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Site Maintenance
May 26, 2009 by Nicki
My host will be moving my account from PHP4 to PHP5, so just a head’s up: my site may be down for a little bit. (hopefully not long at all)
Update: Move went smoothly and everything seems to be working. Please let me know if you have or see any problems on the site. Thanks!
Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat
May 26, 2009 by Nicki
This update contains several fixes and enhancements.
Details
Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox, which is of course based on the Sandbox framework. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is also backwards compatible for version 2.6. (Sorry, I will no longer be supporting version 2.5 or older.)
Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.
Features
Theme option for changing sidebar location – Pretty self-explanatory, there’s a theme option so that the sidebar can easily be moved from left to right and back again from within the WordPress admin panel. The sidebar can also be removed altogether using this option.
Sitemap template – If desired, you can create a sitemap for your blog by simply using this template.
Links page template – If desired, you can create a links page by simply using this template.
Printer-friendly stylesheet – Something I think a lot of users don’t think about until someone tries to print a post. Personally, I think all blogs should have these!
Admin & Login links – Many WordPress-savvy users don’t need a link to get to the Admin panel, but it’s nice for those of us who can’t remember the exact URL for it!
Favicon & “web clip” icon – Something else I think a lot of users don’t think about. Personally, I hope all my users replace these files with their own. A favicon helps your blog stand out, IMO. Web clip icons are used by iPhone and iPod touch users when adding a bookmark to the Home Screen.
Visual sticky post indicator – With the introduction of sticky posts in WordPress 2.7, I’ve noticed that it’s hard to tell if a post is sticky or not. I like visual aids, and this is one.
Easy to implement Feedburner links – By default, Black Hat features a feed icon linked to the blog’s RSS feed. This can be changed to a Feedburner RSS feed by simply updating the Theme Options page. Additionally, you can also add the Feedburner email subscription link for your feed.
Default and conditional feed options – By default, Black Hat includes the coding for the following feed types: RDF/RSS 1.0, RSS .92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3. The RSS feed for all comments for your blog is also included. (note: these are overwritten if using the Feedburner option instead)
Conditional feeds: If viewing a single post, the comment feed for that post is available. If viewing a category, the feed for all posts in that category is available. If viewing a tag, the feed for all posts with that tag is available.
Additional/SEO meta tags – When developing my themes, I take the liberty of adding many commonly used meta tags. Most of the information is automatically filled in via various WordPress commands and can easily be modified by the user.
Twitter integration – In the post footer (when you click on a post, not viewing the index or archive page), there is a “Share on Twitter” link. You can also display your latest Tweet in the sidebar by updating the Theme Options with your Twitter username.
Related Posts feature – This function looks at the tags for a post and finds all posts matching those tags. If no tags are specified for a post, this function will not show up. This function can be disabled via the Theme Options.
Customized default avatar (Gravatar) to match theme design – Black Hat includes an avatar to match the theme style. To use, you would simply login to the WordPress Admin panel and set the custom avatar as default.
More detailed information on these and other features can be found in the theme’s readme file!
Fixes
- Comments displaying improperly (or not at all)
- Related Posts function now matches all tags, not just the first one listed.
- If a tag has been used only once, it is not included in the search.
- If only one tag is used, and it has only been used once, Related Posts function will not show.
- Comments and trackbacks now separated.
- If both trackbacks and comments exists, comments count corrected.
- Favicon corrected for backend (WP Admin).
- Navigation links added to post single view.
Availability
Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat
April 13, 2009 by Nicki
I normally don’t post updates to my themes here on the blog, but I think this one warrants an update post for a variety of reasons. This update has been so extensive, I want to post a little more information on this its features as well as its development. I also want to highlight what the theme has to offer — while this is all is located in the readme file, I don’t think I laid everything out in the original introduction post. And last but not least, I wanted to cite the various resources that I have used in both the development and updating processes.
Details
Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox, which is of course based on the Sandbox framework. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is also backwards compatible for version 2.6. (Sorry, I will no longer be supporting version 2.5 or older.)
Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.
Features
Theme option for changing sidebar location – Pretty self-explanatory, there’s a theme option so that the sidebar can easily be moved from left to right and back again from within the WordPress admin panel.
Sitemap template – If desired, you can create a sitemap for your blog by simply using this template.
Links page template – If desired, you can create a links page by simply using this template.
Printer-friendly stylesheet – Something I think a lot of users don’t think about until someone tries to print a post. Personally, I think all blogs should have these! 
Admin & Login links – Many WordPress-savvy users don’t need a link to get to the Admin panel, but it’s nice for those of us who can’t remember the exact URL for it!
Favicon – Something else I think a lot of users don’t think about. Personally, I hope all my users replace this file with their own. A favicon helps your blog stand out, IMO.
Visual sticky post indicator – With the introduction of sticky posts in WordPress 2.7, I’ve noticed that it’s hard to tell if a post is sticky or not. I like visual aids, and this is one.
