Posts filed under 'BlixKrieg Theme'
Hi everyone – I’ve today perfected the newest major release of Blix Krieg, version 2.3.1
Blix Krieg is a widgetized, Google adsense and Search Engine friendly version of Sebastian Schmieg’s original Blix theme.
Unlike the original Blix Theme, BlixKrieg is fully compatible with the newest version of WordPress. Blix Krieg can be installed as a drop in replacement for Blix if you are having problems with your Blix Based site after upgrading WordPress.
You can download the latest version of Blix Krieg HERE, and see the latest version at work on our Blixkrieg beta test page.
Problems that I have identified and corrected in this release include:-
Blix XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Vulnerability Corrected
XSS, or cross site scripting, is a technique that can be used by hackers to gain unauthorised access to a blog. In its most basic form, an XSS attack occurs when a hacker inserts executable code within an input form (for instance, when entering comments or doing a search) and it can be used (in the worst case scenario) to gain unauthorised access to your blog.
For the techophiles amongst you, this type of attack is described in the excellent paper by Gavin Zuchlinski, “The Anatomy of an XSS Attack“.
It recently came to my attention that this vulnerability exists in the original Blix theme, and had been inherited by Blix Krieg (and other Blix variants such as dark blix, the webble you blix theme, Blixed and Blix with adsense). In the case of blixkrieg, the extent of the vulnerability has been minor, but worth correcting nonetheless.
You can easily test for the vulnerability by typing <script>alert(‘xss’);</script> into the search bar of your version of blix, and pressing ‘go!’ – if you see a pop-up, you have the vulnerability.
The good news is that I’ve now made a few substantial changes to the theme to sanitize user input and completely remove the vulnerability.
Sidebar Icons Broken After Upgrade
Some users reported that the default Blix sidebar icons were broken after an upgrade to wordpress 2.3.1. I have corrected that problem in this release.
Cheers and all the best,
Matt
November 26th, 2007
As you probably all know, I have done my best to keep Sebastien Schmieg’s ‘Blix’ wordpress theme alive and kicking by producing a heavily but subtly modified version which I call ‘blixkrieg’. It’s an open source theme, free to download and use and quite popular – suprisingly so, actually..
So… today I received a bit of welcome news – the great lads and lassies from the yahoo mail team in Ireland and the UK have chosen to use my theme on their blog.
Folks, if you’re hiring – I went through the long and arduous interview process with your competiton at mountain view not too long ago, and, even though I was unsuccessful, I’m still keen to work in the search industry (maybe I can be vice president of wordpress theme development 😀 ).
Cheers and thanks for choosing blixkrieg.
doc
November 16th, 2007
Zachary Guidry, one of the users of my Blix Krieg theme (which you can download here) has developed a very cool plugin to use with blixkrieg.
It is called ‘MultiBlix’ and allows you to very easily modify all the various shades and colors used in a blixkrieg install, without needing to know how to write code.
I’m very impressed with the plugin – congratulations Zachary on writing such a nifty little plugin, and helping to build the ‘blixkrieg’ community with cool little additions like this.
You can download Zachary’s BlixKrieg Theme Customization plugin here
July 24th, 2007
Hi everyone – we’ve released an upgraded version of the Blix Krieg theme to give better support to those of you who don’t wish to use adsense on your blogs.
This version corrects a minor bug with the previous release.
Basically, this bug makes the ‘featured advertiser’ sidebar header show even when advertising is turned off.
We’ve now corrected the bug, and you can eliminate it by downloading the updated version here.
Users that are utilising the adsense enabled version of the theme, or are using WordPress 2.2 with widgets enabled need not upgrade their theme.
Those of you that wish to download the adsense enabled version of the theme, or read more about it, may do so at our support page. You can see the latest version of the theme (with adsense turned on) at our beta test page
Blix Krieg is a WordPress 2.2.1 (and backwards) compatible drop-in replacement version of Sebastien Schmieg’s famous and highly customizable theme, Blix. Blix Krieg ads additional functionality like ‘asides’, widget compatibility and the option to easily integrate google adsense into your blog if desired. You can read more about the latest version by following this link.
Thanks for being a part of our community!
Matt
June 27th, 2007
We’ve just released a new version of Blix Krieg, our widgetized wordpress 2.2 compatible version of Sebastien Schmieg’s famous Blix theme.
