Month: February 2012

Disable Comments Plugin for WordPress

So the other day I set up a new WordPress install. Unlike most of the WordPress setups I’m running, for this one I wanted to disable commenting completely.

This being WordPress, of course, accomplishing this from a stock install is impossible. Surprise, surprise, to disable all commenting you have to turn to a plugin. The Disable Comments plugin does a nice job of implementing a feature that practically screams to be included in the WordPress core.

This plugin allows administrators to globally disable comments on any post type (posts, pages, attachments, etc.) so that these settings cannot be overridden for individual posts. It also removes all comment-related fields from edit and quick-edit screens.

Additionally, comment-related items can be removed from the Dashboard, Widgets, the Admin Menu and the Admin Bar.

 

CrypTweet

CrypTweet is an attempt to create a tool to encrypt Twitter DMs. Unfortunately, pretty much as soon as it was released it faced an enormous backlash for a number of implementation errors. The author frankly admits to the numerous problems on the CryptTweet website now and says the tool is only for experimental purposes.

Personally, if I had a need to send encrypted Tweets I’d use one of the PGP tools for smart phones or computers (such as AGP for Android) and encrypt the text before posting.

Some critics of CryptTweet wondered what the point would be of encrypting Twitter DMs. However, I can think of some interesting ways to use something like Twitter in conjunction with PGP to securely coordinate activities that might otherwise be easily observed/intercepted by police and other government authorities.

How Much Gasoline/Coal Would It Take to Charge a Smart Phone?

Purely out of curiosity, how much gasoline would it take to charge your average smart phone for a day? A year? A lifetime?

Exxon has an incredibly long-winded look at this question focusing on the energy density of various fuels. Their answer,

All of the energy concentrated in one gallon of gasoline is enough to charge an iPhone once a day for almost 20 years.

Of course, coal is actually generates the majority of electricity in the United States. The Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research wiki takes a stab at estimating the carbon footprint for charging a smart phone and concludes it is about half a pound of CO2 per charge.