All Ping

It may be WordPress security measure (is it? Really?). The users have different roles. Each role gets a certain set of privileges. But not having option to upload images for contributors is really hindering, isn’t it?

                                            where is the add images option?

  

                                                          

If you are the only person to compose and publish posts, there’s no problem. You’ll never need to allow contributors to upload image. But what if it is a multi-authored blog? What if you welcome lots of guest posts? Is it not nuisance to receive preferred images in email, upload them and publish in the post written by your contributors?

I write posts for some great blogs – Ileane’s BasicBlogTips, Stephane’s Dukeo, Enstine’s emFastIncome, Erik’s NoPassiveIncome.com & Bashir’s Ajnabii. I will be writing soon for Devesh’s WPKube. And the problem is not less obstructing to me as well. In some cases, I compromised with the image the publisher set for my post and in some other cases I sent the images separately and requested them to fix it for me. I wish if they allow contributors to upload image.

Simply wonder why we not allowed to upload images.

When I was fixing images for Ambika’s post, I planned to look for ways so that the Bivori contributors can upload and insert images in their post. I went to Mr. know all – Google, and had a brief conversation.

Though the problem looks really big, the solution is startlingly simple! You can allow contributors to upload images within a couple of minutes if you’re not scared to touch the code of your theme

Okay, don’t be afraid, it is not that risky and we’ll not tough any core files!

How to  upload images?

Okay, to make this change in WordPress, you need a code snippet and know where to paste the snippet. Every theme has a functions.php file to add some codes to extend functionality of your blog. Find that file.

I got to it through Appearance » Editor » Theme Functions (functions.php)

Did you get that file? Does it already contain some codes? Fine, no problem. You’ll add the new code at the end of this file.

Now let’s fetch the required code.

if ( current_user_can(‘contributor’) && !current_user_can(‘upload_files’) )

add_action(‘admin_init’, ‘allow_contributor_uploads’);

function allow_contributor_uploads() {

$contributor = get_role(‘contributor’);

$contributor->add_cap(‘upload_files’);

}

Code Credit: CanadaSEOZone – Allow Contributors to Upload Images

Copy above code and paste it at the end in your functions.php file. Great! You did it!

Now your guest authors will be happy because they know what image goes best at where in their post. They are allowed to upload images in their posts!

As the internet users are growing day by day and here am discussing the top 7 highest internet users by country. Now days, our personal and professional life depends on the internet as it is one of the most useful technology in the world. Students, professionals, business people and almost everyone are accessing the internet to get the useful information to develop them. There are other people who are entertaining themselves with online movies, songs, online games, and so on.

The internet users are rapidly increasing as it is the source of education, medium of sharing and communicating with others and place of marketing and online money making. It becomes the part of everyone’s life and so it is tough for the people to imagine their life without internet. People from different countries are effectively using the internet for various resolves.

                                                       Image credit: Flicker.com

Who are the highest internet users in the world? Let’s discuss them by country.

Top 7 highest internet users

Chinese:

There are more than 565 million of people are internet users in China. Most of the users are from the high populated cities Hong-Kong and Beijing. The use of mobile technology, online shopping and microblogging has increased millions of Chinese users to access the internet last year. Most of them are using their mobiles for internet access and there are many millions e-commerce shoppers online.

North Americans:

More than 2.5 billions of people from United States using the internet and about 300 millions of them are accessing it daily. They are looking the internet for their educational purposes, health, online banking etc. Some of the giant online organisations like Google, Yahoo and Facebook are established here. Canadians are also spending more time to watch online videos and in social media websites. More than 83% of population are the internet users in Canada.

Indians:

Number of internet users in India is rapidly growing and almost 150 million people are using the internet for various purposes. From a recent study statistics, it is clear that the India will have an incredible growth opportunity for the internet advertising, social media and the services related to E-commerce. Most of the Indians are using their mobiles to access the internet and the usage will grow by the female customers and from the work at home users.

