Tag Archives: Movable Type

Conversion to WordPress write up

Epyon-1.com CPU under WordPress

Above you see the main reason I switched to WordPress. Under MT, the CPU was pegged much of the day literally making the server unusable. As far as I know, most of the MT was SPAM trackbacks and SPAM comment attempts. Likely I could have tweaked my Web server/MT installation, but frankly it was more work than I cared for.

Some people asked me how much work was required to convert from MT to WordPress. My brother wrote up the procedure on his blog, “Mostly Harmless“, here. He spent a lot of time (2 Days?) getting it perfect and I’m grateful as WordPress has been a much better experience fro me.

Also, he wants me to create a WordPress plugin using PHP. Should be fun and I’ll write it up as I develop it.

Music I’m listening to right Now:
Into the Night” by Carlos Santana and Chad Kroeger from the “Into the Night” Single.

Why I converted to WordPress

Wordpress ButtonsBefore anyone goes on a rant, I have no loyalty for any particular product or technology. In Movable Type’s case, I liked it for it’s convenience and the fact that it was written in PERL.

I’ve been a PERL programmer for years. If I need a new tool for work, I simply write it in PERL. In the case of my MTYahooMaps plugin (and my version of MTGoogleMaps), I wrote it because I was interested in Maps and integrating it on MT Blogs. It was fun to write, I learned a lot and It works.

With the last upgrade of MT to 4.X, my plugin no longer works. Neither did the CAPTCHA plugin, SCODE (YES, I use CAPTCHA , YES, I’m told it’s Not effective…). Frankly, as soon as I started to use MT 4, I was getting all sorts of comment SPAM that I wasn’t getting under MT 3.X so, I switched back. The bottom line is, CGI PERL brings my server to it’s knees. Likely my server was not configured as efficiently as it could be and the uptime and top command would show serious problems for my server. When using MT 3.x, my cpu would get pegged often enough that I would have to knock the webserver down just to use the box.

Under WordPress, I have yet to see the CPU pegged (Still working on getting MRTG configured too). Also, the user interface is a lot easier to use than MT. So easy, I find myself posting entries much more often.

With the exception of Nikon products, It’s all brand X to me. MT is a good product and Sixapart is a great company, I just feel like doing something different. Who knows? I may go back to it at a later date.

BTW: My brother is writing up the conversion on his blog, “Mostly Harmless“. He did all the work, I’m merely reaping the benefit. Also, he wants me to learn PHP and do some custom programming for WordPress.

Music I’m listening to right Now:
Misery Business” by Paramore from the “Riot!” Album.

WordPress Update

Wordpress ButtonsWell, this is a big improvement. My server still gets hammered with people/bots/etc. still trying to SPAM my blog with all sorts of crap, but It’s not having an affect on my server.

In the past, the server CPU would get pegged with all the Spammers attempting to hit it. In that regard, WordPress isn’t breaking a sweat. That’s a vast improvement as the server would become unresponsive and the PERL CGI programs would effectivly kill the machine.

As for posting and administration, IMO, this is a LOT easier than MT was. I’m still using captcha’s for comments, but I may turn that off.

Music I’m listening to right Now:
Spybreak!” by Propellerheads from the “Decksandrumsandrockandroll” Album.

Switched to WordPress

Wordpress ButtonsOk, after much prodding by brother, I have crossed over to the dark side and converted my Blog to WordPress from Movable Type.

As fun as making my MTYahooMaps plugin was, I haven’t touched it in over a year and have no intention of updating it to work on MT 4.

Music I’m listening to right Now:
Nothing at the moment.

Why I moved back to Movable Type 3

MT 4Simple: It doesn’t support SCODE.

In the short time I’ve had it, I was beginning to get hit with SPAM comments. So, until I can work out the Kinks, I’m sticking to MT 3. Likely, I’ll use it to test, but for now the Older stable version will do.

Final Update: I switched to WordPress.

Music I’m listening to right Now:
U + Ur Hand by Pink from the “I’m Not Dead” Album.

Attempted to upgrade to Movable Type 4

MT 4 Error I have to say, It’s very pretty.

It’s an odd error that I did not get with the Beta version. I’m not the only one to see this either.

On the plus side, I always back up my data and Upgraded a 2nd DB. That way, it could co-exist with the older version which is how I can post this…

Update 1: Getting less impressed as I continue. Apparently, the word delimiter is different from Version 3.3 to Version 4.0.

So, the Version 4.0 entry has a file name like this: attempted-to-upgrade-to-movable-type-4.php

While the Version 3.2 is:
attempted_to_upgrade_to_movable_type_4.php

Why does this matter you ask? Simple: If I rebuild my site, All the links in Google get invalidated AND all the old files are still out there.

I’m hoping there is a switch that can be set to correct this annoying deficiency.

Update 2: I mentioned it here on the Forum.

Final Update: I switched to WordPress.


Music I’m listening to right Now:

New Thing by Fuel from the “Sunburn” Album.

Testing MovableType 4 Beta

 Seemed pretty straight forward to install. Since I have it in a new directory structure with a different Database, It seems harmless enough to test.

A few initial notes:

  1. Category list seems to be broken. I need to investigate that a bit
  2. I broke the comment too (might be the SCODE)
  3. Do NOT use Bigpapi.pl as it REALLY doesn't like it,
  4. Several "Internal Server Error" too.

Remember, this is BETA software and is sure to have lots of initial kinks. To make life more amusing: My server has several odd things about it too.

You can see my MT 4 Beta BLOG here. Copying the DB to a new DB and pointing the new instalation to it was fairly painless and the upgrade script worked fine.

Music I'm listening to right Now:
"Give Me Novacaine" by Green Day from "American Idiot"

Upgraded MT…

Movable TypeNot so painful as last time I upgraded. In fact, other than backing up my DB and BLOG, it was fairly painless and done via a command line.

All the plugins I care about seem to be working ok. So far…


Music I’m listening to right Now:

Good Morning Britain by Aztec Camera from the “Stray” Album.