Latest Thoughts

I'm A Very Bright and Talented Designer

December 17, 2007

... so says a recent press release sent out by Ashland University...

"This year’s card featuring an interactive tour of ornaments adorning a Christmas tree was designed by Red Red Design’s Steve Knowlton, a 2007 AU graduate. “He’s a very bright, talented designer,” Box said."

Read the whole article here:
Ashland University Ecard Press Release

Some Handy Yearend Typoscript

December 14, 2007

I was finishing a site today for a client, and questions arose regarding the impending year change.  I was asked how to update the copyright to have the current year.  It really wasn't too hard once I dug into it a little... I'm not sure why it isn't just included in the WEC typo3 install that I was using.  I also threw in some fun newsfeed stuff:

## This shows how to automatically update the copyright year
lib.copyright = TEXT
lib.copyright.data = date:U
lib.copyright.strftime = %Y
lib.copyright.wrap = © | {$constant.siteName}

####################################

### Put the Latest News in the left column on certain pages
[PIDinRootline = 100,102]
lib.latestNews < plugin.tt_news
lib.latestNews {        

code >        
code = LATEST        
pid_list >        
pid_list = 31 # the folder where news are stored        
catImageMode = 0        
catTextMode = 0 

}
lib.leftSide < lib.
latestNews
[else] # Put something else in the lib.
leftSide
temp.
leftSide = TEXT
temp.
leftSide.value = Hello
lib.
leftSide < temp.leftSide


Legend of the Clean Desktop

November 06, 2007

I have heard stories, "tales" if you so choose, of people with clean desktops on their computer.  After years of experience on computers, I know this is a preposterous proposal.  But recently, after filling up the 200GB hard drive of my MacBook Pro with random documents and web clippings, I decided it was time to investigate the possibility of such a place.

I started at the beginning, a very good place to start.  It seemed logical to go through everything on my desktop and sort it into the correct folders within my system.  BUT, I was a little too busy to do that when I was thinking of it. So i just put everything into a "Desktop Crap" folder.  Surprisingly, within a week it was all full of files again.

I am currently trying out a little App called Hazel.  It is pretty sweet, as it looks at whatever lands on my desktop and, according to rules I configure, it will sort the files automatically.  It also dumps anything in my trash for more than a week, and sets a limit on the size of my trashcan.  Now if I could get it to do my dishes.