Movable Type

Wordpress now supports version tracking, you can track the changes made to a post or page like wikipedia or version control system. This feature is important for multi author blogs, you can track the changes made by others.

Another important feature added to 2.6 is “Press This” bookmarklet that lets you post quickly by pressing the bookmarklet. This is inspired from “Tumblr”, if you have ever used tumblr you will know how useful is this feature. It can recognize Youtube video embed codes and Flickr images, when you are on Youtube or Flickr click this bookmarklet for easy posting of videos or photos.

Wordpress 2.6 Released.

Not bad at all…

Writing Style for Print vs. Web | Jakob Nielsens Alertbox

Summary: Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments.

Stuart’s Blog: RSS in Plain English

Wayne Brent alerted us to a video called “RSS in Plain English” from a resource called The Common Craft. Right now it is on the homepage to that link. You might go there in the future and need to poke around to find it. I believe the actual link location is http://www.blip.tv/file/205570/ but I can’t verify it because the response time is so bad. It must be the hot item on the Web right now. “RSS in Plain English” seems like a clear explanation about how you can use RSS 1.0 to subscribe to blogs and news sources. Doesn’t get into RSS 2.0, which pushes audio and video for podcasts, but if one gets the gist of how RSS works for blogs and videos, they will make the connection for podcasts.

Feature Richness and User Engagement (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)

Summary: The more engaged users are, the more features an application can sustain. But most users have low commitment — especially to websites, which must focus on simplicity, rather than features.

The article is worth reading all the way through.

How many phone calls do I have to make to figure out how to dial the phone?

MailBucket MailBucket is an experiment in alternative methods of email management. For now its only feature is a public email-to-RSS gateway: forward your email to slurp@mailbucket.org and have your news reader pick it up at mailbucket.org/slurp.xml (where you choose slurp, having checked that it’s not already in use).

» 25 Ways To Improve Your Site Today » fadtastic - a multi-author web design trends journal

Yes, the title may look like this post should be on an amateur blog and that it will be full of references to clip art and animated gifs, but this is serious. I’ve compiled a list of what I think are 25 ways to improve your website in as little time as possible. All can be done in a matter of minutes. Now, a website is hard work and usually there are no quick fixes but this list should provide you with a few pointers to make some updates today. If you like, it can also be used as a basis for a quality check document.

I use EventCalendar to maintain family “repeating” events like birthdays and anniversaries. Let’s say it takes a bit too long to do it the way I have in the past.

I know SQL.

There are probably many ways to do it. I didn’t want to deal with changing the plugin code, so let’s do it all in the database.

Here’s my submission to the EventCalendar mailing list with an example of how to automatically take care of repeating events. -

PictoBrowser: Free Flickr Image Browser for your Site, Blog and MySpace click the INFO button on any PictoBrowser to get yours

HOW TO Quickie: Embedded Flickr Slideshows - PaulStamatiou.com

Dig those flash Flickr slideshows? All that’s needed is a bit of code to embed them within your website to give your readers something dynamic.

lazyi.net // Ryan Prins’ Blog » NNW: Subs to HTML

Out of boredom and also because I stopped using Bloglines a while ago in favor of NetNewsWire I needed a way to update my blogroll on my site. So, I took my first foray into AppleScript and hashed out a simple little script to populate my blogroll page like Bloglines once used to.

Nice. Now I have a page that contains all of my news sources.

I may have to figure out how to automate the generation and updating of the page in Wordpress. Probably just dump it to a file and include that.

Josiah Cole » 19 Things NOT To Do When Building a Website

I’ve compiled a small list (or rant) of some very basic and fundamental rules that all webmasters must learn and respect when developing a website that needs to make actual money. This list can also be used by companies looking to hire a web development firm or to evaluate an already deployed website project.

Why thank you Sam - a great list.

Mac OS X Things » sed vs. PERL

sed vs. PERL

sed one-liners are here sed FAQ is here

I wanted to change all occurrences of PRIVATE to NJPRIVATE in a bunch of files. It’s a simple command in sed, but what about replacing the file? output to temporary, then copy? yes, but.

RMail You can subscribe via email to any RSS feed using the following form.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Turning the web into ’sushi belts’

The way people find websites, blogs, and other content they like on the net is changing.

Tao called Tao is not Tao. Names can name no lasting name. – Lao-Tzu Welcome to Journler! Version 2.0.1 Read the rest of this entry »

activeRoll Wizard

Follow these 4 steps to place an outline enabled blogroll in your weblog template.

