WordPress 3.0 & the Twenty Ten Theme
Here it is, June Something-Something, and I’m only now writing my first blog post of the year. What could warrant such a momentous occasion? The under-publicized release of WordPress 3.0 with the new default theme Twenty Ten.
With this new version of WordPress, I can finally recommend WordPress to even a relative novice. Straight out-of-the-box you can have custom headers, advanced menu structures, easily customizable sidebar and footer modules, and an SEO-friendly, professional-looking theme. (No offense to its creators, but the former Kubrick-based theme wasn’t the most visually appealing theme around.)
The Killer Elite: Palm Pre and HTC Hero
Last week, I bought my first cell phone. As a technology and gadget geek, I had been following the iPhone for years and considered it to be the only viable smartphone for me. The iPhone being so popular, I don’t think I need to explain what makes it such an attractive device.
Before I make any big purchase, I always like to research my options and make sure I’m getting my money’s worth. As I delved deeper into the world of cellular phones, I realized that there are two contenders for the iPhone’s throne: the Palm Pre and the HTC Hero.
Dominion – A New Level of Board Gaming
At the risk of making myself sound like a total geek, I’m going to recommend a board game that everyone should try: Dominion.
Never heard of it? Don’t worry, most people beyond the realm of geekdom haven’t. But once you play Dominion, you’ll realize that it’s too amazing to be left hidden among the race of the mucus-nosed and greasy-faced. In fact, I’ve helped get nearly a dozen people hooked on it, many of whom mocked me fiercely until they tried it for themselves.
If you’re brave and ready to be rewarded with loads of excitement, go ahead and buy a copy of the game from Amazon.
SILVERDOCS 2009
SILVERDOCS is finally over! For the past eight days, I’ve been managing the day-of ticketing for AFI/Discovery Channel’s documentary film festival. Although I was dreading the festival as it approached, I had a great time and think it was really successful.
As several moviegoers commented, I was essentially glued to my seat at the ticketing table in the lobby. After eight 15-hours days of customer service for the festival, I’m beat!
I’ve been doing this for the past 2 1/2 years, and each year, I’m constantly asked the same questions at the day-of ticketing table: “Do you have any tickets available for ____?”, “What’s it mean for a film to be ‘on standby?’”, “What are my chances of getting in?”, “So I buy my ticket now and then wait in the standby line?”, “You don’t have just one more ticket?”, “I can stand in the back. Are you sure you can’t let me in?”, etc.
You Can’t Stop Me, Internet Explorer!
Thanks to VMWare Fusion 2.0, I can now test my sites on the various iterations of Internet Explorer. While I expected some errors in IE6 with png files, I wasn’t expecting layout problems in IE7.
The content and sidebar were overlapping with the header, without any regard to my top margins. I checked for bottom margins or padding in header and didn’t find any. I tried making a custom IE7 stylesheet, but the problem wouldn’t go away.
Then today, I removed the header height from my stylesheet and that did it!
If you’re reading this from Internet Explorer, do yourself a favor and use Google Chrome instead. It’s my favorite browser, so fast and sleek. I’m looking forward to the Mac version.
Now that the IE7 problems are solved, I’m going to focus on getting my 404 Error page to load properly. What’s the use of a custom 404 page if it doesn’t work?!
How to Create a Custom ShareThis Icon
Forget custom APIs. It’s quite simple to create a custom ShareThis button for your site. And now that I’ve figured it out, I realize that the answer was on Webmonkey all along.
So for those of us who don’t want to fool with the ShareThis API or Javascript, here are simple instructions for adding a custom ShareThis button using only CSS:
New Online Fad: Kitties on Shoulders
Apparently, it’s a new fad to post a picture of yourself online with a kitten on your shoulder. I asked my friend (and The Unicorn prime claymator) Kyle B. Stiff to check out the nearly-finished design of undo dog site design. Referring to the picture of Banjo on my shoulder, Kyle writes,
“and on that picture with little Dr. Pib on your shoulder, do you realize that now both of us have pictures on the internet of ourselves with cats on our shoulders?!”
I hadn’t realized it while designing the site, but he’s right. You can find a picture of Kyle with one of the Kitty Boys on his shoulder on his Play Magazine profile. So where’s your picture of a little feller on your shoulder??
On a related note, I encourage your to read Kyle’s video game reviews on Play Magazine. They are some of the most entertaining writings on the web, even if you don’t like gaming or care about the games he’s reviewing.
Mook Farm: Undone, Reborn, Rising from the Ashes
I still dream of completing the Judge Brown Tetralogy. The Unicorn was only snapshot of an awesome world Kyle B. Stiff and I created. It was to be an epic, with larger than life characters and a story that spanned centuries. As we filmed the prequel, we improved our craft, but we lost the creative spark. Although we are sitting on some amazing footage (better than anything in The Unicorn, I might add), I can’t bring myself to publish it in an unfinished form. Because we are unlikely to resume filming, it is as if the entire process was undone.
I am now freelancing as a web designer, with two sites currently in development:
Undo Dog is not the old Mook Farm. This is my springboard for free-lance work and my sandbox. It is my place to create and destroy web designs and to practice various web technologies. What you see today may be gone tomorrow. What you see tomorrow may stay idle for months only to change without notice. Although I’ll be focusing on the sites I’m developing for others, I’ll come here when I need a moment for myself.
Feel free to watch as I construct worlds and set them crashing down. And if you need somebody to design a website for you, let me know.
