nerdcereal.com

I finally got around to editing and looking at the code for WordPress. I like seeing all these technologies weaving in and out of one another like something that has evolved rather than something that has been planned. The internet was very much evolved rather than planned and it’s still evolving, which is why I like it.

Things I edited:

• I changed the title tags to display the article title first, rather than the blog name, for better SEO on the topics.
• I removed all the images and shrunk the header section to increase the screen real estate (I hate huge headers, especially on blogs. People read your blog for the text not some huge half-screen header). I plan on doing more customization to the layout and colors; this was just a start.
• I tweaked the spacing a little in the CSS with the help of the Firefox web developer’s toolbar. CSS layout was always a little abstract for me to comprehend, but I discovered the Outline Current Element Option on the toolbar which is amazing. It, well, it outlines the current element and the shows the DOM path in the status bar letting you easily figure out what you need to change.

I’m bored with plain old html. It can’t really “do” much. It’s basically like a piece of paper; you can make a cool lookin’ piece of paper but ultimately that piece of paper doesn’t do anthing. There are many ways to make your webpage “do stuff” and I’ve been exploring them all. CSS was the first but its interaction is limited to rollover links. I also learned Flash, but that’s kinda cheating because it’s a separate program on its own.

Scripting is what I’ve been looking for to make webpages that “do stuff,” be it client- or server-side. I’ve been studying JavaScript for the purposes of simple DHTML. I’ve gotten as far as showing/hiding stuff in different ways. It’s pretty simple but it’s a start. My ultimate goal would be to make some DHTML like Google’s customized home page.

I’ve also been dabbling in PHP and MySQL for the ultimate purpose of creating CMS applications or a blog (like WordPress!). I tried blogging on LiveJournal but I didn’t like it because I couldn’t see the gears that made it turn (and I wanted it hosted at my own domain—call me vain).
That’s why I’m excited about WordPress. I can see what’s going on and sort-of reverse engineer it to learn how it works. I view it as another way to learn PHP and MySQL. I’m still going to work on my own app from scratch but I don’t have to wait forever to see a best example.

It was actually even easier to install than they described. It probably would have been a tab bit harder had I not had a minute amount of PHP and MySQL experience before. But it was a breeze. It was totally expecting to get hung up on something but I didn’t.

So there you have it. I’m entering the wonderful world of blogging. First item on my list: overhaul the look & feel of this blog to match nerdcereal.com.