Posts filed under 'Webby'
Edgar Allen Poe
The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.’
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me – filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,’
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,’ said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you’ – here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!’
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!’
Merely this and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,’ said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
‘Tis the wind and nothing more!’
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,’ I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning – little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.’
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered – not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.’
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.’
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,’ said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of “Never-nevermore.”‘
But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.’
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,’ I cried, `thy God hath lent thee – by these angels he has sent thee
Respite – respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
`Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted – tell me truly, I implore -
Is there – is there balm in Gilead? – tell me – tell me, I implore!’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
`Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us – by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!’ I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! – quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted – nevermore!
How you got there
Funny how you travel in cyberville, with a search to find above poem I found myself doing another search on “Quoth” and ended up here Navigated to here via random connectedness, and ultimately to here where I spent a good time listing to scientific tunes. Very entertaining.
I should be doing anything else really, but was caught, hooked and thought any that pass this way might like to share the experience.
November 4th, 2007
This is my project
Why then do I struggle more to find my individual concept, than I would when faced with a design criteria placed upon me by a client.
I think from a designers perspective to present oneself becomes a far more daunting task, than to create something when given the desired constraints of a client.
I know my abilities, and that of my competitors, that is indeed the crux. When every word you write is cold hard screen media, the decisions you make directly relate to your on screen presence.
I have my blog, if you are reading this, you are here. This is my experimental zone, and does not translate well into a marketing strategy, or first impressions presence for potential clients who are looking for a website to project there product to the internet savvy world.
I have been sat on ‘oikofugic.com’ for almost a year now, with the
desire to promote my skills as a web site designer in the southport area.
I am on my way, make space. Remember Oikofugic.com is on it’s way. My /blog is a temporary stocking filler.. Stay tuned..
October 18th, 2007
What a Crazy Day
and where to begin. This morning I decided to delete by ftp half my blog functional files thinking I was deleting an old application. That was a little frustrating, but I knew no permanent damage was done.
Then I randomly checked another site of mine and I was getting a 403 error. Ok what is happening. I Reinstalled accidentally deleted files from a recent backup which then resulted in a 403 error on my blog also. Any way at the same time as my site is down I realize that I have the best incoming link to my blog in my web design career to date.
I noticed in search results this link.
link to my site from Brendon Sinclair blinked a couple of times, shook head, paced around for a minute cursing my stupidity now holding head in both hands and screaming inside. This guy is currently featured on the front page of sitepoint.
Ah hay hay:
A web developers resource, with articles forums and tutorials.
So I have this fab link and my site is down. Yeah great first impressions for the hoards of people, web site traffic coming my way. Rapidly going crazy..
Brendon’s post referenced a post I had made a couple of days ago concerning optimizing pages/websites for search engine ranking.
Tips from Mr marketing
Anyway in Brendon’s post he suggests methods to improve the google visibility of a site I had just finished the design phase of.
What To Do
1. Mention photographic retouching early in the title tag of the page you want to be found for someone searching for photographic retouching
2. Mention the phrase in the meta description
3. Mention the phrase on the page
4. Get links to the page using the words photographic retouching as the link text
Playing the waiting game
I have made the modifications to Lynseys site, on the index page just the meta description, but in the photographic retouching pages I have incorporated all of the tips given and will look to further improve keywords and meta descriptions.
Cheers again Brendon, I am luvin’ this global community.
September 21st, 2007
Planet’s best web designer
Just experimenting, I have been reading some sample chapters of the Web Design Business Kit by Brendon Sinclair Searched his site Tailored consulting and thought I’d have a crack at his methods.
Hope he appreciates the hot links coming from a google page rank 0 site, you never know he may return the favor.
I think I have mentioned in previous posts that my understanding of how these things work is growing, for my goal through learning and reading, the attainment of knowledge is to rise to the exulted position of planet’s best web designer.
I have recently finished a site for a client, and the site comes up top of google listings for specific searches, such as ‘owners name’. lynsey birchall What she does, being that it is like web design itself practiced by many a specific search for photographic retouching brings no results to the top of google’s searches.
I know it’s all about page linkage and the fact that I am not at this time the planets best web designer is quite irrelevant.
Right the crux of this little situation lies in the fact that I have no resource/access to a google ranked site more than what I have created myself.
Central12.com being a page rank 1, Yeah scream for joy and recognition. I expect my best option will be a site I did some time ago (Needs a revamp) Rachels site
Not as yet checked the ranking, but the site is linked to from the site that produced her albums. DB Studios and Cross Rhythms and one or two other good links.
