Plugin a software extension technique

Font Awesome More-specific icons
Font Awesome More-specific icons

Plugins are a fundamental and fairly obvious software-engineering idea (going way back), which though formerly ‘just’ a utilitarian tool, have become a popular-computing & Internet sensation. They’re all the rage now.

A plugin is a relatively small & limited-scope piece of special-purpose software that can be optionally added to another more general-purpose & full-featured software platform, to do something that the larger stand-alone platform doesn’t. The Firefox browser, and the WordPress site-platform are enjoying high-profile plugin manias. Continue readingPlugin a software extension technique

WordPress, website platform almost a quarter of the Web runs on it

Template Hierarchy diagram
Template Hierarchy diagram

WordPress is a web program, software that runs a blog or website. Originally a nice, simple little blog-script, it encountered success early, and was soon no longer simple, or little. Still, it retains a degree of restrain in it’s design & implementation that establish & maintain a watershed of sorts between it & other Content Management System programs. CMS is the term for software that runs a real website as opposed to a simple blog, which are regarded as scripts (don’t ‘manage’ much). Continue readingWordPress, website platform almost a quarter of the Web runs on it

WordPress plugin repository

[W]ordPress pluginn repositor blog & website software hosts on their own site, a large collection of 3rd-party Plugin titles for the program. As of late 2010, there are over 15,000.

They call the page for this repository, WordPress Extend-Plugins.

WordPress does some vetting of these plugins; provides a standardized format for organizing information about plugins, and creates a ‘marketplace’ in which folks can ‘shop’ for plugins. Continue reading “WordPress plugin repository”

Short Syntax Highlighter, WordPress plugin a WordPress plugin

Short Syntax Highlighter is a Plugin for the Plugin website software.

It is intended for nicely-displaying examples of computer-code, within your posts & pages.

There are more than a few such ‘highlighters’ around (they typically color the different ‘syntax’ elements differently, thus ‘highlighting’ them). Why do we see ‘yet another one’? How might this one be of interest? Continue readingShort Syntax Highlighter, WordPress plugin a WordPress plugin

Benchmark Rock, Elwha River Trail, Olympic Nat’l Park an early treat on Elwha River Trail

Benchmark Rock and Long Creek view
Benchmark Rock and Long Creek view

Benchmark Rock is an informal spot about 3/4 mile up the Elwha River Trail from its beginning at the Whiskey Bend Trailhead. The author Robert L. Wood, in his book Olympic Mountains Trail Guide, refers to the location as Benchmark Rock, in his Elwha Trail section (pg 40). (Note that historically & culturally, the name of this trail is sometimes seen as Elwha Trail, and other times as Elwha River Trail. The Park uses the later name today.) Continue readingBenchmark Rock, Elwha River Trail, Olympic Nat’l Park an early treat on Elwha River Trail

Elwha River Road – not to the Elwha always broken; can't fix

The Olympic Hot Springs Road is sometimes seen referred to as the Elwha River Road. Locals are not affected … even though they also practice & perpetuate the ambiguous usage.

The road that visitors to the Olympic National Park and the facilities & recreation along the Elwha River will be looking for is the Olympic Hot Springs Road.  Not the Elwha River Road. Continue readingElwha River Road – not to the Elwha always broken; can’t fix

Olympic Hot Springs Road, Elwha River, Olympic Nat’l Park the Elwha River in Olympic National Park

Olympic Hotsprings Road - Highway 101 junction
Olympic Hotsprings Road – Highway 101 junction

Olympic Hot Springs Road leaves US Highway 101 at its bridge over the Elwha River and goes up the valley (south), soon entering the Olympic National Park. The junction is about 10 minutes west of Port Angeles. This is the road that leads to popular recreational areas on & around the river, to the Elwha Ranger Station, and provides access to various river-valley campgrounds and backcountry trails. It also gives access to the Glines Canyon Dam and Lake Mills, both slated for elimination in the high-profile Elwha River Restoration Project (both now gone, end of 2014). Continue readingOlympic Hot Springs Road, Elwha River, Olympic Nat’l Park the Elwha River in Olympic National Park

Goblins Gate, Elwha River, Olympic Nat’l Park

Map-fragment closeup of Goblins Gate
Map-fragment closeup of Goblins Gate

[G]oblins Gate is a dramatic entrance to the Rica Canyon of the Elwha River in Olympic National Park.  It’s at the lower end of Geyser Valley and the Humes Ranch area.  The river is suddenly pinched into a narrow canyon between vertical rock walls (like a gate).  It is an easy day-hike to Goblins Gate, via Rica Canyon Trail.

A broad, low ridge of resistant rock, a few hundred feet high, runs athwart the main Elwha River channel, at the bottom end of Geyser Valley, and the river cuts through it. Continue reading “Goblins Gate, Elwha River, Olympic Nat’l Park”

Patent 2,673,793 – Model Engine Fuel

Pg 1 - Model Engine Fuels patent
Pg 1 – Model Engine Fuels patent

by John W. Brodhacker
application Feb. 3 1950

This invention relates to fuels for internal combustion engine of the high speed type such as model engines for midget racing cars, model airplanes, etc., and more particularly it relates to ignition promoters added to such fuels in order to improve the ignition performance. Continue reading “Patent 2,673,793 – Model Engine Fuel”

Lake Aldwell, Elwha River, Olympic Peninsula, NW USA everyone drives right past; worth the stop

Log boom dam guard Lake Aldwell
Log boom dam guard Lake Aldwell

Update:

Lake Aldwell is now gone, with the removal of its dam, but other features remain as described here.  The former lake-bed is growing back in a jungle of saplings & brush.     One visitor in 10,000 might stop for the easy-quick check.

Lake Aldwell is the impoundment of the Elwha River above the lower of the two dams on it (both slated for removal in 2011). Continue readingLake Aldwell, Elwha River, Olympic Peninsula, NW USA everyone drives right past; worth the stop