On an average day…
I spend 1 hour and 38 minutes browsing
I view 207.9 websites

When I first calculated these statistics, I was a little blown away. I knew that I spent a lot of time online, but the raw numbers are a bit shocking! So, because of that, and the persuasion of some friends, I have decided to give up the internet in my room for Lent. So, I will still have access to email and such from the EBC library, but hopefully I’ll be spending much less time on the internet. So, though I will probably still post here a few times, I will have a limited online presence. I’ll be back in 40 days.

I have just finished a major update to my Translate Widget. This widget plops into you sidebar, using the Wordpress Widgets plugin. To quote my younger self:

it adds little flags to your sidebar, which will take you to a translation of the current blog page. It uses Google Translate, but removes the frame, so it looks quite nice! Once you’re in one language, you can browse around the blog, and everything stays translated. You can just click on the English flag to get back to the original language. You should see it on my sidebar now, and you can give it a trial run.

Here’s the download: Translate Widget 2.0

The zip includes a /flags/ folder, and a translate.php file. Both need to be placed in the /wordpress/wp-content/plugins/widgets/ folder.

Donations

If you appreciate my plugins, and feel compelled to spread some love, I would certainly appreciate it. No obligation though, of course.

Improvements in Version 2.0:

1. Multiple starting languages are now supported. So, if your blog is in a foreign language, this widget will now translate it to English and any other supported languages. This is a big deal, since it opens the widget up to the international community. One guy got this working for French, but now all supported (by Google) languages are available.
2. Russian is added to the list of languages
3. A control interface was added:
   

People using the Plugin

I’ve just started to compile a list of those who use this plugin on their websites. You can view the list here.

To live up to the original spirit and name of this blog, I feel obligated to describe my recent trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brian, Jason and I, who all live in the same dorm decided to head down there for a Microsoft conference. This is somewhat strange for me, since I use and advocate Linux, and really don’t like Microsoft much. However, it sounded like fun, partly because I’d never been to a Tech Conference before, partly because I like to travel (thus the Trev’s Travels moniker).

After some convincing by Jason that I could catch up on my assignments easily, I packed my few things, and off we went for a whirlwind 27 hours. Driving 6 hours overnight, we arrived in Pittsburgh at 2am. We spent an hour confused by the stupid river before we found the hotel hosting the conference. We crashed in the parking garage, and tried to nap for a few hours in the car. Coming out of this “restful” night, we spent the morning in a session outlining the new features of Windows Vista and Office 2007. I came out of the session with a greater respect for Microsoft and their products, though not enough to convince me to use them! We were left with the afternoon to explore Pittsburgh, enjoying its good food, beautiful view, and crazy jay-walking pedestrians. Satisfied with our experience, we turned homewards, stopping by Tim Hortons as soon as we crossed back into Canada!

Enjoy the photo album below, just click it to view. If you don’t know/remember the password, ask me in person, or fire off an email: