Wow! Just realized I've been blogging for over 20 years, starting way back in August 2004 on kinlan.co.uk with Blogger. The journey has taken me through Posterous and landed me here on paul.kinlan.me with Hugo (and maybe Jekyll at some point). Sure, there's some cringe-worthy stuff in the archives, but it's my history. And honestly, I wouldn't be where I am today without this little corner of the internet. Huge thanks to Tim Berners-Lee and everyone who's made the web what it is!
I'm moving my blog from Blogger to Wordpress! While I've used Blogger for years, it no longer meets my needs. This blog will remain online but the new blog, covering broader software development topics (not just C#), is where I'll focus my writing. Find it at http://www.kinlan.co.uk/blog/ .
I'm incredibly frustrated with Blogger's lack of updates, inconsistent publishing, and inflexibility. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable blogging platform.
This blog post shares a method for integrating Google Calendar into a website using PHP and JavaScript, based on an article from ajax.phpmagazine.net. The author also expresses interest in syncing their Blogger blog with their calendar.
Google's new data protocol, GData, has me wondering about the future of Blogger. Will Blogger integrate with GData? Blogger already uses Atom, so will that make integration easier? Or will Blogger's slow pace of development prevent them from adopting GData anytime soon? I'm skeptical.
The Ajax Tagger has been updated with a number of bug fixes and improvements. Key changes include using my own Tag Directory for related tags, providing Yahoo search results as RSS in OPML output, and fixing issues with menu item classes, OPML apostrophe escaping, and image selection persistence. Planned future enhancements include a Blogger interface, Kelkoo integration, addressing a cross-domain CGI request security warning, and Del.icio.us OPML integration.
I need a global search and replace function in Blogger so I can easily update content across all 300 pages of my blog. Currently, I have to manually edit each page, which is time-consuming.
I've given kinlan.co.uk a fresh coat of paint with a new Blogger Template. It's cleaner, faster, and easier on the eyes. I'm planning some more small tweaks in the near future, stay tuned!
In this post, I share my support for Internet Explorer 7's decision to enable ClearType by default. Bill Hill's blog post on the topic highlights research demonstrating ClearType's positive impact on reading, IE's primary use case. Personally, I've found ClearType enhances readability and focus, though IE7 Beta 2 has presented rendering issues on platforms like Blogger.
Someone googled "are switchmedia any good?" and landed on my blog. As a satisfied customer, I can vouch for them! They're a great web hosting company, and the websites they've built look fantastic. (FYI, this blog uses a Blogger template.)
I've started a new blog dedicated to book reviews using WordPress! Check it out at http://books.kinlan.co.uk. I'm quite impressed with WordPress's flexibility and plugin options, a definite upgrade from Blogger. I'm still working on some features, like automatically directing users to the correct Amazon site based on their location, but feedback is welcome!
I'd really like a feature in Blogger that lets me customize what's shown on the main blog page versus the individual post page. Something like custom tags, maybe <itempage></itempage>, that would let me control the content displayed in each view.
I've successfully implemented backlinks on my Blogger blog, thanks to a helpful article on browservulsel.blogspot.com. Check it out if you're looking to add backlinks to your own Blogger blog.
Wow! Google Blog Search indexed my latest post in just minutes! I was amazed by how fast it appeared in the search results after uploading. I'm curious if other search engines are this quick. Technorati is fast, but I have to ping them. With Google, it just worked automatically. Big kudos to Google and possibly Blogger for the seamless integration!
I'm struggling to get the BlogItemBacklinkCount tag to display backlink counts for my Blogger blog hosted on my own server. I suspect it might not function in this setup, leading me to believe the entire backlink system isn't automatic as advertised. Has anyone else encountered similar issues?
I'm disappointed with Blogger BackLinks. I thought they'd automatically pull in links to my posts from Google Blog Search, but they don't. Users have to manually add them, which isn't ideal. I plan to create a version that automatically queries Google Blog Search and updates my page with backlinks from there.
My recent blog posts seem to be using trackback links automatically. Apologies to Blogger for the unintended behavior, however, I maintain my earlier criticism regarding the insufficient documentation provided for this newly launched feature.
Blogger has a new Trackbacks feature, but enabling it with custom templates is tricky due to incomplete documentation. While new features are appreciated, completed documentation upon release is essential.
While spell-checking my latest blog post, Blogger suggested "Degenerate" as a correction for "Technorati." I found this amusing, given the generally poor quality of Blogger's spell-check. It doesn't even recognize words like "blog" or British English spellings. At least it keeps things interesting!
In this installment, I reflect on the limitations of Blogger.com as a blogging platform. Despite its user-friendliness, several features fall short of my needs. The "Blogger For Microsoft Word" integration isn't particularly helpful, the WYSIWYG editor is inconsistent, and the available tags seem outdated. I crave more innovation, especially regarding feed customization and ping configuration. While AudioBlogging.com intrigues me, its practicality for someone in the UK is questionable. Ultimately, I desire greater control and configurability, but acknowledge Blogger's value as a free service.
As a user of the Windows Blogger Tool, I've identified some desired features for future releases. These include HTML editing before posting, image and table insertion, custom style application, accurate list creation (ordered and unordered), and proper handling of element shading. While the tool is currently not comprehensive, it serves as a decent starting point. Personally, I value control over post content, so I'll likely use it for drafting and later refinement, enabling quicker text entry without immediate tagging or styling concerns.
My first post using the new Blogger Word Blogging tool! It's easy to use and publishes really fast. I'm curious about HTML control since my AJAX tool outputs HTML. A few quirks: smiley icons show as "(", apostrophes look odd, and images/tables aren't supported. Planning a follow-up post with my feature requests.
Blogger has released a new plugin for Microsoft Word called "Word Blogger" (or "Worger" as I'm calling it!). It allows direct posting of Word docs to blogs. I'm excited to try it out and see if it maintains formatting. This release is timely; I've been frustrated with the current WSIWYG editor and its limitations.
My first foray into Ajax was a mixed bag, yielding both valuable lessons and frustrating setbacks. On the plus side, it sparked a deeper understanding of asynchronous coding, cross-browser compatibility (especially between Firefox and IE), and the potential of APIs like Yahoo! and Technorati. It also reignited my interest in Perl and prompted reflection on my blogging practices. However, the application fell short in several areas: it lacked search functionality, didn't reduce bandwidth, had a poor visual design, and wasn't user-friendly or impactful enough to generate feedback or traffic. Moving forward, I'll share my design process and desired improvements, starting with a clear requirements document. I'm eager to learn from this experience and create a more effective application.
I've moved my blog from Blogger to my own domain, kinlan.co.uk. I'm still using Blogger's software, but hosting it myself will give me better tracking. I'm very impressed with Blogger!
