Yesterday I set up Amazon CloudFront to serve as a CDN (content delivery network) for this WordPress site. I don’t really need a CDN, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to learn more about.
I tried three different WP CDN plugins and settled on ‘CDN Linker.’ It’s pretty bare-bones, but it does exactly what it’s supposed to do, unlike two other plugins I tried.
‘CDN Linker’ essentially offloads the wp-content and wp-includes directories to the CDN, excluding PHP files. Here’s the workflow I’ve settled on: Download a theme or plugin ZIP file, and unzip its folder locally. Use the ZIP itself file to install the theme or plugin, but don’t activate it. From a command line (I’m on MS Windows) use the command “del *.php /s” to delete any PHP files, then upload the unzipped folder to the appropriate folder on the CDN. Now you can activate the theme or plugin.
I could take the time to delete everything but the PHP files from the server, but I think that’d be overkill, plus it would break the site if I ever deactivated the CDN.
A key point: Make sure the wp-content and wp-includes directories on the CDN are fully populated before you activate the CDN plugin, otherwise your site will be partially broken until you get those two folders populated on the CDN.
And speaking of deactivating the CDN, when I did so as a test I saw that the CDN was still being called for existing posts. Meaning, deactivating the CDN does not update the WP database to only point at local files. Not a problem exactly, at least as long as the CDN itself remains up and running, but something to be aware of. I can see why migrating to a different CDN in the future would be a PITA.
Also, using a CDN, at least with this particular plugin, makes WordPress behave strangely when it comes to images. Insert an image into a post using the built-in image uploader, decide what size to display, and publish the post. Two image files will get uploaded to the CDN – the original, and one resized to the size you specified. Pretty normal so far. But, if you then edit the post to change the size of the image, the size of the resized imaged on the CDN won’t update, which means the originally resized image (following me?) continues to get displayed. I need to do further testing on this to make sure I’m not doing something stupid (which is possible since this is new territory for me) but it’s another thing I’ll need to keep in mind when editing posts.
Cars – Fear Factory
Legs – ZZ Top
Rhythm Nation – Janet Jackson
The Middle – Jimmy Eat World
Surfing With The Alien – Joe Satriani
Sugar We're Going Down – FallOut Boy
Talk to Me – Stevie Nicks
Far From Over – Frank Stallone
Long Way Down – Goo Goo Dolls
Feel Good – Gorillaz
Now That We've Found Love – Heavy D
Army of Me – Björk
Homemade Love – Journey
Any Way You Want It – Journey
Be Good to Yourself – Journey
It's Too Late – Helix
Reload – Rob Zombie
Zion – Fluke
In The End – Linkin Park
Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
Back in Black – AC/DC
Walk This Way – Aerosmith
Dude (Looks Like A Lady) – Aerosmith
Underneath – Alanis Morissette
Straitjacket – Alanis Morissette
Baba – Alanis Morissette
Old Time Rock & Roll – Bob Seger
Holding Out for a Hero – Bonnie Tyler
Foreplay/Long Time – Boston
Peace of Mind – Boston
Walk On – Boston
Stronger (Neptin Remix) – Britney Spears
Ride Like the Wind – Christopher Cross
Tubthumping – Chumbawamba What do you think? Have any suggestions about songs I should add?
Legs – ZZ Top
Rhythm Nation – Janet Jackson
The Middle – Jimmy Eat World
Surfing With The Alien – Joe Satriani
Sugar We're Going Down – FallOut Boy
Talk to Me – Stevie Nicks
Far From Over – Frank Stallone
Long Way Down – Goo Goo Dolls
Feel Good – Gorillaz
Now That We've Found Love – Heavy D
Army of Me – Björk
Homemade Love – Journey
Any Way You Want It – Journey
Be Good to Yourself – Journey
It's Too Late – Helix
Reload – Rob Zombie
Zion – Fluke
In The End – Linkin Park
Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
Back in Black – AC/DC
Walk This Way – Aerosmith
Dude (Looks Like A Lady) – Aerosmith
Underneath – Alanis Morissette
Straitjacket – Alanis Morissette
Baba – Alanis Morissette
Old Time Rock & Roll – Bob Seger
Holding Out for a Hero – Bonnie Tyler
Foreplay/Long Time – Boston
Peace of Mind – Boston
Walk On – Boston
Stronger (Neptin Remix) – Britney Spears
Ride Like the Wind – Christopher Cross
Tubthumping – Chumbawamba What do you think? Have any suggestions about songs I should add?
