In which I move in Internet space rather than physical space

I was writing this blog with a copy of iBlog that I got free with my .mac subscription. The more I used it, the more limiting I found the iBlog/.mac combination to be. Since I have my own server, I figured that I should just move my blog over. Since the free version of iBlog was limited to posting to my .mac account, I had to come up with a whole new solution and transfer everything. Not the most fun in the world so I put it off as long as possible.

Recently I renewed my .mac account and the free iBlog stopped working. I haven’t been able to find out if it was supposed to stop working after a year or if something strange happened when my .mac account expired. Either way, it forced my hand.

I decided to go with WordPress. Installing it was amazingly easy. I found a handy little utility called Agitprop that converts iBlog blogs to Movable Type import files. My first attempt had some major formatting problems. I ended up modifying the import file in TextWrangler with moderately complex grep-based search and replaces. The second import went almost perfectly.

With a working blog and the majority of the old blog moved over, it was time to work on details. I installed the Pool theme, added the random gallery pic and WeatherPixie to the sidebar, added Sloganizer, and tweaked the configuration.

There is a lot more that I can do with this, but now that I have all the old stuff moved over, it’s time to close down the old blog and go live with this one.

New features that I am actually already using:

• Comment system (moderated for now, so they won’t show up right away)
• Search
• I can post from anywhere rather than just from my computer
• Added Sloganizer to sidebar
• Random Gallery photo now uses the official Gallery version rather than my hacked version. It also automatically adjusts to the proper hight and automatically respects the page’s fonts and colors.
• List of links in sidebar

I want to add more soon (including entries that are less boring than this one). But right now I have to get to bed so I can be up in time to get the PCV valve replaced on my mom’s truck. Until then, here’s the Penny Arcade boys’ take on blogs. I think they probably have a point…