gabeanderson.com: life: blogging

MT 3.2

I upgraded my blog to Movable Type 3.2 yesterday. The upgrade process was mostly smooth, although I did hit one roadblock about my mt_log table already existing. As mentioned in the support forum, a repair of my database got things rolling for me again. The first thing one notices about this update is the streamlined user interface. I really like it except for the fact that the text I'm typing into the editing interface right now is too small. Not all of us have great vision. This new version apparently contains lots of great new features, including these 32 favorite features, though I haven't really explored much of it yet. In general, I've found that since I spend so much time at the computer every day for work, I really try to limit my non-work computer time to give my eyes a much-needed break from the strain of our high-tech world.

Crony Jobs - Choice government careers for the taking. No experience necessary.

Blog Feet

Just how big is my blog? If I export the text of this blog, including all comments but minus all photos, and paste it all into Word at Courier New 10, it's 1,664 pages. One page equals 11 inches. That's 18,304 inches of blog. 1,525 feet of blog. Nearly a third of a mile of blog. And that's just the text.

Here are some updated blog stats using the same measures that I did a couple years ago:

Published Entries: 1,276 (including this one)
Total Entries: 1,367
Comments: 1,783
Exported Pages in a Word Doc: 1,664 (Courier New size 10 font)
Words: 429,866
Characters (no spaces): 2,679,405
Characters (with spaces): 3,069,293
Paragraphs: 46,533
Lines: 94,590
Word Doc File Size: 8,988 kb

Site Meter current stats:

VISITS

Total 410,479
Average Per Day 492
Average Visit Length 0:38
Last Hour 12
Today 84
This Week 3,444

PAGE VIEWS

Total 672,862
Average Per Day 715
Average Per Visit 1.5
Last Hour 23
Today 121
This Week 5,002

So now you know. Word.

Yesteryear

It seems this time of year is a slow time for blogging. Summers are so busy that I suppose I just don't have the same daily energy required for blogging. A year ago yesterday I wrote this: "Lately I've not blogged much. In fact, in the history of my blog, it may be the dryest stretch I've had without regular posts. I want to be better about that. Things have been so busy lately."

Two years ago yesterday was the last day of our honeymoon.

Three years ago yesterday we had found the leather chair and ottoman that remains with us, 3,000 miles and all these years later.

We went out last night with Justin -- 9 Maple, the Ice (Frat) House, Peabody's -- to celebrate life, liberty, and a certain unnamed event.

Congratulations, Jenner!

(And before you ask, the answer is no. We went out drinking, people.)

Blogger's Block

I obviously enjoy blogging. I try to write something nearly every day and have been doing so for years. Some days are easier than others. Some days it's obvious what I will write about -- an anniversary, a wedding we attended, a trip we took, a major world event -- but others I find myself struggling to come up with topics. I like to write about the mundane and recap what I do, but I know that's not always the most interesting thing. So I try to find other things that strike my fancy. Sometimes I'm inspired, other times I am not.

Lately, I haven't been too inspired. Call it writer's block or blogger's block or just burnt out by all the other work and play in my life, so today, this is all I've got. Oh, and this: We went out last night to DA's and T&L with Justin and Ken. Saratoga in the summer is a party on Caroline Street every night, and last night was no exception.

I suppose it's OK to miss a day of blogging here and there. But I guess, technically, now I haven't.

Survey Results

"Best poster in the history of posters."

"I think you are fab."

"I love Gabe's dogs. And his wife. And, now that I think about it, him too. But in totally different ways."

"I love reading your blog everyday. It's part of my morning routine - keep it up! :)"

"Blah. I keep hoping for something interesting but it's just not there. Sorry to be so blunt. I imagine it's pretty cool if you're a friend or relative, but it's pretty bland if you're not."

The results of the first gabeanderson.com reader survey are in! Whether you were just stopping by or are a longtime reader, thanks to all 31 of you who took the survey. I know most of you (25.8%) from San Francisco, followed closely by my Vassar friends (22.6%) and those of you who know me only via my site (22.6%). Only 2 Saratoga Springs friends (6.5%) took the survey, so my local posse is slacking!

The majority of you (60%) are a friend, 23.3% of you are newcomers, and 6.7% of you are family. There was 1 professional colleague who took the survey. Most of you (67.7%) are in the 25-34 age bracket, 16.1% are 19-24, 12.9% are 35-44, and 3.2% are 45+.

The next two questions were very telling: The vast majority of you are longtime, regular readers of gabeanderson.com, so thank you all for sticking with me for so long and so often! It's a good feeling to know that my site is, as a Community Director in the dot-com days might have said, "sticky." 18 of you (58.1%) have been reading my blog for 1-3 years, 8 of you (25.8%) have been around for 6-12 months, 2 of you (9.7%) for 1-6 months, and 2 of you (6.5%) for 3-5 years. 15 of you (48.4%) are weekly readers, 12 of you (38.7%) come by daily, and 3 of you (9.7%) stop by monthly.

By a longshot, the favorite topics on gabeanderson.com are personal anecdotes (71%) and photos (54.8%). The least favorite topic semes to be technology, with only 9.7% of you indicating it as such. Other favorite topics include:

"Sexy Women! Esp. Jen!"
"Vassar Thoughts"
"pop culture"
"Weekend Updates (are these anecdotes?)"

Most of you say my rate of posting is just fine (76.7%), while 4 of you (13.3%) agree that I'm "insane (and) have no idea how (I've) been doing this for so long."

Thanks again to all, and I hope you enjoy gabeanderson.com for years to come!

In other news, my Dad began his journey East yesterday, venturing out of the Bay Area in what would be a courageous move for anyone. He's decided to relocate to Saratoga Springs and I'm thrilled about it. I'm very excited that he's chosen to move his life here. Godspeed to you, Dad, and see you soon!

30-Second Survey

With thanks to one-time blogger Dan for the idea and some of the questions, I've created a 30-second survey that I'd love for you to take. I have a pretty good sense of who reads my blog, but surprise me! Results will be cumulative and remain totally anonymous. If you'd like to provide your name and/or email, please do (they will remain confidential), but don't feel obligated. Mostly, I'm just curious about my readers! You know just about everything about me, so now it's your turn to give me a glimpse of you.

Click here to take the survey! It won't bite.

If you have a blog or a Web site, mention it in the survey and I'd be happy to link to it when I post the results.

Trackback Spam

I'm sick and tired of deleting oodles of trackback spam on a daily basis, so I've finally had enough of these rogue characters who earn seven figures by trying to exploit blogs like mine. No more. I've deactivated all trackback links and functionality throughout my site.

Surprisingly, it's no easy task. First, I had to turn off the Weblog Config option to "'Allow TrackBack Pings' On by Default." Next, I had to do a SQL query on the database (I used phpMyAdmin for its ease of use) to deactivate the allow ping status for all my archives:

update `mt_entry` set `entry_allow_pings` = 0;

Finally, I had to update my individual and category archive templates to ensure the "Trackback URL" for each entry did not display anywhere on my site.

Before this morning, I had forgotten that final step, so despite the database changes, the trackback spam had somehow snuck through anyway as of this morning. But hopefully that will be the last of it.

I'm all for entrepreneurship, but not when someone else benefits by trying to leverage my Web site as a billboard.

[ Really disabling Trackback ]

I've long been a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. Today the world (and Google) celebrates his birthday.

B95.5 Capital Region People

If you live in the Capital Region, set your alarms for 6 AM this Sunday morning, April 3, 2005, tune your radio to Continuous Soft Rock B95.5, and get those cassettes ready to rumble. Why? Your very own Gabe Anderson of gabeanderson.com: life will be featured on the 30-minute show, Capital Region People.

Dave Lucas, who's been hosting the local show for the past two years, recently became fascinated by blogs. While researching the phenomenon, he came across the Saratogian article that mentioned mine. About a week ago, he dropped me an email inviting me on the show, and the rest is history.

In a former career, I managed production for a team that, among other things, produced a radio show. Before last night, that was the extent of my radio show experience.

The interview went really well and was a lot of fun. It was very casual -- just a couple guys chatting about blogs. I talked about the history of my blog, Web servers, and some of the funnier search terms that lead here (such as Hooters San Francisco). But I won't give away any more.

For the full scoop, you'll have to tune in Sunday morning at 6 AM to B95.5! (Don't forget to spring ahead those clocks Saturday night.)

(The picture of me includes my blog in the background with this post on the screen. Photo credit: Jen.)

Commenting

Due to the noticeable lack of dialogue around here lately (and at least a couple folks -- my wife and Jonty -- who have IMed or emailed me comments insteading of commenting here on a post), I've disabled the need to register with TypeKey to post. So please, comment away! No registration required.

(Thanks to Jen, Sarah, and Megan for registering and commenting when no one else would since I turned on registration on November 10, 2004.)

I'm currently using David Raynes' mt-close plugin to automatically close to commenting all entries older than 21 days, but, like Dan, may soon switch to CloseComments for more flexibility (for example, automatically keeping open commenting on "hot" entries that are older than X number of days).

In other news, the rain has come and taken away Mel, who's now just a lump on the ground. I want more snow, damn it.

Last night we played more Elfin Dressup at Justin's house. My wood elf, Carmen Elfslutstra, is kickin' some ass (she's now level 11).

Happy Friday!

2004 Web Traffic

December 2004 was a record-setting month for my site in terms of overall traffic: 21,051 unique visitors, 32,515 visits, 80,634 pages, 257,286 hits, and 4.15 GB of bandwidth. For the year, 2004 brought to my site 197,531 unique visitors. Not too shabby for a little personal site.

Of course, there are countless ways to look at stats, and as many services that measure "traffic," so when comparing one site's traffic to another, you should always use the same method of measurement. Site Meter tells me I have an average of 519 visits per day; Nedstat says I've tallied up 287,221 visits since September 18, 2002; Google AdSense tells me yet another stat.

Point being: It's fun monitoring this stuff and pretty cool to see what a large audience I have (though I realize that much of my traffic is just happenstance and not representative of regular readers). One of these days, I'll do a reader survey like Dan did once upon a time.

Famous to My Readers

I'm flattered. Not only has Dan put me side by side with Tom Tomorrow, but he's referred to me as "famous to (my) readers." This is the second time I've been accused of such a thing in a public forum (that I know of).

I read Dan's post today, the same day that Jonty IM'd me the following:

(10:29:13) jyamisha: ya know... i'm not one to criticize, but i've noticed this week that your posts to your blog aren't there first thing in the morning like they used to....
(10:29:17) jyamisha: you're letting me down, man
(10:29:20) jyamisha: i need my daily fix!

I also happened to come across this accusation from Alan, who calls me "author of the best liberal blog on the net." A new tag line?

Here I'm called "an experienced consumer." Yeah, baby.

And Megan, oh Megan. You're often as guilty as the others in telling me how much you enjoy reading my blog.

This is starting to go to my head, Dear Readers. But please, don't stop. I love the love.

Queen of Sky

I read this New York Times article on the train coming home from the city the other day: Fired Flight Attendant Finds Blogs Can Backfire. Some excerpts:

Until two weeks ago, Ellen Simonetti worked as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, doing her best to project the image of a stewardess from a bygone era. "In the past people expected flight attendants to be young and attractive," Ms. Simonetti, a 29-year old blonde, said from her home in Austin, Tex. "Maybe I represent the flight attendants of the past."

But it is Ms. Simonetti's very 21st-century activities that she says prompted Delta management to ground her, suspending her from flying in September and then firing her a month later.

Ms. Simonetti has operated a Web log since January, calling it Diary of a Flight Attendant, and she says she did not hear from Delta about the site, http://queenofsky.journalspace.com, until after she posted a set of provocative photos of herself in her Delta uniform. In one photograph, her skirt is hiked to mid-thigh as she perches along a seatback on an empty airliner. In another, she is leaning over the seats, her blouse unbuttoned, exposing part of her bra. Ms. Simonetti said she posted those photographs because she thought they made her look pretty.

And that, my friends, is why in this this blog you'll find no sexy photos of me with my breasts or bra slightly exposed in my place of work.

But seriously, I think it's pretty ridiculous that Queen of Sky was fired for these photos. I think there is a double standard at play. Had she been a man, it probably would not have been an issue.

Comment Registration

A couple months ago I integrated TypeKey comment registration into my site. At the time, it was optional. Now it is required.

You see, no comment spam gets through and actually shows up on my site, but I'm tired of email after email notifying me of all the morons who try to use my blog as a place to promote the sale of propecia, viagra, unsecured loans, and the like.

I love the legitimate comments and the dialogue here, but I'm afraid I must now require TypeKey registration before posting. It's really not that big a deal, since creating an account takes no time at all. So please, create an account and keep on commenting!

In other news, oh, darn, I'm so disappointed:

US Attorney General John Ashcroft has resigned from the Bush cabinet, the White House has announced.

Who will take away more of our liberties and enforce the Patriot Act now?

Comment Registration

As you may have noticed, I've added a new link to my individual entries that will allow you to login to your TypeKey account to comment on my blog without having to wait for me to approve your posting.

So... go on and register over at TypeKey and get this party started. Your TypeKey account will be universal, so you can use the same account to comment on many other blogs out there.

[ TypeKey: Comment Spam Be Gone ]

Blog Debates

If you've missed some of the recent action over on Alan's blog, be sure to check it out. Jen has jumped in for some good debate: "alan. please. my comments were not meant to be cruel. and i am in fact smiling as i write this. i appreciate your blog and your point of view. my intention was simply to question your painting the issues in such broad strokes, and i felt i was matching your 'spirited' tone. you don't pull many punches-- you are an edgy, truth-crusading blogger... i don't pull any punches-- i'm a hostile liberal :) i see how this works! truce."

I think this is good because though Alan and Jen and I may not agree on everything, we're at least willing to listen to one another. Something rare and important in these divided times.

Alan's Blog

I'd like to welcome my old buddy Alan Manning to the world of blogging. He writes that I inspired him to get his blog online. I'm flattered. He also responds directly to some of my recent posts (here and here).

We obviously see the world differently, but I'm glad that Alan has stepped forward with a willingness to debate some of the issues facing this country today. If you're looking for a different take on politics than I offer here, check out Alan's blog.

(Now this means you'll have to continue what you've started, Alan!)

