Leslie, Author at Leslie Kirk - Miva Merchant Specialist

The Faces of Miva Merchant

March 10, 2009 by Leslie 4 Comments

Over the years I have had the opportunity, the honor and the privilege to meet a number of people from within the Miva Merchant community. I took a picture of someone at the Miva Merchant Conference Mixer that made me realize there are a number of people over the years that have influenced and helped me down the path I call Miva Merchant.

I would like to share some of those faces with you now.

Pamela Hazelton – my earliest memories of Pamela were when the Miva Merchant users group was still a listserv and someone had called her “Spamela”. I for one have never considered any of Pamela’s comments spam, she knows what she is talking about, but you’d better pay attention the first time. I have three on Pamela’s books in my reference library, included her latest release Miva Merchant 5.5 – The Official Guide

Bill Weiland – his early modules taught me how to dig into the code (mivascript) and make little hacks of my own while installing his uncomplied modules. Bill has been patient with every question I have ever asked. Many times his replies make me dig a little deeper on my own. One of my favorite modules that Bill has written is ToolKit v5

David Hubbard – I have know David since before he started his very successful hosting company Hostasaurus. He has put up with every stupid hosting related question I have ever asked and many that were not hosting type questions.

Luray Williams – The Miva Merchant Community lost not only a developer but a wonderful person with the passing of Luray back in January 2007. I finally had the privilege of meeting Luray in person back in 2004, when I was able to attend my first Miva Merchant Conference. Pamela shared the news with Miva Merchant family, her words spoke how we all felt about him *In Memory of Luray Williams*

James Harrell – I have know James since around 2004 when I started beta testing his Celestia Comprehensive Content Management System. It was the first mivascript based content management system that I had used and I think the only of it’s kind. I also joined the Copernicus Designers Club Program. I had already been recommending and installing Copernicus Search Engine Optimization Suite. Around November 2007 James approached me about coming to work with him at his new venture – eMediaSales. James knew it had always been my goal (dream) of mine to be able to be able to do Miva Merchant development on a full time basis. In January 2008, he helped make that dream become a reality. .


Pete & Susan Petracco – Susan & Pete make a great tag team of developers. Susan is not only a developer, but is a store owner too. I have enjoyed watching WonderBrains continually evolve over the years. Just before the official beginning of the 2009 Miva Merchant Conference, they launched the new look & feel for NetBlazon. Pete and Susan have both provided me with a wealth of knowledge over the years. I’m also reminded what a small world the e-commerce world can be in general, when we talked about one of the first web development companies I worked for based in Morristown, TN. .


Bill Gilligan – Bill is another one of those developers that has been around for a while now too. He has let me beta test a few of his modules, offered me help and brought me a bit of work every now and then.

Bruce Golub – When most people think of Bruce, they think of StoreMan, my personal favorite desktop application to manage store products and categories. Bruce has also been another Miva Merchant mentor for me. I’ve had loads of fun beta testing stuff for him.

Jeffrey R. Collins – AKA Nerd Boy Jeffrey has been a great sounding board for me over the years. I may not have always followed his advice, but I will be forever grateful that he has always been then to listen.

Chuck Lasker – I forgot to ask Chuck how long he has been part of the Miva Merchant community, but it seems like he’s been around as long as I have been (or maybe longer). My favorite contribution that Chuck has made to the community has been his online video tutorials – MerchantTutorials.com. Not only is the content easy to follow and understand, he has a voice that makes watching them so easy. Chuck has also been a great counter balance to over optimistic political views.

Rick Fisher – For being a friend to both me and my husband. And yes, for help with the occasional techie type question.

I know there have been a number of other Miva Merchant developers, hosts, and even users that have offered me a hand throughout the years – all of which I owe big thanks to also. Also a shout out to Rick Wilson, Russ Carroll, David Roquemore and the gang at Miva Merchant for giving me the opportunity of a life time. And to Penni Walraven, thank you, you will alway hold a special place in our hearts.

