It seems Blogger has managed to lose the Blogroll and every other link on the left side. Please stand by.
Update One: It seems that Google doesn’t believe in backups, at least for free services. I should have backed the damn thing up myself. At least the Wayback Machine has a fairly recent snapshot, so I can rebuild the missing content. The question is, do I want to? I have considered closing up shop. I’ve also considered moving to another platform. With the recent reduction in income, it would have to be free. Time for the One Minute Analyst to have a go at this.
Update Two: Having some play with WordPress. It has some interesting features, but lacks some things I like in Blogger. I would have to move the blog over and would still have to recreate the blogroll, etc. Available templates are much more pleasing to the eye. Not too sure I like the compromise, though.
Update Three: Killed the WordPress site. Couldn’t make it work for me except in IE. Not happening on my computer, thanks all the same.
Update Four: After some experimentation (I hope not too many people saw some of that, it was…weird) I have a template I like better than the old one. I have the width set to 1500 pixels, which may be rather wide for some people. I’m going to start repopulating the various link sections a bit at a time as I feel like typing like a data entry clerk.
Feedback is welcome. Really. I need feedback on color choices and page/element widths especially.
I will wait for update four- "Rolling on". I know I don't get a vote, but I would like to see you continue. It has become a daily activity to check your blog for updates. If you decide to close the shop, it would be a sad day. I used to have a number of blogs that I followed every day. Your's and MostlyCajun (http://mostlycajun.com/wordpress/) are the only ones left.
Thanks for your efforts.
That's odd that WP works for you only in IE. I'm using managed WP hosting for one of the ham radio blogs I do, and it's fine in Linux/Seamonkey. (Seamonkey being a Mozilla browser that's not Firefox.)
I, for one, enjoy reading your stuff. But blogging is for you, not me.
One thing about WP that's nicer than Blogger is the comment system. I hate the Blogger comment system. Google seems really obsessed with the CAPTCHA thing. In WP, I could give you my e-mail address in the comment field, without exposing it to the world.
Been meaning to ping you using your comment form, but never get around to it, and now Blogger takes a dump!
Huh, I have no trouble with WP on Firefox. (Used Opera – a Chromium-based browser – for a while, won't use Chrome.)
Not a big Google fan. Aside from their Big Brother proclivities, they were doing something that was anti-gun. But that was so many years ago I can't recall what exactly.
The white print on a black screen is readable. I've seen much worse. Anything with good contrast is fine by me. Can the comments section be changed as well or is black print on a white screen the only choice?
Jed, I think that some of the problem with WP is probably me. There were some things in it I limed, but a number I didn't care for, such as limits on link lists (50 entries). Some of these may be removed if you pay, but this thing has to pay for itself, and since it generates exactly $0/yr in revenue…. I will agree with you on Blogger's comment system, it pretty much sucks ass, but using a replacement is painful. I did that for a while and when it went belly up I lost all the comments. I'll stick with the craptastic POS they provide. It works, even with the CAPTCHA enabled. I'll look and see if I can kill it and still keep the spam at bay.
Wheelgun, you're correct, and Google is far from the "Do no evil" policy they espouse. However, one thing I've learned is if I refuse to do business with everyone who fails to live up to my standards and beliefs, pretty soon I have no one to do business with. It could be Yahoo, and they could be helpfully scanning our email for the Federal spook departments.
Jim, I can play around with the settings a bit more, but I think the next step is going to be font and font size. I'm old enough that my first computer experiences were green on black, amber on black and white on black, so those are my touchstones for readability. As far as the commenting goes, that is a totally separate system and you can't touch the setting for it.
I'm understanding why Jerry Pournelle refused for so many years to use blogging software.
Jed, so much for turning off the CAPTCHAs. From 11:13 to 12:32 I got 3 spam comments. They're back on. I'm too lazy to deal with all the "get this and that drug cheap here".