BESTSALVIA.INFO

Jewelry Designer and Metalsmith
I don't want to offend anyone, but I write two jewelry blogs, and I'm constantly looking for new jewelry techniques and jewelry designers to write about. I see lots of jewelry while doing research for my blog posts, as you might imagine. There is a proliferation of what I call bead on a chain jewelry on the Internet, which is literally a bead on a chain. It's difficult to come up with new and unique designs, which is why it's almost impossible for jewelry designers to distinguish themselves from all the others out there.


Sterling Silver & Chrysanthemum Pendant
Fabricated Sterling Silver Pendant with a 17mm x 12mm Chrysanthemum cabochon. Two reticulated silver triangles joined by cab and silver work. Chrysanthemum is a mahogany-colored gemstone with flowered inclusions.
$88

So when I find unique handcrafted jewelry like Phyllis Minnery's, I get excited – I mean really excited! If you know anything at all about designing and making jewelry, you know this woman didn't just take a one-day metalsmithing class, then just start churning out jewelry like this. It takes many months – sometimes years – to learn the techniques she uses, and to execute them well.


Tri-Metal Pendant
Fabricated textured Copper with Sterling Silver and Brass. Both the copper and brass have interesting surface textures created by running them through a rolling mill. 62mm High x 26mm Wide.
$38

In addition to jewelry and fashion, my passions are strong women, women's rights, and women's history, and I write two other blogs on those subjects: Civil War Women and History of American Women. So when I discovered that Phyllis belongs to a women's group called Sisterhood of the Flame, she really got my attention!


Moukaite Cabochon Ring
Fabricated Sterling Silver Ring with a 24.75mm long x 12mm wide Moukaite Cabochon. Moukaite is a type of jasper found in Australia. This beautiful gemstone displays opaque colors of brick red, golden yellow, white, and mauvey-pink mixed in broad patterns with shading in-between. The colors are actually finely-divided minerals of clay and iron oxide within the gemstone.
$65

The Sisterhood of the Flame is a women's group based in Louisville, Kentucky, which is limited to female metalsmiths – artists who work in metal and employ soldering to fabricate their designs. The Sisterhood began in 1998 and is by invitation-only. Its members include self-taught artists and artists with university degrees. I am in awe!


Keum Boo Dome Pendant
Silver Dome pendant enhanced with 24k gold Keum boo (Kum Boo)
Keum Boo, which originated in Korea, is a procedure that permits the application of fine gold as a final step in the enhancement of an already constructed or cast piece of sterling silver. Basically, a fine silver surface is raised on the silver object by repeatedly heating the piece without any flux, and then pickling it to remove the copper oxides formed during the heating process. The application of the gold in the form of very thin foil takes place at relatively low heat, without resorting to solder. This is accomplished using an electric hot-plate, although a torch may also be used when larger pieces are involved.
$56

Artist Statement

Treasures began at a time in my life when I needed a distraction, something to fill my mind. My husband was diagnosed with cancer, and we were in a serious battle to regain his health. Several trips to the hospital, for surgeries and many weeks of chemo, very serious complications and many hours just sitting and waiting, and I needed to prepare for the upcoming holidays.

I have an art background and a love to create. I had made jewelry years ago, when my children were small, and I had enjoyed it. I thought I'd try that again, thinking I could make Christmas gifts. I fell in love, and took metalsmithing classes... now I'm totally obsessed.

I gave every female in the family lots of jewelry for Christmas, and made pieces for myself as well. Friends and coworkers started asking if I could make pieces for them, and a business was born. Now I can't wait to turn on my torch, and my mind is always visualizing the next piece I want to create. Making jewelry is now my celebration of my husband's good health.

Handmade Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Jewelry
Robin Phillips has a passion for designing and creating handmade enamel jewelry, as well as gold and silver jewelry. One of Robin's specialties is Cloisonné enamel and silver jewelry. Cloisonné is an enameling technique, in which the colored areas are separated by thin wires of either pure gold or fine silver. The wires also create a design within the piece of jewelry.


'Lily' Cloisonné & Champlevé Enamel Brooch/Pendant
This piece shimmers with depth of color. It comes with a handmade finding that slips over the pin so the piece can be worn as either a brooch or a pendant.
$950 AUD

Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel
The term Cloisonné is derived from the French cloison, meaning partitioned cell. Champlevé refers to a technique where a recess is made in the silver either by incising, etching, or making a framework that is soldered onto a fine silver plate. In this process, thin metal wires of either fine silver or gold are first laid down to separate the enamels from one another. Wet enamels (finely ground glass and lead) are painted onto the plate of fine silver using the cloisons as dividers.

After the first layer of color is applied, the piece is ready to be kiln-fired at somewhere between 760 - 850 degrees Celsius. The enamels continue to be built up and fired repeatedly until the colors become vibrant, and there is a feeling of depth to the piece (each piece may be fired over twenty times).

Using a series of diamond files, the piece is then gently filed (from coarse to very fine) to remove any excess enamel and to reveal the cloisons. Then a series of diamond papers, up to 12,000 grit, is used. The piece is then cleaned with a glass brush, allowed to dry and placed near the kiln to warm up for its final firing.


'Tulip' Cloisonné Enamel Brooch/Pendant
The colors in this piece are vibrant! This piece is hand-engraved and set in Sterling Silver with 18k Gold 'bubbles'. It comes with a handmade finding that slips over the pin so the piece can be worn as either a brooch or a pendant.
$1100 AUD

Robin's handcrafted Cloisonné jewelry, and particularly her pendants, are vibrant with color and imagery. Much of her inspiration comes from natural imagery such as landscapes, light, movement, organic shapes, and often a specific theme or a certain gemstone. Her fine enamel gold and silver jewelry is available at high quality craft and jewelry stores, and select craft shows.


'Splash' Cloisonné & Champlevé Enamel Brooch
This little brooch was inspired by the ocean at dusk.
Materials: Fine silver and vitreous enamels.
$695 AUD

Robin Phillips received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, majoring in pottery, in America in 1973. She then worked for a number of years making pottery, and as a pottery teacher. Moving to Sydney influenced Robin's decision to study the art of jewelry design and jewelry making under a master jeweler. Her desire was to design and create original enamel gold and silver jewelry using her own individual style and skills.

Robin's fine handmade jewelry is created predominately from gold and silver, and consists of a collection of one-of-a-kind and limited edition pieces. Her clients have commented that the pieces they own will become family heirlooms, handed down from generation to generation.

Women have been wearing fine jewelry for personal adornment for centuries. Robin believes that women who love jewelry want it to be well designed and finely made, whether it is gold or silver jewelry, diamonds or pearls, emeralds, opals, or Cloisonné.

Artist Statement

I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the USA in 1973 majoring in pottery, and worked as a production potter and pottery teacher in the US for some years. After moving to Sydney, I studied under a master jeweler and made the transition to jewelry design and making.

Color, texture and three-dimensional form were what initially drew me to work with clay and it is these same qualities that translate so well to metal. Although these mediums have inherent differences, both lend themselves to fluidity of form.

Both can be colored, either by glazing for pottery, or enameling or introducing heat to color precious metals. Both are very tactile materials lending themselves to a variety of finishes such as texturing, burnishing, high gloss, or a subtle satin.

Natural imagery such as landscapes, light, movement, organic shapes and simplicity of form continually inspire my work. I enjoy designing and creating my jewelry around a specific theme or stone, and often the stone dictates the direction the piece will take.

Using a combination of gold and silver adds depth and dimension, enhancing style, and simplicity. Living in Australia allows me access to exquisite opals and pearls which I love using in my jewelry.

Many of the pieces I make are one of a kind, and I am always changing my designs. I become bored making the same thing over and over, and I am always happy to take on commission work. I hope you enjoy looking at my work as much as I've enjoyed making it.

Jewelry Career Resources - 08 August 2006

Robin Steele Jewelry - 26 August 2006

Native American Inlay Jewelry - 14 January 2008

Susan Marie Designs Jewelry - 04 July 2008

Many people might be surprised to learn that hanging, when carried out with modern techniques, can be one of the quickest and most painless ways to be executed. Of course, not all hangings are designed to be quick and painless.

