Goodbye Klout
Although I was quick to jump on the Klout wagon when I first came across it, this is just a quick note more than anything else about my just as quick decision to stop using the service.
I would expect no one should see any more unsolicited tweets et al. to use the service from me; and I also believe I have clicked enough buttons and disconnected all of the services that were attached to Klout as well.
I didn’t find any “close my account” or “cancel my service” options but then again Klout really does not seem all that interested in having your permission to assign a “score”.
So long and thanks for all the +K.
WordCamp Toronto 2011 Takeaway
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Although WordCamp Toronto 2011 was last weekend there were several ideas I will be taking away from it in regards to future development, best practices, as well as some interesting concepts and discussions. To keep it simple I’m just going to list these items (with their inspiration):
- Install MultiSite for use with Theme Demos (Ron and Andrea Rennick)
- Look into PhoneGap to make HTML5 WebApps for the iPhone * Review Sencha Touch as well (Trevor Mills)
- Review all of my Themes to add a ‘description’ parameter to the register_sidebar and register_sidebars definitions * Update the codex, too, if it is not done yet (Jeremy Clarke)
- Monetize What You Do (Christopher Ross)
- Develop “site” plugin(s) (Rick Radko)
- Use inline documentation * PHPDoc (Chip Bennett)
- Review do_action and apply_filters in place of conditional function checks (Chip Bennett)
There were many more ideas and great pieces of advice, as well as some really sound tips and suggestions through the day (which I simply made myself comfortable in the Developer track for the duration).
The above were just the ones I specifically made note of (literally using the “Sticky Notes” program). Don’t ask me why I didn’t use EverNote at the time, but all of the above are now listed in an EverNote list for future reference and recollections.
Some of these ideas I am already putting into action, such as the inline documentation in a PHPDoc style; some items I had already been looking at; and others are more as reminders to keep thinking about what can be done.
Just like my site tagline at WPFirstAid: It’s WordPress … anything is possible!
The Little Things
Once the big picture is drawn, it’s the little things that separate the good from the great.
Happy Halloween 2011
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Thanks to my lovely wife, Terri. Enjoy!
New < 140
I just updated my < 140 block to:
I am Cais: WordPress junkie and blogger; maker of fine themes and plugins; WP Theme Review Team admin; Guitar player; and, mischief manager
For consistency purposes it’s the same “bio” details I use on most (all?) of the social networking services I belong to; which, sadly, are simply too many to remember at the moment.
Although my primary social media site is Twitter (@JellyBeen) I can be found most places if you search for Edward Caissie … look me up; and let me know you saw this post, too!
WordPress 3.3-beta1
Although it was released yesterday, I am following my normal routine of using it live now.
If you are interested in following along and helping with the beta testing, you can read my post on WPFirstAid.com on how to “Start Using WordPress Beta“, or you can download the “Nightly Build” at WordPress and start from there.
Laurel and Hardy Dance!
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Pop music meets vaudeville?
Laurel and Hardy Dance to The Archies:
Laurel and Hardy Dance to Santana:
These were just too good not to share … for more simply go to YouTube.com and search on “Laurel and Hardy Dance”
… and here is the original scene for your enjoyment:
Enjoy!
A New Workflow
After an interesting discussion on twitter with @curtismchale, @ericmann, @mikeschenkel, and @rarst I have decided its time to have another look at “local development”.
The basics so far have been the following downloads:
Tortoise SVN and Git are for the version control aspects of this project; WampServer (since I am testing on a Windows PC) is for the “local” environment; and PhpStorm is a recently discovered IDE that ties all of these together.
The next step was choosing a plugin and theme as well as setting up WordPress, my preferred CMS for development. I chose to go with the Nightly Builds version of WordPress, keeping it up to date via the core subversion access.
The plugin and theme are respectively ‘BNS Theme Add-Ins’ and ‘NoNa’. The first, a new WordPress plugin I recently released; and the second, one of my WordPress Themes due to be updated. To test the version control aspects these are now being maintained via github.
Although it has been a bit of a stumbling, grumbling affair I am finding the mix of these tools to have some interesting potential. I have been doing most of my current development work on “live” test servers (all I need is access to the Internet) and have always found everything goes quite well.
Transferring an existing project into the new process goes along these lines:
- Download existing project via FTP into the local environment folder.
- Share the new plugin/theme with GitHub.
- Develop and test in local environment.
- Deploy to a test server for online testing.
- Commit/push changes to GitHub.
- Repeat steps 3 through 5 as needed.
- Release to the appropriate WordPress repository.
Starting a new project would work in a similar fashion … maybe.
The discussions on twitter gave me reason to reconsider local development so I will give this some time, namely the 30 day demonstration period attached to PhpStorm. If all works out I may just spend the $99 for the application and make this my new workflow.
Thanks, Steve.
Steve Jobs.
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011.
RIP.
… because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
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Your Move?
