Joseph Chew

How to Add a Favicon to Your WordPress 3.0 Blog 2011

I was very frustrated when i tried a to add a favicon to my WordPress themed blog. there are many website there that are outdate. so now i am writing this so that many people can benefit from my set backs. Favicons are very powerful. it gives readers a feeling whether your a have pass [...]

DotA ~ Vol`Jin – The Witch Doctor

Vol`Jin – The Witch Doctor Background Story (from DotA) Vol’Jin is a risk-taker. Anyone who has ever crossed paths with him can tell you that. As a voodoo priest, you need a certain degree of it. It’s too bad he never learned the value of discretion. Vol’Jin’s experiments in jungle magic yielded brilliant results- the [...]

How To Transfer And Customize Your WordPress Themes With Adobe Dreamweaver

May 3rd, 2011

josephchew

Dreamweaver is a great platform to design and upload fully customized templates online but on the other hand WordPress is a great blog platform to create themes due to the segmentations and it’s simple code of the page components. There are various ways to create a from free template builders online to other programs that are offered like Nvu and others.

It’s not difficult to customize a WordPress theme if you know a few shortcuts. Different designers and bloggers have difference preference when it comes to these things. Some prefer to code themes from scratch others like me sometimes just customize the themes online through trial and error. The easiest way to create a custom theme for your blog is to download an existing theme that has the basic layout you want and customize the CSS and graphic elements to suit your needs.

Where to get a free WordPress theme?

There are thousands of free WordPress themes available from places like the official WordPress theme viewer, or in your admin page under themes where you can see a variable selection of quick themes. Or if you want cold designs and many other types you can search online. There are thousands and thousands of site full of themes for you to choose from. These is because users want you to use their themes so they can build back links and also promote themselves. The best way to start is by simplifying your theme customization is to start with a layout that contains the right structure. for example, if you prefer 3 columns to 2 and the header must have enough space for your logo then find the theme closest to your preference.

This is save you a lot of headaches digging through the blog source files trying to figure out where the proper code goes. Thus, Cutting down the hours you need to put in for the template

Set up your local drive for Dreamweaver

Before you do this best if you install the theme to your site on WordPress before hand. Then the first step in customizing your theme is to set up a site in Dreamweaver which will act as your “chopping block” for your new theme. Simply create a folder on your local drive and unzip your downloaded theme. You will now have all the components of your theme ready for customization in Dreamweaver.

Getting Your Blog into Dreamweaver

The next step is to get the complete code from your blog page into Dreamweaver in order to allow you to customize the blog via the CSS. Open the main page of your website in any browser and right click . Then Click on ‘View Page Source’ and you will be presented with the source code for your website. Click anywhere in the code and press ‘Ctrl-A’ to select all the code in the window. Press ‘Ctrl-C’ or ‘Edit’ then ‘Copy’ to copy the code to your clipboard.

Further on, go back to Dreamweaver and create a new Blank Page HTML document.

Then, Click anywhere in the code view window like the one below and press ‘Ctrl-A’ to select all the code. Press ‘Delete’ to delete all the code.

Now paste the code you copied from your browser into the code view window by pressing ‘Ctrl-V’ or ‘Edit’ and ‘Paste’.

If you press the ‘Refresh’ button or click in the design view window, you should now see the blog page as it appeared in the browser.

Linking your ‘Styles.CSS’ to Dreamweaver

The first step is to get rid of the “Styles.CSS” attached from the web. Go to your CSS control window and click on the ‘CSS Styles’ tab if it isn’t already selected. Now click on ‘All’ button if it isn’t already clicked. You will see the currently linked CSS stylesheet. Click on the name of the stylesheet (usually ’styles.css’ or similar) and right click. The menu will have a delete option, so click that. This will delete your linked stylesheet. have a look at the sample below.

The second step is to link your Local Stylesheet to Dreamweaver. Do this by again right clicking anywhere in the CSS control window to open the menu again. Towards the bottom of the menu, click on ‘Attach Style Sheet’. This will open a dialog box where you can select the local copy of your stylesheet. Browse to the folder you unzipped your theme into and select the stylesheet from the list of files. Click ‘OK’ and your local stylesheet will now be attached to your blog.

