Powered by Twitter Tools

Powered by Twitter Tools

I was doing my level best to get nothing done yesterday. As I was gleefully stumbling away I came across A.Pic.Co.Tv’s Art blog’s post Picasso’s Light Graffiti published by Life Magazine. So I had to ask, seeing as I am definitely photographically challenged, how was this done? I emailed my esteemed colleagues…

Britt Stokes, boy genius, responded in a split second.

He opened the lens in a relatively dark room, drew with a flashlight, then a flash was fired at the end of the exposure to record him in his final position.

Our publisher, Dr. Michael Roach, emailed:

In a fully dark room Picasso drew the bull(centuar) with a small flashlight facing the camera which had its lens fully open on a tripod,  and just at the end of the move the photographer (Gjon Mili I believe) fired the off camera flash that was at the left of the camera.  The flash was fired by a manual button instead of using the synch on the camera.  Neat huh?

Makes perfect sense.
I’m glad I asked.

(Ask The Photographers #1? Had to do with camera choices for a wedding photographer…)

Image Credit & Copyright: Pablo Picasso’s Flashlight Centaur
Photo: Gjon Mili/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  1949

Slidepress is just the latest offering from Dominey Design, a web development company in Atlanta. Their main focus- AKA obsession- is Slideshowpro- a quick and easy and versatile Flash-based slideshow application  available as a Flash Component and a standalone xml-driven swf. Plus they offer an web application called Slideshow Director- a database-driven image and video management application for installation on your won web server.

Dominey’s vision is vast- when you purchase any of their products they offer a number of freebie export scripts for Photoshop, various version of iPhoto, a server -side PHP XML Builder, to make the the process of creating the xml file which form the basis of these slideshow applications. They also offer a Lightroom to SlideshowPro Director upload app.

$24 for an Ounce of GOLD

That ounce of GOLD is the standalone SlideshowPro app.

They have managed to create what I consider that absolute best and versatile slideshow plugin for wordpress. Yes, I know, we wordpress people have a tendency to be cheap so the $24 investment might dissuade you BUT you will be missing out in a big way. Not only does Slidepress work with Dominey’s superb image management app SlideshowPro Director, it also works with WordPress’ native Media Library content and RSS feeds from Flicker etc.

Database Connection Error! 1054: Unknown column

When I first installed the Slidepress plugin I did receive a database error:

Database Connection Error! 1054: Unknown column ‘navThumbLinkBackgroundColor’ in ‘field list’

I re-installed the plugin, I downloaded the plugin again and manually installed it and deactivated and reactivated and it didn’t resolve itself. so I posted in the SlideshowPro forum. It seems that problem is not wide spread but definitely presenting itself for other users.

A quick google for mySQL error 1054 led me to believe that the plugin was neglecting to create the aforementioned table so, while waiting for answer, I decided to muck about and see if I could learn something.

On a lark, I opened slidepress.php in BBEdit and added   
navNumberLinkColor text NULL ,
to line 229.

The error message changed to:
Database Connection Error! 1054: Unknown column ‘navThumbLinkBackgroundColor’ in ‘field list’

SO I knew I was onto something.
I added
added navThumbLinkBackgroundColor text NULL ,
to line 233

The plugin works flawlessly now. nearest thing I could figure out was that function action_activate()  in slidepress.php is missing a bunch of table names names in the list of tables to create

Great Wiki

The Slidepress plugin is brought to you by the same guys that created the crosdomain creator so it is only right that it is so well-documented. Installation instructions are pretty easy to follow and can be found at
http://slidepress.net/installation.php

Want more installation details?
http://wiki.slideshowpro.net/SSPsa/SP-Installation

time to build a slideshow

At this point I would usually build an illustrated step-by-step tutorial on using this plugin. However, the guys at Dominey beat me to it and, to be honest, I couldn’t possibly do any better.

Find it here.
http://wiki.slideshowpro.net/SSPsa/SP-Usage

UPDATE

Here’s my version of the slidepress.php file for reference. if push comes to shove, you could test your set up by dropping this file in your slidepress folder.

