THICKSOLE

Painless Facelifts

paulmayson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:49:49 +0000

One of my favorite things about WordPress is the ability to quickly change the look of the site while all of the content just pops into place. Recently we updated 6 sites for John Wiley & Sons. They wanted the color scheme changed from green to blue with a new logo added. A few of the sites had hundreds of articles already produced, so in the old days, this would have been a long process.

But by changing a few things in the WordPress theme CSS, we updated all the sites in no time. I can imagine the pain this would have generated going through traditional channels, but one of the most beautiful things about WordPress is the way it empowers the end user. The marketing/editorial crew is often held hostage by layers of bureaucracy and hurdles from the design & tech crew. With a fundamental understanting of CSS and the WordPress structure, anyone can now make changes to their site. With websites, sometimes it’s just a splinter in your finger, and everyone is chomping at the bit to turn it into brain surgery.

These sites have been instrumental in differentiating their product from the competition, and it’s great to see them updated each week with fresh content, and there’s still drive to keep the look fresh and clean.

Staying Alert and Flexible

paulmayson — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:55:41 +0000

A new WordPress vulnerability came across my news feed this morning. It seems like there’s always something new floating around that sounds incredibly scary. Here’s some info on the new hijinx, and an update here:

Hackers are compromising WordPress 3.2.1 blogs in order to infect their visitors with the notorious TDSS rootkit, according to researchers from Web security firm Websense.

It’s not clear how the websites are being compromised, but there are publicly known exploits for vulnerabilities that affect WordPress 3.2.1, which is an older version of the popular blog publishing platform.

Sounds scary but there are some simple things you can do with your wordpress site so you can sleep easier at night.

Run a daily backup of your database using a simple plugin like WP-DB-Backup
Have a copy of your wp-content folder on your local computer
Keep your WordPress install updated with the latest version
Update your plugins and get rid of the ones you tried and don’t use
The same with your themes. Remove the themes that didn’t work out.

With these simple practices, if the worst happens, getting back up and running is a fairly uncomplicated scenario. It’s the little things that can make all the difference when something is compromised.

There will always be things out of your control like a random attack on your site, but make sure to take care of the things you can control.

Closing in on 20

paulmayson — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:22:12 +0000

Two years ago we launched our first iPhone app. At the time I wasn’t sure how big the mobile Apple world would become. Well, it turns out, huge. On Tuesday evening apple announced their quarterly results and the sales were staggering:

37.04 million iPhones sold
15.43 million iPad tablets sold, doubling from a year earlier
315 million iOS devices sold total

People everywhere are staring into these glowing screens around the clock. It’s a good idea to be on them. For some folks, an app is the way to go, for others, a website fits the bill, and sometimes the answer is all of the above. Whatever direction you’re headed, we can help you not only with the technical stuff, but also figure out the right direction.

A related note: last night I took a quick inventory of our app work and was shocked to see almost 20 apps have passed through our digital factory doors. Finally there’s a place to check them out on the site – help yourself.

Schermerhorn Management 11e Flash Cards

paulmayson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:13:42 +0000

Created for John Wiley & Sons to support the text, the app is loaded with a ton of terms and definitions for each chapter of the text. The functionality is simple: you just flip through the the screens like index cards. Users can flip through term by term, or definition by definition. A great review tool right before an exam.

Released: February 22, 2011
Check it out on the iTunes App Store.
Thicksole Support Page

Kimmel, Accounting, 4th Edition – Flash Cards

paulmayson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:05:23 +0000

Released: July 15, 2011
Check it out on the iTunes App Store.
Thicksole Support Page

Boone & Kurtz Self-Study Quiz

paulmayson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:59:40 +0000

Created for John Wiley & Sons to support the text, the app is loaded with a ton of questions for each chapter of the text. From a pool of questions, the app pulls a random 12 questions to create a quiz on the go. After the user answers all the questions, they can go back and change answers or just submit the quiz for grading. Instantly, the answered are corrected, scored, and then the student has the opportunity to go back and review both correct and incorrect answers.