February 26, 2004

Rebuilding Movable Type via Perl Script - Part II

An even stronger MT-rebuild script resides at tima thinking outloud

Heralded as “The rebuild script to end all rebuild scripts”, Tima writes “I’ve released mt-rebuild, a utility script for rebuilding a MovableType template from the command-line as opposed to the standard MT browser interface.”

Posted by akvalley at 08:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Rebuilding Movable Type via Perl Script

Finally, I have started to take some time to get under the hood of Six Apart’s Movable Type.

My first objective was to automate a rebuild of the weblog via PERL, however, it’s already been done. Erik’s Weblog offered a complete implementation of this task last year.

I shall not reinvent the wheel.

Posted by akvalley at 08:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2004

Last weeks SiteMeter stats for "In The Faith"

Not too bad…

In The Faith - A Chronicle of the Christian Faith
(s18inthefaith)

— Site Summary —-
Visits

Total ………………….. 10,107
Average per Day ………….. 1,190
Average Visit Length ………. 2:29
This Week ……………….. 8,333

Page Views

Total ………………….. 19,454
Average per Day ………….. 2,282
Average per Visit ………….. 1.9
This Week ………………. 15,973

http://s18.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s18inthefaith

Posted by akvalley at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 30, 2004

Did I every post this? Create FavIcons from a picture.

Need a really good/free Favorite Icon (favicon) Editor? Wait no more, Html-Kit has one in it’s online tools.

FavIcon from Pics @ HTML-Kit.com

Would you like to display your own icon on the browser address bar when visitors view or bookmark your web page? The favicon feature makes it possible to brand address bars, bookmarks / favorites, and/or tabs with custom icons.

The FavIcon from Pics makes it easier to create icons for your web pages. Simply select a picture, logo or other graphic (of any size/resolution) that you already have for the “Source Image” and click “Generate FavIcon.ico”

Posted by akvalley at 07:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 19, 2003

Using Movable Type for Content Management

Had to bookmark this site as a look into using MT as a complete Content Management System

Brad Choate: Touch of Hope: A Technical Colophon

In the days to come, I will be transforming the Bountiful Blessings Fellowship website into a full blow MT driven web site. Hmmm, it does seems that a lot of church sites have been good candidates for this treatment.

My plan is to use the 4 blog approach. One blog for each major section. More of that will be determined a little later.

I’ll update this weblog with my progress.
More to Come…

Posted by akvalley at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 10, 2003

Working With Alternate Style Sheets

This article is oozing with yummy-gooey goodness, so much so that I just deployed multiple style sheet on my photoblog (Anthony's Rank Amateur Photography)

Alternative Style: Working With Alternate Style Sheets: A List Apart

Posted by akvalley at 02:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 08, 2003

Just Added Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist to my MT Configuration

Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way.

Surfing around at MT-Plugins, I saw Jay Allen's Spam blocking blacklister (MT-Blacklist v1.61-beta).

This is wonderful! No more junk from the sex, drugs, and trash spammers!

Posted by akvalley at 04:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 02, 2003

Facial Xpressions got indexed by Google

Using the power of the internet and some tricks with Google.com, I got the website of a friend indexed by Google in four days.

Well, the four days part was really a fluke, normally it takes no more than 14 days for Google to do it's thing.

See Facial Xpressions and buy some lipstick.

This is actually the third time that this quick indexing thing that I been looking into has worked within a two week time frame. Cool!

First was Vertical Studio, then there was Live LLC, followed by Hoofman Inc.

Not a bad track record.

[Google Search: facial xpressions]

Posted by akvalley at 08:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 25, 2003

Installing Gallery at Dreamhost

While attempting to install the PHP application, Gallery, a full featured open-source photo album, I ran into several issues with my hosting company, Dreamhost.

Searching around the web for support, I was blessed enough to run into the notes of a Gallery on Dreamhost, forerunner, who not only installed the app, but gave excellent step-by-step notes for others to follow. [Installing Gallery at DreamHost] is a must read for those interested in, well, installing Gallery at Dreamhost.

Posted by akvalley at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 08, 2003

NAOBI 2003 Conference Photo Gallery

I have been tweaking this photo gallery for a couple of days and I have now released it to the public. It's for the National Association of Black Interpreters from their 2003 Conference in Philadelphia, PA.

NAOBI 2003 Conference Pictures (page 1 of 6)

Posted by akvalley at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 06, 2003

Adding a DHTML Degradable Tabbed Panel

Looking for a way to add DHTML Tabs to your page, while not isolating any of the major browsers?

While looking to make some changes to an internal site at the office, we decided that a tabbed panel was the best navigational approach to displaying this content.

Macromedia Flash has components that will simplify this process, but we did not want to take the plugin route to this page.

After doing a little search on Google, this tabbed system came to the light (DHTML Kitchen: Tabs.) I'm smelling what they are cooking...

Posted by akvalley at 03:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 03, 2003

Shameless Plug :: Hoofman Inc

A co-worker of mine is working on this website for the family business. They are Hoofman, Inc and they do specialized marine interiors for all kinds of boats.

Posted by akvalley at 08:57 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 12, 2003

Redirect mailto: for Spam Prevention

I am working on a couple of new websites and have been considering a way to use fake hyperlinks instead of the standard mailto: tag. Searching GOOGLE, like everyone else does, I found a really slick implementation of this concept. James Thornton's article "Redirect mailto: for Spam Prevention" handles this difficulty. He includes source code for Perl, PHP, OpenACS, ColdFusion, and ASP.

