Vampire Trix

New XOOPS theme coming up!

Kevin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:37:37 +0000

Hello everyone!

I’ve been working hard on a new ‘refresh’ of my sites design, and I have decided to bring my new theme to XOOPS. And the good news is that it’s already nearly completed, and it looks gorgeous!

It’s a standards compliant theme that runs in all modern browsers, even in IE9 and up (as noted before, I don’t support any browsers that aren’t up to date).

It’s packing the same design as here, but only modified to XOOPS, and I’ve even added a sweet image slider!

Now, without further ado, here’s a screenshot!

That’s the IE9 version, by the way.

Coming soon to my newly launched webshop!

Quick-tip: how to avoid getting your stylesheet cached

Kevin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:25:22 +0000

Ever since I’ve started using openDNS my stylesheets constantly get cached which makes it really hard to develop – so here’s a little trick on how to avoid getting your stylesheets cached. It’s very simple.

Instead of doing this:

We’ll use this:

This bit of code, echo time(); will display the time which is different all of the time, so it effectively avoids getting your style.css cached.

Kevin

Getting started with HTML5 offline cache

Kevin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:41:21 +0000

Hello everyone!

This is one where I was afraid for: offline cache. A fear which really isn’t needed at all, as it is really a piece of cake to get started with offline caching in HTML5.

I’m now using it on two of my websites, this one included, and it takes only minutes to get started (although I’m not completely sure if I did it right, I think I did

Getting started!

First of all, you’ll need to make sure that you are actually working in an HTML document, so don’t forget the HTML5 doctype! (believe it or not, that’s a common thing people forget). It’s very easy, but I’ll type it here anyway:

After that code, we’ll need to create a new file, called offlinecache.manifest. That file will tell the browser which files it’s allowed to cache. You can also tell what it shouldn’t cache – you’ve got complete control.

So, open up your favorite text editor and create a new file. In that file, you’ll need to paste something like this.

CACHEMANIFEST

 # version: 1

 # List CACHEable files

 CACHE:

 images/background.jpg

 images/adblocker.png

 images/alert-overlay.png

 images/canvas-bg.jpg

# List here what shouldn't be cached. Use * to allow only caching what is listed above

 NETWORK:

 *

This file is pretty straight-forward, but I’ll explain this anyway. You can change the version without any problem, that’s just a comment – but don’t change the CACHEMANIFEST. Under the CACHE you’ll need to specify what is allowed to be cached. You aren’t limited to images, you can also add HTML files and more.

Under NETWORK, you can specify what shouldn’t get cached. Now, that can be a lot of work to specify that, so just add a * to avoid having to specify everything. If you use *, it’ll avoid caching anything you haven’t said that could be cached.

When you’re done in this file, save it as offlinecache.manifest

If you’re actively developing your site, it’s handy to avoid caching your style.css or template files!

Now, we still need to upload this file to our website, so do that. I prefer to have this file in my site root. You can place it in a folder if you like to, just remember where you place it.

Now, we’ll still need to edit 2 files to get this to work. Open your html file (or any file where you specify the doctype) and add, after the

(remember, it has to be HTML5!), this chunk of code:

This will tell where your offlinecache file is and let know the browser that you want to cache these files. Edit the site location to where your file is, save it and you’re done here. Who told you it would be hard?

Now, the last step is to edit our .htaccess file (if you don’t have one – make one).

Making a htaccess file can be quite tricky on windows, so just call it site.htaccess or something and rename it on your server.

Now, paste (if you already have stuff in your htaccess just add it at the bottom of the file):

AddType text/cache-manifest manifest

And that’s all! Just save and upload this file (and don’t forget to rename it to .htaccess). Now you should get a toolbar in Firefox asking you if you want to allow caching of files. Congratulations!

If for any reason that doesn’t happen just leave a comment and I’ll try to help you out!

Kevin

New design plus new tutorials coming!

Kevin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:12:22 +0000

Hello everyone!

Just a quick update to tell you guys I’ve updated the design of my blog, to make it a bit more blog-like.

Also, I’m going to add a lot more tutorials, as that’s one of the more popular kind of posts here. Currently, I’m working on a XOOPS theme that will be full HTML5 which also supports ‘theme expansions’.

It’s already being coded, and it will feature nice things: I’m making it a concept-theme and I’ll offer it as a framework for others to work upon – a state of the art one with nice features.

