Archive for the 'design and graphics' Category

 

Syntax highlighter activated

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006

Well it goes like so . . . Thanks goes to Peter Ryan. Great visual enhancement.


	function show_photos_main() {
		$album = $_GET['album'];
		$photo = $_GET['photo'];
		$page = $_GET['page'];
		$tags = $_GET['tags'];
		$show = $_GET['show'];

		$output = '';
		$continue = true;
		if (!is_null($show)) {
			if ($show == 'tags') {
				$output = $this->show_tags();
				$continue = false;
			}
			elseif ($show == 'recent') {
				$tags = '';
			}
		}

		if ($continue) {
			// Show list of albums/photosets (none have been selected yet)
			if (is_null($album) && is_null($tags) && is_null($photo)) {
				$output = $this->show_albums($page);
			}
			// Show list of photos in the selected album/photoset
			elseif (!is_null($album) && is_null($photo)) {
				$output = $this->show_album_thumbnails($album, $page);
			}
			// Show list of photos of the selected tags
			elseif (!is_null($tags) && is_null($photo)) {
				$output = $this->show_tags_thumbnails($tags, $page);
			}
			// Show the selected photo in the slected album/photoset
			elseif ((!is_null($album) || !is_null($tags)) && !is_null($photo)) {
				$output = $this->show_photo($album, $tags, $photo, $page);
			}
		}

		if ($this->has_error) {
			$this->template->reset('error');
			$this->template->set('message', $this->error_detail);
			$output = $this->template->fetch();
		}

		return $output;
	}

AJAX (not) AJAX

Sunday, September 24th, 2006

No not Asynchronous Javascript eXtensions. Last friday I went to a trainings-exercise of the proud of Amsterdam. The AJAX soccerteam. The school organised it, it was great. Once an acclaimed soccer club. Today still in the top regions of dutch soccer but not as gr8 as it used tobe.

Newest Flickrzzz

Sunday, September 24th, 2006

I have uploaded my newest Flickr photos.
Two new sets actually:

Thought you’d like to know ;)

Another day another theme

Friday, September 15th, 2006

Mood changes

As you can see I made another change. Again :) You might say I am a bit restless. True. It is the fun of it. Really. The default Kubrick is just so perfect but. . . lacks some hype and further possiblities I thought. So obvious one should have a look at . . . right!, K2 by again that same Michael Heilemann, amongst many others who help out. Further readings and sightings can be observed here:

So why K2?

It’s state of the art. What is? Primarily AJAX functionality. Livecomments, watch your comments been added real-time, no refreshing of the page you were reading. Amazing. Hitting enter after you’ve typed in a search, no more. As you type in your keyword(s) watch the main content on the left be changed realtime with the results. Cool. Behind the scenes, AJAX aswell. In the admin section of your WordPress blog K2 has made it super simple for everyone. Adding custom header images, on the fly. Changing blocks in your sidebar, on the fly, dragging and dropping, realtime changes. Wow. Options, options galore.

Rest ‘n peace?

Dunno. It’s something duallistic within me. One side says “knock it off”, get some sleep. The other is already thinking about more and more possibilities. It is a mental illness for sure ;) .

K2 theme

Credits go to Th3 Prophetman. He made the fine K2-style ‘Blue-K2‘. The style from which I modded mine. Actually I only added Blue-K2’s header, footer and background images. The rest is 100% pure K2 native. Well almost. Many thanks go to the Th3 Prophetman. All in all Flyweb’s look is a bit like Kubrick-classic don’t you think? Precisely, that’s what I wanted in the first place.

Kubrick and WordPress

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

Switch

Okay I made a decision. Let’s go back to basics. After spending much time in trying all sorts of themes I switched to the default WordPress theme Kubrick by Michael Heilemann. The themes I have tried out so far:

To name just the ones I enjoyed quite a bit. Another theme that caught my attention for it’s nice layout and use of AJAX snippets is ‘Lush’ from Marco van Hylckama Vlieg and Christoph Boecken. I haven’t decided yet for it has some limitations on the way it’ll render on FireFox.

