Lately, I’ve been coding some WordPress themes and code. So, I thought I’d showcase my efforts here on my site. Check out my new WordPress page to see what I’ve been up to.
There will be some items to download for your own use. Not all of them will be free, but some will. I’ve spent a lot of time on these, and I hope you might find them useful. If you like what you see and want something custom done or a tweak to something up there, let me know on the page.
Anything you guys would like to see for WordPress? I’m always looking for ideas.
This has become a big question for web technology. Opening up your source or API to the public can reap huge dividends. Just look at Twitter and all the news and apps and traffic it has. (It also has great content, but let’s have that as a given.) Closing your source or API can have quality control benefits and keeps your tech where you want it. Think Apple and their secrecy. Great innovations. Pros and cons on both sides.
For me, I’m more on the open side. Here’s my take.
Using my Twitter example, its growth has shot up in recent months. Personally, I think it is because of its openness. You could use any number of apps to use Twitter. You can control your experience. If you like the web version, use that. If you like an app, use that. Switch as you feel led.
Now, I’m not sure being totally open all of the time is the way to go. Apple obviously is doing okay, and they keep a tight lid on their advancements. The iPhone, the iPod, iTunes, and (oh yeah) their great computers. They do open their code up so people can create programs to use on their hardware (the App Store, Objective-C, Cocoa, etc).
So, what do you think? Open or Closed? Or Both? Or some better way?
Found this via John Saddington today. It’s good enough that I wanted to post this for any of my readers who design Wordpress themes.
This article contains some Wordpress cheat sheets for all of your theme development and design needs. I’ve already downloaded most of them, and will be referencing them often.
So, click through and enjoy, and let us know if you found them useful.
Think of a baseball team. 9 guys all playing together. They all have one goal: win the game, be the best team.
How do they get there? They practice, they work together. They usually have very good players. But they’re not perfect. They have imperfections.
No team is made up of perfect players. That means they all have strengths and weaknesses. The shortstop plays there because he’s a good shortstop, not catcher. The catcher isn’t a good pitcher. The pitcher can’t hit very well.
We have teams because we need each other. We can’t all play every position. Nor should we. God made us all different, so together we make a better whole. We should learn to use our diversity. It gives us a vast resource to lean upon. The slugger can teach the pitcher how to hit better.
When you have a team, you can rely on your teammates to help cover your weaknesses. And you can help cover their weaknesses. As a team, you can accomplish more.
In your team, where do you fit in? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are theirs? Once you learn these, your team can work better together and achieve more.
Going about my usual blog reading, I was reading this post (which linked to this Mashable post). Great thoughts. I’d like to add a few.
Video games are the movies of the next generation. Games can suck you into their worlds so easily, it’s not even funny. I remember playing Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic for days and days, totally immersed in the story. I think that game might be one of the reasons I like writing stories so much.
But as much of a bad rap as these games get, they do teach us something. They keep our minds active (and now with the Wii, the rest of us too!), they make you solve problems, they make you work with others. These are all very important in the working world. Use this to your advantage.
As an aside, I know there are games out there that are over the top. All things in moderation.
With all the means to get news, blog posts, and almost anything else on the web, which tools do you use? How efficient are they? Could they work better?
I was inspired by this post to think about my subscription practices, and I’ve found they could use some work. For my RSS feeds, I use Google Reader. I love it. But the number of articles per day has grown beyond what I can read everyday. What the above article suggested was to use email subscriptions for your must-read feeds. This would act as a filter and let you spend less time checking your feed reader. Cool.
So, my mind is taking that idea one step further. I find that for the few sites I frequent daily, I end up just checking their actual website. Why? Well, I comment on the posts. To do that, I have to be on their site. So why go through the RSS middleman? I did subscribe by email to these sites to see if it helped me at all. I think it has, at least a little.
I’ve found that I will probably end up with three categories of “feeds.”
