WordPress vs. Movable Type

I've always been a huge fan of Movable Type, but I've been playing with WordPress on and off lately and I think it might become my new blogging platform for anything new I create. I'm not sure if I'm willing to export and import my old blog and lose a bunch of Google results because the pages aren't named the same or because of something else unforeseen.

Here's my whole comparison wrapped up in to two sentences -

I think WordPress is easier to setup and it's also easier for beginners to do advanced things with WP than Movable Type. From the other side, I think that doing really advanced things is easier with Movable Type, while doing ultra-advanced things are probably equal between the two.

The biggest thing I don't like in WordPress is how dynamic things are and if your web host goofs something up, the dynamic stuff chokes which would be your whole site; I've seen this happen with several different hosts. In MT I kept my main page and individual page posts static, and the rest dynamic so at least the whole thing didn't crash. Also, the dynamic-ishness of the pages slows things down a little. But it's so very easy, I can't even tell you how easy it was to do an upgrade (one tip: if you modify a default template to use, be sure to rename the folder it's in and you won't accidentally over-write it when you upgrade). On the other hand, when I post something to WP it's very very quick since it's not rebuilding things. That's really nice to be done as soon as you post.

So far it's also been much easier to do (incremental) upgrades with WordPress. It's actually so easy, I'm surprised they haven't added a few other steps which would make it one-click. It's really disabling the plug-ins, copying the new directories over the old and reactivating the plug-ins; I'm sure this could be made one-click to "halt" the plug-ins, copy from the path that you specify, clear the cache and start the plug-ins back up.

Technorati Tags: Movable Type" rel="tag">Movable Type, MovableType, WordPress

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Posted by Gary on Saturday at 9:59 PM on February 2, 2008.
Related categories: Movable Type, WordPress, blogging

It's been 4 years since I started blogging.

It's been 4 years today since I started blogging. It wasn't really a plan. I had just looked into it for a bit and one day I had something to say and kept going...

I think this will be post number 1677 (that averages to a little more than 1 posts a day) and 2,299 comments.

Thanks for listening and commenting everyone!!!!! And if you've just been listening, speak up and say HI

I'm also guessing I've had about 1,000,000 spam comments deleted with via my different filtering systems (about 30,000+ spams deleted by hand).

I need a better way with MovableType to reply to a comment and also post the reply to the web site at the same time. (Anyone?)

Technorati Tags: anniversary, blogaversary

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Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 12:03 AM on December 12, 2007.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, me + myself + i, web sites
Thanks for the 8 comments/trackbacks from: kilax: Dave2: KurtV: Robin: Lisa: Lisa: ajooja: Gary LaPointe

The View From Older Computers...

So every so often I see my site from a computer with a lower screen resolution and the center columns is just way too skinny especially if there are images. So I've done some alterations to the main page if you have a screen resolution of 1,000 pixels across (or less) I feed you a different CSS file that pushes the right column off the right of the screen so if you want to see it you'll have to scroll to the right (I'm thinking the better viewing will make it worth it). JavaScript will have to be enabled for this to work.

Please let me know if this works better for the lower resolution people (and look the same for the rest of you). I'll probably move some items from the right to the left if this works out and I'll do it to more pages on the site (especially the individual ones that you can put the comments on).

I used this information from the Movable Type Forums to do this. Everything that you need should be there.

FYI - Over 10% of my viewers have screen sizes less than 1,000 pixels wide and another 10% are unknown.

Please give me some feedback on this, I'm only trying to make this better for you...

Technorati Tags: CSS" rel="tag">CSS

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Posted by Gary on Friday at 5:34 PM on March 2, 2007.
Related categories: Movable Type, web sites

Movable Type 3.34 Upgrades today (and yesterday)

I upgraded my Movable Type yesterday and today (the blogging software that this site runs on) from 3.2 to 3.34 so if you have any problems commenting or even reading don't be shocked. I'll post a note here here when I start (and when I'm done) so outside that range everything should be fine.

DONE! (Well, mostly done, but it's almost 6 am and I'm off to bed). Details you probably don't care about (unless you have problems) are listed below...

Boring updates below. (Some of this info is for me to recall too too.)

12:22 EST Yesterday - Starting messing with on-line stuff (was reading and making backups, etc. the previous few hours)

12:30 EST - Semi-running on backup copy of MT (where new install will go)

12:34 EST - Sidebars not showing up (many were referenced in old directory path) and the actual trackback is not listed in individual entries.

