Posts filed under 'Web Tech'
A particularly lucid comment left by eletherious on my post “So you wanna start a blog?” has me thinking of a suitable response:
However, what you do not answer is why would someone blog rather than create a web site? Both requre the same focus and discipline over focus and content. It would seem that a web site provides more content and design flexibility whereas a blog is more one dimensional - literary / literal?
In the nearly fourteen years I’ve been producing both static and dynamic websites (oh, that makes me feel so old), this is a question with which I’ve grappled time and again. In fact, in the early days of blogs, when they were driven almost exclusively as vanity projects, I was one among many who resisted the creation of any product that stood simply as a monumount to one’s ego, perferring instead to produce a non-blog site that might showcase my writing, my artwork, my web design skills, and so on.
Do you see a difference between the two, as fundamentally ego-driven projects? In retrospect, I can’t. But I think this is due to a certain levelling of the stigma attached to both types of sites, and especially blogs. They aren’t simply vanity projects any longer, but also vital sources of ideas and information, and –ironically– a personal “static” website is more likely to be viewed with an air of hoity-toitiness (to use a technical term). After all, many static sites beg us to come back often and check for updates. Why should we? They rarely make those updates easy to find. Are we expected to troll through every page looking for something new every week? Isn’t that presumptuous, in a way? What could bring us back so regularly?
And therein lies part of the appeal of blog sites to visitors. In our busy schedules, we want the convenience of one-stop shopping. The days of visiting eight markets in one day is best left to the idle rich, or the very devoted traditional housekeeper inspecting the morning wares in a rural village. Most of us don’t have the time or the absolute need to wander through hundreds of sites of potential interest per day. I want to know what information is new, and I want to expend a minimum of effort finding it. Hence, of course, the rapid proliferation of newsfeed readers like Bloglines.
“But,” some will interject here, “there are applications that tell you when a page has been updated.” True. But of all the 60+% of people using Internet Explorer, what percentage of people have ever used the “Subscribe” function, or even know it’s there? I dimly recall using it a couple of times, and gave it up when it proved completely unreliable (due mainly to the way that information tends be moved around a website dynamically).
If your goal, then, is to attract and keep regular visitors –as opposed to people tripping across a popular page in your site via a search engine and, then satisfied, leaving forever– the reverse-chronological nature of blogs can be far more effective than the vast majority of static sites.
Beyond this, though, blogs have other advantages. As silly as this may sound, since the general expectations afforded to blogs are lower –after all, the ease of creating a blog has allowed everyone and their dogs to erect them as testiments to their own boredom– there is far less of an intimidation factor in actually getting the darn things up and running. For example, I can’t count the number of iterations of my own personal sites that have been nearly complete, but –in my final but overly-critical evaluations– weren’t “good enough” to be released. A showcase site (as was my intention) becomes a grandiose and complicated affair that, to perfectionist standards, may never be complete enough to launch. I had no such compunctions about creating and launching a blog, since I knew it would be quite easy to match up to the majority of sites out there. I could thus build up better material over time without fear, or at least without an incredible amount of pre-launch effort.
This all being said, eletherious does have an excellent point about the one-dimensionality of blogs. For example, most blogs can be seen as a simple stream of quickly-written and barely literate verbage spewing forth at regular intervals, eventually to “scroll off” the main page and disappear forever into the rarely-viewed archives.
But –and I stress the following– that doesn’t need to be so. Many of the better blog engines will allow you to easily create so-called static pages, or fixed pages, that will allow you to write materials accessible via a top or side menu. For example, a company may have pages about its history, its reputation, its clients, its products, and so on, and these can be viewed by all visitors at a moment’s notice. The “blog” portion can then be the news about launches, specials, reports, industry news, and those other tasty little morsels that encourage repeat visitors. This can provide the best of both worlds.
