Posts tagged g33k
How do you create your WordPress themes?
44 years ago
by Erin
I’m really interested and curious to find out how other people come up with their themes for WordPress. Although I really love the blogging tool, my one complaint has been how hard it is for people like me, who aren’t that familiar with PHP, to successfully get in and create their own themes. There are some guides out there for people like me, but unfortunately I find a lot of them hard to understand and not too user friendly.
Normally I’ll begin in Photoshop and do a mock up of what I’d like my final theme to look like, including link colors, text colors, and etc. Then I’ll go and try to find an existing theme (usually from my collection) that will fit this idea. I then tweak the CSS and code around to get the theme to work, and I always give credit to the original creator of the original theme. Sometimes the theme works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Lately I’ve been contemplating building a theme from the ground up, without borrowing code from other themes, and it’s a little daunting. How do I start? Should I just build a page without WordPress in mind using CSS, and then try to fit WordPress into it afterwards? Should I try to build my theme around WordPress functions I know that I want to use?
Other things I try to do when envisioning a new theme is to check out the websites of my esteemed peers. 
Websites like beccary.com, tehsheriff.org, pure-essence.net, bubblessoc.net (even though it’s down at the moment), and veerle.duoh.com are all created with that clean, sophisticated, and elegant style that I love. There aren’t too many elements distracting you, all are very simple and clean and all of the elements match well and work well together.
How do you go about creating your themes? What is your process?
Yes!! Google Reader has Search!!
04 years ago
by Erin
I am a big fan of all things Google, one of these services being their Google Reader, a feed reeder. What is that, you ask? :dork:
Your inbox for the web
With Google Reader, keeping up with your favorite websites is as easy as checking your email.
* Stay up to date.
Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content.
* Share with your friends.
Use Google Reader’s built-in public page to easily share interesting items with your friends and family.
* Use it anywhere, for free.
Google Reader is totally free and works in most modern browsers, without any software to install.
One of my biggest complaints about it from the beginning was its lack of a search function. It seemed odd to me that a company that built its notoriety on creating a new search engine would not include this service in one of their products. But FINALLY, they have added this function! Now you can search your subscribed threads with ease:
Search lets you use keywords to find items in your subscriptions (if you’re looking to search all blogs, give Blog Search a try). If you subscribe to someone’s shared items, it’ll search those too.
This is just so awesome!! Especially for someone like me, who has literally THOUSANDS of read items, this is really an essential feature.
Thanks Google!! :star:
Did you hear? There’s a new iPod!
04 years ago
by Erin
But that’s not all. Seems like Apple has updated its whole line of iPods! XD So what’s new, you ask?
The new flagship iPod has “the same size screen as the iPhone, but it’s even thinner” (eight-millimeters, for those taking notes), and it also touts the “same multi-touch interface” found on the firm’s handset. Additionally, it boasts a 3.5-inch widescreen display, the ability to “flick through your photos,” and you even get the “slide to unlock” feature, too. And yes, this thing actually has WiFi. Of note, the built-in wireless antenna isn’t exactly attractive, but if it means that we can surf the web (YouTube included) and buy tunes on our iPod, we suppose it may be an acceptable flaw. As for battery life, the Touch is said to last 22-hours when playing back audio and 5-hours when watching video, but only time will tell how draining web surfing will be. The iPod Touch will be arriving in 8GB and 16GB flavors and will be priced at $299 and $399, respectively, when they ship “worldwide in a few weeks.”
And there’s also a new iPod Nano:
The new units will include 2-inch screens with QVGA resolution, and apparently boast the same quality as the iPod video. The displays have the highest pixel density the company has ever shipped, and it seems the extra-wide players will sport an “enhanced” UI (which looks a lot like the video we saw recently) and its own version of Cover Flow. The nano will come bundled with three games, including a circular-Arkanoid rip-off called Vortex, and apparently you’ll be able to purchase more from the iTunes store. The battery life is fairly impressive as well, with Apple touting 24 hours of playback for audio, and 5 hours for video. The 4GB model will be selling for $149, though it’s only available in silver, while the rainbow-colored 8GB will leave you $199 lighter in the wallet.
And a new classic iPod:
Like the brand new iPod nano, the flagship iPod is also sporting an all-new interface, headlined by Cover Flow. The iPod comes in 80GB and 160GB capacities, with 30 hours of battery for audio playback, 6 hours of video on the 80GB version, and 40 hours / 7 hours for the 160GB unit. In addition to the new interface, the iPod Classic is getting a new all-metal shell, and is selling at $249 for the 80 gigger, $349 for 160.
Thanks Engadget. Which one are you looking forward to? Personally, I think the iTouch is a ripoff for the amount of space they give you. Once I get enough money, I’ll just grab one of the video iPods. Maybe I can get the old ones for cheap somewhere. :star:
