Monday, August 18, 2003

ahh - trying a different aggregator has helped alleviate my information overload Switching to TypePad will also involve getting a stand alone news aggregator. For the past week I've been experimenting with NetNewsWire, a fine Mac only product. I've been very impressed. Before I used to think that needing a new aggregator was a drawback to switching from Radio, but now I think it's a positive reason to try something else. I love its Post to Weblog feature - which replicates the one thing about the Radio aggregator which I really liked. More interesting, I find that the three-pane design makes it easier to get through all of my subscriptions. If I'm in the mood to see what's been on at one particular blog first, I can do this. If none of a blog's titles appeal to me, I can mark them as "all read" with one click and effectively ignore them. All this is much easier than needing to wade through all the entries of all my subscriptions. And I can arrange my subscriptions alphabetically or in theme-based clusters, rather than just by time (although I understand why some bloggers would prefer this). There are some blogs which I would like to check everyday, while others can wait a week or so - it depends on the quality and quantity of the words, as well as my mood. Anyway, here's something from the blog by NetNewsWire's makers: Wired News: [base "]Maniacally wired netizens who read a hundred blogs a day and just as many news sources are turning to a new breed of software, called newsreaders or aggregators, to help them manage information overload. Many now say that their news aggregator is as indispensable as their e-mail client.[per thou] Interesting article. I think I was slightly misquoted about sales of NetNewsWire. The [base "]five figures[per thou] part refers to the number of users of NetNewsWire and NetNewsWire Lite: the number of users is at least a five figure number. Just wanted to clear that up: not a big deal, really. [Ranchero] 10:41:19 PM

	Thursday, August 14, 2003

a correction about AOL Journals - it's only useless for some people Thanks to feedback from Jason Lefkowitz of theAnt's Eye View, I can tell you that AOL Journals will work with if you use IE 6 for Windows to create or edit posts. Using IE 6 will give you a built-in WYSIWYG HTML editor which will allow you to both link and have titles. So that's the good news. I thought that the way to get the most out of AOL features was to use its browser (the one based on IE), but I guess AOL 8.0 for Windows must be based on an older version of IE, because it had no WYSIWYG editor. Maybe AOL Journals will work properly in the upcoming AOL 9 for Windows. But the bad news is that yesterday's comments are still very true for Mac users. There is no equivalent of IE 6 for the Mac. The Mac AOL browser is based on Netscape / Gecko. I wonder why AOL would let Mac users use AOL Journals, knowing that it won't work properly for them? I suspect they never really thought about it. By the way, you can read Jason's review of AOL Journals here. 11:01:04 PM

	Wednesday, August 13, 2003

AOL Journals and iBlog OK, I was never serious about AOL Journals - but I was curious. Now I've discovered a flaw that makes it almost worthless as a blogging tool. In AOL Journals you must choose between making an entry with a title (which is essential), or making an entry which contains links (which is also essential). You can't have both - and this is an anathema to any self-respecting blogger. This is because you can make an entry with a link by using AOL instant messenger - but when you use AOL instant messenger, you can't designate a title for your entry. Now there is a way of editing an entry, when you could theoretically add a title, but if you try this, you will lose your link! Because the stupid editor only handles plain-text - it doesn't even support any HTML tags! So until this is fixed, it's quite useless as a blogging tool. The trouble with iBlog is that I'm yet to find a iBlog blog which seems to offer a good RSS feed. This is crucial for a blog - your blog may as well be invisible if it doesn't have a reliable RSS feed (this was something which AOL at least, could get working). In no way have I surveyed all of them, maybe I was just unlucky with the ones that I looked at. So I'd like to support iBlog, but it's not quite ready yet either. Besides, I've been playing around with TypePad some more and am still very impressed. Its elegance and functionality remind me of a Mac. Coming from a Mac user like me, this is high praise. 7:14:08 AM

	Tuesday, August 12, 2003

should I stay with Salon blogs or switch to TypePad? I find it quite amusing and ironic that less than two weeks after I promised myself that I wouldn't switch this blog to MovableType, I am feeling very drawn towards switching to MovableType's TypePad. Of course, I did give a proviso to this undertaking - "unless Movable Type became idiot-proof." While no blogging software is truly idiot-proof, except possibly AOL Journals (see this amusing piece about them), TypePad seems way more user-friendly than standard MovableType and a lot easier to work with than Radio Userland. So I'm seriously considering defecting to TypePad. So here are my pros and cons about switching to TypePad - Pros: - I don't really like the Radio Userland software that much. Although it's easy enough to start a bare bones blog with it, it isn't very user-friendly IMHO. I find it difficult to understand for customizing and think that the documentation is poor - especially when compared with TypePad. - I haven't really been following the flame wars associated with Dave Winer. But what I've heard makes me feel uneasy about the future of Radio. I worry that Radio Userland is isolating itself in the blogosphere. - TypePad is web-based, so it's very easy to update from anywhere. No more being tied to the one computer! - TypePad offers more gadgets for blogs - which are really easy to implement. This goes back to one of my complaints with Radio - yes, you can do a lot with it, but a lot of it is quite difficult and arcane to configure. - I like TypePad's photo album feature Cons (and there are quite a few): - It's more expensive than Radio. I'm interested in the intermediate $8.95/month option. - I'd also need to get a separate news aggregator (maybe this isn't all bad), which I may need to pay extra for if I want a good one. - I think that initially, my readership would plummet. (but is this really an issue?) - I would leave the Salon blog community, which I like a lot. I would get onto the Salon blog webring, but that wouldn't be the same. The issue is, if Salon blogs is on a sinking ship (Radio), do I show solidarity and stay until things get worse, or do I just seize what seems to be a good opportunity at this moment? - It's not as if TypePad is the only option for me, either. Maybe Blogger Pro will get better under the ownership of Google. Maybe I should support fine Mac only software such as iBlog. And don't forget AOL - for which I'm already paying for. Nobody will probably take an AOL blog seriously, but it might offer a way of communicating with a wider audience. Well there's no rush to do any of this. I'll give myself a least a week before I do anything rash. 1:06:06 AM

