Learning to run WordPress “on the job”

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

(Image: Creative Commons Attribution: Joi)

Clay Shirky was recently quoted as saying that publishing is not a job anymore but a button and that all it takes to publish these days is a WordPress install.

Well, I’ve been learning to install WordPress instances on a hosted Apache server via the Ubuntu terminal. I was actually merely following written instructions tho, but learning nontheless.

Lots of passwords involved, which prompted me to start using a handy password manager called KeePass.

On the topic of “on the job” learning, Joi Ito remarked in a recent post:

“(…) My sister calls me an “interest driven learner.” I think that’s code for “short attention span” or “not a good long term planner” or something like that. (…)

Although reading the dictionary and the encyclopedia from cover to cover may seem a bit extreme, it often feels like that’s what we’re asking kids to do who go through formal education. (…)

I wonder whether we should be structuring the future of learning as online universities where you are asked to do the equivalent of reading the encyclopedia from cover to cover online. Shouldn’t we be looking at the Internet as an amazing network enabling “The Power of Pull” and be empowering kids to learn through building things together rather than assessing their ability to complete courses and produce the right “answers”? (…)”

I must agree; I’ve been learning a good deal of WordPress configuration and CSS design lately by looking up what I need to know as I go about the project.

With codecademy, on the other hand, I got stuck learning javascript because the exercises were not driven by my immediate practical needs. And those emails trying to lure me into “building my own blackjack game” don’t really…

Or then it just means that, like Joi, I’m a just an “interest driven learner”.

Run through the pain or take a break?

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

(Image: Creative Commons Attribution: AMagill)

Today I jogged 6.5 km of last year’s 10.6 km Mäntyharju Pyhävesi-juoksu route. +6°C, sun, rather little snow on the ground left, hardly worth mentioning, Asics Gel Nimbus 13, 93.3 kg.

I suppose what explains my weight increase is that I had a few beers and some calory-rich food during the weekend. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Continuing my breathing experiment, I started inhaling 4 steps, exhaling 4 steps, for about 3/6 of the route. Then I changed to inhaling 3 steps, exhaling 4 steps for about 2/6. The last 1/6 bit I inhaled 3 steps and exhaled 3 steps.

I’ve had some pain in my right foot since last Wednesday when I went to shop for new running shoes. I think what caused it was that I was wearing thick sports socks in my regular shoes, so the shoes felt slightly too tight. Continue reading →

Re-discovered and imported ‘@BloggerJoe’s’ from Old Blogger

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

Screenshot of @BloggerJoe's on Blogger/Blogspot, 2001.

The other day I re-discovered my first blog attempt, ‘@BloggerJoe’s', on http://bloggerjoe.blogspot.com, from 2001.

With some effort I managed to re-activitate my old admin account for it, export the blog posts to an .xml file, convert it to a WordPress-importable .xml file using the Blogger2Wordpress conversion utility, and import it to my current blog site from the WordPress admin dashboard, Tools -> Import -> WordPress.

So now those old posts are part of this blog and can be found via the author page of BloggerJoe. I hadn’t remembered that in those days, blog posts didn’t use to have titles/headlines.

The original design of @BloggerJoe’s was kind of a cool simulation of a black-and-green computer monitor: a black background, a fluorescent green font type… I believe it was called the ‘geek’ template.

I searched the ‘Wayback Machine‘ and found a couple of captured pages with the old design.

Which site stats tool would you recommend and why?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

I just installed the ‘Count per Day‘ plugin on this WordPress site. Saw it on Ton’s blog, looks kinda clean and simple, so I decided to take it for a spin.

Of course there are other options. I used to run Sitemeter on my Typepad blog quite happily. And then there is Google Analytics…

Which site stats tool would you recommend for a blog like this and why?

Let the Quidditch games begin!

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

Asics Gel Nimbus 13, steaming after their Maiden Voyage

I was looking for a Nimbus 2001, but couldn’t find any in Mikkeli, so I ended up with Nimbus 13 instead. And to be honest, they might come in just as handy if I ever get to play Guidditch for Muggles.

The Nimbus 2001 was produced by the Nimbus Racing Broom Company as part of their successful line of racing brooms. Released in August, 1992, it was faster than its predecessor, the Nimbus 2000. It officially became the fastest broom in existence, until the launch of the Firebolt in 1993 The broom itself is black and gold (or silver), with revolving stirrups. Despite the Firebolt being faster, the Nimbus 2001 is still used by the majority of Quidditch teams across the globe.

(from: Harry Potter Wiki)

Today I jogged 6.0 km of last year’s 10.6 km Mäntyharju Pyhävesi-juoksu route. +3°C, sun, still some snow on the ground, Asics Gel Nimbus 13, 91.5 kg.

Funny thing happened yesterday. I visited Intersport first, then Sportia. They gave me opposite advice.

At Intersport I was as good as ready to take home a pair of Asics Kayano, size 45. It’s the correct weight category, but it has DuoMax pronation support. The sales person examined the soles of my old shoes and saw me running, and advised me to buy pronation correction shoes.

The middle-aged gentleman at Sportia looked and talked like a coach. He examined not only my old running shoes, but also the every-day leather shoes I was wearing. He observed that my shoe soles are very equally worn out at the front, and that there was hardly any damage at the heal. Hence he concluded that my pace is rather balanced, which he confirmed when he saw me running.

He then advised quite firmly against pronation correction shoes, because they might do me more harm than good. They might even cause me to develop under-pronation, he claimed. “Oh and by the way, you could use size 46 instead of 45.”

