Category: Internet

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Google Reader in Plain English

The folks at CommonCraft have done it again. This time, they have made a quick video about one of my favorite tools for reading information on the web, Google Reader. I’ll let them explain it to you.

I currently have 253 subscriptions in Google Reader. I can’t say that I read each and everything that passes through, but there are certain RSS feeds that I do pay closer attention to than others.

Do you ever open up a newspaper and scan the headlines? Then perhaps you read the byline to get a little more behind the story, and only then do you decide to actually read the rest of it. There are many times when I use it in that capacity, especially when it comes to various feeds from news organizations that crank out a lot of items in just a few hours.

This is how I keep on top of things, even if it’s just a quick glance.

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A futuristic view of the Internet from 1969

I picked up on this video from the Apple Gazette today and found it fascinating. It was a view of what computer networks, and the Internet, would be like in the future, all in that lovable style of informational movies from that era.

The best part is the way the husband looks when he has to deal with the bills that the wife is spending money on. Obviously they saw the future of the Internet, but there was a lack of innovation for gender roles.

Not too bad. The technology is off a little bit, but the concept is there.

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Del.icio.us becomes Delicious with their new design

Delicious recently did an overhaul of their site design about three weeks ago, and many folks have already weighed in on what they thought about it.

For me, I have to use something for a while before I really give my full sense of how a redesign like this actually affects my work flow because I use their service so much.

My Del.icio.us page

For me, it’s way too hard for me to grasp the concept of writing it as “Delicious”. For so long, it’s been “Del.icio.us.com”, and I think that’s a large, geeky reason that I liked the site. In this redesign, they also did a rebranding and dropped the extra dots. It’s a small thing, and I’m getting over it. I always loved the clever use of the .us domain.

Otherwise, I love the new Delicious. The redesign has long been needed, and it finally matches up with how much I like the service.

For me, I read a variety of RSS feeds. Using Google Reader and Firefox, I can use their browser plugin to quickly bookmark items to either share with others or come back to later. This method might not work for everyone, but it works very well for me. Bouncing between computers at home or work, I can tag something that I find interesting.

Mostly it’s the design that has taken a little time to get used to before I could really decide what I thought. Visually, it works better than it previously did. Sure, it looks prettier, but you can make anything look good and not have function. Delicious seemed to step up to this notion of the K.I.S.S. principle that I’m a big fan of.

If you would like to see the things I tag, feel free to check out my Delicious page.

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Mates of State – my only offer

Been a while since I’ve posted a good tune (no need to mention a lack of posting anything in the first place because life is hectic), so here we go.

Mates of State put a new album out this year and even made it up to B.C. for the Pemberton Music Festival. Sadly, we were unable to go, not to mention get any press passes for the event, but the one show we did catch last year still has me as a big fan.

I love it when two people can create music like this, and it sounds pretty much just like this when you see them live. It’s also a great little soundtrack for bus rides to and from work in this hot summer weather we’ve been having in Vancouver recently.

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Mark the date for BarCampVancouver 2008: September 27th

As we head into the late stages of summer and fall is still a little ways under the horizon, that only means one thing. BarCampVancouver 2008!

Session: "identity 2.0"

Planning is still going on, but one thing has been set for this unconference. September 27th is date for this year’s BarCampVancouver, and I’m sure the events, gatherings, and other mischief will extend from that.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. [barcampvancouver]

I had to miss last year’s BarCamp due to my hectic day job at the time, but things are slightly different now so I should be able to attend without too much concern. I have even thrown my hat into the ring in terms of helping organize the event, so it’ll be a lot of fun seeing how this comes together behind the scenes.

Another thing I will say about BarCampVancouver is that the one I attended in 2006 was one of the best things I have probably ever done. I met so many people that have become great friends, and there were a lot of things that I learned as well.

In fact, when I think back to it, it’s amazing to see where the “Techcouver” community was then and where it is now. One might say that it’s changed quite a bit, but it’s an amazing community nonetheless. Of course, the technology has made some leaps as well, but that goes without saying.

So, mark the date! September 27th is the day for BarCampVancouver!