Get Your Feet Wet with WordPress

But here’s the rub: WordPress’ system for messing with your blog design and site functionality is powerful, but can be confusing and awkward until you figure out how all the pieces fit together.

Pearsonified | Best damn blog on the planet.

Every week, I get emails from potential clients who all want to know one thing: How much for a design? Nine times out of ten, my answer causes them to run for the hills. Scary thing is, based on industry buzz, my prices could actually be considered totally reasonable by comparison. Don’t believe me? Well, today you get the whole scoop - my prices, their prices, and my always-priceless editorial commentary on the subject

Ajaxian » Really Easy Field Validation with Prototype

Enter Really Easy Field Validation. It lets you do the following with your form elements, using the class attribute to indicate what kind of validation is needed (assumes Prototype 1.5, included with Script.aculo.us 1.6.1):

Movable Type vs. WordPress, My Opinion — Business Logs

Yesterday Sherwin and Geof responded in the comments on the Socialite Life launch entry asking what I thought about WordPress vs. Movable Type. My response would have been too long for a comment so I thought I’d turn it into an entry

BLOG ID: How do I find it?:

Ok, I’m trying to set up MarsEdit to allow me to post to my installation of Wordpress. I have all of my information entered in, but it won’t allow me to post because it says that I need to enter in the blog ID. Grrr! What the heck is the blog id and how do i find it? I’ve searched the Wordpress site, the Ranchero forums and I’ve even Googled for the information, but I can’t find anything referring to how to find my blogs ID. Would someone mind helping me out? Thanks.

(Via MarsEdit Support.)

The answer is 1

BBEdit Gems | All BBEdit, all the time. If you write webpages, you probably use CSS. (if you don’t use CSS yet, it’s the best thing to happen since HTML itself: it simplifies the whole webpage-styling issue enormously: see The CSS Garden.)

rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s Weblog

If you believe the size of your audience is the measure of success, don’t blog. If you think how many people link to your site is the measure of success, don’t blog. Blog because you want to have a voice in a conversation. If you run a business, blog because one day, I promise, you will be glad you have a place to respond when the conversation is about you. Blog because there are two or three people who actually matter in your life or work, or who share your passion for a particular topic. Blog because once or twice a day, you see an article or joke or something that you forward by email to a group of people. (Hint: stop emailing them, post the links to a blog and tell your friends the address of your blog.)

The new MarsEdit.

Introduction - In search of the One True Layout:

In search of the One True Layout

OpenSourceCMS - CMS Ratings

We thought it would be nice to have a summary list of all the CMS ratings listed on one page instead of hunting for the information on each CMS page.

CSS layouts: liquid, fluid, elastic, flexible, jello…:

One clean HTML markup, many layouts… It is this thread (title: “one template to rule them all”) on the CSS-Discuss List that initiated this article. The original post included a link to a document that contained a set of images representing different layouts, the question was: “Is it possible to have one HTML file, and style these pages this way only with CSS”.

(Via Sam DeVore.)

Ranchero Software: MarsEdit Badge

Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)

Summary: Weblogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.

Drupal Site Configuration Guide | C&W 2005 Drupal Pre-Conference Workshop

Drupal, at its base installation, is a blank slate, a content management system that can be used to create a large variety of different websites. Thus, Drupal is preconfigured for creating a community site suitable for the online writing classroom, a highly configurable platform that better facilitiates community interaction and collaboration than is possible with proprietary course management systems. Educators will find that this distribution eliminates 95% of the work involved in setting up a Drupal site for a writing class, as well as containing some documentation materials which will reduce the learning curve for site administration.

Mac RSS readers : Page 4

NetNewsWire has a sites drawer that is consistently kept up with the latest and greatest feeds out there by the developer’s wife. Awww… Seriously, it’s a good resource for all sorts of new feeds. There are lots of categories to browse, not just tech stuff. From Swedish to Health, NetNewsWire has you covered. Try to find a feed on gardening. Go on, I dare you. It will be there. Also, from that same drawer, you can browse your neighbor’s newsfeeds via Bonjour, if he or she is sharing them.

new 1.5.2

Does not fix the image upload problem from MarsEdit (MetaWeblog API)

Then again, permissions and owners - well

OK/Cancel Blog Archive � CSS Culture: Laying it all out

Somehow in the last couple years, everyone seems to have decided that TABLES are no good. Despite the fact that they%u2019ve been around forever and provide a stable way to implement a layout for all browsers, they have somehow fallen out of favor. The reason? The culture of CSS.

I really tried to go table free for the one web site that demands my attention.

