Imagine how awesome it could be for a geeky dude, 10 days (4/11 to 14/11) in the Mekka of all things tech, meeting with people behind big startups like Facebook to smaller ones like 8tracks, invited over to the other side of the pond by the guys of PionierGarage — a student entrepreneurship team from KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.)

I’ll break down this post to a few categorized sub-topics. The trip, Silicon Valley mentality, 4sqwifi.

Doodling on my Moleskine

The Trip

The trip itself was mind-boggling. One of the best I ever did, flew over Greenland, the southest part of the North Pole, saw the Canadian Wilderness, its forests and lakes, the Atlantic Ocean and Rocky Mountains by night. Unfortunately there was no direct flight from Vienna to San Francisco, but switching flights in Toronto, I think, it was a great experience. Toronto by air is beautiful, I presume “on ground,” too. Toronto’s, along with Munich’s airports are the best I’ve ever been. On my way back from San Francisco I flew my biggest flight ever, 11 hours — San Francisco to Zürich, and one of the biggest in the world (I’m not 100% sure about that, though.)

San Francisco view

San Francisco is a darn beautiful and-not-your-typical-American city. Lots of bikes (singles & fixies), green (parks & trees), uphills and downhills, skyscrapers and small homes. All arranged and mixed in a European-American blend. Many cool stores and cafes (like The Summit, Cafe Sophie) and 4sqwifi works perfectly too. I’ve made a decision to move sometime eventually in San Francisco. On the same note, Vienna is darn beautiful, too.

Valley (mainly Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View) is, simply to put, great. I didn’t ever think that it’d be so green and outspread. Most people commute via car, it’s the fastest way there, unless you live in Mountain View and work in Google, then biking is kinda acceptable too. I ate an awesome ice-cream in a shop that I do not recall the name and climbed at Planet Granite (insanely great indoor climbing place, so big, so cool, so outdoorsy) — thanks, Dimitris.

Silicon Valley mentality

The best has yet to come. We visited StartX & Crowdbooster, LinkedIn, Google, StartupGrind, i/o Ventures, Twitter, Github , BV Capital, Bump Technologies, Andreesen Horowitz, BASES’ ETL workshops, SoftTech VC, Facebook, Peter Thiel, Lean Launch Lab, Mozilla, Apple, had a BBQ at BlackBox Mansion and 8tracks. I met also with Paul Stamatiou (finally after 4 years knowing each other on www — he’s doing Picplum, check it out) and Dimitris Glezos (Transifex & sushi ftw!).

Google offices

I don’t think I can explain every meeting itself, that’d take 2-3 posts, so I’ll try to sum up as much as I can focusing on the key points. Some of our best meetings were the discussion with Peter Thiel, visiting Twitter, Github, Facebook, Google, Mozilla. Meeting with 8tracks, StartX/Crowdbooster, i/o Ventures was very good, too. Plus, the BBQ over at BlackBox was delicious. Om nom nom.

My notes spanned across 20+ pages in my Moleskine. The knowledge, mentality and inspiration we got was enormous. The networking that happened, such as meeting with some exceptional Stanford students in a Stanford’s d.school workshop (d as design), where, among them two interned at Facebook, is extremely positive. The trip was a chance to give my first Moo cards to other people (hoho.)

One of the key topics in our discussions with everyone is whether “Silicon Valley is transferrable.” That is, if Europe can have its very own Valley — a hub that thrives on innovatio, business, lots of $ and darn smart people. In my opinion there cannot be a second Valley. Simply to put, it’s like saying “I want to become the next Mark Zuckerberg” but guess what — you can’t, because Mark will always be Mark and #1 and you, at the best #2. (Yeah, I know, Ashton said that.) Aside Ashton’s recent rants, this is true. Silicon Valley has been growing up for 40 years, from the first hardware and semiconductor companies that started outside San Francisco, it eventually moved mainly to software — not to say that there is no high/clean/renewable/green tech. There is, and it’s getting big.

Meeting with Peter Thiel

What we can do though, as the Europas who are left in terms of tech innovation and culture is, guess what, to grasp a bit of this culture and mentality, try to mix it with our beliefs and slowly, start to create hubs of alike-minded people. Berlin, London, Amsterdam are on their way doing that — but in terms of human resources, Silicon Valley has much more density of smart, willing to help people. VCs and all are in one single place, not spanned across 3 different countries.

