I’ve spend a few hours today playing with WordPress 3.0 Beta 1. Keep in mind that this is an early Beta – and more UI tweaks and functionality will probably show up by the final release. I’d like to present my findings with more of a visual presentation, rather than type for an hour.

What’s New?

WordPress MU (multi-user) has been fused into WordPress. There are a bunch UI (User Interface) tweaks and Thumbnail support is now activated by default. Another noticeable features is: Post Type buttons can be added to the main menu – more on that in a minute.

A look at what’s new

Let’s start with the install screen. My favorite part of this is, I can just enter a password – rather than WordPress auto-generating me one. Nice.

The WordPress Dashboard shows a few UI tweaks – mostly in the form of color changes. As you can see, the menu remains almost unchanged. “Upgrade” has been moved from “Tools” to “Dashboard”

There is a brand-spankin’ new default theme, appropriately named “Twenty Ten”; which is based on the popular Kirby WordPress Theme (IMHO looks a lot like “Cutline”). While in the WordPress Dashboard you can customize the background color, header image, and add menu items via point and click.

Aside from some more UI tweaks, both the Post and Page editors remain unchanged.

The image/media upload tool remains largely unchanged. My favorite feature is the inclusion of WordPress Thumbnail Support built-in and activated by default. If you look close, you will notice that featured has been renamed to “Featured Image”. The Image Editor also looked AND worked the same.

The new default theme has a few more Widget Area’s. Again, some more UI tweaks – however all the functionality remains the same.

Here is something totally new and can see myself using often. The ability to register new media specific aka, “Post Type” menu items. By adding some code to functions.php (or custom_functions.php in Thesis) you can create menu items that are specific to the Post Type.

For example, if you Podcast, rather than navigate to Post –> Add new –> Select Category –> Add Media etc…. you can just click “Podcast” and everything is pre-populated. Just add your content and hit publish! Read more about this…

Theme Management received some more UI love…the functionality is unchanged.

A note about WordPress MU Integration

I didn’t play with this. It not “active” out-of-the-box. There are quite a few steps to take to activate MU – and to be quite honest: I’ve never used MU beyond a testing environment. For me, it took to long for core-updates and plug-ins to be make their way around to MU. MU has always been the red-headed step-child.

Here is an in-depth post about how to activate MU inside WordPress 3.0.

Conclusion

Everything I’ve researched regarding the back-end code has gone into great detail about the integration with WordPress MU. I wasn’t about to find all that much about if it’s more “optimized”. Overall, I didn’t find anything “killer” about this release. Sure, some UI tweaks are refreshing and Post Type integration is certainly welcome – however there was nothing (other than maybe MU for some users) that made me go “YESSS”.

Here is some good news for Thesis Theme peeps: I was able to run Thesis 1.7 without issue.

You can read more about what is in store for WordPress 3.0 on the WordPress Blog and download it now

I’m gleaming with excitement, like a kid at Christmas to find Thesis 1.7 beta was released to developers late last night. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this version for testing for my skins. Here are some early thoughts:

The Good

• Thesis was already King of SEO, now it’s approaching God-like status with the amount of options to control where/when robots can scan your site
• JavaScript Libraries can be turned on/off on a page/post level. Ideal for increases in load times, as well as the ability to turn any post/page into a interactive work-of-art
• Comments get a big ‘ol kiss, as you can turn features on/off, and arrange them via drag and drop
• “Archive Page Options” gets a name change to a more noob friendly, “Category Page Options”. Plus you get to set options for each Category. Great when used in with conjunction with the JavaScript options on the page/post level, plus you can add some flair to your Archive, err, Category Pages
• As a skin developer and PSD Conversion guru, the new Thesis Options Manager will be my new “killer” app. The ability export Thesis settings to a client will save long conversations about font hexes and sizes

The Bad

• Still no “easy” way to add a header image or logo
• Lacks the new WordPress Post Image support (however, Chris is working on designing his own)
• Menu familiarity is gone. After working on hundreds of Thesis sites, I will have to re-train myself on where all the options are (I know, I’m big baby)

Final Thoughts

Aesthetically, Thesis looks the same on the front-end. It’s still a pretty blank canvas to which you can paint your own picture. This upgrade focuses heavily upon SEO enhancements and JavaScript inclusion right down to the page/post level. As always, a quality upgrade.

Screen Shots

The Back-story

For the past 3 years I’ve been using a shared hosting plan with Hostgator. It was the $14.95 p/m Unlimited/Business Plan and back then my needs were small. I only had a few WordPress sites. During my tenure with Hostgator, I never had a problem with their service or support. In-fact, I still highly recommend Hostgator (yes, it’s an affiliate link) for any Webmaster just getting their feet wet.

