Tim's Wee Part of the World

One thing I’ve forgotten to mention are the reasons I’m bothering to learn TextPattern.

It’s not as popular in my circle of friends as Joomla is but we might get to change that…

It’s only because they’ve never heard of it or it appears to be too hard.

I must say that Joomla has one of the nicest admin user interfaces I’ve seen in donkey ages. (a long time).

BUT, and this is what attractted me to TextPattern to begin with.
Is TextPattern is CSS style and LAYOUT Driven.

I love CSS layouts…They can be a real pain to get right and make cross browser friendly, but it’s worth it.

If you ever get the CSS bug, which you should if you play at code level and hand code your sites, it’s a must.

I’m no CSS guru, but I get by and as with anything, I’m always learning from what others have done. And some of that is absolutely incredible.

Table layouts are a dirty word (or two). It was due to my having to “Fix” an existing site that was setup in Table Hell, that drove me to learn CSS.

So thats one point why I like TextPattern – It’s CSS heaven.

The other points are:
It has a very simple but powerful admin section that’s been given a lot thought. It takes a few minutes to learn your way around, but even if its the very first CMS program you’ve ever installed, you can be up and running pretty quickly.

It does have a Downside with adding new templates. It does require you (at this stage) to manually install all the bits to make it work.

For some one new, this might be very daunting, but it is doable.
The instructions the template authors give are very good.

With a little patience and maybe a “Whoopsie” here and there, you should be able to get your new templates installed.

Just be organised and don’t rush and you’ll get there…

Actually ,now thinking about it, I see it as a Huge Plus in regards to teaching you what you can actually achieve with TextPattern.

You are at the coal face, and with your trusty Coal Pick, you get to quickly learn how to get coal.

That’s a crappy analogy, but you will be enlightened by getting installing TextPattern somewhere you can play with it, getting a new template (Free from the Web) and installing it.

Go for it….

If you want the auto, push button, I just want to make it work solution and don’t give two hoots about what its doing or how it does it and have no time to learn how to tweak it etc.

Just get Joomla and play with that.

We all have to start somewhere

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It’s taken a wee while to come back here and have a bit more of a “play” with Textpatterns Templates.

The old site was straight out the box, “Dull and Boring” but this template has just what I want and with a few tweaks, it’ll be grand.

Performing a search on the web for Textpattern Templates, I stumbled upon this one – Serene – by Vladimir Agafonkin – Credit is due, where credit is due.

Thanks Vlad, you’ve saved me a few hours work…

As with anything “NEW” like Textpattern, the learning curve is more about getting your head around what it actually does.

Once you get past that stage, you’re pretty good to go and start hammering out stuff – Good or Bad.

It’s power becomes more apparent with use.
But with anything, that is due to an increased understanding of how it works.

So I may soon venture into writing my own little plugins.

I’m in the middle of researching a good CMS program for an existing community website SMAAustralia. [update - I am no longer associated with the webmastering of this Website - Still a good cause though!.]

I have a few templates that I have created that I need to port across (rewrite) to fit into the CMS that finally gets the Nod from the board members that will be using it.

So we are getting there…

Of course it was required yesterday, but good things take time when you don’t have a lot of time to spend.

Then I have to teach those using it on “How to use it”.

More guidelines to write but it’s what I enjoy doing.

Anyway, Let’s see where all this leads too.

Cheers

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My opinion is YES.

But it does come with a high learning curve.

I’m currently running Kubuntu 7.04 on my brand spanking new PC that never got to see a Windows Install.

Well thats not completely true.

I’ve got a VMWare Server installed with windows running on it.
So I can still have a fully fledged windows session at the same time I’m running my Linux.

I love it.

Anyway, time is a bit short at the moment to go into details on that.
So I’ll come back and fill in all the gaps real soon.

Cheers

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Hi,
One thing about the internet is its Vast and you get to become friends with people from all walks of life.

Take me for instance!

I’ve been on the internet for too many years. Well over 10 years now.

Not that long ago I stumbled upon the wonders of websites.
It wasn’t long until I began hand coding my websites (which I teach to others, including internet marketers).

That lead me to learning PHP, MYSql, CSS, and all that kind of stuff.

I’m now venturing into CMS programs like this one – TextPattern.
Plus Joomla.

With a number of my existing sites, I soon came to realise that templating was the way to go. So I came up with a cunning plan to do just that.

So putting on my PHP cap I came up with a very simple Templating system.

I even wrote an Ebook about it and teach it in online classes.
This goes hand in hand with my other friends that teach HTML and CSS, its a good mix and a very good introduction into fully fledged CMS Programs.

For the FREE online classes. go and join up at
“InternetIncomeLab.com”:http://www.internetincomelab.com

One of my main loves is teaching.
One day it may even help me work full time from home, but with still working full time and having a family it doesn’t leave a lot of time to do everything I want to achieve.

