I just had to update WordPress to version 2.7. I can’t tell yet if this backend redesign is truly awkward or just unfamiliar. To elaborate on the comment I made several days ago about dumping WP altogether…
I’m hand-coding this list because I don’t trust WYSIWYG
Some code highlighting would be really nice right now
WP is still coded to support PHP 4
I’m the only one who needs backend access
I never save drafts or revert to prior revisions
My pages change about every 9 months
I’ve never needed to swap themes
I always resize images and embed media manually
Categories, tags and search are unnecessary on a site this size*
These facts haven’t changed in 8 years. WordPress changes constantly. And the more I work on db-driven sites, the more I realize they’re just skins over the db schema. So if my needs don’t change, and the data doesn’t change, why do I have to update every month? To patch holes in features I don’t use, add some new ones, arbitrarily rename template functions, and occasionally rearrange the backend.
I will continue to develop WordPress for clients because it perfectly meets a company’s needs, just not mine. Plus, as a developer, there’s a certain barrier to learning when so many safety nets are in place.** I think the best (only?) way to grow is by knowing every line of code, making mistakes, fixing them, then trying something new that’ll probably break too. Here are my goals for something else:
Strong separation of data, logic and presentation (cool kids say MVC)
*Regardless, Googling site:danrashid.com works fine.
**User privileges, password retrieval, fallback templates, automatic updating, update reversion, post revisions, automatic draft saving, email notifications… all wonderful things if you don’t want to break stuff. Then again, 2.7 just broke my background image function.
It’s 3:40PM. I just spent all day cleaning, packing and shutting things off. Next stop is 1.5 hours away in Slidell, where I’m having dinner and spending the night. Tomorrow I have another 1.5 hour drive to New Orleans followed by a 3 hour flight to Detroit, where it is currently 0°F.
I haven’t had to wear my winter coat since halfway through Mississippi on my drive down 10 months ago. Granted, I had a fever.
Ah the holidays — so calm, so peaceful. I better shut this thing down.
It really was a hell of a show. The effects spoke for themselves (YouTube doesn’t do ‘em justice), but the band… I didn’t think it was possible to play NIN that cleanly live. Many songs sounded cleaner than the album version. Despite the 3D film fall through, I hope they can at least release some audio.
Let’s see what the next revision brings.
Erm, I just realized the new drummer is 20. Lucky bastard. That’s like Tommy playing for the Stones.
For the past couple years, I’ve done my holiday shopping entirely on Amazon. The gift finder results are actually relevant, the reviews help me buy unfamiliar things (i.e. anything non-electronic) without getting shafted, shipping is usually free, and most importantly… I can just ship everything home.
I’ve been living away from home for a while and usually don’t fly in until Dec 23ish. Years before, it would have been in pain in the ass to either a) fly home with gifts in checked luggage, or b) race around Metro Detroit buying shit on Dec 24th. I’ve done both and neither is remotely convenient.
But now that airlines are charging fees for checked luggage, it’s also cheaper to buy online and ship home. My question is: How much luggage do you need to be carrying until shipping yourself freight would be cheaper than airfare?
*I almost typed “I ♥ the Internet,” but didn’t want to confuse it with this:
I haven’t installed any graphics software on this partition yet and was amazed to discover that MS Paint can save 24-bit PNGs. When did that happen?
I’m pretty much hooked on exploring different platforms, tools and ports at the moment. At the end of the day, working in Photoshop, writing code, and testing in Firefox and native IE without having to reboot feels the best. On top of that, Eclipse caters to a level of complexity that I don’t need and Dreamweaver CS4 is a drastic improvement over its predecessors. Subversion and ssh are a wash, as they’ve been well ported everywhere.
Excluding download time, it only takes about 10 minutes to setup Apache2, MySQL 5 and PHP 5 on Windows without installers. Apt takes zero minutes, but I’d still be left with an OS that needs manual configuration to find my 2nd monitor, drains my battery while asleep, can’t run WOW over 10fps, freezes on shutdown, sometimes crashes X.org on sleep, doesn’t safely undock, and makes me feel like a bad person for installing flashplugin-NONFREE. And that’s with an Intel-based laptop.
I probably should’ve bought a Mac, but it’s fun to mess around with this thing.
Yesterday we contracted a dedicated server for $125/mo. This morning CS4 arrived. A couple hours ago I realized the majesty of MacPorts. Naturally it seemed like a good time to wipe the drive (my favorite hobby). Lots of progress bars happening (some not so graphical).
I found typography boring as hell in school, mostly because I didn’t have a knack for it, and partly because it seemed so shackled by tradition. Even the new stuff not in textbooks was little more than pastiche.
