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Dagon Design “Form Mailer” plugin for WordPress

August 18, 2008 By 2 Comments

A few days ago I stumbled across what I consider to be one of the best WordPress plugins I have ever seen, Dagon Design’s “Form Mailer Plugin”. I have used a number of different plugins and scripts in the past for some of my blogs, but this one is a real gem.

First of all, it has several very effective security features built in to help prevent spammers from using your contact forms to spam the world from your email account. Setup is fast and easy for simple forms, and if you need multiple fields and file uploads Dagon Design has made it easy to set them up by following their very thorough and easy-to-understand instructions.

You can see this great plugin in action by visiting my newest WordPress powered site at www.BluegrassBios.com. You’ll find a form using the plugin on both the “Contact Us” and “Submit a Bio” pages.

Dagon Design’s “Form Mailer” plugin is free. For more information and to download it, visit www.dagondesign.com.

Filed Under: Technology

Alison Krauss on the Tonight Show

August 11, 2008 By 1 Comment

No other genre of music produces a sweeter sound than Bluegrass. The songs the performers pick and sing touch the heart in many ways, especially the ones with inspirational roots.

Although Bluegrass singers and musicians are among the most talented in the business, most of them find it almost impossible to achieve the level of commercial success enjoyed by their counterparts who work in other genres. The few who have managed to break out and achieve fame and fortune have done it primarily by branching out into Bluegrass’ closest “relative”: Country Music.

Several of Country’s biggest stars began their musical careers in Bluegrass including Keith Whitley, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss and others. Many of these fine performers returned to their Bluegrass roots after becoming Country Music stars.

The video below features Alison Krauss and Union Station performing “A Living Prayer” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Filed Under: Bluegrass Music

Why I love Google

August 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Most people think of a search engine as nothing more than a tool to help them find a bit of information on whatever topic they happen to be interested in at the time, but I find myself using Google on a daily basis to help me get through the day. Here are a couple of examples:

1 – Yesterday morning I needed to call a local convenience store to see if they had a certain item in stock. I could have pulled out the phone book and thumbed through the yellow pages for the listing, but instead I simply logged onto Google and typed the name of the store and the town into the search box, and walla…up popped the phone number and street address right on cue.

2 – Tami, Rob and Madison came over to our house for dinner last night, and during the meal Tami asked if I knew where the fuse panel in their VW Beetle was located. I didn’t of course, but after typing 2001 Volkswagen Beetle fuse panel into Google’s search box I was able to follow the very first link to the answer to the following question “Where is the fuse panel on a 2001 Volkswagen Beetle”? And the answer turned out to be quite detailed and accurate.

That’s why I love Google. I’m almost always able to find the exact information I’m looking for with just one or two quick searches, and after a little practice searching for various keywords and phrases you’ll be able to as well.

Filed Under: Things I like