Google Mars
In the spirit of Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Moon, the next frontier for Google maps junkies has been released – Google Mars.
Using maps from images taken by NASA’s orbiting Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor, Google provides users images of the Martian surface. View mountains, craters, dunes, ridges, canyons, and plains… all by name. You can also view the location of various spacecraft that have explored Mars.
It works just like Google Maps, you can zoom in, drag from side to side, and pinpoint locations. � You can view by elevation, by infrared, or by the straight image.
Hopefully, Google will follow through with plans to add the images to Google Earth, which would allow you to tilt and pan the image. � Until then, enjoy the browser based version here – it’s pretty cool.
Verse-O-Matic 3.1.0 Released
Well, the Verse-O-Matic upgrade was released. If you are upgrading from 3.0.0, you will need to download the special upgrade (indicated on the Verse-O-Matic page). Everyone else (new installs and upgrades from versions previous to 3.0.0) can download the regular package.
Some major new features in this release include the ability to toggle the way it displays. You can go with random each page load (the original), random by day, set what will display each day (verse of the day), and set a static verse to display until you change it.
New Site Member Plugin In Development
I am currently working on a new plugin that will run a site membership database well beyond the “protected post” feature built into WordPress. This grew out of a need for another site that I run and we have been working WordPress into the site to eventually replace the “home-grown” content management that we currently use (and developed).
However, this site has some pretty advanced membership functions as the site has a newsletter/membership for-profit business model and there were no existing plugins for WordPress (that I could find, anyway) that did what we were looking for. I did, however, find a lot of people that the same needs we did.
So, as I went to the drawing board to tinker with some ideas, I decided that I would build this as a plugin for WordPress that would hopefully fill a void for a lot of people. The first beta version is near release but we have a list of features that we will continue to work on following release of the beta. Some of the features are:
- Full WordPress admin panel user management
- Username/password credentials based login model
- Full user details (name, address, phone, email)
- Admin can add users, search users by name, username, email, edit user details
- Admin can view users sorted by userid, username, last name, country, and email
- Posts can be password protected to the user must login or request a new account
Future features will included:
- User-defined fields
- A date based account expiration (for subscription)
- Paypal integration
- Email newsletter subscription add-on
Additionally, I will be available for custom commercial installations.
Verse-O-Matic Upgrade in the Works
I am working on an upgrade to Verse-O-Matic 3.0. It will include features that were originally intended to be in the 3.0 release, but due my impatience, I left them out so I could get 3.0 out the door.
Some of the features include setting a “Verse of the Day” (VOTD) as opposed to the random selection every page load that it does currently. The VOTD feature can be set to either reset itself randomly each day or you can set each verse with a date so you can display specific verses on a daily schedule. You will also be able to set a single static verse that will remain until you change it. It will still retain the fully random feature as well and you will be able to toggle the setting in the admin panel.
The biggest delay in the release (which will be 3.1.0) is that it requires a database upgrade. I was trying to get the install process on plugin activation to determine if this was a new install or an upgrade, but I just could not get it to work the way I wanted. So… In order to get this out the door, I’m going to create an upgrade file. The only people that will need to run the upgrade anyway are those upgrading from 3.0.0. Previous releases did not use the database so they will be able to simply activate from the plugin management panel.
Also, I always try to keep things as seamlessly backwards compatible as possible so you won’t need to change anything where you call the verse-o-matic function.
Once this version is out there, I think this will be the most versatile Bible verse display plugin available.
Verse-O-Matic 3.0.0 Released
I have released the new version of Verse-O-Matic, version 3.0.0.
This version looks like the previous version on the output, but the backend of it is very different. I have totally changed the way that the verses are stored and handled, choosing to use the WordPress database installation instead. This makes it MUCH easier for all users to manage the verses stored in the database.
Not only are the verses stored in the database, but the they are added and edited using the WordPress admin panel. The settings are managed in the admin panel as well, making it easier to set the toggle for turning off the translation link bar. Now you don’t have to be a php developer to manage this plugin. This release takes a huge leap toward what I wanted this to be.
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