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In the last few months I’ve finished some pretty large drupal projects and thought I would share my top five tips for getting things rolling on your next drupal site. If you want a general overview of building drupal sites smashingmagazine.com just published the definitive post that I’ve read to date.

1. Adhere to drupal best practices from the start. Look forward to your site being around for a long while and set it up correctly. Even the basics, like taking advantage of using the sites/all folder to hold your non-core modules and themes can save you a lot of time down the road.

2. Make the website accessible to a wide range of people. It is easier to plan things like text-size controls, email-to-a-friend and print buttons when you’re in the design stages. Adding them in afterwards can look amateurish.

3. Give yourself time to input content and give it some TLC with proper formatting. Nothing is more boring than the same basic text layout on every page. With CMS’s half the point is having the same frame around your content so that navigation is consistent, etc. - but that doesn’t mean your text and image content has to be the same with every node. Float an image left, float it right, pull out an important quote and give it the bold+italic treatment. Don’t rush through this “final part” of the job - it’s very important.

4. Use some kind of design/development framework. Whatever works for you, but the point is to keep it consistent so that when it comes time to fix something or add a feature you can do it quickly. For most people just starting out with the same basic theme, like Zen, is enough. Later on though you might need to start keeping a folder of your regular modules, pre-configured modules, sample configurations of certain key theme components, and anything else you might need within arms reach. A note of caution though - make sure you check drupal.org for updates of the modules once in awhile.

5. FCKeditor - is the best editor there is, period. A lot of folks swear by tinyMCE but I think they’re just plain wrong. FCK has a built in file manager (that is a pain in the ass to configure but very worth it), a default CSS XML-based stylesheet associated with user-styles that is easy to override,  but most importantly it has a feature tied into the text editor that shows block elements boundaries in your html structure which is of huge benefit to 99% of all users.

http://www.fckeditor.net/

Scott has posted some creepy video soup on his Oily Films blog. Watch closely for the dog hair.

OILYFILMS » Blog Archive » Primordial Soup pt.1.

Just a quick note that my sculpture Astroturf Cocoon will be featured in the show Unreal Victoria at the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria. The opening is tomorrow night, Friday August 8th from 7-9pm and will be open until August 13th. This show is curated by Kirk Schwartz, CAC Chair of Media Arts, in collaboration with MediaNet.

detail of Astroturf Cocoon

GTB at Open Space June 2, originally uploaded by robot.overlord.

We’re pleased to announce that Grand Theft Bicycle will be making it’s debut at Open Space June 2.

Check out www.grandtheftbicycle.com for details.

I’m starting to compile material for a second edition of etherbot. If you’re interested in contributing there are two ways to do so; 1) write a story about a robot (or something to do with robots) 2) make a black & white vector graphic or 3) take a picture. I’m planning on having this edition bound somehow and distibuting it. The mag will also be available for download on navigammatron.org.
This is my favorite story from last year;

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Andy’s fav chair was always the electric chair. “It goes faster,” he would say, “Like the lights these days.” Andy loved air conditioning and had it installed everywhere he went. When he went to Cuba he had the whole country done up by the same ppl that did Bally’s in Las Vegas. Not just air conditioning like “Hey it’s cool in here”; this air conditioning had a special smell like carpet deodorizer and embalming fluid. Andy said it was to remind the Cuban children that if they stayed cool that they could be like us in all the important ways.

Andy wondered what we would do when the war was over. “I wonder what we will do,” he would say “When the war is over.” Of course, he knew that the war would never be over, but it was a funny joke to say it anyway. Andy liked to give people things they didn’t need. He bought house insurance for the homeless and heart surgery for lawyers. “I don’t mind paying so long as they have no use for it.” Once Andy bought a candy factory and paid a diabetic girl to live there for a year.

Andy had a deep appreciation for rubber penises and always had two or three with him at all times. “Now’s a great time to play with our penises, “ he would say, usually at children’s parties and in crowded elevators. Andy understood that the automobile was the greatest thing ever achieved by civilization. He drove everywhere at 100 mph and never slowed down for anything less than a bus.

All the best robots are made by Andy.

Andy makes the kind of robots you learn to hate because they’re so good at what they do. At first you’re like, “Wow that robot is totally rocking the shit.” But after awhile you start thinking, “Hey if they can build a robot that great they might build a robot as great as me.” Andy laughs when people tell him things like that. When Andy started making real robots no one believed him.

“You’re pulling my leg, Andy!” Is what people would say. He would go to a party and start introducing someone as one of his robots. “This is my real robot,” he would say. Once in awhile he’d meet some rube at a bar and get him going with a big story. And we’d all laugh.

These days Andy has a new joke and people still believe him sometimes. He says, “My name is Andy and I’m a robot. I wasn’t always a robot.”

Of course everyone knows that Andy has always been a robot.