William Beem » Social Networking

The Switch to WordPress

William — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:43:15 +0000

After months (or was it years) of bitching about Movable Type, I’ve finally switched to WordPress. I really wanted Movable Type to step up with the same ease of configuration as WordPress. Themes & plugins just work. You can code if you want, but you don’t have to do it.

Both platforms have a thriving community of users, but the WordPress community seems to work the way I want to work. I think it’s a much more artistic community, given the plethora of themes I’ve reviewed. I settled on a theme called ArtSee from Elegant Themes. $20 for a year and access to all the themes on the site. Changing or customizing a theme is as simple changing configurations on a panel; turning options on or off. Doing the same on Movable Type would require changes in HTML & CSS. Oh, sure, they tried to make a Style Library. Take a look. Ugly colors, but the same theme. It’s pathetic.

Importing the old posts was fairly easy, but there are new features available with the theme I’m using. I may go back and make some modifications to use those features, or maybe I’ll just move forward from this point. It’s something for me to ponder. I’m happy with my new toy. Now it’s time to see what else I can make it do.

Hello, world.

A Slight Diversion and a New Blog

William — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:47:21 +0000

I recently created another blog specific to my interest in Photography. While I haven’t exactly been burning up the Internet with posts on this one, I think I’m about to make some changes. Part of the reason I’ve not written here quite so often is my frustration with Movable Type – just signing in pisses me off.
The new blog is under Word Press and I’m thinking it’s time to change everything to that platform. While MT is fine for corporate accounts & Britney Spears, who can hire developers to tinker around with it, it’s just a giant pain in the ass for a guy like me who only wants a decent configuration tool so he can get to the business of writing. MT’s online configuration tool is laughable.
Until I can make some changes here, please feel free to join me at http://williambeem.com if you have an interest in photography.

Going to California

William — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:49:53 +0000

I’m heading off to San Francisco next week for a business trip. It’s been ten years since I was last in town and I didn’t have a camera with me on that trip (also for business). This time, I’m hoping to steal a few hours to make some shots around town. I’ll be honest, I’m going for some of the cliche shots that most everyone else has made. There may be a million photos of the Golden Gate Bridge, but none of them are mine.

Coming into a strange town and not knowing where things are can sometimes make it difficult to find the great shots. Fortunately, I have an advantage for this trip. Thomas Hawk wrote a blog post about his Top 10 Places for Photography in San Francisco. Complete with sample images from his Flickr and Zooomr pages, it’s an illustrated guide to some excellent scenic photography for the San Francisco area.

Honestly, I’m not going to have much time to shoot. I have about a half a day when I arrive and then the evening after work before I depart the next day. There’s no way to truly do all of the city justice on such a short trip. Using Hawk’s post and photos as a guide, I narrowed down my selections and marked them on a Google Map.

View Larger Map

Even these selections may turn out to be more than I can fit into such a short space of time, but at least I’ll have some points of reference. Using the map also helps me determine which sites are close enough together that I can fit in a few spots in a relatively short location space.

Close together or not, there are some shots that I’m reasonably determined to get – views of the Golden Gate Bridge, from Twin Peaks, the seal rocks by Sutro Baths, and the catwalk view from the Mandarin Oriental.

This really demonstrates the power of social networks and sharing. Thomas wrote this excellent guide to help answer folks who typically e-mail him for tips about where to shoot in San Francisco. He and others shared some outstanding photos of San Francisco and the surrounding area on Flickr & Zooomr that are easily searchable. Google Maps gives me a tool to pinpoint my own interests and then add it to my blog to share with others. The tools work fine separately, but the real power comes from combination and sharing. When I get back, I’ll share my shots and maybe it’ll help someone else decide how to approach their photos in San Francisco. Maybe it’ll show them what they don’t want to do. Either way, this is pretty cool. My trip will turn out better because of the social technology and sharing of people I’ve never met.