Themes
Plugins
Quit it and forget it.
I have run into this problem so many times: I’m banging away on my OSX rig doing something important in Fireworks CS3 (yeah, I know…) and I’ve got a dozen things open. The client sent me two Word documents and a PowerPoint for the web copy. Meanwhile I’m uploading some YouTube clips for another client, while at the same time I’ve got Illustrator open with the web assets for the self-hosted WordPress site I’m trying to finish for deadline 10 minutes away.
Quick! Make some changes to the slices for my custom content boxes, tab over to the preview, good. Save. Wha-!?
“Fireworks can not save the document because an internal error has occurred.”
Desperately I tab through all the windows I have open. Holy god…I don’t know what changes were in the last save. I mean, I’m good about saving…usually.
I have to grit my teeth and quit fireworks – it’s hell when each window opines “…there are changes to this document that will be lost if you do not save.” Oh cruel dialog box – taunt me no more.
It ends in heartbreak and missed deadlines.
So when it came up today, of all days, nothing else mattered to me other than outsmarting the demon roosting in my favorite graphics app. This time, I resolved, it would be different.
After doing some searches on different things that cause this issue, I kept seeing things about font issues being at the core of it all. I took a break and ranted to my friends about my terrible luck…When I returned it dawned on me: what if simply disabling my font-manager software would let fireworks save without dealing with any of my active fonts?
With a smirk of doubt still on my face, I right-clicked the SuitcaseFusion icon.
“Quit”
And I waited for the lil’ icon light to dim while tapping my foot impatiently.
Finally it went out, and clicked back over to Fireworks. I tried a fast cmd-s.
Holy cmd-s! It worked!
So I’m posting this in case anyone else out there keeps running into this and wants to try an easy fix. You might be able to save your work, even though the error has already cropped up, by simply quitting your font-management software. For me, closing Suitcase Fusion completely elimintated the problem and my documents could ALL be saved.
Take that Fireworks demon! I won, you lost.
Recently I helped the Wexley School for Girls launch a new look for Taco Del Mar. After their creative was a approved, I was looped in via ThorLoki to help webify the design and to design a plan to bring everyone together for a rapid development turn-around. After some conversation on the nature of web design we achieved a consensus and I produced some lightly modified concepts. A little fine tuning of the design was all that remained, and to execute it across all the internal pages for this company.
I’m looking forward to seeing where this visionary new direction goes. See it live: http://www.tacodelmar.com
The images below are a pixel-accurate view of the spaces web designers consider when they segment designs. We segment them so that the first impression is complete at a glance for our ‘least common denominator’ (the lowest supported resolution) but also takes into account a balanced look on larger screens. Typically, the contemporary trend is to set a fixed-width for the page matching the width of your least common denominator, and all critical content should stay in that width. Horizontal segments then flow down the screen segmented at the termination points of common screen resolutions. Depending on the target market’s technological sophistication these points may be different. In this example, I chose the common practice of supporting 1024 x 768 as the most common low-resolution setting in the general public. I then added some segments for the next common size up, and have the footer still on screen for our 1080p users. However a design can be bottomless.
People are used to scroll bars now. The more content on the home page, and links to news articles, blog posts, promotional pages, features and other highlighted content that we present the better. This gives google and other information centered services lots of hooks to our content and pages. Maximum connectivity of content means maximum web presence and information propagation. This is also an easy format to update and control.
Obviously this is a fake design and not intended as a hard guide for your own work which probably diverges creatively (and in good ways) from a lot of web trends. However usability wise, we should recognize how the amorphous shape of the web browser will re-crop our work constantly, and so we should design from that awareness. I hope this example helps underscore some of what we discussed as we move forward to better alignment of the existing designs and a fun user experience for your customers.
1. How the browser space can change between devices. (Click to Enlarge)
2. How a design can be overlaid on the format-logic of multiple devices.
3. An isolated design shown at maximum supported resolution.
Our friend Alex Williams over at Thermal Exposure has put together this excellent guide on using WordPress. This is a great reference for common WordPress features and the basics of managing your content. If you are wondering what WordPress is like, or can’t remember how to add a PDF file – then this page should be in your bookmarks.
http://www.thermalexposure.com/2011/08/01/wordpress-new-user-tutorial
Urban Earth Gardens is a super-environmentally friendly landscaping company and urban gardening consultancy. This logo was inspired by a backyard tour of the owner’s amazing garden and bee hives. The sun was low, the earth was plowed, and the leaves were back-lighted in the afternoon sun. I wanted to capture this essence in his logo.
