1. There are currently (that I could find) no smart flashcard sites.  When I use flashcards I don’t just look at the front and back from start to finish.  This is how all existing sites online work.  I want to remove cards I know as I go, swap the front & back (starting with definitions), shuffle them, and much more.  This site will do all that.

2. There are no multi-platform flashcard sites.  I want to create the cards on my desktop computer, and be able to browse them later on my smartphone.  This site will have an iPhone and Android compatible web version, making it truly convienient.

3. I (personally) like to use flashcards to learn things, and I need a better system to do it.

There is currently an pre-alpha version of the site available, it’s basically more of a proof-of-concept at this stage.  Most features are not yet implemented, it’s just the basics. Feel free to check it out, and leave some feedback as a comment.

Online Flashcards

Cheers
-Peter

                          

I love the way the book progresses.  It starts with the most basic of electrical circuits.  Simple light bulb and battery type stuff.  It spends a few chapters building your circuit board chops and BAM!  - he shows you how you can wire a circuit to add binary numbers.  Wow, you can now build a very simple computer.  He continues to add to what you already know piece by piece.   Components are added to the circuit board so that it can now perform subtraction, multiplication, and division.  You learn how a circuit can remember data, the basis of memory.  You learn the issues surrounding floating point math and how they are resolved.  He explains machine code, and how it can be simplified by assembly language, and in turn, high-level languages.

Mixed in with the technical chapters, he adds sections on lighter topics such as Morse code, Braile, alternate (non-base 10) number systems, and more.  He covers how letters can be stored as a series of bits, and why there are 8 bits to a byte.

This book changed the way I think about computers.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand them better.  Although it assumes no prior knowledge, this book is not for the faint of heart; some of the chapters require tenacity to stay focused and comprehend.  However, I guarantee it will be well worth it.

                          

I’ve heard it pointed out that all of the information in this book is already online, on the jQuery website.  But that’s missing the point.  The book presents the information at a well-thought out pace and order, minimizing confusion.  For example, early on it spends a good amount of time introducing and explaining the various CSS3 selectors and getting your “Wrapped Set” of elements before it jumps into how to manipulate those elements.

The book process to move through all of the awesomeness that jQuery offers with DOM & Content manipulation, Event Handling, Animations, Plugins, and Finally AJAX.  My First attempt trying to implement AJAX was without a framework, using the WROX “Beginning AJAX” book.  I’ve decided that book isn’t worth it’s weight in lead, and that it should be pulled from the shelves.  jQuery makes it ridiculously easy to make POST and GET requests to the server, and handle the results.  I was using AJAX in production code within a week of reading this.

I don’t know what else to say.  The level of Awesome that jQuery exudes is matched only by other epic wins such as Dropbox and Vim.  If you haven’t tried jQuery, you need to. Now.

                          

Download:
bp-my-groups-widget.php (zip)

                          

Once they complete the registration, it automatically adds them to the group.  It does this by checking their email address against a list of outstanding invites.  This removes the extra hassle of needing to invite them to the group after you’ve gotten them to sign up, and them needing to approve your group invitation.

In the future, this functionality will likely be bundled with another plugin already existing: Invite Anyone. That plugin allows you to invite non-friends to your group; this one allows you to invite non-members.

Here it is:
buddypress-group-invite-email (.zip)

                          

To Install:
-Extract and upload the files to your wp-content/plugins/ folder.
-Go to the “Plugins” screen on the admin dashboard, and activate the plugin
-Enjoy.

Here it is:
default-forum-topic (.zip)

                          

Group Documents creates a page within each BuddyPress group to upload and store documents.  Documents can be edited and deleted either by the owner or by the group administrator.  Document activity is logged in the main activity stream, and is also tied to the user and group activity streams.  The site administrator can set filters on file extensions, and soon (in the next update) users can set email notification preferences.  There is also a “Recent Uploads” widget than can be used to show any number of uploaded documents.

Get it while it’s hot!
Wordpress.org Plugin Download Page

Installation
Make sure WPMU and BuddyPress are installed and active.
Copy the plugin folder buddypress-group-documents/ into /wp-content/plugins/

Browse to the plugin administration screen and activate the plugin.

