Ben’s Blog

I use WordPress to run this blog. It’s probably the most popular blogging software on the web, and for good reason. There are plugins out there for just about everything.

However, when it comes time to upgrade to a new version, I’ve always found their instructions a little lacking. I want very explicit instructions, and theirs aren’t. When it came time to do the upgrade to 2.6.1, I started looking for a better solution.

As it turns out, you can use Subversion to upgrade WordPress easily. I already use Subversion to keep track of all my personal files. Once you get it set up, all it takes to upgrade is running one Subversion command and running the upgrade script through your web browser as usual.

If you already have WordPress set up in the traditional fashion it’s a little work to get it set up “the Subversion way,” but not too bad, especially if you haven’t customized anything. It’s more than worth the trouble when it comes time to upgrade.

Of course, if you don’t want to bother with upgrades at all, you could just get an account on WordPress.com. That’s what I did for the Belmont High School Class of 1999 blog.

I appreciate a good photograph. Three times a week, Alan Taylor, a web developer at the Boston Globe, posts a couple dozen or more good, occasionally great, photographs based on a central theme on his blog, The Big Picture.

Since I subscribed to the blog a few weeks ago, I’ve particularly enjoyed 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony, War in South Ossetia, Beijing 2008 - It’s a wrap, Preparing to rescue Hubble, and Scenes from Iraq. Of course not every post is as awesome as those, but most are worth having a look at, and the good ones are certainly worth the wait.

I learned about The Big Picture from an equally interesting source. (Yes, I read too many blogs.) Jeffrey Friedl is an American living in Kyoto, Japan, with his wife and son. He is a computer scientist, photographer, and father, so he and I have a lot in common. He is the author of O’Reilly’s Mastering Regular Expressions. His posts on life in Japan are very interesting. If you’re interested in photography, life in Japan, or just like reading about the lives of interesting people, his blog is well worth reading.