Posted by akvalley at 01:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 11, 2003

Macromedia - MX Developer's Journal

Free Premiere Issuse of the MX Developer's Journal, that focuses on the MX Product line from Macromedia is being offered by SYS-CON Media. Register to download now at SYS-CON Media.

If you are a Macromedia DevNet Professional subscriber, you will receive a complimentary subscription to the digital version of MXDJ.


Introducing MX Developer's Journal, the world's first magazine focused on the transformation of web interactions into great digital experiences--and into great business--using the Macromedia MX product line.

If you're a web professional or software developer designing, building, or intending to build Rich Internet Applications using the integrated Macromedia family of tool, server, and client technologies--such as Macromedia Flash, Flash Communication Server, Dreamweaver, FreeHand, Fireworks, ColdFusion, and Director--get the free preview issue of MXDJ, available today through an exclusive arrangement with SYS-CON Media. MX Developer's Journal will appear bimonthly throughout 2003, and then be published monthly from January 2004 on.

Posted by akvalley at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 09, 2003

Flash MX Professional 2004

Macromedia has recently introduced Flash MX Professional 2004. This version of the already popular web authoring tool, promises to be the greatest of all.

Macromedia has this to say about the new product.


Flash MX 2004 is the latest version of Macromedia Flash, the industry standard tool for creating effective rich content and applications. Flash MX Professional 2004 is a new, advanced version of Macromedia Flash. The Professional version includes all the features and benefits of Flash MX 2004, plus advanced functionality for creating more sophisticated interactive content, rich Internet applications, professional quality video, and easy deployment to devices.

For a comparison between Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004, Macromedia has created this table "What's the difference between Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004?"

What to the professionals have to say about this new line of MX products?

All I can say is that I cannot wait to get it... This would be a good time to sign up for DEVNET, you if haven't already!

Posted by akvalley at 07:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 08, 2003

Usability and the Christian Website

Found this article today while reading Christianity Today Magazine. Although the results from the poll are unscientific, the results and the comments are well worth the read.

This article discusses many of the issues that visitors find distracting or annoying on Christian websites. I must admit I have been annoyed by a number of these issues and it is good to see that I am not standing alone.

What is the purpose of a Christian-themed background any way? Did I somehow forget that I was on a christian website and I needed a gaudy background to remind me? Err.... sorry, I'll let the article speak for itself.

How to Annoy Atheists

Posted by akvalley at 11:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 31, 2003

Favicon Editor

A cute free utility with which you can create your favicon.ico.

Favicon.co.uk - Free icon editor.

Posted by akvalley at 11:54 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Favicon Infomation

Way too much information about favicon.ico

What is FAVICON.ICO? And How to Personalise Your Site's Bookmark in Visitor's Browsers (thesitewizard.com)

Posted by akvalley at 11:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 20, 2003

Mojo Webstats -- Open Source WebStats tool

Found this today while looking at pixel art on the author's web site...

SourceForge.net: Project Info - Mojo Webstats

Posted by akvalley at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 15, 2003

Service Pinger from geek ramblings

Also cool....

This form will send an XML-RPC ping to various services that support the weblogsUpdated.ping call defined by weblogs.com.

[Geek Ramblings -- Ping Services]

Posted by akvalley at 01:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Blogchatter - Realtime Weblog Aggregation

While stumbling through the recessed caverns of the Internet, I tumbled gently into this hole named BlogChatter.

I wonder-ment filled my eyes, profound words escaped me and with all of the strength that I could muster seeing that I was viewing something too wonderful to describe, I estatically proclaimed, "Cool!"

I am usually the last to know, but this is a must see for those into watching XML-RPC pings fly by.

You would have to know that as a child I found sitting on the front porch and watching the traffic pass by as a delight, so this more that satisfied my longing to observe the inner workings of the internet blogging machine.

Just go see it for yourself.

Posted by akvalley at 12:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 13, 2003

I really need to create a GOOD favicon

I have realized that I have not created a favicon.ico for this blog or for inthefaith.com. I really need to do that as there are some wonderful people who have thought enough of these blogs to bookmark them.

How cool is that?

I keep you posted on the favicon.ico development.

Not sure about what the favicon.ico thing is? Try this site for some examples.

Posted by akvalley at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 12, 2003

Standards-based Replacement for target="_blank" in External Links

This article shows a nice JavaScript implementation that validates in Strict HTML 4.01 or Script XHTML 1.0 essentially replacing the need to use target="_blank" to open an new window for external links.


Love it or hate it, many authors prefer to have links that are external to their sites open up in new browser windows. This is typically done through the use of target attributes on those links. However, as you may be aware, the target attribute is not valid for links when authoring in the Strict flavors of either HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0.

This is on my TODO list for all of my future web development stuff. Way cool!
[Full Story @ www.serve.com]

Posted by akvalley at 12:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 11, 2003

Using CSS Tabs

Just looking around the web tonight, I found this article from Joshua Kaufman on creating tabs with Cascading Style Sheets.

My goal was to build the tabs without using images or CSS hacks and with as little CSS as possible.

See Joshua's site for more info.

Posted by akvalley at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack