Today in the WordPress Support Group, we discussed this new service, IFTTT (If This, Then That).  The concept is that when I publish this post, it will show up on our Facebook page.  Groovy!

Oakland Local is offering a holiday advertising package at a special rate to all Tech Liminal friends and clients. The package is a badge ad for a month on Oakland Local and a newsletter ad for 2 issues in December for $250.  You must be a locally owned business employing 10 people or less to qualify and must place your order for this package by November 20, 2011.

Oakland Local is also offering special  rates to Tech Liminal friends and clients members on banner ads for a month @ $200 (full price: $250) and on holiday newsletter packages (6 issues, $300).  OL advertisers and promotional partners include The Oakland Museum, Yoshis, ASPCA, phat beets produce, Planting Justice,  Marin Sun Farms , Farley’s, Rosenbloom Cellars, Cirque de Soleil. and the Dimond Merchants’ Association.  Oakland Local readers are very engaged; many of our ads and offers have received click-throughs between 2 and 8 %; an average CT is .65-1.03.

We’re happy to work with you to craft holiday offers, programs and promotions that engage our broad audience (more than 82,000 visitors to the web site last month, more than 6,400 Facebook followers)– 92% of our audience told us that shopping locally is of keen interest.

For more information, and a chance to see whether OL is a fit for your holiday and/or ongoing marketing needs, please contact
Susan Mernit, editor/publisher
susan@oaklandlocal.com
(650) 814-9303

CONTACT US BY NOVEMBER 22 FOR SONE BONUS SERVICES FOR YOUR HOLIDAY PROGRAM

Fridays, 2:00 – 3:00 PM (after the WordPress Support Group)

Cost:  $10

The public demands it!  We will now be offering a CSS clinic on Fridays, immediately after the WordPress Support Group.  Bring those pesky things that don’t line up, questions about fonts, colors, and more, and get help with your site.

From the WordPress support group…  Just paste this code into your functions.php file, once you’ve created a child theme.

This will change the header height to 970 pixels wide by 150 pixels tall.

It’s hard to keep track of all the URL’s and passwords that you need in order maintain your online presence.  Here’s a handy-dandy checklist we’ve been developing to help you organize it all.

Download the Tech Liminal Website Checklist

The first two pages of this worksheet are the keys to your kingdom!  Guard them well.

The rest of the information is useful when you are building or updating your site.

What do you think?  Is this helpful?  Confusing?  Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks to Cheryl Liquori from the fabulous Breakfast Blogging Club for inciting me to write this post.  I was going to do a presentation, but it somehow seemed more appropriate (and easier to share links) to just make it a blog post.

The effective use of images can make your blog come to life.  A wall of text is all well and good for when you’re trying to explain the meaning of life or writing a book, but many people stop and read a web page because and image triggered some kind of emotion in their mind.  So, in this post, I’ll give you 5 tools you can use to begin to use images effectively on your site.

The Legal Fine Print

Images, like other online content, are subject to copyright.  Make sure you have permission to use the images you put on your site, because your ISP won’t hesitate to pull your site offline if they receive a cease and desist letter from a copyright holder.

Finding Images

If you’re a photographer or can draw, you might be able to produce your own stuff. However, the internet is a fount of resources when it comes to finding illustrations for our sites.  Some are free and some are paid.  Here are some tools:

1) CreativeCommons.org – This site, dedicated to teaching people about legally licensing and sharing content online, provides a search engine and descriptions of licenses for finding content for re-use.  One site that CC.org searches is Flickr.com – The world’s most fabulous photography community.

This image was found when searching CC.org for images of Oakland, and added to our blog post using the HTML code provided by Flickr.

2) Istockphoto.com – A stock photography site where you can license images and video.  They’ve got a thorough search engine and lots of useful tags.  There are other stock photo sites on the web (and even ones that offer free content) but I find istockphoto the most affordable and reputable of the bunch.  You can buy an image for your site starting at about $2.50.

Bonus tool:  If you do your work from screenshots, you should pick up a screen capture application that lets you annotate images.  I like Jing, from TechSmith, because it’s available on Mac and Windows, and allows me to upload screenshots and videos to their site for a small yearly fee.

Preparing Images

Your images should be the “right size” for your blog – and no bigger.   Consider pixel size as well as byte-size.

Some tools:

3) Google Picasa - This desktop application lets you organize, tag, and edit photos and images, as well as export them at various sites.  Extremely useful and free.  You don’t have to use Picasa Web Albums to be a Google Picasa user.

Aviary.com – this online suite of tools provide almost everything that Photoshop has but can be used through a browser.

Pixels and Bytes

Your site is made of rectangles.  Some of these are particular sizes and putting an image that fits properly in one of these rectangles is recommended.  For example, the content column on this page is 500 pixels wide, so I would use an image of that size in it.  Your theme might put the kibosh on images that are the wrong size, but far more often they’ll overflow and overlap something else.

(4) You can tell WordPress to make your images the right size by going into your Media Settings (Settings, Media).

