My Wordpress install was borked since version 2.x, I finally got around to revamp the backend, clear out 1001 folders and all that. Oh, and there are 30+ drafts in the pipeline – most of it probably out of date, but we’ll see.
Archive for the 'Weblog' Category
I’ve uploaded over a thousand pictures from my year of study abroad at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University in Japan in 2000 and my travels to South Korea in the same year, 2001 and 2003, including our wedding. My brother’s wedding in 2003 is finally online as well as the series about my intermezzo at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Croatia, the Model United Nation Simulations and a few other events and travels from the last few years. Last but not least: food. Since Google Video is currently the only service that offers unlimited video size and length, it’s the choice of the moment.
Looking at a dozen weblogs – probably all by former or current I-House bloggers – I noticed that all of them were missing a feature. Only in one case I had a contact page or an emailaddress I could write to. My own weblog didn’t have a contact page either… that changed.
O.k., that’s it. I tinkered with my old layout, tried to fix some of the glitches that have always been there and annoyed me… but instead of fixing it, somewhere along the line I got tired with the whole thing. Expect a new layout sooner or later.
Definitely later.
p.s.: In the meanwhile, enjoy white as milk by Azeem Azeez.
Yet Another Test Post. I bought a Flickr Pro Account per Paypal, it took me two minutes and the setting up of my Wordpress blog in Flickr was simple. Great.
p.s.: Uploading works, although there’s an error message in Flickr – but I think I know where the error comes from. I’d also have to choose a category from within the blog. Well, nothing’s perfect, but it suits my needs.
This is an attempt to see how Wordpress and Google Video work together. Looks o.k., doesn’t it? I think I’ll add a few more over the time. This video is the first one I took just a few hours after Jun’s birth.
It seems like Wordpress 2.0 and Gallery2 don’t like each other. None of the links to individual pages work, not the archive nor the category links, so at the moment, the main page is all you can get. There’re good news though, I’ve resolved most of the quirks the blog had. I’m slowly expanding the gallery section, and now you can also leave comments for individual photos. There’s more, but I’ll rather wait until I get it working 100% before I write about it.
The next version of Wordpress is almost ready – a release candidate is available for download. I’ll upgrade my blog today, keep your fingers crossed. I’m thinking about importing all my other blogs into this one, also the ones that weren’t public. Next February, my blog is going to arrive at his final destination, http://www.grabic.name, it’d be a good opportunity to merge all of them.
update: Seems to be working, but the admin section has white text on white background…
James Ashburn moves to Düsseldorf, so does his weblog. I’ll add him to my blogroll – I’m just curious why he moves from San Francisco here? Since yesterday night, I’m thinking about California. Another job opportunity opened up, but I haven’t sent my application yet.
Added Kushibo to the blogroll. Don’t rush through his blog, there’re too many good articles you’d miss out on.
Lately, I often come across howtos, tutorials, guides, etc. about blogging. Finding this one, I thought I’ll share my thoughts why this blog will never be a success.
- No Author Biographies. True, there’s none. Nobody asked so far, so there’s none missing.
This blog is far less about me than stuff I find worth noticing, remembering, thinking about it. Actually, many blogs I encounter have an egocentric touch or shout “look at me, look at me”, which I find irritating. - No Author Photo. No biography, no image linked. There’s one in the gallery, if you’re really curious. I’ve seen myself on Google once, too. My physical appearance is nothing to brag about and wouldn’t add much to this blog’s content either. Lack of credibility? What, you don’t trust me?
- Nondescript Posting Titles. That’s probably true every now and then. Aside from blaming it on a certain lack of imagination and creativity, I like to think it’s because I write in a foreign language. It’s a good way to practice English. It’s fun, too.
- Links Don’t Say Where They Go. Guilty as sin, your honor. I often use links like this, this or this one. Especially here.
- Classic Hits are Buried. Classic hits? On this blog? If I had any, I might even put up a section in the sidebar. I like these two entries, but they’re less than a year old. Classic? Come back in twenty or so years.
- The Calendar is the Only Navigation. I don’t even have a calender set up. Categories and the search form should be enough for most users. I thought about tags, but that’s too much for a little blog like this one. Are you looking for something but can’t find it? Just ask.
