October 27, 2009
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A while back we looked at a few of the most popular online file storage providers. These included Mozy, Box, XDrive and DriveHQ. Since then the XDrive service has closed. If you click on their old link, they point you to other service providers who offer online storage of all your important files. So, it’s high time to look at these backup and file storing services again.
The features that would be important to me are the amount of storage space you get, whether there is a limit on the size of the account, if backups will interfere with the computer speed, whether the stored files could be shared with others or myself sitting at another computer, and of course the monthly cost.
Here’s my latest breakdown of the most popular online storage providers.
- Mozy offers 2GB totally free. You pay only $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. Strictly a backup and restore service, not for file sharing. You can sign up two computers for free, but the 2GB would be shared. If you want unlimited storage and backup, then each computer would need its own account.
- Box gives you 1GB storage and allows file sharing. There is a limit of 25MB for the size of any file, but this would be a great service for small projects involving 5 people or fewer. You can invite collaborators to read and or modify the files. Unfortunately, you have to give your credit card number to sign up and it will be billed after a 14-day trial period. If you do sign up, the cost would be $9.95 per month for 5 GB of storage. This is more of a file-sharing service. Not a complete backup and restore service.
- DriveHQ provides more services than backup and restore. You can share your files with a slick drag and drop interface. This site can be used for sharing videos and photos and other large files. Backup plans start at $2.99 per month for 2GB and scale up from there depending on how much space you need. For 6GB the cost goes up to $7.99 per month, but you can backup multiple PCs.
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Posted in Software, Time Management, Webmastering 
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August 19, 2009
Are you surprised that your code is not showing properly in a WordPress post, even after you used the code tag?
The code tag only changes the font so that your code appears different from the rest of your text. It does not fix it so that WordPress won’t recognize your code. To handle this in a very efficient way, use the service at htmlizer.
Just copy and paste your code fragments into the provided box and hit the “htmlize!” button. The code characters like <, >, " will be replaced with their HTML special characters so that the code is not perceived by the WordPress engine as actual code.
Posted in Time Management, Webmastering No Comments »
August 17, 2009
I needed to make a second sidebar for a WordPress theme – starting from a simple one-sidebar theme. It is a three-step process to get a sidebar recognized by WordPress so that it shows on your screen. Also, each sidebar must have its content listed in a separate file, like sidebar.php.
First, you have to tell WordPress that there are two sidebars for your theme. This step is called registering the sidebar. The important point here is to make sure that each sidebar is given a different name. Here, two sidebars are designated. They will have the names sidebar 1 and sidebar 2. Put this code in functions.php.
<?php
if (function_exists("register_sidebars")) {
register_sidebars(2, array("name" => "sidebar %d"));
}
?>
Alternatively, the functions.php code could use separate lines, one for each sidebar, like so:
<?php
if ( function_exists(‘register_sidebar’) )
register_sidebar(sidebar-one);
register_sidebar(sidebar-two);
?>
You could have more than one sidebar. Just make sure each one is registered with a new name.
The content for each sidebar will be in separate files, such as sidebar1.php and sidebar2.php.
Second, each sidebar must be included in the index, page, or single pages where each sidebar is to appear. Use a template path in an include statement with the name of each sidebar file, like so:
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/sidebar1.php’); ?>
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/sidebar2.php’); ?>
Third, the sidebar.php files must pass the name of the sidebar when calling the dynamic_sidebar function. At the top of each sidebar.php file, insert this code:
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(’sidebar 1′) ) : ?>
Here, we pass the name of the sidebar (sidebar 1), not the filename (sidebar1.php).
The top of the sidebar1.php file is:
<div class="sidebar">
<ul>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(’sidebar 1′) ) : ?>
followed by a few list-items, closing unordered list and closing div tags. Sidebar2.php is as follows in its entirety:
<div class="sidebar2">
<ul>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(’sidebar 2′) ) : ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>
There you have it! Now all there is to do is to go back to the WP admin panel > appearance > widgets and select the widgets that you need for each sidebar. Now, your WordPress theme has two sidebars!
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