The annual CreateSouth conference was held yesterday, April 17th, in Myrtle Beach, SC, and it was a blast. Although this is the third year the event has been held, it was the first year that I got to attend. I will definitely be back next year. In addition to great sessions by social media folks like Tee Morris, Heather Solos, and Jared Smith, there was also great BBQ from the Proud Purveyors of Pork! 

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Gonna be a fun day! Robots, LEGO, and cool kids.

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First of all, why did I make the change? Well, for me to be on AT&T with the iPhone was costing about $85 with tax and such. That was for the basic plan with only a five dollar addition for text messaging. All of my family was on Verizon with free calling between them – but not back and forth to me.

By heading the call of cellular sales and changing over to their network I was able to be added on to my wife’s plan and have it go up by only $10 per month. So, by switching I am saving about $75 per month or $900 per year.

At that kind of savings you really have to ask if the cellular features of the iPhone were worth it. I can still use my iPhone as an iPod Touch, so all the apps and such are still there. From Verizon I got a Samsung Intensity™ in Flamingo Red. It is cool. Has a slide out keyboard for texting and a pretty good little camera. I also added a cheap 2gig micro-sd card to store pictures and some music on.

The truth is, I need my phone to be a phone. I need to make calls, receive call, store my contacts, and text with people occasionally. And for all of that, my new Verizon phone is fine. I really don’t need to do a lot else while mobile. When I do need to do things like check email or get on the web, I am usually near some wi-fi hotspot and can whip out the iPod Touch (was iPhone) and use that.

Additionally, I am getting excellent coverage from the Verizon network. The signals are simply stronger. And the sales and support people have been great. I had no problem switching over or getting the phone I wanted. I can’t recommend them higher. And my wife, who has been with Verizon for years, feels exactly the same way.

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BarCamp is a local, ad-hoc “un-conference” where those attending determine what will be presented. Sessions, discussions, demos and interaction occur from everyone attending, not a select panel of speakers. BarCamp provides an open environment for learning and sharing knowledge.

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An iMac G3 and a G4 Powerbook. Looking to get the G3 up to Tiger and the PowerBook up to Leopard. Actually this is kind of trying my patience…

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Snow Leopard comes out on Friday! Yes, I will be at the Apple Store Friday morning to pick up my copy.

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They will provide tips, tricks, news and reviews relevant to the most up-to-date storage, backup and archiving systems. The goal is to help you take care of, manage, access and safely store/backup all your precious homework assignments, videos, photos, databases, music files and more.

Managing Your Digital Life is a highly recommended site, so check them out!

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Both well written and well illustrated, the book covers everything from downloading and installing the software, to setting up the database, defining system parameters, and selecting a template. What is really excellent about these explanations is that McNulty tells you not only what are the best choices, but what impact those choices will have on your blog in the future. There are many selections you can make when setting up a new WordPress installation that can seriously affect how your blog operates in a year or two when it is getting lots of hits, and McNulty helps you to make well informed decisions.


While the book was written based on version 2.6 of the WordPress software and version 2.7 has now been released, there is very little other than administrative interface that does not apply. Most of the setup choices and database decisions are still the same. It would be great to see a physical or on-line update of the book for WordPress version 2.7, but I think that is just me being greedy.

If you are new to blogging, know what it is, but don’t have any experience getting blog up and running, this is the perfect book to start with. You will be given clear and concise instructions on what you need to do and why. If you follow along with the book, by the time you are done you will have a solid blogging platform up and running. Everything will be ready for you to start writing, and there in lies the only real problem with this book — the title.

While the book expertly covers the “building a WordPress blog” half of its title, what it really is not written to address is the what “people want to read” component. With a title like this one I would have expected chapters on what to write, how to interact with your audience, how to optimize for search engines and attract traffic. Also perhaps a few lessons from McNulty’s vast experience on what not to do. Scott McNulty is the founder and author of some important blogs and websites. I would really like to have been privy to some of that experience.

This is a very good book, but it should have been titled, “Building A WordPress Blog: A Guide to Installation and Setup”.

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The author concentrates on the why’s and wherefores of WordPress site design instead of getting bogged down in the minutia of every single menu possibility or syntax statement. For those looking for a thorough dictionary of all the WordPress programming codex, you need to look elsewhere. While the most commonly used commands are covered, the syntax is not gone into in detail and there are many functions left out. That type of reference is best left to books like WordPress Complete or the online help.

What Silver does in this book is start with the initial conceptualization of a site and then follow it all the way through to the end. From the very beginning with back-of-the-napkin sketches, this book makes it clear that the real heavy lifting of website design work is in deciding what you want the site to do. It is only after your decide what the site should do and how you want that presented that you can begin to program your website and actually get it to function.

Chapters on theme development, debugging, plug-ins and dynamic content go beyond the basics of WordPress to bring a full image to your web design. By showing how all of these features are first planned and then implemented, the author provides a great blueprint for the actual successful creation of a functioning site.

While the book was written before version 2.7 of WordPress was released, there is not too much that doesn’t apply across versions. Mostly this is because more emphasis is placed on the design than the technical details of syntax. Of course that is also the books one weaknesses. You will not want this to be your only WordPress reference. You will either want to avail yourself often of the online help, or you will need a more technical companion, such as the aforementioned WordPress Complete.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. If you need to create a truly custom WordPress site, and especially if you want to create more than one, you need a guidebook like this to blaze the trail.

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