One of the key differences though between US/Valley and EU is the mentality as an early adopters aka people who see/listen/demo and want to use new products. In the Valley, if you go to a random person and talk to them about your idea, show your app, etc the first thing they’ll say is “That’s awesome, dude!” (OK, unless it really sucks big time.) They’ll try to give you feedback, new ideas and help you by default. That’s how people live there, and they’ll expect nothing more of a “Thanks!”, a conversation or something like that — not $ reward, equity or other douche stuff. On the other hand, in our mighty Europas the first thing someone will say in a similar situation is “Uhm, yeah… ok… unless you do that… it won’t work… maybe… yes…” and the rants continue on similar wavelength. People in the Valley are always positive, back in Europe people do not adapt fast, fallen within the ease of habits, i.e. laggards. I don’t say that we don’t have early adopters, they’re just a smaller fraction of people and not the majority.

Mark passed two times in front of me

4sqwifi

4sqwifi launched while in the Valley. One of the best things that happened there. The day was Wednesday, we were hanging out in The Summit, waiting for our meeting with i/o ventures. And, BOOM!, Push notifications from Apple came. “Your app was marked as In Review,” and the other usual yada-yada. Couple minutes later I had the direct link which shared over Twitter. I don’t know how, but it 4sqwifi really big: it soon became No. 4 top free Productivity app and in under 15 hours it climbed up to the No. 1 top free app in the Greek AppStore. That was huge. In the first day it got something more of 5,888 downloads. After a few days, I woke up, checked Twitter and saw a mention that 4sqwifi had a post in The Next Web (really big! — thanks TNW!). Previously, away.gr, iPhoneHellas.gr and a few other websites also covered 4sqwifi. Plus, aboutfoursquare.com.

Not everything was great, though. The app had a nasty bug which didn’t appear while testing 4sqwifi on-device (4S, 3GS) and Xcode simulators (iOS 4.3, iOS 5.0). That did cost 4sqwifi some bad reviews, from users who got that bug (it didn’t appear on everyone, very weird) but it’s already killed and waiting to be shipped with the new version. That’s good news!

All in all, 4sqwifi taught me some very valuable lessons. I’m gonna write a separate post about them. They deserve it.

Steve Jobs quote across Town Hall

Conclusion

I was very lucky going there. It got me a whole new perspective on all things tech, www and startups. Much knowledge gained, did a little San Francisco tourism, experienced America, and the mighty Silicon Valley. Thanks to everyone who made this possible. I want to close with one last remark: as Pascal Finette, the Mozilla dude we met, said: “Book the cheapest flight, book the cheapest hotel and come, stay, in the Valley for two weeks. Just hangout out Starbucks and feel the vibe. Then get the vibe and do things.”

You can see all 154 photos from my Silicon Valley trip in their Flickr set. Click.

Before I continue on with writing, I’d like first to clarify some things. I’m not an entrepreneur, neither consider myself one. I’ve never founded a company, never worked or did a startup (yet?) (I don’t consider 4sqwifi as a start-up.) This means, these opinions stated here are fully personal, 100% of how I see things and all that disclaimers’ crap. All what I do is because I love it and have fun. You’re free to disagree — and please do so in the comments! Let’s continue, shouldn’t we?

・・・

Yesterday I went to an interesting panel titled “Entrepreneurship Education Panel; Outlook for Entrepreneurship education in Europe” moderated by a guy whom I haven’t heard about. The same applies for the rest of the speakers (including a member of the Austrian Parliament, a serial entrepreneur who also teaches at a university, some other entrepreneur turned VC turned a university teacher too and some other guy who I can’t remember what he’s doing.) Except one: Sophie (she works at TNW) with whom the other day discussed the same thing actually.

If you’re eager to find out the names, more infos, etc, visit Startup Week’s website.

Anyway, I didn’t know she was participating until someone told me about yesterday, and so I went.

Government and entrepreneurship (yawn), skills and knowledge

Long story short short, I heard that the government can change the Educational System by creating entrepreneurship classes and a network of entrepreneur want-to be’s (not in a bad way of speaking) students across Europe (by the parliament member). I also heard that one can teach entrepreneurship to university students. The skills, that is, to become a (successful?) entrepreneur (from the guy entrepreneur turned VC, etc.) That academia needs entrepreneurship (or hates it, I didn’t quite understand to be honest.) — this was told by the serial entrepreneur and the guy entrepreneur turned VC, etc.

