Okay, I’m falling a little bit behind on my updates. So where was I?
I already mentioned that I had finally figured out the big problem with my blog and not being able to post hyperlinks. Once that was out of the way, I was able to move on with creating my new book review blog. By then, however, I had changed my mind about the title. I decided I liked “Audio Book Heaven” better than “Critical Mass Media.” So I changed everything over again. That's actually pretty easy to do so it was no big deal.
Once I had my audio book reviews imported to “Audio Book Heaven", it was time to add some widgets. For those of you who are not bloggers, widgets are the little boxes of information on the right side of the screen. I never realized what a poor selection of widgets Blogger has. When I was poking around over at WordPress, I found lots of really useful widgets, but here at Blogger it's mostly garbage like "Cute Kitten Photo of the Day”, and “Mister T Quote of the Day.” I couldn’t really find anything that was very useful, so I started making up my own. At WordPress, there’s a widget that displays your most popular blog posts, based on how many hits each of your pages gets. Blogger doesn’t keep stats so that was impossible to do. Instead I just created a list of my own and linked the list to the ten posts I chose. Next I wanted a complete list of all my book reviews so viewers could pick any book off the list and read the review, table of contents style. Blogger doesn’t have anything like that either, so again, I created my own. I created a list of all my reviews and posted it on the blog like a normal post. Then in a widget, I linked to that post. Not quite what I wanted, but passable.
I’m still working on the affiliate programs. I can’t remember how much of this I already talked about. I tried to sign up for the affiliate program at Audible dot com, but I couldn’t manage their CAPCHA. That one didn’t even have a listen link. I emailed them about it and they referred me to Commission Junction, which is the service they’ve contracted with to handle the program. In other words, they gave me the brush-off. I emailed them right back and basically said look, you hired these people to handle the program and what they do reflects back on you, good or bad. So one of the Audible reps emailed me again and said she had contacted CJ to see what they could do. CJ said I could call them on the phone and they could sign me up that way. So I got signed up for the program. Then a few days later, I saw that Audible had denied my application. Yesterday I emailed them again to ask why. I emailed that same rep that helped me before. She asked for my account number and the URL of my site and she would look into it. I sent her that information today so I’m waiting to see what will happen. I haven’t actually signed up with Amazon yet, I’ve just had too many things going on.
I’m still thinking about running a blog over at WordPress, maybe a mirror of my book reviews. I really like what I’ve seen there. Oh, I almost forgot. I think I mentioned earlier how their widgets could only be added by clicking and dragging with the mouse. Well, I emailed them about that and the rep told me about a setting I could change to turn on the accessibility options. She said that would give the widgets an add/edit button just like the ones here at Blogger. Immediately after that, the rep sent me a second email saying that she wasn’t sure if my screen reader would get me to the accessibility options, so she had gone ahead and turned it on for me. How’s that for customer service? Anyway, WordPress has the built-in stats, good widgets, and it looks like you can set it up to automatically put an entry on your Facebook wall every time you post something. That sounds pretty awesome. Once I get things squared away here, I may give that a try.
Okay, I think that’s everything I wanted to mention. See you next time.
Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire."
Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Journal - Solved!
My favorite search engine is Google.
I like to visit Audible to read about audio books.
Amazon is one of my favorite places to shop.
Well, guess what?
In Blogger, when you are creating a new post, there are two buttons on the compose screen. Well, there are lots of buttons, but there are two in particular that I’m talking about. One buttons says “compose”, and the other says "edit html." I've never had to use either of those buttons and so have never really paid them much mind.
As I was posting my blog about the emails a little while ago, they suddenly jumped out at me, however. About a thousand light bulbs suddenly flickered to life above my poor, confused head. Trying not to get my hopes up too much, I cautiously clicked on the “compose” button. I moved down to the message box and typed a few random words. Then, I oh-so-carefully highlighted one of the words I typed, and pressed the keyboard shortcut, ctrl-shift-a, holding my breath all the while.
Suddenly, several ninja leaped out of my computer screen and we began fighting to the death!
Wait a minute, that didn't really happen. I got carried away there for a minute. Actually, when I pressed ctrl-shift-a, Blogger created a hyperlink for me just like it’s supposed to. No ninja, although that would have been really cool.
