Not long ago, I blogged about the merits of Thesis Theme for WordPress.  I praised it for its configurability, ease of use, and search engine friendliness.  At $164 for the Developer option (which I bought), it didn’t come cheap, and updates and additional features for it have been coming thick and fast.  However, nothing could have prepared me for the shit storm that has been brewing for a while, and has finally unleashed itself on the WordPress community.  As it turns out, the developer of Thesis, Chris Pearson, has been building a business on the back of a GPL licensed piece of software, but the theme he profits from (Thesis) isn’t released under the same GPL licence – something which is not made super apparent on the Diythemes website.  Hey, if WordPress is GPL, why expect anything built on it to be anything different?

Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) and Chris Pearson (Diythemes) have been trading blows for a while, and I was hoping some happy ending would happen, until I heard this exchange between the two.

Who do you think comes across as an opinionated, self obsessed, messiah like figure – with no respect for the thousands of coders who have contributed to WordPress over the last few years?

All I know is, i’m moving away from Thesis to something else.

Update – 24th July 2010

Hurrah!  The whole fiasco has been sorted out – Thesis is now on a split GPL licence.  Looking forward to trucking on with a GPL Thesis, but hopefully the whole thing has been a great big lesson for everyone in the WordPress community.

Before I get going with this quick ‘how to’ on integration between Buddypress and Thesis Theme, let me throw a few caveats out there.  First of all, this isn’t an ‘all in one’ solution – you’ll have to grab some css files from either the default Buddypress theme or a custom Buddypress theme you manage to track down.  Your site might look a bit ugly, but you’ll have it cleaned up and looking lovely in no time at all.  I promise.

Second – at this point i’ve not managed to figure out how to get <title> and meta description tags working on Buddypress pages after the integration, but my hunch is that Seo For Buddypress might work.   I just thought i’d get this tutorial up quickly because I’m sure many other developers have been banging their heads off their desks for days to get a Thesis / Buddypress integration up and running – I know I have!  Here goes…

1. Obviously, have Buddypress and Thesis installed.  I’ve got the latest version of both up and running for this tutorial (1.2.5 and 1.7 respectively).

2. Download the excellent Buddypress Template Pack from the WordPress plugin repository.  Unpack it, install it, then follow the steps to set it up.  In case you’re lost, you’ll find a new link under your ‘Appearance‘ tab called ‘BP Compatibility‘.  You’ll be able to follow the setup steps here – just remember to have the folder of your theme writable before you begin.  The plugin will automatically write all the necessary Buddypress template files to your active theme directory.

3. This is the fun part – the really, really fun part.  Not.  You’ll need to replace

get_header ()

and

get_footer()

in each of the Buddypress template files you need to edit. I’ve attached sample code for the ‘activity’ index.php template for you to get an idea what to change.

There you go – you should be sort of up and running and have an idea of what to change in your Buddypress files to get it all up and running.

Hack and enjoy!

Few extra things:

1. Thanks to ‘danny’ over at the Thesis Theme forums for pointing me in the right direction (click here and log in to read the post – you’ll only get in if you’re a Thesis Theme member).
2. I’m on WordPress 3.0 – if this doesn’t come good for you in a different version of WordPress, please don’t beat me up.
3. I nicked the image for this post from the Buddypress website – I was in a rush, so didn’t have time to come up with a better image for it!

I’ve been a big fan of Xero, the online accounting system, for quite some time.  Since I first blogged about it almost two years ago, the service has come on in leaps and bounds, and an increasing number of Irish accountancy practices have adopted Xero and are recommending it to clients.  One of the great differences between Xero and ‘off the shelf in a box’ software like Sage is the immediate roll out of new features when they become available.  Not only can you access your accounts anywhere, anytime (you need internet access of course), but you’ll never have to install any software updates ever again.  The latest update from Xero – their Invoice Branding Tool – is rather cool.The new update allows you to apply multiple, pretty much unlimited, layouts and logos to invoices and statements.  If you’re a multi-product company with various brands under one company name, this feature will make loads of sense for you, so you can maintain brand integrity on invoices and statements whilst providing the correct payment details each time.

