Feedly: Like Google Reader, but better.

If you're Google Reader user like myself, you'll no doubt have heard the news that the service is to be canned on 1st July, thought it was a hoax or a publicity stunt, and then groaned into your screen when it turned out to be true. Himself recommended that I try Feedly as an alternative and it looks like I'm not the only newcomer giving it a whirl: according to the Feedly website, 500,000 Google Reader users have migrated there in the last 48 hours.

Hardly surprising, I suppose, given that it's free to use and the transition is seamless as all your subscribed blogs and starred items from Google Reader will appear in it automagically when you create an account using your Google credentials.

my feed on Feedly

So far, I really like the simple yet designy interface and functionality of the app (for iOS and Android) and the Feedly website - actually, I think I might prefer it to Google Reader.

If you're ready to jump ship to a new RSS reader, Feedly is one that's definitely worth checking out (here's how easy the switch is.)

If you'd prefer to follow along with Lyndar The Merciless and all your other favourite blogs on Bloglovin', there's a handy fix for that, too. Just go to http://www.bloglovin.com/import/reader and click on the blue button that says “Import from Google Reader”.

Simples!

Do not adjust your sets.

Yep, I've had another play around with the Comments field. Now, you may remember I had hours of fun changing it and then changing it again in the not too distant past, but there was an incident last night which has led me to change the stupid thing again. Himself insisted that he had left a slightly premature (the Moroccan-stylee understairs door is still waiting to be filled & painted) self-congratulatory comment on this post, but I didn't get the usual e-mail that pops in to let me know a comment's been left on the blog and I need to moderate it. So, obviously enough, I didn't believe that he'd left me a comment at all... and then I logged into the control panel for the blog.

Suffice to say, oopsie.

Now we're back to business as usual with Word Verification, peeps, so you'll see that you need to re-type a random string of letters or numbers thrown up by Blogger before your comment will be published. This is only to make sure you aren't some mad spammer-type trying to spam the ickle pink blog with your spam (I was inundated with rubbish when I switched it off inititally) and means that if I haven't access to the Interweb for a few days or my 3 mobile broadband goes off the radar for entire weekends with no notice for "maintenance", you can comment away to your heart's content.

Lovely biscuits!

New to this whole blogs/commenting malarky? Clicky here for a wee "How To" guide!

Ta daa!

Lads, I am so good to ye. Not content with getting three posts up in the space of just two days [surely a record for this blog] I have now made it easier than ever to comment!

Ok, so it wasn't very actually difficult or masterful, but I've switched off the Word Verification yokembob that required you to copy down a sequence of random numbers or letters or both to confirm that you were a person and not an out-of-control spambot when leaving a comment on a post. So it should be a much quicker and user-friendly experience than was previously the case.

I think I'll treat myself to a celebratory sip of water [had toast for brekkie and Ryvita for lunch, back in work coz it's month-end and I'm a total martyr but still feeling majorly queasy] after all that effort.

Himself was spot on in what he said below: no sooner had I turned off Word Verification than I was hit with FOUR spammy comments. Bah. So what'll happen now is I'll moderate comments and pull out any spam before they get posted; this means it might take a minute for your comment to be approved but seriously, I'm saving you from some pretty nasty schizz!

Can it be true..?

Oh. My. God.

Don't all look at once, kids, but I think "Recent Comments" is back in the land of the living!

Muchas gracias to Himself for sorting the blimmin' thing out for me x

"Recent Comments" is on the blink

Oh, I was so excited when I first stuck up and customized my lovely "Recent Comments" widget. There had been problems with it on and off, when some readers could see it but others couldn't depending on their OS and browser and where the moon was in relation to Jupiter and all the rest. Now, however, it seems to be kaputt an awful lot of the time. I've had a fiddle with it and tried a few different tweakings but to no avail.

It seems that I'm in good company at least; it looks to have recently been acting the mick for Homebug and Design in Dublin too. Sorted for them now though, the lucky divils.

Anyways, you can still leave an oul' comment simply by clicking on the pink "X number of comments" link at the bottom of all posts that underlines itself when your cursor hovers over it. And even if you've never commented before or don't really "do" blogs, I'd love to hear from you. Honest to God, there's nothing to be afraid of, tis dead easy!
1. Type your thoughts in the box provided ("Your blog's too pink", "Who the f*ck is Boris?", "Are you watching that Fáilte Towers yoke?", whatever)
2. Blogger throws up a random sequence of characters for you to copy into the field provided - this is just to verify that you're a real person and not a robotic spamming machine!
3. Decide whether you want to be a nameless stalker type by selecting "Anonymous" as your identity or click "Name/URL" to make yourself and your blog or site (if you have one, just leave it blank if not) known
4. Click "Publish Your Comment"

Et voilà!

And, fingers crossed, I'll get "Recent Comments" back up and running perfectly very soon so your comments can be displayed in all their glory in the sidebar :D

(Darragh, the man behind one of my favourite blogs and who I should really sort out a link to, has two excellent posts on the subject if you fancy some more in-depth reading about how to leave comments. Check them out here and here.)

Oooooh, blidgets!

No, they're not a new class of Quidditch ball! They're BLog wIDGETS, like a little snapshot taster of your blog that you can pop up on another site.

I wanted to put a blidget of this blog up on my Bebo page but of course the service is so anti-user creativity that I can't. You can only add widgets from Bebo's Select Band Of Teenybopper Partners.

It's a neat ideer nonetheless, so [in best Darina Allen voice] here's one I prepared earlier.

I just dunno, like. *Sigh*

I have been trying to think of A Specific Direction that I could take with le blog, rather than just having it as a collection of wish lists and rants about the inadequacies of public transport in this country and apologies about the not-finished-yet [sorry again] Rome post. I had a flash of inspiration last week: I know, I thought, I'll do a street-style blog! I love looking at what other people are wearing and eeeeverybody likes to (a) be told they look great, and (b) talk about themselves.

So I thunk that I would talk to punters about their sartorial get-up, take pics of them in their fabulous/kooky/flippin' bizarro attire and blog about them. Genius!

Except that I was beaten to it. By a week. Yes, seriously. God does have a sense of humour, it seems, although it looks to me like he's strictly a point-and-snigger kind of guy.

Blub, blub, blub.

I am a very bad person.

You can tell, because it has been almost a month since I posted anything here.

I mean, what kind of person would desert a poor defenceless little pink blog in such a manner?

One very much like me, apparently.

I am truly sorry for all my sins, especially for not blogging over Christmas. If I say five Hail Marys, will you forgive me? Even though I have perfectly valid reasons for not writing in so long (over Christmas I just wasn't arsed and I've actually been horrifically sick for the guts of the last fortnight) I still feel really bad about it, to the extent where my guilt is almost as acute as the permanent guilt that I have about my non-dog walking activity. Coco is a Pomeranian I sort of inherited from my Granny. She's 13, hard of hearing (although I suspect that’s really just selective deafness) and a bit arthritic, so she’s not really into trekking the Andes or any such hardcore walking but she likes to get out for a 5- or 10-minute ramble now and again. However, because the evenings are still dark and wintery and I don't get home from work until 7pm at the earliest and stuff 'n' stuff she doesn’t get to go walkies as often as I (or she, I'm sure!) would like.

Oh God, I am a terrible excuse for a person. And what's worse, now you all know the shameful truth! Blub.

You were saying..?

Dear "Anonymous" [you know who you are, pal/mate/buddy]:

apologies, but I can't get your comment to appear on the blog. Dunno why. Perhaps if you were to leave a more constructive comment [a nicer comment, if you will], that might magically pop up.

And I don't take kindly to your remark about the sparseness of my ickle pink blog!!! Some of us have to look busy sometimes, alright?

:)