There's been some confusion recently on the forums about how to set up your designated homepage as 'index.php' instead of 'index.html'. Note: This will require a PHP capable host (and will not work on .Mac) If you open up the Page Inspector for your homepage (in my case, this blog page) and go to the 'Info' tab, you see the 'File' option greyed out and non-editable.

So how to fix this? Go to the Site Setup (Cmd + 1) and choose 'Setup'. Then simply edit the Site Details' 'Index Page' option to index.php as below, and you're all set!

This post has been brewing for a while, however certain items in the last few days have added yet more to this.Yesterday saw the launch of Adobe Creative Suite 3 - a day I've been long looking forward to.

The Sheer Number of Editions.

Here's what Adobe's decided to do, in true Microsoft fashion, for its CS3 product lineup:

• CS3 Design Premium.
• CS3 Design Standard.
• CS3 Web Premium.
• CS3 Web Standard.
• CS3 Production Premium.
• CS3 Master Collection.

Huh? Thankfully, there is a tool on Adobe's site to help guide your way through this minefield.

Education Store Complexity

As I'm a student, I get a great discount from the big three (Apple, Microsoft and Adobe), and I intend to use it this time. So I took off to the Adobe online store (which, whilst smart, is partly Flash based, and so you can't Cmd-Click to open some links in a new tab). And what do I find (and I actually did laugh at this) - there's actually two editions of each CS3 edition (still following?!) on the education store. One is the 'Student Edition' which permits no commercial use, the other just being 'CS3 Edition' with full commercial use allowed. Student Editions (SE from now on) are true bargains if you simply need to learn the apps - CS3 Master Collection SE is £349 (ex. VAT) whilst CS3 Master Collection is £705 (ex. VAT) for educational customers - Master Collection will set back non-educational customers a cool £2,300. I love educational discounts.

Why Complicate Matters?

In general, I applaud the notion of offering a selection of packages¹ - offering the opportunity to buy a CS3 edition (or even an individual product) will attract people to buy the product instead looking elsewhere for a 'cracked' version. Of course, it's a double-edged sword - if the editions are very few and / or the cost too high, people will also pirate it. But to offer Premium and Standard versions of all (except, perhaps tellingly, the Production edition) of CS3 is a Microsoft-esque act of handing marketers the reigns - a perfect example was Adobe's use of the Photoshop brand when officially naming 'Lightroom' as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. As for the Vista matrix of products? Don't get me started. I like choice, seriously I do. But there's choice and there's pure and simply marketing and confusion.

One last item that spurred on this article was, in fact, John Gruber's DaringFireball Membership Drive. As an incentive buy or renew a very excellent DF subscription², he's persuaded a whole plethora of Mac developers to throw in some prizes. One of which is:

Delicious Monster: 5 licenses to the upcoming Delicious Library 2.0 Pro ($80 value). Winners receive Delicous Library 1 licenses now, free upgrades when version 2 ships

Yes, you read that right. Delicious Library appears to be splitting the product line. Now, I know feck-all about what the folks at Delicious Monster have in store for the (Leopard only) v2.0 - last I heard from an anonymous Mac developer in Paris last year was that it was apparently hardly started, and he considered it vapourware - but I can't help but feel that this divergance is just to much complication. I despise complication - I love things to be straightforward most of the time. I shouldn't have to refer to a 'Product Selector' to help me find what's best for my needs (and they're hardly going to tell you to buy the cheapest product if consumer entered selections mean they could tell you to buy the more expensive product)!

So why do marketers think we need all the editions? Very simply it boils down to this: Creating editions gives bragging rights. It creates envy. It means people are made to feel ashamed if they only buy Web Standard instead of opting for Web Premium, and above all, it influences people to perhaps spend more money than they need to. Of course, that's what marketing's about, but Apple's not afraid of marketing, and play the simple line with most of their software. They don't seem to do too badly in the scheme of things ;)

--
¹ In a semi-ironic way, I work part time for a software developer who actually consolidated their product line from Pro and Lite to simply 'RapidWeaver', and for what it's worth I think that was a great move (and one well before I started using RapidWeaver).
² For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of the new DF t-shirts. I sure will be availing myself of at least one of each in the next few weeks.

