Gray's Blog » Freebies

Best Free WordPress Themes of 2010

Gray — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:54:56 +0000

This post is constantly updated to keep up with what people are wanting most.
This post was last updated: January 11, 2010.

Theme Count: 15
It would be nice if you commented! It took me some time to put this all together.

Demo & Download

Demo & Download (at bottom of page)

Demo & Download

Download

Demo & Download

Best Social Bookmaking Plugin for WordPress

Gray — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:50:46 +0000

SexyBookmarks, a fairly new and unique WordPress sharing plugin introduces the idea of sharing in a new way.

Our sole aim was to stray away from the “in the box” thinking behind most social bookmarking plugins, and add a little flair that would entice your readers, rather than deterring them with microscopic icons that get lost in pages heavy laden with content.

SexyBookmarks uses catchy phrases that pop-out and make the reader look twice. Not only do these phrases increase the appearance of your website, but they increase your chance of being shared on a social networking website.

Catchy phrases aren’t the only attraction for the reader, simply placing your mouse of the icons expands the list showing all of the different places you can share.

SexyBookmarks allows you to disable the phrases and reorganize the order of the sharing icons.

With over 170,000+ downloads, SexyBookmarks is one of the most used social bookmarking plugins for WordPress and all of the cool blogs are using it.
SexyBookmarks is compatible with WordPress 2.9+

Click here to download SexyBookmarks straight from WordPress.org.
For a live example, look at the SexyBookmarks below this post!

Get Hulu On Xbox 360/PS3/Nintendo Wii

Gray — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:48:08 +0000

Many people want to know how to get free TV/Hulu or YouTube on their Xbox 360/PS3/Nintendo Wii. Today, you will learn how.

Using a helpful and easy-to-use tool called Playon Media Server, you will be able to share media to your gaming system (only supports Xbox 360, PS3, Wii). This ‘media’ includes: Hulu, YouTube, Amazon VOD, Netflix, and I’m sure there will be more.

Download it here, install, and continue reading.

Once you have downloaded and installed Playon Media Server, simply run it. To open up the settings for Playon, look in your system tray, right click on the blue ball with the orange icon inside and click Playon Settings. There you can add parental blocks, setup your Hulu/Amazon/YouTube usernames/Netflix account, playback settings, quality, and more.

To run it, simply right click on the blue ball with the orange icon inside in the system tray and click Run.

Once setup:
- It can be found on your Xbox 360 under the My Xbox section and in the Video Library
- I am not sure where to find it on the PS3 and Wii, but it does work on the PS3 and Wii compatibility is in beta testing

Livestream.com

Gray — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:02:23 +0000

Livestream gives you the option to broadcast live and offline footage without the need of an application.

Once you create your account, you will be taken to the Studio page which will guide you through the setup of your account. Once you have filled out your description, tags, title, etc. you will be off on your way to creating your online tv channel.

What makes Livestream so unique is that it gives you the ability to go live from multiple cameras and the ability to cue in a different camera at any time for maybe a quick side angle before reverting back to the front angle again. While you can go live, you can also add up to 40 YouTube videos to your media library so you can broadcast them to your channel.

Also, with the Autopilot feature, if you are going offline and you don’t want users to have to look at an Offline sign for the next few days/hours, simply drag media into the Autopilot library and turn it on. From the very second you turn it on, it will begin streaming the media in the Autopilot library over and over again until Autopilot is turned off.

Sidefeatures

Ability to show a custom banner at the bottom of TV stream
Ability to show a ticker at the bottom of TV stream
Ability to have an onDemand library for quick access to selective clips
Ability to have links
Ability to have upcoming events
Ability to have HTML in profile
Ability to use chatrooms
Ability to embed stream
Ability to have a custom banner, logo, TV branding (logo placed in top right corner advertising tv channel), and Promo picture

Check it out now at:
http://www.livestream.com/

What The Like Button Does on Facebook

Gray — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:20:09 +0000

I know, I know! So many posts about Facebook recently–well, it seems to be a point of interest, as it did increate my views about 2 times what they regularly are.

Facebook installed the Like button February 2009. Since then, it has been a shortcut to basically say ‘I like this’ on an item without the need of writing it out and commenting on it.

If Facebook were to take a survery on ‘What does the Like button do?’, about 75% of their customers would probably say: it just means you like it. However, the Highlights column on the right of your Facebook homepage tracks the most popular posts currently out. Things such as relationship updates will be added–most of the time–automatically the the Highlights if it is approved by the other person in the relationship.

In short terms, the more an object is liked, the higher chances there will be of it getting on the Highlights column.

Things to know about the Highlights column:

Automatically adds recent relationship updates once the two people approve it
Does not add status updates

Comcast HD (Something You Should Know)

Gray — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:15:41 +0000

If you are subscribed to Comcast HD (you have the whole box not just a little Comcast box with no fast forward or rewind or recordings), and you don’t know how to access HD channels yet. Simply add an ’8′ before each number. For instance, MTV in HD would be: 850.

VH1: 851

Nickelodeon: 863

etc.

