I recently converted my blog from an old bespoke (= “custom”, for my American friends) solution to one based on WordPress. However, this created a problem, in that the WordPress model is to hold all content in the database, and that wasn’t the right model for me.

Firstly, I have a number of articles which are very long for a blog post, and I had no interest in restructuring them. I also didn’t want to break external links to the existing articles.

Next, I decided that I wanted the freedom to continue to write in that style. Some of my writing takes several weeks, and it works for me to draft it as separate HTML pages. I also sometimes want to include active content or multiple images, and I don’t want to create a large and unwieldy WordPress database full of such stuff.

Finally, my online photo galleries are managed and generated using Jalbum, and I wanted to find a way of neatly integrating single images into my blog, complete with the watermarks and metadata extraction which Jalbum manages so well, without duplicating that functionality in WordPress.

This is probably typical of many older web sites, but WordPress doesn’t really embrace the integration of external content. This article describes how I solved this problem, and a WordPress plugin I have developed to make my solution reusable.

I have therefore now created a number of new “views” of my blog, and a number of specialist feeds, as follows:

• Thoughts on the World. This is the original and complete blog and feed, and will give you access to all my content, in chronological order. Expect a mix of articles including my observations of the world of software development and architecture, humorous observations, photography and personal announcements.
• The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog
• The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThoughtsFromAndrewJohnston
• The Professional Blog. This will focus on professional articles based around my observations of the world of software development and architecture. Articles for AgileArchitect.org will appear here, as will updates on my products and publications, and I may cross-post relevant reviews. You’ll also see any practical announcements relating to my websites and feeds.
• The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog/pro
• The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/StructureOfTheWorld
• The Photo Blog. This will focus on my photos, and photography-related articles and reviews. You’ll also see any practical announcements relating to my websites and feeds. There’s also a separate feed for updates to my gallery.
• The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog/photo
• The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ImagesOfTheWorld
• The feed for my gallery is http://feeds.feedburner.com/GalleryOfTheWorld
• The Review Pages. This presents my reviews of books, films and music. You’ll also see any practical announcements relating to my websites and feeds.
• The blog address is www.andrewj.com/blog/reviews
• The feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReviewsOfTheWorld

For more details, visit my Blog Views and Feeds page.

My new blog is now live. This allows a lot more flexibility, including commenting etc.

Please can you make sure you are taking your RSS feed from one of the following:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThoughtsFromAndrewJohnston (preferred)

http://www.andrewj.com/blog/index.php/feed/ (straight from my site)

I still need to update some of the links to longer old articles, so please bear with me if these are a bit odd over the next few days. Also you may see some duplicate items in the Feedburner feed – if so, please ignore these, and they should clear shortly.

Thanks, and enjoy the new blog.

Andrew

Migration of our web sites and email to the new hosting server is almost
complete. See previous article/rant for some of my findings. After some initial
frustration with my hosting provider (WebFusion) when I discovered the
limitations of their new Linux shared hosting services compared with the old
one, I have to say a big “Thank You” for their efficiency in finding a better
solution for me, and providing me with effective technical support to get it up
and running.

If you do have any problems with our sites or email, let me know…

I’m currently developing a new blog, based on WordPress. This will make it
easier to post “on the fly” than with the current solution, hand-carved from XML
and ASP (now PHP).

When the new blog is running, I’m going to have a regular post for fans of my
photography, so you can see what I’ve been working on. In the meantime, I’ve
updated my gallery pages so they are a bit easier to navigate, bookmark and
search.

And talking about my photography, I’ve recently been accepted by the Alamy
stock agency. So please all rush at once and spend lots of money licensing my
pictures for all those uses you’ve dreamed of but were too polite to mention

See you soon,

Andrew

A few years ago I toyed with replacing my trusty PDA, phone and digital camera with a combined unit. That was not a success, and I ended up with a second hand SmartPhone, an iPaq 4700 PDA, and the T-Mobile MDA as my car satnav (a job it does acceptably). You can read an analysis of my trials and tribulations, entitled “Annoyance-Based Technology Selection”.

Last year, with my old mobile phone wearing out, I tried again, with depressingly similar results. Someone once said “Those who do not learn from History are condemned to repeat it.” Why didn’t I follow this excellent advice?

This isn’t a Bond film, it’s like a bad entry in the Bourne series. Where is the elegance, the charm we should expect of Bond? Bond films have always traditionally leavened the action with humour and beauty. Both were spectacularly missing from this episode. Read the rest of my review…

• “Freakonomics” by Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner
• “Examples: The Making of Forty Photographs” by Ansel Adams
• “Dark Matter” by Philip Kerr
• “Sevent Ancient Wonders” by Matthew Reilly

However, reading the book has prompted me to do some more research in this field. I’m currently looking at whether combining the core valuation equation with probability decision trees might be useful. I’ll post more when I have some results.

The messages of these books are that mathematics is important to everyday life, and that it’s fun. Have you ever wondered why flowers often have five petals, how bookies’ odds work, how you always end up in the slowest queue, or, indeed, why buses come in threes? If so, then this is the book for you.

Whether as an introduction if you’ve never enjoyed maths before, or a reminder if you have, I thoroughly recommend both books.