The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Brief Technical Note

Posted on | January 5, 2010 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

I ratcheted down my resolution to 800X600 and confirmed the email reports that, yes, this blog is slammed to the left side of the screen.

To work on this, I save the blog locally, open that copy in the browser, get out the BFH, and tweak the .css.

Except that there is enough voodoo in the .css for the page to thumb its nose at me. So your indulgence is sought. I’m still standing up my local LAMP stack so I can break this thing in a blatantly irresponsible manner without any anguished screams peeling down at me from out along I-70. One can blog or one can geek, but I know of none doing both simultaneously. Hats off to those who are more graceful task switchers than I.

This post will also test the WordPress 2.9.1 install to see if that godforsaken scheduling bug is really gone. Open Source: no whining, Smitty!

NOTE (RSM): Now readers see the source of my insane rage in “The Making of The Other McCain.” Smitty’s always talking this 2.9.1 IT code-geek stuff and forgetting the most important part: Hit the tip jar!

If we were pulling in $10K/month here, everything would be so much easier. To borrow a phrase from P.J. O’Rourke, we’d be farting through silk. Instead, it’s 2:30 a.m. and I’m about to leave for California with an overdrawn ATM card and less than $200 cash in my pocket to last until my plane gets back Sunday morning.

HIT THE TIP JAR! ROLL TIDE!

Category: Blogging

Comments

9 Responses to “Brief Technical Note”

  1. William Teach
    January 5th, 2010 @ 7:13 pm

    Who uses 800?

    But, yeah, it is a little to wide for 800, not quite wide for higher resolutions.

    You could decrease the size of the overall theme, reduce the size of the far right sidebar a bit to make it more compliant. Both are rather large sidebars.

    If you send me a copy of the stylesheet, I’ll see if there is anything I can do, if you want.

  2. William Teach
    January 5th, 2010 @ 7:13 pm

    Who uses 800?

    But, yeah, it is a little to wide for 800, not quite wide for higher resolutions.

    You could decrease the size of the overall theme, reduce the size of the far right sidebar a bit to make it more compliant. Both are rather large sidebars.

    If you send me a copy of the stylesheet, I’ll see if there is anything I can do, if you want.

  3. William Teach
    January 5th, 2010 @ 2:13 pm

    Who uses 800?

    But, yeah, it is a little to wide for 800, not quite wide for higher resolutions.

    You could decrease the size of the overall theme, reduce the size of the far right sidebar a bit to make it more compliant. Both are rather large sidebars.

    If you send me a copy of the stylesheet, I’ll see if there is anything I can do, if you want.

  4. mariner
    January 6th, 2010 @ 1:07 am

    One way to change things without breaking them too badly is to do so in a virtual machine.

    Install VirtualBox. Open VirtualBox and in the Virtual Machine install a minimal LAMP environment and a snapshot of the blog, and to to town.

    To do the next round of experimenting/development blow away the Virtual Machine copy of the blog and start over with a new snapshot.

  5. mariner
    January 6th, 2010 @ 1:07 am

    One way to change things without breaking them too badly is to do so in a virtual machine.

    Install VirtualBox. Open VirtualBox and in the Virtual Machine install a minimal LAMP environment and a snapshot of the blog, and to to town.

    To do the next round of experimenting/development blow away the Virtual Machine copy of the blog and start over with a new snapshot.

  6. mariner
    January 5th, 2010 @ 8:07 pm

    One way to change things without breaking them too badly is to do so in a virtual machine.

    Install VirtualBox. Open VirtualBox and in the Virtual Machine install a minimal LAMP environment and a snapshot of the blog, and to to town.

    To do the next round of experimenting/development blow away the Virtual Machine copy of the blog and start over with a new snapshot.

  7. Chance
    January 6th, 2010 @ 6:11 am

    I don’t know alot about fixing things on a computer but I think the problem in this case is your theme. There are many themes on wordpress and each one is set up a certain way. Some are set up with everything way over on the left, others are centered etc…

  8. Chance
    January 6th, 2010 @ 1:11 am

    I don’t know alot about fixing things on a computer but I think the problem in this case is your theme. There are many themes on wordpress and each one is set up a certain way. Some are set up with everything way over on the left, others are centered etc…

  9. dustbury.com » How it’s done
    January 8th, 2010 @ 3:06 pm

    […] Smitty reveals some of the secrets of maintaining a WordPress blog: I ratcheted down my resolution to 800X600 and confirmed the email reports that, yes, this blog is slammed to the left side of the screen. […]