So that solves that problem. Next, I'm going to work on that counter. Wish me luck!
Psalms 118:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalms 118:18-24 The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
I like to visit Audible to read about audio books.
Amazon is one of my favorite places to shop.
Well, guess what?
In Blogger, when you are creating a new post, there are two buttons on the compose screen. Well, there are lots of buttons, but there are two in particular that I’m talking about. One buttons says “compose”, and the other says "edit html." I've never had to use either of those buttons and so have never really paid them much mind.
As I was posting my blog about the emails a little while ago, they suddenly jumped out at me, however. About a thousand light bulbs suddenly flickered to life above my poor, confused head. Trying not to get my hopes up too much, I cautiously clicked on the “compose” button. I moved down to the message box and typed a few random words. Then, I oh-so-carefully highlighted one of the words I typed, and pressed the keyboard shortcut, ctrl-shift-a, holding my breath all the while.
Suddenly, several ninja leaped out of my computer screen and we began fighting to the death!
Wait a minute, that didn't really happen. I got carried away there for a minute. Actually, when I pressed ctrl-shift-a, Blogger created a hyperlink for me just like it’s supposed to. No ninja, although that would have been really cool.
So that solves that problem. Next, I'm going to work on that counter. Wish me luck!
Psalms 118:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalms 118:18-24 The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Journal - Email Blues
Okay, so I had another idea for my Blogger problems. I thought I would create a whole new Blogger account, completely separate from my existing account. I would then try the keyboard shortcuts in the new account and see if they work. That would tell me if there’s a problem with the current settings in my existing account, or if the problem lies elsewhere. It’s a long shot, but I’m running out of ideas.
In order to creat a new Blogger account, I need a new email address. Creating a new account with the same email will only attach a new blog to my existing account.
My existing email is through Google, a g mail account, so I went there to create a second email account. I went through the setup and provided all my information, but I got hung up on the CAPCHA. The Google mail CAPCHA has a listen link so you can hear the numbers and type them out. I listened to the recording and I could hear the numbers fairly well, although some of them were hard to understand. The main problem was the numbers were being spoken too close together. I would hear a number and type it rightaway. As soon as I typed the number, my screen reader would say it back to me. While my screen reader was talking, the next number was being spoken on the recording and I couldn't hear it. I tried several times but just couldn't manage it.
Next, I went to Mail dot com. Mail dot com is unique in that you can actually choose your own domain from a long list. First you choose a category that interests you like music. When you choose the music category, it gives you a list of domains to choose from such as “@matchbox20 dot com” or something like that. My favorite was the World category. Under the world category you can choose domains like "@rome dot com", or @paris dot com.” Anyway I went through the sign up process and got to the CAPCHA. Let me tell you, Mail dot com has the best CAPCHA I’ve ever seen. Or heard. When you click the listen link, you first hear a clear woman’s voice explaining exactly what you need to do. She says, “Listen to the recording and type out all the words you hear with spaces in between them. If you can’t make out all the words, don't worry. Just make your best guess." Then the recording begins. It sounds like a clip from an old movie. You can hear someone delivering a perfectly clear line of dialogue and all you have to do is type what you hear. No evil voices in the background trying to distract you by sucking your soul out through your headphones. I was very impressed. I got a new email account. The only problem was, I couldn’t log in to it to check for mail. Every time I try, I get a blank page that says "User name service." No links, no nothing, just those three words. Maybe it’s a temporary glitch. I’ll check back there later.
Finally, I tried Microsoft’s Hotmail. At Hotmail, you can choose from two different domains, “@hotmail dot com", or "@live dot com." I keyed in all my information and got down to the CAPCHA. Here, I had the same problem I had with G mail. The numbers came too close together. Also, Hotmail's CAPCHA does not return your cursor to the text box after you click the listen link. The other two did.
So that all took me about an hour and I accomplished absolutely nothing. That’s kind of how this whole week has been. I'm trying so hard to keep my Blogger blog, I really don’t want to have to learn a new system at Wordpress, but I'm just not getting anywhere. I haven’t completely given up hope yet, though.