It’s easy to get overwhelmed or even know where to start when you first sign up with Twitter. To help you along, I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned using Twitter. I hope you find them useful.
1) Who you follow is much more important than who follows you. If you followed a bunch of people who talk about nothing that interests you, would you find that valuable? Of course not. Only follow people and companies you find interesting and/or helpful.
2) This is closely related to #1 – Do not automatically follow whomever follows you. It might seem like the courteous thing to do, but what it really does is clutter up your Twitter feed with a lot of useless information. Also, you will quickly find that many of the people who follow you are only spammers trying to game the system. When someone new follows you, take a look at what they put out on Twitter. If seem interesting, follow them. If not, don’t.
3) Twitter is best used for two-way communication, not as a one-way marketing channel. Take the time to respond when someone sends you an @ mention.
4) Don’t start following a ton of people until you have put out some good content on Twitter yourself. I’m constantly getting followed by new users who are following 1300 people but have only tweeted eight times. It should go without saying that I don’t follow them back because I don’t find them interesting or helpful.
5) Use http://search.twitter.com/ to find interesting people to follow. If you’re into knitting, search for the word ‘knitting.’ Peruse the results, follow links that people share, send people @ replies if you find what they’ve shared interesting, and follow them. You can do this for any subject you’re interested in.
6) Follow people off Twitter, too. Find someone really cool on Twitter who also has a blog? Leave comments over there. Twitter is great, partially because it’s a great gateway to other sites.
7) Don’t expect overnight success. Twitter, as with everything else worthwhile, takes time.
8) Don’t be afraid to talk to big names – you’ll be surprised how often you get a response from someone semi-famous – but don’t make it the only reason you’re on Twitter, either. I’ve had some cool interaction with some pretty big names that I would not have had of not for Twitter.
9) Use your real name. If you decide to use a moniker, make your real name easy to find. Olivier Blanchard uses his company name on Twitter, @thebrandbuilder, but you only need to look at his Twitter page to find his real name. My web host, Surpass Hosting, is on Twitter as @surpass. If you look at their Twitter page you’ll see the names of the people who use the account, and they always sign their tweets with their initials so you always know who you’re talking to.
10) Promote other people and their content. If someone you follow tweets something interesting, retweet it so your own followers can see it. There’s also a tradition on Twitter called Follow Friday when you can suggest to your followers other people they might find interesting. Some people just provide a big list, but it’s more helpful to explain why you’re suggesting someone.
11) Ease into it. Get used to using it at your own pace. I currently follow about 1200 people. At one point last year when I was following 250 people, I couldn’t imagine following very many more. I obviously got past that, and that’s because I didn’t push myself unnecessarily and got used it.
This really just scratches the surface. I haven’t talked about the various online services and pieces of software built around making Twitter easier to use or more effective. None of that will do you much good, though, until you have the basics down. I’ll cover my favorite apps and services in a future post.
Professionalism is a mask we wear on top of our everyday personality, and is really a layer of formality through which our expertise is brought to the fore. The formality we express depends on the specific situation we’re in in any given moment.
That does not mean that professional interactions are impersonal. To the contrary, everything is personal. Whether it’s an encounter between a boss and employee or a customer service rep with a customer, every interaction begins and ends with the people underneath the mask of professionalism.
It is obviously possible to drop this mask. Indeed, we usually dispense with it entirely during, for example, a gathering of friends. There are also times when the personal peeks through the mask while we’re wearing it. I would even say this is required, as it helps build a strong rapport between employees, employees and customers, etc. While we may appreciate and admire the professional, it’s the person underneath we connect with.
The pleasant times when the mask can slip are pretty easy to handle. A coworker announces they’ve gotten engaged, or a customer calls to praise an employee – this is exactly when you want to let your mask slip a little.
It’s during the unpleasant times when you absolutely must keep the mask in place. A customer calls to complain and starts yelling at an employee. A boss jumps right to the threat of termination at the first sign of unwanted behavior from an employee. Taking off your mask like this is not merely unprofessional, it demonstrates a complete lack of respect for the person you’re dealing with. This is not something you want to do if you expect to have a continued relationship with the other person: The customer will have a bad reputation among the employees at that company, and the boss will become known as a tyrant.
Would you respect or want to do business with someone who demonstrated such behavior?
Your mask sets the tone of your reputation. Wear it well.
The single greatest strength of the internet is that it can be searched. Back in the day, long before Google, when Yahoo! was the biggest game in town and everyone was all hip about web portals, most people got around by merely clicking on links. Searching capability was practically a secondary focus. Then along came Google and a new internet paradigm. Search killed the old portals.