Well, I disagree.

It’s not that I’m against university. Kinda the opposite, I’d say. Neither I’m against personally on any of those guys — that’s one thing to have in mind. I just disagree.

And what the heck do I think

I don’t think that you can teach the skills or the characteristics of an entrepreneur to someone (in formal education at least.) As “entrepreneur” is a hyped word lately, I want to add that it’s not easy working 9-5 for a big corp., either. Definitely, entrepreneurs have many more things to do, problems to solve, less time and, while bootstrapping, less money.

Entrepreneurs are driven by the need to create (stick with that) and by gut and instinct which is driven by empirical knowledge. Try and fail. That’s it. They don’t go with business strategy manuals, academic approaches to marketing, etc. They deliver. The desire to create overwhelms many times anything else, that might pop in their way. The beauty and the joy of having created something — well, that’s something unbeatable.

One thing you can create is — foster, actually — the culture around entrepreneurs. I strongly feel that one cannot teach the skills but one can inspire someone, can transfer him ideas, mindset, desire, creativity, and lessons learned (to-do’s & not to-do’s.) The most important thing: creativity. And how do you do it? Look no further than Berlin, a thriving new community of startups. They managed to gather in the same place many artists, creatives, programmers, designers, photographers and all kinds of people who make this community go big time.

I also do think that you cannot create culture, either. Culture creates itself from the network of people who do systematically things together. It takes years and it’s not easy at all. But you, through actions, as said, can foster it.

It’s all about everything

And for a government, there are four things that need to be done. The first is: don’t create “entrepreneurship” classes. Yeah, simply don’t. Secondly, if your goal is to foster and enhance entrepreneurship add many creative classes throughout Primary up until High School, then teach kids the joy of creating. It hasn’t to be software only. The third is to introduce into university-level schools a class in which every student would get a $x-amount of money and will have to deliver product and profit within one or two months. A real life project, out there, outside of the bubble. In the real world, in the real market. And lastly, but not least, it’s vital for the government to create a new Law Framework around creating businesses, which will demand less paperwork but it’ll be a thousands times easier for someone to create a new company.

Entrepreneurship is such an overhyped word, to be honest. “Oh, you’re an entrepreneur, right? Duuuude.” Entrepreneurship is not the Holy Grail of economics or our own economies. It won’t save us, even if we all turned entrepreneurs today. Someone has to work for someone else. Plus, most importantly, not everyone can handle being or want to be an entrepreneur. Some people are happy working 9-5, feel secure, don’t want to take risks and all that yada yada. It’s ok. Yeah, shake your heads and understand that it’s ok. I cannot imagine myself doing some dull thing for 8 hours 5 (or even 6) days a week, but I do understand it’s ok for someone else.

And what we do?

There are very specific places in this world that things work really good out, where people understand the game and chase their dreams. What we could do? I said my opinion. It’s your turn now.

Additional discussion, upvotes, downvotes and other fun things for this post over at Hacker News.

Το πρώτο ελληνικό WordCamp πέρσι τον Φεβρουάριο χαρακτηρίστικε άκρως επιτυχημένο. Μετά από έναν χρόνο και κάτι μήνες ήρθε η ώρα για το δεύτερο. Πιο δυναμικό, πιο μεγάλο.

Με πολύ δυνατό line-up που απαρτίζεται από τους Δημήτρη Καλογερόπουλο, Ζαχαρένια Ατζιτζικάκι, Θάνο Παπαβασιλείου, Βασίλη Μαστοροστέργιο, Γεράσιμο Τσιάμαλο, Φώτη Αλεξάνδρου, Βασίλη Κανονίδη και Γιώργο Κανελλόπουλο πιστεύω είναι event που δεν πρέπει να χαθεί — αν και δυστυχώς, το ίδιο Σάββατο θα τρέχει και το event του Parallaxi mag μαζί με Open Coffee SKG στο Λιμάνι.

Για τους περισσότερο geeks, mighty developers και designers, το φετινό WordCamp είναι must. Θα καλυφθούν πολλά θέματα όπως frameworks, cloud blog deployment, WordPress as CMS, typography, design, themes και φυσικά blogging. Μπορείτε να βρείτε όλες τις παρουσιάσεις που θα πραγματοποιηθούν εδώ.