Hebrews 10:36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
In order to creat a new Blogger account, I need a new email address. Creating a new account with the same email will only attach a new blog to my existing account.
My existing email is through Google, a g mail account, so I went there to create a second email account. I went through the setup and provided all my information, but I got hung up on the CAPCHA. The Google mail CAPCHA has a listen link so you can hear the numbers and type them out. I listened to the recording and I could hear the numbers fairly well, although some of them were hard to understand. The main problem was the numbers were being spoken too close together. I would hear a number and type it rightaway. As soon as I typed the number, my screen reader would say it back to me. While my screen reader was talking, the next number was being spoken on the recording and I couldn't hear it. I tried several times but just couldn't manage it.
Next, I went to Mail dot com. Mail dot com is unique in that you can actually choose your own domain from a long list. First you choose a category that interests you like music. When you choose the music category, it gives you a list of domains to choose from such as “@matchbox20 dot com” or something like that. My favorite was the World category. Under the world category you can choose domains like "@rome dot com", or @paris dot com.” Anyway I went through the sign up process and got to the CAPCHA. Let me tell you, Mail dot com has the best CAPCHA I’ve ever seen. Or heard. When you click the listen link, you first hear a clear woman’s voice explaining exactly what you need to do. She says, “Listen to the recording and type out all the words you hear with spaces in between them. If you can’t make out all the words, don't worry. Just make your best guess." Then the recording begins. It sounds like a clip from an old movie. You can hear someone delivering a perfectly clear line of dialogue and all you have to do is type what you hear. No evil voices in the background trying to distract you by sucking your soul out through your headphones. I was very impressed. I got a new email account. The only problem was, I couldn’t log in to it to check for mail. Every time I try, I get a blank page that says "User name service." No links, no nothing, just those three words. Maybe it’s a temporary glitch. I’ll check back there later.
Finally, I tried Microsoft’s Hotmail. At Hotmail, you can choose from two different domains, “@hotmail dot com", or "@live dot com." I keyed in all my information and got down to the CAPCHA. Here, I had the same problem I had with G mail. The numbers came too close together. Also, Hotmail's CAPCHA does not return your cursor to the text box after you click the listen link. The other two did.
So that all took me about an hour and I accomplished absolutely nothing. That’s kind of how this whole week has been. I'm trying so hard to keep my Blogger blog, I really don’t want to have to learn a new system at Wordpress, but I'm just not getting anywhere. I haven’t completely given up hope yet, though.
Hebrews 10:36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Journal - Blogger Woes
Well, I’m not having much luck with this. As I mentioned before, to put hyperlinks in a post, I use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-shift-a, but last Friday it stopped working. Since then I’ve discovered that other shortcuts are acting funny too. Ctrl-b for bold and ctrl-I for italics are not working right either. I've posted questions in the Blogger help forum three different times but no one has answered.
I can’t really figure out if this is a problem with Blogger or with Internet Explorer, but I’m kind of leaning toward the latter. I’ve tried some different settings in Blogger with no success. I've tried some settings in IE, also with no success. I tried upgrading IE to version 8 to see if that might help, but my computer wouldn’t take the upgrade. My computer is about 8 years old and doesn’t always work real well. Some people would call it an “oldie but a goodie.” Others might call it a “piece of crap.” I’m still undecided as to which group I am in.
Anyway, after that I tried rolling back to IE version 6. I was able to do that easily enough, but it didn’t solve the problem so I reverted back to version 7.
After that I tried using system restore to revert my settings back to a previous time when everything was working. I knew the problem had begun last Friday approximately, so I was going to roll everything back to last Wednesday or so. Well, when I got into the system restore utility, the oldest restore point available was last Thursday at 8:52 pm. That restore point was labeled as the time when Windows sent through an automatic update for Internet Explorer and every restore point before that had been removed. Coincidence?
So, I’m left with a few options. Like Ro said, I could type out the html code by hand everytime I want a hyperlink. I’m semi-familiar with html tags from my eBay days and I could do that, but honestly, it’s a really big hassle and I’m not sure I want to go to that much trouble. I’m planning on having a lot of links in my book reviews and typing out all that code would take forever.