	Monday, August 11, 2003

curious about TypePad MT Pro vs. TypePad. One thing I was expecting TypePad to have that I am surprised it does not is the ability to FTP... [LibraryPlanet.com] 2:03:26 AM

	Friday, August 8, 2003

a Tasmanian blog! (I feel homesick now) PLACE-ORIENTED BLOGS. You may have noticed that I (sometimes unfairly) group blogs in my blogroll into artistic, business/scientific, environmental, news, and political categories, with Salon blogs listed separately because...well, because they're my community. Recently I've discovered another type of blog that is primarily geographical in nature. These have been self-styled as 'place-oriented blogs' or 'blogs of place'. Although most of us write from time to time about what's happening in our physical community, place-oriented bloggers write almost exclusively about the history, geography, and current events (often with photos) of their community. They're actually very entertaining (and sometimes educational) to read. Here are some of the best of the breed I've found: London and the North - London & Yorkshire, UK Faultline / Creek Running North - California Lifescapes - Texas Bowen Island Journal - British Columbia Laughing Knees - Japan Life at the Edge - Tasmania (whence the photo above) Ecotone - A wiki with more Bloggers of Place, and more about them Some of our Salon bloggers write more about their physical location than others, especially those living outside the country as ex-pats. What do you think -- is your blog a 'blog of place' or do you just write about home when there's nothing more urgent to write about? Is this a legitimate new genre of blog? I have occasionally posted about my home on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Ontario, but not with any geographic thoroughness. Should I write more about place? [How to Save the World] 5:55:58 AM

Dave Pollard on the blogging process Another intriguing flow-chart from How to Save the World. My thoughts: This is a very detailed & helpful description of what's generally an unconcious process for me. It also serves as a best practice to aim for, because it's rare that I'm doing all of the things which Dave mentions. 5:50:20 AM

another one year anniversary - Salon blogs Scott Rosenberg reflects on one year of Salon blogs. I appreciate his candour. 5:37:41 AM

Movable Type introduces TypePad New Blogging Service Rolls Out.. If you want to set up your own blog you might want to check out TypePad (which is from the well-established folks at Movable Type).  A shining example of the power of this new blog tool is the PVR Blog, which is a great resource for information on devices like TiVo and ReplayTV and digital recording devices in general. There are 3 levels of service for TypePad, the lowest priced one is $5.00 a month, which includes hosting and a bunch of features (i.e. the ability to publish picture albums etc).  Worth checking out. [Ernie the Attorney] Hmm, looks very interesting ... 5:27:30 AM

	Thursday, July 24, 2003

tinkering with AOL Journals The first AOL journal (blog) I've seen. Via Hylton Joliffe I've clicked through to an AOL Journal called sound & fury. The branding at the top (below the generic AOL nav) reads "AOL Journals: Your Thoughts. Your Blog." I was hoping I could find my way from that blog to other AOL blogs but there doesn't seem to be any central jumping-off point (or blogroll/sidebar, for that matter). [Radio Free Blogistan] I was playing around with AOL Journals yesterday. My attempt was very experimental & silly so I'm not going to link to it. As I expected, it was very easy to set up - there are various templates for choosing how the Journal looks and how functions it has. Updating is also easy - you just send an instant message to the AOL Journal bot. This means that you can use all the formatting that you can use in an instant message, which is quite a lot. But I also a discovered a bug with this. If I add an entry with AIM and then want to edit that entry in AOL to give it a title or information about my mood or the music I'm listening (like LiveJournal), then most of the formatting goes away. If I initially created the entry in AOL, then there's no option to use anything but plain-text - and no HTML tags for bolding, italicizing, changing colours or fonts. This isn't an issue, so long as they fix that bug about editing entries created with AIM - or allow you to give the title, mood and music in the instant message. Hopefully they'll fix this by the time it's officially released. An AOL Journal does provide an RSS feed, but not any news aggregator functions. Because of this, I think that AOL Journals is more equivalent to LiveJournal (albeit not as good!) than software like Radio Userland or Blogger. And I agree that AOL needs to provide a way of locating other AOL Journals. 6:54:24 PM