There are, of course, downsides to using a blog as opposed to a static site. For one thing, there is a constant pressure to update it; when your most recent post is eight months old, it shows a certain neglect. Blogs are based around “templates” –a standard look and feel you create for almost every page– which tends to limit the aesthetic variety within your site. (This is not necessarily a bad thing.) Since items are archived (unless deleted), all the older posts on the site are there to reflect upon you –the chaff with the wheat, so to speak– and so those people producing wildly inconsistent material, or who change their minds often, may not wish visitors to see those pieces. And, although providing the ability for readers to comment is often considered integral to building up a sense of loyalty and community (read: repeat visitors), the need to guard against undesirable feedback, mainly the spam that results from one’s popularity, has to be assigned a high priority.
The most important function of a static site, in my opinion, is a “point of presence”. In other words, a site that can be put up and left for indeterminate amounts of time that simply establishes your presence on the Net — and therefore in the world, such is the pervasiveness of the medium. If you’re a small business, or a scholar wishing to put up a few papers, or a proud papa or mama who just wants to put up a few baby pictures for family, then this could be perfect. Otherwise, it might be worthwhile to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using a blog engine to create your site, even though you may hesitate to consider the resulting product a blog.
No doubt many books have already been written about this topic, and many more will come. These are just a few idle thoughts conjured up this Sunday morning over a Thermos of coffee, though most of them are born out of long-standing practical experience, rather than ethereal theory. The latter, I’ll leave for the pundits to debate over their $8 mocha latte grandes. 
May 7th, 2006
Since it’s now possible for newcomers to the blogging world to set up a Blogger or WordPress.com account in mere minutes without the slightest idea about what one is doing or why, it seems like 98% of the blogs on the Web boast but a half-dozen erratic posts before going dormant forever. Of those that are left, most offer only simple “my link for the day” posts, which of course are fine for friends or people of very similar interests, but not so much for the world at large.
Now that I’m in the process of starting a new blog (on Sherlock Holmes), I figured it was about time to write down and share a few of my wildly-scrawled ideas concerning how exactly I go about such a thing (or, how I occasionally help others in a consulting capacity to do the same).
Like most other things, I conceive of a blog as a project, to be given due consideration, planning and effort. As such, I brainstorm, write notes, prepare a vision, gather resources, construct initial timelines, experiment with form, evaluate delivery options, and so on, before I even think of doing that magic little incantation which causes the blog to appear. I’m not going to get into all of these here. What follows are rough notes, not a course. But first and foremost to keep in mind is the approach: a lacklustre preparation usually leads to a lacklustre site. On the other hand, all the preparatory time in the world won’t mean squat if you don’t have the discipline or wherewithal (or –*ahem*– ego) to keep it up.
A clear vision is the primary thing to keep in mind. Vision leads to purpose, purpose leads to motivation, motivation leads to regular posts, regular posts lead to regular readers. So what’s this thing of yours going to be? Is it going to be a site to explore or exploit a niche interest of yours? Is it going to help develop commercial opportunities? Is it a playground to learn new technologies or methods? Is it to provide feedback for a project or cause you’re involved with? Or is it an ego thing, where you’re going to post idle thoughts as you feel like it? If the latter, pay attention: remember the 98% of dormant blogs? Almost all of them fall into this category. Repeat after me: “I want this blog to ….” Fill in the blank. If you don’t have a coherent point or two, then you lack a vision with focus.
Now, a lack of focus doesn’t necessarily mean that the blog won’t be a success, but it sure makes it a lot more difficult to maintain. For example, this blog doesn’t have a strong focus. That explains the erratic posting, the subject matter covering no particular ground, and the wide variations on quality. However, this blog does have a purpose: it’s an outlet for me to practise my writing skills, especially on those topics that don’t fit into my other, more specialised sites. Practice is necessary for a writer, of course, and it helps to have actual readers as motivation. Don’t believe me? — try joining a writing club where you have to produce materials to read aloud each week, and enjoy a newfound discipline. (Private material is obviously kept offline, since I figure no one needs to know about my Sturm und Drang, or my sex life either, for that matter.)
