Finally!
Pretty Permalinks
I was finally able to get “Pretty Permalinks” to work on both of my blogs. I had to get my host support on board. Apparenty I did not have a .htaccess file in the root directory of each of my sites. They added it and I was able to modify theme with the code that WordPress generates when the Apache mod is not present on your server. Once that was done I now have nice, neat permalinks.
Site Updated!
Sub Navigation Buttons
I just updated my home page with a great new Stack from Gary Byrd of rapidweaverthemes.com.. I follow Gary on Twitter and in the RapidWeaver forums, I have also done some mock up work for him. I saw that he released a set of stand alone button stacks. So I made a request of him to see if he would make a stack that was basically a sub navigation for a site that does not use the built in RW tool bar function. I had a make shift sub nav on my site made up of a Blocks page and the blocks built in button block. I then used the great PlusKit plugin to import it into a text Stack on my home page.
A More Elegant Solution
Once I saw that Gary had release the Awesome Button Stack I was pretty sure his talents would be called into play for my request. So I tweeted a message to him with my request and he was more than glad to oblige me.
Great Devs and RW Community
I cannot thank Gary enough for this great Stack and his efforts. Also, the great RapidWeaver Community of plugin and theme developers that I follow on Twitter and on the RW Forums. I just love that on Twitter you can be in contact with the devs of the products that you use.
Keep up the good work RW devs and thanks again!
Great Apps for iPhone and Mac
Great New iPhone App
Pastebot is a great new app from Tapbots. They make some very cool iPhone/iPod Touch apps that are very well designed and are easy to use. I own two of them, Convertbot and now Pastebot. Pastbot is the new release and the more I use it the more I wonder why this was never done before.
Clipboard on Steroids
With the companion Mac app, Pastebot Sync, you can now transfer photos from the iPhone directly to iPhoto or any other place that you would like on your Mac. Or you can copy a photo from iPhoto onto your iPhone. Think about this for a minute. Say I want to just put one photo onto my iPhone and I do not have the time to plug in the iPhone, allow it to do its backup and then sync everything. Now, just select the picture you want and copy it to your clipboard and there it is on your iPhone. Wow, that makes things so much more convenient and handy. It is one of my favorite new apps.
A new Bird on the Block, meet Kiwi!
Kiwi is a new Twitter App for the Mac from YourHead Software, the RapidWeaver plugin devs. YourHead is venturing outside of the RapidWeaver area and branching out to a standalone Mac app.
What makes Kiwi unique is the ability to apply a different theme or style to the app for a more personal touch. It is now my primary Twitter app on my Mac and I know that it will only improve over time.
Try this out and see for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.
GeoDefense Swarm
Great New iPhone Game
Geodefense Storm is a great game for the iPhone and I have to say that it is very addictive. There is already several post online with strategies for completing the more difficult levels.
Gaming Platform
The iPhone is such a wonderful, portable gaming platform. It is very easy to play each of the games and Gd Swarm is a great example of that.
WordPress for iphone 2.0
WordPress App
this post as well as the previous post were written with the new WordPress iPhone App and TextExpander Touch.
Cool, huh?
TextExpander Touch
Test of TextExpander Touch
Here is a test of the TextExpander Touch features.
This post was written with the app and it performs the same as the mac app. The only difference is that the iPhone does not allow it to run in the background. Smile on My Mac does have a SDK for iPhone devs to use within their apps. Tweetie 2, for instance, uses it within the app. It works very well.
Wish List
I hope that the folks that develope the WordPress for iPhone App would integrate it within the app. It would then be close to perfection As a mobile blogging app.
Learning Adobe Illustrator CS4
Powerful Tool
Adobe Illustrator is a very powerful vector tool. It has many tools that can make a vector illustration look great. But there is a bit of a learning curve for me though. I have been using Adobe (formally Macromedia) Fireworks CS3. Fireworks is a great vector software tool for moderately sophisticated illustrations. It is a great web page and web graphics tool. But it has its limitations. I have become proficient with it and the way the workflow is. The inspector makes since, etc.
Illustrator can make very sophisticated vector graphics for print, PDF and the web. The features are numerous and very detailed. I am just not use to the way you manipulate the object or the canvas for the actual final product. That will come with time though.
Head Scratcher
What I do not understand about Illustrator is why some tools that are in Photoshop and Fireworks are missing from it. I want to make a nice inner shadow on a rectangle but I cannot with Illustrator. It is frustrating at best but there is a work around for it that I am not too please with. I have looked at several tutorials online that show just what can be done with this software so I will keep on practicing with it to see if I can master it as well as I have Fireworks.
Future Work
At this time I am working on a stamp vector for my contact page that I am please with so far. I just need to figure out how to make my logo look better in Illustrator than one I made in Fireworks.
Further Updates to The ViewPort
Navigation
I added a navigation for the sub pages of the About page. This was due to the layout I wanted to achieve. Plus it was something I could play with using Blocks from Yourhead Software and PlusKit from Loghound Software.
Updated Contact Form
I updated the contact form to actually function properly as it should. Check out and send me a note to see the functionality of it. It is a great plugin from Yabdab Software.
Header Updated~New Logo
Header Images
I updated the three images in the header area of the new site design. Thanks to Elixirgraphics for some of the art work. Next up is the content area. I will be adding the content to reflect the old ViewPort site. A couple of pages are needed as well, search, site map, a contact page and the colophon page.
New Logo
I designed the new The ViewPort logo. I felt it reflects what a viewport actually is. It too is a work in progress, I need to practice restraint with it though because I want to keep it minimalist in nature.
New Site Design
The ViewPort Refresh
I am in the process of finally updating my site with one of the newer Rapidweaver themes from seyDesign. Also, this blog will focus solely on things Apple, Rapidweaver and other things that may geek me out! Also, I am going to launch a blog only site using WordPress for my political views. Once that is up I will direct anyone that is interested to that site.
Work in Progress
I am doing a little experimenting with this site but some of the experimentation will take place over at the ViewPort Lab site. Here I will play around with the latest and greatest themes, plugin and other goodies that the group of talented RW devs have to offer.