Here’s a quick post for anyone who may be having troubles with WordPress 2.7.1 and the Facebook Photos plugin from Joe Tan @ TanTanNoodles. This was also posted to the Support Group.
Upon installation of the Facebook Photos plugin I received the following error.
Warning: call_user_func_array() [function.call-user-func-array]: First argument is expected to be a valid callback, ‘media_admin_css’ was given in /derekdesigns.com/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 339.
The plugin continued to work, but the error was annoying.
I did some digging and it appears that one of the CSS loaders got changed and the function for media CSS was depreciated.
I found this fix and applied it to the last line of the “plugins-class.php” file.
if( ! function_exists('media_admin_css') ){
function media_admin_css(){
wp_admin_css('css/media');
}
}
This is a great plugin and I know I will get a LOT of use out of it.
Hope that helps!
A time to reflect!
Once again the winter seasons in Indiana have proven to be as unpredictable as Joaquin Phoenix’s’ acting career, however, it was predictable enough to know that it would suck! Just as we all thought “hey this might be a mild winter!” it hit us. Slammed by at least 10-inches of snow and major waves of freezing temperatures. The first day was no fun at all. I spent most of the day digging out the car so my wife could go to work, only to have to turn around and help out the lady who works at the church. Which was no trouble, honest, just got my workout that day and took a very healthy nap afterward.
At least we all got out and went sledding. Picked up a nice (at the time) snow tube and headed to the in-laws to hit the only hills we knew of in this area, which are surrounded by trees. The kids loved it and the snow was perfect, but the location, horrible. After a few times down the small and branch filled hill, a twig ended our joyous slaloms.
Oh and thank you for noticing, yes those are my new transition glasses. They work great!!
“Anticipation around the upcoming release of “Halo Wars” is mounting. The demo, which was released on Xbox LIVE on Feb. 5, quickly set the day-one record for the most demo downloads on the service, and in just its first five days, has been downloaded by more than 2 million Xbox LIVE Gold members around the world.”
from the Official Halo Wars Community Site.
I was and still am a huge fan of Age of Empires. In fact while working for Easylink Services in Dayton, Ohio, we regularly would have LAN parties playing huge multiplayer battles of Age of Empires. I learned quickly to fear war elephants! I continued to support the game purchasing AOE2 and AOE: Age of Mythology and mastered the use of tribuchets. I have yet to pick up AOE3, but have played it and it is awesome!
So then can the world of Halo and the familiar game play of AOE be combined in a fun fast paced action packed RTS game? Heck yeah it can! I was among those 2 million and downloaded the Halo Wars demo the first day it was available on Xbox Live. I had a blast playing it. I started by trying the tutorial but quickly became bored and simply wanted to start playing a real skirmish.
I started with a base and one active warthog, who had no weapon upgrades yet, but had a special ability of ramming enemy targets. The base setup is different but really sets the stage for a fast paced game. Confined in a small square sector you have your “town center” or your main base. Around that base are what I would call building pods. Selecting a building pod section will give you options to build onto your base with whatever building you choose. Such as an armory, supply factory, reactor plant and continues with additional building options opening as you progress your army. Unlike AOE you do not have to go out forging for wood, stone or gold. Rather you use your supply building to add additional building supplies to your base. Also attached to your base are smaller building pods to use for turrets. I constructed 2 turrets on each corner which proved to be a great protection as seconds later elite were attacking my base with their energy swords.
So then I began to build. I added 2 supply buildings and an reactor plant. I then was able to upgrade my supply buildings to increase my supplies much quicker. I then added an armory and also added the gunner upgrade to my warthogs, allowing current warthogs to have a gunner as an added weapon. I started to build infantry men and noticed that they came out of my base in packs of 3, awesome! I quickly had an army of battle ready warthogs and infantry men, so on I went to engage the enemy.
As I journeyed to the enemy location we were attacked by a prophet? Weird, but yet, a prophet was attacking us in his floating chair with some kind of laser weapon. I quickly ended his effort to stop me and continued to find the main base of the elite. We began to attack when elites began to come out of the base, followed by what looked like walking banshees. Sadly my small army was defeated but I now knew what was in store. So back to the base I went to rebuild my forces.
This whole time I was still learning the game and by merely just testing the buttons I quickly understood how to select individual troops, local units, all units and even units of a certain type. Even using the select tool to select multiple units at once was rather easy. But I still was unsure how to jump back to my base or how to switch to troops that were engaged or scouting on the map. I hadn’t tried the D-pad and found that yep, there it was, I could toggle to my base and even find troops on the ground with ease. I even discovered special weapons when pressing up on the D-pad. Awesome!
I would go on but I am now wanting to play the game again! So yeah I’m excited about this game. I know they have tried RTS games on consoles in the past and none of them really got my attention. Either due to bad controls or just a game that wasn’t all that exciting. But now with Ensemble using one of the most popular game formats out there in Halo, this game is looking better and better the more I hear about it.
