Git is a distributed version control system. No, you dont need to know what that means to use this guide. Think of it as a time machine: Subversion or CVS without the cruft.If you make a lot of changes, but decided you made a mistake, this will save your butt.This guide is for people who want to jump to any point in time with their project/game/whatever, and want something to use for themselves.
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Top 10 Reasons To Use WordPress
1. WordPress is Truly Free and Open Source
Unlike other “free†and “open source†solutions that have hidden agendas, WordPress.org is completely free learn more for you, forever. WordPress doesn’t start charging when you hit a certain size, nor does it close off any of its code to you. This is one of the less tangible but probably most important elements of WordPress.org’s success. No fees, no gotchas, no nonsense.
2. Automattic is an Awesome Company
The more I learn about Matt Mullenweg and his company, Automattic, the more I like them. These guys write amazing code, protect open source programming, fight spam, host affordable and educational conferences, take security seriously, and seem like genuine nice guys.
3. Plugins Give You More Functionality
Plenty of platforms out there offer plugin functionality, but I’ve never seen a more smooth and thorough implementation than the plugin effort on WordPress.org. Plugins allow you to add great photo galleries, sliders, shopping carts, forums, maps, and more great functionality. There’s a searchable, one-click install directory of plugins think App Store for WordPress. Their code is riddled with “hooks†that allow developers to add their code to virtually any aspect of WordPress without editing the core. Look for a few new and important WordPress.org plugins to come from the Computer Courage labs soon!
4. The Visual Editor and CMS are Outstanding
The intuitive, user-friendly backend of WordPress is probably what made it so famous in the first place. I’ll never remember the relief I felt when I first installed WordPress after a few Drupal experiences. I always tell my clients, “if you can do it in Word, you can do it in WordPress.†In fact, with the Paste From Word tool, that statement is more true than you would imagine (this article was written in Word). WordPress is continually improving its CMS, adding features such as threaded comments, galleries, revision histories, trash, custom post types, and more. If you haven’t maintained a WordPress site yet, give it a look.
5. Easily Add a Blog To Your Site
How is this number 5 on the list you ask? WordPress really came to fame for blogging and is still considered by many to be a blog platform. Even WordPress itself seems to identify with blogging first, as the default configuration is for the home page to be a blog. Aside from the amazing advances in CMS (see #4 above), the blog functionality is still the best in the business. With categories, tags, threaded commenting, gravatars, easy theming, widgets, fantastic moderation controls, anti spam solutions, and plugin infrastructure, you can’t find a better blog solution. Adding a blog to a WordPress site is a great way to attract and involve visitors, and to keep Google paying attention. If you don’t need a full site, and just want a quick blog, check out WordPress.com.
6. Themes Let You Style Your Site
I tell my business clients every day that their site doesn’t need to “reinvent the wheel†when it comes to design. We love doing custom web design for our clients, but many of them don’t need it. We’ve been able to make very beautiful and successful sites by starting from pre-existing themes and doing customizations from there. Because themes are open source, you can buy or download them and then modify them to your heart’s content. I have to give special credit to the folks at Elegant Themes who make wonderfully powerful and easy to use themes at a very reasonable price. Remember, themes are independent from your content, so you can edit or swap out themes at any time and keep your content and functionality in place.
7. It’s Easy to Keep WordPress Secure
WordPress has always bragged about its “Famous 5 Minute Installationâ€. Not only is WordPress pretty easy to install (it actually takes 5 minutes if you are handy with your web servers, newbies will have a learning curve), but WordPress is also surprisingly easy to update for security and new functionality. When a new version is available, WordPress will give you an easy link for a one-click upgrade. Warning: Computer Courage always recommends backing up your blog before doing an install in case something goes wrong. Look for backup plugins or techniques first.
8. Google Loves WordPress
At Computer Courage, we focus on getting new customers for our clients via Search Engine Optimization. Ever since we started doing WordPress.org installs, I noticed a spike in search results. Over the years I’ve used many valuable SEO plugins such as the All-In-One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps. But even without these plugins, I always felt like the simple layouts of WordPress, the permalinks, and the easy linking in WordPress would be naturally attractive to Google. I even heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. Matt Cutts, the other awesome Matt and the head of Google’s “web spam team†spoke at WordCamp SF 2009 and said it directly – “Google Loves WordPressâ€. Edit: After saying this for the last year, I went back and checked. It turns out I’ve been exaggerating. He said “WordPress is a great choice†(video and slides here) but still, he goes on to gush about how much WordPress helps you get better results. We always recommend a conversion to WordPress when doing SEO.
9. WordPress Sites are Accessible
WordPress sites are usually built on relatively simple and accessible technologies. It’s easy to install on Windows or Linux servers. It uses all free license server software. The web pages render in HTML and CSS allowing them to show up on iPhones, BlackBerrys, Android, iPad, etc. It’s also easy for alternative browsers such as text only browsers (see Lynx) which are excellent for those with disabilities.