Tips to customizing your themes

1) Most WordPress themes that display the blog title as text have the following code:

<h1><a href=”<?php echo get_settings(’home’); ?>/”><?php bloginfo(’name’); ?></a></h1>)
2) The same thing the same thing for the blog tagline or subhead, which is displayed by the code:

<?php bloginfo(’description’); ?>.
3) The sidebar titles (Recent Posts, Categories, Archives, etc) are styled by H2 tags in the respective sidebar id’s
4) The sidebar lists and categories are all unordered lists styled using the ul and li tags for each sidebar id
* Search forms are styled by the #searchform and #search id’s and the text input box is controlled by the #s id

Happy Theme-ing!

DotA ~ Vol`Jin – The Witch Doctor

May 3rd, 2011

josephchew

Vol`Jin – The Witch Doctor

Background Story (from DotA)

Vol’Jin is a risk-taker. Anyone who has ever crossed paths with him can tell you that. As a voodoo priest, you need a certain degree of it. It’s too bad he never learned the value of discretion. Vol’Jin’s experiments in jungle magic yielded brilliant results- the ability to mend wounds, casks filled with paralyzing combinations of herbs that could scatter for miles, and even a curse capable of stripping the life force from a living being. Of course, no amount of power gained goes without notice. As Vol’Jin’s experiments became more and more unstable and destructive, the Lich King made his move.

Hero Statistics

Paralyzing Cask (C)
Vol’jin launches a cask of paralyzing powder that bounces between foes, stunning those affected for a short period of time (1 sec on Hero, 5 on creeps). Deals damage per bounce to non-hero units. First impact lasts 1.5 seconds.
Level 1 – 2 bounces, 75 damage to units, 50 damage to heroes.
Level 2 – 4 bounces, 100 damage to units, 50 damage to heroes.
Level 3 – 6 bounces, 125 damage to units, 50 damage to heroes.
Level 4 – 8 bounces, 150 damage to units, 50 damage to heroes.
• Damage type: magical
• Targets can be hit multiple times, as long as another unit is struck in between the bounces.
• Casting range: 700
• Bouncing Range: 600
Mana Cost: 110/120/130/140
Cooldown: 20/18/16/14

Voodoo Restoration (V)
Vol’jin focuses his voodoo magic to heal nearby allied units.
Level 1 – Restores 16 hp/sec.
Level 2 – Restores 24 hp/sec.
Level 3 – Restores 32 hp/sec.
Level 4 – Restores 40 hp/sec.
• Heal is applied in 0.33 second intervals.
• Can heal magic immune units.
• Area of Effect: 340
Mana Cost: 25/50/75/100 initial + 8/14/20/26 per sec
Cooldown: 0

Maledict (E)
Targets an area with an ancient voodoo curse. Cursed heroes will not only take damage over time, but they will be dealt bonus damage every 4 seconds based on how much hp they lost since the beginning of the curse. Lasts 12 seconds
Level 1 – Enemies lose 5 hp/sec, 10 bonus damage for every 100 hp lost during curse.
Level 2 – Enemies lose 10 hp/sec, 20 bonus damage for every 100 hp lost during curse.
Level 3 – Enemies lose 15 hp/sec, 30 bonus damage for every 100 hp lost during curse.
Level 4 – Enemies lose 20 hp/sec, 40 bonus damage for every 100 hp lost during curse.
• Damage type: magical
• Damage is based on the difference between the HP values currently and when Maledict was cast.
• Casting range: 400
• Area of Effect: 165
Mana Cost: 120
Cooldown: 35

Death Ward (D)
Summons a deadly ward to attack enemy heroes. Lasts for 8 seconds and is a channeling spell.
Level 1 – 60 (90*) Chaos Damage
Level 2 – 90 Chaos Damage (120 Chaos Damage, bounces once*)
Level 3 – 120 Chaos Damage, bounces once (150 Chaos Damage, hits 3 targets at once*)
Mana Cost: 200
Cooldown: 90 seconds
• The Death Ward is invulnerable, and can only be destroyed if its duration expires or if Vol’Jin is interrupted.
• The Death Ward can be controlled and made to attack a specific target.
• Can be improved by Aghanim’s Scepter (* shows the improved values).
• The Death Ward has a 700 attack range and attacks every 0.3 seconds.
• Casting range: 300/350/400

