Still waiting to see news post online with details. Early reports were person was lost in backcountry. Backcountry wasn't even oven, as far as I know. It would have been a really poor decision to venture off into either the Canyon or the backcountry this past weekend with all the snow. Also just saw a report where Mt. Baker issued a warning to skiers and snowboarders to not ski alone off main trails. A good idea indeed.
My post from Thursday is testament to the importance of knowing what you are getting yourself into when skiing at Mt Baker. As someone who has been skiing at Baker for 10+ years, I've had my own close calls and know how easy it is to get yourself into trouble -- even while in bounds. I wasn't kidding when I went through the ritual of preparing for my deep powder experience at Mt. Baker last Friday.
It's a damn shame that I have to see news reports like this one. People really need to get educated and be smart when it comes to skiing the deep cascade powder. My condolences to the family of the skier who lost their life.
--brian
11.28.2006
Stupid stupid stupid. Just watching local news and report of a skier who died up at Mt. Baker over the weekend. Damn.
LOL > Firefox on Steroids
Check out this screenshot of FF fully decked out with massive extensions and add-ons. LOL. This is hilarious. Try to sync that using Google's Browser sync! When I tried to use it to sync my tweaked out FF a couple months back, the sync app complained that I had too many extensions installed and the sync operation eventually timed out. Now I just use my portable FF instance stored on my 2 GB microSD card that I have in my mobile.
11.27.2006
blogger is really starting to annoy me
UPDATE: So I recently submitted a request to have my blog reviewed by the blogger team because somewhere I saw that it got flagged as a possible splog. Anyway, they told me to logout and login again and I should be all set. So I did that and now saw that I had the option of upgrading to the new Blogger beta. Well, after about 20 minutes of cutting/pasting from my old blogger template, I think I've more or less pieced it back togther. I have not figured out how to edit / add to my blog post comments / links / footer where i'd like to add links to technorati, add del.icio.us, swarm, etc, but I have yet to figure it out. Please let me know if you have any issues viewing the new template.
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Since my recent return to being an active contributor to the blogosphere, I figured I'd give my crufty blogger site a makeover and optimize for SEO and widgetize my sidebar. While I'm pleased with the direction I'm heading, I'm about ready to pull my hair out with the Blogger system. Maybe I've outgrown it. As an old school HTML code slinger, who got started in the webdev back in 1995 (can you say cgi-bin), I need more control over the design, layout, and management of my site.
I think it's probably time to move my blog off of the blogger servers and host it somewhere else. I can devote one of my aging Dual Pentium III 933mhz boxes as a web server. yeah. I think that's what I'll do. I could conceivably grab the latest Ubuntu dist and setup a nice simple wordpress server.
Open question to folks who roll their own blog site and host on their own servers / domain,
What is the best setup today for a home-hosted site? Ubuntu/Wordpress seems like a logical recipe for success.
What do you think I should do?
11.26.2006
How to Export Google Reader Feeds as OPML
Last night, I realized that adding a simple blogroll to my blog hosted on Blogger was a pain in the butt. Every time I wanted to add a new site, I had to mod my blog template (old school blogger GUI - not the fancy schmancy new one -which I saw the other day while tweaking my sister's blog). Anyway, I figured out that OPML was the path to success, and after recently blowing away all of my Bloglines subs (ditching Bloglines as my reader), I started re-adding my favorite feeds to Google Reader.
Well then I spent some time updating my blog to make it more Technorati friendly and SEO'd. After exploring the Technorati Tools and starting to train myself to add blogs I like / read to My Technorati Favorited(in addition to saving to del.icio.us), I figure this is as good a way as any to manage my blogroll. I'll just use an embeddable widgie-poo from the Technorati Tools site.
So, after all that, I just now figured out how to export my subs from Google Reader as OPML. Actually, the feature was right there all along, it was just not too obvious. Here's the recipe for success that I just figured out (assumes the new Google Reader Web GUI):
1) From Google Reader home, click Manage Subscriptions.
2) Click Import/Export.
3) Click "Export your subscriptions as an OPML file"
4) This will generate an odd looking page with plain text: "
5) This is your OPML file. From your browser, view source or save as "myfeeds.opml.
6) Then I used Technorati to suck in my Google Reader feeds via their OPML import feature.
7) Finally, I embedded one of the Technorati Favorites widgets into my blog template and voila, I've got the Feeds I've saved in a nice compact widget exposed on my blog's sidebar.
Happing exporting.
--brian
PS - also experimenting with blogrolling site that I found last night.
