However, I eventually succumbed and tried out a pre-existing framework, realizing that I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. Plenty of people had made blog frameworks, and it was time that I used the fruit of their labor. I’ll guide you through the steps I took to make what I’ve got at the moment.

Platform selection

Several Google searches later, and after considering Simple PHP Blog and Moveable Type, this article helped guide me to the Content Management System (CMS) I was to use; WordPress. I’d seen the default template at a lot of blogs, and hadn’t realized that it had much potential until I really played around with it.

A screenshot of the default wordpress installation

Upgrading

I initially installed WordPress in a subdirectory, which let me access both my old site and my new one simultaneously, and limited downtime. The installation itself was very easy (instructions here). I was easily able to add each post in the old site to my new site and easily specify a publish date in the past. If you wanted to publish entries from 1 AD, I don’t doubt that you’re capable of it in this framework.

The tricky part was moving my static content (ex: ‘About’, ‘Projects’ etc) into my new CMS. WordPress has ‘Pages’ that model this idea, but all of the themes I’ve show subpages, which is (IMO) visually unappealing. I got to play a little with php and fixed it so you only see the top-level content (here’s how to do that). Ideally, as per this request, you’d be able to see subpages under certain conditions. I don’t know (and haven’t looked hard for) any code that would do that at the moment, though.

Themes

WordPress follows good design and separates content from layout with their themes and related php functions. I wanted to emulate the look of my old site as closely as possible without writing a WordPress theme from scratch. After looking through several theme galleries, I eventually found a WordPress Theme Generator which let me specify design and colors to approach what I was looking for. I then went into the CSS to fix various graphical glitches such as vertical line spacing (this page helped). I wasn’t sure that I wanted a three-column setup, but I had difficulty removing the third column, so I eventually grew to like it.

On a related note, I also installed the WordPress Mobile Edition plugin, as I own a Windows Mobile 5 device with a relatively underpowered browser. The mobile edition uses a completely separate theme from the main site, interestingly. While I’ve not taken great care to edit the mobile theme, it’s there. You can easily place Google Adsense for Mobile Content ads on it.

Comments

One of the reasons I wanted a CMS is for the ability to comment on entries. Askimet is installed by default, and filters spam comments into a separate spam queue where they can be glanced at and saved (or, most likely, purged). You need to sign up for an Akimet API Key first, though. According to Askimet’s spam counter on their main web page, 88% of all comments are spam.

I’ve recently come across a comment system called Intense Debate, which I discovered through my friend Colin Ake. I’m putting off adding Intense Debate until it’s compatible with Askimet, partially because I receive far more spam than I do human comments.

Plugins

Widgets

WordPress lets you add plugins that you can then add to the sidebar(s) of your blog. This is a decent guide on how to install them. Most of the widgets I use are built into WordPress; these include the Meta, Pages, Archives, Links, Recent posts, Tag cloud, and Recent comments widgets.

Aside from the built-in functionality, I was most interested in widgets that would link with my twitter (plugin), flickr (plugin), and del.icio.us (plugin) accounts, but decided against the first two as they didn’t fit into my graphical/performance ideas for this site. They might be useful to you, though.

Share and subscribe

I find the Add to Any plugins to be useful. They provide links to add your rss feed to the user’s reader/service of choice (plugin), or to bookmark the current page using the reader’s web bookmark service of choice (plugin). In addition, they’re relative unobtrusive for the amount of services they cover. If you don’t use WordPress, they’re available for other platforms as well; see addtoany.com.

I don’t just rely on those plugins/widgets, however. I made sure to include a link to my feed near the top of the page, with a stereotypical RSS icon. In my opinion, the feed link is one of the most important on the page.

Vital plugins

In addition to Askimet, there are some plugins I think you should consider with your new (or existing) blog:

Redirection

The Redirection plugin is by far the most useful plugin or widget I’ve encountered. It lets you set arbitrary url redirection rules, optionally using a regex. This is a great way to redirect your old content locations to your new ones, keeping search engine rankings and visitors’ bookmarks intact. It logs all 404 errors so you can easily see where new redirection rules are needed, and also shows how often your existing rules are used. Redirection Official Site.