This gem arrived in my inbox today. Google Map Directions from Manchester England to Vermont USA. OK, so it's an entirely unfeasible driving route (funny nonetheless), but the Google directions left something to be desired - Manchester -> Dover -> Calais -> Brittany. Then Swim Across the Atlantic Ocean (3,462 miles). I kid you not. At least it gives you a guide of where to do a running jump into the water.... Handy!

View it for yourself here. Thanks Mike!

Whilst I wrap up the second screencast, this tip struck me. If you're having trouble publishing with RapidWeaver, then this might be helpful to know. RapidWeaver actually includes another publishing 'framework', so if you're having problems publishing, switching the frameworks might help you out! To change the FTP framework, simply open RapidWeaver preferences (RapidWeaver -> Preferences) and toggle the 'Use NcFTP Framework' preference shown below.

In tip #3 I outlined 'the tools we use', however today brings me to a short gem of an online CSS editor (that actually does so much more too). It's certainly no match for CSSEdit, but if your browser of choice isn't Firefox (I'm a Camino and Safari Mac-ite), this will certainly be of interest. CSSfly is a tool that, despite the name, allows you to 'easily edit and modify websites direct, and in real-time in your browser'. I've only just stumbled upon it myself, but it looks pretty damn nifty, and is particularly handy for moments where you're perhaps not at your own computer.

This week has been a mad week, with so much going on (or not going on with being ill) that quite a few things I'd hoped to mention have been left as a draft in RapidWeaver.

Music - Thursday night was the preview of the RNCM's latest opera production, Tchaikovsky's epic Eugene Onegin. The three act opera is perhaps one of the composer's finest works, and is identified with the composer's own failed marriage. All I can say about it is 'Wow'. You're probably thinking to yourselves 'Nik, you're biased. You know quite a few members of the cast'. And you'd be right :) But purely from a musical view, it was phenomenal. Tatayna's letter scene was exquisitely performed, the suspense in the duel was just unbelievable, and the orchestra was in fine form too. If you're in Manchester any time before 29th March, I'd highly recommend you consider calling the Box Office and seeing it.

Photography - After the ridiculously great, and massively successful, Flickr Meetup last weekend, we're thinking about possible getting an exhibition of Manchester photos from the Flickr members going somewhere in Manchester. It'd be great to see this realised, so if you're a Manc-Flickr-r, then head over to the group and peruse and submit up to 3 of your finest shots! Also, after the meet, we set a new game up using the immeasurably cool Flickr stickers.

The idea is very, very simple. The stickers reads

'Photo this. Upload to Flickr, and tag me: THOMASCHOPHOUSEUK'

and each person who's playing has written their Flickr username on it. The stickers then travel with the user around the world, and in a far-flung corner of the world, they stick the sticker somewhere. The idea is to see how long it takes for someone to notice the stickers, photo them and upload them to Flickr. I'm not a betting person, but if I were, I'd say my stickers that travel to California in August-September will make it to Flickr first. Maybe even Thomas Hawk, Scoble or some other valley big-shot will capture them first. Either way, we've got a group to chart the progress - although I'd be suprised if we see any worldwide photos on there in the next month or two.

Linkage - Flickr contact Lars Ivar has a neat new blog going. Made (of course) in RapidWeaver, he's showing off photos and more. I'd highly recommend you check out his neat site (his HDR photos rock).

Photo courtesy of Tourista de Mancunia.

I modify my own site far too much. Seriously. If you've ever delved into what I've coded into all my pages (i.e. my theme template file) you'll see bucket loads of stuff either commented out, or hidden through the immeasurable joys of CSS.

So, today I was sat at the MacBookPro with the flu (as you do) and thought to myself, hang on, what if I could answer a holy-grail-esque RapidWeaver question: How to hide the pesky contact form AFTER it's been sent?

