Moving

I've decided that (for now) I'm moving to Tumblr, and (for probably forever) moving away from Blogger. Tumblr just works better for me.

As such, I'm moving this blog to oldblog.jebdm.net and my new one to blog.jebdm.net. Hopefully, that won't create too much confusion.

I may migrate some of my posts at some point (with revisions, yippee!) Hopefully there's some automated way to do this.

Metablog: Blogging Software

I'm dissatisfied with the state of blogging software. Sure, it's good, and for some people it may even be perfect. But I'm looking for something rather specific, so I'm beginning to think I may need to roll my own.

The closest thing I've found so far is Tumblr. Tumblr has been described as "blogging lite"- it makes everything quick and easy, reducing the emphasis on traditional short-article blog posts by making it easy (and with the built-in themes, attractive and un-clunky) to post things like images, quotes, transcripts, and links. The main problem I have with Tumblr is that it is fixed in to those categories; there's no way (other than crude hacks) to add other varieties of posts. This functionality seems relatively easy to add, so I'm not sure why it's not avaliable.

Besides the categories issue, the other main problem I have with Tumblr is the lack of power in general. I don't blame this on Tumblr; power would be rather contrary to it's purpose. But I want more out of my blog. I want to be able to customize my layout to an extreme; I want it to be modular; I want to show different views of my content; I want "static" pages; I want more control over the way that comments display on my site (though the Disqus comment system seems pretty cool); I want, in short, more.

Nonetheless, I'm going to continue using Tumblr for a week or two, just to get a better feel of it. I'll post "real" content here still (that is, original content, not just links, etc.) and link to it from there. In the mean time, I guess I should put together a list of the features I want and either search harder or get programming.

Link to my Tumblr blog

• Arthemia Premium by Colorlabs Project - Though expensive, it's a really cool layout. It's a good example of the progress blogs, and the internet in general, have made.
  
• McSweeney's Internet Tendency: A Populist's Speech for the Patriotic Masses.
• Chronological strata filing@Everything2.com - Now I have a fancy name to go along with my excuses!
  
• Grooming: Introduction to traditional wetshaving - I haven't decdied if it's worth getting into this. It might be one of those things where people swear by it, but only because it's odd/fancy/whatever, but who knows.
  
• Colorful Art Using 'Processing' - Some beautiful videos. I downloaded Processing the other day, but I haven't played around much with it. I wonder if it has much potential for creating games?
  
• Detention Report
• Flickr: Panda - RAINBOW HURLING PANDA OF AWESOMENESS!!! (Just look.)
• Stress: Portrait of a Killer » National Geographic Documentary with Robert Sapolsky (Stanford University)

The Best of Boing Boing - I find a lot of good stuff on Boing Boing. I'm not sure whether to leave it out (and just tell you to read it directly), to make a regular, separate link list, or what. I'm going to track how much I post from them for a bit and see what seems best.

• Smart coasters detect hot or cold beverages, created by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
• Metal plates send messages to airport x-ray screeners
• Dream of Pastures: a steampunk bike-driven movie projector
• Insurance co. testing brain fitness software on older drivers
• Extrasensory prosthetic devices

Links for 1 October 2008

• Color Inspiration from the Virtual Worlds of Second Life
• Dudes! Did You See the Library They've Got Here?
• Wondermark #447; The Wrong Way to Ask for $700 Billion
• I wish I were the Moon
• Jeff "Dundee" Freeman
• The Art of Moneygami
• Apartments Designed to Challenge Residents
• Mark Jenkins: homeless polar bears art prank