A Picture/Video Message!, Originally uploaded by iChris.
Just fooling around with photo blogging - took a picture on my phone, uploaded it to flickr which automagically sends it to my blog. I am awesome.
The device in the picture is our store's DVD/CD printer/burner - snaps off 50 DVDs or CDs at a time.
I've been sitting on theopensourceband.com for awhile now and haven't had any good ideas of what to use it for. I originally got it with the intent of having a music creation/sharing site to collaborate on song ideas/etc with whoever. But I haven't found a good method of doing that yet that isn't too technically challenging to scare off people from joining.
At any rate, what would you expect to find if you hit up www.theopensourceband.com? Go there and leave your idea/suggestion in a comment. If I use your idea, you'll get a free tshirt.
Since my last batch of invites dissapeared, I've gotten 5 more. So, anyone interested in trying out VOX drop me an email or leave a comment.
I've got one more Vox invite to give out to someone. Drop me an email or a comment if you're interested in trying it out.
Vox is basically hosted blogging (i.e. http://ichris.vox.com/ that is made by the same company that put out the software I use for mennoboy.com, Movabletype.
Go and welcome my sister and brother-in-law to the world of blogging - www.mennoboy.com/beersincanada (their last name is Beer.. get it?)
They are moving to B.C. to live on the island in Campbell River to go to school and serve expensive Starbucks coffee to the rich islanders. We'll miss having them near by, but at least now we have a place to go stay and visit for free! :)
Apparently I can't comment on my own blog. Nice. I'm getting somewhat mildly frustrated with Movabletype lately. I've been contemplating a switch over to Wordpress but change is scary.
I've added an about me page to the blog on the right hand side. I've realized that if someone wanted to find out who was writing this site, it wouldn't be too hard so why not provide people with the proper information. We'll see how long it lasts... and more importantly how often it gets updated.
I've turned off the authentication system for comments to see how bad it is these days. At the same time I bumped up the junk filter so let me know if your comments aren't getting through. If you haven't commented before, it may take a day or so for your comment to appear as I still have to approve you as a trusted 'commentor'.
Narrow down your searchs to just blogs: http://blogsearch.google.com.
Weblogs: 16
Authors: 18
Active Authors: 11
Entries: 1609
Comments: 2963
TrackBacks: 7362
Version: 3.2
I can guarantee most of those trackbacks are spam. And probably a good portion of the comments as well. They're the ones that we've inherited since upgrading from MT 2.xx, before MT had comment/trackback spam blocking.
Sixapart has released Movabletype 3.2. To any mennoboy/mennogirl/etc users I'll be upgrading sometime in the near future. It's Andrea's (my sister) wedding on Sunday and so there's lots of family/friends that we'll be hanging around with. Look for 2 bazillion pictures to be uploaded on Monday after all the dust clears. :)
[Update]: Nevermind. I decided to quickly do it while I was waiting for Sue to get home from work. Let me know if you see anything wierd in your travels.
Not always appropriate for work (or home, or wherever you may be) - but interesting nonetheless: www.overheardinnewyork.com.
Blogger releases a plugin for Word that allows you to blog from Word.
I'm trying out the beta of the next version of Movabletype, the program I use to blog here on Mennoboy. The blog is at beta.mennoboy.com.
If you'd like to check out movabletype 3.2 beta, send me an email and I'll set you up with a login.
This is how I snagged the RSS feed from my del.icio.us links (seen on the right column, down a bit).
[Geeky Explanation] del.icio.us is basically a site that collects links. I see a website I want to remember/make note of, I click a bookmark in my browser and describe the link and it gets added to my del.icio.us link site. That site generates a RSS feed of the last 10 links I've snagged which this blog grabs and converts it to a blog/web friendly format.
Movabletype v3.16 is installed and seems to be running.
What ODEO is all about.
I don't know what I was thinking using Newsfan before - NetNewsWire is the bestest RSS reader for OS X. Once v. 2.0 is out of beta, I'll be sending them my money for all this sweet honey.
It's hard to figure out what might be the next big thing in blogging/web stuff because there's so many cool sites/applications that people are developing. Could this be one? - From Evan Williams, one of the guys behind some company called 'Blogger'?
There's a new plugin going 'round called Photon that allows you to export directly from iPhoto to a MovableType blog.
They also have a iPhoto to Typepad plugin called PhotoToTypePad.
Great Jon Stewart show last night focusing on blogs - Grab the torrent file.
"All these bloggers have to go on is fact."
"They're reporting on the reporters. The first rule of journalism is, don't talk about journalism."
If you're reading this site via an XML feed, switch over to this one. It's got the last few entries on here as well as the last 5 photos from my flickr site.
I've reopened the comments up to general posting - no typekey registration required, but you can still use your typekey to login and have it automatically fill in your details for you. I'll see how long it takes for the spammers to catch on.
Played around with the design of the blog. Thought I'd add a little bit of color and "real life" to the site. The picture is from Mazatlan, just off the golf course at Estrella Del Mar where my parents condo is.
But I'd much rather be here in minus 21 with 3 feet of snow. Really.
Upgraded Mennoboy to v3.15 of MT. Lemme know if you see any issues.
Just testing it out here. See this post for more info.
And it works. So now all you comment spammers can really go back to the hole in the ground you came from. Thanks and have a nice day.
I just installed the Movabletype upgrade to v3.14. Any mennoboys or mennogirls that experience any issues, drop me a line.
Any Mac users out there who use Movabletype and are missing out on the shortcut link, bold, email, etc buttons on their entry page need to check out Firefox. Even if all you use it for is your blog entries, it's a good browser to have around. Something in the javascript support in Safari renders those shortcut buttons invisible.
As you can see, we're updating the look of our main page to better assist you in finding suitable reading to your tastes. As with most web pages, it's a work in progress but I avoided putting up the under construction animated GIF.
mennogirl.ca is coming. But it's taking dotster.com forever and a day to figure out how to actually let me register it. Dotser is dotstupid.
I decided to go with the comment registration route in order to minimize my headaches with comment spam. I don't know why the spammers pick on some sites and leave others alone, but my site used to get at least 4-6 comment-spams a day.
Basically if you register yourself and log in, you can comment as much as you like. If you don't register, you can't comment. Simple and easy. The other mennoboy blog sites are set up this way by default right now, but it's up to each of them as to whether they keep it that way or not. It may seem like a hassle, but it's the way it's gotta be. That's why blogger is doing the same thing.
It's taken a little longer than I thought - but we finally got (just about) everything moved to the new site.
If you're looking for Matthew Harm's site, he'll be up soon as well. And once we decide on a name, we should be going with a menno(insert appropriate female version).com. Apparently someone decided to buy mennogirl.com.
Mennoboy is on the move. We're in the process of switching hosts to more space, theoretically better servers and that kind of thing. There may be disruptions in our email/web sites over the weekend and into next week. If you're sending an email to a mennoboy (or mennogirl) and it bounces, just keep trying until it goes through.
That or pick up the phone and call. Crazy thought, hey?
Figures when I have the least amount of time is when I decide to redesign my site. This is just a style-sheet from one of those MT style-sheet factories. All props go to the original designer. I'm just a thief.
Something about that background color of #333333 that I keep coming back to though.
Not really a vs thing, but here's tutorial on how to integrate Gallery with MovableType.
And not in a good way. Movabletype launched the developer's edition of MT3 which gives us a peek at what's in store for the regular joe blow version coming later. (Acutally they've put out their personal license options now) Basically if you have more than one or author and/or more than 3 weblogs on a single site, you have to pay. The Personal Edition will regularly be $99.95US and gives you up to 3 authors and up to 5 weblogs.
On mennoboy we've officially got 4 blogs with 4 authors. That means I'd really have to look at getting the Personal Edition Volume License 1 for the bargin price of $149.95US. Ouch. Not to mention the 8 authors and 4 blogs we have on Sue's family site. There's a lot of unhappy folks in the blogosphere.
I'm really not sure what to do for the site I'm supposed to be redesigining. I have nothing personally against LT's system, but it only half works on most Mac browsers and I can't help people use something I can't see.
I'm really hoping the outcry will convince SixApart (the company that makes MT) to open up the requirements and limitations on their licensing.
Blogger has done a major overhaul, changing the look of the system as well as adding comments and new templates.
I don't know if this is new, but they have an email to post feature which is fantastic.
Mark Cuban's blog is quickly becoming one of my favorites. He recently talked about how he got his money (part 1,part 2) and in his most recent entry, he calls out The Don to have a corporate meetup at Whitecastle. I think Mark should hire me to do a reality blog on his life. I'll just follow him around with a camera so when other famous people try to schmooz him and he calls them on it, he can back it up with video footage.
No, this is not something to do with the Cuban controversy brewing over at Matt's place. I found out from jordoncooper.com that Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a personal blog that he updates fairly regularly. Apparently he also responds to most of the emails he gets from fans/customers. Amazingly enough, he uses their ideas and suggestions to better the experience customers have when they go to a Maverick's game.
Imagine that? A rich, billionare CEO who listens to his customers. Do you know of any other interesting blogs like this? And don't tell me about Paul Martin's blog - it hasn't been updated in forever and was probably just some Liberal employee typing it for him anyway.
Brad has a great post up from awhile ago on how to do your entire site with MT. Could be a good way of doing it for the church site I'm being asked to design a site for.
As I'm starting to help more and more people set up a MT blog, here's some great sites I've found that give you a great boost when working with MovableType:
I got in on the MT 3.0 beta test. I also got some sort of cold. So it's a win/lose morning for me. I've been popping the high-end eichinechia pills like there's no tomorrow so hopefully it doesn't get much worse.
I completed my Flash course last night. It wasn't too bad as far as courses go and I got a good start into Flash, but I probably could've figured out most of what was taught in 3.5hrs instead of 7hrs. Next time I'll just go to Ryan and get him to teach me. I'm sure I can bribe him with a steady flow of Timmy Ho's.
I'm testing out a client based blogging program called ecto. It's by the same guy that made the iTunes recently played list I'm using on the right hand side of my blog. Currently it's a OS X only program but they are working on a Windows version apparently.
I think I'm going to have to start a Roll Up the Rim counter like I remember some blogger doing last time they had this contest. I'm up to at least 10 cups of java purchased and still no win. I'm thinking they see me coming and pull out all the duds. I just know that some guy right before me is going to win a plasma tv and someone after me will win the truck and I'll get a "Please Play Again" cup. Grrrr.
I've got the links working along the top. Nothing really on them yet except for the five2nine: year two video.
For the nerds out there I've basically created 4 seperate blogs (regular blog, music, movies, photos) and am just using a single menu.php file to load the menu system so I don't have to go through and change all the individual index pages each time I want to update the main menu.
The movie page basically takes the movies I've uploaded to my mac.com page and presents them as if they're on my own site. That way the bandwidth is being used up by Apple's servers and yet still looks like a local file. Very nerdy and very cool.
Looks like my little update has touched off a whole slew of updates in the local blogging world as Phil and Carlos (go grab the new Pilate album from Carlos' site btw) have done some reinventing of their blogs as well.
I found a slick little app called Kung-Tunes that pulls the latest song listing from iTunes and throws them up into a file on my web server that I can pull into this page. Whuapaa!
I'm still settling into this redesign so expect some changes over the next little while but I'm digging the font size so it's staying. Get out your bi-focals or go someone else's blog.
Is the font too small? Sue thinks it is, I think anything larger looks like crap so I'm not sure where to go. I don't mind it but then I've got 20/20 contacts.
