Tried to get to work with non wordpress.com blog

Tried to get working with a second non wordpress.com blog — a wordpress.org blog running on one of our servers and kept receiving 403 bad user/pass combination. Still working through this one.

It seems like Cori is having similar problems.

Took some screenshots of the XMLRPC log files with the unsuccessful OPML Editor attempt:

and a successful attempt using zoundry:

Dave, if you are reading this, it looks like an encoding issue from the OPML Editor as all other parameters being passed are good (username/password).

New OPML test entry with HTML code

Testing including my turkey drawing from my TabletPCBlogs blog (cool, when you close the link, it automatically creates the hyperlink). Now here is the drawing itself:

. Now this image might be broken because I need to add this blog to the accepted call list in the htaccess.

Yup, that’s what happened.

testing OPML Editor

Testing out posting to WordPress.com through Winer’s OPML Editor. Instructions are here: here. A very helpful screencast is here by Raymond (thanks!).

OPML Editor + WordPress

Dave Winer is working on incorporating functionality to post via the metaweblogAPI to WordPress powered blogs with his OPML Editor:

I am using the editor to write this post. That’s a good sign. It’s quite primitive, note that I have to enter the HTML code to start a new paragraph. But the basic connection is there, using the Metaweblog API, and the next steps will be adding new features to make things a bit more automatic, and perhaps easier to set up.

He’s also working on a server version of the OPML Editor where you can host your own OPML Editor-powered blog. It is a different blogging experience using his editor. Takes a bit to get used to. He has a version for Macs now too.

Seems like we both like the same template too. I sure hope there is more template customization allowed in the future otherwise a lot of blogs are going to look the same just like MSN Spaces (although there are many other templates available for Spaces).

Add a poll to your WordPress blog

With the Democracy AJAX / PHP plugin you can add a poll to your wordpress.org powered site. It’s a snap to install:

1) just FTP the directory to your wp-content/plugins directory
2) add to your template where you want the poll to appear one snippet of code (see readme.txt)
3) then create your poll in the manage/democracy tab.

Windows desktop software that manages multiple WordPress blogs

A few desktop blogging clients that work with WordPress:

Qumana (Windows XP / 2000) – “Qumana is the easiest and fastest way to update your blog, whether you have one or one hundred.â€?
Zoundry (Windows XP / 2000) – “Whether you’re a beginner or active blogger, Zoundry helps you do more with your weblog: Recommend products. Drop in pictures. Tag your posts. Earn cash rewards for yourself or charities when readers buy from your recommendationsâ€?
Wbloggar (Windows) – “… application that acts as an interface between the user and one or more blog(s); in other words, it is a Post and Template editor, with several features and resources that the browser based blog editors do not offer.â€?

I am in the process of trying them all out.

Ubuntu 5.10 kernel panic!

On an older machine beside my Mac, guess what I was up to tonight?

I ran into errors in the step: “Install the base system”
Installing the kernel linux-386 errored out twice, so I chose a different kernel the third time: linux-image-386 and that errored out too (check /target/var/log/bootstrap.log for details).

I moved to the next step: copy remaining packages to the hard disk and that errored out too with a message that maybe I should try burning the ISO at a slower speed. Maybe it was the result of a bad disk. Note for future use: burn ISO at slower speed.

Just saw that there is a Ubuntu WP blog already, cool. Looks like there might be some good hints and tips there too but didn’t find too much on installation troubleshooting.

Next, I tried checking the CD integrity and indeed there was something wrong with the CD. So, I tried burning a second CD at a slower 12X speed instead of the max and checked the integrity of that one. It failed the first test, but passed the second time I ran it … huh?

(Note: I have a Unbuntu 5.04 Live disk that I burned and used for my laptop awhile back and that worked once I removed the Linksys PCMIA card and booted with a standard ethernet connection. Guess there are numerous issues with LinkSys PCMIA cards and Linux.)

My second burned ISO at 12X speed results
It failed at the “install the kernel” stage too. Two discs, nearly two hours of time (good thing I was doing other things) and it still couldn’t finish the installation.

Finally, pulled out the CD and rebooted. The message during the boot? “Kernel panic.”

Yeah, that sums it up.

As great as Ubuntu may or may not be, this is the part that will keep John Q. Public from using it. First of all, how many regular people even know how to burn an ISO? Once people get past that if they have the problems I just described above, they’ll eventually say screw it and go out and buy Windows or a Mac. Life is too short.

Guess I’ll try this another day. Maybe.

Checking out wp.com

Just came in and created this blog through Flock. This blog will primarily be used to talk about WordPress-related activities including plugins, themes, importing, support and more. The intention is for it to be a high signal, low noise, infrequently and possibly sporadically updated blog so if you are interested in adding this type of blog to your reading list then please do. If you prefer a more regularly updated blog, then check one of our other blogs along the right hand column.

I’m no stranger to WordPress, having switched our primary blog to it earlier in the year. I was curious how wordpress.com differed from the standard wordpress.org script. Check out the drag and drop photo area:

Update 11/18/2005 9:50am PST: Seems like my picture was broken. It was here but either somebody intentionally removed it or it got fubarred somehow.