Google Storage for Developers is a new cloud based storage service that is currently open to a limited number of developers in the US. With Google Storage, Google is now a direct competitor to Amazon’s family of Cloud based web solutions, such as Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront. Well I just received my invite for Google Storage for Developers and my first order of business was too test Google Storage’s speed vs Amazon’s S3 speed and my VPS’s speed (added Amazon CloudFront Speeds).

I have been using Amazon’s S3 and CloudFront service to serve static image files for the past 6 months and have been very happy with their speed and reliability. I also recently switch from a shared web hosting solution to an unmanaged VPS hosting service and wanted to see if my LAMP VPS server would be faster than Amazon S3.

I chose 3 images with varying sizes, 1 small (4.83k .png), 1 medium ( 389k .jpg) and 1 large (5.65mb .jpg) and loaded them up multiple times (no cache). Here are the speeds I ended up with. Note these test results are meant to be taken with a grain of salt. This is just an example of the speeds you will find with these types of services.

All speeds are averages.

The clear winners in the test were Google Storage For Developers and Amazon CloudFront, with my LAMP VPS in a distant fourth. Amazon S3 actually performed better then Google Storage with the large image file, but was slower then Google Storage in the small and medium size image test. One aspect of the test that I found very interesting is that my LAMP VPS was very consistent in it’s speeds where Google Storage, Amazon S3, and CloudFront were not. Nevertheless, this test does show that geography is a very important factor when serving image files on the web.

So what does this all prove? Something, but not everything. It does show that serving images from the cloud is a better solution then your LAMP VPS and also shows Amazon CloudFront is faster then Amazon S3 (to be expected). Perhaps a LEMP VPS would perform better, but that still does not address the problem with geography. I will be sticking with Amazon S3 and CloudFront for now, but may move to Google Storage in the future. If you are interested in trying out Amazon’s Cloud based services you can follow the link below. As of right now you will need to request an invite before trying Google Storage For Developers.

Google Storage For Developers
Amazon Web Services

Feel free to share any test you have done yourself if the comments section below.

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About

This plugin allows the <video> and <source> elements to be posted in your bbPress forum. This makes it quick and easy for forum members to add videos to their posts.

Here is the list of allowed tags and allowed attributes.

<video>

• src
• type
• autoplay
• poster
• controls
• width
• height

<source>

• -src
• -type
• -media

Installation

1. Add the `allow-html5-video.php` file to bbPress’ `my-plugins/` directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in bbPress.

*Make sure you have set up your webhost to allow the correct MIME types for OGG and OGV files.

MIME Type: video/ogg
Extension(s): ogv ogg ogm

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some example embed codes?

Example #1 (Works in most modern browsers)

<video src="test-video.ogv" controls>
Your browser does not support the <code>video</code> element.
</video>

Example #2 (Should Work in all modern browsers)

<video controls>
<source src="test-video.ogg" type="video/ogg">
<source src="test-video.mp4">
Your browser does not support the <code>video</code> element.
</video>

What codecs are recommended?

Theora for .ogg and .ogv
.h264 for .mp4

Does it work with other video plugins?

Yes, it works with other video plugins (bbvideo and others).

Compatibility

Tested up to: 1.0.2
Requires at least: 0.8.4

Changelog

- 0.9 -
*initial release

Download Allow HTML5 Video

Allow HTML5 Video is based off of mdawaffe’s and qayqay12′s Allow Images plugin.

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If you’re currently a user of Internet Explorer, you can now make your internet speeds faster with Google Chrome Frame. Google Chrome Frame is a simple, easy to install addon for IE that makes Internet Explorer faster by using the Google Chrome Engine, instead of the built in IE render.

Adding Google Chrome Frame to your IE installation is comparable to adding a new engine to your car. Not only will your car be faster, but it will also be more reliable.

Steps to install Google Chrome Frame

1. Open Internet Explorer (works with IE6, IE7, and IE8)
2. Navigate to the official Google Chrome Frame page
3. To the right, click “Get Google Chrome Frame”
4. Optionally choose to, help make Google Chrome Frame better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google. (I always do, if it’s a Google product. They actually use the information to make the product better)
5. Done! Now your IE browser will be faster and more reliable

In addition to the fact that the Google Chrome Frame engine is faster and more reliable then the built in IE engine, the GCF engine is compatible with many features of HTML 5. IE is not. For example, Google’s Gmail service will soon be utilizing the new features in HTML 5. If you don’t have the Google Chrome frame engine installed, you won’t be able to use all of the new features with Internet Explorer.

