geeky tutorials, tips, guides and reviews
Not so much these days, but years ago the music in games were much better. I miss those days, of getting certain video game themes stuck in my head. Maybe it is more nostalgia than not – but I don’t care. Here are my top 10 favorite video game themes of all time…
Ridley’s Theme from Super Smash Bros Brawl (and Metroid)
Pit’s Theme from Kid Icarus
Are you wanting to find a weblog or CMS system that is user friendly and easy to use out of the box? Well, the people behind Zomplog describe themselves as being focused at helping you with publishing your content rather than learning a lot of code.
As far as free blogging scripts go, Zomplog appears to have all the bells and whistles. It is highly extendable, and tons of great features. Here is a little more from the developers:
Just because Zomplog is easy to use, that doesn’t mean it only lets you do basic things! Zomplog supports static content, or pages, if you like. This way you can easily use zomplog as an simple content management system! Want to be a broadcaster? Zomplog lets you create podcasts or video podcasts (vodcasts) on the fly! Just upload, and everything else is taken care of!
Sounds great, right? The only big problem I had with them was I could find no install guide via their web site. I had to download the the script, and then hunt through the files in there for one called “read me”. I did finally find it, however it was a lot of work. Nothing too surprising in there, setup the script, your databases and you are good to go.
There are a number of various themes and plugins to check out too, to help you mold your Zomplog powered blog to something you can use or that you need. If you are the type of person who likes to play with a script before you install it, you can have a look around at the interface on the demo hosted by OpenSourceCMS.com.
Zomplog is another fine blogging script alternative worth checking out.
Textpattern is another one of those great blogging scripts that often gets forgotten about with the surge of popularity that WordPress has had over the past few years. It is a elegant, flexible and easy to use content management system that is both open source and free to use.
The requirements are pretty basic to get it up and running, so any Linux-based shared hosting environment should do. The install is just as simple too, with your basic download, configure, setup database, and upload.
It can handle just about any blogging task you throw it’s way. From content publishing, multiple contributors, link management and the inclusion of Textile, a simple syntax for nudging plain text into structurally sound and stylistically rich web content, it is not lacking in features.
If you want to give it a test drive, there is both a front end and admin demo up on OpenSourceCMS.com.
It comes ready for themes and plugins too. Your best resource to pick those up would be the Textpattern Resources web site. TextGarden.org also has a number of Textpattern themes to use.
All in all, I think Textpattern is a simple, yet effective blogging script that is well worth trying out.
Looking for another blogging script alternative? The neat thing about FlatPress is that they say it needs no database management system to work. Now, how the heck do they do that? You don’t need MySQL because FlatPress stores all of its content on text files. Some of the other features included are:
As you can see, it has all the usual bells and whistles most bloggers are looking for.
Looking for help using FlatPress? They have a very nice wiki available with tons of useful links and helpful information. They have forums too. To see FlatPress in action, go check out the FlatPress blog.
To get a good idea on what you can do to theme it, check out their test blog here:
+ http://themes.flatpress.org/
You can download FlatPress for free, and give it a shot. If you are looking to support one of the many other free blog scripts out there, using FlatPress would be a great way to get started.
Doesn’t hurt to plug your boss every once in a while, right? As a result of the three WordPress theme contests Lunarpages has had, they have had over 300 themes submitted to them. Now most people might toss all these great designs to the side – but not Lunarpages. They are providing them for free for anybody to download.
Lunarpages WordPress Contest Themes – Series One = 95+ WordPress Themes
Lunarpages WordPress Contest Themes – Series Two = 134+ WordPress Themes
Lunarpages WordPress Contest Themes – Series Three = 90+ WordPress Themes
Thanks to Lunarpages for providing a spotlight for all of these great WordPress themes!
The popurls-style of lots of sources on one page is a very interesting one that a lot of people have tried to copy. Here is a theme for WordPress however, that will get you off on the right foot.
OneNews does a great job at giving you a WordPress powered multiple news headlines on one page tool. Ok, maybe that isn’t the prettiest way to describe it but it has got me inspired to perhaps create my own new project styled much like this one. Now just got to find the time…
Continuing the e-mail trend from yesterday, today I thought I would share some of my favorite Firefox add-ons and themes. Listing the add-ons I use with Thunderbird is an easy task. Why? Well… there are only two of them.
Quicktext – Keep a list of pre-written messages to use in your e-mails. It also accepts variables so personalizing a static message with information you have in hand is easy to do.
Minimize to Tray – This extension minimizes Thunderbird to the system tray on the task bar. This way I can keep Thunderbird running without it getting in the way when I don’t need it.
There are only a handful of themes really worth checking out too. Here are a few of my favorite themes for Thunderbird:
Azerty ‘mail – Brighter and unique icons, but still keeps the same look and feel.
Charamel – A tan colored Thunderbird theme that is awesome, except for a few little things here and there that keep me from using it 24/7.
Silvermel – A silver port of Charamel, same look (and bugs) – just a different color.
The rest of the popular themes out there all look like Apple/Mac clones (insert yawn here), and do we really need more than one of those? I think not. Really wish DeviantArt had some better ones too, but they seem to be a little lacking with the Thunderbird skin section.
I’m proud to say that Lunarpages (via several design contests) has done a lot to perk up the WordPress theme design area of the Web. Between two contests they are now highlighting 229 different themes that are all available for download.
Lunarpages WordPress Theme Design Contest – Series 1 Entries
Lunarpages WordPress Theme Design Contest – Series 2 Entries
So if your looking for a little insperation on your next WordPress theme design or your stressing over finding a great one to use, check ‘em out. Lunarpages is also currently holding it’s third WordPress design contest right now – so if your a designer you got to check that out too.
Yesterday I spend a little time playing around with my WordPress theme here, looking at adding widgets to themes that didn’t come “pre-designed” with them in mind. Thankfully for people like me Automattic has a great tutorial on how to get this done. Along with adding a few more features, support for gravatars and a third column I promise this version of the layout has 10% more awesomeness.
When looking at your basic FTP file listing in a browser, it can be a ‘bit on the dull and boring side. Why not spice that up with a custom user style? If you have Stylish for Firefox installed – and pick up the “FTP pages were awful” style you could even make them look this pretty…
No more ugly black and white boring listings for me, I like this much better. Not only does it look better but it is also much more functional too.
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Mitch Keeler is nothing more than your average Joe trying to leave his mark on the world though both his professional work and his online projects, articles, podcasts and more.