But, with all my Thesis Tutorials, Skins, and my apparent God-Like status with Featured Content Gallery (whom I’m not affiliated with) my site gets hella-good traffic.

With Hostgator, I had 50-or-so WordPress websites, 9 Radio Station websites (running Joomla), PLUS a dozen of my own sites – including a YouTube clone (attempting to do video conversion).

The radio station websites themselves were super CPU/Bandwidth intensive with thousands upon thousands of visitors a day between them all. What happens when WXYZ-FM runs a web-only contest? Bottlenecks galore. Ugh.

Dynamic? Score!

Add nodes easily with VPS.NET

What is a Cloud? By definition, “Cloud computing is a way of computing, via the Internet, that broadly shares computer resources instead of using software or storage on a local computer.”

In plain English: Instead of your data living on a single server in a single data-center, that data is instead shared across an entire network of servers which are located around the globe.

That’s not even the best part!

You see, when traffic spikes while being on a shared host – you get penalized two ways: #1 They charge you for overages #2 You are locked into a one server that sits in one rack in one data-center (all while sharing your space/bandwidth with 2,000 other sites).

When those spikes hit now, I can literally log into my dashboard and add nodes. This is perfect for when I post a new tutorial, or if one of the Radio Stations run a web-specific contest. I literally add/subtract nodes at will for $1 a day.

The Move

WHM Control Panel

In December 2009 Nick Nelson contacted me about a PSD Conversion for some Thesis sites. Nick mentioned that Chris Pearson hosts pearsonfied.com with his company, VPS.NET.

Nick recommended a 6-node Cloud, (2.4Ghz, 1.5GB RAM, 60GB HD, 1.5TB Bandwidth) running WHM/cPanel with daily backups. Nick also helped me upgrade from Apache to Litespeed.

We tried to do a cPanel-to-cPanel transfer from Hostgator to VPS, but unfortunately, Hostgator blocked our attempts. I wanted to move the sites most guilty of bottlenecks first, so we moved all the Radio Stations sites, and then my pet projects. Bottlenecks? Gone! Video Conversion? Psssh…this setup doesn’t even blink – and the best part: I’m moving 2-3 of the remaining sites a week off my Shared plan and onto my spiffy new Cloud with some breathing room. Without the bottlenecks and slowdowns, I can take my time and to do it carefully. You know, every time I move one; I can’t help but grin, because I know my clients will notice the difference in speed too.

Going the extra mile: CDN, Backups, Developer Support

Activate CDN

Until recently, a CDN was RIDICULOUSLY expensive and mainly used by mega-sites like Yahoo, Facebook, & YouTube. Like Cloud hosting, a CDN will serve up your scripts and images, but with killer caching – and around the world.

For many of us, trying to justify the cost of using Akamai or Amazon, is out of the question. My hosting needs haven’t yet called for a Content Delivery Network, But it’s nice to know all I have to do is point-and-click and I will have one at my disposal.

VPS.NET also does daily, weekly, and monthly backups from the Top Level. Meaning, they backup your entire server (WHM/cPanel/Sites as a whole). Not just on a site-by-site basis. (which you can still do, of course)

They also actively work with developers of scripts and plug-ins. For example, the WordPress Plug-in: W3 Total Cache, was written to utilize APC (Alternative PHP Caching)  – which VPS.NET supports and my site uses. They’re also a one-click installer for JMB Software.

Cloud vs. Shared

The Proof is in the Pudding

Test site: gregrickaby.com
Host: VPS.NET – 6 Node
CMS: WordPress/Thesis
Caching: Off
Total Size: 319.1KB
Total Load Time: 3.7 seconds
Proof: Pingdom speed test

Test Site: amandacom.com
Host: HostGator – Business Shared
CMS: WordPress/Thesis
Caching: Off
Total Size: 300.7KB
Total Load Time: 14.3 seconds
Proof: Pingdom speed test

As you can see, gregrickaby.com had 6.19% more data to serve – and it was served 286.486% faster!

VPS.NET also has simple month-to-month pricing, which I prefer to Amazon’s EC2 or Rackspace’s hourly pricing model. I would rather know exactly what I’m going to owe each month.

To conclude; if you’re looking for a reliable, scalable, and affordable Cloud hosting company – I recommend you contact Nick Nelson (Twitter | Email) with VPS.NET.

GET OUT OF THE RACK AND INTO THE CLOUD!

P.S. If you’re purchasing at least 6 nodes, drop Nick Nelson an email and he’ll be happy to set you up with the same configuration I’m using!

