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The Real Blogger Status

What Blogger won't tell you

Having written my referential guide Troubleshooting Your Custom Domain Problems, I have seen more than a few questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken that are solved by use of the guide. Some, however, could be better solved in advance. This guide may work in that direction.

The vast majority of all bloggers, when seeking to publish their blog to a custom domain, will do quite well to use the "Buy A Domain For Your Blog" wizard.

Have a major credit card in hand.
Pick an available domain.
Provide the credit card information.
Get the email from Google Apps.
Setup your new Google Apps account.
Get to work planning and managing the transition to the new URL.

Unfortunately, "Buy A Domain" won't be usable for everybody.

Some will want a domain in a TLD other than "com", "net", "info", "org", or "biz".
Some want to use a local or personal registrar, for any of many different reasons.
Some already have a do

What's The BlogID Of My Blog?Yesterday

This blog is (for those of you not familiar with it) "The Real Blogger Status". The URL (name) of this blog is currently "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/", and it was previously "http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com/". Subject to the details involved in the renaming process, I am entitled to rename this blog anytime that I wish, and the name (URL) can change, anytime I do so.

There is another "name" for the blog, that does not change (unless I should perform a blog / URL swap). The BlogID is the internal name, that's setup when the blog is first created. Look at the source for the blog, in the header.

<head>

...

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - RSS"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />
<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/24069595/posts/default" />
<link rel="EditURI" type="a

Blogger Magic - Securing My Pictures From Being CopiedMarch 16

Every week, we see the naive query

How do I prevent my pictures from being copied?

and this, I regret to say, is a magic trick that has yet to be perfected.

Some well meaning helpers will tell you of free software that blocks context menu (right mouse click) "Save Image As". That software is written as JavaScript. Many folks, like me, explicitly block JavaScript from "BlogSpot.com" and other untrusted domains, using Firefox and NoScript, for personal security. Blocking scripts from untrusted domains is a normal component in layered security.

Besides the fact that you can't effectively block the context menu "Save Image As" command, you can't control what's stored on my computer.

I've written about cache, here and there. Cache is a basic feature in Internet design. It lets us view the same web site (blog) repeatedly, without requiring that the same content be downloaded from the server repeatedly. If you're viewing this article using your browser, it's cached in your browser.

If your computer is on a large network, it's possible that your computer connects to the Internet through a caching proxy server. If your ISP offers enhanced bandwidth, it's possible t

Blogger Magic - Detecting The Blog FeedMarch 15

Ever see a magician take a pack of playing cards, shuffle the deck, wave his wand over the deck, and make the Ace of Spades rise into the air? Pretty mysterious. How about I wave my wand over my blog, and make the blog feed rise into your browser? You've seen a BlogList wizard - you add a blog to your bloglist. Just type in the blog URL, and it pops up the feed. How did it do that?

The answer isn't hard to see, just look in the template header. Here's the header for this blog.

<head>
<meta content='jToiM1RvNRNrJJbEXUQV8SB29YHa9eIneieW4I/3g0I=' name='verify-v1'/>
<meta content='7887a3e3a5c7da6f' name='y_key'/>

...

<meta content='text/html; charset=UTF-8' http-equiv='Content-Type'/>
<meta content='true' name='MSSmartTagsPreventParsing'/>
<meta content='blogger' name='generator'/>
<link href='http://www.blogger.com/favicon.ico' rel='icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>
<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - RSS"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />
<link rel="service.post" type="application/

Blogger Blogs - Know The OptionsMarch 15

Remember buying an American manufactured car in the 1980's?

If you want Option a, you have to buy OptionPack 1. You cannot get Option b with OptionPack 1, Option b is only available with Option c and OptionPack 2. OptionPacks 1 and 2 cannot be ordered together. Option d is only available with Extended OptionPack 2, and cannot be ordered with Options b or c.

Some bloggers are starting to feel confused about Blogger and their options, reminiscing how I felt in the 1980s.

Right now, we have the following options, all ordered separately.

Classic vs Layout template.
- Your blog is configured for a Classic (HTML) template using Layout - "Edit HTML" - "Revert".
- Your blog is configured for a Layout (XML) template using Template - "Customize Design".
- Your blog requires a Layout template, to have Gadgets, "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links, and Dynamic Label indexes.
- Your blog can use HTML content in a Layouts template, but cannot use XML content in a Classic template.
New Post Editor vs Old Post Editor.
- The new post editor and old post editor are alternately selected, using Settings - Basic - "Global Settings".