Thursday, April 06, 2006

    Geek Alert--how I blog

    Geek Alert—how I blog

    For those who could care less, skip today.  See you tomorrow.

    I have immersed myself in the geekified air of blogging software, and here is what I have found.  

    I use mozilla-based Firefox browser because it is not a spawn of evil.  With that, I have recently found the plug-in Wizz RSS reader, which pulls the RSS feeds from my growing blog-list to a nice left-pane frame.  I also use Sharpreader, although I like not having to open a new application to get my feeds.

    With Firefox, I also have the extension called Blogmark, which allows a right click capture of a blog-page’s URL while opening up a blogging window.  Nice little tool for quick link posts.

    I have also used the “see source” quite a lot, bringing myself into a growing HTML awareness of cascading style sheets (CSS) and page layout.  With Photoshop I created the banner image, crafted after BitchPHD’s (I took her image and used the dimensions to craft my own).  I also noticed that Bitch had a cool icon in the browser URL window.  I snagged hers and with Photoshop copied the dimensions and posted the file extension…then looked at her code and found where to put it…and viola.  A little icon.  Mine kind of stinks right now, but I may swing back through and update it.

    What I need is a quick and ready WYSIWYG application.  I use the preview window of Blogger, but that seems like a clunky way to make changes.  It took me a week to find the setting for the margins for the text frame here.

    I have also recently found Blogrolling, which provides a nice list of who has linked my site to theirs.  With that, I have found Tabitha Writes Back and Writing as Jo(e).  

    I have experimented with various pull-codes (my term): one that updates the cost of the war in Iraq and another that The Truth Laid Bare ranking system.  Both of these I linked through from other blogs, signed up and inserted the code.  All of this while ignoring the mounting work I have to do.

    If you know any cool tricks or applications, link them in.  

    Would you like me to read this to you? Listen