Time for a change

I think this sums it up, for the most part:




After nearly seven years with Movable Type, I've switched over to WordPress, which has proven to be quicker and more flexible. Thanks to the diligence of Greg Wythe, this should actually be more or less transparent to you. The blog feeds were swapped over first, so if you subscribe via an RSS reader, you have probably already noticed the switch. As of this afternoon, I've started publishing exclusively on the WP site - this post is the first one done without a MT counterpart. As of this evening, the MT index page as well as the root domain page are now redirected to this one:

http://offthekuff.com/wp

If you have bookmarks, or have me on your blogroll, I'd appreciate if you updated the links, if only so I can keep track of where the traffic is more accurately. All of the archived Movable Type links will continue to exist and work as they are, which is good because there's not a snowball's chance in hell I could ever fix them in this lifetime.

I hope you like the new look. Some new features will get added as time permits between the end of the Lege session and the gearing up of the 2009 elections. The search feature on WordPress is a lot better than what I had in MT, so give that a try again if you had stopped using it before; I've made liberal use of it. Far as I can tell, your first comment requires approval, but after that it'll get published without my intervention. That may change some day, but it's how it is now. If you see any glitches or other weirdness, or just something you don't like that could be improved, let me know. Thanks very much, and welcome to the new home of Off the Kuff. May it be at least another seven years before I feel the need to do this again.

06/01/09 | permalink | comments [0]

Pardon our dust

Still doing maintenance. Regular posting will resume later, probably tomorrow. Some old post links may not work during this interval, but all should be well soon. There's still a new look to come, but as the back-end part of the process turned into a bigger chore than we thought, that may be delayed a bit. Thank you for your patience in the interim.

07/06/08 | permalink | comments [1]

Maintenance window

I'm having some maintenance done on the site this evening, hopefully including an upgrade to Movable Type 4.12 and a new look with a few new features. As such, you may not be able to see much on this page overnight and into the morning. All should be up and running before noon tomorrow. Check back tomorrow and see what you think.

07/05/08 | permalink | comments [0]

Twitter

I've gone and drunk the Twitter Kool-Aid, so those of you who can't get enough of me and want to know what sort of thing I consider too trivial to blog about, there you have it. It's oddly addictive, and more useful than I'd have thought. Ginger has some good thoughts on what makes Twitter worthwhile.

Anyway, the URL is http://twitter.com/kuff if you want to follow me. I'll probably put one of their widgets on the sidebar at some point, and I'm open to suggestions as to what else might be useful - maybe even this, if I get motivated. Let me know what you think.

05/13/08 | permalink | comments [0]

Gmail forwarding problems

I've used the kuff - at - offthekuff - dot - com address for as long as I've had the offthekuff.com domain. I still use it today, though I've had it forwarded to Gmail for some months now. Unfortunately, it looks like my webhost is having some issues with forwarding email to Gmail:


Update: (11/29/2007 3:00 PST) We've moved all outgoing gmail forwards to their own server so that they'll have dedicated processing time without affecting the rest of outgoing mail. The outgoing mail queue is still pretty full, but it's steadily decreasing. We're in contact with a Google support representative to get this resolved permanently. Mail to Gmail forwards are being delayed, but they are going through. A temporary workaround is to point your email forwards to a non-Gmail address or local DreamHost mailbox, as those are not affected by the delay. We're sorry for the problems this causes you, and we're doing all that we can to resolve this.

I hadn't really noticed this problem before today, but it's definitely been affecting me. If you've sent me an email to the kuff address today and are wondering why I haven't responded, this is the reason. I'm sure I'll have a pile of mail to wade through tomorrow, but in the meantime, if you need to reach me right now, address your correspondence to cakuffner - at - gmail - dot - com. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks very much.

11/29/07 | permalink | comments [2]

What's up with Google Blog Search?

Back in June, I wondered why a Google blog search for links to my site was suddenly returning so many fewer results than a Technorati search was. Recently, in the course of doing some background research for a post, Vince asked himself the same question, and came up with a possible answer: Blog searches are done in Safe mode by default. He disabled filtering, and wound up getting a bunch more results. I tried it myself, and it did seem to generate more results, though still not quite as many as I'd expect based on what Technorati does. Good to know, though. Thanks, Vince!

11/17/07 | permalink | comments [0]

EPIDEMIC!

Kuff is the second person I know with pneumonia. Maybe not an epidemic, but definitely not good. I was all set to be a guest blogger when he goes out of town soon and now I find myself brought up from the farm team a bit early.

I'm going to cross post some stuff from my own blog, musings, this morning.

07/02/07 | permalink | comments [0]

OffTheKuff = OutWithPneumonia

Well, it looks like the vile enemy pneumonia has sidetracked this blog's namesake. He'll be on injured reserve for a few days. Guest bloggers have been given the bat signal, so blogging will resume in however much of an OnTheKuff type of form during that time.

I'm told that, due to a power struggle at home, Kuff will not have a laptop with him. Otherwise, I'm sure he'd be blogging up a storm. But if there's any well-wishers that want to leave some kind words, a couple of printouts might be smuggled into his hospital room.

07/02/07 | permalink | comments [3]

A question for those with Google Fu

I've known for awhile that my average daily Sitemeter traffic fluctuates mainly with search engine referrals. The variation can be as much as a few hundred hits a day. There are other factors, of course - the end of the legislative session and approaching elections always drive numbers up - but this is one that comes and goes unpredictably.

Last week, I noticed that a Google blog search for my URL suddenly started only returning stale links - compare to a Technorati search and you'll see what I mean. Coincidentally or not, my Sitemeter stats took a dive at the same time.

I'm not alarmed by this, and I don't depend on ad revenues so it's not like this hurts me, but I am curious. What causes this to happen, and what if anything can I do about it? I presume that at some point it'll fix itself, but it's always nice to be able to be proactive. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

06/04/07 | permalink | comments [1]

Please pardon the interruption

My site has been basically inaccessible to me all day - I don't know what was going on with my webhost, but I was last able to use Movable Type around 9 AM this morning. I think they must have rebooted the server I'm on, because I was getting a 403 error trying to connect to anything a few minutes ago. It's back now, and I've lost a days' time plus a post on this Metro story (executive summary: this sounds like a bad idea to me, with a high potential for abuse). As my parents are scheduled to land at the airport in the next 30 minutes or so, I likely won't have too much time at the keyboard this weekend - I have one or two things in the queue, but won't be staying on top of the news much. So, look for a light posting schedule till Monday, and enjoy the weekend.

04/05/07 | permalink | comments [1]