Most of you that know me also know that I’ve been working on a complete redesign of KeokukRadio.com. You know because I’ve done little else with my free time, and a lot of time at work, other than work on this site. I’ve been working on a couple of other sites as well, but this one took quite a bit of time to figure out how to do all of the cool things that make it unique.

First off, I built it using WordPress as a platform. I’ve built a few blogs that way, but have just begun using it as a complete web site solution. I have to say, it works very well! The literally thousands of themes and plugins available make it quicker and more stable than using a traditional web design application like Dreamweaver or Expression Web. I know, I know… some of you long-time pros are yelling at your monitors right now, telling the virtues of using a “real tool” to do the work. I’ve used those, too, and believe me when I say “I’m done with them.”

I’ve learned a lot in the past several weeks. Taking a custom these, editing the PHP, shoe-horning plugins into the mix, and tweaking the output of everything is still challenging. But I really enjoyed digging into the WordPress community and finding an overwhelming amount of support and ideas.

Enough about the coding crap. Let’s get to the good stuff!

Keokuk Radio approached me because they really couldn’t stand the design that an ex-employee has left them with. The pages were dark and unreadable, the site structure was confusing at best, and the whole thing felt incomplete. Instead of attempting to fix it, I suggested that we scrap it altogether and put something fresh in its place.

The result is a brighter, logically-structured, dynamic site with many social media integrations. For example, when a photo is added to the radio group’s Facebook Fan page (also new), the pictures are automatically added to a special Photos page on the site. Comments to that Fan page are also pushed to Twitter along with every News, Sports, or Cancellations post. And one of my favorite little features is the Cancellations and Delays link and post that automatically appear on the home page when that post is set to Published. A very easy-to-use system that’s also pleasing to the eye.

Two other sections to get a massive redo are the Community Calendar and the Sports Calendars. A visitor sees the Community Calendar in a sidebar widget but can also see a larger view on a separate page. This calendar is populated via an API feed from a special Google Calendar. In addition, each of the 12 sports covered by the radio stations has its own embedded calendar. There’s an All Sports Calendar that combined all of these into one comprehensive page, too. And each of these calendars is available via subscription so that users can integrated them into Outlook, iCal, or their own Google Calendars. Pretty slick, if I do say so myself!

If you’re still reading, why not take a couple of minutes and check out the site. Let me know what you like — you can keep what you don’t like to yourself =) — and give me ideas if you see room for improvement.

One more thing: I really want to say thanks to the whole group at Keokuk Radio. They’ve been AWESOME to work with and gave up a lot of control to me so that I could experiment with ideas. Those of you that design web sites, do any creative work, or really just anyone that deals with customers, know how impressive it is to work with clients that appreciate you and actually help with the whole process. I can only hope that my future clients are half as accommodating!

I’ve been trying out quite a few themes lately, but none of them had the right mix for what I was looking for. But I dragged out an old folder of themes, blew the dust off, and found this gem.

Sure, there are a few things that I’m not too crazy about, but it’s a solid foundation and I’ll be able to clean it up. Got a better suggestion? Please email me or leave a comment.

Thanks again for stopping by!

What’s this?! A post? Wow, I must be really bored…

Not really. I’ve been busier than I ever remember being, actually. And I’m about to be even busier! I’m preparing for my very first class. Luckily, I get to start out with an “easy” class. That is, it’s not the six-week podcasting course but instead a one-session class about speeding up your PC.

Teaching is certainly a new and exciting adventure for me; one that I’ve considered for a long time. In fact, way back when I graduated from high school, I intended to become a business teacher. That changed shortly after I started college but I’ve always wondered “what if?” Guess I’ll find out now!

So, as part of my preparation, I’m working on this site. I want it to become the hub of my online life, but it will probably end up with more cat pictures… HA! I’ve struggled a bit with how I want information to flow in and out of the site. My idea right now is that Twitter and Facebook updates will be pushed onto the page while blog posts will be announced at both sites. Also, I will be adding a teaching section to better communicate with those that take my classes (I have a hard time calling them “students”… hopefully I’ll get over it!).

