Chris Johnston

The Mobile PC website has published a list of the top 100 gadgets of all time. I am not sure if I agree with all of their choices, but it is still an interesting read.

I have finally done it. Not only does my design look the same in IE 5.0x, 5.5, 6, Firefox 1.0, Konquerer, Opera 7.5 and Safari, but it is also valid xhtml transititional. And, it looks better then it did before this little journey began. In addition, in order to get the code to validate, I had to simplify it, so that can only be a good thing. I am not sure if I am going to submit it as a theme though, I still have to think about that one.

I have added a new Theme Switcher plugin that will allow you to switch between the various themes installed on the site. So far there are four to choose from — the original fuzzylizard design, the default WordPress 1.5 design, the classic WordPress 1.2 design, and a new design called Mangi2. The last three themes are straight “out-of-the-box” installs. I will be customizing them over the next little while to help them blend together a little more. I will also hopefully be creating a few more themes of my own for the site. Once I do, I will make the new designs available for download.

TheServerSide.com has published Mastering EJB 3rd Ed Published. In addition, a free pdf version of the book is available for download.

What’s new in Mastering EJB Third Edition

• Includes more than 30 percent revised material and five new chapters, covering the new 2.1 features such as EJB Timer Service and JMS as well as the latest open source Java solutions
• The book was developed as part of TheServerSide.com online EJB community, ensuring a built-in audience
• Demonstrates how to build an EJB system, program with EJB, adopt best practices, and harness advanced EJB concepts and techniques, including transactions, persistence, clustering, integration, and performance optimization
• Offers practical guidance on when not to use EJB and how to use simpler, less costly open source technologies in place of or in conjunction with EJB

I read the second edition of this book and it provided an excellent reference for learning EJB’s.

Part of the process of upgrading to WordPress 1.5 was to delete all of my plugins. However, it was those plugins that were keeping all of my spam at bay and saving me from having to delete a hundred spam comments everyday. Unfortunately, the increased comment controls in Wp 1.5 are not stopping the spam so I had to go looking for a plugin. The one that I am using is called “Kitten’s Spaminator” and it seems to be working fairly well. WordPress also has an article on their wiki about combating comment spam.

I have successfully upgraded the backend to WordPress 1.5, now all I have to do it upgrade the front end. So, until I do that, the visual design of the site will probably move back and forth from what it looked like to the default theme over the next several days till I get everything sorted out. I do not have my testing server setup here at home, so I am going to do all my changes on the live site.

I need to transform the design for fuzzylizard into a new WP 1.5 theme. I am not sure how long this is going to take. As I explore how to create a proper WP theme, I will post as much as I can about what I learn along with a possible tutorial. At the very least, you should be able to see the process if you visit often enough.

WordPress 1.5 was officially released today. This new version is called Strayhorn and includes a lot of updates over 1.2:

• Templates and site customization
• Greater control over comments to decrease comment spam
• Tha ability to manage more than just a blog

I am not sure if I will attempting to upgrade tonight, but if you see this site offline or errors over the next several days, it will most likely be because I am upgrading to 1.5.