12:52 EST - renamed to old path and everything seems to be working (didn't want to do that, wanted some differences but their's too many changes to find so I'll live with it)

1:17 EST - All looks good, currently running a rebuild. But all I really did was make a copy of everything. The problem was duplicating the mySQL database, I had to do it via the command line and the file is a little smaller (which makes me nervous) but it seems fine.

I needed the extra configured backup since I have plans to take Mom out to dinner (and then to see Silent Violet) and if I crash it I need something to revert to.

All seems well so far, so I'm going to get a burger. I'll run the upgrade when I get back.

3:39 PM, It's a good thing I made that backup. Multiple FTP problems. The first is my FTP program (Transmit) has a new feature that it'll delete directories before replacing them, it didn't used to do that (not sure when the added that “feature” as the default) so it pretty much deleted my whole 3.2 install of MT. So I had to reinstall the backup. The other problem is now it seems to be stopping the FTP transfer (when pushing up the 3.34 MT install) for some reasons....

3:48 PM, I think the FTP transfer the second time was sort of my fault, it was confused since it new the directories were there and it remember them (even after I deleted them [via command line] and refreshed Transmit). So it was really a caching problem. Althought Transmit does seem to ask me more questions now (merge, replace, skip or resume) and I'm not sure what resume is. It used to just ask me twice (once for files and once for directories) but it probably asked me about 50 times (maybe once per directory).

4:20 PM - It's all up, but it's got bugs. Still playing with it to check it out. Gonna start a rebuild if this post updates properly.

4:46 PM - A few minor broke things but I think it's related to MT-SimpleComments (and there is a new version so I'll try that after LATE tonight.

1:50 AM - Turns out I thought really broke it and I decided to leave it (I'm so glad I never got to the rebuild), it just got worse the more I messed with it and I was running late to Mom's (again!). And the problem was SO minor it would have taken me another 5-10 minutes to find it (in hindsight).

2:00 AM - I think I found a minor bug in MT-SimpleComments; if you unpublish a post after it gets a comment it'll still list the comment. This is rare since the page wouldn't show up in a listing anyways, but where the problem is is I show a list of recent comments on the front page so it shows up there. I've never noticed this before now, but it may be an installation problem, I see a few other minor leaky things (but it might be an incompatible plug-in problem too).

2:28 AM - It's getting better and better. I think I'll hit the sack soon, just a few more minutes.

5:45 AM - It's way better. I've got MT-Blacklist working almost all the way. It's stopping everything, It's just harder to add things to the list now. I've fix a few other things and the only other thing I know is broke is the tops of the Category Archives have all the categories listed instead of just the related subcategories (it didn't in 3.2). I'll fix that later, it's probably simple.

But I'm done updating this post for now, if something weird happens and you can't comment, please e-mail me.

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Posted by Gary on Sunday at 5:55 AM on February 18, 2007.
Related categories: Movable Type

Technorati Tags

So I'm playing with Technorati Tags on my pages (you'll see some attached to some of my posts) and I'm not liking how they are working from a placement standpoint. I am experimenting so we'll see where they get moved to (or if I even keep them).

Tags are supposed to do two things (IMHO):

help you find other people's posts on the same topic and

help other people find my posts related to those same topics.

Some of these topics I could probably direct you to more specific places if necessary, I'm just hoping to have a few more people find my site.

I think Movable Type 3.34 and the new version of Ecto (in development) will interact in a way better than I'm currently doing this but for now it'll help me experiment.

Technorati Tags: search engines, Technorati Tags

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Posted by Gary on Sunday at 3:32 PM on January 28, 2007.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites

Minor Technical Difficulties

Sorry for some of the odd display problems lately (no content to the post or no images). I've been having some odd rebuilding problems with Movable Type and 1 and 1 hosting (at least I think it's related to 1and1 hosting, even my access to the MT interface has been slow lately). Anyone else having similar problems...?

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Posted by Gary on Monday at 7:09 AM on June 5, 2006.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, technology, web sites
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Kevin

Yahoo! and Movable Type

So Yahoo Small Business has started including Movable Type with their small business installations. This has got to be great for Six Apart (MT's owner) and since I'm a huge MT fan and user you get to hear about it! This includes 5GB of disk space and 200GB a month of storage and a free domain name for $8.01 a month (this is 33% off for the first 6 months) including PHP, mySQL, fastCGI, Perl, MT updates and 24/7 phone support.

This offer is only through the end of this year. I'm not sure how many MT users this license includes...