My second option is to switch from IE to Mozilla Firefox, which is what Joni uses. I tested that, and the hyperlinks work okay, but it makes the code visible in the compose screen and I don't like that either. I could probably live with it though. I tried a couple of other browsers, the new Google Chrome and Opera, but neither of those work with a screen reader apparently.
A third option is to switch to a new blog host. I’ve been checking out WordPress and I kind of like what they have to offer. One of the first things I found at WordPress, is the built-in stat counter. It automatically keeps track of the hits on each page of your blog, tells you which search engines are sending you the most traffic and lots of other stuff. There’s a whole page of statistics. Why Blogger doesn't do that is a mystery to me. In Blogger you have to use a third party counter. I tried that with no success.
Next, I looked at the Wordpress widgets. They have some that sound very useful. Some of them are powered by the built-in stat counter. You can display your most popular blog post titles and things like that. There’s one large problem, however. The only way to put the widgets on your blog, is to click and drag them into place on the sidebar. There's no "add this widget" link like Blogger has. My heart sank when I discovered that. I sent them an email to let them know why that was a problem, and asked them what kinds of accessibility options they have for blind and low-vision users. That was late last night, so I haven’t heard back from them yet. I hope they answer.
Well, there’s a couple of other things I’ve been working on this week, but this post is long enough. I’ll tell you about Audible’s affiliate program, and Statcounter.com next time, okay?
See you later!
Luke 18:1-8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary., "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' “ And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
I can’t really figure out if this is a problem with Blogger or with Internet Explorer, but I’m kind of leaning toward the latter. I’ve tried some different settings in Blogger with no success. I've tried some settings in IE, also with no success. I tried upgrading IE to version 8 to see if that might help, but my computer wouldn’t take the upgrade. My computer is about 8 years old and doesn’t always work real well. Some people would call it an “oldie but a goodie.” Others might call it a “piece of crap.” I’m still undecided as to which group I am in.
Anyway, after that I tried rolling back to IE version 6. I was able to do that easily enough, but it didn’t solve the problem so I reverted back to version 7.
After that I tried using system restore to revert my settings back to a previous time when everything was working. I knew the problem had begun last Friday approximately, so I was going to roll everything back to last Wednesday or so. Well, when I got into the system restore utility, the oldest restore point available was last Thursday at 8:52 pm. That restore point was labeled as the time when Windows sent through an automatic update for Internet Explorer and every restore point before that had been removed. Coincidence?
So, I’m left with a few options. Like Ro said, I could type out the html code by hand everytime I want a hyperlink. I’m semi-familiar with html tags from my eBay days and I could do that, but honestly, it’s a really big hassle and I’m not sure I want to go to that much trouble. I’m planning on having a lot of links in my book reviews and typing out all that code would take forever.
My second option is to switch from IE to Mozilla Firefox, which is what Joni uses. I tested that, and the hyperlinks work okay, but it makes the code visible in the compose screen and I don't like that either. I could probably live with it though. I tried a couple of other browsers, the new Google Chrome and Opera, but neither of those work with a screen reader apparently.
A third option is to switch to a new blog host. I’ve been checking out WordPress and I kind of like what they have to offer. One of the first things I found at WordPress, is the built-in stat counter. It automatically keeps track of the hits on each page of your blog, tells you which search engines are sending you the most traffic and lots of other stuff. There’s a whole page of statistics. Why Blogger doesn't do that is a mystery to me. In Blogger you have to use a third party counter. I tried that with no success.
Next, I looked at the Wordpress widgets. They have some that sound very useful. Some of them are powered by the built-in stat counter. You can display your most popular blog post titles and things like that. There’s one large problem, however. The only way to put the widgets on your blog, is to click and drag them into place on the sidebar. There's no "add this widget" link like Blogger has. My heart sank when I discovered that. I sent them an email to let them know why that was a problem, and asked them what kinds of accessibility options they have for blind and low-vision users. That was late last night, so I haven’t heard back from them yet. I hope they answer.
Well, there’s a couple of other things I’ve been working on this week, but this post is long enough. I’ll tell you about Audible’s affiliate program, and Statcounter.com next time, okay?
See you later!
Luke 18:1-8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary., "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' “ And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
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