Have you ever noticed the neat little rotating globe visitor tracker thingy at the bottom of my sidebar? If you haven’t, here it is again:
Petty cool, huh? Guess what? That’s a Flash Widget! Yeah, yeah, I know that you’re not supposed to be able to use flash in a WordPress.com blog. But there it is, in all it’s spinning glory!
But that ain’t all that can be added. Take a look at this little dandy:
Now I don’t know if you think that either of these widgets might be useful on your blog, but if you’re anything like me then you’ve seen at least one on some other blog that you wish you had but didn’t think you could!
How does it work? Frankly, all I know is that it makes use of the little known gigya shortcode built into WordPress.com. I first found out about it when I read Netty Gritty’s How to have Flash embeds in a wordpress.com blog post.
I then found my way over to Widgets for wp.com blogs: 3 – analog clocks on the wordpress tips blog operated by Panos, whose name you might recognize if you’ve ever gone to the WordPress Forums for help. I found out how to do the rotating globe visitor tracker thingy while reading that post’s comment thread. Note that the post has multiple parts, with many very cool clocks!
Later, I ran across how to do the big world clock thingy on panos’ Widgets for wp.com blogs: 4 – world time post. Again, note that this link is just to page 6 of a 6 part post. There are many other world clocks within the post, all with the code you can use on your blog. Both posts also contain a link back to his original post about the gigya shortcode, which shows how you can add almost any flash object to your blog!
Panos has been enormously helpful to me through all the changes that I’ve made to this blog, as have all the other folks, like Netty Gritty, whose blogs are listed on my Help & How To Stuff blogroll.
I just thought that it was about time I gave credit where credit is due!
I want ice water.
I Want Ice Water! 
geeky but cool, yeah it says I’m in Doncaster the little silly gadget but close enough I guess, and noticed someone in Columbus, Ohio when I was here so guess that might be thy might creator of this blog. 🙂
LikeLike
And thy might be right, O lowly one! 😆
I don’t really see much use for these particular widgets, but know that I’ve run across a few that I’d like to have. If only I could remember where I saw them… Damned story of my life! 🙄
LikeLike
I do like the rotating globe thingy; if as and when… I will use!
Now, is it up early or chuffing late into the sack?
gg
LikeLike
The globe thingy is my favorite too! Supposedly, the one I chose will vary with the seasons. I’m not sure I’ll be keeping it around long enough to find out though. Things like that do tend to bog down the page loading! 😀
According to the time stamp, you made that comment right after I decided to call it a night (morning?)! Looks like I got about 5.5 hours of shuteye. 🙄
LikeLike
Just about what Hazel managed in the last 24 hours, side-efect of prednisolone BUT she feels much better for the tab so carry on regardless…
LikeLike
I’m so glad it’s helping, though I’m sure she’d rather her schedule be more of her own choosing. Hang in there. Love to you both! 😀
LikeLike
Thanks much for the credit. the way you support what I do is a huge boost, after all I blog not for money, but for appreciation, hee hee! 😀
LikeLike
Not a problem, my friend. If it weren’t for guys like you and panos, this blog wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying a project to work on. Of course, in my dreams I actually understand more of how this stuff works! But hey, I know so much more than when I started that I’m cool with it. 😀
If you don’t mind, might I suggest that you begin splitting up your flash posts the way panos does? My system slowed down so much, when I came by to grab the link, that I thought it was going to freeze up completely! 😯
LikeLike
Its a measure of how weird my current web connection is rite now that it says my connection is coming out of Colorado/Dublin/China all at the same time.
LikeLike
I’m hoping that meant that there were a couple of other visitors as well while you were on! Then again, panos did warn that he suspected the RevolverMaps thing might not be all that reliable… Ah, it’s just a cool toy – that also happens to be free – so I can’t complain too much. 😀
LikeLike
Its just one of the intrigues of free open source tools and resources.
LikeLike
How right you are, my friend. And some approaches to a problem work out much better than others! 😀
LikeLike
You know what’s killing me? When something says, “Blah, blah, blah for Dummies,” and I still don’t get it! Ha! (I might have to tweet that!). Happy day beautiful man!
