2007 September | Is there food?

IBM’s Lotus Symphony

September 27, 2007 by Dan Leave a Comment

It seemed like such a great idea; IBM – a name that’s surely familiar to everyone – releasing their own tweaked version of Open Office. With a name like that behind it there’s more chance of it being taken seriously (not that I personally have anything against Open Office, quite the contrary).

But they seem to have broken it. The first xls I threw at Symphony refused to print; it crashed the application every time I tried. I downloaded the latest release of Open Office (something I’ve been meaning to do for a while) and the same spreadsheet printed with no problems.

I’m all for IBM releasing something like this, but if it’s not ready they’re only going to do themselves more harm than good. I realise it’s still a beta, but in its present form I can’t trust it, and will continue to recommend Open Office to anyone who’s looking for a free, desktop office suite.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: beta, lotus symphony, open office

Live Writer

September 26, 2007 by Dan Leave a Comment

In an attempt to do more blogging – and I may have said this before – I’ve installed Live Writer. The new Live Installer that comes with Beta 3 – and tries to install every Live product under the sun -Â is a massive pain in the arse, thanks to the fact that unless you’ve got a clean view of the Internet (ie no “nasty” firewalls blocking ports) it seems to refuse to install.

Luckily, after much fruitless messing about with proxy settings, and ISA Server, I discovered that some kind soul has uploaded the individual files (Writer, Messenger, Mail, Toolbar, Photo Gallery) to their Sky Drive. You might need this to work out which is which.

Download and enjoy.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: installer, live writer, proxy

And Another Thing

September 25, 2007 by Dan 2 Comments

I upgraded all the sites I host too. So Nicola, Ian, Dad, Andy, and Gary – you’re all running the shiny new Dexter flavoured version of WordPress. Let me know if you get any problems. They all look fine, with the notable exception of Gary’s – Menori is a little poorly at the moment, but I’m working on it. Drop me an email if you read this

Edit: Menori is happier now. If you don’t disable the UTW plugin before upgrading, things go a bit pear shaped. Gary: Everything appears to be fine, but UTW is turned off. You’ll need to migrate your tags across and edit your theme before they’ll show up.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: upgrade, WordPress

2.3 Upgrade Done

September 25, 2007 by Dan Leave a Comment

Is There Food is now running on the latest and greatest version of WordPress: 2.3 aka Dexter (officially named after Gordon, but I prefer to think of it as Morgan).

Everything’s gone quite well, and I’m pleased to see that my existing theme is still working. K2′s latest release is calling to me, particularly as it now supports 3 columns in a slightly more elegant manner than the version you see here. However, it’s got lots of javascript and additional trimmings that the minimalist in me doesn’t really care for. I might do some tweaking soon though.

Tag migration went very well – I went from the Simple Tagging plugin to WordPress’s shiny new built in tags with no pain at all. And Christine has kindly provided new tools for Dexter’s tagability.

Things appear to be slightly quicker, the built in plugin update notification is a really nice touch, and overall I’m impressed. Given that I feared for the future of WordPress when they announced their tag intention (way to alienate all your existing users) the way the migration tools for the major tagging plugins have been included, and the way they seem to work pretty damn well, has left me with warm and cuddly feelings.

Great job Team WordPress.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: dexter, k2, tags, WordPress

In Actual Fact

September 24, 2007 by Dan Leave a Comment

Prepare for much potential strangeness, because I’m going to turn off all my plugins - like a good little boy – and then do the upgrade. So this place might look a little unusual for a while.

Filed Under: Tech

Imminent New WordPress Goodness

September 24, 2007 by Dan Leave a Comment

WordPress version 2.3 is due any time now, and I’ll be upgrading this and all the other blogs I host to the lastest version.

Things have changed quite a bit with this release, so it’s entirely possible that themes and plugins might break. So, if you visit Is There Food at some point over the next couple of days and things are a little odd, chances are I’m playing with the 2.3.

Once I’ve got 2.3 installed, and I’ve updated my theme and plugins to support it, I’m determined to ramp up my blogging. I’ve got to post my thoughts on Mr Brooks, Zombie Diaries, Wrong Turn 2, Evil Aliens, and more.

See you on the other side.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: blogging, films, WordPress