budgetweb

The Famous 5-Minute Install told me everything that I needed to know. The only step I had to do before that was to create a database using the Pair Networks Account Control Center.

And don’t forget, when editing wp-config.php, that Pair hosts MySQL on different servers from your web site. So you’ll need to change localhost to the server specified in the Database Administration page.

Once I had it installed, I spent some time looking for a theme. Eventually I settled for the default theme and just changed the header graphic. The steps for this were

1. upload a 1024×192 JPG (MountainHeader2.jpg) to ~/wp-content/themes/default/images
2. edit ~/wp-content/themes/default/style.css
3. change kubrickheader.jpg to the MountainHeader2.jpg

What took most of the time was tracking down the plugins and widgets that I needed to display twitter, flickr and del.icio.us in the sidebar. I was going to write a post on the widgets that I selected, but I’ve found a great plugin called WP-PluginsUsed which generates the report below automatically. This way if I change the plugins I use in future, this post will always contain the ones I currently have active.

There are 7 plugins used: 4 active plugins and 3 inactive plugins.
Active Plugins

  del.icio.us for Wordpress 1.8
» Ricardo González (url)
Displays your recently listened links. Based on Pownce for Wordpress by Cavemonkey50.

  Flickr Thumbnail Photostream 1.1
» PlusNet Plc - Developer Responsible: James Tuck (Web Development Team) (url)
Generates a random selection of photo thumbnails from a given Flickr account.

  Twitter for Wordpress 1.9
» Ricardo González (url)
Displays your public Twitter messages for all to read. Based on Pownce for Wordpress by Cavemonkey50.

  WP-PluginsUsed 1.30
» Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan (url)
Display WordPress plugins that you currently have (both active and inactive) onto a post/page.

Inactive Plugins

  Akismet 2.1.4
» Matt Mullenweg (url)
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.

  FAlbum 0.7.1
» Elijah Cornell (url)
A plugin for displaying your Flickr photosets and photos in a gallery format on your Wordpress site.

  Hello Dolly 1.5
» Matt Mullenweg (url)
This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page.

This is not my first publishing effort on the web. Not even my first blog. Like my earlier online work, I will be writing about software, web sites and gadgets that interest me. But I also plan to write about how I like to do things. Why? Because it helps to organize my thoughts and connect with people from whom I can learn.