if i remember correctly, my first one was at yahoo 360 but that quickly went because i wanted more flexibility. blogger was an easy choice — they had more bling and a biggie feature was i can change the template.

then my brother introduced me to wordpress. lots of bling, its relatively easy to use, its open source and i can install it on my server. i started using it about a year ago to run this blog and it has worked pretty well for me.

now, i will consolidate the blogs in yahoo 360, blogger and this one into a new blog at noel.alanguilan.com. my name. it will contain the stuff that i do — from computers to cycling to robin to what ever i may choose to post.

i will still maintain this blog but the direction would be to contain posts about alanguilan.com. i will not be importing/exporting anything from any blog. i’ll leave them the way they are but they will be receiving less attention from me.

c’est la vie. i think its a step in the right direction and hopefully, it will help me spend time more effectively.

and yeah, i was able to upgrade wordpress in yahoo from version 2.0.2 to 2.3.2.

you can put the php include files in the root subdirectory (.) which would makes things a bit messy in the long run. to keep things organized create an subdirectory named “include” from the root directory. this is where your included php files will be uploaded. this directory is included in the php include_path directive by default but is not mentioned in the help files or created during setup.

if you want to include, for example, myheaders.php from another php file, say, index.php, upload myheaders.php to the /include subdirectory and within the index.php file after the starting body tag type in:

< ?php include "myheaders.php" ?>

please note that there shouldn’t be any space between the “less than” character and the question mark — its a wordpress thing.

by putting the files to be included in the include subdirectory, you can add that bit of code above from any file in any subdirectory within your site and its going to be included — there is no need for a full path name. of course, you have to use your own filename.

important security note: add a blank index.php file in every subdirectory that doesn’t have any index.php or index.html file. this will prevent anyone from getting a list of the directory contents. what they will see is just a blank page.

“obssessive/compulsive.”

“what?!?”, i said.

“everything has to be visually aligned to almost everything else be it vertically or horizontally; consistency and readability are sacrificed for the sake of alignment; this paragraph’s font is smaller than the other paragraph because it has to fit in the confines of the length or width of the image beside, above or below it; even the consistency of the menu is compromised for the sake of aligning the top and bottom of the menu to the top and bottom of the content; there’s very little white space to rest the eyes; everything is filled. obssessive/compulsive.”

“and apparently, they’re not familiar with web politics.”

“huh?!?”, i asked.

“well, if they are familiar with it, they would know that even if you move this image or that paragraph by 4 or 5 or even 2 or 3 tiny pixels up or down it wouldn’t matter because each computer has its own video configuration quirks and will always show things a little differently; each user has her/his own browser preference which in themserlves render a page differently; not all the chosen fonts — which are too many by the way — are installed in all of the computers in the world which means this or that may or may not be displayed or rendered properly.”

“if i were you, either i’d tell them about it and compromise or drop them like a hot potato.”

“why?”, i asked, indignantly impressed.

“because they don’t get it.”

she dives into her ice cream again.

“at the end of the day, its doesn’t really matter if this picture is higher by 2 millimeters from the top of text column beside it. what matters is that they saw the picture and was able to read what you have to say.”

“you don’t eat the container. you eat the ice cream”, raising her pint.

“its the content.”

1. the domain name
2. the web server
3. the web pages

with all three combined you now have a presence on the internet. people can see you or organization in their computers anytime.

to their minds and eyes, you exist.

but what happens if you suddenly disappear from the internet?

first, i would think its a glitch somewhere between my computer and your web server. after a couple of days, i would think that there’s a problem with your web server. let a couple of weeks pass and i’d think there’s something seriously bad happening in your web server and your organization. let a a month swing by and i would think that your organization may have dissolved already and i wouldn’t be visiting again.

the web developer suddenly gets a new job or completely disappears or you had a major disagreement and they’re not taking your calls.

its unprofessional but believe me, this thing happens.

so how do you avoid this?

be directly involved in the acquisition of the domain name. domain registration requires contact details for the administrative, technical and billing contacts. if you own the domain, you or your organization should be listed as the domain owner and you should be the administrative contact with your own e-mail address listed there. the developer can be the technical contact.

you can always change web hosts but in case you’re satisfied with the hosting service make sure you get their contact details.

insist on getting your own copy of the complete website on disc. i usually issue a backup of the client’s website on disc every month if there are any updates within that month.

so now you have an “escape” plan in case the developer goes south.

nah. not twiddling thumbs. just taking a break.