ESSENTIAL PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS BEGINNERS – WORDPRESS TIP

So if you are a beginner in WordPress or you want a quick cheat sheet on what plugins to install here are some of my recommendations:

1. Google XML Sitemaps:This plugin is a must. It will automatically generate a sitemap of your WordPress blog. As a beginner in WordPress this is very helpful because you won't have to deal with any code or any xml generation to get the Sitemap file. If you don't know what the sitemap.xml file is used for I will explain to you. The sitemap.xml file will allow your blog to reveal a Site Map of all your internal pages so that search engines such as google can get a deep analysis of every single page in your site and index you appropriately. This is an essential plugin when beginning a new WordPress blog.
2. iRobots SEOThe robots.txt file gives instructions to the search engines on what to index and what to skip (for example you don't want your wp-admin zone to be indexed). This essential plugin will be great for a WordPress beginner or new blog since it will have default setups that will take care of the most important variables in a properly written robots.txt file.
3. Google AnalyticatorThis is a very simple but efficient plugin to install on a new wordpress site. It will allow you to connect your Google Analytics website as well as to setup easily some options for it. Have you ever not wanted to track your own visits to your WordPress blog? This essential plugin for wordpress will allow you to block yourself easily from the settings page of the plugin once installed.
4. Yoast WordPress SEOThis is one of the best plugins I have found lately for Search engine optimization. Definitely a must install in a new WordPress blog or website. This plugin will provide you the essential options to adjust how your website is exposed to search engines. It will also provide you a very intuitive way of adding your meta description, title tag and keywords to any post while at the same time giving you advise on how to do it appropriately. I used other plugins before and discovered this one recently and as a geek I can tell you its a fundamental plugin to install.
5. Akismet
   This comes with WordPress but many people just ignore it. This will give you a protective barrier against spam comments on your website. To activate it you just go to Akismet and register. After you do this they will provide you an API key that you will be able to insert in the Akismet plugin settings
6. Permalink EditorPermalinks are the URL of your blog posts or pages. WordPress by default lets you setup a standard or dynamic structure. However to get further customization options, this plugin is beautiful. It will enable a "Customize" button beside your URL when editing blog posts. Have you ever wanted to change the category in which the URL is appearing or just change the text? This plugin will allow you to do that easily.
7. Comprehensive Google Map Plugin (Extra but not essential)This is not for every blog, but just in case you want to use a map in your site to show your location, business venues or any other thing its a personally favorite one. I install this in almost every blog I setup in WordPress since the plugin will be eventually used at some point.

That's it. I was talking about essential plugins not the top 5, 10 or 15 WordPress plugins. These plugins will allow any beginner to have its blog setup with proper SEO, sitemap, robot file and other options to make the most of its content.

If you are a setting up your new site, I would also suggest you read these posts as well:

• How to add Facebook Like Button in WordPress : Blog Tip
• Google Analytics Tip: Filter IP Addresses, domains or subdirectories  

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WordPress Optimization Tips and Tricks for Better Performance and Speed

Is your WordPress blog performing at it’s best? How quickly does the page load? Is it sluggish? Your website’s performance is one of the key factors in ensuring that the visitors are having a good experience with your site. So I personally think it is worthwhile to spend some time tuning/optimizing the site for performance. In this article I have listed various tips and tricks on how to speed up a WordPress Site.

Before diving into the optimization tips and tricks I recommend measuring the current performance of the site so you have some benchmarking figures to compare against after you make the changes and see how it has affected the performance.

How to Measure the Performance of a Site

1. I use the Page Speed tool from Google to measure performance and try to achieve a score of 85+ out of 100. Page speed has a browser addon to measure the performance of a site. Page Speed analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

2. You can also use YSlow Firefox addon to measure the page load time of a site. YSlow is a Firefox add-on integrated with the Firebug web development tool. So to use YSlow you will have to get the Firebug addon and then install the YSlow addon.

The site in question takes about 23 secons to load which is not a very good page loading time. Some optimization could help!

3. The number of database queries a webpage makes to load the page have an effect on the page load time. You can use the following piece of code in the footer of your theme to find out how many database queries a page is making:

<?php echo get_num_queries(); ?> queries in <?php timer_stop(1); ?> seconds.

Make sure the webpage is not making any unnecessary database queries.

