Feb
06 Blogging with Thingamablog
I spent most of yesterday looking for a free desktop blogging client that doesn't rely on a blogging API to post. I have a hosted domain with GoDaddy (northcreek.ca) and I just want to ftp a rendered blog entry up to the host, without a lot of complicated installs (mysql, wordpress, etc.). I was using Radio Userland, but it seems to be abandonware (Dave Winer, I know you're busy, but Radio breaks my Mac!). I rebooted about 10 times yesterday, when usually I reboot only on Software Updates.
I looked around at Google's suggestions, and ended up with Thingamablog. This is a Java application that does exactly what I need. The only problem was that it was a .jar file with a bunch of associated lib jars, nothing like a Mac application. Apple has done a good job of making Java apps look "close enough" to real Mac apps that I can deal with the strange icons, etc., but I wanted a double-clickable .app bundle that I could move around.
So I made one! I got a lot of help from a bunch of websites that pointed out the basics, and I wouldn't want to rely on this app being distributed like this, but it seems to work so far.
I'll stick with this until (a) I find something better, also for free, or (b) I write my own. Of course, Thingamablog is free (GPL), so I can always pick up the source code and make it better.
I cut'n'pasted an icon from the splash screen - I am not a graphic artist! - but let's see how Thingamablog does with images:
Splash Screen:
New Thingamablog Icon:
And there we go!
Categories: Software