The Spinning Donut

The 2009 Mother’s Day Contest

Bill — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:18:20 +0000

This contest is now over and thanx to all who participated.

Hey folks. I’m running a contest over at DailyTwiTip.com. I’m giving away a flip minoHD camcorder valued at $229.00 or a $225.00 gift card to buy.com (winner’s choice).

I’m trying to get past the 2,000 followers mark by Monday, 5/4/09 at 10:00pm United States Central Standard Time. If I do, I’ll give away more prizes just in time for Mother’s Day. That is also when the drawing will take place.

Here’s what you have to do to win – browse over to my Mother’s Day Contest – 2009 blog post and do the following over there:

Follow DailyTwiTips on twitter (opens in a new window).
Simply send this tweet “I entered to win a flip minoHD. To win, follow @DailyTwiTips and retweet. http://xr.com/mom2009” (opens in a new window).
THIS IS IMPORTANT!! Enter your twitter username below and click on the Submit button. You’ll have to do this one over at my Mother’s Day Contest – 2009 blog post.

Of course, you’ll have to be on twitter to enter.

Good Luck!!

Also, I would love to get some more subscribers to my DailyTwiTips blog as well as folks commenting. I appreciate the support. Thanx!!

Post from: The Spinning Donut

The 2009 Mother’s Day Contest

How To Create An Addon Domain

Bill — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:31:57 +0000

When you sign up for your own web hosting account you typically receive x number of free additional domains. This means you can host other websites (domains) on your one web hosting account. These are called Addon Domains or Sub Domains. We’ll be discussing Addon Domains for this post.

For example, with my HostGator account I pay for one site and get unlimited free additional sites (domains) that I can host on my one account.

So what does that mean? Well, let’s take for example a main website called www.mymainsite.com. When you install this site on your web hosting site, it can be located in the root folder which is /.

Control Panel (cpanel)

When you want to add another website to your hosting site, you would pick Addon Domain. I’m using HostGator and the management tool called cpanel or Control Panel as it’s called. Here is a screenshot of what the Addon Domain menu selection looks like.

After selecting Addon Domains you’ll be presented with the following screen.

After adding the my2ndsite.com to your main website, you’ll have a tree structure like this – /public_html/my2ndsite. This is where you can add WordPress if that’s what you’re wanting to do. So you have a WordPress installation in the root at / and one at /public_html/my2ndsite.

Fantastico

With cpanel under my HostGator account, I can use the Fantastico software tool to install another instance of WordPress.

Now that I’ve created an Addon Domain, when the WordPress install asks me what domain I want to install WordPress on, I can slect the my2ndsite.com domain. The install directory would be left blank after selecting the my2ndsite.com domain. This will install WordPress into the root of the Addon Domain my2ndsite.com.

The admin username and password asked for during the WordPress install is the username and password you will use when you want to administer WordPress on your my2ndsite.com/wp-admin.

The Site name is the blog title and the Description is the blog tag line that will show up under the blog title.

Name Servers

A Name Server is where you’re web hosting is located. Although there’s more to a name server than that, I’ll leave it at that since all you really need to know for this task is where your name servers should be pointing to.

Let’s say you used GoDaddy to register your new domain name my2ndsite.com. You need to go change the name servers from GoDaddy’s default name servers to your web hosting account name servers.

For example, let’s say the two default nameservers are nsx.godaddy.com where x is a number. You would edit the name servers and change them to your name servers that you get at your web hosting site, which could be for example nsxxx.hostgator.com.

Now you and the rest of the world can browse to your new website www.my2ndsite.com. Woo Hoo!!

Recap

You have a main site called www.mymainsite.com and you want to start another website using your current web hosting site because you can add unlimited domains.
You create an Addon Domain called my2ndsite.com.
You installed WordPress into my2ndsite.com.
You change your domain’s name server to point at your my2ndsite.com domain located at your web hosting site.

Capiche? I know, clear as a bell. Ask any questions if you need help in the comments or contact me using the contact form.

Post from: The Spinning Donut

How To Create An Addon Domain

An Introduction To DotNetNuke

Bill — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:53:59 +0000

DotNetNuke is a Content Management System or CMS. It is written in the Microsoft Visual Basic .NET programming language.

A Content Management System allows you to get a professional website up and running quickly. It provides functionality to easily manage the users of a website, the content, design aspects, and many other attributes of a website.

With DotNetNuke, it’s not only easy to get a website up and running quickly but to manage and maintain its content.

For developers, specifically Visual Basic developers, DotNetNuke offers a programmer to get started with web development quickly and learning MIcrosoft’s ASPX technology. Since a VB programmer understands Visual Basic they’ll be able to pick up the programming languate Visual Basic .NET fairly quick.