So why the change to Kubrick?

Well I was a bit bored. It clearly seems that the more a theme offers in colors, layout, useability the faster it bored me. Anyway that’s one explanation. Another might be that I am still charmed by the raw simplicity that Kubrick offers. It’s almost like this theme is the foundation of all blog-themes. And maybe it is. Offcourse I adjusted one thingy or two. To name a few modifications I have made:

  • Added LiveSearch AJAX powered search, instead of the default/conventional search method, by John Nunemaker.
  • Altered the rather dull <h2> font family by a more stylish one, Century Gothic. I like it’s typography more.
  • Added a more efficient way to navigate my blog by use of Liew Cheon Fong’s ‘SuperNav-bar’.

The plugins I use

And a few more I didn’t mention because it’s use isn’t visible on the blog but in the admin section.

Another nice feature I discovered was the Kubrick-Headermaker a.k.a. “Kubrickr” by Owen Winkler at RedAlt. You really should try it out. I realize that this might be old information but I was glad I found it. Result…look at the header image. Like it?

Conclusion

I am defnitely going to change again. I just love the work in getting a theme modded to my likings and making it XHTML Strict 1.0.

Wishes for Kubrick

I am still very interested in more AJAX control. This site is powered with the Script.aculo.us scripts. But other, maybe lighter/easier script suites are waiting like Moo.FX. And even maybe Ruby on Rails stuff. I have a lot todo. But to stick with Script.aculo.us seems difficult because of its bugs. In certain situations IE and FF crash because of Script.aculo.us. That’s a pitty.

Sneak preview WordPress 2.1?

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

I am still a bit doubtfull whether I missed this or did I really stumbled upon a sneak preview? The tocome new WordPress version 2.1 offcourse will be revised, overhauled and comestically upgraded. But how will it look? Just maybe your (and my) answers can be found at Broken Kode.

The Shuttle is a complete beautification of the WordPress Administration Panel. The project has been in development since early 2005. The images on Broken Kode effectively show the future of the WordPress administration panel. These are the images they did in Photoshop, so there is no plugin for you to download, as it’s not been incorporated into the final release yet.

Windows XP won't get DirectX 10

Tuesday, June 13th, 2006

ATI, in a recent meeting in London, mentioned that Microsoft won’t release a version of DirectX 10 for Windows XP, instead making it an exclusive Vista feature. This is likely to encourage gamers to upgrade when Vista is made available sometimes in 2007.

This decision has raised the ire of some gamers who feel they shouldn’t have to upgrade their operating system to play a game. EVE Online announced that they will upgrade their popular space MMORPG’s graphic engine to include DirectX 10 features, and Halo 2 will be a Vista-only title.

During a DirectX 10-related event in London, UK, Richard Huddy, ATI Technologies’ software developers relations chief, said that Microsoft’s Vista will integrate DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 APIs for different types of hardware, but the current Windows XP will not get DirectX 10 support, as suggested some rumours earlier. For end users this means that to get the most advantages of the new-generation graphics processing units (GPUs), the new OS will be required.

Opera 9 Beta

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

I see the that Opera 9 is out in beta. According to the Opera 9 press release, it’s got some neat new features — among them, the ability to “customize your search engines” which, I hope, means the ability to add search engines to Opera’s search box easily. Right now, that’s quite a little feat for people not used to modifying desktop applications.

Another feature that I wish they’d implement: the ability to create folders in the RSS feeds tab. It would be nice for organizing feeds. But, dig this:

Thumbnail preview – It’s easy to have many tabs open at once in Opera. But exactly which tab had that video you wanted? Hover any tab to see a thumbnail preview.

I’d say that’s pretty fancy.

Unfortunately, I’m not trying the Opera 9 beta today; as usual, it’s a working weekend, and that means I’m supposed to be working. [gna gna]