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This website is proudly powered by WordPress. WordPress has become far more than a blogging tool and with a little bit of patience and understanding of how it works almost anyone can use it as a small-scale Content Management System (CMS).

One of the most powerful aspects of WordPress is the ability to apply themes and templates which makes changing not only the look but also the functionality of the site. The theme I am currently using is based on Subtle which was created by Glued Ideas. It is the first public theme released by Glued Ideas and it was primarily designed for sites that have multiple authors. Subtle also makes use of WordPress Widgets which makes customization a snap. I, in turn, have modified the theme to better meet my needs changing not only the color scheme but also some of the functionality and available page templates. Nothing major, but enough to make it more personal.

Below I have compiled a list of plug-ins that I have pulled together to make this site possible. Admittedly, the more I use the platform, the more I appreciate its true power and capability. While much of it is part of the core software itself however, the plug-ins are definitely a valuable resource. Expect this list to change over time as I add new functionality and eliminate old functionality that I no longer need.

Plugins:

I am currently using 18 plugins. They are listed and described below:

  • Akismet v2.1.6 by Matt Mullenweg — Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put <?php akismet_counter(); ?> in your template. See also: WP Stats plugin.
  • Download Manager vR1.beta2_WP2 by Kaf Oseo — Restrict and track downloads through WordPress.
  • Exec-PHP v4.2 by Sören Weber — Executes <?php ?> code in your posts, pages and text widgets. See the local documentation for further information.
  • Executable PHP widget v1.0 by Otto — Like the Text widget, but it will take PHP code as well. Up to 9 instances of this widget may exist. Heavily derived from the Text widget code included with the widget plugin by Automattic, Inc.
  • FireStats v0.9.9-beta by Omry Yadan — Statistics plugin for WordPress.
  • Flash Video v1.0 by Joshua Eldridge — simplifies the process of adding a flash video to a post
  • Footnotes v1.2.1 by Rob Miller — MediaWiki-style <ref>Some note or other</ref> footnotes.
  • Get Custom Field Values v2.1 by Scott Reilly — Easily retrieve and control the display of any custom field values/meta data for posts, inside or outside “the loop”. The power of custom fields gives this plugin the potential to be dozens of plugins all rolled into one.
  • ImageManager v2.3.9 by Per Soderlind — PHP ImageManager + Editor for WordPress. It will not be enabled until you have configured it via the Options >> ImageManager menu. *** Requires Wordpress 2.0 *** Licensed under the MIT License.
  • Lightbox 2.02 Plugin v0.6.4 beta by Kjell Bublitz — Plugin that turns linked images into neat Javascript overlays popups, which is much nicer instead of just linking to fullsize images. This plugin uses the cool Lightbox javascript by Lokesh Dhakar, which has been transformed to a Wordpress plugin by me, inspired by Frank from 2d-sign. Revised and modified by Steve Winton, proceed with caution! -> beta
  • Now Reading v4.3.5 by Rob Miller — Allows you to display the books you’re reading, have read recently and plan to read, with cover art fetched automatically from Amazon.
  • Official Comments v1.1 by Brett Taylor — Adds functions to distinguish authorised WP user’s comments.
  • Postie v0.9.9.3.2 by Dirk Elmendorf — Signifigantly upgrades the posting by mail features of Word Press (See Quick Readme)
  • Search Everything v2.3 Jan2 by Dan Cameron — Adds search functionality with little setup. Including the option to search pages, attachments, drafts, comments and custom fields (metadata). wp-admin options page added to customize default searches.
  • Sideblog Wordpress Plugin v4.4 by Kates Gasis — A simple aside plugin.
    Licensed under the GPL
  • Sociable v2.0 by Peter Harkins — Automatically add links on your posts to popular social bookmarking sites. Go to Options -> Sociable for setup.
  • Viper’s Plugins Used v1.12 by Viper007Bond — Allows you to display alphabetically what plugins you have enabled on your blog in either a table or unordered list. Also allows you to set custom descriptions for the plugins in the output.
  • wp-cache v2.1.2 by Ricardo Galli Granada — Very fast cache module. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system. Once enabled, go to “Options” and select “WP-Cache”.