There are a few things that we’re starting to implement before rolling these sites live and giving access to the client, and most of these revolve around customising the administration area so that it’s not as confusing for non-techy clients.

Here are a few of the plugins we’re using and how they help:

• WPCandy’s Login Logo Plugin
  This helps customise the logo of the login screen so that it can be replaced with your company’s own logo or a logo of the client’s company.
  More information on WPCandy’s Login Logo Plugin.
• Wordpress Custom Admin Branding Plugin
  This is another logo that helps brand up the administration areas of Wordpress. It lets you change the header image, include header and footer images and change the login screen. It’s WP2.5 compatible and is relatively easy to implement.
  More information on the Wordpress Custom Admin Branding plugin.
• Branded Login Screen
  This plugin helps brand the login screen whilst also providing additional functionality such as removing the link back to Wordpress.org.
  More informaiton on the Branded Login Screen plugin.
• Wordpress Dashboard Editor
  This little beauty helps remove the more client unfriendly parts of Wordpress’ dashboard.
  More information on the Wordpress Dashboard Editor Plugin.
• Easy Admin Colour Schemes
  The title says it all, this plugin lets you easily add customised colour schemes to the administration area of Wordpress.
  More information on the Easy Admin Colour Schemes Plugin.

I’ll cover off some other tweaks and plugins that will further enhance Wordpress’ use as a CMS in later posts.

Photo by Nikolay Bachiyski

Does anyone know of a good Xbox 360 Gamercard PHP API plugin or standalone code that I can integrate into the site?

Photo by Tom Hensel.

Just so you know, I’ll be constantly adding to the site from now on and will try and get back to posting a decent amount of stuff.

Right… I need some sleep!

Photo by myself.

Now that I’m nearly done I have one final dilemma - Do I keep all the content from the “old” blog or should I start afresh? The only reason this is a dilemma is that there are a few post from the past that do actually generate a lot of traffic to the site (still!). So do I dump everything and start right from the beginning again or just plod on?

Hmmm decisions, decisions…

I’ve got everything working as it should, and almost everything styled correctly with only the “single post page” and comments page to style and iron out a few bugs.

I’ve packaged it up as a Wordpress theme so that I can make changes easily and keep a versioned backup.

Some info on the theme (for reference):

• Self-contained Wordpress Theme.
• Uses the FlickrRSS Wordpress Plugin.
• Makes use of the Xbox 360 Gamercard Wordpress Plugin.
• Uses icons from Mark James & Joseph North.
• Designed using the 960Grid System by Nathan Smith.
• Powered by Douwe Egberts, Powerade, iTunes and repeated visits to the Wordpress Codex.

I should be finished in the next few days and hopefully will switch it “live” next weekend.

Until then…

Normally, to allow Front Row to work with an external monitor, all I do is:

System Preferences » Displays » Arrangement

And then drag the grey menu bar to desired screen.

99% of the time this allows me to use the external monitor as the main Front Row screen. Recently, even after performing the steps above, Front Row will run only on my Macbook Pro.

Having tried several suggestions found on Apple Discussions, I think I have found a solution to the problem.

If your Front Row refuses to move to the external monitor, whilst Front Row is running simply press CMD + ALT + ESC - this forces Front Row to quit. The next time you run Front Row it should now appear on your external monitor (as long as you have followed the normal steps above).

I’ve tried this on the last 3 occassions I have had this problem and each time has fixed it… but as always YMMV.

Also, I’ve just orded 4x 43″ Westcott Umbrellas (2 white and 2 silver) from MPEX so that I have a complete home studio for when the babba arrives. Now I need to find myself some umbrella adapters in the UK at a good price (any recommendations are welcome).

Finally, it was also good to see some familiar names like Ian and Neil in the comments recently - thanks for the comments guys.

I’ve been meaning to get back into blogging for some time now, and after a few years out in the cold and several broken promises, I think I’ve been bitten by the blogging bug once more.

I’ve been busy working on the design and coding away and you can check out the work in progress here.

Still a lot of code to put in before I start chopping it up into a Wordpress theme but I feel I’ve got quite a lot done today.

While you wait for the new site, feel free to check out my other haunts:

• Chris Owens on Flickr
• Chris Owens on Facebook
• Chris Owens on LinkedIn

Comments on the new design are certainly welcome.

I’m also going to be taking a lot more photographs, uploading to Flickr more often, reading more books, watching a lot more football and playing on the 360 on a regular basis.

For the curious amongst you: I already have a job lined up and in fact have been working for some time now doing a lot of development work. However, I’m hoping to concentrate more on the project management aspect of the business as well as keeping the digital side of the company up-to-date with the latest web technologies, standards and trends etc.

However, the most important news this year… Me and Kaz just bought our first house! We’ve had the offer accepted, mortgage is sorted, the surveyor has given us the all-clear and we’re just waiting for searches to complete… if all goes well we could well be moving house at the end of this month.

For those of you who actually still read this via RSS or here on the site, I’ll be back soon enough, having only 3 months left of my degree. Everything is going well and I’ve got a new expensive interest in photography, so please feel free to check out my Flickr page.

I’ll try and post every now and again for the few friends and people that still read my ramblings… and then things should return to normal once I graduate.

Until the next time…

I’m rapidly approaching my final year at university and with the work getting harder and harder, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to dedicate my time to my blog like I used to be able to do. I don’t want my content to become “stale” like it has for the past few weeks, so I’ve decided to take a brief hiatus.

I’ll definitely be blogging again in the future - that goes without saying - it just won’t be until I finish university.

See you in the comments…

A few things of note before I take a well earned days rest:

• Andy is back and blogging.
• Hotmail are now offering .co.uk & .fr addresses
• The first Apple store opens in the UK… and thousands flock to buy stuff. (BBC Video via Neil).
• I wish Netscape would roll over and die! However, it seems Firefox has revived Netscape.
• Spammer on trial - Give him the f’n electric chair!
• Zeldman quit smoking - funnily enough, I feel less creative too.
• Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Pro Evolution 4, Football Manager 2005 and Ghost Recon 2 amongst others are either out now or due out very soon - What the hell is a student supposed to do… study or play?

Congratulations to me!

I’ve also been working on a redesign which is about 60% complete, so as soon as the assignments are out of the way I’ll get back to finishing that too.

Oh, and I expect my friends and family are not going to be seeing much of me for several weeks, and it’s all because of this and this and the release of Half Life 2 - Damn, why does the games industry do this to me?.