And that is a big list.

But we’ll get there slow and steady.

Feel free to give me a shout via the contact page.
I’d love to hear from you.

This site is primarily my scratch pad for all the weird and whacky things I dream up, along with the more serious stuff. Yes I can be serious at times.

Alot of what is on here are just my musings, but as time goes on – all of my serious stuff will eventually end up as training courses – scary thought huh – on my other websites.

It probably wont be long till I start being much more serious on here. You’ve been warned.

Anyway, I hope you get a smile, or actually learn something from what’s on here.

Take care, enjoy life and keep learning.
It’s the only way you’ll get to reach your dreams.

Cheers
Tim Brownlaw

Note:
All speling misteaks and grama errors are entirely deliberate.
Well it’s kind of an excuse

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I’ve come across a really neat little program for helping “Get your thoughts” out onto paper. Well my paper is my computer Screen.

It has a very grand graphical Interface. One of the best I have seen in a long time. So it’s very simple to plonk out all your thoughts and then start grouping them.

I highly recommend this program and its FREE!

It’s called Freemind.

I’m planning on creating a tutorial for it as it is a MUST for anyone creating a website, Laying out a Forum or anything.

Especially if you want to graphically show all your Advertising / Affiliate programs etc that you are in.

It has endless uses….

So get yourself a copy of Freemind today!

There should be enough destructions on the website to get you going.

Being Java based, it’ll run on any system and like I said.
The Graphical Interface is pretty swish.

Let me know what you think of it.

Cheers

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I feel sorry for these people even though they can be very annoying.

Most times they are very persistent.

But today, I had one call me and it was the usual guff.

Hi, I’m not trying to sell you anything.
Have you been overseas lately.
— No
How old are you. Between 25 and 35…
– No

She continued onto the other age groups and I said.
Sorry I don’t want to give you that information…

And she hung up!

That’s a first.

Hopefully I’ll be removed from their phone lists, but it’s a bit like SPAM, Phone SPAM….

So that’s being hopeful…

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And creating a good subject line can be difficult.

So hopefully by the time I finish this, I’ll know what it is I am writing about.

Oh yeah – CMS or for those who have no idea what a CMS is, it’s a Content Management System.

“A What!!” I hear you think rather loudly.

Ok, websites, maybe not this one, are basically informational sites.

Information is what is commonly referred to as “Content”.

So what better way to manage a website, being full of Content – or information – than with a system that easily let’s you write it and have it up on your website in not time flat.

Now “TextPattern” is a “Content Management System”. Some would call it just a blogging script but I’m causing confusion here….

I’m writing this, live (at the time) via a special webpage that I can access on this very website.

No need for any fancy webpage design programs.
No need to upload files etc…

I can do it all through TextPattern.

When I complete this “Posting” or Article I’ll do the following.

- Select a Catagory or two that this article fits under…
- Hit the Save Button.

Done!

“Ahh yes” , I hear you thinking again, “But what about the look of this site, It Sucks!”

Well , this template (remember that word for later) is straight out of the Box.

Yes, it’s not as pretty as WordPress or Joomla (remember those words too) but it gets you out there.

Most of these things are a breeze to install… Follow the destructions – whoops – instructions and you should, on a good day, be up and running in no time.

More on that later….As well as making these CMS things look like we want them to.

Learning is soooo much fun.

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Anyone using the internet, is always learning something.

We have a question, we look for an answer either from a friend or we do a search on the internet.

Most times we’ll get the answer, do or fix what it was we were doing, and then promptly forget all about it.

When the time comes to do it again, we think, Hmmmm I KNEW how to do that. Now where did I find the answer….

You’ve already given up trying to strain your brain to recall what it was.

So the answer is, WRITE IT DOWN.

Now that becomes a new question…

How do you document what you’ve learnt.
How can you organise your snippets of answers and solutions so you can easily find them again.

An answer written down, but never findable (if that’s a word) is not very useful…

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One of the wonderful things about a Blog is that it does give you somewhere to write your thoughts about anything.

Now I’m a big one for having great ideas, finding great information or just realizing something important and not ever writing it down.

When I do, Most times I’ll never remember where I saved it too.

Lack of Organization can really suck.

Learning how to be organized can be painful, BUT which pain is worse?

The pain of continually working something out and having to redo it all again later, or learning how to categorize and store this information.

Better Still is that with things like websites – ie Blogs, you can come along and read up what I’ve learned, realized or simply dreamed up.

Now one of those things is coming up with grand website ideas.
The Neurons Fire – the smile appears – the feeling of satisfaction grows and grows and then you hear “It’s time for Dinner… Get off that #$$#$@ puter….”

Well it’s not that bad, My wife is very understanding.

Then you get to sit back at your PC and….- “oh that’s an interesting email…”

Whoops – we’ve lost that great moment.

What to do?

That’ll be for a later post….

Cheers

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