Trent Richardson » General

New to Github

trent — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:54:33 +0000

So I recently signed up on Github.. it seems to be the coolest thing to do right now. I’ve put some thought towards moving my projects over to it. However, other than version control I don’t see what the benefit is in it? I guess it will allow other people to view and commit too? The part I don’t favor is the fact that it will separate the downloads from the documentation, which I’m not a fan of. I would much rather the “one stop shop” like it is now.

What are your thoughts?

New Projects Section

trent — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:14:58 +0000

I’ve been studying how I could improve my blog to meet its main purposes lately, and I’ve create a new Projects section on the sidebar to help display various projects I have developed. I haven’t posted every single code snippet I’ve ever done, but it covers the larger projects which get the most of my attention(or the ones used the most on a daily basis). Never know, you might find something useful there too!

New jQuery Impromptu Show Effect

How I’ve Nearly Doubled Website Traffic

trent — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:46:35 +0000

Over the course of the past month I’ve been doing a bit of work on my blog, everything from performance, to seo. I’ve noticed a pretty good jump in my visitors too. Nearly twice as many! I thought I’d share a few of the enhancements I’ve made. This is of course a WordPress blog, so of course all the changes are for WordPress.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
wp-cache
Sociable
Bird Feeder
All in One SEO Pack
Google XML Sitemaps
Resorted to a more CSS based design with fewer images to load
And a change of servers, so hopefully the site will load a bit faster

Most of these are simply plugins, so they are dirt simple changes. Google Sitemap Generator took a little thought in tweaking its configuration, and same goes with the others as well so they fit my needs. I also am trying to keep the site clean looking, and not become cluttered, which forces me to be careful selecting plugins which may harm the visual aspect of the site. I’ve also considered a translation plugin. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions on these? Or whether or not it would help? Hope these tips help you as well as it did me!

Reading a Book

trent — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:52:44 +0000

Never thought I would say this since I’m long out of college, but I am in fact reading a book. (Hence why I’ve been quiet here on the blog the last few days) I purchased the The Smashing Book. So far it has been very educational. It is broken up into several really useful topics, although I’ve only made it though the first few. After just two chapters I felt like I had my money’s worth, now everything is just an extra bonus! Any who, I’ll be back to posting regularly in a day or two!

Update on Everything

I’m Now On Twitter!

trent — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:45:08 +0000

It took me long enough, but I’m now on Twitter! I actually had an account set up several months ago but never logged in. I decided it was time. My username is practicalweb. While I may not post every event in life, I will try to keep it up to date with the blog and anything else I decide is worth sharing but not worth an entire blog post. Anyway, Follow Me if you like!

New Hosting for TrentRichardson.com

trent — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:07:26 +0000

I’ve not done much posting lately here because I’ve been in the process of switching my hosting provider. Not that I was unsatisfied with my previous provider, actually quite the opposite. I wanted to get all of my sites together so they’re easier to manage. I now have this site with WebFaction. Why WebFaction?

So far I’ve heard and read nothing but good reviews. I also like their approach on setting up new sites. Within their custom control panel you can manage domains and applications. Then you can associate each Domain( or subdomain) with an Application to create a “Website”. They also provide many frameworks out of the box at the click of a mouse like Django, RoR, WordPress, etc.. In the time I’ve spent with them I’ve been impressed. If you’re thinking of a new host, I recommend WebFaction. (If you use these links to WebFaction I will atleast get a little credit if you sign up with them)

To Share or to Buy

trent — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:39:05 +0000

Before sending hate mail please read this post entirely

Everyday on Digg or some other tech news site you see a headline about file sharing music and movies and what not. I can’t help but think that most everyone does it (or has done it), but how blatantly people try to defend doing it. I’ve tried to be more responsible in recent years and purchase my music, movies, and programs. But who are these people kidding by ripping off the producers and engineers of these products.

The fact is this: someone creates a product for sale; you obtain it without their permission and without paying for it. The best I can tell that is stealing. But why is it Ok all of a sudden that you can do it from the privacy and security from your home at your computer. Sure, perhaps the music/movie industry could do a better job protecting their products, but that’s not the point.

At the end of the day think about it like this: Some software programmer is trying to feed his family by writing software. If his product doesn’t sell because you’re stealing it from him that’s just as bad in my opinion as walking in a candy store, grabbing a bag of candy, and walking out. Some person makes their living by doing this work, and you have taken from them. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s a single person or a large corporation. Its the exact same.

I’m not bashing each individual person who has ever done this. Heck, most everyone has. If you can admit it’s wrong even though you do it, I can live with the fact that you’re aware and that you are fully responsible for your actions. I just don’t get the fact that people so openly defend doing it because they think there’s nothing wrong with it. Are you defending stealing?

Drawberry Vector Editor

trent — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:46:03 +0000

Well, from time to time I venture to other operating systems and also from time to time you come across some pretty cool apps that help out. I recently stumbled upon Drawberry for OSX. Its a very simplistic vector graphics editor which even I can use! Definitely worth a try, and best of all is its price!

DrawBerry from Jay Hilgert on Vimeo.

Shaking up the Browser Market

trent — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:37:47 +0000

No new news here, just the fact that theres a lot happening now with the web browsers. First there is Google Chrome making its debut. Then it is reported Firefox’s new javascript engine, Trace Monkey, is faster than V8. And now all of a sudden Yahoo is flashing Firefox at the top of their page as their recommended web browser. All at the same time what ever happed to IE8?

I think there could have been some strategic planning on the release of Chrome to beat out IE8, and perhaps intercept some of the faithful IE users. It could have also been coincidence. But now yahoo is clearly supporting Firefox and perhaps yet again will attract more IE users. Since Yahoo doesn’t have a browser I don’t think this will effect them as much, but it is clearly shaping up to be a three way battle between IE8, Firefox, and Chrome in my opinion. As far as opinions on the browsers go I think all three are becoming very well rounded browsers, so I think all of them are pretty good compared to 2-3 years ago.

With all this commotion who will benefit the most?

A New Addition

trent — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:49:53 +0000

As some of you may know I am from an area where Nascar thrives down every street and through every home. Since I enjoy the web so much and enjoy racing I have assisted a good friend of mine in getting a racing website up and running. Please welcome RaceJournal.net. Posts are pretty frequent throughout the week and the content is coming from a very knowledgeable person, and of course I will be assisting along the way as well. Please show some love!