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Designing drop down menus with CSS on WordPress

I designed a WordPress site for my friend Andy at No Boundaries.org some months ago, and the final version that we settled on really pushed my personal boundaries of knowledge in terms of PHP and CSS to get some of the things to work that he was wishing for. Never wanting to let a good friend down, I got something to work that came up tonight at WordCamp Fraser Valley.

I’m not sure what the original question was, but my design for No Boundaries had custom drop down menus added to the header so that Andy could easily add and remove pages from where ever he was in the world and have them show up in those menus.

And to be honest, I can’t really tell you how I got it all to work because it was that long ago. However, Stu Nicholls made a great blog post about how to do this with simple CSS. I used this post to hack together my concept for Andy’s site, and the final design turned out to be what he wanted.

Now doing a quick Google search to find this resource again, I came across this WordPress plugin, WordPress CSS Drop-down Menu, that could do this for you without getting into all the code. I have no experience using it, but the author makes reference to the same blog post that I just did, so it might be worth checking out first before you get into the code.

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Checking out WordCamp Fraser Valley out in Langley, BC

WordCamp Fraser Valley You could say that this style of WordCamp is a bit out of the ordinary. In fact, I’m not sure that many WordCamps are held in casinos, but this event is pretty nice in the fact that there is an amazing space out here for gatherings, meetups, and conventions like this.

WordCamp Fraser Valley is a growing push to move web related camps like this out of the downtown core and into the mysterious world away from the ocean waters. Wifi, reasonable sources of power, plenty of water, a huge room, podium, PA system, projector, and a screen. What more could you really need for a WordCamp?

Well, it might be better if something like this was a bit longer, but an all day event at a location like this might be tough. If you head down the escalators, you might be enticed by the various ways to gamble your money away, so you’re probably better off sticking to your laptop like myself and get some content out while checking out your RSS feeds.

The list of presenters tonight are a good group of folks. Raul kicked off this WordCamp with a session on switching from Blogger to WordPress, and it was a great way to introduce newbies with a way of letting go of your worries and do more with blogging in general. Even if you don’t have a blog or are just beginning with your blog, these concepts are worth considering.

Gary from BlurFur, the folks who have headed up this event, made a last minute presentation on business blogging after another speaker was unable to attend. A topic that is largely ignored, and often not even thought about, businesses should be doing more blogging. Period. If you want a way to reach your customers directly, then this is it. Promote your product, talk about your industry, or publish your your press releases on your blog, there are many avenues you can take when it comes to adding a blog to your business.

More topics are being presented tonight, so I will let Rebecca’s live blog speak more to what’s going on, not to mention that she is also one of the presenters tonight. She will be speaking about adding custom sidebars to your posts and pages, something we are big fans of doing. Kulpreet is currently speaking about security to WordPress, and John Chow will bring his evil, money making ways with blogging to the room.

I have to say that I am really impressed with tonight’s turnout. It’s always great to see people from various aspects of blogging. And yes, there are people that don’t even have a blog and are here to find out more. If that’s someone like yourself, then check out a WordCamp sometime. The WordPress community not only does geek stuff and talk about code, but we also like to share the things we know.

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Doves – black and white town / there goes the fear

To continue with my efforts in sharing what I’m into, I’m digging Doves a lot these days. I can’t exactly tell you why, but these next couple of tunes are worth the effort of tracking down on your Thursday and throwing into a mix for the commute to or from work on Friday. That’s just what someone like me would do if I were you, and you should do that because you’re you. And you like this music. No, trust me, you do.

You can always try to hit the iTunes Music Store and grab “The Last Broadcast”[itunes] or “Some Cities”[itunes].

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Adjusting and fixing my RSS feeds

There is a good chance that RSS subscribers just got blasted with a back log of posts, so please don’t think that I made about ten posts in a single day. I did some rearranging a couple of months ago when I re-themed my site, restructured my WordPress install, and upgraded to the latest and greatest version of 2.5.

I neglected to make adjustments to FeedBurner, and that has been fixed. Let that be a mental note to the rest of you with similar setups. If you make significant, back end changes to your WordPress site, don’t forget to double check you RSS feed if you are using a third party site like FeedBurner.