WP Super Cache

Just in case you get hit by Digg, Slashdot, etc, or even if you want to simply optimize your server performance, this is a good bet. WP Super Cache Official Site.

Statistics

Because they’re not important to the display of the page, it’s better to load stat counter-type code at the end of the page. Not all themes include the relevant code to do so, though.

WordPress.com Stats

This particular stats plugin shows you recent stats right in your dashboard, with the ability to drill down a little bit. You’ll need to enable third-party cookies in your browser to do that, though. To use this one, you’ll need a WordPress.com API Key, which you can get by signing up for an account at WordPress.com. Plugin: WordPress Stats.

Google Analyticator

If you use Google Analytics, there’s a plugin that integrates support for it. What can I really say? It just works. Google Analytics itself is an impressive suite, so give it a try. Plugin: Google Analyticator.

Official StatCounter Plugin

I’ve always liked StatCounter, even though their free services have a limited log size. But hey, they’re free. Everybody’s got to earn a living. Statcounter Bog: Official WordPress Plugin.

Search Engine Optimization

While I’ve only dabbled in this, the following plugins may be of use to you:

SEO Slugs

Optimizes post titles by removing common words. For example, it removed the ‘to’ from the title of this particular post when generating the slug (from noobs-guide-to-wordpress to noobs-guide-wordpress). Shorter URLs are a good thing regardless of SEO. Plugin: SEO Slugs.

Google XML Sitemaps

Generates a sitemap of your WordPress blog that is supported by most major search engines, and updates it automatically. Google XML Sitemaps.

HeadSpace2

Meta-data manager. HeadSpace2.

Robots Meta

Manages which pages get indexed by search engines. This focuses robots on your more important (content) pages. Plugin: Robots Meta.

Conclusion

I’m very happy with my current setup. I’ve been putting off the upgrade to WP2.6 due to plugin compatibility concerns, but the nagging banners to upgrade in the WordPress administration dashboard will soon bother me enough to actually take care of it.

Also, I eagerly anticipate IntenseDebate adding Askimet support, as their system of threaded comments, reputation, etc, is amazing. If this has helped you at all, please comment and say so!

Note that while I am an EFF member, I feel that my analysis is relatively unbiased. However, I am not a lawyer, so I would advise taking my clearly marked “unsolicited advice” below with a metaphorical grain of salt. Kudos who anyone who got the joke in the title.

Introduction

Throughout 2006, “Spocko,” an anonymous (and previously unknown) blogger, posted on his blog called “Spocko’s Brain” about violent and inflammatory content on the Disney/ABC-owned radio station KSFO-AM. As part of his campaign, he used clips of KSFO content to illustrate the inflammatory content. He and readers of his blog sent messages to the station’s advertisers, suggesting that they pull their advertisements based on quotes and short clips (Garofoli), and that such a move would not infringe on KSFO’s free speech (Stark).

Frequently-used examples of KSFO content included: (About a black man in Lincoln, Nebraska:) “Now you start with the Sear’s Diehard the battery cables connected to his testicles and you entertain him with that for awhile and then you blow his bleeping head off.”; (About a protestor at a Cindy Sheehan event:) “Whoever did that should have been stomped to death right there. Just stomp their bleeping guts out.”; (About Nancy Pelosi:) “We’ve got a bulls-eye painted on her big laughing eyes.” There are many other examples similar to these in language, tone, content, etc (Stark).

Takedown notice

As a result of Spocko’s actions, multiple advertisers withdrew from KSFO (Garofoli), particularly the Brian Sussman show. That includes, but is not limited to, Netflix, MasterCard, Bank of America, and VISA (Siebert, Media Critic’s Blog…). Shortly after VISA’s withdraw from KSFO’s Melanie Morgan and Lee Rogers show, an ABC lawyer sent Spocko a Cease and Desist letter on December 21, 2006 (Zimmerman); it demanded that Spocko remove the audio clips from his blog because they were a “clear violation of KSFO’s copyright and other interests… [and] confirm that you … will discontinue use of all materials owned by KSFO” (Karpeh). He complied with the C&D, and removed the audio from his host, 1&1 Internet, within six hours (Spocko, It was Spocko’s Speech…). Despite his compliance with the C&D, ABC/Disney then sent a letter to 1&1 Internet, demanding that they shut down Spocko’s Brain. 1&1 Internet complied with ABC/Disney’s request (Spocko, It was Spocko’s Speech…), maintaining that Spocko had never removed the materials (Garofoli).

