Description and Keywords in WordPress

In order for people to find a website they need some clues as to what the site or page is about. One way to do that is by adding a description and keywords to the site. Since I used to hand code my web pages it was easy enough to add a couple of lines of code to the file in the form of Meta tags. With WordPress there is little coding involved. Most changes are made using plugins or widgets. Occasionally coding can be done to avoid resorting to those tools.

I recently researched how to add this type of information to this website. It involved adding the following code to the file header.php. When doing so WordPress warns you that your modifying the code of the site so be very careful:

<title><?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?><?php wp_title(); ?></title>
<meta name=”description” content=”<?php if (is_single() ) {
single_post_title(”, true);
} else {
bloginfo(‘name’); echo ” – “; bloginfo(‘description’);
}  ?>” />
<meta description=”Bruce’s website with information about bike trips, artwork, and general bike information.”>
<meta keywords=”bicycle, drawing, charcoal, artwork, bike, bike tours, bike trips”>
For individual blog posts, tags can be used to identify important keywords used.

Organizing photos in Mac Photos

When organizing photos in the Mac application Photos I put a long description in the Title of each photo. When moving those photos to WordPress I realized that the Description field was used for captioning photos in a Gallery. Instead of copying and pasting the title of each photo into the description, I searched for a way to do it using a program.

Found an AppleScript for doing a similar operation so after a little trial and error figured out how to move the title to the description field. As it turns out the variable name for the Title is “name.”

tell application “Photos”
activate
set mySelection to (get selection)
if mySelection is {} then
error “Select photos before using script.”
else
repeat with thePhoto in mySelection
tell thePhoto
set the description to the name
end tell
end repeat
end if
end tell

Removing Comments from WordPress Blog

When editing a blog post or page with WordPress a selected set of options is displayed. By clicking on the Screen Options button in the upper right of the editing window one can turn on additional options that appear while editing. Discussions is one of those options. That option allows editors to disallow comments on a post.

Batch resizing images on a Mac

Using the Automator is a way to batch resize images. Put the images to be resized into a folder (resize on the desktop). Start the Automator and use File>New – Choose Workflow. Drop the images into the window that says “Drag actions or files here to build  your workflow.” Then find Scale Images under Actions and drag it to below the images to be scaled. Then enter the pixel size. This is the side of the width? Used 2400 on images that were wider than higher. Then click on Run in the upper right and the images will be scaled.

Russia vetoed Secretary of State selection

Russia seems to have had a hand in determining who Trump named as Secretary of State. A while back The New Yorker published The Man Behind the Dossier, Christopher Steele. In the article Jane Mayer reported:

“One subject that Steele is believed to have discussed with Mueller’s investigators is a memo that he wrote in late November, 2016, after his contract with Fusion had ended. This memo, which did not surface publicly with the others, is shorter than the rest, and is based on one source, described as “a senior Russian official.” The official said that he was merely relaying talk circulating in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but what he’d heard was astonishing: people were saying that the Kremlin had intervened to block Trump’s initial choice for Secretary of State, Mitt Romney. (During Romney’s run for the White House in 2012, he was notably hawkish on Russia, calling it the single greatest threat to the U.S.) The memo said that the Kremlin, through unspecified channels, had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be prepared to lift Ukraine-related sanctions, and who would coöperate on security issues of interest to Russia, such as the conflict in Syria. If what the source heard was true, then a foreign power was exercising pivotal influence over U.S. foreign policy—and an incoming President.”

Then we learned this week who might have been involved in that decision. From the Maria Butina affidavit:

“On November 11,2016, BUTINA sent the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL a direct message via Twitter, in which she predicted who might be named Secretary of State and asked the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL to find out how “our people” felt about that potential nomination.”

Letter to RA Board

Dear Board of Directors,

I’m writing in regards to the dredging of Lake Thoreau and the decision by RA staff to close the Lake  Thoreau trail and not provide a detour. If you are not aware, the Lake Thoreau trail is one of the more popular trails in Reston. The trail, signed as “The Red Loop Trail,” extends for 2.1 miles around the lake. I live in Old Westbury cluster and use the trail on an almost daily basis to either walk or bike to South Lakes Village Center or to circumnavigate the lake. When school was in session the high school and middle school kids, who walk to the village center every day, bypassed the closed trail signs because they were not given an alternative and had few other options.
The trail was closed at the southern end of the lake where dredging equipment is stored and dump trucks occasionally haul away dredged material. While I realize there is not a good location for this activity, I believe there is/was a better option than completely closing the trail and not providing a detour. In fact, the trail is not closed because every time I pass that section of the trail I see people using it. The Trail Closed signs have been trampled multiple times because people have no reasonable alternative. For the past approximately 2 weeks there has been no activity at the site and yet the trail still remains “closed.”
Tonight, as in years past, residents in the area will bypass the closed trail signs to gather on the trail at the dam to watch fireworks. That section of the trail is basically a narrow park where people gather to fish, watch the sunset, and otherwise congregate.
I understand liability concerns of allowing people to pass through the site, but the current implementation is not working. I’m sure I and others would be glad to work with RA to figure out a solution. I assume that since the dredging work is delayed the trail will remain closed much longer than anticipated. It’s not too late to come up with an alternative to “closing” the trail.

New Route 7 Trail at Dulles Toll Road

We recently attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new trail along Route 7 over the Dulles Toll Road. Where the trail crosses the several high speed entrance/exit ramps, the trail is separated either below or above the ramp. This is the safest way to cross that type of ramp and the project is one of the first to include separation for almost all of the ramp crossings.