Pardon the dust and watch your step while visiting. And don’t be bashful about telling me how you like the site or even if you have an idea or two. I’m developing my WordPress skills in the process, so if you have a tip, please let me know.

Take care!

We’ll see how it shakes out. It’s just a collection of thoughts right now, but I’m finding some time here and there to get it done.

One of the steps to getting there was to change hosting companies. Instead of being just a middle man for ReadyHosting, I have purchased an account with HostMonster and started a new hosting strategy. You can find my new site at either backslashhosting.com or harterhosting.com, but both point to the actual account: icanhazwebhost.com. Too funny, I know.

Well, here’s to hoping the strategy comes together and I get to where I want to get. Thanks for reading, and I’ll try to find some more pics to share soon.

A while later, after leaving the Facebook tab open and browsing elsewhere, I noticed that someone had tried to start a chat with me. It was Randall Bennett, a tech journalist that I had never spoken with personally but had respected since his “The 404 podcast” days with CNET. He told me that he checked out a few things of mine online and noticed that I wanted to get into tech journalism.

We talked for a while and he asked me to start contributing some content to his new web site, TechVi.com.  I was thrilled and said “you bet!”

Not only will I get the chance to work with a well-known journalist that has been with such great sites as Engadget and CNET, but he will be helping me become a better writer through the editorial process.  It’s really a great opportunity.

Thanks, Randall, for taking the time to read my lame Facebook post and following it up.  I look forward to working with you at TechVi and expanding my skills.

That’s a cut-and-paste from Microsoft’s emailed announcement about the upcoming availability of the Windows 7 Release Candidate.  Apparently they’re worried that their servers — which I doubt are running OS X Server — are going to have a heck of a time dealing with the expected rush of downloads.  You know, like what happened when the first public beta was released.  Oh, and what happened just the other day when a considerably smaller set of developers were given access to the Release Candidate.  It seems that people really want to get away from Vista… badly.

I think I’m going to wait a day or two to get my copies.  Won’t you do your part for Mother Microsoft and delay downloading, too?  No?  Okay, good luck — and please put it on the torrents as soon as you get it!

I didn’t care much for a lot of the popular music in the 90s until recently. When I was living through it, I preferred 70s and 80s music.

Does that mean I’ll eventually LIKE the crap on the radio today? I doubt it.

I’ve been using ReactOS for a couple of hours (in between projects) and I can say one thing:  it’s BUGGY!  Not very stable, but that’s to be expected since it IS alpha software.  Not even beta.  Right now, I would say that it’s fun to play with if you’re interested, but I would highly doubt you’d be able to do much with ReactOS until it becomes more stable.

I’m going to keep it installed and do a few things with it for a while.  I’ll do my best to keep you updated on anything interested.

Still, it’s worth a look and a virtual machine is a perfect fit for this type of thing.
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From the ReactOS website….

“ReactOS® is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows® XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows® architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture.
The main goal of the ReactOS project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows. This will allow your Windows applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows® would find using ReactOS straightforward. The ultimate goal of ReactOS is to allow you to remove Windows® and install ReactOS without the end user noticing the change.

Please bear in mind that ReactOS 0.3.9 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is not recommended for everyday use.”

I like how most of the other clients minimize to the menu bar instead of the Dock; Beak does not. Also, while Beak supports multiple accounts, it doesn’t appear to do so simultaneously. You have to log out of one account to log into the other.

But, Beak’s beta is all of a few hours old. Things can and will be changed, so let’s hope that some of these early issues are addressed.  In the meantime, check out the public beta at http://beakapp.com.

Also, don’t forget to follow me at twitter.com/bigdaddyk!

I’m going through some WordPress themes to find one that fits the site, so be prepared for a few changes. Please let me know if you see one you like or not.