WordPress 2.6.1 update

I know, I know,…. it has been a while since my last post, and I promise to correct this, but I figured I would let you know that Wordpress has been upgraded to a new version.  You can read about it it here.

New Wordpress version 2.6

Wordpress has just released version 2.6. I haven’t downloaded and installed it yet, but here’s a video of some of the changes:

Admittedly it looks to benefit the blog authors, but that, indirectly, effects the readers as well. You can find out a lot more about Wordpress on their blog, as well as their website.

I’ll probably upgrade over the weekend.

On dogs

You have to understand. This is not a mainstream blog. I get one or two visitors a day, and on good days, I get maybe five. So, I was baffled when I went to StatCounter and discovered that over 120 people visited my blog and they all went to the same page. By time the surge ended (it ran from the 18th to 19th), I had 198 page views which boiled down to 152 unique visitors.

I have no idea why that page is so popular. Also of interest is that so many visits came from Europe and especially the U.K.. A number were multiple visits. My first thought was that possibly my sight was being used as some type of portal but considering how aware I am of setting up security protections, that seems far off. No, it seems that I chose a picture of dogs that is pretty popular, because most of the searches came from Google images.

Search fixed

I finally figured out what the problem was with the search feature and permalink problem. Clicking on the title of any post should take you to its permalink and comments page (each post has its own page). This wasn’t happening. Anyway, it turns out that though some posts were labeled as “published” the “status” was unpublished.

The problem now is that this has to be corrected manually,… post by post. I’m working my way backward to 2004. I’m about halfway finished.

New theme installed

The Deserta theme is now installed and it appears to be very clean (visibly and as far as code is concerned). I think the problem I was having with the search function may be fixed now. Before, if you did a search, whether using the search function or the comments or tags or any mechanism for looking at past posts, on occasion, you would get a 404 error message. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for it. If I refreshed the permalinks sometimes it would fix it and sometimes it wouldn’t. I think it had something to do with the way the Default theme is written. All of that is to say, if anyone has a problem retrieving past posts or get a 404 error code, let me know.

Meanwhile, it is good bye to the Default theme… it served well.

UPDATE RE: Searching

Searching, I have discovered, works perfectly well for the first item but if you need to see the comments (for example) of that posts you have to be registered.  Only registered users can go past one search.

Here’s an example to try.  Type the word Sicko in the search box.  You’ll get all the posts containing that word. Go to the post labeled Sicko 2 and click on comments. If you are registered, you’ll see those comments, otherwise you won’t.

I’ll make a note on the About page.

There’ll be some changes made

Due to the overwhelming number of votes for the Deserta theme, I will be implementing that one during this weekend. I just have a few tweaks to make to it, like StatCounter, and a HostM tag.

I may tire of the photo at the top, but once I have the theme up and running, I’ll be able to completely test if that can be changed.

Typing test fun

I was testing out a piece of software called TextExpander, and reading the various links in the help-files, when I came across a typing test.

Now, I always knew I was a slow typist, but this slow?

46 words

Speedtest

And that’s after I took the test three times. You can try it yourself by clicking in the graphic or the Speedtest link.

Anyway, I’ll write more about TextExpander after I have played with it some more. So far it seems really cool, but mostly for those who often have to type the same phrases over and over. For example, by simply typing a series of letters (which you define), the program will replace them with whatever you have assigned to that combination, whether it be a word, or a short story.

Old Starfire Gone

I cancelled the old Starfire account this evening. If you go there, you will get a 404 error message. It was great while it lasted, but alas, all the entries live here now. Use the search tool to find old items. Now the search begins for a more interesting face for the new StarFire.

first post at new blog home

This represents my first posting on the new Starfire blog. Everything seems to have moved here without problem (posts, comments, dates). I do need to go through the posts and find all images that are stored on the Typepad servers or else when I close down that account, I’m concerned those images will not be available.

While searching through tie archives for the various images, I came across one of my favorites, that I got from Peacechick Mary. It holds up. I just wish I had saved a bigger version

Speaking of images, I’d like to post the starfire image on the About page… What About page you ask? I haven’t finished working on it yet.

annual blog migration post

I’ve been considering the possibility of migrating this blog to a different service. Typepad has been really good to me, but I think I’ve outgrown it. I’d like to have more control over the blog’s innards. I’ve been on TypePad for years, but a couple of years ago I decided to play with WordPress.

If you check my archives, you’ll see this is not a quick decision. I’ve been considering it since 2005. It seems I always think about this topic at this time of year. Do a search for WordPress over on the right to see how long I’ve been thinking about it.

There are two (actually three) types of WordPress. The Wordpress I talk about, is WordPress.org. It’s a free download, but requires that you have a host for the files, and you must install it. The other is WordPress.com. This is also free, but it’s like Typepad in that you have a lot less control over things. No download necessary,… takes less than five minutes to get a blog. The third WordPress is a multiple users version and is generally used by big companies like the New York Times (blogs).

All of this is to say, that I will definitely be moving the blog over to WordPress, but before I quit Typepad, I’ll need to find out how to move my Typepad Photos blog.

I don’t think I mentioned my hosting service, which has been really fantastic. They have been so good, that I have one of their tags at the bottom of my whispers blog. They’re called HostM.

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