Doesn't Yahoo! already own some blogging site (other than Yahoo! 360)?

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Posted by Gary on Friday at 10:22 AM on December 16, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Jay Allen

Movable Type Turns Four!!!

Happy Birthday! Movable Type blogging software turned four today. As many of you know, I use Movable Type for this blog and I think it's excellent software. I've been using it a few months shy of two years and it's only gotten better and better. If you've considered Movable Type you should check it out (it's free for personal use, but of course this provides no support to you).

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Posted by Gary on Saturday at 1:26 PM on October 8, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites

Movable Type 3.2 is out!

So the new version of Movable Type is out. And they've got a great promotion price for the personal editions only $39.95! Don't forget, they always have a free version for personal use which also has unlimited weblogs (the free version of the software is not disabled at all) but no support other than the forums.

If you have donated before, they let you apply a $20 credit from earlier versions and it makes it $19.95! It's “just” five authors (that's four more than I have), it's $30 more for unlimited authors. This is an awesome deal! Nothing like when they did the 3.x release upgrade that made everyone (not me) crazy about prices and limitations.

I'l probably be upgrading next week, once everyone else has worked out all the bugs ;)

I think it's got moderation for trackbacks and some new styles “stuff” to make it easy to manage the look of your site. Also an unlimited number of blogs! Here's a list of their “32 Favorite Features”.

It's also got some 3.2 specific plug-ins: one that's supposed to be super for enclosures (like for feeds and podcasting!), some notifier stuff, something for stats and I guess the new styles thingy is a plug-in (or maybe this is something extra).

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Posted by Gary on Friday at 10:51 PM on August 26, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites
Thanks for the 3 comments/trackbacks from: Omni: Gary: Gary

Ignore this Movable Type dynamic cache test

Testing a slight problem concern with posts and dynamic templates in Movable Type 3.16. They don't seem to be resetting the cache properly. Actually it's working to some extent, but it does take a while (close to an hour) for some of the pages to update; see below for more information.

There is something odd with cached dynamic pages in Movable Type 3.16, I'm not sure exactly what it is yet. When dynamic pages are created they are supposed to remain in the cache so they don't need to be created again. But when I view the pages after rebuilding (reposting/updating) a page it seems there is a delay (minutes?) before it rebuilds them. This isn't a problem (for me) if there is a delay (even if it's minutes) it's just hard to see what's going on with them. For my test it took just over an hour and I don't know why they finally changed (no pings, comments or attempted spamming in the logs).

WARNING - GEEKY CONTENT FOLLOWS:
I created this post at 6:47 pm and I later modified it (at 8:40 pm and also 8:55 and 9:15) and the changes are not showing up (immediately) on the category or date archives. I even tried changing the timestamp (to 9:18) but it didn't seem to speed anything up. Eventually they all changed (9:42, 9:47 and 10:07 were when the 9:15 changes propagated through; but that doesn't mean the other changes propagated around before then).

It didn't seem to make a difference when I did a new post (I did one 15 minutes ago and it still doesn't show up on the same date archive pages listed above). Still a delay before those changes propagate around. Last night when I noticed this I did delete the cache and templates_c directories, it didn't seem to help anything (other than everything rebuilding automatically the next request). This last update is posted around 10:40 pm...

So it's hard to test when pages rebuild. I'm not sure if it's with every new post or just with posts relevant to those pages being modified. Anyone know?!?

Another interesting (but unrelated) point with the cached dynamic pages is my pages (used to) say what your search terms were, like “It looks like you came here searching for Veronica Mars” but it wrote it to the cache so even when someone came to the page looking for something else or even by directly clicking it still reported that “fact”. Very interesting. Now all my pages say at the bottom when it was created so if it's not the current time, I can see how long it's been cached. This is probably affecting my search results record keeping. But it should still give me a good idea of how people find my site.

Hmm... It just hit me that I do some PHP to make sure non-content related stuff doesn't go into the search engines (ads, comments and my sidebars) I bet that doesn't run live anymore (actually if a search engine grabs a page first it'll look all mucky for everyone else, I'll probably remove that code). This is not to cheat the search engines, it's to get them to get the data that this page was published for.

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Posted by Gary on Monday at 9:18 PM on May 16, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Omni

Upgrade in Process

I'm in the middle of my Movable Type upgrade. So far so good, it was pretty easy to do so far. Comments are in moderation mode, I have to approve them before they appear, once I get the new spam catchers intalled I'll open them back up to the world for instant posting. If something seems really bizarro is happening you can e-mail me... Thanks!

