More notes on v6

This post follows on from my previous one and mostly covers the changes I've made to the rest of this site. But before that, there was some interest in the WordPress plugins that I'm using:

• Configurable Tag Cloud (hoping to switch to Cumulus when it's more customisable)
• Fuzzy DateTime (for the tooltips on my timestamps)
• Get Recent Comments
• Popularity Contest (most popular posts)
• Similar Posts
• the_excerpt Reloaded (more customisable than WP's default excerpt function, it allows you to exclude elements such as images, links, etc.)
• WP Super Cache (installed after reading this)

I should add that I've modified some of them to better fit my requirements.

And on to the rest.

Home: I'm still deciding if I like the "splash page" approach or not. The idea for the "latest updates" list is that it will include updates to my portfolio and photography sections. It's a nasty bit of work to make that happen so it's just listing my recent blog posts for now.

Portfolio: I removed a lot of old projects and added in a few new ones, and there's a couple others outstanding that I'll be adding over time. I'm using jQuery's ThickBox for inline popups which contain full screenshot images or iframed content.

Photography: I'm still using the discontinued Oberkampf script to mirror my Flickr content, but am considering switching to phpFlickr which is more active. Unfortunately the Flickr API doesn't support Collections yet, and until then I can't think of any better way to list my photosets other than a long list. I'm using ThickBox again to display larger sizes and slideshows.

Bio: I rewrote the copy and added a silly photo - not very exciting.

Contact: I added a downloadable vCard, and you can also find me on Twitter.

There are four sections that I've removed - "projects", "words", "links" and "weblob":

• Projects: this page stagnated from day one of v5. So I ditched it.
• Words: an assortment of jokes/quotes/whatever that I've collected over the years - are now integrated into my blog, and you can find them using the words tag.
• Links: I'm planning to reintroduce this section once I've integrated my 1180+ links with a social bookmarking service. I've tried the popular ones (del.icio.us, ma.gnolia, BlinkList, Furl) and I don't like any of them so far. del.icio.us I found to be the most ridiculous - by default it flags imported bookmarks as "not shared", which means I have to manually change each individual bookmark's privacy setting! Where's the love? I also struggled with tag renaming, it's really buggy.
• Weblob: my "mini blog" or "side notes" as they're more commonly known, which consisted of random links (accompanied by a short snippet or personal commentary) that weren't substantial enough to warrant their own blog post. This is also something I'd like to reintroduce but I haven't yet decided how exactly, although I have some ideas.

And that's all folks! Regular blogging will resume...