Radkitten

Arizona Textures

Star — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:03:04 +0000

I have a couple of new textures to add after my trip to Tombstone, Arizona. I was able to get some nice photographs there that I can’t usually get here in the south east. These textures are pretty simple. I hope you like them. Please leave me a comment to show how you’ve used them.

Inspiration In Fashion

Star — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:50:27 +0000

I was watching a commercial recently for a school where students were gaining inspiration from eachother. The fashion student was inspired by spring and the art student was inspired by the fashion students clothing, etc. Recently I got a shirt I was completely in love with and I decided I wanted to make a website design just like it. At that point a realized it’s a great suggestion for my readers.

I found a brand of clothing, Lucky Brand, that has quite a few inspirational pieces. They’re not just great clothes, but their retro style gave me some great ideas for new designs. They’re an American brand with a strong influence from rock ‘n roll music. Personally I have to say that’s my perfect style.

Clothing isn’t the only spark of inspiration I’ve gotten from them. Accessories also give me some great ideas for layout accessories. The current design on Radkitten has a ‘necklace’ of its own with the stars at the top linking to my sites (color coded to match the designs on those sites).

I’ve grown up loving vintage, hippie-style clothing and I really wish I’d found this company sooner. I’ve got a real soft spot for the great design style they’ve produced and I like to reflect that part of my personal on my sites and in my designs as well.

Have you ever been inspired by clothing (without actually using the clothing in your creation) in your own creative designs, ideas, etc? Tell me about it in the comments.

Wordpress Security Update

Star — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:34:16 +0000

Wordpress has admitted to missing some of the security issues in the most recent 2.8.2 release and asks that you update to 2.8.3 immediately. Now that the security issues are known, you are at risk.

Critical Wordpress Update

Star — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:09:00 +0000

A few clients have come to me recently to let me know that their site has been hacked. They all run Wordpress on their site but were unaware of the critical update that stopped users from injecting code into your pages. I’ve found a site that explains this all very well, so check out the article at Unmask Parasites.

If you were a victim, or haven’t upgraded your Wordpress yet, you may be interested in taking a step to secure your blog by joining the newsletter. You will also want to subscribe to the blog RSS.

The first step to securing your website is you. Don’t blame your host because your outdated and insecure scripts infected your site. Everyone on a server has different needs and to run the scripts you want to use, and the other clients to run the scripts they want, there has to be flexibility in security. You cannot expect to run any script with any insecurities and for your hosting company to be able to block off all attacks. If you’re looking for a host tailored to your specific security needs and no one elses, it may be time to go dedicated. If you’re cheap and need to keep paying $20 a year, it’s time to learn to keep regular backups of your own and expect problems now and again.

Shopping Online, Fast and Easy

Star — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:01:12 +0000

In the current economic situation, everyone’s cutting back on spending as much as they can. I’ve noticed in my own business that clients are trying to cut back and as a result, I’ve had to cut back on my own spending by getting rid of DirecTV and lowering my internet speed. But some things are still very necessary, like school supplies, clothes, computers, etc. I had to buy some new pans recently (mine were terrible) and I spent about 4 hours looking around and deciding where to buy from to get the best deal. I didn’t want to pay $150 one place, then find I could’ve saved $40 by going somewhere else.

Just the other day I stumbled across a link to ShopWiki, which is a site that will list the price of a product at stores online and offline so you can pick the best deal. It’s almost kind of like Froogle, but it lists a lot more stores and it’s much more accurate. It lists the pan set I bought ranging from $114 to $149 and includes the store where I bought it for $119. I was so relieved to find that I had gotten a good deal, I tried again for my computer. Turns out the computer I kinda got shafted on, this site could’ve saved me $300. Next time I have a purchase, I’m checking ShopWiki first.

They also have a directory that will help you pick a product when you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for. If you click Desktop Computers it brings you to a list of the types of desktop computers with information about them and their Pros and Cons. Personally, I suggest the HP Touchsmart All In One. They have a site for those of you in the UK and Australia as well.