LikeLike
I know exactly what you mean! 😆
And if I weren’t “beautiful” before (trust me, I wasn’t), I certainly feel like it now. Always a great day when YOU stop by! 😀
LikeLike
I agree—I’ve felt like a Dummy so many times since starting our blog…that’s a cool widget though Ice Man, looks great down there 🙂
LikeLike
This tech stuff goes over my head so often that I feel like a “little person” trying to play in the NBA. But when someone literally hands me the code to display something this cool, I’m all over it! 😀
LikeLike
Panos has helped me in the past, too. I’ll have to come back here when I have time to cogitate. There was a widget going around back when the oil spill started that was a running counter of the gallons flowing into the Gulf, or something like that. I really, really wanted to use it but WP wouldn’t accept it. Dunno, might have been a java applet.
LikeLike
Panos is really a great asset to WordPress and everyone who uses it. I think I recall the widget you referred to, and felt the same desire to use it as well. As you can see from the post, I don’t understand all that much about how this stuff works, and I know even less about java! 🙄
I hope you can get some use out of the gigya thing. I know that I’m keeping an eye out for anything that I might want to try. 😀
LikeLike
I’m not sure I like that your little flash thing can locate me. I waved did you see me?
LikeLike
Damned space station must have blocked my view! 😆
I did wonder about the location bit though, but then my ClusterMaps widget has been doing that for months, so I guess it’s nothing new really. This is just a little more dramatic! 😀
LikeLike
That globe thing is neat. It was already surprising to see the name of my own microscopic little town appear on there. But then I zoomed in, and zoomed in some more, and I got hit upside the head by a satellite lens. That thing was sticking through my window.
LikeLike
Ah hah! I’ve got you right where I want you now. That little sucker’s uploading your entire collection of porn, and the biometrics for each of your concubines, to my headquarters as we speak. Today, Gruff Guano Land… Tomorrow, the world! Bruhahahahahaaaa cough, cough, gag, ugh! 😀
LikeLike
Ah, ugh yeah. That porn that you copied, … it was a joke. I’m not really into a bunch of Jawa’s gangbanging R2D2. Please delete and don’t mention it.
LikeLike
What? You lie! Our experts have determined this to be evidence of a massive program to produce an army of Jawa/Droid hybrids! I do admit, however, that we did have some difficulty envisioning them as a plausible threat… 😕
Nevertheless, a Death Star has already been dispatched to your location – just in case! 😈
LikeLike
That woman that you sent over, with a search warrant ? She’s here, looking through my stuff. I recognised her as Darlene Cates, the former actress. She said she may be on your payroll, but she still doesn’t like to be called a ‘death star’. She only weighs 500 pounds.
🙂
LikeLike
She’s just softening you up, son. You’re about to find out why I call her that:
Bruhahahahahaaaa cough, cough, gag, ugh! 😀
LikeLike
I have trouble posting pictures on my blog. Writing code to put the world thingy would be cool, but a bit out of my knowledge base 😦
LikeLike
You know, I actually tried to include the code I used to insert each of the widgets in this post, but I couldn’t get it to display properly as it does in the HTML editor! I’d be glad to attach it, as a text file, to an email if you’d like. All you’d need to do then id copy and paste it into a text widget in your sidebar. I could even adjust the code for the width of your sidebar. 😀
LikeLike
Cool . . .wtf is a text widget 😦 I did some ancient shit in real early Visual Basic, but that’s as far as it ever went. Just call me a computer geezer.
LikeLike
Well hell, I did most of my programming in Visual Basic, back when Windows 3.11 was the latest and greatest! 😀
I can help with the widget if you want. Just let me know.
LikeLike
Somehow I ended up writing logic program for programmable logic controllers, using things like sequential function charts and function block diagrams, a whole nuther language.
Ya, feel free to email me the string, and if I have questions, I’ll either work through them or ask you stupid questions 🙂 Thanks, amigo.
LikeLike
My Visual Basic stuff was for my personal use only (with dreams attached, of course). The programming I used for my job with an automatic controls manufacturer was all in assembly language, although there were discussions about expanding towards using programmable logic controllers as well. I left before any of that happened.
