I’ve been thinking a lot about Typography lately. Thanks to this article on Connor Wilson’s blog series, Better Your Blog in a Week. It is actually a quite addictive thing to work on. Adding new types of selectors to emphasize parts of the story, giving it more of a feel reminiscent of print magazines or even newspapers. Typography is an easily overlooked part of the blog template and it is an art form all its’ own. An art form that is, in some ways, dying. Looking at the justification and headings of some newer print papers is a good example of how much people forget about god typography.
You know when your reading magazines and they have an interesting quote lined up on the page so you read it before you get to that part?
It has actually become quite a rarity these days. But aren’t they great? I had always loved little things like that when I would read magazines and it made me realize that it was something I had wanted to experiment with in my own writing, but never really took the time to do once I got started. Strange how someone else can remind you of something that got you where you are in the first place. A second look at your blog’s typography is definitely worth the time it takes. I took a few cues from Connor’s typography and a applied them here. Not all of them, but a few.
Here a couple of tips that you can use to improve the way your site’s look by using simple font changes:
*A different font in headings and copy can work great.
*Some popular heading fonts are Georgia and Trebuchet MS. The can work in copy too (especially Georgia, very common copy font) but they have unique aspects that make them pop in a larger/heading situation.
*Besides aforementioned Georgia, some highly used copy fonts are Verdana, Arial and Lucida Grande.
*Choosing the right size for copy is important. Don’t go too big for the sake of a fad.
My cellphone is a basic picture phone. Nothing really fancy. It has 50 megabytes of memory on the phone and 30 megs on the mini SD card. All for a grand total of 80megs. Not a whole lot of space. So I got to thinking about ways to get more for my megabyte.
The answer was simple.
It isn’t hard to store more songs on your mobile devices. All you really need to do is make lower bitrate versions of each of the songs that you rip onto your computer. One for your PC and one for your mobile device. Yeah yeah. I’m encouraging ripping music off CDs. Its your CD and you can listen to it on whatever device you want to.
The standard bitrate for mp3 encoding is usually between 192 - 128 kylobits per second. That is near CD quality. You can definitely push this. An mp3 encoded at 48 Kbits/S will be somewhere near FM radio quality. When I was stuck behind a dial-up internet connection, I did SHOUTcast radio at a bitrate of 32 kb/s. It didn’t sound terrible.
So whip out your favorite mp3 encoder/ripper. A good one is lame mp3 encoder. Windows Media Player will not encode at a lower bitrate than 128kb/s. To get your squeeze on with this you will have to use something else. Another good start is Google.
If you files are already in mp3 format you may have to get more creative. One thing that might work is Zamzar.
When starting a website, a little coding knowledge goes a long way. But it can also save you a lot of time and money to know if what you need in a website isn’t sitting out there waiting for you. Here are some scripts that have saved me loads of headaches whether it be coding one myself or hiring someone to do it.
Wordpress- Wordpress is arguably the best open-source blogging platform in existance. Written in php, it is a robust blog script with no shortage of features (or extensions) that can be skinned to your liking with ease. It can serve as your entire website in one script. A little CSS and XHTML knowledge are required when it comes to building your own theme. The admin area is very straight forward. Installation requires you to write your own config file, but cpanel can autoinstall Wordpress for you.
Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
If you are looking for something with more user input and is also more feature driven, there is another website-in-a-box solution below.
Plogger- Plogger is an open-source image gallery script written in php. They are still currently in beta but the last stable version was tops. It was easily integrated with your existing site’s theme and had plenty of bells and whistles (including a slideshow feature!).
Note: Plogger 3.0 has cause me some problems with integration. They have promised it to be easier to mod and create widgets, though
Development Status: Beta License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
e107 - This is probably one of the best open-source CMS solutions out there. e107 has an impressive set of plug ins that will do almost anything you can think of. You will find it has a very easy admin system and installation is a snap. PHP knowledge isn’t an absolute must but it will always help.
Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
phpBB - Quite possibly the most popular open source forum script. It rivals its paid counterpart, Invision Powerboard, on many levels. A lot of the same features are present and, in some ways, are easier to use. Due to the popularity of the script, security can sometimes be an issue. As well can your vulnerability to spam. People who are really really serious about foruming should probably look at one of the paid solutions.
Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
and finally… the content management system currently at the top of its’ game…
XOOPSXOOPS is a dynamic open source portal system written in PHP. IT is the ideal tool for developing small to large dynamic community websites, portals, weblogs and much more.
Well its been just over two weeks since the day the music died and you may be asking “Whats going to happen here now?” or you may also be asking “Where can I read about Canadian music news now?’
Well there is a new blog coming. The cat is out of the bag. And the bulk of my time has been going into that new blog lately. I don’t want to say any particular time frame for when it will be ready because I will probably not adhere to it anyhow.