Japanese:

There are more than 100 million people from Japan are accessing the internet and most of the people do blogging. Online shopping and watching TV are the other popular online activities performed by the Japanese people. As it is an advanced technology country, more than 80% of the individuals from japan are spending time on internet through their mobiles, tablets, laptops and computers.

Brazilians:

Approximately 90 millions internet users are in Brazil, South America. Most of the people are browsing from home and they show much interest in buying the advertising products and online shopping. Few millions of people are using the internet to watch TV through their ipads and tablets.

British:

The online population from United Kingdom is more than 53 million and almost 33 million are the adult internet users. Social networking, online video calling, researching goods and services and reading the current affairs are the most popular online activities by the British people. Adults from Scotland and England are the biggest home internet users and showing interest to watch online video content.

Europeans:

The people from European nations like Germany, Italy and France are in the highest internet users list. Nearly 430 million Europeans are accessing the internet with various devices to watch online TV, read newspapers and to listen radio online. More than 96% of internet users from Europe are doing online research for purchase and to shop online. They are also replacing their PCs with tablets and smartphones to access the internet.

Russians, South Koreans and Nigerians are also the highest internet users in the world. The tremendous revolutionary communication of the internet technology attracts most of the people towards it. Currently there are more than 2 billion internet users and most of them are increasingly influenced by social networking websites.

Eric Schmidt, Google executive chairman, predicted that every people in the world will be online by 2020 and the people from Asia would be the highest internet users.

Why I have added the information of highest internet users?

With new technology available, the internet marketers can easily target their audience through Organic search, Pay-per-click and Banner advertising. Having the highest internet users in mind, it is likely to attain success in any online business without much effort. So, if you are a blogger, affiliate marketer or any other internet dealer, you may focus these people and their needs to thrive in your online business.

Share your knowledge about the internet users!

Over the past few decades, video games have been refined by graphical enhancements, increased processor speed of video game systems and other technological advancements. As a result, their UIs have been evolving to adapt to the increasing complexity of video games.

The world had seen the emergence of technologies such as 3D graphics and motion sensors which allow for new game genres and UI to come to be. Today, we shall bring you through the development of UI and how it has changed over the years and we are going to look at it through some of the more influential video games.

Defining User Interface

What we’re referring to as UI here is the way players can interact with the game and receive feedback of their interaction. It generally applies to the interactivity and concepts of a game. This includes several aspects of gameplay such as the graphics, storyline, visual perspectives (point-of-view), controls, level designs, behaviors of AIs, etc. The experience generated from the resultant gameplay or interaction is the objective of the game.

Mindless & Repetitive Games Of Skill

The first type of gameplay the video game industry had for players was that involving a test of their control and/or reflex skills as they progress into the game with increasing difficulties. The enemies within these games could be another human player or the AI and the objective was to stay alive by means of maintaining the necessary skill level to defeat them.

Tennis for Two (1958)

One example of such primitive games is that of Tennis for Two (1958), a game which simulatestennis or ping pong where each player manipulates the ball trajectory over a simplified tennis court from the side. Players simply press the button to hit the ball when it is at their side of the net after adjusting the hitting angle with a control knob. The game goes on until a player misses.

Spacewar! (1961)

As one of two players in Spacewar! (1961), you are to control a spaceship to fire against your opponent. The additional challenge comes about with a star at the center of the screen that suck players toward it, even though players get to activate ‘Hyperspace’ that places their ship at a random location on screen. The game may have a more complex gameplay than Tennis for Two, but the idea was still on reflex training.

Pong (1972)

It was also the same for the classic video game Pong (1972), where two players battle in out with their paddles onscreen and try to return the ball to their opponent without a miss. When the opponent fails to hit the ball, the other player gains a point. It was about this time that game developers realize that players get an extra incentive to play when things start becoming competitive with player scores.

Space Invaders (1978)

The scoring feature was further popularized with the classic, Space Invaders (1978), which pitted players with cute pixelated aliens! A 2D fixed-shooter game, players have to move a laser cannon horizontally across the bottom of the screen and fire at descending aliens, which can fire back. The game speeds up as time passes, and players spent hours to clear the aliens off the screen, logging in high scores that were posted for all to see.

