I wondered what I should call this post, and the title I picked seemed to fit. It’s been some time since I’ve written a proper blog post about my attendance to (or sponsorship of) camps. I’ve definitely tweeted about it, but the blog posts have been lagging behind. Time passes, and opportunities do too. I think I’d be beating a dead horse to try and catch up now. I’d rather just list the highlights since around July:

1. Was an individual sponsor of DrupalCamp LA (http://2011.drupalcampla.com/sponsors/wizone-solutions) and attended. Presented on hooks with Oliver Seldman and subbed in for Christefano’s presentation (http://2011.drupalcampla.com/sessions/professional-staging-and-deployment-todays-best-and-worst-practices). Also scored a great new photo courtesy of Sawako Leslie (thanks!).
2. Attended my first DrupalCon…in London (ahem, Croydon)! I also did an individual sponsorship for that (http://london2011.drupal.org/sponsor/wizone-solutions) and ran a couple informal discussion sessions (BOFs).
3. Experienced Drutober with nearly back-to-back DrupalCamps.The first was the Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit. This was a pretty cool event (yeah, sponsored this also. See a trend? http://pnwdrupalsummit.org/sponsors/wizone-solutions). It was targeted more at developers, apparently, and it was really well organized. I mean really well. Everything just went so smoothly and was so professionally done. My paltry $50 (OK, $200 total) was worth every penny.

   The second camp was the Bay Area Drupal Camp, a.k.a. BADCamp. (Individual sponsorship in profile: http://2011.badcamp.net/attendees/wizonesolutions.) I had to work for this one (the Coder Lounge was around 15 minutes away from the sessions), but it was worth it, and I made some new acquaintances. My session on Fill PDF also made it in at the last second (http://2011.badcamp.net/program/sessions/fill-pdf-module-web-form-data-completed-pdf-form-out). That was surprising, but cool, and the presentation went pretty well.

   Drutober was interesting because it was the first time I went to DrupalCamps with concrete goals. I think that helped me get more out of it.

4. SANDcamp 2012 (two sponsorships! https://www.sandcamp.org/sponsors#block-views-sponsors-block-11 and https://www.sandcamp.org/sponsors/fill-pdf-service) and DrupalCamp NJ (individual sponsor; see this page: http://www.drupalcampnj.org/event/attendees) are coming next.

So it’s been an interesting year. In the coming year, I’m hoping to polish up Fill PDF Service and make it properly rock. That’s part of the reason for trying to ramp up the marketing a bit. We’ll see how it goes!

(And I’ll try to write more.)

So check it out, and if any of the tools on it interest you, check them out!

Fill PDF Service is still somewhat slow but does seem to be loading now. The host mentioned that some packet loss is occurring, so I guess that’s what it is.

Hold out a bit longer. Thanks.

A certain tweeter also implied that this site would be too hard to do in Drupal.

Well, paying respect to the old Wild West…them’s fightin’ words!

First, the backstory: This site was set up before I specialized in Drupal. Once I specialized in Drupal, I got too busy to convert it! Until now.

I don’t want any more tweets like that, so I’m aiming to convert it before or during DrupalCon London.

Stay tuned for updates!

Here’s the link to my sponsor page: WizOne Solutions DrupalCon 2011 Individual Sponsor Page

I appreciate it, DrupalCon team!

It’s actually been quite a good experience. I’ve helped a few people solve their problems. Best of all, I was able able to check the, “I give support on IRC” checkbox in my Drupal.org profile!

Without further ado, let’s look at what giving support on IRC is like!

Problem 1 – Clearing cache deletes theme CSS

This was my first private message support session, and it was quite interesting. The issue was that clearing the cache was deleting the theme’s CSS files. At first, I thought the user was talking about the aggregated CSS files and thought that sounded normal. However, something in the back of my head said, “No, he’s talking about the ACTUAL files,” and I had an inkling that I would re-have later on in the conversation and that would solve his issue. Anyway, once we had taken it to PM and he reiterated the problem, I had a spark of insight. Because a) the CSS files were being deleted and b) this was upon clearing the cache and c) aggregated CSS files are stored in <file directory>/css and d) many themes store their files in a css subdirectory, I concluded that, although it was a long shot, the only logical reason that this would happen was if his files directory was the same as his themes directory and his theme CSS was inside a CSS subdirectory. And wouldn’t you know it – this was the issue!

Cause: A naughty theme required him to configure his files directory this way.

Solution: Changing the files directory away from that and perhaps using a symlink to achieve the same thing. Most importantly, though, filing an issue with the maintainer to remove that requirement or improve things somehow. File deletion upon cache clearing was obviously a critical issue!

Problem 2 – Drupal 7′s jQuery pacifism

Does anybody get the joke?

Anyway, I don’t have to tell you much about how to solve this issue because I already did in yesterday’s Drupal 7 jQuery blog post. The issue was just that – $ doesn’t work by default. See the post for the solution. We applied “The Money Way.” And then the user was able to help another user solve the issue as well! Help spreads

Closing Notes

I’ve given many bits of other general advice on IRC in #drupal. A lot of it is just doing a quick search and linking the user to a resource I know will solve their problem or point them in the right direction. Often, as people who work with Drupal a lot, we can do such a search in a few seconds, whereas they might not know where to start (or know if the results they find are any good).

It’s a good learning experience. If you’re reading this and don’t hang out much on IRC, give it a try. You get exposed to a lot. And if Drupal makes you money…it makes you look good

After many months of anticipation, it’s here! There’s quite an interesting story behind this new design, too.

Around the end of summer last year, I asked my good friend Andrew Sepic over at Think Up! Design if he could help me create a better design for WizOneSolutions.com than the one you’ve seen for the last forever. He created what you see now. As time went by, in my spare I gradually put it together, implementing it as a Thematic child theme (thanks ThemeShaper), coding the CSS and ensuring it worked well in all modern browsers (sorry, IE 6). It’s such a relief to finally get this out of the way, and it’s a big step in terms of giving a real picture of what I can do. The old theme had the unfortunate effect of casting my programming skills in a mediocre light. I think this one does them some more justice

I’m not done yet, of course. I’ll keep improving the site, particularly the Portfolio area, so keep an eye out for more to come over the next few months.

Sincerely,
Kevin

Let’s break it down – oDesk offers providers that “fit any budget,” and from a freelancer’s point of view that sounds something like, “oDesk lets certain providers offer laughably low rates and get all the work.” Believe me, that’s what I thought. I didn’t think I stood a chance!

But I got to the point where I had to make some money or go back to working full-time, an unsettling thought, and for the provider, oDesk’s motto is, “Verified Work – Guaranteed Payment” for hourly jobs. And it’s true! Whenever I work on hourly jobs, about 11 days after the end of the work week, the money’s in my bank account. I’m in the US, and I can transfer it with EFT for free! This is big – when I take payment with PayPal, I get dinged every time, which I don’t like.

Obviously, from the above statement you can infer that I have successfully gotten a good amount of work and met some awesome clients through oDesk, and once I have the opportunity, I am considering working exclusively or almost-exclusively through oDesk. Anyone who says that all job sites are the same has got to try oDesk. And while you’re at it, if you’re a buyer who needs Drupal development, why not try me? (see Hire Me section to the right )

Again, the site is oDesk.

(Disclosure: If you sign up through either of the links in this post, I get a (much-appreciated) affiliate commission. But don’t worry – everything in this post is my real experience with oDesk.)