You can even specify different payment terms per invoice or statement layout, and on statements you can play around with the font sizes and content of the demand text, to give extra emphasis to the getting money part of running your business!  Check out the video here.

Other features in this latest release include a Fixed Assets Import tool, Bank Reconciliation comments (so you can remind yourself what certain purchases were for exactly), and a new setting for Bank Rules to help you recognise the full amount for certain transactions quickly.

If you’re an F1 fan, most likely you had your heart in your mouth during Sundays European Grand Prix at Valencia.  Mark Webber had a spectacular coming together with Finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen who drives for the Lotus F1 team.  Mark’s Red Bull F1 car had just come in for a pit stop, and was trying to pass Kovalainen for track position.  Even though the Lotus was several seconds a lap slower than the Red Bull, Heikki was determined to protect his position, and the following crash ensued!

The fact that Mark Webber walked away from this unscathed really is a testament to the integrity of the latest generation F1 cars.  Whatever about the first part of that crash, the second bit where he hit the tyre wall head on at high speed eerily reminded me of Mika Hakkinen‘s crash at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.  Here’s the video:

Hakkinen was left in a coma after the crash, as he fractured his skull when he hit his head off the steering wheel.  Mark Webber would have suffered the same fate – if not worse – were it not for the HANS devices which are compulsory for all drivers in Formula 1.

Mark’s flip wasn’t his first though.  He flipped not once, but twice during the 1999 Le Mans 24 hours – once in practice, and once in qualifying.  And his team mate Peter Dumbreck had a similar flip during the race itself.  Here’s the aftermath of Mark Webbers flippy crash:

I think i’ve gone deaf.  After spending 45 minutes of a Tube journey – all the way from Covent Garden to Heathrow – listening to slurps, squelches, and flubbers in your left ear, wouldn’t you too?  And the source of these wonderful sounds?  A young couple (Daniel was the guys name, I looked at the tag on his oversized luggage), and his young, needy, and clearly very horny girlfriend.  As I sat right beside them for most of my journey to the airport I was treated, or punished if you’d like to look at it in a realistic way, to what amounted to a ravenous display of soft-core, David Attenborough style porn.  Well, me and around 50 other passengers, all of whom had the same look of disgust in their faces, all trying to concentrate on their Danielle Steel novels instead of the real-life version going on within eye and earshot.  Oh, all of this happened at around 9am on a Tuesday morning.  To hell with a glass of Tropicana and a bit of muesli, these two get their day kick started with a full on public romp.

Can you imagine what this couple are like at a different time of the day?  Or on a different day altogether?  What happens when they go on a night out and get a little tipsy on their favourite drink (note, it’s probably a ‘their’ in real terms too – i’m putting on firm bet on them mirroring each other, right down to their choice of alco-beverage).  No doubt their network of close friends is getting smaller and smaller as each day goes by, all becoming increasingly fed up of having their drinks spilled all over them after yet another cocktail bar coffee table romp gone wrong.

If I was single and hung out with these two, it wouldn’t be long before I’d consider hanging myself just to get away from them.

But why do some people act like this when they’re in public? Thankfully i’m not single myself (I’d be even more annoyed now if I was), but I don’t think i’ve ever been that touchy-feely with my new found loves, even when I was much younger.  I totally understand what it’s like to be in love – and especially in love for the first time – but do couples have to broadcast their fresh faced happiness in such a loud manner?  Have they not seen that clip of Tom Cruise bouncing up and down on Oprah Winfrey‘s couch?  Do they not know how silly it makes them look?

So, at the expense of asking way too many questions in way to short a timeframe, how do you feel about PDA‘s?  Are you a public couple molester, or a do you try to keep your passion confined to the bedroom, where you can really enjoy it?

