Blogging

Disqus powered comments

I was rather hoping Disqus would be a 100% plug-in replacement for the woefully inadequate coComment so I could simply track all the comments I leave on assorted blogs and easily monitor other comment threads of interest.

An RSS feed of such comment activity would be an ideal element to feed into the Tumble dryer.

Disqus launched yesterday and as it was written in Django, looks OK and isn’t too invasive or distracting (c.f BlogRush), I have enabled the WordPress plugin on this blog.

world's first blogger dies

Sadly, the world’s first and most prolific blogger, the Reverend Robert Shields has passed away in America aged 89. Shields was the author of the world’s longest diary consisting of a staggering 37 million words.

Shields was truly the world’s first blogger with his first recorded entry in April 1927 beating Dave Winer by 3 months. Nor was Robert Shields afraid of including trivia and useless information in his journals. For example, how many blogs (or Tumblelogs for that matter) record blood pressure readings (Shields despised silly mood emoticons), make any effort to fastidiously record every single visit to the lavatory (Shields had dozens of imaginative ways to describe the act of urination) or have the thoughtfulness to detail every single piece of junk mail ever received.

WordPress 2.3.1 released

Successfully upgraded WordPress to version 2.3.1 in four clicks using the excellent WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin.

Rowche Rumble

I am bored of tormenting myself, conjuring up full blown blog posts, pouring over non-existent Adsense revenues and analyzing traffic statistics so I have started a Tumblelog.

There is something very appealing about Kottke’s definition of a Tumblelog as ‘a quick and dirty stream of consciousness.’

A Tumblelog can be a short, snappy blog and can also aggregate different RSS feeds (Google Shared Stuff and Items, del.icio.us, last.fm, Flickr and even this blog). Why, Tumblr even has built-in support for quotes.

how to migrate a WordPress blog to Django

There is currently no utility to migrate existing blog content to django.

However, conversion of an existing WordPress blog is pretty straightforward.

Firstly, simply export the following tables from the WordPress database using phpMyAdmin

• wp_posts
• wp_comments
• wp_terms
• wp_term_taxonomy
• wp_term_relationships

Import the tables into the django database.

Then run the following SQL statements which migrate posts, comments and categories and assume a WordPress 2.3 schema and a blank django blog. If you have already created content in django, minor changes will be needed. My WordPress blog only uses categories which simply get converted to django tags.

last django in London

The problem with installing typo is that, during the research for hints and tips to get the software installed, configured and running on a shared server environment at Bluehost, you Google across like-minded obsessives individuals who have also successfully installed typo in 30 seconds flat.

These people are technical types who sneer at PHP and lie awake at night, worrying about Ruby’s scalability. These geeks tend to be obsessive characters who have now tired of typo and have subsequently migrated to a brand new exciting platform called django.

WordPress 2.3 and Typo

I have upgraded this blog to the recently released WordPress 2.3. However, I have deep rooted concerns that the new tagging functionality will simply overload my tiny brain.

The WordPress upgrade went smoothly enough although the editor now reports a missing table (wp_post2cat) which is slightly irritating.

Also, I sense increasing disquiet amongst some long standing, intelligent and loyal WordPress users so I took the precaution of installing YABP (Yet Another Blog Platform). Please put your hands together and welcome Typo (powered by a delightful lady called ‘Ruby on Rails’).

a rush of blood

I’m not normally a sucker for these free, pyramid style, link exchange schemes to drive more traffic to your blog but as simply everyone is not just talking about it but actually doing it, I thought I’d better add BlogRush to this blog.

Now, I must hurry into town and join the lengthy queues at Northern Rock to withdraw my 1 million pounds life savings. To be honest, I think this media fuelled panic is a little overblown and as I have a contrarian investing style, I have just purchased £5,000 worth of NRK shares at £3.10 waiting for the ‘dead cat bounce’.

life and times of two 'A' listers

I like Robert Scoble. While I don’t always agree with him and I have a love-hate relationship with his laugh, his blog is worth reading and he posts some varied and interesting videos but one thing is obvious.

The guy has a real passion for technology and writing. On occasions, he is subjected to vitriolic comments, hurtful criticism and abuse that is completely unjustified but he calmly takes it all in his stride and rarely retaliates.

Adsense case study for a personal blog

One of the reasons I decided to put Adsense on this blog was out of sheer curiosity. There are plenty of Google sponsored case studies available from American shoe shops that significantly increased sales and revenues using Adsense.

Successful blogger John Chow is totally and refreshingly transparent with all his various revenue streams but I didn’t have a clue what income (if any) a small-time blogger might expect.

So, here - drum roll, please - are the revenue figures for this blog for the first 3 months