I launched the current Nusuni.com theme in July. Well, as soon as I launched it I realized I left out the search box, so I tossed it on top of the sidebar (I wanted to originally put it where the subscription info is).

Today I finally went to move the search box to the top and I’ve have come to the conclusion this whole thing is just completely unoptimized (files loading files loading messed up CSS files, yuck).

So, sticking with the tradition around here of tweaking the theme every month or so, I’m doing it once more. Sometime later today or tomorrow I will post a screenshot of what the new slightly modified theme will look like to see if you guys like it (if you don’t I’ll leave it as is and just clean up the existing PHP files).

I’m trying to make it much less boring (more images in posts, I promise!), and a bit more optimized (eg: cleaning useless code out of the PHP files).

I am still not sure what I’m going to do with the header/menu area, so please chime in with any ideas. I’m leaning toward changing the menu text and making the whole header area fixed size instead of having it stretchy. What do you think?

The sidebar will also be condensed a bit more and some bugs with it will be fixed for IE 6 users (believe it or not some people still use that)

So since I’ll have Photoshop and TextWrangler opened up with the theme stuff I figure, heck, let’s see if you guys have any ideas. Feel free to chime in, you’re thoughts really do help a lot.

I’ve been trying to come up with a software license to distribute my code and programs with. I’ve never been a big fan of the GPL (too long, too complicated, makes the FSF look like Microsoft), which is why I pretty much never release anything under it. I’ve been looking around at the various license and have decided to use a slightly customized version of the BSD license, code named NBSL (No BS License):

* Copyright (c) <year>, <copyright holder>
* All rights reserved.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
*     * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
*       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
*     * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
*       notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
*       documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
*     * Neither the name of the <organization> nor the names of its
*       contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
*       this software without specific prior written permission.
*     * All covered works, regardless of whether they are in source code or
*       binary format, must remain publicly-accessible open source projects
*       and be distributed for free.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY <copyright holder> “AS IS” AND ANY
* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
* WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
* DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL <copyright holder> BE LIABLE FOR ANY
* DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
* (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
* LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
* ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
* (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
* SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

I only added one extra thing to it. The BSD license does not say a project has to be open source and free, I added a simple line that covers that. All works covered by the license must be open source projects (and be publicly accessible), and they must be distributed freely, and because of the first two lines of the license that covers all spin-off projects as well.

I was very careful in wording the last line. It means that even if you distribute a binary under the license then the binary must also be open source and free.

Further modifications to it will be made in the near future.

Here’s my favorite posts from August:

WordPress Hacks

How To Stop WordPress From Auto-Creating A Htaccess File - This “feature” of WordPress is so absolutely annoying. I got sick of having to keep deleting the .htaccess that it auto-created (which broke my non-www to www redirector), so I disabled it and wrote up a tutorial explaining how I did it.

How To Load WordPress From A Static PHP Script - A quick’n'dirty hack to make static PHP scripts use WordPress. It is how my Uptime/Downtime calculator uses the same theme as the blog.

Misc

Sorry About The Downtime - The HD on my shared server died, and HostGator took care of it immediately. They even got rid of the old server and switched to a brand new one.

SEO

Remember, PageRank Is Constantly Updating - Something that many Webmasters and SEOs forget about, the PR number that Google uses to rank your pages is never the same as the number that displays on the toolbar. The toolbar number is always out of date.

Webmaster Goodies

Launching Webmaster Tools Section - First Tool Released - I officially released a webmaster tools section here on Nusuni.com. The first tool was also released!

A Quick Look At DNS - A really quick look at how DNS works.

Personal Development

How To Achieve Your Goals - 5 ways to ensure you always achieve your blogging goals.

7 Ways To Increase Your Productivity - This is probably my favorite post of the month.

There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Formula For Internet Success - Something that a professional “whatever” says might not always apply to you. You cannot do the same exact thing as a professional and expect to get the same exact result.

Take That Extra Second Out Of Your Life - Even doing something as simple as holding a door open helps someone, and helping other people is a great way of living a happier life.

In the past few days I’ve seen about 10 stories like this that claim Google “owns” your content submitted to docs and spreadsheets. Too bad those stories are misleading and are only telling half of the story.

Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any Content you submit, post or display on or through Google services and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, modify, publish and distribute such Content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services. Google reserves the right to syndicate Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services and use that Content in connection with any service offered by Google. Google furthermore reserves the right to refuse to accept, post, display or transmit any Content in its sole discretion.

For starters, Sentence #1 clearly states Google does not own your content.

The second sentence (By submitting, posting or displaying…) says that if you make the content publicly available this clause applies, but it doesn’t apply to private data.

And the sentences that most people quote in those stories (in the middle of that paragraph) only say Google can use the content for promotion (well duh, they want to show off what their services can do), and it says they can syndicate your content (use it on one of the many Google blogs to show off their service, for example).

And one last thing, that only affect content that you post through a Google service (in this case docs and spreadsheet). Content held elsewhere is still yours (a point that doesn’t seem to be getting through!)

So let’s recap, Google doesn’t own your content nor do they claim to in any way, shape, or form, Google can modify your content or whatever only for promotion purposes, and that the content affected by that paragraph has to be submitted through a Google app (in this case docs and spreadsheet). And, this clause only applies to publicly available content, not private stuff.

Evil? No. Business people? Yes.

Planning for the future is as easy as 1-2-3. Here are 5 things you can do to plan out your goals and actually achieve them:

1) Be Realistic. Let’s face it, very few people become millionaires overnight. Not everyone can be like the “Million Dollar Homepage” guy and come up with the next great idea. If you’re one of those people, then good for you, but the rest of us have to take baby steps. The key is to set your big goals - the things you want to ultimately achieve - and then set little goals (baby steps) for each week, month, etc.

2) Don’t Use A Catapult You Can’t Handle. Taking a catapult may seem like a quick way of traveling but unfortunately most of us will fall flat on our ass if we use them. It may seem like a good idea to buy a product that promises fame and fortune, but will it really do that? Does cheating your way to the top seem like the way to go? Do you want to take the “fast route” just because you are impatient? If so, you need to take a serious look at your basic values. The best way to avoid these problems is to set your goals carefully, and if you find you are trying to take an unethical fast route correct it immediately.

3) Be Prepared To Work Hard. This is one thing I’ve learnt over and over. I have the ultimate goal of eventually being able to live off Internet income. While I knew it was going to take hard work, I couldn’t imagine how much time it would actually take. The blogging itself is fine, but all the extra crap (promotion, SEO) that takes most of my time. Not to mention there are about 30 other things I’m working on as well. So yeah, hard work.

4) Have A Backup Plan. Do you have a plan to fall-back on in case of an emergency? If you want to retire to some tropical paradise do you have a plan for the “just in case” scenario. What happens if your house burns down, your spouse dies, or you get seriously injured thanks to some drunk driver? These are all things that you should be thinking about.

5) Have Fun And Reward Yourself. Working in a fun and relaxed environment is always the best way to do things. If you achieve one of your little goals, eat an extra piece of cake or something. Do something to help keep yourself stress-free and give yourself an extra incentive to work hard and stick to your goals.

If you want even more goal-setting tips why not take a look at these articles:

Blogging Strategy: Goals
Do You Have Blog Goals?