Mostly because I’m feeling wildly disorganized!
SRP Update
Sick as a Parrot by Liz Evans, 327 pages. Ok, ok, I only picked it up because it had a weird title… But now I want to read the rest of the books about British PI Grace Smith… and read them in order!! It was cleverly funny and it kept me guessing up to the end. What’s not to like?
Options to Blogger
Lots of people have been switching from Blogger recently, because of the ongoing frustrations. Carrie K just switched from Blogger to TypePad, and I noticed some questions in her comments about cost and such. Here’s the pricing information for TypePad. You can test drive it for free for 30 days. The basic level ($4.95/mo) includes 100 mb of disk space, and 2 gb of bandwidth per month. For comparison, I’m currently using about 150 mb of disk space (I do use a lot of pictures, but I edit them so they don’t take up as much space as “raw” pictures), and 8 gb of bandwidth per month.
WordPress.com offers free blogs. I poked around their site and couldn’t find any information about disk space and bandwidth restrictions for the free sites – can anyone point me to that information? I do know Frarochvia, EvaLux, and Heather have all recently switched from Blogger to WordPress. I have to say that I really like the look of WordPress blogs better than Blogger blogs, but you know me – I read ’em all! 😉
I’m using WordPress through Dreamhost, which offers an awful lot for $7.95/month: 20 gb of storage, 1 tb (terabyte) of bandwidth/month, free domain registration, up to 675 email accounts (um, yeah, I’m really not taking advantage of that one), free software such as WordPress, and a 97-day money back guarantee. I would recommend that you be at least a bit techy if you go this route.
I’m not sure how Blogger/Google can afford the amount of disk space and bandwidth required to support so many free blogs, so I have to wonder if the problems will get worse, or if storage and bandwidth restrictions will be applied.
Further Rambling
I found two fun books of knitting patterns yesterday at the thrift store. Which baby picture is more odd?!
And here’s where Chaos spends his mornings – from this corner of the living room, he’s able to keep an eye on birds outside the windows:
Hiya,
I don’t think there’s any limits on the free blogs at wordpress.com. I must say I love it more and more each day. It is easy to use, does not get as pms-y as blogger and it is real handy to moderate comments and so on.
Wow, 600+ email addresses that sure is a lot LOL.
I’m waiting for my friend Nola to install wordpress on my own domain and then I’ll be blogging from there I guess.
Cheers Eva
If I sit behind the foot of this thing then the birds outside won’t notice me. At least Chaos tries to be sneaky. Only 675 email addresses?
I switched to wordpress’s free blogs too but I have no idea what the specs are, sorry.
thanks for the input about blogging places – wordpress sure is too techie for me.. but then we’ve had that chat and I appreciate all your kind offers to assist this non-tech 🙂
I get frustrated with blogger, but haven’t yet decided who to switch to. it is indeed a puzzlement!
I’ve had a lot of problems leaving comments on blogger blogs recently. Sometimes I just have to give up.
675 email addresses!? Are there blogs that really need that many email addresses?
Katie’s spot is in the kitchen where there are lots of windows and lots of birds to see.
I looked into the WordPress free blogs recently and they won’t allow you to change the template at all. And at that point they only had about 4 different templates, so that is a big drawback for me.
I like Typepad but I don’t want to pay for my blog right now, so I still use Blogger. At some point I’ll get a real website going and maybe pay for a service, and I’m pretty sure I’ll use WordPress then, or Moveable Type.
I’m glad there are so many options, and plenty of free ones!
I use wordpress, it works for me as I am still learning this blog stuff. The Dale Baby picture looks the oddest to me.
definitely the pic on the left is scarier. Looks like an baby mini me from Austin Powers. “one million dollars!”
are you sure chaos doesn’t spend time there b/c it’s where mommy is in the morning?
Thanks for all the info! I’m still waiting on a promised upgrade at work for my new site to be hosted there. It’s a hard choice between the baby pics – the baby on the right seems to be more uncomfortable, even without the benefit of extra ears 😉
Oh my gosh, he does have extra ears! the baby on the left, the poor little thing.
Thanks for the link! Blogger has been truly annoying lately, up to and including commenting & their feeds. I think they all broke yesterday.
Poor Chaos. Hezekiah sits directly under the birdbath and waits for one of them to fall at her feet. So far, not much luck, but she’s there if it happens.