WordCamps in Africa, China, and the Philipines. WordPress is spreading. WordPress 2.6 is out with only a few problems, and a lot of cool features and improvements. The Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition is now closed and there is a great list of Plugins for you to vote on. Lots of news on WordPress 2.6. WordCamp UK is this weekend, and there are some record breaking WordCamps coming up. Jeffro2pt0 bids the WP Weekly Podcast good-bye.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.6 Released:WordPress 2.6 has been released. It is a mandatory release and you should Download WordPress 2.6 now. I’ve included a lot of the new features in past issues of the WordPress Wednesday News and highlights and commentary include:

• Google Gears (Turbo) to speed up your interaction with the WordPress Administration Panels by “local server” caching - storing the files on your computer (not offline blogging - yet). Lloyd Budd explains how it works and privacy issues.
• Post Revisions to track changes to your blog post and go back to previous edits if necessary.
• Press This, the new version of the Press It function, which allows fast blogging from whatever page you are viewing, such as a YouTube video page including the video embed code automatically.
• Theme Previews for a real look at what a Theme will look like before deciding.
• Word Count helps you track how many words you’ve written in your blog post.
• Integration of the Media Library with the WYSIWYG Visual Editor including toggling between the new Flash and classic uploader, and the ability to upload media in the full-screen mode.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of images within the photo galleries.
• The ability of adding Image captions to images.
• Improvements to the Plugin update notifications.
• Customizable default avatars so your blog commenters will never go faceless.
• Improved security on several levels to help protect your blog, including SSL and Cookies handling, moving from a single cookie to triple cookie setup for better security. Jacob Santos covered authentication issues from another perspective.
• Joseph of Random Networks covers some of the XML-RPC and AtomPub changes in WordPress 2.6, as does Dougal Campbell along with WordPress blog APIs in general.
• Ozh covers what WordPress Plugin authors need to know about WordPress 2.6 and their Plugins now and in the future. Konstruktors Notes covers how WordPress 2.6 makes improvements to how JavaScript and CSS files can be added to the WordPress <head>, which can cause problems with some WordPress Plugins, but also make it easier.
• For a listing of WordPress 2.6 bug fixes, see the 2.6.1 roadmap.
• Hack WordPress reminds us the importance of upgrading WordPress to prevent and protect your blog from security flaws and for the feature improvements.

The announcement also included some interesting information about the release of WordPress 2.6. Over 75 people contributed code to this version. That is a huge team that deserves all our applause for their hard work!

Upgrade with the Automatic Upgrade WordPress Plugin:WordPress Automatic Upgrade WordPress Plugin, which makes upgrading easier, has been updated to work with WordPress 2.6.

WordPress 2.6 Issues: For the most part, there have been very few problems reported with upgrades of WordPress 2.6.

• There is an easily fixable issue that impacts those using index.php in their permalinks, something you shouldn’t need to do.
• If you are having a problem with a WordPress Plugin after upgrading WordPress, check the Plugin author’s site for news and information on the status of the Plugin. There have only been minor issues with Plugins.
• For those who do not like the new Post Revision feature, Lester Chan (Gamerz) has a Plugin to turn it off.

WordPress 2.5 Branch No Longer Supported: The announcement of the release of WordPresss 2.6 came with the news that WordPress 2.5 will no longer be supported. It is nearly identical to the new version and has little impact on Themes and Plugins.

WordPressMU Beta Release:WordPressMU 2.6 beta 1 has been released to work with WordPress 2.6 features and includes a change in the version number from 1.6 to 2.6 to match WordPress, improved spam proofing on the sign up page, object cache changes to improve efficiency and speed, and many more bug and security fixes. WordPressMU is the WordPress version that runs multi-user blogs like WordPress.com.

WordPress Meets iPhone:WordPress for iPhone is a an iPhone-native WordPress client and supports WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress blogs. There is a screencast video showcasing its usage. There are also examples of how the WordPress iPhone works with Prologue and Mdot.

Do You Blog By Email?Ozh brings up blogging by email and asks readers if they are using this long time core feature of WordPress. Are you? Would you like to see it improved? Join the conversation.

Looking Back Into the History of WordPress:Keith Dsouza of Weblog Tools Collection shares “Evolution of WordPress: B2/Cafelog to WordPress 1.0″, a history lesson on how WordPress grew out of B2/Cafelog in the early days.

WordPress Mug Contest:WordCast is having a WordCast Mugshot Contest with winners winning WordPress mugs and other prizes. To enter, you must share a picture of your favorite mug.

WordPress Plugin Competition: The Weblog Tools Collection’s WordPress Plugin Competition for WordPress 2.5+ is over for entrants and now it’s time to check out these hot and innovative WordPress Plugins and rate your favorites. Here are most of the final entries:

• Role Scoper
• Dodo
• Broken Links Remover
• Yank Widget
• WP125: Easy 125×125 Ad Management For WordPress
• WordPress Image Browser Extender
• Vent - add events to your blog
• Tabbed Widgets Plugin
• Snazzy Archives
• Show Me Options
• PayPal API Subscriptions
• Idealien Category Enhancements
• Flickr Gallery
• Editor Extender
• Attachment Extender
• Snazzy Archives
• Media In Response
• Invite Friends
• FlareSmith
• Click Tracking Plugin
• AnyVar
• WP Sentry: Private Posting Plugin
• MultiSiteManager unleashed
• WPMU plugin: Vote2Publish
• WPMU plugin: rePost
• SlideShare Plugin
• Live Blogroll
• Dk Obama Slideshow Plugin
• WP Wall
• ComicPress Manager
• PhotoJAR: Base
• tWPtter ~ WordPress Microblogging
• New WP Comment Remix Version
• Sidebars
• PostGroups v1.1.0
• WP Easy Uploader
• One Click Upgrade and Backup All WordPress Blogs
• Current tags
• PostGroups
• Manageable
• ZdMultilang
• Post Tabs
• MailPress
• Great Real Estate
• WPMU Plugin Commander
• SEO Smart Links
• Adminimize
• DL-MENU Tab generation and dynamic colorschemes
• Content By Country
• Automatic Timezone Plugin
• Simple Flash Video WordPress Plugin
• Sermon Management WordPress Plugin for Churches
• Reflex Automatic Blogroll WordPress Plugin
• Fun with In-Context Comments WordPress Plugin

Having Trouble Publishing Code in Posts and Comment? If you publish code in your WordPress posts and comments, WordPress may think it is code. To prevent code acting like code, WordPress automatically filters it out of the posts and comments, as does many other blogging and CMS programs. To publish code as content, see Writing Code in Your WordPress Posts and Writing and Publishing Code in Your WordPress Blog Posts.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress Wednesday News: WordCamps in Australia and Hawaii, Security Check Plugin, Google Gears, Lots of Plugin News and Tips, WordPress 2.6 News, and If Not WordPress, What?.

WordPress Podcasts

WordPress Podcast:The WordPress Podcast: Episode 43: Out Of Date Blogs Hacked, All-In-One Seo Gets Dropped, Then Picked Up covered those topics and the development of the Crazy Horse new WordPress Administration Panels interface, Batcache, HyperDB, WordPress Plugins, WordPress 2.6, and security issues.

WP Weekly Podcast: This week saw the Final Episode Of WPWeekly with Jeffro2pt0, a fun WordPress weekly live show. The final episode includes a rare interview with Alex King, one of the hottest Plugin developers and WordPress fans. The Alex King Theme Competition and other contests and WordPress Community efforts are legendary, and he continues to produce and support some of the most popular WordPress Plugins. What a great send off. Good luck, Jeff, with your future with Performancing!

WordCast Podcast: The 20th episode of WordCast featured Lorelle on WordPress in the longest podcast they’ve ever recorded. Topics included WordPress 2.6, favorite books for bloggers, blog advertising, Matt Mullenweg, and a lot of blogging and WordPress talk. Lorelle also shares her favorites: WordPress Comment Ninja and Akismet Anti Spam FireFox Greasemonkey Scripts for WordPress. The next issue, WordCast 21: Purple Knuckles, featured WordPress 2.6, WordPress.com versus WordPress.org, and more WordPress Plugins.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordCamp UK Rocking:WordCamp UK is on for this weekend and is filled with some of the best of the best in WordPress and blogging from the area:

• Benjamin Ellis
• Chris Garrett
• Gurbir Singh
• Ian Covey
• Jonnya
• Mike Little
• Nick Garner
• Peter Westwood
• Rich Boakes
• Richard Williams
• Sam Bauers
• Simon Dickson
• Simon Wheatley
• Tony Scott

Tickets are required for WordCamp UK, so hurry before they are all gone.