Summing-up λοιπόν:

Date: Σάββατο 4 Ιουνίου
Time: Στις 12 ξεκινάει η πρώτη παρουσίαση, λογικά προσέλευση πιο νωρίς
Place:  Royal Hotel, περιοχή Αεοροδρομίου
More infos: επίσημο WordCamp site

Disclosure: σχετικά με τις παρουσιάσεις στο φετινό WordCamp, θα παρουσιάζω και εγώ. Παρέλειψα ηθελημένα το όνομα μου παραπάνω.

It’s time for another public repo to be shared. Now, it is about a very cool WordPress theme. In fact, it’s about the WordPress theme I’m using right now, which is called mnmlist.

Mnmlist is a very clean and minimalist (obvious minimalist name is obvious, lol) WordPress theme that focuses on the content without distractions. One (left) sidebar, no-widgets ouf-of-the-box (you can add if you want) and simple comments. Mnmlist was originally developed by Leo Babauta, founder and the guy behind mnmlist.com. It is shared “as is” and uncopyrighted, so I figured out that it’d be a good idea to share mnmlist with my changes and tweaks.

Changes made:

• sidebar is css fixed, only main content is scrollable
• a new design approach on links both in main content and post, changed their css
• HTML “placeholder” for an image in the sidebar
• Twitter & Facebook share/like buttons under each post
• RSS icon in the sidebar
• Helvetica font, not Verdana
• a few other minor and subtle changes I cannot remember of now

For a live demo, do not seek further; you’re viewing mnmlist now in apas.gr. For the current status and the full rundown of mnmlist, read its README file at its Githup repo (link below).

Mnmlist’s license is Leo’s uncopyright and my Kopimi.

Go grab, use, mess with the code, edit, wreck, optimize —whatever you want— mnmlist from my public Github repo.

Από το άρθρο — που πρέπει να το διαβάσεις — ξεχωρίζω τα παρακάτω κομμάτια:

Κάποτε απορούσα γιατί οι άνθρωποι αγαπούν τα μαθηματικά και τις θετικές επιστήμες. Τώρα μπορώ να τους καταλάβω. Στην αλήθεια των αριθμών κάποιοι βρίσκουν πνευματική ανακούφιση, γιατί η φύση τους είναι σταθερή και απόλυτη, οι αλλαγές τους ελεγχόμενες και πάντα ο συνδυασμός του φέρει κάποιο αποτέλεσμα ακόμα και όταν αυτό δεν είναι το επιθυμητό.

Η φαντασία λειτουργεί αυτόνομα και παράγει εικόνες στο μυαλό μας μέσα από τη διαδικασία της «παρθενογένεσης» ή συλλέγει και συνδυάζει κομμάτια από τις πληροφορίες που λαμβάνουμε καθημερινά και τα νέα αυτά αμαλγάματα προωθούν την ήδη υπάρχουσα γνώση εξελικτικά;

Παραθέτω όλη μας τη συζήτηση στα comments (γιατί αυτός ήταν και ο λόγος του post).

Εγώ:

Δεν ξέρω ποιο είναι το επόμενο big step, αλλά πιστεύω το minority report θα το ζήσουμε σίγουρα. Είτε αυτό είναι καλό είτε όχι. Και το Matrix (ίσως). Αλήθεια, τί είναι το Matrix? :-P

Ηλίας:

Αισθάνομαι ότι το Minority Report έχουμε αρχίσει να το ζούμε, αν και περιμένω το σύστημα πρόληψης του εγκλήματος. Cool and disturbing biotechnology.

Το Matrix! Τι είναι το Matrix; Η πραγματικότητα μας; Ένα όνειρο που τροφοδοτείται από την ενέργεια μας; Το αποτέλεσμα της παράκρουσης του συνόλου της ανθρώπινης συνείδησης; Μια τριλογία ταινιών με πρωταγωνιστή τον Keanu Reeves σε ρόλο bullet-dodger;

Εγώ:

Να πω την αμαρτία μου, το MR δεν το έχω δει ποτέ ολόκληρο, μόνο parts αλλά ξέρω περί τείνος πρόκειται. Συμφωνώ στο cool and disturbing biotechnology. Είναι από τις πιο “ύπουλες” τεχνολογίες at our days. Μπορεί πολύ εύκολα να χρησιμοποιηθεί both με καλό και κακό στόχο (και ειδικά στον δεύτερο, χωρίς να το γνωρίζουμε πάντα).