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Posted by Gary on Friday at 11:59 AM on May 6, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging
Thanks for the 3 comments/trackbacks from: Gary: Gary: kazza

Upgrade to MovableType 3.x

I think I'm going to upgrade my site (starting tomorrow or Friday). So if there are any technical problems with comments or searching that's why. It might even cause some viewing problems but those will be temporary since I can at a minimum push the pages (or at least the main page) back on-line.

I'm not worried about the upgrade in general, I'm more worried about some of the plug-ins that I use might not work anymore and that will cause problems with rebuilds.

Does anyone know if I can downgrade back down to 2.661 if it doesn't work okay? My one big fear is my provider (1and1) doesn't let scripts run for more than 12 seconds and I'm getting pretty close to that currently and if this runs slower it could be a problem. I think it's only because I've got so many posts in my archives ( I think that's where it's choking). Other than that I love 1and1, very configurable and the prices are good.

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Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 7:57 PM on May 4, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging

Should I move to MovableType 3?

Warning! Extra-Geeky post:
I'm using MovableType 2.661 I'm missing having sub-categories and I was hoping some of the dynamic features might help speed up my rebuilds. I've also been getting really slow responses when posting comments. I do a lot of odd dynamic stuff already (the body of my messages only get built once (processed once) and they just get included everywhere else (although this isn't really helping me on rebuilds since it's probably rebuilding the pages anyways, it may actually be smarter than that). I use Mt-Blacklist and some other plug-ins. Some of my category archive rebuilds are really getting slow (I'm sure my date archives are slow two, but the categories just keep growing).

I thought with TypeKey and comment moderation at a minimum I could turn off MT-blacklist on comments and just use it for trackbacks (assuming that's one of the things slowing it down) and Lisa recommended MT-Keystrokes for this too (but I think that's just for MT 3.x). I'm also still reading some confusing stuff on if MT-Blacklist is fully-functional for MT 3.x (does it have all the same features, I don't care if some of the new features aren't perfected yet).

What'd I'd like to see is some rebuild stuff that is were a little smarter when I did reposts. Something like “your message is posted, please verify it and if it is a-okay then press OK to rebuild your indexes, archives and categories”. I'm pretty sure it doesn't do this.

So I'm really looking for your two cents on if I should upgrade or what else I should consider. Anyone have any feedback on this or any of the above?

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Posted by Gary on Saturday at 3:33 PM on April 23, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, technology, web sites
Thanks for the 6 comments/trackbacks from: cf: Gary: Mush: Bane: Gary: Patch

MT-Blacklist Rules(!) for blog spam (and so does Jay Allen)

So I finally installed MT-Blacklist to help cut down on my comment (and trackback) spam. “Why?” you ask... Because after getting mildly annoyed here and there with the occasional comment spam (and the very rare trackback spam) I got hit with 470 trackback spams in one night! And another 30-40 the next day before I even had a chance to start deleting the others!

Let me tell you MT-Blacklist installed like a charm and in less time than it would have taken me to delete 100 spams it took care of all 470. That's the fastest I've ever hit a PayPal donation button!!!

And to give you a point of reference, I've probably never gotten more than forty (maybe only thirty) blog spams total in the last fourteen months.

My tips for installing it: read the instructions first, then do it step by step. If you hit the place where the instructions split (from congratulations to this is the long path) I don't know how it will go for you but it was cake for me....

I only wish it was automated to get more current definitions, it would really help...

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Posted by Gary on Thursday at 8:15 PM on February 3, 2005.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, reviews, web sites

What is a Trackback?

Mell (of Divergent Poles) was trying to understand what a trackback is, so I'm making this post as an illustration.

While creating this message there was an empty spot (just like there is a place for the title) to add trackbacks, since I'm referencing this post (i.e. I'm talking about Mell) I'm adding his trackback information to that spot. When I post this message it'll send a tiny message (called a trackback or sometimes referred to as a ping) to Mell's message and now he'll know I was talking about his post and get a better understanding of this (I hope). There is no indication on my site that I trackbacked him (other than me telling you), the main reason is to let him (and his readers) know I are talking about him and when others read his site they'll know I'm talking about Mell so they might follow the link to see what I say (in this case, if they want to know what I think a trackback is).