Within days, other bloggers took up Spocko’s cause, and the clips were posted “all over the web” (Garofoli). In addition, a “supportive YouTube video featuring some of the clips drew more than 31,000 viewers within days” (Garofoli). A few days after his blog was shut down by 1&1 Internet, Spocko had found a new host, Computer Tyme Web Hosting (Siebert, Bloggers Give Spocko…). Their hosting services were more expensive than 1&1 Internet (Zimmerman), but they are known for specializing in free speech web hosting (WebHostingStuff).

EFF response

Spocko then contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for assistance (Electronic Frontier Foundation, Spocko, KSFO, and…). EFF is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting freedom of speech on the internet, among other causes. Contemporaneously with Spocko’s joining with EFF, a KSFO talk personality claimed that Spocko was “[trying to] take away [KSFO's] free speech rights.” However, as the EFF pointed out in a press release, there is no clause in the first amendment that protects the right to advertiser-supported speech (Electronic Frontier Foundation, Spocko, KSFO, and…).

On January 25, 2007, the EFF sent ABC/Disney a letter that responded to ABC/Disney’s Cease and Desist notice and affirmatively defended Spocko’s use of KSFO’s content (Zimmerman). Specifically, the EFF letter stated that Spocko was “engaged in criticism of KSFO-AM talk show hosts for language the New York Times recently described as ‘racially insensitive, religiously intolerant or containing violent imagery.’ In order to support his claims, and to allow his readers to consider the remarks themselves, Spocko posted short audio clips from the KSFO programs he was criticizing” (Zimmerman). According to Zimmerman and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Spocko’s use of the KSFO clips fell squarely under fair use.

Definition of “fair use”

The first legal definition of copyright was given in the United Kingdom’s Statue of Anne in 1709. The statue did not allow for a reasonable use of copyrighted work, so courts established a policy of “fair abridgement” (later “fair use”) that defended the validity of said use notwithstanding the rights of copyright owners (Loren). It was solely in common law in the United States until the passage of the Copyright Act of 1976 (Wikipedia, Fair use), and is specifically codified in 17 USC § 107: “Limitations on Exclusive rights: Fair Use,” which states:

“Notwithstanding the provisions of 106 ["Exclusive rights in copyrighted works"] and 106A ["Rights of certain authors to attribution and integrity"], the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”

In describing fair use, Zimmerman also cited Elvis Presley Enterprises v. Passport Video,¹ 357 F.3d 896, 898 (9th Cir. 2003), Eldred v. Ashcroft,² 537 U.S. 186, 219-20 (2003), and Pierre Leval, Toward a Fair Use Standard, 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1105, 1110 (1990). In the former, it was stated that “[fair use of copyrighted works] is intended to preserve the values enshrined in the First Amendment” (Zimmerman). In the latter, it is stated that “Fair use should not be considered a bizarre, occasionally tolerated departure from the grand conception of the copyright monopoly. To the contrary, it is a necessary part of the overall design. Although no simple definition of fair use can be fashioned, and inevitably disagreement will arise over individual applications, recognition of the function of fair use as integral to copyright’s objectives leads to a coherent and useful set of principles” (Leval).

Fair use analysis

Under 17 USC § 107, there are four criterion/factors used to determine whether a use of a copyrighted work is considered “fair use.” They are the “(1) purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; (4) [and] the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”

Zimmerman’s response proceeds to analyze each of the four cited criteria with respect to Spocko’s use of the KSFO audio clips. The first criterion was “the purpose and character of the use… including whether such use is of a commercial nature…” (17 USC § 107). Spocko’s use was most certainly a non-profit educational purpose; Spocko did not and does not have advertisements on his blog; he was using it as a tool to inform and report on an activity (Massie). Zimmerman cites Chicago Board of Education v. Substance, Inc.,³ 354 F.3d 624, 628 (7th Cir. 2003), which stated that “one office of the fair use defense is to facilitate criticism of copyrighted works by enabling the critic to quote enough of the criticized work to make his criticism intelligible. Copyright should not be a means by which criticism is stifled with the backing of the courts” (FindLaw, Chicago Board of Education v. Substance, Inc. 6). It should be noted that per Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.,⁴ Spocko could still claim fair use even if his criticism was partially or totally commercial, although being entirely non-commercial strengthens his case to some extent.

