Clearskys.net Blog

A short week ahead

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Today marks the start of a short week with a full weeks worth of work that I have to cram in, so I thought I’d get some updates posted in case I don’t have the time later on.

StayPress

Development is chugging along, though it took a little bit of a back seat last week whilst I attempted to get my entry into this years Weblogtoolscollection.com plugin competition completed. The good news, however, is that some of the solutions I discovered for my entry will streamline parts of the code in StayPress and has helped me find some solutions to the little stumbling blocks I came across. So onwards and upwards this week.

Vent

More details on my entry into the aforementioned competition is available here. It is a system designed to allow you to use the scheduled posts functionality of WordPress to manage events. If you like it then please consider popping along to the plugin competition blog and voting for it.

Hoard Hunter

The Hoard Hunter game is still ongoing and there are still a lot of sectors remaining. It only costs $5 to enter and all proceeds go to Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare trust. On top of that you could win an iPod Shuffle. The theme and plugin for the Hoard Hunter system are also now available for download so that you can run your own game online.

A Weekend of Madness

On Saturday and Sunday (19th and 20th July 2008) I will be attempting to run 100km from Petersfield, across the South Downs to Brighton (in the UK) with 3 other team mates, carrying our equipment on our backs. It is a distance of 100km (two mararthons + an extra 10km added on to the end). If you would like to support this moment of madness then please consider sponsoring me (or entering Hoard Hunter above). All sponsors will be appropriately credited and thanked (in a manner I haven’t fully worked out yet, but at the least your site will be linked back to).

I will be recovering in a public house in Brighton following the event (early afternoon of the 20th July). If you would like to meet up for a drink and a chat then keep an eye on my Twitter account for more details of the place I end up (it will in all likely hood be near Brighton Racecourse, which is the finishing point). I will be the dirty, smelly person in the corner trying to get the bar staffs attention (and/or calling for a nurse).

Plugin Factory

And finally the Plugin Factory is about to be reborn. When it was intitially launched I received quite a bit of interest for custom plugin development. Unfortunately I had to take the factory offline as my other workload increased to the point that I had very little time (on top of that I had moved so was without a reliable ADSL connection). Now, fingers crossed, I should be getting a brand new ultra-fast line connected soon and to celebrate will be launching the all new Plugin Factory, stay posted for more details.

Tags: Charity, development, hoard hunter, staypress, updates

Hoard Hunter theme is now available

The Hoard Hunter Oxford map game theme is now available for download from the link below. Whilst this is a WordPress theme, it is not designed (nor will it function) as a standard blog. It has been developed solely for use with the Hoard Hunter game.

I am still undecided about the best way to release the plugin part of the game system. The plugin (and theme) were developed in order to raise money for charity so I may request that people who download the plugin either only use the plugin for fund raising or make a charitable donation. The way to do this, however, escapes me at the moment. I would rather not make payment a pre-requisite for getting the code.

Either way, the plugin will be made available tomorrow afternoon.

More »

Tags: Charity, hoard hunter, theme, wordpress

Quick Hoard Hunter update

Firstly thank you again for all your patience. I am still without a telephone line and internet access so updates to software and blog posts will have to remain patchy for the time being.

I have now packaged up the Hoard Hunter plugin and theme ready for downloading and will aim to get them available on the site tomorrow afternoon. There is currently a small bug in the PayPal integration class, so purchased sectors have to be manually approved, but hopefully I will have it tracked down before the release (if not then the first release will have it disabled).

Once again, if you want to try out the front end of the system then head on over to HoardHunter.com and purchase a sector. It is only $5, supports charity and helps me debug the code. On top of that you could win an 2Gb iPod shuffle for your efforts.

Tags: Charity, hoardhunter, wordpress

Hoard Hunter - fund raising using WordPress

Hoard Hunter is an online treasure map game designed and developed for people who would like an easy (and fun) method of fund raising online.

The system comprises of a custom plugin and integrated theme. The Hoard Hunter site is powered by WordPress MU (though the system will also run on standard WordPress) and uses a number of WordPress plugins to provide additional functionality.

More »

Tags: Charity, fund raising, hoard hunter, mu, wordpress

WordCamp UK 2008

WordCamp UK now has a confirmed venue of Aston University Lakeside Centre, Birmingham.

It takes place on the 19th and 20th July 2008, unfortunately I will be elsewhere on those dates…

I will, however, be in the Brighton Racecourse area on the afternoon of the 20th July (fingers crossed), so if anyone would like to have an informal gathering and/or can recommend a hearty hostelry then let me know.

Tags: brighton, Charity, oxfam, wordcamp, wordpress

Advertising for charity

For the next few months (until at least July anyway) I am going to try introducing a few advertising slots (125×125 boxes and/or text links) over on the top right hand side of the site (just under the Search box).