The Nimbus cost € 179,–. Kayano would have cost € 199,–. Perhaps it’s more economical to buy on-line, but I felt the Sportia coach deserved my business.

So you see, if you look and talk like a coach, and you flatter me by saying I have a balanced pace, I’ll buy anything.

I’m collecting my jogging stats on this page. I just added a column to start keeping track of the shoes’ mileage. Apparently, professionals run about 700-1000 km. on a pair of shoes, while the recommendation for amateurs is 1000-1200 km.

How do you integrate your on-line social media activity with WordPress?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

Looking for inspiration from shared experiences.

I often contemplate how to make my socially-filtered reading, my comments on other blogs, my tweets, likes, status updates and G+ posts as well as my publishing and interactions on WordPress all part of the same flow.

If you blog on WordPress, how are you managing those various streams? Do you have your blog posts automatically broadcast to Twitter, Facebook, Google+?

How do you handle the back-loop? How do you distinguish between the conversations you want to attract to your own WordPress site and those you want to have on other nodes in the network? How important is it to you to own your own data?

Which WordPress plugins do you use to improve the process?

Stuff like that

(Image: Create Commons Attribution: by J D Mack.)

What year and type are these Asics running shoes?

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

[Update, 21:00 hrs.: Victor Donselaar writes:

...this is the GT 2030 or equivalent new ones, for 60-80 KG person, that has a light pronation (is that a word in English?) to the inside...

No wonder my ankle hurts after running on asphalt. So from now on, I'll refer to them as the Asics GT 2030.]

I don’t even remember if I bought them in the Netherlands or in Finland. They could easily be more than a decade old. It says ‘DuoMax’ on the side. And I think I’ll be replacing them pretty soon now. It would just be nice to know the year and type, so if you have any clue…

Today I jogged 5.5 km of last year’s 10.6 km Mäntyharju Pyhävesi-juoksu route. +1°C, sun, still snow on the ground, Asics ~~DuoMax~~ GT 2030, 91.5 kg. It’s nasty having to put on long underwear again after last week’s running felt so light and easy. So I was dragging my feet a bit and getting a bit overheated, too.

I’m collecting my jogging stats on this page.

Nokia N97 browser crashes on WordPress comments

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

On my Nokia N97, when I read a WordPress blog post and scroll down to the comments section, the browser crashes. Is that just me?

“Niet mee lopen knoeien,” zegt Ton. Maar het is een dwangneurose!

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

Ik vroeg mijn vriend Ton Stikkelbroeck naar zijn visie op lopen en ademhalen n.a.v. mijn recente stukje over dit thema. Komt’ ie:

Ha Jos , vele jaren geleden heb ik hier al eens mee ge-experimenteerd, maar ik bleek niet in staat om zowel het aantal passen als het aantal ademhalingen te tellen, dus na 1 poging heb ik het al opgegeven om hier iets mee te doen. Het feit dat ik hiermee iets geprobeerd heb lag puur in het feit dat ik erover gelezen had, niet omdat ik het nodig vond. Ademhaling is iets wat zichzelf reguleert, daar moet je volgens mij niet mee lopen knoeien

via Ton, heb jij hier….

Wat een verbazend en interessant antwoord, Ton!

Dat “niet mee lopen knoeien” daar kan ik me wel iets bij voorstellen. Ik wil bijvoorbeeld vooral niet gaan hyperventileren of zo.

Maar bij mij werkt het zo’n beetje omgekeerd. Zodra ik begin te lopen, zoeken mijn longen naar een ritme in verhouding tot mijn pas. Het is bijna een dwangneurose, iets dat ik moeilijk kan negeren, dus ik moet er wel bijna “mee knoeien”

Overigens heeft een bewuste ademhaling me voor mijn gevoel altijd erg geholpen. Een kwart eeuw geleden, toen ik middellange afstanden liep, bracht me dat zowel bij training als wedstrijden in een kadans, een focus, waardoor ik alles om me heen (en met name de pijn) vergat.

Een Sony Walkman, een audio-casette met Jean-Michel Jarre en midden in de nacht over de Dorperheideweg rennen droeg daar overigens ook aan bij

Ik ben ergens wel benieuwd hoe het zonder die “geforceerde” ademhaling zou zijn, maar ik weet niet of ik dat voor mekaar krijg.

(Mijn statistiekjes verzamel ik hier)

Changing inhale-exhale sequence

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Jos Schuurmans

Do you jog or run? If you do, how do you synch your breathing with your pace?

Today I jogged 5.0 km of last year’s 10.6 km Mäntyharju Pyhävesi-juoksu route. +10°C, sun, a bit windy, snow on the ground, Asics summer shoes, 91.7 kg. With this spring temperature it felt relatively easy, as I was wearing just one layer of long-sleeved clothing.

Therefore I could afford to experiment a little with my breathing. I started out inhaling 4 steps, exhaling 4 steps, for about 3/6 of the route. Then I changed to inhaling 3 steps, exhaling 4 steps for about 2/6. The last 1/6 bit I inhaled 3 steps and exhaled 3 steps.

It feels good to apply a longer inhale-exhale sequence at first, as it forces me to slow down my pace. Towards the end I then breathe a little faster, which allows me to step up the pace somewhat. There’s probably some optimum, which I may figure out over time.

Currently I’m jogging twice a week, and I’m trying to add 500 metres every time until I reach about 11 km. If all goes well, that should take me another 6 weeks.