Rule of Thumb: Three or More for Categories
Realizing I probably had too many categories for my posts, well over a hundred, I decided it was time to trim the number down a bit. But what would be the criteria? Certainly dropping-off the single post references made sense. How does one then quantify what constitutes enough for a category? I’ve landed on the […]
Checklist for Setting Up a WordPress Website
ul.checklist
{
list-style-image: url(/wp-content/uploads/Image/checkmark.png);
}
Setting up WordPress websites has become a regular part of my work. Much more than just for blogs, the platform is ideal for rapidly launching sites. In fact, nine out of ten WP sites I launch are non-blogging sites. I thought for my sake and for others who are looking for a checklist for […]
Google Analytics Report Generating
I’ve been called "Master of the Obvious" more than once in my life. In my drive to economize time at work I did a little research on the best way to automate reporting from Google Analytics. I found a way to loose myself of the woeful process of exporting data from Google Analytics and compiling […]
Six Steps to Super-Charge Photoshop Selection with Quick Mask
While Photoshop is absolutely packed with bells and whistles, there are a few key tools to unlocking its full potential. The Quick Mask feature in Photoshop is one of them. Quick Mask is essentially a selection tool on steroids. It allows one to select down to the pixel a given area of a photo. While […]
Evolution of a Website
In an ideal world there would never be any do-overs. One thing I’ve learned from being a web developer in a corporation is that this is no ideal world. When the scope of a project or marketing campaign changes so must the web.
TechTourSite.com was originally a very small microsite of just a few pages with […]
Putting a Project to Bed
Going live with a website is always a fun process. This past weekend we launched a site I’ve been working on for a good bit. As I’ve referenced in a recent post, it was built upon WordPress. The site is onedayacademy.com, a school for homeschoolers in Austin, Texas. Some of the nice features of the […]
How Well Does WordPress Measure Up?
After nearing completion on a mid-size WordPress site, it seems an appropriate time to ask some questions about the scalability of WordPress. How far can you push the puppy before it yelps. This post is a follow-up to the previous posts:
WordPress, Much More than Blogging Software
Powerful WordPress Include Hacks
The site, which will be launched in […]
Funny Ad: Don’t GIVE UP ON VISTA
I thought this was one of the most humorous and compelling ads I’ve seen in quite a while. I ran across it on CNN.com. Mr. Mac asks Mr. Windows what’s up with the sign to which Mr. Windows answers he is trying to fix the bad press Vista has been receiving. He then begins to […]
Powerful WordPress Include Hacks
Customizing WordPress to function as a full-blown Content Managed System is really not that difficult. If one takes a little time and does some research you can extend it in some pretty nifty directions.
One simple and powerful function is to use an if statement to test a condition for a specific page and then include […]
WordPress, Much More than Blogging Software
More and more in real world development projects I’m finding WordPress to be a robust Content Management System that is very configurable for developing small to mid-size websites. The functionality and extensibility of WordPress is ever increasing for rolling your own CMS.
In addition to my continued development of ets-lindgren.com, the main website for ETS-Lindgren, I’ve […]
Spam Slime Leaches Everywhere
There is a pandemic plague afflicting business and home users of technology that is growing exponentially by the day. Spam is a resource parasite that is leaching into every crevice of our communication systems. The economic impact of spam continues to be a fundamental driver for more innovative and rapid change on the IT horizon.
Spammers […]
10 Reasons to Use List-Item Tags
We love lists and if you can compact information into a set of 10, then you’ve found the holy grail of blog post formats. Searching Google with the phrase "10 reasons" turned up 190,000,000 results.
There is something tight about a list of 10. It’s long enough to convey a good amount of information but […]
Make Images Look Right with Attributes
When uploading an image to your blog, it’s important to include some essential attributes. Using a WYSIWYG editor like FCKEditor for WordPress gives you preset elements. The screen shot above is a typical example of some of the more common attributes that you should employ.
URL is the location online where the graphic will be posted. […]
How Secure is Your Domain Name?
