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Thoughts and things I care to shareWe will not forget…
…the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 against the United States of America.
In memory of those who lost their lives on this day six years ago to an extremist jihad that serves no purpose but to waste lives. These attacks against our country have not gone unpunished, and we will run this to ground.
God bless America.
links for 2007-09-11
- Jennifer Laycock explains why the Social Media News Release should be embraced by all PR types.
links for 2007-09-10
- Some tips on protecting from identity theft from a friend of mine that’s had it happen.
- You’ve probably heard of everyone’s favorite ‘net spam condiment “Quechup”, but here is Read/WriteWeb’s report on the service everyone loves to loath.
- Hmm, this could make it on my short list to replace my T-Mobile MDA…
- Powerful post by Chris Brogan. In it he asks some hard questions about one’s belief in themselves, and how they are focusing their abilities. Well worth reading.
- Microsoft Live Translator? Check it out at TechCrunch
Windows Live Writer Wish List
Ok, I’ve been using WLW for over a year now and really enjoy the tool. However, there are a few nit-picking things that I have to be fixed in the darn thing along with some ideas that would benefit the product.
In the last two beta releases, they have improved the product substantially (download beta 3 here) with many visual and feature enhancements. My current favorite update was the ability to (finally!) schedule posting to my hosted WordPress blogs.
- Complete Blog Integration – I happen to be a WordPress (hosted on my domain – not wordpress.com) user and expect that all the features will work with it. Others use TypePad, Blogger, and others. Integrate the product work the same with all these blogging platforms as well as it does with Live Spaces.
- CSS Classes – I wish that the editor would parse the CSS from a selected blog and allow the user to use the CSS Classes to be applied to text/items in the post creation area. For example, I have a uniquely formatted class called “tags” for each of my blogs, and it formats my “Technorati Tags” with a right-justified arrangement with a border and background combo for each blog. Same type of class formatting for my abbreviations.
- Tag Info – Wish that the tags for the post itself (again the Technorati tags) could be fed to the blog as entries to the “tags” field in the database. This way, the tagging information can be appended to the post by the blogging software with my formatting, and without putting too much space and visual clutter into each post.
- Custom Tagging Tool – The ability to insert tags and have them pre-formatted with the proper URL each time is great. Here’s what would make it better. Allow me to completely write the HTML code for the tool – you’re close now, just get rid of any WLW specific HTML.
- True XHTML – This is one of the big ones. GET RID OF ANY CUSTOM “WINDOWS LIVE WRITER” HTML OR “WINDOWS LIVE” SPECIFIC HTML. The output of this editor MUST be pure XHTML to be truly cross platform usable. Luckily I’ve figured out how to work around this every time there is a new update to the editor, but others may not be able to do these workarounds. Simply, if a blog that the bloggers is publishing to is not Windows Live Spaces, then the custom HTML used by WLW should be disabled and the blog theme and CSS should be followed by WLW.
Well, that’s a handful of suggestions that need to be worked into the final release of Windows Live Writer. Didn’t plan on it being exactly five, but that’s how it works sometimes. Come on WLW team, let’s get this stuff right, you’re so close to matching my expectations, it’s not too hard to finish it properly.
Anyone else have some suggestions to the Windows Live Writer team?
UPDATE: Thanks to Kent Newsome’s Evening Reading post, I noticed another blogger mentioning WLW. Claus over at Grand Slam Dreams has written a quick review of WLW beta3. Also, for those of you looking for more information on the XHTML support in WLW beta3, check out Joe Cheng at whateverblog where he elaborates on WLW’s XHTML support
links for 2007-09-08
- Good advice – but will the average corp pay heed?
Ugh, another case of the cursed bloggers block
If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been kinda quiet this week. I had a good weekend last week, getting five posts written on Sunday alone, but for some reason this week has been a torture of neglect.
Every time I sit down with a thought to write about, it just doesn’t come out the way I want it to, or just evaporates into the ether. It’s about as frustrating as it gets folks. It’s not a motivation thing, I feel more motivated of late than I have in a long time. I’m just not able to get my thoughts collected and focused on writing at the moment.
So, the next few days I’m going to be trying to find a way through my roadblock. I’ll be referencing all the great ideas and suggestions that many bloggers have used to get through a dry phase. Just in case you’re having a dry spell too, here are some links to tips & tricks to deal with bloggers block.
- Battling Bloggers Block at ProBlogger
- Bloggers Block? – A Few Helpful Tips for Writers Block at Blogitive
- How to Overcome Blogger’s Block at Digital Inspiration
Do you have any other tips & tricks to suggest? I’m all ears!
links for 2007-09-07
- Did you feel betrayed earlier this week when you found out your $600 iPhone had it’s price slashed to $400 after only two months on the market? Steve Jobs is trying to make you feel better here with a promised $100 coupon for future Apple products. Feel
- Hmm, interesting happenings in the mobile pace in Washington. Will it make it through committees and make a difference?
- I think Stowe Boyd raises a good question in his post. Is the office metaphor tired? With the advent of feeds, information/idea streams, search, and blogs, does the office metaphor fit in an online lifestyle?
- Jeremiah covers the questions asked by organizations and their progression of interest/deployment.
links for 2007-09-06
- Steve Rubel talks about the emergence of “The Geek Marketer” career path.
- Twitter pal Jim Long has an update from his trip to Iraq with President Bush. Jim is a NBC cameraman that just happens to be part of the White House press pool. If you’ve wondered what it’s like for the press who travel with the President, check out his
- Heh, guess hell finally froze over – Google Reader just got a search feature – from Google even! 😉 But wait, there’s more! Look closely at your Google Reader interface and I think you’ll see some of the other tweaks that Google has been cooking up.
- I have to agree with Gears over at CSP on this one. The iPhone is a compelling package that is more intuitive than the other “smartphones” (I hate that term). Windows Mobile has a lot of ground to cover to compete side-by-side.
Is 2007 the year of computer replacement
Blogging bud Kent Newsome talks about the new computer he picked up this week, and it just occurred to me how many people I know did PC replacement this year. This spring I bit the bullet on a new laptop, three friends replaced their systems and in August, my father switched from a desktop to a laptop.
Well, I guess it’s not that many, but it just seemed like it. As for my laptop, I’m pretty happy with it, but will definitely make sure that my next one has higher resolution, Bluetooth, Firewire, and 3G built in. Mine is pretty good, but those are just learning’s to for the next system.
Anyway, kudos to Kent on the new PC – glad it’s quieter. 😉
Via: Newsome.org – Following, Lazily, in the Footsteps of Giants
links for 2007-09-05
- If you were looking for a great “getting started” strategy guide to Twitter, this would be in. Jeremiah Owyang sets it straight.
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
I think it’s safe to say that @GovEvers should stop blocking audits in Wisconsin and open the books…
“Only AMERICAN citizens should vote.”
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
Wrong. Democrats are solely responsible for hours-long airport lines.
They voted to defund TSA three times and won’t even entertain a conversation about reopening it. Why?
They’re using it as leverage to stop enforcing immigration laws.