On The Big Bend
I have just graduated the Computer Software Development program at Indian Hills (A.A.S). The relief I felt to be finished with my degree, in contrast to graduating with my BA in 1993 was tremendous. This time, I had a fairly specific path toward a goal that I had chosen. The goal was a job in any of either eLearning/technical training, technical writing, Web Development, or Applications Development. I am pleased to announce that I, along with one of my classmates, have been hired as an Applications Developer at Barker Specialty Products in Keosauqua, IA.
Keosauqua, IA is, first of all, in Iowa. Second: it has barely over 1000 residents. I’m sure I can’t even begin to imagine the culture shock I am about to experience. So far, the experience with finding a place to live and meeting my future landlady (have not met the landlord yet) have been reassuring. At our first meeting, I experienced what I am sure must be that “small town charm”.
I have about two weeks before I can move to my new place. The rental house, found “word-of-mouth” through an old friend from college, is perfect for my needs: two bedrooms, attached garage, washer/dryer hookups, and open living room and kitchen plan. It is situated within walking distance from one of the two grocery stores in town, and just off of HWY 1, which is also known as Broad Street. My work is a short bike ride away or about a 10 minute walk. A two minute walk the other direction will take me to Misty’s Malt Shop – the apparent hub of the town and the place where I am told I can pick up keys and drop off rent if I can’t get in touch with my landlords.
Misty’s is where I met Cindy, the landlady. I walked in, took a brief look around the small shop and as soon as I was wondering which of the people were there to meet me, Cindy spoke up and said, “Are you Tracy?”. I said I was, thinking the woman probably recognized a stranger to town instantly. She also told me she saw my Missouri license plates. I anticipate getting my hands, or teeth rather, around one of their tenderloins before the month is out.
I’m not sure yet, but I may keep a blog about my life in small-town Iowa, chronicling the things I see and the changes in my life as I adjust to the largest one of the Villages of Van Buren: Keosauqua, IA.
WordPress Web Software Lesson Part 1
WordPress is one of the most popular content management and blog publishing applications on the web today. Started in 2003 as a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing, WordPress has since grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day. Over 25 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home”. [1]
WordPress started as just a blogging system, but has evolved to a full content management system and so much more through the thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes. WordPress is limited only by your imagination. (And tech chops.)[2]
WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it, more than most commercial platforms. It also means you are free to use it for anything from your cat’s home page to a Fortune 500 web site without paying anyone a license fee. There are a number of other important freedoms.[3]
WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architectured personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL. It is licensed under the GPLv2 (or later). WordPress is fresh software, but its roots and development go back to 2001. It is a mature and stable product, focused on user experience and web standards.[4]
WordPress offers a cutting edge feature set, including full standards compliance, pages (non-blog pages), links, themes, communication tools, spam protection, multiple authors, and many more, which you can read further about at their website, http://wordpress.org/about/features/. With all of the relevant, features, WordPress remains easy to install and use. In the simplest terms, there are three easy steps to being on your way to becoming a WordPress expert yourself.
- Find a Web Host and get great hosting while supporting WordPress at the same time.
- Download & Install WordPress with our famous 5-minute installation[5]. Feel like a rock star.
- Read the Documentation and become a WordPress expert yourself, impress your friends.[6]
The installation process is famously easy – with the “5-minute install” being the benchmark. If for some reason there is a problem with installation, there is a guide and support forums. Help and information at the wordpress.org website is plentiful, in the form of the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress and a living repository for WordPress information and documentation.[7] Within the WordPress codex there are articles aimed at anyone from beginner to developer. Additionally, there are a multitude of external websites, some including videos, which are dedicated to WordPress training.
As with many software packages WordPress has its own lingo or jargon. There is an article available in the codex to explain many of them.[8] Here are a few terms which will introduce you to some of the WordPress terminology used in this article.
Terms:
Content management system – A Content Management System, or CMS, is software for facilitating the maintenance of content, but not design, on a website. A blogging tool is an example of a Content Management System.
GPL – (Version 2 here) “GPL” stands for “General Public License”. The most widespread such license is the GNU General Public License, or GNU GPL for short. This can be further shortened to “GPL”, when it is understood that the GNU GPL is the one intended.[9]
Open Source – Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. [10]
Plugin – A set of software components that adds specific abilities to a larger software application.
Theme – A theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a weblog. A theme modifies the way the weblog is displayed, without modifying the underlying software. Essentially, the WordPress theme system is a way to skin your weblog.[11]
Typography - Typography refers to the arrangement of text on a page, and appears in some form or another in all instances of written communication. Depending on the purpose, typography can be used for optimum readability, impact, or an artistic statement. At the most basic, typography is a combination of font, size, spacing, and color. The overall purpose behind the typography of the article is to clearly communicate written information to a reader.[12]
Widget – A small application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. They are derived from the idea of code reuse.[13]
WordPress Codex – The online manual for WordPress and a living repository for WordPress information and documentation.[14]
You can see a complete glossary of terms in the Codex at http://codex.wordpress.org/Glossary.
WordPress Cheat Sheet
A few weeks ago I came across the WordPress cheat sheet by Ekin Ertaç (www.ekinertac.com). It looks like a useful resource so I thought I would post it here.
Web Scripting Class Research
As part of a web scripting class, I did some research on the history of search engines and came across this excellent Infographic. I wanted to place it in a blog post as a way to keep track of some of my research. You can click on it to get to the original source – a bigger version.
Infographic byWordStream Internet Marketing