Trackbacks are generally for when you are specifically referencing someone's specific message. Sometimes if you're making a similar post or have more information. But I think internet etiquette is it's if you're referencing their specific post. Since I am talking about his post, this is a valid example... I can't even tell you how long it took me to understand this, hopefully my example will make some sense.

The trackback is not just the address for the site or the message, sometimes it's something odd (for this example it's http://haloscan.com/tb/mditangco/110399998884597771) but you don't care 'cause you're just going to cut and paste this part. If you look at his message you'll see it now says “Trackback (1)” (or more, it was 0 before I posted) if you click there it will reveal the first few sentences of this message and the title is clickable and takes you back to this message (which is much more helpful as a link if you started at Mell's and not here), it'll also list any other trackbacks that may have occurred since then.

I use Movable Type and it supports Trackbacks, some software does not, so your mileage may vary.

This is where it gets confusing (the differences/similarities between trackbacks and pings) - Every time I post a post my blog automatically pings a few different addresses so other pages know I updated my page. Why? (I'm glad you asked) Here's three examples. 1) This is so that things like the MovableType home page knows I recently updated and lists me as a recently updated page. 2) And so Blogrolling (see the list of blogs I read on the lower right) know I was updated. On my page if a page has been updated in the last 48 hours and blogrolling knows about it (from a direct ping at http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/ or from looking at some other pingable places) it marks those pages in bold/italics for me and I don't have to do a thing. 3) This same auto-ping alerts Yahoo! so that when (if?) people have me show up on their MyYahoo! start page it knows to update the content for them. This is probably technically called pinging a site but it's probably not that much different than the trackback concept (if not identical). Bottom line, if I changed all the spots on my site to say “pings” instead of “trackbacks” it'd be the same thing.

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Posted by Gary on Sunday at 11:41 PM on December 26, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, technology

Lots of Blog Changes

Nothing super significant: I'm using the columnize plug-in to save some space for my archives and categories, I'm using the more javascript to make the extended entry accessible on the main page, hmm... (I did a third thing too, something I found on Girlie's site while looking for something else...) Oh, at the bottom of the my main page, how I did the recent additional entries was an idea from Girlie. Of course this was all done with Movable Type from Six Apart.

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Posted by Gary on Tuesday at 9:37 PM on August 10, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging

Movable Type in 24 Hours

I finally saw a copy of 'Teach Yourself Movable Type in 24 Hours' at the store and it's mine! Mine! Mine! I'll do a short review later. But I'm notoriously bad at doing book followups....

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Posted by Gary on Sunday at 7:59 PM on June 6, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, books
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Mush

Speaking of Ben and Mena

Go listen to a great interview with Ben and Mena from Six Apart ( Movable Type). They have an interview with Doug Kayeat at IT Conversations. It's very enlightening since it took place before last Thursday. Anyone who thinks they backpedaled after their announcement would be wrong (maybe a tiny bit right, but not much), they pretty much say it all here (a week or two before). Listen to the recording (it's 39 minutes) you need to hear it, not read it. They say how they (the company) are changing, what people aren't going to like and what the changes are and all sorts of interesting things. I think I like them even more now...

IT Conversations is a great web site. Lots of interesting interviews and conversations.

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Posted by Gary on Monday at 7:27 PM on May 17, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, people, web sites

MovableType part 3.0

It's a little later since my earlier MT posts (one and two) and people have calmed down a bit about MovableType's new pricing structure. Which for individual personal use really isn't that different than the previous versions. I like that some of the big names in MT blogging feel the same way as I do/did. (Of course I didn't list the few big names that disagreed with me.)

BradChoate

Kotte

Jay Allen

Here's the problem. It might be enough of a fiasco to have really hurt the company. If for no other reason that bloggers heard about all the alternatives; some of the less expensive (free) alternatives. I've been a little blinded from the beginning in loving MT so much I wasn't exploring all the alternatives but I'm happy with it, so why switch?

Related sidebar: Every year they release a new model of my car, new features, better gas mileage and they all have that new car smell; but I'm still driving my 2000. Actually I bought my car because I didn't like a "feature" of the new model so I ran around trying to find a 2.661 version (I mean 2000) model of the same car...

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Posted by Gary on Sunday at 5:06 PM on May 16, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites

More Movable Type

This is a bit of a followup to my earlier entry on the new pricing scheme at MT (which could have be subtitled "whiners begone"). Read Melissa's post, she made it pretty understandable when she summarized up Mena's followup post (which clarified a few things and even retroactively removed a thing or two from the EULA). I'm sure they lost some business, there were too many upset people yesterday.

