Category Archives: Asides
Essential PC Software
I recently got my Sony TX690 back from the repair place, I asked them to wipe the HD to rid me of the plague that is Vista. Here’s the software I installed, in order, after getting it back: Firefox, Foxmarks, Thunderbird, Putty, TortoiseSVN, MIRC, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Topstyle, AutoHotKey, iTunes, EVDO drivers, Filezilla. I will probably install XAMPP later for offline plane hacking. That’s all I need to do everything I do on a computer.
AutoHotkey
AutoHotkey is a very slick and simple program for doing cool things with shortcuts on Windows. I’m using this to create a Quicksilver-like command line for my most common tasks.
When You Can’t Get Started
When You Can’t Get Started Writing. I found this through the tag surfer.
Metcalfe’s Law and Social Networks
Metcalfe’s Law Recurses Down the Long Tail of Social Networks, written by Bob Metcalfe himself. (The title is tongue-in-cheek.)
Ensight Business Cards
Jeremy Wright’s Business Cards say “powered by WordPress” on the back.
BarCampTexas
I’m going to be in Austin this weekend for BarCampTexas. I’ll bring lots of WordPress stickers, so find me if you want one. Anyone else going to be in Austin?
MSN Spaces Numbers
Scoble has been questioning the claimed numbers of MSN Spaces and somehow the conversation got sidetracked in the technicalities of “what’s a blog?” I’m not sure what Microsoft hopes to gain by inflating their numbers so much, now claiming 70 million “blogs”, but it’s interesting to note back in March they were claiming 123 million blogs users at SxSW (Flickr photo of their booth). Activity (posting, etc) stats would be far more interesting. (This is something we need to expose more, too.)
This is silly
This is silly, but since the Canadians are organizing a campaign, I feel obligated to humbly request Photo Matt readers cast a vote in this poll. (For me, hopefully!) It has been noted that the picture makes me look like I’m 10 years old, when in reality I really look more like 15. You can browse Flickr latest, most interesting, or clusters for further proof. (Link updated for new round.)
Install WordPress Video
CNET has a video on “Install a WordPress blog”, this came up at WordCamp and I think more of these would be a great idea. Here are some intro videos from EduBlogs.
Blogger Rebuilt
“Then, when someone wants to see any of the pages on your blog, those pages are created for them dynamically, on the fly.” Sounds familiar… The new Blogger doesn’t make users wait on rebuilding anymore, nice upgrade! (What happened to all those folks saying static was the only way to scale?) That and their other new features show a real respect and sensitivity to their users, the only thing missing is an exporter. Rebuilding is so 2004.
Google Markup
Google Strict vs Google Deprecated, where the size of the homepage is reduced using standards-compliant markup. I’m guessing this isn’t a religious issue, just a personal one with whoever owns that code at Google.
Live Writer Developer
One of the developers of Windows Live Writer on its release, and also on a WordPress.com blog. As does J.J. Allaire. Hat tip: Blog Herald.
Daily WP.cOm
Check it out, daily.gigaom.com is now hosted on WordPress.com. If you're logged into WP.com you'll see the admin bar on the site. We're seeing some folks do some interesting things with Custom CSS, like Lorelle and Mirkwood and we've got about a dozen folks testing domain mapping.
SxSW Panel Voting
SxSW has opened up panel voting for 2007, similar to how we did for WordCamp. Have they done this before? I've got one proposed called "Scaling Your Community."
BayCHI Speaking Reminder
Just a reminder, I'm speaking on "The First 100k Users…" at BayCHI tonight. Hope to see some of my peninsula peeps. Update: Just got back, the auditorium was packed and the audience was great — full of energy. Bill Scott's presentation on Designing for AJAX was really fun.
Future Camper
One of my favorite photos from WordCamp. We had a fairly diverse crowd there. (For a SF bay geek conference, at least.) Update: We're going to change Ryan Boren's title to "Head of New Blogger Creation."
WordCamp Wrapup
I'm still recovering from WordCamp in some ways, it was such a rush this week almost seems like a vacation. The best summary of posts regarding the event is on [gonzo]musings, The WordCamp 2006 Overview & Wrapup – from 7875 Miles Away. I'm very happy with how the event went, we had well over 300 brilliant and engaging make it a part of their day. There were a ton of great ideas and participation happening from all corners, especially the interaction during the State of the Word discussion. I also learned a ton and next year we will have a better sign-in process, naptime after BBQ, clearer tracks for devs vs. users, and a bit more lead time. Thank you so much to everyone who came out, it was a really magical day. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the 20 pounds of Memphis Minnie's brisket in my fridge.
Leaving Microsoft
Niall Kennedy is Leaving Microsoft, apparently the crazy market reaction to the Live.com-based investment changed a lot of what he had been promised on being hired. In some ways it's too bad big companies haven't figured out how to hold on to driven and entrepreneurial spirits like Niall yet, but on the other hand I'm pretty excited to see what he has cooking for his startup.
Mac OS Forge
Apple has made a few important open-source related announcements today, including Mac OS Forge whose site powered by WordPress.