Record Breaking WordCamps: We’ve got some record breakers coming up for WordCamp events. There are 5 WordCamps set for this September, and three will all be on September 27: WordCamp Utah in Salt Lake City, WordCamp Birmingham in Alabama, and WordCamp Portland in Oregon. Three WordCamps are scheduled so far for October. It’s going to be an autumn stuffed with WordCamp and WordPress fun.

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar as found on the WordPress Roadmap and the WordPress Meetup Group Listings (subject to change).

• The New York City WordPress - July 19, 2008
• WordCamp UK - July 19-20, 2008, Birmingham, UKVENUE CHANGE
• Boston WordPress July Meetup - July 24, 2008
• The Dallas/Ft. Worth Area WordPress July Meetup - July 26, 2008
• WordCamp San Francisco 2008 at Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF - August 16, 2008
• WordCamp South Africa - Cape Town - August 23, 2008
• WordCamp Philippines - September 6, 2008
• Blog World Expo, Vegas - September 20-21, 2008
• WordCamp China - Beijing - September 20-21, 2008
• WordCamp Utah - Salt Lake City - September 27, 2008
• WordCamp Birmingham - Alabama - September 27, 2008
• WordCamp Portland, Oregon - September 27, 2008
• WordCamp New York - New York - October 4, 2008
• WordCamp Toronto - October 4-5, 2008
• Podcamp and WordCamp Hawaii - Oct 24, 2008
• MinneWordCamp - Minneapolis - November 15, 2008
• WordCamp Australia - Sydney - December 6-7, 2008

WordCamp San Francisco August 16: August 16, 2008 is the next WordCamp San Francisco, considered by many to be the premier WordCamp event. This year, it appears it will be only one day instead of two, but details are still coming. It will be at the Mission Bay Conference Center this year.

WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere: A WordPress Meetup is a frequent meeting of WordPress fans. A WordCamp is a day or two long event with sponsors and dozens if not hundreds of WordPress fans gathering annually. If you would like to sponsor or host a WordCamp, check out the new official site for tracking WordCamps is WordCamp Central, which includes instructions and guidelines for running a WordCamp. If you would like to start a WordPress Meetup group, find a meeting place and announce it among your friends, and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress, as many track WordPress event announcements there.

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

Mark Ghosh of Weblog Tools Collection asks “How many Queries are too many?” in a WordPress blog. In summary, the issue is how many queries to the WordPress database are made by WordPress Plugins and WordPress Themes and what impact that has on the database, server load, and user experience. His experience with his popular site gives a great example and he asks you to chime in with your experiences.

Must Have WordPress 2.5 Plugins:Mashable: 20+ Must-Have WordPress 2.5 Compatible Plugins has been released with some great Plugins in their listing. However, they are a week short since WordPress 2.6 is now out. Fortunately, most WordPress 2.5 Plugins will work with the new version.

Interesting WordPress Plugins: Here are some interesting and unusual Plugins I stumbled on recently:

• Related Posts by Categories für WordPress is in German and is a WordPress Plugin that creates related posts in the same category as the current article.
• Tagline Rotator WordPress Plugin randomly selects a tagline from a list and displays it under your blog title.
• Show125 WordPress Plugin by X-OR WordPress Widget is a widget that gives you more control over easily adding 125×125 pixel ads to your blog in ad blocks.
• Duplicate Post Checker WordPress Plugin checks for duplicate content before you publish.
• Version Creator WordPress Plugin adds your blog’s design version number, name, and note, so you can entertain or inform your visitors on which version your blog is in its development.

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

Do You Say “WordPress Plugin” on Your Plugin Page? I’m finding a lot of WordPress Plugin authors are not using the word “WordPress Plugin” in their Plugin’s official page, nor within the text. Remember that “WordPress Plugin” is a popular keyword search term and if you aren’t using it, your chances of being found drops. Avoid separating the two words like “WordPress Blah Blah Plugin” and keep them together such as “Blah Blah WordPress Plugin” as the closer the terms are to each other, the more important they are. Most people search for “how to do blah WordPress Plugin” when they search, so help them find you by using the words and keeping them together. And it’s Plugin not plug-in, something you connect to electricity.

WordPress Techniques and Tips

Here are some more interesting WordPress tips I’ve uncovered:

• Justin Tadlock - Making Authors Template Page
• JJ and the Kids Podcast - Episode 6 - Edit the Config File
• Server Load Button for Blogs
• WordPress Category Page Hacks
• WordPress - Make your blog your management system
• WordPress Hack: Using WordPress Conditional Tags

Want to Write a WordPress Tip and See It Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress Community News

Get Your WordPress Mug:I love my new WordPress mug and shared my love with a lot of people recently. Go get yours at the WordPress Shop along with t-shirts and hoodies. Don’t want to buy one? Enter the WordCast Mugshot Contest and you could win one, alone with some other fun schwag.

Found a Bug in WordPress? If you find a bug in WordPress, report it by following the instructions in Reporting Bugs on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users.

Give Something Back to WordPress:Jeff Chandler of Weblog Tools Collection has written “24 Ways To Contribute To WordPress” with suggestions on how to get involved in helping WordPress development. If you would like to help with the WordPress Codex, the official online user manual for WordPress users, we need you. If you would like to contribute to WordPress as a volunteer in the WordPress Support Forums, testing, coding, and more, see Contributing to WordPress. If you would like to help improve WordPress by reporting bugs, please report them via the WordPress Bug Report form. Your help is needed to ensure WordPress works.

Vote for WordPress Ideas: There is still time to get your vote in for ideas on upcoming versions of WordPress in the The WordPress Ideas section. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.

Looking for a WordPress Expert? If you are looking for a WordPress expert, try the WordPress Consultants list from Automattic, the WordPress Jobs listings, and the WP-Pro mailing list.

WordPress Installed For Free:Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress) is a free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.

Don’t Use WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: It’s about respect. Please use WordPress names right because WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s domain name or URL unless you have permission of Automattic and WordPress. Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “Wordpress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

• WordPress Wednesday News: WordCamps in Australia and Hawaii, Security Check Plugin, Google Gears, Lots of Plugin News and Tips, WordPress 2.6 News, and If Not WordPress, What?
• WordPress Wednesday News: Your Own Song in the Plugin Competition, WordPress 2.6 Beta and First Looks, WordCamp UK New Location, Batcache, Naked Themes, and More
• WordPress Wednesday New: Planet WordPress Canada, WordPress Plugins Contest, Crazyhorse, BuddyPress Default Theme, Blog Hacked, Sitemaps, and More
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress Blogs Hacked, Plugin Competition is Hot, BuddyPress, WordPress Sayings, and Lots of WordPress Plugin News

WordPress News Sources

• WordPress Planet
• WordPress Development Blog
• WordPress.com Blog
• Weblog Tools Collection
• The WordPress Podcast
• Lorelle on WordPress
• Planet WordPress from Planet Ozh
• WordPress Publisher Blog
• Planet WordPress Canada

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the Blog Herald or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.

Each Wednesday on Blog Herald is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com

Want your own song? Win the Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition! WordPress 2.6 Beta released for testing. First looks at the new features coming in WordPress 2.6. WordCamp UK changes locations. Batcache strikes. Plugin menus on the Administration Panels discussed. Is your WordPress Theme naked without a print stylesheet? We’ve got WordPress tips, WordPress news, and more WordPress than ever!

