Six Stupid Things a Wordpress Theme Maker Can Do
Modest Opinions isn’t the only blog I’ve got going on. You can see in my sidebar over there that I recommend checking out Hectic Studios and The Big Book of Spam; those are two of my other sites. Another that I’m working on isn’t ready to be announced yet, but suffice to say, it’s running on Wordpress also, and running on Wordpress means working with themes.
Now, I’m not a theme creator myself. I don’t have the time or energy to devote to creating really tight code, not like I used to. These days, I’m about writing words. I need themes that don’t require a lot of heavy lifting, because although I can fix things, I don’t want to have to, you know? Give me a theme that’s easy to move things around on, easy to customize the colors, and that uses images in an intelligent way. This other blog I’m working on now… the theme I love, I just discovered doesn’t use images in an intelligent way. That prompted this - my list of six stupid things a Wordpress theme maker can do, from a user standpoint.
The Big Book of Spam
Hate spam? I don’t. I love spam. I love spam so much that I’m writing a book about it! Yep, my latest book project is The Big Book of Spam, and you can read more about it at the official site, www.thebigbookofspam.com - oh, and you can contribute! Forward any spam you get to bbos@thebigbookofspam.com. Look! I’m not even protecting the address behind a script or anything! It’s wide open! Use that address to fill in web forms that you know to belong to spammers. Spam me, baby!
For more information, please visit the official site. I’d rather not get any porn, thanks, but most other kinds of spam are welcome. Porn spam simply won’t work for the book as I won’t be able to publish it! Well… not in normal bookstores, anyway.
I’m working on the book as we speak, and I expect it to be ready for purhase in early 2008.
Imagine This: Nobody Wants Your Product
Imagine this: you are a company that makes operating systems for computers. You make such popular operating systems in fact, that you become one of the largest companies in the world. Over time, you expand your business into other areas - you make your own computers maybe, or perhaps a line of digital music players.
Now, imagine this: the United States government passes some inane legislation aimed (on the surface) at preventing piracy and copyright infringement, among other things. This would be the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Okay, so no imagination necessary here.
Next. A company approaches you with some copyright protection software. You look at the software and decide it’s not right for your very popular operating system or any of your digital music players, or your very popular software jukebox/music store.
Lastly, imagine that this company actually decides to sue you for not using their copyright protection software, because - get this - by not using it you are actually in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act! Not only do they try to sue you, they send a cease & desist letter telling you to stop selling your computers, operating system, and digital music players! Not only that, but they want upwards of $2500 for each product that you’ve sold that hasn’t included their copyright protection software!
That couldn’t possibly happen, right? I mean, no company would be so stupid, so greedy, so unethical, that they would actually try to force Microsoft, Apple, Real Networks and Adobe to give them money for not using their product based on creative interpretation of the law… right?
Wrong.
A company called Media Rights Technologies is doing just that. Full story available here, from Yahoo and Macworld.
I guess this answers the question of what you should do when nobody wants your product. Sue them for not using it - brilliant!
Review: Top 10 Signs You’re Addicted to Woot.com
I have a collection of bookmarks that I load as a group every day and woot.com is on that list. Not familiar with Woot? Skip the list and read my review of the site. Those that are "in the know" might dig this list: my "Top 10 Signs You’re Addicted to Woot.com"
10: You check the site several times a day just in case they screwed something up and are offering a different product than they started the day with.
9: After a woot-off, you find yourself refreshing the page every 45 seconds for an hour because you don’t notice the flashers are gone.
8: You participate in the contests despite the fact that you’re not creative in the least, and check every hour to see if anyone has commented on your "masterpiece".
7: You’ve bought an item, not because you needed or even wanted it, but to keep the woot-off going (semi-hardcore).
6: You’ve bought three of an item just to keep that woot-off going (totally hardcore!).
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Torman Maxt - The Problem of Pain, Part IIndie prog rock. If there’s one type of music that’s completely hit-or-miss, it’s got to be independent progressive rock.
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