Posts in category "blogging"

Michael Brundage writes an popular article about what it is really like to work at Microsoft. Flexible working environment, minimal paperwork, hard work, gripes about managers, free drinks. So nothing too earth shattering or surprising there.

But what struck me about this blog is that it isn't a blog. It is simply a good old fashioned Web page.

No categories. No comments. No statistics. No trackbacks. No fancy themes. No calendar. No widgets. No plugins.

Just words that fill most of the screen on a HTML page. And undoubtedly the most interesting content I have stumbled across this week.

Sometimes, less is more.

I was seriously considering selling all my stock options and purchasing a 1GB USB memory stick for an amazing £30.

Then I thought I would get an account at box.net and upload all the precious files, that my wife sadly lost when my hard disk died a couple of years ago, there instead. This has the advantages that if I ever need to take my memory stick to Seattle to show Auntie Rita, this will be possible, I won’t be able to leave the memory stick in a client’s PC in Eastern Europe and, finally, it will cost me £30 less.

I haven’t used the box.net service much but there is a nice drag’n’drop interface for uploading folders and multiple files and it seems intuitive and quick. There is a free 1GB service available and you pay for additional storage which seems fair enough.

If you are interested in trying out the box.net service, then please, please click HERE! (so I can upgrade to the Deluxe, Premium, Gold 512GB service free of charge) as all the worst Web sites (used to) say.

I go away to spend a few days sitting on the UKs gridlocked motorway network and I discover those chaps at WordPress have been making yet more changes.

The Regulus theme has been upgraded to 2.1.1 and now includes bug fixes, support for sidebar widgets, personalised header graphic and lots more besides.

In addition, every single post is now prefixed by 'Posted by Andy C'. This is completely superfluous in my case and I would dearly like to turn it off. This is my personal blog. Who else is going to be posting to it ?

Also, the categories and 'Add comment' now appear at the top of the article rather than the bottom which I also dislike intensely as it adds distracting clutter.

WordPress have also added feed statistics which is a welcome addition although the statistics are not as comprehensive as those provided by FeedBurner so I'll continue to keep the Feedburner feed alive for now.

Oh - and before you all jump to signup at once - WordPress had an outage over the Easter weekend.

Since the Regulus theme was added to WordPress last November, I have stuck with it through thick and thin, for richer for poorer, through sickness and in health.

Lots of themes have subsequently been introduced to Wordpress and I always preview each of them but none of them look as easy on the eye and as functional as Regulus.

However, I must say that the recently added 'Andreas04' theme is very attractive and had me dithering for a moment. You can see this theme in action, down under, at squash.wordpress.com, by Phil Sim, who was obviously similarly impressed.

I am not going to report on the Starting From Zero meme again until day 666, with no more intermediate steps along the way. I am tired of the project, personally, and it's obviously driving others mad, too.

Just went to delete whiteside.wordpress.com.

Hit Yes I am really, really sure I want to delete this blog for eternity. Yes. I acknowledge I will never be able to access the blog again or reuse the name ever. Or, in vi terms, ':q!'.

Received an email from the WordPress Workflow Monitor Agent. Clicked the link to confirm I really, truly do know what I am doing and do indeed want to consign the blog to Room 101.

[ Wonder why some idiots people end up posting on the Support Forum 'HELP !!! I've deleted my blog by mistake' ]

Watch in horror as browser fleetingly accesses 'andyc.wordpress.com' instead and brings me to this dashboard. So, on second thoughts, I think I will leave things just as they are.

Thanks to Igor (who is a human being and not a monster) kindly modifying an inbound link, an article briefly appearing in Dave Sifry's Link Cosmos (a proud moment indeed) and a citation from this very odd gentleman, this blog has edged up the Technorati ladder

Day 211. Technorati Rank: 145,329 (33 links from 19 sites)

However, the grim realisation is slowly dawning that there is more chance of MUFC catching Chelsea than my humble blog overtaking Stowe Boyd. Consequently, I have reluctantly lowered my sights and now have Doug Burns (bathing in the afterglow of the HotSos effect) on my radar.

Technorati Rank: 74,565 (161 links from 33 sites)

...not to bury them.

I have been unable to administer this blog for a couple of days. However, thanks to the unstinting efforts of Ryan and Donncha, I am pleased to say the problem is now resolved.

I was trapped inside a recursive, infinite, endless loop hell which severely tested my sense of humour after 28 minutes. In fact, I was positively irritated, frustrated and tending towards 'annoyed'.

I was aware there were a few issues at WordPress following recent changes. Initially, I assumed my problems were related and just waited. However, then I saw people merrily posting away on their WordPress blogs (and not just Scobleizer who has a custom template and a dedicated server farm).

I tried a few things myself (cleared cookies, different browsers, different computers) but all to no avail. I started a self-help group for affected bloggers. I scanned digg, reddit, tailrank memorandum, Google (and the BBC World Service) in vain for mention of this catastrophe in the blogosphere.

I posted a few rapid fire entries on my new shiny blog (the soon to be, sadly, departed 'whiteside.wordpress.com'). I thought up a fantastic new tag line - 'interminable bytestream'. I used the Performancing for Firefox blog editor which was excellent and was also impressed by the recently released Metrics.

However, I persisted reading and posting to the WordPress support forum and eventually got into an email dialog with Ryan. His email actually 'thanked me for my report' (as if I was somehow doing him a favour), apologised for 'breaking my blog' (as though I am a paying customer), described the progress so far (interesting) and assured me they were 'trying to put it right' (reassuring).

And within a short period, they did.

I am a fan of WordPress. I like their software. I like their humour.

I pay absolutely nothing for the service so I really can't complain when it breaks.

However, today is the second day I can't access my blog on WordPress.

Nothing on Technorati. Nothing on Digg. Nothing on tech.memeorandum. Nothing on TailRank. Nothing from those Wordpress 'A' listers, Scoble and Winer.

In fact, as I could see other people sporadically blogging on WordPress, my paranoia took hold and I started to wonder whether I was the only person in the entire blogosphere affected by this problem.

Then, finally, I read the following posting from Matt Mullenweg in the WordPress Support forum

We're shifting some things to address the problem, and there is new hardware and such coming online as soon as we can get it.

So, that's fine. An update from someone in the know although the phrase 'new hardware...when we can get it' makes me slightly uncomfortable and reaching for my Blogger details and the non-existent WordPress 'export' button.

Anyway, I am sure that when a spate of other high profile Web 2.0 companies (del.icio.us, Blogger, TypePad) had problems in December last year, the news was plastered all over Technorati and elsewhere.

So, are WordPress so fantastic and so powerful, that they are actually beyond reproach ?

Normally, when something isn't working, I get a little annoyed.

However, with WordPress, you just have to smile.