- Irregular Publishing Frequency. That’s a direct hit. Now, I’ve got several jobs, family and an inexplicable urge to have a life offline. If I wanted to post more and frequently, I’d have to cut on my sleep. If visitors don’t want to wait for content (you know who you are), I recommend to use Thunderbird and read the feed whenever there’s something new. Following blogs by actually surfing there on a daily basis is so 20ieth century…
- Mixing Topics. Another one. I’m sorry to have such a broad interest. I’m certainly guilty of being too curious, Faust has my full sympathy. In my defence, I really try to stick to less than two dozen categories. The attentive reader will notice a jack-of-all-trades category where I can stuff in everything that doesn’t fit elsewhere though.
- Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss. I know lots of people who don’t think about what they’re publishing on the net is going to be there forever. When I started writing online, I didn’t think much about it either, but if you read my opinion somewhere, I stand by it. My opinion can change over time, of course (remembering some ideas and opinions, this is a good thing), especially after lively discussion when I’m introduced to new aspects or ideas. I might change my opinion about 1.) in this list in the future. The general idea here is, I don’t write anything I wouldn’t say in any other situation. Let’s call it authenticity. My future boss might not like it, but then again, I could end up as my own boss.
- Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service. I’ve started with Google’s free Blogger service, and my actual domain, Grabic.name is still owned by my internet provider, but that’s going to change in february. I don’t agree with Jacob Nielsen’s assessment that a typepad or blogger address ending is the equivalent of
the mark of a naïve beginner
. There’re lots of well written blogs hosted py Typepad or Blogger. Not everybody needs all the perks of an own weblog software installation, plugins, themes, etc. Content is king. The problem I see with webservices, once you use them, you rely on their continous existence in their current form. Flikr was bought by Yahoo, who knows what they’ll do with it in a handful years? I rather use a gallery2 installation I own, 100% control is better than zero.
Thinking about my introduction, why this blog will never be a success… define success. 
Dan Schorr recently travelled through North Korea. He describes the English language Pyongyang Times as follows:
No news about other countries. No sports scores. No crossword puzzle.
No crossword puzzle? No fun in Kimjongil-land.
After almost a week, I somehow managed to make it back online. The files, mailsettings and all other stuff except the database were simple to move to the new cluster. Since Wordpress, Mambo and other scripts I had running on the server used utf-8 for character encoding, the migration proved somewhat difficult. With the old version of phpmyadmin, I couldn’t set the collation of the database, and to be honest, up to this week I didn’t even know databases had a setting for encodings. It turns out the old collation was latin1 (surprise, surprise), and setting the new one to utf-8 and importing the tables in utf-8 didn’t work for me, all characters were kaput. It turns out, that databases have their internal encoding which creates the whole problem. For wordpress, either using a wp-plugin or find a way to issue a SET NAMES ‘latin1′ command right after WP is done connecting. The easier option for me was to create a new table which is set to latin1 as the old one. Problem solved and blogged, hopefully others will find this hint useful to circumvent character set encoding problems.
On another note, today is the day. My wife’s due, but the little guy seems to be comfortable enough inside. We might have to wait for a few days, but there’s no need to rush. We bought everything we need, the name is decided and people are calling in the whole time and ask whether “it happened” or not. Stay tuned.
My provider is getting in shape with new server software and a relaunch of their website. I’ll need a few days to move my domains over to the new hosting cluster, so there won’t be any news until Tuesday.
Back online – at last. Moving to Wordpress actually wasn’t as simple as I hoped it would be. After importing all postings I had to assign categories and add titles to older posts, several plugins messed around with the content, display or other functions behind the scenes and freeing myself from thirdparty services turned out to be difficult. I won’t use “Hello/Blogger” to post images anymore, but Gallery2 in the future. I also won’t use javascript anymore as a target_blank ersatz (the latter is deprecated anyway), if you want a link to be opened in a new window, please use the middle mouse button.
what doesn’t work yet (sorted by importance):
Internal&Dashboard: posts can’t be searchedInternal: gallery2 needs to be configurated and set up- Display: images formerly hosted at Blogger/Hello aren’t always displayed
- Internal: xhtml plugin causes all kinds of errors (currently disabled)
Internal: multiple languages within a posting and text formatting (TextControl) at the same time doesn’t workDesign: the upper part of the right border disappears if the number of horinzontal pixels is uneven- Listings: all bloglists, catalogues, etc. need to be updated to the new url
Design: post titles in archives are not displayed properlyInternal: the post preview doesn’t refreshDashboard: (save&editing) “save” posting and return to overview doesn’t work sometimes- Design: smilies under IE have no real transparency (I’m waiting for IE7)
P.S.: If you wonder what the countdown is for, click here.
