cat >/dev/null_

please note that this text was written when this blog was served by pyblosxom

It’s working. Thanks, wari.

Though it seems like I’m on my way to the taming of this beast, it looks quite obvious that it will take some more time to get it into the desired shape. Or into any shape. Meanwhile, I’ll try and fight my proverbial inconclusiveness and start writing something worth here.

I’ve had a blog since long, long time ago, when the word “blog” was actually nothing more than a typo, rather than the hippy trend it is today. I had this… huh… home page, I was saying, and no time to keep it up to date. Moreover, having to fiddle with HTML just to write a line or two didn’t help for sure. And no PHP to play around with, just some messy CGI script for guestbooks. And those were the Dark Ages. But jwz‘s page sure was cool (it still is, as you may notice).

During all this time I’ve had some attempts at something that was to eventually become a stripped-down version of what the simplest blog is today. HTML pre-processors, framed lay-outs, you name it, I had it. But all efforts were sub-optimal and I still had not found the time to come up with something more organized, however simple, to fill the bill.

So, what’s different now? Two things, mostly:

• Since blogging developed into a phenomenon, many cute programs (as pyblosxom here) have popped up. As a matter of fact, it took me a few hours to put this up (though basically);
• I have developed some urge to write down my thoughts. Please allow time to refine this sentence.

So, roundabout mid-summer 2003 I did a little searching to see what software was available to let me manage my blog. Among others, I found blosxom, of which I appreciated the light-weightness and direct text-to-entry simplicity, which was the basic idea behind all my late attempts. Some servers offered online blog space for free, but I most definitely wanted to put up my own.

Now, given some months to moin it all over (have I told you lately how lazy I am?), I have decided to give the thing a shot during the last Holidays. I have tried Movable Type, and I have to say it is quite a piece of software. However, it steers from the text-to-entry approach, and I was rather oriented towards software that was free, meaning not only as in beer.

Enter pyblosxom.

And so, here I stand, maybe to stay.