Ah Phooey! One of those days.

Posted on December 4, 2007 by Kirk M

Turned out to be one of those days, today. You get up, chock full ideas, subjects to write about, research you want to finish, comments to answer and what happens?

Absolutely nothing.

Well I did mange to answer a few comments and meander over to a few blogs I wanted to visit but that was it. I was sidetracked trying to find out, yet again, why comments suddenly took a minute and a half to post when they were posting fine before. I’ve been round and round with this more times than I can count. I’ve done everything on my end to try and remedy this annoying situation including backing up everything and then wiping out the entire WordPress install and starting from scratch. No change in the problem was seen but now I can say for certain that it’s not WordPress causing the problem.

So banging into my cPanel, I find, once again, that it’s the "send mail" function that’s locking up the works. WordPress sends out the correct request and it gets stuck at the server level. Kill the process and the comment posts–no problem. Calling my host’s support, I present my case once again (they actually are really good, it’s just "one of those problems") and it’s another ticket, sent to the administration this time. The problem with this type of "glitch" is that it’s random and it doesn’t throw any type of error or log entry so there’s nothing to send to my host or that they can look at in the server’s logs.

It’s just this particular server, I know it. No other WordPress blogger on any of my host’s other servers that I’ve talked to have this problem and if I bring this up often enough, my host’s techs will get it fixed. They never give up.

Anyway, for the interim, I’ve turned off all email notifications related to comments with the exception of the "Subscribe to Comments" plugin so that comments will post in a reasonable amount of time.

And that’s my complaint for this week.

First Blogger, now LiveJournal

Posted on December 3, 2007 by Kirk M

Users of the Internet, especially those of the Blogosphere know all too well how fast things can change but this just about beats them all. LiveJournal has been sold off to the Russions:

The owner of LiveJournal, a blogging and social-networking site, agreed yesterday to sell the company to SUP, a Russian online media company, in the latest example of deal-making in the social-networking sector.

Source: Russian Firm Buys LiveJournal – New York Times

And barely a day later no less. Okay, I do realize Blogger got rid of their back links to all non-Blogger sites a bit more than than a day ago but the word of this rather idiotic decision has really picked up steam in the last 48 hours or so.

Of course anyone who knows me at all would realize that I simply can’t resist the ironic twist in any situation because that’s just the way my mind works. So I had to chuckle at the fact that LiveJournal’s original founder, who will remain active in LiveJournal’s future doings, now works for…guess who?

As part of the deal, SUP will create an American management company, LiveJournal Inc., to manage the social networks operations. SUP will also form an advisory board that includes Brad Fitzpatrick, LiveJournals founder who now works for Google.

Source: Russian Firm Buys LiveJournal – New York Times

Now isn’t that just too funny?

This "Advisory Board" will be big hearted enough to allow a whole two LiveJournal users in as board members on a rotating basis. Here’s an excerpt from a rather long email I received from LiveJournal explaining this sell off.

SUP and Six Apart will work together in the coming months to transfer operations to LiveJournal, Inc. The existing team that worked exclusively on LiveJournal at Six Apart has moved to LiveJournal, Inc., and new general manager, marketing and sales teams will be recruited.

LiveJournal, Inc has announced the formation of the LiveJournal Advisory Board, which will be comprised of both industry experts and members of the LiveJournal community. One of the key members of the Advisory Board will be LiveJournal’s founder, Brad Fitzpatrick, who recently left Six Apart for Google. Positions will also be reserved for two members of the LiveJournal community on a rotating basis via an open online election process.

Now isn’t that just so good of them? Two out of over fourteen million LiveJournal users. Now that’s one hell of an effective representation I think. Ought to get a lot done for the users, I can tell.

Alright, all sarcasm aside, I set out to do some quick research before the snowstorm that’s currently plastering the Northeast Kingdom (and me as well) knocks out the power. And I came across something that made my eyebrows waggle a bit. It’s an in depth, 3-page article at Wired News that describes the beginnings of this deal with the Russians. Now that may not be too exceptional in itself although it’s a very interesting read, but the real interesting thing about it is that the date of said article is over a year ago. Looks like the American users of LiveJournal are not the only ones who were unhappy about this. I strongly suggest you read the article for yourself.

That’s enough from me I believe. I don’t wish to delve too deep into this since I haven’t had anything to do with LiveJournal except for the stretch of time I had a "test" journal going when I was beta testing Windows Live Writer, so my experience and knowledge is a tad limited. Still, since a good portion of the Blogoshpere has suddenly been turned on it’s head, it bears watching. The turmoil stemming from the recent changes at Blogger and Now LiveJournal are definitely going to have an ripple effect on the other types of blogging platform’s both custom and hosted.