Pac-Man (1980)

By the 1980s, skill-based games had evolved to include other features to test players on their reflex-and puzzle-solving capabilities. Scores, power-ups and avoiding enemies (versus confronting and killing them) in classic hits like Pac-Man (1980) took game development further. Navigate through a maze and consume all the pellets to advance to the next stage, avoid the ghosts or consume power pellets to turn the tables temporarily.

Storylines & Interactivity

While skill games were evolving to include scores and other added features, another genre was emerging within the industry to spice up the content of games.

Colossal Cave Adventure (1975)

Colossal Cave Adventure (1975) was known as the first computer adventure game that eventually brought storylines into games. It had no graphical interface, only textual. The draw of the game was its story-rich content and the interactivity involved. Players type in commands indicating what they wish to do next in each situation. Depending on the choices the players make, the story unfolds in different ways with different endings.

Donkey Kong (1981)

Developers eventually tried putting story elements and graphics together in their games; one of the pioneers was Donkey Kong (1981). It was one of the earliest game to have a storyline. You play Jumpman who has to rescue the Lady from Donkey Kong and in-game characters began to take form – with pink dresses, red overalls and villain-trademark smirks. Such details allow for players to identify with the characters and immerse themselves into the story.

Super Mario Bros (1985)

With the advent of scrolling computer display technology, games were soon no longer confined to a single, static playing field; page-flipping emerged. The expansion of the playing field allowed for side-scrolling video games, popularizing the platform game genre. Super Mario Bros (1985) easily one of the most prominent games to grace our childhood banked on a cute and simple storyline, cute characters and multiple-stage quests.

Final Fantasy (1987)

Other games depend more heavily on storylines as the impetus for players to finish the game.Role-playing video games (RPG) arose from the evolution of story-based games and the ‘leveling-up‘ of game character experience was introduced. Final Fantasy (1987), although not the first (RPG) available on the gaming market, was the game that popularized this genre.

From Games To Movies

Over the next two decades, the storylines in games continue to develop, to the point of actually becoming movie-worthy. As a matter-of-fact, some of them were actually made into movies. For instance, the moderately successful film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and its sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life were created in 2001 and 2003 for the Tomb Raider video games series. Other noteworthy game movies include Resident Evil (2002), Silent Hill (2006) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010).

Tomb Raider (1996)

Resident Evil

Silent Hil

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2003)

The Quest For Realism

Back in the early days of video games, the limiting graphical capabilities and computing power shifted the focus of games to the little details like storylines and high scores. Those were the times when ‘realism’ had more to do with how players interact and relate with the game than just graphics per se. But the 3D graphics in the 1990s changed that, allowing us to skip from 2D to 3D. It made possible the idea of a ‘first-person’ point-of-view (POV) gameplay, which is pretty much you seeing the action through the eyes of the game character.

Such gameplay has been popularized with first-person shooter (FPS) games such as Wolfenstein 3D(1992). It may not be the firstborn of the genre, but it laid the path for classics such as Doom (1993)and Quake (1996).

Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

Doom (1993)

Quake (1996)

Open-World & Non-Linearity Gameplay

Yet another major milestone was reached with the rise of 3D open world action-adventure games following the release of Grand Theft Auto III (2001). Following in the footsteps of its predecessors,Grand Theft Auto (1997) and Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999), GTA III afforded players with a considerable level of freedom to explore the virtual world and options in fulfilling certain objectives.

The switch from the usual top-down view of GTA and GTA 2 to roaming the streets and interacting with objects and characters in GTA III endorsed the open world concept. No more loading screens as your character crosses from one stage to another, or invisible boundaries where you cannot surpass. Nonetheless, the game stayed true to its non-linearity gameplay concept from its first two games of the series.

The resultant paradigm of open-ended game design and open world concept by GTA III was adopted by many video games that follow, thereby making it one of the most influential games of all time.