1000

This post marks a momentous occasion for my blog. It is entry number 1000 in my database. Not all those entries are currently live and shown in my archives (this will be 938 in that list) -- a number represent posts that I started to write and never published or entries that I've pulled down for one reason or another -- but by measure of pure numbers, this is 1000.

It is also my first post with Movable Type 3.01D, to which I just upgraded today. The interface is very cool, as well as the new features that include better management of comment posting (authorization by me of anonymous posts, TypeKey integration, etc.), HTML shortcut tools in Firefox, and other cool things that I'm sure I'll discover before long.

Today is a chill day so far. Coffee on the porch, some anime on the free Anime Network that James discovered on our cable box, and some blogging.

Last night was another fun party night. We had that free Indian dinner that was the shit (Jen, James, Sarah, Justin, and I), then we went to the Harness Track and Racino to play the ponies and lose some money on the slots (except for Jen, who always manages to win). Then we hit the Wine Bar, DA's, Gaffney's, and watched a fight break out in the street. It was funny. This dude was all drunk and started to run away from the cops, but he was swerving from side to side, so it didn't take the cops long to catch him and throw him against a cop car.

Tonight we're off to Jen's 10th high school reunion. My wife rules. She was valedictorian of her class, so we gots to represent.

[ 666 | 777 ]

MT 3.0

Lots of folks are already feeling sour about today's announcement of the new, for-fee version of Movable Type. But come on, people, it's quality software. Nothing in life is free. Six Apart can't give away its software forever. And if we MT supporters want to continue to see this great software improved, of course they're going to have to make some money along the way. I'd love to drive my car or live in my house for free, but that's not the way capitalism -- so much the foundation of America -- works.

I predict that people will grumble about this at first, but Six Apart will continue to thrive and improve its Publishing Platform.

Movable Type 3.0 Developer Edition: "Movable Type 3.0 Developer Edition is finally here, and we've got a lot to say about it. Mena's explained the thinking that went into this new version over at Mena's Corner, where you can get the full story."

TypeKey: Comment Spam Be Gone

TypeKey is the next generation of commenting on blogs. Basically, it's a centralized blog commenting registration system -- one registration and you can comment on any blog that leverages TypeKey. Officially, "TypeKey is a free, open system providing a central identity that anyone can use to log in and post comments on blogs and other web sites."

This blog will certainly leverage TypeKey once the service is publicly launched.

I already have a TypeKey account since I'm alpha testing Movable Type 3.0. The cool thing is that since I did beta testing for TypePad, I didn't even have to register a new account for TypeKey; my TypePad username was already converted to a TypeKey account for me.

Anyway, I can't talk yet about the features of MT 3.0, but it obviously leverages TypeKey, which will be an awesome way to limit comment spam.

Exciting stuff is afoot in the world of blogging.

Semi-Famous Blogger?

I've never been called a "semi-famous blogger" until now, but hey, I'll take the compliment. It also seems to suggest that my blog was single-handedly responsible for turning around the poll: "Of course the AFA didn't realize the power of weblogs and social software, so when Gabe Anderson (semi-famous blogger) posted the poll on his website, it spread across the GLBT community like wildfire, igniting the opinions of over 500,000 gay marriage supporters to flood the site and toss in their $ .02." I can't take all the credit, of course, but it's a good feeling to know that my blog played a small part in turning things around.

Thanks, Mike, for the props.

My Many Hats

One of the fun things about having a blog is when people leave comments. I really enjoy feedback and the often-ensuing dialogue or debate. One of the funny things about having a blog is that sometimes people think I am someone I am not. Twice this week I've been contacted by people who have thought I was someone other than who I am. It's usually pretty amusing. Earlier in the week I was contacted by a woman in London who thought I was connected with Hooters in San Francisco (here's why). And just today I received this classic email via my email form:

Our Shih Tzu wentinto labor sometime this morning. We found a pup
under the bed at between 6:30 and 7a.m. It was healthy, nice and clean. It is
now 1:26p.m. and Madame' Chee Chee hasn't given birth to another pup. She
doesn't seem to be in distress. She continues to care for the first pup. Not
long ago,she was panting and going over tolay on the paper. I'm trying to
contact a vet by phone as I write to you. Is she okay or what? Pleaes answer
asap. Thank you.

I feel for Madame Chee Chee, but I regretfully informed this woman that I am not a vet.

777

Back in July and about 111 entries ago, I put up this post based on an observation from Dave. Last week following my 777th post, Dave mused again that "The devil knows many ways to fool mere mortals..."

