I wrote an entry on Konigi about how I'm using Drupal's Taxonomy Module on that site. This is using Drupal version 5.x.

Hidden Pixels recently rounded up the available CSS frameworks into a list. I happen to be evaluating CSS frameworks as well to find a flexible system to provide on a CMS I'm working on. The Hidden Pixels list isn't very descriptive of the specific usage or value each framework has to offer, so I've provided a summary of each to make this a useful reference when evaluating the list.

I just discovered you can use pre-populate module to select a contact category in a Drupal contact form.

For instance, if you have 3 categories for your contact form and want to pass an url to pre-select category 3, just pass ?edit[cid]=3 in your link, e.g. http://yourdomain.com/contact?edit[cid]=3.

Nice.

emastic is an interesting looking CSS Framework that is designed for both fixed and fluid layout. It looks like a nice alternative to fluid layouts than YUI Grids, with simpler and more flexible column structuring and class naming.

* Lightweight (compressed weight less then 4kb)
* Personalized width of the page in (em,px,%)
* Use of fixed and fluid columns in the grid.
* Elastic Layout with "em"s

Blueprint is going to have to catch up and produce a version for fluid layouts.

Well, it finally happened. I got too lazy to comb through the relationships in the taxonomy I've been using on this site over the years and I've decided to stop creating parent/child relationships. So now I only have the tag clouds. I still separate the facets for subject and people.

I believe taxonomy and thesauri to be useful when describing content for the purposes of browsing, especially to first time users of a system. It makes sense when classifying content in business information systems, reference or documentation content, newspaper and magazine sites, etc. It's useful for CMS with granular levels description. But the level of effort to maintain it over time is significant, and I never really know what the right methods are in Drupal to do things like show links to related tags when browsing taxonomy, or show related links on nodes in this site.

As I see it, I've got 2 problems:

1. Creation Issue: I want to continue to organically tag as I create nodes. But I also want to create the relationships for each tag I create while I'm creating the tag in Node>Add mode, rather than having to go find it afterward in my non-searchable taxonomy controls.
2. Relationship Display Issues: I want to better show relationships on both taxonomy pages (see also: synonyms, navigate to: parents) and in nodes (more entries like this, i.e. an algorithmically generated list of nodes weighted to show those containing most of the terms used in this entry).

The relationship creation is painful, though, because by freetagging, I put off the task until some later time--which seems to never come. I don't yet know how I'm going to deal with this growing problem. I've just decided to stop caring for this blog. I'm sure others could care less, but I used to use the hierarchical list of my taxonomies occasionally to survey what I've been writing about. I just haven't found the proper way to what I want in Drupal yet.

For now, all I know is that I have this big-ass tag cloud that becomes more and more difficult to maintain and explore in a meaningful way. I'm not sure how to make better of use of it, without knowing what Drupal modules work best for my needs. It's been a while since I've looked at the contributed taxonomy modules. This might be the kick in the pants I need to go see what good stuff people have come up with for problems like mine.

I screencasted the admin toolbar I use on this site. I've been stripping out as much of the theme areas as possible to make the content more prominent. If I'm logged in, however, I see a mini toolbar at the top of the screen that gives me access to the admin areas I need access to.

To subscribe to the urlgreyhot podcast, head to jibbajabba.blip.tv.

Victor Lombardi of Smart Experience and I begin DAKISSA, a podcast that looks at innovations in interface design. You can view the podcast on Konigi or at dakissa.blip.tv where you can subscribe via your RSS reader or iTunes.

S3Hub allows you to view your S3 online storage, upload, download, set permissions, share with friends and more.

websnapr is a screenshot service that lets you post screenshots to your by simply referencing the image url in your content. The image above is a websnapr screenshot.

After you register for a developer key, you will be able to provide access to up to 250,000 screenshots every 30 days. Each screenshot includes some text in the bottom right corner reading, "powered by websnapr." For higher volume usage or white labeled service, you can pay for a premium account.

Thanks, Victor.

One of the best things about working at Traction is that the team lives and breathes because of the product—every process is conducted through the software we sell. It's not a matter of eating your own dog food, it's a matter of creating the tool that lets you work the way you want to work.

This is the first in a series of screencasts I'm doing as I'm starting to dive deeper into Traction TeamPage. I expect that I'll spend a little time as an end-user really immersing myself in the product for a while. The end game is to focus the product on ease of use, and simpler interactions that provide access to the most needed features on the surface, while still keeping the expert features within arms reach.

One of the features I recently began to appreciate is the shared folder functionality. This feature provides WebDav access to folders on the server, so you can do version control of documents in your repository. This quick demo shows how to access those documents natively in the Mac OS Finder without having to go to the web interface. It's useful for people who handle files frequently.

The Applescript that's needed to mount the shared folder volume is shown below. This script basically tells the finder to open your server, but with Quicksilver accessing the script, you don't have to first navigate to the finder to get there.