Why the new AnalogDuck.com layout?

Unfortunately the old AnalogDuck.com software, E-Xoops (now known as RunCMS), did not give me the kind of control I was looking for over content layout, access rules, navigation and taxonomy. Also, I've had a large number of blogs homed here at AnalogDuck.com. E-Xoops is a one-blog-per-installation app. It was chewing up a lot of space. After a painful process of trying a large number of alternative solutions, I settled on Drupal. It gives me the control I was looking for and lets me have as many blogs as I want.

I like it. =)

There were a good number of very nice solutions I tried which excel over Drupal in one manner or another, but in the end I decided that they were just frills. Drupal delivers on the functionality that really matters to me.

It may be a tad shabby-looking for now, but I have reached the conclusion that I can't wait for the weekend that's never going to come to make the bomb theme. I'll do the theme when I get to it. A place to blog is what I need for now. A place for this ducky to call home.

What's with the new theme?

I've been using darker colors for years and decided it was time for something different since I have to stare at it so often. The other thing about my color scheme is that I use my blog often at work as a tool to journal current tasks I'm working on. I don't like it when people staring over my shoulder assume I'm dorking around on the net. So I was going for something stylish yet conservative.

Obviously... I failed miserably on both counts.

This theme is an only mildly-modified version of "box_cleanslate" theme, which is included in the "box_grey" theme download. I touched up just a few CSS elements (colors, fonts) and added my own AnalogDuck.com graphic to the included logo graphic, then called it a day.

I did the CSS editing using TopStyle Pro. You can grab my CSS sheet with ease from here, if you care to have it for yourself. I'm still touching it up some. I don't like the way it renders code, for example, but I've little time to deal with that just now.

The logo was made in Photoshop using the C-Type AOE font, and you can have the .PSD file I made if you care to use it.

I'm looking for answers to something you don't cover here, or something you covered incompletely. How do I get clue?

You should consult The Book of All Knowing, Google. You should set Google as your home page. You should consult Google whenever you are not knowing, because Google knows. Mastering Google is easy! Simply follow the step-by-step walk-through of GoogleGuide.com.

If you can't find it in Google, you should see if somebody else has already asked Google. If you need to know a definition, type the word in Google, then look at the top, right corner of the page where it says definition in blue lettering in the blue horizontal bar near the top of the page. Click that link and it will lead you to Dictionary.com with a definition of your word or acronym. I use these techniques constantly every day and am so successful with them that other people are consistently fooled into thinking that I am smart and know things and stuff. (sic)

If you can fathom just how much goes into Google technology, than you would be insane to not use Google to perform your research. If you are using other search engines that actually return meaningful results promptly (such as Yahoo!), you should be aware that they actually license the Google technology then frame the search results with their advertising. Why not go to the source?

It is very useful to install the Google Toolbar if you are an Internet Explorer user (which you shouldn't be, as there are better, free alternatives from Mozilla.org). It includes the best IE pop-up blocker, no spyware, and costs nothing. If you use Mozilla or Firefox, you can use the GoogleBar, which works the same, only better in many useful ways. What is really cool about both Google toolbar plug-ins is that they enable you to search content on a specific web site, which usually returns better results than most sites' own search engines. You can do this from the Google web site -- you don't need a toolbar to do so, but it requires that you're not lazy enough to type (or remember) to type site:whatever.com every time you want to do so. It's not bothersome to type once, but when you're performing dozens of searches on specific sites, it can get old real quick. Of course, you can also use Google's Advanced Search page, which is a simple-to-use webform that exposes much of Google's advanced functionality. Further, it exposes the keywords used to access that functionality in the search field of the page it returns.

It's true, you can also always contact me if you like. But ask questions that are more difficult than checking the top result returned in Google. Today I was asked the definition for the phrase "junk bond" via email. It takes less energy, and gives a far quicker answer, to type the two words into Google (or your Google Toolbar, or your Googlebar) and click on the definition link in the blue bar at the top of the page. I did, and I found this definition. It took me less than 5 seconds to get the definition I was looking for. Or rather, that some AnalogDuck.com vagrant (ahem -- I mean, "visitor"!) was looking for. ;) It would have been a lot more gratifying for that visitor to perform their own search.

None of this is to make anybody feel dumb or inferior. It's not your fault. Google knows everything. Google has lots of tools to help you parse just what it knows, and Google is inventing more tools all the time.

By the way, I found every single link on this page using my Firefox Googlebar, with the sole exception of the link to my contact form (because I already knew it). No link I researched was further than the fifth link returned (which was the Forbes article, "All Eyes on Google").