I’ve been a huge fan of Conan O’Brien for a long time, to the point where I even bought a I’m with Coco T-Shirt during the whole Tonight Show fiasco.  I stumbled across this great video of Conan O’Brien visiting Google today, and he seems to be happier than ever despite his public sacking.  Get ready for some subtle slagging of Jay Leno, some insights on how his Twitter account helped him generate support during his tough times, and an all too quick sampling of his ‘String Dance‘.  Enjoy!

Ok, I’ve been trying to remember just how I stumbled across this one, so please don’t ask. Flojuggler is a new ‘Web 2.0′ app which lets you “Track periods of one or more girls.” As charming as this idea sounds, there might actually be some sort of decent spin off application for such a weird – and kinda gross – idea.

Here’s a video intro which tells you what the site is all about:

Apparently Flojuggler isn’t just for women.  To be honest i’m not sure any women would really have to use it – they’re pretty damned aware of when their ‘time of the month’ is, hence products like Feminax existing.  But serial daters will certainly find it important to know the details of when every women in their phone book will “see Auntie Flo” – again not my words, but those on the Flojuggler website.

Another wonderful use-case for Flojuggler is for the guy who lives in a “house full of girls ages 10 and up along with mom and Aunt Sue. You want to know when half the house is gonna be ‘edgy’.”  (From the wonderful FAQ page right here).

But could an offshoot of this idea actually work and make money?  Course it could!

I don’t know if sites like the one i’m about to describe exist – but if they don’t you could be onto a winner if you make it.

As a former contact lens wearer, I used to subscribe to various websites where I could buy my contact lenses automatically.  I gave them my credit card details, subscription info, and told them how often i’d need contacts sent out to me – et voila, they’d automatically take money from my credit card and post me out my contact lenses on a set interval date.  I never ran short, and never had to waste any time running down to my local opticians.

Could something similar be created for tampons? Maybe a website where you put in your usual cycle times and duration, pre-order six months worth of Always – or whatever you use, pay in advance for the bulk six months supply, get a discount, and get them sent out in the post every month at just the right time.

If you decide to take me up on this great idea, why not tell me about your plans below – if it goes well and you become a multi-millionaire, you can just buy me a Guinness as a ‘thank you’.

Finally, after a long beta period and 1,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements, WordPress 3.0 has arrived.  As a WordPress user on this blog and other projects, i’m excited.  This version of WordPress really is a huge step away from it being simply ‘blogging software’ – it is now a CMS in its own right.  Here’s some of the cool new features i’m excited about.

1. WordPress 3.0 IS WordPress MU
   
   With this release of WordPress, you can run a single blog from one install – or heaps.  This feature has been coming for some time, and is basically just an integration of WordPress MU into WordPress Core.  Exciting times ahead for community based blogs.
2. Custom Post Types
   
   Previously, if you weren’t a WordPress developer and wanted some extra custom fields added to your posts, it was a slightly messy task unless you used plugins like flutter or others.   Now WordPress has custom post types built in – you can, with the click of a mouse, create multiple post types, for products, property website listings – or anything really.
3. New Theme – Thelonious
   
   Bye bye Kubrick Theme.  The new Thelonious theme that ships with WordPress is a much cleaner affair, more customisable, and really shows off the new features of WordPress.  It should make for a great starting point to any business website, blog, or online store front.
4. New, Powerful Menu Builder
   
   This is super exciting.  A new ‘drag and drop’ menu builder gives you more power than ever before when generating your menus – you can mix and match external links, category links, posts or pages, and in whatever order you like to make the perfect menu.  It creates dropdowns automatically too, for a neat, powerful site navigation.
5. Customisable Headers Per Post
   
   You can change your site header image easily, by just choosing from some packaged with the WordPress install, or you can choose your own.  You can also set the header site-wide, or can have a different site header image  per post.

