I'm calling this the 1.0 release of my Ode blog. I have all of Rob Reed's "extra" addins working (that's persistent-dating addin Indexette, web-editor addin EditEdit and the Disqus commenting addin).

I'm also using the core Jumper addin to shorten some entries in the index and provide a link to the full, individual entry.

I've made some small changes in the template to allow the blog title and main image to link back to the blog home page from any other page in the blog.

Now it's time to start filling the blog with content, old and new.

I'm also going to work on a version of the Logic theme (what you see here) to produce a "pages"-like theme that displays content without the traditional blog trappings of publication dates. That should be easy.

It's time I started delving into the ode.cgi script (preferably the annotated version) and seeing how the system works. Ode project leader Rob Reed has been very encouraging both in my putting this site together and in learning Perl, the scripting language with which Ode is built.

Right now I'm focusing on the HTML and CSS in the themes, but I plan to work my way into the Perl of the main script and the addins as I go.

Thanks again, Rob, for hacking on this project. There are dozens of blogging/CMS systems to choose from. Even though it derives much inspiration from Blosxom, Ode is unique in many ways, inspired in many more -- in function and mission. That's why I'm using it. Poke around the official Ode site if you want to know more.

Thanks to readers who responded, Service Pack 1 successfully installed on my Debian-squeeze-running laptop.

Here's a chronicle of what I've done to the machine:

Those who read my previous entry on this topic know that SP1 refused to install on the Windows 7 Home Premium portion of my Lenovo G555's hard drive.

And it probably had something to do with my running Linux (specifically Debian Squeeze) on the same drive.

Read the rest of this post

I just got my Android phone, the LG Optimus V from Virgin Mobile, and I'm naturally looking for my two most important apps -- text editor and FTP client.

Trying AndFTP and Text Edit. As far as an editor goes, I need something that helps with typing HTML tags. This simple editor looks nice, but typing <p> is murder.

AndFTP works acceptably well. Once I get my paths typed in, it'll be quicker and more painless.

(Note:This entry began on the phone but continued at the computer so my typing/thinking speeds match more closely.)

I'm noticing many writers calling the decluttering of their lives "minimalism," instead of "simplicity," or "simple living." Is there a difference?

A quick Google search yielded the following (we can read together; I'm just link-dumping at this point):

• Organized Geek: Minimalism vs. Simplicity
• Modern Simplicity: Minimalism vs. Simplicity
• Watch Us Rework: Simplicity vs Minimalism (more about web design, less about life)
• Design Thinking: Simple or Minimal? (more about industrial design, less about life)
• the_uncomplication_project: Simplicity vs. Minimalism (at least relevant; but I'm left thinking that any definitions are the opinion of the definer)

Is this tempest/teapot time? I'll gather more intelligence on this lexical battle as time permits.

Five minutes later: These entries didn't help much. All I seem to get from this small blogospheric sample is that minimalism is more hard-core than simplicity.

But as I say in the short comment after the final link, it's all semantics. Call what you do what you wish. As for me, I'm still thinking.

I'm doing an update today on my daughter's Ubuntu 10.04 LTS-running Gateway Solo 1450, the 2002-era laptop that I upgraded from 8.04 in a not-seamless but doable operation for someone with a bit of experience in these matters.

I've done a lot of upgrades. I'd say maybe half were successful. That doesn't say much for upgrades. But when it comes to Ubuntu upgrades, I can generally make them work with a bit of Googling.

I've been hard on Ubuntu 10.04 over the life of the release. (I could find links, but I'm just going to keep writing.) While the UI changes in 11.04 (GNOME giving way to Unity) are bigger, I thought the changes from 9.10 to 10.04 were too huge and unproven for an LTS release. My opinion was and is that 10.04 needed to be 9.10 with bug fixes and not a total reworking of the GNOME theme with buttons on the other side of the screen and lots of unproven, slightly broken Ubuntu-coded (or -ordered) enhancements.

Read the rest of this post

The recent BoingBoing post about the busy/huge web site's changes focuses on the move to Disqus comments, but the bigger news is that it's dumping Movable Type for WordPress. Even Matt Mullenweg of Auttomatic fame mentioned it.

A few years ago, BoingBoing, which does something like 1 million views per day, made the move to Movable Type from whatever it is they used until that point. The reason behind the move to MT, as I remember it, anyway, was the high availability of a statically built Movable Type site and its ability to handle the kind of traffic BoingBoing was drawing.

Well fast-forward to now, and BoingBoing's Movable Type days are over. It's still plenty popular but is now running on WordPress. I guess this means that WP is more than able to function in extremely high-traffic environments like that of BoingBoing.

Read the rest of this post