Wodpress 2.5 Update
Posted by admin | Filed under Uncategorized
Last night I had updated to the latest version of Wordpress - Wordpress 2.5.
Over the last month or so, there has been lots of talk and buzz about the new look and feel of the 2.5 version. Finally, the version has made it out of beta and is officially available for download/upgrade. After installing and testing for myself, I must say I like the upgrade. It will take me a little while to get used to the placement of things, but overall - I like. After playing around in the interface I noticed that everything seems to be more organized and in place. Of course, it also looks much prettier than before. I love pretty things and so, I am totally in love with this new admin interface. I think it might just make me blog a lot more since it is more pleasing to the eye.
A pleasant and attractive interface helps make the blogging experience a true experience. The new interface is much cleaner, faster (once you get used to it) and as I mentioned, everything seems to have a place. The organization of the dashboard makes more sense and after a day of getting used to the layout, I think it promotes a faster work flow.
The most important page has undergone the most drastic change. Some of the changes I’m really loving, while others I’m still warming up to. The removal of “Save and Continue Editing” button was a bit unexpected, however; condensing it to one “Save” button makes more sense. It’s less confusing once you understand how it works. I like the idea of moving the buttons over to the sidebar as well. It seems to make more sense, especially since the design of the window flows with the rest of the windows on the page. The addition of tags was great, however; when I first looked at the page I did not like the tags and categories below the post window. I missed having the categories in the sidebar. After writing a post and experimenting with the interface, it just fits for them to be below the post window.
Another thing in the post view - Visual Editor - that seemed a bit buggy was the way the “insert hyperlink” option works. In this new version, the “http://” is no longer selected by default and as a result, just a simple paste will not do - as you will end up with double “http://” and a broken link. That is the one thing I am quite dissatisfied with; however, the much more soothing interface makes up for it.
From a design perspective, I think it all fits together quite well. Everything seems to have a purpose, whether you use it or not, it fits into the interface. Overall, I think the upgrade is a positive one, and definitely makes writing a post more pleasant. To read in further detail all about the changes visit wordpress.org.
If you haven’t upgraded yet, drop everything you’re doing and upgrade right now! I promise, it looks damn pretty and you will be quite pleased.
∂ meow
Update:
Well, I know I was all in LOVE with the new WP 2.5 just a week ago; however, I must say I have come across the most annoying bug in this new wonderful version. So let me share a bit of my frustration with you as this TOTALLY alters my blogging experience to a less favorable one.
When writing a post, I like to have my focus point (text cursor) at about 50% mark of my screen. This way I am not looking down, but can look straight ahead as I type - well, as close to straight as it gets. With this new version of WP, that is not possible, as every time I hit enter to start a new paragraph, the screen jumps to the title of the post and my focus point drops to the very bottom of the screen. This only happens when the post is longer than the post window.
It might not seem like a huge deal, but to me it is! It totally causes me to loose my train of thought and forces me to scroll down and re-adjust to bring my point of focus back to at least half way up the screen. They should have that fixed - asap.
Tags: wodpress upgrade, wodress 2.5
NYC Pillow Fight
Posted by admin | Filed under Fun, NYC Events
Just last Saturday - March 22, 2008 - New York City experienced it’s Third Annual Pillow Fight.
A pillow fight as defined by wiki is a common game mostly played by young children (but can also occur with teens and adults) in which they engage in mock physical conflict utilizing pillows as weapons.
Hundreds if not thousands of people assembled right in the middle of Union Square for a fun filled, afternoon pillow fight. Feathers, plush bunnies and empty pillow cases flew through the sky as hundreds of people engaged in crazy fun. Laughter and squealing filled the Square and I could not believe how much everyone was enjoying themselves. But I mean, why wouldn’t they? How often do you get the opportunity to slam hundreds of random people with your pillows all while having good old fun and possibly even making some friends in the process! Several people really got into it and dressed up in random costumes such as a gorilla, Santa, and many more.
