This conference is really great. Right now Barry Diller is on stage fielding questions and it’s pretty high quality conversation. At the “launchpad” most of the demos were pretty unpolished, but one that stood out was Zimbra, which I blogged a few weeks ago. The best part, as with most conferences, is running into people outside of the sessions.
Web 2.0 Conference
Blogging may be light as I’ll be at the Web 2.0 conference and the surrounding activities the next few days. Since I couldn’t afford to attend it last year (a couple of grand is high for a college kid in Houston) I’ve been really looking forward to everything this year. I’m part of a workshop on “Open Source Infrastructure” at 9:45 AM, Wednesday. If you’re going to be at the conference I would love to meet you, so please don’t hesitate to introduce yourself!
More on Ubuntu
So after starting the installation a few minutes ago, Ubuntu is up and running! I’m really more shocked than anything, I had already put 6-10 hours in getting Gentoo running and then it just wouldn’t work, probably something to do with my SCSI card. Ubuntu just worked. I’ve got a beautiful desktop running right now. I plugged in a USB mouse and it works with the scroll wheel. That might not seem trivial, and it is if you’re on Windows or a Mac, but my previous experiences with desktop (as opposed to server) Linux have been so awful, this is like heaven by comparison. And installation was so easy… Ubuntu is the WordPress of Linux distributions.
Web 1.0
I got a pass to Web 2.0 this year (Open Source Infrastructure workshop) but I’m also going to check out Web 1.0, which looks like the most promising conference of the year.
Thank you, Ubuntu
Thank you, WordPress.com! You’re very welcome, I’m installing Ubuntu this weekend because of this blog.
Nano Scratches
I got an iPod nano a week or so ago and I’ve been very happy with it ever since. I even got it engraved with one of my favorite jazz quotes because I thought that this would be a device I would keep for a long time. However it has gotten pretty badly scratched, and I haven’t been too hard on it. Kind of a bummer. Update: Just to clarify, I’m fairly hard on electronics but I haven’t treated this iPod any different then the last one and yet it still looks pretty bad. It scratched when I wiped it with a microfiber cloth.
Small World
A few hours ago I was walking out and I ran into Adam Curry in the lobby of my building. I had forgotten that the “Curry Condo” is upstairs from me! We caught up for a few minutes and exchanged numbers, it sounds like Podshow is doing some pretty interesting things and it’ll be good to have Adam in SF.
Rita Update
Thanks everyone for your kind words. I just got through to my Mom on her cell phone, which has been tricky because the circuits are always busy. I’ve also been told people are having trouble getting to my cell which is a Houston number even though I’m on the other side of the country. Anyway she and my father are still in traffic in Houston, after leaving over 15 hours ago. When I drove from Houston to San Francisco 15 hours of driving was about 60% of the way to California. They were extremely lucky to get some of the last gas from a station before it closed, it seems everyone’s cars are dying because none of the gas stations along the evacuation routes have any fuel. They had to wait in line for 2 hours to get gas.
On Rita
Houston is the 4th largest city in the entire United States. The neighborhoods that flood the worst are the poor areas, but that doesn’t sound like it’ll matter with the magnitude of this hurricane heading to my home of 20 years. My parents have been on the road for 10 hours now and haven’t made it out of the city yet. Many other members of my family are staying, along with my Grandmother who is too sick to travel. After Katrina there was a rush of people metasearches and directories, NOW would be a good time for Amazon, Yahoo, Google, and the other giants to pool their resources and get the infrastructure in place to help before it hits. This one is hitting much closer to home for me, it’s hard to think about.
Zimbra Groupware
Zimbra looks like a really nice AJAX Outlook replacement.
WordPress for Business
eWeek says WordPress is Good Fit for Business. Hat tip: Scott Abbott via email.
Webzine Approaching
Webzine is this weekend and looks like it’ll be a blast. It’s only 22 bucks (!) but I heard they might sell out so it’s worth ordering your ticket online soon. I’ll be on two panels, Making Media with Open Source Tools and “Blog Wares Dance Off,” the latter of which I promise not to dance. (Too much.)
Company Soul
The Soul of a New Company, is a hard thing to capture.
5 Party Killers
5 things that killed your party, from the inimitable Mr Mann.
Stop Spam Better
Got enough testers for now. Thanks! I’m looking for a few people who do (or used to) get a lot of comment spam who are willing to turn off all of their other spam prevention methods and try a new plugin I’m testing out. Drop me a note on my contact page with details about your blog and how much spam you get. I’ve been dogfooding it for the past few weeks and it’s been working great.
Newsforge WP tutorial
Web design and administration with WordPress, from the fine folks at Newsforge.
Weblogs Work for VCs
Weblogs Work switched a VC site to be entirely powered by WordPress, a first as far as I know. Obviously some bright and forward looking guys, and it’s nice to see they’re in Texas where WordPress got its start.
Hidden Gem
Some of the funniest original content on WordPress.com has been coming from Mike of Because the World is Round, it’s worth checking it out and reading through the archives.
Meebo IM
Meebo is IM Chat 2.0, and in the tradition of many Web 2.0 ventures they have a WordPress blog. Hat tip: Derkilicious.
Get Into Google Blog Search
Want to get into Google’s new blog search? “The easiest way to do this is via pingomatic, which can ping more than a dozen popular pingservers, according to Goldman.” Thanks Jason! Read more…