The one hitch to the Google Chrome Frame engine is, the website you are viewing must be compatible with it. It took me less than one minute to make the entire State of Affairs website compatible so, as long as the sites you visit are on the ball with maximizing compatibility, they should be compatible. If a site isn’t, then IE will simply use the slower built in engine.

Being a early-stage release, Google Chrome frame could possible be expanded to have additional benefits in the future. I’m sure there will be more to come from this cool new product from Google.

Do you still use IE? Does Google Chrome Frame sound like something you might be interested in? Let everyone know with your comment below

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Disclaimer – This article is my opinion and is based solely on my experience with Fused Network over the past year. I am not affiliated with Fused Network and will receive no compensation for referring you too them.

Finding a reliable and affordable web hosting provider can be a difficult and daunting task. One reason for this is that it’s hard to find a unbiased review. Many people choose to join the affiliate network for a web host provider and then attempt to convince people to sign up, so they can get a percentage of the profits. This leads to a diluted review base and makes it difficult to know who to trust.

I am just going to say it right out from the start, Fused Network has been reliable, dependable, and honest in every regard since I joined them nearly a year ago. Needles to say, they are one of the best web host providers on the web and here is why I hold that too be true.

5 Reasons Why I love Fused Networks

1. Friendly, Timely, and Reliable Customer Service

Since day one I felt like I was part of the Fused Network family. When I needed support they responded in less then 3 minutes, every time. David and his team are one of the friendlies support networks I have ever talked with through email. Their genuine and fast replies have always kept our site running consistently, without a hitch.

2. True 99.9% Server and Site Uptime

Our Site literally has a 99.9% uptime. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even think about our site having downtime, which allows me to go on trips, visit friends, or wash my car all without having to worry about our site not being available to our readers. The one exception to this over the past year was when our site was down for a bit and we were offered a free month of hosting to compensate. I declined, as it was a trivial amount of downtime and I honestly like to support them as a company.

3. Honest and Quality Hosting Packages

At Fused you get ample disk space and plenty of bandwidth. None of the “unlimited everything attitude” where companies claim to give you the sky and more. Nobody needs unlimited space and bandwidth, in reality it is just a marketing tactic to convince people into believing that they are getting something special. Avoid host like that, they usually have crowded servers and horrible support.

4. Powerful Servers with The Best Software

Cpanel – Check
Lamp – Check
Easy Script Installer – Check
MySQL 5 & PHP 5 – Check
SSH Access – Check
Free Nightly Backups – Check

You get it all with their shared hosting plans.

5. You Get What You Pay For

Fused Network is a steal. They may not be the cheapest hosting provider on the web, but no matter what package you select it will be worth every penny. They will even move your current site over to their system and ensure zero downtime, all for free, when you sign up.

If your in need of a host, you can’t go wrong with Fused Network. If you do sign up, I guarantee you’ll see why I wrote this possibly over the top appraisal.

More Info On Fused Network

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BuddyPress is a new program that is in dire need of some SEO optimization. Luckily there is a new plugin that is going to take a lot of the duplicate content and title tag issues out of the picture for us BuddyPress site developers.

Seo for BuddyPress: a great plugin

The new plugin is called Seo for BuddyPress and was created by Sven Lehnert. With Seo for BuddyPress you can enter

• Titles
• Descriptions
• And Keywords

for the following pages:

• Profile Pages -profile, activity, blogs, friends, groups, wire
• Groups Pages – groups home, groups wire, groups forum, groups members
• Events Pages from the bp-events plugin
• Bb-dev Youtube & Flickr pages
• Your own buddypress pages, such as your profile

Also the plugin comes with these great special tags to automaticly insert the user name, group name, or event name.

• %username%
• %groupname%
• %eventname%

I highly recommend you install Seo for Buddypress on your BuddyPress site. It has worked flawlessly for me and appears to be headed in the right direction for future updates.

The big G will love you for it.

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Here is another new Elgg theme that is based off of Pete Harris’s, Elgg example theme framework (1.0). This theme requires Elgg 1.5 and is released under a GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

This theme is the same as my previous two themes, but with a different color scheme. With Natural Brown I used neutral colors that resulted in low contrast.

*Notes – As before, renaming the theme will cause it to break. Also if you are adding text to the front page in Administration>>External Pages>>Frontpage, the information pages are reversed e.g. Lefthand is Righthand and Righthand is Lefthand

Download Natural Brown 1.1

Change log:
1.1 – Fixed missing homepage titles
1.0 – Initial release

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Installing Elgg themes is a relatively easy task, but at times can be a bit confusing. One example would be the white-screen-of-death which has a way of sneaking up on us Elgg users. Here is a Quick rundown of the steps needed to install your new theme and some steps to help if the installation doesn’t go too smoothly.