Is there meaning to all these numbers? One may never know...but it does get me thinking about the number of blog entries here. I wonder what a graph of my blogging would look like if I were to plot the number of entries by month on the Y axis and the time on the X axis. Or I could do an incremental graph to show the increase in entries to date. I wonder how accurate such a chart would be in predicting future growth of this blog's volume. Of course, that doesn't take into account that some entries are really short and others are really long. So perhaps a better method would be to calculate and graph the number of words I've written to date, showing variations in number of words with and without non-original text that I've quoted from other sources. Now that's a daunting prospect. And probably a manual process. Any programmers or mathematicians out there want to take a stab at writing a program or formula that would do this? I suppose the easiest way would be simply to export all my entries to date, copy into Word, and do a word count. As you may notice, each entry on my home page does display a word count. The other thing to factor in is that not all of my entries are published on the site. That is, I have a number of entries in draft mode (for one reason or another) that don't appear publicly on my site. I wonder if those entries would be factored into an export.

The other problem with the MT export for purposes of word count is that it includes for each post metadata, HTML tags, and the like. So keeping that in mind, I went ahead with an export and copy 'n paste into Word.

Here are my current blog stats:

Published Entries: 782 (including this one)
Total Entries: 811
Comments: 637
Exported Pages in a Word Doc: 902 (Courier New size 10 font)
Words: 226, 585
Characters (no spaces): 1,396,051
Characters (with spaces): 1,599,735
Paragraphs: 26,179
Lines: 51,254
Word Doc File Size: 3,859 kb

See what you've done, Dave? Now you have me analyzing the text of my blog so much I'll have its physical representation mapped out in 3D before long.

Of course, that leads to more philosophical discussions about words and text. Do words exist outside text and speech? What is their physical existence? What does text look like in its physical form? Is it possible to create a real-world model of a word based on characteristics such as sound or shape of letter or intonation? But we'll save that discussion for another day.

Obnoxious Comments

We all know about the problem of comment spam that faces bloggers. Lately, though, I've been faced with a rare breed of commenters. Let's call them "Asshole Commenters." These are the people who have nothing good to say. These are the people who manage to find the time to insult me, my tastes, my writing. There have been a number of Asshole Commenters visiting my blog lately, most recently this morning. These are the folks who use derogatory words whose meaning they probably don't even know. They are the people who probably live miserable lives, so unhappy with themselves that they get off by visiting blogs and putting down the authors.

To you, Asshole Commenters, I say: Go away. You're not wanted here. Your comments are deleted and I do not shed light on them. Thanks to you, I've added the following disclaimer to my comment forms:

Note: Comment spam will be deleted, as will any other comments deemed by the author of this blog as being inappropriate, defaming, or obnoxious. The author of this blog maintains sole discretion in these decisions and may delete at will.

For those of you who are not Asshole Commenters (and this is all of you who read my blog regularly and/or contribute to it in meaningful ways), please do not let this post discourage you. I welcome comments with open arms. I think comments really add to my blog. I even invite you to disagree with me, to challenge me.

Also note that I've now made name and email address required to post, but your email address will not be displayed anywhere on my site. This is to protect the innocent (and your address from spammers).

Comment Spam Clearinghouse

This morning I woke up to 65 email notifications of comment spam. Grrr. I have a previous version of MT-Blacklist installed, so along with updating to the latest version (1.61-beta), I'm also going to keep an eye on the Comment Spam Clearinghouse for the latest version of the MT-Blacklist.

Additionally, I've changed my blog configuration to require commenters to leave name and email address in order to post. Hint: If you don't want your email address to show up on my site, just put your own URL or link to your favorite Web site and that will show up instead of your email address.

In other news, my back continues to hurt like hell. Moving company number three (United) should be here soon to provide an estimate.

MT-Blacklist

Among my other site maintenance projects today, I also installed the much-needed MT-Blacklist, which, if it works according to plan, should kick ass. Apparently comment spamming has become so prevalent that some kind soul has finally created an excellent tool to stop it. MT-Blacklist comes with a database of 400 blacklisted spammers and is designed to leverage the power of the Web through a blacklist.txt file that should reside in the top level of bloggers' sites. Every new comment notification email I receive now includes a link to "De-spam using MT-Blacklist," if I so choose. During my installation, I also opted to be notified of attempts to leave comment spam.

Awesome tool.

Rock on, Jay Allen, and mad props to you.

[ via Six Apart ]

Comment Spam

It used to just trickle in on occasion, but lately, the comment spam I've been getting on my blog is coming in more and more frequently. There must be some movement among spammers who are targetting bloggers. And it's pissing me off. Not that it takes much time, but whenever I get comment spam, I have to go into MT, delete the comment, then rebuild all files to wipe it out of every archive type for whatever post it was left on.

There's the same kind of spam you get in your email -- viagra, porno, buy this, buy that -- and sometimes it's even disguised in some stupid, non-sensical way, like the one that was just left on this entry:

The guy is a former marketing fast executive from Laycos, where electric scooter he was one of the prime movers cheap in creating the corn chips over home theater 30 years ago by combining regional giftologies corn brands into one national ionic breeze brand. relocated to Pierce christmas County 18 years ago from New birthday

And no, I obviously have not included the links that were embedded in the post to help this asshole promote his gift business. But I'm happy to publish the email address here (if it's even real) to return the favor and open up this address to spambots: giftshop@yahoo.com. Karma's a bitch, eh, giftshop?