So in the best interest of everyone involved I try to use the created linkage to its best advantage and share the wealth, and indeed things are beginning to happen, my own exposure over the last 12 months has increased by a %age not huge, but never-the-less we are traveling in the right direction.
Infinity and beyond.. cheers Buzz.
September 19th, 2007
Working it out
A little background. My blog, like many is currently set by default to display 10 posts on the page, I like this configuration, as I considered from the perspective of a random viewer there would be enough interesting content accessible from a quick scroll to grab the attention. (a few pics, a bit of text)
What I didn’t realize until recently was how search engines work and pages are indexed. In fact I still don’t, but I have made a couple of interesting discoveries.
Where to begin, I guess to get it straight I’ll start with my first web site Central12.
If I type central12 into google search, I will get a link to a post I made when starting this blog concerning the fate of the central12 site.
http://www.oikofugic.com/blog/archives/2006/12/19/central12-moved/
I am obviously happy to find this link here, and consider my efforts to achieve this once so illusive goal worth while.
The search request central12 brings up the link to the specific post I made about central12 as it should.
However if I do a google search for the following,
‘It’s a plugin mashup’, which is the title of a recent post, the search engine brings a link to my blog, oikofugic.com/blog, rather than to
http://www.oikofugic.com/blog/archives/2007/08/12/its-a-plugin-mashup/
which would obviously be preferable.
This I believe is the case because the first post has dropped off the front page, therefore it’s existence in cyber space is independent of the site index and thus gets crawled individually?
So I don’t know if there is a way around this little problem, apart from setting the blog to display only one post on the front page.
I have not noticed this until recently, as have only now begun to explore the realms of analytics.
I initially thought the situation might have arisen out of my dabbling in the code, changing the permalink structure in conjunction with a trackback spam blocker – experimenting with various other plugins. I know not..
Any Ideas out there.
September 12th, 2007
Tangled up in plaid
Scrobbled Queens of the.. this was first track. I am wondering what to follow.
It is strange, using the Last fm music interface, you type a band and you will 100% always get that band first track, but then some random track hits you in the teeth. Ahh, can sometimes be a rewarding experience.. luck of the digital learning about you draw.
Here goes..
Born of a broken man Rage against the machine. Skipped it Velvet revolver, not sure, will let it ride. She builds quick machines.. like it
Since then we have had the strokes REM some weird other stuff, helping me in my quest to find a viable plugin to exclude category.
Eagles of Death Metal Solid Gold. got to laugh, just sayin today how I’m not overly impressed, will see what this track has to offer. Recognize it. I hold up my hands. It’s a tune.
Update
Got this new plugin ‘Advanced Category Excluder’ to work from these guys Cheers.
Beth Orton Nice Came from the route of Kate Bush. Cat Power, mellow female artistsss. I’m loving this route Peter Gabriel Lazarus raised. up uP UP>>
Bugger, had my link to last post, so if I post a non picture post I will link to wrong place, as I have just noticed after Queens of the Stone Age post. What I need is ‘get last post from specific category plugin’ Show me the link. Show me..ee
Another Update
Solved the problem, found the plugin, Love it when a plan comes together, although I am surprised anything works at all with the amount of dodgy customizations on my part. Any how here it is if you need similar. Customizable Post Listings classic little bit of code. Hats off.
You just need to add a little code to where you want the desired effect. He has a number of built templates and examples. I tweaked around a little to get it working, cos I know not what I’m doing, ended up with this.
<?php c2c_get_recent_posts(1, "<li>%post_URL%</li>", '15'); ?>
The numbers in the above are:
1 = no. posts to be displayed. I just want the last one.
15 = no. of category. My Daily Photo is listed as 15, this can be found from dashboard-manage-Categories.
That’s it.
September 8th, 2007
Layout techniques using css. Cascading style sheets.
Over the next few weeks I am going to build an external working page (I will link to soon) with pictures, graphic images, text, navigation and anything else that pops into mind at any given time along the course of the project. In an effort to keep this blog going I will post in smallish segments, to enable me to write more frequently.
Disclaimer:
I have uncovered all I know from the web, and my own investigations. All tutorials are given in the understanding that information acquired here might in some cases not be the best solution to any possible hypothetical situation. Hold me not responsible for any psychiatric episodes you may experience on your personal quest to build a web site.
