If you’ve already downloaded one of my free plug ins for WordPress, you know that I rely on MediaFire to provide downloadable material. Why? Simply because its easy, allows me to monitor what people are downloading (what’s popular) and it doesn’t add any additional transfer to my current host server. Oh, also, I’m not paying to use it as a service! I’m giving away free stuff on a free site! Imagine that!

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that a similar company, Megaupload, was shut down, with its owners and developers apprehended by authorities. Now, it is fair to say that there are unscrupulous people who use Megaupload to make copyrighted material available for illegal download, but one could also argue that its the people performing these acts one should hold responsible, not the enabling organization or service. I live in a large city. It is probably likely that someone, somewhere is commiting a crime in this city as you read this very sentence. Should we shut the whole city down and arrest everyone working for the city government because they haven’t prevented crimes from being commited?

From my perspective, MediaFire has been great to work with and I fully intend to use it going forward. But it is in quite the same danger of being shut down for the same reasons Megaupload was. Worse, should legislation like the Stop Online Piracy Act get passed through legislation (its only been delayed, not killed), it will make companies like Comcast cable the arbiters of who is commiting online piracy. And they wouldn’t even need to provide adequate evidence that the proprietors of the site are the responsible party. Just suspicion based on proxmity to anyone breaking copyright or existing anti-piracy laws.

And do you want to know what the real, sad truth is? The reason certain media companies are so upset about online piracy is because they want to believe, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that the reason their business is not nearly as equitable as it once was is because of illegal downloading.

Here’s a great article on the subject of the music industry’s failure to grasp this very point: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-02-18/tech/30052663_1_riaa-music-industry-cd-era

So should we endeavor to control online piracy? Yes. Absolutely. It is the right of the purveyor, manufacturer and intellectual property owner to control one’s assets. But to hold a service provider responsible for the acts of others isn’t just, fair or even practical. Inevitably, methods of development will ultimately create a proper means to control illegal downloading.

That is the nature of the beast; prohibitive acts spawn criminal activities creating new, innovative means of enforcement, which, subsequently create whole new methods of development and so on. Relying on government agencies to do so always ultimately leads to a certain amount of inequitable legislation that needs to be struck down because it is never crafted with variables in mind. In this case, that variable is the legitimate business person looking to take full advantage of generous services being the unintended victim of this sort of legislative myopathy. Yes, I’m speaking of myself. I’d like to try to keep companies like NewsCorp from being the arbiters of who is and is not guilty of online piracy because – all things being fair in the world of business – it is inevitable that a service like Media Fire would be shut down at their insistence (followed shortly thereafter by NewsCorp introducing a means by which you could download something that you’d have to pay through the nose for, but with the insistence that it’s pirate free – trust them, they know what’s good for you).

Yesterday, I listened to former senator Chris Dodd (now an MPAA exec) engage in a bitter, alarmist tirade about the consequences of not getting SOPA accepted as law. To Mr. Dodd I say, “Lobby for compromise, then.” Because neither side is going to give and if a fair middle ground exists, it will not be legislated behind closed doors in some executive boardroom of a media company looking to subvert the rules to their own purposes, which you can be sure is exactly what would happen and why SOPA and PIPA were so unpopular in the first place.

Make the discussion a public one from the get go and you will see that most people are in agreement: we don’t want online piracy.

But we’ll take it over the unfair dictates of private interests any day.

I decided to make a basic one off of a full web template that I’ll be selling: GR FlexiBasic (there will also be a GR FlexiBuild [php based] and GR FlexiPress, which will be the WP version). But what’s most important is how easy it is to customize and control this menu. I’ve done it in HTML and HTML5, though the one on display here is strictly html. The mouseover backgrounds are simple gif files I’ve given a half second delay to. You can change the color scheme by clicking the color below. The full HTML file I’ve provided for download has this same example in it so you can test it out at home.

• gold
• charcoal
• crimson
• emerald
• midnight
• cream
• winter

You can download the files for this menu HERE.

I wanted to build a slideshow widget with as many customizable elements as one would likely have need of and also make it really easy to use (hence, the widget format where you don’t have to spend too much time trying to figure out the back end).

GRG Slideshow Solo uses a mix of php and jQuery to execute its functions. It is very simple to use and also very simple to customize (beyond the featured parameters) if you have some familiarity with either language.

You must first know how to install this plug in and how to feature images in your pages and posts. It’s easy! But if you’ve never done so before, you can always refer to this handy guide for installing plug ins that the many core and contributing WordPress designers and developers have put together for all of us. Following these simple directions will help you get started with the free GRG Slideshow Solo for WordPress.

GRG Slideshow Solo displays the Featured Images from your lists of post. If there is no Featured Image set in a particualr post, it will display the default image you set for it. To learn more about Featured Images, you can read from this nifty article.

Once you’ve activated the plugin, drag and drop GRG Slideshow Solo into your active widget area and set it up accordingly.

To get the slug name, if you wish to display a specific category, just click “Categories” on your dashboard menu (left-hand side) and copy the particular slug name from the slug name column.

If you want to display, a row of little, clickable thumbnails beneath the slidehow, that’s what the Display Thumbnail List option does. It will even show the default image you select on that list, if there are no Featured Images in the post, but will still link to any recent article in that list.

The Description Display option will allow you to display an exerpt from a the post whose featured image is being displayed. In selecting Rollover, it hides the exerpt until you move your mouse over it.

Slideshow Height and Width… the best advice I can provide is to consider the image you place in there carefully, because it will stretch or squeeze image to whatever dimensions you save in the widget. Most pictures we take are usually either 3:4 or 9:16 ratio. Yes, there will be math! So keep that in mind. Why didn’t I consider placing an “auto” option? Because that would cause the widget to expand and contract accordingly and depending on where you place it, one particularly long or wide image could play havoc with the layout of your website or blog.

And also because I’m a big meanie.

Make sure you save your changes and to any code savvy users, I’ve tried my best to implement jQuery noConflict variables to make this thing operate the way it should, BUT even so, if you find that this plugin breaks your whole world and sends your site to a spinning-out-of-control and flaming end, feel free to send me a message here and let me know what the specific issue is. Just don’t send me a link to anything, I promise you I won’t click it.

DOWNLOAD GRG SLIDESHOW SOLO

Click Layer to Close

Hi and thanks for using my plugin!

I built this plugin in response to a client’s demand for a small gallery plugin he could easily figure out and size up to his blog content. I hope that you will find this plug in easy to use as well. In the near future there will, of course, be additions and expansion of GRG Gallery and I hope those of you who use it will find it useful.

GRG Gallery Lite uses a mix of php and jQuery to execute its functions. It is very simple to use and also very simple to customize if you have some familiarity with either language.

You must first know how to install this plug in and how to attach images to your pages and posts. It’s easy! But if you’ve never done so before, you can always refer to this handy guide for installing plug ins and this guide on attaching images to your posts that the many core and contributing WordPress designers and developers have put together for all of us. Following these simple directions will help you get started with the free GRG Gallery Lite Plug In for WordPress.

First, choose what kind of gallery you want to use in the admin page; you’ll find the menu item for it under settings on the dashboard menu to your left.

As you can see in the image above, you are provided options for how the gallery will display. When entering the total pixel width you wish your gallery to occupy, it is important to know what width the containing layer has. The easiest way to do this is to use a browser like Google Chrome, preview the page your gallery is going on, right click in the area you’re placing it in and then choosing “Inspect Element.” However, everyone has their own preference of browsers, so you can alwasy just choose “Editor” under Appearance on your dashboard menu to the left, locate “Stylesheet” to your right and then search for the styles for .post or .page or #content – figure a width equal or slightly less than that particular div and voila! Well, not quite ‘voila!’ but you get the idea.

Next is to create the page or post you want your gallery to display in and then type in the shortcode. See the image below.

Paste the GRG Gallery shortcode in your page and publish it. All images attached to that page or post will appear in the gallery on that page or post.

Happy blogging!

DOWNLOAD GRG GALLERY LITE

There’s also a WP image plug in you can download, if you are so inclined.