The free wordpress blogs aren’t very easy to manipulate, although I believe you get unlimited bandwidth, etc. I’m using WP on Surpass hosting. I love WP, don’t love my host; moving is too much trouble. Blog-drive is another free one that you CAN manipulate and has very little image storage, but hey Flickr is free for the pictures anyway. I use blog-drive for another blog I write which I keep extremely anonymous, and I’ve never had any complaints about it. Blogger, on the other hand……….I’ve been screaming about them for ages. We had blogger before it was sold to Google and it was awesome back then. The nosedive started immediately upon sale. Their word verification thing drives me NUTS.
I’m thinking about a move myself.. but I’m with you on the domain/hosting thing instead. One of these days I’ll figure out if I can afford it.
I’m very happy with Typepad. I’d rather have free, but from the very first Blogger drove me nuts, and I’m glad I made the switch. It’s perfect for non-techy me.
I am using WordPress, too. I love it. My hosting is thru Missa at Knitblog.com, though. I don’t get as much ‘stuff’ but the prices are more than reasonable and there is an auto-installer for WP.
Don’t worry Chaos, the birds don’t read the blog, so they don’t know about the secret spot.
Baby On The Left looks like his (her? I can never tell with babies…) hand is growing out of his mouth. Baby On The Right looks downright evil.
I love WordPress. The thing I like the most is that I’m notified via email when I get comments, so I know if someone comments on an older post. And I can email people back about their comments.
Both baby pictures freak me a bit. Odd lookin’ kids.
I’ve really enjoyed Typepad. Free would be nice but you get what you pay for with Blogger. Typepad has been easy to use and the support is awesome.
Thanks for the info. If I were sure I was going to continue with this, then “the domain/hosting thing” (as mouse calls it) makes sense. Until then, it’s Blogger for me!
Hmm, the Beehive baby looks so unnatural. Like someone strapped his/her limbs down so he/she can’t move. In fact, he/she has the same look Chaos does when you’ve been mean to him 😉
The Beehive baby looks a bit demonic………just saying.
The colorphoto is definately wierder. I don’t that baby just looks a little creepy!
I’d have to say I am happy with WordPress, too. It’s much better for me than those hosted sites. Like yourself, you have more control of what you can do, with NO restrictions.
Don’t you love finding those secret hiding spots?
I am happy with WordPress, but you have to be careful. The ‘free’ wordpress blogs won’t let you do a lot of the things that the full version will. Like as I understand it, the free version won’t let you edit the code for the template. You can change what links you put up, but you can’t tweak the coding or the css.
Like one of the Utah knitters can’t get the ring code to post in her sidebar because she’s got a free WordPress blog, so she’s stuck out of the ring because the code has to be visible.
Not saying the free version is bad, since I haven’t used it… but something to think about. I do like the full version a lot though 🙂 I just installed the sidebar widgets plugin which is so nifty I could just squeal.
I love vintage knitting books, I have a ton too. In fact I think I have that older one you pictured. I’ve noticed that older Dale patterns are really funky, except for their timeless Norweigian inspired designs.
Chaos, you could come stare at Basil all day. He likes kitties, but we’d make sure he stayed in his cage.
I find Blogger extremely frustrating, so I remind myself—it is free. I would switch in a New York minute if I knew how to do it and it wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Oh – the picture on the left – Dale Baby! Weird color combos for a child, irritating to the adult (erm, this adult’s) eye – and whatttup with the EARS, Handles or whatever those brown shapes are on the infant’s head…
I think the baby on the right looks like maybe it has been drugged on antihistimines and possibly restrained. The baby on the left however, is wearing in my opinion, a really bad hat. This is coming from someone who wants to knit the Chicken Viking Baby Hat.
Erm. Baby on the right. Creepy.
I’m considering a move, maybe. But .. I already moved to Blogger from ElJay, and I don’t relish the idea of beginning again. I may just tough it out. Blogger’s Beta-ing some big changes that look to be good for blog-dom.
The baby on the left creeps me out. Wierd, man, wierd.
PS: Psst .. Chaos. Isis tells me birds can’t read, so your secret is still safe from them. Isis wouldn’t lie. Honest.
Down with blogger!
Thanks for the info about blogging environments. I’ve been looking at different free stuff (mainly cos USD to Oz is not favourable and though the cost is only peanuts, it adds up). I have to wait until DH wants to add it to his server.
If you don’t end up using that Dale Book I will pay double what you spent on it. that’s probably still a lot cheaper than the original price. I love Dale baby books. And since I always seem to be knitting baby items I can always use more books.
Can your “knitting machine” make Chaos a sock hat? A sleeping sock/bag? I am sure he would love them. NOT.
Coming out of lurkdom – I love your cat!
And I use wordpress – to install is often a one click deal and I love the many designs (lots free!) that are out there. Once you get past what little techie knowledge you do need to get started, I think it is very easy.
🙂
I use dreamhost too and really like it!