Search continues to be a huge focus, and it likely always will. The ability to search and find what you want, no matter the subject, has obvious advantages. However, I think it’s time to temporarily put search on the back burner so another aspect of search, long ignored, can be brought to maturity.
Filters.
When I perform a Google search, too often I get results for websites I find completely useless. Shopping.com, nextag.com, thomasnet.com, and many others. To me, they’re search result spam. I’ve never found these sites to be helpful. Some people might, but I don’t. I’d like to be able to exclude them – easily! – from my search results. eBay is another site I’d like to be able to exclude from my search results, but for a different reason; While I do shop on eBay once in a while, I do so quite intentionally. When I want to look for something on eBay, I search on their site, not through a search engine like Google. Being able to exclude eBay from my search results would be helpful.
The same goes for subscriptions, whether it’s subscribing to an RSS feed, following someone on Twitter, or customizing the layout on Google News. In each case, there are some things I have no desire to see.
Let’s take news first. When I’m looking at news online, whether it’s my local newspaper’s website or Google News, there are certain subjects I find (I’ll be polite) completely uninteresting. Tiger Woods. The Gosselins. Twilight. Why can’t I block these ‘news’ stories?
I use Twitter fairly heavily. I also use the silly location-based game Foursquare. That said, I don’t publish my Foursquare updates to Twitter. Even if I know you personally, I really don’t want to see your Foursquare updates within Twitter. Why can’t I block them?
RSS readers like Google Reader and Bloglines allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds and share items – but not block certain topics within those subscriptions. Why?
The internet wouldn’t work if not for search, but it’s long past time for filters to become as ubiquitous as search has become.
People are afraid of failure because the word itself comes with an image of burned down houses, living in a van by the river, not getting the girl (or guy), being alone, and getting fired.
Stop that. The vast majority of the time, failures are immediately followed by renewed effort and success. Don’t believe me? Let’s go through a few examples.
You’re driving through a new part of town and take a wrong turn. What do you do? You turn around and try again.
You’re making a pot roast for the first time and it comes out a lump of charcoal. What do you do? Go out for pizza, and remember next time to check the roast more often.
You’re sitting down at a coffee shop and you spill your coffee. What do you do? Get the mess cleaned up and get another coffee.
These are admittedly small things, but that’s just the point – we fail at lots of things every single day, yet all we have to do is try again. And the chances are pretty good that you won’t fail a second time.
Let me share with you a recent experience. Last weekend a pinhole leak developed in the 50+ year old plumbing in our basement. The only plumbing work I’d ever done prior to this was replacing a broken water shutoff valve under a toilet. I don’t like to hire people to do things I can do myself, so I did some quick research online about how to fix the problem and got down to business.
I ran up to Home Depot and got the parts I needed. I also got assistance from a Home Depot employee, making sure I had a decent grasp of what needed to be done. I got home, turned off the water, drained the plumbing, cut the pipes where they needed to be cut, assembled the parts I’d bought at Home Depot, hooked everything back up, and turned the water back on.
And… leaks. I had a couple of good-sized leaks in the two threaded fittings I used that were even worse than the original pinhole leak. I was a bit embarrassed by this – there were only two threaded fittings and I didn’t get either one right. As someone who likes working with his hands, this was definitely a failure.
I again turned the water off, drained the plumbing, removed the parts I’d added, reworked the threaded joints (this time with more teflon tape than I’d used before), reassembled everything, etc, etc.
The second time, nothing leaked.
What was I afraid of before I started? I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to repair the leak and would end up having to call a plumber. I was afraid of wasting water because of having to re-drain the house plumbing after every attempt. I was afraid of buying the wrong parts and having to make multiple trips to Home Depot. All very small things, really. None of them were going to cost me the house or land me in the hospital. If I had been afraid of the big possibility that comes to mind when you think of a water leak, flooding the basement, I might never have tried. But I knew enough – that I had to turn off our well pump since the leak was before the main water shutoff valve – to know that this big thing wasn’t really a possibility at all. All that was in front of me were small things.
Now, not only is the leak gone, but some old plumbing with questionable joints (where the pinhole leaked started, actually) has been removed entirely, a properly-sized shutoff valve installed, which lead to better water pressure (the previous one was actually undersized, causing a reduction in water flow), and a corner of the basement that was previously unusable is now usable because of the improvements I made while doing the repair – a totally unexpected benefit.
Embrace the possibility of failure. Don’t be afraid of it. Imagine the things you’ll accomplish.
