February 2010
1 post
January 2010
1 post
Quick Photoshop Reset
Very good Photoshop trick to know: If you hold down ALT+CTRL+SHIFT (Mac: CMD+OPT+SHIFT) while starting Photoshop you can reset all settings back to factory default. Very useful if you have problems with some tools or the interface. – http://bit.ly/4A5LJ5
November 2009
1 post
Insane October
By far the most insane month of 2009, October included the following activities:
1st week: Trip to the East Coast, beginning with some business in Connecticut.
2nd week: East Coast trip continues with much pleasure in downtown Manhattan.
3rd week: Photo and art excursions with good friend visiting from Portland, OR.
4th week: Marathon book-editing and fine-tuning for Digging into...
September 2009
1 post
Import Feeds to Facebook
Seems like a lot of misinformation and confusion out there on how to import and display your feeds on Facebook. Here is what worked for me:
1. In the lower left-hand corner of your Facebook account, click on “Applications” > “Notes”.
2. In the upper mid-right column, click on “Import a blog” in the “Notes Settings” panel.
3. In the...
August 2009
2 posts
help me in plain english
This has got to be the most ironic comment I have ever read:
“hi i dun a stupid noooby mistake and dint think about encrytion i just put a pass in the change pass box and now when i attempt to see my main.php or index.php its sayin password no and error how can i reset back to having no password or were can i edit the bit so that a pass is automattically seen or if not posable how can i...
Redirection After Registration
After searching high and low for an unobtrusive method of redirecting users to a custom URL after registering at a WordPress-powered site, I finally resorted to (gasp) hacking the core. I simply could not find a better way of doing it that didn’t require a ton of additional code. I found several ways of redirecting users to various URLs after logging in and out, but absolutely nothing seems...
July 2009
1 post
A 500KB wp_options Table is Too Much
After my server crashed, I found myself restoring my site’s WordPress database. While there, I decided to dig around a bit and make sure everything was up to snuff. While looking through the wp_options table, I was surprised to discover that WordPress seems to cache around 400KB of “Planet WordPress” dashboard feeds (among other things). That’s a little extreme if you ask...
May 2009
3 posts
Stop Errors when Running Multiple Themes
Another quick WordPress tip for anyone running multiple themes in WordPress. If your site provides users the option of selecting from a number of different themes, you may have noticed errors like this in your PHP error log:
[28-May-2009 05:46:50] PHP Warning: main(): Failed opening ‘/…/press/wp-content/themes/requiem/searchform.php’ for inclusion...
Maximum Characters for Google Meta Tags
I was going to post this on Twitter, but the service was down or otherwise not responsive (as it frequently is), so I decided to post the information here at Tumblr instead.
After trying to determine the maximum number of characters allowed for meta title, keywords, and description tags, I realized that the answers are not always clear, even where Google is concerned. One SEO site says one...
WordPress Theme Development Tip
Working with the Theme Switcher plugin is an excellent way to develop themes behind the scenes using WordPress. Simply install the Theme Switcher plugin, upload your working theme template files, and enter the secret URL (something like, “http://domain.tld/index.php?wptheme=Perishable”, where “Perishable” is the theme name) to activate the new theme. Easy as pie.
So...
April 2009
2 posts
Easy Wordpad to Notepad Format Conversion
I do most of my writing and coding in a plain text editor. On many machines, this means Notepad. I think Notepad is one of the greatest applications of all time. So Zen and perfect in its simplicity.
While working with plain text, I am often required to convert text content between Notepad and Wordpad. Wordpad is also a great text tool, but the rich-text formatting doesn’t translate well...
Column Sorting in Dreamweaver
The other day I “did something” that resulted in my Files directory listings being displayed in a completely wrong sort order. Instead of sorting my files and folders alphabetically and according to name as it has always done in the past, Dreamweaver suddenly began displaying everything according to most-recently modified or something similarly confusing. At the time, I had no idea...
March 2009
1 post
Starting Over
I have been doing a lot of thinking about starting over with my blog here at Perishable Press. Now that I know what I’m doing, I can’t help but notice how absolutely wrong my blog’s foundation is setup. What was I thinking!
