ecto for Windows Still Blows
December 1, 2005 | 6 Comments
Alex, the lead developer for ecto for Windows, has commented a few times on my ecto for Windows Blows post. I figured they’ve been through a few versions and it was time for me to give them another shot. Alex seems to be putting a lot of care into the product, and as a developer myself, I know how frustrating it can be to get either useful feedback or overly generalized complaints (a la something “blows”). I hadn’t looked at it since August, so why not.
I downloaded it again. Which itself was somewhat difficult. Have you Google searched “ecto windows” lately? The first promising link is misleading as it leads to an old version (1.0.3) which in itself has a link to a broken download. Anyway, I found my way to the homepage and grabbed 1.8.7
On first glance, I’m not satisfied with the spell check, I’d prefer if it checked constantly, sorta Word style. Also, a quick trial on the new keyword feature didn’t actually work, but that is likely because of Wordpress not explicitly supporting it, not necessarily their fault. Another annoyance at this point is that the ping action threw me a non-descript error about “Internal Server Error” no clue why, or how to fix… One last comment, a lot of my posts have relative links to images in the posts. Anyway these could be rewritten to take account of my blogs hostname so they don’t all show broken? On that note, why do none of these previews use my site’s template somehow? Maybe that’s configurable and I just didn’t look deep enough.
Oh crap, I just noticed a final straw to break the camel’s back. My posts in the system that are drafts are showing up in ecto as “Published”. That won’t fly.
I guess I still can’t commit to using ecto for windows (in fact I’m not using it on the mac anymore either) The built in Wordpress interface is simple, and for now that continues to win. Truthfully many of the problems I’m experiencing may be attributed more to Wordpress or the underlying APIs, but either way I still can’t use the product. Nor will I be recommending it on campus as we roll out potentially 30,000 blogs…
Tags: api, apis, blog, blogging, blogs, desktop blogging, ecto, google, movabletype api, review, software review, windows, wordpress
ecto for Windows Blows
August 10, 2005 | 16 Comments
I’ve been using ecto on my Mac at home and at the office. Recently I got Ken setup with a WordPress site, and put ecto on his desktop for managing his content. I assumed it would be as simple as on the Mac and he’d really like it. A few days later he told me ecto was worthless and he didn’t like it. I thought he just didn’t get it.
I was wrong.
While out in Salt Lake I figured I’d use ecto on my PC laptop. The windows version of ecto is complete garbage. It crashes if you look at it funny, there is no technorati tag support, and the WYSIWYG editor is weak at best. ecto on the mac is not perfect, but the PC version is worthless.
My search begins for a Windows alternative.
Read some reviews from CMS Wire. Sadly they give ecto a 9/10 which is concerning for the others who all scored less…
Other PC desktop blogging options I’m going to try:
BlogJet
Thingamablog
WB Editor
w.bloggar
Update:
BlogJet, $39.95, doesn’t ping any services. Verdict: junky.
Thingamablog, crashes on open. Couldn’t even evaluate. Verdict: complete trash.
WB Editor: $19.99, doesn’t auto ping external sevices (technorati, etc.). Verdict: no good.
w.bloggar: Can’t edit previous posts. best potential. Verdict: sad.
There has to be something out there… Still searching…
Tags: blog, blogging, desktop blogging, ecto, mac, mac software, pc, software
To Blog Or Not To Blog…
July 14, 2005 | 2 Comments
Before becoming interested or engaged in blogging, it was hard for me to find the point. I had lots of unanswered questions. Why do it? How is blogging different than a regular website? How will blogging benefit me or others? Truthfully, my understanding has only come after hours of discussing this concept with Casey long into many evenings and many beers.
My first real interest in blogging came after I needed to teach blogs to my “Essentials of Web Development” class. At the time I setup a few blogs and was pretty much underwhelmed. I first became truly interested in having my own after Cliff introduced me to Gallery. This was a real selling point for me, a clean way to organize my images online. However, my frequency of using this was limited and my blogging interest waned.
Then about a month and a half ago I redesigned my blog, changed to WordPress, started using ecto, all part of a conscious decision to understand why I should blog. At this point I should also mention how I had already realized the value of other people’s blogs.(MaisonBisson, LDN, etc.)
So back to the questions at hand… Now I think I know why I blog and in turn this may help others to understand the appeal. First off, I have interests, reading, seeing, movies, technology, etc. My reviews an opinions on these things are in my head, if I write them down I can stop thinking about them and mentally reanalyzing. I have ideas about things, technology, the world, how things can and should be done. Some of these ideas may be useful or insightful, some not, but once again I can blog them and move on. Finally, I occasionally find entertaining content on the web, or become involved in creating my own (see Watto and RotoCell). I don’t want to forget about these things, and if I put them on my site others may find them entertaining as well.
The last part is the most simple to understand. Most people have bookmarks. This is a simple concept, but not all that useful for sharing with others, or accessing at varying locations. By blogging sites or things you like, it is easier to find them again. As far as I’m concerned if your blog is only an annotated bookmark list, that is plenty of justification. Your bookmarks and notes on why they are significant adds a richness to the internet than is never accomplished by merely emailing or bookmarking your favorite sites.
The other two are slightly slipperier to grasp. Casey puts this best when he refers to it as “the Google economy.” Basically if you are not contributing your thoughts and links out to the web community, then search engines like google have a much more difficult time determining what sites and topics are of interest to the general public.
Additionally, I think this is a bit like the infinite monkey theorem. If we make millions of micro-steps in our thinking and innovation, we can move technology and concepts forward great leaps in extraordinarily short periods of time.
Most of us have experienced this when we search google for answers to questions we have, or solutions to problems we’re experiencing. Usually an answer is just a simple search away, but in the instances where it is not and you plow through the problem regardless, it is your responsibility to contribute that small innovation or insight back to the web community so the next person can focus on another problem. Slowly this moves everyone forward without one person having to carry us all or do all the research.
If you’re still wondering how this is different than a regular website, my response is that it isn’t. Except the focus is on content and regular updating. The more you post the better chance you have of helping someone with something.
Others on this topic:
Electric Forest: Wikipedia and Libraries
MaisonBisson: Is Blogging Career Suicide?
Wikipedia: Weblog
Tags: blog, blogging, ecto, infinite monkey theorem, puppy, technology