W-Shadow.com

If you frequent technology news sites, it’s easy to get the impression that AdBlock Plus – the popular Firefox extension that can block most forms of online advertising – is a big deal. Any news article, blog post or forum thread that happens to mention advertising will inevitably get several comments expounding the benefits of [...]

There’s an interesting post/survey combo up on LessWrong.com that discusses the effectiveness of various techniques for defeating procrastination and akrasia. At the moment it lists more than 20 different tactics, ranked based on the feedback of the people who have actually tried them. Go check it out.
Here’s a quick run-down of the techniques that are [...]

Sometimes, Google’s query auto-completion feature can provide unexpected insights into what goes on in the minds and souls of Internet users world-wide. So lets see what those crazy, crazy minds and souls are most excited about, shall we? Here are the Google search suggestions for “is awesome” :

Google, and Avatar, and Windows 7, oh my. [...]

Lately, I have noticed that blogging has become harder than it should be. Even when I have a decent post outline ready, I still spend 30 minutes obsessing over every sentence, never sure if it’s good enough. This kills the “flow” and results in a stilted writing style. In short, I’ve fallen victim to premature [...]

In a recent Reddit thread, one commenter made a casual remark :
There needs to be a way to link to a page on Reddit and automatically apply Readability.
That seemed like an excellent idea to me. In case you haven’t heard about it yet, Readability is a bookmarklet that can take an article or blog post [...]

I’ve just released a major update for Eclipse Link Cloaker – the premium link cloaking plugin for WordPress.  Version 1.1 includes a fine selection of bug fixes and UI enhancements, as well as two big new features : the ability to automatically turn specified keywords into links, and conversion tracking support. The new version is [...]

The end of a year is a time for reflection. A time to look back on your accomplishments, and also a time to give thanks to the people who helped you along the way. So, once again, I’ve compiled a list of the top WP developers whose plugins have been an immense boon to [...]

Are you’re interested in Google Wave, but still haven’t got an invite? I’ve recently got my hands on some spare invites, so leave a comment on this post and I’ll send you one (just make sure you enter a working email address in the appropriate comment form field).
For those not in the know, Google Wave [...]

Behold, a new version of the Broken Link Checker plugin for WordPress is available! This release includes the routine batch of bug fixes, two new translations (Spanish and Belorussian), an option to mark removed links with a special CSS class and, most importantly, a Search box :

The URL field supports wildcards, so “pla*.com” will match [...]

I must admit, I’ve always been a sucker for sandbox-style gameplay. I’ve wasted hours playing with Falling Sand and it’s variants, spent weeks building fortresses for alcoholic dwarves, and I still log into Minecraft almost every day. So it was only natural that when I heard that an alpha version of Love was available, I [...]

I’ve recently added internationalization support to my Broken Link Checker plugin, so if you like the plugin and would like to see it in your own language, consider contributing a translation! So far people are working, or have already sent in, localization files for the following languages :

Italian (complete; even got two – by Gianni [...]

During the last few months I have been working on an improved premium version of my popular link cloaking plugin. And now, on this unquestionably glorious day, I finally deem it sufficiently polished and bug-free to be ready for public release. So if you do affiliate marketing and want to protect your commissions, go check [...]

Packt Publishing is running their 2009 Open Source CMS Award, so go forth and nominate your favorite CMS for one of the award categories! And in case you’re not sure which CMS to vote for, here’s a friendly suggestion:

Clik the image to go to the nomination screen with WordPress pre-selected
Hat tip to [...]

I’m planning to release my first commercial WordPress plugin later this month. The plugin will be an improved version of the Link Cloaking plugin and will include a bunch of new and exciting features, like cloaking links anywhere on the site (as opposed to only detecting links inside post/page content) and the ability to display [...]

Here’s a little webcomic about the most common ways an AI project can go (in fiction and otherwise). Click the image to see the the full-resolution version.

Props to anyone who gets all the references.

Minecraft is a browser-based sandbox game where you can build enormous structures, explore underground caverns, play with lava and water… or just watch grass grow. The game world is very flexible, allowing you to completely reshape the terrain. If you register for a free account you can also do all of the aforementioned things in [...]

And now for some useless stats.
I know, I know – it’s a stupid question. You can’t really download the Internet. It’s so ridiculously huge and messy that even Google hasn’t indexed all of it. But what if a clueless fool eccentric multibillionaire came by and asked you to do it, stating that “money is no [...]

After the Deadline is an advanced spell checker plugin for WordPress that was released on Monday. In addition to the standard spell check and suggestions features, it also includes style and grammar checking. The plugin also lets you define custom dictionary of sorts – you can set it to always ignore certain words. Here’s the [...]

The latest version of Broken Link Checker for WordPress is now available on WordPress.org. If you’re already using the plugin you should get an update notification within 24 hours. Below you’ll find a list of changes and a bit commentary about the update.
Around 20 people downloaded the beta version. I haven’t received any death threats [...]

The next major update of the Broken Link Checker plugin is almost done. I’ve added several new, oft-requested features and rewritten most existing functions to make them more secure and faster. However, as anyone who has at least dabbled in programming will know, lots of code changes equals lots of potential for new bugs. So [...]

It seems clear that Internet users have grown to expect a certain minimum of cat pictures to be present on any worthwhile site. Unfortunately, the aforementioned fare has been decidedly scarce on this domain. Today I seek to remedy this lack by posting a small number of carefully selected images of the feline pesuasion. I [...]

Imagine the average Internet user. Would it be a reclusive nerd, or a companionable social networker? Would their favorite pastime be writing witty blog/forum posts, or commenting (ever so eloquently) on YouTube? Would they lol about lolcats?
Here’s some completely unscientific research on these burning questions :
The Myers-Briggs type indicator is a popular way to label [...]

You can never have too much stats, right? Today I came across a new load testing site that might provide you with some interesting data points. LoadImpact.com simulates multiple users accessing a website and presents a simple report on how long the server took to respond. Here’s an example report :

You can run the [...]

263 identical tweets per minute – estimating from Twitter Search results, that’s how fast this little hack is spreading as I write this post. It’s almost enough to make me stop writing it – after all, with such a large scale infestation, every major “Web 2.0″ outfit is already rushing to cover it. Oh, they [...]

If you don’t care about amatteur philosophy/self-development/logic, I recommend you ignore this post. This is a pure rant, so I’ll try to keep it short.
There’s this unbelievably popular self-development blogger Steve Pavlina. Some of his posts are quite insightful and have practical uses. Some make we want to embed my head in a concrete wall, [...]

The Raw HTML plugin has been updated! In case you didn’t know, Raw HTML is my WordPress plugin that lets you use unfiltered HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc in your posts. You can download the update from the plugin’s page, or wait for the automatic update notification that should appear in a few hours.
Version 1.1 is [...]

I promised (in the Tree Link project) to post the “Trees For The Future” certificate when it arrives, so here it is

On an unrelated note, I’m having trouble with my wisdom tooth. Posting frequency will be diminished for a while.

As I discovered just a few minutes ago, Google Image Search has a feature that lets you restrict your search only to images that contain faces. However, it looks like the algorithm still has a few kinks to be worked out… Take a look at the first result of this image search query :

I [...]

December has just passed, so here’s and update on my experimental charity project. According to my stats, the Tree Link received nine links, which means I have to sponsor nine new trees. That’s not a lot, but it’s a start. And, since it’s New Year (more or less), I’ll throw in some additional $ [...]

Take a look at this cool homemade keyboard. Plus an accompanying rant about how surely there has to be something interesting in the gap between QWERTY and a brain implant.