Archive for the 'Site Updates' Category

Look I Blogged + Site and Portfolio Updates, and WordPress 2.7

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

I know that my blog has been rather silent as of late. Life changes and new technology have put my interest more in micro-blogging. I have always wanted to have a personal feel and connection with my readers. As such, I felt compelled to blog frequently which in turn created poor content and less desire on my part to continue blogging.  I have thought about removing my blog from my site or possibly converting it to a tumble blog. Unfortunately, I have been to lazy  and/or don’t want to be reliant on a hosted service as my “main blog.” I am, however, active on twitter. I will likely integrate a twitter update to the site soon but until then you can fallow me here.

A note about twitter, its new technologies like this that change things in big way. The idea of micro-blogging is not new but twitter was very timely with its feature set in a way that has allowed it to just exploded.  It’s mobile, flexible, and extensible. If you want to be heard with the hottest technology on the internet right now, Twitter is where it is at. These types of paradigm shifts are fun to watch.  On that note, check out this great use of the twitter API called, Twitterfall. It alows you to see, in real time, what trends are spreading across twitter. In short, it’s fascinating.

Moving on, in my on going effort to become more employable I have been updating my site. Most notably is my portfolio. I have added new projects and reorganized things quite a bit.  But there have been other changes through out the site. I updated the blogs design to better match the rest of the site and such. In all, small things but its all adding up to make a noticeable difference. If you haven’t already, check out my portfolio and keep a close eye on it as I continue to update at least until I get a job again. I want to get some motion graphics experience so expect so see some after effects work popping up in the near future.

I recently updated to WordPress 2.7 - Coltrane. Yes, you read that right. WordPress is going jazzy. The automatic updated did its job flawlessly and I again can not speak highly enough about this WordPress plug-in which apparently is now integrated into Coltrane. Design wise, Coltrane is a big update for WordPress. They changed the back-end design in some big ways. It’s new and I’m adapting but it is very different with a much larger focus on dashboard flexablity and functionality.  This has been something they have been working towards for quite some time. Here is a little video talking about some of Coltrane’s new features and design.

Lastly, I thought I would leave you with this video. Check it out if for no other reason then for the closing one liner.  Oh and for my special lady who finds this, I love you.

Burke Shartsis

Site Update - Version 2.6 + Portfolio + 100th Blog Post

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

If that is not the most amazing title I have ever seen I don’t know what is. I have been saving this slot, my 100th blog post for a while. I wanted to make it something big so I figure what is bigger then this, a complete site refresh, a fully functioning portfolio (with rss), and to top it off I am blogging into triple digits.

So lets talk site updates. I have made a number of small changes that I feel have added up to make for a pretty significant update. The main flash site’s animations and structure have been revised and now allow for deep linking to pages. I updated some content and made sure to add a link to my photo gallery. The last and by far biggest update to my site was a complete portfolio revamp. I axed the flash portfolio in favor of a more flexible and dynamic solution powered by Plogger3. The newest Plogger version added theme support so I made my very own heavily modified portfolio theme (I’m working on making this available to those who are interested so hang in there). By switching away from a flash based portfolio gallery I was able to take advantage of Ploggers backend and its easily modifiable frontend feature set. What all this means to you is I will be able to update easier and more often. In terms of content, I added all of my school work from my design classes to date (DSGD 99,104, and 105) and am working on putting up more. The structure is all there though now so updates should be fairly often.

With that said I think it is time for you to start browsing the site. Leave me comments here and tell me what you think and now that I have crested the 100th blog post, I will be blogging on a more frequent basis.

Burke Shartsis

New Camp Photos In The Gallery

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

This week was a great week for Stanford tradition. As a course of practice at iD Tech - Stanford a small group that I like to call “the faithful” will get mohawks. This week was no different as myself, Nate (Cobra), Mike (Norris), Blue, and Slick all received the honor this year. The act was well documented and the best is shown below. For more check out the gallery.

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Axis Design Studios - Burke Shartsis
Axis Design Studios - Burke Shartsis
Axis Design Studios - Burke Shartsis

New Blog Feature - Polls!

Sunday, May 27th, 2007

I have hunted down what should be a great new polling plugin for WordPress by Andrew Sutherland, the man behind Quizlet (if you haven’t heard of Quizlet check it out!). Democracy, as it is called, allows polls to be placed within posts, pages, and comes with a widget for the sidebar should you want it. I will be using it largely for opinions on projects and such. I will keep you all posted on its performance should I encounter any thing unusual. Check out my first poll in my post about my new bussiness cards.

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Site Update - Blog Updated To WordPress 2.2

Sunday, May 27th, 2007

WordPress 2.2 was released not to long ago and with it came a slew of security and bug fixes. Not being one to be left behind I updated today from 2.1 to 2.2. I will admit that this is always a nerve racking process due to the severity of the consequences should I mess up. Being that I would hate to lose my blog and everything it has come to be I of course back it up and as always the update goes without a hitch. It’s really just the fear that I might mess up that bothers me. Anywho… the blog is back up and running. It was down for about three minutes so for those of you who might have hit a road block I apologize. So… yeah… enjoy that 2.2 goodness…

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Update - New Pictures In The Gallery

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007

I have been snapping pictures left and right with my new D80. I got some cool shorts of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco over the weekend and threw them up on the gallery. It’s my opinion, but I think this has to be the most beautiful place in San Francisco.

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Axis Design Studios - Burke Shartsis

New Site Features On The Way

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

I am in the process of finalizing the gallery for its official launch. So expect that soon. I am also working on integrating “Digg This” buttons into my blog so that you can easily digg my post’s and such. Just thought I would keep you all updated on whats going on.

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Updating To WordPress 2.1.x

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

I will be upgrading my WordPress installation today to the newest release 2.1.x. So expect a bit of strangeness on my end for the next few hours. I will let you all know when the installation is complete and everything is back to normal.

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::Update:: Everything seems to have gone supprisingly well. Not a single problem and the new 2.1 interface seems to be pretty nice.

Update - RSS Feed Change

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

I have just recently started using FeedBurner to track all my feed stats and such. As a result my RSS feed has changed and you may need to update to the new feed. If so, I apologize for the inconvenience but at least now I can track all of my rss feed goodness. It shouldn’t cause too many but seeing that very few people read my blog I don’t want to lose any of the faithful. In case you were wondering how to find that new feed just click on the link to the right (subscribe here). I will also be giving a run down on FeedBurner integration into WordPress and its performance after I have had some time to see how it works. So you might want to check back for that. Until then… sorry again for any problems this might bring up.

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New Pictures Uploaded To The Gallery

Friday, April 20th, 2007

We celebrated Mike’s 23rd birthday last night. I set up an impromptu photo booth so people could have a go at it throughout the night. It turned out to be a pretty good idea. I also put up the photos from last weekends airsoft trip and the dinner that fallowed. Overall, there is a tun of new pictures to explore in the gallery so check it out at gallery.axisds.com

Axis Design Studios - Burke Shartsis

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