If anyone is interested in trying one out then the price will be a minimum payment of $50 for a month (you can pay any amount above this if you want) and all money will go direct to Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like any more details.

Tags: advertising, Charity, gurkha, oxfam, trailwalker

Bootstrapping a Charity startup - Introduction

One of my main projects for 2008 is to found and promote a new charitable venture.

To accompany this I have started a new blog to follow my progress and highlight what works and what doesn’t when it comes to promoting a new website.

It should be an entertaining and educational journey, so why not pop over to the new site and say hello.

Tags: blog, Charity, fundraising, guide, million, startup

Back to the grind stone - a status update

Well, I’ve been away from the computer for a short while now (at least two months) and it has been fantastic and very much needed. The break has given me the chance to actually sit and make plans for 2008 and onwards rather than just responding to events as they happen. The only problem being my extreme optimism (I should register that as a new extreme sport) in what one person can achieve in a given time (and to handicap things further, what I can achieve in a given time).

On that note, I have a number of challenges which I will detail as they progress to their starting point, which I hope you will all appreciate and maybe even find it in your hearts to help or promote on your own sites. Could I be anymore secretive? Well yes, but you’ll understand later why I don’t want to announce these things without having the proper structure in place to handle things beforehand.

Short term updates

WordPress MU
In the next few days I shall be moving this blog (and a number of the other blogs that are on this server) across to WordPress MU.
Why? Well I originally moved from MU to standard WordPress over a year ago as I didn’t have enough blogs hosted to warrant the complexity of running a pre-release version of MU. I now have a much larger collection of blogs and sites running on WordPress and am actually starting to dread the thought of upgrading them all (even using svn). So as they have to be upgraded anyway, I thought that a single upgrade to MU should make my future life a lot easier, and mean I can add new blogs very quickly.

Update of plugins
I am aware that a number of my plugins currently don’t play nicely with WordPress MU or multiple user systems. These will obviously all have to be fixed as I need to use them on my own sites, so expect new releases of most plugins quite soon.

Plugin Factory
Going back to my earlier mention of promoting things without having the necessary structure in place first, the Plugin Factory, unfortunately, suffered because of this. From the moment I mentioned it on this blog my other workload increased overnight and I couldn’t find the time to devote to making the Plugin Factory a success. To those who have sent plugin requests, I apologise if you haven’t had a reply or we lost contact. I have a list of the requests that I will start to make my way through. If you submitted a request and never got a response then please submit again to show you are still interested.

Charity Work
More on this a little later, though I suspect that this will be taking up a large amount of my time in 2008 thanks mainly to the Extreme Optimism I mentioned earlier, my large mouth and an even larger amount of alcohol consumed one night over the christmas period.

Finally my thanks for everyone for their patience whilst I was away and a belated Happy New Year to all of you.

Rgds
Barry

Tags: Charity, updates, wordpress

The First Santa run in Spain

On the morning of Sunday 2nd December 2007, the peace of the Spanish sea side town of Torrevieja will be disturbed by the ringing of bells and the shouts of “Ho Ho Ho” as 200+ Santa Clauses take part in a 5km fun run in aid of the A.E.C.C. (The main Cancer charity in Spain).

Why am I mentioning this? Well mainly because I will be one of those Santas who complete with red outfit, hat and fake beard will be attempting to make it from one end of Torrevieja sea front to the other and back again without causing myself too much damage.

If you are feeling particularly generous or charitable then please consider sponsoring my heroic attempt by clicking on the Donate button below (yes, I am aware that 5km isn’t a long distance, but attempting to get from my current sedentary lifestyle to finishing a 5km run in the space of 5 weeks is not something I am looking forward to ).

All generous sponsors will get a big thank you, and a mention and link on this post (unless they wish to remain anonymous). You can let me know what text and/or link and how much detail you would like in your entry by entering the details on the payment form. If you are particularly kind then please point the readers of your own blog here.
You can use this handy calculation device if you want to calculate what charges PayPal will take from your donation prior to sending it.

I will enter my own amount
I will sponsor you 2.50 euros
I will sponsor you 5.00 euros
I will sponsor you 10.00 euros
I will sponsor you 20.00 euros
I will sponsor you 25.00 euros
I will sponsor you 50.00 euros
I will sponsor you 75.00 euros
I will sponsor you 100.00 euros

Sponsors so far

€25.00 - Anne Marie Gravil - PatronesMentales.com
€10.00 - From Zoe, Ryan and the crew at IndependentOwners.com

Tags: 5k, aecc, cancer, Charity, event, fun run, santa, sponsorship