What did you do for Mother’s Day? Did you play the doting daughter or the sweet son? Did you take her out for a wonderful meal, gave her flowers and those sparkly earrings she has been eyeing? Well Father’s Day is coming up soon and even though men are the less sentimental of the two sexes, it doesn’t mean that the day should be celebrated gift-free.

For many fathers, they are the people behind the scenes, the pillar of strength for the family, and the one you go to when there is something to fix in the house. They’re there on your first day of kindie, elementary school, high school then college; they’re there for your first crush, your first heartbreak, and your first kid. Fact is, for most fathers, the best thing in their life is probably you. So while other sites celebrate dads in general, in today’s post we are celebrating the geek dad, the kind of dad who introduces you to technology, the moment you start walking.

No matter which type of geek your dad is, we have gift ideas that would mark this Father’s day as his best one yet.

Hardcore Gaming Dads: UCube Digital USB Speakers

It’s portable, it’s mini, it amplifies, and it boasts high-performance sound that would do great for geek dads who like music or gaming. Available in metallic red, white, silver and black, this three-inch deal can pack a punch in spite of its size. Attach this cable-free gadget to your machine and it stays powered to give you the best sound vibrations at 15 watts.

Superhero Dads: Magtitan Neo Legend Power Band (As worn by Iron Man in the Avengers)

Fans of Iron Man (or Robert Downey Jr) would totally freak out over this titanium-built, stainless steel, and carbon-fibred limited edition power band. To refresh your memory, you get a dose of what this baby can do (in the movie) in the scene where Tony Stark gets to spite Loki before the climatic scenes of The Avengers. Special effects not included.

Photo Lover Dads: The Olloclip 3-in-1 iPhone Lens

Doting dads who snap on the move would love this. Slip the Olloclip 3-in-1 iPhone lens clip on an iPhone 4/4S for quick access to three types of lenses: Fisheye, Wide Angle, Macro while on the go. All three lenses are made from high-quality glass so the photos you’re snapping won’t look like it came from a camera phone. They also come with lens caps and a small bag, for a secure stowaway.

Apple Fan Dads: Magic Mouse

If your dad is a fan of swiping gestures and shortkeys he will love this Magic Mouse. It’s essentially a touchpad in the shape of a mouse. There’s only one button on it, which is fine since it works on swipes — scroll and swipe on the surface of the mouse like you would on other Mac devices for a seamless surfing experience.

Writer Dads: The Livescribe Smartpen

It’s the Smartpen by Livescribe, the pen that allows you to record up to 800 hours (or 8 GB worth) of recordings, complete with playback options. There is also an audio jack for playback via earphones and what’s more, you can also transfer your recordings to your computer with a cable connection.

Album-Making Dads: iPhone Photo Cube Printer

For fathers who can never get enough of pictures of their kids, this little gadget is a godsend. Just dock the iPhone containing the pictures taken into the Photo Cube Printer and you will get 4" by 6" prints within a minute. While printing, the iPhone also gets charged. This little photomaker works will all generations of iPhones and can also work on Android smartphones via USB. Print your pictures wherever you go!

Adventurous Dads: GPS Kit

Have an outdoorsy father who can’t stay inside for long during the weekends? Go hiking with him with a little help from this GPS Kit for the iPhone, from Garafa. It features high-quality mapping which when cached, does not need a data connection to work. Apart from weather forecast options (US only), by getting "Squawk!" you have the added options to track friends in real-time, share locations with them or even chat with them while gaming, hunting, trekking or fishing.

Flim-maker Dads: Camera Table Dolly

For a smooth video-taking session, consider getting the camera table dolly. What you do is attach your camera to the pod and move the wheeled contraption around to get a smooth finish to your videos or your panoramas. Warning: filming with a tripod will forever more feel restrictive.

Concept Dads: Niceeshop Retro Flip Down Clock

If you’re aiming for something small that could fit on your dad’s desk, then this flip clock might just do the trick. It works like a normal clock only the minutes and hours are on cards that flick as time goes by. Imagine a sports game scoreboard only a lot smaller and not as stressful to look at. It runs on a battery and it beats the mundane round-the-clock look.

