Tech Stuff

I went through many different configurations in order to get this blog up and running. I had originally used Movable Type (MT) but with each new “version” that program went down the toilet. Things are so bad in the latest version (version 4), that I finally gave up – it is a nightmare to work with.

When I first put up a blog, MT seemed the way to go. It was relatively simple to work with and they had great plug-ins. There was on, in particular, that used to be great for a book review blog – Media Manager. Like MT, Media Manager kept losing features with each rendition and, once again, I simple got tired of dealing with it. I don’t know what the MT people think they’re going to accomplish by creating increasingly difficult versions but I want to blog – not mess around with their nonsense. Months have now gone by since MT 4 was released and, as far as I’m concerned, all of the new problems have not been dealt with.

When I dumped MT, I had to find something else so I went with WordPress which is far easier to customize and add features. While WP isn’t perfect, there seem to be many more people using it than MT. In addition, it seems like many others are now dumping MT for the same reasons that I did

In creating this blog, I looked for several things:

1. The ability to customize the look of it and make it consistent with my other blogs
2. The ease with which new features (i.e., plug-ins and widgets) could be added
3. A large enough user base so that there would be places to go for help (the MT boards are nearly dead and questions remain unanswered for months)
4. Direct link to Amazon. If you click on one of the images on this blog and subsequently buy something from Amazon, I make HUGE bucks – oh I wish!
5. The ability for me to rate my books
6. An application (like WP) that would be easy to use

I’m sure there were more things but I’ve been spending my time converting everything to WP. At the moment, I have decided to use several “plug-ins” and other items to customize my entries, these include:

• I am using the “Cutline” theme – this allows me to have three columns of material, random image headers on each page (yes, I took all of the photos), and easily add other content.
• WP-Amazon – a plug-in that allows me to add books directly from Amazon into each entry. While the program is a bit quirky, it does work. For my own information, I want to mention a few of the problems I’ve had with this plug-in (and I haven’t been able to find anything else that does the same thing)
  • In order to enter books into my blog entries, I can NOT use Internet Explorer. The current version of WP-Amazon ONLY works properly with Firefox. This is a bit of a pain but not completely intolerable.
  • A patch is required in order to get WP-Amazon to work properly. Once the original plug-in has been installed, “Jacob’s Patch” must then been installed on top of it. The other patches listed on the page just referenced do NOT seem to work and, as far as I’m concerned should not be installed.
  • In order to get credit for the huge cash flow(NOT!) generated by links to Amazon, I had to add my Amazon Associates ID and Access Key to some of the WP-Amazon code.
  • Even when this plug-in works properly, when searching for books on Amazon, only three items appear. If what you’re looking for isn’t displayed, it’s necessary to try different search phrases. I’ve had a couple of instances where even that doesn’t work so I have had to manually find the proper information on Amazon’s site and then add it to my entry’s code. Again, that’s a bit of a pain.
• Star Rating for Reviews – This is a great plug-in that allows me to add Amazon-like star ratings. It also allows ratings of zero stars and half stars.
  • While the plug-in is simple to use, it is necessary to add a small “tag” at the top of each entry as it’s being written in order to get the stars to appear. (The code would be [rating:5/5] for a rating of five stars out of five points to be displayed.) The only problem I have found, so far, is that it is necessary to change the format of the graphics used from .png files to .gif files. Due to problems with Internet Explorer, .png files are not displayed properly. Why the author hasn’t just switched to .gif’s is beyond me. Just the same, this is not a major problem.
  • Another really cool thing about this plug-in is that I can now display all of the books I’ve reviewed, along with their ratings, and date of review (As I don’t remember when I read some of them, I will often use January 1, 2000 as a “review date”). This list may be also be sorted by each of those attributes. Too cool, huh?!

I’ll try to add new information to this page if/when I encounter other technical problems.