Gerald R. Lucas » wordpress

Summer Updates

Gerald Lucas — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:03:41 +0000

Since it’s too hot to go outside for very long, what better place to be than behind the keyboard? OK, I can think of other places that I’d rather be, but my web sites have needed some updates for a while. I’ve made significant progress on just this site alone, but mostly I’ve just been updating the framework of each site, adding little tweaks here and there.

One of the coolest things I did, that most folks will never see or appreciate, is add iPhone icons to each site. I’ve done this before, but it was only after purchasing Reeder for the iPad that I knew I needed to do it again. Reeder is a slick RSS reader for the iOS, but unlike others I’ve used, it’s superior both in looks and functionality. It doesn’t have some features that I’d like — for example, the ability to tweet an entry or save it to Delicious — but Not only does it look great, but it has the ability to post to Delicious, Twitter, Instapaper, and other social networking sites; it’s a great app and one that I use everyday.

My favorite part of Reeder has to be the icon presentation. Each group of feeds looks like a stack of cards; each feed a single card, marked either with its favicon or its iPhone icon. Most web sites by now have the former, but fewer have the latter, though it’s a simple addition to the site as Dave Taylor explains on the last link. Not only does this add a cool icon to the home screen of your iOS device, but Reeder uses them in its feed display. Here are mine:

Pretty slick, no? I’d just like to add one thing to Dave Taylor’s otherwise good tutorial. I made my icons 150×150 pixels, rather than the 45×45 he suggests. Trust me, the larger sizes look much better on the iPhone 4′s retina display and the iPad’s bigger surface. Also, you need to add the code to the portion of your index file. If you don’t, the icon won’t work.

I’m still working on this web site, but I think it works much better as a portfolio — the way I always envisioned it. WordPress 3.0 with the help of WooThemes has made this very easy. I like it, though I don’t think I’ll ever be totally happy with the look of this site. A couple of things I’m likely going to change include the blog font; I hate sans serif fonts as entry text. This shouldn’t be too difficult with a bit of CSS kung fu; I might even try one of Google’s web fonts. Also, I need to find a way to use the media portion of the front page. Currently, it displays random entries under the “Photography” and “Video” categories. I think I’m going to use them to display the icons that I’m associating with their respective web sites. However, when a user clicks on one, I want it to be able to take them to the site. As I said: I’m still making some adjustments.

I’ve updated and upgraded the Norman Mailer Society web site. It’s now running WordPress 3.0 and uses the Canvas theme from WooThemes. I added the banner graphic after a bit of Photoshop play. Also, I opened a Twitter account for the society, something that I’ll probably find easier to update regularly. If you have Twitter, follow us and we’ll reciprocate. This year’s conference is in Sarasota, and I’ll be speaking on the iPad and the future of books. My tentative title is “Cutting Up Norman Mailer.” More on this soon.

So these are the most readily noticeable updates; all others involved theme and WordPress upgrades, keyword and meta description tweaks, and widget additions, subtractions, or movements. I still need to work on my Moodle install, not to mention the long-neglected Humanities web site (not that anyone cares).

Now I’m going to see if it’s cooled down outside.

New Look

Gerald Lucas — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:10:10 +0000

Today, WooThemes — one of the best theme designers for WordPress out there, IMHO — released Anti-Social, a new theme that they say creates “more of an aggregation space for personal users / bloggers to create an overview of their online activities.” If you know me then you know I’m never satisfied with one look or design for long. I was using their Fresh Folio theme for a while, and I really liked it. In some ways it would still be better for my purposes (like the portfolio part), but I needed a change. Anti-Social is pretty slick, even if it’s a bit too clean.

Since I’ve been using WooThemes for a few months, I was pretty familiar with their set up. It was, as predicted, a breeze. I had it working and pretty customized in under thirty minutes. I’m still tweaking, but I like the way it looks. Great job, guys. The social links, calendar, and tags make this one of the coolest and freshest themes I’ve ever seen.

Couple of things I’d like to see: more flexibility in the tags widget, for one. Currently, it allows you to select the number of tags to display, but it takes them from the top — not very useful. If I could choose to display 50 out of my hundreds and it took the 50 most used — that would be useful. I’d really like to se a Twitter widget that displays my last couple of tweets. This theme cries for this feature. Maybe this is something I could port over myself. Finally, since I’m a photographer, I’d like to see the entry use the image I upload in addition to the blog front page. It seems an easy and overlooked feature. My entries look a bit austere without the photo I added.

Anyway, welcome to my new look. And, thanks again, Woo!

