I’ve been a fan of Lockergnome for a long time, and even knew Chris Pirillo when we both went to the University of Northern Iowa. We weren’t best friends or anything, but he did hang out at the computer lab a lot (go figure) and I was a lab supervisor (also, go figure). We talked here and there, mainly about computers, and I enjoyed the conversations even though I found him a bit hyper.  =)  A few years later, I was surprised to see him online. I even attended a few Gnomedexes in Iowa and Lake Tahoe. Chris has done a ton of stuff since UNI and is now known internationally as a geek’s geek.

So, it’s a pretty neat thing that my story is now on his blog network. Check it out and let me know what you think (either on Lockergnome or right here). Also, please help me out by spreading the word… Put this as your Facebook status or send out a tweet that says:

Check out the Lockergnome post ‘Dropbox for the Divorced’ by my buddy Kevin Harter at http://bit.ly/csOYBF.  He’s on Twitter: @TechDaddyK.

Thanks, everyone! Hopefully I’ll be able to do more with the Lockergnome blog network in the future as well. I’ll keep you posted.

Well, I have a bunch of domains that I had every intention of using but never got around to building the sites. Rather than let them wither on the vine, I thought I would put them out there for sale so that someone with a bit more time (or ambition?) can put them to good use.

I’m not necessarily looking to get rich on any of these. It would be nice to get my money out of them, but I’m willing to entertain any reasonable offer.

Take a look and let me know if you see anything interesting. Maybe one will spark an idea for you, too, and jump start a business idea.

You can email me at domains@icanhazwebhost.com or kevinharter@me.com with questions or offers.

First off, I really don’t consider myself a “coder.” Most of the time, I can look through a Javascript or PHP script and manipulate it to my liking, but I’ve only dabbled with creating my own code. I’m more of a web developer if anything. So, I was a little hesitant to go to camp. Less than an hour and a half drive and the awesome price of free convinced me that it was worth my Saturday.

For anyone that hasn’t been to a code camp, there are no tents or firewood involved. Basically, it’s a conference with a keynote and tons of breakout sessions. I chose the following topics:

All of the presenters did a great job and I couldn’t believe how much I learned. My favorite, of course, was the WordPress session as I was able to understand it best. It filled in a lot of gaps for me and sparked my interest in developing new themes, which is pretty much what the code camp is designed to do, I’m guessing.

In many of the conferences I’ve attended, the discussions between sessions are often as helpful as the presentations themselves. The same was true with Iowa Code Camp. For example, I was able to talk with Kenny and Andy for a while before and after their session and found each more than ready to answer any question I could come up with. I’m very grateful for their time and willingness to share their expertise. Thanks, guys!

I also met a couple of people that shared some of the same challenges as I’ve faced. Through those types of discussions, problems are not always solved, but new perspectives often lead to solutions or workarounds.

I had a great time and learned a ton, and the crew that put the event on did a nice job. I’m already looking forward to the next code camp and am excited about WordCamp Iowa that Kenny is organizing for early August.

Watch the video and be amazed at the state-of-the-art, circa 1984.

Seriously, thanks to Tom and Greg for giving me the opportunity to build their online presence. And I am thankful to God for the work!

Anywho, I was poking around on the Net and found an awesome WordPress plugin. So, the default WP installation has this boring grayish login box with no apparent, easy way to edit it. The BM (don’t giggle) Custom Login plugin by the folks at BinaryMoon.co.uk allows you to quickly create a nice looking login panel. They even through in the layered PSD file!

If you create WordPress sites for yourself or others, this is a nice touch to take things up a notch. The one that you see here took just a few minutes to make and install, but if you’d like to see even more examples of what’s possible, check out the Flickr Group.

Done? Good, now we’re on the same page.

Today I received an email, out of the blue, from a Senior Director of Global Customer Support with Citrix Online. Apparently the guy found and read my post, and emailed me directly to find out how he could help.

What?!

It thoroughly impressed me that he had taken the time to read through my blog post, let alone the time and effort to contact me just to figure out how to solve the problem. He even offered a refund (although, in my reply, I let him know that I haven’t paid anything yet). He’s going to get me in touch with a support agent to find out why my Plantronics USB headset adapter has apparently caused the audio issues.

I thought I would pass along my experience and let everyone know out there how great Citrix was to handle this. Even if they don’t fix it (a problem that I admittedly don’t know is even theirs to fix), I’m excited to know that there are a few companies out there with some respect for the customer.

Thanks, GoToMeeting Dude!

Of course, I’m joking about learning everything I need to know. There are so many ways to use WordPress, I doubt that anybody knows everything about it. And don’t forget that WordPress is just a platform — you’d have to know everything about CSS, HTML, PHP, etc. to know everything.

But I have started to venture into ways to make my web sites easier for the client to manage. And one of the neatest ways to do that is to create custom write panels. These live in the Dashboard just like normal “Add New Posts” or “Add New Pages” panels. But instead of presenting a confusing array of non-relevant options, the custom panels make the experience more pleasant by presenting only the options that the author needs. You can also add features to the write panel, such as an easier way to include form elements or thumbnails.

I’m pretty excited about the never-ending learning that WordPress development brings me. In just the past year, I’ve gone from thinking of WordPress as a bloggers tool to realizing that it really is a full-featured web development platform with an awesome amount of muscle. The online community has been amazing and I’ve begun listening religiously to a couple of podcasts, including @wptavern‘s WordPress Weekly. I would highly recommend it if you use WordPress much at all.

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 really enjoy being on the show, although I know I’m not great at it. I’m not trying to be pseudo-modest, just honest. But it was fun and I got to “meet” a person that I enjoy listening to on the podcast TechStuff, HowStuffWorks.com’s Senior Writer Jonathan Strickland. Cool!

Thanks to Iyaz, with his mad hostin’ skillz, for inviting me to be on. Hopefully I didn’t scare away too many TechVi viewers… I’d like to be on again!

Oh, you can watch the show here: http://tcvi.me/1hr. Don’t forget to pop some popcorn first!

“Not only is it a lame name that would open the oft-ridiculed company up for even more teasing from non-fanboys, but Fujitsu owns the name,” I thought. Apple wouldn’t dare.

Dare it did, and the result was exactly as one would have predicted. The trending topics on Twitter the rest of Announcement Day reflected the junior high mentality I admittedly share with my fellow Internet users: iTampon, MaxiPad and MADtv. The latter was in reference to the comedy show’s 2006 skit making fun of Apple’s naming convention and seemingly dominance in high-tech gadgets. Even they MADtv thought the name ridiculous.

But, sadly, my adopted tech godfather Steve chose to ignore the jokes and label his latest creation the iPad. Seriously, someone should talk with him. And not just the yes-men.