Monkey on Wordpress

I think having a tumblelog might be viable for people now getting into blogging, but is there a use for it for those of us that have full fledged blogs? Why not use the heavier blog CMS alternatives, like WordPress, just using the features you need? If you don’t have a blog, maybe signing up with tumbl would be cool but what’s the point if you already have a blog? Some may say you need two types of blogging - the big kahuna style blogging that WordPress offers and the on-the-go blogging of stuff like pownce. What do you think?

As a side note, I’m playing around with Drupal, anyone have experience/advice? I also want to know more about Django considering I don’t know html even.

I spent the better part of 12 hours reinstalling XP and getting my PC back up and running. Sure, getting a computer how you want it will take some time, but this is ridiculous. A lot of that time was spent wiping the HD and re-installing the OS a couple of times. I thought I was done when, finally, I got Windows installed properly, not just re-installed, but re-installed from scratch meaning I had, basically, a factory fresh PC. I plugged in the CAT5 cable and couldn’t get online. Uh-oh.

I popped in my Ubuntu live CD and was able to get online - no worries. Why is it I could just throw my Ubuntu CD in there and get online without having to install any drivers?

The process went like this - wipe the hard-drive, install one OS, reinstall OS because I thought I messed up with drivers (I’m using XP Home instead of pro because of this), boot into Ubuntu multiple times to download random drivers, boot back  into Windows to try them out, boot into Ubuntu to post on some forums, finally get the right driver from someone online to whom I am forever grateful, get online in Windows, install AVG, update, install Spybot, install SP2, install critical updates. I had to install critical updates just to install programs like Live Messenger and Live Writer.

Part of this , if not most of it is Dell’s fault. Why? Because their stupid driver CD didn’t work and it was so hard to find the right driver to get online even though I chose the correct system.  Why are there so many different drivers and such poor documentation? I am by no means a novice computer user and should be able to get this out with ease, yet I wasn’t. I popped my Ubuntu distro in and guess what happened - graphics worked, sound worked, internet worked all out of the box, so to speak. I can now see why people act the way they do over Macs, if it is true that “they just work” as is the claim. With Apple handling Hardware and Software, things just “working” seems like something I’d be willing to pay a premium for. Alas, all of this is done now and I have a freshly installed OS on a fast, un-gunked computer. I guess that makes me a Micro-softy.

WHY, oh why is it Bloglines is so fast at adding feeds and Google Reader is so SLOOOOOOOW? All I want from an RSS reader:

• Add feeds as quickly as with Bloglines but efficiently as  Google - Bloglines adds feeds quickly but you get different options to choose from and it’s from the same feed, I have no idea why this is. With Google Reader when you add a feed, if it actually is added, it will just show site content, no choosing which one.
• J and K go up and down - both have them, yay!
• When I choose a feed and press J and K, only that one item is read, NOT THE ENTIRE FEED, OK Bloglines? Google has the advantage here.
• I want to be able to drag and drop feeds easily. Bloglines allows for me to drag and drop feeds but I have to go into edit first. I want to do it like a desktop application, just drag and drop, not go to edit first, also, it needs to work faster. I think the ideal thing is for it to go like Google Docs.

I am frustrated, I need to easily edit these feeds into folder and import them. I was thinking that getting a desktop application would be good for speed of feeds but I liked the simplicity that a web application offered not to mention being able to get to feeds easily no matter where you are. I am wondering if I could export all the feeds I have in Bloglines and Google Reader and import them into a desktop RSS reader and then manage them there and import them back into Google. I don’t know and don’t think I want to, I’ve been through too much and I am frustrated now. Anyone been in a similar predicament? Is there a desktop RSS reader that makes it worth using so much? I tried simple reader, I believe it is called and FeedDemon which is supposed to be so great, but it wasn’t for me because of the volume of feeds. I need speed.

Ideally now, if I could find a way to easily manage feeds and then allow Bloglines to only mark individual stories in a feed as read instead of the entire feed, I would go to Bloglines maybe, because the speed is nice. Argh.