Enjoy:
The beginnings
Above is a div. It can be any size as specified by the style sheet or style rules.
html:
<div id="maincont"></div>
css:
#maincont {
width:350px;
height:200px;
border:2px solid green;
margin-left:30px; }
A div is just a box/container and is used to create a page layout. Divs can be placed within other divs, next to each other, or in any other combination you can imagine.
Below I am going to put another div inside the first and align it to the left.
html:
<div id="maincont1">
<div id="lfttbx"></div>
</div>
css:
#lfttbx {
width:150px;
height:50px;
border:2px solid red;
float:left; }
Floating a div like this is a common way to achieve a multi columned layout, or even more elaborate designs.
Below I will add another containind div to the structure, but align it to the right.
html:
<div id="maincont1">
<div id="lfttbx"></div>
<div id="rttbx"></div>
</div>
css:
#rttbx {
width:180px;
height:70px;
border:2px solid blue;
float:right; }
August 21st, 2007
I came across this today. Doing this quiz your tastes, and styles are matched to a famous photographer:
Here are my results:
One of my own: Clearly he acquired all he knows from his former master.
August 15th, 2007
Playing around with plugins
Using a combination of plugins to achieve the goal
The goal is..
Objective: to place code in the page and have mini applications working within the parameters of the page
To that end I have mashed a few plugins together and will now try and explain why, that is before I forget myself
Initially I just wanted to be able to add things I had learnt or wanted to explain in the blog post page.
For eg. I followed a tutorial See previous post
I had to at the time take the example out of the wordpress loop, I couldn’t find a way to add the necessary code to the head section of the page without that code residing in every subsequent post I made. See auto generated content in previous highlighted post.
So another plugin to the rescue, sometimes they sound great , but don’t always live up to expectations, this is not one of those. It does what it says, But I still have struggles, and be aware I do make things difficult for myself.. You know I am just playing around here, nowt too serious.
To add a link to a style sheet specific to the
particular post I am writing is easy using the box generated, which appears under your post text box
<link href="mystyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
So adding the above style sheet link to the add headers box will generate that link, but obviously does nothing to any links that are in the core wordpress index template. These links remain. and I’m wondering now why I am bothered
At this point I have kind of realized that it isn’t a mashup really at all, but to go back would be folly. I kind of wanted to get into what I had done, and why. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
A new page template
Nice tutorial on Binary Moon
I made new page template as shown below, but created a new header..header1.php and had the template call that.
<?php
/*
Template Name: Uniqu
*/
?>
<?php
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require('header1.php');
?>
<div id="content">
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
Why, and for what purpose would you do that
Deleted the style sheet link that is why
And we come full circle..
hello Mr.Plugin, I think I need to add a new unrelated link here.
Could be css, javascript, whatever.
At the end of all that I have test page, not done anything with this yet, but in combination with another ‘add page plugin’ and ‘keep page from main navigation plugin’, we have an option from the web interface to be able easily to add unique content and style to the blog on the fly.
I will have to re-write this..
August 12th, 2007
One century ago; ie, a decent lifetime..
Our world view has changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time. To cast back one hundred years the existence of the atom in modern scientific circles was not widely accepted.
How strange to imagine folks still wandering around on this spinning mass of rock in space didn’t have any kind of insight to their own structural makeup.
Click Atom pic to visit site where pic was procured.
My understanding is limited, and no doubt will seem primitive to those future folk who sit here when my mortal body decompiles.
I believe through analysis, that my heritage is a combination of Klingon, Vulcan but primarily human, which would account for the inconsistent thought processes, a need to get shit organized, and a complete lack of empathy for any other viewpoint..
So to do some serious thinking here..
Planks constant is where I will begin. For it serves well as a starting, learning point.
The Planck constant (denoted h) is a physical constant that is used to describe the sizes of quanta. It plays a central role in the theory of quantum mechanics, and is named after Max Planck, one of the founders of quantum theory. A closely-related quantity is the reduced Planck constant (also known as Dirac’s constant and denoted ħ, pronounced “h-bar”). The Planck constant is also used in measuring energy emitted as photons, such as in the equation E=hν, where E is energy, h is Planck’s constant, and ν (Greek letter nu) is frequency. The Planck constant and the reduced Planck constant are used to describe quantization, a phenomenon occurring in subatomic particles such as electrons and photons in which certain physical properties occur in fixed amounts rather than assuming a continuous range of possible values.
source
More to follow, just need to extract the information from a parallel universe.
July 29th, 2007
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