Sabotage!!! Some hates me,,, No actually somewhere in the midst of all the updates one of the plugins came back just a little more beefed up than I expected.

Gigpress is pretty awesome plugin with some great options and great widgets. It’s fairly easy to manipulate and the php is easy to understand if you want to mess with the guts. But!!! Gigpress does a lot of work so it comes with a lot of queries, usually not a problem, but the latest version mixed with the Bluehost server didn’t cut it.

Here me out though, Gigpress isn’t all bad. Due to some unfortunate events I moved one of my projects to Dreamhost in hopes of finding some other solutions to my problem. (I’ve been looking for a good reason to check out Dreamhost for a long time, I guess I got my wish.) I did quite a few test and found that regardless of 20+ queries that Gigpress asks for Dreamhost served it up 54 queries in 0.462 seconds, not bad. Bluehost was serving 54 queries in 2.542 seconds… Ouch!!!

So what did I do? I found a different plugin. Might I recommend Gigs Calendar. I stayed away from it for a long time because it’s admin is said to only work with Firefox and Safari. So be sure to read the Other Notes on the plugin from the WP Plugin Directory.

Take my advise, don’t over look your query load just because you’re not seeing a problem… it will come back to bite you…

Try these functions in the footer of your theme, if there not already there.
echo get_num_queries();
timer_stop(1);

I’ve been using these for ever, but I’ve never appreciated them more than I do now

2008 has been such a good year for my work that I’ve decided to start a small personal business. My plan is to keep it simple and keep it focused. My goal is to keep records and stay organized.

VisualComa will be the name, and I’ll be primarily focusing on Development, Design and Updates specifically for Skorinc. My long term hope is that by 2010, I’ll be forced to seek out other good Designers and Developers.

As most of you know I am the Theme Developer for Skorinc, building and maintaining the guts of all the sites. A year ago I would have laughed if someone told me I’d be in TN working from a laptop dreaming about html and css. Who New???

One thing is for sure, as 2008 comes to a close there is one person I think we can all agree has played one of the biggest rolls in the blogging underground as a serious goto guy for the CMI, that’s right I’m talking about Brody Harper.

Brody and I have known each for a long time, (20+yrs) and about a year ago we were talking about some random stuff as usual, and out of left field he said, “You want to build me a blog?” I said, “Yeah, I could probably do that. Why?”

I think we all know that answer to that question, and with out a doubt there were some gears all ready turning when he asked.

So keep your eye’s peeled and be sure to follow Skorinc on Twitter to keep up on the end result of what I do. Also if you want to be involved with some of our shenanigans through out the holiday season sign up for Brody’s email list.

don’t worry we haven’t learned how to spam yet…

So here is a little trick I came up with. (then again, this has probably already been done, and most likely been done better) I don’t consider this to be something to be used to much because it’s kind of a pain in the ass, but a handy trick to have under your belt.

The basic concept is using a blank.gif over a background image you want to make a link. The only reason you would ever really need this is if you can’t guarantee cross browser png support or you want to keep image load time down. maybe there are others but what ever.

Basically you just take the blank.gif and stretch it over what ever it is you want to make a link. There are obvious limits to this technique, but its helpful.

Here are the basics of an image. You could use a .class for these things if you like, or and #id.
< img src="" alt="" width="" height="" style="margin:;" / >

If you’re into php and WordPress here is a simple flexible function with some basic parameters to keep your typing down. (Honestly though I really only use this in special cases. I don’t advise using this on a large scale.)

spacing has been added to make this print…

function rlh_gif_($width=”,$height=”,$margin=”,$alt=”,$class=” ) {
$gif = get_bloginfo(‘url’ );
$gif .= ‘/wp-includes/images/blank.gif’;
? >
< img src="< ?php echo $gif; ? >” alt=”< ?php echo $alt; ? >” width=”< ?php echo $width; ? >” height=”< ?php echo $height; ? >” style=”margin:< ?php echo $width; ? >;” class=”< ?php echo $class; ? >” / >
< ?php
}

I suppose you can call it a mandatory break from work.