This new version of Blix Krieg adds significant new features including ‘asides’, support for wordpress sidebar ‘widgets’ and a few design changes intended to enhance your search engine performance.
To help you in the process of upgrading to the new version, I’ve put together a few Q and A’s that explain how to upgrade (from Blix or an earlier version of Blix Krieg) without losing any customizations you have made. Click here to read the full article.
Continue Reading June 16th, 2007
Hi everyone – this is just a quick little note to say that the new Blix WordPress theme (version 2.2) is now available on our downloads page (here).
I’m actually using was using one of the new features of the theme to write this little blurb – it’s called an aside (if you’d like to see some asides in action, head over to the blix krieg theme test site).
When you download the new theme, just create a category called ‘asides’ and any posts you make using that category will auto-magically appear like this!
This iteration of blix krieg is a major, major overhaul of the theme – it’s taken me about 7 or 8 hours – I’ve tried to tighten up alot of the code to make the theme even more streamlined than the original, and I’ve added WIDGET COMPATIBILITY to the theme – if you haven’t learnt about widgets yet – well, let me know.
I’ve also widgetized all the little standard blix gadgets (like the calendar, links, categories etc) so that you can add new widgets without muffing up the original look of the theme.
As always, this is a drop in replacement – just install it over the top of your old blix theme and she’ll be apples 🙂
I’ll give another update about this theme after I’ve had a few celevratory celebratory (EDIT: might have been getting ahead of myself there 🙂 ) beers – it might look the same, but, crikey, let me tell you it’s very different ‘under the hood’ – those of you who are regular users will notice them.
Cheers,
Matt
June 8th, 2007
Hi Folks – for those of you who are Blix Krieg users (this theme) I’m currently applying the finishing touches to a major upgrade.
The upgrade adds sidebar widget compatibility and the ability to use asides.
You can check out the progress at http://beta.utheguru.com
I’ve got the asides working just fine, now working on the sidebar a bit to try and make it ‘widget ready’ without making it ugly – because of the way that Sebastien Schmieg made the original blix sidebar, this is a bit problematic – but not out of reach.
Cheers,
Matt
June 8th, 2007
Just a quick note to let users know that they can safely upgrade their blog to wordpress 2.2 (download wordpress 2.2 here) without any adverse effects – Blix Krieg, unlike Blix, is fully wordpress 2.2 compatible.
Blix Krieg is a ‘drop in’ replacement for users of Sebastien Schmieg’s Blix theme who are having problems with compatibility after an upgrade of wordpress. Installstion is quick, hassle free, ad Blix Krieg adds the option to automatically incorporate adsense into your blog if you desire (a popular addition – as adsense is a great way to make money from your blog).
You can learn more and download the wordpress 2.2 compatible blix theme here.
All the best,
theDuck
May 19th, 2007
Just thought I’d throw another few links to some new blogs I’ve seen hit the ‘link-o-radar’ recently.
As you all probably know, I develop the wordpress theme that you are looking at (get it at my blix krieg download page) which is a wordpress 2.1 compatible version of Sebastien Schmieg’s Blix theme, and incorporates adsense (inspired by additions from SEO Dave).
I also do a fair bit of ‘blog-optimisation’ for people, including help with installation, customization and SEO considerations to help make blogs a financial and social-networking success.
Whenever someone installs my theme, I get pinged, and I often go check a random selection of them out on a weekly basis.
Here’s a few from this week which I liked:-
Triathlete Dad – Regular commenter on this Blog, Susie J, has finally convinced her husband Dave to join the club and get a blog. Dave’s blog is lining up to be a real success – he talks of his inspirational change from (slightly) overweight technical rep to triathlon-racing superdad.
This is one blog I’ll be watching – certainly the content is well written, and from an income perspective, I think the ads that adsense is pulling at the moment are extremely relevant to the content and likely to produce a good return.
Horse Logos – not a BlixKrieg blog but rather a Zen-Cart based ecommerce site I’m in the process of helping set up for a customer. I’m proud of how this is going – coming along nicely and indexed in less than a week.
Working for Cats – a nice Blix Krieg based blog about CATS – again, I was comissioned this week to help the owner make a few mods. Amongst other things, we widened the default theme out a little and fixed a few SEO problems.
Midwestern NGO – a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping developing countries. Welcome to BlixKrieg!
Lotan’s Blog Space – A blog about conservation in Israel and interesting things like living in an eco-dome. I love the work these people have done to the theme, and especially the background art – looks great, two thumbs up!
