- Saturday, February 06, 2010
I'm WORKING on IT!
ok ok Not that any of you are "on my back", but I am working on getting the blog moved over to Wordpress. I did manage to get my flash elements working in the test version of the blog, so once I get it working the way I want it, I'll be good to go.In the mean time -- I thought when I re-launch, it would be fun to do a collaborative piece. That is to say, work with a few of you on writing a story. A fine example of such a story can be found hereThe Vanishing Date. Now, this story, written by a remarkably talented group of writers, was written around Halloween, so the story is themed as a "scary story". BUT it will indeed give you all a fantastic example of how a collaborative story could work.
I figure, we can each post the root part of the story (the beginning) - with the author's name (blog persona or otherwise) and link at the end of it -- then the next writer will continue the story - and a third person can go from there. The trick will be to plan who is going to write parts 1, 2, and 3 (and so on) and then figure out how to collaborate. I have a few ideas on how this might work, but I am not completely sure which would work the smoothest.
IDEA 1- communicate (probably through email) before posting the pieces of story once we are all done.
IDEA 2- first writer posts the introduction piece, then "tags" the next writer. (Um TAG, you're it!) - after which that person writes part two... and tags someone else.
The problem with that would be - people might get confused about when to post or you have other people post the next part on their blog.
IDEA 3- probably the better of the ideas, would be to post PART 1 in the weblog, then have people add to the story using comments.
This, however would involve people actually reading the post, then the resulting comments in order to continue the story properly. (So we wouldn't have two people submit part 3 and getting the story all jacked up.)
Anyway, it is an idea. In the meantime, I am going to be working on the weblog-transfer-to Wordpress-- but won't be doing too much with it tomorrow.
If you can think of other ways to get the story idea to work out smoothly, or would like to take part in writing with me, let me know.
If nobody replies, I guess I'll have to write the whole thing myself.
pero @ 8:45 PM | œ | 0 comments
In Search of -- a new blogging tool
Ok, so I've been playing with WordPress, but unfortunately, they have deemed it necessary to prevent folks such as myself from using FLASH elements in the webpages that utilize WordPress... which would mean - no wordalizer, no holiday headers, etc. (foo).So, I did some research - (that is, I traveled as far as Rob's site and found some useful information on this topic.
Those of you who are using Blogger (like myself) on your own domain (again, like myself) will be interested to know that there are options that can help you.
(Deb, and Tim, you are included in this group of people, as are many other people I know.)
I considered using Posterous, since they support publishing to one's own domain. Tumblr has a nice website and may also be another one to consider if you are in the market to find a new blogging software.
I am also looking into MovableType... which I had done in the past (about 3 years ago) when I decided to stay with Blogger... well, now, IT is TIME to move ON!
Once I have it working, I will fix the overall DESIGN of the page, and put the wordalizer back up. If the MT install is relatively painless, I may even update the Wordalizer before puttting it back up.
I am hoping to make this transition painless (for myself), and once I get through it, will be willing to try to help anyone else having to "relocate" their weblog.
Labels: Bloggarino., Ciao
pero @ 9:58 AM | œ | 1 comment
Blogger - you suck.
Ok... I have considered, many times, in the past to leave BLOGGER and move my weblog to a different server. Now they have given me reason to get it done.Dear FTP user:
You are receiving this e-mail because one or more of your blogs at Blogger.com are set up to publish via FTP. We recently announced a planned shut-down of FTP support on Blogger Buzz (the official Blogger blog), and wanted to make sure you saw the announcement. We will be following up with more information via e-mail in the weeks ahead, and regularly updating a blog dedicated to this service shut-down here: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/.
The full text of the announcement at Blogger Buzz follows.
Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing[1] Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs. FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP ? yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that. On top of this, critical infrastructure that our FTP support relies on at Google will soon become unavailable, which would require that we completely rewrite the code that handles our FTP processing.
Three years ago we launched Custom Domains[2] to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP[3] and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing. (If you're interested in reading more about Custom Domains, our Help Center has a good overview[4] of how to use them on your blog.) In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users.
For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:
o We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
o We will be providing a dedicated blog[5] and help documentation
o Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.
We have a number of big releases planned in 2010. While we recognize that this decision will frustrate some users, we look forward to showing you the many great things on the way. Thanks for using Blogger.
Regards,
Rick Klau
Blogger Product Manager
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
[1] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[2] http://buzz.blogger.com/2007/01/blogger-custom-domains.html
[3] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[4] http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55373
[5] http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/
----
This e-mail is being sent to notify you of important changes to your Blogger account.
pero @ 7:37 PM | œ | 1 comment
Recently Found... Randomly Shared.
Every now and then, I get burned-out (internet-wise). I sit down, open the browser, and decide that there is nothing left to read; so I close the browser and find another way to occupy my mind and my time. After a few (days, weeks, months, who knows?) time, I spend time searching for new (to me) and interesting (possibly only to me) sites. I decided that I would share some of the sites I have recently discovered, in no particular order. Click. Enjoy! Feedback is welcome, as always.Well, if nothing else, that took up a bit of your idle time. Happy Reading!
1 The Printed Blog The world's first daily newspaper comprised entirely of blogs and other user generated content. Sadly, due to cost issues, it is not currently being printed... maybe with enough readership and help (ie, money) it can live once again. As it is now, 16 issues are available for each of a few different cities.
2 The Periodic Table of Videos Shared primarily for having a different layout; not only are there videos here for every element, but the site plans to offer "films about other areas of chemistry, latest news and occasional adventures away from the lab." My kid is taking Chemistry in school, so I thought this would be useful to her.
3 The Morning News The Morning News is an online magazine, published weekdays since 1999.
4 Best Ever Recipes The best recipes on the internet. (Submit your own--become famous!).
5 The invisible internet Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity. Seeks to change the way people share and interact with news from the world around them. This reader-submitted content website is designed to function as YOUR HUB for connecting us with blogs, articles, photography, music, events and other content that YOU deem worthy of sharing with your own community. (Many city editions are available for download).
pero @ 5:10 PM | œ | 0 comments
Crapcircles. They do exist.
I feel unwell, and the dog is SICK. It is my day off; the first one I've had in a while, since I have been picking up any available shift lately, and I am beyond tired.Normally, I have trouble sleeping. Normally. I was sleeping SOUNDLY this morning, and around FOUR O'CLOCK, the dog comes into my room, moaning and whining. I know what this has meant in the past, so I get up to let him out. Then I look into the livingroom and find crapnel, circling around in a spiral pattern. The only term I can think of that can give you an accurate image would be "crapcircles". It mocked me. "Ha ha ha! Good morning to you, sir!"
"SH!T," I think, quite literally. I spent the next twenty minutes picking up droplets of crap, spraying carpet cleaner on the darkened spots of carpet, and scrubbing the carpet in smaller circles with a brush, and disposing of paper towel waste in a plastic bag. Once that task was completed, evil whispered in my ear, "Check the room that serves as the office." I wandered into the "office" and turned on the light. More crapcircles.
Sometime around 5:30am, I finished cleaning up the crapnel from the floor. My very light beige / near white / carpet seems unstained... but I am not entirely sure yet. I have the Bissel Carpet Steamer out and ready--I just wasn't wanting to use such a noise-inducing machine when there were people sleeping. I have an appointment and an errand to run today, afterwhich I will steam-clean the areas affected by the dog.
This is not how one should start his or her day.
pero @ 7:09 AM | œ | 0 comments
