joshbuhler.com

I’m changing blogs. If you currently subscribe to joshbuhler.com for Flash, Flex, or other development-type stuff, you’ll want to update your subscriptions.

My new blog is located at ghostRadio.net. The new feed address is http://www.ghostradio.net/feed/

So… what is the new site, and why did I bother? For a long time, I’ve been wanting to redesign my site, and separate the development-related stuff I write from the more personal stuff I post. I’ve also wanted to create a portfolio site of sorts, to show off my past and current work. I’ve created a few different designs for this new site over the last year or so, but have never settled on a design that I was in love with. As much as I wanted to do a site that was strictly portfolio style, I really like the format that a blog allows. So, rather than build a new site from scratch, with a separate blog portion, I’m merging them into one site.

I’ve been posting here on joshbuhler.com for a few years now, and that content will remain here, but I’m also transferring some of my favorite posts from here to the new site. Some things there will be familiar if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, but if you haven’t, consider this a good way to browse the archives of my old site, but with an “only the good stuff” filter applied. It’s been a lot fun to browse my archives, look at old stuff, and take a new look at older posts. In some cases, I’ve even gone back and taken a new approach to things. Currently, there are only two posts live there, and I still have a few tasks to finish up before the site is complete, but you’ll want to stick around, as there’s a steady stream of stuff ready to roll out over the next few weeks.

While I can’t guarantee that things there will be 100% development-related, a majority of it will be. I’ll still be posting here on joshbuhler.com, but that stuff will be more non-developer stuff. If you want to follow my development-related stuff, then you’ll want to subscribe to the posts there. Also, I keep saying “development-related” because while 90% of the work I do is Flash-based, I’ve been working with XNA game development, and iPhone stuff as well. So things won’t be all Flash, Flex, and Actionscript. Just a majority of it will be.

See you at the new site!

Time for another installment of It Came From The Search Logs…

• “swf guy moves browser”
• “song splish splash i was taking a bath baby in the beath”
• “flower power flowers grooooovy”
• “007 mini games to play right now!”
• “this lawn has been painstakingly mowed for your scenic enjoyment”

Previous: It Came From The Search Logs

I’ve seen Shaun Inman’s ShortStat application before, but never took the time to set it up and get it running. I finally did so a few days ago, and I’d have to say that I like it. I like it a lot.

My site currenty uses Urchin Web Stats, and I like them, but the downside is that I usually have to wait until sometime the next afternoon before they accurately show my site traffic. Also, with ShortStat I can track only the pages that I want to. Urchin lumps together the stats from two other domains I run with my main site.

Urchin is definately more comprehensive in what it covers, and I’ll still be using it, however, I guess you could say I’m a bit of a stat-addict in that I like to know what’s going on up-to-the-minute sometimes. That’s the main advantage that ShortStat has.

ShortStat gets even better if you’re running Tiger. Just download and install the ShortStat Dashboard Widget, and you’ll have a quick glance at the total number of the day’s hits and top referrers.

I’ve now added a new feature to my site - a daily photo. Well, almost daily. The photo holder is a small swf that connects to Flickr to get the latest photo I’ve taken from my camera phone.

It’s nothing fancy, as I didn’t invest much time at all. I have some plans for features beyond only loading the latest photo and linking to it on Flickr. If it turns into something worth sharing, I’ll post the source so that others can use it if they like.

It uses the Flickr API, together with the Flickr AS 2.0 Class produced by Fabricio Zuardi - obrigado!

I would like an iPod. Very much. A free one would would be great. However, while I have a link to FreeiPodShuffle.com on my site, it is a referall link for me.

I like the comments people post on my site, and I like to receive feedback on the stuff I post. However, I have a low tolerance for comment spam, and only posting a link to a free iPod on my site, and nothing more as a comment is considered spam in my mind. So, depending on the day, and whatever mood I’m in, I’ll approve your free iPod link comment, or just delete it. However, if I approve it, I’ll be changing the referral link to work for me.

I appreciate those folks that have signed up for a free iPod under me, and I only need one or two of you to complete your offers now for me to get my iPod. (Remember, you need to complete an offer to get your iPod as well.) So, if you signed up, and completed your offer, I’ll be happy to post YOUR referral links to help you out.

I just upgraded from Movable Type 3.14 to 3.15. I haven't found any bugs with the site, but if you do, I'd like to know. Just use the contact form to the right to submit them.

Quick bit of news today - joshbuhler.com has just been added to the list of feeds aggregated by the Macromedia XML News Aggregator. Hopefully this can help me boost my readership up from 5-6 people (including me) to a little bit more than that.

This is exciting for me because MXNA is where I found a lot of the great sites that I read often and look to for new tips and techniques in Flash and web design in general. And hopefully one day I'll be able to provide something of use to the Flash Community in general.

Most likely, unless one of my other six readers has the intials JB, I'll be the only one using this. I've been playing around with creating my own icons for OS X lately, and I created the "official" joshbuhler.com icon the other night, and I have to admit, I think I did a good job with it. I wanted it to use for my Sites folder and as a Buddy Icon.

If you really want to, you can use it yourself, but it's more online for me to show off a little bit.

Download it here - http://www.joshbuhler.com/downloads/jbLogoIcon.zip

This only works for OS X.

If you're reading this, it means that my DNS info has propagated to my new hosting company, MediaTemple.

That is all.

As my loyal readers (all six or you) may have noticed, things are changing around here. After my site being nothing more than some boring photoshopped image of my Bronco for almost two years, and the occasional test file, I finally updated it to use MovableType. However, I just went with the default layout and style-sheet that installs with MT.

Now, I'm still using the same style-sheet, however, I've modifed it a bit to change the colors, and to put a header graphic in up top. So, not much changing, but at least it's a little bit more my own now.

(continue reading...)