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Starting with version 1.5 of the Graphene theme, a new options tab called “Advanced” is added to the theme’s options page. The highlight of this tab is a new option called “Action Hooks Widget Areas”.

The Advanced tab in the theme’s options page is really reserved for options that require proper understanding of what goes under the hood of WordPress in order to use them properly. But as you’ll see, the “Action Hooks Widget Areas” option is built such that it doesn’t actually require you to understand much about how WordPress works behind the scene.

So what is this feature all about?

A lot of support requests in the theme’s support forum involves questions like “how do I add this to that” or “how do I put this text just under that thing there”. A lot of the time people would just resort to editing the theme’s files and simply add whatever chunk of codes or text exactly where they want it to appear.

But that is bad. The Graphene theme is in active development (as it has been since its initial public release), and every couple of months or so a newer version is released, which incorporates many new features, plugin compatibility, bugfixes, etc. If you edit the theme’s files directly, you’ll lose those changes when you update the theme. So if you made the edit this way, you’re really stuck between not updating the theme (and miss out on all the goodies) and having to do the customisations all over again.

Fortunately, WordPress provides an excellent framework in modifying and extending both WordPress itself and any other plugins and themes that are developed (properly) for it, via means of action hook. This feature simply leverage the capabilities of that framework to provide an additional layer of customisability for the theme, without having to modify any of the theme’s files. Continue Reading

New Zealand is a small country, spanning just about 240 000 square kilometres in area, just slightly bigger than the United Kingdom.

It’s population is even smaller – just over 4 million people as of the 2006 census (the UK has about 60 million people). And even though this country is perhaps better known for its dairy products with vast free-range grazing fields, it’s certainly far from being short of high-tech innovations.

The huge rugby ball at the Queens Wharf, downtown Auckland.

When I was walking down downtown Auckland the other day, I had the chance to go see some of the high-tech New Zealand-born (or should I say bred?) inventions and innovations at the Queens Wharf, where the nation’s biggest fanzone for the soon-to-be-concluded Rugby World Cup 2011 is located.

Being an engineer in training myself, I’ve known about most of the products on display through general reading and the occassional demo in class. But I must admit, getting to actually see them on display is something different. I didn’t intend to even see the display in the first place, but seeing them made me wish I had brought along my DSLR camera. Instead, I had to rely on my phone for the pictures. Continue Reading

When I was in college doing my International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, I used to complain a lot about how so diversified the topics of study are, so much so that it’s difficult to really be good at any one of them.

More is not always better

I would start my day with a Mathematics class, for example, then rush away to a Chemistry class, only to be followed by an English literature class. Then a French language class. Then a Physics class. Then a Theory of Knowledge class. Then a Business Management class. Not necessarily in that order, of course, but you get the drift.

Seven separate subjects belonging to 3 or 4 separate realms of knowledge. Just when my gooey brain matter starts to form around the concepts of chemical chelating agent, or around Einstein’s and Maxwell’s and Max Planck’s work on the photoelectric effect, suddenly it was (very violently) tugged away into the realm of philosophy, and grasping a handle on a new language, or sifting through the intricacies of 19th century English literature, desperately trying to make sense of all the extravagant allegories and similes and what not.

Not to say that I didn’t enjoy learning those stuffs – I did. It’s just that it’s difficult to really be good at something when you don’t specialise. And now that I’m nearing the end of my undergraduate studies, it becomes plain to me that just as too much variety can be bad, too little variety can be equally bad as well. Continue Reading

“Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace-that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best, not only in our own lands, but throughout the world.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Radio Address on United Flag Day.

It is unfortunate that man forgets, both here and abroad, of the lessons learnt in the past.

“Every cross I see in the military cemetery represents a young life between 20 and 40 years of age. That’s a waste. It shouldn’t be. The people who create those situations, are never the ones that are out there fighting. I detest that, I hate it.” - Shelby Westbrook, WW2 veteran.

Let us remember the atrocity and madness that was the World War II. An estimated 70 million people were killed. More than half of them were civilians.

“War is stupid. Crazy. We’ve got to have.. love.. on our planet.” - Charles Scheffel, WW2 veteran.

Watch the documentary series by History Channel, WWII in HD, containing 10 hours of raw footage of the war, most of which have never been shown on TV before. Expect some pretty darn graphic images, that consists of not actors in makeup and costumes like you’re used to in Hollywood movies, but of real men who had real lives.

The commenting feature in the Graphene theme

WordPress is gaining more and more popularity these days, especially since version 3.0 that added a lot of features that make WordPress capable of functioning more and more as a Content Management System apart from being primarily a blogging software.

One of the features that is often not required in a non-blog website is the Discussion feature, or probably more widely known as the commenting feature. While this feature forms the very basis of social engagement in a blog and one of the most important features, it is nevertheless often unneeded in a corporate website that serves to disseminate information rather than having a lively discussion about its services.

The easiest (but superficial) solution

As a result, I’ve been asked a few times by the users of my WordPress theme, Graphene, on how to disable the commenting feature completely. Initially, the obvious (and easiest) solution to this is simply to hide the entire comment section of the theme using CSS. While this does the job, it isn’t exactly the best solution. The markup of the comment section is still there, and the browser still needs to load it, and a whole load of PHP functions and database queries still need to be done, even though the result is not visible to the end user. Continue Reading

I think one of the main reasons  that make WordPress a very popular content management system is its ease of use and deployment. It’s relatively very easy, for example, to use languages other than English for a WordPress-powered website.

However, time and again I found that many users are not taking advantage of this capability, even when the theme they’re using fully supports their native language.

This video tutorial will show you how to get your WordPress website or blog to be displayed in the language that you want.

Before going off on my summer holiday trip to Sydney this year, I decided to join several of my friends on a multiple-day hike up one of the mountains in New Zealand. It was a rather quick decision since I already have most of my hiking equipment ready (they were ready most of the time).

Starting off our hike at the North Egmont Visitor Centre

We planned to do the Around the Mountain Circuit hike, a 4-5 days hike that we planned to do in just 3 days. We intended to start at the North Egmont visitor centre up to the Syme Hut on Fanthams Peak on the first day, where we will be staying for the night. At about 2000m above sea level, Fanthams Peak is the lower secondary cone of the stratovolcanic mountain that is Mt. Taranaki, about 550m lower than the summit of Mt. Taranaki.

When we started from the North Egmont visitor centre at about 8.30am on Tuesday Nov 23rd 2010, we intended to take the High Track on our way to Dawson Falls, but instead took a wrong turn into the Maketawa Track. Realising this fact only after we reached the Maketawa Hut, we had no choice but to continue along the Curtis Falls track. Turning back to follow our original planned route was simply not an option, as that would waste both energy and precious time. Continue Reading

It is truly saddening to see just how easily some people forget their roots.

To be able to suggest to their fellow countrymen to migrate and don’t go back, just because they watch a video of a certain politician saying certain things that they don’t agree with, reflects a total absence of patriotism and a lack of a sense of gratitude.

They forget that when their parents and grandparents are poor, it is this nation that sheltered them and allowed them the opportunity to build up wealth. And now that they are wealthy enough to be able to travel to other countries and start a life elsewhere should they want to, they so easily entertain the idea of migrating. And promoting it.

These people should be ashamed of themselves. Continue Reading