Recently in Weblog Category

I fixed some minor issues with the Movable Type engine that runs RobbyB.com. You can now post comments as you desire on posts that allow comments. Sorry for the inconvenience.

As you can see, there's been some changes on the front page here. Moved some stuff around, added some colors, added some pictures, and took out a couple of things. Including:

• The pictures in the upper right corner are from my flickr stream. They change with every reload of this page.
• The quick links moved to the top of the page. This allows for more space and gives them some more attention.
• The navigation moved from the bottom to the top, where it should be.
• The footer expanded with links to RSS & Atom feeds to this site and the quick links. (Learn more about RSS)

The archive pages will be updated as well, since they're a couple of updates behind and look awful. In the mean time, if anything looks funky, leave a comment. I'd appreciate the feedback.

Update: (11/18/2005) I've updated the individual archives (click on the date below each post), but seemed to have busted the footer in the process. It's too late to fix now, so I'll leave it for later.

RobbyB.com lost it's connectivity to the web, and only now has it been restored through a new host. There were some unfortunate developments with the last host, and I'm not sure that it will come out for the best. I got most of the files (which you can still peruse), but I have lost access to the back end files of the Movable Type CMS. But, that's not for you to worry about.

I won't be updating anything until I can get the back end things to work out. Until then, you'll just have to deal with what's here. If you notice anything odd, let me know.

Thanks for your patience, and I apologize for the outage.

12.27.04 - 10:41 Update: We're back again. If you're reading this, everything's resolved, and I got the MT back-end up and running. There still may be problems as we get settled, so keep your eyes open.

Since expanding things beyond two blogs, I've always wanted a way to present everything on one page. Thanks to Matt, the last twenty entries from my blogs are listed in reverse chronological order. While it's not as hip and fresh as Kottke's with the short links integrated, I like it just fine. FYI, the tiled background was inspired by a mens bathroom in the Lowell Center.

Below each entry provides some navigation. Right now (I am still tweaking things), the name of the weblog links to its respective blog home (archives for RobbyB.com), The date/time stamp links to the entry's permanent link, and comments, if available, will take you to comment entry section. Leave a comment if anything seems broke.

It's probably not all that exciting to you, but I've been working on getting all the various RobbyB blog entries onto one page. Matt's tutorial has been a godsend. To see the potential, check out the beta blog.

Life has been rolling along:

• The wireless network continues to be spotty. I don't think it's ghosts, but something just as frustrating.
• The Holiday season is being forcefed into our lives through men's razor and power tool ads. Without Christmas, Norelco, Braun, Remington, and Black & Decker would all be out of business. Regardless, I have a wishlist that has both a razor and hand tool.
• I have been tooling with different site designs. You can watch it happen at beta.robbyb.com. Nothing really has impressed me yet, but I'll keep trying.
• Did you know I have been keeping track of my workouts? No? Well, now you do. Check out the Workouts section to follow along.

I added/switched some stuff on the right side. Blog links are now on the links page. In their place I added a "ShortStuff" microblog (ala Jason and Anil) with links that speak for themselves. A ShortStuff archive page and XML feed will be coming shortly. At the bottom is a "Reading" section listing the books I am currently reading, anticipating and wishing for, respectively.

I have finished transferring over all my old entries from Blogger into MT. All entries now have categories, but Soo, you will be able sort them by categories. I lost all the comments in the conversion, but I don't think those were there anyways. Everything is now handled by MT, which has much more power and versatility for personal publishing. Tweaks will be occuring constantly to the site. Major things inlcude a microblog similar to Anil's and Jason's, the category listings, and many more tricks behind the scenes.

I discovered that Win/IE 6.0 handles font size a bit differently depending on which standard you design to. Declaring a "small" font size in my style sheet ended up producing rather large text when viewed as HTML 4.01 transitional. But, after making the easy transition to XHTML 1.0 transitional, everything worked out just fine. It's interesting to note that Mozilla handled everything fine the first time around. But Mozilla doesn't allow/show the handy tools for text formatting (bold, italic, hyperlink) in Blogger PRO and Movable Type. Frustrating!

Pics @ RobbyB.com is launched with a new design and engine under the hood. Look for the same improvements here as I move away from Blogger.