Now here is somebody who is truly dedicated to a particular piece of software. I’m a fan, but not that much of one. I do find it very pretty, though. And yes, it is real and permanent.

I am really liking this version of WordPress. Granted, I was one major version behind on Movable Type, but this software blows the doors off it. Tons of easily-applied themes available, drag and drop customization of the sidebar, tons of plugins available that just show up as soon as you copy them into the correct folder, the list just goes on. I was able to add a Flickr widget by copying a bit of HTML using the web-based administration tool, and I was able to add links to my Google Reader shared items by dropping a plugin in the right spot. If you’re a blogger, or are thinking of starting, and run your own server, give this stuff a try.

Wow. I’ve been thinking for a while now about switching to WordPress for this blog instead of Movable Type. I’ve been running an older version of MT that hasn’t completely worked right and was lacking many newer features. Every time I saw a neat feature or plugin on another blog, it was always specific to WordPress. So I downloaded WP, put it up on the server, and have been thoroughly impressed. I was able to configure it completely from my web browser (rather than editing configuration files on the server), and had all my old blog entries imported in no time. Now I’m having fun checking out various themes and plugins plus adding links and content that would have been difficult to do in my old MT installation. And, of course, Windows Live Writer had no trouble detecting the new software and adapting to it to make blog entries even easier to write.

I’ve been bouncing around a bit trying to find a good, free off-line blog editor. I liked BlogJet, but didn’t like the price. I’ve been trying to use ScribeFire from within Firefox, but it doesn’t do embedded graphics very well. I just saw a recommendation for Windows Live Writer, and thought I’d give it a try. This is my first post using it, and I like it so far. The price is certainly right. Maybe with the right editor, I’ll actually start posting more often.

Wow. This is sweet. It not only formats the post as it would probably look on the blog, it actually learns the blog formatting automatically and shows you exactly what it will look like as you compose it. You can even preview it in the context of the entire blog layout. Very slick indeed.

Several months ago, I noticed that a new version of Movable Type was available, and it took advantage of new support for Apache’s mod_fastcgi. However, when I updated my Apache installation, everything broke. I couldn’t run CGI scripts nor could I even run PHP programs. Every so often I tried to fix the configuration, but nothing seemed to work. I finally figured it out, though, so now we’re back in business.

Now the question is, do I install the new version 4 beta?

If you couldn’t guess by looking at the right column of this blog, I love those little 80×15 buttons (or sometimes called badges). I’m really trying not to get carried away adding them to the design. I came across a cool site that has literally thousands of these buttons. It’s lots of fun to look through, and it would be really easy to get carried away. May be one or two more…

Update: Chris sends along a link for a very cool site that lets you interactively make your own buttons, even including graphics. Thanks, Chris.

I just happened across a blog that had links to some other interesting-sounding blogs, and I hit the jackpot. Weblogs Inc. sponsors lots of technology-related blogs that are right up my ally. Check out some of the entries in their list. I wish there were more hours in a day.

Again, living on the bleeding edge can be painful at times. I finally figured out why BlogJet (and every other off-line editor I tried) stopped working when I upgraded to MT v3.2. Even though I’d searched the Six Apart web site numerous times, I somehow missed this article on a change that was made to XML-RPC processing and password use. Following the simple instructions fixed things right up.

I’ve made the leap of faith from v3.17 to v3.2b1, and it went without a hitch. However, now BlogJet is giving me trouble. Erk!

Update: The good news is it looks like the problem may be with MT and not BlogJet. I’ve tried two other off-line editors (Zempt and Qumana) and they both exhibit the same problem. The bad news is it looks like the problem may be with MT! At least the number of MT users far surpasses the number of off-line editor users, so we may see a fix much more quickly than if it were an editor problem.

While the Movable Type interface is nice enough, it’s still pretty clunky when creating new entries, requiring you to use raw HTML if you want to do anything beyond simple text. I saw mention in another blog of the concept of a blogging front end, so went looking to see what was out there. What I found was BlogJet. This nifty little utility runs on my Windows machine and provides a true WYSIWYG front end to Movable Type (and other hosting software). If I want something in bold, I highlight it and click the bold button. If I want to create a link, I highlight it, click the link button, and paste in the URI.

The best feature, at least for how I manage my blog, is the “insert image” button. In Movable Type, anytime I wanted to include a picture, I had to tell it where the original was, where on the server I wanted to put it, then hand edit the HTML to make it line up the way I wanted it. With BlogJet, I click on the image button, tell it where the original is, and select formatting options in a dialog box. When I save the blog entry, it handles uploading the graphic and formats it just right. Now dashing off a quick blog entry is easier than ever.