wejustblog

WordPress.com users now have the option to turn on falling snow on their blogs, after Matt Mullenweg asked for a falling snow script two days ago. Since it is only for WordPress.com users and not for self-hosted WordPress blogs, I whipped up a plugin that does the same. All you need to do is upload the plugin folder to your plugin directory and activate to see falling snow on your blog.

Wordpress.com users will have the snow until 2nd January but with this you can leave it on for as long as you like, though it does not make much sense to leave it on for too long.

Download at: WordPress Plugins Directory
Plugin version: 1.2
Required WordPress version: Should work with all.
License: Released under the terms of the GNU GPL: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

Installation & Config

To install, upload the folder “let-it-snow” with its contents to “wp-content/plugins/” and activate the plugin in your admin panel. That’s it!
The snowfall is configurable by editing snowstorm.js. More information at original DHTML Snowstorm page.

Support

If it does not work for you. Check that your theme has the wp_head() function call in header.php. If it does not, add <? wp_head(); ?> just before the closing </head> tag.
If the snow is going under or covered by stuff on your page, you need to open up snowstorm.js and change this.o.style.zIndex = 2; at line 192 to something like this.o.style.zIndex = 999;. (Thanks to Torben)
If you have questions or need help, leave a comment here.

Credits

This falling snow script used in this plugin is by Scott Schiller.
continued…

Regua has just released a new version of his Ajax Comments Posting WordPress plugin. The latest version 1.2 release on 21 December, 2007 fixes a bug where WordPress 2.3.1 server-response errors are not posted and also resolves jQuery’s conflict with Prototype. The changelog can be found at http://regua.biz/acp/.

I am actually the one who got the plugin working for WP 2.3.1. The plugin was originally only meant for older versions of WordPress. When I used it for this blog, I did not realize the incompatibilities until everything was in place and response errors like duplicate comments were not fetched. I spent quite a few hours customizing the plugin before that so going for a different plugin and wasting that few hours wasn’t a good idea. After some Googling and looking at the source codes of other jQuery-based commenting scripts I managed to get it to work with WP 2.3.1 and resolved the conflict with Prototype.

As I am not that good with Javascript, Regua has optimized the code and released the plugin as a new version. You can grab it from the WordPress plugin directory. I highly recommend it. Post a comment on this blog to see a demo.

Readers, both imaginary and non-existent. I am excited to be the first to write on this blog. No, actually the others are all too busy with their work and I had just finish mine — designing and coding the theme for this blog. I have even bought a WordPress Navy Blue Hoodie to reward myself for the time I have spent with WordPress for the past one week.

I think it’s a nice and good-looking thing to wear since it’s getting cold here and I get to show people how much I love WordPress. Another thing about WordPress that gives me a good feeling is how each release is named after a famous jazz musician. I believe developers who love music and jazz are able to build genuinely good products with a passion like the kind they have for music. I have been using WordPress since version 1 and prior to that, b2\cafelog, its precursor.

For a quick introduction, I am Aen, the Art Director and UI Designer of Widgeo.us. Being the creative guy and a WordPress junkie, I designed the blog and made myself its blogmaster and now this blog is like my flesh and blood.

What is Widgeo.us? In a nutshell, it is a tool we are building to allow people to build tools which unify multiple communication channels into one central core. I know this description sounds rather vague and geeky and you can barely picture the actual product in your mind. If you want to know more, this blog is where you should be checking for news and updates. Subscribing to our RSS Feed is a good idea. You can also hop on to Widgeo.us and sign up our newsletter for a chance to become a beta tester.

This is my short introduction of the Widgeo.us blog. As for other stuff like development updates and Widgeo.us related news, I’ll leave it to U-Zyn and Kah Wee, the programmer guys and Ridzuan, our man in the suit, metaphorically speaking… I have never seen him wear one.

Updates

[Dec 21, 2007] We are on Web Creme!
[Dec 23, 2007] We are featured on W3C Sites as “Editor’s Pick”
[Dec 26, 2007] Featured on CSS Mania
[Others] CSS Designed Gallery, CSS Mess, Most Inspired, Link Creme, Ultimate CSS Gallery, Ala Brasil, Web Doctrine, My3W CSS Genius, The Daily Slurp, CSS Vault