End of news with Blogger
2.02.2010
Blogger announced recently that they were terminating the ability to publish to a blog via FTP. Which is how I've been making news posts here for the past 9 years, as well as to the gwg, jade/graphics, and even the little FFXI character blog that I started. Basicly, they're saying that to continue using Blogger, you either have to use their free hosting, blogspot.com, or point a custom domain to their servers. Which means all content on your blog must be on their servers. Aside from the problems I have with what basicly amounts to forcing all their users to store information on their servers, (thus, placing it completly under Google's control), my site basicly only uses Blogger for the news posts. Nothing else. Everything else on my sites is maintained by me, on the server that I pay for (and this site has a crap-load of stuff!!). I would not be allowed to upload said items to Google's server. I would also not be allowed to use my own scripts, such as linking new graphics over on the side.

In short, I, and many other Blogger users, are getting screwed. Now, Blogger says that only .05% of users actually use FTP, which I don't doubt is valid. But I have a feeling that almost ALL of those .05% of users are actual bloggers, whereas a lot of the blogs I see on blogspot are just spam pools. I somehow don't think this will benift Google, since almost all of the people that chimed in on their announcement blog have said they're leaving. And many of those have very large blogs. Will that make a difference? Probally not. At this stage, I honestly don't have any faith that Blogger will reinstate FTP usage. Will I stop using Google enterily? No, actually, I won't. I don't really use my gmail account for anything, but I still love and use Google Docs (though, I will spend my free time this week backing up everything from there, just in case).

I honestly don't expect this post to even be noticed, knowing how few people actually see these posts. But, it was something that needed saying, so if there are some odd testing posts over the next couple of months, you'll know why.
posted by: Dubird at 19:09 rss feed

New layout
11.24.2009
Wow, it's been a while. Sorry about that! Too many other things demanded my attention for too long. Still, I'll try and do better. Probally go to one update a month, though there may be more if I get inspired.

Today's update is a new layout. Very simple and clean, and yes, it matches the winter tree wallpaper. I just liked how it looked. ^_^;
posted by: Dubird at 13:09 rss feed

New layouts and cleanup
7.23.2009
Been a while, yeah. Sorry. ^_^;

I've gotten two new layouts up, one of which was used for another tutorial. I don't have the tutorials here, however. I've started a sort-of offshoot from this site called dubird's graphics workshop. It has various website building tutorials, as well as a layout review service if anyone is looking for a good WPR. Those seem to have basicly disappeared over the past several years, which is sad and annoying because a second set of eyes can sometimes find little problems (or big ones) that you might have missed. Believe me, it's helpful! *ahem* Anyhoo, that's up, so check it out, and I'll hopefully get back onto making layouts again.
posted by: Dubird at 12:52 rss feed

New layout
5.22.2009
New layout with fresh spring colors. Very simple, but I rather liked it.

Unfortunatly, I don't have a birthstone layout for April or May. I know what I want to do, just haven't had time to do it. But I wanted to upload something for you, and I rather like the colors in this layout. There's also a new anime layout for Sailors Neptune and Pluto, which I made to go with a tutorial. More on that later. In the meantime, enjoy!
posted by: Dubird at 12:31 rss feed

March Layout
4.02.2009
March's birthstone layout is up, trying to decide what I want to do for April. I'll admit things are kind slow on the updating end, but I'm still working on new things. Just have to work on actual work first. ^_^;

I've also fixed the RSS feed so it will correctly update. Stupid leaving out one letter error. *ahem*
posted by: Dubird at 13:44 rss feed

New Wallpaper
3.27.2009
New wallpaper today, sorry I haven't been updating as regular as I used to. Things have been rather stressed on this end, so I haven't had much extra time to work on layouts as I'd like. But I bring you a new wallpaper to tide you over, and I'll get back on making other graphics as soon as I can. ^_^;
posted by: Dubird at 14:51 rss feed