Ben Fry Blog

Since I'm so into my blog, I'm always encouraging my wife and my friends to start their own blogs. So I'm happy to announce that my good friend and fellow Vassar alum Ben Fry has launched a blog on his site. His first post was Tuesday. I've also added Ben to the official Vassar blogs site (now database-powered with column sorting, as of earlier this week).

Welcome to the world of blogging, Ben, and good luck! I expect at least 10 posts per day from you.

Blog Stats

For the record... as of right now:

Entries: 694
Comments: 464

life
Site Summary

VISITS
Total 33,991
Average Per Day 333
Average Visit Length 1:06
Last Hour 16
Today 225
This Week 2,330

666

My previous post was the 666th entry in my blog. Proof, Dave claims, that I am evil.

Hell, I'll admit it. 666 has been a favorite number of mine for quite some time. This is indisputable proof of my evil ways. Thanks to Dave for revealing and documenting my evil tendencies.

MT 2.64 & Daily Archives

I missed the last couple maintenance updates of MT, but decided it was time to upgrade from MT 2.6 to MT 2.64. As of this post, I'm running the latest and greatest version. This is the main reason I decided to install this maintenance release: "This release also plugs a number of cross-site-scripting (script injection) holes for search queries..."

Every once in a while, I noticed searches of this blog returning results from my test blog and/or from my forthcoming food review blog.

Another recent update to my blog that I haven't yet noted is the addition of daily archives to my existing monthly, category, and individual archive types. Like this:

http://www.gabeanderson.com/life/2003/05/27/

The World as a Blog

GeoURL is just the beginning. Mikel Maron has taken the concept of geo-blogging to the extreme with his incredible, real-time application, the World as a Blog. Leveraging a Flash-based world map -- complete with light-dark indication -- combined with Weblogs.com, geocoding, and RSS, the map shows a pop-up display of blog name and corresponding geographic indicator within a minute or two of when the blog is updated. Click on the notice and you're whisked off to the just-updated blog.

You can even "sign in" to the map with your geocoded blog to see who else is watching the map.

(Thanks, Mikel, for bringing your kick-ass application to my attention.)

Update: Below is a screenshot of the World as a Blog in action just after I posted Home Alone (it works!):

TypePad Screenshots

I received a notice last night that TypePad is getting closer to launching its much-anticipated service. There's an FAQ and a bunch of screenshots. Looks good to me. I'm excited to see the beta once available.

Structural URL Archives

Attentive readers will notice something different about my blog today: Structural URL archives. Was dat, you say? Previously, my archives defaulted to the format "/life/archives/000066.php" (I'm not going to remove these files from my server since there are many search engine and self-pointing links to these individual archives, so this style link format will continue to work -- and hey, I did tout them as "permalinks," after all). But as of today, all archives (past, present, and future) will take the form "/life/2003/05/20/beer_books.php." What difference does it make, you ask? Good question.

Firstly, I've been wanting to do that for quite some time since it's more intuitive and just makes sense; it's a better, less cluttered system of organization, I think, and is future-thinking (I just didn't future-think back when I first set up my blog, or I would've done it then). Secondly, it should give my blog content higher precedence in search results if the URL associated with each entry actually reflects the content of that entry. Thirdly, programmers like Dave Winer will begin to release powerful, Google-based Weblog search tools that leverage the intelligent, date-sensitive archive structure of blogs that are organized correctly. (Yes, I might go so far as to argue that my previous method of archiving was incorrect and that I have now converted to the correct method of archiving -- at least in the world of blogs where our tools enable this automated process...of course, were I to extend that thinking to the rest of my site's content (/index.php?id=58), I'd be srewed; but hey, at least I use "marketing redirects" (/about) for all the content areas of my site.) Lastly, it just looks better and conveys meaning; you will know what this story is about before even clicking on the link:

nslog.com/archives/2003/03/13/starting_a_blog_with_movabletype.php

Make sense? I feel more organized already.

Mind Share

I really like this Wired piece on Blog Space. It describes the influence of blogs in shaping the Web -- its transformation from a collection of hyperlinked documents to an ever-growing representation of the minds of the people who create Web content.

"Your mind becomes a part of the space as well. Your own personal site becomes an extension of your memory, as in Vannevar Bush's vision of the Memex, but your memories also become part of the Web's collective intelligence."

Very true.

[via Six Log]

Life's 1st Birthday

One year ago today I wrote my first post in this blog, which has become an almost-daily obsession in my life, as well as a great outlet for writing, ranting, photo sharing, and heated discourse.

