Well, I’m back

Merry Christmas!

For the longest time (since 2005) this blog was based on software I had written called “Bloo” (hence the name). I realized sometime early last year that it was probably time to move on. Bloo did a good job. I was even kind of proud of it. There are still a few blogs out there that run on it. But, it is essentially “abandonware” now; I haven’t released anything new on it since December, 2011.

So, I have written a utility that converts a Bloo blog to WordPress. I converted this space once before to WordPress, then backed it out, but now I’m doing it for real. And this, the very first Bloo blog, is the very first blog to be converted to WordPress. I will shake things out here for awhile and then release the code so that anyone else who would like to convert can.

I’ll have to play with the theme or find a new theme as well, most likely.

In other news, I am (at least hoping to be) “back” in the blogosphere. I’m hoping to find my voice here in this little corner. And I can’t believe I just used the phrase “find my voice”.

Merry Christmas. God loves you!

Upgraded

I’ve upgraded the Blog to what I hope is the final version of Bloo v. 1.34. Will do a bit of testing on this blog and a few others and then release it into the wild.

This version has been a long, strange trip. It includes an image uploader, which necessitated an Ajax facility (called Bloojax, also being released in 1.34) and – unfortunately (due to an aversion deep in my DNA) lots of Javascript. Javascript requires lots of cross-browser testing, because it’s not standard across browsers.

I’ll quit bellyaching. But this version took me forever to get done (and things can still go wrong – I still need to do final testing in Chrome, IE, safari . . .)

Testing the Trackback send

I’m hoping my good buddy Scott, one of the original Bloo testers, won’t mind me testing my trackback send against his blog.

It works find against other Bloo blogs. Now needing to test it against something non-Bloo.

So I’m sending a trackback from here to this post on Scott’s blog.

(Also, Scott, I’m putting you on my Bloogroll!)

Check out the new Bloo logo

As I work toward the first full, bona-fide production release of Bloo (no more beta!), I’ve felt the need for a new and far better logo. Check this out:

Many thanks to farooquebiplit of GetACoder.com for graciously doing this logo for almost nothing. It’s like he read my mind, because this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. He got it on the first try. Suhweet!

And many thanks to Thunder Geek for hipping me to GetACoder.

Watch me for the changes . . .

Daleri Dark

I’ve switched to yet another new theme. It’s called Daleri Dark and it is another rip-off port to Bloo of a WordPress theme. This one is by the talented Andreas Viklund.

This theme similar to a few others done recently in that it will only work under the full production 1.00 release of Bloo, which is in pre-release here and on a few other blogs.

This one will hit the Themes blog soon.

New Theme – Pure

I’ve rolled out a new theme called “Pure” – what do you think?. This is yet another cannibalized WordPress theme. I kind of dig it (for now anyway).

This theme was created over at Celestial Star. I still need to contact them regarding this port to Bloo, although they allow free downloads of the WordPress version so I’m hopeful they won’t mind me using the ported Bloo version here.

Once I have their permission, I’ll roll it out on the Bloo Themes blog (although I may delay a bit because to work well this theme requires some theme fixes coming out in Bloo version 1.00).

Update – They gave me permission.

New version of Bloo and fun with Themes

I’ve upgraded the blog to a newer release candidate 2 of the first full production version of Bloo.

There are a number of cool things in this one, not the least of which is a newly revamped Theme Selector – check it out in the navbar and have fun changing your own personal view of this blog to any of a number of my favorite themes.

Man, I’m punchy.

Watch me for the changes . . .

Upgraded!

Tonight I upgraded to Bloo version 1.00, release candidate 2. I’m testing it out here before making it available everywhere.

There are several nice changes in this release; the most prominent is the addition of multiple categories per post.

Watch me for the changes . . . 🙂

Alpha release of Bloo!

Well, the deed is finally done. Bloo version 1.0 alpha is now out in the public domain.

Please motor over to the developer’s blog for more information. Sorry about the boring theme over there – I haven’t had time to create any new ones.

And I just found a bug. A spin of the nerd-propeller beanie to the first person who figures it out (note: it’s a bug on the new version of the software. The version you’re looking at is older and without the bug. Go figure).

I’m sleepy . . .

SourceForge.net project request submitted!

I promise, once Bloo is released into the wild I’m setting up a Developer’s blog so that I will be able to spare you my nerdvana moments regarding the Bloo Software.

But . . . we’re not there yet. So I will be blathering on about this stuff here in this space. Today I took another step toward public release: I have requested a SourceForge.net project space for Bloo. I should know in two days whether they think Bloo is worthy.

Here’s the text of the request (on the wiki).