Good Morning San Diego

February 26, 2009 by Leslie Leave a Comment

Let’s start the morning off with an “I told you so”. Hubby was right, I would be awake at 5AM, unfortunately, and it’s 3AM here in San Diego. I did try going back to sleep but all I could think of was “how great it would be if I could telepathically blog.”

We got in yesterday, greeted by beautiful mild San Diego weather. The day started at 3AM our time. We left the house by around 3:30AM and headed to our “pick up point” to have a friend take us to the airport. I have a lot of negative things I could say about the baggage check in process, but I’ll let it go. Security was fun, I’m always prepared to pull the laptop out, put it one bin, take my shoes off and put them in another bin but I got extra special treatment this time. I decided I would dress for the plane. I’m always cold when I fly, so I wore a nice big warm sweatshirt pullover. Since I didn’t “have a t-shirt underneath”, I got patted down. It was very professional and I took a very light hearted approach to it.
The flights them self were uneventful. We have come to the conclusion that my flight related migraines are due to the altitude and pressure changes. It probably didn’t help that our breakfast consisted of nutra-grain bars that we brought along. Those were consumed by 7AM our time. No real food was served on either flight. I nibbled on the bowl of cheerios, but Jeff passed on them. Couple that with the dehydration that comes with air travel that probably contributed to the perfect storm for my migraine.

First thing I did when we landed was to call our kitty sitter to let her know we made it safely. We made it to pick up our rental car, seems they overbooked themselves and didn’t have the type car we reserved. As we stand next to a Chrysler Sebring convertible, the agent says “How about this?” Well, duh.

We made our way to the hotel, got checked in and turned right around to go find food. We had been pretty much running on empty for hours. After finding food we both needed to crash. After Jeff caught a few hours of sleep we ventured out for dinner. Old Town parking was a mess due it being Ash Wednesday, so we plugged In-and-Out Burgers into Nuvi and found our way there. The one we found was packed, the drive up was backed up around the block and it was standing room only inside. We stuck it out and had some pretty good burgers. The fries were fresh cut – we actually heard the guy working the fry cutting machine.

Now to plan out today’s adventures – I hear there is a Miva Merchant Conference mixer that starts at 6PM tonight. Time to get the camera out and ready.

iTouch Ready?

February 24, 2009 by Leslie Leave a Comment

Just checking to see if the latest app for iTouch/iPhone for WordPress works.

Latest Version Updating

February 17, 2009 by Leslie Leave a Comment

If you are using WordPress version 2.7 and need to update to version 2.7.1, try using the automatic update. All you need to know is your FTP info. No more needing to download the update and FTPing back to your server. This feature appears to be working very smoothly.

Also added with the 2.7 version is the ability to upload Plugins via the admin. You don’t even have to unzip your files anymore, it’s all automatic.

Just two more reasons why I am a huge fan of WordPress.

GoDaddy Hosting

January 25, 2009 by Leslie Leave a Comment

I must have been asleep at the wheel when GoDaddy started the “Free Hosting with domain – Economy Hosting” plan. I’ve got lots of little “playground” type sites that have don’t need the full power of a Miva Merchant savvy host. The “free” hosting does come with:

FREE Hosting with domain name is Ad-supported Hosting. Ad-supported Web sites contain relevant online advertising on a small portion of the site, but DO NOT include obtrusive pop-up ads.

I’m thinking of moving this site over to the GoDaddy Economy Hosting to give it a performance test drive. My biggest concern will be speed – how long does it take to pull the page up? Since this blog really doesn’t get a lot of traffic (yet), it may be tough to evaluate how it performs under those conditions.

I have a photo gallery that I’ll move and update the links to it, perhaps that will help with the performance testing. I am really sensitive to the “site is too busy” type messages and I’m worried all these “free” sites will have some sort of throttle on them. I’ll have to research that one too.

I do have one of GoDaddy’s Deluxe Plans for designingkirk.com (something I had setup for both my husband and myself), which I’ve been playing around with. Again not enough traffic to do any real testing.

Nothing personal to GoDaddy, but I’m glad they are not doing any Miva Merchant hosting. While I would love to see much cheaper Miva Merchant hosting, I know that it takes more time and attention to keep that type of server humming.