Demented Kitty Misc.

This version of the Accidental Hedonist, the popular food blog, was mostly a new header. The absinthe lady returns in a transparency with a border fade near the bottom third of the picture. A new font with three-layer drop shadow was used for the name of the web site. Also, new, themed, colorized RSS buttons form a menu across the top.

AH retains the recently created static, four-column layout in whites, browns, and reds. The site is largely run by a modified b2evolution engine with advertisements from blogads, Google AdSense, and others.

Several spam prevention techniques are used. E-mail spam is blocked by using a secure mail form for web site members and also a clever trap set for bots that collect e-mail addresses. Referrer spam is turned away via b2evolution's built-in blacklist. Comment spam is filtered by both b2evolution's built-in blacklist and a turing test plugin.

Other features include:

• polls (Democracy plugin)
• written works status bar (custom code)
• 1-click RSS subscriptions (to web-based services such as bloglines)
• user food journals (b2evolution, autoblog plugin, and custom code)
• list of most recent user food journal posts (custom code)
• simple print pages (custom code)

If you wish to install a new font on Ubuntu Linux:

1. Find the font you like and download the .ttf file. Select the .tff files and copy (ctrl+c) them to the clipboard.


2. Save anything you are working on and close all open applications.


3. Open your home folder with Nautilus (default file manager on default Ubuntu installations)


4. Click the View menu option and select Show Hidden Files.


5. Look for a folder named .fonts. Open that folder and paste (ctrl+v) the previously copied .ttf files into the .fonts folder.


6. Open your terminal of choice. On default Ubuntu installations the gnome-terminal is available under the main Applications > Accessories menu. Type of copy+paste the following and then enter your superuser password:
   
   sudo fc-cache -f


7. Allow your computer a few minutes to rebuild the fonts cache. A new terminal line with your username prompt will appear when the fonts cache is rebuilt.

That is it. You should be able to select the new fonts from within all variable font applications on your linux box.

Food Journals for registered users of Accidental Hedonist are now active. All new users will be asked if they wish to create a blog on Accidental Hedonist during registration. This makes Accidental Hedonist into a sort of food blog network. If you are not a registered user on Accidental Hedonist and wish to sign up, please go here.

If you opt to create a new blog, your username will be used in the blog's address. Please choose your username accordingly. Food journal addresses will look something like:

accidentalhedonist.com/username

Many thanks to Francesco Castronovo for the b2evolution autoblog plugin. I had to (and likely will continue to) hack it quite a bit for use as Kate wished on this site. However, it provided a very useful starting point.

I am still working out the bugs, but basic blog creation, posting, editing, and all that good stuff works reasonably well. I'm documenting changes to the live software (but not the changes I'm testing) here.