MSC Humanities Upgraded

Gerald Lucas — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:34:21 +0000

Yes, it’s finally finished. The migration from Drupal to WordPress on the MSC Humanities site is complete. Yes, the Leopard Server upgrade gave me some issues, but I think the result is worth it. Let’s just hope the next system update from Apple doesn’t break anything. It shouldn’t.

I still have some work to do to this site, the HumX, and to Big Jelly, but I’m pretty pleased with my migrations. Drupal served me well for a long time, but WordPress seems to be much more advanced — at least for my purposes. Yes, WP has its quirks, but in the big picture, it is just a better platform. Besides, it seems to have many more professional designers working for it.

I’m Addicted

Gerald Lucas — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:03:57 +0000

I seem to be, anyway. When I found Elegant Themes, I had to change the look of my photography web site. And this site with the Quadro theme. (I’m resisting the urge to move install one of these themes on HumX. No, I won’t.) Yes, for $20 a year, you too can have some pretty nice themes for your WordPress site.

So, I spent all day uploading some of my 2008 photography. Check it out. And leave a comment, especially if you got your gravatar on.

I’m planning on upgrading our departmental Xserve tomorrow with Leopard Server. With that will be a new Humanities web site, run on WordPress and Elegant Themes’ Who’s Who theme. Drupal just seems sluggish compared to the WordPress, so there’s nothing like a vacation to move everything.

I just hope the addiction will continue.

Great Themes

Gerald Lucas — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:41:52 +0000

I have to give a shout out to Woo Themes, my new favorite theme creators for WordPress. I like them so much, I changed LitMUSE, Gerald R. Lucas, Photographer, and the Humanities Index over to their three free themes, Typebased, Snapshot, and Premium News, respectively.

They have a subscription service, but being the poor educator that I am, I cannot afford what these elegant themes are worth. I wish I could; they deserve my support. Goodness knows: it’s very difficult to find consistent and aesthetically pleasing themes for WordPress (go get the new 2.7). Oh, they can be found, but they are as rare as finding a liberal Republican. So, when I do find excellent themes, I want to support their creators.

Maybe someone will get me one for Xmas? Maybe Blog Theme, Fresh Folio, or Paper Cut. I think any of these would be a excellent look for this site.

So, I give a very enthusiastic WOOT! to Woo Themes.

Revised

Gerald Lucas — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:58:31 +0000

Well, I’ve moved my photography web site from iWeb to WordPress. I also moved it to my ISP, from Apple’s me.com. I wasn’t about to pay $100 a year for calendar syncing (which is all I used from MobileME). So, I had to get my grlucas.com domain off of their servers.

I’m using a free theme from WooThemes called Snapshot. I’m not 100% pleased with it, but it’s better than any other theme I’ve seen for photoblogs. I might try to tweek the colors to match my gallery. A says it looks too “boxy.” Still, I like like its functionality.

So stop by. Leave a comment.

Drupal to WordPress

Gerald Lucas — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:51:40 +0000

Why is this so difficult?

I’ve been looking for days, and I have yet to find a viable solution to move my Drupal site(s) to WordPress. Why? The links on WordPress’ web site are very old; Google search comes up with several promising hits, but nothing that pans out. They’re either old, or too complicated.

I’m moving to WordPress for ease and speed. I like Drupal quite a bit, but it is a real chore to update. Module porting to newer versions is slow with Drupal, or sometimes just doesn’t happen. Most Drupal themes are awful. WordPress just seems much more friendly for my needs. It’s fast and responsive. I plan to move LitMUSE and HumX to WordPress, too.

This Drupal issue aside, I had much luck porting all of my old Movable Type stuff to WordPress. It was almost too easy. It should be here soon, along with comments.

Now, I have to move those comments to Disqus. This will probably be pretty painless. However, I’m as optimistic about moving them from my Drupal install. We’ll see soon.

NMS: Keeping Me Busy

Gerald Lucas — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:34:38 +0000

After a year of using iWeb for the Norman Mailer Society’s web site, I finally wizened up and began using WordPress.

Now, I have nothing against iWeb for beginners. It’s much better than the Micro$oft equivalent (what isn’t?), but it has some major flaws. For one, it is a pain in the butt to do a simple update if you’re not using me.com. So when I was sent an update or an editing suggestion, sometimes I’d put it off for days since it was such a chore. Apple has a good product, but it’s really only usable with their online service.

So with WordPress, I’ve been updating the NMS site almost daily with Mailer news. I’m actually into it. We’ll see how long it lasts, but for now, go there, subscribe to the feed, and leave some comments. I’m beginning to think I’m the only one who uses the site.