Jay Gaulard Blog

Installing WordPress 2.5 - Don’t Forget

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

This is just a quick note to all you WordPressers out there letting you know what WordPress 2.5 has been released and is ready for business.

I installed the upgrade this morning. I would say it took about 4 minutes to complete. The WordPress people really have the process down to a few small things. Basically, if you already have a recent version, you just need to upload some new files over the old. I’m sure that each upgrade adds some new ones too.

In WordPress 2.5, the look and functionality of the admin section are quite different from the previous version. It seems more intuitive, but still, it’s going to take some time to get used to. The front-end had no issues.

This is a sample of the new back-end…

I have so say, there are about a ton and a half of new features to play with. Just uploading that last image took some getting used to. There are soooo many things…

Social Media, Facebook, Digg and WordPress

Monday, February 25th, 2008

SEO Shenanigans Pose Clear & Present Danger to Social Media

Steve Rubel: “I have recently witnessed a disturbing trend. Some respected experts are advocating launching social media marketing programs solely for the purpose of influencing search engines, rather than with the intent of fostering collaboration. This represents a clear and present danger to the fabric of the community.

Facebook Offers $85 Million To Acquire Chinese Social Networking Site Zhanz

Facebook is said to have offered $85 million to acquire Zhanzuo.com, a Chinese social networking site with seven million users.

Was Digg the best social site of 2007?

In 2007, the world’s favorite social network, MySpace, quickly gave ground to Facebook and companies like the ill-fated Netscape tried to take on Digg. But which of these sites was the best of 2007?

The Next Social Network: WordPress

Could open-source blogging platform WordPress serve as your next social networking profile? Chris Messina, co-founder of Citizen Agency, thinks so. He’s started a project called DiSo, for distributed social networking, that aims to “build a social network with its skin inside out.” DiSo will first look to WordPress as its foundation.

Inside The Social Networking Craze

If you’re not already a part of the social networking craze, it can be difficult to understand what’s so great about sites like MySpace and Facebook. But nonetheless, millions of people flock to them and lead secondary lives on them.

WordPress Update - Version 2.3.2

Sunday, December 30th, 2007

In my WordPress dashboard, I just noticed that there is a security and bugfix release for WordPress. The new version is 2.3.2. I like to announce these releases in my posts because some of my friends and family uses WordPress and they might not notice the blurb in their dashboard.

Mad peace to all of you.

WordPress vs. Drupal

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

I have a domain name and hosting account sitting there just burning to be used. I purchased a script a few days ago that looked like it had lots of promise. After installing it, I learned that it was nothing but full of bugs. Since I didn’t have the time or patience to fix someone else’s mess, I asked for a refund, which I got. Really, if a script gives me issues again and again, I can just imagine the emails I will receive when real people start using it. Sometimes these computer dudes really don’t have a clue.

Anyway, I have been looking into Drupal lately. I have heard so many good things about it. Obviously, I use WordPress already (for this blog). As I research Drupal, I am noticing many similarities between the two applications. I am reading that WordPress is great, but Drupal can do what WordPress does and a whole lot more. I have even heard that you can use Drupal for a social networking script (by the way, I did find THE social networking script, but it costs $20,000 per year for licensing).

So my question is, what exactly are the differences between WordPress and Drupal? Which one is older? I know they both have very dedicated and large communities of developers and followers. Will they both end up being the same thing as they grow through the years? Can I set up Drupal to be automated…like a link directory or an article submission website?

So many questions…

Deleting Some Categories

Friday, November 16th, 2007

Now that I have installed the Simple Tags plugin for Wordpress, I can begin deleting some categories. As you may have noticed, I have a lot. I don’t mind that, but it is becoming tiresome writing a post and having to scroll through all those categories to check off my choices. It’s actually quite redundant, now that I have the tags.

Over the next year or two, I will do this…one at a time.

Simple Tags Plugin for Wordpress 2.3

Monday, October 29th, 2007

I updated my Wordpress blog the other day to version 2.3 and noticed a clever new feature. Now, when I write a post, there is a small field at the bottom of my editor for tags. Tags are like categories, but you can make a bunch more of them without cluttering things up.

This new “Tags” feature works with a few Wordpress Plugins, including one called “Simple Tags.”

I started using this neat new feature and am very happy with it. When I place a few tags (words) in my post, they are recorded and displayed at the bottom of each post. The blog also automatically takes those tags and find any related posts and displays them as well. Basically, related posts are just other blog entries with the same tags.

Take a look and become mad jealous.

What is Web 2.0?

Saturday, August 25th, 2007

Sometimes people name things and think they are very very cool for doing so. People hear these cool new names and start using them in everyday conversation. I bet you know what I am talking about.

Let’s say…”24/7” for example. I for one, think this is a very stupid little saying, but it seems as though just about everyone has jumped on this bandwagon. At this point, there probably is no stopping it. Once the Pope says it, it’s over.

