Linux Squared – Gimp – E-Book Design

Man, ……… I’ve had a couple of weeks of hectic “Extreme Blogging“. So extreme in fact that I’ve had to skip a week, while I got it together enough to be able to post. It all started with my trying to update an E-Book template that I had found on the web, when I first started out Blogging. No matter how …

Double Posting with Two Windows

I came up on this the other day for the first time when I was doing a really long post! Most of what I do is on the Micro level, so I rarely get a chance to post anything of any real length. When I did, I hit a huge snag that just about did me in, as I was trying to make a deadline with one of my blogs.

Here it is: When editing a “Draft” you have the ability in WordPress to Preview these changes, as you are logged in to the admin area, in the preview you will notice the word “edit” next to the date and your name. When you press this edit to clean up your copy you will open a new tab in firefox or a new browser window in Explorer. Now it only does this one time, however you now have two tabs or two browser windows open for you to edit in. Once you save in one, you will not be able to save in another. The trouble is, when you hit the preview button and after reading your post you decide to edit and hit the edit link, you should be forced to back-up, like hitting the back button on the tool bar of you internet browser, not the ability to open a new tab or new browser window. Man, ………. I seen some bugs, but this is a killer.

After I had work through my copy and realized my problem, I was like four hours doing this post, and I was forced to stay with it, because I was looking at a deadline.

Once you publish your post and you decide to edit that post, you still get this behavior with WordPress. I’m sure there is a work around, I just don’t know it yet. I just wanted to get this info to you as soon as I realized the problem. So, do yourself a huge favor and when you hit the “Preview Changes” button; after you are through editing, just turn off the tab or window!  If you know of a work around, leave a comment and help us out, please. Thanks. See you next week!

I’m Never Going To Get This Long URL In My Twitter Post

Tiny URL’s ……. what’s up with that ?  I don’t know about you but the fact that my post URL goes from: “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” to: http://fe.f48/EFA1.z ……… leaves me a little unsettled. If you ask the Tech guys they’ll tell you how it shows good form.  That’s GEEK speak for …… we can’t figure out how to sanely shorten a URL yet.  If you’re a blogger …. have I got an EXTREME solution for you !

When looking to add your URL to your Twitter feed,  it makes sense to drive home the name of the blog instead of a string of numbers along with the fact that the search engines really don’t like Tiny URL’s.  So I came up with this solution that by-passes the Plug-In route, (I need another Plug-In like a hole in the head).  So ……. try this;  the theory is pretty straight forward, first go to your “Dashboard” in the Admin Area of your WordPress Software.  Then go to “Settings” and click on “Permalinks” and go to “Common settings” and click on “Custom Structure”.  Add this code:  /%postname%/ …… now click “Save Changes”.

I usually like to see the whole URL of my post to show,  meaning;  site name, category, post name.  The Permalink “Custom Structure” looks something like this: /%category%/%postname%/  If yours is set-up in a similar fashion you will have to drop out the /%category%/  Of course it does not effect function,  you just won’t see it show up in the URL of your blog.

Now when you add your URL to your Twitter feed,  you no longer have to add:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what-i-did-on-my-summer-vacation

You simply add this:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what

That’s it.  Now,  if you have two posts that start with the word “what”,  WordPress will seek out the earliest post. If that is not the post that you want, you will have to add another word or letter.

Like this:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what-i

Get it ?  Good ! ………. Nuff said !  If this doesn’t work for ya ……. sorry,  I tried !  You’re back to the alphabet soup thing. 

I’ve got an update.  Since I published this post. Allan over at iwoodpecker.com passed along this killer tip to the above.  You can actually go with a numerical system if you want.

Like this: http://bloggingextrme.com/p0001

That way you don’t have to worry about two posts that start with the same word.  Just remember,  to avoid the number showing up in the post title, edit at the perma-link level and don’t forget to place the  “p”  in front of the number.

Thanks Allan!!! Great Tip!

Dealing With WordPress TV

For those who follow this blog, you are probably aware that I’m not a big codex fan. Dealing with the endless forums and broken links, I can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever found a solution to my problem through the codex. I am however, kinda impressed with WordPress TV …….. kinda.

While I’m pretty sure that the codex is a lost cause, I have hope for WordPress TV. Video after all is the going rage these days for the blogger. However, while working with WordPress TV I have noticed some bugs that you should be aware of.

I just can’t put my finger on it. How is it that the WordPress software is bullet proof, but the support is so weak? I just don’t get it. I digress !

One of the cool things about WordPress TV is the ability to actually embed the video inside your post. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Youtube this ! But WordPress TV is at least a little better in quality than the other video services that allow you to embed. To control traffic to their sites some of the better one’s don’t even let you embed. So to have a good quality video to embed inside your blog about blogging is like kinda cool.

When you reach the video that you want to embed, you will see the word “embed” in the top left of the video. Once you click on the control menu button, you will see a drop down menu that gives you several choices. Unfortunately, those choices don’t include anything that will fit your template more than likely, so you will have to adjust the dimensions in the embedded code.  I’ve provide the code so that you can check out the dimensions change.

<center><embed src=”http://v.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.15″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”585” height=”400” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” flashvars=”guid=NBZ853Xn&amp;width=400&amp;height=224&amp;qc_publisherId=p-18-mFEk4J448M” title=”Introducing WordPress 2.9 Carmen”></embed></center>

The “Copy To Clipboard” thing is kinda cranky too, so be patient. It doesn’t always want to copy or paste for that matter.

Here it is for those who need a quick look see:

Adding A Widgeted Footer To Your Theme

If you follow this blog you know that I am a big fan of Studio Press.  So for this week’s post I thought I would give you the instructions on how to add one of those way cool footer widgets to the bottom of your theme. It has four columns.  Unfortunately I don’t have a header to match the footer just yet, but I’m working on …

Adding Twitter Links To Your Posts

It seems that Twitter is all the rage these days, really pretty cool when you think about it. I personally think tweets should be more than 140 charters, but what do I know ? I don’t have a Twitter Account for this website yet, but I do have one for Bloggers Market.com. I have a link at the top of the homepage, but for the coming …

Gone Phishing. Oh Yeah, Happy New Year !

For the extreme blogger, it is a natural evolution to grow your online e-commerce interest outside of your blog. You get a wild hare one day and off you go …….. sometimes before really thinking it through.

I have a number of interest outside of my blogs, unfortunately I don’t really have enough time to devote to them. Such is …

Merry Christmas Everyone !

If you follow, you know that this can be a pretty intense blog …….. ok, boring blog ! Sometimes I think I would rather eat sandpaper than have to post to this blog, not that I don’t love it …….. it’s just that I don’t really care to wallow in all the techie crap when I would rather have fun doing something else instead. But when you get jammed up and you need a quick answer, so that you can get on with it ……… well that’s why I’m here …….. now enough ……… back to the fun part.

I thought I would give it a rest with this weeks post and introduce you to a great little blog from a shameful self-promoter named Jordan Cooper. I actually pick up the contact through David Risley’s site. So without further ado, I present Jordan Cooper; a poet who doesn’t really know it.

Ohh ……. before you leave me, check out this video of Jordan!

Merry Christmas Everyone and God Bless You All !

I Hope to See You All Next Year and Thanks for Following !

Be Careful What You Say!

As you can probably tell by now (probably by noting the name of the featured article category) this is a blog for hi-tech blogging solutions; aka: nuts and bolts. Sometimes though I come up on something cool that I want to share with my readers that I find it the “blog’o’sphere” (did I spell that right?). So this weeks post is centered on comments we all make during the coarse of our week on other peoples websites.

I have always taken the stance that what I say on someone else’s website or blog will stay with that site so that whoever reads it can place it in context.

While I was rummaging about this weekend doing the Google thing, I found a curious entry on the index of one of my blogs. It’s a site called backtype.com

I can’t tell you how many times that I have visted a website and after careful inspection, I have no idea what in the world the site is about. This site has a very clear definition; and I quote: “BackType is a real-time, conversational search engine. (Say What?) Conversational search is a new way of searching the web to surface what reputable people are saying about topics and webpages that interest you. We index and connect online conversations from across the web in real-time, so you can see what people are saying about topics that interest you.” (italics mine)

I seen some great ways to back-link ……… but this takes the cake. When I arrived at the site, I could read everything I had ever said online, at anyones website ……… oh man ……… all on one page no less and apparently in “real time”.

Man ………….. why didn’t I think of that ? Check it out, and remember to be careful what you say out there in cyberspace. Big Brother is Blogging.

Become A Master At MySQL Overnight!

I might miss the mark here, and I am probably over-reaching, but somehow I feel like if I can just cut to the chase, I can get on with my life. Such is my feeling with MySQL when it comes to upgrading my blogs in some shape, way, or form.

MySQL is an integral part of any blog and when it comes time (which is usually every other week or …

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