[d] enclosed in brackets chaotic perfectionist for hire

Version 6.3 now, and I like it.

If you haven't noticed the new look, please get something checked. I put a new theme on because the old one wasn't ready for v6. I'm actually working on a new one, and it's coming along quite nicely. For some reason, it's easier when you RTFM. Odd.

In other news, I'm going on vacation as of the end of work today (less than an hour). Definitely necessary, and it'll be nice to be able to sleep past 5:30 again.

I signed up for another service. (wait for shocked looks to fade)

It's lifestream.fm, and so far I like it. This started from mentioning that I was posting to about 10 different places - I actually got one reply, and she mentioned that she used this service. The idea is what I wanted to do here, but a) haven't tried too hard, and b) haven't looked that much into it. For example, the following shows the last seven updates for my lifestream page - and there are definitely some duplicates from using ping.fm, but that's ok:

I like that I can see what I've been doing in all those places I post various types of content to (and hope I'm not spamming by doing so). Sure, it's not a really new idea, but it works and it's usable. What else are people using, and how do you keep track of what's going on?

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it's been since I posted... anything.

I've been around though, don't worry. Of course, I only have a half-dozen readers, so I'm not too worried - I talk to most of them on a regular basis. Here's what I've been working on lately:

Ubuntu
I have a desktop and laptop running Xubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04), and another desktop running Ubuntu Hardy Heron Server. The more I use Ubuntu, the more I like it. It just seems like there's a lot more that I can do with less work... compared to Windows. This isn't going to turn into a review, but check it out - you can run it as a Live CD (no install needed), or even install it like a program in Windows.

del.icio.us
If you check out my del.icio.us page, you can see what I've been bookmarking. I've added something at the end of this post to show the last fivepages I've bookmarked.

dropcase.com
It's time for another upgrade, and I'm making the move into version 6.2 of Drupal. I'm a little lacking in the updates category, but nothing serious... it's more a matter of getting more functionality and usability in place. I also want to do a total redesign, but I'm not sure where to start.

aStore
So I decided to play around with Amazon's aStore, just to see how it works. Don't worry, I'm not trying to push anything (although I won't stop anyone from getting something either), I just want to know what people think of it in general. Does anyone else use affiliate links for Amazon? I'm still not sure how I feel about them.

Knitting
Yes, knitting. There are two projects to start on: first, I'm getting ready to embark on the road to socks. I've been reading up on them and trying to find a pattern, and I think I'm going to go toe-up this time, so I can get a feel for how much yarn I need. Project #2 is a muffler for my wife. She got me some really nice yarn for it, and I want to make sure to do it justice...

Everything Else
Yes, very vague, but true... and if you'd like to know, feel free to ask. Between work and home with two kids and three cats (and my wonderful wife, of course), I wonder how I have time to get anything started, much less completed...

The ideas that I write about seem to come in waves. It's not like I have something to post every day, but sometimes there will be several things I want to write about in a whosrt period of time, then nothing for a while - just look at my posting dates to get an idea of this.

While writing last week, I thought it would be good if Drupal had the ability to write something up and save it as a draft (saved, but not published). It was brought to my attention again while writing my this post when Firefox (3b3) crashed and I lost what I had written. Blech. There have been discussions on the Drupal site for a while, but nothing that was "in place" for it. Then I found this site, which suggested I use the Views module (which I have and am still learning about). Why didn't I think of that earlier?

The Views module allows you to create different content pages (among other options) with a defined set of nodes on it. In the case of creating Drafts, I set it up to show any nodes (postings) that aren't marked as Published. Now, instead of worrying that I'm not going to be able to recover in case of a Firefox crash (or anything else), I can save an unpublished version of what I'm working on and finish it later. It also works as a kind of "Save as..." in the meantime.

Sure, other CMSs out there already do that, but we'll get there.

I definitely can't say it better than they did, so from drupal.org:

Downloaded and updated on my localhost. It's nice, although I haven't had a chance to play with it much so far. The update process was really smooth, with no errors throughout. We'll see what happens when I try it on this site. Time for the checklist, starting with a full backup (just in case).