WordPress News

WordPress 2.6 Beta Released: For the WordPress beta testers,
Ryan Boren announced the release of WordPress 2.6 Beta 1 for testing. The release is slated for July 7 with a July 14 possibility, depending upon how testing and fixes go, which is a month earlier than has been reported. I’ve reported on many of the new features in past WordPress Wednesday News on the Blog Herald. Here are some of the first reports coming in:

• Shoemoney likes Post Revision, the new feature that allows you to compare the same post in multiple windows, excellent for Internet glitches and multiple authors.
• Dougal Campbell is also jazzed about Post Revisions and Google Gears support, and describes some of the other new features in greater detail including support for the XML-RPC and Atom client APIs being turned off by default for security protection, improved SSL access to Administration Panels, a new version of the “Press This” (formerly Press-It) bookmarklet, avatar options, improved WordPress Plugin management, and more.
• Blog Security explores the security improvements in WordPress 2.6 and reports that a number of XMLRPC features will be deactivated by default, adding more protection, along with improved password and cookie security improvements in past versions. They say it’s on the right track for strong security standards.
• Peter Westwood is excited about the improvements in the security of WordPress 2.6 including support for SSL and disabling remote publishing protocols by default.
• Lester Chan, popular WordPress Plugin author, is excited about the new features including the new link in the top menu called “Speed Up” which connects with Google Gears, the new Dashboard Panel feature “Right Now” which gives a breakdown of your blog’s activity in the moment, the new Word Count feature, and Theme Previews. However, with the some recent changes in WordPress versions which impact WordPress Plugins, Chan is debating whether or not to maintain WordPress 2.5 compatibility for the next wave of WordPress Plugins, especially those impacted by the new features that allow wp-config.php to move up one level from the WordPress root and allowing the wp-content directory to be in a custom location.
• Many are reporting their excitement about the new WordPress Auto-Upgrade feature which will make upgrading WordPress easier.

WordPress Plugin Competition:Weblog Tools Collections announces that Kym Huynh, a songwriter, has just donated a new prize to the growing collection, a song written for the winning recipient and professionally recorded. The Weblog Tools Collection’s WordPress Plugin Competition for WordPress 2.5+ continues to grow with new prizes and Plugins. Here are the Plugin entries listed on the Plugin Competition Blog so far:

• Automatic Timezone Plugin
• Content By Country
• DL-MENU Tab generation and dynamic colorschemes
• Adminimize
• SEO Smart Links
• WPMU Plugin Commander
• Great Real Estate
• MailPress
• Post Tabs
• ZdMultilang
• Simple Flash Video WordPress Plugin
• Sermon management WordPress Plugin for churches
• Reflex Automatic Blogroll WordPress Plugin
• Fun with In-Context Comments WordPress Plugin
• WP Comment Remix WordPress Plugin
• Fun with In-Context Comments WordPress Plugin
• Reflex Automatic Blogroll WordPress Plugin
• WordPress: Display Comments On Main Page WordPress Plugin

WordPress and Google Summer of Code Update:Lloyd Budd reports on WordPress Google Summer of Code and how the team is improving WordPress to make it faster, better, and adding new features including new importing features, improved code, code documentation, and more.

BlogSecurity’s Next Generation Security Tester:BlogSecurify announces the launch of Launch BlogSecurify Next Generation!”>BlogSecurify Next Generation, the new modular, expanded version of the WP-scanner WordPress Plugin which tests your blog for security issues and vulnerabilities.

WordPress Blogs Hacked: If you have not updated your WordPress blog, your blog maybe at risk from hackers due to security vulnerabilities in older versions of WordPress. Update now. Here are more articles dealing with WordPress security issues:

• Donncha - Did Your WordPress Site Get Hacked?
• Donncha - WordPress: Catch website file changes with AIDE
• Peter’s Useful Crap » WordPress: File Change Notifications For Your WordPress blog on Linux
• WordPress Security Prevention, Reactions, and Scares

WordPress Podcast:Episode 42: Our favorite Plugins, Ask Matt, WordPress Theme Design is out from the WordPress Podcast and features a new segment by Matt Mullenweg answering questions about WordPress news and issues, discussion of new WordPress Plugins in the Weblog Tools Collection Plugin Competition, WordPress Themes, and more on their favorite WordPress Plugins. They are also seeing your top ten favorite WordPress Plugins for an upcoming episode.

WP Weekly Podcast:Episode 21 of the WP Weekly Podcast was canceled due to technical difficulties, but hopefully it will be back up and running next week.

WordCast Podcast:WordCast started a while ago, and eventually found their stride to becoming a bit of an irreverent but fun look at the news from the WordPress Community. Podcast hosts Beth Skinner, Kym Huynh and Dave Moyer have interviewed a variety of WordPress experts and pros and feature a variety of interesting WordPress news and tips each week. Recent episodes include:

• WordCast 18: Sucky Stats
• WordCast 17: Head-eating Cartoons
• WordCast 16: Serenade the Developers
• WordCast 15: Stalking the Monks
• WordCast 8: Tweet My Thingie
• WordCast 10: The WordPress Widget Mafia
• WordCast 11: Bodily function control
• WordCast 12: Mother of a WordPress
• WordCast 13: WPancake
• WordCast 14: Blog’s Anatomy

WordPress News and Tips from Canada: If you haven’t found the new Planet WordPress Canada aggregator, you are missing out on some interesting WordPress tips and information coming from the north. Here are some recent highlights:

• [Peter’s Useful Crap] Redirect users to the WordPress front page after logging in
• [Kulpreet Singh] Question: Will WordPress Bring Me Traffic?
• [Peter’s Useful Crap] File change notifications for your WordPress blog on Linux
• [BlueFur.com Web Hosting] Related Posts
• [BlueFur.com Web Hosting] Clean Archives Reloaded
• [BlueFur.com Web Hosting] Category Selector Sidebar
• [BlueFur.com Web Hosting] KeywordLuv Plugin

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress Wednesday New: Planet WordPress Canada, WordPress Plugins Contest, Crazyhorse, BuddyPress Default Theme, Blog Hacked, Sitemaps, and More.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordCamp UK Changes Locations: Only a few weeks away, WordCamp UK has had a last minute change of venue to The Studio in Birmingham. Check out WordCamp UK for more details and maps.

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar as found on the WordPress Roadmap and the WordPress Meetup Group Listings (subject to change).

• Huntsville WordPress Meetup, Alabama - June 28, 2008
• Nashville WordPress Meetup - June 28, 2008
• Dallas/Ft. Worth Area WordPress Meetup - June 28, 2008
• The New York City WordPress - July 19, 2008
• WordCamp UK - July 19-20, 2008, Birmingham, UKVENUE CHANGE
• WordCamp San Francisco 2008 at Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF - Aug 16, 2008
• WordPress 2.6 - July 7, 2008
• WordCamp Philippines - September 6, 2008
• Blog World Expo, Vegas - September 20-21, 2008
• South by Deep South WordCamp - September 26-28 - Birmingham, Alabama
• WordCamp Portland, Oregon - September 27, 2008
• WordCamp Toronto - October 4th, 2008
• MinneWordCamp - Minneapolis - November 15, 2008

WordCamp San Francisco August 16: August 16, 2008 is the next WordCamp San Francisco, considered by many to be the premier WordCamp event. This year, it appears it will be only one day instead of two, but details are still coming. It will be at the Mission Bay Conference Center this year.

WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere: A WordPress Meetup is a frequent meeting of WordPress fans. A WordCamp is a day or two long event with sponsors and dozens if not hundreds of WordPress fans gathering annually. If you would like to sponsor or host a WordCamp, check out the new official site for tracking WordCamps is WordCamp Central, which includes instructions and guidelines for running a WordCamp. If you would like to start a WordPress Meetup group, find a meeting place and announce it among your friends, and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress, as many track WordPress event announcements there.

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

Andy Skelton has announced “Batcache” for WordPress, a competitor, so to speak, to Super-Cache WordPress Plugin. While Super Cache works well on typical servers, the Batcache WordPress Plugin works with “enterprises with multiple servers that don’t share disk space,” and those who won’t or can’t use file-based caching. Andy says that Batcache creates a simple caching model to protect your database and servers from traffic spikes by caching a requested document when it is clear the document has been accessed several times within a specific period of time and temporarily caches that document for X seconds, providing new users with the cached copy for the short duration and lightening the load on the servers. This is used on WordPress.com. It also resquires Memchached.

Does Your Theme Have a Print Stylesheet?Hack WordPress reminds us all that if you offer a WordPress Theme, especially a premium (paid) WordPress Theme, it must include a print stylesheet as part of the Theme’s styles. While many of us want to live in a paperless world, many web users want to print out blog posts to read them on the go, share them with friends, or file them for future reference. Make their life easier by including a print stylesheet.

WordPress Meets Magento: The Lazzymonk’s WordPress Integration Plugin integrates WordPress into the open source ecommerce system called Magento.

