Yet another new look : Carrington theme and more

It’s been a while since I changed the theme of the site.  Today I felt like I needed it again.  I looked around, checked a few options, and decided to go with the Carrington theme from the excellent folks at Crowd Favorite.  It looks simple, yet elegant, fresh and modern.  And it is not just your average WordPress theme.  It is a whole framework.  I didn’t have much to play with it yet, but even from the first few looks it’s very interesting.  The theme files and logic are organized in such a way that makes modifying it and building on top of it extremely easy.  And unlike some other frameworks, it doesn’t force you to start designing your theme from scratch.  It provides already a default look with a few administration options that are handy for people like me, who are just starting up with it.

The second big change that was done today – IntenseDebate plugin was disabled.  IntenseDebate is a nice system, and I totally dig the concept, and all, but it turned out to be slightly annoying for me personally.  Somehow, the moderation never worked the way I wanted it to work.  Comments and the comment form didn’t look the way I wanted them to look (and I couldn’t bother with styling them myself). And it was slowing the site quite a bit by loading all those images, styles, and the JavaScript.   Gladly though, IntenseDebate works well with WordPress and I didn’t have to do anything to get my comments back – they are all here exactly how you’d expect them.

As always, after major changes like these, there will be a brief period of tweaking and tuning.  If you notice any issues with the site, please let me know.  Also, I’d appreciate your opinions and feedback regarding these changes.  Thank you for the patience during the bumpy ride.  Hopefully you can still enjoy this place.

The other side of fighting child pornography

Here is a very dramatic, yet fascinating story of how things can go wrong in what seems to be a much required direction – child protection.

To be accused unjustly of any crime is a terrible thing. But to be accused of using your own children for pornographic purposes or sexual exploitation bears a special taint because no matter how highly people think of you, they don’t know you in your most intimate moments, which forever leaves you open to suspicion.

It is surprising how something as trivial as campfire pictures can be so misleading and abused to such a scale.

Tribute to the blues in Pafos

Ladies and gentlemen, mark you calendars.  Here is the content of the SMS from one of the musicians who will be participating in the event:

Cold Shot are playing a tribute to the blues on the 30th of July at the Velvet Hall.  Doors open at 19:30 and the support band is Zacsuss.  Tickets are 10 EUR and are available at Music Gallery, Elvicom, and Olivers deli. Hope to see you there.

For those of you who haven’t reached your calendar yet, that will be next Friday.  Hints and tips on how to find the Velvet Hall and how to buy tickets are welcome via comments.  I am definitely planning to go, as I’ve heard some of the these guy play before and they are really good.

Update: Thanks to Chris Ergatides, we know have a map with both the event location and tickets shop (click the image for larger view).

On inheritance

I remember when I was a kid we often discussed with friends who will become who when we grow up.  Pretty much everyone wanted to be rich.  But we had no idea how one can become rich, except for an opportunity via inheritance from a distant American relative.  Years passed, we grew up, and went our own separate ways.  A few of those kids became rich, but most didn’t.  Most of us are doing OK though.

Why am I telling you all that? Because today I came across a few pictures that cover current state of economic affairs in the United States.  One of those images brought back all those memories, and somehow suggested that kids of today have to dream up some other way of becoming rich when they will grow up.