How to keep your coding skills from getting rusty

October 3, 2007 | 7 Responses

How many HTML elements can you name in five minutes?

Alright so it wasn’t my first try but I didn’t realize the timer started right away at first. I’m pretty ok with how I did. You really should try this HTML quiz. The answer might surprise you. I’m an old hand at HTML. I learned it, practiced and memorized elements for years, never even knowing about the other scripting languages (besides javascript) that were popping up everywhere.

On that note, I thought it was time for a post about keeping your coding skills sharp. This is especially important for us Wordpress users because we often don’t get into our code for months at a time.

• Hanging around tech support/tutorial forums is a great way to keep your coding skills from getting rusty. As people are generally going there to ask for help with their code that isn’t working. Not only do you get regular practice with troubleshooting codes, but you are making new friends and contacts who will likely visit your site (always link your site in profiles/sigs:)
• Handcode in notepad every once in a while. GUI coding software is fantastic. Especially when you are pressed for time. Having the editor finish your tags for you is always good for your sanity, but coding with this kind of software is like an open book test. Sure you still have to do the work, but you aren’t really honing your skills. Every now and then (if not always) put the blinders on and code out some stuff in notepad.
• Peak at the source code of other blogs you visit. This is mostly just for fun. But when you see something you like, right click and hit “view source” and see how it was done. Even if you think you’re sure. You may be surprised.

PressRiot almost ready for beta

September 18, 2007 | 1 Response

When I dropped the music format here, I promised a new site was coming. I even went as far as to register a domain and post the occasional link to this upcoming Canadian music review spot (see? I just did it again). Well that is about all the progress anyone has seen so I thought I would let you all in on how it is coming along.

The site will be in blog format, but divided by monthly issues. I’m either going to release each issue in bulk, or set them to be autoposted in weekly or daily intervals. I am almost ready to go live with a beta preview version of pressriot.ca, which means a scaled back version to gain some user input before the big release. The site will go live and people will be able to read and rate all the articles.

As far as the writing and content production, it is going pretty well. I have enough articles on my own and I’m waiting on some other submissions, I have just about enough to do the first issue.

The development stages are basically finished, save for once people actually get in and start to try it out. It was relatively simple to get a working model going being that I planned on using Wordpress as the core.

The inlying challenge was to get it up and running with enough distinction from section to section. I wanted to have the main blog page more category oriented  rather than just laying out all the freshest posts in reverse chronological order. Sounds like exactly the opposite of WordPress doesn’t it? Well it can be done.

Once again, its all in the theme. The theme essentially structures everything using the loop. You can call anything from just the post content of a single post, single category, anything really. I’ll get more into this when I talk about the awesome theme I discovered in a later post. When will it be? You’ll have to subscribe to the feed if you don’t want to miss it.

I’ve been testing the core of the site in a far away secret location, nobody will ever find in order to keep things under wraps. Nothing is currently hosted under the pressriot domain. Its all on a secret account hosted an a sea-barren shanty, floating in uncharted off the coast of Zürich. It is guarded by a one-eyed crow with a hooked beak. He will peck out the eyes of anyone who attempts to spoil the surprise.

Widgets, Advertising and direction update.

September 2, 2007 | 5 Responses

Sorry no MyBlogLog widgets here for now.

For the sake of this current design, I will not be including the MyBlogLog recent readers widget. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate my friends from that community, If fact, I have been making a point of going and checking out the blogs/profiles of everyone in my community lately and also trying my best to leave a comment or two; the issue is more with the widget code itself. It really lags the load time on a blog.

Fact is, most widgets, unless they come as a Wordpress plug-in (sometimes even then), slow your site down. The more remotely hosted widgets you have, the more sites your visitor has to connect to before they can finish loading the page.

Until I either get a new design or MyBlogLog gets a cleaner widget, I will be out of that loop. But that doesn’t stop me from handing out love to my community. The newest members are…

Gadgetastic

Florida weather info lady

GorillaSushi

TheHotIron

IndieMusicLounge

Thanks to all of you for joining the Needless Productions group. Sorry about the lack of a recent readers box. I’m trying to keep my layout junk to a minimum.

Speaking of junk.. how ’bout those ads?

As you will notice I have opted to include ads on my blog. I tried to keep it minimal in choosing only ads for products or services I think my readers will benefit from.

The first ad is ultimately selling ME. I’m a beneficial product or service. I write fair and objective reviews through sponsored posts. I am very careful to be fair and accurate in my findings. It is best to request a neutral review. However, if I truly believe something is good, I am capable of producing a positively toned review.

The second ad ties in with the first one. This ad is for PayPerPost. Its a good way for bloggers to make money. I use it to pay for hosting. Some people have alleged making a perfectly decent living off of being a PPP blogger. It is viable for advertisers because of the high volume of relevant links (with content) it generates. It is lucrative for bloggers who are serious enough to maintain a strong and constistent blog. The higher your blog ranks, the more you can get paid for your posts. There is no cost to start up, but your blog must meet certain standards before you qualify.

The third ad is a product that was passed along to me by my hosting company (that I love so much its’ sick). Website Magazine is a webmaster magazine available free online, so all their content is there for you. They also have a print version that you can subscribe to for free and receive the magazine at your door at no cost. Currently, the print version is only available in Canada and the United States. Other countries keep your fingers crossed and check out the online version in the meantime.

So that is the story behind my ads, behind the lack of MyBlogLog presence on this site and behind why I feel like getting up to take a walk after hours of steady typing.

In other news: I’ve added a top commentators board to the sidebar of this site. You will notice that at the time of this publishing my Uncle, and own flesh and blood is currently at the second last spot on the list with David Hopkins sitting in first and Darren trailing him in second place. Knock these players off their rockers and take the title for yourself. All you have to do is respond somewhere for a free link.

And on that note… View My Reader Community / Join My Reader Community

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