Ίσως τελικά το Matrix να είμαστε εμείς. Μια πραγματικότητα που δεν μπορούμε να αντιληφθούμε λόγω της αντίληψης μας περί 3 διαστάσεων, αλλά μπορούμε να την δημιουργήσουμε; Μαζί με AI at it’s finest.

Ηλίας:

Θεωρώ ότι η τεχνολογία από μόνη της δεν έχει ηθικό χαρακτηρισμό. Η δική μας χρήση της δίνει καλό ή κακό χαρακτήρα. Πιο τρανό παράδειγμά από τα blogs στην Ελλάδ δεν υπάρχει. Εμείς γράφουμε γιατί αγαπάμε αυτό που κάνουμε και άλλοι τα θάβουν γιατί δεν είναι ποιοτικά. Αυτοί όμως που τα θάβουν βλέπουν μόνο μία πλευρά, γιατί αυτή τη χρήση γνωρίζουν να ακολουθούν.

Μα αναρωτιέμαι πως αλλιώς κάτι το τεχνικό να έχει ηθική χροιά; Και εκεί φίλε μου μπαίνει το AI, καθώς τα σύνορα μεταξύ τεχνητού και φυσικού αρχίζουν να γίνονται διάτρητα. Πάντως αν παρακολουθήσεις τις περισσότερες ταινίες επιστημονικής φαντασίας που πραγματεύονται την τεχνολογία του μέλλοντος βλέπεις ότι σε διδάσκουν να αντιμετωπίζεις την τεχνολογία με καχυποψία. Το δραματικό στοιχείο υπερνικά τις πιο πολλές φορές το θετικό και τελικά αυτό σου μένει.

Εγώ:

“Θεωρώ ότι η τεχνολογία από μόνη της δεν έχει ηθικό χαρακτηρισμό. Η δική μας χρήση της δίνει καλό ή κακό χαρακτήρα.” agreed 100%.

Το τεχνικό από μόνο του δεν έχει ηθική χροιά. Αυτός που το κατασκεύασε και οι προθέσεις του έχουν. Τα σύνορα γίνονται όλο και πιο διάτρητα, μένει, πιστεύω, το πως θα τα διαχειριστούμε εμείς. Από το internet και αν θα πρέπει να είναι regulated και censored — έστω και στο ελάχιστο — (που δεν θα πρέπει) μέχρι την “πίεση” σε AI tech corporations σαν κοινωνία ή ότι άλλο προκύψει. We are netizens και, πιστεύω, είναι στο χέρι μας το tech-μέλλον μας.

Όσο για τις ταινιές, μήπως τελικά μπορεί να έχουν και δίκιο; Ως γεγονότα το εννοώ όχι την “καχυποψία”. Τα 90s οι ταινίες μιλούσαν για πόλεμο Ιράκ/Αφγανιστάν και, τσουπ, μετά τα 00s πόλεμος εκεί (ένα τυχαίο παράδειγμα).

Αλλά και πάλι, όλα στο τέλος καταλήγουν πως θα τα κάνουμε εμείς interpret και πως θα τα διαχειριστούμε, καλά ή κακά.

Ηλίας:

“Το τεχνικό από μόνο του δεν έχει ηθική χροιά. Αυτός που το κατασκεύασε και οι προθέσεις του έχουν.” Ακριβώς! Είναι θέμα προθέσεων!

Έπιασες θέμα-φωτιά με τα regulations. Πραγματικά απορώ που είμαστε ίσως η μοναδική χώρα που συζητά την νομοθετική ρύθμιση των blogs. Τι φρούτο είναι αυτό; Εμείς ως netizes δεν έχουμε μάθει να αυτορρυθμίζουμε τους χώρους όπου δραστηριοποιούμαστε; Δεν έχουμε μάθει να επιλέγουμε τις πηγές μας και να μην πιστεύουμε σε λάσπες και προσβολές; Τόσο δύσκολο είναι πια να αποδυναμωθεί το κακής ποιότητας web στην ελληνόφωνη κοινότητα; Απλά δεν πατάς στο link.

