I'm so happy to see a NEW Blogger

I've been keeping this blog on Blogger since May of 2003, and I've written nearly 2,000 posts. I can't think of any web-based computer product that has been around anywhere near as long. My first experience with the web was with CompuServe and Netscape, neither of which exist now. Well, CompuServe actually does exist, but it was originally sold to AOL in 1997, when I stopped using it. 

Blogger is owned by Google which is famous for killing off products. The only way to know if a product is still in Google's good graces is to see that they're making changes to it, updating it. Blogger has been wonderfully stable, with very few changes over the years. That makes it a wonderful product to use, it is worrisome to think that Google may stop supporting it. So, when I noticed the "try the new Blogger" button. It made me very happy. 

Not only would I miss Blogger terribly, but GeeksOnTour has taught many other people to keep their personal journals using Blogger. Some of them still post nearly every day, like Rick and Kathy Rouseau  or Sue Hepler with her Palm Creek Update blog. and others use it as their annual letter, generally posting once/year like Roxie (don't you think that's brilliant?!) Then, there are clubs who we encouraged to use Blogger.  

I can't say that I see any important new features in the New Blogger - but I'm just happy to see that Google Is working on it. That means the Blogger platform is alive and well.
Here's a video I made about how to use the New Blogger.

Day 36-37 #StayHome: Still Blogging after all these years

Thursday 4-23

7 am Toastmasters meeting using Zoom, gets the creative juices flowing early, but that doesn't mean it will continue. I tend to feel like I've accomplished enough when that meeting is over. I take my cup of coffee, sit on the couch and browse my old blog books. I love me old blog books. What is a blog book? It is a book made out of the posts of this blog. I've had one printed for every year we were on the road. This is inspiring me to make Blogging be our topic for this Sunday's YouTube show. Episode 190 of What Does This Button Do?

I did eventually get some work done. I found myself rifling through old Photo Backup CDs and found some photos I didn't have in Google Photos, so I uploaded them, and made a video about how to do that. See video here. 

This was my week to contribute an article to the RV travel magazine, so I wrote about Blogging!

I'm not sure what Jim did all day. He has his office/man cave downstairs while mine is upstairs. I could hear him laughing several times, I also heard other people's voices - presumable coming from Zoom calls. He's a much more sociable creature than I am. He's also constantly learning new techniques for audio and video production. And, of course, he made us delicious meals for lunch and dinner. I live in the best restaurant in town.

It was another gorgeous day and we walked around our neighborhood circle after dinner.

Friday 4-24

We start the day with another Zoom meeting, but this one is at a more civilized hour - 8:30. This is our tech-sharing group, we always learn new things. Today we all jumped on a Facebook Messenger meeting to see what is changing. With the popularity of online meetings these days, lots of companies are trying to challenge Zoom's dominance. It worked pretty slick - and the article says you can even invite people who don't have a Facebook account now.

Facebook messenger has fun AR effects

I had zero motivation for the rest of the day. I broke my record - watching 4 episodes of Homeland. 

Bad news

Thur 4-23

Covid-19 US cases: 890,000 Deaths: 50,177

Fri 4-24 

Covid-19 US cases: 923,000 Deaths: 52,234

Good News

I think it's really good news that I'm blogging again. I've never been an every day blogger, but I was pretty good at writing 2-3 times a week. For the last year or so, especially when we're home, it's been an effort to write once a month. During this #StayHome times, I feel the need to document our life again. I think it's kind of like the prisoner who needs to scratch on the wall to attest to the passage of time. fyi - this is my 1,934th post in this blog.

Blogger for Small Business

In a recent Geeks on Tour Newsletter I wrote an article about how, with all the new improvements, I thought a small business could use Blogger for their website.  But, I didn’t have a good example to show people.  Yesterday, my step-son Devon, called with some questions on how to set up Blogger because he’s building a website for his boss who is an artist and craftsman.  Cool!