I am a big music fan and I am browsing through the music blogs throughout the day. One thing I wonder about is sites like Idolator posting MP3s for new songs. Is it okay to do that when songs leak since it can be considered promotional use? What about posting the song in a flash player where people can only listen? I can’t imagine that would be problematic if the Artist’s Myspace profile is playing it. I wonder.

I sometimes wonder what I’m doing with my blog. I want to write about what’s on my mind but I also am very much mindful of my readers, the few of them. When I am online I am going through a lot of feeds and there’s a lot of information there, but really, who wants to get my opinions on a few stories? I’m no author, not anybody famous. So, what now?

I think what I blog about more is usability. Sure, it can be taken as being “complaining” which is fine, but it really does annoy me when things don’t work the way they should. It’s even worse when these are things you want to like so much. I’m looking at you, Google Reader.

Now that WordPress has temporarily done away with feed stats, I wonder how many, if any of you read and look out for what is on this blog. It’s by no means a “must read” since I don’t break any news, and when I do a feature, it’s few and far between. I just want to know if anyone reads this, what they like or liked about it so I can focus on that more because I lack just that: focus.

I’m also constantly looking for new blogs for news on technology, gaming, music, movies, television and all facets of entertainment. Aside from the mainstream “go-to” blogs, I like the niche blogs, the personals, so here’s a free plug, and here’s to some actual content on here.

I’m done with Ecto. I know, I barely used it and I still have a lot of time to use it, but the fact of the matter is after using Windows Live Writer, I just can’t use it because Live Writer gets me. WLR will allow me to choose my blog’s categories, Ecto, as far as I could tell, could not do that. I had some difficulty with Live Writer but as I’ve said before, anything would take getting used to and I don’t want to get used to Ecto.

This proves problematic for me considering I may be making the switch to the Macintosh side of things and Live Writer isn’t available for the Mac. I guess I’ll have to resort to Bootcamp.

I’m also testing the insertion of Maps in posts. Ecto didn’t seem to be able to do that.

According to a press release from Harvard Health Publications, eating meat cooked at high temperatures can potentially cause cancer. What doesn’t cause cancer these days? All this cell phone reception, Wi-Fi - we’re doomed. Just though you should know.

Why am I seeing so much whining on the blogs today? Here are a few links:

Do NOT Install the new Firefox — Read this. - Oh noes! Teh firefawx buttonz haz been moved! I agree with him, I would totally run software with holes in it once my 405438 tabs open continue to get smaller and I certainly would not look for an add-on.

TypePad Woes - TypePad is one of the worst blog CMS options out there. I kid you not.  I rather use a Tumblr account than a Vox account any day. Nice people at TypePad though.

Google Gears — Who needs it? - Um, I do? Just because you have your Blackberries and EVDO card doesn’t mean you will be connected 24/7. I agree with fixing this “digital divide” but even still for those who have access to the Internet, why can’t I carry my Laptop somewhere and not be connected yet still access my stuff? At the very least, don’t use it and move on.

Let’s start right off the bat with me saying all that I heard of Jason Calacanis’ Mahalo made me not like it the least bit. Why? I just got a vibe, but I have been pleasantly wrong in the past so no reason this can’t be one of those instances, right? It seemed to me to be yet another search engine and really, creating a search engine now is suicide no matter how good you are. Does anyone use Clusty? Chances are most people use Google or MSN or Yahoo! and not much more beside a Wikipedia search from time to time.

Web 2.0 tested, Hippie approved.

So, this is what I get Mahalo to be: a people powered search engine. This should be wonderful. Let’s take a look at the start page.

Now, let’s take a look at Spock. What is Spock? Obvious planetary jokes aside, it’s a tag-based people search.

Looking at the start pages, they both give off the “I wan to be Google but cooler” vibe and it’s a toss up, I call it a tie, 1 point each.