The Advertising Coalition was having problems with their old web developer’s schedule creep and asked me if I could rapidly deploy a content managed website for them. We made our production schedule to go from concept to launch within 30 days. Using BaseCamp to keep the project organized, and using assigned milestones to remind each of us of our parts in this project, we were able to produce a fine website that I hope will serve them for years to come as they grow their online presence.
The technology uses a custom WordPress theme that accomodates easy editing of the feature header on the home page, several custom layouts and templates, and lots of power to make the site grow grow grow.
The target audience is made up of media professionals who want to stay in touch with the latest developments in DC regarding advertising and government. The client asked for lots of white space, a media savvy design, with a DC flavor that wasn’t too institutional. I’m really fond of how this turned out and I think they are too.
http://www.theadvertisingcoalition.com/
Wondering where Pair networks keeps bash hidden?
I was frustrated. I had spent the weekend on a bash script for a client hosting with Pair networks and NOTHING was working properly. Their old and moldy MYSQL 5.0 required I come at a certain client-problem from a rather tedious angle that needed bash to parse a lot of lines returned from a MYSQL command-line query in somewhat sophisticated ways. My first problem was that the MYSQL commands wouldn’t run. This is because Pair actually has my MYSQL and database related things going on another machine. So to run a mysql command, I needed to add some info beyond what I needed in my dev setup:
mysql -hYOURDBSERVER.pair.com -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD -e 'SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST;'
The important part here is your server location at the top of the mysql command. Make sure you don’t miss the -h that leads it. Without a space, you might be confused into thinking your server is hdb123.pair.com, but it’s important to note that the -h part is a flag followed by your db123.pair.com as an argument. Another note is to make sure to add a hyphen before the “e” flag on the MYSQL statement. Pair likes it hyphenated…
My next problem was a stubborn refusal from the shell at bin/sh to process arrays. Whenever I tried array-functions in the shell script, I got this error:
declare: not found
Removing the declare got past that, but then when the array was being split up, I got THIS error:
Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")")
Though this worked on my local box, this fails utterly in the pair environment. To work around this, we must make sure to invoke the correct shell: bash.
If you are using the generic /bin/sh path, you might discover things like arrays and executions of mysql from the bash environment aren’t working correctly. Locate the binary by typing:
which bash
Mine was here:
#!/usr/local/bin/bash
Now my shell script is running and my client is protected against a serious error that was killing her app.
I’m happy that the client is enjoying the freedom of her WordPress-driven website. This custom theme was a real pleasure to put together. Featuring a slick web2.0 look that really stands out from the traditionally lagging east-coast design institutions. The Federal Employee’s Law Firm is accessible, readable, and growth-ready.
Need a security clearance? Contact Mahoney Jeffrey, the Federal Employee’s Law Firm.
My first WordPress plug-in is here!
Ah, a new page and I don't have to uncheck those stupid comment boxes again.
This plug-in unchecks the “allow comments” and “allow trackbacks/pingbacks” checkboxes by default for new pages while leaving the default behavior for posts alone.
I get SO tired of unchecking ‘allow comments’ for pages, and I’m SURE that my clients won’t remember to do this when I use WP as a CMS. So I made a plug-in that disables this by default, saving time and energy.
This is sure to make the must-have list for anyone using WordPress as a CMS solution. It’s easy to use, super simple, and a real time-saver!
Enable the plugin to uncheck the discussion checkboxes by default for pages. Disable the plug-in to remove this behavior.
Q. How do I set the preference to turn the default comment status for pages off or on?
A: There’s nothing fancy here. Just enable or disable the plug-in. That’s it.
Page Comments Off Please V1.0.zip
If you are using this plug-in for a commercial project, or if you just find it useful, I’d really appreciate any donations to help keep the open-source mojo flowing! Thanks!