A Single Blog

I need to simplify my life.  I spend way too much time working on things that are just clutter.  As part of this effort, I am reducing my online presence to this blog, my Facebook page, and ericr.org.  Keeping up with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Wordpress, and my own web sites is just too much.

Besides, given that I am turning old it only makes sense that I would begin to have less interest in purely technical areas of study and have more interest in history, philosophy, and the human condition.

This does not mean I won’t be blogging on technical matters; I am still a geek, just a geek who wants to spend more time programming and less time managing.  :)

Windows Live Writer

I like Blogger, and their in-browser editor is pretty good.  But I started blogging with Windows Live Writer last year and fell in love with it.  There is an undocumented step you have to take to make it work with Blogger (or, more specifically, the Google XML-RPC service).

First you need to download Live Writer.  Here’s the link:  Live Writer download page

Next, you need to create an album in Picasa named “Windows Live Writer”.  Log in to Picasa using the web interface and click on the “Upload” button.  When the window for uploading photos pops up, click on “create a new album”.  Name the album “Windows Live Writer” (without the quotes).

Finally, start Live Writer and configure it for your blog.  It will ask you for the blog URL (mine is http://oldmaneric.blogspot.com) and your login information.  It will detect your blog theme so when you add a new post it will look very similar to how it will actually look when it’s published.  There is also a “Preview” tab that allows you to preview what the post will actually look like when it’s published.  Uploading photos, resizing them, adjusting the layout, and so on are much easier with Live Writer than the Blogger interface.  Give it a try, I think you will like it!