The second criterion under consideration is the “nature of the copyrighted work.” This clause distinguishes between works that are informational and those that are intended to entertain, with “[more] creative works falling ‘closer to the core of intended copyright protection.’ Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.,⁴ 510 U.S. 569, 586 (1994); Wall Data Inc. v. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept.,⁵ 447 F.3d 769, 780 (9th Cir. 2006)” (Zimmerman). Also stated is that news reports “may be subject to liberal appropriation for fair use purposes. Party on Copyright, 10:138 at 10-346 (2006). See also, e.g., Nat’l Ass’n of Gov’t Employees v. BUCI Television, Inc.,⁶ 118 F. Supp 2d 126, 129 (D. Mass. 2000)” (Zimmerman). The KSFO audio clips used by Spocko were intended to further his reporting and criticism of the station’s content. Given that the radio broadcasts were decidedly more “informational” than “creative,” the second criterion seems to be satisfied.

The third criterion is the “amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole” (17 USC § 107). Given that only short clips were used of a program that lasted hours (Zimmerman), and that “[t]he KSFO hosts themselves have repeatedly asserted that the clips amounted to anomalies or understandable slip-ups that occasionally occurred in the hundreds of hours per year that they collectively appeared on the air” (Kasindorf),⁷ the third criterion is most definitely satisfied.

The fourth and final criterion is the “effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work” (17 USC § 107). Per Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, “when a lethal parody, like a scathing theater review, kills demand for the original, it does not produce a harm cognizable under the Copyright Act. Because ‘parody may quite legitimately aim at garroting the original, destroying it commercially as well as artistically,’ … the role of the courts is to distinguish between ‘[b]iting criticism [that merely] suppresses demand [and] copyright infringement[, which] usurps it.’”⁸ (FindLaw, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music). As such, the use of copyrighted materials in criticism and/or parody is strongly protected under fair use, even when it may cause financial damage (including lost ad revenue). This is precisely how Spocko was using the audio files, and what ABC/Disney intended to suppress with their Cease and Desist notice. “Far from being grounded in law, ABC/KSFO’s complaints amount to nothing more than an attempt to silence an effective critic” (Zimmerman).

Conclusions

Given that Spocko’s use of copyrighted KSFO content is clearly considered fair use under 17 USC § 107 (as established above), the ABC/Disney C&D order is meritless. Therefore, the EFF response to ABC/Disney’s C&D order stated: “Because those threats are legally baseless, they should not have been made in the first place. They have, however, caused Spocko harm and may continue to do so should they remain. In order to prevent any further harm to Spocko, we demand that you retract them immediately and do so in the same way the original claim was made: in a letter to 1&1 Internet, Inc., with a copy to us” (Zimmerman, emphasis added).

Based on the previous conclusions, such an action by ABC/Disney would be appropriate. However, months after the EFF response and demand, no such letter by ABC/Disney has come (Spocko, Still no word from ABC about the EFF letter and Spocko, Spocko to Disney: You Never Call. You Never Write.). Spocko points out that his response to their demands (”remove the content immediately”) was “immediate” (six hours), but that their response has exceeded any reasonable definition of immediate, or timely, for that matter (Spocko, Spocko to Disney: You Never Call. You Never Write.).

The end of the EFF response states that: “Moreover, please be aware that further misrepresentation aimed at silencing Spocko’s protected speech online may subject KSFO and ABC to liability under 17 USC § 512(f) (misrepresentation of liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and California’s Business & Professions Code § 17200 (prohibiting unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business practices)” (Zimmerman).

