HeadsetOptions Web Design, SEO, WordPress, Etcetra

When I started helping wpSnap on some of their technical issues last year, I realized that there was a lot of room to improve with the way conditional tags were written and addressed to produce the site that has among other things, featured listings, blogs and other WP themes all meshed into one pile of data in the backend. So when I was asked to redesign1 the site last month, I went a step ahead and offered to redo the backend as well.

The most prolific of issues on wpSnap (and other multi-author sites) seem to have stemmed from a new feature that was rolled into WordPress version 2.6, which was the creation of a new database table …

Added later: apparently it was not their server, but a network issue experiences only by Comcast customers due to a break in their traffic routing to the West Coast!
If you are reading this, we are back up again from this afternoons crash which pulled the plug on tens of thousands of web sites. It was not just sites on (dv) or (gs), even premium sites like TechCrunch and Jeffrey Zeldman (promoters of MT) were not spared, even MediaTemple.net was down, as if the whole place came down crashing! Questions on redundancy, data protection and web security creep into ones mind when you realize that for the period of this …

Aligned for WordPress theme is available for download at WP Pro! I will support this theme on that site.

We broke the 800px barrier this evening when we switched to Aligned- a theme originally designed by Thomas - The Undersigned for the Habari Project. We ported over the theme to WordPress to skin our own site. This nifty grid based theme is in beta and as you may notice, it can use a bit more styling to handle the various forms we have on this site and of course the IE bugs. We also went to a center aligned design, which was long over due as most visitors did …

I will be experimenting with partial feeds for the rest of this month. The splogger issues with my content is not yet resolved. I know switching to partial feed is going ass backwards and will inconvenience those who read my blogs on readers, but bear with me while I figure a work around.

Block Rocker is an “back to the basics” widget ready WordPress theme based on a TextPattern template by Squared Eye.
Demo, Download and License
Test the theme by running the demo, then grab a copy of Block Rocker WordPress theme. This theme is free for personal use, we urge you refer to the license section below before downloading if you plan on using it commercially or otherwise. The theme works with WordPress versions 2.0.x through 2.5.

The theme was ported over from TextPattern by the collaborative effort of MandarinMusing …

When a client of mine upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1 from WordPress 2.5 she encountered an issue where the database will not upgrading, resulting in the “WordPress 2.5.1 is available! Please update now.” flashing in her dashboard and every other admin pages. On initial search of the WordPress support forum, we found the following strings that pointed us in a certain direction:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/172004
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/168964

Neither strings suggest solutions that are easy or safe, however, I urge you check these posts and then search your install via file manager/FTP/WebFTP to ensure you do not have files with the following extensions anywhere within a writable …

WordPress 2.5.1 is already out, so the blog you upgraded last month, is outdated and worse, could be vulnerable. A Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE 2008 1930) which reads as below is now known to be the reason for this hastened release:
An attacker, who is able to register a specially crafted username on a Wordpress 2.5 installation, is able to generate authentication cookies for other chosen accounts.

This vulnerability exists because it is possible to modify authentication cookies without invalidating the cryptographic integrity protection.

If a Wordpress blog is configured to freely permit account creation, a remote attacker can gain Wordpress-administrator access and then elevate this to arbitrary code …

I get this question a lot; do you web design or blog design? and I say, is there a difference?

Most new site that I work on are built using free CMS like WordPress and Textpattern so they tend to have a bloggy feel to it, so I see where this question might arise from. But to me, a work done specifically to be published online, irrespective of the site being a blog, is considered “web design”, if it’s on the web and it involves designing, its web design.

With that said, there are many interpretation of what constitutes as web design. Not all web designs are created equal. …

The site is in transition to a simpler and visually engaging design, in the mean time, experience what a free theme and a sleepless weekend can do to your site! This mid-spring pre-reboot reboot is just an idea mash-up. The true reboot will be available on May 1st 2008 and will be built using hand tossed XHTML/CSS, a dash of PHP, some Javascript and home made grid.

If you are a local, drop in and meet Richmond net entrepreneurs, web designers, and network with folks interested in the internet and technology. Here’s a link to the meet up, sign up for free and stop by. I personally would like to meet some WordPress enthusiasts.