Tag: Web Design

TFS Statistics

Nick Momrik9 Comments

I just finished installing TFS Statistics on my web site. The configuration was a breeze and the instructions were top notch for the installation.

From their website:

TFS is a Web statistics package written in PHP.

Features: Web site statistics by day, month, year, OS, browser, bots/spiders, referrers,last visitors, last bots/spiders, page hits, visitors by country, average visitors/bots and % function on all counters. In the last bots/spiders and last vistors overview you can click a link so you can see what pages are requested by the visitor, spider, or bot. Referrers are listed by domain if you click on the domain you will see the pages where your site is listed. You can also exclude ip adresses, so they will not show up in your statistics.

I did run into a conflict between their code and WordPress. I was getting “is not a valid MySQL-Link resource” error messages from some of the WP queries, but the errors went away when I turned off the TFS includes. I ended up finding a fix for the problem and documented it on their forums.

So far it looks like a great package that gives me all of the information that I want about the visitors to my site.

One For All

Nick Momrik1 Comment

I made a large fix in my web design today. Some of the CSS wasn’t being displayed properly by the Mozilla browsers, but I think I have that fixed now. My layout div wouldn’t extend down to the bottom of my content. I came across the site Position Is Everything, contacted Big John who runs it, and after a few exchanged emails, he gave me exactly what I needed. Thanks John! I had to put a clear:both style just before the end of my layout div and that did the trick immediately. I hope to test my site though some other browsers to see that everything looks at I have intended it too.

If you use another type of browser and my site looks kinda goofy, send me a screenshot. I’d like to see it. I’ve tested the site out with IE 5.5, IE 6, Mozilla, and Avant so far (all on Windows). I hope to test Opera soon and maybe even some Mac browsers. Any input or criticism is welcome. I know that IE 4 and Netscape 4.x pretty much make my site look like garbage, but those are some really old browsers! Time to upgrade if you are using them!

WordPress 1.0 Platinum

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

On January 2nd, WordPress 1.0 Platinum was released. I had been waiting for the new version for several days after reading about some of the new features that were going to be included.

It took me a little bit longer than expected to get my weblog upgraded and running properly, but I really couldn’t ask for anything more from WordPress. The developers are working on their own time to create what has become a great web logging tool that is FREE! I ran into a few bugs while getting everything setup, but everyone in the WordPress Forums has been helpful beyond belief. I’ve even taken it upon myself to help other people out that have had some of the same problems I ran into.

The extra time it took me to get version 1.0 running was well worth it. The added features and funcionality are great. I just want to say thanks to everyone working on WordPress. Keep up the good work!

Enjoying My Break

Nick Momrik2 Comments

I’ve been enjoying my holiday break a great deal. At the same time, I miss being back in Saginaw at my apartment, but this is a nice little get-away. I’ve been sleeping in until at least 10 every morning and I didn’t even leave the house yesterday.

The big project yesterday was to get a page up with poker chip tricks tutorial, and so far the page is getting a lot of attention. According to my web hosting stats, almost 500 visitors stopped by my site yesterday, which is amazing since I’ve never had 200 visitors in a single day before. My brother Isaac helped me out by doing most of the camera work on the videos. We used my digital camera and it worked out pretty well. Once the videos were done I wanted to compress them a little bit and I removed the audio to save some space. I used a DivX 5.1.1 codec for the compression, which seems to be giving a couple of people problems viewing the videos. Later tonight I hope to work on getting another video format posted as a 2nd option.

Update: Those having problems are now able to view the videos after installing the DivX 5.1.1 codec, so I will not be adding a 2nd video option for now.

Today I went and contributed to the Ryan family college fund. Doc. Ryan is my dentist, who I’ve been visiting frequently since I got my own dental insurance. I think I’ve bought half the equipment in their office by now. They filled two big cavities on upper left teeth. The numbing is starting to wear off and I can feel some pain coming on. It’s funny how my teeth never hurt until after I go to the dentist, even though my chart shows red marks on just about every tooth. As a kid my teeth were always hurting, but over the past 5 years or so I really haven’t had any pain. Maybe I’m simply used to it.

In a few minutes we are off to Cheboygan for Isaac’s varsity basketball game. I’m not even quite sure who they play, but hopefully the Hurons will come out on top. It’s a mini tournament they are playing in, so I’ll be going back tomorrow for either the championship or the consolation game.

When I get home tonight I’ll be working on the poker chip trick videos like I mentioned earlier. Maybe Isaac will even want another ass-whoopin in March Madness. I’ve only lost one time so far in the game…any challengers?

Everything Validates!

Nick Momrik1 Comment

My entire website is now valid XHTML 1.1!

I just finished going through all of the code for the photoblog. It took quite awhile because there are sooo many files with the Gallery software and they are really spread out. I downloaded a program called NoteTab Pro to help me with some of the code replacement and it worked great. I’m sure I wasn’t using the program to it’s full potential, but it sure was helpful.

In the process of getting my photoblog to validate, I messed up a few portions of the design (nothing big), so now I have to fix those.

Validate This

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

I spent the majority of the day modifying my pages to use valid XHTML 1.1 and to use tableless layouts. Everything is completed except for the photolog pages. I removed the tables from my design, but the Gallery software uses tables for a lot of the positioning, which I am not going to change. I will however be attempting to modify the code to be valid XHTML 1.1 like all of my other pages.

By getting rid of all the tables and using standardized code, it helps to speed up my site because the file sizes are smaller without all the unnecessary code and markup. CSS is very powerful for adding style to your pages and I’ll be using more and more of it now that I know what it can do. One of the cool things that I did when making all of these changes was add a little “spark” to my main menu. The old menu didn’t change colors or anything…it was pretty boring.

If you find any of my pages are not using valid XHTML 1.1, yell at me!

What Next?

Nick Momrik1 Comment

When I started redesigning the site a little over a month ago, I had a plan (which changed several times) mapped out. That plan has now been completed and I have the basic pages up and running that I wanted to. So now what?

For the past week or so I’ve basically only been tweaking a few things here and there. I haven’t really added any new pages. I don’t know what to do next. I’ve jotted down a few things lately that I want to work on. They are:

  • meta tags
  • “head” content of pages
  • XHTML validation
  • some photoblog hacks

I’m still not quite sure if I like the background for my pages. I just changed it again today…we’ll see how long I keep it. Maybe I’ll never find something that I really like.

Another problem I’m facing is how to get people interacting with my site and coming back on a regular basis. My goal is to get people that I do not know reading my weblog and responding to the things I write about, which is not happening so far. I’ve joined a few webrings and attempted to find a few weblogs that interest me. I’ve found 2 weblogs so far (besides Hamoudy of course) that I frequent. The Digital Pimpress is a blog I read daily and Photo Matt is one that I check a few times a week. Both individuals are very intelligent and their blogs keep me interested.