Made a few modifications to the ‘About’ page.
Read it all here.

Classes at Columbia have resumed again.
This semester will focus on:

• Flash
• Javascript
• Navigational Interfaces

I’ve also been doing a lot of research on SEO. I’m feelin’ good..

Wordpress plugins can be a real pain when they aren’t working. I was about ready to give up on using WP until I randomly came across a FAQ that said <?php wp_footer(); ?> needs to immediately precede the </body> tag for the plugin to work (theme/footer.php). I checked the theme I was using and sure enough the snippet of php was missing! If you ever have trouble with plugin functionality this may be the solution for you.

Thanks to that snippet of code, tehrok.com now has:

• Google Syntax Highlighter (Highlights code snippets with numbered rows)
• WordPress.com Stats (Tracks stats for the WP site. Other tracking provided by the server would also track requests made by WP, not only the visitor.)
• WP Online-Status (Displays the online status of my AIM account. Check the footer.)
• WP-Sticky (Adds a sticky post feature to the blog)

Other plugins I use are:

• AJAX Comments (Posts comments without refreshing the page)
• Akismet (Prevents spam, works great!)
• Lightbox JS (Overlays images on current page, dims the background)
• Sociable (Inserts buttons for social bookmarking sites. This is the best I’ve found so far.)

I will post about other plugins I use as I add them. This is a good start for now.

Over the next few weeks I will be blogging CSS tutorials, problems I’ve run into with CSS, and solutions I’ve found to these problems. With this practice I intend to keep a well-defined skillset as well as provide a reliable source for my friends and colleagues. I’m asked on a daily basis to look over a stylesheet or help with some sort of browser issue with CSS … so why not put everything all in one place? Ideas for blogs include:

• An overview of CSS for people that already have a good idea of how CSS works
• The future of CSS, CSS3 - how and when it should be used today
• How to properly set up full CSS documents
• A tutorial teaching how to code CSS shorthand

I am open to more suggestions. And please remember I’m not only limiting myself to CSS. When I get a better feel for how things shape up on the site I plan on implementing examples for code I provide. I don’t really like the idea of linking to external pages like in the CSS squares & hover properties post.

Furthermore.. I want to add you on my blogroll. Especially friends who are designers, photographers, IT geeks, or whatever else. If you would like to trade links drop me a line on the contact page.

This article is far from finished. Visual examples are coming soon.
What this next project will cover:

Attribute selectors:

img[alt]	{
	border: 2px solid #333;
    }

(this will give a dark gray border to images with alt attributes)

a[title]	{
	color: #0f3;
	}

(this applies a neon green color to anchors with a title attribute)

Elements can also be styled by class.

p[class=”tip”]	{
	text-transform:uppercase;
    text-size:110%;
    }

You can even add a background image to a quotation:

q[cite*=”http://www.tehrok.com/”]	{
	padding:0px 0px 0px 50px;
    background:url(http://tehrok.com/background.jpg;
    }

[cite*=”http://www.tehrok.com”] will apply to any citation with the tehrok url. Depending on the site design this may prove especially useful when used within a <blockquote> tag.

<q cite=”http://tehrok.com/?page_id=34”>WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU FOR 2,569. YOU DIE.</q>

The title pretty much says it all. I sat here trying to figure out what advantage a WYSIWYG editor could give a designer. Spelling ‘tehrok’ in this grid was a lot easier while being able to directly select the divs. Now to do something cool with it.. any ideas?

View the example here

Andy Konkol launched copyandwaste.com last week. His link is updated in the blogroll. Check it out.

One week left of class!
C# is kinda boring and Visual Studio just isn’t my thing. Parts of these can be fun of course, but I’m sure I can get my problem-solving fix elsewhere.. like working out CSS bugs in Internet Explorer.

I’m working on a new design for this site.  After I play around with some Wordpress Themes I’m sure I’ll know exactly what I want. Then the modding begins. Yay for internetz.

Fixing an analysis problem requires 3 times as much time and effort if not fixed until the design stage, 10 times as much time and effort if not fixed until the implementation stage, and 50 to 100 times if not fixed until the maintenance stage. Save yourself the headache… PLAN AHEAD

I’m chillin out for a while. Worthy classwork will be posted as necessary.

Looking for information about me? Click the About link.

simple web flyer promoting a birthday party. ‘get faded’

Speaking of birthday parties, heres a silly animated flyer I made for my birthday back in May. It sparked a chuckle in a few.. I love inside jokes.