Designer Dads: Ps Magnet Kits and Hand Magnets

Oh gosh, imagine the possibilities with this one. These are great for designer/developer dads with a good, no, scratch that, great sense of humor. Fridges will no longer be boring in the house.

Always Working Dads: Folder Placemat

This might drive your mom crazy but what better to support dad’s inclination to eat while he works than to get him a placemat for his meals. The folder design is also a nice feature he can be proud of.

Where’s my wallet Dads: BookBook for iPhone

It isn’t his fault for always forgetting his wallet or his phone, or both whenever he leaves the house. But what you can do is try to minimize his "Wait, I forgot my …" episodes with this BookBook wallet and iPhone case. Keep cash, IDs and cards on one side, and the iPhone safely on the other side. Now, you can actually ask your dad to miss call his wallet to find it! The classic old hardcover book design is also a plus for booklovers.

Time is Precious Dads: White & White Clock

It’s essentially a white stand that displays the time in large white numbers. The 3D clock displays in 24-hour mode and you can sit it on your dad’s work desk, or hang it up in his bedroom or office. The lights work well in daylight and especialy well at night.

Multi-gadget-loving dad: Universal Gadget Wrist Charger

If your dad has loads of gadgets but can’t remember to keep them all charged up before he leaves the house, then he will love this wrist charger. In fact, he can use his gadgets while it is being charged since the charger sits comfortably on his wrists. There are connectors for a variety of phones, the Kindle, the iPod and Sony PSP. Nothing beats a good time with your gadgets with an emergency battery pack.

Minority Report Dad: Leapmotion

It’s here. The technology is still very new but it’s here, alright? The Leap is a small box that can fit in the palm of your hands which when calibrated allows you to work on your computer screen with hand gestures. Yes, it’s like Minority Report. Check out the video at the site for a demo on how this technology is going to rock your dad’s (and probably your) world.

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One of the big advantages of using WordPress are the plugins. WordPress plugins cover almost anything you can imagine, from expanding your blog into a CMS, to adding nifty features and optimizing your blog for search engines – the possibilities are endless (and let’s not forget all the different themes out there).

But by using too many plugins, you run the risk of clogging up your WordPress blog, and at the very worst, you might ‘break’ it. There are many instances of plugins that are not compatible with one another, as well as plugins that slow down your blog.

Some of the most popular WordPress plugin categories are based around adding “related posts” to a blog. Since WordPress doesn’t have anything standard for this, everyone is required to use some sort of plugin to display related posts on their site.

This article will teach you how to add related posts with thumbnails to your blog without any plugins, keeping everything simple, light and accessible. Let’s get started!

Recommended Reading: 3rd Party "Related Links" Widgets For Websites – Best Of

But first, Why avoid plugins?

There are a number of reasons why you should always try and use WordPress’ built in code and services, rather than a plugin. The main benefit is that you don’t have to rely on a third party (the plugin developer) for your blog to function. There are many cases of popular plugins being abandoned by their developers, leaving countless site owners stuck with outdated and potentially vulnerable software.

Another reason is that you’re not running the risk of using a bloated plugin that can slow your site to a grind, or even worse, contain a malicious piece of code, although this is rare provided you get your plugins from the official WordPress directory.

Getting started: related posts with thumbnails

This "related posts" feature, like most others, is designed to be placed on your main article page (single.php), but you can use it almost anywhere, as long as you keep it within the WordPress loop. In order to get the related posts, we’ll be using the post tags that are given to individual articles.

Thumbnails

WordPress now features a built-in thumbnail system, which we’ll need here. In order to enable it, add this code to your functions.php file in your theme folder (in most cases, it’s already there).

  add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );  

You can also set the width and height of the thumbnails by adding another line to the code:

  add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );  set_post_thumbnail_size( 100, 50, true );  

Important: When adding images to posts, in order to create a thumbnail, you have to, in the image upload panel, select “Use as featured image”. This will create the thumbnail for the post.