The finder can tell you all sorts of useful information

You can find out how big your images are from your operating system.  On the Mac, this information is displayed in the Finder when you use the 3-column view.  You can also get it by looking at the image “info”.  Windows has similar tools.

SEO for Images and WordPress

Most search engines only look at the text on our sites.  Images, which have metadata embedded in them, can also be tagged and labeled properly for use.  The tags and labels are applied through captions (like the one on the left), and to the HTML “img” tag that tells the browser and search engines what’s on your page.

(5) Some helpful articles about preparing images and tagging them properly, in particular to help w/ SEO:

Top 7 Image Optimization Tips from Zemalf  is full of details and is a very quick overview (somewhat technical).

From Website In a Weekend: Advanced Img Tag Handing for SEO (Part 1 and Part 2) – accessible, detailed, step-by-step explanations with circles and arrows and everything.

Hello there,

This is a work in progress post, but contains links to useful things for our HTML to WordPress workshop.

• Get Genesis (currently, our favorite framework)
• Genesis Hooks Reference
• Creating a WordPress Child Theme
• Visual Markup Guide
• WordPress Template Hierarchy (this tells you what files you want to create in your theme)
• W3Schools.com – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Help
• Firebug (useful tool for viewing and debugging in Firefox)

Useful Genesis Plugins:

• Genesis Simple Sidebars  (Lets you assign sidebars to pages and posts on an individual basis)
• Genesis Slider (Create a slideshow from pages and/or posts)

Day 1:

• Get Everyone’s development environment squared away
• Genesis Demo (why I love it!)
• Intro to WordPres Theming
• Pages, Posts, Widgets
• Structure your WP Site
• Prep to cut up your design
• Create your child theme

Learn about the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS), WordPress. Anca Mosoiu, who has been developing WordPress sites since 2006, will give a developer-focused overview of this LAMP platform, which is simple enough for your grandma’s bridge club site, flexible enough for a neighborhood business association, and powerful enough for a book publisher’s online presence.

We’ll be discussing the following topics (but bring your questions, I like the free-for-all format of meetup discussions)

• How WordPress works (installation, wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org)
• Basic theming
• Plugins for 1001 utilities
• Where you can go to do more.

Saturday December 10 and Sunday December 11

Short, inexpensive classes let you explore your passions at low cost in just one weekend:

Learn to Solder

A soldering workshop for complete beginners! Ages 8 to 80. Rolf and Miloh will guide you through the process of making a blinky RGB LED or a TV-B-Gone kit.

Kits can be purchased at the event, and will cost $10-$20.
Instructor    Rolf Widenfelt
Tuition    $20

Basic Electroluminescent Wire Workshop

Add sparkly shimmer to sculpture, interiors and wearable art with electroluminescent (EL) wire, a decorative, flexible wire that glows very much like neon. This workshop introduces the technology and craft of soldering and working with EL wire. You’ll learn basic soldering techniques, various ways to assemble and attach wire to fabric, wood and plastic, and be introduced to drivers and sequencers for animation and advanced techniques.
Instructor    Louis Brill and Steve Boverie
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $40

How To Use The Arduino Tinker Kit

The Arduino Tinker Kit is a revolutionary development in Arduino technology. Using a plug-and-play interface, sensors, controls, and output devices (like lights) can be added without soldering. This allows for rapid prototyping and development. It also lets users without electronic kit-building skills get directly into the heart of using an Arduino board.

This class will teach students about the technology, and show how to set the ATK up, and get it running.

Note from the teacher: If you have an Arduino board or the ATK, feel free to bring them.
Instructor    Richard Raucci
Tuition    $20

Make a Tin Can 2-String / Intro to Instrument Making

Make and take home a 2-string strummer that really plays! We’ll use tin cans, hardware store parts, and simple hand tools, and learn the basics of stringed instrument structure, acoustics and construction.

More information on the Tin Can 2-String can be found at tincanbanjo.com.

Note from the teacher: Bring your own can if you like!
Instructor    Stewart Port
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $5

Sewing Circuits

Every year, more objects are integrated with electronics. Crafters have realized this, and begun to use electronic components and engineering techniques to add another dimension to their work. Understanding electronics can be useful in craft, and traditional crafts can bring techniques for making amazing electronics.

In this class, we will be creating our own soft electronics. We introduce basic principles of electronics, then give you a chance to design and create your own project using snap-switches, home-made soft buttons, LEDs and batteries wired together with conductive thread.

Fabric and other materials will be provided, but students are welcome to bring some from home too.

Prerequisites: If students know how to thread a needle, they know enough for this class!
Instructor    Katie Dektar
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $11

Marble Roller Coasters

An applied physics workshop were learners can work with inexpensive materials to create the following:

A small coaster sculpture (15 cm wide x 50 cm long x 50 cm tall) that has two loops, a corkscrew and a banked curve and uses a small glass sphere to successfully navigate the track and land in a cup at the end.

The session will start with participants using MacBooks to create virtual coasters of their own design. This will help them discover what kinds of loops and curves will work…then on to building their own to take home.