10. Your Site Can Grow With You
When you add up a lot of these features, you find that your WordPress site can grow with you over the years. You can easily upgrade it for new features and security. You can add a new theme (ma.tt seems to add a new theme most years) without redoing your whole site. You can add new plugins for enhanced functionality (add e-commerce if your business grows, focus more on search results, add a store finder, etc.) WordPress.org is used by millions of sites, from the simplest little blogs to huge brand names like the New York Times blog, People, Flickr, and more. See the WordPress.org showcase.
Have further thoughts on why WordPress.org is or isn’t a great platform for building websites? We’ve love to hear from you in the comments below. Thanks for your participation and interest in the web and in WordPress.org. Finally, if you’re looking for a professional team to put a WordPress.org website together for you, contact us today or sign up for our newsletter.
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Jonathan Ive on the design of the iPhone 4
“Those three black splits are co-molded in, and then the band goes through more processes,” Ive points out. “So it's assembled first, the band, and then the final machining and grinding are performed, so the tolerances are extraordinary…. Whatever people's feelings are about the actual design of the product is of course subjective. But objectively I can say that the manufacturing tolerances are phenomenal. And we determined this, we designed it from the very beginning to meet those goals.”
via Core77 speaks with Jonathan Ive on the design of the iPhone 4: Material Matters – Core77.
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Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time
For the third time in the last 6 days, another line of nasty storms rolled through Chicago on Wednesday evening. In this clip you will see three of the tallest buildings in Chicago get struck by lightning at the same time. Willis Tower (Tallest), Trump International Hotel and Tower (2nd Tallest) and the John Hancock Building(4th tallest).
via Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! on Vimeo.
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Magento Absolute Theme New Grid Layout
Due to the odd row class kicking in after x number of columns, the $_columnsCount number needs to be set to the total or row count:
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YouTube: HTML5 Video Is No Match for Flash
The YouTube developer blog lists several things Flash can do that HTML5 video tags cannot:
Flash cuts down on the number of formats YouTube needs to encode. With browsers divided over which video codecs to use, YouTube would need to re-encode most of its content. With YouTube users uploading 24 hours of video to the site every minute, that’s no small task. The new WebM video codec offers some hope here, but it isn’t universally supported yet.
YouTube already does this anyway. The codec issue is therefore already resolved with the exception of a few mozilla hippies who were insisting on ogg but may now settle for VP8 in any case.
Flash offers “fine control over buffering and dynamic quality control.â€
Hadn’t really noticed, it all looks pretty bad to me a lot of the time.
The HTML5 video tag doesn’t cover live streaming, nor does it allow for adaptive video quality when streaming long movies. However, as the post points out, “a number of vendors and organizations are working to improve the experience of delivering video over HTTP,†meaning there’s hope this problem will eventually be solved.
Hopefully quicker than flash is adapted for mobile. I was under the impression streaming HTTP was already used in iPhone but could be wrong.
Flash offers content protection.
While not the top of the list when it comes to features a user is looking for, without a means of protecting content from being distributed illegally, most of YouTube’s content partners would likely jump ship.
Name me a single user who wants “copy protection” or a “copy protection” that actually works.
Encapsulation and embedding.
Flash makes it easy to send extra data along with your embedded video, meaning ads, captions, annotations and extras like related-video lists automatically show up. There’s no easy way to do the same with HTML5 embed code. JavaScript, sure, but not the native code.
Guess what? The same browser that delivers HTML5 likely supports JS too.
Fullscreen video.
This one makes the least sense. Firefox and WebKit both offer rudimentary support for fullscreen HTML5 video, though there is no hardware acceleration or other extras you’d get with Flash.
Hardware acceleration in flash on a mac would be nice too one day.
Camera and microphone access.
The ability to record video directly to YouTube requires the site to be able to access your computer’s camera and microphone, something HTML5 video on its own cannot do.
Hardly a mainstream requirement, but it will be interesting to see how HTML5 integrates with device hardware features as it evolves.
YouTube also doesn’t mention a couple of other areas where HTML5 video lags well behind Flash: accessibility and translation tools.
Accessible flash? Really? I’ve tried to find out more about this and usually find precious little evidence even though I now people who are paid to enable this. Yet to see a flash translation, but I don’t doubt it can be done any more than it can be done in JS.
via YouTube: HTML5 Video Is No Match for Flash | Webmonkey | Wired.com.
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WordPress › Blog » WordPress 3.0 “Theloniousâ€
https://videopress.com/v/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.21
Arm your vuvuzelas: WordPress 3.0, the thirteenth major release of WordPress and the culmination of half a year of work by 218 contributors, is now available for download or upgrade within your dashboard. Major new features in this release include a sexy new default theme called Twenty Ten. Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus no more file editing, post types, and taxonomies.