For the new Holmes blog, I have a vision with two primary purposes: to learn more about my subject matter by exploring a new facet each day; and to help others explore the character of Sherlock Holmes not only as a cultural phenomenon, but as something far beyond the stereotypical cartoonish figure with deerstalker and magnifying glass. Secondary purposes: to indulge in a relaxing pastime each day; to provide a hub or lens to focus on all the rich sites scattered throughout the web; to introduce the joys of old time radio shows to the iPod generation; and –last but not least– to provide a little fresh Sherlock to fans every day.
Ultimately, a blog faces two great dangers: boredom and degree of effort. Boredom is almost always inevitable, at some point. Having a purpose can get you past these dry spells and recharge your batteries when necessary. At times, the topic of productivity can get quite stale for me; having a clear purpose for DIYPlanner.com means that I know my goals and can work towards reaching them, which means writing with an end in mind. Then there are some people who love their subject matter so much, and have so much free time, that they may write copious amounts of text each and every day. It’s a very rare individual that possesses this degree of commitment and time — I’m afraid that isn’t me. Ask yourself why you’re starting a blog. Do you have a good answer? If so, you can overcome these obstacles, as long as you possess enough discipline, passion or ego.
Vision also leads to the type, frequency and angle of the posts. Who are you writing for, how often, and what sort of material will you be providing? For this blog, my material is almost always original, and therefore tends to be rather irregular: things are posted as they’re done. For DIYPlanner.com, each volunteer writer has a slated day for posting an original article, usually concerned with a particular subject matter (although personal and professional issues sometimes mean that the posts may be postponed). Deadlines can work, as long as one is strict about them. For the Holmes blog, I’m intending a daily post each weekday. Some of these will be original writings, some will be graphics or advertisements, some will be radio shows, and some will feature links with quotes from other sites. This variation is important to me — it means that I don’t feel the pressure of having to write entirely new text each day, and yet I can still keep to a daily schedule of providing interesting material. If you wander into a blog with no idea of your target audience, frequency, or type of posts, statistics dictate that the blog may not last long.
Since we’re on the topic of readers, figure out what part these people play in your blog. I’ve always believed in the idea of fostering feedback and community, so I prefer to hear from readers as much as possible. Other bloggers don’t allow comments to be left on their blogs; this strikes me as a old-style schoolteacher who lectures at the podium without interacting with a class, or a politician who refuses to field calls from constituents except at election time. How do you know what people want, unless you allow them a voice? Allow them to be publicly heard, and you show them a greater respect, not to mention a willingness to involve yourself in honest discourse. This has the added effect of building loyalty, as well as traffic between your site and others.
Another thing I keep in mind while planning: alternate ways of providing material, besides your own posts. These commonly tend to fall under certain categories (although others do exist):
- Other posters, either regular or as guests
- Constantly changing links, with comments (such as a del.icio.us roll or two)
- Syndicated material from other sites (lists of recent posts, pointing to the articles and updated automatically)
- Shoutboxes and comment feeds, where people can leave messages on your site that appear as a scroll or feed of some type (great for sites fostering heavy discussion)
- Information fed from other sites that you may have contributed to, such as a series of thumbnails from your recent Flickr posts
My blogs already have several of these, and my Holmes site is no exception. For example, I often come across interesting pages about Holmes or Conan Doyle at other sites. I can simple post it to del.icio.us with a “sherlock” tag, and have all those links appear automatically in a box on the new blog. News, I tag with “shscandal”, and it will show up in my Scandal Sheet section. There’s something to be said for automating as much of your content as possible. On the other hand, some people take it to the extreme: their blogs are no more than simple portals, taking others’ information and posts, and simply displaying it within their own pages. From time to time, I actually find my AMMT or DIYPlanner posts copied in full on other sites, sometimes without even an acknowledgement of my name or site! Needless to say, this is a way to upset others. Don’t do it.
