Archive for the ‘About this site’ Category
September 23rd, 2008 A new look
I’ve been meaning to refresh the appearance of this site for the longest time, and now finally I’ve gotten around to it. I hope you like the new design, based on the “Just Lucid” theme created by Theme Lab. I really like the simplicity and elegance of it.
One new feature is a revamped Photos page. It displays photos and slideshows much better than before. Check it out! Just click on one of the thumbnail images to bring up a bunch of photos. Click on the first one and you can see a cool slideshow.
I’ve also made the video clips more accessible by adding links to recent ones in the right column. Clicking on one of these will allow you to see them over at Blip.tv, where they are being hosted. You can also subscribe to them via iTunes.
So, there you have it. If you notice more changes in the coming days, know that I’m still tweaking things here and there. Finally, please continue leaving comments! I love reading them. Let me know what you think of this new look, and if there are any other features you’d like me to incorporate.
Papa
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I’ve just added some more cool features to this site, so I’ll take this post to tell you about them. I’ve updated the “Mandigo” theme this site is based on, and with that comes a few things:
New background image
First of all, do you notice the new background image? It’s now dark, with a very subtle paisley print pattern. Nice!
Resizing icons
Next, if you look at the upper right corner of each post, you’ll notice two tiny icons. Click on these and see what happens! Cool, eh? I thought so, too. Use this feature if you’d like a less distracting reading experience.
Updated “Photos” page
Finally, if you’ve got a moment, take a look at the Photos page. You’ll notice I’ve added a LOT of new pictures. Each group of them actually reside over at our Google Picasa page, so you can view them there as well. To view the photos, just click on a photo, then on one of the thumbnail images in the group. The pictures will appear “above” the page with a cool “Lightbox” effect. Click the “Next” button in the upper right corner to advance to the next one. I hope you like this new set-up. You’ll be able to see more family photos more easily, and I won’t have to post pictures in two places, saving me some valuable time and energy.
Click on this photo to be taken to the new Photos page
“Share This”
Finally, in case you’d like to tell other family or friends about this site, I’ve included a “Share This” link at the bottom of every blog entry. Clicking on this will bring up a dialog box that contains links to all the top social networking sites out there. If this means nothing to you, never mind! Clicking on the “Tell a Friend” tab will allow you to send a blog entry to someone via email. Thanks in advance for spreading the word about our site! I’m very keen on sharing our lives with anyone interested. This sort of contact and interaction helps make my world smaller and cozier.
Finally, let me know what you think of these new features by leaving a comment below. I’m very interested in your reaction, or if you have any special requests for other features.
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As you may know, one of the reason’s I’m doing this site (besides wanting to stay in better touch with you all!) is to improve my web-skills. I’m planning on starting my PhD one of these days, and key to my proposed idea is creating and maintaining a blog. So, all the effort I put into this site pays off later on when it comes to my doctorate.
WordPress (the blogging system that powers this site) is an open-source deal, meaning that anyone with an idea and ability to improve the system can do so. There are literally thousands of “plug-ins” that improve a site’s functionality in some way. I’ve grown fond of browsing through the WordPress plug-in directory, looking for cool stuff to make this site better. There are just so many amazing bells and whistles out there! It’s been really fun to experiment with some of them.
This brings me to today’s topic: I’d like to introduce a very cool new feature called “Answer-Tips“. This plug-in adds a virtual dictionary to each and every page on this blog. By clicking on any word, a little pop-up window will appear with a definition, like this:
See what happened when I double-clicked on “Toyama”? A window from the reference site Answers.com popped up with a definition of Toyama. Not only can you read about what a word means, but you can click on the little speaker icon and hear it pronounced. Very cool! I’m geeking out…
So, I hope you enjoy this feature. It’s a cool thing knowing you’ll always be able to know what means what.
Oh, just for fun: Try clicking on my wife’s name- Shinobu. The definition that comes up is a real goof. Bonus points to anyone who has heard of them.
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Hey all,
I realize that some of you interested in this site may be new to the world of blogging and podcasting. To help you out, I’ve created an extensive (but hopefully easy to understand) page of information on how to subscribe to this site.
The basic gist is to understand that a blog (or “web log”) is like an online journal that contains not only text entries, but also other media such as photos, audio, and video clips. And, thanks to some nifty technology (RSS feeds), you can get this content delivered to you automatically. To make this happen, you’ll need special software that monitors this site and automatically gathers the new stuff. For example, to receive blog entries, you’ll need to have an “aggregator” (also known as an “RSS reader”) of some sort installed. For the podcasts, I highly recommend iTunes. For viewing the photos and YouTube video clips, hopefully you already have the required software installed (Adobe Flash Player).
To subscribe to the blog entries, just click on the RSS Blog button on the left. If you’d like to subscribe to our podcast, just click on the iTunes button or a button for one of the other major podcast directories.
If all this is too complicated, NO WORRIES! Just bookmark this site and come by regularly. You’ll be able to read, watch, and listen to everything I post without having to install anything.
Finally, I’m really interested in spreading the word about our podcast, so feel free to pass on the link to this site to anyone you think may be interested. I would really like to use this site as a tool for helping build up and extend our community circle.
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