If you haven’t played the demo, I highly recommend it. It’s a lot of fun!
I’ve been wanting to write a post like this for some time now, however, I didn’t have the time until now. So here I present some of the Firefox Addons that I have come accustom too using. If you haven’t already made the switch to Firefox, now is the time! There are so many reasons why I choose Firefox but the main reason is security. Firefox is proven to be more secure than Internet Explorer and continues to do so. Head on over to Browse Happy (presented by WordPress) and you’ll be able to read some testimonials and learn more about why Firefox is simply the best. Follow the image link below to get the latest Firefox has to offer.
Now on to the Addons.
This is a fun Addon. I used to complain to myself on how I would never keep up with some of my favorite sites. Welcome Morning Coffee, a virtual daily bookmark utility. If you know how to save a web page as a bookmark, then you will know how to use Morning Coffee. Simply add your favorite bookmark to whatever day you wish into Morning Coffee and you’re all set. To view the daily bookmarks, simply select the “coffee cup” icon in your browser and the site will open in your browser. You can, of course, save a number of websites to each day. Then each site will open in a new tab.
This is an addon that I use every single day. This addon gives you the ability to use a simple FTP application straight from your Firefox browser. Add FTP accounts and easily transfer files to and from your online directories. FireFTP easily opens in a separate tab and allows for easy to advanced connection options.
Notes: I at times am unable to connect to an account and simply have to close the tab and attempt to reconnect or have to close the browser and reopen it. Also it can be slow, when compared to programs like CoffeeCup FTP, but for simple file transfers, this Firefox Addon is perfect!
This is a handy addon for web developers. Do you occassionally need to take a full image screenshot of a layout you have completed or are working on? With FireShot you can EASILY take a full sized screenshot of your current webpage and save it as an image. Apparently you can also save your screenshot to an online service or even through an email message. This addon has added a lot of new features and comes in handy when you need it. The options are easily accessed on the status bar of your browser and allow for advanced setup options. It’s worth checking out.
If you are not using Firebug, you MUST. Firebug is an amazing addon. With Firebug you can literally dissect any web page. Viewing the CSS content, scripts, DOM, NET, seriously anything that makes up the webpage you are visiting. Having troubles with a DIV? Use Firebug to get a visual representation of your layout and detect any elements that may be causing your CSS to misbehave.
Here’s the description from developers page:
“Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.“
Okay, I have a serious problem and I’ll admit it, I surf the web and I surf it hard! There are times when I find a website and want to read it later, but my bookmarks are packed and I know I’ll forget about it. Thanks to Read It Later, it’s getting easier to keep tabs on websites that I want to check back on at a later time. Read It Later is simple, you find a website that you want to read later and simply tag it. What happens then? Well Read It Later saves that website in a type of bookmark listing (but not really). You can easily select the Read It Later button from your toolbar and quickly open the page you weren’t finished with. I know I butchered that description, but seriously it’s a nice addon.
I’m not quite done, there’s a few I want to add, but I’ll finish this up later. If you know of any good addons, let me know!
This week has been move-in day for me, moving into my new domain name that is – DerekDesigns.com. I “finally” found a domain name that works. I had tried a couple before now (maybe you heard of em, avotive.com / tru-dynamix.com) and they just didn’t illustrate the creativeness I was trying to make. I wanted to be creative, but unfortunately, I was the only one who thought they were *shrugs*. I tried this time to not be so “creative” but rather be simple and direct.
Domain / Hosting
I made a drastic change in this area but it’s proving to be a good move. Before now I was partial to only one web hosting provider and domain registrar. Well that all changed, when the hosting company allowed access to my account to someone who “magically” was able to guess my security question (they have very weak security questions by default, but I believe they used the online support to gain access posing as me). So I lost all that I previously had and was forced to start over. No worries, change is good. I’m happy with what I have now and I will most certainly recommend services to future clients. Hosting powered by Dreamhost (thanks to a very good friend!) and domain registered through GoDaddy.
Powered by WordPress
As usual, my site is powered by the powerful WordPress (and version 2.7.1 I might add). I love working with this new version. The vertical navigation was a dramatic change, but really proved to be awesome.
Theme
I wanted to create a personal custom theme for this project but time right now is a bit lacking for my own personal projects, as I am focusing more on current clients. So I decided to use a nice portfolio theme, I went with Sharpfolio from WebRevolutionary. I’m having to tweak a few things, but so far it is looking rather nice. I still have a lot I want to add, so the work continues.
Plug-ins
I’m still installing my favorite plug-ins, but so far I’m having no troubles with that what so ever. I am hoping to write a blog post very soon on the plug-ins I use and recommend. There are really some great plugins out there that make WordPress that much better. I mean really “Hello Dolly“, best WordPress plugin EVER!
