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Web Updates – Drupal patching, CSS layouts

I am planning to do a few things:

  1. installing a taxanomy access control module
    I did some research on the subject by first visiting http://drupal.org/ and went straight to the drupal module downloads. Read a bit on the taxonomy access module and find that this would require me to patch the existing core taxonomy.module – now I am no expert on unix patching and my linux host only provides me a cpanel access… so I cannot do patching without a shell access to the host. Also read that patching also is a bit of a minefield, so scratch that thought. Let’s wait for another solution to come up.
  2. installing a web links module
    The weblinks.module for 4.6 has been reworked and the directory module has been removed. This is done in anticipation of a “links bundle” which is supposedly better built.
  3. re-designing the layouts using CSS
    There are a few links on the www which are very useful references in this regard. But I think I shall post them on a separate page.
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Apple iPod Video makes waves

Apple iPod

If you’d browse my World News feeds (look for it on the top menu) you’d find some news of my own selection. One interesting news is iPod selling a million videos in 20 days. This is perhaps an important piece of news for the likes of aspiring online media companies. Currently the you can buy & download music videos and TV series like “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” for $1.99 a piece. Not sure how big the one million downloads is in relation to the size of the iPod market.

The iPod is fast becoming an insanely great product from Apple. Competitors and aspirants need to scramble quickly to get a slice of the market pie before Apple or some other player controls the market. I believe even our own local players can get in the game.

check out the slide show.

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Firefly / Serenity tops best sci-fi survey

Firefly / Serenity tops best sci-fi survey

Firefly was a shortlived sci-fi TV series set 500 years in the future in the new wild frontier of space.

Hooray!!!

I’m one of the converted “Firefly” fans. For those who said “huh?”, Firefly was a shortlived sci-fi TV series set 500 years in the future in the new wild frontier of space. The series only lasted one season before Fox pulled the plug.

This was a big disappointment to the fans of the show.

But all was not lost, Fox released the DVD box set, and the sales shot exceeded expectations showing how foolish Fox had been for axing the show. Now the movie spin-off Serenity is being released in the US to popular & critical acclaim.

Now a survey was recently conducted on NewScientistSpace.com showed that Firefly and its movie spin-off topped the charts of best sci-fi ever. Exaggerating perhaps, but shows the strong fan following and who so very wrong Fox was. (where is Blade Runner?).

More info on Firefly.

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Tinkering with the site layouts through CSS, again

My wandering mind will not ever allow me to be happy with a single layout structure.

I was moderately happy with the previous layout which I named “Tokyo” but that had its limitations in relation to dealing with large size images.

Ok, back a bit.

I just activated the image gallery module in this website. The image gallery will allow authorised users to upload images into a directory, and display them on this website. Unfortunately, the previous right column menu layout was not able to cater for large size images as the image would either run over the menu, or push the menu beyond the limited width. So I had to find another suitable layout.

Hence I am currently tinkering with the “Bluemarine” layout and codenaming it “Bluelagoon” for now. This layout uses tables – which I would like to see if I can do away with.

So let’s see how things progresses. Over and out.