Jimmy Z

Setting up pretty URLs is usually the first thing I do after installing a new WordPress blog. In this screencast, I will demonstrate how to turn your urls from looking like ?p=1 to /2008/2/16/post-name/. The process is pretty simple, but if file permissions aren’t set quite right, you may run into a little gotcha. This video shows how to correct this if you happen to run into that problem.

[Click here to download(.mov)] [Watch at Viddler (at full-screen or original size)]

Note About Pretty URLs

Pretty URLs, also known as Search Engine Friendly URLs, will help your blog’s content to be indexed better by Google and the other search engines. This is possible because the url itself describes the content of a page or post. Again, this isn’t the only factor that will affect your search engine rankings, but it will contribute to better rankings.

About My Sponsors

I am an affiliate of Hostmonster and Bluehost. I receive a commission for any account sign-ups that are referred from this site. This allows me to put in the time necessary to deliver useful content. This blog is hosted on Hostmonster. I have been a customer of both Hostmonster and Bluehost for several years now and have been very satisfied by their customer service and reliability. Hostmonster and Bluehost are the same company.

Tagged with: beginner, screencasts, wordpress

Installing and maintaining a WordPress blog is really nice on Hostmonster and Bluehost because it uses Fantastico, a very nice application manager. In this screencast, I will walk you through the steps of setting up a new WordPress installation.

Click here to download

Note About WordPress

WordPress is a very nice piece of software that can be used for more than just blogs. In future screencasts, I will show how to use WordPress to create a corporate informational site. I will also show how you can actually use WordPress to sell products.

A Note About My Sponsor

Please note: I am an affiliate of Hostmonster and Bluehost. I receive a commission for any account sign-ups that are referred from this site. This allows me to put in the time necessary to deliver useful content. This blog is hosted on Hostmonster. I have been a customer of both Hostmonster and Bluehost for several years now and have been very satisfied by their customer service and reliability. Hostmonster and Bluehost are the same company.

Tagged with: beginner, bluehost, hostmonster, screencasts, wordpress

Setting up a subdomain on Hostmonster and Bluehost is pretty simple. This video will show how I set up the subdomain tutorials.jimmyzimmerman.com. The next screencast will show how I installed Wordpress on that domain.

Click Here to Play

Note About Subdomains

Many people prefer to use subdomains to organize the content of their site. For example, I might have used blog.jimmyzimmerman.com instead of jimmyzimmerman.com/blog/. Perhaps blog.jimmyzimmerman.com would have been an easier URL to remember.

One thing to consider is that subdomains are looked upon by Google and other search engines as separate sites. This is important when considering a site’s PageRank. By placing my blog under my main domain, I could share the PageRank of my overall site and my blog posts could get listed in search results better. Therefore, it’s a matter of weighing the benefit of a cleaner URL to the potential PageRank gains of having it all on one domain. In the end, having good content on your site will be the most important factor for search engine rankings.

A Note About My Sponsor

Please note: I am an affiliate of Hostmonster and Bluehost. I receive a commission for any account sign-ups that are referred from this site. This allows me to put in the time necessary to deliver useful content. This blog is hosted on Hostmonster. I have been a customer of both Hostmonster and Bluehost for several years now and have been very satisfied by their customer service and reliability. Hostmonster and Bluehost are the same company.

Tagged with: beginner, bluehost, hostmonster, screencasts

I have set up several Wordpress blogs for family and friends and have decided that I would create a series of screencasts showing how to accomplish several tasks created for users ranging from a beginner experience level to an advanced user.

These screencasts will be centered around a hosting provider such as Bluehost or Hostmonster or any other hosting provider that gives you access to Cpanel or Fantastico.