Download SlidePress-php.zip

Powered by Twitter Tools

Powered by Twitter Tools

It’s so simple, so brilliant, why didn’t anyone think of this before?

A while back and few version ago, new preacutions were added to Flash player 7: a flash movie playing inside a browser would not be allowed to access data outside the exact domain in which .swf resides. By default, .swf files can’t even read from subdomains, or even parent domains if the swf is located in a subdomain.

With this new security measure,  Macromedia (now Adobe) added the use of the cross domain policy file, a simple xml file that gives permission to a listed domain to grab data without launching a dialog box. This files is normally placed in the root folder of any server that contains files the Flash Player may need to access. Three versions later- I still have to think it out like a Sesame Street kid; 1.) where to install the xml file, and 2.) making sure that all appropriate domains and subdomains are represented.

Slideshowpro.net, developers of my favorite image management server software and flash slideshow component, has built a “dead-simple”  online app:  the crossdomain.xml maker. The directions are clearer than anything you’ll find at Adobe’s knowledge base.

Check out  Adobe’s definition:

A policy file is a simple XML file that gives the Flash Player permission to access data from a given domain without displaying a security dialog. When placed on a server, it tells the Flash Player to allow direct access to data on that server, without prompting the user grant access.

The server can be in any location available to the Flash movie and does not have to be in the same domain. Cross-domain policy files, named crossdomain.xml, are placed at the root level of a server. When using a policy file you can use a wildcard character (*) in a domain name.

vs.

Crossdomain.xml maker’s definition:

If a SWF is embedded at A.com, and tries to load data (XML, RSS, etc) from B.com, the Flash Player (for security) will block the request. B.com can grant A.com access to its data through a cross domain policy file. This utility generates that file.

The instructions on crossdomainmaker.com are even easier to follow.

Trust me.

Since I have already sang their praises,  this is more of an introduction to Crossbrowsertesting.com than a review. Best described as a Browser Compatibility Lab, this online service offers a place to test a website on just about every browser- operating system combination. It offers two types of testing: interactive (to test ajax, javascript, and flash) and screenshots (which verifies layouts across all browsers).

The site offers three (3) pricing plans which all include access to their automated screenshot factories, interactive live testing and 1 hour free trial.  These pricing plans are  distinguished by the alloted monthly usage :

• Basic  150 minutes 19.95/Month (US$)
• Professional  600 minutes 49.95/Month (US$)
• Business 300 minutes 199.95/Month (US$)

One hundred fifty (150) minutes might seem inadequate for a web designer , and it would be, if the service was slow or unreliable. It isn’t. I managed to pull 14 screenshots in less than 10 minutes use (bumbling-around time included) and the website tracks your usage in your account section. This also makes the seeming paltry 1 hour free trial a more generous trial period than expected.

For that reason,  I chose the Basic Plan. It fulfills all of my browser-check needs and I suspect that most web designers would feel the same. Keep in mind that subscriptions are renewed automatically. Since my design work encompasses both print and web work, this might be a bad thing if the company wasn’t so customer-friendly.

When I emailed Kenneth Hamric, one of the founders of Crossbrowsertesting.com, about this, he responded:
“We have a 30 day, money back policy.  If you are not happy, you forgot to cancel, whatever the reason (or no reason at all)… and you ask for your money back, we give it back.  We are not trying to keep money from customers that do not like / want the service.  We like, and want, happy customers!“

I believe him. My recent experience with this company (described here) leads me to believe that  they will do anything to accommodate their customers’ needs, within reason. I doubt they will walk your dog for you.

I would definitely have the need to activate and cancel my subscription at will. Keeping my overhead low makes it possible to charge affordable rates. Last year, during the height of the “great recession”, I was booked solid, double-booked even, from May through November. December was dedicated to finishing some straggling details on projects and planning our holiday. So far, this January, I have booked 1 job and bid on 3 more. I suspect that is the story of most freelancers- the result being that we need flexible plans to accommodate our flexible schedules.

Automated Screenshots

The most straightforward part of the service is the automated screenshots. You check the appearance of your website by taking screenshots of a URL in just about any browser- operating system combination. The added bonus? Easily accessible list of recent screenshot tests. This is especially handy if you are checking more than one url.

