TrevorCarpenter.com

I have two, unrelated, things to discuss right now. I really, really want your input.

#1 Wordpress 2.5

Wordpress 2.5 is finally released. I haven’t upgraded yet. Mostly because I was a little afraid. You see, the administration panels are drastically different. I’ve been listening to WP podcasts, and reading WP blogs so that I can learn as much as possible.

Someone suggested a test blog. So, this morning I decided to launch a test blog, at http://test.trevorcarpenter.com, and play around. I have been wanting to play with a few plugins, and decided that this would work best for them too.

Once the blog was up and running, my plan was to mess with the plugins first, then upgrade to the 2.5 beta. But, when I sat down to begin, I saw that 2.5 was out of beta, and official. So, I tossed the plugins for now.

The test blog is running 2.5, and the admin dashboard is very different. I’m excited. I like new things.

#2 Moab Photography Workshop

I have the days off, and I really, really want to go to this exciting photography event in Moab, Utah. I can drive it in 10 hours, and I’m willing to take my car. I plan on camping, to save cash and have a bit more fun. If you can make it, you should try and attend this one. Ann Torrance, who helps plan and organize the Salt Lake City Photowalks, is speaking and she give it a good review.

For those SoCal photographers, who want to go, let’s carpool!

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So, years ago, I learned a little HTML. I checked out a few web sites that showed me the basics and I just barely began to understand. Having absolutely no programming experience, I had no place to start from. This spiked my interest and I enrolled in a community college course on basic web design. It really wasn’t a design course, since we never covered any design priciples. It was just an HTML course. I’ve still got the text book.

Having learned the basics, I had just enough to be dangerous. However, what was most important was that I had learned how to deconstruct a webpage. This was when my learning began. I probably learned more over the next few years, just from “View Source”-ing my way through a page. One big feature I never picked up on was CSS. There were more, but this one has come back to bite me on more than one occaision.

So, things have changed quite a bit. Now everyone is using PHP, or some other tool to make web development smoother. Of course CSS is important, and I’ve been in the dark. To top it off, these whole CMS apps have really emerged as a great tool for organizing information.

Well, back in 2005, when I launched my first podcast, I learned that blogging tools would serve the podcast well. So, I tossed together the easiest WordPress install I could find. But, as time drug on, I decided that I wanted to customize my WP. Not as many plugins existed yet, so I had to do it by hand. I checked out the wiki and slowly began to realize that I had a lot more to juggle this time around. The code I was reading was similar in style, but it wasn’t anything I had learned in HTML. I quickly discovered what similarities PHP had with HTML, and I found a some good online help to learn the basics of customizing WP.

The problem I found was that I had began to learn about just the code that was used in WP. This wasn’t helping me learn how to code in PHP, generally. Since I wasn’t learning good PHP skills, I still had to use help for any problem that emerged with my WP.  This began to frustrate me.

Additionally, I’ve been observing the amazing Web 2.0 shift. Great tools and services are started everyday. I’m a big fan of Zooomr, you know this. There’s others like Zoho, Pownce, Twitter, and Facebook. All of these, being web applications, were developed with some amazing tools that I want to learn.

Am I to become the next Kristpher Tate? Probably not. But much of the bread and butter of web development isn’t on the front page of anything huge. I just want to fit in.

Do you have any input for me? Where do you think I should start? I’m working on a follow up post, one that details my plan of attack. I’ve got a Lynda.com hook up, so I’ll be taking several of their online courses, to get started. Today, PHP basics.

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