Blogging

Twitter in Plain English

Frank — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:37:00 GMT

At my Introducing Silverlight talk on Saturday, I mentioned Twitter.

Most people in the audience hadn't heard of it and I found it somewhat hard to explain.

Actually, the concept is easy, the purpose of Twitter takes some clarification.

Thankfully, there's this video: "Twitter in Plain English"

Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

If you like the idea, you can follow my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/Tableteer and the happenings of the Silverlight DC area community at http://twitter.com/SilverlightDC.

Technorati Tags: Twitter,Silverlight,Twitter in Plain English

Twitter Feed

Frank — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:11:00 GMT

I'll be updating my Twitter feed this week with updates from MIX and my whereabouts at the show.

Keep an eye on it, if you're looking for me or curious as to what's going on there.

Technorati Tags: Twitter,Mix08

Comment Moderation in Effect

Frank — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:17:00 GMT

With some changes to existing stored procs and a new one or two, I added comment moderation to .Text .095.

One more duct tape patch ought to carry me through until I migrate to a newer, shinier platform.

Realistically, that won't happen until after MIX, which is eight days away!

I didn't want to either turn comments off or put up with all sorts of ads for online gambling sites.

So, if you leave a comment and it doesn't appear right away, I'll approve it at my earliest convenience.

If you're a comment spammer, move on to another blog.

Technorati Tags: Comment Spam,Mix,DotText,.TEXT,Comment Moderation

Attack of the Comment Spammers

Frank — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:41:00 GMT

It didn't take the comment spammers long to notice that I've re-enabled comments on this blog.

They do work quite efficiently and their work ethic is quite impressive.

So, if you see comments on the blog that are spam, my apologies. They will be deleted.

Time to get a CAPTCHA installed.

This isn't my first run-in with them and probably won't be the last time.

Technorati Tags: CAPTCHA,Comment Spam,Spam

Which Blogging Engine Should I Migrate To?

Frank — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:45:00 GMT

Earlier today, I blogged about moving off of .TEXT 1.95 and onto a more modern platform.

The question is which platform?

Community Server seems like the obvious choice, but SubText is an interesting alternative.

SubText uses the same data model and seems like the migration story is relatively painless.

From the SubText FAQ:

Q. Can I Install Subtext on the same Database as my existing .TEXT installation

A. Yes. Subtext tables are prefixed with “subtext_” so they will not interfere with .TEXT tables.
We recommend trying the procedure off-line first if you can. Once you install Subtext, you'll have an option as part of the installation wizard to import the .TEXT data.

I've also heard good things about BlogEngine.NET, but I wonder how a file based blogging engine would hold up under a lot of traffic.

Anyone out there have any ideas/opinions/etc?

What's the simplest migration path?

Let me know.

~~Comments are broken, hence the need to upgrade. ;)~~

Actually, comments are working now, but without CAPTCHA protection, it will be overrun with Comment Spam shortly.

Technorati Tags: SubText,Community Server,.TEXT

CNN Fires Producer Over Personal Blog

Frank — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:02:00 GMT

CNN fires a producer turned blogger for content on his personal blog.

Particularly creepy is his story about his encounter with CNN's HR department and CNN's HR admission that, "We [CNN] have people within the company whose job is specifically to research this kind of thing [Blogs] in regard to employees."

In the end, CNN probably did him a favor.

Surely, traffic to his site has gone through the roof and he'll make more money as a "celebrity blogger" than he ever did at CNN.

[found via Slashdot]

Technorati Tags: CNN,Censorship

Happy Blogday to Me

Frank — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:55:00 GMT

Four years ago today, I set up .TEXT on Frank's World and starting blogging regularly.

I had a blog previously on BlogSpot since 2001, but I wasn't good at maintaining that one.

Now, four years later and 2195 posts later (an average of 548.75 posts a year or 1.5 posts a day), I'd say I do a pretty good job of posting regularly.

Sadly, I'm still running the same version of .TEXT (plus a few hacks I added over the years) since 2004.

Needless to say, one of my personal goals for this year, is to upgrade to a more modern blogging platform.

Technorati Tags: .TEXT,Blogs,Frank's World,Blogday

I'm Still Alive, But My Computer Not So Much

Frank — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:37:00 GMT

In case you're wondering why my steady stream of blog posts have stopped, I've been swamped with deadlines and my main machine decided to go kaputt.

Sunday evening, my Tablet informed me that the NTFS.SYS file was corrupted and needed to be replaced by running the Vista setup program and choosing repair.

Following those instructions, I was horrified to learn that the Vista repair utility couldn't find my C drive.

Panic set in.

Then I dug through my DVD/CD binders to find an old (well 2005) edition of Norton System works. I booted off the DVD and ran the diagnostic tools.

Vista booted and I ran a chckdsk just to be safe.

All was well for about 45 minutes.

Visual Studio 2008 wouldn't start. Neither would Blend. Even Visual Studio 2005 was down for the count.

Explorer would randomly crash displaying this scary error dialog:

I/O error = Uh Oh.

I immediately copied over everything I could onto an external drive, but my computer was painfully slow and randomly crashing.

So, far all my data seems to be safe, but the drama of getting everything back to the way it was is ongoing.

Technorati Tags: Vista,Hard Drive,Error,NTFS.SYS

Ten Useful Plugins for Windows Live Writer

Frank — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:50:00 GMT

Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that makes blogging that much easier and enjoyable.

I've been a big fan of it since Russ Stalters tipped me off to it a year and a half ago.

The software provide a clean and consistent editing experience that support multiple blogging platforms.

Best of all, it's free.

It's even extensible by a well documented Plug-In API and there's an entire community of folks writing plug-ins for it.

I even wrote one a while back.

Sarah Perez has compiled a list of ten useful Windows Live Writer plug-ins that are all worth a look.

Technorati tags: Windows Live Writer, Blogging, Utility, Plug-In

Blogging Hiatus

Frank — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:16:00 GMT

I've always liked the time just before Thanksgiving.

The weather is "just right:" not warm and not too cold. The trees are beautiful: orange, yellow and red.

I'm taking a much deserved vacation this week in the Outer Banks and that probably means a blogging hiatus (to borrow a phrase from Tim Heuer).

When I get back, the holiday madness begins. Once the holidays are over, wedding planning will kick into high-gear, then the wedding.

So, looking at the calendar reminds me of seeing a sign on the highway that reads "Next Rest Stop: 100 miles."

I better make this one count. :)