Trying to fix some Twitter issues. Ugh.
Still / again.
Test, test, test
Reply
Category Archives: This Blog
Upgraded to WP 3.0.1
Well, I could claim I was being wise and following the “never load anything that ends in ‘.0′” school of system maintenance, or I could be honest and just say that I’ve been lazy, but I’ve now upgraded this blog to WordPress 3.0.1.
This is actually a test bed for me, since it’s the “simplest” of my blogs, and the most vanilla. I’ll probably start moving up the ladder of complexity from here. WIST will be last, since I’ve actually screwed around with the underlying source code on that one (for the RSS feeds).
Anyway, nothing much to see here. At least, right today.
Counting words for the sidebar
Katherine’s been envious of the little graph I can pull up on my NaNoWriMo page (under the NaNo Stats tab), so Margie created one for her in Google Sheets, and I’ve put a link to the graph in the sidebar under her name. Yay for Google Docs (and Margie).
The official NaNoWriMo word count widgets are still not turned on, due to the site being so slammed. Eric at Saalon Muyo has created a simple PHP hack that uses the NaNoWriMo API to give the word count; I’m including that in my sidebar for my results, until (if ever) the widgets work.
Interestingly, the API and widgets are only on the “adult” side; Katherine’s YWP account doesn’t get access to them. I’m not sure if that’s to keep the kids from being too obsessed over this or what, but it’s a bit irksome.
Yes, there are other things I should be doing right now
Okay, there are about eleventy-dozen things I could be doing right now in prep for NaNoWriMo that don’t involve what I’m doing, i.e., changing my blog site design. But, then, I’m not doing it instead of writing, so I guess I’m okay.
I really have loved the Notepad Chaos theme by Evan Eckard. It’s drop-dead gorgeous, a delicately crafted jewel … and completely inflexible for anything beyond what it currently has. Yes, there is now a v1.5, with a 2.0 promised real soon now … but I decided to go with a known quantity …
… the Thesis theme. Which, yes, is a pay theme, but I’m already using it for my main blog, and so I knew I could do some quick work with it for Doing Write. Most particularly, adding in some sidebar content. My main challenge will be making it look different from DDtB without spending godawful amounts of time at it. We will see.
One of the cool things about WordPress, of course, is that I can bring in a new theme, and all the content should be copacetic, including link lists and the like. So far so good, and I’ve tweaked it enough that it feels a bit different. There’s more I want to do … but it may have to wait until some other time.
Writing and Blogging and Tweeting (oh my!)
I’ve installed TwitterTools on this WordPress blog so that when I post something here it will automatically generate a Tweet in my Three_Star_Dave Twitter stream, with a “Doing Write” prefix. I’m going to use this blog for (talking about) my NaNoWriMo effort this year, and through the magic of TwitterTools over on my main blog, it will then cross-post links of posts here to over there.
And if my configuration is successful, this post should be the first time so posted. Stay tuned!
Test again
Test test test.
Change of platform
I’m going to be changing this blog over to WordPress imminently (perhaps even tonight). If you’re one of those folks who follow this site via a feed reader — those addresses will change. If you note a gap in posting, come visit the site and see if things have changed, and resubscribe to the feed.
Onward and upward!
Upgrade time
This blog is now updated to Movable Type v4.01! Woot!
Fluffing up the pillows
Finally configured ecto to do an accurate preview of the posts here while I’m working on them, using the site’s own CSS. It’s a neat little facility, but it points out that the current (well, maybe a dot release old) templating for MT is just incredibly baroque. These posts are embedded in eight (or was it nine?) divs. I mean — that’s just freaking crazy!
Did something similar to add the 100 Words blog to my ecto installation, so I can use ecto for posting (handy since it has a word counter). That blog’s old school, so far as CSS goes — two or three simple divs.
Anyway, should make life a bit easier.
Tiny Turing Adventures
I’ve implemented Tiny Turing anti-spam-comment protection, which makes it easier for people to post comments here than previously (which required TypeKey registration, which some folks cannot abide). Tiny Turing does a little text box to fill in with a designated letter — sort of a text-based version of those graphic CAPTCHA codes that a lot of sites use.
Hopefully this will encourage comments, which have been few and far between. Of course, I’m actually doing stuff here, which should also (cough) make comments more likely.