GTA (1997)

GTA 2 (1999)

GTA III (2001)

Physics Engine

While game content is also crucial to the players’ gaming experience, one must play for an extended period of time to feel the ‘realism’. Graphics, on the other hand, have a more direct impact on players since they are the in the front line of exposure to the players.

In the years that follow the rise of 3D games, developers have focused on making games more detailed and life-like in terms of its presentation. Equally important is the gameplay physics of the game, comprising of movements and reaction from the physical environment.

For Every Action

Games like Dirt (2007) featured physics where car controls were realistic and players could witness car parts flying and falling off in car crashes. In a similar vein, Crysis (2007) used its own physics engine to create a lifelike gameplay where objects fall and spin off naturally with accompanying bullets and explosions. Check out the awesome demo of the physics engine.

Dirt (2007)

Crysis (2007)

Sports Consoles And Controllers

From there, non-orthodox controllers developed. Motion controllers like Wii Remote (2006), which was packaged along with the Nintendo Wii console (2006). The launch title, Wii Sports showcased the motion-sensing capabilities of the remote. Players get to choose from five sports games to play with, namely tennis, baseball, golf, boxing and bowling.

For each individual game, players had to execute real-life motions while holding the controller, such as punching and swinging. As a result, players of all ages including young children and the elderly were able to grasp the controls of the games and adapt to the gameplay UI easily. Suddenly video games became a great way to lose weight.

Wii Sports soon became commonplace in social gatherings as a way of bonding with family and friends by means of friendly competitions. The game went on to become the best-selling video game of all time (as of 2012).

Wii Remote (2006) With Nunchucks Plugged (left)

One-Player Wii Boxing from Wii Sports (2006)

Two-Player Wii Boxing from Wii Sports (2006)

Full-Body Movement

Finally, the breakthrough technology of full-body movement control was demonstrated with the release of Kinect Adventures! (2010) that came bundled with Kinect. Using its motion camera, Kinect games track the full-body motion of players as they shift left or right, move towards or away from the sensor and acquire or hit targets.

Kinect (2010)

One-Player Rally Ball from Kinect Adventures! (2010)

Two-Player River Rush from Kinect Adventures! (2010)

These bundled mini-games utilized one or more of such capabilities and allowed two players to compete or co-op in either split-screen mode or online mode in Xbox Live multiplayer. The technology spelled out the opportunities for upcoming games to tap into full-body motion control sans controller user interface. The future UI of video games may very well evolve along such a control concept.

The Future Of Video Gaming User Interface.

One observation we can all make is that, thanks to improved graphical and computing capabilities, game realism has become quite a primary focus of developers in recent years. As such, one would expect the future progression of video games to be more detailed, life-like and immersive. Controls will also get more precise and intuitive to the player than the existing full-body movement detection technology of Kinect.

New Ways To Interact

One might expect to see gamers controlling with their gazes by means of eye-tracking camera technology or even with their thoughts via detection of brainwaves! As user interface develop further and break boundaries, the use of new wearable gadgets may take over, or the industry may go in the way of Augmented Reality (AR) for instance like Battlefield 5 on Glass, and Droidshooting.

3D Printing Technology

The much-anticipated commercialization of affordable 3D printing hardware may mean that players will soon be able to create and customize any physical props to serve as controls for games, much like the many plastic Wii add-ons for its remote. Holding a game weapon sure beats pretending to hold a weapon.

Conclusion

There are many ways things may unfold for the gaming industry. Not many would’ve expectedguitar controllers to become such a huge success following the release of Guitar Freaks andGuitar Heroes, which inadvertently resulted in the rise of other non-orthodox controllers and consequently even a console war over motion controllers.

Novel genres have sprung up unexpectedly at the same time as well. As you could see throughout the history of video games user interface above, technological advancements play an crucial role in charting the paths that the industry take. No matter how video games interface may evolve from now on, the end product which all developers will always keep an eye on shall always be that of the players’ experience.