The heading just had to be a table to work in the large percentage of browsers (you know who you are).

UrbanGiraffe » Dissection of a WordPress theme: Part 3:

Personalising a blog can require patience and perseverance. There are times when it seems a fruitless task and the blog absolutely refuses to do what you want, despite your best efforts. There are many sources of information on the internet, but it can be hard to locate exactly what you need.

Writing Secure PHP, Part 2 - Security - ILoveJackDaniels.com

In Writing Secure PHP, I covered a few of the most common security holes in websites. It’s time to move on, though, to a few more advanced techniques for securing a website.

Writing Secure PHP - PHP - ILoveJackDaniels.com:

Rule Number One: Never, Ever, Trust Your Users

UrbanGiraffe » Dissection of a WordPress theme: Part 2:

Dissection of a WordPress theme: Part 2 Web design is a notoriously tricky subject. Often we give up any thoughts of innovation when the process of realising them is such hard work. Part two of this WordPress dissection continues to try and explain the basic workings of the software, how this relates to the layout, and how anyone can personalise their blog.

UrbanGiraffe » Dissection of a WordPress Theme: Part 1:

Life as a WordPress blogger has become remarkably easy. If you can hold a mouse and follow instructions then you’re most of the way towards carving out your own niche on the internet. A fresh installation gives you a powerful and attractive system with minimal effort, and with a little luck you can be blogging in under half an hour.

Too Far:

You know the dogma has gone too far when…

   <p>Here's a code sample from someone who obviously misunderstands the fact that "it's <em>okay</em> to use tables for tabular data", and probably spent more time than was necessary coming up with the CSS to make this work:</p>

Read the rest of this entry »

mezzoblue  §  Form Elements and ids:

Form Elements and ids March 29, 2005 11AM PST Finding a balance between label association, validation, and automatic form generation. So we’re all aware by now that the id attribute is supposed to occur exactly once on a page. You’re not allowed to use more than a single instance of any given id; for that, you’d turn to a class. Multiple classes are no problem, but multiple ids are. Now if you’ve done you’re homework and you know how to properly apply a label, you’ve probably run into this: Attribute definitions for = idref [CS] This attribute explicitly associates the label being defined with another control. When present, the value of this attribute must be the same as the value of the id attribute of some other control in the same document. When absent, the label being defined is associated with the element’s

A life in the day » Stylesheets Plugin:

I’ve created my first WordPress plugin. It allows you to add your own stylesheets independent of the chosen theme. You can download it at http://scott.sauyet.com/php/wp-plugins/stylesheets/. Install is the standard, unzip, drop it in the plugins directory, and activate. It adds a panel to the managment page.

cd WP-three ln -s ../wordpressMaster/* . rm wp-blog-header.php cp ../wordpressMaster/wp-blog-header.php . rm wp-login.php cp ../wordpressMaster/wp-login.php . rm wp-admin mkdir wp-admin cd wp-admin ln -s ../../wordpressMaster/wp-admin/* . cd .. mkdir wp-my-content # a place for content that is not the same!!! cp ../WP-one/wp-config.php . emacs wp-config.php # change the table prefix

in the wp-rss2.php file change this
<pubDate><?php echo mysql2date('D, d M Y H:i:s +0000', get_the_time('Y-m-d H:i:s'), false); ?></pubDate>
to
<pubDate><?php echo mysql2date('D, d M Y H:i:s +0000', get_post_time('Y-m-d H:i:s', true), false); ?></pubDate>

line 33

shayne sweeney » Add RSS feeds to Wordpress:

his tutorial will guide you through adding external RSS feeds to the sidebar of Wordpress. Steps are as follows: Download RSS class: LastRSS Creating feed pages Create formatting page Testing code Edit theme file: sidebar.php

Bulleted Lists: Multi-Layered Fudge: A List Apart:

Bulleted Lists: Multi-Layered Fudge by Nandini Doreswamy Designing our company’s website in CSS was coming along nicely until I hit a roadblock. The challenge was to create two columns of bulleted lists in the flow of the text. The layout I had in mind was something like this: Paragraph 1 Bulleted list | Bulleted list Paragraph 2 Bulleted list | Bulleted list Paragraph 3 Bulleted list | Bulleted list …and so on I tossed around some lists that worked fine in IE 6, but caused a headache in almost every other browser. Perhaps I could have smashed through the roadblock using horizontal lists. But I’ve always found it easier to float, so that’s what I did. Floating ULs To solve the problem with floats, let’s assign two classes of unordered lists, ul.left and ul.right, which we’ll place in a div named “div” that’s 800 px wide (yes, 800 is jus

TidBITS#766/14-Feb-05

Podcasting: The People’s Radio by Andy J. Williams Affleck Few buzzwords surrounding Internet technologies have moved into the mainstream more quickly than “podcasting,” but because of this speed and an only tangentially related name, few consumer-level technologies have engendered more confusion. So what is podcasting?