You may be thinking to yourself 'Nik, you've drunk too much caffeine, slept too little, and had quite a lot (although, I'd like to add, a well-within-safe-level) of Lemsip Max' to think that such a question could be challenged, never mind answered.

But it has..

:)


How to Hide the Contact Form after sending a message:

1. Copy the code below, and remove the space from after both the <'s:

< style type="text/css" media="all">#content form { display: none; }< /style>

2. Open your Contact Form page's setup option.

3. Go to the Form tab, and paste the code above alongside the message for 'Sent':

4. Click 'OK'.
5. Publish the updated form and check it works.
5. Think about how you can also use this to add more CSS to the 'Message Was Sent' message and the that appears after you've sent the form....

Thanks to David Chartier for testing this (pity those who get IMs from me asking them to test things)!

Just a very quick tip for anyone in the U.K. looking to print poster-size prints! Photobox are offering £6.99 posters when you use the code CREATEWALLART at checkout. More information here! Valid until the end of the month, I've just taken the plunge and ordered two A2 posters of the Black and White's I've done in the last few months:

They should arrive by the middle of next week, so I'll let you know when they arrive!

I'm thrilled to announce that as of today, I'm officially a part-time member of the team at RealMac Software! You can read the post from (my new boss!) Dan Counsell here on the RealMac forums, and I'd like to thank the folks at RealMac for the warm welcome!
You may be asking 'What does that mean for your RapidWeaver screencasts?'. Well, the good news is, nothing! I'm still making them (although having caught the flu this week means my voice is not fit for public broadcast) and that normal service here will continue as normal. However I would like to to add that 'the views expressed herein are not necessarily those of my employer' :)

That's right, folks, I've submitted the IWMN black and white shot to JPGMag, under the term 'Breakthrough', for possible inclusion in the next edition of JPGMag. If you'd like to vote for it, please head over to JPG, register, and vote. Hell, if you post a link in the comments linking to your own photos, I'll take a look and go voting as well. I've only recently discovered the genius behind JPGmag, and would happily subscribe if it didn't cost so much to send to us Brits. C'est la vie!

If you hadn't guessed, things are still rather hectic here, but I've got most of a screencast recorded, perhaps seeing a release on Thursday. Other than that, there's a few exciting ideas in the pipeline, and a bit news too. But I'll save all of those things for another time, along with the Nintendo Wii that's arrived in the Student's Union here!

This week has been a little, er, hectic. My inbox, which normally puts minimalists like John Cage to shame, is an overflowing wreck (I tend to keep a maximum of about 5 conversations in the inbox at a time, and tag archive and delete like a madman - however this week just hasn't allowed me to do that). In fact, I'd like to add that if you've sent me an email and I haven't responded, then I apologise, but did get the message. During the week, all I've really been able to do is respond to as many as time permits (not enough) and then be a little ruthless with the Amazon and other newsletters (even though I'd love to read through them and see if there's any deals on external HDs) and simply cull them all.

Either way, this morning's early start (in bed at 2am, up for some RapidWeaver forum maintenance at 8am) has afforded me the luxury of being able to sort that out. Just one more email, out of 28, left to reply to. Expect a RapidWeaver screencast early next week, once I've got an essay out the way!

In my last post, I talked about how to set up PHP permalinks for blog entries, yet didn't really explain why this is useful. As a number of people have been in touch about the missing 'why', I thought I'd post a follow up on PHP before I release the next screencast. It should be noted that my experience of PHP is, er, limited, and I'm not handwriting all that much PHP, but still enough to justify adding .php extensions to all 374 posts on the blog!

If you look in the sidebar for the entry, you'll see two things:

• An Amazon ad box
• A Random Link box

If you come back later and refresh the page, you'll likely see a different ad and link (although the random link box currently on has 2 links to choose from!).

I'm the sort of person who writes a few lines of code to save myself time in the future, even if it takes up more time now. I wanted there to be a random link and ad shown on each visit without any action on my part after publish, save for adding new links and ads, or deleting them. The setup for the page goes something like this:

1. Create a .txt file with HTML for each ad on a new line. This is a very simplified database. Upload to webspace.
2. Enter PHP onto page, ensuring it refers to the location of database file
3. Ensure page has a .php extension.
4. Publish.

