Techie :: Techno ::: March 2006 Archives

While I was preparing for the talk I gave recently on blogging I decided to spend some time looking into blogging solutions under windows with asp / asp.net. I was left feeling completely underwhelmed by what little I found. Hasn't anyone produced a semi-decent windows based blogging engine? Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but I'd love to be pointed in the right way.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I am currently toying with the idea of podcasting. I got some excellent feedback from people about the physical equipment that I should be using and have since been exploring the software options under linux, as I will be doing it from my home desktop which primarily runs Ubuntu linux and not windows. In terms of hardware I should have Shure SM58 microphone within a few days. I'll be able to hook that into my soundcard via the XLR to jack cable that I already bought off eBay. In the meantime I may resort to using Skype. I came across a script which supposedly lets you record your skype conversations without having to use two pcs, however I haven't been able to test this yet (Anyone wanting to help me test this theory please email me!) The choice software for mixing the audio on linux seems to be restricted to Audacity. It's supposed to be functional, although the GUI is really ugly. In terms of listening to podcasts iPodder seems to be the most reliable software client that I've come across. The other issue that I needed to find a solution for was the actual publishing of the podcasts themselves. While I know that feedburner supports podcasts I wanted to explore other options as well. Should I publish podcasts here or on a separate podcast blog? I'm erring towards a separate blog simply to manage the feeds etc., but I'm still not sure. One interesting article I came across gives some insight into using torrents as well as, or as a replacement for, standard mp3s. I'm not sure how easy implementing that would be, but it could be worth exploring in greater depth.

Well not exactly .... Rob posted about a silly misunderstanding that arose in the US when a web server running Centos was not configured correctly. Although the default Apache homepage for most distros, including Centos, explains exactly what it is and why it is being displayed, one "tech savvy" city manager seems to have had "issues" with it and accused the Centos developers of hacking the site! More coverage here and here

Since I installed dapper on this desktop (and this server) the other week I've been slowly uncovering some of the new features. Thunderbird is now in version 1.5 which comes with a number of new features including native OPML support.

Over the last couple of weeks Paypal have made a number of changes to their emails. In what has to be the dumbest move by a company of their calibre they have started embedding Javascript in their emails!! The Javascript is obviously part of their web analytics being provided by DoubleClick, but why they think that any sane person will even be able to view their emails is another thing. I'd love to hear their rationale... or maybe I wouldn't ...

Websites that do not display or function correctly in browsers other than Internet Explorer are very irritating. Yesterday afternoon I tried to book a driving test online. While the site displayed perfectly in Firefox the order form did not work correctly, so I was forced to use Internet Explorer to complete the booking. It's 2006! Surely high profile websites are tested against "other" browsers these days? I've started a thread on this just to see what other sites people come across. If you know of any please feel free to add them.

I'm currently toying with the idea of doing some podcasting. My problem at the moment is that I really don't have a clue where to start in terms of equipment. So what should I be using? I know I could throw a lot of money down the drain very easily if I'm not careful, so if anyone has any recommendations to share I'd love to hear them.

I originally mentioned setting up mp3 support for Rhythmbox on breezy. I've since upgraded to dapper and have had to go through the process again. This time round the solution was to install the oddly named package gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly Depending on which repositories you have enabled you may find more than one version of it and as dapper is still in active development you may need to look for slightly different versions: sudo apt-cache search gstreamer|grep ugly

MadTux have released a bootable USB Pen Drive: "1.0GB USB Pen Drive with the entire contents of the Ubuntu 5.10 Live Release and added special code to make it bootable. Just plug it into the USB port of your computer (BIOS capable of booting USB flash is required*) and boot into Ubuntu Linux" Further information on their site EDIT: Link updated to point to the category on their site with various linux distros including Ubuntu on bootable USB