This goes along with the 4 minute video.

Cascading Style Cheatsheet

«« Most Useful CSS Properties with Examples »»

Sensually Styled Definition Lists

Thoughts, have been shimmering in my head since the middle of the year 2003 when discussion on the CSS-Discuss about styling definition list (

), on ways I could style a definition list. I have come up with three examples using a portion of the list of CSS Play examples.

molly.com » comment spam, dead.:

COMMENT SPAM DEAD! Alert the media . . . the fix was easy, but alas may be only temporary. No matter, the respite is worthy of celebration.

I used that “fix” too. Just found a *really* simple stopgap - SPAM Stopgap - plugin for WordPress. Trivial to install (put the file in the plugins directory). Trivial to enable (use the WordPress Plugins page). We’ll see just how well it works.

Spambot Stopper

Global White Space Reset | Left Justified:

Who Benefits the Most? The people who would benefit the most from using this technique are those who are just starting to build entirely CSS styled sites and are in danger of developing the very common conditions of ‘class-itis’ and ‘div-itis’ instead of directly styling and positioning semantic elements. Cameron summed it up perfectly:

MarsEdit user interface notes: I like writing about user interface—I like to write about the choices we made and why we made them.

Since MarsEdit is new, you might be curious about the thinking behind it.

Here’s the story…

NYPL: Style Guide: CSS: Steal These Style Sheets! CSS: Steal These Style Sheets!

The two CSS files linked from this page can be used as-is, or modified to the design requirements of your site.

Ten CSS tricks:

Here’s an article with some very useful CSS tips “you may not know” (but really should!)

(Via scriptygoddess.)

I finally moved the original, static version of the faceblog out of existence.

Any references from “theblog” are now headed to the main page of this blog.

I guess if you’re paying any kind of attention you’ll be able to figure out where it all went.

I saved everything from Radio Userland a long time back.

Sigh.

I just had to install a visual confirmation module for a phpBB2 board. The “spammers” figured out how to register users (never to be activated) directly, along with a web site in the profile.

Now one simply points to the membership listing page (they acheive high order by using usernames that sort first) and gets the “links to links” effect.

The phpBB2 folks are on the ball, with a number of changes coming in the next version.

For now the visual confirmation will stop the automatics. I guess if someone actually wants to do all of that work by hand I can’t stop them.

I wonder if there is the same problem with something like WordPress?

Radio: The Missing Manual : MarsEdit and its companion NetNewsWire comprise refreshing new alternatives to Radio’s built in news aggregator and weblog publishing interface. Once installed, you might never visit the Radio Desktop site again!

WordPress Review: A WordPress Blog Publishing Platform Review.

(Via Blogging Pro - Blog News, Tools and Hacks.)

ALA 187: “Pocket-sized design: helping your site fit into small, handheld devices with teeny-weeny screens.”

(Via Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report.)

Bryan Bell: Mainly Design News Since I got back, I’ve been experimenting with wordPress, which is a fairly mature blogging tool.

that I don’t really want to have to go in and learn the entire nonsense of PERL and CPAN and all the rest.

I wanted to switch to using MySQL as the backend for MT but I’m really struggling with getting things installed in the right places.

What’s up with that.

Done for today

trying out ecto - http://www.kung-foo.tv/ecto/ - and had to fix a whole bunch of character encoding errors in most of my blogs.

Things copied from web pages. Smart quotes, hard spaces, hard returns (option-x) and the left-quote, right-quote, apostrophe characters.

Otherwise, maybe this is an OK way to post to weblogs. Different from using NetNewsWire.

Is my Sunday Stunned?

Just copied the files into the right place.

macosxhints - Create a Safari dictionary button

Apple’s Sherlock buttons didn’t offer the functionality I missed most, from MerriamWebster.com’s old javascript dictionary button. Written for older versions of Netscape or MSIE, the freely available button doesn’t work with Safari. The nice thing about the button was that you could either highlight a word in a page and punch the button for lookup OR just punch the button and enter a word into a dialog box.

the little bit with getSelection() needs to change.

Just copied a bunch of files to the cgi-bin directory…nothing seems broken.