A friend of mine called me yesterday to report that his domain was hijacked. He has one of those priceless domains with three letters. The schister got into his Yahoo store account, transferred it to GoDaddy and then put it up for sale. The domain was purchased, but fortunately before the transaction went through, a […]
Snag Color and Dimensions from Any Web Page
There are two really slick FireFox add-ons guaranteed to save you time with site layout and configuration.
Colorzilla - Just click-on the eye-dropper and hover over any area of a web page to get the read-out of its color in either RGB or Hex color. This is most excellent for quick reference for your own site […]
Handy WordPress Hacks
With a few tweaks in WordPress you can unlock the constraints of the categories and extend them in virtually any direction you want to go. Additionally you can structure your site to have short user-friendly URLs.
Create category based sections. By editing the tabs in your main navigation you can create tabs that index specific […]
Font Treatment - CSS Video Tutorial #3
Today’s post features the third Cascading Style Sheet(CSS) Video Tutorial on font usage. The video is just over 4 minutes in length.
One important aspect of web publishing is effectively applying font treatments to make text more readable. With a few adjustments to fonts, the readership of a site will find it easier to assimilate the […]
Horizontal Tabs - CSS Video Tutorial #2
Today’s post features the second Cascading Style Sheet(CSS) Video Tutorial on creating horizontal tabs such as are used for the top navigation of this website. The video is 4 minutes in length.
What is most excellent about CSS is how a few lines of code in the styles greatly alters the visual structure of a page […]
What’s Up With This Creative Commons Stuff?
If you author a blog or create artistic work, you need to be aware of licensing issues. There are two sides to this coin:
Make sure your material is protected from plagerism.
Ensure that you are staying within the bounds of the law when referencing or using other people material.
Far too often I see license infringements on […]
The Body Tag - CSS Video Tutorial #1
Today’s post features the first in a series of Cascading Style Sheet(CSS) videos covering some attributes of the body tag. The purpose of these videos will be to highlight basic CSS concepts that will assist bloggers in manipulating their sites. These tutorials will be rapid fire in that I will cover information with the reader […]
My Blog Code of Ethics
Debate over ethics in the corridors of human history has covered every topic from the value of human life to the means of doing business. By its very nature, ethical statements can be both corporate and individual expressions. In order to encourage ethical practice, discussion and expression for bloggers, I have posted the "My Blog […]
Jing Makes Desktop Screen and Video a Snap
I have recently started using a new desktop screen and video capture program called Jing. Overall I have been impressed with this utility and it shows a promising future as a utility for web publishing, teaching, tech support and other uses involving screen image and video desktop captures.
Just this week I used Jing to capture […]
ScribeFire: Hot Blog Editing Plug-in for FireFox
ScribeFire is a very well designed FireFox plug-in that enables a blogger to write posts right in their browser.
The features that I enjoy most about ScribeFire include:
Launch the editor right in the browser with an icon that rests at the bottom of the browser window.
Continue viewing a webpage while you write in the bottom-half […]
FireFTP Add-on for FireFox is Divine
Finally, I found a quick and convenient way to launch an FTP session in my browser. FireFTP add-on for Firefox now ranks as my top Plug-in. The program launches quickly within FireFox, is convenient to use because I already have Firefox open and was a snap to setup. The interace worked very similar to FileZilla […]
10 Ways to Drive Away Traffic from Your Site
Have too much traffic to your site? Want to shew-off a good portion of potential readers? Well, it’s actually quite easy. Just follow these tips and you will alienate many people from frequenting your site, myself included. Here we go, just do the following:
Include pop-up windows. Even one will do the trick. Have it activate […]
Firebug Firefox Add-on Top Developer Tool
A developer friend of mine turned me on to the Firefox Add-on Firebug. This tool, not only is invaluable for troubleshooting code for developers, it proved invaluable for revising thoughtsparks.net. This nifty plug-in allows one to walk through the code and stylesheet on the fly while looking at a page. In the sea of WordPress […]
Simple and Effective SEO Tool
There are a plethora of search optimization tools available online. While one could do endless analysis and obsess over the Google PageRank for a domain, the real touchstone is folks finding your topic in a search for related information. Search optimization is a learned skill that comes in developing quality content and positioning it with […]
Reduce Load Time for Your Blog
Load time for a blog is a really big deal. How well you economize your page will in part determine the amount of traffic to your site. Even though many users are on broadband, there is still a good percent of traffic coming from slow connections due to existing dial-up, wireless and international traffic.