To get started read my article 4 Programming Languages To Help You Become A Programmer. Download the freely available Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition by Microsoft. Then head over to the DotNetNuke website and download the Install Package of DotNetNuke.

Here’s the quickest way to get started:

Download and install the Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition. This can be a pretty long install and I accept all the defaults during install. Especially the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express option. You’ll need to install it so you can run DotNetNuke.
Download the DotNetNuke Install Package and unzip it to C:\DotNetNuke.
Fire up Microsoft Visual Web Developer and select File -> Open Web Site… and select the folder C:\DotNetNuke. Click Open. This will open DotNetNuke as a web site in Visual Web Developer.
Once the web site is open in the development system, press Ctrl-F5. This will start and run the web site wizard without the debugging system.
You’ll notice an ASP.NET Development Server pop-up in the lower right-hand corner of your window. This is the built in web server that comes installed with Visual Web Developer so there’s no need for Microsoft’s IIS web server.
After the web site has been compiled you’ll be presented with the first wizard screen to install DotNetNuke. On this screen the installation method default is “Typical”. Change it to “Auto” and click the Next link. There is a possible issue with the “Typical” install that hangs on a screen where the database scripts get run. To avoid this just select the “Auto” method.
The install will complete and you’ll have one web page that displays the output of the install with a link at the bottom that says, “Click Here To Access Your Portal.” Below is your DotNetNuke web site after a successful install.

Click image for larger view

So what do have? We installed the development environment so we can develop custom modules in the future for DotNetNuke. We downloaded and installed DotNetNuke. We opened the web site on our local hard drive at C:\DotNetNuke, compiled and ran the wizard to setup DotNetNuke.

This article was about running DotNetNuke on your computer. There is a bunch of other stuff to do and take into consideration to run a DotNetNuke site for public or private consumption. I’ll go over that type of stuff in a future article. So make sure you subscribe to my blog by email or by RSS Reader.

Here’s the video walk thru.

Note: When you’re installing Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, you might get a pop-up window that says something about needing .NET Framework 2.0 and you’re running 3.5. Just answer yes that you want to go ahead and use .NET Framework
3.5.

Post from: The Spinning Donut

An Introduction To DotNetNuke

10 Social Media Resource Tweets

Bill — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:30:11 +0000

Here are 10 tweets from Twitter on Social Media including statistics, links, tools, people and opinions.

1. Report: Social Web Usage Tipped in 2008 by ReadWriteWeb in care of a tweet by lizstrauss

2. Social Media Now 10.31.08 by Social Media Club in care of a tweet by jfouts

3. 10 of the Best Social Media Tools for PR Professional and Journalists by Mashable in care of a tweet by leadingzero

4. Social Media Exposes the Corporate Psychopath by BusinessWeek in care of a tweet by PheonixREGuy

5. 17 Un-Pimped but Kick-Butt Social Media People by altitude in care of a tweet by brianadrian

6. Election Day 2008: The Best Blogs and Social Media Resources by The Blog Herald care of a tweet by MLx

7. Yoono Releases Onslaught of New Features, Finds an Interesting Business Model by Mashable in care of a tweet by Mashable

8. Negative Online Behavior is a Product of Culture, Not Your Social Media Tools: What I’m Learning from the Work Literacy Course by The Bamboo Project in care of a tweet by brittgow

9. 7 Signs You May Be A Social Media Addict by FurtherNow in care of a tweet by rampantheart

10. The Top Five Books on Social Media Marketing and Public Relations by Dianosphere in care of a tweet by BuzzToNews

Photo Credit: Jan Tik

Post from: The Spinning Donut

10 Social Media Resource Tweets

An Introduction To The Loop Structure – Everyone’s A Bit Loopy

Bill — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:17:24 +0000

Loops are things in programming languages and operating systems that process stuff. Loops do what they sound like. If you were to run around in circles you are also looping around in a circle. So, if you can imagine running around in circles in the same spot, you have the ability to process stuff while you loop around in circles.

Processing stuff while you run around in circles could include catching something that someone throws to you, a ball for instance. In turn, you could throw the ball as you run around in circles as well. All the while, processing stuff that comes in and out of the loop.

That is what a loop structure is in programming languages. So let’s look at some examples.

WordPress

WordPress is written in a language called PHP which is a scripting language that is well suited for web application development. A great resource to read up and learn more about PHP is the W3 Schools website where they walk you through PHP in their PHP Tutorial.

Here is the WordPress loop that processes is the common index.php page.

while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

endwhile; ?>

The while and endwhile statements are the loop structure that processes what shows up on a common WordPress blog home page – blog posts. My interpretations is, “Run around in a circle while blog posts show up on the page. When there are no more blog posts, quit.”

