Web-Design

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New Look: Unfolding Neurons 3.0

Time for a change around here.  A change that’s actually been in the works for quite a while.  I started working on a new theme for Unfolding Neurons at the beginning of 2008 but got sidetracked by changes in my life and never could get back to working on the theme I was developing (realized I didn’t like it anyway).  Part of the prep for the new look involved restructuring my blog and doing a major decompress of all my categories.  I eliminated over 40 categories I was using and decided I would use categories for the major themes in my blog and tags for all the other ways of describing what I write.

When I saw what was coming through the pipes with WordPress 2.7 I decided that rather than developing a theme from scratch, I’d take a look at what other good themes are out there and modify one to suit my needs.  That’s when I came across the excellent “Hybrid” theme framework by Justin Tadlock which he developed with WordPress 2.7 in mind.  What I like about Hybrid is that it is a framework that you can build child themes off of and if Justin updates Hybrid I can switch in the update without having to worry about the custom changes I’ve made for my site.  Unfolding Neurons 3.0 is actually built off of a child theme for Hybrid that Justin created called “Old School“.

Launch of vohzimbabwe.com

Launch of vohzimbabwe.com

This entry is part 27 of 27 in the series Zimbabwe 2007 Project

vohzimbabwe.com screenshotAs part of the team of men who went to Zimbabwe in June - I was amazed by the work being done to make a difference in the country of Zimbabwe by the Village of Hope and their work with children. One of the things that I discovered in working with them is that they don’t have a website to promote what they are doing and provide an information/communication portal for their current and potential supporters. I decided to donate my services to design and host the website because I believe so strongly in the work the Village of Hope is doing.

So without further ado, I’m announcing the launch of the brand new website for the Village of Hope in Zimbabwe (vohzimbabwe.com).

Coincidently, that is why there’s been some inactivity on this blog lately (and also why development of the Organize Series Plugin has been stalled)…

When Surface Acquaintaince Becomes Practical Knowledge

In my pursuit to become more literate in the web-development world I recently made a few purchases of technology books that I hope will accelerate my understanding of things like Ajax, DOM, Json, JavaScript, Java…etc. I know that there is a wealth of material available for free on the internets but there’s just something about a good book that makes learning so much easier. Key word there is good!

A good book I’ve just finished reading (and written a review on) is “Head Rush Ajax“by Brett McLaughlin. Thanks to the freaky layout and writing style (it’s definitely not your typical technical resource!) this was a book that I quickly worked through and at least now I have a firmer grasp of concepts that were just acquaintances before.

For instance, I now know:

  • AJAX - isn’t a new language. It is simply a “method” of coding (using existing languages - JavaScript primarily) to enable visitors of a web-page interact with a page without having to reload it. Of course, I already knew of AJAXian goodness from using all the various web-apps that apply it - but it’s neat to know that it’s really not that hard to work with - it certainly isn’t as intimidating as I thought it would be.

Organize Series 1.6.2 release - minor bug fix

Right on the heels of 1.6.1, one day later, I’m releasing another version of the Organize Series WordPress Plugin.? Again, it’s a minor bug fix - ordinarily some of this stuff I’d leave until I can add more features etc.? - but since my life is pretty busy lately I’ve decided to release any fixes as I do them so that it can benefit those using this plugin.? I never know how long it will be before I can work on it again.

Anyway, enough with that dribble…you can download the files on the page here.

Minor Update to Organize Series WordPress Plugin

I just finished version 1.6.1 of the plugin.? There’s nothing big in this version - just a minor bug fix and some added files to make it compatible with the new WordPress plugins page.? I want to thank Jim for his communication with me that alerted me to a potential problem with my plugin resulting in this bug fix.

You can find out more and download the Organize Series WordPress Plugin on this page.

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