Archive for August, 2012

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Wednesday, August 8th, 2012  —  Comments

From Anime News Network:

The film is set between the 517th and 518th installments of Akira Toriyama‘s original manga. Specifically, it is set during the “lost decade” of story time after the end of the battle with Majin Buu. Kuririn, Piccolo, Vegeta, and other familar characters will appear in the film. The film is not a spinoff, but a story in the official history of Dragon Ball.

http://www.dragonball2013.com/

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork via TheDailyWhat

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 at 9:32 PM and is filed under From Techpedition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Friday, August 3rd, 2012  —  Comments

So, up until late last year, I didn’t really even know who Ben Folds was. Being an African-American male, that’s not too difficult to believe.

At the time I was an avid listener of the Nerdist Podcast. Episode 132 of the Nerdist Podcast featured the musical –and very comical– talents of Ben Folds. That episode was epic. Without knowing anything about Ben Folds, I got a great mix of details about his background, his music, the industry, his group, and his solo endeavors. After that podcast I was sold, and immediately hit up Spotify to find more of his music.

I’ve always have been drawn to music from people who possess the musician/singer/songwriter combination. It’s something about being able to write and deliver your music with just your instrument and a microphone. I also have a great appreciation for the talents of anyone who can master a particular instrument.

All this being said, I am by no means a music expert. I, like most people, tend to fall within the musical sub-culture that is built around my particular race. But with a father, brother, and uncle whom are accomplished musicians, as well as a family full of talented singers, I have a very deep appreciation for the art of music.

But, back to Ben Folds, I simply love his music. A master pianist and accomplished vocalist, his music can cater to almost any situation in life. Not really a whole lot more I can say without you listening to his music. Check my Spotify playlist and let me know what you think.

From Wikipedia:

Benjamin Scott “Ben” Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. From 1995-2000, Folds was the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. Since the group disbanded, Folds has performed as a solo artist and has toured all over the world. He has also collaborated with musicians such as William Shatner, Regina Spektor and “Weird Al” Yankovic and undertaken experimental songwriting projects with authors such as Nick Hornby and Neil Gaiman. In addition to contributing music to the soundtracks of the animated films Over the Hedge, and Hoodwinked!, Folds produced Amanda Palmer’s first solo album and has been a judge on the NBC a cappella singing contest The Sing-Off since 2009.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 at 10:11 PM and is filed under Music, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Friday, August 3rd, 2012  —  Comments

If you are new to WordPress, then you have undoubtedly been cast into the vast world of plugins, which sometimes seem to have no end. And finding one that perfectly fits your needs may seem to be an impossible task. Of course the plugin rating system helps a lot, but it’s far from perfect.

Consider yourself lucky, as I have a list of go-to-must-have plugins that I install in almost every WordPress instance I create. I’m sure it will be useful to someone.

  • Add Meta Tags — This plugin adds meta tags to your articles based on the categories, tags, featured image, and excerpt chosen. This becomes extremely useful for Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, as well as for various social plugins that import your articles for consumption via likes, +1′s, and shares. Definitely a must have plugin.
  • BackWPup –BackWPup allows you to export your database, as well as your files, to various services on a schedule. This ensures that if your server ever craps out and loses all your data, that you will a backup to get your server up and running again. Of course such backups can be done manually, and hopefully your host is doing some type of backup, but the automation and ease of use, along with the added peace of mind, is totally worth getting this plugin.
  • Blubrry PowerPress — Blubrry Powerpress is the best way to go if you are looking to release a podcast via your WordPress site. Setup is easy and you also have the option to integrate stats from the Blubrry website.
  • Disqus Comment System — Disqus is probably the most popular third-party commenting system on the web. This plugin provides easy setup and management of comments to your site. I find this is the number one way to reduce WordPress spam. Must have.
  • Google XML Sitemap — With Google Webmaster Tools, your XML sitemap will be used to more easily index your site and ultimately provide better SEO.
  • Scissors Continued — This is the best plugin that I’ve found for adding watermarks to only images of a particular size.
  • Simple Local Avatars — Profile avatar integration is probably one of the most disappointing parts of WordPress. Avatar functionality is built into the system, but there is by default no way to easily add an avatar to a particular user. This plugin takes care of that, as you can easily upload an image to a users profile and it will be seen throughout the site where applicable.
  • Ultimate Google Analytics — Google Analytics is hands down the website tracking tool of choice for the web. This plugin provide an easy way to get the analytics tracking code on all of your pages.
  • WP to Twitter — Although setup is not the most user friendly, WP to Twitter provides an easy way to auto-publish your articles to the highly popular micro-blogging platform.

Hope these help! What are your must have WordPress plugins?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 at 9:22 PM and is filed under Programming, Software, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.