Short Attention Span Theater, Volume 2

What is wrong with me that I find Macromedia Flash’s interface completely indecipherable? I just want to make the freaking box move, dammit! It shouldn’t be this hard…

Comments (0)

Short Attention Span Theater, Volume 1

Have you downloaded your Twisp and Catsby wallpaper yet?

Comments (1)

Further Perils of the Blog

I have been following with glee the recent developments in the blogging community regarding the new improved pricing model for the upcoming Movable Type 3 application. What it all basically comes down to is that they will now be charging several hundred dollars for what was - up ’til now - completely free for non-commercial users. Har har har!

The reason that this is so entertaining is that the principal makers of Movable Type, lovable couple Ben and Mena Trott have built themselves as bona-fide blogosphere celebrities on Movable Type’s success (I mean, who else can the community look for as a luminary? Goddamned Dave Winer? F that weasel…). The husband and wife team (he codes! she designs!) are basically looked at as the Ewoks of the community.

Mena Trott

Ben Trott

Ewok

Now, imagine if you will, Wicket getting the shit kicked out out him by a bunch of hippies as he squeals and clicks in his adorable native tongue. That’s pretty much what’s going on here.

I have always been pretty happy with what Movable Type delivers as a product. It has a ton of features when compared with GreyMatter (JesusH’s old CMS), and its UI design is solid. That said, I’ve never been a big fan of its perl cgi backend (I much prefer PHP for web applications), and I disagree with having to constantly rebuild the sites pages on general principle (if you have a database-backed website, you should act like it, dammit). Now, amidst all the commotion, seems like a terrific time to evaluate the other options available to us.

The open source application WordPress has been getting a crapload of exposure as a result of the raping of sixapart, and it seems to me a pretty attractive offering. First of all, it is built with PHP and pulls its data dynamically from a mysql database. Second, it seems to have pretty much all the features I enjoyed in Movable Type (and it will be far easier to develop new features for, if I’m so inclined). Finally, it’s open source, which means that nobody can turn around and charge me for it later. Winner!

Unfortunately, the program significantly lacks some of the polish of the Movable Type that we know and love (in terms of the UI, supporting documentation, and general fit and finish), and it has been a bit problematic to get the old MT posts imported into it (the import script that comes with WordPress hasn’t been cooperating with me…) In any case, I’m pretty excited about the prospect of moving to a new CMS program for JesusH…

Comments (0)

The Perils of the Blog

I have been doing some light research on blog-type topics. I was very amused when I came across this entry, by some poor sack who probably expected better…

Comments (0)

Egregious.

I have two bits of fun news to share, which, under normal circumstances, probably wouldn’t be considered related:

1.) I have been messing around with my new server (www.peasej.com), which lets me do things like set subdomains whenever I want and otherwise wage havoc on the unsuspecting daemons.

2.) Uncle Milton delivered the ants for my ant farm this evening.

So, hey everybody: what do you say we all enjoy our new ant buddies, together?

Comments (3)

Waterless Urinals

San Diego State got some of these things installed in the summer of 2003, and I had the pleasure of depositing urine in them several times. The verdict: they are awesome.

Yes, I will definitely be getting one of these for my bathroom sooner or later. Right, Deb?

Comments (4)