Let’s get to the meat and potatoes here: the search. First up, Robert Scoble:

The page on Mahalo gave me links to the Mahalo top 10 which is…a feature. It’s not really that useful a feature, almost like they take the top Google results for the term and put it in there.

Below there is a professional profile. This must be where the actual human power comes in and boy must this be accurate. Mahalo intends to keep the top 10, 000 terms done by humans and I just think this will not get very far but let’s save criticism for later.

To be quite honest, maybe you can see where I am coming from with this when you go to the page, but this just doesn’t seem to be useful - it’s a page of links that are supposed to be in some helpful order but it doesn’t do it well. I can see that the people in charge of these pages do a search on Wikipedia and blogs as well as on services such as Technorati or Twitter and throw the links in under some classification. It seems to be a big, jumbled mess from a user standpoint.

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Spock actually seems better off. We’re presented with a bunch of tags that are useful. Why? Because I can click on one tag that is associated with Robert and find other people. I did this with “technical evangelist” and found Dave Winer and Chris Messina among others. In using it I’ve also realized it’s a good, quick way to find out who people are. Sure, I’ve always heard about this Dave Winer guy, but I never really cared to know anything about why I was always hearing about him, I assumed he and Scoble were camping buddies or something.

A really nice thing is the mini profile on the side of the page. Sure it is basically Yanked from Wikipedia but it’s useful because I may just need basic information on people and don’t want to sift through various wikis.

Spock also has a feature for a bunch of links called “On The Web” and I think Mahalo has the upper hand considering the fact that they at least attempt to divide their information.

Are you keeping track of the points? My head hurts too much to keep giving it out, all points have been revoked.

It’s obvious that Robert Scoble will have a well done profile, after all, he is who he is, so I decided to go for someone who might be less well known by these techies.

I decided to look for Rihanna on Mahalo and Spock.

The profile on Spock was great, had tags for the person as well as Wikipedia info as I showed you with Scoble. I can see the use of Spock being when you need to find out basically who people are. You may not want to read an entire wiki to get the informatio when Spock does it efficiently enough, I guess.

The Mahalo page…is a bunch of links. I suppose if they had the profile container like Spock the page would look more appealing to me, but it doesn’t and you know this fickle Web 2.0 crowd - one look at your page and they’re out. Oh, silly me, what was I saying, there is a profile-ish thing on the page up in the top right-hand corner.

Thanks for the guide note! I can tell a lot of time went into it. Also, the spelling error adds a more personal touch. Or is it just that the site is really cool with the gamer/forum lingo so they use “teh” throughout?

It’s safe to say Spock does this way better than Mahalo and Mahalo is essentially shooting themselves in the foot by using these people.

A Word On Usability

Spock is easy to use, really. It is using tags in a way to help people and I honestly think that it’s something that Google could even benefit from, the same goes for Wikipedia. In fact, either one of these entities could probably utilize Spock as some sort of “alternative”, so maybe an acquisition will occur, that or a blatant rip-off. As for Mahalo…it’s a website but why do I need a legend now for this site? I don’t care about this, don’t tell me which links are the best, just put the best links or don’t say anything. Make the user experience as painless as possible, I do not need a learning curve for a search engine.

In all honesty, I can see people using Spock occasionally but Wikipedia seems to be the best way to go. I remember Jason Calacanis saying how simple it would be to get people to moderate Wikipedia since the debate about Wikipedia’s accuracy was popping up. It seems this is what Jason is intending to do is just that.

Spock has me thinking, I can do a search for “inventor” then get a list of inventors. Suppose I am doing a project and need to find an inventor, a Google search doesn’t give you a list of people who are inventors Spock does. I can search on Spock then get detailed information on Wikipedia. Nice. Maybe I don’t “get” Mahalo and I’d love to give it another go if it is I haven’t been using.

Just a note, I have 2 invites to Spock, leave a comment and they’re yours.

Is there a place on YouTube just for commercials? I have no problem watching good commercials. Also, I am posting this:

• to ensure I know how to post video
• because I just found the option to place your posts in categories in Windows Live Writer