Month: August 2005

Blog Break Observations

Post ImageThere seem to be a decent number of bloggers who take “blog breaks” or “blog vacations” every now and then, usually to catch up on life and re-focus on why it is they write a blog in the first place. Famed blogger Scoble recently returned from his latest blog vacation, and noted:

See, a good blog is passionate and authoritative. Lately I’ve been going through the motions. Just blogging to keep blogging.

Over the past week I focused on rediscovering myself. What do I like to do? This is my blog. It better be fun. For me. Or else I’ll stop doing it.

I agree – it better be fun for me. Fortunately, I’ve never felt the need to take a blog break, but rather, have been forced to at least twice because of server problems (which we are doing everything possible to prevent from happening again). This last time was the longest period for me without blogging, and so I made a number of observations:

  • I realized that one of the main reasons I like posting to my blog is because I am creating content. I like the idea that people are reading what I am writing.
  • I also realized that I don’t need my blog to create content. Even though I wasn’t posting to my blog, I could still post pictures at my Flickr account, or bookmark and tag links at del.icio.us.
  • I sometimes post things here about my life, or things I have done recently. The reason I do this is so that friends, family and colleagues can easily read my blog and see what I’ve been up to, even if we don’t get the chance to talk. Some of my friends have remarked that as a result, one tends to become cut off from social interaction and thus is harmed. I am pretty confident I have reaffirmed that isn’t the case, as during the blog break, I didn’t talk to anyone more or less than normal (except that I got a lot of IM’s asking when the servers would be back up).
  • As much as I like creating content, I think I have found that the main reason this blog exists, the main reason I post to it every day, is that I like to have a “play by play” for my life – for what I am reading and finding interesting, what I am doing, and what I am thinking. What was I doing two weeks ago? It sucks that I wasn’t able to post it to my blog, because now I’ll forget it. I like the idea that if something newsworthy happens tomorrow, I can look back in two years and remember what I thought at the time. That’s pretty powerful stuff to me. For instance, I can look back and see that on August 8th of last year I didn’t post anything, but that was probably because I was busy with my parents, who were in town. How did I remember that? Because I posted on the 7th about going to see The Village with them.
  • I figured that if I wasn’t posting, I wouldn’t be reading blogs as much either. In fact, I kept reading as much as normal. Maybe it was because I could tag interesting things at del.icio.us, or maybe it was just that reading and posting to blogs aren’t as linked as I had assumed.

I guess the main observation from my little blog break is that I enjoy maintaining my blog, posting new things, and having others read them. I suppose the true test will come when I take a voluntary blog break, instead of a forced one, but for now, I’m happy to continue blogging.

Read: Robert Scoble

New Flickr Features

Post ImageI continually find myself getting lost in Flickr. Not lost as in, where am I, but lost as in, there are so many interesting photos to see! And the Flickr team has gone and added features that make getting lost even easier:

First up is clustering, a better way to explore photos through tags. You can still see the most recent photos with a given tag (say, summer) but now you can also root around the finer distinctions: summer beach vacations versus summer flowers and nature – and all the clusters are collected on one page. It’s neat!

At first I didn’t get what the big deal was with clusters, but now I understand, and it’s neat indeed. A good example is the tag turkey – the clusters show you the country, the food, and the holiday all in one page.

The other new feature is called interestingness and it’s huge! A long time in the making, interestingness is a ranking algorithm based on user behavior around the photos taking into account some obvious things like how many users add the photo to their favorites and some subtle things like the relationship between the person who uploaded the photo and the people who are commenting (plus a whole bunch of secret sauce).

That last new feature, interestingness, will be the end of me. Give it a try, and you’ll see why!

Read: Flickr Blog

Blog Updates

Post ImageI added some new features to my site tonight, so I figured I should make a post to introduce them. Here’s a quick description of each:

  1. New Tags!
    If you look at the bottom of the last post, or any of the old ones really, you’ll generally find the little Technorati icon followed by a bunch of text links. Those are tags, which I linked to Technorati so you could see what other bloggers were saying about the topic. As you can see in this post, those links have now been replaced with my own tags (right after the little star icon). Clicking any one of the tags will take you to a page on my site that will in turn connect you with blog posts, images, podcasts, links, and other items about that topic.
  2. Add Comment
    The little discussion bubble icon next to the number of comments for each post has now been linked to the Post Comment page. That means you no longer have to click on a post title, then on the Post Comment link. You can just click the icon and post a comment right away!
  3. Bookmark with Delicious
    The first of three new icons next to the Add Comment icon, is the Bookmark Post icon. Clicking it will let you add the post to your delicious bookmarks. This icon appears on the main page, and on each entry page.
  4. Email to a friend
    The second new icon is the Email Post icon. Clicking it will let you send an email to someone telling them about the post. This icon appears on the main page, and on each entry page.
  5. Monitor with TalkDigger
    The last of the new icons is the Monitor Post icon. Clicking it will let you see who is linking to the post, using the search provided by TalkDigger. I love the functionality that TalkDigger provides, but I am not too keen on the look of the site, so I might change this to use a different service in the future. This icon appears on the main page, and on each entry page.

There’s probably small problems that I haven’t discovered yet, but everything should work pretty well. Enjoy!

Read: MasterMaq’s Blog

A theory on Google and Microsoft

Post ImageI have a theory regarding Google and Microsoft. The two technology giants are often pitted against one another, and hey, you have to admit it’s fun to do. Will Google make inroads on the desktop? Will Microsoft win the battle for Internet search? And on, and on. Ignoring how silly it is to need to declare a winner, here’s my theory: Microsoft is going to win, and their technology won’t be the reason.

Consider for example this article in The Register:

“Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story,” noted reporter Elinor Mills here.

Google isn’t alone in amassing one of the world’s largest databases of personal information and behavior – as Yahoo! and Microsoft have too. But the retaliation against the news site is only likely to focus more attention to Google’s often contemptuous attitude to press and analyst scrutiny (on its first ever financial analyst day the company offered its chef, but not its CFO) and puts its privacy issues firmly in the spotlight.

I would argue that the best thing to happen to Microsoft in the last few years was the major anti-trust trial. Since that major public relations debacle, Microsoft has become much more friendly. They have become a kinder giant. The things Google is accused of doing in the above article sound like something the Microsoft of old might have done.

And therein lies the reason I think Microsoft is going to prevail. They’re still as cutthroat as ever, and yet they’ve learned to be come across as anything but. Google, on the other hand, needs to have its hubris checked, and I think Microsoft is just the company to do so. If Google doesn’t make some changes, Microsoft is going to clobber them in the eyes of the public, not to mention in the eyes of the media.

And if recent tools like MSN Search and Virtual Earth are any indication, Microsoft will nail Google on technology too.

Read: The Register

Tablet PC Caricatures

Post ImageAs a big Tablet PC fan, this story just makes me smile. Such an excellent use of the technology. And for today’s highly connected busy traveler, having your caricature emailed to you is probably better than lugging it around anyway:

With its bars and cinemas, London’s Leicester Square is a popular destination for tourists, who’ll often stop to have portraits and caricatures drawn. On one summer day, the artist Emil (in the white shirt) swaps his notebook and charcoal for a tablet PC.

On this occasion, rather than sending tourists on their way clutching their caricature on paper, Emil plans to send out the artwork by e-mail and wireless connection. His tablet PC is from Motion Computing.

So cool! If only I was artistic – I would do such caricatures here in Edmonton on my tablet. I’d like to know what software he uses to draw them, I would imagine he’d use the wonderful InkRage, but who knows.

Read: CNET News.com

Testing the OPML Editor

Post ImageA tool that has received considerable attention from the digerati over the last few weeks is Dave Winer’s OPML Editor. I decided I should jump on the bandwagon and give it a try, so I downloaded it tonight, and blogged my obversations as I used it:

I am not entirely sure what I’d do with another blog, but I must admit there is something oddly appealing about having a weblog that is just a document. Instead of going through the whole post editor thing, you just add a new line, which is kind of cool. It’s intuitive, and I think new users would feel very comfortable.

Essentially, editing a blog like a document is intuitive, but this tool is not!

Yeah, turns out the tool itself is incredibly difficult to use, and not very user friendly at all. I realize that it is meant more as something to kickstart the community, but still. Also, I don’t think it is a 1.0 product yet, so I would expect to see some more work done to it.

Read: MasterMaq’s OPML Blog

Sharon – a gamer at heart

Post ImageHave you ever spent some time with someone you thought you knew really well, only to discover an entirely different side of them? That’s what happened to Dickson, Annie and myself last night as we spent some time with Sharon at her house. I feel like I met someone entirely new last night!