I’ll be telling about it while working on it on this blog too.

PS: I know about how my blog looks like in IE or any other browser, just didn’t have the time to fix it all

Kevin

Tired of it all…

Kevin — Sun, 29 May 2011 11:22:19 +0000

Hello everybody… long time since my last serious post

Sorry for me not posting a lot lately but I’m really getting tired of it all. My life hasn’t been too easy or too fun lately. Fun has been strangely absent, just like any form of luck.
But don’t worry, it’s not going to be a “rage” post, I’m going to explain why. It’s time I get this from my shoulders.

This year, 2011, started quite well, and I hoped it would have been a better year for me than 2010 was, but after a short good start things started to get really bad.

First of all, I don’t know if you all know this, but I haven’t had contact with my parents ever since they kicked me out in 2009. I still remember it well, it started as a little fight, but it was the last drop that made the bucket overflow. Long story short: they kicked me out and I had to live together with my girlfriend, Kirsi, with who I am still together, now for nearly two years and three months. But I’ll come back on that last bit later. Seems like my father stopped taking his pills a week or two earlier. And guess what happened… I got kicked out. And I have a violent dad: that day he tried to get me off the stairs by pulling on my hair with his full weight. Never lost so much hair as back then.

My parents, except one time when they put my remaining stuff at my grandmother (I learnt about that from my aunt, who has helped me), haven’t contacted me. Or well, they didn’t try to. But in the beginning of this year, thing seemed to change. My father tried to befriend me on Facebook and well… my girlfriend Kirsi is still angry at my father and mother for doing what they did. So Kirsi ignored the request.

He tried to contact me in various ways until one day, I still remember it well, I was walking to the railway station when I got a phone call from my dad. Believe me, it’s awkward when somebody who ignored you for the last few years contacts you. Especially since they didn’t seem to care a bit about me. I’ve had to pay my school costs myself (thanks to my school I got the schoolbooks from last year for free, but paid for the books this year). And I get about € 108.00 a month to get through, so I don’t have much budget. They never even suggested to help me.
So he called me and asked if I would like to come to a family party. That’s right, a party to see my whole family back. In the end, it seems, they only invited me because my dad’s mother asked for me, and it was her birthday party.

After a lot of arguments with Kirsi we went to that party, and well, except one phone call I made to them, to congratulate my mother with her birthday, I haven’t heard from them since.

My birthday was the 7th of April, and the day I’m writing this, we’re almost 2 months further and I still haven’t heard a thing from them. Or from many others.

All of my friends congratulated me, but my family almost all forgot me. Except the family on my mother’s side, they are on my side and have helped me since I got kicked out. Of course, thanks to Facebook most of my friends send me a message or wrote something on my wall, but a few days before my birthday I wasn’t even sure if I would do anything for my birthday. Situations at home, like my girlfriends mother getting an operation, simply cancelled all stuff there was planned for my birthday. Not that there was anything planned.

In the end, I invited my best friends to go eat a kebab. Lots of arguments with Kirsi later and moving it 2 times, we finally did that. From them I got my only presents… 2 cd’s and a dvd, and I’m really grateful to them for giving those things to me. It’s not about the amount of gifts, but the thought. But it still hurts knowing that they are the only ones who really thought about me.

I’ve had the most worthless birthday I’ve ever had, believe me. Simply because it wasn’t like a birthday. Didn’t even receive a postcard . And to make things worse, I usually don’t have to go to school on my birthday because of it mostly being in the easter holidays, but this year it wasn’t. Not like that was a problem, it happened a few times before… but it made a lousy birthday even more worse.

The only positive thing was that I went to Jeff Dunham the day after my birthday. But as I’d like to say, one light can’t light a whole dark night. It can light a small clearing, but not the whole night.

But that’s not the only thing that went wrong, also my whole love life is fucked up with more arguments between me and Kirsi, but we are kind of stuck together. Don’t recommend anyone to be in the same situation as me, as I’m being teared apart.

Also, school is really annoying me, it’s simply not fun at all anymore… I get bored constantly, I’ve got way too much schoolwork and barely free time, and when I have free time I don’t know what to do. Boring ass life…

And worst of all I’m afraid to loose my friends again, as I didn’t give them enough (well, none) attention because I wanted to save my relation with Kirsi but that’s doomed anyhow.

