With my new plugin, Gravatar Signup Encouragement, I had a problem with translation of string that is used only on activation.

That string contains default message that is saved in database. No matter what I tried, it would always save original string, not translation.

After asking question on wp-hackers mailing list and exchanging several replies with Otto, I found solution for this. In your function that is used in register_activation_hook, you need to again use function load_plugin_textdomain, even if you loaded it already in init. It should be used before any string.

So if you encounter this problem, you know how to solve it.
Don’t forget to try my plugin mentioned here, Gravatar Signup Encouragement.

Gravatar Signup Encouragement is my first publicly released plugin for WordPress. I got idea to write it after reading comments on post on Weblog Tools Collection titled “Why Is Gravatar Still Not Mainstream”. At that same day I made first version of plugin and posted link to it’s download page as comment on post waiting for responses but comment never appeared.

For last couple of weeks I was doing slow rewriting of plugin while adding new features and finally decided to release it publicly and to add it to WordPress plugin directory. You can now download it from here.

In March, I discovered (via Google Translate) that Google is testing localized version for Serbia. Half a year later, localized version is fully translated and snippets are showing on Google’s main search results page, but is not officially released.

By changing country and language codes, I discovered that localized Google News are also ready for Bulgarian, Romanian and Slovakian markets. You can see if there is a testing for your country and language by changing country and language codes in URL. For example, in http://news.google.com/news/search?um=1&ned=sr_rs&hl=sr&q=obama sr is code for language while rs is code for country.

I hope that Google will soon officially release these products, since now they lack some features like homepage, backlinks in top navbar from other Google’s products, ability to add new sources etc.

Fourteen months ago, last post here was about new AdSense units that started that day. Later they became usual, but in that time they were new and interesting.

Now I again spotted some unit that I didn’t see earlier. It is something like slideshow of products of particular advertiser. It is not flash but normal JavaScript and it was on 250×250 unit, and it seems that it is on image ad, since after refreshing I always see images (there is that google_ad_slot not google_ad_type). Page where I saw it is here.

Full quality download.

Is this really new unit or it is new only for me? I searched on web and didn’t find anything about it.

BTW, I do plan to write something here, I already have some drafts, and also want to publish some WordPress plugins I made so I’ll use this website for it.

While surfing on Net, on one page I saw AdSense feature which was new to me. I checked code and saw that is correct, so I immediately recorded video.

Later I found that others noticed this too, but nobody recorded video Google has added arrows and clicking on them scroll to different ads.

Update: Since clip on YouTube is low quality, I uploaded original file with full resolution on DivShare.

Men, I told you that this will be one of the best F1 races ever! At last, Kimi won championship (completely deserved), so I need to change my favorite driver. I hope that it will be Miloš Pavlović, who won today’s race in Portugal (started as second), and is now third in driver’s ranking, two races before end. There are still theoretical chances that he can win championship. Commentator on F1 race said that there are unofficial news that Miloš will test for some Formula One team in coming months!

As I already wrote, this weekend in Brazil will be held last race of this season. It was never more interesting (oh, maybe just in last 10 years for which I follow Formula 1), three drivers have remained in contention to the last.. Official training is staring for 90 minutes, in 18:00 by Central European Time (CET). In same time tomorrow will held race.

And, BTW, you can watch tomorrow and second race in Portugal in World Series by Renault. Serbian driver, Miloš Pavlović, will start from second place!

It’s official: the Nobel Peace Prize is death. Final breathe was giving half of this prize to Al Gore. I will not write about Gore’s role in climate change campaign; I will focus on his “peace” work.
I am witness that Al Gore is now way peacemaker. He was vice-president in 1999, when USA with it’s NATO partners bombed Serbia for 78 days. Thousands of people died. Damage was valued for over $40 billion dollars!

Some foreign observers also noted this, plus some other crises around the globe. I’ll quote some articles.

A Grand Misjudgment: Gore’s Peace Prize by Jan Oberg

Alfred Nobel wrote in his will that the Peace Prize should be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

…

In particular, Al Gore – as vice-president under Bill Clinton between 1993 and 2001 was never heard or seen as a peace-maker. Clinton-Gore had a crash program for building up US military facilities and made military allies all around Russia – and missed history’s greatest opportunity for a new world order.