As you look at loop structures in PHP as well as other languages, you’ll find out that there are different types of loop structures used for different purposes. These include statements like do..while, for, and foreach. Again visit the PHP Tutorial at the W3 Schools website to study more examples.

Visual Basic

In Visual Basic one type of loop structure looks like this:

for x = 1 to 100

debug.print(x)

next x

The Visual Basic loop tells us that x will count from 1 to 100 as the loop executes. There are other loop structures that can be used in Visual Basic just like any other language to process various actions in various ways for various reasons.

Windows Operating System

At another level, the Windows Operating System even has loop structures. Whenever you type on the keyboard or click the mouse a message is sent to a queue. The message queue (or list) gets processed and sends those messages to a program running in Windows where the program then interprets what the message is and what to do about it.

Once you understand how a loop structure works it’s pretty easy to figure them out in other languages. It then becomes a task of figuring out the nuances of those loop structures for each language. They don’t always work the same in every programming language.

Photo Credit: frostnova

Post from: The Spinning Donut

An Introduction To The Loop Structure – Everyone’s A Bit Loopy

Thesis Theme 1.3 for WordPress

Bill — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:34:24 +0000

Hey, it’s WordPress Wednesday and I got more on the Thesis Theme for WordPress. Now, I’m not trying to stick to a strict editorial schedule but since it’s Wednesday and I’m trying to update my Thesis theme I thought I’d write about it.

Shortly after I talked about some of the stuff I would like to see in the Thesis Theme for WordPress it was released with some of those very features. Three column layout was already in the previous versions but now you can have a column on the left side of your content and on the right side of your content. The two column also allows you to put content on the left or right side of the sidebar. All with a click of a button. Pretty cool.

Layout Constructor

The layout constructor as it’s called allows for a lot of flexibility with varying column widths and order. Excellent. All this is provided by the Thesis Design Options page under the Design menu in WordPress. The Design menu is currently named Appearance in the soon to be released (November 10, 2008) WordPress 2.7.

The following screen shot might look a bit different than the current WordPress 2.6.3 since it’s the Appearance menu selection in WordPress 2.7 at this time. You never know what we’ll get with the final version of WordPress 2.7. But, notice the different layout options available with the Thesis theme.

Chris The Plumber

Developer Chris Pearson has also reworked some of the internal plumbing of the theme. These changes are necessary to provide ultimate flexibility in the theme. It might be a bit confusing now but going forward with Thesis updates the rework will allow for a more flexible framework for everyone to do good theme stuff easier.

Also, if you’ve customized some of the Thesis code you’ll have to figure out where it goes. However, as I take the time to move stuff around that I’ve customized and understand what’s been done, I am trying to use the custom.css and custom_functions.php files to provide the functionality I want without touching any of the core coding files. Make sure you head over to the support forums for help and reviewing other folks who might have some of the same questions you have.

The Hook System

At the end of my Thesis Theme 1.2 for WordPress post I wrote how I wished upon a star for more places for hooks. Guess what? The Thesis theme is getting tricked out with hooks. Again, hooks are spots in the core code where you can insert your own custom code. You can also remove existing code as well, using those built-in hooks. All of this is controlled in one file, the custom_functions.php file. Kind of a centralized area to do your customizing which is nice.

What’s needed now?

I don’t know what the plans are for future versions of Thesis but I would like to see hoards of menu structure navigation designs. In other words, for the designer challenged among us, we don’t design our Thesis theme too much unless we know design or hire someone to design it. A few different menu designs that act and look different than the stock menu navigation look and feel would be good.

Also, do the same thing with headers. Promote a ton of different header images that are sized right and slide right into Thesis. When you don’t do heavy redesign with the Thesis theme, everyone using the Thesis theme starts looking the same.

Actually they have revealed a magazine style fuctionality that will be included in the Thesis theme. This was going to be a separate project called Cosmo, but it sounds like we’ll see it in the next versions of Thesis. Looking forward to it.

So that’s it for now and go get the Thesis theme to help with your WordPress theme implementations.

Post from: The Spinning Donut

Thesis Theme 1.3 for WordPress

Windows Vista Search – Getting To Know You – Part 1

Bill — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:36:43 +0000

Searching Windows Vista begins with the Start Search box located on the start menu. This little search box is pretty powerful. Working in Windows Vista recently, I found myself paying more attention to the Start Search on the Start menu.

The Start menu search box offers fast results by returning categorized, matching results as you type. The search box searches the following:

Your Start Menu
Web Browser History
Web Browser Favorites
Emails
Contact Information in Outlook
Folders and Files

Typing the word wordpress in the search box returns the following results as I type on my Vista PC.

