Mind Over Matter

Getting w.Bloggar to work with Blogger Beta

samishra — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 03:06:06 +0000

Getting w.Bloggar to work with Blogger Beta

I signed up for Blogger Beta. Only to find out that none of my posting software works. I earlier used to use w.Bloggar, and had been using Windows Live Writer for the last few days. I downloaded w.Bloggar’s latest version and tried setting it up with my new Blogger Beta blog. Behold the Beta Gods. It said my username/password didn’t match. I realised it was not connecting to the beta interface, but rather to the old Blogger interface. And the old Blogger interface cannot login a Google Accounts username/password.
Being a lazy person, I searched the net first to see if someone else had come up with a solution. My search yielded no results. So I tried to play with the w.Bloggar account settings. Luckily, I got it right in the first attempt. Anyways, I decided to share this info with you all. So here is a step by step with screenshots (click on them to enlarge).
Getting w.Bloggar to work with Blogger Beta :
Requirements :

A Blogger Beta blog
w.Bloggar
Internet connection

Instructions :
Step 1 : Fire up the account selection box in w.Bloggar. You can reach it by Clicking on File, Select Account or by pressing F9

Step 2 : Click on the Icon next to the account name.

Step 3 : Select New

Step 4 : Select “Yes, I want to add it as a new account“

Step 5 : Select Custom from the drop down list and fill in a name for you account. Select Ping if you would like to notify Weblogs or Technorati upon updates. Click Next.

Step 6 : Keep the settings as is. Click Next.

Step 7 : In the Host field type in “beta.blogger.com“. (Without the quotes, of course!)

Step 8 : In the Path field type in “/api“. (Without the quotes, of course!). Click “Next“

Step 9 : Type in your Google Accounts username/email and your password. Select “Save password” if you would like w.bloggar to remember your password.

Step 10 : Click Finish. You are done.

Do send your comments and feedbacks.

Enabling SSL2 in Firefox 2

samishra — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:32:09 +0000

Well, I had upgraded my Firefox 1.5.0.7 to Firefox 2 as soon as it came out. Apart from the icons and the look, as a user I didn’t notice any difference. But I had to disable/uninstall a lot of extensions as they were not compatible with Firefox 2. I especially loved the Upload to ImageShack extension. Anyways, I thought a few sacrifices were needed to be on the bleeding edge.

Until today.

Today, I went to my ISP’s site and tried to log in.

Firefox 2 balked at me “Firefox can’t connect securely”. Here is a snapshot (click to enlarge) :

Now, I said to myself, “This would not do. It is very judgmental of a software to decide which site I can visit and which I cannot.” I looked at all the options and cannot find anything that can solve this issue. So I decided to do it the old fashioned way. I typed in “about:config” in the address bar and pressed enter.

Scrolling through the list I found a few boolean entries which seemed to be related to SSL2. SSL2 is the encryption method which my ISP uses. SSL3 is the new technology and will eventually replace SSL2. Anyways, I decided to switch their vales and see what happens. All of them were set to false. I changed their values to true. and tried logging in again.

Voila!!! I am now connected.

I decided that there will be many users facing this problem, so here is a step-by-step procedure to do what I did.

Start Mozilla Firefox 2.
Type in about:config in the address bar. Here is a snapshot :
Now in the page that comes up type in “ssl2” in the Filter textbox. You will get something like this (click for a larger image) :
Now set them all to true, like this (click for a larger image) :

You are done. Now try opening whatever site you were trying to open earlier.

New blog

samishra — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:05:12 +0000

Okay so Blogger decided to add more features. And it is agian taking the Beta route. So they have launched Blogger Beta. Well, they have the option of allowing you to move your blog to the new beta platform. But as I could not move mine, I went ahead and created a new blog at Blogger Beta. In the near future the plan to integrate Blogger with Google Accounts. So you need only one login to all the google services. Which are quite a few to begin with.

Anways, do check out my new blog and try out the new Blogger Beta.

Take care and keep smiling,
Regards, Santosh Mishra.

Windows Live Writer launched

samishra — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:59:17 +0000

Microsoft has launched Windows Live Writer for helping you write blogs. It is still in beta and you can download Windows Live Writer here.

It installs in minutes and looks pretty much like Word. There seems to be many options in here. Apart from Live Spaces, it supports Blogger, LiveJournal,Typepad, WordPress and many others.

Live Writer supports many API’s. Among them are RSD (Really Simple Discoverability), the Metaweblog API, and the Movable Type API. More are being planned and worked on.

Being a WYSIWIG software you know how it is going to look like when you push the publish button. Its salient features include WYSIWIG authoring, Photo publishing, Map publishing, Writer SDK and compatibility with many blog API’s.

Lets hope it is what it claims to be.

Hello world!

samishra — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:16:53 +0000

Okay, so even I now have a WordPress.com Blog. I don’t know what it is about about blogging that always urges me to register at all these blog hosts. I mean, the moment I see a register button, I have to click it. What is this craziness called. Does anyone of you know the term? One of my friends was an Obsessive Compulsive Shoplifter. Am I an Obsessive Compulsive Register Button Presser? Any comments?

And yeah, Welcome to my shiny new blog.