There are […]
Towards a More Accessible Blog
Whether you read this blog in Italian with the title "Scintille di pensiero", German with "Gedanke Funken", Spanish with "Chispas del pensamiento, or any of the other non-english versions of this site, you are welcome.
I’m always interested in learning how to reach the very broadest audience. And when I say broad, I mean language, […]
Quick Tips for Finding Stuff Online
As a web developer I spend an inordinate amount of time each day in research and discovery of answers to specific issues. This daily process has helped refine my search habits to provide quick and comprehensive results. Here are some handy tips to find stuff online:
Open a new instance of FireFox each time you search […]
Websites are for People not Engines
Volumes are written about Search Engine Optimization and how to improve your PageRank. In truth, SEO is a means to an end, getting people to read your site. I thought it worth giving some simple steps to improve PageRanking.
Anyone new to optimization can begin to feel that there is a great chasm of understanding to […]
Search Engine Optimization Do’s and Don’ts
I’ve been in web development, design and publishing since the mid 1990’s. I think I’ve seen just about every optimization trick in the book. There are many nuances to search engine optimization but if you follow some overarching guidelines, I promise you will grow healthy exposure to your site.
This past month I’ve seen thoughtsparks.net […]
Blogging on Purpose
Living life on purpose is something I strive towards. I enjoy looking at cause and effect, the end results. Writing to a blog is a process that is done with definite goals in mind. I wrote about the Top 20 Reasons I Blog back in March. In reviewing those reasons, by-and-large they are still the […]
Ten Reasons I’ll Read Your Blog
Your blog is written with a professional and creative tone. Becoming an excellent communicator takes time. No matter where you are starting from, you can improve and develop your voice. I am pleasantly surprised by my twelve year-old’s blog Gloriana’s Book Blog. Call me biased, but for her age I find her short posts entertaining […]
Ever Own a Word in Google?
Kind of a quirky thought, but in Googling the word thoughtsparks 639 of the 640 results directly relate back to my site or postings in one form or fashion. The first page and a half of Google returns on my name Phil Stolle are mine as well. Then they are interspered with the other Phil […]
WordPress Plug-in Tips
WordPress, largely due to its huge user base has become a fairly robust blog app. Even for some sites it works well as a limited Content Managed System. As of late there has been an increased proliferation of Plug-ins that make it easy, even for the newbies to web publishing to custom configure their site. […]
Meebo is for Me
Meebo.com enables users to setup an account that aggregates all of the popular IM services into one location. Services include: MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, GoogleTalk, and Jabber.
This site is convenient for several reasons:
It is more efficient CPU and bandwidth utilization which is important for power users.
It eliminates the need to install another program on your […]
What Color is Your Website?
If you are new to blogging or website design, color usage on a website can seem a little cryptic at first. This post delves into the very essence of how color works on the web. There are many, many sites with color selectors that discuss the finer points of color and web usage. The […]
RU Twitterpatted?
I just started Twittering yesterday. Notice the twitter update on my blog. It’s too early to tell what I think, but it is kind of a hoot. Twittering is talking lightly of trivial matters. Yes, that may be, but aren’t many of our thoughts quite trivial? If in the end life is made of trivial […]
Make Visited Links Disappear
I just thought of a really nifty method to make visited links disappear. This may be handy for a check list to drop-off links as they are clicked. It may also be used to keep content fresh for folks if you combined it w/ a javascript.
