Ian Schaefer

Installed this today on the in-app recommendation from WordPress 1.3.x, which I have used periodically over the past year. Thought I’d share my initial impressions of the new version.

Upon launching version 2.0 I was greeted with the blog user set-up panel, as if my blogs weren’t already set up in the previous version. No Cancel or Done available – only Save. I quit the app and realized that the new version did not install itself ‘over’ the old version. Consequently, I could still access my sites with the old version. While this install behavior is strange, it wasn’t a big deal for me to set up three sites again…just had to find those login credentials…

After typing that first paragraph I tapped Save and returned to the posts pane, where I started. Seems more responsive.

One bug: after setting up a new blog, when you return to the main blogs selection page, that new blog doesn’t appear in the list. If you quit the app and relaunch, it shows up. This happens each time with three blogs.

The most important user interface change is that you now have a bottom menu letting you move arbitrarily among posts, comments, and pages. No more back and forth through the list trees.

When editing a post, you bottom nav changes to these four options:

Write. The expected post editing form which include title, tags, categories, and post status, along with the new option of geotagging your post. I did that with this post, but don’t think my theme renders it…have to work on that.

Photos. Add and manage photos for the post

Preview. My theme ‘cannot be retrieved’. I wonder what the requirements are for true in-app previewing.

Settings. Publish date, password protection, resizing of photos

I noticed minor display bug: when saving a revision to a live blog post, I saw an empty (no label) left-arrow/back button, slightly misplaced in the upper left until the save was completed. This only happened once, the first time I encountered the scenario described. , the first time I saved a revision to a live post. No biggie.

I’m done for tonight. Must say this version of the Wordpres iPhone app feels better and more responsive throughout. Still wish I could reply to comments. And now, it’s easy to reply to comments!

Thanks to generous friend, we will be shooting video during our next performance at Philadelphia’s legendary North Star Bar on Thursday, February 25th, 2010. This is the perfect opportunity for wallflowers and rabid fans alike to take part in a little Philly indie-rock history.

Some of you who attended the ATF conference in Terra Alta, WV a few years ago may remember my presentation on the ‘Monotype’ Disaster. In short, the first caster I acquired was damaged during shipping. I’ve had it in storage ever since, with the intention of using it as a parts machine. In the mean time I obtained three additional casters – two fully functioning and another for parts. The costs of storing these large machines has finally forced my hand and I will be disassembling it and offering caster parts from the original machine. In fact, the damage to the first caster – though mortal – was restricted to a a very specific area. Most of the late-model british composition caster are in pristine condition.

If you are in need of Monotype Composition Caster parts, please contact me. I am particularly interested in trading parts for composition and display matrices, as well as wedges, stopbars, keybars and other tools of the typecasting trade.

Smiles, Everyone Demo CD Sleeves

Keeping with the do-it-yourself approach my band has taken to producing our demo, we’ve opted to print letterpress sleeves for the promo cd. Production is underway here at my print shop in Lititz. Read the rest of this entry »

It took a bit longer to complete than we expected, but my band, Smiles, Everyone, finally has a new eight-song demo. You can listen to it here. We are actively seeking gigs in Philadelphia and Lancaster, PA (and points in between) for the summer and fall of 2009.

If, like us, you crave new, original music, please listen and tell us what you think.

Super Snark Sailboat - Aft port view

I just bought this sailboat, an 11′ Super Snark. I’ve wanted to learn to sail for a few years—this seemed like the perfect sailboat with which to start. It is purportedly unsinkable and very stable. The ABS clad EPS foam hull certainly seems very durable and indeed, could not possibly sink even if completely swamped.

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This is the first live test of the setup described in the previous post.

Every now and then—well, every spring—I get the urge to go hiking, which to me means looking for interesting, beautiful, or uncommon flora and fauna. Over the years my interests have varied among ferns, fish, insects, birds, fungi, and trees. This year it’s back to the ferns and fern allies. I recently had the idea to start recording more data about my ‘discoveries’, and with the iPhone, GPS, camera, this blog, and geotagging, I could have a bit of geek fun recording it.
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Here is my current bass rig for Smiles, Everyone, which includes:

Ampeg Bass Rig

Fender American Deluxe V bass
Humphrey modded Boss CS-3 Compressor
Electroharmonix Big Muff
MXR M-80 DI +
TC Electronic M-350 processor
Ampeg SVT3-Pro amplifier
Switches for amp mute and eq boost, M-300 bypass and tap tempo

I don’t use half of these pedals 90% of the time. Only the compressor and mute are essential. M-300 is for occasional phaser and tremolo. Big Muff is for fun.

In mid-December I finally plunged headlong into Facebook. It’s really astonishing how much time I’ve spent attending to it over the past month–to the detriment of this website. At the same time, I’ve noticed just how many visitors end up on this site from Facebook…so I must attend to it, too. Get my house in order for the new guests, namely old friends and new, who are curious what I’ve been doing and why I have a website.

Having left the design unfinished makes me particularly uneasy. I also noticed that there are a few missing photos, victims of the move from TextPattern to WordPress. And then there’s the new band website…a similar port, but with a smaller database, thankfully.