Why and How to play Vol’Jin

Vol’Jin is the best support hero you can ever ask for in my opinion. Better then lich and more fun in many ways if you use him well. He is hard to handle for newcomers. definitely not for beginners for his complex casting and short health will results in many death if not handled delicately. Vol’jin’s spell Maledict is very destructive and feared by many. This combo with paralyzing cast and his great ward can dominate heros much larger than him. A season player would know that he should immobilize his target, casts Maledict on them, then proceeds to cause as much damage as possible before they run or ward them. If combined with other disablers in your team the witch doctor’s channeling ward would be a guaranteed kill to any unsuspecting heros farming lanes. Worst of all his voodoo restoration is like the fountain of health on legs healing himself and allies alike.

My skill build for him (leveling):

1. Cask
2. Restoration
3. Maledict
4. Cask
5. Maledict
6. Death Ward
7. Cask
8. Maledict
9. Cask
10. Maledict
11- Death Ward
12- Restoration
13- Restoration
14- Restoration
15- Stats
16- Death Ward
17-25- Stats

Item Build

INITIAL Start items:

CORE items:

If you can afford Boots for Treads, with this 3 you’ll dominate. The secret behind this cores is that when you use ward you can on your lothar without disrupting the ward!
Maledict -> Cask -> Ward -> lothar = MEGA kill!

CORE extension items:

@

Aganim for more damage, shiva and guinsoo for those that try to run and armlet is for chasing and/or run away! Instant health. =)
Just try to stay alive and farm abit more in the early stages. You tend to move around more often with this hero cause you can help and kill easily. When you reach lvl 8 with lothar there is no stopping this monster.

Notes

• The Death Ward is invulnerable, and can only be destroyed if its duration expires or if Vol’Jin is interrupted.
• The Death Ward can be controlled and made to attack a specific target.
• Can be improved with Aghanim’s Scepter
• The death Ward have a 700 attack range and attacks every 0.3 seconds.

Forget VIAGRA!, Try this must have cure for your “Sleepless Nights”!

August 9th, 2011

josephchew

milk cartons

Forget about buying Viagra. With all the natural pills we are taking try this remedy to hype up yourself for your spouse or for some exciting “Sleepless nights”

Women can also take this drink but be warned, This is really potent and it may cause you sleepless nights (wink, wink). maybe just try taking in a smaller dose with more milk

this is a natural and Organic recipe which uses almonds and honey as its ingredients.

The simple-to-brew drink is said to be more effective than the blue pill and cost far less to make. This means more happy time for everyone! =)

Here is how you make it. The recipe as follows:

a) 200ml milk either fresh, UHT, or anything (if you like flavoured milk you can try chocolate or strawberry flavour)

b) 6 almonds or 1 tablespoon ground almonds skinned and pounded or ground. (easier to just run down to the store and buy a pack of grounded almonds)

c) 1 egg (preferably free range eggs or ayam kampung eggs – must be fresh)

d) 1 tablespoon honey (any will do, best is natural honey!)

How to make:

Heat the milk up until it is warm, then toss everything into a blender, blending all the ingredients together for a minute and then ENJOY!

Top Must Have Plugins When Starting Up a blog with WordPress.

May 4th, 2011

josephchew

Top Must Have Plugins When Starting Up a blog with WordPress.

Must Use Plugins

WordPress Database Backup – This plugin is a life saver when things go wrong! It allows on-demand backup of your WordPress database. Its Much easier than going back to back up from your MySQL. But you should make it a habit to back up your Site with SQL every year too.

Akismet – best guard against comment spam for WordPress blog! Just customize it to free. go sign up for the API key then click PLAN SELECTION WIZARD like below

then click continue on the next page. Next, Drag the worth bar to zero and fill up your info and your done!

CORE Plugins

PostMash – In WordPress your post are always post in a chronological order if you have not done anything funny with the permalinks an categories. What this plugin does is that it displays all your post in a roll down order that you can change up or down too your liking. This is very useful when your blog is based on dates or time and where sometimes you want to choose which post you want to be displayed more often or at the front page.

Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. a well generated index will help you rank better in SEO’s and easier for visitors to navigate without hassle through your site.