Just a small comment about comments – I’d highly recommend to Lotan that he enables comments without registration – users and readers are what makes a blog, and being able to make comments tends to get readers interested, and keep them. Plugins like akismet and bad-behaviour are extraordinarily brilliant at filtering spam – but if you are really concerned about unsolicited comments, you can enable akismet AND require that first time commenters comments are reviewed by you before they are given un-fettered access – I’m willing to help you if you’re not sure, Lotan.
name not included – A commercial site that’s pinched the theme and removed acknolwedgement. I wasn’t going to include this one as when I visited they had taken the footer out – ie removed backlinks to wordpress and this theme. That’s a pet peeve of mine, as the development of this theme is largely driven by traffic we get. But, I’ve decided instead to add this no-followed link as you might like to see what they’ve done.
Cheers.
theDuck
March 16th, 2007
Hiya everyone –
I’ve finally found that round tuit, and I’m now putting together my ideas for the next MAJOR release of my Blix based wordpress theme, BlixKrieg.
I’ve had a few suggestions about things that people would like in this next release.
Jeff Battersby (www.reyespoint.com) has suggested that he’d like support for ‘Asides’ (Jeff, I’ve had a look at Matt’s page and I still can’t really understand what they are – could you please explain to me?).
Support for sidebar widgets is also at the top of my list.
Drop down menus, of the same style as can be seen on Joni’s new Horse Logos site is also something I’ve been strongly considering, just thinking about how best to implement it.
So folks, it’s over to you – any readers out there with suggestions? I’m keen to hear them.
Cheers,
theDuck
March 12th, 2007
Hi everyone, hope you are well.
I’ve just implemented a minor update to my wordpress theme BlixKrieg. As always, the latest version is available for download at the wordpress Blix Krieg download site, here.
This minor update removes some code in the sidebar that causes a minor HTML validation error, and changes a reference URL in the footer from our old url (http://blog.utheguru.com – which I have redirected to one of my commercial sites for some much needed ‘link love’) to our newer www.utheguru.com version.
Because these changes are very minor, existing users need not update until our next major release.
theDuck
March 11th, 2007
I’m always amazed at the creativity of people using WordPress, and not the least those using my theme, Blix Krieg.
We’ve had 2500+ downloads of the theme so far in the last month, and over 4000 web-pages have linked back to us in that time, so we’re getting a decent following!
Everytime someone installs the theme, I get a ping back to my control panel.
Whilst I can’t look at every one, if I have time I usually drop by a few sites a week just to have a look.
Here’s an update of a few of them I loved:-
WordPress Blix Blogs (Updated 1/3/2007)
EchoSix Blog – A pacifist member of the US millitary blogs about his thoughts about war and the big humanitarian issues like landmines and cluster bombs – very interesting read.
Softonaut Software Engineering Blog – Three Austrian Guys that like to talk about Java and various other linux development ideas.
Online Reputation Blog – A*newsish* blog giving great strategies and advice about how to improve your reputation as an online publisher – most recently blogged about the mybloglog debacle.
ListeningPosts – they don’t use my theme, but the do use my Yahoo Sidebar Widget (a widget for showing you a relatively accurate count of the number of other sites that link to you), and I thought their music related blog was pretty groovy and well set-up.
Suriyapat Design – A web design and aesthetics blog (as far as I can tell – I think it’s written in Thai) – I love what they’ve done with the header 🙂
www.frectis.net – Blog by a midwife (Frectis, you’re blog isn’t showing well in internet explorer – something is too wide in your main text – probably the 468 wide ad bar half way down – you can widen the main container in your layout.css file, or just make that ad smaller (even change the google_ad_width parameter in the script itself)).
www.susiej.com – Blog by SusieJ, an ex journalist now fighting the good fight in her new career as a BUSY mum 🙂
www.bagofnothing.com – Incisive and witty commentary from a Texan about – well, nothing in particular!
http://jeffbattersby.com/ – A blog by Jeff Battersby (Jeff, you need to update the theme to our latest version – it’ll fix your sidebar issues.)
http://www.yourstudioa.com/ – one of my favourites – a blog about and for Paramedics – very snazzy mods made to the theme by Zack Guidry (Zack, please get in touch – your changes look fantastic and I’d love to know more.)