A few short weeks ago I became aware of a new title to be published dedicated to blog design. I've always been a bit of a bookaholic, so I picked up a copy on Amazon. Blog Design Solutions has no fewer than eight co-authors who include names that may be familiar to bloggers. So what does the book cover? Who is it aimed at? Should you buy a copy? The book covers everything from the basics of blogging through setting up a local development environment right through to writing your own blogging engine. Overwhelmed? While you may feel that a volume covering such a broad range of topics would be a huge tome that yells boredom from its covers you will be pleasantly surprised. The authors do not presume that you know anything (apart from having an interest in the subject matter naturally) They lead you gently into the realm of the blogger and then dedicate a chapter each to four of the more popular blogging solutions currently available:

• Wordpress
• Movable Type
• Text Pattern
• Expression Engine

Each blogging tool is introduced and discussed by an experienced user / developer and its indvidual merits discussed. They then move onto showing you in easy steps how to take the basic installation and templates and make them your own. In the case of Movable Type, for example, they build a full template style without using the original templates and then add the MT specific tags and directives into the templates to give you a fully customised look and feel. The chapter on Wordpress is fascinating, as it covers some of the more pertinent topics related to template design and development. While I may have been using Wordpress for quite some time I honestly was not aware of some of the simple, yet effective, techniques discussed. Of the four blog engines featured all except one are available under some form of "free" license. The exception is Expression Engine. According to the authors EE is well worth every cent, but I am yet to give it the chance to prove itself. Overall the book is a good read. For more advanced blog users some of the tips and tricks may prove to be useful, while for designers may find the easy to follow instructions helpful in customising blogs for their clients' use. The last chapter, which discusses developing your own blogging software solution is interesting, though whether it will be of much practical benefit remains to be seen. Blog Design Solutions

ApacheCon Europe (Dublin) is now accepting "early bird" registration. Unfortunately it's not clear either how long the "early bird" registration pricing is valid nor what exactly you are registering for, as the sessions' timetable is not available yet.

I switched from Movable Type to Wordpress almost two years ago. I could lie and say that I never looked back, but it would, of course, be a lie. Much as I love Wordpress it is not without its faults. While I originally enjoyed the way it published articles "on the fly" I've now come to find that feature to be a little bit annoying. Why? Well every time someone visits an entry, browses a category or interacts with this blog a number of SQL queries are generated. Although the database is not that big the number of queries per hour and per day is quite high: 17,769.75 queries per hour (not just for this site admittedly) The knockon effect is that the server can become slow and unresponsive at times, as the MySQL daemon (the database engine) is being hammered. With Movable Type, however, the pages / entries / categories etc., are static files, so there is no need to generate database queries each time an entry or page is viewed. When I setup the Blacknight blog I opted for Movable Type over Wordpress for that reason, among others. I've also been experimenting with the plugins and extensions that are available for MT and so far I have not been disappointed. In some cases I've been pleasantly surprised with the ease of installation and management. For example setting up Feedburner was simply a matter of a couple of clicks. I didn't even have to login to my feedburner account to do it, as the MT plugin did that for me! I'm in two minds as to what I should do moving forward and I'm also aware that it is only "early days", but I must say I am impressed with the management console / inteface that MT provide. However, the installation procedure is still horrendous compared to Wordpress.

It was great to see so many people at the IIA blogging seminar in the Hilton yesterday. I finally got to meet a number of people who, up until then, had been merely names without faces. Bernie blogged live from the event, while Brian mentions it this evening. I wasn't too sure what kind of questions people would like to raise, but I was delighted with the level of genuine interest people had in blogging overall. Questions asked ranged from "why is a blog different to a website" through to the finer points of comment moderation and control in a business environment. The audience ranged from power users, such as Bernie and Brian through to the curious and those just "dipping their toes" into the medium. While I had originally planned to cover a very broad range of topics the lively debate and discussion took us to new and more interesting areas than I could possibly have imagined. I'd love to do it all over again :)

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MSN supposedly did a softlaunch of their contextual ads program today, however you cannot access the signup page unless you are running IE 6! I tried from my windows desktop using IE7 beta and was greeted with: "MSN adCenter does not currently support the web browser you are using. Please sign in using Internet Explorer 6" So, while the MS developers and evangelists want us all to try IE7 MSN is blocking us? Ah well ...........

The case of ie7.com is causing some mirth in technical / geek circles at present. While it is amusing I wonder will they be able to hold onto that domain for much longer.