There are so many things that I would do differently if I had the chance to start over. With almost 20 fully functional themes and a host of plugins and...
January 2009
2 posts
10 Pop Songs that Rock
Normally, I listen to a ton of techno, downtempo, and ambient music. I also like jazz, classic rock, and tons and tons of Underworld. There is so much music to enjoy while working on the Web, that I often don’t find time to dig much pop stuff. Every now and then, while surfing the digital divide, I happen to catch echo of some choice pop nostalgia. Collecting as I go, here are ten of my...
WordPress Tip for Multiple Themes
If your site makes available multiple themes for users to choose from, remember to include the JavaScript (or any other required code) for any statistical applications that you might be using, such as Mint, Google Analytics, and so forth. I am not sure about the various WordPress statistics plugins, but they may need to be included as well. A good way to check if your stats plugin is tracking data...
December 2008
3 posts
Insane Christmas
For as long as I can remember, Christmas has always been a relatively peaceful affair. Sure there’s the usual holiday stress — traffic, shopping, presents, relatives, and all that goes with the preparation of a traditional celebration, but when it’s all said and done, you get to relax and enjoy the peace and harmony of gathering together and basking in the reason for the season:...
New (4G) Blacklist Now in Beta
Just a quick note to anyone interested in securing their websites against malicious activity, spam, and other nonsense. Several months after releasing my 3G Blacklist, I have finally begun work on the next incarnation of the blacklist: the 4G Firewall!
The first part of the blacklist is now ready for testing, and I plan on setting it up on Perishable Press within the next few days. While testing...
Thanks for the Free Traffic and Link Juice
Just wanted to thank the fine folks at fafich.ufmg.br for all the free traffic and link juice. Thanks to their misapplication of my comprehensive canonicalization code, every non-canonical version of their 21,700 indexed pages points directly to my site, Perishable Press. This means that every one of their permalink URLs that is mistyped, lacks the “www” prefix, or contains the...
November 2008
4 posts
No Plugin Needed for Feed Delay
I recently saw a WordPress plugin that was designed to delay the publication of your WordPress feed by any specified time interval. While it is a good idea to carefully proofread your content before posting it, a plugin certainly is not required to do so.
As savvy WordPress users already know, WordPress has a built-in post-preview feature that enables authors to view their unpublished content as...
PHP Echo Shortcut
Quick PHP shortcut to save a few keystrokes:
We can write this:
<?=$variable; ?>
To replace this:
<?php echo($variable); ?>
How to Close your Windows Live ID and Hotmail...
After deciding to stop using Hotmail, I went ahead and tried to close my newer Hotmail accounts. Unfortunately, the process of closing the accounts was a dreadfully convoluted experience, mostly due to the fact that these newer Hotmail accounts are acutally two accounts in one: one is associated with a Windows Live Hotmail account, and the other associated with a Windows Live ID account.
...
Goodbye, Hotmail
Over the years, I have accumulated a large number of free Hotmail accounts. Several of these accounts were created over seven years ago, long before Microsoft made their first major overhaul to the Hotmail service. The overhaul happened quietly around five years ago (if I remember correctly), and directly affected the way in which all future Hotmail accounts operated.
One of the differences...
October 2008
13 posts
Transparent Division Recipe
I am getting so old that I need to make recipes of my design stunts so I don’t have to relearn them from scratch every time. Sad, but so are a lot of things..
In any case, here is the basic procedure for creating the transparent panels used in my current (Quintessential) design:
Open main design template
Verify proper widths via existing images
Create guides according to desired...
Tons of Firewalls
Recently overheard on conservative talk radio (instructing listeners how to obtain a free promotional video from their new website):
“This website has tons and tons of firewalls, so you have to use your real email address to download the video..”
The Quiet Search Revolution
Just a thought.. As awesome as Google is these days, it would suck if they ended up owning the entire search-engine business. When they get to the point where all competition is impossible (due to their sheer size, financial resources, media influence, etc.), how many alternate search engines will have the resources for continuous improvement and top-quality search results? When this happens, we...
