Significant changes in the draft specification include:

All women should live so long as to be this kind of old lady!

Toward the end of Sunday service, the Minister asked, ‘How many of you have forgiven your enemies?’

80% held up their hands.

The Minister then repeated his question.

All responded this time, except one small elderly lady.

‘Mrs. Neely?’; ‘Are you not willing to forgive your enemies?’

I don’t have any.’ She replied, smiling sweetly.

‘Mrs. Neely, that is very unusual. How old are you?’

‘Ninety-eight.’ she replied.

‘Oh, Mrs. Neely, would you please come down in front & tell us all how a person can live ninety-eight years & not have an enemy in the world?’

The little sweetheart of a lady tottered down the aisle, faced the congregation, and said:

‘I outlived the bitches.’

Bought my first issue of Dynamic Graphics: Design ideas for the real world (FEB-MAR 2008 V13N1). I must say there is a little more depth than meets the eye. I bought the issue for one of the main articles - 8 Highly Effective Habits for Web Design - from which this post is named. Take some time with this one because is says alot about the user experience and why building relationships with potential customers can be hindered when we turn people off with our designs and desires.

8 Highly Effective Habits for Web Design:

1. DON’T: Talk about yourself so much.
   DO: Listen to your users. What are they telling you?
2. DON’T: Send in Flash to do the job of HTML.
   DO: Use Flash to do what HTML can’t.
3. DON’T: Get in the way of visitors, especially if you’re selling something.
   DO: Mark the path clearly and consistently.
4. DON’T: Put visitors through a gauntlet of endless registration forms.
   DO: Be generous. Presume the best. Build a relationship.
5. DON’T: Become too attached.
   DO: Realize that successful sites change, grow and adapt.
6. DON’T: Copy successful websites.
   DO: Emulate successful websites.
7. DON’T: Presume that since it looks good on your computer, it’ll be fine.
   DO: Test, test, test and test again, on everything.
8. DON’T: Make it a monologue.
   DO: Make it a destination.

Enjoy

If the article is missing click here for pdf version

BLOG TIL YOU DROP - but not literally.

If Article is Missing

NY Times Blogging Stress

Charlton Heston will be missed.

stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com is funny stuff. And this guy is pretty right on with his banter. Looks like he has a book deal coming soon as well. May mean the site will miss a few things as he writes to sell but what he has out there is funny. And the comments as great as well. Show your support with a ‘SWPL Patrol’ banner on your site. If you see a ‘Stuff White People Like’ article or website, pass it on to this guy.

Canon Digital EOS Rebel XSi article on C|NET.

Canon’s Product Page

Inspiration comes in many ways. I have been using the bm-custom-login plugin for many months now (with several of my own modifications - I’ll mention below). It provides a great way to create custom graphics for the login screen to get that last finishing touch to a blog.

Below is a screen shot of the standard WordPress 2.5 login screen and my branded login screen (click either image to see a full size version). Or visit my Branded Login Screen in action.

What is Binary Moon’s bm-custom-login?

The main use for the plugin is to eliminate the threat of overwriting your login screen graphics during an upgrade. It is very simple to create the two images required for the login screen (login-bkg-tile.gif, login-bkg-bottom.gif), copy them into the ‘wp-admin\images’ folder and enjoy the new login screen you just created. The problem is forgetting about them during an upgrade. The upgrade will overwrite the files you created requiring a copy of the files after the fact or heaven forbid you have to recreate because you forgot to save them. The plugin allows for the login graphics to be kept in the images folder of the plugin so they will remain untouched after any WordPress updates/upgrades. I would definitely recommend this plugin if you are using WordPress 2.3.3 or older.

Not Compatible with WordPress 2.5

It seems the plugin is currenlty not compatable with WordPress 2.5. Here is where I come in. I have updated the css and created a plugin that incorporates a few changes I felt were missing from the original. On the WordPress login screen if you hover over the WordPress logo you find that if clicked you will be taken to WordPress.org. This has always seemed a bit odd to me. So I created two filters to change this behavior:

1) Have the logo area link back to the main page of the current blog.
2) Change the ‘Powered by’ title to mention the current blog title.

  

The Results

Mission accomplished. Because the css is so different between WordPress 2.5 and legacy versions I do a version check in the plugin and load the appropriate style sheet. This means if you want to make changes to the css be sure to edit the appropriate style sheet. The legacy verision is ‘branded_login_legacy.css’. The WordPress 2.5 version is ‘branded_login_screen.css’. At some point I will drop support for legacy but I will wait for a little wider acceptance of WordPress 2.5+ first. ‘Branded Login Screen’ is compatable with any graphics created for bm-custom-login.

Download Link