The workshop is for learners of any age, but children under 10 will need an adult to assist because they will be working with glue guns (low to medium heat, but still…)
Instructor    Maafi Gueye
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $25

Flow-Wand

We’ll learn how to play with the enchanting “Flow-wand”, (a rainbow holographic levitating stick) and how to maintain the illusion of its magic with the use of our free hand, our body’s dance, and troubleshooting tips if the wand tilts. It’s an excellent way to entertain your friends and yourself, and to experience flow and meditation through movement. I will have wands for students to use during class and to purchase for $25!

More information and videos of the Flow Wand

Prerequisites: Openness to experience magic!
Instructor    Aileen Lawlor
Tuition    $20

An Introduction to Poi Spinning

Build a pair of practice poi and then learn to use them! We’ll learn some basic poi moves as well as some theory behind poi spinning. We’ll delve in as far as we can in our time, and leave plenty of roads open to explore in the future.

Instructor    Albert Hill
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $4

Going from Idea to Product for the Small Time Maker

The first half of the course will include a technical deep dive on the DIY Magic Mirror and Talking Breathalyzer projects. The second half will cover Al’s experiences and best practices in turning his ideas into actual products covering topics from finding a low volume manufacturer, forming a business, and marketing all on a shoe string budget.
Instructor    Al Linke
Tuition    $20

Beginning Web Development with PHP – Get Your Toolset Working

Interested in learning how to build websites using PHP? This workshop will get you started with the basics:

Overview of the architecture (Linux/Max/Windows , Apache, MySQL, PHP)
Local Development Environment
How to talk to the database
How to set up an application (such as WordPress or Drupal) so you can extend it.

We will install MAMP (for Macs) or WAMP (for Windows), which provide a full development stack right on your favorite laptop.

Prerequisites: Some experience with HTML/CSS, or building static websites. Knowledge of how to install applications on your computer. Please bring a laptop to class so you can experience the hands-on portion of this event.
Instructor    Anca Mosoiu
Tuition    $20

Wet Felted Flower Workshop

This is a fun first experience with felt. The workshop combines techniques of both wet and needle felting. In this 3-hour class students will learn to make flowers for pins, hats, bags or gifts.

Each participant should get a finished flower or two by the end of the workshop.

This project is perfect for crafters of any skill level and materials are provided.

Students must bring:

2 small supermarket plastic bags
1 old towel (large)
sharp pair of scissors
beads (optional)

Instructor    Anastasia Bespalova
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $10

Introduction to PCB Layout

This class focuses on giving you the information and tools you will need to make a board. If you have a circuit you want to make into a PCB board or if you have ever wondered how PCBs are made this is an ideal class for you. At the end of it you will have all the files you need to make an Arduino Shield or a board of your own design. The topics covered are:

The Fabrication Process
Eagle Cad Setup
Design Rules
Placement
Routing
CAM setup
Library Creation

This class assumes a basic understanding of electronics. Please bring a computer with free version of Eagle CAD installed on it. You can download it from http://www.cadsoftusa.com/freeware.htm.
Instructor    Malcolm Knapp
Tuition    $20

Sew a Soft Circuit and Touch Sensor for Electronic Clothing

Create responsive clothing! In this workshop, basic sewing techniques will be introduced with electronic circuity. We will create a wearable circuit with touch sensors from conductive fabric, thread, and LEDs. The touch sensor is effected by movement or pressure so, we will think about the location and design the placement of the circuit on the body.

Note from the teacher: Please bring a recycled article of clothing to adorn with electricity.
Instructor    Kristin Neidlinger
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $15

Spontaneous Magic

Learn performance techniques to present magic in compelling and engaging ways. Amaze and amuse your audiences with ease and comfort. This class focuses on fundamental elements of magic useful when composing a routine either on the spot or behind closed doors. Total beginners welcome.

I filmed some videos three years ago; now I find them pleasantly childish…

Note from the teacher: You may want to bring a snack for this 3-hour workshop; there will be time for me to offer my thoughts on any routines you are currently developing, so you should bring anything you want to show me.
Instructor    Inigo Freed
Tuition    $20
Lab Fees    $5

The Internet & Computer Networks

Learn about how the Internet works. How does your browser know where google.com is? How does your email get to its destination? Why is sending email like mailing a postcard?

We’ll discuss the Internet’s underlying protocols TCP and IP, application protocols like HTTP (web), SMTP and POP (email).
Instructor    J.D. Zamfirescu
Tuition    $20

The Sense of Things

We will cover the various components needed to build a relatively inexpensive wireless sensor network. The focus will be on describing sensors, an arduino microcontroller, xbee radios, a wifi router hack that uses embedded Linux (OpenWRT) with Python for an internet gateway, and various web services where sensor data can be stored for charting and analysis.

Instructor    Chris Jefferies
Tuition    $20
Open Seats    20

Register

We’ve been keeping track of useful WordPress plugins in a nice Google Spreadsheet.

Check it out – and email me if you’d like to add your own comments and notes.

This is a work in progress, with many thanks to all the contributors from the East Bay WordPress Meetup group.