I’d be interested in what some others might think about this.

Technorati Tags: Russia,LiveJournal,SUP,Six Apart,LiveJournal Inc

Blogger Blows it Big time

Posted on December 2, 2007 by Kirk M

If there’s one main thing that the Blogoshpere revolves around, what would it be?

Back links! That’s what.

Anybody who has ever commented on a blog and happens to also have their own blog as well, knows exactly what this is. Name, Email Address, Website–we all know this so well we don’t even think about it anymore…until now that is. Can anyone say Blogger or perhaps Google?

Well they goofed. They goofed by no longer allowing any blogger other than those with "Blogger" accounts to leave their website address unless it’s within the comment itself. No more selecting "Other" and having that two line form pop up where you can put your name and website address. And considering how well the "DoFollow" movement has caught on since it’s inception and what it means to effectively isolate the rest of the Blogosphere from Blogger type blog owners, this must have been a decision made while under the influence. For example:

"I got a great idea dude, check this out! Let’s…like…tell the whole Blogosphere that ain’t us to bugger off, okay?"

I’m not going to go into all the details here since a couple of blogging type folks have already written good, concise articles on this rather idiotic decision on Google/Blogger’s part so I’ll post the links here and let you folks read all about it.

Google Lets Down The Bloggers (Matts Nutts)

Blogger.com No Longer Allows Links to Non-Blogger Sites in Comments (Suburban Oblivion)

Now I have quite a few fellow blogger’s that have their sites hosted on Blogger and I’m not going to stop commenting on their blogs because of this but I, like others, find this new state of affairs rather disgusting. I would have hoped Google was better than this but apparently not. Do they actually believe this is going to help? More like biting the hand that feeds them. Biting it off that is.

And thanks Elaine, for bringing me up to date about this.

Our Bathroom Rules or Why We Get Along So Well

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Kirk M

MY lady and I are an anomaly. Why is that you ask? It’s rather simple actually–we get along extremely well. Four years and not one argument and it’s not like we haven’t been around the block a few times, both of us having been married twice before, so we definitely have had our share of domestic arguments. Of course there’s no kids involved on either side, hers being grown and mine being non-existent but that’s not the main reason we get along so famously.

It’s our bathroom rules.

Yes, that’s right, it’s the rules we have applied to our sole bathroom that makes us such a perfect couple. These are rules that we both have come up with, our own personal rules we’ve devised over the course of our separate lives and rules we have agreed upon since we’ve been together and because of these rules our life is one harmonious day after another.

And how long did it take us to establish these rules? About 5 minutes when we first began living together. And so I’m going to list a few of these bathroom type rules in hopes that some loving but struggling couple out there might find the kind of harmony in love that we enjoy.

This does not apply to households with kids or couples that already have His and Hers bathrooms.

To wit:

The toilet seat stays down…period! Not only that but the cover stays down as well until the thing needs to be used. I mean, how many toiletry items do you want to fish out of the toilet after you accidentally drop one of them in?
If you’re going to use the bathroom, close the damn door! ‘Nuff said.
If I take care of my business in a standing position, occasionally I may leave several drops on the rim. So I wipe off the rim. Really hard now isn’t it? And that’s my own personal rule by the way.
One person in the bathroom at a time, no exceptions. She can’t be brushing her teeth under my armpit while I’m trying to shave nor am I allowed to be using the throne while she’s showering. One bathroom, one person at a time. If you have conflicting schedules, make it work anyway, you’re smart people. Of course special occasions like showering together are allowed but only if agreeable to both parties involved. No pets!
If it’s wet and it ain’t a towel or a wash cloth, it doesn’t belong in the bathroom. No wet underwear, stockings, pants shirts, shorts or what-have-you’s hanging over the curtain rod or sliding glass doors. You got a whole house, the all outdoors and most likely a basement too, find somewhere else to hang it. Someone wants to take a shower without fighting their way through a forest of undergarments.
No talking through the door–ever! If one of us is using the bathroom, the other is not allowed to try and hold a conversation or ask questions while standing in the hallway. Raging fires are an exception of course but only if the person standing in said hallway can’t effectively put it out and the only path to the outside door is getting burned up.
She doesn’t use my razor and I don’t use hers. If one of us runs out of razors and forgot to put them on the shopping list, tough. The local store opens early…go buy one. That goes for toothbrushes also.
And the all important rule–If you make a mess, clean it up!

There’s a few other rules we apply but those are more of a personal nature. For those couples who have been reading this and think that this might work for them, I’m sure you’ll make up your own personal rules that fit your own personal bathroom and your own personal selves.

Hope this makes your lives together a bit more harmonious.