]]> http://gregrickaby.com/2010/02/shared-hosting-vs-cloud-hosting.html/feed 11 http://gregrickaby.com/2009/09/thesis-1-6b-review.html http://gregrickaby.com/2009/09/thesis-1-6b-review.html#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:18:03 +0000 Greg Rickaby http://gregrickaby.com/?p=2205

Thesis 1.6b was released September 8 around 9pm Eastern to all developers. I raked it through the coals in a 7 hour session and what you are seeing on THIS WEBSITE IS Thesis 1.6b…

1. Post Options

Not much here, just the ability to change the ‘Read More’ text…

2. Thesis Options

Chris Pearson has gone and moved the Thesis Options out of “Appearance”, this took a little getting used too – but is welcome. “Appearance” was getting cluttered. Also new, is the “Drop Down Navigation” built in. (More on this below)

3. Design Options

This is where 90% of the magic is. “The Font, Colors, and More!” section has been completely overhauled and the crown-jewel of Thesis 1.6 is the crazy easy way to change colors.

Other very cool features are the ability to kill all Thesis Borders and add a cool shadow around your page box. (which only works in page-width mode)

4. Custom File Editor

Other than the font colors, this was my second favorite upgraded feature. Syntax Highlighting makes it easy to jump in quick and make a change.

5. Those Drop Down Menus

Now standard, automatic .CSS drop down navigation. All you have to do is create sub-pages or sub-categories and Thesis 1.6 will take care of the rest.

Also new, no more #tabs in the .CSS – the navigation is now .menu

6. Misc. Upgrades

According to Chris Pearson, on the Thesis Dev Site:

• IE-only styles are now cache-friendly: Version 1.5 included a CSS-based method of serving IE-specific styles, but this method proved to have one fatal flaw—it didn’t play nicely with caching techniques (and especially the WP Super Cache plugin). Because of this, I reverted back to using conditional HTML in the document <head>, and now caching is money.
• Fixed post image and thumbnail frames: These actually work now. Special.
• Suppressed warnings on all getimagesize function calls: This PHP function has been known to trigger warnings on certain server configurations, and suppressing warnings will radically reduce the annoyance factor in these situations.
• Moved the /rotator folder into the /custom folder: Can somebody tell me why the /rotator folder, whose very existence suggests customization, was not located inside the /custom folder from the very beginning? Sigh. Fixed.

One other noticeably awesome upgrade note: All of my “Thesis” and “Design” options were unchanged when I upgraded! I didn’t have to re-do all my font sizes, meta tag info, or HTML Framework options. Beautiful.

7. The Bottom Line

A welcome upgrade. Thesis is moving in the direction of not needing ‘expensive design software’ or a ‘qualified designer’.

While the ability to change text, background, and content colors is freakin’ awesome; you will still need to edit custom_functions.php, use OpenHook, or tinker with custom.css to achieve more advanced design layouts. Things like: adding a Logo to the Header, fine-tuning the Sidebars, etc…will require some inexperienced users to seek help.

If that sounds like you, then you’re still going to need to hire a qualified designer. (Lucky for you, the guy writing this post is certified)

In the end, there will be less Thesis sites that look like it came right out of the box. That in itself is worth the price of admission.

Are you a Developer? Download Thesis 1.6b Now

Don’t Have Thesis? Download a copy!

Adobe® AIR™ enables you to run WEB APPS on your desktop. I weeded through ‘the crap’ for 3 hours on Labor Day to bring you this list.

1. iPlotz

iPlotz allows you to create navigable mock-ups and prototypes you can easily export to your client(s). It also can be used as project management software as it keeps track of your progress.

Cost: $75

2. ImageSizer

Built to re-size/optimize/rename batches of .jpg images. Can I get a ‘what what’?

Cost: Free

3. RichFLV

Doing a screen-cast? Client need a video on their website? With RichFLV you can edit/cut/read/convert/export .FLV files on the fly.

Cost: Free

4. Ora Time & Expense

I’m a FreshBooks guy myself…however, I’ve found a FREE alternative that is nearly as robust. Time Tracking/Invoice/Expenses/Reports everything a Freelancer needs to cash in on his/her’s valuable time.

Cost: Free

5. Websnapshot

Do you need a screen-shot? NOW! It’s waaay more than that. I’ve come to rely on Websnapshot to do my dirty work, (Print Screen, Photoshop, Re-size, Save for Web, etc…), because time is money.

Cost: Free

TIE 6. ColourLovers vs. Adobe Kuler

My eye for “color matching” is poor, (just ask my ex-wife about how I suck at dressing our son), so I need help when I’m creating a new design for a client, and pre-made color pallets are where it’s at.