If this text doesn't go down far enough, then the picture starts to overlap the entry below. Hrmmm... guess I'll just have to always be long-winded if I want to post like this.
Just in case you're wondering why all these old entries are showing up - thanks to the internet archive I can go and grab a bunch of my old entries. It's actually a neat way to remember what you're site once looked like if you're into frequent redesigns like I am.
Since I'm nerdy about being complete I'll be trying to grab as much of my old entries as possible. I didn't realize I had started this version of the blog back in May of 2002. Coming up on 2 years now. That's a lot of blabbing.
Well I tried updating to the newest version of MovableType (which I managed to do without screwing up!) except I can't get the new feature, Trackback, to work. I'm probably doing something wrong since I don't really know what I'm doing and am just faking my way through this all. Anyway, if there's a MT coder who happens to pop by and wants to take a look, please let me know!
It's supposedly pretty hot outside today - I don't really get out much during the day - so hopefully I don't melt on my bikeride home. I'll have to remember to take some H20 with me.
Possible joint b-day party with Mark and I on Friday so if you're in the area, look us up! :)
(update - maybe I did get it working.. who knows?)
(updated update - I didn't. Our server doesn't support the functions necessary... oh well)
Just curious as I managed to get a glimpse of this page on my sis-in-law's new computer and noticed it looked all fubar'ed - at least in comparison to how I view it and think it looks.
Does the site have two nicely laid out columns, the left one being the entries and the right one listing the archives, links, about me etc.. Or does it just go in one big long page that you have to scroll for, like, ever to get to the bottom of?
Please comment.
Well sort of. The pay isn't that great (it's $0/month) and very little in the way of benefits - but it does have a certain amount of prestige. I got 'hired' on to help out at one of my favorite u2 news sites, u2log.com. It gets anywhere from 1400 to over 3000 visits a day from around the world - so I hope I don't screw up! :)
Anyway, my posting name over there will be 'nothedge' (as in not the edge, get it?) so if you're so inclined and don't mind stomaching a little u2 fandom, stop by for a visit sometime.
In "Hey, look who else has a blog" news, my buddy Mark has got himself all blogged up and ready to go. It's still a work in progress (mainly because my work doesn't progress) but for now you can find his site here. It should be switching to an easier to remember name in the very near future but that's it for now.
Take it easy and enjoy the long weekend!
Gotta add a new entry just so i don't look like a warblogger - someone who just comments on the latest news from the WAR ON TERROR tm.
It is interesting the more you read sites like www.whatreallyhappened.com it throws your mind for a loop trying to figure out who is really telling the truth. It's like an Enemy of The State/Consipracy Theory come to life moment. Only without the theme music and dramatic camera angles.
In other news, the new songs that I worked on with Mark and Kirk should be going live any day now on our mp3.com site. One is a "Without Me" parody of Eminem's new single, and the other is a popped up remix of Mark's sequel to Mennonite Girl. Both are very fresh and spicy and deserve your full listening attention. Boo-yah!
So I did some stuff to the site that might make it a little slower in some areas, but should make for more space on the server for more important things - like my email. (doh!)
I off-loaded all the pictures from our travels and music/movies to my Shaw homepage so they may take a little longer to load now, but at least I'll be able to recieve my email at work and not worry about running out of space.
Other than that, I also added a 'Sign Up To Be Notified' box on the right hand side where you can pop your email address in to be notified whenever an update is done to this site. I promise to sell your email address to as many people as possible and use it to sign up for as much spam as possible.
At least I'm being honest right? You appreciate honesty don't you? I thought so.
It seems that people are having problems with the comments. I don't really know what's wrong as it seems to be working for me... but if you've made a comment and it didn't show up, send me an email and let me know.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. It looks to be pretty nice out here with a possibility of some rain (which isn't a bad thing considering how dry it is).
.. i manged to get mt working (really the webmaster at the uofs did) so watch for a new blog page coming soon - and i got baptized on sunday evening, about 10 years late ;) ...