http://sobesto.pl/stronakasi – Blog by a young polish lady called Kasi – I wish I knew polish as then I’d be able to understand what it was about, but www.poltran.com gives:-
It looks on it, that I have become mature woman with (from) very riotous teenagers greatly, which (who) illimitably loves little one and everything it is devote him (it; it) in state (condition), as well as consciousness of property of somebody likes at who from my thirst this transformation become – my reality. I discover unknown boards of patience in , disinterested love, tranquility (peace) and world becomes due to that all better I develop culinary talent – ) even, with (from) different repercussions it. But at least aspirations not mum < beguile > < have > anorektycznych, hehe but savor is sharpened illimitably … … Hm but as yet, it has has proceeded so many (so much) < rear > write about because here przeszÅ‚osci? Melanż, Intoxication, love of false thirsts, hearts zlodowacenie, it has has proceeded to oblivion already. And if only never it has woken up … wiecej
!? From which I assume this blog is about a young lady (perhaps a new mother? ah shucks – all the good ones get snapped up 🙂 ) making her way from a riotous adolescence to woman-hood, and learning along the way about unconditional love for her children, peace in her heart, the joy of ‘feeling fulfilled’, and even how to cook!
Another foreign language blog –
http://blog.endunham.com/ – A japanese blog – with pictures on the front that just reminded me I’m hungry (Endunhan has obviously well perfected the art of ‘culinary talent’ which Kasi laments).. obligatory google translation of endunham’s ‘about me’ page follows:-
Family:　[danna] and [wanko] 2 (pit bull & mixed breed of [raburadoruretoriba] mixed breed of 1 and shepherd dog & golden retriever 1)
Age:　Around the year when the bending of the skin has become terrible…With just the word [tsu] it solves.
Favorite thing thing:　What the [se] cross over making densely (analog and digital)
Hateful thing thing:　Becoming the blue (anyone so don’t you think? the ~)
Those which is interest: 　The miscellaneous goods gathering, DIY (the small article and the furniture and the recycling miscellaneous goods which are made with the cheap material, the [rimeiku] varieties), the antique shop round and the photograph (in especially [horuga] zeal).
Slogan of life:　Life-long study! There is no end in the world of learning.
I agree with you enduhan, life long study is the best way to avoid the ‘becoming the blue’ 🙂 And I think that “What the [se] cross over making densely (analog and digital)” means Endunhan likes photography..
This is just a small random selection, and I’ll add more over time – if you want to let me know about your blog, please drop me a comment below.
As always, you can see my raw test page of the latest stable Blix Krieg release here. If you want all the latest updates, I’d suggest you bookmark the BlixKrieg Theme Category. You can always download the latest stable release from my blixkrieg theme page.
This blog isn’t just about Blix Krieg though – I’m also active on the Google Webmaster’s Help forum (my tag there is dockarl) and I write pretty regularly here about things I learn on the forum – so you might like to subscribe to our rss feed to keep up with the latest news and views to help you keep your blog where you want it – at the top of the google index.
If you’d like to help support utheguru.com, please feel free to download the Firefox browser (below). Not only is it a better browser (in my honest opinion) but as a referrer to Google, this is a source of income for the blog also!
Cheers,
TheDuck
March 1st, 2007
I’ve been doing a bit of paid blixkrieg wordpress blog customization work for a lady called Joni Solis.
Joni owns and runs the site A Love for Horses.
Joni is an artist, and a horse lover, and her site gives advice for other horse enthusiasts and provides horse clip art and horse logos for horse enthusiasts across the globe.
During our conversation, I mentioned to her in passing that I have horses, and used to be an active participant in a peculiarly Australian sport known as ‘Camp-Drafting’.
Joni pointed out that I should probably incorporate horses in to my site heading, to which I replied that my old header, with the sheep herd, had taken my artistic abilities to their absolute limit.
Well whaddya know.. within a couple of hours, Joni had sent me this new header – which I love… it fully conveys my desired message, and fits heaps better with the colour scheme of this site.
Thanks Joni – and if you’re in the horse business, check out Joni’s site – well worth a read.
Cheers and best wishes,
TheDuck
February 27th, 2007
Today I’ve released the newest update to the Blix Krieg theme.
This update corrects the following errors:-
- Unusual characters appearing below the sidebar on the index page when using internet explorer.
- Search Page sidebar disappears.
This update adds the following functionality:-
- An extra configuration parameter in adsense.php – users can now choose to hide ads on certain parts of the website.
