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.

New Theme Chosen

It's Official; if your looking at a wide three column theme with no header image. The 'Tiga' theme by Shamsul, of shamsulazhar.com

I decided a while back to switch to a three column theme, and this was the first that I could see any potential in. I plan to develop the look for a commercial Tech-oriented site focused on Palm OS and associated hardware. After some modification and tweeking; it will be moved to it's own database addressed by it's own Dot Com. The original personal site template will be back shortly.

If you have any recommendations about anything to do with this or any of my content; then please leave a comment; it's welcome.

New Themes Here!!

I working with several new themes here @ronpemberton.com. I intend to develop a new site for Palm OS and associated hardware. The present theme is a three column. The "Tiga" theme can be found here