4. You can use the website speed tester to find out how fast your site loads.

Website Speed Tester

5. You can also use the stopwatch on numion.com to test how long it takes to load a webpage.

Basic WordPress Site Optimization Tips and Tricks

• Upgrade to the latest wordpress release (you should be doing this for security reasons anyway)
• Use W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin (Forget WP Super Cache). W3 Total Cache is just awesome… even I use it 
• Minimize simple unnecessary PHP queries. For example, instead of using <?php get_bloginfo(‘wpurl’); ?> just replace it with your wordpress installation URL so the browser can simply read it instead of making a query.
• Load javascripts in the footer (The golden rule – CSS on top, javascript on bottom)
• Kill some plugins that are unnecesary or doesn’t add much value to your site (Disable or delete these plugins)
• Optimize and Repair your Database from myPhpAdmin. You can use the Optimize DB plugin that does this for you.
• Check your theme Code (Use valid HTML code)
• Get a Good hosting

Intermediate to Advanced Optimization Tips

• Keep your page sizes less than 100kb. Do not use too many unnecessary images and video on a page. Always compress the images appropriately.
• Combine css files into one big css file (One 50kb file loads a lot faster than five 10kb files)
• Combine javascripts into one big file.
• Reduce the number of dynamic PHP and http calls (Use subdomains to share the load)
• Use external scripts. Instead of placing tons of code in your header.php file, use external scripts. This allows the browser to cache the script so it won’t have to read it for every other page.
• Add far future expires header to images, CSS and javascript files (How to Add far future expires header).
• Don’t use ETags unless you are taking advantage of it (How to configure ETags).

First Intel-powered smartphone to be launched in India

Intel has confirmed details of the first smartphone to be powered by one of its processors.

The XOLO X900, made by the Indian manufacturer Lava, will go on sale on 23 April priced at about 22,000 rupees (£265).

Lava has teamed up with Indian retail chain Croma to distribute the device across the country.

The move follows Intel's previous failed attempt to break into the smartphone market.

A tie-up with manufacturer LG in 2010 fell flat, with no models going into production.

Meanwhile, chips designed by British-based ARM and the American firm Qualcomm now dominate the market.

Details of Intel-powered smartphones made by Motorola Mobility and Lenovo are expected soon.

Hyper threading

The chip maker announced the partnerships at the Consumer Electronics Show in Barcelona in January.

Intel's tie-up with Motorola Mobility is seen as most significant as the company is in the process of being purchased by Google.

The Atom-based chip promises more efficient battery consumption, as well as Intel's own "hyper threading technology" allowing for enhanced multi-tasking.

The XOLO X900 - which features an 8-megapixel camera - will run initially on Android Gingerbread, Google's smartphone operating system.

This will later be upgraded, Intel said, to the next incarnation of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Lava has emerged as one of India's fastest-growing companies since being founded two-and-a-half years ago.

"After our success in feature phones, with over 10 million happy customers in under three years, XOLO will be a differentiated player in the fast-growing smartphone segment," Lava's co-founder and director Vishal Sehgal said in a statement.

Huntington's disease 'lowers' cancer risk

People with Huntington's disease, a debilitating brain condition, appear have a "protection" from cancer, according to a study in Sweden.

Nearly 40 years of medical records showed patients with Huntington's had half the normal expected risk of developing tumours.

Researchers, writing in The Lancet Oncology, said the reason was unclear.

Cancer Research UK said the findings presented another avenue to explore in tackling cancer.

Academics at Lund University analysed Swedish hospital data from 1969 to 2008. They found 1,510 patients with Huntington's disease.

During the study period, 91 of those patients subsequently developed cancer. The authors said that was 53% lower than the levels expected for the general population.

Huntington's is one of a group of illnesses called "polyglutamine diseases". Data from other polyglutamine diseases also showed lower levels of cancer.

The authors said: "We found that the incidence of cancer was significantly lower among patients with polyglutamine diseases than in the general population.

"The mechanisms behind the protective effects against cancer are unclear and further research is warranted."

Dr Jianguang Ji, from the Center for Primary Health Care Research at Lund University, told the BBC: "Clarification of the mechanism underlying the link between polyglutamine diseases and cancer in the future could lead to the development of new treatment options for cancer."

Eleanor Barrie, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "These are interesting results. It's not clear how the genetic changes that cause Huntington's and other similar diseases could protect against cancer, and research in the lab will help to find out more.

"Scientists at Cancer Research UK and around the world are probing the genetic faults that contribute to cancer in their quest to beat the disease, and this is another potential avenue to explore."

Indonesia says only small tsunami waves hit Sumatra after quakes

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Small tsunami waves of around one meter hit the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Wednesday after a series of major earthquakes, though the country's disaster agency said it was still assessing whether there were any deaths or damage.

The agency expects the worst impact to have been on Simeulue island off Sumatra and forecasts further small aftershocks in the country's westernmost region, but it has lifted its tsunami alert for an area which was devastated by a tsunami in 2004.

Indian Ocean tsunami alert lifted after Aceh quake

A tsunami watch declared after two major earthquakes off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province has now been cancelled, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PWTC) says.