If you have a somewhat personal blog and only foresee low traffic numbers, then the idea of financial support probably doesn’t strike you as important. But even fledgeling blogs stand a change at covering basic hosting charges through Google ads and an Amazon Associates account, both of which are very easy to set up. The former means pasting a little chunk of code into your blog for an ad to appear, and the latter means constructing links that, if followed, snatch you a small percentage for each book sold. If your traffic picks up due to your growing technical and/or marketing know-how, your amazing content, or perhaps even a random fortuitous link, it means you have a shot at getting dedicated advertisers or special types of ads, such as in RSS feeds, which can bring in even more pocket change.
Be aware, though, that blogging is a hard thing to do for a living. Many have tried, carefully plotting their business model and putting in endless hours of content creation, and have ultimately failed. All is not lost: there’s always publicity, financial opportunities (chiefly job offers and freelance contracts), networking, a reputation as an expert, and other outcomes to keep in mind. Many people have turned hobbies into occupations or legitimate businesses; a blog is no different. Just don’t toss out a few words here and there and expect the world to come knocking at your door with fistfuls of cash. The dot-com era is over, and it’s unlikely that VCs are going to want to pay for you to post stories about Fluffy and his big honkin’ furballs, complete with a flashing Purina advert.
Getting the word out is not easy, either, unless you’re “tapped in” to a number of blogs or discussion sites where people will probably want to read your material. In my case, AMMT and the D*I*Y Planner got a good start when I mentioned my (then rather primitive) little templates on some productivity sites and mailing lists I frequented (read: was obsessed with). This, I believe, is a good example of what to do: if you have a particular subject matter in mind, announce it in those places where people with a similar interest can be found. It sounds logical, and it is. But try not to appear out of the blue and start promoting yourself. Hang out, discuss, leave your URL in your signature, say profound things, and people will learn to respect you and actually want to hear your thoughts. Being a lurker counts against you in such cases, as it will when you start posting. People want to read the opinions of someone with something to say.
Of course, one can get an immediate traffic boost by writing something sensational that caters to the audiences of a major site like SlashDot or bOINGbOING, then submitting the link. But you’ll be one among hundreds, if not thousands, that submit their wares that day, so don’t count on being picked up. And even if you are, once the hordes come (and possibly bring your server and spam filters to their knees), they had better find other materials on your site that they want to read, or else you’ll not be bookmarked, or have your feed taken, and in a few days you’ll be sitting in your big ole’ empty room again, like the aftermath of the proverbial party that wrecked your house and went off to other, more popular hosts with better booze.
And lastly, stay away from “link exchange sites”, as these rarely work. Why? Because the only people who exchange links with them are newbies with oft-lacklustre content, and whom few people read. In the mathematical voodoo of search engines, this generally racks up very few points, and you’ll definitely loose those points with net-savvy people who visit your site, only to find scores of random links to furball Fluffy and obsoleted blogs with smatterings of “I found this cool link today: link”. Yup, these are like the unpopular kids in the schoolyard that try anything to become accepted. Rise above that, become an individual, and speak your mind. That’s why people will listen to you, and visit again and again. Once they find you in the first place, of course. (And that’s the hard part.)
Well, that concludes my few pages of wild and woolly notes. Hopes this helps someone out there….
March 29th, 2006
You might have noticed a few fresh changes to a million monkeys typing. It all comes as a result of upgrading to WordPress 2.0. For a while now, I’ve been hesitant to install the latest patches and upgrades to WP 1.5.x (yes, I know, I’ve been a naughty boy), since my theme was so heavily customised — it was an all-in-one file I originally made for WP 1.0, and quite a mess after being hauled reluctantly through several versions. This weekend, I decided to strap on the bungee cord, close my eyes, and jump. The actual database work and installation was seamless and smooth, but I didn’t see much point in pushing an antiquated theme that couldn’t take advantage of all the latest generation of WP goodness. Thus, with great trepidation, I grabbed a pre-existing theme with a superficial resemblance to the layout of AMMT –Blix by Sebastian Schmieg– and started creating my style sheets again from scratch.
