Powerful Listing of Opensource Tools and Hacks

This is a very, very impressive listing of useful Opensource software and, hacks for various platforms and commercial software. Everything is catagorized. If you scroll all the way to the bottom you will find an immense listing of many things in addition. I especially like the way this person created the catagories by using "I want to do………"

Definately get familiar with this highly useful site.

i-want-freeware-utilities

WordPress 2.0 with Gallery2 Embedded

I'm lovin' it. At first, of course, I didn't. It was fustrating getting Gallery 2 to embed; my fault, not galleries. The documentation is extensive for Gallery2. The problem is that some of it is a little hard to understand when you first read it. For instance, there is a section in the codex for creating the whole embedding thing yourself; and a section for employing the embedding already built into Gallery2. The problem - the beginner can't easily tell which to be reading at first.

Gallery2 is exceptional; as is WordPress 2.01. A Dummies Guide is being worked on this week to help others to fully intergrate these two packages. I am presently focused on the whole visual CSS finishing of Gallery2 into my site; once finished I will post the tutorial.

Finally Upgraded To WordPress v2.02

I'm bullheaded. Those who know me though, will tell you the truth; I'm not bullheaded; I'm just a big coward when it comes to making a major change to my site's inner workings. I had WP 1.5.2 tweaked so minutely, that I didn't want to risk starting over. All my plug-ins; my CSS; and anything else which might break during an upgrade, I wanted to avoid.

I had felt that everyone(geeks mostly); were simply jumping on the whole Web 2.0 bandwagon, and were creating a upgrade with all the fancy bling-bling for the hell-of-it. So, I gave things time to settle-in, and waited patiently to give them time to work the bugs out.

But I have to say; I LOVE IT !!!!! IT'S BEAUTIFUL !!!

Even my CSS seems to render better than before. All sorts of exceptional plug-ins and what-not have been developed by people for this new-wave of WordPress. And it all seems extremely more powerful than anything before. Only four, out of the 42(too many) plug-ins I had before do not work with WP 2.0. And these I could live without anyway.

Now, it took me four hours from beginning to end. And this was only because I was very, very slow and methodical with each step. I was also very redundant with backing everything up. I downloaded every single file in both a compressed and uncompressed form. After all files were uploaded and installation complete; I turned on each plug-in one at a time; and clicked through the entire administration interface; as well as, every page and catagory link on the public side of things. Testing post and commenting functionality after each plug-in was installed. It all was smooth as silk.

Now, I will install the WPG2 plug-in that fully embed's the Gallery2 package I installed the night before. I will also kick myself in the ass today for waiting so long to do it.

Gallery2 Installed Here

This definately was an experience that generated plenty of notes for an in-depth tutorial in the near future. The forums, as well as Google haven't been much help either.

It seems that Gallery2's slideshow depends on ActiveX, and it's full-screen slideshow runs on Java. Unfortunately, firefox doesn't do ActiveX; because it is shit to begin with; activeX that is; and Java just bloats things.

Now, most people visiting a site wouldn't choose a full screen view to begin with; and most serious users of the internet use Firefox. So, what was the developers thinking? I'm sure they know what their doing well beyond the scope of my ability to keep up.

But, it just doesn't make sense to make something that only renders well in IE; unless your somehow have a business association with Microsoft. And searching through the official forums is an exercise in futility.

New Theme Now Online Full Time

The new theme looks good so far in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. A few details left to tweak it just right. The commercial website is rolling along in development. I've registered the domain name and have got new server space to assign it. It will utilize WordPress 2.0; as opposed to 1.5 in use here behind my personal site. I'm excited; and can't wait to roll it out in the next week or two.

Please tell me what you think about the new look here.