Peter's Useful Crap

You, or someone whose blog you manage, might have the need to put long URLs in their WordPress posts. Generally speaking, if these are linked URLs, you should simply use some shorter, descriptive link text and keep the long URL in the link tag. For example, use William Hung article that I haven’t actually read instead of http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/Hung+trades+music+for+mathematics/TVNews/Articles/080422_william_hung_teaches_MH.htm?isfa=1.

However, if this is not possible (you want to show the web address or you simply don’t have control over the person posting), you can use a plugin to automatically shorten the display of the URL, without altering the actual link. For example, instead of the painfully long URL above, it would display as http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.c…..htm?isfa=1.

A great plugin called wp-chunk already exists to solve this problem for URLs in comments. You can modify the plugin to apply to posts by either replacing or adding to the bottom “filter” code with this line:

add_filter('the_content', 'make_chunky');

For those who are scared to modify code, here is a modified version of wp-chunk (with permission from its author) for posts. I have successfully tested it with WordPress 2.5:

Download the modified wp-chunk plugin to shorten URLs in WordPress posts

Simply unzip the file to your plugins folder and activate it. I have also included one extra option to add the functionality of automatically turning all non-linked URLs into links. (Look for the $wp_chunk_clickable setting in the plugin file.) For example, with this option enabled, if you were to type http://www.theblog.ca in your post, it would automatically be linked as http://www.theblog.ca.

(Warning, geek post)

Suppose you have set up a web server, hosting, say http://alpha.theblog.ca, and that this server is on the same network as your computer:

Internal IP of web server: 192.168.1.10 (serving http://alpha.theblog.ca)
Internal IP of your computer: 192.168.1.11
Internal IP of your router: 192.168.1.1
External IP of your network: 65.98.116.34

In our example, the public DNS record for http://alpha.theblog.ca points to 65.98.116.34 (where the router sits as the gatekeeper), and the firewall rules on the router point all such requests to 192.168.1.10 (the server). Therefore, the server can provide external visitors with the correct content for http://alpha.theblog.ca.

However, if you access http://alpha.theblog.ca from inside the network, behind the router, you might only bring up the router page. For some reason, the firewall rules do not properly route your request to the server. I’ve experienced this problem on several entry-level routers and have never been able to get the firewall rules to work for computers on the same network as the server.

The solution, as suggested by Derek (who came up with the brilliant resizing a Photoshop text box without distorting the text tip), is to edit your computer’s hosts file so that http://alpha.theblog.ca points directly to 192.168.1.10, instead of having to be routed. There is a great tutorial on the hosts file, but the gist of it is that all entries in your hosts file directly bypass the need to look up public DNS entries. So while http://alpha.theblog.ca might publicly point to 65.98.116.234, you could have your computer load 192.168.1.10 for that address with this hosts file entry:

192.168.1.10   alpha.theblog.ca

More fun with the hosts file include entries for domains that already exist or that don’t even exist. Heck, you could make it so that whenever you type google.com in your browser, it loads a page on your own computer (if you have a simple server set up on your computer):

127.0.0.1   www.google.com
127.0.0.1   google.com

Koodo Mobile, a subsidiary of Telus, is the new kid on the block in the Canadian cell phone scene. Its loud print, TV, and transit ads (not to mention the silly promotion on the street where they gave away head bands) signal that Telus is aggressively going after the “no-frills” cell phone service market of players like Virgin Mobile and pay as you go providers, using an ironic pitch that goes against what many people dislike about Telus itself.

There is actually a lot to like about Koodo Mobile. It has no System Access Fee (that bogus monthly fee that is usually around $7) and no 911 fee. With per-second billing, call forwarding, call waiting, and conference calling included, that’s certainly a good start.

You might find the $20 and up deals to suit your needs with included features like free evenings and weekends. The Koodo Mobile website is clear and easy to use, so you can mess around with the different plans and add-ons. The cheapest $15 plan, which gives you 50 minutes and 50 text messages, is not that good of a deal for light users. Remember that unlike a pay as you go (or “prepaid”) plan, if you use only 30 minutes of airtime in a month, your 20 extra minutes are gone. And minutes over the alloted bundle are 35 cents per minute, unlike the cheaper rates of 20 or 25 cents per minute of pay as you go plans.

I’ve noticed a few things that prospective Koodo-ers should keep in mind:

• The long distance rate (presumably for calls made to Canada and the USA) is an extra $0.35 per minute.
• Call display and voice mail cost extra on all plans.
• Koodo runs on the Telus CDMA network. For travellers, this means that you cannot use your phone overseas with foreign SIM cards.
• The Koodo Tab is, in my opinion, just a reformulation of those contracts that everybody dreads. In the long-term, it is slightly better than a contract.

  Consider the scenario where you buy a phone at a discount because you start a $150 Koodo Tab. If you have a $45 monthly plan, you can deduct 10% of it, or $4.50 from the Tab every month. This means that you have to stay with the $45 plan for 34 months (almost three years) before you completely pay off the Tab. If you only have a $50 tab and a $25 monthly plan, this is paid off in over 1.5 years. The reason why this is better than a contract is that you only have to pay the remaining balance on your Tab if you decide to leave early.

August 6, 2008: Due to the number of comments on this post, all discussion about Koodo Mobile has been moved to the forum

Picnik continues to evolve as a free, full-featured, quick, easy-to-use, online photo editor. So far, the newfangled Photoshop Express has nothing on Picnik, the best online photo editor available.

While Picnik continues to add cutting edge features, such as the ability to take screenshots directly in your browser, one of its strengths is its ability to do the simple things well. However, I must admit that I couldn’t figure out how to draw a line or a nice arrow. This was because there is no dedicated line tool and the two preset arrows would naturally be too distorted when I tried to stretch them.

Now, the solution was quite simple (but obviously it took me a while to figure it out!) and applies to many photo editing programs, online or not. First of all, a line is basically a rectangle, so since Picnik has a rectangle tool, you can draw lines with it!

To draw an arrow, simply put a triangle on top of a line.

You can stretch (and rotate) the line and triangle as much as you want without distorting the arrow since the line and triangle are separate elements.

Unlike Canada, Hong Kong is one of the many places in the world in which you can walk into a retail store and buy a SIM card without having to also buy a phone.

For a previous trip to Hong Kong, I had bought a local Hong Kong SIM card on eBay, but you pay a slight premium plus shipping, and the main advantage is that you know your phone number ahead of time (you can also call people before you get to the arrival hall). Recently I had to go to Hong Kong on short notice and picked up a SIM card from the 7-Eleven in the arrival hall of the Hong Kong airport. (Side note: I’ve also discovered that there are 7-Elevens practically everywhere in Hong Kong.)

The SIM card cost HK$68. Considering that at the time of writing, 1 Canadian dollar equals over 7.5 Hong Kong dollars, this was less than $10 CAD. It came with HK$78 airtime, and local calls were HK$0.25 per minute. The rate to Canada was the same amount. Compared to what you pay here in Canada, this is outrageously cheap. With this SIM card, I could also roam (good for a side trip to mainland China), and send and receive text messages internationally, albeit for a couple of Hong Kong dollars — still reasonable. I made sure to check my balance regularly, which was a free call to the hotline.

In order to use a Hong Kong SIM card, you need a phone that runs on the 900 or 1800 band. For North Americans, this means that you need a tri-band or quad-band phone. I was fortunate in that the phone I got in 2005 from a Rogers pay as you go deal was a quad-band phone.

Activating the phone was easy, as it was activated as soon as I made my first call. I didn’t have to submit any personal information at all.