Searching the blogs of ipsoSacto

Using Google's Custom Search tool, you can now search all of the blogs -- currently 487 -- monitored with the ipsoSacto Watch List.

Remember reading somewhere about some topic but don't remember which blog? Use the search tool.

The list of URLs that the search tool monitors can be viewed here .

What's New at ipsoSacto

I'm moving my blogging about ipsoSacto back to the Web site. I will use this site as a backup. When the ipsoSacto disappears, look here for an explanation.

For more about this, see this blog post.

John Hughes

New ways of getting to the same place

It all started when my server at home started acting up. It happened about the same time that a new version of my server's operating system came out. I use Ubuntu Linux. Rather than try to fix the problem with the server I decided I would do a complete reinstall of Ubuntu and in the process upgrade everything to the latest version.

But reinstalling the server meant there would be a day or so of down time. So I decided to move ipsoSacto to a commercial server where I rent space. The idea was that this would be transparent and there would be no downtime.

I've been building web sites for many years and I've moved from commercial server to commercial server. I should have known that something that worked perfectly well on my Ubuntu server at home wouldn't work on the commercial server. These commercial servers always turn off some feature I'm using. It is always a different one. It is always for security reasons.

Anyway, it was only after I installed everything on the commercial server that I discovered that I couldn't do my trick with the Google Reader shared pages. Big security problem, the commercial server rep said.

As a result I had to figure out a different way to do the same thing. Turns out it wasn't that difficult; just annoying.

Now ipsoSacto is back working as before. If it is not, let me know.

Disappearing feeds

Had a problem today with the feeds received from Google Reader. They all disappeared.

When this happened I was fearful that something I've been doing angered the Google gods, but apparently I wasn't alone in suffering this loss.

Fortunately, the export.opml file that I maintain on the site worked as an instant restore.

Nothing appears to have been lost in the process. (Knocking on wood repeatedly.)

Anyway, if you notice any unusual stuff when viewing the topics -- or the topic feeds you are subscribing to start acting up -- the problem is apparently widespread in Google Reader land.

Just Headlines back

The "Just Headlines " feature is back.

When you are viewing a topic you will see a link near the top of the center column that says, "Click here to shift to just headlines." Once this is toggled you will see only headlines as you page through the content or you choose a new topic.

When you are viewing "Just Headlines," the link at the top of the center column switches to "Click here to shift to headlines and text." Clicking on the link switches back to the traditional view with a 300 word length limit.

Sound of knuckles knocking on noggin

Apparently I've fixed the problems with displaying the topic content within ipsoSacto. The long posts are chopped down to about 300 words and a link to the full post is add -- and appears to be the right link!

I'm still working on getting the headline-only feature back.

Bigger deal than I thought

I've been working for a couple of hours rebuilding how ipsoSacto takes the Google Reader's shared pages and reformats them to display the topics.

I think I have everything working EXCEPT the 200 word limit. Right now, when you select a topic you see the entire posts. Eventually, I hope to restore the word limit on posts.

Also, I noticed the "headlines only" function no longer works. Sheesh! I'll get to that after I fix the word limit.