Friday, May 18, 2012

I Should Have Been A Blogger

Fireman Fighting A Fire

I know a little code …….. actually a lot of code ………. well just enough to be dangerous. OK, we’ll call it half-baked; jeff-of-all-trades, master of none! Ahhh, leave me alone, I’ve had a bad week.

Everyone keeps asking about “Down The Rabbitt Hole.com“, and it’s coming but I’m struggling with a Facebook Fan-page. I understand that I could slap one up on the fly, but that’s just not my style. I wanted a pretty cool Twitter and Facebook page to mirror the Blog, which is way cool. I’ve even seen Bulletin Boards that provide Facebook Fan-page coders and designers. Whatever, I guess everyone needs something to do.

When “Down The Rabbit Hole” is finally released, it’s going to be pretty awesome that’s for sure, but it’s just a theme, it’s a great resource, but it’s like really boring …… it’s all about computer stuff. Ya know, WordPress Themes, Plug-ins, Linux Operating Systems, and Apps for Linux and well, ya know ……… boring stuff.

It’s got a supports forum, that’s pretty rad!

After I’m finished with this project, I’ve got plenty more to occupy my day. I’ve a project that will remain nameless that I have been working on; off and on, for the past 18 months. The code is about to kill me. I’m probably looking at about 25,000 lines and yes I’m dealing with each and every line ……. surely there must be a better way.

I program in five different languages now, HTML being one of them. However, if you really press me against the wall, you can get me in trouble. Reason, I’m not trained in HTML. There are pros that do nothing but spend their days coding in HTML. I’m trying to let my knowledge build slowly but surely with real everyday experience, kinda like picking-up a musical instrument and just banging away on the keys; you’re sure to have a big time, but I doubt if you’ll ever give Beethoven a run for his money.

I’m going to pick-up a sixth programming language in the next couple of months, but I thought I would let you vote on which one you think I should take on. Please click this link and make your choice and place that choice in the comments section below. Now I understand, all things given to reason most everyone is going to recommend “ZZT-oop“. I’d still like to see your recommended choice in the comments section below. And I would like to thank you in advance for the 9 hours it will take you to come to an informed selection.

Now if you’re wondering what in the world is up with this rant; I can’t really tell ya! I just started writing, to divert my attention from the dragon that is my daily grind. I’m hiding from the coding gremlins …………. I should have been a Blogger, or at least a professional Baseball Player ……….. maybe a Fireman!

Have I Got A Plug-In For You

Lots Of Wires

ShrimpTest Plug-in! What? ShrimpTest is basically a plugin that allows you to A/B test your site. What? ShrimpTest helps you to decide upon such things as; design, layout and even the content within your site by testing alternative variations. What? ShrimpTest helps you to seamlessly publish your Blog on and to the dark side of Europa. Oh …. O.K.

ShrimpTest ………. here, you figure it out! Akismet, Featured Content Manager, Adsense-Beautifier, (trust me on this, there ain’t nothin’ that can make adsense beautiful) Meta Tag Description Plug-In ……….. What?

Today as I sit down to write this post there are 11,796 Plug-Ins posted on the codex. Counting for replication of plug-ins, that still is a ton of plug-ins to weigh down your site. Oddly Plug-Ins account for most of my WordPress problems. The people who write the plug-ins fail to keep them current and when you go to upgrade WordPress ……… Zapp!

When I build a Blog I try to keep the destruction down to about a dozen Plug-Ins. I’m going to venture to say if you need more than that, you need to find another alternative. You just don’t need all these Plug-Ins. Even if you do understand what they do!

I remember once, I was needing something to provide me with custom media image sizes for my builds. If I could do this to the child, that would be well and good, but I was seeing that I was going to have to edit the parent, which meant that I would lose the edit if I hardcoded the edit whenever the parent was upgraded by the source. So I looked for a possible Plug-In. Sure enough I found one, unfortunately compared to the hardcode (which anyone would assume would be harder) this thing was a monster.

Another instance I can recall I wanted to install a Forum Plug-In. Talk about monsters. I really didn’t like it so I tried to un-install this thing and had to wind-up rebuilding the entire Blog. I was experimenting on a new build so nothing to get into a twist about, but man, not only was this thing a pain it was HUGE!!!

I keep promising myself that I will create a Plug-In List for the newbies, I just have not gotten around to it yet. However, keep this in mind; install a Plug-In only if you need it. I’ve learned from experience that many of those Plug-Ins that are available are more trouble than they are worth.

The Backend Of Your Plug-In

Picture Of Gears

Breaking news, E-Mail, Online Banking, Blogs, Cool Websites, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Files, Folders, Operating Systems, Browsers, Plug-Ins ………… this list will go on until the end of time, this you can bet on. It’s what they call the pace of technology. It makes me crazy sometimes!

By the time I call it a day, week, month, my desktop is a mess! I can’t tell you which Plug-In is the one you will need, I’ve long since lost tract of all the downloads and versions.

Remember this: Honing your craft of being a Professional Blogger and passing those skills on to someone else is a unique art. Take only what you need and can manage. This might also be good advice for the products that you intend on offering to your market.

Keep things pleasantly simple for yourself as well as others. This will illustrate your personal power and strength of craft ……….. and will be much appreciated.