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Archives for: March 2005
C'mon spring!
As most of you know, I relocated from Texas to the Kansas City area at the beginning of this year. For the most part, I'm really liking it up here, the job is great, I live far enough out of K.C. (Leavenworth) that I don't have to deal with the problems of city life, but close enough that it's convenient. We're right on the Missourri river, and the country around here is beautiful with rolling hills and lots and lots of trees (in Midland there was a town nearby called Notrees, just to tell how the tree situation was there).
But, there is one thing that is taking some major adjustment: winter is LONG here. I'm used to Texas where it would get cold intermittently from November through January or February, then start warming up by march or April. Not so up here. Once winter comes, it doesn't let go, and it sticks around for a while too. Plus, I've seen more snow in the few months I've been here than I saw in the 2 years I lived in Midland. And they tell me it wasn't a very snowy winter either. Don't get me wrong, it's not like it's bitter arctic-like weather up here, it's just that it's very consistently cold, unlike Texas where it would be cold a few days, then warm up a few days, then before you know it, it's warm all the time again. . . then hotter than hell.
All this winter is really making me appreciate spring more. I can't wait until it gets here and don't think I've ever looked forward to it as much as I do now.
The Cylon Threat
When I was a young lad, I watched a show called Battlestar Galactica. Those of you old enough probably remember this little show, with an evil race of machines called cylons bent on eradicating humans from the universe. I have a particularly fond memory of going on vacation with my family to California where we took a Universal Studios tour. During the tour we got "kidnapped" by cylons and were rescued by Starbuck, one of the heroes from the show. There were lasers, explosions and it was great!
Anyway, the folks on the SciFi channel have brought back this classic with a whole new perspective. The cylons are still trying to destroy humankind, but the show is much more dramatic and much darker than the old shoot em up of the early 80's. In fact, it almost plays like a documentary, especially the space battle scenes.
I tend to not get caught up in TV, but whether it is nostalgia or something else, I have been hooked on this show. My wife, who is unique among women in that she loves science fiction (her two favorite movies are the Alien series and all the Star Wars movies, in that order) makes it a point to have no plans for fridays between 9:00 and 10:00 pm. And with an actor like Edward James Olmos heading up the cast, it's one of the best science fiction shows of all time.
If you get a chance, check it out.
b2evolution part deux.
I've made a decision to use b2evolution as my blogging software. The feature set of both b2e and WordPress are very similar, and both seem like great products. The reason's I chose b2e are as follows.
- Multiple blogs (not just multiple categories) per install.
- Easier to customize. All templates files contain complete HTML, with all tags closed, unlike WordPress which would split tags up between files (<html> tag open in header file and closed in the footer file for example.) Some style information was also contained in the template php files, rather than all being in a .css file. This is probably the most important reason in my decision (although admittedly a little nit-picking).
- Spellchecker! This may be an option on WordPress, but I couldn't find it. Perhaps as a plugin?
- Nobody else I know personally is using it yet. This is a very minor reason, but I take it as an opportunity to share what I learn, and learn about the in's and outs of SimplePost and WordPress from the one's that are already using it.
That's about it really. Neither product really shines compared to the other. Both were extremely easy to install, are packed full of neat features, support plugins, are configurable and customizable, and, most importantly, are 100% FREE open source software. I'm certainly not bashing WordPress in any way, and think whichever software you use, you've made a good choice.
Register as a user.
I've added a link on the Misc section of the side nav (as the template is now, until I get around to customizing it).
This should allow you to log in when you want to comment on a post so you don't have to enter your information every time.
Register and let me know what you think. Thanks for any feedback you guys give.,I'm counting on it to help me evaluate b2be to see if it fits my needs.
b2Evolution
Well, here I am again trying a new blog software. Hopefully soon I'll find one I really like. Wordpress was very nice, and still in the running for sure. Just can't see myself choosing it if I have never even tried anything else. Just my nature I guess.
I wasn't really happy with blogger, mainly because I like to have total control over the software on my host, at least as close to total control as possible. I also didn't like the idea of having my data stored on google's server instead of my own hosts server.
Also, I'm looking for a new host for caseyphillips.net. Currently I have it forwarding to the host that peench.com resides on. What I'm looking for is a Linux reseller's account with PHP & MySQL, so if any of you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear about them. I'm using a windows host for it right now because I thought I'd do some ASP.NET stuff, but I do that all day at work, and want something different for my personal time. Not to mention Linux hosts are usually much cheaper and come with more features.
Joning the Blogging Ranks
Well, I finally broke down and set up my blog. I know a lot of you have been on my case to start updating it, so I expect regular visits (Buster, James)!
Anyway, I'll try to post weekly, if not more often. I'll probably be experimenting alot with the layout for a while as well, so expect alot of changes.