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Principles of Icon Design ° The Hickensian ° Hicksdesign
The Principles of Icon Design was originally based on the talk I gave at @Media last year, Icons for Interaction, but soon started taking a different form. This one focused more on the process of icon design, although they both share similar examples and concepts. It features new work too however, such as some of the work I’ve been doing with Jolicloud, my first freelance project after leaving Opera.
As promised, you an grab the slides (with notes) here: Download the Principles of Icon Design PDF (17.3mb)
Update: Alternatively, you can now watch the talk right here!
<object width=”400″ height=”225″><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12006771&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ /><embed src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12006771&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”400″ height=”225″></embed></object><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/12006771″>Jon Hicks: Icon Design</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user3863336″>Carsonified</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
via Principles of Icon Design ° The Hickensian ° Hicksdesign.
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Cool local php.ini Auto-installer
Installation Complete!Yes, really! A new environment has been installed for subtshirt.com  Notes:Your .htaccess file was edited.An existing php.ini was discovered and rewritten.Ive removed myself so that noone can run me again accidentally. What now? You might like to visit some links below and let us know what you thought about the DreamHost Custom PHP.INI installer.
If you have a great idea for a web tool, please feel free to post about it in the forum. If its a popular choice then chances are good that it will be created! Was this application helpful? If you found the DreamHost Custom PHP.INI installer to be useful, please consider becoming an official supporter by making a donation – or maybe by becoming a subscriber! Your support will help towards the updating and improving of the tools and installers that are available, and will ensure the on-going development of new web-tools and auto-installers.
Translation: Know a language that should be added? Contact us if you would like to show your support by translating this web-tool into a different language!
via Auto-installer.
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Pizza Express Nice Unsubscribe
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Aero Film: “The Sandpit” – A short film by Aero Director, Sam O’Hare!
The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.
How did you shoot The Sandpit?
SAM: It is shot on a Nikon D3 (and one shot on a D80), as a series of stills. I used my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 and Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 lenses for all of these shots. Most were shot at 4fps in DX crop mode, which is the fastest the D3 could continuously write out to the memory card. The boats had slower frame rates, and the night shots used exposures up to two seconds each. The camera actually has an automatic cut off after 130 shots, so for longer shots I counted each click and quickly released and re-pressed the shutter release after 130 to keep shooting.
ME: That has to be a lot of stills!
SAM: I shot over 35,000.
ME: Holy shit.
SAM: No kidding.
ME: How did you capture the mini look?
SAM: I did some initial tests a while back using a rented 24mm tilt-shift lens, which is the standard way to do this. However, after my tests, I found it made much more sense to do this effect in post, rather than in camera. Shooting tilt-shift requires a tripod, as it is very hard to stabilise afterwards, and gives less flexibility in the final look. I opted to shoot it on normal lenses, which allowed me options in the depth of field and shot movement in post. I used a tripod for the night shots, and my Gorillapod (which is much more portable) where possible, but many locations—like hanging over the edge of a roof or through a gap in fencing on a bridge– had to be shot hand held, and the inevitable wobble removed afterwards.
ME: That sounds kinda badass.
SAM: Um, sure?
ME: How long did the shoot take?
SAM: The entire shoot was completed in 5 days and two evenings, during the hottest week of August 2009. Many thanks go to all the people who gave me access to rooftops, penthouses and balconies to shoot from.
ME: So, you’re sitting with 35,000 stills. I’d probably have a Virgo-clutter overload and need a beer… But what did you do?
SAM: At first, I had a beer.
ME: Good man.
SAM: The footage was shot as raw NEFs, which I organised and colour graded in Adobe Lightroom. I always shoot raw, as it gives you so much more latitude when grading. These were then output as 720p jpg sequences and quickly stabilised to do the initial edit. Once the edit was mostly locked, all the final footage was re-output at full 2800px resolution, tracked, stabilised and the DOF effect and movement added in Eyeon Fusion, using Frischluft Lenscare. I output the final shots at 1080p. Although most shots stay with the basic tilt-shift effect, some have focus pulls, or more complex depth mattes were built up along with some paint work to allow buildings to drop out of focus next to the in-focus ground. This would not have been possible if I had shot using tilt shift lenses on the camera, which works best with relatively flat landscapes. New York City is anything but flat!
via Aero Film: “The Sandpit” – A short film by Aero Director, Sam O’Hare!.
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Is H.264 a legal minefield for video pros?
Another way where professionals can get off the hook for payments is if the video is broadcast for free over the Internet. Earlier this year, MPEG LA extended through 2015 a provision that means streaming H.264 video over the Net requires no royalty payments as long as anyone can see the video without paying.
Ultimately, for the license terms one sees in software, MPEG LA errs on the side of sounding tough.
“The purpose of the provision in the MPEG LA license is to ensure that the license doesn't cover commercial distribution of H.264-encoded video,” Homiller said. “It would be nice if there were a 'gentler' way to convey this, but it might be challenging to do so without opening up some loopholes that the licensers would regret.”
via Is H.264 a legal minefield for video pros? | Deep Tech – CNET News.