Two hours after the quakes - one with a magnitude of 8.6, the other measuring 8.3 - the centre says "the threat has diminished or is over for most areas".

The alerts caused panic as people fled buildings and made for high ground.

There have been no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

India, Thailand and Sri Lanka have also lifted their own tsunami warnings.

The region is regularly hit by earthquakes. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 killed 170,000 people in Aceh alone and some 250,000 around the region.

'Vigilant'
The US Geological Survey (USGS), which documents quakes worldwide, said the first Aceh quake was centred at a depth of 33km (20 miles), about 495km from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

It was initially reported as 8.9 magnitude but was later revised down to 8.6 by the USGS. Quake officials said a tsunami had been generated and was heading for the coast of Aceh.

The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says there were reports of the ground shaking for up to five minutes.

A PTWC alert said that sea level readings indicated a tsunami was generated and that it "may already have been destructive along some coasts," without specifying where.

A Thai disaster official said a 10cm wave had been recorded on Koh Miang island, off Phang Nga.

Earlier, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the authorities were remaining "vigilant", despite the lack of tsunami reports.

"Our warning system is working well, and I have ordered the national relief team to fly immediately to Aceh to ensure the situation is under control and to take any necessary action," he said.


The alerts caused panic in Aceh province, as people fled from buildings
A few hours later, the PTWC renewed its warning after a major aftershock measuring 8.2 struck 16km (10 miles) beneath the ocean floor and 615km from Banda Aceh.

An AFP correspondent in Banda Aceh said the second aftershock lasted four minutes.

The PTWC issues advisory alerts across the region, which state authorities can use to issue their own emergency procedures. Indonesia straddles the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of major seismic activity.

'Minute of chaos'
Sutopo, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, said electricity had been cut in Aceh and there were traffic jams to access higher ground.

"Sirens and Koran recitals from mosques are everywhere," he told Reuters.

Tremors were felt as far away as Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India. The French island of Reunion was also on alert.

Along the eastern coast of Africa, Kenya and Tanzania issued their own tsunami warnings.

"There was a tremor felt by all of us working in the building," a man called Vincent in Calcutta, India, told the BBC.

"All just ran out of the building and people were asked not to use the elevator. There was a minute of chaos where all started ringing up to their family and asking about their well-being."

Tsunami warning sirens, set up in many vulnerable areas after the 2004 disaster, were heard in Phuket, Thailand, where correspondents said people were calmly following evacuation routes to safe zones.

Roger Musson, a seismologist from the British Geological Survey, said the quakes were unlike those seen off Indonesia in recent years, where ground had been pushed under the continental plate, "flipping up" the seabed.

"It seems to be a large earthquake within the Indian Plate and the plate has broken in a sort of lateral way," he said.

"It's a sort of tearing earthquake, and this is much less likely to cause a tsunami because it's not displacing large volumes of water."

AOL to sell over 800 patents to Microsoft

NEW YORK (AP) :

AOL Inc. shares surged Monday to their highest level in more than a year after it said it has agreed to sell 800 of its patents and license others to Microsoft Corp. for about $1.06 billion in cash.

The New York-based Web site developer and Internet access company said it plans to return some of the sale proceeds to its shareholders. After the sale, AOL should have about $15 per share of cash on hand, it said.

AOL shares jumped $7.78, or 43 percent, to $26.20 in morning trading, adding about $750 million to its market capitalization. Microsoft shares slipped 37 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $31.15 in morning trading.

In February, one of AOL's largest shareholders, an investment firm, said it would nominate candidates for the company's board because it wasn't doing enough to make money from its patents. In response, the company said it had already begun to look at ways to unlock patent value.

Patents have become a hot commodity in the high-tech industry in the last few years. They're useful both for attack — for suing competitors — and for defense — for warding off lawsuits with threats of countersuits. Software patents can have broad applications, and thousands of patents can apply to a complicated product like a cellphone. Google Inc. is buying phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion to get hold of its patents.

After the sale, AOL said it will still hold over 300 patents and applications covering a variety of core and strategic technologies including advertising, search, content generation, social networking, mapping, multimedia, and security among others.

AOL also received a license to the patents being sold to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.

"The combined sale and licensing arrangement unlocks current dollar value for our shareholders and enables AOL to continue to aggressively execute on our strategy to create long-term shareholder value," AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong said in a statement.

AOL said it will determine the best way to distribute a "significant portion" of the sale proceeds to shareholders before the sale closes, which is expected to happen by the end of this year.

AOL owns news sites like Huffington Post, Engadget and Techcrunch, but still makes much of its money by providing dial-up Internet access.