17 USC § 512(f) states that, “Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section – (1) that material or activity is infringing, or (2) that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner’s authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it” (emphasis added).

17 USC § 512(f) is strongly worded, and is targeted at those who would suppress fair use. However, it may be difficult to prove that ABC/Disney knowingly misrepresented their position, even though it is highly unlikely that an entertainment lawyer would be unfamiliar with the fair use doctrine and its uses. Given that ABC/Disney has been informed by EFF (and legally “knows”) that the material is covered under fair use, any subsequent action in this vein against Spocko would be clearly actionable under 17 USC § 512(f). Other legal remedies are available for Spocko, however; he could sue, as ABC/Disney’s false statements of fact caused him financial damage. Also note that under the DMCA, 1&1 Internet is not liable for removing the content, and is under no obligation to do so in the first place.

Unsolicited advice

Assuming that ABC/Disney will not respond unless a lawsuit is involved, Spocko and EFF need to carefully consider the financial impact and potential judicial precedent of any legal action. However, filing a suit against ABC/Disney in order to force a settlement could be an effective tactic. The EFF has had a considerable amount of success in the past, even requiring a repeat offender to apologize to the internet (Electronic Frontier Foundation, DMCA Abuser…). EFF is also planning to pursue action against Viacom under 17 USC § 512(f)(b) due to a large number of DMCA takedown notices that were sometimes directed at non-Viacom content (Hefflinger).

Notes

¹In Presley Enterprises v. Passport Video, the court concluded that based on the four fair use criterion in 17 USC § 107, Passport Video’s documentary The Definitive Elvis exceeded the fair use guidelines for copyrighted material for which it did not have an appropriate license. Specifically, the documentary used material which it did not discuss, it used a large portion of certain copyrighted materials, the use of the materials would limit the copyright holder’s ability to market the copyrighted work, and Passport Video intended to profit off of the use of said materials-i.e., the use was commercial (FindLaw, Elvis Presley Enterprises v. Passport Video).

²In Eldred v. Ashcroft, a case heard before the Supreme Court, the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was confirmed (Wikipedia, Eldred v. Ashcroft), in part because the fair use guidelines set forth in 17 USC § 107 protect academic works and free speech as it pertains to a copyrighted work (FindLaw, Eldred et al. v. Ashcroft, Attorney General).

³In Chicago Board of Education v. Substance, the board sued a Chicago public school teacher named Schmidt and a local newspaper called Substance whose target market is teachers. The Chicago Board of Education had created and copyrighted a series of standardized tests, which are governed by special consideration in copyright law given that the usefulness of the test depends on the continued secrecy of the contents. In January 1999, Schmidt published six such standardized tests in full in order to demonstrate their ineffectiveness. Among other conclusions, the court found his use of the material to be too broad because it destroyed the value of the tests, and that use of specific questions would have been more appropriate (FindLaw, Chicago Board of Education v. Substance).

^{4.1, 4.2}In Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., the rap group 2 Live Crew created “Pretty Woman,” a parody of Roy Oribson’s “Oh, Pretty Woman.” The Supreme Court decided that “The commercial nature of a parody does not render it a presumptively unfair use of copyrighted material. Rather, a parody’s commercial character is only one element that should be weighed in a fair use inquiry.” (Wikipedia, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.).

⁵In Wall Data Inc. v. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department installed software created by Wall Data for which they had 3,663 licenses on 6,007 computers. The 9th Circuit Court decided that the fair use defense did not apply as the copying was done to save the time and expense of installing individual copies; the Sheriff’s Department could have paid more money for additional licenses and did not (Higgins).

⁶In National Association of Government Employees v. BUCI Television, Inc., a candidate for Sheriff sued a newspaper for misparaphrasing him, accusing the publication of libel. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that given that the news accounts were “substantially true,” no harm was committed; additionally, their news report “consisted of constitutionally protected interpretation and analysis of a public figure’s political speech” (Texas Supreme Court, National Association of Government Employees v. BUCI Television, Inc.)

⁷The EFF brief cites Kasindorf’s article in USA today (Zimmerman). In particular, it uses the quote “Sussman repeated an apology for his Obama remark and said he sometimes went over the line in talking 20 hours a week” (Kasindorf).

