I sat down tonight to catch up on some posting. Unfortunatly I am currently locked out of my offline blog editor. Not sure why. It seems to be taking forever to setup all my settings again. I am writting this entry right into the Typepad web editor. Not a fan of it. I want my ecto to work:( More posts after I fix the problem.
Blogging
Typepad My Sites Home
Well my 30 days is up and I decided to keep my site at Typepad. I am liking the features so I paid my year subscription. I will keep my old site on Miguel’s server for now, since it is free.
Updated The Blog Layout
I updated the layout and color scheme of the blog today. I wasn’t really looking to do it, but when I made a small layout change I lost most of the color settings I had. I couldn’t find the template I used to originally create they layout, so a new color scheme and layout was born. I think the old blue color was a bit to “pastelie”. I like making up words.
You would think I have nothing else on my mind to write about (or get up from the computer to do for that matter), but I am here writing about changing color schemes. I actually have a bunch to write about, and even more to do once I finish working on the computer. First up, I am off to make dinner.
Everyone is Blogging
Gretchen setup a blog a few days ago. She has a few posts up there already. They are pretty funny. Allot of the time I aim for my blog entries to have that kind of tongue and cheek comedy to them. I have no clue if I actually come across that way or not. the other part of the time I am just bitching about one thing or another. That aspect of the blog is most likely painfully obvious when I do it.
The Blog URL
I have given up. I have given up on what url to give this blog. I am taking the cop out approach and just using my main website address and pointing it to the blog. I will use some other URL for my “regular” site.
To be honest, besides my photo album there is not much left on my website. Over the past year I have been spending more on the blog and less on designing and putting content on my website. It will now be harder to find the “regular” site. Sorry to all that were looking for a 4 year old copy of my resume, or other outdated content.
Blogging on My PC
I normally blog while on my Powerbook. For this trip I took my thinkpad because of the extra battery life I have on it compared with the Powerbook. When in transit I like to blog. What to do? They now make a version of the blog software I use on my Mac for the PC, but I don’t want to shell out another $15 on ecto for the PC. I downloaded w.bloggar for the PC. I used it before, but last year when I had it, it was very buggy and I never used it due to problems. Now I have a newer version and it seems OK. the one thing it doesn’t do that ecto does is save several blog posts offline to be posted later. I have to export posts to txt files if I want to work on several at a time when offline. this is annoying, but otherwise I like the software.
While on the topic of blogging itself I think I will keep Typepad past the 30 day demo. So far I have not had a problem with it, and I like their management features. It is all around a cool service. it is allot compared to my free hosting by Gus, but the MOB and list features make it worth it for me to stick with them.
While in the air I also did some Moblogging. I got several pictures of the airplane cabin. Due to the shitty camera on my Treo most of them are blurry. I will post them when I get a chance.
The URL Problem Solved, I Think
So with Typepad I have been having a problem with the old url of this site. I mentioned the issue the other day. Turns out I may have had a partial solution the whole time. My DNS provider Dyndns.org has a url redirector service for free with my Custom DNS package. DYNDNS.org provides dynamic DNS options. it is really cool. I have been using them for just about a year (i just renewed my service this week). You set your domain to use their DNS servers, and you can control your domain from their web interface. That is not anything new. Register.com does that for free. What is cool is if you host your site on a dynamic ip address their service will automatically update the DNS whenever the IP of your box changes. I also had a function where their system stored my email if my mail server went down. They are very helpful for the self hosted person.
Dyndns has a feature called mywebhops. It is now taking the old URL and just redirecting to the new url of this blog. Now if you try to hit the old home page, you will get redirected to the new site. The only thing this wont do is keep all the embedded links that google has spidered. I will just have to wait until google spiders the new site.
I will know if this whole thing works after the DNS changes propagate. Hopefully in a day or sooner.
The Website Name Game
I have a slight dilemma on my hands. Until yesterday my blog’s web address used to start with blog.sitename. Due to what appears to be a limitation (or my lack of figuring out how to do it after 2 hours) on my new providers system doesn’t like sites starting with blog. I can use any domain but I have to point the www.sitename.com to my blog. I don’t really want to start the site with www. as my blog home page. So the dilemma is what domain do I use? I have several, and I don’t know which one is more catchy.
What do I do? I am thinking it over. Hopefully I can finish my pondering and make a decision soon. I am opening comments if anyone actually reads this and posts an opinion.
This entry was written while listening to Humour of The Situation from the album Maroon by Barenaked Ladies
Blog Redesign
Now that I have moved to a new hosting provider (Typepad) I have decided to try out a new layout of this blog. I am now using a 3 column layout with links and lists on the left as you can see. Not sure how much use I will get out of the list function once the novelty wears off, but I am trying it out now.
I like the subtle color scheme instead of the in your face yellow and black I used to have. I liked that scheme too, but this new look seems cleaner.
Expect more tweaks and changes over the next few weeks.
The Blog Has Moved
I have taken the plunge. I have left my cushy free hosting provider. My friend had a problem with his linux server. I almost lost 2 months worth of posts. That was a big scare, but not the reason I moved. In the end Gus got the box up and I was able to backup my stuff. If I didn’t have a backup that was my fault anyway.
Gus now has to rebuild that box at some point. I will be down for that. That was a motivating factor in my decision. The simple fact is I have been eyeing a different solution for my blog for some time. I actually am now trying out SixApart’s (If you are from mars, they make MoveableType) Typepad. Typepad is a pay service, but they offer more functionality than the free moveabletype. Most of my website now consists of just my blog entries, so I am trying the free trial out. Then if I like it I will fork over the nine bucks or so a month for the hosting.
The one problem I have run into is the fact that I cannot get blog.Scott.ac to resolve to the new typepad site. Turns out they offer domain aliasing but only for www.sitename.com, not somethingelse.sitename.com. I am going to email them and see if they can get this to work. I don’t want to redirect my entire site to my blog. If I cannot get typepad to resolve blog.Scott.ac, then I will loose all my links and people wont find the site. Not that many people view it, but it will be annoying.
I am trying out a new look on the Typepad site. Not as out there as the yellow and black look of the old site. Let me know what you think.