A-list feeds that I just go to their site, but will also have some subscription to alert me (probably email and/or Twitter),
A-list feeds that I really like, but I don’t generally comment on or frequent the site, so I’ll get an email subscription,
Other feeds that I like enough to subscribe too, but that I just consume.
Of course, the feeds are always in flux. If I really start liking a feed in the third category, I’ll jump it somewhere above.
So what’s your way? Any cool tools you use to make it easier?
On this day, Memorial Day in the U.S., we remember those who have fallen in our armed forces. We remember what was sacrificed so that our nation could be safe. I pray that it is worth it.
A scene in Saving Private Ryan stirs me every time I see it. A solider stands over the grave of the man who saved him in battle. This is what he says:
My family is with me today. They wanted to come with me. To be honest with you, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel coming back here. Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. And I’ve tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that at least in your eyes, I’ve earned what all of you have done for me.
Let us remember always that someone has paid for our freedom. Let us remember those who made those sacrifices. Let us remember those who have endured the losses those sacrifices entailed.
And I pray that you and I remember the sacrifice our God also made in our stead. Let our warriors’ examples be a picture of what we all owe to God.
So, here’s one for all of us who tend to act before we think. Sometimes, we make an assumption that is incorrect. Others, we go on ahead without full knowledge. Still others, we just plain do something stupid.
Now that you’ve done something, you can’t go back and do it over again. Ok, now what?
Take Responsibility
There’s not much I dislike more than someone who has obviously made a mistake try and act like it wasn’t really their fault. Own up to mistakes that are truly yours. It takes some honesty on your part, and it isn’t very fun. But it’s the right thing to do. Sometimes, the mistake is not completely your fault. Even then, take responsibility for the part that was yours. Don’t let people walk over you, but own your own actions.
Learn From Them
Now that we’ve taken responsibility for our goof, learn from the blasted thing! In other words, don’t do it again. Take stock of what led to your mistake, and note what choices you made that were wrong or not the best. Sometimes the decisions you made will not initially seem wrong or less than optimum. Next time you are in the situation, remember the previous outcome. With that in mind, you should be wary of decisions which lead there again. Don’t waste a mistake!
There’s not much else. Pretty simple.
Also, remember your mistakes when someone else makes one. Some mistakes deserve hard consequences, but do not act as if it makes that person anything less. It’s not like you’re perfect either!
What mistakes have you learned the most from? Which ones do you laugh at in retrospect?
So here’s the deal. The music industry is changing. No, it already has changed. Not everyone knows it yet.
The Web is empowering the artists and the listeners. People who would have never made it into the mainstream 20 years ago can make a living. And people can find just that right band even if their taste is a little off the beaten path.
Pandora gave me a band I would have never found otherwise. (It’s Tokyo Rose, if you’re wondering) I bought a few songs from iTunes once I found them. It was awesome!
We need to take heed, my friends! The change is upon us! Okay, all poetic verbage aside, there are awesome ideas just waiting to be used.
What will the future be? How has the web changed music for you?
I’ve taken a little break from tweeting and blogging for the last week. Part was for vacation. Dusty and I went to Pigeon Forge, TN for a few days. We had a great time! No computers, no Twitter, just us. Wonderful.
But it did cause me to think about producing and consuming.
Lately I have been producing a lot. I’ve been blogging, Wordpressing, and Tweeting so much, I drained myself. I’ve blogged before on the value of silence before. I think I relearned that this week.
So, to keep it short: sometimes you need to just sit back and consume life. By that, I mean to enjoy time with family and friends, to go out and relax in the woods, to experience at art as opposed to creating art. When we overproduce, we empty ourselves. And when we are empty, nothing overflows. Our art, our work, our passions come from that overflow. Remember this next time you push yourself too hard. Take an hour, a day, a week to refill yourself. It’ll do you good.
So, what recharges you? What drains you? When do you need a break most?
Lately, I’ve been coding some WordPress themes and code. So, I thought I’d showcase my efforts here on my site. Check out my new WordPress page to see what I’ve been up to.
Open. Or Closed.
Here’s a quickie for the start of the week.
