Migration to New Blogger

As I noted in my last post today, I have finally migrated to the new version of Blogger. The transition seems to have been almost glitch-free except for one strange detail: For about the first 30 minutes or so, Google Ads no longer displayed properly in my sidebar on Firefox. Supposedly, Safari and Konqueror use the same rendering engines, so Apple users probably do see what they should. I am in the dark about the various flavors of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which I do not use, except sometimes at work.

I see no good reason for there to have been such a problem in the first place, so its sudden disappearance, while welcome, is not exactly reassuring! If anyone has trouble seeing this blog properly, please email me or leave a comment.

Since I was fooling with such things, I will list a few other changes I have made today or will make soon.

(1) New Contact Info

Returning to email for a moment, I changed the main email for my blogging recently. I attempted to notify my regular correspondents of this change, but I saw today that I missed at least one person. I am still using the old address at myway.com as a backup, so if you do not know the new address, drop me a line there.

I have also revised my contact information, for those of you who do not know my email address and wish to reach me.

(2) Automatic Backlinks (Experimental)

I am testing Blogger's "links to this post" feature. Now, if someone comments on one of my posts at his own blog, it should be possible to find out by clicking on "Backlinks" at the bottom of the post. This is basically the same functionality as "Trackback", but it is automatic.

This may also work only for other Blogspot blogs, so I will leave the Trackback feature in place for now. So far, I just want to see whether this feature works as advertised. I am undecided on whether I will keep it over the long haul.

There does seem to be a minor glitch: If you click on the word "backlinks" at the bottom of a post, you are taken to that post's page, but not to the location of the list of backlinks itself. (This should work analogously to clicking on "comments".) I do not know why this is so and welcome any hints.

(3) Blogroll Revisions

Aside from adding a photography and commentary blog, Allen's Image Adjustment, to the "Recently Added" section, I have cleaned up the blogroll. Notable changes:

• Since Myron has moved to a new blog, I have replaced Myron's Mind Meanderings with Myron's Random Thoughts.
• Likewise with Bruno. If you liked The Simplest Thing, start visiting Uncompromising Individualist.
  
• Although Paul Hsieh does not blog about Objectivism at Geek Press, I've moved him from the "Entertainers" section to "Fellow Travelers".
• The following have been moved from "Recently Added": AbbaGav and George Reisman's Blog (to "Other Friends"); The American Individualist, Bahr's House of Exuberance, Carl Svanberg, Dollars and Crosses, Noumenal Self, Objectively Speaking, Principles in Practice, Student of Objectivism, Words by Woods, and When Facing Darkness... (to "Fellow Travelers"); and finally, Benjo Blog and Oak Tree now live with the other "Retirees".

(4) New Site Feeds

If you prefer to use a feed reader to follow this blog, the migration to New Blogger changed the default site feed. You can find the new URL under "Site Feeds" in the side bar.

Also, this blog now has a comment feed.

(5) Coming Soon: New FAQ

I will probably also create a revised FAQ soon. If there's something you've wanted to know about me or my blog, now's the time to ask!

(6) In Closing

Most aspects of using New Blogger are faster or less painful (or both!) than they used to be, with the exception of the template HTML editor, which I am stuck using because I like this blog's template. That is still nasty and thus it is quite possible I have lost a link or two during the blogroll changes. If you stop by and don't see your blog listed, let me know and I'll be happy to rectify the error.

Overall, I am very pleased with New Blogger. In particular, spell checking, post publication, and the implementation of changes to the template are vastly improved. I really look forward to spending more time blogging and less time watching "progress" counters on my browser!

Yippee!

-- CAV