Might I reveal here that my CSS2 is a tad rusty? Or at least it was, until yesterday morning when I started diving into the plumbing of the styles. Slowly, it all started coming back to me, even all the “standard” codes that break Internet Explorer (which are, as any CSS guru knows, quite numerous). Not everything here is perfect yet, and you’ll no doubt see quite a few things break intermittently in the next couple of days.
Seeing it’s a new year, and a new start in so many ways, I’m going to clear out some of the clutter here, streamline some of the formatting, create a few new features, and generally get back to blogging regularly. Although we’re still not unpacked from our big move, I think it’s a good idea to get back to regular online life again, and despite the success of my other site DIYPlanner.com, I still consider AMMT to be my homestead of sorts. (DIYPlanner was designed to be more of a community than a place for one individual’s voice.)
As for WP2, I am enjoying it quite a bit, but am still undecided about the WYSIWYG editor for posts. Although it’s mostly well done, I find it a little slow on this G3 PowerBook, and keep tripping across paragraph breaking issues. Besides, I speak HTML like a native language, so using the non-WYSIWYG editor is not an impediment of any kind. That being said, all the other changes –such as the streamlined posting interface, the “inline” images and files, the end of .htaccess hassles, and the easier management of content– are priceless, and worth the upgrade. Plus, the whole thing feels much speedier, which is no doubt a result of the interface changes and the new caching mechanism. It’s normally a good idea to wait for the first bug fix release of software, but thus far I have no regrets in jumping headfirst into this upgrade.
I’ll follow this post up in a few days with some more thoughts about using the new WP2, as well as some of the plugins I’ve decided to set up.
January 1st, 2006
Not long ago, I had to teach a workshop on “how to make a website.” The class was to take place in a computer lab with older, unstable machines, and the 15 or so participants ranged from teenagers with a good grasp of web development basics to retirees who barely knew how to handle a mouse. I was given three hours to deliver the workshop, not including a 20 minute intermission. Needless to say, this was going to be a challenge.
Thankfully, it turned out to be far easier than I thought, thanks to the excellent WYSIWYG web development application called Nvu (then still at version 0.8). After using the HTML view to learn a few of the basic codes, we switched to WYSIWYG view and they began to use it like a word processor. We shifted back and forth so they could see how authoring in one view affected the other. By time the three hours were up, almost everybody in the workshop had published their own website, and the attendees were rather psyched up about the fact that they managed to create their own little homesteads in cyberspace.
Nvu occupies the gap left by applications like Dreamweaver, GoLive and FrontPage becoming much more complicated for professional usage: there is a genuine need for a simple but potentially powerful program to create web pages without dealing with difficult learning curves, shelling out hundreds of dollars, or moving too fast and too far beyond the paradigms of a word processor. That isn’t to say that professionals won’t find it handy: I’ve used it a number of times myself for “quick-and-dirty” webpages. It’s also great for keeping a commonplace book that can be accessed from multiple locations via a web server. Although the beta versions were stable enough to use for my purposes, the fact that it’s officially released as a version 1.0 means I can start recommending it to others without fear of beta quirks.
The software is yet another powerful application in the Mozilla family, along with Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird (still in early development) and the Mozilla Suite (in fact, it’s the successor to the Mozilla Composer still included in the Suite). It’s available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, and it’s free to download from Nvu. If you’re a beginner with an itch to start producing your own web pages, or even a professional looking for a cross-platform way to create pages and modify existing sites with a minimum of fuss (or expense), then Nvu could prove invaluable. It costs nothing to give it a whirl, and you may even save a fair amount of money and time in the long run.
(By the way, as with any new tool, make sure you back up your existing files before you start experimenting.)
July 2nd, 2005
Once upon a time, like many dutiful Mac users, I subscribed to Apple’s .Mac service. It gave me an webmail-enabled email address, a place to host a webpage with the option of Apple-designed templates, a feeling of belonging to the Mac community, a free virus checker, the occasional freebie app or game, a way to synchronise iCal calendars and Safari bookmarks among multiple computers, and a tediously slow, buggy and so-small-it’s-useless backup solution.