Και αν τα δημόσια πρόσωπα στη χώρα μας έχουν πια τόσο πρόβλημα, τότε αυτά στις ΗΠΑ και σε άλλες χώρες τι να πουν που πραγματικά τους ξεβρακώνουν online; Πλαστή ευθιξία.

Εγώ:

Είναι θέμα παιδείας. Προφανώς, δεν την έχουμε (ή τουλάχιστον η πλειοψηφία της κοινωνίας μας). Και αυτό είναι πολύ κακό. Και affects όλους τους τομείς της κοινωνίας μας, από το internet, στην πολιτική, στις αντιλήψεις, στους τεχνοφοβικούς πολιτικούς μας (εντάξει, εδώ εξαιρείται ο ΓΑΠ, this is a fact).

Ήταν σίγουρα η καλύτερη συζήτηση που είχα έως τώρα. Ηλία, ευχαριστώ. :-)

And here fits POwer, Broccoli and Kopimi.

First things first. What the earth is Kopimi?

It’s Piratebay’s manifesto. It’s not only a licence-permit for others to share, translate, remix, bend, modify, copy, trash, bash, move, publish, burn, hide, remake (you can use Creative Commons for this, too). It’s the internet philosophy, summizing to the ultimate wisdom: “The Internet is right”. Actually, it’s more than just a manifesto. It is a booklet (.PDF) freely available, a guide containing a 100-things list to live the Kopimi way.

Though seeded in prehistory, Kopimi is rooted in the future, and holds together a constantly vibrating avalanche of knowledge that forms the foundation for a discussion indifferent to the rippling changes of time and space. A tumult where no one has the permission to keep silent, and where we must speak to everyone and everything.

Our words shall, simultaneously, sound as foolishness upon deaf ears and lovely caresses to those who see and hear, but above all: They should bite firmly into you – and your mom. This is a book for those of you who find yourselves in the moment, but are looking for your way forward through the ages.

Kopimi’s core philosophy is not “share, remix, copy, etc” (I am “licensing this blog through Kopimi & Creative Commons) though of course it supports it, but to preserve the Internet as Internet and not as byproduct from companies and/or governments.

That’s how it goes — two paragraphs from the introductory text in the book. You can grab the .PDF here. Have fun reading it.

But how is Kopimi connected to this Greek journo-blogger-thing?

See, Kopimi’s ultimate wisdom is “The Internet is right”. Now everyone (read: Government, journalists, bloggers) is trying to regulate the Internet. The second most ultimate Kopimi’s wisdom is “Regulate Nothing”. I think you get the point.

It is our duty to help preserve the Internet. None can regulate the Internet, even Tim Berners-Lee can’t and none shall even try regulate it. The Internet is the ultimate freedom.

In the shadow of the culture industry’s final crisis of the 20th-century, grows a larger portrait of the POwr, broccoli and Kopimi. The culture industry’s complete failure is followed by the uncanny success of the diffused structure of an Internet elite, spread the world over. The book you’re about to read has no author, no designer, no typesetter, no distribution channel. Nevertheless, you have it in front of you. How did that happen?

Read the frightening instructions of a loosely coherent core of IT specialists grafted into an unsuspecting generation of youths, and how the group stole the eggs, dollars and jpegs in front of the powerless establishment and strong financial interests. Learn how servers, seeders, trackers, e-mail, company formation, foreign investors, Ikko’s weekly allowance, scandalous advertisements, links and search services, infiltrated and destroyed an entire world that had nowhere to run, no one to consult, and no one to trust…

The machine, which operates under the radar frequency is unhindered from the Cambodian jungle to the gay neighborhoods of San Francisco, via the empty beaches of Tel-Aviv, and into the Internet of plain folks in Jönköping suburbs and Gothenburg harbor. It leaves no one unmoved and mangles everything in its path. Technically superior and physically independent it’s constantly transforming, mutating and reappearing in new guises and under new codenames. With a stranglehold on its opponents it’s completely untouched and even more – incomprehensible.

It has rightly been said that this is the first time Kopimi has freed the world and we can be sure that it’s not the last.

Αν και είναι μόνο η αρχή, είμαστε ήδη 4 άτομα. Ο Δημήτρης και ο Γιώργος που είχαν την ιδέα, παρέα με τον Γιάννη και εμένα. Όπως είπα, μιας και είναι αρχή, ίσως προσέξεις κάποια λαθάκια, ίσως κάποια άρθρα δεν βγάζουν νόημα, ίσως ίσως ίσως… Το παλεύουμε όμως και ελπίζουμε σε μερικές μέρες να έχουμε συντονιστεί πλήρως, παρόλο που είναι Καλοκαίρι!

