Getting Gruntled

I was putting off the 2.5 upgrade for Wordpress for a few days, then I saw a list of the security issues it solved, and figured that I may as well go ahead with it. The upgrade was smooth and clean, as usual, and the look-and-feel changes in the admin area are going to need a few days.
The docs page at WP says that the admin area is totally widgetized, so I may be able to tweak the placement of things to an extent. The important thing is that the upgrade was minimally invasive, quick and relatively painless. All of my plugins seem to be working without a hitch, and I think that the load time of my homepage may have dropped by a couple of seconds, too. Bonus!

I was reading about Mrs. Sparrow’s woes in finding out that she’s “only” a B-list blogebrity…. Whatever being a blog-ebrity might be worth. I took the test, and It says that:

I’m a C-lister! Just like in birth order, I’m stuck in the middle. Average. Blah.

Looking at it again, in order to hit the A-list, I’d likely need a steady supply of gadgets to review, write bagloads of articles on “blogging for bloggers” and “how to make money by writing your own blog”, and eventually corporatize the whole blog here.

Doesn’t sound very original or thought-provoking.

80%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I wouldn’t actually say that I have an addiction to blogging. I mean… addiction? I don’t update quite often enough to get that label. Maybe Mouseclone, or even more so, Mark at Delusions.

I’ve had some instances lately where have been asked to write down my address here for others. I was thinking about having some personal cards made up with the address here, but kept putting this off because of the expense. A lot of times, it’s very handy to have preprinted cards to give to your acquaintances when you see them (in real life, that is) so that they have something with your URL on it, and it also serves as a good spot to make some small notes on the back for them like a reminder of a party, or maybe another site that you had been discussing. I found a site called ooPrint that offers 100 FREE business cards, where all you pay is the shipping. I’ve used a place similar to this in the past. One big twist is the “web 2.0″ designs that they have that are geared toward bloggers. These designs are listed in their online catalog as “blogger business card”, and there are four designs with varying colors and icons. What I really like about these is that they feature a slick-looking tag cloud at the bottom. Not only that, but you customize the words that make up the tag cloud, so your cards are fully customized to what your blog is about.

The site is easily navigated, and as you fill in the information for the cards, you immediately see a mini proof of how the cards will look. Besides the specials on business cards, they have a host of other printed solutions to choose from, including custom wine labels and neat-looking invitations.

Yesterday, the Wordpress group released an update to the butt-kicking blog software I’ve been using for years now. I did the upgrade in about 10 minutes total, then found a couple of spots where some old plugin code that’s outdated now (read: UTW) was mangling a page here and there, and I think it’s all Kosher now, easily fixed by editing the templates.

There are a ton of bugfixes, and some really groovy enhancements. The main enhancement is that tagging is handled by WP rather than by any number of plugins. I’m still roaming through, noticing the updates, but I can say after a short while using it that the admin area is responding a lot faster for me, and it’s not my connection. I’ve noticed the speed using three different internet connections.

Mouseclone Did the upgrade, though, and something went awry… I’m not sure of the details, because I had to run off for a bit, and when I’d returned, it looked like a tornado had passed through his database. Word to the wise: backups. Backups BACKUPS!
The mantra is and has always been:

“If you don’t have at least three copies of a piece of data on different media, the data does not exist.”

I say this, knowing full well that I didn’t make a new, full backup before doing the update to the WP bits, but here’s the cool part of the story: he made a backup, and looking at it right now, everything is back up and rocking out.

Testing a new domain’s DNS. Yay!

** now with linky goodness! **

I just installed a couple of plugins to handle tagging for my posts. I’m just kind of testing them out at this point.

the EFF has a campaign against a couple of proposals that are currently under scrutiny in the U.S. The flash video is well done, explains the issues witout being dry or long-winded, and entertains at the same time.

random quote form the girls…

A: “Hey look at this! I put a sticker on my ear!”

K: “Oh yeah, I found something sillier! chicka bok bok! chicka bok bok!” (imitates a chicken, strutting, flapping wings, pecking)

I upgraded the blog to Wordpress 2.0, lovingly dubbed “Duke” by the coding team. The upgrade was a snap, no plugin snafus, and the admin interface got a major makover. Tis pretty swank. If you’re hesitating the upgrade, get off your butt and click it!

The issues with the heat in my house are all resolved. Again. For the moment. We’ll see. We got a new outside unit, and it is working much better than ever before. It hasn’t been cold since we got it all settled, though. I’m thinking of going ahead with a new thermostat and getting some programmable sensors as well.

I scored some used laser printers and jetdirect devices from work. The price was cheap. And cheap is close to free. And you can’t beat free. I need to fish some network lines around the house for convenience and high-speed data flow… :]

BTW, the first comment that quotes the famous Fark adage about Duke will earn a special ass-whoopin’.