By default, your WordPress-powered blog is designed to provide “previous” and “next” links at the bottom of the page, allowing your readers to fumble their way through your archive of blog posts. This isn’t too much trouble if they only want to go back a page or two, but what if they want to dive five, ten, or a hundred pages into your history? This can create for a fair bit of user frustration.

Lester Chan has a great WordPress plugin that alleviates this very concern, providing your blog with the ability to show numbered pages for navigation purposes. This is similar to what you get when you encounter a longer thread in a forum, letting you jump from the first page to the third page by clicking on the number three. Instead of having the simple “previous” and “next” links at the bottom of the page, you’ll get a series of numbers. You can also define exactly how many of these numbers are displayed, so you don’t get all cluttered.

Installation and setup are fairly straightforward. After downloading the appropriate zip file and uncompressing its contents, you upload this content to the plugins folder on your WordPress installation via FTP. From there, you activate the plugin from your WordPress dashboard and customize the settings from the provided user interface panel. You can define the text for the current page, the first post, the last post, and so forth.

Check out LesterChan.net for more information, including screenshots and the installation file.

If you’re dealing with and storing passwords with PHP, you shouldn’t store that password in plain-text. You’ll want to encrypt that password, otherwise, if someone were to get ahold of your database, all of your user’s passwords would be available to them.

When dealing with passwords, they should be encrypted using a non-decryptable algorithm. Examples of these in MD5 and SHA-1. An example of a decryptable algorithm is base64. Some algorithms generate stronger message digests than others. Collisions have been found in md5, for example. A collision is when more than one string results in the same message digest. Because of this, you should use a stronger digest, such as SHA-1 or SHA-2.

Starting with PHP 5.1.2, PHP has one function to use to generate the message digest type you want. Previously, there were a bunch of separate functions to do this. This one function is hash(). The first parameter is the algorithm you want to use (you can get a list of available algorithms using hash_algos()). The second parameter is the string you want to encrypt.

[code='php']$password = '123456';
echo 'md5 = ' . hash('md5', $password) . '\n';
echo 'sha1 (SHA-1) = ' . hash('sha1', $password) . '\n';
echo 'sha256 (SHA-2) = ' . hash('sha256', $password);[/code]

Which would output:

md5 = e10adc3949ba59abbe56e057f20f883e
sha1 (SHA-1) = 7c4a8d09ca3762af61e59520943dc26494f8941b
sha256 (SHA-2) = 8d969eef6ecad3c29a3a629280e686cf0c3f5d5a86aff3ca12020c923adc6c92

If you are looking for visibility in the search engines – and who isn’t – understanding optimized press releases and social media press releases is a must. An optimized press release, when written using relevant keywords, may get you page-one results in search engines. And with the advent of universal search, the new breed of social media or Web 2.0 press releases will give you the extra advantage of reaching traditional media as well as online influencers.

Our guest presenter, Melinda Van Patter of Marketwire, will explain the social media press release and its place in the world of Web 2.0.

Doug Hay will be introducing and demonstrating a new, innovative and complimentary tool bar designed by PRESSfeed for PR professionals to make life easier when doing an optimized press release. All the sites and tools you need to do your optimized press release are provided within the toolbar! What could be easier? Everything at your fingertips!

Whether you have questions about backlinks, the latest search engine tools and techniques, or just wonder if a social media press release is right for you, connect with our experts in this complimentary webinar.

When is the event happening?
Thursday, May 7, 2009 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Where is it happening?
Online Webinar

Registration
To register for this event RSVP here.

Environmental concerns have really come into the forefront in recent years and we should all be paying attention to the impact that we are having on the world around us. There are countless things that each and every one of us can do to reduce our carbon footprints and to be a little nicer to Mother Nature. This is partly why Bluefur is so proud to be a “green” hosting provider.

Looking at your own office, whether it be in an industrial park or in your own home, it is a good idea to consider tactics that can reduce your impact on the environment. We can all be more energy efficient, for example, by turning out the lights when we leave a room or shutting off the heat when we leave for the day. Another major area of concern is paper use. While a recycling program can be helpful, there is still a substantial environmental impact from the recycling process itself. It is substantially better not to use that paper in the first place.

What are some ways that you can reduce paper use in the office? Here are a few strategies that you may want to try.

• Get rid of the fax machine. This doesn’t mean that you can no longer accept faxes from your customers and colleagues. Instead, look into virtual fax machines that can run on your computer. Incoming faxes are received in the form of PDFs that can then be easily sorted and stored.
• Stop sending paper memos. Instead of printing out a memo and placing it on everyone’s desk, it would be much more efficient to simply send an email.
• Opt for e-billing. If your suppliers offer an option for e-invoices, use those instead of paper invoices. The same can be said about sending invoices to your customers, so look into some e-billing solutions for your business.
• Eliminate paper cups. Most offices have a water cooler, but it’s not at all necessary to offer disposable paper cups next to the water cooler. Encourage all of your employees to bring their own reusable mugs instead.

Do you have any more suggestions for reducing your paper use in the office? Feel free to share them through the comments below.

As with other programming languages, there is a much simpler loop than for in Javascript. The while is similar to the for loop, except that it just evaluates an expression. Basically, doesn’t accept the first and third parameters of the for loop.

The while loop takes one expression and evaluates it. If the expression evaluates to true, the contained code block will be executed, and then the expression will be evaluated again (and so on). If the expression evaluates to false, the code block will not be executed, and the expression will not be evaluated again. Let’s look at an example:

[code='javascript']var x=1;
while (x < 5) {
document.write('true');
x++;
}[/code]

Which would write true onto the page four times.

In some cases we may not be guaranteed that the code block will even be run once. If you absolutely require the code block to be run at least once, then we can do what's called a do-while loop. This loop will run the code block before even evaluating the expression, then it will continue on as a regular while. Let's adapt the above example into a do-while loop.

[code='javascript']var x=1;
do {
document.write('true');
x++;
} while (x < 5);[/code]

In this example, the result is the same. In more complex, dynamic situations, this will make a difference.

We tend to run a lot of programs on our computers these days, but not all of these applications can run on your single display at a time. Between your multiple web browsers, word processor, image editor, Twitter client (don’t forget to follow me and Gary), instant messenger, and countless other applications, there’s just not enough screen real estate to go around. Running a full secondary monitor may not be a viable option either, especially if you’ve got a smaller desk.

Whether you’ve got a desktop, a laptop, or a netbook, perhaps one of the easiest ways to gain a second screen is with the Nanovision Mimo USB Mini Monitor. You don’t have to fumble with multiple cables, because everything runs off of a single USB connection. The small seven-inch display draws its power from the available USB port and it is through this same connection that it gets its graphics information. Nothing could be simpler.

The least expensive seven-inch offering from Nanovision is the UM-710, but the company also offers two higher models that feature webcams, microphones, and even touch panels. You can use this secondary display for your instant messenger or Twitter, for example, so that it is always visible without being in the way of your main programs. It can also be a great place to stash your Skype application.

The basic UM-710 is just $129, so that’s not a very expensive investment for the utility and simplicity that you receive. For a closer look at this secondary monitor, check out the full review on Futurelooks.