In contravention of international law and without a UN Security Council mandate, they bombed Serbia and Kosovo, based on an extremely deficient understanding of Yugoslavia and propaganda about genocide that has caused the miserable situation called Kosovo today (likely to blow up this year or the next), and they bombed in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Nobel Prize for Al Gore: “Old Europe” fires back at the Bush administration By Patrick Martin

Vice President Gore, however, is hardly to be identified with the cause of “peace.” One of only ten Senate Democrats who voted for the first US war against Iraq in 1990, he was second-in-command of an administration that dispatched US troops to Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia, financed death squads in Colombia, bombed Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, maintained an economic blockade of Iraq that caused the death of an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children, and waged a devastating air war against Serbia.

…

Gore, of course, is a capitalist politician, and has grown wealthy from stockholdings in Apple, Google and other high-tech giants. He is incapable, by ideology and by social interest, of offering a serious program to deal with climate change.

Moreover, Gore has talked a better game than he has played. When in office, as vice president for eight years, he did little to advance his avowed environmental concerns. The Kyoto Treaty, which Gore played a significant role in drafting, was a largely symbolic exercise, and the Clinton administration never submitted it for ratification by the Senate because of intense opposition by American business interests.

More links:
Changing the climate, one winner at a time
Gore’s Nobel win has sides lined up
Users’ comments on BBC
Users’ comments on IHT

If you find some interesting text on this topic, share it with me.

Wow, I didn’t expect to this really happen after last race in Japan! It was just theoretical chance that Hamilton won’t get any point in today’s race. Especially I didn’t expect that a three-way battle for the title will be in last race. That is something what we, Formula One fans wanted several years ago when Michael Schumacher dominated in F1 championship.

So, Hamilton got off to a start from pole position on a damp track, while Raikkonen and his Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa, started from second and third, and Alonso from fourth. The four drivers held position after the first lap, and by Lap 3, the rain began to fall and conditions became precarious. Then, just as suddenly as it began, the rain stopped and the race became a tactical game of second-guessing the weather. The leaders held position through the first set of pit stops, which were all completed by Lap 19, and they kept their rain tires. The track began to dry a few laps later. Hamilton’s tyres started to wear out quicker than those of his rivals. Raikkonen quickly closed in on Hamilton, who held his title rival off for two laps before falling foul of his lack of grip. and he was the first to pass him, after a muscular battle on Lap 29. After the next lap, Raikkonen was already 8.0 seconds ahead of Hamilton, while Alonso had caught up to 6.1 seconds. Several of the drivers Hamilton had lapped earlier in the race passed the championship leader as he struggled to keep his car on the track. And coming into the pits, the rear of the car twitched away from the Briton as he tried to turn into the left-hand corner at the start of the pit lane. Hamilton corrected it, but the car slid straight on into the gravel trap, where it was beached. Hamilton tried to get the car out, but the rear wheels spun helplessly and, after imploring the marshals to help him, he finally admitted defeat and climbed out of the car.
Raikkonen controlled the race for the remaining laps and finished first, in front of Alonso an Massa.

Hamilton leads the series with 107 points, Alonso is second with 103 and Raikkonen is third with 100. Winner of the race gets 10 points, runner-up 8, and from 5th to 8th place 5 to 1, respectively. It will be the first time since 1986 that three drivers have remained in contention to the last. Drivers tied on points at the end of the season are separated by a win countback — at this moment, Raikkonen has 5 wins and Hamilton and Alonso 4.

I can’t wait October 20 and 21 for the last race in Brazil. Both training and race will be held at 18:00 by Central European Time.

Today were played two European Championships finals. First one was final of European Volleyball Championship in Moscow. Host of championship, Russia, played against Spain. After an epic game, Spain won 3-2. Thousands of Russians, attendets of the game were disappointed.

Later this evening, in Madrid, on European basketball Championship, host Spain played against Russia. From the beginning of match, Spain have lead. Only lead that Russia had was one got two seconds before ending. Fifteen thousands Spanish fans in arena, and tens of thousands of them on city’s squares were very disappointed, because they expected championship title.