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- ExpressionEngine 2.0 Book Top Seller - My book was the top seller at the PragProg online store in December. That’s quite a showing that is made possible by a very enthusiastic and dedicated community. Cheers! (-)
ExpressionEngine 2.0: A Quick-Start Guide
December 09, 2009
I’m happy to announce the availability of my ExpressionEngine book. It is currently part of the beta program at my publisher, which means you can buy the ebook now, get updates as we have them and, of course, the final version. You can also pre-order the paperback version along with the PDF.
I wrote all about the book over at my EE Insider website, so all those interested should check it out.
Here’s an excerpt from my post:
This book covers EE 2.0 only. There’s an entire chapter on the new File Manager and one on some advanced techniques for making your templates more flexible and powerful. Just like with my screencasts, the goal was to teach you the best practices of building websites in EE 2.0. The book is written in straight-forward prose that guide you each step of the way towards completing your first EE 2.0 website. You can read the table of contents and a couple of excerpts over at the PragProg website.
The Avett Brothers New Video
November 28, 2009
The Avett Brothers - Slight Figure Of Speech. Be sure to watch the whole thing!
Tiger Woods Has Soul (But Isn’t a Soldier)
November 28, 2009
Authorities have said they don’t have details on why Woods was driving away from his home at such an early hour.
Maybe they don’t have details because he’s an adult and isn’t under a curfew. Perhaps Tiger wanted to go for a drive and rock out to The Killers. You know that Escalade has got to have a thumping sound system. I’ve got a soul but I’m not soldier. I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.
Maybe he was fist pumping and head banging so hard to the climactic rock anthem that he lost control of his car and smashed into the fire hydrant.
Or maybe he just wanted grab some Whitecastle.
Or maybe...who cares?
- Textpattern Redesign - Looks really nice. I haven’t used Txp in years, but I’m certainly curious how it’s changed. (-)
- Andrew Halcro on Sarah Palin’s book: “[T]he more you read or hear about her 413 page affront to known facts and basic intelligence, the more you realize just how thankful we should be to be that she came along at a time when enough Americans believed that having a grasp of issues was more important than entertaining a delusional narcissist.” (-)
- Zeldman: On Self-Promotion - “The baker in the medieval town square must holler ‘fresh rolls’ if he hopes to feed the townfolk.” (-)
- Mockingbird - If you’re hatin’ on OmniGraffle, this bird might be the answer. (-)
- The unclicking 84% - “If your business is built around the kind of person who clicks, you win. If it isn’t, you either need to not buy ads online or buy ads optimized for attention and familiarity, not clicks.” Damn skippy. (-)
- AT&T to allow VoIP over 3G for iPhone - Ars Technica has it right: “The change also aligns nicely with proposed rules regarding network neutrality that FCC chairman Julius Genachowski hopes to cement into meaningful telecom regulation.” AT&T doesn’t just do this willingly. They knew they would have to eventually. I expect the Google Voice app approval from Apple will follow. (-)
- ClickToFlash - Flash blocking for Safari and also FTW. (-)
Vince Carter’s Self-assisted One-Handed Dunk
September 05, 2009
Took place during the UNC Professional Alumni Game.
- Greg Goes North - “Instead all I got was some really freaked out pets who had shed half their weight in fur all over some old laundry. If only I was a member of a country club then I could regale Ted, Brick, and The Judge with this tale and it would come off as being more like my deranged fantasy.” (-)
- Twitter’s Favorite Dad - “Once a day, Halpern, 28, posts a memorable quote that his dad, Samuel, had said the day before. More than 200,000 users subscribe to get their daily dose of Sam.” (-)
Ice Nine
September 01, 2009
First, Derek Sivers’ blog should be on your must-read list. Second, read his excellent post ”Kurt Vonnegut explains drama.”
I was at a Kurt Vonnegut talk in New York a few years ago. Talking about writing, life, and everything.
He explained why people have such a need for drama in their life.
He said, “People have been hearing fantastic stories since time began. The problem is, they think life is supposed to be like the stories. Let’s look at a few examples.”
You can probably see where this is going.
- Manton Reece: Go without food - “New projects aren’t going to magically finish themselves.” (-)
Dom. Trier, Germany.
August 18, 2009
I was balancing a Spaghettieis in one hand, my camera in the other, when I made this photograph. The ultra wide angle lens doesn’t really make up for the lack of good composition. But it helps, a little.
Airbag Industries & Happy Cog Merge
August 03, 2009
In 2006, Greg asked me to join Airbag as its first employee. And last month marked the completion of my third year at Airbag. We’ve grown in size and in the scope of projects we work on. And now we’re growing some more.
I’m happy to announce that Airbag Industries and Happy Cog have merged.
From the press release:
The newly merged Happy Cog team will offer clients the benefits of a large firm—a wide range of skills, experience and industry leadership in web standards, information architecture, marketing, content strategy, and implementation of best practices, while at the same time bringing to the table the creativity, responsiveness, and out-of-the box thinking of a boutique Firm. All three studio locations can share design, development, user experience, and content strategy resources and personnel. Happy Cog East and Happy Cog West will specialize in client services, web design, and development. Happy Cog Studios in New York, while also designing select websites, will chiefly focus on business strategy and content publishing via Happy Cog’s industry-leading A List Apart Magazine (www.alistapart.com), An Event Apart web design conference, and other ventures.
It just makes a lot of sense. We enjoy working with each other, we enjoy socializing with each other, we enjoy standards-based design and development and customizing and deploying the wonderful ExpressionEngine CMS. In short, the Happy Cog and Airbag Industries teams couldn’t be more compatible.
We also have existing relations with Happy Cog: Greg has been a Happy Cog Strategic Partner for some time, I’m the Production Director of A List Apart Magazine and Ethan has spoken at several Happy Cog-produced An Event Apart conferences, works as a technical editor on A List Apart Magazine and is co-authoring the new edition of Jeffrey Zeldman’s book, Designing with Web Standards.
So, as of today, Airbag will go back to being Greg’s personal website, the place where this all started, and we begin our new adventure as Happy Cog West.
- Rockstars & Ninjas - Don’t write bone-headed job ads. (-)
The Hard Part
July 06, 2009
Seth Godin: The paradox of the middle of the market
It’s not that difficult to write a blog, for example, that repeatedly shows up on Digg or Reddit. The thing is, this audience is fickle and they don’t often convert into paying customers or long-term fans. It’s not that difficult to be haute couture, to be fashionable, cutting edge or fickle. What’s difficult is figuring out how to make it pay.