ChEeTaH's - Simply Life

Looky! Fixes!

ChEeTaH — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:56:05 +0000

Look here! My Lovely Rosana (MissDesign) has made the site work a bit better due to some extra theming (BIG Thank you to her!). This was actually done a couple of weeks ago already. I have just fixed some old content so that it's all alright again (she had to break screenshots and the like during the updates, but they're fixed now). Some of the improvements include less flickering of the menu buttons, comments have been themed, and a whole lot more smaller fixes. Also, I've just put the Lightbox module on this site, which means images now no longer replace the website, but are put in a nice overlay. I even have slideshows! I promise, I'll blog again very soon!

Where have you been?

ChEeTaH — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:57:35 +0000

It's been a long time again, very long. A lot has changed too, so here goes...

First of all: I got a job in February. It's not the greatest thing, but getting something really nice is hard right now. At least it relieves us a bit from the huge financial burden we'd otherwise have. Another small job at my university, where I worked for only 4 hours each week, is ending this month. I'll have my last paycheck from there soon, unfortunately.

I've also prepared the tContact Drupal module for release. The code has been slightly improved, which is always good. There's also another mini-module for Drupal which allows you to add CSS classes to menu links. This makes it easier for a theme to turn a menu into a series of buttons, similar to the menu at the top of this site (Home/About/Contact). Right now this site uses the menu item's ID number, which is somewhat random. With this module such menus are just a little harder to break :) I hope both modules will land on Drupal.org soon.

What else? KidDraw of course. A few months ago already, I've cleaned up a lot of code, made it a little bit themeable (which resulted in removing a whole lot of code). I've also changed the file loading/saving structures around so that the files KidDraw produces are nice straightforward XML files. They're compressed to save some disk space, but it means that compatibility with future and past versions is much easier. Still, a release is not in sight right now, and I'll stop predicting/hoping anything right now. First I've got some other stuff to finish and wrap up, before I can focus on KidDraw a little more again.

I'm also working on some supersecret projects with Rosana, which has taken some time off of other projects. It has inspired me to write the menu CSS classes module mentioned above though.

Another technical bit I worked on this past weekend is merging all the (5) Drupal installations on this webserver to a single centralized installation. Before, a new version of Drupal would mean updating each site separately: putting the site in maintenance mode, uploading files, updating the database and turning the site back online. Times 5. Right now: Put all sites in maintenance mode, upload files, update all databases, put them all back online. I've set up bookmark folders in Firefox so I can put all sites into maintenance mode with just a few clicks. Same goes for updating and bringing them back online. A similar amount of effort is saved for updates of common modules among various sites. All in all: maintaining the sites is less painful - especially as the amount of Drupal sites we're running will soon grow.

That does mean that if you spot any errors (missing/broken images, links, etc): please contact me! I think I've most of them covered though.

And then there's University of course. It's taking a lot of my time right now, with this year's last set of exams just around the corner. Together with some more deadlines, it's a busy time right now.

The Sims 3 is also out, I've been playing it for a bit. Not much yet - too little time. The (Collector's Edition) box is shiny though.

Spore Galactic Adventures, the first real expansion for Spore, is due next week, and Thursday (18th) me and Rosana will be checking it out at EA Netherlands. A bit late for a preview, but it may just be early enough to get me excited about the game once again. I don't know all too much about it right now, so Wednesday evening I'll have to do some reading to catch up on it.

Finally: I'll be getting a new laptop this summer. After saving up for a long time, the €1000 offer from university (for a HP Elitebook 8530w) is in. I've filled in the form saying I want it, I'll have to pay up soon. I should be getting it around August. My current laptop (6 years old) just doesn't cut it anymore...

That's it for this rough summary of the past couple of months (project/work wise anyway). Until next time!

Contact Form Translated

ChEeTaH — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:33:28 +0000

Using my very own module, the contact form is now also translated in Dutch (I know, it's not really useful to tell this on the English version of the site, but I thought I'd just inform everybody). It's using my own tContact Drupal module, in which I have found a flaw and a to do. I'll have to fix those before I believe I can publish it. I'll keep you posted!

Theme updates

ChEeTaH — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:26:38 +0000

With the help of Rosie I (we) have made some updates to the theme. Slightly better html/css which is hopefully a little nicer to search engines as well. Especially the Dutch translation has seen some major improvements, as the interface is now pretty much completely translated (email me if you find flaws). A few more fixes, mostly content, are on their way.

KBlogging

ChEeTaH — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:37:14 +0000

New site, new ways to blog. Yep, you're looking at the brand new version of Simply Life, all made possible by the dearest of dearest, Rosana!

A lot has happened since my last post, so here goes:

Went to LA for the last proper E3, with Rosana
Checked out Hollywood and Disneyland while there
Fell in love
Got together
Junior was... erm... born. July 11th 2006.
More love
Rosana got pregnant
Moved to Breda to the same flat as where Rosana (and two other students, still) lived
Did a whole lot of searching for a new home for the three, soon to be four, of us
Found an apartment
Moved
Seth was born (October 23rd 2007, 14:58 CET)
Rosana made this sparkly brand new superduper design
I'm blogging, using KBlogger on KDE 4

That's the short version. Most of all, this isn't really all too much more than a test post, but so far I love it!