Despite some of the glitches I’ve been having with 2.6, I’ve grown to like most of the new features. Every time I come across a glitch, I research over at the wp forum and usually find some answers or more questions that guide me to finding my own solutions. I take notes and might publish some of them soon on this blog.

I’ve been playing with doing sidebars at the bottom of the page, even an area that has two sidebars, so it’s like a two-column sidebar - only they’re widgetized, so the user can customize it. The possibilities for Wordpress are far-reaching,  proven by loads of WP enthusiasts out there. Darren Hoyt, Justin Tadlock, and others have proven that WP can be a handy little CMS, with magazine style themes.

But even on a simple level, being able to have multiple sidebars in different page placements makes it nice. I tried using Joomla last year and spent a month learning it from a user and designer approach. I kept wondering how many users would have the time or patience to learn it (remember most users are still novice when it comes to this stuff.)  With Wordpress, the functionality can be built into the theme while the user end remains fairly simple. I like that.

I had the fairly recent pleasure of working with Wordpress 2.5.1. The new dashboard and a few other items took some adjustment, but after awhile, I’ve grown to appreciate it. But, just when I thought everything was going well, they came out with another update, 2.6. Even though there are some very cool features in 2.6, not all the bugs in 2.5.1 have been solved in this latest update. In addition, some hosts with Fantastico installer have rushed right out and updated their offerings, so 2.6 was the only auto install available. While this may seem nice, it can be a problem, especially when you haven’t had the time to really check out the update. Just take a look at the forums over at wordpress dot org to see all the issues.

My main complaint is the problem with Permalinks. There’s been an issue with permalinks: when you activate them and want to “pretty” up your urls to something like www.yoursite.com/page, you use a custom permalink code like this:  %postname%  which WP apparently doesn’t like all the time. It has something to do with the chronological nature of postings. Even though Pages are not chronological, they still use the same database and permalink system has a little trouble with that. One GOOD thing about the 2.6 is the ability to edit the Permalink once you’ve turned it on. There’s a permalink edit line right under the title box. You just have to remember to save the edit, and save the page, too. The folks who work on the WP code have said they’re going to address this issue in an upcoming update. Fingers crossed.

So, now the question is whether I’m going to update this blog. As you can see, it doesn’t get used very much and it’s a useful playground for working with this version - still used by many. I could upgrade to 2.3 at least, I suppose.

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t realized the many changes in Wordpress 2.3.2. And now they’re playing with version 2.5, but some changes are causing complaints, so I won’t go into that.  Read the rest of this entry »

These photos were taken within the past few days at my home in Caribou, Maine.  

To the left, is the view out the west side door, onto our backyard. The drifting from the north whips around the house and we’ve got a nice wall of snow on the north and west sides of the house. We’ve tried to keep up with it, but after the last storm, the drifting has caused some hard packing around doors and windows.

The snow has drifted high this year. The drier, lighter snow will easily be carried by the 25 mph winds.

You can click on the pictures and see an enlarged view. Then back your browser to return to this page. On the left again is a view of the north side of the house, you can see the height of the drift.

The side streets have become narrower because of drifting and the city hasn’t been able to keep up with keeping them widened - no place to put the snow. The banks are high. They come around and haul snow away in trucks.

The high winds and tall banks of packed snow do not deter my dog from venturing out. The hardpack allows him to climb to the peak so he can see out across his domain and communicate with the other neighborhood dogs. On the right is his snow wall.

Left is a view from the dining room, a north-side window. The high winds during the last blast caused the drifting up against the windows. Other people living in more open areas report higher drifting than this.

Theo loves BSG. For fans like us, BSG’s final season is a highlight of Spring. Bittersweet, tho.

If you haven’t been following the show, you can get a very brief catchup at the SciFi location: http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ in a humorous summary of the plot twists and character relationships. But go rent the first season DVD. If you don’t get hooked in the first 3-hour segment, it’s not your thing. But this is no cheap scifi or imitation of the original series. It has its own depth. I don’t get hooked on tv shows but I really like this one. Character driven, the writing and performances draw you in.

My laptop wallpaper was downloaded from polygeek.