Jacob Theo

SmartLinks by AdaptiveBlue

One of my favorite plugins, SmartLinks by AdaptiveBlue automatically adds a small blue icon to the right of various links on your blog. When clicked, SmartLinks delivers relevant links from the best web sites online. Your visitors will be able to explore other places on the web right from your blog. Ease of Installation: very easy

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 by Takayuki Miyoshi allows you to install multiple contact forms for simple communication. I have used several contact forms for WordPress and I like the simplicity and beauty of Contact Form 7. It uses attractive AJAX when you send a message with it. Ease of Installation: very easy

Easy Gravatars

Add Gravatars to comments automatically with Easy Gravatars by Dougal Campbell, which is the easiest of the gravatar plugins to install, in my opinion. This plugin doesn’t require you to edit any theme files to use it. Ease of Instatllation: easy

flickrRSS

flickrRSS by Dave Kellam enables Flickr integration for your blog. Customization allows you to control which sets show up and what size of photos you want (e.g. square, thumbnail, small, etc.) Ease of Installation: very easy

NextGEN Gallery

This NextGENeration Photo gallery is extremely flashy but incredible for portfolios or a neat display of photos. There are many customization options and takes a few minutes to figure out but it is worth your trouble. Easy of Installation: moderate

ShareThis

ShareThis by ShareThis and Crowd Favorite lets visitors share your posts with friends. It supports e-mail and posting to social networking sites such as Facebook and Digg. Installation requires you to activate plugin and paste a snippet of code into the plugin options page. Easy of Installation: easy

Sphere Related Content

Sphere Related Content by Watershed Studio, LLC is an original plugin which automatically shows readers siilar blog posts from across the web. Plugin adds a small icon and link at the end of every post. Easy of Installation: easy

Democracy

Democracy by Andrew Sutherland is one of the better poll plugins. It uses AJAX to load data and you can add polls to pages, posts, or as a sidebar widget. A neat feature is the ability to let visitors add their own options to a poll. Ease of Installation: easy

The 2008 Macworld Keynote was very impressive, in my opinion. Lots of engineering highs, innovation, and a few surprises (and a few no-brainers, too.) MacBook Air is great (who wouldn’t want to sport that around school or work?), iTunes movie rentals are nice, Apple TV 2.0, yeah, great, but I want to talk about iPod touch.

Apple released a software update for both the iPhone and iPod touch but, unlike the iPhone, touch users have to pay–that’s right–$20 for 5 new apps: Mail, Maps, Notes, Stocks, and Weather. These are all features that should have been included from the beginning; consumers should not have to dig up $20 for an update that is, quite frankly, less impressive than its more-capable sibling iPhone. Yes, I chose to buy the iPod touch (actually, it was a gift for Christmas), but $399 was also spent on a product that should provide free updates - this isn’t a 2nd generation, state-of-the-art update. Apple marketed the touch as an “iPhone without the phone” but failed to include these 5 apps in the beginning.

The $20 update gives you:

• Preview mail before it’s opened, display photos, view HTML, PDF, Word, and other attachments
• Apps appear on your iPod touch home screen (apps can also be rearranged on the screen)
• With maps, the touch will determine your location via Wi-Fi, giving you a location marker and directions
• A Web Clips feature allows the creation of custom icons on the home screen for favorite web pages
• Ability to rent movies from iTunes

Anyone else upset about the price?

Maybe it’s just me but the new WordPress hoodies are tempting. Consider it the geek in me (WordPress also powers this blog, by the way.)

If WordPress is not your cup of tea, just remember that everyone can use a hoodie this winter - even if it is based on PHP/MySQL online publishing software. Better yet, other geeks are likely to strike up a conversation with you if you sport this around. Or you will get asked “What is WordPress?” 296x in a day. Either way, make a friend. Total WordPress Geekery.

A classic unisex drawstring sport hoody made by American Apparel (style #5495), screen printed with the WordPress logo. Made from 100% cotton, combed for softness and comfort, feauring a kangaroo pocket and double-stitched cuffs.

Hint: WordPress recommends buying the hoodie in a size larger than you normally would wear as they run small.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, check out the Mozilla Firefox and Google hoodies.

Charlie and I are traveling to Europe this summer as a graduation present to himself (and an early graduation present for me.) We depart May 14 and come back early June. Bookmark the Europe category for up-to-date travel info, tips for your Europe vacation, photos, and more.

Last night we planned our tentative itinerary. We start in Ireland for four days and visit Dublin, Cork, and other surrounding suburbs. Next we fly to Edinburgh, Scotland and London, England for about two days each and then head to continental Europe for two days in Denmark, two days in France, two days in Germany, and six days in Italy, including Rome, Florence, Venice, and Pisa.