And on professional part: still haven’t sold a copy of Faster or Faster v2, says enough. Going to give it away for free soon, it’s just been a big waste of time like everything else. Don’t know if I’ll continue working on XOOPS too, haven’t been able to install XE3. Everything I do is a big waste of time…

God I hate my life.

Kevin

Now for sale: premium xoops theme Faster 2

Kevin — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:17:05 +0000

Hello everybody!

Today I’m introducing the new version of my #1st paid premium xoops theme, Faster. This version is named Faster 2 (I’m really bad with creative names ).

The theme has been made for XOOPS 2.4/2.5 but it should run on older 2.x releases too. It’s a 3 column theme with a fixed width of 960px (which can be easily tweaked).
Included is a special site closed template

The new version includes 3 new color styles (pink, grey and blue) and included are the PSD files for these colors. Together with this release I’ve lowered the price of the theme to $2.99. I’m also working on ways to give the theme away for free.

This theme also includes free support and updates (I might add new color styles) and I guarantee that when Xoops Engine is released, this theme will get a version to run on it.

The theme has been tested in all modern browsers (that means everything above IE7). It’s now for sale for only $2.99 (which is $2.69 cheaper than the earlier version!). You’ll also get a discount for my upcoming theme Laguna (I haven’t set a price yet ). You can also get it for free right now by using TrailPay!

Update: 19/05/2011: now you can also pay with PayPal, check, wire transfer and creditcards. Use the Buy Now button to buy the theme in one of these ways. (please note that the paypal and creditcard option are not available if you use a free emailadress. If you use one feel free to mail me on vampire.trix@gmail.com for a solution. Other payment options will be introduced soon.)

A demo is available here

You can buy it by mailing me on vampire.trix@gmail.com and I’ll give you the instructions. I’m still working on more diverse payment options.

Kevin

Small updates :)

Kevin — Tue, 17 May 2011 08:03:22 +0000

Damn, I’m silent

I’ve just updated my blog a bit and stuff will get refreshed here soon. Got lots of work to do

You’ll be seeing me here a lot more and I’ll also use this site a lot more.

Kevin

Faster update coming along nicely :)

Kevin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:34:06 +0000

The update to Faster is going fast. Yesterday, I made 3 new colors: grey, blue and purple, but I might add some more. The PSD’s of these are also going to be included in the updated package.

I’ve also started to code the new colors, purple first, and had a working version of the purple layout (though very rough) but I’ve updated the stylesheet switcher and that has me on a changing header only atm (but the script is full working and it’s now much easier to update).

I’ll try to post pictures of the PSD’s later on today so you can tell me what you think about it (when I enable comments, that is ).

Disappointment

Kevin — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:42:24 +0000

Well, I expected a bit more, but hey everybody would.

Let me get you up to date… Recently, I’ve released my first XOOPS premium theme, called Faster. I had moderate hopes for it, as it didn’t include special features – I’m still working on those, but they will be in Laguna, my next premium theme. If I will release it, that is.

My theme, Faster, is for sale for € 3,99, which includes free support, free customization help and a PSD as well as the theme itself.

But unfortunately, I haven’t sold a single copy of the theme, so I’m going to change some things. First of all, I’m remaking the theme a bit so it’ll include several stylesheets (I’ll aim for at least 3 colors). I’ll also include some of the special features I’m still working on (my themeoptions project ). I’ll also lower the price with about $3 to $2.99.

I’ll re-release the theme when I can release Laguna too, and I’ll offer them in a pack for $4.99 only.

I’ll also add, next to the theme and the PSD a HTML version.

I’ll expect to launch the new version somewhere in the beginning of March.

Hard at work :)

Kevin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:01:02 +0000

I’m always busy lately. Always doing stuff, even stuff I don’t like at all.

I’ve just finished the Spellborn Fan Hub Secret Project #1, which was a total redesign for both the forum as the portal. Now they have a nearly identical look, though there are some small differences. And SMF it’s template system is an absolute nightmare: all html layout code wrapped into php echo statements, which looks really messy – you don’t have a good look on the code. It’s like a giant puzzle, but kind of hard.

For the WordPress (portal) version, that was actually a dream to create compared to SMF: it even looks good in IE!

Even though I still need to do a lot of work on it, it’s basically all tweaking. Glad that’s done.

Now for secret project 2… that’s going to take a while.

I still need to finish this design, test RIFT (got a VIP beta key for first comment ;D )… why are days so short?