Where and How Do You Put Your Plugin’s Panel?Nerdaphernalia discusses how to direct users to your WordPress Administration Panel for your Plugin, a frequent request on the mailing lists and forums, and gives a technical option on how to place the Plugin’s options menu panel. Traditionally, all Administration Panels for Plugins should be under the Plugins menu, unless it is a frequently accessed panel or associated with a specific task. For example, the Akismet Comment Spam WordPress Plugin is located on the Comments Panel due to the frequency of access and strong association with Comments. But a Plugin that requires a one-time setting of options and then “forget about it” attitude should reside within the Plugins Panel. Nedaphernalia’s technique helps WordPress Plugin authors help users by including links to the Plugin’s menu Panel from a variety of sources, to avoid hunting and confusion.

Manage More Than One Blog:Nerdaphernalia has released Virtual Multiblog WordPress Plugin, Plugin that turns your WordPress Administration Panel into a multiple blog management system. It’s been recently updated to work with the newest version of WordPress and has a lot of new features and improvements.

Interesting WordPress Plugins: Here are some interesting and unusual Plugins I stumbled on recently:

• Draft Posts WordPress Widget displays your draft posts on your blog so readers can see what is coming up. I would prefer to use something that featured future posts, as I have drafts that may never see the light of day that have been sitting in my draft list for two or more years.
• Increase Sociability WordPress Plugin shows custom messages to visitors from social networking sites only.
• Smartlinker WordPress Plugin adds to the WordPress Visual Text Editor toolbar another toolbar for linking to words and phrases within your blog that are names, places, or things.
• AU Footer WordPress Plugin adds HTML code to your blog’s footer so you can include copyright notices or other information from within the Administration Panels.
• Twitter Style Links WordPress Plugin adds Twitter-style links to blog comments.

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

WordPress.com News

WordPress.com Gets XML Sitemaps:WordPress.com bloggers now have XML Sitemaps built right in. An XML sitemap is a file stored in your blog’s directory that acts as a roadmap to guide search engines that recognize XML sitemaps, which currently include Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, and MSN. The purpose is to direct the web crawler through your site, directing it to most recent posts and post modifications. It helps eliminate “orphans”, pages without intrasite links. Unlike what some will tell you, you do not need to do anything with the new XML Sitemaps. You won’t even know they are there. You do not need to register with Google or make any changes. If you have disabled pings and search engine indexing in your blog options, Google and other search engines won’t visit on purpose.

WordPress Techniques and Tips

Here are some more interesting WordPress tips I’ve uncovered:

• Use WordPress Blogroll For Site Navigation
• Reset Your WordPress Password via phpMyAdmin
• Dean Sabatino - How To: Creating Your Corporate Intranet Using WordPress
• Darren Hoyt - Displaying Related Categories and Content in WordPress

Want to Write a WordPress Tip and See It Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress Community News

Get Your WordPress Mug:I love my new WordPress mug and shared my love with a lot of people recently. Go get yours at the WordPress Shop along with t-shirts and hoodies.

Give Something Back to WordPress:Jeff Chandler of Weblog Tools Collection has written “24 Ways To Contribute To WordPress” with suggestions on how to get involved in helping WordPress development. If you would like to help with the WordPress Codex, the official online user manual for WordPress users, we need you. If you would like to contribute to WordPress as a volunteer in the WordPress Support Forums, testing, coding, and more, see Contributing to WordPress. If you would like to help improve WordPress by reporting bugs, please report them via the WordPress Bug Report form. Your help is needed to ensure WordPress works.

Vote for WordPress Ideas: There is still time to get your vote in for ideas on upcoming versions of WordPress in the The WordPress Ideas section. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.

Looking for a WordPress Expert? If you are looking for a WordPress expert, try the WordPress Consultants list from Automattic, the WordPress Jobs listings, and the WP-Pro mailing list.

WordPress Installed For Free:Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress) is a free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.

Don’t Use WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: It’s about respect. Please use WordPress names right because WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s domain name or URL unless you have permission of Automattic and WordPress. Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “Wordpress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).

Found a Bug in WordPress? If you find a bug in WordPress, report it by following the instructions in Reporting Bugs on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users.

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

• WordPress Wednesday New: Planet WordPress Canada, WordPress Plugins Contest, Crazyhorse, BuddyPress Default Theme, Blog Hacked, Sitemaps, and More
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress Blogs Hacked, Plugin Competition is Hot, BuddyPress, WordPress Sayings, and Lots of WordPress Plugin News
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress at 50, WordPress Tweeters, Tracking WordPress 2.6, WordPress.com Stats, and Hot WordPress Plugins
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 5 Years Old, WordCamps International, WordPress 2.6 On Track, Plugin Competition is Hot, Genko Updated
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordCamps Everywhere, Apache Patch for Securer Passwords, WordPress Plugin Contest, and More WordPress News

WordPress News Sources

• WordPress Planet
• WordPress Development Blog
• WordPress.com Blog
• Weblog Tools Collection
• The WordPress Podcast
• Lorelle on WordPress
• Planet WordPress from Planet Ozh
• WordPress Publisher Blog
• WordPress Weekly live show with Jeffro2pt0
• Planet WordPress Canada

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the Blog Herald or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.

Each Wednesday on Blog Herald is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com

Here’s John Yoo’s infamous defense of torture:  Download | Play

Cassel: If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty

Cassel: Also no law by Congress - that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo…

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

 And the memo’s author - John Yoo, then a deputy in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel - was a longtime ally and notoriously pliant scribe for the radical legal views of Vice President Cheney and his chief enforcer, David S. Addington. Yoo’s memo is a historic document. It is the ultimate expression of Cheney’s belief that anything the president or his designates do - no matter how illegal, barbaric or un-American - is justifiable in the name of national self-defense.

I’ve written about David Addington many times. He’s Dick Cheney’s “resident evil” and chief enforcer in the administration. Murray Waas wrote a great piece on Addington a while ago. “Addington’s Role In Cheney’s Office Draws Fresh Attention”

Where there has been controversy over the past four years, there has often been Addington. He was a principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects. He was a prime advocate of arguments supporting the holding of terrorism suspects without access to court…

Well, he’s going to testify and Froomkin sends an important message to Congress.

Dan Froomkin:

David S. Addington, Vice President Cheney’s formidable and reclusive chief of staff, is scheduled to appear before the House judiciary committee Thursday for a hearing on how the Bush administration developed its interrogation policies. Signs are that he actually intends to show up.

It’s essential that members of the committee not blow the best chance the public has yet had to understand how the United States came to adopt torture as an acceptable interrogation technique and, in so doing, found itself among the world’s pariah nations. A compelling and well-supported (if partly circumstantial) narrative casts Addington as the dominant figure in the interagency push to step up the pressure on terror suspects. This is not surprising, as Addington is thought to have been at the red-hot center of pretty much every one of President Bush’s most extreme assertions of unfettered executive power. The 51-year-old lawyer is Cheney’s most able and devoted henchman, his sharpest knife, his lead loyalist among the legion salted throughout the executive branch. Indeed, he is widely thought to have ghost-written memos and public statements ascribed to better-known figures such as Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, and William Haynes.

The judiciary committee’s sole aim on Thursday should be to keep Addington at the table until he provides answers to some essential questions. Here’s a draft script to that end…read on

Thank you Dan Froomkin. He hits on all the points that need to be asked. I expect Addington to show as much contempt as he possibly can for these proceedings. 

 White House lawyers and the torture tapes

At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.

Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.

SpoolCast: Usability Guerillas with Dana Chisnell
Recorded: June 7th, 2008.
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 24m | File size: 12.5 MB
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[ Text Transcript Available ]

This week, I had the great honor of speaking with Dana Chisnell, noted usability expert and principal at Usability Works, a consultancy based in San Francisco. Dana is also the co-author of the recently-released second edition of the Handbook of Usability Testing—a book so fine that I was thrilled when they asked me to write the foreword.

In this interview, I asked Dana what makes the best user researchers better than the pack. Dana suggested that great user researchers dig deeper into who the users are. They don’t just stop after watching novices interact with the design for the first time. Instead, they look to constantly learn about the full range of people who use the design.

Also, the top user researchers look beyond the use of functionality to the entire experience. Dana shared how Enterprise Rent-a-Car spends a lot of time and energy thinking about every interaction they have with their customers. They stand around in their retail outlets and watch individuals getting their cars and turning the cars in, looking at how the experiences fit together.

Dana had a lot more to say about what makes the best stand above the rest. You’ll want to listen to the rest of the podcast to hear her thoughts on the subject of excellence in user research.