⁸The quoted decision is from Fisher v. Dees, 794 F.2d 432, 438 (9th Cir. 1986) (FindLaw, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music). In that case, the fact that “the defendant had sought and was denied permission to use the plaintiff’s song had no bearing on liability when parody was at issue because ‘[t]he parody defense to copyright infringement exists precisely to make possible a use that generally cannot be bought’” (Colombia Law School, Fisher v. Dees).

Works cited

17 US Code. Sec. 107: Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use. April 7, 2007.

17 US Code. Sec. 512: Limitations on liability relating to material online. April 7, 2007.

Columbia Law School. Fisher v. Dees. April 7, 2007.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. DMCA Abuser Apologizes for Takedown Campaign. March 14, 2007. April 8, 2007.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. Spocko, KSFO, and the Blogosphere’s Allergy to Copyright Thuggery. January 12, 2007. April 8, 2007.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. Spocko and ABC/KSFO. April 7, 2007.

Hefflinger, Mark. EFF Seeks YouTubers Caught in Wrongful Viacom Copyright Claims. February 15, 2007. April 8, 2007.

Higgins, Donna. L.A. Sheriff’s Office Infringed Software Copyrights, 9th Cir. Says. FindLaw. June 12, 2006. April 7, 2007.

Karpeh, Enid. Re: Unauthorized Use of KSFO Content. December 21, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Kasindorf, Martin. Media outlets battle it out over free-speech rights. USA Today. January 24, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Leval, Pierre. Toward a Fair Use Standard. 103 Harvard Law Review 1105 (1990). April 7, 2007.

Loren, Lydia Pallas. Redefining the Market Failure Approach to Fair Use in an Era of Copyright Permission Systems. 1997. April 8, 2007.

FindLaw. Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music. March 7, 1994. April 7, 2007.

FindLaw. Chicago Board of Education v. Substance, Inc. December 31, 2003. April 7, 2007.

FindLaw. Eldred et al. v. Ashcroft, Attorney General. January 15, 2003. April 7, 2007.

FindLaw. Elvis Presley Enterprises v. Passport Video. February 6, 2004. April 7, 2007.

Garofoli, Joe. Trying to censor blogger: Owner of conservative radio station KSFO demands liberal critic quit using audio clips. San Francisco Chronicle. January 11, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Massie, Jeffrey. Getting Spockoed: Why the nice guys are winning. March 13, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Siebert, Tom. Bloggers Give Spocko An Assist, Post Contested ABC Radio Files. Online Media Daily. January 8, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Siebert, Tom. Media Critic’s Blog Shuttered After Disney Complains. Online Media Daily. January 5, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Spocko. It was Spocko’s Speech that WAS Silenced. January 17, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Spocko. Spocko to Disney: You Never Call. You Never Write. March 4, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Spocko. Still no word from ABC about the EFF letter. February 4, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Stark, Mike. Spocko Rocks ABC! Micky Mouse blinks! Updated: Spocko jumps in. Daily Kos. January 03, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Texas Supreme Court. National Association of Government Employees v. BUCI Television, Inc. August 3, 2004. April 7, 2007.

WebHostingStuff. Computer Tyme Web Hosting. April 7, 2007.

Wikipedia. Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. January 9, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Wikipedia. Eldred v. Ashcroft. March 3, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Wikipedia. Fair use. March 28, 2007. April 8, 2007.

Zimmerman, Matt. Re: Spocko’s fair use of audio clips to criticize the ABC/KSFO content. January 25, 2007. April 7, 2007.

Social bookmarks

The way to promote websites these days tends to be through social networking; typically, sites like del.icio.us, digg, reddit, etc. If a user enjoys what you write, it’s gotten incredibly easy for them to “spread the word.” Thus, I wrote a bit of php that takes the article name and generates handy bookmarks like you see on so many blogs today. I use my del.icio.us account pretty extensively, and if you haven’t tried it, you should. Nothing will replace having a good bookmarks toolbar, but for all of those “interesting” sites you don’t visit every day, del.icio.us is invaluable.