The code

  <div class="relatedposts">  <h3>Related posts</h3>  <?php  	$orig_post = $post;  	global $post;  	$tags = wp_get_post_tags($post->ID);    	if ($tags) {  	$tag_ids = array();  	foreach($tags as $individual_tag) $tag_ids[] = $individual_tag->term_id;  	$args=array(  	'tag__in' => $tag_ids,  	'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),  	'posts_per_page'=>4, // Number of related posts to display.  	'caller_get_posts'=>1  	);    	$my_query = new wp_query( $args );    	while( $my_query->have_posts() ) {  	$my_query->the_post();  	?>    	<div class="relatedthumb">  		<a rel="external" href="<? the_permalink()?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail(array(150,100)); ?><br />  		<?php the_title(); ?>  		</a>  	</div>    	<? }  	}  	$post = $orig_post;  	wp_reset_query();  	?>  </div>  

The piece of code the_post_thumbnail(array(150,100) sets the size of the thumbnail which will be displayed, in this case, 150px width, 100px height.

The CSS

We have two divs classes here, “.relatedposts”, which is the overall div container, and “.relatedthumb” which is the individual thumbnail and link within the .relatedposts. We’ll assume that the width of the post is the standard 640px. The CSS:

  .relatedposts {width: 640px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; float: left; font-size: 12px;}  .relatedposts h3 {font-size: 20px; margin: 0 0 5px 0; }  .relatedthumb {margin: 0 1px 0 1px; float: left; }  .relatedthumb img {margin: 0 0 3px 0; padding: 0;}  .relatedthumb a {color :#333; text-decoration: none; display:block; padding: 4px; width: 150px;}  .relatedthumb a:hover {background-color: #ddd; color: #000;}  

The CSS above will render the post thumbnails with 150px in width, which means we’ll need 4 thumbnails to fill the 640px width of the post (including the margin between them). You can adjust this as you wish; if you want 5 thumbnails, you’ll need a .relatedthumb width of approximately 125px.

Important: Be sure to set the width of the thumbnails generated in your WordPress media settings to match the ones you set in CSS. Additionally, it has to match the size specified in the php code: the_post_thumbnail(array(150,100).

Example

The related posts should appear something like this, as used by gaming blog DigitalBattle (which uses the exact technique described in this article):

Similar techniques

This isn’t the only way to do related posts without plugins — there are plenty of techniques and guides out there that show you how to add related posts without plugins, here are a few of them:

• Show related posts without plugins (TechFeb)
• Related posts w/thumbnails in WordPress without plugin (TechWalz)
• How to: related posts with thumbnails in WordPress without plugins (WPBeginner)
• How to add Related Posts with thumbnail without plugin (WPCode)

Conclusions

We can do a lot with the built-in features that WordPress offers, and in many cases, we don’t need to resort to third-party plugins to get the job done. Next time you need a plugin for your WordPress blog, see if you can achieve the same feature without the plugin. Dig around, search the Web for an alternative. You’ll be surprised how much is possible with WordPress out of the box.

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Chat on Facebook connects us with the friends in our Facebook lives, but given the limited features, chat on Facebook has never been a ‘fun’ chat platform. There is wide range of smiley codes available, but among all the disadvantages, there isn’t a single option to share a photo via FB chat.

The usual way is to share a photo with your friends on your Facebook wall then share the link with your friends, but in this case, everyone else would be able to see it and comment about it.

Recommended Reading: Facebook Chat: Emoticons, Tips & Tricks To Enhance Conversation

Send Image in Facebook Chat

To start sending image in Facebook chat box, go to the Smileytime homepage and scroll down until you see the ‘Choose File‘ button, click the button to upload an image, insert your captcha and click ‘Upload Now‘.

After the file is ready, you will see lines of code, copy that code.

Paste the code to your chat box.

Press enter, and you will see the image is shown in your chat box.

And that’s it!

Conclusion

Now you can make your chat fun again with the newfound ability to share photos with your friends via Facebook chat box. Although the Smileytime web page is very basic and full with ads, it still does a great job with uploading your photo and giving you the code-restricted access you need. Note that since Smileytime will host your images, be sure not to upload valuable photos, just in case!

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