Hello and quite possibly, goodbye!
Hello bloglander…
I've always found Blogger impenetrable, I'm afraid. Most websites are, to me. I simply don't seem to have the right sort of intuitive powers to guess what the hell all those gnomically labelled buttons mean, and what they do and don't do. And, perhaps more importantly, I don't have the time or inclination to find out. Life's too short.
Once in a blue moon I come across a website that is a beacon of joy. The PLR (Public Lending Rights) site is one. The PLR look after the royalties payable to authors from public library loans. We get 6p a shot… which doesn't sound a lot, but it equals about a half of the royalty I get from the total sale of a book. Three loans and I'm ahead of a sale!
The site is an absolute model of clarity and speed. My 'broad'band trundles along at about half a megawhotsit, so everything takes ages, but zappo!.. PLR loads in a flash, and I can understand everything on it. Why aren't other sites like this? I've never actually asked anyone this question because there is no chance that I would understand the answer, and the information would be useless to me anyway.
Why am I telling you this? Because yesterday 'support' at Blogger sent me a full-page email explaining.. well… I've no idea what, frankly. Except that apparently I'm an FTP user (which I would deny vehemently in court) and Blogger are going to no longer service FTP. What? What?
As far as I'm concerned I click this then click that, and if I'm lucky, I've added a new posting to my blog. 'FTP' don't come into it.
The email then went on to describe, in admirable detail, an awful lot of things I didn't understand a word of.
Why? Seriously…. WHY do geeks send out this sort of garbage when they must surely know (mustn't they????) that not everyone is a tecchie-head, and in fact that most bloggers know very little of the tecchie stuff, and have no desire to. What we, as sensible, busy, and rational people want is a very simple Click This Then Click That list for a few basic procedures.
Want to add a posting? Then Click A, then B, then C.
Want to add a photo? Click D and F.
And so on.
Is that impossible? No... I don't think so. It might take time to design and implement though, as it would certainly involve speaking (gasp) to … 'non-tecchies' (ie ordinary people) to check that 'they' could understand it. Not a lot of chance of that, I would say. 'And tecchie shall speak only unto tecchie, and tecchiespeak shall come to rule the world. And none shall understand it unless he be a tecchie. And so the world shall perish.'
I did reply to 'support' asking for clarification of the email, but the mail was bounced. Well well… That's 'support' for you, I guess.
So… as far as I could make out, Blogger won't be using my FTP any more (so presumably I'll have to sell it, if I can find it and there's still a market for it), but it doesn't seem to tell me what's coming next. Not that I could understand, anyway.
So.. I can only assume that the plug will be pulled some day soon and that my blogging days, few and far between that they are, will be ended forever.
So… probably goodbye, dear reader. I wish you well in all your endeavours. It's been nice meeting you, so to speak, and thanks to everyone who has left a Comment. Always very interesting.
Now I'll get back to the Grand Oeuvre. The end of Chapter 27 is almost in sight. Just three more to go.
Maybe I should sign off with clip from Ch 27 On the Appalling Damage Materialism has Done to Society…
The Arts
I think these two pictures sum up the influence of Materialism on the arts rather well. Both are concerned with death, although one of them might just be concerned with schlock shock. One profoundly moving. One vapid. One a work of extraordinary art and craftsmanship. One involving sticking on sequins. One genuine. One cynical. One worth fifty million pounds. One priceless.
One Materialist. One Idealist. Take your pick.
Woops.. here we go again. The pictures in the text won't upload, and I don't know how to resolve this. No 'Click List', you see…
Try to imagine them: one is of Tutankhamen's golden mask, and the other is of Damien Hirst's diamond-smothered skull.
Bye Chas
I've always found Blogger impenetrable, I'm afraid. Most websites are, to me. I simply don't seem to have the right sort of intuitive powers to guess what the hell all those gnomically labelled buttons mean, and what they do and don't do. And, perhaps more importantly, I don't have the time or inclination to find out. Life's too short.
Once in a blue moon I come across a website that is a beacon of joy. The PLR (Public Lending Rights) site is one. The PLR look after the royalties payable to authors from public library loans. We get 6p a shot… which doesn't sound a lot, but it equals about a half of the royalty I get from the total sale of a book. Three loans and I'm ahead of a sale!
The site is an absolute model of clarity and speed. My 'broad'band trundles along at about half a megawhotsit, so everything takes ages, but zappo!.. PLR loads in a flash, and I can understand everything on it. Why aren't other sites like this? I've never actually asked anyone this question because there is no chance that I would understand the answer, and the information would be useless to me anyway.
Why am I telling you this? Because yesterday 'support' at Blogger sent me a full-page email explaining.. well… I've no idea what, frankly. Except that apparently I'm an FTP user (which I would deny vehemently in court) and Blogger are going to no longer service FTP. What? What?
As far as I'm concerned I click this then click that, and if I'm lucky, I've added a new posting to my blog. 'FTP' don't come into it.
The email then went on to describe, in admirable detail, an awful lot of things I didn't understand a word of.
Why? Seriously…. WHY do geeks send out this sort of garbage when they must surely know (mustn't they????) that not everyone is a tecchie-head, and in fact that most bloggers know very little of the tecchie stuff, and have no desire to. What we, as sensible, busy, and rational people want is a very simple Click This Then Click That list for a few basic procedures.
Want to add a posting? Then Click A, then B, then C.
Want to add a photo? Click D and F.
And so on.
Is that impossible? No... I don't think so. It might take time to design and implement though, as it would certainly involve speaking (gasp) to … 'non-tecchies' (ie ordinary people) to check that 'they' could understand it. Not a lot of chance of that, I would say. 'And tecchie shall speak only unto tecchie, and tecchiespeak shall come to rule the world. And none shall understand it unless he be a tecchie. And so the world shall perish.'
I did reply to 'support' asking for clarification of the email, but the mail was bounced. Well well… That's 'support' for you, I guess.
So… as far as I could make out, Blogger won't be using my FTP any more (so presumably I'll have to sell it, if I can find it and there's still a market for it), but it doesn't seem to tell me what's coming next. Not that I could understand, anyway.
So.. I can only assume that the plug will be pulled some day soon and that my blogging days, few and far between that they are, will be ended forever.
So… probably goodbye, dear reader. I wish you well in all your endeavours. It's been nice meeting you, so to speak, and thanks to everyone who has left a Comment. Always very interesting.
Now I'll get back to the Grand Oeuvre. The end of Chapter 27 is almost in sight. Just three more to go.
Maybe I should sign off with clip from Ch 27 On the Appalling Damage Materialism has Done to Society…
The Arts
I think these two pictures sum up the influence of Materialism on the arts rather well. Both are concerned with death, although one of them might just be concerned with schlock shock. One profoundly moving. One vapid. One a work of extraordinary art and craftsmanship. One involving sticking on sequins. One genuine. One cynical. One worth fifty million pounds. One priceless.
One Materialist. One Idealist. Take your pick.
Woops.. here we go again. The pictures in the text won't upload, and I don't know how to resolve this. No 'Click List', you see…
Try to imagine them: one is of Tutankhamen's golden mask, and the other is of Damien Hirst's diamond-smothered skull.
Bye Chas
posted by Chas Griffin at 4:59 pm
3 comments