It was quite amazing and very thrilling to be a part of such and adrenalin pumping event. I tried to take pictures to document the event, however; I didn’t get too many photos as I was much preoccupied laughing and observing everyone around me. I even got the chance to taste a couple feathers while laughing, as I accidentally swallowed them. Lesson learned here is not to laugh with your mouth open while in the midst of flying feathers. You can view the few photos I took on my Flickr page.
Mind you, it wasn’t just any ordinary pillow fight. It was a World Pillow Fight Day! Several cities around the world joined in on the pillow fight - all in unison, which is quite amazing! The founders of the event definitely get a “high-five” on the success of it this year. If there’s another one planned for next year, I’ll be sure to join in again.
∂ meow
Tags: pillow fight nyc
Google Search Tricks and Hacks
Posted by admin | Filed under Code
Google - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
There are many reasons to LOVE Google - mainly for the services it provides. I do not know what I would do without it. Like an addiction, I spend countless hours on Google searching, exploring and further educating myself.
As most of you might already know, there are tons of great ways that Google allows us to target and narrow our search in order to find what we are looking for much faster. In other words - making our search queries efficient. After all, time is money! If not money, then a precious resource that is continually exhausted. If looked upon as a resource, it becomes incredibly valuable, as time cannot be bought, grown, manufactured or turned back. Thanks Google for making every minute worthwhile!
With time being very valuable, I looked for ways to speed up my searching and found several really handy dandy hacks and tips for Google. Most of these are quite common and used daily by Google lovers. However, for those that might not be familiar with this feature of Google, I would love to share a few of the basic search hacks I use on a daily basis.
“Drowning in information and starving for knowledge.”
One may find a simple Google search to be quite overwhelming. When looking for something specific it is really time consuming filtering through all the information, aka - search results. The most common way to narrow our search is through the use of quotation marks (”"). When put around a phrase, quotation marks restrict the search to include all of the words in the phrase and thus giving us more precise results.
Example:
“phrase goes here”
In times where I am looking for a specific file such as a PDF, DOC, PPT or any other type, I do a simple search using filetype: just before or after the name of the file.
Example:
filetype:pdf einstein
einstein filetype:doc
Below is another nifty trick I use daily to search specific sites for information. Just a simple site:domain limits the results to just that particular site. This can also be used to just search a particular domain, such as .gov sites for forms or .edu sites for information, DOC or PDF files for research. This can be combined with the filetype: tip above to further narrow your search results.
Example:
site:digg.com leonardo da vinci
site:edu filetype:pdf leonardo da vinci
Combining several of these and other hacks/tips you can really limit and pin-point your search dramatically. PCMag had a great video explaining an intitle technique. There are many other more advanced techniques and different combinations, so please do experiment and find ones that work for you.
As for the intitle technique discussed - it consists of using the intitle: hack, which as you can tell by the name, searches the titles of pages to match your criteria. The index.of allows us to search just the index/directory of the websites, which is really efficient. The dot (.) between the index and of represents any character such as comma, colon, a space, etc. It is sort of like a wild card taking on the shape and characteristics of that text character. The type of file is what follows afterward inside of quotation marks. To separate different file types, you can use a vertical bar (|). The next set of quotation marks in this example is the title of the file. In the example below, I used the dot (.) to take the place of a space between the words. It is not necessary, but I like to use it. After that, you list the page extensions you would like to search, such as htm, html, php, etc.
Example:
intitle:index.of + “mp3″ + “the.way.we.were” -htm -html -php
intitle:”index.of” + “mp3|aif” + “the.way.we.were” -htm -html
“The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”
Of course there’s tons of other hacks that are just as helpful and I really encourage you to try them all. Take a look through the Advanced Search Operators of Google Help Center to find other shortcuts that work for you. I recommend flipping though O’Reilly’s Google Hacks
Hope you’ve enjoyed this post and possibly even found it helpful. Happy searching!
∂ meow
Tags: google hacks
