Tag Archives: com

Firming Things Up

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Mapquest - Losing people since 1996!

Mapquest - Losing people since 1996!

I spoke with Reverend Baker this evening via phone and we drew out the high level plans for his upcoming Pirate Radio session (Vol. 5 Episode 2), which is now due to drop some eight days and counting. The good Reverend has some pretty nifty plans for the show and I cannot wait until you hear what he’s thinking about. As with his past appearances, this one also promises to be a sure fire classic. Unfortunately I cannot let the cat out of the bag and reveal any of the details just quite yet. The wait will be worth it. Trust me.

I also had the chance to hang out with D.J. A.D.D. this evening. He’s up to some pretty neat things and about to go into public beta with a new web based project he is working on. I have to say I’m absolutely stoked about what I saw this evening. We went over some web site optimization strategies and I have to say even in pre-beta his web site absolutely rocks. I cannot wait to let you in on what he’s up to, but alas I will have to. Surprises are a lot better that way. I can promise you this much– the site is unique and at once also very promising as a catchy concept many will use. Stay tuned for more about that.

I also was sure to egg Mr. D.J. A.D.D. on about coming back to do a Pirate Radio show this season. With the web site development going on though that may not be an option, but he is sure that once things do calm down he’s going to be back and is even promising to deliver a new DJ mix set for the show. Again, I cannot wait.

There’s many things going on in the background right now at df.com and even more going on with our many collaborators. I hope you can make it out to the Armed Suspect’s 11/21/09 show I posted about this morning. I certainly wish I could, but it’s not exactly a great idea to go to a rock show with a recently repaired shoulder. They actually played a show in Warwick, NY about a week ago and I’m still kicking myself about not being able to go. I heard it absolutely rocked and I’m sure this one will as well.

You’ll notice starting with this post I’m adding what’s called “tags” to each post. This will, down the road, make it easier to find what you want on df.com using our in house search or another outside web search provider (such as Google or Bing) to find what you’re looking for. Eventually you’ll see a “tag cloud” appear on the left side menu (in a day or two). This will let you know what is a hot topic on the site right now and and again maybe help you find what you’re looking for quicker. Like many of the improvements at df.com, this is seemingly a baby step; but in the long term will deliver an even better df.com experience.

Finally, I leave you with my picture of the day. I dedicate this one to something I’m sure we’ve all had happen if you’ve ever used Mapquest.com for directions and ended up quite not where  you suspected. As always, thanks for checking and being patient.

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Search Page Fixed

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Sherlock Holmes knows the answer to our search problem.

Sherlock Holmes knows the answer to our search problem.

One minor quick morning note, late in the evening yesterday I was able to fix a bug I came across during some routine interface/content bug hunting where the df.com Search Page would be completely malformed (read: ugly to look at) though the contents were returning correctly for the search query itself. Turned out to be a conflict between my plug in that does in house searches on df.com and another plug in that does the “teaser” abbreviated News & Updates posts (including that nifty word count and permanent link feature at the bottom of this very post). With a little finagling I was able to get both the plug in’s to play together nicely. The result is the Search Page is fixed and all is good in the df.com world again.

I also updated all the various web page content site wide to reflect the current status (such as the Staff Page, etc…) of what we’re up to.

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I Am The Definition of “Lazy”

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I know what you’re saying– there’s been no News updates for like five days. What’s up with that? Well, if you’ve been staring at the DF.com Code Info page on a daily basis (I doubt you have– really I seriously hope you have better things to do) you’ll notice we’ve crept up everyday a few code revisions and are now at df.com version 11.6.1c. Most of that work has been seamless background web page engine tomfoolery such as:

  • I upgraded web engine to latest WordPress code to fix known exploits with Flash and Flash image upload tools to insure security best practices are maintained.
  • I did updates to various widgets and plug-ins that run our site’s many features such as the Artwork gallery, the script optimization tools I use to speed up web page loads, the security tools I use to keep the site from going down, and the comment anti-spam tools I use to keep the comments free of spammers and scammers.
  • I moved the DF Pirate Radio FAQ to the Music sub-menu for consistency/logical organization (previously under the About DF.com sub-menu). I also updated page’s content to reflect some better MP3 players that have come out since the page was originally authored.

More notably (and of entertainment value) I added additional videos to our YouTube channel, which can also conventionally be browsed on our site in the Videos section. Our YouTube channel has also been branded in our color scheme. We now have 36 videos in our channel including some of my seminal favorites from Skinny Puppy, Chamillionaire, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Jay Z. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Physically, I’m feeling a lot better. My range of motion and endurance is improving every day. Therapy continues to help a lot. So lack of updates has not been because of that. I guess the main culprit has been all the background work I’ve been doing on the site and our various third party social network profiles, as well as, my continued focus on my rehab exercises and PT visits.

Don’t be fooled though by the appearance of laziness because of lack of main page News updates. If you dig around on the site you’re always sure to stumble upon my latest experiment or some new content. You just never know what you’re going to find and you’re always sure to be surprised as to what I’m up to. Keeping it fresh; that’s what DF.com does best!

Stewie Griffin – “Everything I do, I do it for you”

Served from the DF.com YouTube Channel

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Abbreviated For The Masses

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This afternoon I spent some more time introducing tweaks to df.com. Our latest improvements are as follows:

  • Cleaned up the 404 Page Not Found quick search function. Better layout and coloring is now found on the 404 Search page making it easier to use than ever.
  • Updated CAPTCHA form to continue to reduce spam comments (haven’t had one sneak through yet proudly enough).
  • Cleaned up the Google.com Custom Search found at the bottom of our in house Search page making that also more user friendly and easier to read.
  • Introduced new “teaser” function to front page News posts. If the post goes over 500 words it will be abbreviated on the main “Home” page. This insures df.com load times stay under 15 seconds and helps make the site snappy when first loading. You’ll also notice a new “Permanent Link” is shown at the bottom of each post to help you with linking to the article on your blog/web page if you so wish to do so. Finally, you’ll notice each post also has the complete word count and estimated time to read it so if you’re on the go or in a hurry you know how much time you’ll need to tackle the text at a later time. All in all I think this will improve web site browsing speeds and also let you know just how long an article is.

These are some of the small, but important improvements I’ve recently implemented. Hopefully they will help you continue to enjoy our site even more. As always, feedback is welcome.

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404 Error Loving

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I spent this evening working on the 404 error page for df.com. The result is a nice friendly search is done on any page that doesn’t exist including a list of alternatives that might help you find what you’re looking for (assuming it’s actually still there). For example, if you go to: http://www.digitalflood.com/chicken.htm. You’ll see the page in action. It seems to work well enough though I plan on cleaning it up a bit over the long term to make it a bit prettier. For now though, at least it works.

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