Thanks for the laugh Shoeboxblog

Click here to check out my test page.

What you should see is a grid of squares. When you mouse over the squares they should fade in and then fade out when you leave them. Now besides that fact that the grid itself is cool because it’s just some some unordered lists laid out with CSS, the fade in/out effect was literally a few lines in JavaScript with the jQuery library.

$(document).ready(
	function(){
		$(".column img").fadeTo("fast", 0.8);
		$(".column img").hover(
			function() {
				$(this).fadeTo("fast", 1.0);
			},function() {
				$(this).fadeTo("fast", 0.8);
			}
		);
	}
);

Now I formatted it “my way” so it’s easier to understand to me but basically what those few lines do is…

When the document is ready - kinda like a load(
	do this function(){
		take all images found within a column class
               and fade them to 80%;
		When you fade over those image(
			do this function() {
				fade them to 100% opacity;
			},or do this function() {
				fade them to 80% opacity;
			}
		);
	}
);

Like I said.. jQuery is the bomb. I used to have to do this kind of stuff in Flash OR write pages and pages of JavaScript.

Amazing! Ok, back to work! :)

Update: I made it even cooler. ;~P

My favorite is the Food Network game Cook or be Cooked. I’d rather actually eat after I cook. But that’s just me. ;~)

Hi Roni!

It seems like forever ago, but …maybe 2 or 3 years ago you had a big website crash, and you lost a lot of your posts and had to start from scratch.

I’ve started a blog about my travels in madagascar and working as an expat. I had no idea that it would ever get to be as “big” (well…for me.. lol) as it has and I would like to make sure that I don’t “lose” any of my posts. How can I back up my blog information?

(sorry if this is a silly IT question…i really don’t understand the concept of cyberspace storage)
-
Nicole from NB in MG

Hi Nicole!

This is a great question and I’m not sure I have all the answers. STILL! Even after losing 2 years of posts.

I see you are on blogspot. That is a big difference then the situation I was in. I was hosting on a shared server and I made an assumption I will never make again. I assumed the hosting company would have backups. They didn’t.

Anyway, the easiest way for you to backup is to simple export all your posts. In Blogger, or BlogSpot, that can be found under the setting tab…

You can also do that in Wordpress under Tools…

My recommendation is to do this at least weekly, if not after you publish each new post. You can simply keep overwriting the old backup file. There’s no need to save versions (unless you want to.)

This way if anything does happen you can always create a new blog and simply import in all your posts.

I’m glad you asked me this. It’s reminded me that I’m getting lax in this department again. You’d think I learned my lesson!

Hope that helps,

-Roni

This comic CRAKED me up. I always feel like a freakin’ genius when I figure something out!

I can’t be the only one. :)

So instead I thought I pass on an interesting new twitter tool I found called Klout. Klout measures influence on topics across the social web. It gives you an interesting visual of your twitter profile. Think of it like a Myers-Briggs for your twitter personality.

The four “types” are. . .

• Connector
• Persona
• Casual
• Climber

It also maps your influence and your influencers and shows you how many clicks the links you tweet actually get.

Fascinating stuff! At least for this data geek. :)

Ok I promise a post about JQuery soon. I hope to have some time this week to dive into it some more. In the meantime click here to analyze your own Klout or the Klout of others.

Have fun!

I’m heading to my second ever Wordcamp this weekend. The first one I tended was a local Baltimore event. Baltimore’s cool, but, hey, I live here. Wordcamp could be even MORE fun in a new and exciting city. So when my friend Jim said he was speaking at Wordcamp Boston I had to take the opportunity to go.

The schedule is quite impressive. I’m planning attending sessions about the Wordpress Loop, API’s, JQuery, Security, HTML 5, SEO, and web video. WOW! What a list, right? I hope to come home with some new knowledge to share and inpiration to develop as I have a few ideas swimming in my head.

I’m also looking to have an attendee perspective of the conference. I’m going to note things I liked and things I didn’t as I prepare to host FitBloggin in the next two months.

Any Boston people out there want to meet up? :)

Random…but how do you upload your little nike+ run stuff to your website? I’d LOVE to show those in my posts while I train this spring.

Thanks Roni!!

-Brandi

Hi Brandi!

This is a very posular question at the moment so I thought I’d do a step by step. You can use those tutorial to get images of your runs but the technique can really be used for anything.

Step 1: Take a Screen Shot

Navigate to your run on the Nike+ website (or anything for that matter) and take a screen shot. The process to do this will be different depending on your computer. If you do not know how click here for instructions on taking a screen shot.

Step 2: Crop and Resize

I do this with photoshop but here is a simple solution using an online program.

Visit DrPic and load you screen shot

Click "browse…", select the screen shot. Then click "Load Picture"

You should then see the screen shot loaded on the page…

Scroll down to see the entire image. Click and drag to select the area you want to crop.

Click the crop button…

Marvel at you cropped image. :)

Now you will probably want to resize it as well. Click the resize button. I normally size to 500 pixels wide. That should fit in most blog templates.

You’re done! Save to disk…

Viola! The finished product! Now you can upload a nice little image of your run for your blog. Or what I’d like to call, a nice little cropped image without the use of expensive software packages. :)

Hope that helps Brandi! Let me know if you have any other questions. :)

In the meantime I thought I’d pass on a site that may be of some interest to you. I’ve been using Compete.com while researching sites at work. It allows you to research traffic statistics and compare sites with a quick graph. Here’s a little side by side of Roni’s Weigh, GreenLiteBites and SkinnyMinnyMedia. . .

Even cooler then that, Compete has a toolbar for Firefox that automatically tells you the traffic of the site you are currently on like this. . .

Very cool! At least I think so. :)

Seriously. I need to buy a new laptop soon and I can’t decide if I want to stick it out in the MAC world or go back to PC. I want to hear from people in both camps. What do you have? Why?

Thoughts? Insights? Opinions?

ANYTHING!