Anyway, the email, with attachment, should be in your inbox by now. Let me know how it works out. 😀
LikeLike
ahh Visual Basic, brings back memories, mostly bad ones I’m afraid 🙂 but managed to do an adventure game for my school project on VB but VB was kinda crap and cool at the same time…
LikeLike
I loved VB, but then it was the first of its kind. I wrote all kinds of games with it, and even did a huge pre-school education thing with it. But when I tried doing business related apps, like financial or database fronts, I found it very difficult to work with. I think they addressed some of those issues in later versions, but I was pretty much into my “away from PCs” phase by then.
LikeLike
Thats pretty cool! Always fun to find tricks!
LikeLike
One of the things I miss about Blogger is the fact that it doesn’t have the limitations that WordPress imposes on the use of widgets like these. I moved to WordPress because the community helped to make the learning curve a lot less steep. There are times, now that I know more, that I consider going back so that I can do more… 😀
LikeLike
I once looked into a return to Blogger. Seems WP wisely makes it easy to transfer Blogger to WP while Blogger does zilch to aid a return trip. Blogger’s loss, I’d say.
LikeLike
I’d never thought of that. I guess the fact that my blog is still there, at http://iwanticewater.blogspot.com/, means that that wouldn’t be a problem beyond transferring the posts I’ve done since July of last year. Of course, the constant copying and pasting is why I stopped maintaining it. 😀
LikeLike
That world clock is the bomb! It would be perfect for a cynic like me, if only it had a category: Death by Stupidity. 😉
LikeLike
I was thinking similar thoughts myself! 😆
LikeLike
I’m in awe of your skills. My only skill is fast typing when it comes to computers.
I want lukewarm water. (sensitive teeth)
LikeLike
It’s all an illusion my dear. My real talent is for standing on other peoples shoulders. Which is why I thought it was high time I gave them their props!
Now you, on the other hand, seem to have a genuine talent for making people laugh and joke amongst themselves. If the comment thread for your most recent post is any indication, you probably throw one hell of a party! 😀
LikeLike
Pingback: Geek Squeaks’ of the Week (#75) « What's On My PC
I like that globe thingy. I stared it while I saw my location rotating around and around and around.
I’ve seen some cool things on other people’s sites, like I find a bookshelf thing I really liked, but it wouldn’t work on wordpress and I’m too poor to upgrade my site so I can.
LikeLike
I’m subscribed to way more blogs than I can keep up with, and I’ve seen all kinds of widgets that I thought were cool but didn’t think I could use myself because of the WP limitations. Now that it looks like some of them might actually be accessible after all, I can’t remember where they were! 😯
Currently, I’m on the hunt for one of those “Daily Quote” thingys. I’m not actually all that well read, but it can’t hurt to have it look like I am! 😀
LikeLike
lol, when you find some good ones, just make a post about them, that way I don’t have to do any of the legwork, just copy and paste… um.. I mean… because sharing is good!
Now you have me hoping I find that library bookshelf thingy to work. I’m on the hunt!
LikeLike
I had to email the code for the globe widget to one guy, because the codes that you’re supposed to wrap around code to make it display as text doesn’t seem to work! So I’ll probably have to email (or something else) the text for whatever code I have that you want.
There HAS to be a better way to say that. That reads like pure gibberish! 😆
LikeLike
I love gadgets. That being said, I know zilch about inserting globe-y thingy onto my wp blog even after reading the link. How about the text format so that I can insert into a text widget as you volunteered for someone else? Would greatly appreciate it and would promise not to draw smiley faces on the satellite lens with my new Sharpie fine point purple ink pen (I am such a nerd when it comes to office supplies . . .).
LikeLike
Sorry for the delay Lola. An email with a text file attachment should be in your inbox now. Let me know how it works out. 😀
LikeLike
Eureka! Spinning on my blog even as I type. Thank you kindly.
LikeLike
You’re more than welcome! 😀
LikeLike
Pingback: Computers For Dummies – Eddy Kong – EzineArticles.com Expert Author