That day marked the day I started blogging regularly. Since 05.14.2002, I decided to merge the entries from my formerly private blog, Think, into this one. So, I've technically been blogging since 10.31.2000, although today is the official 1-year anniversary of the blog now known as life.

It's funny to read in that entry about what was happening in my life a year ago this day:

• The Bay Area's last big earthquake hit (5.2)
  
• I was freaking out after I banged up one of the wheels on the Scoob for the first time (living in the city, though, I'm a bit more used to it by now)
  
• I was getting ready to donate the Saturn
  
• I had just purchased Jen's engagement ring
  
• Jen had just bought us a brand spankin' new bed
  

It's also amazing to think about how much has happened in the past year:

• Jen and I moved from Treasure Island to Larkspur
  
• We then moved from Larkspur to San Francisco after getting fed up with suburban life in Marin
  
• We adopted our second dog, Happy
  
• We planned a huge wedding for this summer (though the work continues)
  
• We lost 3 family members (Patty and Granny in the past year, and Nana just more than a year ago)
  
• I won a workers' comp case against my former employer
  

It's been quite the year, to say the least. Life is good. Jen and I both hold solid jobs, have a comfortable place to call home, care for a couple loving and crazy dogs, and have great friends and a supportive family.

Here's to the next year of blogging, marriage, home ownership, health, and happiness. Cheers, and thanks for reading.

Serious Bloggers Use MT

As an avid Movable Type user, I really like this quote from yesterday's short story in the NY Times about the forthcoming TypePad hosted blogging service (written by fellow Vassar alum David Gallagher; it's a small Web world, after all):

Although the powerful features and elegant design of Movable Type have made it the tool of choice for serious bloggers, the hurdles involved in configuring the software on a Web server can be daunting for beginners.

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of TypePad sometime this month, as I'm sure everyone else in the blogging world is. I'm certain it will blow away Blogger and blogspot in terms of features, reliability, and server speed -- especially since it will be a for-fee service. I'm signed up to be notified of the public beta, so I'll definitely check it out then; I don't know if I'll need to pay for the service, though, since I already have quite a bit invested in my own Web hosting and in MT. Rather, I'll likely wait for the release of MT Pro.

In any case, I think the blogging industry is an exciting place these days and will only continue to grow as the tools available to less technical folks are improved. What better way to get the mainstream hooked on blogging than to offer a powerful and reliable (factors that I believe to be key) combined Web hosting/blogging package (i.e., TypePad)?

Knowledge Sharing

One of the cool benefits of blogging is sharing knowledge with other bloggers. Of course, there are community blogs like LazyWeb and Metafilter, wherein the community creates the content. On the other hand, bloggers often share knowledge with their own readers and directly with one another via comments and individual posts.

I've had two recent experiences with this: First, when I was curious about how Erik Barzeski displayed the random quotes in his sidebar (since I do the same thing and wanted to see how others do it); second, when Martin Grider wanted to know how I created my Master Comments template (so I told him -- and shared the knowledge with anyone else who may stumble this way). In the latter case, Martin also put forth some cool suggestions for sorting the list by entry or commenter. Future blog feature, perhaps.

Knowledge is power, after all. And, from my quotes page:

"Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making."
- John Milton
Areopagitica

SFGate War Blog

Even major newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle's online counterpart SFGate have jumped onto the blog bandwagon:

SF Gate: War On Iraq: War Blog: No ethical quagmires for Ollie

What's interesting to me is the use of semantics in this blog. To me, a blog or weblog is the overall thing -- the collection of all content into one unified entity. I consider each part of the whole a post or an entry -- a chapter or section in the ever-evolving book. In the SFGate blog, author Jeanne Carstensen refers to each individual column or entry as a blog ("I just had to write the following blog").

Paid to Blog

Dave Winer, whose claim to fame is one of the earliest blogs on the Web, soon begins his fellowship at Harvard:

`Blog' expert sets sights on Harvard: Postings could break barriers

What a gig: Paid to blog and to research blogging. Gotta love it.

MTShell

This seems like a really cool add-on to Movable Type:

MTshell (a command line frontend to MovableType)

I just may have to install this. I use the shell for everything else (email, database management, etc.), so why not blog there, too?

MT Blog on Google & Blogger

I knew I wasn't the only one thinking, "Is MT next?" following the Google purchase of Blogger. Sure enough, MT developer Mena Trott had this to say:

Six Log: Google, Pyra and Weblogs

I wonder if she wants her software to be acquired by Google or if that would even make sense for either company.

Google Acquires Pyra Labs' Blogger

Google's announcement over the weekend to acquire Blogger is big and exciting news in the world of blogging. I think it's a good thing and will look forward to what's to come. Perhaps the next step is an MT acquisition -- or deeper integration? I'm sure that MT's user base is smaller than Blogger's simply because it's more complex to install and use, but that also equals more advanced users (generally, anyway). Plus, MT is so much better and solid than Blogger.

