Geekinetic

I came within minutes of deleting Drupal and starting all over with Wordpress 2.5. Drupal is a more robust package than Wordpress, but there is so much involved with attaining the right look and feel that it is at times a chore. Wordpress has a lot of the functionality that Drupal needs right out of the box, so it saves you from installing and configuring fifty-billion different modules to make it all work.

If you have visited the site before, you will possibly have noticed the different header and some typographic changes. I added a bit of extra line spacing to the CSS to accommodate the larger titles. I also swapped the dark blue for black as I was finding it hard on my eyes.

The upside for Drupal is that you have a lot more control over the layout of your site. The blocks system really makes a difference. It is fiddly and it is involved but I am going to stick with it. I might even upgrade to Drupal 6.2 if I get my webserver running.

Next step: Clean up the damned ads and get the Amazon shop configured a little better. I might even add a shop page.

If you are a subscriber you have no doubt become aware of the lack of posts of late. The main reason for this was a trial period that I undertook with Gizmodo. I chose to nip that in the bud as there are simply too many external pressures to contend with. What that means is that I will be able to write much more regularly both here and at Uberreview. Look forward to lots of regular posts.

To cope with the ever present SPAM that most blogs are inundated with, one must be a registered member in order to make unapproved comments. When this site is extended to include a forum (which will be after we get a few members) then you will be able to post in the forum with the same membership.  Initially, I had disabled anonymous commenting, but I feel that I am now getting on top of the back end of the site and able to screen anonymous comments.  They will take a while to get up, as I do not check all that often.  If you want your comments to go up without approval, sign up.

It takes a few seconds to sign up. You do need to give a valid email address as your address will be validated. Don't worry, we are not going to flood your inboxes with SPAM. You won't hear from Geekinetic unless there is some super-important site news, you subscribe to a thread or someone comments on the article that you have commented on. If you use GMail, it is very easy to set up a filter that includes our site, which will make it very easy to keep your inbox clean and tidy. I will post a How To document for those that don't know sometime in the future.

All I ask is that the comments stay relatively clean and leave the SPAM at the door. A little bit of flaming is acceptable, but don't let it get personal and don't talk about anybody's mother. Offensive language does not bother me in the slightest and I am assuming that most of our readers are not going to be worried about it, but there is no need to test out people's tolerance level for filth. Keep it reasonably clean and everyone will be happy. Disagreement is invited and even encouraged.

It has been a crazy few days in the Magor household.  My two-year-old became quite sick and required almost constant attention.  Other than that, I have also been finishing up some school work for the upcoming year.  To cut a long story short, I have not had time to post.  But don't worry there is plenty that will be going on in the next few days.  On my TO DO list is a pile of stuff that will involve me getting down and dirty with some of the site code.  I really hate doing it, but I want to make the posting process as easy as possible.  This is because, somewhere down the line, I plan to hire someone on a part time basis, but before that can happen I need to get the page views up and take care of the commercial end of the site.

Most of the changes that I make will not require a site shutdown.  You will still be able to get on here, but it might load a little funny from time to time.  Hit F5 and hold your breath, it should work.

Changes that are coming soon...

• A new typeface, I have a couple of ideas for this.  The goal is ease of reading, but I also want a font that is a little more compact.
• Better path names, you may have noticed that the post URLs look like this http://geekinetic.com/node/73.  I will be dealing with that little issue shortly.
• Gallery 2.0 support.  This one is tricky and might take some time.  I really need to sit down for about two or three hours and figure my way around the back end of this.  Drupal integration is not the strong point.  If it does necessitate a complete G2 reinstall, it might be better left for Golden Week.
• An Amazon shop for me to whore my filthy wares and hopefully get this site in the black.
  

There are tons of other things that are being done that I see but you won't.  All the changes are likely to hold up posting a little further, but there will be some stuff coming.  Rather than my usual three or four posts per day, you can expect to see two.

Just in case anyone out there is having the same problem that I am!  Drupal is a great blogging platform and CMS; the trouble is that there are lots of clashes with third party software that can make getting a site up and running a real chore.  The latest problem I have encountered was with the Image_Assist module.  Image_Assist makes uploading a file into your blog content really easy.  The trouble is that it does not save files so that they are compatible with RSS.  If you test out your RSS feed, you will find that it is missing any images.  This has the potential to really cut down on your site traffic.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I scoured the WWW and came across this patch.  If you are unable to get your images pumping into your feed, check out the patch and the explanation.

Image_Assist Absolute URL Patch

I am still in the process of tweaking the theme and there is a lot of work to be done.  I am getting there, but balancing it with my other writing projects takes a lot of time.  I am using Drupal for this project as opposed to WordPress and there really is a lot to figure out

The reason that I opted for Drupal as opposed to simpler options is the functionality.  There is a lot that can be done with Drupal that cannot easily be done with WordPress.  It is a more robust platform, at the same time it is quite bloated and there is a lot more to figure out.

There will be a Forum coming to this site once I get all of the other stuff done, I also aim to incorporate some live news feeds and that sort of thing to make this a bit more of an information portal.  While I figure all of this stuff out, I will continue to post a few articles per day.  I hope you enjoy the site and make the effort to subscribe.

Geekinetic has been two years in the making. I have messed around on my own blogs, have written for others and have finally decided to get a project of my own started.

About Me

If you read a lot of tech related stuff, you may have come across some of my work. I write for Uberreview.com. I have also ghost written at a few less exciting publications. I have grown up with an interest in all things tech and been around computers for most of my life. I love tinkering with my gadgets and am an avid PC builder.

I live in Japan, about two and a half hours out of Tokyo in a semi-rural environment. I have been here for the past 8 1/2 years and am signed up for at least another four. I am a high school teacher by trade, but I spend enough time blogging that I could probably list blogger as an occupation. This is a point of which I am neither proud nor ashamed.

About the Site

Geekinetic is just another tech blog, make no mistake about that; am aiming to do something a little bit different - a social experiment if you will. I am hoping that Geekinetic can become something of a tech loving community full of like-minded enthusiasts. That is the end goal for the site, but there is much to be done before then.