Well it turned out to be a whole lot less painful than I expected as you can use iWeb’s RSS feed but you need to change the number of entries in the RSS feed to the maximum (50) otherwise you only get the small number of entries on the main page and none of the archive. Fortunately I had less than 50 posts so I could do it in one hit. Getting the photos embedded in the blog imported was less successful. Some made it but others have gone AWOL and as WordPress wants the images to be smaller than 2MB just dropping copies into the article isn’t just going to work, I’ll need to scale them down individually.

I didn’t like RapidWeaver’s default blog so in the search for something “better” I’ve discovered a plugin that uses WordPress. Dunno if this will actually be better but it seems more flexible. It’s probably going to be a hassle to migrate by old, infrequent, blogs to a new system irrespective of what software I use but ideally I’d just like to do it once 🙂

I have no idea if Apple will continue to support iWeb but I suspect not so perhaps the migration to a new machine is the right time to change to some new web design software. Although I’ve got DreamWeaver that seems a lot of work so I’m trying out RapidWeaver. Like iWeb it has its irritations but hopefully less than iWeb.

The iWeb template is 700 px wide but that’s just wasting space on a wide screen laptop so I’ve widened some of the pages to 900 px which looks better. Given iWeb’s uncertain future I’m not going to do them all (at this stage anyway) and might investigate RapidWeaver.
I’ve also started the process of migrating to the new server. If you’re seeing this page then you’re using the new one!

It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with this site, the plan was to wait until I had migrated to a new server but as that’s still a work in progress it’s time to at least add some photos!

Visited Riga on the National Geographic Expeditions Baltic Cruise. What a charming place without the crowds that would be present if it was better known (Hi Brugge 🙂

The tour started with a walk through the Art Nouveau district.

Then we got to experience a folk dance performance by the Dzintarinš children’s folk dance troupe. A great group of kids who obviously enjoy what they do.

I spend the afternoon just wandering around, quite an enjoyable way to spend a pleasant autumn day.

A new server gives me an opportunity to play with the web site. I looked at some commercial iWeb templates but in the end modifying the one I was already using seemed the way forward.

Thanks to Mark Williams taking some very impressive photos of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge early one morning from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair I decided to go have a look during the week of the APAN meeting in Sydney. Glen Turner and I took a taxi over there before dawn and waited for the sun to rise. I am still amazed by the D3’s ability to take hand held photographs in next to zero light.

I returned from the beauty of Oman to the hotels and shops of Dubai. These guys don’t do things by half. A ski slope at Mall of the Emirates and the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. The problem with Burj Khalifa is getting far enough away from it to get it all into shot 🙂

It hadn’t been opened as yet when I was there so I was restricted to walking around it and gazing up rather than looking out from it (although I did fly past it on the helitour from Burj al Arab so I got some perspective).

I need to look for another chance to drop by Dubai and do the tour to the observation deck (and maybe even stay in the hotel).

The public holidays over Christmas and New Year provides a nice little break and this year I decided to do something with them by heading to Dubai and Muscat. Spent a few stress free days in Muscat lazing around the hotel but took a 4WD tour out into the Hajar mountains. Turned out to be just me and the driver taking the wadi road to Wadi Bani Awf and then up the mountain road and over to Nizwa. Amazingly beautiful countryside and I now wish I had organised more tours out into it.