Lately, I have been hearing little things here and there about “Web 2.0.” I read “Revenue Today” magazine. There are articles with hints of the “Web 2.0″ phrase. I kind of roll my eyes each time I come across it because it seems like people are trying too hard to grab hold of something. This is what got me going.

Have you ever seen any shows on HGTV? Well, if not, let me explain. HGTV is a channel devoted to home improvement. I watch it because I like to see the gardening stuff. Sometimes I have to grin and bear it through the DIY shows. When you were a kid, what did you call the box in your house that you had all of your stuff and your bed in? Your “room,” right? Yes, your room. Not anymore. Now they call it your “space.” Since when did we call everything a space? “Yeeeeeezzzzz, well, hhmmmm, mumzy, pleeeease move the Range Rover into the space.” “You mean the garage?” “Yeeeezzzz, the garage space.” Do you get what I am saying? If not, here it is. I am saying that calling a kitchen a kitchen is good. Calling a room a room is good. Only those people call things “spaces.” Unfortunately, even the homeowners (those whose homes are being worked on by HGTV) are now made to call things spaces. “Yes, we sure would love a teensy weensy little bit larger coffee table in our space.” That just sounds dumb. It almost feels like there is some huge effort in Hollywood to change what we call a room. Can you imagine getting wicked pissed at your kid and yelling, “You little $%#^%, go to your space!!! No dinner for you!!!”

Anyway, sometimes it seems like this is what is happening on the web. Kind of like in the corporate world. If you have ever worked in that world, I am sure you are well aware of the idiotic things people make up names for. Someone has got to stop them.

So, without further ado, let’s get to looking at Wikipedia’s definition of Web 2.0.

The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second-generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. It became popular following the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004, and has since become widely adopted.

Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web as a platform. According to Tim O’Reilly, “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of “Web 2.0″ have existed since the early days of the Web.

Let’s look at the first sentence. “The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived…” Ok, let’s stop right there. This is exactly what I am talking about. A perceived…this means that someone made this up and it is being pushed on the rest of the world. I gather that because this phrase has become so popular.

Let’s look at the first sentence in the second paragraph. “Although the term suggests…” Let’s stop again. The word “suggests” to me, means that I can not use this phrase with any seriousness in the least. I like actual meanings of things.

Let’s look at the third paragraph as a whole. I agree with Tim Berners-Lee. We are floating on the same brain wave if you are catching my drift. Why in the world would anyone try to give the simple and natural evolution of something a name like Web 2.0? Oooohhh, yeah, version two baby.

I remember back a few years ago, a local radio station tried the whole 2.0 thing. This is when the web was just getting all heated up. They were so proud of themselves. The announcer would say something like, “Yeah, the best music of the 40s, 50, 60s, 70, 80s, 90s and today!!! J98.6FM — version 2.0.” That didn’t last long. I think once someone in management realized that no one on the planet had any idea what they were talking about, they put a stop to it.

I was down at the hardware store this morning and the paint guy asked what I was up to. I told him that I was going to head home to really dive in to the intricacies of Web 2.0. I told him that I was going to envelope myself in what I would seriously consider the lightening fast and exponential explosion of how “Web 2.0″ has defined what we call the web. Ok, that didn’t happen, but I am sure it would’ve if I had gone to the hardware store.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have truly noticed a shift in what has happened on the web. I am just not sure it should be called the second version. As a semi-ex website designer, I have noticed a squeeze in my profession. People still come up to me and ask if I can design websites for them. I am a little puzzled at why they are asking. I tell them to just set up a blog. They look at me all confused and then I remember that these people only spend a fraction of the time I do on the web. I mean, c’mon, just set up a site file, a folder structure, buy a domain name, set up a hosting account, download the latest version of Wordpress, set up a database and go to the install URL. Hit go, and if you want to get fancy, download a nice theme.

Is that too much to ask? Sorry, did I answer the question?

How To Write Code in Your WordPress Posts

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

This may seem a bit trivial to some of you, but might be a pain in the butt for some others.

Until recently, I never used any amount of example code in my WordPress posts. I recently installed a Wiki and began writing about some tricks and tips to help others jump the same hurdles as I have. Within these posts, it is sometimes necessary to write some example code. Well, if you have ever written code in any of your posts, you have quickly found out that WordPress doesn’t like it.

So, how do you write code in your posts? Well, WordPress says this…

There are two HTML tags which will turn text into monospaced type. They are code and tt. The latter is rarely used today, replaced by the more useful and semantically correct code, which distinguishes text that is computer code from normal language.

The code button is up on the toolbar. Just highlight the text you would like to isolate and click the code button.

I thought this was pretty helpful and have already used it for many of my posts. You can read more about writing code in your posts here.