You gotta understand, I’ve been waiting for this for years!  I’ve always thought Devon would be good with creative computer stuff, but just like many kids rebel by *not* going into the family business, so Devon avoided computers for most of his young adult years.  Nowadays they simply can’t be avoided though, and I was thrilled to get his call with a couple questions on Blogger.  After I pointed out a few features, and explained how they all worked together, he said “Thanks!” and hung up.  A couple hours later, I checked it out and saw this new website.  Wow!  Tasteful colors, nice layout, gorgeous pictures, four pages, and a custom domain name: www.instanteleganceinc.com All done with *free* blogger, in just a few hours.  Of course, he has many more pages and details planned.  He helped his boss set up a Paypal account and will be adding ‘Buy Now’ buttons when that’s ready.  A website is a constant work in progress, but this looks like a great start. 

 

I’m proud of you Devon!  And thanks for giving me a sample to show in my Blogging class!

Show-Me-How

In case you were wondering how to get a new template for your Blogger blog (like I just did) – here’s the video I made about it.  I recommend watching it fullscreen.  Just click the button on the bottom of the video that looks like:  (use [Esc] to get back)

Blogger Changes

There's a big new feature on Blogger!  In addition to blog posts, you can now have up to 10 static 'Pages.'  That's huge.  The ability to make pages is why I started using Wordpress for all my websites/blogs except for this personal blog.  (http://www.wifisavvy.com/ and http://www.picasatutorials.com/)  I've become such a fan of Wordpress that I've even been considering switching this blog to Wordpress.  But, Blogger is still by far the easiest blogging system - and the one I like to teach for Travel Blogs. 

And, now - it even includes pages.  I just created a page called 'Our Other Websites' - you might be able to see the link to it at the top of the blog posts. 

I've been using this same template - the colors and layout that you see - for several years.  It doesn't have a very good way of displaying the 'Pages.'  Or many of the other, newer, features.  It's been time to find a new template for quite some time, but anything I tried just resulted in errors.  Another reason I've been so enamored with Wordpress is the abundance of styles - 'Themes' available to pick from.

So, it's time to start investigating Blogger options again.  I tested a couple new templates on a sample blog and was impressed at how well they worked.  So ... it's time to make some changes to this blog.

Watch out!  I may be opening Pandora's box here. Yes, I'm going to make a backup first! 
Here's the video where I show you how to backup your Blogger blog posts.  And this video shows how to back up the images and other page elements. 
A Geeks on Tour membership ($39/year) is required to watch these.

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More Website Tools

I'm always researching and reading about new ways of doing things on the web. Lord knows there's enough of them, I like to keep up with at least a few! Today, while trying to give someone an intelligent response about why Blogger always imports photos to the top of your post, I ran across this blog post by someone else about the same problem. They recommended using Windows Live Writer. hmmm ... what's that? I figured I should go check it out, so I'm writing this post using Windows Live Writer.

I downloaded it for free from Microsoft. Now I could be writing this blog post while disconnected from the Internet.

I use the 'Insert Picture' command, and the picture appears right where my cursor is instead of the top of the post! Nice. It shows the size as 640X427 ... this looks smaller.

So, now I'll click the 'Publish' button and see what happens.

Wow! That was pretty slick. And the photo gets uploaded to blogger's servers. The size when you click on it is 640X427. The image in the blog itself is smaller ... I'll have to see if I can figure that one out. Windows Live Writer also lets me insert a link that automatically opens in a new window. That's a nice feature that has been on my wish list for blogger. Oh dear ... another new tool. And, of course, if this is good - I should probably look into the rest of the Windows Live tools.

Proud Teacher

Kinda like a grandparent is proud of the grandkids and wants to show pictures of them - that's how I feel about these blogs. I didn't have anything to with them, but my teaching did help in the 'birthing' process. Hmmm, does that make me a Blog-midwife? :-) These two bloggers sent me emails this week with links to their blogs ... so, I just have to show you.

Mike and Pat's Blog. Mike used my videos to master the art of map-making!

Travels with Lucy included their first video this week! Odie is SO proud of you Lucy!

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Blogger vs. Wordpress

WordPress is another, very popular, blogging platform. We teach people how to use Blogger because it is easier, but I like to keep checking in on WordPress so I stay informed on the alternatives. I just helped a friend get set up on WordPress and I'll stick to my original assessment ... Blogger is easier! I have my own blog on WordPress, http://www.wifisavvy.com/ and I find that I don't post very often. That's probably just because I'm lazy, but it's also partly because I'm not very comfortable with the structure. My weekly post to the RV.net blog is also done on WordPress. It is certainly not difficult, but it's clearly more difficult than Blogger.

