In the article Here’s What Is Limiting Twitter’s Mainstream Potential, Mills Baker makes an intriguing proposal: Twitter’s chronological fire-hose format is limiting its ability to reach a mainstream audience. He says bringing in an algorithm à la Facebook’s automatic timeline curation will bring joy and contentment to all twits worldwide. I respectfully disagree; I’m not up…
You know the movie’s gonna’ be epic when they battle a rampaging dragon in the intro. Thus begins Jackson’s third installment of Tolkien’s “Hobbit” series. The movie picks up with Laketown being attacked by Smaug, gouts of flame spewing everywhere in proper dragonesque fashion. Everyone’s fleeing for their lives, the main guy’s kids are screaming…
As usual, thoughts of Thanksgiving Day brought me to reflect upon all the things I have for which I am truly thankful. Drumroll, please — here’s my list: I’m thankful to God for my very life and everything in it. I’m thankful for salvation through Jesus Christ – God coming to Earth to die for…
I’m back! This journal has languished too long. The last few years have been busy, as usual, but perhaps one reason it took so long to get around to writing again was because I was focused only on Web-related issues. Life isn’t one-dimensional, and so I’m not going to restrict the journal in this way…
Missed the rest of the guide? Check out Part I: Page Editor, Part II: Editor Tabs, and Part III: Admin Tabs. I found these three WordPress plugins to be helpful on a site I built; you might, as well. They’re all free, as of this writing. Slideshow by Stephan Boonstra Add a fancy slideshow to…
Missed the previous posts? Check out Part I: Page Editor and Part II: Editor Tabs. ADMIN TABS Here are the additional sections in the Admin WordPress editor account. Do not edit these settings without being familiar with their workings. They are only being described for a general overview. Appearance These tabs modify settings which generally…
Missed the beginning? Check out Part I: Page Editor. EDITOR TABS These are the available sections for the Editor WordPress account, in addition to the previously-mentioned PAGE EDITOR. Dashboard This page displays an overview of your account. Note that QuickPress and most items under Right Now may be unused if no blog is active. Posts…
This is a tutorial for user-level (not developer-level) editing of a website running the standard WordPress content management system. While the described instance includes separate Admin and Editor accounts, they may be combined depending on your site’s setup. Disclaimer: While this guide is expected to be an accurate description of how the editing system works,…
You may be a tech wanting to learn a new programming skillset, or a relative Web newbie trying to understand your resident Web geek’s mentions of HTML, CSS, and other cryptic acronyms. Either way, Codecademy.com could be a great match for you. Codecademy is a free service that makes learning to code into a game,…
Here’s a sneak peak at the articles I expect to post in coming months: Painless Concrete5 CMS Installation Design 101: Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, Proximity (Robin Williams, The Non-Designer’s Design Book) Google Analytics Basics for Non-Nerds Google Analytics for Dataheads Code-Free Mobile App Creation Paid Web Advertising 101 Photo Optimization for the Web Where’s the Banana?…
We’ve all had troubles with our computers: malware, viruses, slow speeds, spyware, you name it. Here’s a link to a nifty set of free malware removal tools with detailed instructions for each of them. It may take a few hours to run through everything, but this handy resource should clean up your Windows system well,…
Congratulations! You’ve just sold somebody your product online! Now you’ve got marketing gold: Their email address, other contact info, purchase history, and other dirt on ’em. Time to add them to your bulk mailing list and start sending promotions their way, right? Not necessarily. Let’s say you want to give your new customer recommendations on…
When that random businessperson or potential client comes up to you and asks for your advice, where’s the line between helping out a bit and giving away free work? This interesting slideshow helps sort out the difference. It also says what you can do to be tactful and professional without devaluing your hard-earned pearls of…
People are automatically drawn to interesting or beautiful photos, videos, and music. While most text looks largely the same and takes time to digest, multimedia brings instant recognition and appeal to one’s senses. Multimedia is essential to some websites such as those of music artists and film studios, but many others can also benefit. It…
Are you looking for a good way to explain a technical process or visual concept to your visitors? Need a way to show your client how to set up a Web service, do a graphic design technique, or understand a complex diagram? Use a screencast! It’s a video recording of everything you see and do…