If you did not know this and it worked, >insert smiley here<.
If you did know this and you find this pointless, >sign list here<.

Front Row For Windows (Not A Question, But An Answer)

Gray — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:53:24 +0000

Mat down at Aqua-Soft Forums has been working away at a cool looking clone of Front Row.

For some people, Sarah Media would not function, so for those people, here is a better and more stable one.

This program is built more for people who want a home theatre library.

To make installation easy, I have made an installer for it.
However, for personal use, I renamed it to Home Theatre Library. (It was originally called K! Media Center)

Before you go and download it, the default location for the files for the library is under your main hard drive’s Documents and Settings > All Users > Documents

To modify the default locations, please go to your Start Menu and click Run.

Run: regedit.exe

Under your HKEY users folder, look for K! Media Center.

Right click on any of the strings (content inside) and click modify.

Better get to downloading: download.

New Cool Apple Backgrounds

Gray — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:28:49 +0000

These are a few Max OS X Snow Leopard-related wallpapers.
For those who do not know, Snow Leopard, AKA v10.6, is the newest operating system from Apple Inc.
Right click on the images to save as background. 1 & 3 are compatible with largest Apple monitor, and 2 is only compatible with MacBook. 1-3 are all compatible with the MacBook.

1. The New Aurora

2. Main Snow Leopard (Warning: This is not the cleaned-up version. You may have noticed that the Apple version has a nice clean faced leopard, this one has a bit of either reflection or blood on his fur from his previous dinner…gross.)

3. Snow Leopard Logo

Top WordPress Plugins For Multi-User Blogs

Gray — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:38:35 +0000

Every blogger wants a nice, fast, and user-friendly blog. I, Gray, have gathered up 10 plugins that should suit all multi-user blogs needs.

Adminize
Author’s Description:
Visually compresses the administratrive meta-boxes so that more admin page content can be initially seen. The plugin that lets you hide ‘unnecessary’ items from the WordPress administration menu, for alle roles of your install. You can also hide post meta controls on the edit-area to simplify the interface. It is possible to simplify the admin in different for all roles.
Gray’s Description:
This top-of-the-line plugin not gives you the option to hide certain pages in the sidebar of the admin screen, but features in the Posts and Pages editor. If you do not want your users to access something like the custom fields section of a post/page editor, you can remove that with plugin.
WyPiekacz
Author’s Description:
Checks if posts submitted for review and posted satisfies set of rules.
Gray’s Description:
Most blogs have rules, but what will make/force your users to follow them? If they don’t, you have to go around and remove their posts over and over again. Not any more. This oddly-named plugin can prevent users from posting something if it does not follow your rules. You can do things such as: minimum/maximum tag count, if they can use the default category, minimum/maximum characters in title, forbidden words (must be entered in manually), and so much more.
WP Private Messages
Author’s Description:
Private Messaging Plugin for Bloggers
Gray’s Description:
Don’t want to release your email, or you want a quicker way to contact your users? Then this is the plugin for that. One of the very little amount of PM plugins that are compatible with WordPress 2.8. There are negatives to this plugin though, for instance, it is roughly translated and has some glitches if your permalinks aren’t the same as the plugin developers. That is why I have modified the plugin, and made it a whole lot better for my own blog. A link will be posted sometime within August of 2009 for public use.
CaPa Protect
Author’s Description:
Protects Categories, Pages and Posts from specific users.
Gray’s Description:
Tired of your know-it-all users modifying your posts and pages that you though were fine, and making them look horrible? We have a plugin for that. (Quote me on that) This plugin allows you to block users from modifying your posts and pages, categories, tags, and best of all: comments? (You may need to…no, probably not)
Role Manager
Author’s Description:
Role Management for WordPress 2.0.x, up to 2.6.x.. [Edit by Gray: It works with 2.8]
Gray’s Description:
I should of had this at the top of the list, but reordering isn’t fun. This handy plugin can create custom roles (including user levels) for your users. It’s worth it, trust me.

Updated: 8/10/09

Top 3 News/Magazine WordPress Themes

Gray — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:32:14 +0000

As always, we appreciate your interest in our site, please enjoy the post.

Vigilance ThemeA lean and clean WordPress theme that contains advanced features including image rotation, advanced highlight box, professional blockquote, search friendly code, clean archives listings, and so much more. Theme Options Menu allows for serious customization. Designed and coded by Jestro.
Demo
Download
WordPress NewsWordPress Newspaper aimes to showcase your content in a unique package and take your website into next level. The theme is ad and search engine optimized, and has a unique Newspaper layout.
Demo
Purchase
ArthermiaArthemia is a more modernized theme, combining a magazine and a weblog into one; it is not too magazine-ish nor too blog-ish. The front page of Arthemia shows the headline and featured post of yours along with the pictorial representation, that’s the magazine style, while the rest of your post will be shows sequentially just like a usual weblog. In the middle of the front page, Arthemia has a nice blue-and-black category bar which will help your readers exploring you site. At the bottom, Arthemia is outfitted with a blog must-have section, a three-list of favorite posts.
Demo
Download