I solved problems with uploaded images in my previous posts today with a huge hand from Brian, who solved this rather peculiar problem very elegantly.

The issues were centered on the tendency of my old WordPress install putting files in a path like this;

blog.cocoia.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/month/%20%20/uploadedfile.jpg

Read on for the solution.

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Over the course of the day I have been upgrading the blog to WordPress 2.3, a great upgrade of my favorite blogging platform that helps reduce loading times, add sidebar features and plug security holes. I have also adjusted a lot of stylesheet properties to prevent justified text, strange headline typography and general appearance tweaks.

You may have noticed the blog going down for a few minutes today, then back up with a default theme, and having bumpy service for an hour as the uploaded files were being restored. This is the last time such a public ‘rebuilding’ will happen; in the meantime, I have a working ‘Maintenance Mode’ plugin now to disable the blog for fixes. I will schedule a maintenance in two days for graphical fixes and more feature additions like back to home-links. Got more input? Let me know in the comments.

Edit; Yes, the permalink structure is revamped as well!

Edit (11:23 GMT); Header is now clickable again.

Final edit (0:25 GMT); Footer fixes, still having trouble with images posts past this month. Can someone help me with the problem that all old uploads are in a folder called ‘ ‘ (whitespace)? No FTP app seems to be able to navigate into these folders, but you can with some commandline trickery. Leave tips in the comments.

Cocoia is proud to announce the launch of the fourth major version of the Cocoia blog. As you might have noticed, it’s the first blog theme I made that took me over a day to complete. In fact, I dislike webdesign so much, that it took me weeks to get right. Now that every part of my blog looks exquisit, it is also time to spice up my posting frequency and the material I write about. A few of the additions are ‘read more’ links (introduced in this post), more legible text and logical separation of blog ‘functions’ and content.

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You probably haven’t noticed, but it’s been the most huge blast of a day for me since, well, ever. Today was not just the release day of the new Icon Designer (which is still sliced, so sue me), but I also took the lengthy three-hour trip to Amsterdam to meet up with Jasper, Hugo, Dirk and Koen of MadebySofa. I also met the ex-Sofa intern, Jorn, who blogged a while about his experiences in the team. As a Dutch powerhouse of neat interfaces, icons and applications, MadebySofa has been inspiring for me so far, and today has only intensified my respect for the crew.

Here’s a photo shot by Dirk, kind enough to replace my frantic blurry photoboothing of the crew.

We discussed various things, had some great lunch and showed each other work. For me, it’s been the first time I ever met another icon designer, let alone Jasper Hauser, so it really was like coming home. I felt a bit sorry having to leave in the afternoon to make sure I could get a new battery for the Macbook Pro on the way home so I could get some work done, but the day was fantastic and more than worth the extraordinary traveling fees of the public transportation here. MadebySofa’s still Europe’s (the world’s?) only and best Mac team when it comes to interaction and interface design, and I feel honoured to work and talk with them. I spent an hour or so working on Icon Designer and sending emails to clients, as a part of the crew was out for a bit of the day celebrating Hugo’s birthday (happy one again, Hugo!).

So, enough for the great day I had in Amsterdam, on to the fresh meat. What do I have in store for you? Icon Designer has had layout, loading time, and graphic tweaks and changes, and now features two new icon sets for you to download freely. As space was getting scarce, I added a page containing all my freeware work so far, updated my client work with a few new icons I was allowed to show, and testimonials of very happy clients. I also added an about page, so you can read a bit more about me, and see how the process of icon design goes in general. I hope you like the additions and tweaks to Icon Designer and if you enjoy it, please drop a comment or an email; it makes me feel like making the freeware sets and the website is worth my time. Also check out MadebySofa, the greatest designers and developers out there in our low lands, and stay tuned for interesting developments down the road.

Update; added a picture shot by Dirk. Click it to read Sofa’s notes (and see who’s who).

I’ll be out starting tomorrow and you can get Noble with 70% discount starting now. Grab it at the Icon Store if you need some icons. Do note that I won’t be able to email out the icon sets and licenses until I am back, but I’ll send them as soon as I get home.

Now for something to keep you sweet all the days that I am away; a little new preview of the folderset. Unorthodox nature motives! Check out the preliminary unpolished Aqua, Anodized and Wood variants;

Input very welcome! Now, I’ll see you all again August 20th – I’ll be sure to enjoy myself with the music, atmosphere and people.

No, it’s not gone that far that I have pushed 944 icons so far. Perhaps I have, I don’t know, but that’s beside the point. What matters is the future. The time after 9:44 UTC.

Having gotten enthusiastic responses to the Iconizement plan I set forward in a few posts, I have been able to get ‘sponsoring’ for at least two icon sets. I have a whole road ahead of me when it comes to the freeware icon sets I am producing.

This is, basically, the timeline for my upcoming icon sets. The three in the ‘hot zone’ above (the Designer Icons set 2, the War on Bad Design icons set 2 and the Designer Folders) are coming up very quickly, very possibly at the same time, when the brand new version of Icon Designer will be unveiled.

But there is more, a lot more. 944, the enigmatic number, stands for 512, 256, 128, 32, and 16; the new sizes that I will be releasing my icons in. You read that right, all new icon sets will feature super-hi res icons a month before Leopard. If anyone’s even been ready for Leopard, I am.

Apart from that, not only Mac users will rejoice. Icon Designer’s new releases come in all formats; for Windows in .ico, for Mac in ICNS, and for Linux users, PNG’s for all sizes. The growing popularity of this website has shown me that there is a righteous demand for these extra formats, and as such, you are getting them!

This wouldn’t be the Cocoia Blog if you would get out of this blog post without being peppered by desire-inducing preview images. The Designer Folders set, which will contain anodized metal, standard aqua and wooden folders with the following interesting motives;

Slight touches of reflection in the anodized steel folders (which are depicted here) are among the fine details in the new sets. The folder set is truly a showcase of new, unique ideas in folders and overflows with gimmicks and eye candy. Since there was a lot of ado going on at Macthemes over Susumu’s latest folder set release “Cats 2” being ‘inspired’ by other sets, I set to inspire this set by cats as well. In fact, since they have always been so supportive in my life, I included a cat – he’s not so comfortable in folders, though, or so it seems.

I wanted to put a solid date on this release, and although it is highly dependent on my picky sense of perfectionism, I expect to launch Icon Designer v. 3 by the beginning of September – ideally, the last day of August. I will keep you up to date with the developments!