Search and Navigation

As per my original goal, I wrote a search box that will search my blog using the google engine, and has an option to search the web instead. Unfortunately, squashing a css bug in the nav/search bar made the (previously working) search box not show for IE users until I came back to the problem a week later. The top bar would slide past the rest of the content when the screen size was narrower than the columns (about 870 pixels). One thing I learned is that putting <div> inside of a <p> element breaks xhtml compliance. Go figure.

CSS Debugging

As a corollary to “Search and Navigation,” one of the most egregious problems I’ve had to deal with is buggy CSS; you change one thing, you break another. The afformentioned search bar bug was the most recent example. That took gutting the css for that section, and rebuilding it. The only problem? The search bar didn’t show up in IE. I called it a night, came back a couple days later, and knocked the problem out. Lesson learned: when you try and fail, take a break from the problem. It also taught me that I don’t know CSS as well as I thought I did. The code isn’t perfect, but it does what I want it to now.

RSS

Learning how to create a proper RSS feed has been interesting. Of great use was the Feed Validator. I started out with the basic definition; a channel, an item, a link, and a description. Then the validator said I needed to fix a few things:

• Add the string “AddType application/rss+xml .rss” (sans quotes) to my httpd.conf
• Add the <guid> element to make sure rss readers didn’t misread entries. I wish ThinkGeek would learn about that one, because I’d get what felt like three duplicate items from their feed every day.
• Add the <pubDate> tag; without this, a newsreader identifies the feed item as dated whenever it was downloaded. It’s not required for valid rss, but it’s nice to have.
• Add the <ttl> tag; it specifies how often a newsreader should check a feed. As I don’t update that often, it’s unnessasary for a newsreader to check every four seconds.

To see all of these improvements in action, take a look at the source of my rss feed.

What’s next?

I’ve definitely been saving the harder things for last:

• SQL back-end. I know that the more interesting modern websites are front-ends to databases, but I don’t really know where to begin on this one. I know it will involve creating a database and placing my articles in it, and then using PHP to load the articles from the database upon request.
• Comments. Comments are sort of a collary of the SQL problem. Once you’ve got a database of articles, each article can have its own database of comments.
• Flash. I’d like to find something that looks as nice as the static flash text, but doesn’t require a plugin. Images will probably work, but that will take time to do. Also, I’m not keen on generating an image for every article that I write.
• CSS Cleanup. I’m not using all of that crap, so it’d probably be a good idea to clean up and comment the code wherever possible.

Design

After months of reading about the death of tables for formatting, I decided to redo the website I made in “Computing for Engineers.” This time, it’d be beautiful. There’s not a single table in this website so far. While it’s true that I did borrow some, the website you see now is relatively close to the way I pictured it.

One of the most difficult choices was between two and three columns. Ideally, I will make a two-column layout and use it for articles; there just aren’t that many uses for the other two columns on article pages.

Graphics

For the banner/title graphic, I went through my deviantArt gallery looking for an image I feel represents me. Eventually, I settled on the female wallpaper “Fractal Goddess.” Careful cropping and coloring to fit the black/green color scheme has given me something that works well. Other graphics were created or (more likely) borrowed as needed.

Code reuse

There are a few things I don’t know how to do yet. I’m relatively new to PHP, but I was able to use it to simplify development. Throughout the website, the header, footer, right column, and “quick links” are each included at the server. Maintaining a “quick links” section spread across several pages is simply bad design. Ideally, all of the common elements of each page would be included from some file or another. Ideally, I’ll find and read a guide to good webpage design using PHP.

What’s next?

Search Upgrades. The search box searches google for whatever you put into it. There’s an empty space that I intented on putting a “web/this site” radio button in, but that’s in a separate div section. Anyone who can figure that one out gets a cookie. Update 10.02.2006: This has been fixed.

Social networking. Quick links to post an article or page to del.icio.us, digg, etc would be a good use for the middle column. Update 10.03.2006: This has been fixed.

Comments. I think that a way for users to comment on articles would drastically supplement this blog. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to go on that one. That might be a potential use of the second column in articles.

A new day has dawned.

Literally, it’s one in the morning. Figuratively, I’ve got the framework to share (and learn) knowledge in things I hold dear to me.