Web Development, Code Snippets, Technology, Reviews and Random Stuff Blog.

Want to show the last posts you updated in WordPress? This shows the posts you went back and updated or modified, which is different than your recent posts.


<?php
query_posts('showposts=10&orderby=modified&order=DESC');
if (have_posts())
{
echo '<h3>Last Modified Posts</h3>';
echo '<ul>' . "\n";
while (have_posts()) : the_post();
echo '<li>';
echo '<a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . the_title('','', false) . '</a>';
echo '</li>' . "\n";
endwhile;
echo '</ul>';
}
?>


These are quick easy hacks to get RSS feeds for each forum on the index.php page and viewforum.php pages.

I covered how to put the main RSS feed on PunBB already.

Open up index.php and after this line

$forum_field = '<h3><a href="viewforum.php?id='.$cur_forum['fid'].'">'.pun_htmlspecialchars($cur_forum['forum_name']).'</a></h3>';


Add this

$forum_field .= '<div class="forum_rss"><a class="rss" href="extern.php?action=active&type=RSS&fid='.$cur_forum['fid'].'"><span>RSS</span></a></div>';/


Now open up viewforum.php and find this line

<h2><span><?php echo pun_htmlspecialchars($cur_forum['forum_name']) ?></span></h2>


and modify it to be

<h2><span><?php echo pun_htmlspecialchars($cur_forum['forum_name']) ?> <a class="rss" href="extern.php?action=active&type=RSS&fid=<?php echo $id /*MODIFIED - RSS*/ ?>"><span>RSS</span></a></span></h2>


And now for the CSS

.forum_rss {float:right;}
a.rss {background:url(../../img/feed.png) no-repeat left; width:16px; height:16px; padding-left:20px;}
a.rss span {display:none;}


Remember when TV…

• Used to not have their logo in the bottom right corner.
• Used to not have animated promos for other shows at the bottom.
• Used to not have text promos for other shows they offer.
• Used to not have text information about the program you are watching.
• Used to actually let the credits roll at normal speed and full screen.
• Used to not interrupt shows for a high speed chase.
• Used to not throw the weather radar on top of the show you are watching during storms. (It may be necessary for a flood, tornado, hurricane, fire watch/warning, but its unnecessary for a thunderstorm).
• Used to have commercial breaks no more than 3 minutes.
• Used to not have so many promos for other shows they offer during commercial breaks.
• Used to use segways before, after and during commercial breaks.

It makes me wonder what else they will change or add in the future. I’ve already seen animated sponsors during a TV show in the bottom left corner before. I think eventually they will cut the intros short on TV shows or make limits to how long they can be. They already have programs that minimize the amount of silence in video by cutting out parts of the video to squeeze more time in. I think I’ve seen shows do that, because it seems that someone is always talking with no time to breathe. The bottom right logos might have been started to let people know what station they were on, but I think most people can care less. Or perhaps they were worried about people with VCRs recording their TV shows several years ago, but to me its just an annoyance.

Links to free sounds.

• Soundsnap - Royalty Free Sounds (loops, music, sound effects). You can submit, rate, and make comment on sounds, plus download and use them in your Flash project, radio or TV commercials or modify them for something else. The only thing you can’t do with these sounds is sell them. The previews are well done, because if you click on a preview it knows to stop the one thats playing.
• freesound - A database of Creative Commons licensed sounds created and uploaded by users. The licensing varies on each loop, but there are some great ones here.
• Flash Kit - Flash Kit has offered a section for users to submit and download loops and sound effects for a long time. Many author’s homepage links are dead, so I’m not sure how that affects the license on the linkware sounds.
• Internet Archive’s Open Source Collection - A large collection of sounds, music and readings.

Links to companies that offer sounds that cost money to download and use.

• Beat Suite - High Quality Royalty Free Music and Loops. They cost quite a bit of money but they are very well done.
• Sound Loop Studio - More Royalty Free Loops.
• Loop Sound - Royalty Free Loops.
• AudioSparx - Royalty Free Music, Loops and Sound Effects.

I’ve been wanting to learn my scales for a long time and I found 2 free applications and 1 website that do a good job of helping you learn them.

• Fretboard Warrior - Plays the sound of a note and shows it on the guitar and you pick which note it is. Requires no install as its a Flash Projector file.
• Advanced Fretpro - Its like Fretboard Warrior, exept it doesn’t play any sound. However you can tell it what strings and frets to omit, so you can practice on the areas you don’t have mastered yet. It also has a built in chord patterns and scales.
• Guitar Chords - Tons of web based tools to find chord names, chord progressions, scales and more. Some of the tools are done in flash, which makes it easier to use, since you don’t have to submit a form.