I plan to cover the following topics:

• How to use Hostmonster/Bluehost for a domain purchased at GoDaddy
• How to set up a subdomain on Hostmonster/Bluehost
• How to install a Wordpress blog on Hostmonster/Bluehost
• How to set up Search Engine Friendly, Pretty URLs with Wordpress
• How to install new themes on Wordpress
• How to set up a basic informational website with WordPress
• How to filter spam comments with Wordpress
• How to customize existing Wordpress themes by using Firebug
• How to add a tag cloud to your Wordpress blog
• How to sell products using Wordpress
• How to install plugins
• How to create your own plugins

I will be linking to the new tutorials from this page as they are created. If there are any other topics you would like me to cover, please post a comment. I will gladly try to cover any topic of interest.

Please note: I am an affiliate of Hostmonster and Bluehost. I receive a commission for any account sign-ups that are referred from this site. This allows me to put in the time necessary to deliver useful content. This blog is hosted on Hostmonster. I have been a customer of both Hostmonster and Bluehost for several years now and have been very satisfied by their customer service and reliability. Hostmonster and Bluehost are the same company.

Tagged with: bluehost, hostmonster, screencasts, wordpress

I always forget the command for doing this so I’m posting it here so I can find it easily.

If you want to overwrite accessors in rails (ActiveRecord), you will run into problems if you try to do it the same way you would with a regular Ruby object. For example, say you want to apply a transformation to an attribute as you assign it:

@person.name = 'ralph'

You always want name to be capitalized, so you would like to modify the name= method. With plain Ruby you would just do:

def name=(value)
@name = value.capitalize
end

You can’t do this with ActiveRecord, you will need to use a method named write_attribute so the method will look like:

def name=(value)
write_attribute(:name, value.capitalize)
end

There is also a read_attribute method to help with overwriting the read method on your attributes in ActiveRecord

Tagged with: rails, ruby

My brother Dave runs Noisebox Studios which offers the best value recording services of any Utah recording studio. Located in Orem, Utah, Noisebox Studios is a great choice for any band or music artist who is looking to get a top quality recording at an affordable price. If you are a musician in Utah Valley, definitely check out his studio. Dave’s use of state-of-the-art software, equipment, and deep music knowledge and talent make recording at Noisebox Studios the best choice for Utah artists.

State-of-the-art Software and Equipment

Noisebox Studios uses a variety of state-of-the-art software including Pro Tools 7.3 HD2, Sonar 6.2, and Melodyne 3 for pitch correction. The studio has a whole array of incredible equipment that I’m not going to even attempt to talk about since I don’t know what most of it actually does, but check out the studio pictures.

Deep Music Knowledge and Talent

Dave holds a Bachelor of Arts in Media Music from BYU which has given him a solid foundation in music composition, song writing, and instrumental performance. He is a very good drummer and pianist. He has 18 years of drumming experience and 22 years of piano experience. He studied percussion under Jay Lawrence and Dr. Ron Brough, and studied Jazz Piano under Jim Kirchner. During his time at BYU he played in various Jazz Combos, Panoramic Steel, Percussion Ensemble, and was the drum set player for the BYU Men’s Basketball pep band. While finishing school, Dave taught drum lessons at the Crescent School of Music in American Fork, Utah.

After graduation, he accepted a position as a sound engineer at Utah’s famous Tuacahn Amphitheater in St. George. There he met the band Kennedy, and he recorded their first album together. He now enjoys recording, mixing, and mastering music full-time at Noisebox Studios.

Bands and Artists Recorded

Artists that Noisebox Studios has recorded, mixed, and/or mastered include Truman, BYU’s 2007 Battle of the Bands winner; Kennedy, a popular local band of St. George; Mark “Fingermix” Smith, who is a past Pearl award winner. Check out the Noisebox demos page to hear some of the songs and see some of the other artists that have been recorded, mixed, and/or mastered at the studio.

Services Offered

* Recording - vocal, instrumental, audio books, and podcasts
* Mixing - even if you’ve recorded your own music
* Mastering
* Composition - full orchestrated compositions to accompany video, games, etc.

Tagged with: companies, music, utah

I believe that most innovation comes from the question “How would I rather do this?” It seems pretty simple and obvious, but I can’t imagine a scenario where that question wouldn’t have been asked before something great had been created.

Just a thought to keep in mind.

Tagged with: innovation