As for this blog here, as I mentioned in other posts it will be my portfolio of projects. The main area to keep you eye on for now would have to be the videos section. I will be updating that more frequently.
Not everybody knows this but I study print and broadcast journalism in college. It has allowed me to look at media production in a lot of different ways. The video editing has become somewhat of a hobby of mine. But I was interested in that even before I went to school.
This blog will carry on as regularly as it always has, only you will start to see less and less of the focus going towards music and more and more of it going towards my other interest. Things like web design, technology news and other topics may come up from time to time. But as it stands right this minute, I am not attempting to rank for any particular term.
Not trying to rank for any search terms? Web development enthusiasts out there can all recover from their seizures, wipe the foam from their mouths and get up off the floor. I know what you’re thinking already. It isn’t a permanent thing, I just really need to focus in a lot of different places right now. When my other blog surfaces it will be well worth the wait, and this site will remain entertaining as ever is more ways than it did before.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about Typography lately. Thanks to this article on Connor Wilson’s blog series, Better Your Blog in a Week. It is actually a quite addictive thing to work on. Adding new types of selectors to emphasize parts of the story, giving it more of a feel reminiscent of print magazines or even newspapers. Typography is an easily overlooked part of the blog template and it is an art form all its’ own. An art form that is, in some ways, dying. Looking at the justification and headings of some newer print papers is a good example of how much people forget about god typography.
It has actually become quite a rarity these days. But aren’t they great? I had always loved little things like that when I would read magazines and it made me realize that it was something I had wanted to experiment with in my own writing, but never really took the time to do once I got started. Strange how someone else can remind you of something that got you where you are in the first place. A second look at your blog’s typography is definitely worth the time it takes. I took a few cues from Connor’s typography and a applied them here. Not all of them, but a few.
For my next tricks I plan to pretty up the response board and do a little ‘pushing’ at the end of each single story.
My cellphone is a basic picture phone. Nothing really fancy. It has 50 megabytes of memory on the phone and 30 megs on the mini SD card. All for a grand total of 80megs. Not a whole lot of space. So I got to thinking about ways to get more for my megabyte.
The answer was simple.
It isn’t hard to store more songs on your mobile devices. All you really need to do is make lower bitrate versions of each of the songs that you rip onto your computer. One for your PC and one for your mobile device. Yeah yeah. I’m encouraging ripping music off CDs. Its your CD and you can listen to it on whatever device you want to.
The standard bitrate for mp3 encoding is usually between 192 - 128 kylobits per second. That is near CD quality. You can definitely push this. An mp3 encoded at 48 Kbits/S will be somewhere near FM radio quality. When I was stuck behind a dial-up internet connection, I did SHOUTcast radio at a bitrate of 32 kb/s. It didn’t sound terrible.
So whip out your favorite mp3 encoder/ripper. A good one is lame mp3 encoder. Windows Media Player will not encode at a lower bitrate than 128kb/s. To get your squeeze on with this you will have to use something else. Another good start is Google.
If you files are already in mp3 format you may have to get more creative. One thing that might work is Zamzar.
When starting a website, a little coding knowledge goes a long way. But it can also save you a lot of time and money to know if what you need in a website isn’t sitting out there waiting for you. Here are some scripts that have saved me loads of headaches whether it be coding one myself or hiring someone to do it.
Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
If you are looking for something with more user input and is also more feature driven, there is another website-in-a-box solution below.
Note: Plogger 3.0 has cause me some problems with integration. They have promised it to be easier to mod and create widgets, though
Development Status: Beta License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Development Status: Production/Stable License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
and finally… the content management system currently at the top of its’ game…
Development Status: Production/Stable
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Well its been just over two weeks since the day the music died and you may be asking “Whats going to happen here now?” or you may also be asking “Where can I read about Canadian music news now?’
Well there is a new blog coming. The cat is out of the bag. And the bulk of my time has been going into that new blog lately. I don’t want to say any particular time frame for when it will be ready because I will probably not adhere to it anyhow.
As for this blog here, as I mentioned in other posts it will be my portfolio of projects. The main area to keep you eye on for now would have to be the videos section. I will be updating that more frequently.
Not everybody knows this but I study print and broadcast journalism in college. It has allowed me to look at media production in a lot of different ways. The video editing has become somewhat of a hobby of mine. But I was interested in that even before I went to school.
This blog will carry on as regularly as it always has, only you will start to see less and less of the focus going towards music and more and more of it going towards my other interest. Things like web design, technology news and other topics may come up from time to time. But as it stands right this minute, I am not attempting to rank for any particular term.
Not trying to rank for any search terms? Web development enthusiasts out there can all recover from their seizures, wipe the foam from their mouths and get up off the floor. I know what you’re thinking already. It isn’t a permanent thing, I just really need to focus in a lot of different places right now. When my other blog surfaces it will be well worth the wait, and this site will remain entertaining as ever is more ways than it did before.