- Ability to display header ads on content pages
The major modifications in this release occur in functions.php, adsense.php and pages.php. If you have a customized set-up, replacing these files will suffice and should cause minimal disruption.
You can view the latest update in operation at beta.utheguru.com, and you can download it HERE
February 20th, 2007
Now I admit it – I’m decent at cutting code, but absolutely shithouse when it comes to web design – as you can see by my new header – hot off the press.
I was really proud of it until my dog Jazz walked over for a pat, took a look at the screen, tilted her head over to one side as kelpies tend to do, and let out a low drawn out growl…
I’m not the artistic type – I’m one of those annoying science types that’s always completely amazed by (but incapable of imitating) the amazing feats of artistic creativity that some people just seem to be born with. I don’t have that ‘interior design’ gene – if you want proof, come visit my office! Just modifying the sheep picture pushed my photoshop skills to the absolute limit.
So folks – PLEASE! If you have an aesthetic bone in your body, can you give me a few pointers on a better colour scheme, or a better header design (or both)?
I need it to be simple, eye-catching and appropriate to the motto of the forum.. that is, that this is a place where hopefully everyone can contribute their knowledge freely to help each other improve our websites / knowledge.
AND – please don’t worry folks the new header is NOT – I repeat NOT a part of the Blix Krieg Theme – I wouldn’t be that mean 😉 The Blix Krieg theme still has Sebastien Schmieg’s original minimalist charm.
You can always see the current stable version of the blix krieg theme at beta.utheguru.com – in all it’s original blix style glory.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend so far!
TheDuck
February 18th, 2007
Hi folks,
I’ve just updated the blix krieg wordpress 2.1 compatible theme. This version makes the following changes.
- SEO upgrade – For the index page, your title bar will now show your blog name a dash and your blog description (eg www.utheguru.com – where we believe YOU are the guru). For content pages, it shows the page title FIRST (previously after), a dash, and then the blog name (eg ‘New Update to Blix Krieg – www.utheguru.com’). I think this is an important update as it makes your page titles, rather than your blog name, jump out to search engine users.
- Tagline changes – I have implemented the changes spoken about in my recent post (How to add a custom Tagline) into the stable version.
Read more about the changes here
Continue Reading February 17th, 2007
Susie J, who uses my BlixKrieg Wordpress theme, recently wrote in to ask if it was possible to modify the theme to accomodate a different header.
The answer is ‘YES’. Blix Krieg is based upon the older Blix theme, and that theme was notoriously simple to modify.
In this short tutorial, I show Suzie how to go about modifying the theme to suit her tastes.
TheDuck
Continue Reading February 14th, 2007
Hi Everyone,
I’ve just uploaded a new version of Blix Krieg (2.1.2) which overcomes problems with the sidebar (missing blogroll headers and recent posts) that slipped through my previous upgrade.
The new version should install directly over the top of existing Blix Krieg installations, and can be downloaded from the usual place – http://www.utheguru.com/blix-krieg-info/
Ciao,
TheDuck
February 11th, 2007
Hi everyone!
We’ve been having tremendous interest in our Blix Krieg theme, but some people have asked how to remove the Google adsense ads from the theme.
It’s actually not that difficult – there is a configuration option in the adsense.php file that allows you to turn off the ads site wide quite easily, but I realize now that many people that use Blix don’t really know how to edit a configuration file.
So, to make it easier for you folks, I’ve released an ad-free version of BlixKrieg. You can read about it and download it here.
Continue Reading February 8th, 2007
The designers of the hugely popular BlixKrieg theme have today announced the release of a FREE updated version of this theme which overcomes incompatibilities with WordPress 2.1. With over 1000 downloads to date, this updated blix based theme is proving popular.
This upgrade corrects an incompatibility between the blix theme and wordpress 2.1, in which user defined pages were no longer displaying in the navigation bar. This Blix Krieg upgrade is fully backwards compatible with earlier versions of Blix and WordPress. We’ve also included the ability to easily turn the ads on or off.
Never used Google Adsense Before? Not a problem – it’s free to join and you can start making money right away, Just click the Join Adsense Button to the right – If you are like a lot of bloggers, and don’t aim to (or even feel guilty) about making money from your blog, donate it to charity!
UTheGuru has made BlixKrieg 2.1.1 available on this site – You can read more and download WordPress 2.1 BlixKrieg Blix Update Here.
January 28th, 2007
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