Steps to Install Your New Elgg Theme

1. Extract the contents of your downloaded theme zip file to the Mod directory in your Elgg install. By default your file structure should look something like this

   elgg/mod/your_new_theme_folder

2. Log into your Elgg installation as a administrator
3. At the top, navigate to Administration >> Tool Administration
4. Look for your new theme in the list of installed tools\plugins and click enable
5. Last but not least, find your new theme in the the list again and click the link called “bottom”

The reason for the final step is to force the theme to be loaded first instead of all of your other plugins. Definitely a good idea.

Troubleshooting a Theme Gone Wrong

If your new theme or current theme ever leaves you with a white blank screen and you cant access your site simply:

1. Backup the theme, if you have made changes
2. Delete the new theme directory
3. Now your site should revert to the default theme
4. If it doesn’t, your new theme is probably not the issue
5. You can now attempt to reinstall your theme

If your looking for a new theme right now you may want to try out one of my two new themes: Custom Blue for Elgg 1.5 and Custom White for Elgg 1.5

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Here is another new Elgg theme that is based off of Pete Harris’s, Elgg example theme framework (1.0). This theme requires Elgg 1.5 and is released under a GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

Custom White is similar to another Elgg theme I just released called Custom Blue. The functionality is the same, but the design has some slight modifications.

*Notes – As before, renaming the theme will cause it to break. Also if you are adding text to the front page in Administration>>External Pages>>Frontpage, the information pages are reversed e.g. Lefthand is Righthand and Righthand is Lefthand

Screenshots

Download Custom White 1.1

Change log:
1.1 – Fixed broken icon links
1.0 – Initial release

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This is a new Elgg theme that is based off of Pete Harris’s, Elgg example theme framework (1.0). This theme requires Elgg 1.5 and is released under a GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

Custom Blue is a 0.9 release due to the fact that it has not been tested on a live site. I did test it on a local install of Elgg with no problems though. It is compatible with IE7, Firefox 3.0, and Chrome 1.0.

*Notes – Renaming the theme will cause it too break. Also if you are adding text to the front page in Administration>>External Pages>>Frontpage, the information pages are reversed e.g. Lefthand is Righthand and Righthand is Lefthand

Here are a couple screen shots of the homepage and of a user profile. Notice the custom navigation bar displays differently if you are logged in or not.

If you have any questions on how to customize this theme or would like to report a bug, drop a comment below and I’ll do my best to check it out soon.

Download Custom Blue 1.0

Change log:
1.0 – Corrected syntax errors in manifest.xml (more info now works)
0.9 – Initial release

Free Icons Used in the Theme

The icon set I used was a free set that I altered in some simple ways. Included is my original PSD that I used to create the icons. The Icons were originally created by icojoy.com

Download Free Icon Set

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Recently I have been thinking of ways to add greater usability to my BuddyPress project ebodia.com. One thing I noticed is that when new users sign up, they are redirected to the homepage.

I felt this left new users with a “What now?” feeling, so I thought it would be a good idea to add a second navigation bar with some helpful links to the buddypress home theme. The Main roadblock I found was how to create custom links for users that were logged in. I did some digging and was able to find a snippet of code that will automatically parse the correct user id into the link.

How is this useful?

A few of the direct links I added for recently logged in users was -

• A link to their Profile
• A link to their list of blogs
• A link to their BuddyPress account settings

I felt this would be useful for new users that weren’t sure where to start.

Code for Custom Links in BuddyPress

This code will work for most custom links you will need, but not all of them. For example, I was not able to create a link to a users blog directly, so instead I created a link to their list of blogs.

Here is the Old example code to add a link to the logged in users friend activity. The new version is after this one.

<a href="<?php global $bp; echo bp_core_get_userurl($bp->loggedin_user->id); ?>activity/my-friends">Your Friends Activity</a>

Update: Andy P. suggested a alternative to the code above. Instead of declaring the bp global variable and requesting the logged in user id, why not just use a handy template tag? This code will output the same thing as the code above, but uses a very useful BuddyPress template tag.

The above code will output this link

http://yousite.com/members/logged-in-user-id/activity/my-friends

If you take a look at the links in your own profile you should be able to see the small bit of code you will need to customize the links. Activity/myfriends can be replaced in the original code by profile/public to create a link to the logged in users profile, for example.

I want to thank Burtadsit for providing the original code used in the above example and Andy P. for providing the template tag AND BuddyPress.

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