The results will only fill up what can fit in the window. Hovering your mouse over one of the results will display more information in a pop-up help window. If you don’t see the result your looking for, click on the Search Everywhere link at the bottom of the results window. This will open an advanced search window with more results. If you’re using Google Desktop search that will open up in a window instead of the default Vista window.

The Search the Internet link will search your default Internet search provider.

The search box on the Start menu has been optimized to search the items on the Start menu. So clicking on the Start menu button or pressing your Windows key on your keyboard (if you have a Windows key on your keyboard) and typing in the search box the letters re will find Remote Desktop Connection faster than clicking on the Start menu button and navigating to the Remote Desktop Connection menu item.

Post from: The Spinning Donut

Windows Vista Search – Getting To Know You – Part 1

Thesis Theme 1.2 for WordPress

Bill — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:50:09 +0000

The WordPress Thesis theme is now at version 1.2 and there are a few changes as well as a bit of an overhaul in the plumbing – the guts of the theme.

While upgrading, if you follow the instructions by renaming your current thesis theme folder to something like thesis-old and then copy over the new thesis to the themes folder in WordPress, you’ll have all the newness that the Thesis theme offers.

However, you’ll also lose any customizations, so they advise to copy over your custom folder and your rotator folder if you’ve customized anything in those folders. Otherwise, you can do a straight copy of the theme and everything will be good.

Thesis theme developer Chris Pearson has moved some of the internals around making for more of an “object-oriented” style of coding. This makes things a bit more manageable but sometimes harder to find things you’d like to customize because of the “normal” way WordPress themes have been developed in the past.

Here are a few things I customized when the theme was released and now some I don’t need to customize because I’ve been able to use the new options that are listed in the thesis options page.

Footer Code

The Thesis Options page has a section where you can include code that goes in the footer. For example, stats tracking code like Google Analytics, HitTail.com code, or anything that makes sense for you to stuff in the footer before the final tag.

The Loop

The various loops has been moved into a file called loop.php which makes it more centralized for different kinds of pages – WordPress Page, WordPress Posts, Archives, etc. I did modify this for the single page post by adding end of post type code – Google Adsense, Related Posts, etc. I’m sure this has the potential to make its way into the Thesis Options page as well, but we’ll see. The loop.php file sits in the thesis/lib/functions folder.

So how am I going to make sure I update this for the next upgrade? Well, assuming the loop.php file stays in the same location, I’ve documented what I’ve customized and commented my additions/changes in the file itself.

Custom Functions

I had changed the custom function php file to include some changes to the post title byline, but now I don’t have to because they’ve included more customization in the Thesis Options page. Excellent.

Custom CSS

The only file I kept was the custom.css changes I’ve made for the custom styles I’ve implemented.

The Main Index

I don’t like the { X comments } in the main index at the end of each post so I removed them by commenting out one line in a file called launch.php that registers different actions. The action is a hook at the end of each post on the main index page.

I could have done it in a different place but for now I’m taking the easiest steps so in future thesis theme updates I won’t have too much to change. Again, documenting and commenting as I go. By the way, I use consistent text like “comment by Bill” so I can search the whole folder structure in the future and quickly and easily identify where I’ve changed things.

Also, on hooks, hooks are places in code where the designer/developer stick place marks so to speak, that we can use to do more customizing via a page like the Thesis Options page. It will be interesting to see how many show up over time.

The Footer Revisited

I commented out the original footer signature in footer_functions.php and replaced it with my own which are the three, right-justified lines at the bottom of this page. The way I did this was copy and paste what was already in the footer_functions.php file and adjust the text I wanted. However, there is a few options for the footer text on the Thesis Options page.

More Cha-Changes

I’ve only talked about a few of the many changes in the Thesis theme and with more options that have been added like the display options that affect the title of your blog and optional noindex and nofollow attribues on your tags, the options are getting close to providing what some SEO plugins offer. Some of this (SEO stuff) has been discussed via the custom fields in WordPress.

By the way, one other piece of custom code I removed, the tags code that I provided in the single page php file, because it is now provided on the Thesis Options page. Nice. I’ve only touched on the Thesis Options page but there is also the Thesis Design Options page which has everything to do with looks – font sizes, columns, etc.

On columns, I’d like to see 3 columns – one on the left, the middle content and one column on the right, sizable of course.

Summary

I’d love to see a Thesis IDE (Integrated Development Environment), maybe. There could be hooks everyway and the IDE would allow folks to just pick options, plop code here and there – plop ‘n play. Of course, a mini-preview screen that updates as you select different options. Okay, I’m going over board here.

As I work with the Thesis theme I start to wonder when the Thesis Options page will stop growing and be broken up into smaller chuncks. Obviously as functionality is added, the options page will grow.

Post from: The Spinning Donut

Thesis Theme 1.2 for WordPress