Why not check out the great video WordPress have released, so you can get a better idea of what this new release will bring for you.  Oh, and don’t forget to drop me a comment below with your thoughts!

Doesn’t everyone know how to take screenshots on Mac OS X?  For lifetime Apple Fanboys (and girls) such mundane tasks are par for the course – so please bear with me and read on if this is old news to you.  I’m a recent Apple convert.  Up until January 2010, my only interactions with Apple were on a Macintosh back in secondary school (1997), and my iPhone.  Coming from the wonderfully crashy world of Windows Vista was a baptism of fire, but where the hell was the ‘Print Screen’ button?  How the hell could I take a bloomin screenshot on this new fangled thing?  Here’s how.

• Before I get started, by default (I think!) your screenshots will be saved to your desktop, and as PNG files.  You can specify different locations for your screenshots, but I don’t know how – the desktop works just fine for me.

Ok, here goes:

1. Find your ‘Command‘ key on your keyboard – it’s the one with the Apple logo on it on newer Macs.
2. Hold down ‘Command‘ + ‘Shift‘.
3. If you’d like a full screenshot of the entire screen, hit ‘3‘.
4. If you’d like to select which bits you’d like to take a shot of, hit ‘4‘.  A lovely looking crosshair type cursor will appear.  Just click and hold, drag the crosshair over the area you’d like to take a screenshot of, et voila – your customised screenshot should be on your desktop.

If you’d like to stop your screen-shotting at any time, just hit the wonderfully handy ‘ESC’ key (top left of your keyboard most of the time).

Just to test/show you what I mean, here’s a full screenshot.

And here’s a ‘crosshair’ selected bit of a screenshot.

I bought my copy of the Diythemes Thesis Theme almost a year ago – in July 2009 – and immediately forgot about it.  I’m a clever boy.  It’s only now, with the summer providing some more free time than I expected, that i’ve gotten up off my rear end and decided to push forward with some WordPress based projects – and of course i’ll be using Thesis on them all.

But first things first – what is the Thesis Theme anyway?  And, at $87 for the single use option and $164 for the developer license, why should you buy it?

I’ve bought my fair share of WordPress themes over the years, and i’ve even (ugh!) shelled out loadsamoney for custom built ones.  Some were good, some were not so good, but all of them had one thing in common – they had to be tweaked constantly to improve SEO performance, and they all required heaps of plugins to allow me easily customise title tags, meta tags, header tags – the lot.  After a while you get used to it, but installing heaps of plugins when you don’t really need to is a huge waste of time.  The Thesis Theme eliminates that workload – and so much more.

Here’s some cool reasons why you should check it out, organised into lovely little headings.

Easy to install

One of the first things that struck me after I downloaded the Thesis Theme was just how easy it was to install.  Recently I had a harrowing experience with a theme I bought on Themeforest, which ended in massive tears.  I wasted almost a day trying to get it working.  I sent emails over and back to the developer (who had ‘bug tested’ this thing and put it live for sale), but to no avail.  Yes I had the most recent version of WordPress installed.  Yes I followed the installation steps (i’ve been doing this interweb thing for over a decade, so duh).  And Yes, I did chmod that particular folder to 777 just like the developer asked.  But after all this, the darned thing didn’t work.

My Thesis Theme experience?  Download.  Unzip.  Upload.  Click ‘Activate’ in the ‘Manage Themes’ part of my blog.  Et voila, it was done.  Easy peasy.  Installation done in seconds.

Out of the box readability

When I clicked ‘refresh’ in my browser after installing the theme on this blog, I noticed the way the theme looked ‘just right’ out of the box.  The default font Thesis Theme ships with – Georgia – is super easy to read, and the default font size the developers have chosen is just right.  The layout, whilst 3 columns and not 2 which i’d prefer, still works well and is a good, clean starting point for most bloggers and developers.