Alright, this is it. I was working on a WordPress installation elsewhere, a different layout and lots of other stuff. Now, the new location is all setup, I’ll start moving this blog away from Blogger. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s a great service, but far too limiting.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Goodbye Google, and thanks for the fish.
I’m sorry I have to focus on other stuff until mid August, so there might not be much or any blogging at all during that time. Since I postponed things I have to take care of for weeks now, it leaves me little time to continue writing regularily. If you want to read something interesting during the break, try Hugo Dobson’s Japan and United Nations Peacekeeping: New Pressures, New Responses. See you after the summer.
The Marmot’s Hole added to Blogroll. It’s a group weblog centered around all things Korean, including news, events, culture and history. Writing since January 2003, the linklist to other Korean blogs is extensive – if you want to participate in the discussions though, you have to register (an extreme, but safest way to prevent spam in comments). You’ll notice the absence of a design or any colors with the default theme, so nothing’s going to distract you from the content.
update: Firefox with enabled adblock blocks their weblog’s header image…
I have to apologize, I’m a little bit slow with posting since I’m working fulltime on the new weblog which is going to be based on WordPress 1.5.1.2. The layout for the blog is going to change too, the themebrowser at alexking.org is a real time-saver.
Nevertheless… on thursday evening, we went to a seminar at Marien-Hospital in Düsseldorf, our first choice when we started comparing local hospitals in regard to number of births, episiotomy and Caesarean rate, support by midwives etc. – also, since my mother works there and lives in an adjoining building we quickly reached a decision. The head of the maternity clinic, Professor Diemer and two staff members talked with about three dozen future parents about… well, about everything. We also had the chance to take a tour in the labor rooms, which were smaller than I expected. The adjacent room was currently used so we heard a women shouting extremely loud and penetrating – one of the people in the group remarked this reminded him of a music school with singing classes.
Buzznews reports that Hossein Derakhshan from hoder.com decided to return to Iran to watch the upcoming elections. Since his critical reporting about the Iranian government, it is probable, if not likely, that his plan will get him into jail as this was the case with Sina Motallebi, an Iranian journalist. Hoder asks for help on his website for his trip and in case he gets into trouble. Keep an eye on his weblog, publicity is one of the things that could keep him safe.
This weblog is going to get a new home soon. I reserved the domain grabic.name, since my internet provider, 1 & 1, supplies its customers with one free top-level domain. I’m also thinking about using Wordpress, NucleusCMS or Serendipity in the future. Blogger is a great – free – service, but it’s too limiting.
German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau regularily posts about the blogworld’s reaction to current world events, politics, journalism, changes in society and its relationship to technology:
Since people have lost their jobs over blogging, I thought I look around and see what you can do to protect
- your privacy
- your basic right of freedom of speech
I found two websites that explain in quite simple terms how anonymous blogging can be done:
The latter has a few other interesting links. In some countries, weblogging can even lead to people being put into prison. There’s a list of webloggers who have been detained, freed or threatened in various countries. If you speak German, take a look at Teheran Bytes, a blog written by Nahid Siamdoust, reporter for TIME Magazine in Tehran.
UPDATE:
Here are two more useful links…
Private Blogging Wiki
taint.org: Anonymous blogging made simple
Blogging will be a little bit light until Friday, since an unexpected opportunity came up – I’m applying for a job that could feed my family and allow me to write my doctoral thesis at the same time. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
I used the Kubrick for Blogger template for the page (original template by Michael Heinemann, the old one was too dark and uninviting. Still some stuff to do though, but right now that should be enough. I had to relearn some programs I used to design with in the past, also, since I didn’t really code for ages modifying was difficult enough. Too bad there won’t be time to learn CSS properly.