All In One SEO Pack – For those that are just starting out. this is like the SEO for dummies plugin where you just plug and you can play with all the SEO items like meta tags, meta titles and many more just at the tip of your hand. There is also a pro version if you like this plugin alot. Also feature as one of the most popular plugin for wordpress.

robot meta – This plugin allows you to add all the appropriate meta taggings to your pages and feeds, disable unused archives and un follow any unnecessary links to speed up your blog and make sure your links are all leading somewhere. Couple with All In One SEO Pack you be a pro in no time.

W3 Total Cache – if there is a lot of visitors going through your site and they are complaining that your site loads slow. Worry no more, this plugin help you generate a HTML file that will be upload directly from apache without the need to process through heavy PHP scripts on your files. Thus speeding up your blog many times faster.

FeedBurner FeedSmith extended – This plugin detects all ways into your original WordPress feeds on the theme and redirects them to your plugins settings where you can redirect all your so your feeds to feedburner an allows you to track every possible subscriber.

Sociable – if your very connected with online social media then you need this PLUGIN! it adds mini icons on your post, pages and many more where your visitor can share your site with their friends thereby creating a social frenzy media. this is a must get for blogs.

WPtouch – this is a recent addition on my wordpress its function is to turn your site to a smartphone friendly ones, especially apple stuff. It comes up with a simple mobile theme for the to surf your site. if you want a full package you can tried the paid version.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – this plugin helps you come up with a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for you to display on your blog and RSS feeds. it allows quite a lot of customizations and help your visitors to keep on looping in your blog or site.

Other Plugins

WP-Polls – Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. Allows you to easily include a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page.

Exclude Pages – This plugin lets you manually exclude WordPress pages from the navigation menu. Comes in handy when you are trying to create hidden pages.

VaultPress – Another backup and maintenance plugin. its gaining popularity and is quite useful if you always want your blog to be on tip top shape for your ardent fans to surf in.

There you have it folks!

My Top WordPress Plugins! that i myself use. Hope this help you guys in bettering your blogs and making it better.

Leave some comments and spread the words using sociables below! =)

How to Add a Favicon to Your WordPress 3.0 Blog 2011

May 5th, 2011

josephchew

I was very frustrated when i tried a to add a favicon to my WordPress themed blog. there are many website there that are outdate. so now i am writing this so that many people can benefit from my set backs.

Favicons are very powerful. it gives readers a feeling whether your a have pass six blogger or someone serious about his work cause he puts time in to detailing his website.

Get A Favourite Icon

To add a favicon logo to your new wordpress 3.0 or Blog or site, you need to first have the favicon image. You don’t have to ask or pay a good designer to do it for you. You can either use illustrator or other image editors to make one and convert it to a 16 by 16 pixel icon. easiest is to save it as a PNG file then convert it to ICO file by just changing the format.

If your lazy and want don’t want to waste time for a stupid image so small on a top bar then you can follow this steps.

GO TO –> http://www.htmlkit.com/favicon. This site helps you make and icon within 3 seconds and you can save it straight to your desktop. You can even make an animated one! loook! –>

Add Favicon.ico to your WordPress with Plugins

The easiest way nowadays for you lazy bums out there is just installing a PLUGIN!

there area a few plugins out there but I like “All in one Favicon”. just click the link and it’ll lead you there.

install it and then activate it. Then go to your setting in wordpress and presto it’s there!

=) there is a few other plugins there that you can try which are good. you can read it up on my other post at Top Must Have Plugins When Starting Up a blog with WordPress.

Next step is just to upload your favicon.ico (it’s always easy to name it this for easy reference) and presto. there you have it all set up within 5 minutes.

Add Favicon to your WordPress the manual way.

The hard way would be to Go to your editor at your Appearance tab at your left on wordpress and hit Editor.

Then Look for the Header.PHP file on the right hand side like below. All themes should have this file. its very uncommon that the header.PHP is missing. Unless you deleted it or didn’t fully upload the theme.

Last but not least you need to add this line of programing after the Pingback Line and before the Head> text. And you should update and refresh your website to see the results. =) click on the image for a closer look.

That’s all folks. Hope this help you guys to get your very own favicon without going through all the diggings to get mine set up. I did mine all the manual way!