Highlights of the update
• Some of their choices were made due to results of a survey (which I failed to answer). If you combine two or three blogs into one (and they aren't used sepratly) it only counts as one.
• The dual processor rule should not have been in the EULA.
• You are not required to upgrade to 3.0 and you only have to obey the liscence as to when you agreed to it.
• You can add individual author/logs to the personal license for $10.
• Old archived blogs don't count.

Mena says: "Furthermore, it is not our intention to stiffle the creativity of our users. So, if you have a great weblog that uses 11 weblogs seamlessly to appear as one site or weblog, you should not be penalized."

I feel bad, I bet Mena and Company lost some sleep yesterday (or maybe they keep a bar at the office).

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Posted by Gary on Saturday at 10:39 AM on May 15, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, technology, web sites
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Jay Allen: Jim

MovableType 3.0

MovableType released their new version of blogging software and just about everyone has gone through the roof. They've got a new pricing scheme and guess what? It's not free any more. And everyone is whining. The software has only been out for a few hours, it's not like everyone is desperate for an upgrade. Many folks seem like they are going to jump ship immediately?!? The biggest feature seems to be the registration for comments which not many people seem interested in.

My favorite whine is: "it doesn't have that many more features and it costs too much", well, keep using the version you've got then.

I probably won't upgrade unless it's got some great feature in it. But I don't rush out and buy the latest version of anything the day it comes out either... I might switch over to a different product and I might rave about it when I do, but I don't think I'll whine about MovableType when I do (especially if the only thing they screw up about it is the price/marketing).

I love MovableType, it's the only blogging software I've tried but it seems that's what all the cool kids (i.e. smart) are using. I mean I really like it, it's great. I have see a few other things but they seemed a little more complicated but I may peek into it some more. It's fun from a programming standpoint, it's flexible and I really have been having a lot fun with it.

I gotta ask again. "What's wrong with your current 2.661 version of Movable Type that would make you migrate to another piece of software?" I haven't noticed anyone complaining that 3.0 has (crucial) features they want and can't afford.

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Posted by Gary on Thursday at 9:34 PM on May 13, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites
Thanks for the 4 comments/trackbacks from: Rob: Jason: Gary: Andy

Movable Type is SO versatile!

So I just did a demo of Movable Type for the technology coordinators in our county (Wayne, Michigan). It was focused around the ways that I use it for school (work) for to help our staff. It's at http://techliterate.net/ if you are interested, there are three categories (Tech Help, Tech Tips and Reference Information). You'll notice the Tech Support and the Tech Tips are cross-referenced together in the right-hand column (I love how great Movable Type is!). It's a (very) boring background, but it's consistent and the colors change as you go from area to area (and it I think it looks mostly the same in all browsers). My point of this isn't so much the demo as that Movable Type is great software.

And of course I had to mention how crazy I thought friends (i.e. Heather) were when they first mentioned it to me. And now, here I am looking for a 12 step program to help me...

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Posted by Gary on Thursday at 11:55 AM on April 22, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, blogging, web sites

Ecto is here!

Remember when I mentioned Kung-Log a while back? Well, now the first public beta of Ecto is out.

Us poor Mac people don't even have the formatting toolbar when editing our Movable Type. But now we (and other brand bloggers) have this excellent editor for OS X! Create thumbnails, edit different blogs, easily use categories, post drafts, customize your own HTML commands, save drafts on the hard drive (if not on-line) and edit (yes, I said edit) previous posts and it has a spell check. It's really great if you like to blog. It'll even use your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) to show you the previews!

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Posted by Gary on Friday at 7:02 PM on January 9, 2004.
Related categories: Movable Type, apple, blogging

Blogging on a Mac with Kung-Log

There seems to be some issues with editing Movable Type posts on a Macintosh, it doesn't show you the formatting tools (bold, italics, underline, links). Well even if it did, you'd still want this software tool, it's called Ecto (formerly Kung-Log) (for OS X) and it lets you do all that and more. Create thumbnails, different blogs, categoris, post drafts, customize your own HTML commands, save drafts on the hard drive (if not on-line) and edit (yes, I said edit) previous posts and it has a spell check.

This version requires MacOS 10.2 or higher and either a MovableType installation of version 2.6 or higher, Nucleus 1.55 or higher, or any weblog system supporting the MovableType, MetaWeblog and/or Blogger API.

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Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 4:01 PM on December 24, 2003.
Related categories: Movable Type, apple, blogging, computers, technology, web sites