[For even more insight, you'll want to attend Dana's full-day seminar, Usability Testing Guerilla Techniques: Collecting User Data on a Shoestring, at our User Interface 13 conference that will take place this October 13-16, 2008 in historic Cambridge, Massachusetts.]

We look forward to your questions and thoughts on this podcast. How are you integrating usability testing into your organization? Let us know what you think in the comments!

This tabla solo recording is a reflection of the commitment by Sense world music towards
helping the flourishing of great musical traditions. Sense producer Derek Roberts and executive producer Alpesh Patel had a goal to bring the great tabla maestros of the day to the record company studios and to record them with a fidelity and consideration to their art not previously given. The results speak for themselves!

The Artist
Vijay Ghate is considered to be one of the most outstanding tabla players in the modern era of North Indian music. Born in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Vijay showed an early inclination for rhythm which was fostered by his family. He moved to Mumbai to study with Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, an icon amongst tabla players of India, and one the most progressive and profound thinkers on tabla playing. Vijay has been performing since the age of sixteen and has toured worldwide with most of India's prominent musicians. As an accompanist he is a favourite with many of India's leading players including Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Kala Ramnath and Shahid Parvez. He is equally comfortable as a soloist as well as an accompanist to instrumentalists, vocalists and Kathak dancers, having a huge stock of repertoire, and a capacity to improvise and to play spontaneously according to the situation. As a soloist, he brings to the stage a distinctive vibrant energy which enhances both his creativity and technical acumen. For his solo repertoire Vijay draws on compositions and inspiration from all of the traditional six gharanas (playing styles) in his performance.

Tabla Solo
The solo is performed in teentaal, a popular sixteen beat rhythmic cycle. Throughout, the tempo is skilfully regulated by Vocalist Gayatri Shankar and Milind Kulkarni on Harmonium, singing and playing a repeated lilting melody line known as lehara (or nagma). The use of a vocalist to keep the lehara is a rare phenomenon first introduced by Suresh Talwalkar, serving to heighten the musicality of the tabla solo experience. The vocalist is given the opportunity to improvise freely around the melody giving the tabla solo breathing space, at the same time helping to enhance the mood of the soloist. The word "lehara" is a derivative of the word 'lahar', meaning current of a river or a stream. The lehara also helps in highlighting the most emphatic beat in the cycle known as 'sam' (literally "equal" or "together"), which occupies the first beat of a taal.

Tabla
The Tabla is the most popular and widely used drum of North India. Its colourful range
of tonal qualities combined with its capacity to express remarkable rhythmic
permutations make it a unique percussion instrument which in recent times has
inspired and fascinated audiences worldwide.

The pair of drums consist of a high-pitched, precisely tuned dahina (also called dayan
or tabla), and a low-pitched, less precisely tuned drum, the bayan. The dahina is
responsible for many of the resonant ringing sounds (or bols). The bayan provides the
bass and is recognizable for its swooping bass sound, which provides colourful
embellishment. The bayan is often said to be where the soul of the instrument lies.

Most frequently the tabla is used to accompany classical instrumental, vocal and dance performances, but as all tabla players will remind you there also exists a strong tradition of tabla solo playing. The history of tabla is shrouded in mystery and mythology; however it is most commonly thought to have developed in the area of Delhi in the mid eighteenth century. Initially, much of the inspiration for its repertoire was borrowed and adapted from other Indian drums including pakhawaj and dholak. However, over the period since then, tabla players have built up a huge repertoire of material specific to the dynamics of the tabla. This vast range of compositions has been made richer by the evolution of a number of distinct regional performance styles, known as gharanas, of which there are six recognised by the tabla community, namely, Delhi, Ajrara, Farukhabad, Lucknow, Benares and Punjab. These styles have played a
major role in the development of tabla playing with regard to technique and repertoire.

The tabla player uses a vocabulary of semi-onomatopoeic syllables to represent the strokes on the instrument known as 'bols' (from the Hindi verb bolna, 'to speak'), a system which has been used to orally communicate compositions through the ages. Bols, making up popular phrases such as 'dhage tina gina' and 'ketetake terekete', are recited by the player before playing in a practice known as Pardhant; a kind of Indian version of rap. While in training a student is typically taught to speak the bols of the composition before actually playing it on the drums. Bols structured in a specific manner and arranged in sub-divisions are called thekas. The specific arrangement of these bols makes up the composition of the taal. In theory, a taal can consist of any amounts of beats from two upwards, but the most common taals consists of between 4 and 16 beats. Teentaal, made up of sixteen beats is the most popular taal, with three accents on the 1st, 5th and 13th beats respectively.

The solo tabla repertoire consists of a variety of compositional forms, many of which are featured on this recording. The forms can be divided into two broad categories. Firstly, compositions of the' theme and variation' type e.g. Peshkar, Kayida and Rela where a rhythmic theme is expanded and permutated using a variety of improvisatory techniques. Usually featured in the first half of the solo, these themes are pre-composed, but designed in a way to allow maximum potential for improvisation, testing the performer's creativity to the limit. Peshkar, the traditional starting point for a tabla solo recital, is an introductory improvisatory form beginning in a slow tempo, concentrating initially on a few select tabla syllables such as na/ta, ge, dha, dhin and tin. Peshkar gradually expands and unfolds introducing the listener to a wider range of phrases and sounds, playing a similar role in tabla solo to that of 'alap' in Indian vocal music, where the soloist progressively acclimatises to the music and the environment in which he or she is performing. Kayida is the main feature of most tabla solo recitals because of its potential for elaboration. It is a composed theme followed by a sequence of improvised variations known as palta played according to set rules. Rela is a fast exciting composition type consisting of a drum roll like effect produced by continuous repetition of just one or two sound syllables. The word Rela is said to have derived from 'rail gadi', which means train. The latter part of the recital most commonly consists of fixed compositions such as Tukra, Gat and Chakradaar, many of which have been inherited from great masters over generations and are therefore highly prized by tabla players.

Vijay Ghate - Tabla
Gayatri Shankar - Vocals
Milind Kulkarni - Harmonium

SpoolCast: Product Evolution with Adaptive Path’s Peter Merholz
Recorded: June 5th, 2008
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 37m | File size: 20 MB
[ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.]
[ Subscribe with other podcast applications.]
[ Text Transcript Available ]

This week, our good friend, Peter Merholz, joins us for the show. Peter is the President of Adaptive Path, a leading experience strategy and design consultancy. Peter is the co-author of the recently published book, Subject to Change, which discusses new strategies of thinking and working to adapt into innovative and commercially successful organizations.

In our discussion, I ask Peter about mapping out a product’s evolution. Launching a product is no simple task. Every new product falls on the spectrum somewhere between feature-complete, perfect execution and actually shipping with a pile of features on the cutting room floor. Realistically, most sway towards the latter. But that doesn’t mean your products needs to feel unfinished. Peter and I discussed how the best products never offer their users an incomplete feeling experience. And with proper planning, future features won’t feel simply tacked on. Listen in to our conversation for some real-life advice from Peter on how to actually accomplish this feat.

[Peter Merholz and Andrew Crow will show you how to map out your product's evolution, plus several other techniques for creating great experiences, in their full-day seminar, Subject to Change: Product Strategy and Planning Tools for Great User Experiences, at our User Interface 13 conference that will take place this October 13-16, 2008 in historic Cambridge, Massachusetts.]

We look forward to your questions and thoughts on this podcast. How is your organization staging its product rollouts? Are those rollouts working? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Jewelry Designer and Goldsmith
The powerful images and influences from her Irish heritage have shaped and guided the work of goldsmith Deirdre Donnelly. Deirdre grew up 50 miles from Dublin, in an area lightheartedly nicknamed the "sunny southeast," where it rains two out of three days. Deidre's original passion was veterinary medicine, which she practiced in Ireland before moving to the United States.

The Rock Collection:
The symbols used in this collection are inspired by the ancient Irish granite carvings at Newgrange, Ireland, circa 3500 B.C. Each piece mirrors a shape of one of the giant granite rocks where the symbols are carved.


