Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Website or CMS? WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal?

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In addition to my own blogs and websites, I host and maintain a few websites for friends, family, or organizations that I belong to. I’m thinking about switching some of those websites from conventional hand-coded sites to CMS.

I’ve played with test installations of both Joomla and Drupal on my own server. I found Joomla slightly easier to wrap my mind around. Joomla has a wider variety of free and paid themes available; Drupal is more secure. The sites I want to switch are quite simple so both Joomla and Drupal seem like overkill. They may be a good choice for the sites that belong to organizations since it would be easy to integrate a members-only area, discussion forum, or other interactive features down the road.

My first self-hosted blog used Movable Type and of course you know my current blog uses WordPress. In the past, I never really considered using blogging software as a base for a website, but some of the WordPress frameworks have made me think I should reconsider. Tonight I took a little time to read up on StudioPress’s Genesis theme framework and Crowd Favorite’s Carrington framework. My brain hurts. I’ll let you soon know what I end up doing!

(NaBloPoMo | August ’10: 6 of 31)

Weekend procrastination with a very small side of accomplishment

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Weekends are made for procrastination. Or maybe that is just me. I’m definitely pushing a few things off until tomorrow that I had hoped to complete today, including two website updates (one very minor with a few additions to an event listing page, and one a little more involved with a number of photos to resize and crop) and getting some movies and photos transferred to DVDs and CDs.

The dogs didn’t get as much training as they should have today. It was a nice day and we should have taken advantage of the lack of rain, which I think is supposed to be back tomorrow. Axel should also try harder not to injure me. Very minor, mostly my stupidity and my fault, but still, ouch.

I spent some time tonight making some rally obedience practice mini-courses that will fit in the back yard and work for both AKC and UKC. Through the rally obedience Yahoo! Group that I joined recently, I found an extremely cool freeware course designer written in Microsoft Excel. It requires Excel 2002 or later. It is working fine so far on my setup with Microsoft Excel 2007 and Windows Vista Home Premium.

If the rain holds off, or avoids my sector entirely, those practice courses will be what’s on tap for tomorrow!

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 2 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 190 of 274)

Free Flash and graphics that I do like

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I know I have ranted in the past about free Flash website introductions and the so-called webmasters who think these non-unique creations are making their websites better. That does not mean I am against all free stuff, though.

If you can customize it enough to make it your own without violating someone else’s intellectual property rights, I’m fine with it. If you are trying to get started learning by analyzing someone else’s work, I’m fine with it if they are.

FlashDen, along with the other Envato Marketplace sites, is now offering a free file of the month. July’s file is a nice photo gallery with quite a few customization options. I am a fan of FlashDen in general. As someone who is very weak in Flash but who needs to use it for projects now and then, I really appreciate having a good source of affordable and customizable Flash files like FlashDen. Not every file is a master work, but the buyer ratings and comments help in selecting something that is worth the price.

I also try to remember to log in to iStockPhoto weekly to grab the Free Image of the Week. It’s not always something I can use right away, or maybe ever, but I’ve definitely grabbed a few images that fit into themes that will come up in time. Again, I am a fan of the site for its reasonably priced royalty-free stock photography. I am not a great photographer, so when I can’t provide my own photo illustration for a project, it’s good to have an affordable source with quality images to choose from.

Some free stuff is definitely worth a lot more than the asking price!

Quick Rottweiler update: Freya is now in the stopped-up phase of her current IBS digestive upset episode. I always worry about a blockage at this point, even if she seems like she is feeling better. She is usually back to normal about 24 hours after the stopped-up phase so hopefully I can stop worrying tomorrow evening. Axel has some tummy troubles of his own today, but probably related to either grazing (most all of our dogs have been like black and tan cows and I wish I knew what kind of grass might taste bad to Rottweilers) or heat. Since we have had almost no actual warmth this summer, the heat seems to be affecting both dogs a little quicker than usual.

Quick jagoff update: Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but a few jagoffs still have firecrackers left over from last weekend. Guess where I would like to shove those firecrackers (hint: like Butt Rocket, only with higher-powered explosives).

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 11 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 168 of 274)

So tell me, web sorta-designer person…

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Why exactly do you use a free Flash intro on your website?

Maybe you think that I shouldn’t be asking this, since I’ve already admitted in earlier blog posts that I am a crappy web designer despite being responsible for the care and feeding of a few websites, and that Flash has kicked my ass hard on quite a few occasions.

I still want to hear your answer, though, Mr. or Ms. Web Sorta-Wanna-Be-A-Designer Person. I want to know why you think it is good to have some other company’s or designer’s name plastered all over the first thing that viewers to your site will see. Unless you took it off, which makes you the big giant scumbag in most cases when it comes to “free” stuff.

What exactly does a free Flash intro add to your website? The customization options on almost all of them are very minimal. Dozens of other people are using the same one, because it is free. How does it make you unique? No one thinks you did it yourself, either. Plus some of us are simply annoyed by it. I really want to know how it adds value to your website.

I actually like good Flash navigation, movies, games and occasionally even gratuitous eye candy, when it’s original and executed well. Emphasis on “good” and “original.” But I truly am clueless about the free and unoriginal stuff that’s just slapped on for no good reason I can see.

(NaBloPoMo | May ‘09: 28 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 124 of 274)

Again, the kennel website (25 of 31/60 of 274)

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I know this is a recurring theme, and it really shouldn’t be. I shouldn’t be so “stuck” on this, yet here I am, still with a digital stack of comps and photos and not much else. Yes, sad to say, I still don’t have a kennel website.

I guess it’s good then that I also have no breeding plans (not that I would ever breed a dog whose health checks aren’t yet complete, but not all of you know me well enough to take that for granted), because I’d have no place to promote them.

By the way, this is also my proof that having all the whiz-bang digital tools you could ever want at your disposal means nothing if you can’t or don’t use them to best advantage. I upgraded very recently to Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium so I really have no excuse for slacking, do I (well, except for having to learn to use it but as a Photoshop user since v3 and a DreamWeaver user since Studio 8, I guess it won’t be too convincing)? This also reminds me that I haven’t yet talked about that upgrade here, and I’m sure at least a few of you are interested in how I’m liking it. Not to mention that I still need the opportunity to vent about the circumstances that caused me to upgrade this month, rather than at a more financially feasible moment.

Axel wants to be like all the other show dogs and show dog wanna-bes, and have his own page full of brags and plans. All right, fine, Axel doesn’t really care. He doesn’t get online much that I know of. I want him to be like all the other show dogs with pages full of brags and plans and beautiful pictures.

Kick me, hard, so he… umm… I… we? can have this.

Note to self after the fact: No one will see your posts if you do not PUBLISH them and make them PUBLIC. Kick me, harder, for this, too.