A Reason to Like WordPress

A rather long and technical reason, but one I greatly appreciate.

Getting into Google Reader

UPDATE: Not even one day after I post this, Robert Scoble posts that he’s talking to the Google Reader team.  Hey Scoble!  I’ve got a wish list right here!

I’ve really gotten into what Google has to offer in the way of free services. I’m sure they’ve really gotten into showing me ads related to what I see in my email, calendar, and such (even though I never have reason to click through).

The latest offering that I’ve gotten addicted to is Google Reader. This is their online RSS Aggregator. I was able to import all of my feeds via OPML (a way of easily marking up outlines for folks who’ve never seen that before) and get going in a few minutes. Here’s what I like:

• Easy to use and organize folders (though this has much room for improvement).
• Able to keep my feeds organized in a way that I can easily access from any computer connected to the internet.
• Allows me to flag certain posts for later review/blogging (big plus!).
• Each user has a public page showing posts or feeds that you can share with a single click to that page. You can also get a snippet of HTML code to show shared items on other pages, which is very nice, though unusable on this blog due to restrictions around JavaScript (which I’m fine with).
• Marks items read as I scroll past them, not as I change folders (another big plus!).
• Feels slick, fast, and simple to use. Posts are clearly deliniated and easy to read.

That said, there is room for improvement and I am glad to see the “Labs” label still on this product.

• Easier folder organization. Let me drag and drop feeds between folders and create new folders from the main screen.
• Show the blog a post is from more prominently in the Extended View.
• Easier access to the service by letting me customize which links show up in the upper left-hand corner when I’m using GMail or GCal.
• Let me search for items within the feeds I’ve subscribed to and set up search folders to be looking for related posts all the time.

Google Reader just underwent an update recently, so hopefully folks at Google are looking around for posts about it. Hopefully mine is late enough to be out of the flurrly of posts and more likely to get noticed. Here’s also hoping that the next update isn’t far away as a result of the last one.

Google on your TV!

The last of six videos is up at the Wii web site.  This one is about the Internet Channel, which lets you surf the web.

It uses the Opera browser and from what I’ve heard, it’ll be free in the US (no confirmation from Nintendo yet and they originally said you’d have to buy the browser first).  Oh, and you’ll need to be connected to the internet (no brainer).

This could be big or could be “eh” when we see it for real.  Depending on the system’s boot time and the fact that I don’t know anyone who doesn’t primarily use their computer to get to a web site, this could easily become a staple in a connected person’s digital life.  I’m most interested to see how text input is handled.  If you can shop on line like the video says, there must be an easy way to input text.  Maybe a Bluetooth keyboard is in the works?  The remote is nice, but I can’t see how text entry can be quick with that unless they have some kind of predictive text key-cloud (where you choose one letter and the next likely letters appear closer to where you just clicked than the rest; constantly morphing cloud of keys, but very handy).

This is also something the other consoles don’t have and may be a major selling point.  Surf the web without having to buy a full computer (even though you can get a full computer for about the same start up cost).

Still, it’s about the games.  The web is nice and I imagine I’ll make use of it (blogging on my TV…).  But what I really want to do is play Zelda.  And Metroid.  And Mario.  And Brain Age.  And whatever else strikes my fancy.

Long Week

It’s been a very long week.  It’s also been a very good week and a strange week.

Long from the standpoint that a lot happened.  It was also my first five-day work week in about a month thanks to extended weekends, holidays, and a funeral.  That was a shock to the system.

But it was a good week.  I got a lot done, did well by a lot of people (I think), made some new friends, exercised a lot, am eating better (yup, I’m eating salad more often and less carbs, but haven’t cut out carbs 100%).

It was also a strange week, at least for this blog.  I’ve had about 60 hits per day on average, according to my stats.  Most of those for older posts regarding two elephants doing as nature intended during a Presidential motorcade in Africa a couple of years back.  The search terms leading to these posts are not fit for public consumption by any stretch, but my knowledge of what some people find “exciting” has definitely expanded.

The question now, though, is if I pull those posts down or not.  I don’t like them being my number one item, at least not for the reason people seem to be clicking here for.  Then again, they are getting “in the door” as it were, so maybe they’ll look around and find something more interesting and, hopefully, healthier.

Any ideas?

The Future of Talent

I’ve just discovered Ze Frank and The Show. This is some of the best stuff I’ve seen in a while. Daily Show level quality.

One of the most popular videos there is easily the best commentary on why social media (like blogs, myspace, digg, flickr, and many others) are as cool and exciting as they are, even if most of the people using them don’t know it. The videos aren’t safe for most work places (depending on how the workplace tolerates you watching video on the clock and swearing from said video).

Check it out.

FeedBurner Blocked in China?

Looks like China has blocked any RSS Feed created with FeedBurner. This isn’t the first time China has blocked something from outside their borders on the web, but this is a huge deal.

RSS is becoming bigger and bigger. By blocking a rather popular services for tracking how many people are using a feed, this effectively cuts off an entire country to many valuable news sources and other services brought to us by RSS (podcasts and video podcasts, for instance).

What’s next from China? Is there anything FeedBurner can do to get let into that country again? Would they want to get back in given the stipulations that may be invovled?

Update: Looks like the ban only lasted a day.  Maybe someone flipped a switch they weren’t supposed to flip?