The Stones of Time Pendant
Each piece can be worn separately and is reversible.
Handcrafted in patinated Silver and 24k Gold.
Center: 1¾" x 1"
Outside: 1" x ¾"
$2500

After Deirdre visited the National Museum of Ireland, and viewed their Exhibit of Bronze Age jewelry ornaments, she was inspired to learn the arts of goldsmithing and metalworking. She is also influenced by the fabulous carvings on the stones of the prehistoric tombs and megoliths in Ireland, dating from about 3200 BC.


Astronomer's Energy Cuff
6" x 1"
$558

The K Collection:
This collection is inspired by ancient Irish granite carvings that portray a society that embraced the celestial cycles and their importance in human life. Deirdre truly believes that these cairns were sacred sites, used for rituals on the most important days of the calendar year and, to her, those sites are still sacred. Most of the symbols convey measurements of time: the sun, moon, and stars and a deeper spiritual meaning.


Sunrays & Solar Months Earrings
7/16" x 7/8"
$228

Deirdre Donnelly has been creating her own jewelry since 1993. She received additional training in workshops at the Peters Valley Craft Education Center in New Jersey and the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. She continues to work as a veterinarian today, even as she builds her successful jewelry business.

Deirdre creates her pieces in high karat gold – 24k, 22k, and 18k – and sterling silver, incorporating a variety of jewelry making techniques including forging, forming, stamping, lamination, and granulation. She also makes her own gold sheet and wire.

Favoring translucent stones over opaque, she uses colored and unusual gems to complete many of the pieces. Most of the stones she uses have historical significance and mythology associated with them, and one of her favorites is Moonstone. Deirdre's jewelry collections are exhibited at the Frog Hollow and Artisan's Hand galleries in Vermont, and she is a juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.

Artist Statement

For the ancient Irish people, the sky was a screen on which they projected their most profound speculations and spiritual needs, and thus it is reflected in their symbolic art. The symbols at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, Ireland, particularly intrigue and inspire me to express and communicate their secret language in my own art. In my research I have found these symbols to be universal expressions of humanity, and it is upon that premise that I feel moved to create what I feel to be the magical talismans and amulets that you see on my site.

Though born and educated in Ireland, my true fire and passion for bringing the ancient symbols of my native Ireland to life emerged while I was living in New York City. I studied at the Jewelry Arts Institute, and still continue to hone my skills as a jeweler by continuously taking high level classes and workshops with International artists. I have found my greatest inspiration at the jeweler's bench, where hands and heart are rooted in the culture of my heritage.

Now in my studio in Bridgewater, Vermont, I continue to evolve my skills and vision to celebrate their finest form in the ancient symbols that survive to tell of a prehistoric perception of the earth, sun and moon's relationship to one another, and the subsequent development of a calendar system. It does not seem purely by coincidence that I've discovered ancient stone chambers aligned with the sun in nearby South Woodstock.

Counseling staff has been busy this week! Staff have listened to speakers, visited each program area, practiced transfers and learned about wheelchairs.

Another area the counselors have been trained in is feeding and dressing techniques. Yesterday, they watched as unit leaders and head counselors demonstrated how to dress campers. Then, the staff took turns dressing each other. They practiced how to dress a camper in different situations such as a camper with spastic Cerebral Palsy. Putting on diapers was also demonstrated.

After learning about different feeding techniques, counselors were put to the test. They paired off and practiced feeding each other lunch and dinner. Not only was learning to feed important, but it was important for counselors to experience being a camper. This way, they could understand how campers may feel while being fed.

In an interview, Lisa Meeder, a returning staff member, describes what the staff did yesterday during orientation. She emphasizes the importance of good communication, treating campers with dignity and respect, and discusses important tips that she learned.

Find more videos like this on ASCCA Friends

Camp ASCCA has a new site!ASCCA Friends. It is our own personal social media network.
Looking for photos? Visit Camp ASCCA’s collection on Flickr! 15,000+ photos and growing every day!
How about Facebook? Did you know that Camp ASCCA is in Facebook? If you are too, please go on over and “Friend” Camp ASCCA and join the Camp ASCCA Facebook group, too.

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Lab Journal: Day 1

This notebook is designed to be a chronicle of my experiments here in my basement lab. I surely won’t change the world, but my teachers always told me that I was good at science. Maybe I’ll find some tiny little fact all on my own!

Lab Journal: Day 9

Wow, I haven’t been very good about keeping up with this. But now that I’m all unpacked, it’s time to get to work! No more watching my Oppo 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player all day! This is serious!

Lab Journal: Day Sixteen

I think I’ve discovered a teleporter! I was making some adjustments across the room and knocked over what I thought was a fancy lamp, and suddenly there I was, on the other side of the room, crouched on top of the television! Still don’t know what happened to my Oppo 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player. What will I play my XviD, DivX, .SRT, .IDX, .SMI and .SUB files on now?

Lab Journal: Day Nineteen

Everything looks so sharp now. It sounds stupid, but it reminds me of how it looks when 720×480 interlaced video encoded on DVD discs is upgraded to 720p. Just yesterday it all looked like 480p. Could my vision just be getting better? What has happened to me?

Lab Journal: Day Twenty One

My tests proved that I am seeing in 1080i and 1080p, alternatively. It seems that, in the accident, I was fused with my Oppo 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player. Perhaps I can learn to unlock the powers of my DCDi Faroudja video processing technology and use it for good.

Lab Journal: Day Twenty Five

Something is wrong. Got into fight today for no reason. Suddenly had to have a Kodak Picture CD. Then it was SACD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, HDCD and an Audio CD. It was like being hypnotized, I had no control of myself. When the moment passed, I ran. I don’t think I was followed.

Lab Journal: Day Twenty Six

Sat on the remote by accident, hitting the eject button, and suddenly threw up. Can’t be too far away from the HDMI cable now or things begin to go wrong. Must continue tests. Hearing now adapting to digital audio. Impossible to sleep. Must continue tests.

Lab Journal: Day Thirty One

Can see so much. High Def up-conversion. So much beauty. So much pain. Like a star in my head. Can barely work the machines. Must try one last time to reverse fusion. Have I tried before? So hard to think now. Only want to be close to the television.

Lab Journal: Day Thirty Two

Reversal failed. Nothing left. User manual no help. Oppo 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player grew legs and ran away. Or did I dream it? Nothing left. No more. No more.

This notebook was found in the basement of a house in an undisclosed neighborhood. Alongside the notebook was the body of something slightly less than a man, slightly more than a Oppo 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player. It had smothered itself with the included cloth sleeve. An Oppo 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player that could talk was captured in a forest nearby. It escaped, and experts suspect it has hidden itself among the product sold by a popular online electronics site. Be careful! The next Oppo 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player you buy…. COULD BE ALIVE!!!

Warranty: 1 Year Oppo

Features:

• Upconverts 720×480 interlaced video encoded on DVD discs to 480p/720p/1080i and 1080p, with film-like picture quality
• Upconversion to 1080p enables the DV-981HD to be a perfect match for TV’s with native 1080 resolution
• DCDi by Faroudja video processing technology with progressive scan, film mode detection, TrueLife™ enhancement and motion adaptive noise reduction
• Official DivX® Certified product, certified to the Home Theater Profile. Plays all versions of DivX® video (including DivX® 6) with standard playback of DivX® media files. Plays XviD and .SRT, .SMI, .IDX and .SUB format
• High-quality pure digital video and audio through a single HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable
• Support for high fidelity digital audio in Super Audio CD and DVD Audio formats, also support for MP3 files, CDs, and HDCDs

Universal DVD Player Features:

• DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD (SACD) and DVD-Video universal playback
• Compatible with Audio CD, HDCD, WMA, Kodak Picture CD, and other digital audio/video/picture media and formats (Note: The DV-981HD does not play Blu-Ray nor HD-DVD discs)
• Official DivX® Certified product, certified to the Home Theater Profile
• Plays all versions of DivX® video (including DivX® 6) with standard playback of DivX® media files
• Plays XviD and .SRT, .SMI, .IDX and .SUB format
• Compatible with CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW and DVD+R DL* (Note: Compatibility with user-encoded contents or user-created discs is on a best effort basis with no guarantee due to the variation of media, software and techniques used. For example, Discs recorded on some stand-alone DVD recorders or DVD camcorders may not exhibit smooth playback. )

Video Up-Conversion Features:

