Will Anderson

I’ve been catching up on the WordPress Weekly Podcasts lately and while I was listening to one of the first shows I came across a nice security tip. Place empty index.php files in all directories that don’t already have an index file. Directories like the /wp-content/plugins folder could be dangerous in the hands of hackers if one of the plugins you use has a security flaw. By obscuring the folder’s contents you make it just a little harder for hackers to cause you problems.

I went about creating these empty index files on my site, but soon discovered that there are hosts of folders that could use them (think about the date structure in /wp-content/uploads ). Then I remembered another tool. .htaccess. Add this line of code to your .htaccess file to keep file in any directory from being listed (this works on any site who’s server supports .htaccess by the way, not just WordPress blogs).

IndexIgnore *

Really simple, I know, but I thought I’d share it all the same.

I just released my first WordPress plugin. It’s not the fist plugin I’ve written, but it’s the first one that’s good enough to release to the community.

Check out the info and download it here.

If you have comments or suggestions, by all means let me know (either by email or by commenting here)!

The WordPress development blog just posted a link to a survey about what features should be in WordPress 2.8. If you use WordPress, you should take the survey and let your opinion be known.

Bread Crumbs are something that’s been around for quite some time. I first remember seeing them in ANGEL when my dad was working for the company in 2005. Similar things can be found in File Browsers, and browser history is really a kind of bread crumb.

[More]

I got a letter today from “Domain Renewal Group” informing me that “itsananderson.com” will be expiring within the next couple months. They offered to let me transfer my domain registration to them for only $30! This is really amazing because I had just renewed “itsananderson.com” a couple days before and had been charged $10. What was I thinking! Next time I’ll have to go with “Domain Renewal Group”

By the way, I’m currently listening to the Bitwire Holiday Marathon. If you’d like to listen to Jeff Chandler talk about non-WordPress related topics you should check it out.

http://holidaymarathon.com/

I just read about a new feature of WordPress 2.7 that I had previously missed: wp_page_menu. It’s a wrapper around wp_list_pages, but it allows you to list the home page as well. When I get a chance, I’m going to update my template to use this, rather than the somewhat hacky solution I’m currently using.

By the way, I found out about the new function here. If you’d like to learn about other new features WordPress 2.7 (or how to use wp_page_menu) you should definitely check it out.

A few weeks ago Nick Ohrn suggested that I write about some of the plugins I use in my work for IRPA. The beginning of winter term sort of put a hold on that idea, but today I finally have a little time, so I’m going to start by writing about My Page Order.

[More]

Exactly a month after the originally scheduled release, WordPress 2.7 is here!

Check out the Release Announcement.

Download Page

Just wanted to really quickly say that WordPress 2.7 RC 2 came out today. The second release candidate means we’re probably only a couple days away from getting a final release. Its interesting that the final release will be almost exactly one month after its originally intended release. I suppose this is really to be expected though, considering all the changes that went into 2.7.

EDIT: Oh yes, and here’s the dev blog announcement and the direct download link.

Having perhaps a little too much time on my hands today, I decided to make my Windows XP installation look like Ubuntu. Why bother with Windows XP at all? Well, I still need many windows applications for various classes I’m currently taking, but I like the Ubuntu interface better than the one provided with Windows XP, so making XP look like Ubuntu seemed like a good way to go. I’m actually quite pleased with what I was able to do, and I may stick with this configuration.

[More]