The out of the box colour scheme is a mixture of blues, greys, and a background of white – think New York Times and you’re on the right track.  It looks just like a good online (or offline) newspaper.  Easy to read, uncluttered, and without any ‘Web 2.0′ bells and whistles.  Why complicate things when you don’t need to, eh?

Of course you can customise the theme using an easy to use point-and-click interface in the WordPress admin area.  You can even customise the site-wide font with one click by selecting your favourite from a drop down.  And you can – with a few clicks once more – change the number of columns from 3 columns to 2 or 1 column, and change the site background colour and various other elements using a simple palette selection tool – no css coding is required.  Check out the video below for an idea of how it works.

If you do like to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, you can dig in and play with the layout, styling of elements, and add in things like tweetmeme buttons using the built-in custom file editor.  Simply chmod three files in your Thesis Theme folder to ’666′, and you can edit custom.css, layout.css, and custom_functions.php files via your WordPress admin area.  The last file – custom_functions.php – is the place where you can add custom php code to utilise the themes’ great ‘hooks’ based system to play with the order of site elements and such.  Websites like Thesishooks.com provide a handy reference, so you can roll up your sleeves and get moving elements around in a jiffy.

Fantastic community participation

So let’s say you want to do exactly what I said above, and roll up your sleeves to get customising your Thesis Theme.  But let’s also say you’re possibly a total novice, and the thought of hooks, functions, and echos has you scratching your head in dismay.  Never fear.  On top of some great video and article tutorials, you’ll also get access to the Diythemes community for a lifetime.  It’s a vibrant place frequented by Diythemes staff, enthusiastic developers, and users of the theme who will most likely have encountered whatever issue you’re experiencing, solved it, and posted their solution to the forums.

On top of the php / css type help, you’ll also find links to great articles on how to set up your Thesis theme in the most search engine friendly way possible (it’s very SEO friendly out of the box, but tweaks can be made on a site by site basis to optimise it), how to write great content, how to promote your blog, and how to use analytics and statistics to improve and refine the content on your blog.

All in all the community access is well worth the $87 personal plan price alone – you’ll learn so much more from it than just Thesis-related tips.

Search Engine Optimisation Benefits

Matt Cutts uses Thesis Theme.  Isn’t that reason enough for anyone to buy it?  Matt Cutts – for those not in the know – is the head of Google‘s webspam team, and the guy every SEO in every corner of the planet would love to have a pint with.  He knows what makes pages rank highly in Google, the holy grail of free organic traffic.  So if he’s using it, it says a lot about just how good Thesis Theme is.

If you’re the biggest sceptic in the world and you don’t even trust Matt Cutts when it comes to your SEO advice requirements, all you need to do is search the web for anything to do with ‘Thesis Theme Reviews‘ or similar, and you’ll see stories from loads of users with real life proof of just how well Thesis has worked for them.  No wonder the community around Thesis is so active and vibrant.  Everyone who uses the theme feels like they have to give something back, or feel they must spread the word about it.  How cool is that?

Generous license

$164 buys you the developer licence, which will allow you to install the theme on as many sites you own as you like.  You can even (I think!) install it as a theme on WordPress MU if you want to set up a multi-user blogging community.  Your money also gets you access to a lifetime of updates – as well as a lifetime of access to video and article tutorials, community forums, and super quick support.

Think about it like this – if you buy it once, you’ll never have to buy another theme again.  Cha-ching!

Pricing

Thesis Theme – as I said at the top of this post – costs $87 for a single use licence, and $164 for a developer licence.  You can, at any time, upgrade your personal licence to a developer licence for the difference between the cost of both – so there’s no huge risk in buying it for the ‘one use’ price, giving it a whirl, and if and when you like it, upgrading to the full whack package.

Diythemes give you a 30 day money back guarantee too, so there isn’t really any risk in giving it a bash – and you should.

Forget all the other wishey washey bling bling superficial but seo unfriendly themes.  Give Thesis Theme a whirl and you’ll see the difference in your blog traffic and user engagement in weeks.