• High definition up-conversion with film-like picture quality to up-convert 720×480 interlaced video encoded on DVD discs to 480p/720p/1080i and 1080p
• DCDi by Faroudja video processing technology with progressive scan, film mode detection, TrueLife™ enhancement and motion adaptive noise reduction.
• Video is analyzed on a single pixel granularity to detect presence or absence of angled lines and edges, which are then processed to produce a smooth natural looking image without visible artifacts (jaggies)
• High-quality pure digital video and audio through a single HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable
• Multiple high definition video formats through HDMI output: NTSC: 480p/720p/1080i/1080p; PAL: 576p/720p/1080i/1080p
• Compatible with HDTV, HD-Ready TV, HDTV monitors and projectors with an HDMI or DVI input
• Direct PAL/NTSC disc and TV compatibility and system conversion
• For more information about DVD video up-conversion, please read our white paper article Getting the Most out of DVD on an HDTV Display
• Supports screen aspect ratio 4:3 (standard) and 16:9 (wide-screen)
• User adjustable video controls: Sharpness, Contrast, Brightness, and Saturation
• Composite video and S-Video outputs (standard-definition output only)

Optimized Audio Features:

• High-resolution multi-channel digital audio output through HDMI supporting CD, DVD-Audio, SACD, Dolby Digital and DTS sound tracks.
• Individual analog 5.1-channel surround and down-mixed stereo outputs
• 24-bit, 192kHz high resolution audio D/A converters
• Optical and coaxial digital audio outputs with DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro-Logic II and Linear PCM support
• 3D Surround (Virtual Surround): Concert, Live, Dance, Techno, Classic, Soft
• Built-in equalizer, channel trim and channel delay functions

Compatibility Features:

• PAL/NTSC disc and TV compatible with automatic or manual system conversion
• Dual-laser optical pickup head with excellent error correction
• Enhanced dual-layer disc support with fast layer change
• Wide range universal power supply (~100V-240V, 50/60Hz AC)

Convenience Features:

• Special disc tray – thin, flexible and strong. Can tolerate some bending without breaking.
• Smooth and easy navigation of photo albums, music collections and video files on DVD and CD
• Selectable subtitle and audio tracks
• Discrete ON/OFF remote control IR code for programmable universal remote controls

Connectors:

• HDMI - High Definition Multimedia Interface: 1
• Analog Stereo Audio (Mixed 2-Channel Left/Right): 1 group (2 connectors)
• Analog 5.1 Channel Audio: 1 group (6 connectors)
• S/PDIF (IEC-958) Coaxial Digital Audio: 1
• S/PDIF (IEC-958) Optical Digital Audio: 1
• Composite Video: 1
• S-Video: 1
• No Component Video (YPbPr/YCbCr) on the DV-981HD model. This model is designed for use with a display device with HDMI or DVI digital video input.

Disc Types:

• DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD (SACD), DivX®, XviD, Audio CD, HDCD, Kodak Picture CD* (*Note: The DV-981HD does not play Blu-Ray nor HD-DVD discs)
• Official DivX® Certified product, certified to the Home Theater Profile
• Plays all versions of DivX® video (including DivX® 6) with standard playback of DivX® media files with encoded video resolution up to 720×480 30fps and 720×576 25fps
• CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R DL (Note: Compatibility with user-encoded contents or user-created discs is on a best effort basis with no guarantee due to the variation of media, software and techniques used. For example, Discs recorded on some stand-alone DVD recorders or DVD camcorders may not exhibit smooth playback. )

Output:

• Analog Audio: Stereo, 5.1ch
• Digital Audio: Coaxial, Optical, HDMI
• Analog Video: Composite, S-Video (Y/C) – standard-definition output only
• Digital Video: HDMI with HDCP (NTSC 480p/720p/1080i/1080p, PAL 576p/720p/1080i/1080p)
• No Component Video Output. The DV-981HD is designed for use with a display device with HDMI or DVI digital video input.

Video Characteristics:

• HDMI: HDMI Specifications 1.1, CEA-861-B
• S-Video Amplitude: Y: 1.0Vp-p (75 Ohm), C: 0.286Vp-p (75 Ohm)
• Composite Video Amplitude: 1.0Vp-p (75 Ohm)

Audio Characteristics (Nominal specification):

• Frequency: 20Hz – 20kHz (+/-1dB)
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio: >100dB
• Total Harmonic Distortion: < 0.01%
• Power Supply: ~ 100V – 240V, 50/60Hz AC
• Power Consumption: 20W
• Dimensions: 420mm x 270mm x 41mm, 16-1/2×10-5/8×1-5/8 inches
• Mass: 2.4kg / 5.20 lbs (DVD player unit only)
• Operating Temperature: 5°C-35°C, 41°F-95°F
• Operating Humidity: 15%-75% No condensation
• Firmware Updates: Upgradeable via CD-ROM

In the box:

• Oppo 1080p Up-Convert DVD Player (HDMI) DV-981HD
• Users Manual
• Remote Control (batteries included)
• HDMI Cable
• Power Cable
• Composite Cable
• Audio Left/Right Cable
• Cloth Sleeve

Jewelry Designers, Artists, and Metalsmiths
Bijou Graphique was started in 1995. Since that time, artists Dawn Estrin and George Wilson have combined forces to create a unique vision of what jewelry can be. The artists have lived and worked together for twenty years, both exploring many mediums and materials. Their work reflects a common interest in themes such as art, romance, and humor.


Carolina Parakeet Earrings
Earrings in sterling silver with ear wires set with iolite and original photomontages.
$90

Dawn Estrin has pursued art since her teen years, when she studied metalworking at the Cleveland Institute of Art. She holds a BFA in Fine Arts for painting and drawing. Later in life, she became interested in photography, a craft she taught herself and has practiced for 15 years. She draws on a vast collection of images used in their jewelry.


Tanager and Pomegranate Brooch
A bird in a tree on a sterling silver brooch set with garnets.
Bale on back for use as a pendant.
$175

George Wilson's interest in art also goes back to his early life. He has accumulated years of knowledge about a multiplicity of materials and techniques to design and build their jewelry. He conceives processes as well as making many of the tools used in their creation.


Bird in Hand Brooch
Brooch cast and hand-fabricated from sterling silver and faceted citrine stones.
Original photomontage by the artists.
$135

The Process
Through a miniaturization process that retains every element of detail in each image, each piece of their jewelry is born from a single photograph. Photomontages are printed on archival paper with archival ink, protected by polycarbonate plastic. Estrin and Wilson first decide on a shape in which to frame it, and then incorporate additional design elements, creating a richly detailed setting for the image.

Dawn Estrin and George Wilson inspire viewers to closely examine and be swept away by their art. Their designs are influenced by their love of decorative arts from the European Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical periods, as well as American Art Deco and the architecture of the Middle East.

duration 28:27

In issue #24, we speak with Jason Santa Maria, designer to the stars.

Jason Santa Maria {from Twitter}

What I know of Jason is that I envy the work he does. He’s an incredible designer who not only is on everyone’s Twitter list, he’s presented at many of the cool design conferences that I wish I could attend.

One recent achievement was making the list of Extremely Heterosexualist Web Designers.  Fawny.org says Jason Santa Maria is a densely packed, deceptively short powerhouse with giant paws and a macabre streak.Honest.

Jason is a Creative Director at Happy Cog Studios. To quote Happy Cog:

Jason has been recognized for designing stylistic and imaginative web interfaces that maintain a balance of usability and effective content presentation. His work has won dozens of awards, including seven Addys in 2004.

During the interview we face-off in the first-ever Word Association Smack-down | Houser -vs- Santa Maria.

Jason answers these questions:

• When did you first decide to become a designer?
• You consider yourself a Graphic Designer, but you must be involved with UI design and User Experience. What do you do most?
• What type of design do you like the most?
  
• What things inspire you most? And where do you find them?
• I know lots of designers say that they don’t seek inspiration online, that you can get inspiration from things not web-related, but since we work on the web, and our work shows-up on the web, don’t you find that it’s necessary to pick-up some things online?
• Do you use a sketchbook?
• What do you do to stay current or fresh?
• Are there techniques that you have yet to try? Any new tools or software?
• We have a comment from Brad Thomson on the WordPress design.  Brad says: “Great job on your WordPress work! How did you get that gig, and how long did it take you?  Can you describe the design steps?”
• Another question from Kelsie J: What’s your favorite donut, both in brand and in flavor?

This interview is the 6th in our re-design series over at Creative Component. Follow the blog as we go through a very public site design.