So, why even consider WordPress? It has more features than blogger. You can create a complete website with multiple pages using WordPress.

There is one, very cool feature of WordPress that I had been meaning to try ... you can import entries from other blogging platforms into a WordPress blog. I'm always looking for a way to back up this blog effectively, could this be the answer? I gave it a shot. It only took a few minutes to set up the account and the blog. I went into the management area and clicked on Import and chose 'import from a blogger blog.' After identifying my blogger account, I saw this blog listed - all 962 posts. Certainly it's going to choke on this. Nope. It took about 15 minutes to import the whole thing. So, I now have a 'mirror' blog over on WordPress. How cool is that! You can check it out at odiesroadies.wordpress.com.

This method does not make a backup copy of the pictures, it just backs up the written posts, including the links to pictures. I teach another way to backup if your purpose is to be able to have your entire blog on a CD or some other offline backup. See my video on how to backup your blog.

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Search this Blog!

Since I haven't had too much of interest to show you lately, I thought I'd remind you that you can search this blog. I have been so impressed with how good Blogger's search feature works. The search I'm referring to is the box in the upper left corner. You have to scroll to the top of the page to see it. It's directly after the orange Blogger logo and just before the words, "Search Blog". If you don't see it, watch the Video Tour of Blog (link in right sidebar) and I'll show it to you. This feature has been available for a long time, but it works so much better now with the 'New' blogger. It must be connected to the underlying database of posts because it's so fast and accurate. So, give it a try! Just click in the box next to the Orange B and type Redwoods, then press Enter, or click on 'Search Blog'. You should quickly see a message "Showing posts for query redwoods." The first 2 posts simply mention Redwoods in another context, but if you scroll down, you'll get to the post with photos of the redwoods. Or try searching for Buckminster Fuller. You will quickly be taken to our post about a visit to the Ford Museum to see the exhibit on Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion house. The only problem is that the search is very precise. For example, enter 'chiricahua' and click 'search blog' and you will be rewarded with posts that mention Chiricahua National Monument. But, if you misspelled it and typed in Chiricajua, you'd get a message "No posts match your query". So, you might try "National Monument". However, even though you will see some results with this search, you won't see Chiricahua because I referred to it as a Nat'l Monument! Have fun, and let me know what you find!

Blog Migration Successful!

Whew! Y'never know when it's gonna be you that gets stuck in a computer quagmire with something like a server migration such as the Blogger conversion. It took about an hour and a half. I didn't have to do anything but wait, but it was a nervous time. Next, I'm supposed to pick a new, upgraded template. One step at a time. I'll wait an read some more. Maybe I'll upgrade the template tomorrow. Meanwhile, the main feature I was looking forward to is already available to me. It's called labels and it acts as a way to categorize all my Blog posts by topics that I define. I occassionally debate about whether this is a personal blog (about family, friends, RVing and Travel) or a business blog (about computer stuff). In Jim's and my life, we love what we do and we do what we love, the line between personal and work is very blurry, so we write about it all. We've been keeping this blog for over 3 years now and it would be nice to click on 'WiFi' and see all the posts we've written about WiFi. Click on RVing and see all the posts that have been specifically about the RV lifestyle etc. That's what 'Labels' are for, and I see the place on my screen right now to put labels on this post. I think I'll categorize this post as 'Computer' and 'Blogs'. Then, I'll start categorizing all my old posts and see how far I get.

Blogger migration

Out with the old, in with the new. This seems to be a good time to migrate this blog to the new version of Blogger. I've backed it up every conceivable way, and I've been reading all the forum messages about other people's experiences. Lots of folks have had smooth migrations, taking just a few minutes and continuing on as if nothing had happened. Others have had 2-3 day ordeals. And a few have lost the ability to post to their blogs at all. So ... I figured I'd post this notice. If this blog is missing in action for a few days - don't worry, I'm working on it. If the worst happens, just go to our home page at www.jimandchris.com or www.geeksontour.com. Both of those have links to 'Blog' and I will post information there about what happened.