Although I’m sure this is still a great service for many people, I no longer need it. I have Gmail for my mail, a webserver completely under my control (with PHP, Perl, MySQL and tonnes of other goodies), my own templates and webpages (Apple’s were pretty limiting, IMHO), no Mac viruses that I’ve ever seen or even heard of, and a much better back-up solution involving both server syncs and physical backup to CDs.
Now, the sharp-eyed will notice a few holes still remaining. Freebie apps and games aren’t really an issue for me, as I have all the software I need, chiefly from the Open Source community. The “sense of belonging” is also no longer a big deal, as I’ve gotten over my Mac fetish (although I still use my Macs for most of my work). The SpyMac community is great, if you’re into that sort of thing. They also provide 1 Gb of webmail (with POP3 access for regular email clients), homepage hosting, blogs, forum tools, an “iDisk” (WebDAV storage), a gallery, an online calendar/todo system, and more. Great stuff, even if it’s a little slow and graphics-intensive sometimes. (By the way, there’s nothing saying these tools are designed only for Macs: they work just as well on Windows or Linux.)
It’s the bookmark and calendar synchronisation that’s often the killer for people with multiple machines.
The calendar issue is easily solved. Many clients allow sharing calendar info through FTP or WebDAV on a server somewhere (such as on SpyMac, if you don’t have access to another server). Mozilla Calendar –and its up-and-coming standalone application, Sunbird– is perfect for this sort of thing. The extension will install in Mozilla, Firefox or Thunderbird, and you can tell it to “publish”, i.e., synchronise, with the server by setting your URL, login and password in its preferences. You can do this over multiple machines and operating systems, and never be out of sync with your calendar.
The bookmarks problem is another issue entirely, however. There have been a number of kludges. For example, you can use del.icio.us and Foxylicious to share bookmarks, but the whole tag-as-folder thing is rather messy. SiteBar with the Firefox extension is not bad, but it requires a web-based sidebar, and it’s not easy to easily re-arrange or manage your marks. And there are a few other similar projects, but none of them are as easy as simply setting your native bookmarks to share among multiple computers, locations and OSes. I hear tell that roaming bookmarks, as it’s sometimes called, is something slated for Mozilla & Co. again (it has been included in past versions, albeit incomplete and buggy), but now there’s finally an easy-to-use Firefox extension that “just works”.
Bookmarks Synchronizer, by Torisugari, will sync with an XML file it creates on a server. Go into your preferences, fill in your server info, set your options (such as automatically syncing upon starting and exiting your browser), and you’re good to go.
Now, if only I’d get off my behind and implement a way of sharing contacts among my Thunderbird clients, I’ll be all set. Hmm… and then there’s the Palm Pilot synchronisation thing with Mozilla I’ve yet to try. And then there’s groupware to set up. And the wiki for….
Argh. Too many toys, not enough time. Well, at least that’s my bookmarks taken care of.
February 3rd, 2005
New article in the UK newspaper The Observer: Why encyclopaedic row speaks volumes about the old guard:
According to the laws of aerodynamics, the bumblebee should not be able to fly. Yet fly it manifestly does, albeit in a stately fashion. So much for the laws of aerodynamics.
Much the same applies to Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia written, edited and maintained by its readers. Or, to put it another way, written, edited and maintained by anyone who can be bothered to log in and change it. By all laws of reference-work publishing, Wikipedia ought to be a disaster. Yet it is exactly the opposite - an exceedingly useful online reference work often consulted by this columnist and countless others.
While I seem to remember some scientist on the Discovery Channel attempting to debunk the myth of the bee’s aerodynamic instability, the metaphor is nevertheless a good one. Wikipedia is generally my first choice of reference, before I ever hit Google.
January 19th, 2005
Yet another option for all you bookmark (and GTD) junkies out there, especially with more than one machine: a new SiteBar Sidebar extension has been released to work with Firefox 1.0. For those not in the know, SiteBar is a cool way to manage your bookmarks from multiple machines using a hierachy, synced with a server somewhere. The Firefox extension gives you a neat sidebar so you can easily manage and use those bookmarks.
