The concept of alternative user interface for writing at mpomy.com only makes sense because I crave diversity. There is really nothing wrong with WordPress 3. I just want to see if this works. If it does, we’ll go from there.
You gotta love WordPress – everything is so easy to install and update now, it’s amazing how much has changed since I first started messing with it back in March of 2008. That may not be much time, but the ease of use, compared to back then, is extraordinary. Hell, back then WordPress.com didn’t even exist.
I’m also happy to say that, after experimenting with almost a dozen different themes, I came back to TwentyTen, which is the new default that is included with the updated 3.0 platform. I needed a two column layout that would work with the ‘custom menus’ (I think that’s a new feature), and would let me use my own header image. I’m not quite sure the current image is permanent, but that’s what I’ve got for now.
The widget areas at the bottom and sides are just what I’m used to, although some widgets and plugins have been updated since I last had a facelift.
I still gotta do a blogroll or links section, and that has needed serious updating for some time.
The WordPress app for iPad looks and works great. I have often thought that the way in which my WordPress software is served and nested, outside apps won’t be able to connect with the content. We’ve already gotten a taste of that attempting to log onto SeeEmilyPlay. Now that I see how easily I can post, the more I am inclined to WANT to post.
In other news, Jamie Moyer school’d the Yankees tonight in a game that no one thought the Phillies could win. They gave the best offensive display we’ve seen in almost a month and won by a score of 6-3. I just listened to Steve Somers bait the Yankees fans on WFAN. Very enjoyable.
Mac is updating my OS and iTunes, presumably both in preparation for the new iOS that’s coming next week and the iPhone 4. The iPad is what really wants the fancier OS, but that will have to wait until at least the fall. The laptop updates a re taking forever, but it seems to be working.
The cookies shown below Rachel’s; they are righteous and they are raw.
Wow – big day for Apple. But I’m not worried about iPhones or video calls or tethering or any of that stuff right now. No, at the moment, I’m trying to optimize my work experience by using only applications that were originally conceived and built for Mac. That means no MS Entourage, no Quicken, etc. I had noticed that after two years on my black 2GB Macbook, my hard drive was pretty much full. So I went about eliminating the bloat. So far, it’s been great. I’m getting very conversant with iCal, Address Book, Things (which is really special), and the back and forth with Google’s Contacts and Calendar is especially helpful.
Now that Safari is up to version 5, I’m downloading and wondering if it will make me want to give up my beloved Opera browser. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I’ll try it out anyway.
The only real problem is the personal finance software. There is no reference standard for the Mac like there is in other realms (Logic for music, Final Cut for video, Safari for browser, etc). I spent the past week using Jumsoft’s Money 3, but it really is nothing special and the iPhone app doesn’t sync cleanly. That is so NOT ok. So now I’m looking to take advantage of another ‘trial period’ and see if there is another personal accounting program that can do what I want – be flexible, be native, communicate with the various banks, and be Mac beautiful. We’ll see how this (and how the supposedly faster new Safari) goes.
Last night, it seems an old gmail account of mine “blogerantz[at]gmail[dot]com” got hacked and sent viagra ads to everyone in my contacts and a few others besides. I have changed the email password, so I am hoping that will be the end of it. If you are seeing this message before you click on any strange looking links, please don’t click on those links. I didn’t send them to you.
And for those of you with whom I am connecting for the first time in a while, Hello! Sorry to be getting in touch under such stupid circumstances.
I have third-party hosting for this site, so I wasn’t effected by the recent WordPress outage, although my hosting provider had their own shut down for a few hours recently. The real problem had been that I couldn’t upload anything using Google Chrome for Mac. It’s extremely annoying to have to open a whole new application just to post anything.
Fortunately, everything appears resolved at the moment. I upgraded to WordPress 2.9.2 and the whole thing is just honky dory. Even using Chrome. Time to try some new extensions?
I love the browser and the fact that it now supports extensions, but uploading to Tumblr or even Google’s own Buzz is now impossible. I’m going to have to go back to Firefox until this gets sorted. Aw, snap indeed.
Not that kind of buzz! Although I may have to take the dog back to The 700 for a Bloody Mary or four, considering that the city will be encased in 16 inches of snow.
But, more to the point, is Google’s new toy for keeping tabs on you, obtaining an absurd amount of private information about you, putting Twitter out of business. Status updates on Google Buzz will be just like tweets, butt they will integrate with your already extant Google Apps, including mail and maps. The service will also aggregate (GASP!) with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Picasa (what’s that?).
The problem for me is an issue of branding. My brand (Mpomy!!) is not strongly associated with all my Google junk – which lives under the moniker “Blogerantz” (what’s that?). Aaaaaand, I can’t just start using my mpomy.com stuff, because that’s not strongly associated with my Google stuff. I refuse to live in a walled garden.
Sooooo, it’s time to start to wrap up the Blogerantz thing. It’s meaningless and will only confuse my Buzz i.d., which should, like everything else, be an Mpomy. And since Google requires a 6+ character i.d., I present to you the new Google profile:
Exciting, I know. This nonsense would not even be blog worthy if it was not for the cruel architecture imposed by Mountain View that does not (I repeat, DOES NOT) permit importing of contacts from one Google account to another. I’m afraid that the same may be true for Calendar events.
So, with tomorrow’s snow day looming large, I have before me a significant data entry time killing project. My only hope is that it doesn’t get in the way of my other projects that are already planned for the day. Otherwise you email address may get entered as kbEUFb@gduwk.cm n or worse.
Hunson’s generously sharing code with the old and un-hip who can’t write css on their own. Thanks, man. You really ARE groovy, and so is your Tumblr theme.
It’s amazing how fast I was able to change the entire look of this thing. That’s not a testament to any knowledge that I have, that’s just WordPress being WordPress. I can’t remember how long I was using Atahualpa (which may still be a more flexible them than this one – Mystique), but it wasn’t much more than a year. Since then, there have been numerous updates to WordPress and the look of the free themes is so much more modern.