Let me say this strait up front. These jobs I’m talking about are not related to Skorinc, these are jobs completely out side the Skorinc Network. This is something I’ve been debating for a little bit, but I’m still not sure how to work it.

First things first, how many developers that occasionally stop off here are looking for a project and do you think your up for dealing with picky clients?

There are many technical issues that I have worked out in my head, but I want to see if their is a response. Oh and just so you know, this project is primarily based on using WordPress as CMS. Sure we could do other things, but I’m not a master of much so if you say you can do something you better mean it.

In the end, I’m just looking to connect people with people and alleviate my need to say “No” to people. Leave a comment or send me an email if you’re interested, and we’ll get something going if there’s an interest.

There are many times where I find myself trying to explain how websites interact and how search engines do what they do and how it is that we do what we do without actually saying words like database and code and html… I don’t like saying things that sound smart, but after today I realize it might be better to first make sense.

I’m not entirely sure how these things happen, but some how in the midst of our conversation I couldn’t help but talked about Tennessee falling into the ocean, a live broadcast of my closet and egg guts getting all over the place. I think in the future I might just stick to the magical card of the web, and say things like code and html, databases and php…

In the mean time check this out. ↓

This is a bloggers dream for that impossible image search. This is absolutely amazing, I love it… ;-) I keep finding myself searching for things just to play with it. And yes it actually works as well as the video shows,,, I was very skeptical about that.

Thanks You!!! ;-)

• Phil Wickham – Honestly Phil, I don’t think a lot of people would have had the guts to go through with it all. People give away records all the time, but not like this. When’s the last time you saw a couple hundred people tearing up a chat box, while waiting at the artists website till the doors opened.

  Also, You and Mallory showed up on the chat and totally engaged the audience as they were freaking out about the record. It reminded me of what it would have been like to wait out side of a store and have the Musician come out and say hi.

  Thanks a lot Phil!!!

• 
  From what I hear it can be tough for an artist to get a record label to let them do a free record, and in the end it’s actually free to both the audience and the musician.

  Thank You INO, you’re cool in my book…

• 

  

• 
  There is a certain person who I would like to give a huge high five to for making things possible on their end. With the amount of time we had left to make things possible, there was no way I was going to have time to create the database interaction needed to capture all the info, and still be sure my server was ready for thousands of people to tromp on everything.

  Thank You!

• 
  CD, CM & CB; You may not realize it, but your monday night has bled into my work. You guys rule!!! (anyone reading this, if you havn’t yet go over and check them out. You wont regret it.)
• Obviously a huge thanks to Brody as well, that goes with out saying. If their was a master mind, he would be it. This was definitely a team effort, and none of this would have happened with out him.

I’m sure there are more, but this is it for now. And yes, I realize these types of web interactions are going on all day, and people are stressed and pulling their hair out all the time over these things.

All the same, not bad for a couple or guys sitting in a living room with two 13in laptops on a DSL connection.

We just had an amazing talk about their project and their hopes for the local community, and I’m pretty jazzed about it. The amount of potential this project has is absolutely amazing, and what makes it even better is Ben and Rebecca are really good people with a specific & active interest in their community.

We spent about an hour and half talking about community involvement and how to bring it on line. It was a really good talk, and I could see the gears turning over all the possibilities that opened up over the dinning room table. Again, absolutely amazing.

By far one of the best parts about what I do is to help enable people to communicate, and more specifically, communicate to their particular community. We’ve decided to begin full development of the Outdoor Encounter site, and I think we’re all really excited to see it come together.

So, with all that in mind, read their Mission Statement, show your support and leave them a comment of encouragement.

Outdoor Encounter : Mission Statement:

Our mission is to improve the quality of life for those around us — not only by preserving green space, but by making that valuable space accessible to people of all ages. By providing free outdoor recreation alternatives set within a natural haven, we can unite our communities and give residents a healthier environment in which to connect, play and grow.

;-)