I suggested using SiteBar with a wiki a few months ago for GTD-related work. Each bookmark can take you straight to the edit form page for your Next Actions, Projects, etc. It works exceedingly well, if you want a nice web-enabled GTD app and are comfortable with text and wikis. At least it worked well for me, with the exception of no built-in calendar (which is what I generally use my PDA for, anyway). Hmm… I wonder if there are decent calendar plugins for any wikis I use….
January 5th, 2005
I love the following bit from the NYT article Digital Domain: The Fox Is in Microsoft’s Henhouse (and Salivating):
Mr. Schare of Microsoft does have one suggestion for those who cannot use the latest patches in Service Pack 2: buy a new personal computer. By the same reasoning, the security problems created by a car’s broken door lock could be solved by buying an entirely new automobile. The analogy comes straight from Mr. Schare. “It’s like buying a car,” he said. “If you want to get the latest safety features, you have to buy the latest model.”
In this case, the very latest model is not a 2001 Internet Explorer, but a 2004 Firefox.
One of the seminars I give on behalf on my organisation is on virus, spyware and security issues. I’ve taken to giving out TheOpenCD (which just hit version 2.0 a week or so ago), including Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org, because of the concern over security issues inherent in IE, Outlook & cousins, and MS Office. (Nope, I don’t generally give away Linux, because I also do tech support and am not that much of a masochist.)
By the way, if you’re not aware of it, and use (or know someone that uses) Windows, it’s worthwhile checking TheOpenCD out. Tonnes of Open Source software –all the latest versions, too– with a nice little user-friendly interface that shows descriptions, screenshots, tutorials, demo movies, and even has a one-click button allowing simple installation. Great Christmas gift, too, or at least a stocking stuffer.
December 19th, 2004
Most people that start off blogging seem to arbitrarily choose whatever solution they trip across first, or whichever one seems like the least work. I actually started a “home-grown” solution via Flash and XML, which worked fine after I figured out some of Flash’s XML-reading quirks, but it wasn’t a very advanced application from a point of view of functionality. (Text plus optional pic, tied to date.) When I decided to stop producing a static site in favour of a blog, I created some accounts in LiveJournal and Blogger, but gave them up because customisability didn’t seem to be encouraged (or easy to achieve). Even managed to install and try MoveableType as well, just before the big 3.0 license fiasco, and while I did like it, I was a little frightened off by the community “retaliation” happening because of 3.0. WordPress was next in line, and I loved it. Easy install, easy (well, relatively easy) customisation, plenty of great templates, and a vibrant community effort behind it. It took less than two days to produce basically everything that would form a million monkeys typing.
Now, there’s a new entry over at dsandler.org: The past and future of dsandler.org. (Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love WordPress.) He goes over the multiple solutions he examined before finally choosing WordPress:
And damn if it doesn’t work. From a features standpoint, WP includes fifteen different kitchen sinks, but the administrative UI is totally manageable (and the template functions are reasonable, if not always totally consistent) . The third-party developer community is active and prolific, and I quickly found an implementation of almost every feature I had imagined for the site (including next-day/previous-day links). And after a little time with the PHP code, I became pretty comfortable that I’d be able to hack together whatever I needed if I couldn’t find it elsewhere.
November 27th, 2004
An excellent in-depth review of Firefox 1.0 over at InformationWeek: What Makes Firefox 1.0 So Compelling. Seven pages of close scrutiny and essential bedtime reading.
You’ll also find a poll in the “Related Stories” sidebar asking whether you’re going to switch from IE to Firefox (currently standing at 95% yes).
November 22nd, 2004
Oh! I wish I had some spare time to play around with this, an Eclipse IDE for OpenLaszlo.
