Ronda, Spain, Spanish, Themes, and Everything Else

I've been playing around with various bits of serendipity blog in an effort to smarten up my themes, primarily because I'm expecting the competition to be quite fierce in the s9y theme contest. I'm not expecting to win that because I don't have any graphic design skills and I'm running out of time to start development of the theme, however I am having fun playing with some of the elements within s9y as I reach a nearly complete checklist for future themes.

The calendar sidebar is my latest little experiment, as seen in my sidebar, and uses the 'plugin_calendar.tpl' smarty template file. The calendar sits within a table, and it is possible to style some of the elements. Keep reading to see the list of styles and my explanation of them. Read More

I've noticed a bug in the default theme for serendipity blog, which has unfortunately made its way into many other themes because designers have simply copied the default theme entries.tpl into their own theme folder and then made whatever changes they need to make, but without fully testing the rest of the file.

The problem I'm referring to is the next/prev page links below all posts, and above the footer (if the theme has one). Read More

I've been experimenting with the smarty truncate variable modifier and had some trouble getting it to work properly, but once you understand what it does and how to use it, it works reliably and is a fantastic little addition to any smarty based theme.

I'll begin by explaining why I wanted it. I tend to use fairly short titles for my blog entries and assumed (wrongly) that all my theme users might do the same. Checking my backlinks to see how other users were using my themes shocked me. It wasn't long before I started modifying and fixing up my themes to make sure future users wouldn't end up with an ugly mess if they used their blog differently from me.

So, back to the smarty truncate variable, which is used in this site where the blog/post title appears at the top. Anytime I create a post with more than 50 characters the title is truncated to 46 and 4 additional characters ' ...' are added, making a total of 50. Read More

While playing around with my Palm z22 I installed the eReader software that comes on the CD-Rom. Once its installed clicking the icon shows the list of books installed, and I was a little disappointed to find only one book, the Miriam Webster dictionary. I realised fairly quickly that Palm probably makes other titles available from their own website, but most are not free. Googling for Palm ebooks brought me to the following free ebook sites, MemoWare and Manybooks. The rest of the search results seemed to simply link to each other and back to advertisers, or back to commercial bookstores who charge a couple of dollars to download some of the same books available for free on memoware and manybooks.

So this is a request to anyone who uses their Palm z22 for reading ebooks, do you know of any other free sites where I can download eReader books, or any other format, that will work on the Palm z22. I don't know whether these are still copyright or not, but I do remember as a boy reading EE Doc Smith's Lensman series and I would love to get hold of these if they're available.

The continue reading "post title" is a tricky little devil, and in the default theme has no extra styling. In fact it is just part of .serendipity_entry_body, however, blogging is deeply personal and every user has different needs.

You should notice that some of the themes presented on my themes site don't style the 'continue reading' byline so it still appears directly after the content but also within the content, often breaking the designers hard work.

My belief is that the entries.tpl needs to be amended and the continue reading code needs a <p> placed around it. I also tend to add an additional class to my byline so that I don't have to worry that my paragraphs elsewhere will be affected. Lets assume you add the <p>, your entries.tpl code could look like this,

<p class="continue_reading"><a href="{$entry.link}#extended">
{$CONST.VIEW_EXTENDED_ENTRY|@sprintf:$entry.title}</a></p>

Now simply create the following style in your stylesheet,

.continue_reading {
clear:left; }

This has the advantage of also allowing further styling, so you could for example change the color or add an image.

If you haven't already heard, the developers of serendipity blog are calling for theme submissions for the new milestone release of s9y version 1.

I will be preparing a submission, and look forward to hearing from anyone about what they would like to see in a new default theme. Whilst I have some ideas for the new design, I also understand that if it is going to be the default theme, then it needs to represent all that is good about s9y. If you plan to submit your own entry in the competition, don't be shy, make a comment and let the world know, get some feedback. If you would prefer to watch the contest as it unfolds, please, talk to as many of the designers as you can, either through the serendipity forums or directly through their own websites. Let them know what you're looking for, give them some support and encouragement. Thanks everyone who has already emailed me their suggestions, but keep them coming in.

Well this is exciting, really really exciting. Matt Brett has released a full set of feed icons including source files for bloggers and theme designers to use.

Forget all those ugly xml or rss icons we used in the past, get the real deal, then read about MS adopting them as well. Did I say it before, this is exciting.

Imagine a world of neuro interfaces where control of every appliance and household robot is only a thought away. The simple act of putting a headband on, or for the more adventurous, an implant under the skull, would give you unprecedented control of your environment. Imagine how different life would be.

I'm sure we've all heard of the emerging technology that will enable disabled people to control appliances by thought alone. But this technology could easily be used by able bodied people as well. Think about flicking the lights, shutting the curtains, or how about browsing the web from memory of your favourite site, then write an email by thinking the words.

The potential is enormous, and not limited to our personal lives. Anyone whose work requires control of a machine could simply think thoughts at a roboticised version of the machine. Read More