Makerbot 3D Printer makes a Church

Last Saturday I went to the Coderdojo party in the NSC with my son Adam to see what it was all about. We arrived late and all the pizza was gone but there were loads of balloons for the younger kids to play with!

The adults and older kids watched a 3D Makerbot printer demo. I love the open wooden case the printer is made from and when it started making a replica of St. Anne’s Church all eyes were glued to it as layers of plastic were laid down layer by layer. I posted some more photos here too.

One that was made earlier

Thanks Ann for tweeting about this on Saturday morning and reminding me it was on! Hopefully I’ll get to more Coderdojo events in the future!

Kids Place Android Parental Lock

My new favourite app is Kids Place. It’s an application launcher for Android that only allows access to the apps you want. The parental lock is protected by a 4 digit PIN but the launcher can be disabled by rebooting the phone.

A launcher app, with child lock, for Kids to protect your personal data & apps.
Creates a safe area on you device for kids. Child lock protects your personal information when kids are using your phone or tablet by restricting them to apps you approve

My son loves playing games on my phone and I usually put it into Airplane mode so he can’t go online accidentally but once in a while he’ll move the icons around or make new folders. Luckily he never deleted any contacts or messages but with this app I don’t have to worry any more. Parents, go get this app if you have an Android phone!

WP Super Cache 1.0

WP Super Cache is a fast page caching plugin for WordPress that can significantly speed up websites.

The first release of this plugin was in September 2009 so this has been a bit too long in the making. Back then the main caching plugin was WP Cache, which this plugin is based on, but now there are quite a few including W3 Total Cache, Hypercache, Quick Cache and many more.

Version 1.0 is an incremental upgrade from the previous release but it has a number of bugfixes and new features:

  1. The all new scheduler and admin bar link should please many people, especially those who want to clear the cache on their site at particular times. The “Delete Cache” admin bar link is something people have been asking about for as long as WordPress has had that bar!
  2. You can preload categories and taxonomies although this hasn’t really been tested as well as I’d like. It works for me but YMMV.
  3. There’s better support for mobile and https users now. Mobile support should scale a lot more than previously.
  4. The cache tester is fixed now and the plugin traps as many errors as possible. It’ll also spit out some helpful text if there is a problem. 99% of the time it’s because the server can’t request a page from itself.
  5. At the risk of annoying users who comment on your site you can make them appear to be anonymous users which will drastically help your server if they like commenting a lot. Unfortunately it stops the comment form populating with their details so it might be worth using an external comment system like Intense Debate or Disqus!
  6. The Advanced Settings page now lists a “do not cache page” secret key. Use this key to view any page of your site uncached.
  7. The cache file listing and delete links should work again now.
  8. And many many more bug fixes.

Once you upgrade go visit the settings page and check out what’s new there. The upgrade worked fine for me, but there’s no harm looking. Pay close attention to the new garbage collector. The scheduler is rather powerful and flexible so it’s worth setting up right.

If you have any problems please leave a comment here or use the support forum.

WP Super Cache Scheduler and Admin Bar Link

I made a few changes to WP Super Cache over the last week. The garbage collection user interface received an overhaul and it’s now possible to schedule the those jobs using a timer or a clock. It can also send you an email each time it runs!

Another major change was the addition of a “Delete Cache” link on the admin bar for logged in users. This may seem strange, but it will only show if you have disabled caching for known users. Unfortunately this is needed because of the security measures required. It only deletes the supercache file(s) for the current page, not any legacy files associated with it.

If you’re feeling adventurous go download the development version from this page and give it a whirl. I really need feedback that this works well so please leave a comment if you try it.

The version number won’t change and when the next release comes out you’ll still get the upgrade notification!

Darwinia’s Spectrum Roots

I bought Darwinia as part of a recent Humble Bundle. In fact it was really the only reason I bought it as I enjoyed Multiwinia and heard that the original game was great too, and it is!

Anyway, here’s an intro that greets you when you start the game. It’s only one of a number of different ones but it’s my favourite. Took me right back to my Speccy owning days in the late 80’s!

Oh, go get the Introversion bundle, well worth the asking price (whatever you decide to pay!)

Bye Bye Digg, Hello Stephen Fry!

Last week The Hibbs Lupus Trust posted a tweet thanking various people after their site was mentioned in a tweet by Stephen Fry. Lupus is a horrible condition and the Trust aims to help raise awareness of it, support sufferers and help GPs diagnose it.

Lupus causes the body’s immune system to go into overdrive and starts to attack itself. It is believed that over 50,000 people throughout the UK suffer with Lupus of whom 90% are female. The symptoms are many and varied, and the condition often seems to mimic other diseases. This gives rise to difficulty in diagnosis and the condition can be overlooked for years, unless the GP or consultant is alert to the possibility of lupus.

The Trust’s website must have experienced a torrent of traffic because Mr Fry is followed by gazillions of people and the tweet was retweeted by over 100 of his followers. The website stayed up and I’m glad that WP Super Cache played a part in helping them.

I wanted to mark the occasion of a website getting a Frying and surviving so I changed the “Digg proof” message in the plugin to “Stephen Fry Proof”. Download the development version from this page if you want a look. The link in the admin page goes to the Trust’s tweet so I hope I can play a small part in spreading the word.

Of course, just because you’re using this plugin is no guarantee that your site will survive a mention by Mr Fry or any other celebrity on Twitter (especially if your hosting is simply too limited) but With WP Super Cache at least it has a fighting chance!

BONUS: In case you didn’t see it, here’s Stephen Fry ag caint as Gaeilge (talking in Irish) as he appeared on an Irish language tv programme a while back:

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