Choosing which combinations can be as easy as choosing any of the default options:

• Popular browsers – default : offers 10 combinations which can be further refined by screen resolutions.
• All browsers :  offers 50 combinations which can be further refined by screen resolutions.
• Select the individual browsers and operating systems

Each option has a monitor resolution option and you can save your preferences for future use. You can organize screenshots by client, grab the link to resulting screenshot for reference, download a zip file of all the screenshots for a particular URL or create a slideshow of the screenshots- all great options when presenting the results to your clients.

Interactive Live Testing

Sometimes static shots are not enough. Interactivity errors are difficult to track if you cannot experience them through various browser/operating system combinations. While the monitor sizes are limited, the combinations are not. The list of combinations are comprehensive enough to instill confidence in the results.

Bookmarklet

One extremely handy amenity is the bookmarklet- simply drag the button marked “DRAG ME” to your toolbar. Visit a webpage that needs checking and clik on the CBT Launcher Button for a dialog box where you can choose either automated screenshots or an interactive live text with a list of options ready to go.

For those much smarter than me, there is also the option of accessing all this data through their API which is documented here.

The company policies are clearly delineated:

• No minimum contracts, signup fees, or cancellation fees.
• You can change packages at any time.
• Free trial limited to 1 hour usage, 1 per person.
• Usage of services is tracked to the second.
• No question asked 30 day refund policy.

I am a fan.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Browser Compatibility Testing Guide: The Best Tools And Services To Check How Others See Your Web Site (masternewmedia.org)
• How to Test Websites in Different/Multiple Resolutions Without Changing the PC Resolution (techie-buzz.com)

After a couple of years of faithfully using Dean’s FCK Editor, we changed over to Tiny MCE Advanced Plugin- mostly because we wanted to take advantage of the new timthumb auto-thumbnailer coding of our new Arthemis Premium theme. (Though if I had read this post by Justin Tadlock, Boy Genius, I would have probably stuck with my Studiopress theme…)

Tiny MCE Advanced Plugin

This plugin adds 16 plugins to TinyMCE, WordPress’ wysiwyg editor- Advanced hr, Advanced Image, Advanced Link, Context Menu, Emotions (Smilies), Full Screen, IESpell, Layer, Media, Nonbreaking, Print, Search and Replace, Style, Table, Visual Characters and XHTML Extras- pluss allows you the flexibility of choosing the layout and options for the post editor tool bar. Another nice things about this plugin is that it can import all css classes or you can choose to add inline css classes (which comes in handy when you want to use other plugins like Javascript Pull Quotes)

-Click on any thumbnail to see a larger image-

One of the drawbacks is the image library management. If you use the Tiny MCE image insert button- it asks for a url. This means that you would still have to use the native wordpress media upload functions. Dean’s FCK Editor could upload and organize your image files in appropriate folders- a great help when your blog is as image heavy as ours.Tiny MCE Advanced Plugin couldn’t match that function.**

Uploads Folder Plugin by Semilogic

The problem of stuffing uploads folders with images and files in some orderly manner was solved by the Uploads Folder Plugin by Semilogic. This plugin organizes your images in folders linked to the post name and publishing date. These folders are created automatically and will be recreated if you change the publishing date. If there are plugins which are squeamish with this new setup, I haven’t found them yet.

Enable Media Replace plugin

I think everyone who publishes articles with a lot of images and illustrations should consider the Enable Media Replace plugin.  It is a great problem solver. In the event that you need to change an image in a post, or many posts that use a particular image, this plugin makes it possible to update the image without having to ftp an image with the same name in the right folder or uploading a new image and inserting it into the post.

**If you are having any issues with TinyMCE adding br/ lines, see this post. If they still appear I suspect the culprit is the use of an image caption. Need a quick fix? Delete the image caption. To follow the discussion, see comments here.

I was looking at a 112mg error log last week and i discovered that almost all of the errors were related to long gone ping services. I was googling to find the lastest working ping list.

It can be most frustrating trying to hunt down a list of current ping services. As of today, these are working.

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.twingly.com/
http://www.bloglines.com/ping
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/

Feel free to add to this list.