mashby | The personal blog of Michael Ashby

August 2, 2004

Ladies And Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

The start of a footrace When SixApart released the 3.0 version of MovableType, there was a lot of confusion and consternation. Although it was released as a “Developer’s Release”, the general sense of the weblog community was that of disappointment. Although the 3.0 release was geared toward developers only, many regular users were dismayed over the lack of features, or improvements and felt no compelling reason to upgrade. Of course this release wasn’t meant for regular users like you and me. The purpose of 3.0D was to encourage developers to upgrade their Plugins with the new architecture SixApart created. Which is why there was a Plugins Developer’s Contest offering $20,000 in prizes. Now that the winners have been announced, SixApart recently made another small announcement regarding MT 3.1 and I have to say – get ready to upgrade!

My Experience With 3.0
As a friend recently told me, when I get into something, I don’t go half way, it’s all or nothing for me. So naturally, I purchased a personal license and upgraded to 3.0D the day that it came out. My experience over the past two and a half months has been MUCH better than I expected. It’s been very stable and I only ran into one or two little quirks here and there, but nothing that I would consider a bug per se.

As much as I’ve enjoyed 3.0D, I had to agree with most folks who didn’t upgrade in the fact that there wasn’t a very compelling reason to upgrade from 2.66. There simply weren’t enough new or improved features.. Most of the changes between 2.x versions of MT and 3.0D were mostly behind the scenes. I noticed that the software ran faster and I liked the new design of the user interface, but that’s not a lot of motivation for most users.

July 28, 2004

Desktop Weblog Clients

An Apple iMac computer. I don’t know about you, but I want to make posting to my weblog as simple of a process as possible. I just want to type in my rant for the day, make sure everything is spelled correctly and slap it up on the web. If I’m not done with what I’m typing, then I need to save it for later when I have more time to finish it. Pretty basic right? If you run a weblog I bet you’re in the same boat as I am. Granted, the interface provided by MoveableType is easy to use and may be all that you need to post to your weblog, however there is the world of the “desktop client” that can make posting to your weblog faster, easier and in some cases downright fun.
What Is A “Desktop Client”
Simply put, a MovableType Client, or “desktop client” is a piece of software that you install on your local computer. Once configured, you have a desktop application that allows you to post to Movable Type, instead of posting directly from MT. The great thing is that you can always go back to your normal way of posting via your web browser. The desktop client simply gives you an alternative method of posting your entry.

So Why Use It?
MoveableType has a very easy, straightforward method of posting to your weblog through its web interface and version 3.0 of the software has made it even better, so why do you even need a desktop client. Technically, you don’t need a desktop client. Everything you need to manage your weblog can be done via your web browser, but there are some nice features that desktop clients bring to the table that are worth considering.

July 27, 2004

BikeJournal.com

Maybe it’s the “yellow fever” of watching the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong win his 6th Tour, but I’ve taken a renewed interest in cycling this summer. I’m on the bike every chance I get, rain or shine, and it’s been an absolute hoot. Having just finished Lance’s second book Every Second Counts, I was intrigued at how Lance uses the data collected while cycling to analyze his performance on the bike. I don’t have any of the fancy gadgets that he does, like a heart monitor, but I do have a little Sigma cycling computer and I do collect basic mileage information. My only dilemma was what to do with the data.

For the past year or so, I’ve been transferring the data by hand into my Palm OS handheld using the handy application DayNotez. I enter all my workout information into it and I can pull it up to see what I’ve done at any time. However, the data is simply a note and there’s not much I can do with it other than refer to an individual ride. Then I stumbled across the web site Bike Journal and expanded my view of how I stack up with other cyclists.

July 22, 2004

Upgrade Complete

A man giving the thumbs up sign Just a quick note that I’ve upgraded MoveableType, the Content Management System (CMS) that this weblog uses to the latest version – 3.01D. It’s clearly still a “developer’s release” since there wasn’t a lot of handholding when it came to the upgrade instructions. You don’t have to be an expert, but if you’re not familar with editing the config files and templates, you may want to wait for the full release of MT 3.
While I’m giving an update, I should also mention that I’ve changed the layout of the front page. After careful consideration, I’m now listing the first 3 entries in their entirety as opposed the snippets of the last 9. I never really liked the “Click here to continue reading…” links, but my entries tend to be so long that I thought it would help. Anyway, I’ve switched it back and now I think mashby.com looks more like a weblog. 🙂

Let me know what you think by posting a comment below! You know how webloggers LOVE comments. 😀

July 15, 2004

Gracie’s Birthday

A birthday cake for a dog. As I woke up this morning, the alarm on my pa1m0ne Tungsten C was going off in an attempt to remind me of something. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and padded my way over to the chest of drawers on top of which my PDA lay beeping. I picked it up and looked and the white screen with a full screen message in blue text announcing that today is Gracie’s birthday.

My first reaction was that of glee. I was reminded that it was this time last year that Gracie found me and that today was her special day (if only to me). Yet in the next breath, I was reminded that Gracie is no longer a puppy and that made me just a little bit sad. That little tinge of sadness only remained for a moment, but it was palpable. For a fleeting instant I quickly went through the statistics of what a dog’s average life span is and how much longer I have with her in my life. Morbid as that may be, the thought of not having Gracie in my life is a thought I can’t bear to entertain. Hearing how Tyler Hamilton had to put his dog down yesterday perhaps put these thoughts more in the forefront of my mind. Whatever made me dive into these doldrums, I quickly shook my head to knock these thoughts loose, because today is a happy and special day, not a sad one.

