Blogger

I've had a lot of experience with different content management systems, the one I'd used the longest before switching to Blogger being Wordpress.  Or is that WordPress?  The one you actually have to set up a server and install yourself, not the easier subscription one.

Anyway, one of the problems with Wordpress was the glut of solutions for any problem, and the successive problems those solutions would cause.  I wish Blogger allowed for a lot more customization, but at least I don't have to worry about plugin compatibility, or my web site suddenly being replaced with a blank page.

I save money on hosting costs and I save time on the lack of fiddling.  Just the same, I feel like Blogger could allow for a little extra customization.

Firstly, I wish I could change the author of a post.  It's really easy in Wordpress, and really hard in Blogger (the easiest way I've found is to export the article and re-import it as the user you want it to be posted under).  I have a few Google accounts and have them all tied to my blogs for various reasons, but the result is I inadvertently end up posting under the wrong account every now and then.

My biggest problem at the moment is the image insert.  You have five size options for inserting an image.  Small, Medium, Large, X-Large and Original Size.  Large is too small, and X-Large is too large--the image bleeds over into the sidebar.

Why doesn't Blogger have a fit to pane option?  Hmm?  It knows the width of my column, why doesn't it scale images to use all the space it can without breaking the template?  Doesn't that make sense?

Doesn't it?

GET OUT.

Max Scoville just posted the second episode of "Max Scoville's Study Hall", a series in which he talks about a game, it's influences, and similar works across art forms.

In this episode, he briefly mentions that Boba Fett originally was a cop who was fired for killing his corrupt commanding officer and became a bounty hunter.  Of course, in Star Wars Episode 2 he's retconned into a clone and it's stupid and even though I care less and less about Star Wars with each passing day, it still kind of pisses me off at how much that one change has worsened the character.

That in mind, here's a nice reaction:

Two reasons I'll read YouTube comments, by the way:

1) If there's a song in the video that I want identified.

2) If I think the creator is going to respond to comments.

Scoville's comments definitely made it worth the delve.

That was quick. (Frozen Synapse)

So I knew that the awesome Frozen Synapse was coming to Android "soon" after the iPad version. I did not know that soon meant by the end of May. Some of my surprise is because they've been talking about the iPad version being in the works for a while, while merely adding that an Android port could be an eventual possibility.

Frozen Synapse is a great simultaneous turn-based strategy game. I don't tend to like strategy games, but I love Frozen Synapse. One of it's best bits is how it lets you move your enemy pieces about and test different engagement scenarios before committing to a move.

I really hope it lets me install and at least try to play it on my Note 2. I can read comics on this thing, I should be able to play this game with little issue.

By the way, developers need to take note of this port. The game is nearly feature complete (the iPad version missing IRC functionality, no big deal). You can play with people on any other platform (iPad, Android, PC, etc).

I know that you couldn't run the newest Call of Duty for instance on an Android phone, nor would you really want to. However, as mobile devices become more common they'll also (coincidentally) become more powerful. Every Android device nowadays has a HDMI port, doesn't it? Developers need to start thinking about how to make their games play nice with all these platforms, yeah?

Yeah.

Hotels

So I'm away from home for work.  Staying at a hotel.  It's a generally positive experience.

I have a few issues.  The internet sucks.  Really, really sucks.  I've been using wireless, which is not password protected but requires you to click agree to their terms of conduct or whatever.  For those of you unfamiliar with the process, after you connect to the network, your OS will usually tell you that you don't have an active connection to the internet.  No apps or services--Outlook (which I don't use), Dropbox, uTorrent, Steam--can connect to the internet.

No, you have to open your browser and attempt to visit a web page so the hotel network can divert you to the aforementioned click-wall.  This presents some issues, because serving a different web page than the one requested by the user is the foundation of many malware attacks, and Firefox won't have it (either by itself out of the box, or with help from NoScript, I'm not sure).  It won't let me see the clickwall, because it knows the internet, and smells MALICIOUS BEHAVIOR.

Blogger Images

And very quickly, why can't Blogger just fit images to the pane width?  I don't understand why there's Small, Medium, Large, all three looking too small for my blog, and then X-Large, which is too big.  Blogger knows the dimensions of my blog, right? Why not just do an automatic fit?

I like not paying for hosting anymore, and Blogger is usually more than capable of what I want to do, but it suffers a lot from Google's penchant for oversimplifying.  Just give me some more options!  Just one of those little triangle icons that unfold a few more options, how hard are those?

Oh well,

David

Google Drive and Other Cloud Sync Services

To the casual user, I can only assume that one sync service is as good as another.  Dropbox only offers 2gb of service, Google Drive offers 5, so perhaps that makes some kind of difference.  Well that and, a ton of people already have a Google account, right?

However, there are a few differences.  Firstly, Dropbox and SpiderOak seem to be the two file syncing services with the best cross-platform support.  I can't find any official Linux app for Google Drive or SugarSync, though SugarSync seems to have the best Android app (with actual two-way syncing of entire folders).  However, SugarSync on Android messed up my files quite a lot, forcing older versions to overwrite new versions, and problems like that.

Dropbox doesn't sync whole files if it doesn't have to, sometimes it only changes the updated parts of a file.  GDrive only copies whole files, to the best of my current knowledge.  I'm note sure about the rest of the sync programs.

SugarSync has the best customization, I think, where you can select multiple folders to sync, at different locations, etc.  SpiderOak actually is just as customizable, albeit a lot slower to actually transfer.  On the other hand, SpiderOak is super-secure, one of those setups where they can't look at your files, because they don't know your password.  Of course, that also means no recovery if you forget it.

Right now I use FolderSync on Android for dedicated syncing of files I edit on my phone and desktop.  It works with all the biggest sync services, and it works very well.  Very customizable.  I won't tell you what sync service I'm using for these files, but it doesn't really matter that much.

Google Drive won't let you choose a custom place to store your files on your computer.  Not that I can find, at least.  Seeing as how I'm considering a move to Kansas City--for Google Fiber, to be closer to family, etc, I may soon be in a position to make good use of that free 1TB of Google Drive storage.   But is Google really expecting me to keep 1TB free on my C: for that?

Okay, Google probably doesn't expect me to actively sync my entire Google Drive to my computer, but on one computer, I probably will.  I'd definitely sync all my music on it, all my ebooks, a lot of my work files that just need to be backed up in case of a fire or something.

It's worth mentioning that even though you can't set your Google Drive directory anywhere but in My Documents, you can choose which folders you want to sync to a particular computer, so your netbook could constantly sync your work files but not all your music.

Just thinking about the future, and if I had a 1TB Google Drive, how ridiculous it would be to keep all that space on the C drive.

It's worth pointing out that Windows 7 actually makes it really easy to move any Windows folder in your User directory to a different location.  Simply right click, go to Properties and then change it in the Location tab.  Put your download directory on your second drive, easy as that.  Too bad it doesn't work with third party folders.

Too bad Google Drive doesn't make it at least that easy.  I would say that it's probably coming eventually, but Google's main problems in my book are their slowness of updating services and their lack of allowing user customization in general.

David

Cleaning House

Occassionally when I have a thought or see something I want to blog about, I email it to myself.  I have a bit of a backlog building here so I'm spending the day going through old links and scheduling future posts.  Of course, I'd post ideas as they came if there were a better text input method for touchscreen phones.  I blogged from my N900 all the time.

Hey, I should blog about that!

I hope nobody clicked on that link only to be disappointed that it just went to my previous post. Let's be honest, if you're reading this then you probably read that one as well.

Anyway, that's my Saturday.

David