Regardless, it's very cool news. Here's one commentary about the purchase:

SearchDay - Puzzling Out Google's Blogger Acquisition - 18 February 2003

And the Google Weblog has a good collection of links about it:

Google + Blogger = ? (Google Weblog)

Fatima's Confession

I usually get some pretty cool or thought-provoking comments in my blog, but one I got this morning having nothing to do with the entry on which it was posted is just weird:

gabeanderson.com: life: I Love Solving Problems

This girl named Fatima has confessed her love for her cousin and has decided to use my blog as the forum for doing so.

I suppose stranger things have happened...

Upgrade to MT 2.6

I just did my quick upgrade to MT 2.6, which was just released yesterday. This upgrade was as smooth as my last one back in December.

There are a handful of cool new features in this release, but the real fun will begin this summer when MT Pro is available.

MT 2.6 Announced

six apart announced the forthcoming release of MT 2.6 with this press release:

Six Apart releases announces Movable Type Pro, releases Movable Type 2.6

Yes, the "releases announces" part is the headline. I guess they're just either super-tired or super-excited about this release.

I know I am both of those things right about now: Pretty tired and also pretty psyched to hear about a future MT release, being the MT freak that I am.

Popdex: Blog Popularity

While browsing through the recent referrals area of my blog's site meter, I stumbled across a site called Popdex, which tracks historical references to blogs. It's good stuff. Here's the measure of my blog's popularity, so to speak:

life | Popdex Citations

Get it? Popdex = "popularity index." Clever.

Private Blog Import

The blog life officially began in May 2002 with this post. Today, however, I decided to import a number of posts from my private blog Think, to which I've occasionally posted since October 2000. (Don't worry: I've left out all the really dirty stuff.)

In support of this effort, I've created a new category, think, where you'll find all these posts (10.31.2001 through 05.13.2002, the day before the first official post to my public blog on 05.14.2002).

Enjoy this latest trip down memory lane in my ongoing effort to create a complete digital archive of my life! Some highlights:

• 03.06.2002: Yin & Yang
  
• 05.24.2001: New Job at Financial Finesse
  
• 03.15.2001: Headlight is No More
  

Google PageRank Soars

If you have the Google Toolbar installed in your browser, you may have noticed the section called PageRank with the little green meter. Google has always been very secretive about its technology and algorithms, but this handy meter is the only public indication of the popularity of any given Web page, based on Google's PageRank system. It's not linked to an exact number, but I've read in the past that it goes from about 1 to 10.

For quite some time, my blog was weighing in at around 1 or 2 on the PageRank meter. The past couple days, I've been noticing that some of my monthly archives have an even higher ranking -- around 3 or 4. And today I noticed for the first time that the PageRank for my blog home page has suddenly skyrocketed to about 5 or 6. I think that's pretty cool. It means that my blog is more popular than I realized.

In the past, a search of Google for pages linked to my blog has turned up 0 results, but today it's a different story:

Google Search: link:http://www.gabeanderson.com/life/

This search currently produces 288 results, most of which are my own blog linking to itself in previous posts, but I did notice one other blog, A Klog Apart, which lists my blog under "Random Favorites." Very cool. Thanks for the link and props, Phil. I'm glad you enjoy my blog.

I've also heard recently from a number of folks I've never met but correspond with from time to time that my blog is among their daily reads. That's also very flattering.

The point of all this being: That's really cool and I appreciate all the support. My blog has really become my passion, my outlet, and it's great to hear that others are enjoying it, too.

Thanks for reading.

Blog Enhancements

As of today, all of my blog templates now include the right-side navigation as seen on my blog home page. Before, it was just a wide block of text. Now visitors will have access to all the other navigation not just for my blog, but the rest of my site, too. The templates for which I've made this change are individual entry archive, monthly archive, and category archive.

This also marks the first official post in my new blogging category. At some point, I'll have to go back and re-categorize all blog-related posts into this category.

Smooth MT Upgrade

My upgrade to Movable Type 2.51 went quite smoothly. If I had known how easy it was, I probably would have done it sooner. It was simply a matter of downloading the upgrade archive, uploading it to my Web server, then moving the new files into the right directory. And voila! Everything works beautifully and I can now leverage MT to create thumbnail images. Very cool.

New Blogger Template

I'm diggin' the new design for my Blog. I also forgot to mention in yesterday's entry that with my switch to DreamHost I figured it was also time for a change to the design of this page. And now I'm wondering if this may be the template I use for the rest of my site. We'll see...

Thinking about this design led me to think about who designed this template. So I looked at the Blogger credit for the template and headed on over to the site of Heather Mannion, a 19-year-old chick who just finished her freshman year of college. Geez...kids these days. Their Web design skills are so much better than mine ever were. Makes me feel old. It's hard to believe that I created my first Web page way back in 1995, when I was a freshman in college. Ahh...the good ol' days -- when things were simpler and so much more carefree.