I like the fact that the site’s design doesn’t distract from the content and that it’s not covered in graphics or banners. Not everyone thinks a site’s design is as important as its content, but I do. If a site is too busy, has too many graphics ads, or has an unattractive design I’m not likely to stay and much less likely to come back. The simplicity of the site makes it incredibly efficient. What will you do with all that extra time you’re not comparing prices?

Blogging Easy

Star — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:33:00 +0000

I recently restored my laptop to its original settings to clear out any unwanted files I may have picked up over the past few months and I decided to set it up so I can work from my laptop, too. I had heard from another site about Windows Live Writer, which is a program you can install to your computer and blog to any Wordpress blogs. I set it up a few days ago and set up all my blogs, but this is my first time using it to post. I must say, it’s pretty convenient.

You can use it with a lot of different blogging platforms including Wordpress (hosted), Wordpress.com, Blogger, Livejournal, TypePad, etc. Imagine having all your blogs accessible in one spot. The only thing you need to do to switch between them is pull down a drop menu and choose the blog name. It definitely makes keeping up with multiple blogs much easier. When your blog is your income, like mine, you need every advantage you can get to update quickly.

I’ve actually signed up with the whole suite of Windows Live programs, so I’ll be trying them all out this week. If you have Windows Live, come find me.

Pink, too

Star — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:25:32 +0000

Okay, so I was a little excited and decided to make a pink one, too. Not my best work, but very cute nonetheless. I hope you enjoy it. And remember, you must tweet a thank-you for the theme and include my link if you use the background.

These colors are just suggested, I think they look amazing together.

Background: #FF98A1 (lighter pink)
Text: #404040 (dark grey)
Links: #E84C5B4 (pink)
Sidebar: #FFFFFF (white)
Sidebar Border: #FEE6E8

Background Image: Click Here To View/Download

Something New & Blue

Star — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:50:45 +0000

I’ve been thinking about making Twitter themes a lot lately, but they’re a little difficult because you have to be very specific with them. It’s impossible to put your site name on it, because I don’t know your site name. But I think I’ve made one that looks pretty decent without any words at all. I have it up on Lala Land’s twitter right now, so you can see it here. It won’t be up long, though, because I plan to make a custom one very soon.

All you need to use this theme is the background image and colors. Of course, you can use whatever colors you want, but these are mine:

Background: #FFFFFF (white)
Text: #808080 (grey)
Links: #458CA4 (blue)
Sidebar: #FFFFFF (white)
Sidebar Border: #D2D2D1

Background Image: Click Here to View and Download

The only thing I require for the use of my theme is a quick plug on your twitter to Radkitten.net when you let everyone know you’ve put it up. If you’d like, also add @radkittennet to the beginning of the message so I can see it, too.

Making Subject Brighter in PS

Star — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:30:36 +0000

Here’s a video tutorial I created to show you how to make just a subject in an image bright, without raising the brightness of the entire image. This is useful for when you have a close subject against a bright background and/or a strong backlight.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Do you like the video? Should I make a non-video companion post that uses images and text? Is there anything I should do differently?

Looking For Portfolio Project

Star — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:10:23 +0000

I’d like to show diversity in my portfolio by adding different types of work. Right now I have a custom Wordpress theme, a custom website layout, and a template revamp. I’m looking into adding installation and customization of scripts and website optimization. There are a few more things, but right now I’m going to focus on these. If you’re interested in getting these services free of charge, please comment here and I’ll reply back to you via email.

Today I decided that the Flickr link I had above wasn’t serving the purposes I had planned, so I’ve changed it to a Technorati link. Please click the Technorati link and add it as a favorite. You can also help me out by blogging about one of my posts or my site on your own blog and I will certainly return the favor.

I added a plugin to the site but wasn’t using it, and I found it broke my CSS validation. I didn’t realize that could happen, so I wanted to remind everyone to check their validation regularly, especially after adding plugins, etc. I also spent an hour trying to fix a problem that wasn’t in the CSS at all, but in the image code of an entry where Wordpress had added a bunch of unnecessary hooplah. That’s all cleared out now and I’m 100% CSS Valid again. XHTML Validation is going to be much more difficult because some of its issues are in my technorati link and inside Wordpress functions (the tag cloud). For the most part, though, it’s good.

Hoping to add some new content today as well. Looking for affiliates.