There will now be a “Group Documents” menu item under the “BuddyPress” menu.  Here you will find a list of all file extensions allowed for uploaded files.  Please check and make sure the list suits you.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me, especially if you run into trouble.  I will respond promptly.  email hidden; JavaScript is required

                          

Problem: Buddypress calls your plugin’s JS files BEFORE jQuery files.
This applies when you use the function wp_enqueue_script() – as you should.

Solution: Tell wp_enqueue_script your file depends on jQuery.
It turns out, wp_enqueue_script() takes a few optional parameters – the third being an array of other js files yours is dependent on.

Here’s how the call looks after the change:
wp_enqueue_script(‘my-js-file’,'my-file-path.js’,array(‘jquery’));

Viola!  Your js file is now loaded after jQuery and you’re good to go.

                          

1. Find your site manager file
Filezilla keeps all of your sites and access credentials in an XML file called “sitemanager.xml” Here are the most likely locations:
Windows 7 & Vista – C:\Users\Yourname\AppData\Roaming\FileZilla\sitemanager.xml
Mac OS X – /users/Yourname/.filezilla/sitemanager.xml
Linux – /home/Yourname/.filezilla/sitemanager.xml

2. Back it up
Just in case something goes wrong in the next few steps.  Copy the file and name it something else, perhaps “sitemanager.xml.backup”

3. Move sitemanager.xml to Dropbox
I keep a folder in dropbox called “Settings” which I use for program files that I sync.  Place it where it makes sense to you, just remember that location for the next step.  Note, you want to move the file, not copy it.  It cannot still exist in the filezilla folder, or the next step may not work.

4. Make a soft link from Dropbox back to your Filezilla folder
Filezilla will still look in it’s default place for the sitemanger file.  You’re going to trick it and point it to the file you have snyc’d on Dropbox.  You’ll need to open up a Command Prompt (Windows) or a terminal (OS X/Linux) for this step.  This is what the commands looked like for me, you’ll need to adjust the file paths as necessary.  Note, on Windows, you enter the new link first, then the existing target, and on OS X & Linux, it is the opposite order.

Windows:
mklink “C:\Users\peter\AppData\Roaming\FileZilla\sitemanager.xml” “C:\Users\peter\My Dropbox\Settings\sitemanager.xml”

OS X:
ln -s /users/peter/Dropbox/Settings/sitemanager.xml /users/peter/.filezilla/sitemanager.xml

Linux:
ln -s /home/peter/Dropbox/Settings/sitemanager.xml /home/peter/.filezilla/sitemanager.xml

That’s it!  Fire up Filezilla, and you should see the same site settings now on all of your computers.  Note, if you use “Synchronized Browsing”, you’ll need to create separate bookmarks under each site for each computer, as the local path to your files will be different depending on your computer.

                          

1. Create the file “bp-custom.php” and place it directly in the plugins folder. Note, do not place it in the “buddypress” folder, otherwise it will be overwritten when upgrading. If the file exists, simply append to it rather than creating a new one.

2. Paste the following function in:

function bp_the_site_member_profile_data($field_name = '', $echo = 1) {
  if( !$field_name ) {
    return false;
  }
  global $site_members_template;
  if( function_exists( 'xprofile_get_field_data' ) ) {
    $data = xprofile_get_field_data( $field_name,
                                     $site_members_template->member->id);
    if( $echo ) {
      echo "$data";
      return true;
    } else {
      return $data;
    }
  }
}

3. You can now use the function ‘bp_the_site_member_profile_data(‘MyField’) in your templates (of course, substituting ‘MyField’ with the one you’d like to use). Note, this must be place inside a ‘Members Loop’ so that the $site_members_template variable is populated.  Odds are, you’re inserting this near other profile data already in the loop, so there should be no problems.

UPDATE:
As of BuddyPress 1.2, this functionality has been included. While in the members loop, you can use the included function: ‘bp_member_profile_data( ‘field=the field name’ )’ to much the same effect.