments’.

The only thing I would mention is to change the settings (in the Admin Settings; Comments for Cookies section) to delete comments instead of placing them in the spam section. While it might be fun to get them blacklisted as spammers, deleting them directly means you don’t have to fuss with any cleanup.

The plugin so far works like a charm; instead of monitoring my comments and deleting a few dozen a day, now I only login for a ‘real, live’ person. It’s a great change.

In fact, the plugin is so good I’m more or less retiring my member’s comment killer plugin from active duty, and now am recommending this to everyone. One exception: when WordPress is used for a static site (ie, no comments at all), my plugin can vacuum up ALL comments without a trace.

Grab the plugin – install it – and sit back and avoid one more chore online: comment cleanup…

The move, using an in-house compiler program, HopHop, takes the original PHP code and translates it to C++ code, with then can be compiled and run on the Web server as a program.

As another benefit, FaceBook has released the HipHop compiler as Open Source, meaning anyone can convert/compile their PHP code.

C++, a language that allows very fast low-level access to computer hardware, is traditionally preferred for fast programs. In contrast to PHP, C++ is however more difficult to learn and program. Using a compiler like HipHop marries the strengths of the two; PHP code for fast development, and then C++ for speed and performance.

One disadvantage of the resulting code is that it is less portable. Unlike PHP, which can be run on just about any web server, different processors need different C++ program formats, so the code will need to recompiled for every processor/Operating system it is run on.

Despite the disadvantages, a 50% speed improvement is no small thing for FaceBook – and with close to 1/2 billion members, it translates into a lot less servers needed to run all those pages..

So now that we can turn PHP into faster C++ code the next question comes up: will anyone compile WordPress for speed?