wasaa.com http://wasaa.com a personal web playground Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:58:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 en GPS POI files for free ATMs in DC/MD/VA and NYC http://wasaa.com/gps-poi-files-for-free-atms-in-dcmdva-and-nyc/ http://wasaa.com/gps-poi-files-for-free-atms-in-dcmdva-and-nyc/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:56:48 +0000 admin http://wasaa.com/gps-poi-files-for-free-atms-in-dcmdva-and-nyc/ atm.JPGAfter receiving a Garmin GPS unit for Christmas, I quickly became interested in the ability to enter categorized custom points of interest (POIs) into the device. The first thing I did was collect information on the location of all Allpoint ATMs in the region so I know where to find a free ATM. (I have an ING Direct Orange account, which means no brick-and-mortar locations.)

Thanks to the advice received from those at POI Factory, I was able to put these together and can now find the closest ATM in these areas. (There are over 1700 listed in each set.) I’m posting them here so you can use them as well.

If you want instructions about loading POIs into your GPS device, head on over to the POI Factory.

]]> http://wasaa.com/gps-poi-files-for-free-atms-in-dcmdva-and-nyc/feed/ Festivus: A Wordpress theme for the rest of us! http://wasaa.com/festivus-a-wordpress-theme-for-the-rest-of-us/ http://wasaa.com/festivus-a-wordpress-theme-for-the-rest-of-us/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:12:56 +0000 admin http://wasaa.com/festivus-a-wordpress-theme-for-the-rest-of-us/ FestivusI wanted a new Wordpress theme for a site that I help with, and I found a handful of so-called “premium” themes that I really liked. I was about to purchase one of them until I read the restrictive license. Then I changed my mind. (I’m not going to buy a theme that I don’t have complete license to modify on my own site.)

I’ve had a hand in certain aspects of web development for over a dozen years. Although it is far from something I ever want to call a job or serious hobby, there are still parts of it that really interest me. I’m a geek at heart, and toying with Wordpress has become a bit of a minor hobby over the past year. So why couldn’t I try to put something together myself?

So here you have it. Festivus is two things:

  1. A free alternative that resembles other ostensibly “premium” themes.
  2. Far from complete.

Hopefully #2 will improve. Because I fully intend to keep using it.

I’ll be looking for beta-testers in the immediate future, but as you can see it is not ready quite yet. If you have particular requests or suggestions, I’d be glad to entertain them. Leave a comment if you’d like me to contact you and share the early code.

For the record, I whole-heartedly support capitalism and authors’ rights to charge for their work. But I expect their ability to charge will diminish quickly as other themes come up to speed. They inspired this theme, and hopefully their future innovation will keep them ahead of the game as the game tries to catch up to them.

Update: Here is the page that will be updated for the Festivus theme.

]]> http://wasaa.com/festivus-a-wordpress-theme-for-the-rest-of-us/feed/ wasaa.com returns http://wasaa.com/wasaacom-returns/ http://wasaa.com/wasaacom-returns/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:02:47 +0000 admin http://wasaa.com/wasaacom-returns/ backfromthedead.jpgI think it was summer of 2000 when I registered wasaa.com and set it up with the “Diving Dick” webcam. Diving Dick bobbed up and down in a 10-gallon fish tank that sat on my desk back in my dot-bomb glory days. He shared the water with the office’s beloved mudpuppy. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name given to our little fish-devouring friend.

Too bad I haven’t retained any pictures from the old site. I didn’t retain the job either, so what does it matter in the end? Well wasaa.com is finally back, in none of its prior glory.

]]> http://wasaa.com/wasaacom-returns/feed/ This is my sandbox http://wasaa.com/this-is-my-sandbox/ http://wasaa.com/this-is-my-sandbox/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:44:55 +0000 admin http://wasaa.com/this-is-my-sandbox/ sandpail-224.jpgI’m working on a new Wordpress theme, and you may be looking at it right now if I haven’t changed anything. I’m neither a blogger nor a decent web designer by either trade or expertise, but I do enjoy spending a little bit of free time working on a couple websites on a volunteer basis.

I’m definitely a proponent of Wordpress, which is odd to some. (Like I said, I don’t blog. I believe in charging big bucks to share my wisdom.) Wordpress is officially a “blog tool and weblog platform” — which is a great place to start, but most folks seem to ignore the capability it has as an overall CMS.

Oops. I think I’m blogging. Sorry.

The next few posts will hopefully be at least moderately informative, but the primary purpose will be to test the theme as I work on it. I already created a separate sandbox site — you’re looking at it. I’ll eventually create a page here to keep up to date on the theme.

]]> http://wasaa.com/this-is-my-sandbox/feed/ An old fake post http://wasaa.com/an-old-fake-post/ http://wasaa.com/an-old-fake-post/#comments Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:47:18 +0000 admin http://wasaa.com/an-old-fake-post/ Old NYCThis post has been created ‘in the past’ to serve a couple basic purposes while testing the Festivus theme:

  1. I need more posts down below to test the layout. (In fact, just this one probably won’t do it.)
  2. I wanted to add a couple more worthless tags to make the tag cloud look closer to how it would on a lightly-used WP site.
  3. Adding one month of depth to the archives list might not sound like much. But it’s 100% increase over the previous single month.

Are you still reading this???!

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