Now all I do is edit the .txt file, synchronising it with the webspace and the database is updated, and can be updated from anywhere there's a .txt editor and FTP client (even Windows!!). Now, there's many other reasons to use PHP (not just the attempt to randomise and monetise my site!). You can create images on the fly using it, make SQL queries and so much more.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Much as I hate to sound magnanimous, I am just thrilled with the result of my Black and White edit of the previous photo. Here it is:

In the run up to my Aperture setup being realised, I've been running through my iPhoto library looking for any particular 'gems' that I've not shared on Flickr. This is one of them. I wish I'd ensured the edge of the building started at the 'true' bottom left corner of this shot, but I'll be back at IWMN enough times over the coming months to ensure that I get a proper shot of this (hopefully with a D80 sometime soon). I'm going to be playing with this in Aperture too, as the preset 'filter' I've got running for B&W shots makes this look good (it's almost identical to the effects I applied in this shot).

This is just brilliant, It is, however, 1.6MB so be patient whilst the lightbox loads it!

Via David Chartier

As you probably know, RapidWeaver is just as happy exporting pages as PHP as it is HTML. 'But what good is it to use PHP when permalinked Blog articles can't be PHP pages?' you may be asking. Well, they can! However it's not something that can be done with a single click. To ensure each permalink page is a PHP page, simply ensure when you type in your Custom Permalink that it ends '.php'. It's really that simple, but be warned, it took me a little while to go through and ensure that each of my 369 posts had this done correctly!

You need to be on a PHP-enabled host (.Mac does not support PHP) and be using the Custom Permalink for this tip to work.

As for the archives and categories in PHP? It's going to require a little bit of handcoding, but I've got a few ideas on how to do this. If there's anyone out there with a good grasp of PHP who would be willing to help me out for it (I can't pay I'm afraid!), please drop me a line.

OK, so it may feel a little like 'My First Screencast (tm)' - because it is! - but here's a brief little tutorial I put together for those people with problems setting up the Base URL. Please, drop me a note if you'd like a higher quality version (this is 3.7MB / 2minutes) - and if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it!

Get your Quicktime goodness here!

Whilst I've mentioned this before, with the readership having shot recently (thanks to all those linking, including Manchizzle and ElixirGraphics), it's worth putting out a brief post about the forthcoming Flickr Meetup in Manchester. If you're not sure about what's happening, there's the lowdown on Upcoming.org (let everyone know there if you're going to be there) and discussions on Flickr too. This Flickr meetup looks like it's going to be the largest of the four that have taken place, and it'd be great to see more people show up!

Where: Tulip Fountain, St. Anne's Square, Manchester
When: 1pm (1300hrs), Sunday 11th March
What Next? At 1.15pm we will then go to Thomas's Chop House on Cross Street for a bevi and wait for stragglers until about 2pm or there abouts. After that, who knows. Check out the photos from the last one here....!

OK, so a bit of publicity for those folks who are in Manchester (what with me now being an acknowledged Mancunian blogger). I love Classical music, and make no apologies for that. If you're around Manchester on Thursday lunchtimes, the RNCM have a series of concerts which, apart from being great for students (cough) to play repertoire, are also free, no-ticket-required concerts open to the public!

Today saw the Concert Orchestra perform a great programme of Russian Romatic Music (namely Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and Rimksky-Korsakov's brilliant Capriccio Espagnol), and I really loved it. OK, so I'm a little biased as numerous friends of mine were in the orchestra, but seriously, I can think of nothing better than a free lunchtime concert of quality classical pieces performed by some up and coming musicians?! ;)

Next week is the Brass Band performing yet more Russian music (8th March), the week after (15th March) is the Concert Orchestra with Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet Suite'. Then it's Wind music by Stravinsky, and the last one of the term is opera music from Mozart's Magic Flute and Beethoven's opera Fidelio. See you there?