How long to wait though... that's my next decision. I think I just need to have a chance to make sure I have modules and themes ready to go when I make the jump. 

Whether you're starting fresh or upgrading, start here for information and download links.

In working on a couple of web design projects, I've needed to test out what the site looks like on various browsers, on different operating systems, all with different versions. Designers would have a much easier time if browsers worked more like TVs - you don't see a different looking show on a Sony than a Panasonic TV.

Unfortunately, some of the older browsers *cough-IE-cough* were really bad about rendering pages, and people coded for them because they were the most popular. In these cases it's old and outdated code that looks bad on modern browsers, but is in there to help the people who haven't upgraded since Windows 95 and IE3. blech.

Fortunately, there are ways to test these designs out, even if you aren't on Windows, or a Mac, or Linux. On the last project I did, The design looked great on Firefox, IE7, Opera, and Seamonkey. What I didn't know at the time was that it looked atrocious on IE6. I'm working on a new site for someone (more details soon), and finally got the theme together. He went to look at it while he was home and it came out... wrong. Again, I didn't know what it looked like, and couldn't fix it as is.

When it happened the first time, I half-looked for a way to check browser compatibility. At the time, I didn't find something to use, and stopped looking once I had fixed the issue. This time, I needed something... and I (re)found Browsershots.org. Yes, they've (he's?) been around for a while, and many people use them, but I hadn't realized how useful it is.

Now I know that the pngfix for IE 5.5-6 is what's breaking it in those two browsers, and I can work on fixing them. I'll post some screen shots soon, but in the meantime, go visit the site and check it out.

...for a little while, anyway.

The move to 4.7 went on with no problem, especially since there weren't a lot of changes between that and 4.6 (which is what I started with). The change to 5.x scares me a little. It's not that I think it will be bad by any means, I'm just not sure where to start in making sure that all of my themes and modules are ready.

I've already started looking at my theme (which is more or less the least of the problems I might run into). I just hope all my modules work when all is said and done. This is going to be a big change, and it might as well be done now.

Yes, the one bonus of almost no readers...

i seem to be a little behind.

Since I set up Drupal on this site, I've been running 4.6.x - which is now more than a little out of date. Hmm... maybe I should do this post after, in case there's some crazy exploit that I have wide open.

The plan:

• Upgrade to 4.7.7 [done, and went well], then
• Upgrade to 5.2, then
• Hope that everything is working correctly.

Has anyone else done a Drupal upgrade, especially recently?

If you see (or saw) the maintenance page for a little while, that would be the reason... One of the minor benefits of having a low-traffic site is that I don't have to worry about too much of an interruption if I upgrade during "normal" hours.

besides content.

Really, what is it that I need? Is it pictures, videos, links?
It's more of a rhetorical question, but as I'm finding more places to put content, I realize that I don't have that much to say... or I'm trying too hard to find something to write.
On that vein... I'm on:
Tumblr through here; and
Twitter through here
They're both good for posting little bits of content, and maybe that's better for me to do with the time I've had lately. It's busy at work, it's busy at home, but I want to write...

not to switch to... probably.

I was looking through one of my email lists when the often-asked question, "What CMS should I use?" was posted. As usual, WordPress, TextPattern, Drupal, and a couple of others were mentioned, and for good reason - they work, they're well supported, and popular.

Then another came up, called MODx. I checked it out, and I liked what I saw. It's PHP/MySQL based, and it's been pretty solid so far. The management console needs a little work, but that's something that the devs are working on (from what I've read). The management area allows for a lot of changes, including navigating your site's files. Although limited in some ways, it's easier to make changes "on-the-fly" and see the results. There's also the ability to use chunks of raw HTML and snippets of PHP code to add into templates and posted content.

If you want to see an example of it, they have plenty listed on their site, and I've put a site together [almost] from scratch using it: All Things Outdoor.

Has anyone else used this CMS? I'd like to know...