Blogger getting new look in April, most likely final notice

If you have been using Blogger, you should already know that Google has been trying to get you to switch to the new blogger interface. You might have been able to escape the change, but you thought wrong. In April, Blogger is getting a new look in April. The image above shows this on  the old style dashboard. I personally have been using the new interface, but had to go back to the old one to make regular template backups. I was experimenting with my HTML of this page earlier today, trying to get a new button put in, which I will talk to you about at some later time.


Draw your own conclusions below if you want. I will have mine posted below.

Slight Comment Changes

Hello all. Just wanted to announce some slight changes that are going on with the comments. I have been experimenting with something called CSS (Click to read about it on Wikipedia). Disqus is insanely flexible, and I have said that many of times. You are allowed to use custom CSS rules to adjust your system however you like.


So I have altered the comments slightly over the past few days, and today, and want to announce it.

• Comment Headers-This is where most of the changes are. You now see that the Disqus commenter names are a slight gray color, and are no longer clickable if you are using a standards supporting browser (yes IE, I am calling you out). This is due to the amount of comments slipping by because the spammers or bots are posting the spam links in the name field, where you used to click to go to the users listed website. There is one easy fix to this without having to add some code, just to turn guest commenting off. This would affect community interaction in my opinion, but would not help much, as the spammers/bots are using registered accounts. So now the header is a new grayish color, the hyperlink is no longer active, and the font size is 10pt.

• Disqus Comment Body-There was a few changes here, mostly about the interface. The a:hover links (such as the like/edit, reply, time posted/replied from comment if the comment was a reply, and the moderate link (mods only) now changes to a black color when your cursor hovers over the link. The pointer:default still says the same. This black changing color does not transfer to other a:hover links, such as the logout link. The custom CSS has the dsq-comment-body class in it, so it does not apply to everything if any techies out there wanted to a little deeper and wanted an explainiation.

And that is just about it. I'll post any more comment changes here if I do any more changes for now. If you would like to provide feedback here about the comments, go ahead and post a  comment below any article or contact me with the content info provided at the bottom of the page.

Disqus down for scheduled maintenance, comments will go dark for that period of time

Dear readers,
This is just a fair warning about the comments for this site. If you do not know already, the comments here are powered by Disqus, a insanely flexible discussion system. It is set to go into maintenance for a time span of 3 hours or so, but what they are doing is only going to be around 30 minutes.


Below is a screenshot of the message they posted on their Disqus Status site.

Be sure to not pay attention to what the time says in this picture, because this is just a screenshot

I'll update back there when comments are back to normal.


Update: 10:10pm EST-Everything is back to normal now.

Like a post? Make sure you do this...

Hello readers. Just wanted to remind all of you what you should do when you like a post here. The first thing you should see below each blog post is the share buttons. An an image is below.

If you like an article, you can email it, Blog it, share on twitter, and share on facebook. The last thing is the Google +1 button. I recommend that when you like an article, as well as clicking on the Disqus like buttons. The +1 button also makes my posts show up even better on search engine results. Both give me feedback on what to post.

This was taken when I was signed in as a moderator, so the gear icon won't show up unless you are a moderator here.

So here is what the buttons mean on the Disqus toolbar. The like/dislike buttons let you choose if you like the comment thread/article. The little icon over with the number in it is the notifications button. The hold important messages such as when someone replies to your comment when you have received a new rank. The icon that has the two heads on it is the community box. Click on it to show community info for the commentors on this site. A screenshot can be found below.

On the left is the total comments and the most active members. The middle shows total likes and most liked members. On the right shows the total amount of people and the new faces of fellow new commentors. You can hover over their avatar for more info. 


Finally is the Disqus button. Over there you can access your Disqus dashboard, Edit your profile, logout of Disqus, and finally see About Disqus. Also, if you want to check out the status of Disqus, click here. Subscribe to their email updates to stay in the know on their status.

Again, you won't see the gear icon unless you are signed in as a moderator. Everything else will be visible to you.

If you want to contact us, email techmansworld@hotmail.com. Were happy to answer questions. If emailing isn't you, just post a comment under any posts.

400 Posts of Techman's World

Well what do 'ya know. Techman's World has now reached 400 posts. During the 300-400 posts mark, the site has gone through some changes. The blog archives widget and recent posts widget have been altered, and the site has undergone a logo change. The new logo post can be seen here, and the slight color change here.


Does anyone else want to propose a change?

Slight Logo Change

If you have not noticed, I have altered the sites logo just a little bit. I changed the color in the word "Techman's" from a darker and uglier green to a better and more better looking lighter green. Thanks to Gary Rumain for pointing it out.


Anyone want to know what I used to make the logo in the first place? Well I used a combination of Microsoft Paint and Promethean ActivInspire. I used Paint to get the back ground, and I typed the font in ActivInspire. I then just copied and pasted the text into a desktop annotate flipchart, and colored it. Then I moved the text on top of the background made in paint. Then I grabbed ActivInspire's camera tool and took a picture of it.


I know that it might sound a little hard and that I took too many steps to do it, I liked making the logo. I'm no Photoshop artist, and never will be one. In fact, I don't have Photoshop. I do have GIMP for Ubuntu, but I'm still learning that. Right now Microsoft Paint and Promethean ActivInspire do the trick just fine. I'm not a teacher, just a person that makes use of a very capable program. I have the professional edition of ActivInspire.


Anything else that might need to be adjusted in the logo? Thanks to all who helped. I do notice when people don't comment but like the pages through the like/dislike buttons on the comment threads, so don't think that I don't notice that.

New Logo!

Dear all,
If you have not noticed yet, we have a new logo! It it was made with some pretty awesome font that I found online. Click here to see it's page. Anyways, what do you think about it? Do I need to make it a little taller? Post in the comments below.


Also, can anyone help me drive traffic to this site? I only get a few visitors. Tell everyone you know. Spread the word. That would really help alot. Thanks to all who visit here often.


Update: It looks that I have now tracked the source where I got the font I used. Click here to see it. The ttf files are safe. All you have to do is is highlight all the ttf files and drag and drop them in the <Drive Letter>:\Windows\Fonts