I have been trying to come up with a tool to help me keep track of web pages that I would like to read at a later time. For instance, in my previous google reader post, I mentioned read it later, a firefox extension / iPhone app that allows you to save bookmarks for later reading. I have been somewhat satisfied with most, but I think I finally came up with a solution that works beautifully using delicious, google reader, and readability. Read more…
Using NextGEN gallery to bring an image gallery to your WordPress blog
Bringing a customized image gallery isn’t as easy as it should be. Many developers have tried to solve this problem, and in my opinion Alex Rabe has done an excellent job of doing so. He has developed a WordPress plugin called NextGEN Galllery which allows the author to easily update and manage photos, and (this is important) allow for almost complete customization on how the images are displayed. As a specific example on how to do this, I’m going to walk you through getting NextGen gallery and the awesome Galleria jQuery image gallery to get along. Read more…
Modernizr: Your ticket to using HTML5 and CSS3
I first learned about modernizr on Andy Clarke’s post “What does browser testing mean today” where he discusses among other things his thoughts on why websites don’t need to be experienced the same in every browser. Modernizr is a javascript library that detects what html5 and css3 attributes a browser supports. The library is only 3.9kb in size and for the most part detects features rather than detecting which browser the visitor is using. Ask ppk why this is a good thing. Read more…
Adobe Version Cue causing insanity
I know this rule doesn’t apply to everyone, but Adobe just ruined the better part of my day with its’ Version Cue software and I feel like I need to warn others. I am running Snow Leopard 10.6 on my MacBook. My processor started to hang right around 70%, which was causing the fan to max out. The noise was driving me to insanity. Read more…
A Newb HighEdWebber’s Perspective On HighEdWeb09
I had the opportunity to attend my first highedweb conference this past week. For those of you not there, it is a conference for professionals who create and manage creating things on the interwebs working in higher education. More info can be found on their website. Since one of the things I was reminded of at this conference is people have very short attention spans on the web, I’m going to keep my thoughts on this short and to the point. Read more…
Waking up early, twitter and #5amclub
Oh, the beauty of waking up early in the morning. There is something awesome about getting up early before the sun rises to plan the day ahead, exercise, read, write a blog post, whatever. This is my personal account as to why waking up early is a very good thing. This is not a “how to” post, although I’ll throw my 2 cents in on that, too. Read more…
TweetiePie for WordPress
Update: Twitter restricted their api a long time ago making this plugin useless.
I finished up my new WordPress plugin, and I’m excited to announce it here. It’s called TweetiePie and its’ purpose in life is to bring in your most recent updates from twitter and put them on your blog. This can be done by using a widget or as a direct function call. It’s super-easy to get your tweets on the sidebar. Simply supply your username, how many tweets you would like to display, and whether or not you would like to show the date. Read more…
Adding multiple sidebars (and other elements) to your wordpress theme
Update: Marquex has written a plugin that takes care of all this without having to touch PHP. Check it out: Custom sidebar WordPress plugin
I’m going to show you (you, being the wordpress theme developer or modifier) how to add elements to your blog that will change based on which page you are on. A great example of this is changing which button is on for your navigation to indicate which section is currently active. I will also show you how to get multiple widgetized sidebars rocking for your theme. I’m going to make the assumption that you already know what wordpress pages are and how wordpress can act as a cms. I will also assume you know how to widgetize your theme. Onwards. Read more…
Six firefox add-ons for the web developer or designer
Here is a list of 6 add-ons I use as a web developer. What are your favorites? Read more…
Conquering Google Reader
Google Reader can be a very powerful tool, but it can quickly become your worst enemy. I’m not going to tell you why you should be using it, or what an RSS feed is, etc., but rather how to get google reader working for you instead of the other way around.
The problem is this. There are tons of different feeds available for pretty much whatever you are interested in. When I first started using Reader, I subscribed to almost anything that had an RSS icon in firefox. Things quickly got out of control and it wasn’t until recntly that I found a system that works for me. Read more…