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Activate Atom Snippets After Emmet

by Thomas Stone August 1, 2018 No Comments

As you know, I am an artist and I like to tinker with technical snippets of software. I was once regarded as too technically minded to learn how to become a sculpture professor after studying as an apprentice at a fine art foundry. I thought that was nonsense and set out to learn information to become more technically oriented. With that in mind, I went off to grad school to receive an MFA in computer art. Afterward, I was an animation professor for 3 years until I set out to try more skills. One of those skills was learning Java and Python using the Atom code editing application.

I found that Atom is a great tool for Linux users who want to customize their open-source code editor. Recently, I took a course on Udemy.com and the instructor was using a Mac with Coda on it. I set out to follow the instructions while using Atom. I wanted to see if it was possible to use the same or similar shortcut commands that the instructor used. Along the way, I had to customize Atom to behave like Coda. If you are a Mac user and don’t want to bother with customizing or prefer a simpler UI, then just go ahead and pay $99 to use all of the functions of Coda. If not, then get Atom at no cost and have some fun with coding. Follow this useful website that I found for creating your Atom coding, continue here with this tip.

Here is a useful Atom to Emmet tip that I couldn’t find anywhere online and had to sort of piece together an assortment of information to develop a solution. Continue Reading

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WordPress Plugins Operating Thomas Stone’s CV

by Thomas Stone March 9, 2018 No Comments

Over the past year of blogging ever since I converted the FiggiRiggi.com website to have it’s own domain, I gathered a tremendous knowledge about converting the basic information-based website into a blog site. By doing so, I had to learn the hard way to see which plugins were the best fit for my blog. After converting tom-stone.com and electro-marketing.com into other WordPress blog sites, I found that there were some common plugins that worked for all. Although here and there, I found some plugins were necessary to add depending on the function of the website.

There is a transparency movement among the blogging industry to reveal how we made our blogs to help new bloggers catch on and grow their sites to success. I like that there are so many plugins available to help customize a site. To help you get a good picture of what you might want for your blog, I have created a list of the plugins that operate in the background of Thomas Stone’s CV. I have spent countless hours picking out the best plugins and I think my list will help you leap forward instead of doing the extensive research that I performed. I periodically change out the plugins when I find better ones or a feature that I like and want to improve the site. So, check back once in a while and see what’s been changed on my list. Keep in mind that using too many activated plugins can slow down your site, so I recommend somewhere near 20. Sometimes, you can simply hard-code your functions.php file in your child-theme instead of using a plugin. Continue Reading

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Repair for the gallery is now complete

by Thomas Stone February 27, 2018 No Comments

I have found a simple repair for the culprit behind the gallery error that I was experiencing. It was a simple popup MailChimp javascript code that prevented the gallery from displaying properly. Now when you go to my Gallery page and click on an image, you can scroll through the images with a carousel feature. Each image then has a dark background making it easier to view each image. Not only that, you can insert comments under each photo that’s displayed.repair for the gallery is now complete

Thanks to a WordPress plugin called Jetpack for creating such a wonderful way to display photos. It’s simple and easy to configure. Speaking of a repair and plugins, the Yoast SEO plugin keeps demanding that I write at least 300 words. I don’t exactly know why that’s such a big issue, but I comply and just spill out words that pop out of my mind. I might not reach all of those words, but at least I can come close with these blog postings.

To solve the problem, I installed an open-source application on my Mac called Bitnami MAMP stack. MAMP stands for Mac Apache MySQL PHP. I learned about other AMPS while using my Windows and Linux OS’s. Windows uses WAMP or XAMP and Linux uses LAMP. In the MAMP stack, I installed WordPress and then installed the website there so that I could play around with the site offline. After some manipulations, I managed to find the incompatible javascript code.

I am thinking that I might study up and become a WordPress designer and developer on the side.

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Pleasing gallery page for your curiosity

by Thomas Stone February 26, 2018 No Comments

A pleasing display of light and shadow

I’ve finally posted a pleasing gallery page that contains a selection of some of my favorite works of art. Some are figure drawings, cast metal, digital art and clay. Last month I had posted a gallery page, but as soon as I ran an update on the site there were problems. I removed the page, but decided to post it as it currently is even though it’s not the exact format that I originally wanted. I am presently testing the site offline to resolve the issue. The drawings section shows a progression of skill within a 2-year period. I was regularly attending figure drawing sessions at JCAS in Jersey City, NJ, but a major road closed for renovations which created a hindrance to the commute. This Spring, that road is planned to reopen and I may return to the drawing sessions on a regular basis. Continue Reading

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Zbrush for Digital Adventures

by Thomas Stone January 21, 2018 No Comments

This weekend, I stumbled upon a blog posting about Zbrush at zbrushcentral. I was wondering if Pixelogic developed a version for the Linux OS. I am using Ubuntu as my OS. What I found was some users who were experimenting with installing Zbrush onto linux using WINE. So, I installed WINE and then found that the version that’s been tested with Ubuntu 16.04 was only 1.6. I then went to the winehq website to find that their latest stable release is 3.0. From there, I found an Ubuntu forum about installing the latest release. After reading the tutorials, I finally installed the 3.0-rc6 stable release. The zbrushcentral posting mentioned a few tweaks that needed to be set in order to run the zbrush installer. I set winecfg to point to Windows 8.1 an set the resolution to my screen dimensions in order to run Zbrush 4R7, which is the copy that I presently own. After the installation, I set winecfg to Windows 10 where I then ran zbrush64.exe. The person who posted in zbrush central was not able to use web activation, but I thought I’d give it a shot. So, far it’s working since I’m waiting for an email to repair my serial number. I used to have it installed on a Windows 10 machine and never deactivated it, that’s why I’m waiting for the repair. Continue Reading

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Propagating Figs and Love

by Thomas Stone January 18, 2018 No Comments

You might not be aware, but I spent much of my time during last spring through the summer getting my feet wet with another website called FiggiRiggi.com. There, I wrote about propagating fig trees and learning about putting together a WordPress-based website. I learned a lot more than I thought I would. Everything from researching and choosing the right plugins, marketing, making money from blogging, and hiding affiliate links within an external link. There is a security reason behind that. I also spent much time troubleshooting problems as a result of a theme that I purchased from a web designer. Those problems were creating errors at Google Webmaster Tools. I managed to finally correct the problems with code editing and other plugins, though I might have been better off if I had chosen another theme from another designer where I wouldn’t have those problems to begin with. After stressing about that, I had to take a brief break from it to focus on other web projects and jobs. What I gained from starting a blog site was the connections with other bloggers who willingly share information for free. Although, their main purpose is to make money, so not everything is free. They are business people and have strategies that work and are not concerned much about how they went ahead and reached their success. Continue Reading

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Time for change

by Thomas Stone January 14, 2018

I’ve decided to change my art portfolio CV website to a new and improved version. I decided to use someone else’s web design in WordPress. I’m not a WordPress developer and I have just gotten into using WordPress this year with my fig blog. So, to get my site up quickly, this was the best option. I like to write topics that I’m passionate about, so I’ve been busy with my fig blog and then decided that my art portfolio website also needed an upgrade. In the past, I used a site design from Zen Photo, but it was a pain in the butt each time I ran an update. I’ve been wanting to write in this blog for quite some time so that people can get an idea of what I’ve been up to these days on my creative side. So, with that said I plan to post graphic images that I’ve created for my fig blog and anything else that’s creative in nature.

I have plans on a continuous cycle to update my portfolio images very soon. Check back soon to see more.