Both apps allow auto-importing to your favorite editing program(s):

ColourLovers = Microsoft Expression
Adobe Kuler = Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign

Regardless, of your editing program preference…both apps give you access to great color schemes (for free) that you can use to design a slick looking website, without embarrassing your kid.

Cost: Both are Free

7. Font Picker

I was skeptical at first. I use Photoshop to view all my fonts one-by-one. Then I tried this, and fell in love. No more trying to compare different fonts one-by-one.  Just type, select the fonts you like, kill the ones you don’t. It’s like having a font playoff on your desktop – and you’re the commissioner. #win

Cost: Free

8. TweetDeck

Twitter = Free self promotion
TweetDeck = Inbox for your cash

Honestly, this is probably the most used Adobe Air App – ever. If you’re a Freelance Designer and you’re not using Twitter to promote your business…you are missing out on BIG money.

Cost: Free

9. Icon Generator

Easy. The only word I need to describe creating Web 2.0 Icons in 3 steps.

Cost: Free

10. GeeMail

I saved the best for last, GeeMail is 100% pure sweetness.

Cost: Free

BONUS! 11. Dunkin’ Donuts

Totally useless, yet totally awesome.

Because America (and a Freelance Designer) Runs on Dunkin’

Cost: Free

Ok. As a freelance web designer, Firefox is without a doubt – my Swiss Army Knife. I’m constantly messing with resolutions, .css debugging, working in WordPress, etc… At the same time, I need Gmail, Google Reader,I love to listen to Pandora and I use Freshbooks for time-tracking. Rather than have the ‘extra stuff’ running in tandem with my work in Firefox (which would just take up more tabs and get in the way) I wanted to know which browser had the lightest footprint for my ‘extra stuff’.

Because I use Firefox as my main browser, I don’t want to have a second copy of it open. Windows will
just run it under the same process. (Just for fun, I ran it anyway…however it doesn’t count). Since I run
x64 (64 bit) version of Windows, I also ran the x64 version of Firefox 3.5 and IE 8. Adobe Flash doesn’t support x64 browsers, (yet), so I couldn’t run Pandora – while the results are interesting, they are
however incomparable.

The Mission:
Find out which modern browser can run my ‘extra stuff’ while I work – using the least amount of resources.

The Computer:
Gateway® P-7805u FX Edition (from BestBuy)

The OS:
Windows 7 (x64) RC 1 – Build 7100

The ‘Extra Stuff’:
Gmail
Google Reader
Pandora
Freshbooks
Freshbooks Timer

The Measurement Tool:
Windows Task Manager
(see column definitions here)

Hard Numbers:

Results:

Opera 10 – With any new major release you can expect things to get a little more bloated. As you can see from updated chart and screen shot: Opera 10 got fat. Disappointing. As I enjoyed using Opera 9.64 as my second browser.

Google Chrome 3.0 – A close second in CPU Usage but WAY behind in RAM management. What annoyed me were the 8 PROCESSES running! Plus Pandora had one of the 8 processes running at almost 20%.

IE 8 -Better RAM management than Chrome& Safari, however average CPU usage was too high for me. Pandora strikes again…

Safari 4.0 – Ran about as well as a fatty in a game of Dodge Ball. While its RAM management was slightly better thanChrome – it was almost sucking my Core2Duo dry. I guess running Pandora isn’t Safari’s game.

Firefox 3.5 – Even with Pandora streaming away, Firefox beats them all in CPU Usage. Too bad it doesn’t count!

64 BIT EDITIONS (for fun)

Adobe! If you’re reading this PLEASE COME OUT WITH A x64 BROWSER EDITION OF FLASH 10!
(I know, they’re working on it)

Firefox (x64) – Seriously? 0.2% average CPU Usage? Yeah, seriously. Impressive as it was basically invisible to my processor. This is very encouraging AND ALL my plug-ins worked. So hurry up Adobe!

IE 8 (x64) – Could be a serious contender. I don’t understand why it ran my CPU at 2-3% constantly, I guess the clock on Freshbooks was  making it ‘think’ too much.

Closing Argument:

In closing, I will be using Opera 9.64 as my browser of choice for my ‘extra stuff’.

UPDATE

I recieved a Google Wave invite a few weeks ago, and only Firefox & Chrome only are supported. So…I was forced to switch from Opera 10 to Google Chrome as my secondary browser. I have found it to be very speedy. It handles the java scripts of Gmail/Wave/Reader better than Firefox, plus I enjoy the skinning options.

Through research (and the comments below) I’ve learned why there were so many processes with Chrome. Each tab basically gets its own process. Read this Wiki to find out more – it’s actually pretty genius.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below.