Month: January 2007

How To – Lightbox

Well well it may sound easy to implement the Lightbox photo album, but of course I think you all don’t mind some bits of the implementation details:

  1. First, download the Lightbox Javascript, unzip it, upload to your server …
  2. In the Lightbox /js/ directory, check the file lightbox.js, search the Configuration section. Ensure the paths to the two images are correct.
  3. In the Lightbox /css/ directory, check the file lightbox.css, ensure the paths to the image files are correct.
  4. Now back to the blog tool, find out the tiny-mce-xxx.js (xxx is your blog tool), probably in the js directory, and make sure the “a” element (i.e. the anchor tag) includes “rel” (i.e. the relationship attribute) in the line of extended_valid_elements. That change make the tinymce accepts “rel” in anchor tag (by default, tinymce will remove this attribute).
  5. Then, amend the template of your blog (in my case, the header.template) to include the few script tags and link tag (as specified in the Lightbox help page). That change includes extra js files to your blog pages – i.e. it will essentially slow down all the pages … sorry.
  6. Last step, create your blog post as usual, but don’t forget to include the “rel” attribute in the anchor tag, as in the Lightbox help page.

That’s it !!

Random Thought – Patriotism

Some friends of mine said they like this picture I took from Seoul, so here is the Black & White version of it. In fact, when I took this photo, I had a few question marks in my mind …

  • When was your last time you wear your country’s traditional costumes ?
  • When was your last time you sing the national anthem ?
  • When was your last time you’re ready to die for your country ?

As John Kennedy said … “… ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country …”

Web Idea: What The Duck

It’s not my own web idea, but the whattheduck.net illustrate one web idea that I found very interesting …

  • First the site, pretty much like a “new media”, is run by Aaron Johnson. This site hosts the Comic Strip “What the Duck” (a photographer), and you won’t find it in other traditional newspapers, magazines. In other words, the website is the only media that you can see the strips.
  • However, unlike other comic strip web sites, you can copy, download the strips to your site, blog, forum, newsletter etc. Royalty free, quite a breakthru model.
  • And somehow, each of the strips has no caption / title. Instead, viewers (i.e. site visitors) can send in their suggested caption of the strip as comments (This “tradition” began from strip #49). And Aaron will pick the best one (from his point of view) and apply to the strip. I think it’s a new and novel way to let the site vistors to participate in a comic strip.
  • Then, how Aaron make money ? You can buy all kinds of goods from this site, all with the “What the Duck” logo or theme – T-Shirts, baseball hats, clock, badge etc. etc.

The only complaint I have about this site is … mac.com is really slow.

Anyway, not bad, not bad … I hope you enjoy the strips and that good idea as much as I do.

Our Iceberg Is Melting

No, it is not about the movie An Inconvenient Truth (lower your PC speaker volume before you click the link), but it is a book that talks about Change Management.

It is a very thin book that you can probably finish it in a morning, yet with a very good story / fable (how a coloney of penguins find a new home because their hometown’s iceberg is melting). And yes, the whole idea of the story is about how to manage change in a very solid 8 steps:

  1. Create a sense of urgency to deal with a difficult problem
  2. Put a carefully selected group in charge of guiding the change
  3. Find the sensible vision of a better future
  4. Communicate that vision so others will understand and accept it
  5. Remove as many obstacles to action as is pactical
  6. Create some sort of success quickly
  7. Never let up until the new way of life is firmly established
  8. Ensure that the changes will not be overcome by stubborn, hard-to-die traditions

A very good read and highly recommended !!