Easy to implement Feedburner links – By default, Black Hat features a feed icon linked to the blog’s RSS feed. This can be changed to a Feedburner RSS feed by simply updating a file to include your Feedburner feed URL. There is also pre-written coding for the Feedburner email subscription link. Another simple edit can enable this feature.
Default and conditional feed options – By default, Black Hat includes the coding for the following feed types: RDF/RSS 1.0, RSS .92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3. The RSS feed for all comments for your blog is also included. Conditional feeds: If viewing a single post, the comment feed for that post is available. If viewing a category, the feed for all posts in that category is available. If viewing a tag, the feed for all posts with that tag is available.
Additional/SEO meta tags – When developing my themes, I take the liberty of adding many commonly used meta tags. Most of the information is automatically filled in via various WordPress commands and can easily be modified by the user.
Twitter integration – In the post footer (when you click on a post, not viewing the index or archive page), there is a “Share on Twitter” link. There is also some pre-written coding to allow you to display your latest Tweet in the sidebar.
Related Posts feature – This function looks at the first tag for a post and finds all posts matching that tag. If no tags are specified for a post, it simply will not show up at all.
Customized default avatar (Gravatar) to match theme design – Black Hat includes an avatar to match the theme style. To use, you would simply login to the WordPress Admin panel and set the custom avatar as default.
As I said, more detailed information on these can be found in the theme’s readme file.
Sources and Link Love
These are the various resources and individuals who have helped make this theme possible: WP Candy, Cats Who Code, ThemeLab, WP Recipes, WP Hacks, Lorelle on WordPress, the WordPress Codex, WP Seek, WP Tavern, Jacob at A Blinding Sonic Blast, WP Lover, WP Hackers mailing list, Theme Playground, and For the Lose.
My apologies if I’ve left anyone out!
Availability
Firefox addons updates
I know I said I would never update my old extensions, but I had a request from a user that tugged at my heart. A young man wrote to me pleading for an update to my MonstersGame: Vampires vs Werewolves Menu addon. Apparently his brother is stationed somewhere overseas and has access to the internet; they both play MG and have been keeping in touch that way.
What could I say except, “Ok, just for you two … ” 
Updating the extension proved to be a little more work than I first thought. So much has changed from 2.x to 3. After wrestling with it for the last couple days, I’ve finally got a working version to upload to AMO.
The skinning isn’t working, so that’ll have to wait until the next release. But for now, my addons rest in the capable hands of the AMO reviewers and editors.
MOVED and UPDATED!! WordPress Plugin: Blank Target Replacement
June 7, 2008 by Nicki
Comments Off
Just an FYI for anyone using this plugin…
I have moved my Blank Target Replacement plugin to WordPress.org for better version tracking and visibility — and not to mention auto-updates for those using it. (not that I don’t want my users to come back to my site often, but even *I* have to admit that WP auto plugin update thingy is NICE!)
Version Change
If you are using this plugin, please download and install the latest version (1.0) via the link below at your convenience. All previous versions are also available there (for those of you who aren’t using WP 2.5x).
Proceed with caution; and as always, feedback and bug reports are ALWAYS welcome here!
Download
Link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/blank-target-replacement/
Performancing slams WordPress over v2.5
April 14, 2008 by Nicki
Via BloggingPro, I was reading Raj Dash’s recent post explaining why he hates WordPress 2.5 with a pretty in-depth list of reasons. I have to admit, many of those he listed I can identify with and offer some sympathy … to a point. While there are still a handful of things that I’d change if I had my way, I feel Automattic worked in their users’ best interests, taking in many requests, most of which I’ve seen with my very own eyes on the forums, and now see reflected in these recent — however dramatic — changes!
Raj began to close his post with the following:
Automattic, you seriously dropped the ball on this. WordPress 2.5 is an enormous disappointment in the simplest of features. As an experienced (but retired) programmer, I can say with confidence that you don’t release significant interface changes in mid-version software. People that are expecting minor fixes might be shocked. V2.5 should have been renumbered to V3.0. If it had, more people might think twice before making a “big jump” from 2.x to 3.0. I’m so glad that I didn’t install WP 2.5 on a production site, but I do have to use it on several client sites – something I don’t relish.
You’ve now lost one of your most active WordPress evangelists…
He’s certainly entitled to his opinion. In the comments, he notes that power users ‘like him’ will hate the new WordPress. What’s more, new users seem to like WP 2.5 — wait, isn’t that a good thing? 
??:
My two pennies on the matter
I certainly can’t speak for anyone else, but I like to consider myself a WordPress “power user” and while it took me a day or so to learn my way around and where everything is in the new layout, I’m finding that I rather like it and now prefer it! On top of that, the dashboard is everything I have wanted for SO LONG! Almost every single one of my most frequently visited options/configurations/things-needing-changing are right there and I don’t have to click 2 or 3 links deep to find what I want. (something that used to piss me off to NO end!)
Isn’t this what progress is supposed to be like?
So what I want to know now is…
What do you think? Is Raj right? Has WordPress screwed the pooch on this one? Or is he over-reacting?
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