I guess I'll stick with Blogger

If you want to understand what's going on at Blogger, here is a good video to watch. You can also read more at Blogger Buzz. Click here to watch video. I am still concerned about using FTP to publish my site, and where photos will be stored. Blogger beta supports using FTP just like I have been, but I won't be getting the advantages of the new Blogger. Oh well, as long as this keeps working, I'm happy. Right now I'm still on the 'old blogger'. Someday soon, I expect to see an invitation to migrate to Beta. When I do, I will. Maybe I'll start a brand new blog on January 1. Still thinking.

Picasa Web Albums

From 1st Peace Riv...

We gave our first Picasa seminar here at Peace River yesterday, and, as part of the class we uploaded photos taken during class to a Picasa Web Album. The photo above is part of that album. You can click the link after the word 'From' to go to the album.

When you're viewing a picture in the album there is a link at the right to 'Embed in Blog/MySpace'. I clicked on that and it gave me the html code for the photo above. This is an interesting option for hosting photos for a blog. It still has them hosted at Google's free servers, but at least it's at a url that is mine (picasaweb.google.com/chrisguld/) rather than the photos1.blogger.com that you get when you let blogger upload for you.

Yikes! There's just TOO many choices, with more available every day. I think I'll go for a walk.

Blogger Beta

Blogger is undergoing major changes right now. I've been using Blogger to publish this blog for over 3 years. There have been some minor changes and improvements over that time, but this one is big. They are totally changing the way the back end servers do the publishing. It's called 'dynamic'. I understand the concept because that is what I do with databases and Coldfusion on the web. It is generally a very good thing. It will mean much faster and more dependable publishing. HOWEVER - there is one major hurdle that I don't like. In order to use the new dynamic publishing that is being done by their backend servers, you must use their front end servers (blogspot.com) to host your blog - it makes sense - they can only dynamically control servers that are under their control. My blog is currently hosted on www.jimandchris.com, space that I pay for, it's mine. If I start posting on the blogspot.com then everything 'lives' on blogger's servers. I don't like that. Actually, I could live with the blog entries themselves living on blogspot, but not the uploaded pictures. What I want is to be able to publish my blog on blogspot using their new dynamic publishing, but have the 'upload photo' button allow me to upload to my own host. If you didn't understand a word of that ... and you want to :-) ... read on. You see, the pictures don't actually live in the blog post itself, they can live anywhere on the web and the code in the blog simply refers to them. Let me give you an example. I'll show you two pictures and tell you where they 'live' on the web. The picture of the boy and the horse 'lives' at www.horsesforthespirit.org (a website I created). It has absolutely nothing to do with jimandchris.com and nothing to do with blogger. I simply happen to know the complete address of it's location and I can enter the html code to display it here on my blog page. (not something you normally want to do, by the way, copyrights apply - don't sue me ok?) The picture of the little girl with the stuffed alligator 'lives' on www.diandy.com. A website of RVing friends of ours. It happens to be a picture of me :-). You can read about it here if you want. So, what's all this mean? Well, as long as those pictures continue to 'live' at the addresses I am referring to, you'll see them show up here. If Horses for the Spirit should ever move, or if Diandy.com should ever go away, the pictures will no longer exist and you'll see those annoying little red x's instead. When Blogger publishes your blog to their servers, they upload your photos to their servers as well. That scares me. Who knows when they might have to replace a server and relocate files? When it's all for free, I just can't trust them to maintain the proper addresses so my picture references work for years to come. If you've been following Tioga and George recently, you've already heard about this. He switched to Blogger Beta recently, and he's lost all his pictures from 2003. I actually don't think it has anything to do with Blogger beta - I think it's coincidence that the free servers that hosted his 2003 photos just bit the dust. For 2004-2006, he's hosted his blog and photos on his own website. Now he says he's going to publish *both* ways. I'm not sure how he'll do that, but it sounds interesting. Blogger beta will still work to publish via ftp - but then, you're not getting the advantages of their new 'dynamic' publishing. I'm going to wait to the last minute to switch to Blogger Beta. Meanwhile, I keep watching. Here are some good places to keep on top of what's going on: Blogger Help Official help from Blogger/Google Blogger Buzz Official Blog about Blogger by Google employees Blogger Support Users Forum Official User forum Report a problem BloggerTalk 3d party blog about blogging, with a user forum Beta Blogger for dummies 3d party blog about Blogger Beta Testing Blogger Beta 3d party blog And, I'm sure there's lots more, but that's enough for now. More than you probably ever wanted to know!