One problem with the ways that WordPress handles excerpt is that it always strips the HTML out. This is fine for most casual bloggers but when you are really trying to customize something for a client, it simply doesn’t cut it. What we wanted to do was use some of the NextGen Gallery markdown code in the “Excerpt” box of the post and have WordPress render this in the category archive. After some initial research I discovered that this markdown code is called “shortcode” in WP terminology. They have a whole Shortcode API. Now it was just a matter of finding the correct...

My friend Andy recently asked me to help him redesign his website. He runs fly fishing tours here in Mongolia and wasn’t happy with his current site design. He recently switched most of his websites from Joomla! over to WordPress. When he came to me with the request I was very excited to help as most of my templating/design experience has been strictly for Joomla! or custom projects, I had yet to really delve into creating a WordPress theme. During the whole process I learned quite a bit about the inner workings of WordPress and have already applied this knowledge to working on my own blog...

I just received an email from one of my old Peace Corps friends who lives in D.C. and she said that she saw me on TV yesterday. There was a big (by mongolian standards) party at Grand Khan Irish Pub for the superbowl. Me and some buddies woke up early so we could catch the game. I was quite surprised to see so many people, especially Mongolians who were totally hyped about the game. While I was there a reporter I knew gave me an interview for the AP. Little did I know it would wind up on CNN. Life goal #64 – 15 Seconds of fame. CHECK!

Obviously web reporting is nothing really new; one basic approach is this: Aggregate your data and output it in some kind of structured format, usually XML Request this information and generate some visualizations of it Serve these visualizations through a web server Pretty basic stuff. All of the tools that I have seen essentially make one or all of these processes easier. Unfortunately no matter what tools you choose, the rule of engineering stands: Fast, cheap, good – choose two In this context it is more like: Less proprietary code, free software, easy to use/maintain – choose...

CSS Sprites – A Background The idea of combining images into a larger one and displaying this using CSS tricks has been around for awhile. There are a couple big benefits to doing this: First it reduces the number of HTTP requests that the browser has to make, by combining say 5 images into 1 big image, the number of image requests has been reduced by 4. This can increase the effeciency of page loading and you can see gains in the speed at which your page is loaded. Second, when working with elements like rollover images, you can “preload” all of the states of the rollover and...