July 13, 2004

Going Down The Rabbit Hole

Starr Ridge Rosemary Parmesan Crackers With all the work I’ve been doing on NPUG in it’s redesign, among other projects I’m working on, I guess I’ve been having a little “redesign on the brain”. I suppose it’s much like when you’re shopping for tires. You don’t notice how many sales for tires there are in the newspaper until you begin shopping for them yourself. It’s at that point that you realize you’re inundated with them. That’s how it’s kind of been for me as of recent. I’ve been itching to redesign this weblog.
Mike Rohde has been documenting his recent redesign and it’s been a very interesting “behind-the-scenes” look at his work and the effort that it takes to bring a web site to life. Before Mike began his journey down the rabbit hole, I was following the redesign of StopDesign. I’m a huge fan of Douglas Bowman and his recent redesign has been a massive influence on where I’d like to take the direction of this weblog. So I’ve been pondering what I like about Mike and Doug’s sites as well as factoring in other sites that blow me away like Simple Bits and Asterisk. All of these sites have a lot going for them and in my opinion represent the cream of the crop in terms of weblogs as well as overall web design. It’s certainly a challenge to think that I could aspire to something even close, but in never hurts to have lofty goals. 😛

July 8, 2004

Confessions Of A TDF Junkie

Lance Armstrong - The Cyclysm! If you’ve read this weblog with any sort of frequency, you know that I love cycling. It’s a fantastic sport and I love taking a nice and relaxing ride down the country roads leading away from my home. As tranquil as this sounds, and the experience truly is, during the month of July, my countenance changes drastically. I transform from a laid back fan of the sport into a rabid, frothing at the mouth, Tour de France junkie.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with “The Tour”, the Tour de France is a 3-week bicycle race throughout the country of France. There are a total of 21 races (one per day), covering a total of 2,109 miles, and the person with the best overall time is declared the winner. For the past five years the winner as been Lance Armstrong. This year, Lance is going for his 6th win, which no other cyclist in the history of the tour (101 years) has ever been able to do. Needless to say, this year is going to be quite the spectacle with a reported 5 million people on the road and around two billion will follow it on TV or in print. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, the Tour de France is a BIG deal. To learn more about this history of the tour and insight into why 2004 could be a landmark Tour, I highly recommend reading the 2004 Preview on Cycle Disciple.

July 1, 2004

My Cup Runneth Over

A cup of coffee exploding From time to time my life, like yours I’m sure, gets a little hectic. For me, it’s when everything seems to be happening at the same time that I get a little bit stressed out. There’s big projects that I’m working on for clients that are coming up on deadlines. There’s the NPUG Redesign that’s currently under way and InterPUG isn’t far behind. Then there’s the 4th of July performance at my church, where I have to play the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, which I don’t know, on my trumpet and sing in a men’s southern gospel number, which I also don’t’ know. Oh and did I forget to mention that company is coming up for the weekend and the house is a wreck? :O

It’s times like these where I think to myself, “how did I get into this mess?” I knew I had company coming in, so why did I agree to this 4^th of July performance? Well, it’s simple – I don’t know how to say no. 🙂 On top of that, I’m a bad judge of time and as a result, I tend to underestimate the time necessary to get something done. Take this weekend for example, on Saturday I had the following items on my to-do list:

1. Mow the grass.
2. Edge and weed.
3. Re-clean the pool.
4. Clean the kitchen.
5. Clean my office.
6. Do the invitations for Caroline’s party

June 28, 2004

q u i e t

A beautiful sky An interesting thing happened to me on Saturday. I was cleaning the pool for the second time this season. It got away from me as I was trying to switch from chlorine to Baquacil and it was the only option I had. Usually I have help when I drain, scrub, rinse and refill the pool, but I decided to tackle it on my own instead. I guess it was penance for having to clean it for a second time, I don’t know, but having to do it by myself meant that I had a little bit different routine. This new routine led me to a very interesting discovery about myself.
Normally when cleaning the pool, I keep busy when I take a break. I’ll bail water with a bucket for awhile and then when I stop to rest my back, arms and legs, I’ll do other things instead of just stopping. I’ll push the muck around with the pool brush, or prep some tools, or cleaning products. It’s not busy work per se, but it only incrementally helps at best. Having to do all the work by myself was completely different. Since I was the only one bailing, I would do 100 bails and then have to take a break. I estimated that every 100 bails was the equivalent of approximately 50 gallons of water and after moving that much volume I definitely needed to rest. So instead of busying myself with other activities, I rested my muscles and caught my breath.

It was a really nice afternoon, the sun was out and the temperature was in the 70’s. With water still up to my ankles, sitting down really wasn’t an option, so I stood at the edge of the pool, leaning against the top like I would a high fence. I just stood there. My mind wasn’t occupied with any tasks, or even thoughts for that matter. I just looked at the trees, the flowers, the grass and thought about absolutely nothing in particular. It was awesome. 🙂

June 25, 2004

The Jambodians

The Jambodians CD Cover One of the first friends that we made when Holly and I moved to Nashville was David Dorris. He worked with Holly at her first job here – Danco. David really helped introduce us to Nashville as well as other people. Through David we met Bill Lloyd, Swan Dive, and he even introduced me to one of my best friends, Dan Westman. After he and Holly left Danco, we didn’t see each other as much as we’d like, but we have kept in touch.
One of the things that David invites us to every year is a thing called “Jambodian Fest.” What started as a yearly jam session among friends who happened to be in town for the holidays has grown to an annual concert. Granted, these “friends” are some of the best musicians to come out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, with many Grammys under their belt, so it’s easy to see how things could get out of hand in a hurry. We’ve never been able to make it in past years, but this past December things worked out just right and we took Dave up on his invitation to make the hour drive up to Bowling Green for Jambodian Fest III.