Two Simple Step Process:
Add the following style to your CSS:
[…]
Site Reference Helps Add Value
If you publish a website or a blog, you are an expert in what you know. Or if you don’t consider yourself an expert, most likely you know much more about your topic than many of your readers. With every topic comes a set of vocabulary that the reader must know in order to properly […]
Post to Blog from MSN Messenger with Plug-in
I found a handy widget through imified.com that allows you to post directly to a WordPress blog from MSN Messenger. This was originally posted live from MSN before later being edited. They have widgets for Blogger, Live Journal and other blog applications in addition to apps like Google Calendar. Several things things to keep […]
Open IE Tab within FireFox
If you are like me, you have long preferenced FireFox for a whole host of reasons. Firefox is quicker, more secure, has tabbed function, cool skins and nice plug-ins. IE 7 has tried to catch-up but with tabs and safer browsing but it’s still hurty if you ask me. The Firefox community is on the […]
Create Category as a Page in WordPress
Once you get used to working in WordPress, you’ll find it pretty easy to customize. One nifty way to populate pages that are updated from your blog is to break-out your posts into four our five main categories. Then you can hard-code those pages into your main menu. This will make management of your site […]
How to Get Your Own Domain
If you are even semi-serious about blogging or have been blogging for quite a while, getting your own domain and host is a very solid move. If you run or want to run more than one blog, it’s a no-brainer as the little effort you put in to setting up the initial site will pay […]
How to Redirect Specific Blogger Posts
Since I am in the middle of redirecting traffic from my blogspot site to thoughtsparks.net, I thought I’d pass along a great tip to encourage others to do likewise.
First off, here’s what I don’t recommend: use a meta redirect or javascript redirect from the front page. It will mess with your search ranking as search […]
New Location for Thought Sparks
I finally got around to making the transition from Blogger to thoughtsparks.net. The design will go through some revision soon, but getting moved over was the first major issue. The main thing was the value of transitioning to an independent domain fairly early on in the life of the blog. I’m getting some traction in […]
Home Network Best Practices
My wife often comments, "what do people do who don’t have a techie for a spouse?" For those of you frustrated with computing gotcha’s and don’t have a resident techie, here’s some simple stuff to do to keep your computing environment at home humming along.
Turn your machine off at night or for longer periods when […]
Best FireFox Plug-in Ever
I just discovered Foxytunes. Check out: www.foxytunes.com to download. Foxytunes is a music tool that integrates into Firefox allowing you to control the music player of choice from the browser. It’s highly configurable and as you can see is compatible w/ a good number of players. It also has a slick search function that allows […]
Here Was a Man (For Easter Sunday)
Here was a man a man who was born
in a small village the son of a peasant woman
He grew up in another small village
Until he reached the age of thirty he worked as a carpenter
Then for three years he was a traveling minister
But he never traveled more than two hundred miles
from where he was born
And […]
Number One Blog Flaw: Disabling Back Button
OK, that may sound like an audacious statement to make. But disabling the back button on a website is a major no no. It is Hotel California, "You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave." Cool lyrics to a song, bad concept for web design. I wouldn’t rant about it, […]
Google Now Offers 1GB of Photo Space
ust when you aren’t looking, Google ups the anti again for free web services. They just announced that picasa web now gives users 1GB of space. This is some pretty beefy storage space if you, like me, want to off-load your photos from your overloaded HD at home. Very cool and very flexible. I’ve been […]
Top 20 Reasons I Blog
I’ve read several blogs lately about blog burnout. Wikipedia defines burnout as, "a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest (depersonalisation or cynicism), usually in the work context." Perhaps some folks lose sight of, don’t really know why, get board with or have false expectations for what blogging is about.
I imagine […]
Why Google Apps is so Cool
In one evening I "developed" an intranet system for my household complete with email, calendar, file sharing, chat, customized views of information, widgets and RSS feeds. If you’ve used gmail before, it’s basically the same concept only they are extending it to allow shared info under your own domain. I also have pointed the domain […]