We went to her house mostly to annoy her, keep her awake and away from her work. And boy were we ever successful. Dickson and I discovered a NES (that’s Nintendo Entertainment System) and wanted to hook it up. However, it was already hooked up! So we started looking through the games, and found a Barbie game, which we played for about 30 seconds before it got lame. Eventually, we stuck in Mario Brothers, and that’s where things got interesting.

Dickson played for a while, but eventually died. Then it was Annie’s turn, and she died relatively quickly (she’s clearly not a gamer). When Sharon took the controls to play, it was like I had stepped into an alternate universe! She was so masterful at the famous side-scroller, she knew where all the coins and mushrooms and flowers were, all the secret passages, everything. Not only did she know the features of the game like the back of her hand, she had the timing down pat. And her hand-eye coordination was surprisingly good. In fact, she played so hard and so well, that I saw her head bob to the music. It was nuts!

Sharon claims to not have played for many months, but I don’t see how that’s possible. Dickson has played many games, and Sharon totally schooled him at Mario Bros. Until now, when I thought of Sharon and her hobbies and talents and the like, I’d think of books, English and education, pictures and frames, Starbucks coffee, plays and theatre, etc. Never in a bazillion years would I have thought that Sharon could finish Mario Brothers, and so quickly and skillfully to boot!

Incredulous awe, that’s what I feel.

Great Grandma Good

On July 12th, my Great Grandma Phyllis Good passed away at the age
of 89. The funeral was held that Saturday on July 15th, and I meant to
post something after the ceremony but as you all know the server died.

Grandma Good was diagnosed with cancer, and was in the hospital when
she died as her condition had deteriorated. Actually, she had been in
the palliative care unit for a little while. As soon as I heard she was
in the hospital, I said that I would go visit her. I never did though.
And I don’t regret not going. I realized that I never really wanted to
visit her in the hospital, probably because I didn’t want the image of
her in my head to change. I wanted to remember my Great Grandmother as
the strong, funny, and fun-loving person I knew so well, and seeing her
in the hospital would have shattered that. Maybe that’s selfish of me,
but that’s how it is.

I remember spending time with Grandma Good at Goose Lake, where my
family had three cabins at one point (we now have two, after my Grandma
Good’s was sold). I remember her with my Great Grandfather. I remember
her talking about the Oilers and the Eskimos – she was always up to
date on the teams and knew all the statistics. I remember her enjoying
a great meal at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other occasions. I
remember her smiling.

I’m glad I remember my Grandma Good in my own way, and I’ll miss her. You can read the obituary here.

UPDATE: Here’s a picture of me and Grandma Good at Christmas.

Blue Skies

Post ImageOn Monday night I went to see Blue Skies with Dickson, Annie and Sharon, a movie from 1946 (how appropriate for the blog-less Sharon) featuring such greats as Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The movie was presented at the Royal Alberta Museum by the Edmonton Film Society as part or their Musicals for a Summer Night series.

A nostalgic, loosely-structured musical that follows the rivalry between a dancer and a nightclub owner who love the same woman. The story is bolstered by a string of Irving Berlin numbers. A high spot is “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, a split-screen gem featuring a chorus line of miniature Astaires that took five weeks to achieve.

While I did enjoy the film, I’m not a big fan of musicals. I just don’t understand why they are so (or were so) appealing. “Puttin’ on the Ritz” was definitely an enjoyable sequence, but the one that made the movie for me was both Crosby and Astaire in “A Couple of Song and Dance Men”.

Lots of excellent music to be found in this film, including “White Christmas”. I think the funniest part about this being an old movie for me was that Technicolor was featured so prominently. Hard to imagine that it was such a big deal back in the day!

Amazon.com to open digital music store?

Post ImageRight now this is speculation at best, but Amazon.com appears to be readying a digital music service to compete with iTunes, among others. Honestly, I am surprised it is taking so long. The world’s largest marketplace, and yet no music service.

Ecommerce giant Amazon.com appears to be preparing a digital music service to compete with Apple Computer’s iTunes at last, according to a job listing posted on a popular industry blog.

The company has not publicly said that it intends to launch a full-fledged digital music offering. However, several music industry executives confirmed Thursday that the company has been actively discussing plans to enter the market for several months, including proposals for a subscription-based service.

They probably won’t support Canada at launch, so don’t get your hopes up if you’re north of the border like me.

Read: CNET News.com