Upgrading to WordPress 3.2!

Well we just pulled the switch here and upgraded to WordPress 3.2. It’s a pretty hefty upgrade, and our Media Temple DV server is always a bit finicky when I run WordPress upgrades, however all went pretty well (You can feel free to contact us if you need help upgrading your WordPress system). The new dashboard is quite a big change, and a few things to note with this upgrade.

The WordPress team has officially dropped support for IE6 (hooray I say) and they now include a little browser check right there in the dashboard to help give you a little poke if your browser is in need of an update (you’ll see in the screenshot my version of Firefox is outdated…yes I know, shame on me, I was waiting for a 1Password update). Next thing of import, your server will now need php5 AND mySQL 5. This will require those of you running older Media Temple Gridservers to upgrade. I’m sure MT support phones have been ringing off the hook, and they have already been addressing the issue diligently. As a matter of fact they just posted a video to Facebook which should help you on your way.

Last bit of advice should always be the first bit of advice. BACK SHIT UP! You’ll feel better about the whole process.

Here is a screenshot of the new Admin Dashboard, pretty slick!

Wordpress 3.2 Dashboard

WordPress Website for Portland Film “Rid of Me”

How cool is the local film scene here to have the filmmaker/acting team of Katie O’Grady and James Westby? Their latest film Rid of Me was recently screened to great reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film features all sorts of local Portland talent romping through a romantic comedy about a young woman named Meris and her struggles to fit in. The film stars Katie O’Grady and we can only wonder why she has not broken big time yet…We were contracted to take their poster artwork and turn it into a fully functional WordPress CMS with a news section they could easily update. We worked in a rotating slideshow to give visitors and instant feel for this wonderful film.

Rid of Me WordPress CMS

Filed under: Bitclone,Portland,Web Development,Wordpress — Eric Baldoni

Website Launch for Deep Cello Portland Coffee Roasters

We worked with Portland designer Giuseppe Lipari of Studio Lipari and the Deep Cello coffee crew to set up an online presence with this new ecommerce website. The biggest challenge for us was we needed to craft a good shopping solution using phpurchase which was their plugin of choice. You can order their delicious hand crafted beans directly from the website and have them delivered to your doorstep! Studio Lipari provided us with a beautiful design that captures the hand made quality of the product crafted by local roaster Justin Kagan (also one heck of a cellist with the Portland Cello Project). Beam yourself over to Deep Cello and learn what they are all about….good people making good coffee with lots of love.

Filed under: Bitclone,Design,Portland,Web Development,Wordpress — Eric Baldoni

New Website for Hank Topless, Country Musician

Back when we lived in sun soaked Tucson Arizona I had the pleasure of playing a few gigs on bass with Topless Opry. An honest down and dirty country outfit led by the cantankerous and deep toned Hank Topless. His dark songwriting and accomplished guitar picking have carried on into his solo act as Hank Topless, and we recently helped him design and launch a new website with help from WordPress and the excellent Gigpress plugin, which helps musicians manage and post shows and tours. If you’re ever in Tucson and you see a tall dapper cowboy with a gruff voice singing the country blues over at the Red Room or Congress…buy him a cold one.

Hank Topless WordPress Website

Filed under: Bitclone,Design,Wordpress — Eric Baldoni

Hard Drive Hijinx

Well geez, wouldn’t you know it, computers take the best opportunities to mess with us. I was away on tour with Miss Lana Rebel down to Tucson, and Alex was very competently holding down the fort when all of a sudden her trusty old macbook decided it wanted to create a bit of excitement for us. Hard drive kaplooey! Anyways thnx for your patience we are all back up and running and will be catching up with everyone shortly.

Filed under: Bitclone — Eric Baldoni

Misty Mountain Morning

The wind last night has cleared away all the pea soup up here in Forest Park. It is interesting to see how the dynamics of our surroundings have been altered now that it is all gone. The leaves have fallen, the trees are nude. Here are a shots I snapped up on Skyline a few mornings ago, it was a thick muddy ride to get up there, but the fog was just as thick.

Filed under: Art,Bitclone,Design,Portland — Eric Baldoni

Team Bitclone moves to tree fort!

Hey Friends, it’s official we have moved our home and office out to the wonderful Forest Park Linnton neighborhood.


View Larger Map

So please update your address book for us if necessary. Bitclone LLC physical realm base camp is now 8946 NW Mills, Portland Oregon 97231. It’s been a big and refreshing change for us to get back to nature. There are many amazing trails up into the woods, and we’ve just begun exploring it all! Penny (our dog who thinks she’s a chicken) has been loving the hiking and the wildlife in general. Here are a few pictures of the new diggs, drop by and visit sometime.

Filed under: Bitclone,Portland — Eric Baldoni

The Bitclone process of building a dynamic WordPress powered website!

It’s amazing how fast the world of business, and seemingly the world in general, has changed in my lifetime. This is, of course, heavily due to first the personal computer revolution, and secondly the internet boom. I graduated from Boston University in 1987 with a graphic design degree which gave me the ability to hand-paint fonts! Needless to say, it quickly became obvious to me that unless I started learning how to use computers I would be left behind as an artist and a designer.

In addition to designing and developing websites I also run a small business, which has opened up a whole other area of evolution and education for me. I interact directly with every client, and when I am approached by a potential customer some of the first questions are generally:

  • “Help me understand the process of building our new website.”
  • “How long does it take?”
  • “What are the costs involved in this?”

So let’s hope this post will begin to illustrate one of Bitclone’s basic processes – developing a WordPress CMS-based website. It should provide something of an overview, and help you get started in thinking about your project and some of the questions you’ll need to answer. We feel it is important to point out that every job is different, and part of our goal is to help you maintain your company’s unique identity among your competition. Having said that, there are some common points of focus we have identified through experience, and can discuss here.

(more…)

Filed under: Bitclone,Design,Tips/Tutorials,Wordpress — Eric Baldoni

WordPress 3.0 new features on the road to CMS perfection!

So I had been writing this big post about WordPress 3.0 coming out, and how we were so sneaky as to be running a release candidate on our site…Then we got busy and by the time I came back they went and released the final version! The new version 3.0 is called “Thelonious” after the great jazzman and purveyor of awesome hats I assume. I am going to try to do some specific feature updates as I encounter them while upgrading our small fleet of WordPress clients! Some of the most noteworthy additions I have been testing include the merging of MU (multiple user version) into the standard version. That and the new custom post types alone make this a pretty huge upgrade and really push WordPress closer to being the perfect full CMS solution. My only concern is the application will get too bloated, as they continue to add to it, so I am going to also run some speed tests to compare this new version. Results to follow shortly I promise!

If you have not seen “Straight No Chaser” the Monk documentary directed by Eastwood…I’d recommend it.

Filed under: Bitclone,Design,Portland,Tips/Tutorials,Wordpress — Eric Baldoni

Opera Mini Quickly Tears iPhone Safari a New One

Here is a preview video for the upcoming release of Opera Mini. The developers at Opera have always been really sharp, their browser is standards compliant, and usually full of cutting edge ideas. It seems the only reason I can think of people don’t use their web browser more is they initially charged money for it. My good friend Mark Wyner even used a version of Opera along with a Mac Mini to build an amazing kiosk set up. Check out the video below, they do a good job of displaying the functionality and speed of this little beasty. What do you think, if they charge money for it will you pay?

Filed under: Bitclone,Design,Video — Eric Baldoni
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