Disappearing WordPress Posts
Today I experienced difficulties while trying to publish or even save new posts in WordPress. I would compose the post as usual, add all of the keywords, tags, meta tags, and so on, but as soon as I clicked the “Publish” or “Save” button, the post would just disappear from existence.
The weird thing is that during the drafting process, WordPress’ default auto-save feature showed that the post...
Tumblr Battles
Please excuse the duplicate Tumbr posts.. seems there is no way to ping Tumblr to refresh/rebuild the RSS feed according to changes in post content. So, to resolve the issue I have discussed now like two or three times regarding paragraph elements and proper feed formatting, I have no choice but to repost a majority of my text posts.
This is necessary for the proper import and display of my...
More Optimization Measures
Another important step in improving the performance of my recent redesign involves the optimization of both CSS and JavaScript content. During development there were around 15 server requests for these two types of files, 10 JavaScript files and 5 CSS files. This was okay for my own use, but would not work for production purposes.
Optimizing these file types involves consolidation, compression,...
Redesign Optimization
With image-rich designs, it is important to optimize as much as possible to maintain an enjoyable user experience. During development, the current (Quintessential) design at Perishable Press called over 50 different images, 10 JavaScript files, and around 5 stylesheets. This was fine during development because I was the only person involved with the design. Plus, with a fiber-optic Internet...
Implementing jQuery Sliders
For the new Perishable Press design, I am incorporating CODA-like slider functionality. At first I was wrestling with the Coda Slider Effect over at jQuery for Designers, but was having problems getting consistent horizontal sliding to work within a narrow parent division. Also found it difficult to add multiple sliders with that technique.
Eventually, after about a day of wrangling, I decided...
Redirecting Subdirectory to Root
After much debate and years of wasted link juice, I have decided to redirect my Perishable Press subdirectory to my root directory. That is, the directory perishablepress.com/press/ will now be directed (via 301) to perishablepress.com.
Hopefully this strategy will improve the usability of the site by preventing an essentially duplicate page from confusing visitors. That is, because the site is...
SEO Effect of Random Post Links
When it comes to listing favorite posts, recent posts, and random posts in your sidebar, which is better from a search-engine optimization perspective? Hard-coding a few sets of favorite posts will obviously increase the link equity flowing to those pages, but what about links that change over time, either short-term (random posts) or long-term (recent posts)?
Short-term links may get a...
Tumblr Feed Formatting
Tumblr needs to improve its feed formatting. Lots of problems with paragraph elements on single-paragraph posts. Also seeing issues with paragraph formatting around code elements.
This makes it difficult to stay consistent when importing Tumblr into a site. You either design (markup and CSS) for paragraphs or design for no paragraphs. With both scenarios, producing a clean result is challenging.
The Source of All PageRank
Some philosophical SEO questions.. Where does PageRank originate? How much is there? Who or what determines how much PageRank is supplied to the Internet? Is there a limited supply? Is it inflationary? Will there ever be a PageRank bailout?
It seems to me that the entire concept of PageRank is based upon some arbitrary quantity of page equity that flows around the Internet. For example, if the...
WordPress Source Code Formatting
I get obsessive about source-code formatting. When viewing the source code of my pages, I like everything to nest properly, with the correct number of tabs preceding each line of code. With WordPress, this generally requires some tweaking of the core files.
Specifically, in wp-includes/formatting.php, the function wpautop needs a few extra \t’s before the <p>$1</p> on around the...
September 2008
3 posts
Single Paragraph Tumblr Entries
Looks like single-line or single paragraph Tumblr posts fail to retain paragraph tags in feed format. As a test, I will leave this post as one paragraph and check the results once the feed is updated..
Confirmed. Tumblr either strips or does not apply paragraph tags to single paragraph text posts in feed format. This complicates the presentation of imported Tumblr feed content within web pages..
Testing Imported Tumblr Feed
Looks like SimplePie is working properly..
Time to check the imported feed format.
3 tags
Getting Started with Tumblr
Hello world!