This is why I love Plurk

My last plurk before being defenestrated by my wife

Finally some good new music

Let it be said that I sacrifice to the Metal Gods. Pantera, Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold…..that’s my steady diet. Most music these days really suck pretty bad. So it’s always a present surprise when I actually hear something really good, especially outside the Metal Realm.

I’m sure the rest of the planet is already into them, but that’s just fine with me. Everyone and their brother is talking about TV on the Radio, and I can see why.

A Change of Heading

Just wanted to let you guys know that over the next week or so I will quickly be  changing the direction of this blog. There are so many tech blogs out there, I’d rather not be an also-ran. If there is anything technical I must comment on, you will still find it here it just won’t be the focus.

Programming and design is where I spend most of my time, so I really want a place to blow off some steam and hopefully make you guys laugh. To anyone upset with this, I present this to you:

Do your blog posts stink? - Part 1

There are plenty of places to look on the Web to find amazing resources on how to write amazing posts to draw people to your blog and keep them coming back. However, here are some tips and some observations about why your blog posts might stink. This the first post in this series.

Balance

Balance: It's hard, but do it.

I spend a lot of time on the web, so I come across a ton of different websites of differing content quality and a wide swath of design standards. A lot of people don’t have a balance. There are a lot of pretty sites that have useless or no content. On the flip side of that coin, some sites have terrific content but the site does not have an organized navigation system. You can’t find what you need if the menus stink.

So you only have a set amount of time to work on your blogging? Make sure you spend some time in all the different areas it takes to run a successful blog. Make sure you have a good looking design and appropriate for your topic, but don’t try and push the envelope in the graphics design department if you are running a blog about sewing. If you are a graphic designer, however, people want to see really well done design. In that situation, don’t be afraid to take some chances.

Don’t rush thru writing your posts, but don’t let them sit around too long either. Sometime there is stuff that is extremely timely……those are the posts you should just get it up there. There are also times when you really need to sit down and really think about where a post is going. It really depends on the subject.

Lists Lists Lists!

Let’s face it, people love lists. I would presume the reason that this is so popular is that the brain gravitates to them as important, being that they really are bullets points. If you do a quick zip around on Twitter or a blog search, every single day you will see a ton of blogs with top “insert random number here” lists. Some sites almost singlehandedly rely on this technique. I myself don’t really use them as I have a hard time distilling a point down to that level.

Get Ticked

One of the best ways to get noticed is to tick people off. The average person has no problem pointing out the pitfalls of you being you, so you might as well keep them engaged in your writing. If you are an opinionated person, let it show!

Watch the advertising

If you have a boring, badly written blog, don’t use Adsense or any advertising for that matter. It makes your ugly site even uglier. I mean it.

Actually want to do it

Blogging is one of those things that will show how much you care for the subject you are writing about. Don’t blog because everyone else is, because you think you can make money from it; blog because you can make a fantastic blog better than everyone else. If you don’t have the guts to do it, don’t bother.

Hopefully you found some value in my post, discuss in the comments all the ways that help you write a good post.

The man we have to blame for smileys

It’s funny to think of all these things we do everyday as being younger than I am!

read more | digg story

Must Visit: CSS Tricks

Sometimes there are sites that are just a constant source of invaluable information. Chris Coyier’s CSS Tricks is an absolute positive goldmine of not just CSS but designing websites and also really cool programming tricks. There are some big names to always watch and Chris should definitely be a household name for all designers and programmers. Chris has some awesome screencasts that are really thorough.

CSS Tricks

The LHC didn’t go boom, but…….

Of course, the real problem with the Large Hadron Collider is network security.

read more | digg story

Creating a PHP Framework

I have been getting more and more interested in developing PHP while using a framework to help ease some of the things that are constantly done, such as interacting with the database and generating forms. Frameworks such as CodeIgniter and CakePHP can be incredibly useful in quickly ramping up a usable application.

As easy as some of these frameworks can be to use, there is still a learning curve ranging from not bad at all to downright ridiculous. Another reason I sometimes shy away from them is that you don’t really learn some things because the framework is taking care of it all. There is always something to be said for doing things from scratch as it usually translates into knowing it inside and out.

NETTUTS has a fantastic tutorial about developing a framework using PHP5 from scratch. NETTUTS always has extremely in depth tutorials that are easy to follow and well-made. Their sister sites such as PSDTUTS are also of the same extremely high caliber.

Create a PHP5 Framework - Part 1 and Part 2

The World Won’t Explode Tomorrow

Just as a public service to everyone, the world won’t blow up tomorrow.

Poll: What is your favorite PHP IDE?

I know a lot of people use just a text editor for programming with PHP but I seem to be spending more time using a full fledged IDE. So what do you guys use? Please discuss and argue in the comments! Thanks!

 Loading ...