Ecommerce for WordPress

The eshop plugin can be used to create ecommerce sites, like http://thecabinetofcuriosities.co.uk/

Who needs Photoshop anyway?

Ha!  You’ve been struggling to create the perfect Lolcats image, but just can’t figure out all the options in that cracked version of Photoshop your brother’s friend gave you.  There is an easy alternative – The Loltext generator from BigHugeLabs.com.

One of my favorite Lolcat characters is “Hovercat.”  He just looks so sleek and futuristic.  Here is a photo of one that seems to have crashed.  The look on his face is too LOL!

Apple TV Movie Rentals – Just Not There Yet

This weekend I decided to try the movie rental feature on my Apple TV. My wife had been wanting to see Rendition, and on a slow Saturday night this sounded like a good idea.  The movie was listed right in top rentals, so there was no searching.  Purchasing the rental was very easy.  I just had to enter my password. The debit card I had on file with Apple was expired, but a quick trip to my computer to update the card fixed that.

Note: The following paragraph explains the experience I had with downloading.  Most users did write in to say that they can begin watching after only a small portion of the video is downloaded.  I did not have such luck.  I will research this to find if I can change a setting or if I have a download speed that is slower than required.

I expected a few minutes of buffering and I would be watching the movie in 15 or 20 minutes. Unfortunately, this is where things started to go bad.  Unlike any other quicktime video, movies are not progressive download.  My quick calculations showed that it would take over 2 hours to download the complete movie over the AT&T DSL connection I use.

Sunday night we sat down to finally watch our movie.  I was pleasantly surprised at the video quality.  It is slightly lower quality than DVD.  You can see artifacts in dark shots or on large areas of solid color, like on doors and walls.  We watched most of the movie before deciding that it was getting close to bedtime and the end would have to wait for Monday.

Ah, the second snag – You only have 24 hours to watch the movie.  Since we started watching at 7:30 on Sunday night we only have until 7:30 Monday to watch the movie.  Unfortunately, we’ll be attending an art lecture Monday evening.  I’ll be driving down to my local BlockBuster to rent the same movie later Monday night!

Overall, the rental process was easy and the selection of movies is OK.  I can see where some would find renting over the internet to be very beneficial.  It just doesn’t work for me right now.  I am already a Netflix subscriber and have a BlockBuster store 2 minutes away.  Once Lafayette Utility Services begins offering “Fiber to the Home” in early 2009, my opinion of Apple TV may change. I live in the “Phase 1″ area and plan on purchasing FTTH immediately when it is available.

Using Sorenson Squeeze to Encode YouTube Video

Update – This post is out-dated: the settings are no longer the best for YouTube.

I have been searching high and low for the best settings to encode video for YouTube.  Ideally I would like to find a way to upload video that will not be re-compressed.  I don’t know that I have accomplished that, but here is the best method I have found.

I am using Sorenson Squeeze 4.5.7 to compress to FLV format.  YouTube recommends MP4 format, but it seems to me that the video is FLV, since that is the format KeepVid.com and the Firefox DownloadHelper plugin save the videos.

Using Sorenson, use the Macromedia Flash Video “1Mbps” preset:

• Method to 2-Pass VBR.
• Data Rate of 896 Kbps.
• Frame Size 320W x 240H.
• Frame Rate 1:1 or 30FPS
• Key Frame Every 45frames

And Since audio is important:

• Fraunhofer MP3
• Data Rate 128 Kbps
• Sample Size 16
• Sample Rate 44100
• Channels Stereo

I am positive that these settings will change.  YouTube will increase video resolution as bandwidth increases.  Hopefully they release the specs for us pros to use at some point.

You can create an aside.  Simply create a category called “Asides”.  Any posts categorized as an “Aside” will have this styling.

WordPress Coding

I never intended to become so involved in WordPress, but it is just so damned easy!  After writing a plugin (MultiBlix) and completing an overhaul of a theme (Blix1000), I think I am about to embark on the effort to create an original,  new theme.

 The WordPress layout at first look seems very complex.  Dynamic menu buttons, Sidebar widgets that do just about anything, comment management and pre-formatted articles.  It is a big job to create a theme that gives a unique look and feel to all that is going on.  But, WordPress provides templates to get you started and the Wordpress community provides a host of articles and code samples to create a complete finished product.

I’m not talking about getting started, but this is a long-term goal of mine.  I will keep you up-to-date as the project progresses.

Here are some helpful links for coding in WordPress:
Codex.Wordpress - Theme Development
Mastering Your WordPress Theme – Hacks and Techniques
Change Default Thumbnail Size – This should be an admin option!
Gravatars – Like politics, gravatars is everywhere!
WordPress Widgets

Learn.com Empowerment Conference

I just got through with the Learn.com conference.  (I am writing in the airport!)  Once again, it was an elightening experience.  It is always interesting to hear stories from the other users – both frustrations and breakthroughs.   I didn’t get quite as many tech-tips out of the conference, but I was excited to hear about the updates coming out soon.