Sometimes I have the feeling that the only large Web site that uses scheme-less URLs is the one I work with during office hours… because not a lot of Web sites use this handy feature which allows to include resources independent of the protocol (i.e. <link type=”text/css” rel=”stylesheet” media=”all” href=”//www.domain.com/styles/main.css” /> – note the missing protocol). This works cross browser and is perfectly valid – and saves the hassle of security warnings in IE in case of secure Web sites.

Anyhow, when I used the jQuery library it turned out that these scheme-less URLs confused the .getScript function. The bug was easy to find and report and after some whining it got fixed. I mean, how hard is it? Fix the simple bug, add a test case to the unit tests (you do unit test, don’t you?), run the tests done.

Does not seem to be the case with Dojo, which experiences the same bug (already reported here and here). Not only that the bug is open since 14 month, this simple bug was reported in version 1.2.3 and won’t be fixed until version 2.0? Come on, you must be kidding! Signing up and submitting a comment or patch (1/2 line of code: || relpath.indexOf(‘//’) === 0 appended to the first if in the function _xdIsXDomainPath) is also not possible because the user sign-up leads to a 404 page. Uuups.

So I’ll end up with maintaining my local patch file, and hopefully I remember to apply the patch in case there is a future Dojo upgrade…

Almost immediately after I migrated from Blogger to WordPress I started receiving comment spam. Not a lot, only 1 post every 1-2 days, but still annoying.

Luckily there are several solutions to fight Spam without the need for every user to register with the blog… and based on a recommendation from _m3 I installed the Akismet WordPress Plugin. What should I say, it works… Akismet is eating my spam and leaving through ham, works like a charm – thus highly recommended for WordPress installations!

(Image from flickr)

A while ago I wrote about The Hit List – a clean, powerful GTD application for the Mac. Over a year passed since that posting so I’d love to give an updated about The Hit List and the development of that particular application.

THL is still beta

The Hit List lets you plan, forget, then act when the time is right. (source)

THL for the iPhone is vaporware

The competition….

My recommendation

(Source: dilbert.com)

Recently Blogger announced that they are going to shut down their FTP publishing service. On one side I think this is not a very smart move as they’ll loose a lot of customers, but on the other hand I fully understand why they are doing this. FTP is really old, causing them a lot of troubles and prevents Google from implementing cool stuff (i.e. a mobile view for the blog).

So, what to do with my (this) blog? Initially I migrated over to a custom domain (still with Blogger), which required me to setup some redirects (mbaierl.com/blog -> blog.mbaierl.com). Not a big deal, no need to wait for the FTP migration tool, worked great and smoothly. But suddenly I had to display the Blogger Bar on top of my blog. Drawback 1. And I did not see statistics within my known Webalizer interface. Drawback 2. And: I want control!

So I started to look for alternatives – and as I manage 3 blogs in total I stumbled across WordPress MU and started the migration:

1. Installing WordPress is super-simple, I’m really impressed! Just needed to make sure it is secure by setting a few file permissions correctly.
2. WordPress can import all data (posts, comments) from Blogger – and it really works! Only Youtube videos don’t come through, so I had to re-add them manually (check out the “Smart Youtube” plugin!)
3. Luckily I did not post a lot while being on the Blogger custom domain as this required a migration of the image files.
4. Migrating the template was the hardest part – yes, there are tons of themes available, but I wanted to keep my own for this blog… but the documentation is really good and it was just a matter of hours to get a working template that integrates into my site.
5. There are tons of useful plugins – i.e. Akismet for Spam protection or WordPress Mobile Edition. That’s great and gives me way more flexibility and freedom than Blogger did! There is even an iPhone App!

Right now I’m very satisfied with the features and the performance and highly recommend having a look at WordPress if you need to migrate away from Blogger because of their FTP shutdown or for any other reason….