Για οποιαδήποτε ερώτηση, πρόβλημα, απορία, γενικά για τα πάντα μπορείς να επικοινωνήσεις μαζί μας στο team@tutz.gr. Αν ενδιαφέρεσαι για συνεργασία θα χαρούμε να σε έχουμε μαζί μας, αρκεί να επιλέξεις μια κατηγορία! Ακόμη, αν έχεις κάποιο πρόβλημα ή θες βοήθεια για κάτι που σε παιδεύει στον υπολογιστή σου, θα χαρούμε να σε βοηθήσουμε. Το μόνο που χρειάζεται να κάνεις είναι να μας στείλεις ένα email στο requests@tutz.gr!

Καλή μας αρχή!

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Το έκανα κατευθείαν copy το post από τον Γιώργο μιας και το περιέγραψε πολύ καλά.

I know these guys from Twitter (@sugarenia, @stelabouras), Wiggler, CSS3 and their personal blogs — they rock and are very talented geeks.

Recently they turned 40 episodes and made a contest, giving out for free an iPhone app up to 20€.

Yup, you guessed correctly. I won. It’s a fun thing to feel, but for a third time in my life or so I did win a contest. The app I chose is Reeder — the best RSS (aka Google Reader) reader in iPhone (it’s in my Must-have iPhone apps: the Ultimate collection post). Word.

Thanks Sug & Stelabouras!

In fact, it’s piece of cake. You don’t have to know anything about PHP or CSS.

Step 1: your Comments loop

Every WordPress theme supports comments. That equals to a comments.php file in your theme directory. Open it and find the the foreach and endforeach loop (it might look something like this:

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?> and <?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>.)

Now, place this code everywhere inside this loop:

<?php if(function_exists('get_avatar')) { echo get_avatar($comment, '50'); } ?>

The “50″ string or whatever in this code is your Gravatar’s photo size. You can edit it so it suits your theme’s design or your own likes.

Step 2: Style the Gravatar

By now, Gravatars won’t be styled (left, right, padding, etc). We will do it with a simple CSS code snippet. You probably have noticed that the Gravatar code spits out the “avatar” class on each image. Why not tell now the CSS to float the image left and add a small right margin. Open your style.css file of your WordPress theme and add this line of code:

img.avatar {float:left; margin-right:5px;}

This is it!

There you go! Simple and efficient Gravatar implementation to your WordPress comments. Of course themes will differ, you can style them however you like using CSS. (Hint: this code will only work on WordPress 2.5 and above; but I assume everyone now uses at least 2.9.2 so it won’t be a problem.)

More info about Using Gravatars at the WordPress Codex.

Having problems? Do you want to suggest a different workaround? Feel free to comment.

[links at plugin titles]

All in One SEO

Out-of-the-box SEO settings for your WordPress blog. There’s also a Pro version, but the free is rocking itself.

Contact Form 7

The most flexible, yet extremely simple (can’t be simpler than that) Contact Form there is out there.

Google Analytics for WordPress

This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics, as well as automatic clickout and download tracking to your WordPress blog.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines to better index your blog. Works perfectly for Google Webmaster Tools.

Search Everything

Adds extended search functionality for to search all context, not only titles or tags without editing any PHP template file.

Sociable

Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites. Very simple & CSS customizable.

Subscribe to Comments

Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.

WordPress.com Stats

Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key, which you can get at WordPress.com.

I’m going to write another one list which will feature some more complicated or more advanced plugins soon.

Am I missing something? Would you recommend something else? Comment below!

DIY Powder is the product of an idea which did hit my mind a week before. Creating a simple & cool WordPress blog about ski movies and focusing on diy and indy ones.

I installed the WordPress the other day and yesterday started and finished with the development of the blog. Found an excellent theme by Tudinh, called Equilibrium and suits perfectly. I recommend it a thousand times.

If you’re into skiing or the outdoors in general, subscribe on DIY Powder’s feed. Feedback is always welcomed, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Spread the world people! Keep riding & happy blogging!

Thanks to Hostgator too, for such an excellent hosting and giving me unlimited subdomains with just under €4/month.