For those of you who haven’t tripped across it yet, OpenLaszlo is an Open Source (though once proprietary) system for creating applications that run through Macromedia Flash, thus providing a rich –but not overly complex– framework for implementing and deploying applications that run within 97% of browsers.
I love IBM’s Eclipse editor, I really do, although on slower computers it tends to be a helluva resource hog: it’s a huge Java app, after all. It’s capable of doing quite a number of things (I’ve used it for Java, HTML, text, LaTeX and Python), and it’s easily extensible. Now that it supports OpenLaszlo, it’s a killer app for producing rich web applications.
The IDE provides a rich editing environment for the LZX mark-up language, including XML and script-based content assistance, XML syntax highlighting, and XML code formatting. The editor is supported by Palette, Properties, and Outline views. These views allow developers to Drag and Drop new LZX elements into the editor, edit attributes, and modify the LZX document structure within a tree representation.
It also supports a wide range of debugging capabilities, but unfortunately is only really supported on Linux and Windows. The Mac OS X has a few issues that need to be ironed out. More information, and the download, can be found at IBM’s Alphaworks Laszlo page.
Update: CNet has an interview with the CTO of Laszlo Systems, David Temkin, where he discusses the impetus between the Laszlo development framework and going up against Macromedia.
November 20th, 2004
Get yer red hot Moodle 1.4.2 here. Improvements include a number of security fixes, so they recommend that anyone running an older version should upgrade to this new one.
I’m really learning to love Moodle. But I’m an education tech junkie, anyway, so it’s a natural fit. Once of these days, when I have some time to spare (there’s that old delusion, again), I’m going to delve into its guts to figure out how to add a few organisational modules.
November 18th, 2004
Over at Best Tool for the Job, Marcus as an entry called Mission “Choose a Wiki”: Accomplished. His thoughts on the various wikis were much the same as mine, but his choice was a different one, owing to different needs, no doubt.
I quite enjoy Marcus’ weblog, as he seems to have quite a number of interests similar to mine, but comes up with different ideas and conclusions that I hadn’t thought of. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, I highly recommend having a look at his.
November 13th, 2004
Since the Firefox 1.0 release, there’s been hundreds of stories all around the world about it. Check the ongoing Google News related stories for the latest. There’s everything from The Motley Fool to Al-Jazeera , from USA Today to the Hindustan Times.
As can generally be expected from Wired, there’s an excellent and in-depth story over there called Firefox 1.0 Makes Flashy Debut.
November 11th, 2004
Now that Firefox 1.0 has finally been released, and the poor servers are able to deal with the heavy download rates, the Net is awash with announcements, news stories, reviews and how-to articles. Here are just a few I’ve tripped across today.
Ben Goodger, Lead Engineer for Firefox, announces the release of 1.0.
The official press release from the Mozilla Foundation.
According to developer Asa Dotzler, Firefox was being downloaded more than 50,000 times an hour yesterday.
From BBC News: Firefox browser takes on Microsoft.
From Reuters: Firefox Browser, a Microsoft Rival, Fully Released.
From CNN: New browser to challenge Microsoft.
CNet has a Review of Firefox 1.0:
Move over, Internet Explorer. Feature-studded and secure Mozilla Firefox 1.0 is a safer, better choice for Internet browsing. […] Bottom Line: Firefox’s tabbed browsing, RSS support, security features, and overall cool factor make it more attractive than Internet Explorer.
and you can also find a review of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6.0 (sorry, can’t resist):
Suffers from chronic security holes; no RSS reader; available only within Windows XP SP2; expensive technical support. […] Bottom Line: Unless your business has specific ActiveX technology needs, you are much more secure running Firefox than Internet Explorer.
From News.com: Mozilla releases Firefox 1.0 and Firefox Fans Clog Mozilla Site.
eWeek has a new article: Review: Ten Extensions Enhance Firefox.
I’m sure there’ll be more later.
Update: eWeek interviews the President of the Mozilla Foundation, Mitchell Baker, in a lengthy article called Firefox and Beyond: Mozilla President Browses the Future.
November 10th, 2004
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