Redesign/ Relaunch

Posted: Sat 14 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Redesign | 9 Comments »

As any observant person will have spotted, the design here at D4D™ has finally been updated.

At the same time, as per posts earlier this week, I’ve also upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1, migrated the database up to the proper level(which was a pig to do right) and moved hosts.

I’m now using a US-based hosting company, so the pages may take slightly longer to load (time will tell on that score) but it means I no longer have to worry about bandwidth, storage etc.

The changes appear to have been pretty smooth so far – the random titles are in place, the big black paragraph at the top of the page will change for certain days, (today being the first) and I feel that the colour-scheme is now decent enough that I don’t need to worry about the colour-scheme widget I wrote way back in the day.

I’ve still got to amend some other bits (the word count function, for example) and fix/resurrect a lot of the links on the blogroll, but yeah, the basics are there and I’m really quite pleased with the results.

To Upgrade, or Not

Posted: Wed 11 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Geeky, Redesign, Thoughts | 4 Comments »

One of the current questions I keep coming back to with D4D™ is whether I should bother upgrading my WordPress install to get me back up to date.

As it is, D4D™ still runs on WP 2.1 , and the current version is 2.7 . It’s so behind the times that I know I should go through the pain of a multi-version upgrade, but I honestly don’t know if I can actually be bothered.

I’m very aware that when I moved over to WP, it was a pain – although I wouldn’t go back now, believe me – and I know that the D4D™ template has been corrupted by me to within an inch of its life.

Of course, I could do the upgrade, and put D4D™ into a WP template for a while. That’d be quite a shock to the system, wouldn’t it? If I were to go that route, I’d also be putting into place at least the basics of a re-plan of how things go on D4D™ including taking out a lot of the old sections that really aren’t looked at any more, and just a bit of a tidy up.

Oh, and a move to a new/different host. After all, why make things simple and do just one thing at a time? That’s no bloody fun at all…

Redirecting

Posted: Mon 19 January, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Redesign, Thoughts, Web Development | Leave a comment »

Over the weekend, following on from a comment on here from Chris, I finally got round to making a change to the index page of D4D™ that I really should have made months (if not years) ago. And in honesty, I really thought I had done it years ago. I certainly planned to.

Anyway, the index page now redirects back to here. Which is how it should be, and what it should’ve been doing ages ago.

There are still plans for a redesign of D4D™, which would also involve moving servers to a new home. (That’s also related to another plan for some rationalisation of the number of hosting services I currently use) At that point, this section of D4D™ may change to being the index page of the entire site – so you’d only need www.dummies-for-destruction.co.uk , instead of remembering that extra /random – but setting things up in this way now will theoretically make things easier on that score anyway.

Come that time, I’ll be redirecting back the other way, so that anything at /random goes back to the index page. And all will be well.

We’ll see though. It’s a way off yet because like the builder who never completes his own extension, I’ve got enough work on right now that redeveloping/redesigning D4D™ keeps on getting put back.

Maybe I should set a target date, and then just work on thrashing it through. Or maybe I’ll simply let D4D™ keep on shambling along in its current guise for a while yet.

Time will tell.

Things for the coming 12 months

Posted: Thu 6 November, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Redesign, Resolutions, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 3 Comments »

So following on from yesterday’s list of plans vs. achievements and so on, this is likely the list for 2008/9. It’s not quite as intense as last year’s one, for a number of reasons. Also, I’m sure that by the end of the 12 months, there’ll be other stuff that needs to be added to it, so it’s more flexible as well.

But here goes. (And in no particular order)

  1. Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April)
  2. Write and Launch the two main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see if they can make any money
  3. Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential
  4. Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course
  5. Redesign my photography site
  6. Promote the photography and site more
  7. Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last
  8. Possibly redesign D4D™ a bit – I know, I’ve been talking about it now for years
    Oh yeah, and…
  9. Lose some weight, as my plans for doing so in 2008 have emphatically failed – primarily due to zero motivation to do so, but also due to life over-riding gym etc.

Redesign : Stage One Complete

Posted: Tue 19 August, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Redesign | Leave a comment »

A week ago, I said that I’d set up a development site for the redesign and redevelopment of D4D.

Today, one week later I’ve got the first stage of that completed – the migration of the current database over to the development site, and then upgrade it from WP2.1 to WP2.6. It might not sound like much, but it’s certainly a major stage in the process, so yes, all is good.

Now it’s “just” everything else. Deciding what to keep, what to remove, and what to do with it all.

Should be fun. *cough*

Starting a Redesign

Posted: Tue 12 August, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Redesign | Leave a comment »

In honour of having just gone past it’s sixth birthday, I’m going to be looking at redesigning D4D™

And today I’ve made the first steps – a trial area to work on it.

It’s not just a redesign though, I’m also going to look at dropping some of the sections on D4D™ that don’t get many visits, or that I just plain don’t update. It might also reduce the amount of webspace I’m using, although that’s not a big factor in the entire thing.

But we’ll see how it goes. I’m not going to guarantee anything just yet- hell, I’m not even certain that the entire database will migrate correctly, as it’s still on a very old version of WordPress- but at least I’m making those first steps.

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