I've been playing around with a number of blogging tools, looking for something that will run with each of my blogs (I'm using Joomla! 1.5, Wordpress and Blogger). An additional complication is that in this website, I'm using a specific blogging module called MyBlog. Over the last few weeks I've tried the following:
Blogilo (formerly Bilbo Blogger - a name I prefer!) - this is a Linux desktop application with which one can compose blog posts offine, then upload to the blog when ready. It definitely works very nicely with my self-hosted Wordpress blog, but whenever I try setting up my Blogger account, it just dies. For Wordpress, then, very versatile. I couldn't at that time see how to hook it up to my Joomla sites (but see below).
BloGtk - A Gnome application for the Linux desktop. I couldn't get either Wordpress or Blogger accounts set up with it.
Gnome-blog - potentially really nice toolbar app for the Gnome desktop. I persuaded this to connect to my Blogger account ona desktop PC, but not using my laptop. I couldn't find much advice on the interweb.
Drivel - An attractive name and interface, but again, I couldn't make it see the Blogger account, and couldn't figure out how to get it to work.
Deepest Sender - a Firefox add-on for blogging while exploring the web. Has a very attractive interface, seems to set up well with Blogger, but throws an error when posting the article. Didn't test with Wordpress.
And finally - ScribeFire - another Firefox add-on, and a bit more fully functional that Deepest Sender. This definitely works with Blogger, and I've set up an account for the Wordpress blog.
I wondered whether ScribeFire could be made to work with Joomla - a quick Google search came up with this blog article: Posting to Joomla with ScribeFire. I've followed the steps, and this is the first attempt to post in MyBlog within my Joomla site. Here's hoping. (Though I can't see how to add tags to the post, and nor does it offer to complete meta info fields)
I figured I'd better make sure my own house was in order if I was going to blog about web tracking! I've reviewed my websites and blogs, and find the following.
Flies & Bikes (this website) - Ghostery doesn't reveal any trackers. Joomla sites do, I think use cookies however.
Here's a <sarcasm>nice</sarcasm> tracker revealed by the excellent Firefox plugin Ghostery. According to the forum at nodpi.org, this tracker was noticed by a poster on Guardian Unlimited, and it tracks when people highlight and/or copy text, and phones home (presumably to the company HQ in Canada) this information tied to your IP address.
Apparently the noscript Firefox plugin will block it (as does Ghostery). Ghostery says this about Tynt Tracer:
The Register reports that the UK Government's much-vaunted and euphemistically named Internet Modernisation Programme (which of course represents State snooping on a vast scale) is going ahead as planned (Massive net surveillance programme on schedule).
This huge endeavour, which seeks to monitor and track all electronically mediated communications in a (probably vain) hope that patterns useful in crime detection may emerge was apparently begun in 2006, despite a consultation exercise that completely passed me by (I must have blinked at an inopportune moment). According the The Register:
A quick update on the blog article on persuading Evolution to cooperate with MS Exchange 2007.
I can confirm that the procedure works fine, that I can read/send emails, view edit my calendar, and view/edit tasks. Contacts access seems a bit flaky, however. And my work's Exchange server appears to be set up to require a secure VPN connection when using Evolution off-site. Which I suppose is no bad thing.
So, here's the situation. I've been happily using the Evolution email/calendar software with Ubuntu GNU/Linux for several Ubuntu releases for some time now. Of course, this was with the MS Exchange 2003 that my workplace uses. No problem, using the exchange connector plugin for Evolution.
Earlier this year we were upgraded to Exchange 2007, whereupon everything changed - I was no longer able to access the mailserver or calendar. Aha! I thought, I'll find an appropriate plugin for Evolution. Well, that was a little easier to say than achieve. Firstly, many websites refer to an apparently now unavailable plugin named Brutus. Secondly, after I identified the plugin to use (evolution-mapi), it didn't seem to work.
I've been visiting a couple of prestigious Research Institutions this week, and delivering presentations of my current research work. This was fine and dandy - I'd updated my standard presentation as appropriate to the audience, and with new data. For this I generally use Open Office, which has a rather good presentation app, called Impress.
Unfortunately, I ran into an issue with output of the slideshow to a projector. My laptop is a slightly aged Sony VGN-TX5XN - about 2.5 years old, with a meagre 1Gb RAM onboard. As soon as I plugged in the cable to the projector, the display went black, with only an immobile mouse cursor visible. I rescued the situation by using a PowerPoint version I'd made (not perfect, but good enough for the job) on the host's XP laptop.
This looks to be good. As legal blogger Jack of Kent writes today (Libel Reform: Free Speech is not for Sale), two pressure groups, English Pen and Index on Censorship, have conducted a joint inquiry into English libel law - their report is now available on a new website:
Some weeks ago, I noted the existence of Google's Sidewiki (Is Sidewiki evil? (Probably not, but it's annoying)) and mentioned that I'd planned to install a Sidewiki blocker on my websites. Well, I've done that. I've also installed the Google Toolbar thing, and now have a Sidewiki button nestled up there next to my Firefox URL box.
Every so often, I click on it to see if a website has any Sidewiki annotation, but thus far, I've yet to see one. Does this mean that Sidewiki's a flop? Or just reflect the nature of the sites I visit (many are forums or blogs with pages of relatively transient interest)? And need I have bothered to install a Sidewiki blocker at all?
Apparently this isn't a wind-up, though it sure looks like an early April Fool. Here's an 18 button mouse from OpenOffice.org, from a report in The Register (OpenOffice.org pushes gamers' buttons with OOMouse):