Jul 3, 2006 | blog
I’ve realized something. I need all my posting tools, content creation ideas, and storage of all this to be online. While I currently do most of my writing offline in OneNote, I’m finding that I would prefer to have my tools online in some way.
A lot of work I did months ago was in Writely – and I’m starting to return to this tool instead of locally installed software. The nice thing about Writely (and Zoho Writer among others), is that your data is stored online, available from practically any browser. The online tools like these also have the basic formatting and all-important spell check (for me at least) features that make writing blog posts a simple task.
What’s missing from these types of online tools are research features. Now, I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for here, because of course there is no shortage of places to look for information online. This is the place where OneNote shines, because you can Cut & Paste, clip, and copy all types of information into your OneNote notebook in all types of organizational structures. The online tools don’t have something like this.
However, even the abiltiy to aggregate the research notes for a post or article don’t make it easy to form that into a readable format. Of course that is where the creativity in blogging (or any writing for that matter) comes in.
The reality of things as I start to work on more and more writing chores comes into focus, and I believe that I’m going to end up with two different methods for blogging. One online with the Writely’s and Zoho Writers of the world, and one with local software like OneNote & Word. The reason for this is because of the differing styles of posts – long & short. Long posts really need supporting information like links, definitions, pictures, and more. Short posts are really in the conversational form that blogging has long been associated with and simply requires that I stay on topic – though it would be nice to spell things correctly. 😉
The really dirty secret of blogging with OneNote is that the HTML output from both OneNote and Word is horrid – even the 2007 versions that are in beta. Hopfully this will improve over time, but as nice as it is to create a long post in OneNote, the work involved to clean up the HTML is lengthy and not easy. Several posts have ended up in Writely anyway so I could work on the HTML before posting the damn thing on my blogs.
I’ve had some great hints, tips and tricks from several people on the OneNote development team & forums, but for blogging, the product has a long way to go. The biggest problem with OneNote/Word is that Microsoft (it seems) just can’t get deal with the fact that other products and developers can handle presentation as good or better than they can. Fonts are the worst part of OneNote/Word posting – every damn paragraph definition, they have to embed the font being use in the product. Hint – every blog handles the default font for the blog. Oh well, the reality is that I’m moving back towards online tools that I can reach from almost anywhere – I think this will work best for me going forward.
Jul 3, 2006 | blog
Here’s a thought… What if Gates is actually leaving Microsoft to start a new venture? Can Gates (being a visionary) see the handwriting on the wall that fat clients like Windows are fast becoming irrelevant? No the industry is not in trouble yet, but think of the things you can do without a PC now – startling isn’t it! Yes, you still need a good beefy PC to run your streaming media, CD/DVD ripping, photo/video editing, gaming, etc… at home, but for most things a simple device will do quite nicely.
However, think about the average person who mainly consumes information? Do they need a full blown computer with a big expensive OS like Windows, and big fat expensive apps like Office? Nope. Gates knows this, and his competitive spirit will not be sitting idle giving away his fortune. Don’t get me wrong on this, I have no doubt that Gates and his foundation will do great things, and I believe he has every intention to do so.
My main thought here is not to count Bill Gates out of the industry by any means. With a quick sharp intellect, and his ability to see trends others may miss, I’m betting he won’t be sitting on the sidelines for long. The June 2008 timetable is set for a reason – we’ll have to see what that will end up being. Interesting I’m sure.
Any hints Bill?
Jun 16, 2006 | blog
And that’s all this news raging about Bill Gates is – the next chapter. Obviously it’s the next chapter in his life, and in Microsoft’s.It’s also the next chapter for the technology industry, and computing as a whole. I’ve purposely avoided reading too many articles on the topic of his “moving” to part time.
The little bit I read was Scoble’s Heading to the BBC post, and Jeff Jarvis’ post The meaning of Bill. Both are insightful and told me more about the meaning of this change than any 5 second sound bite.
Regardless of your opinion of Bill Gates, at least read these two pieces.
UPDATE: Mathew Ingram also has makes some interesting points on Microsoft and questions what would be best for the company.
Jun 16, 2006 | blog
I’m a little disappointed in both Microsoft and Adobe on this topic. On the one hand, Microsoft has answered the requests of many of its customers in adding the feature to the current Word 2007 beta 2 release. On the other, you have them also adding their new XPS document format – a competitor the PDF format that we all use.
Adobe, is threatening Microsoft in statements about how Microsoft’s history of “embrace and extend” has destroyed other products and markets, in essence absorbing the market to the point that there is no point in competing. Of course Adobe does keep pointing out that their PDF format is an open standard and is the “de facto standard” for portable documents.
The disappointing part is that Adobe simply doesn’t trust Microsoft on this, and Microsoft has done nothing to make anyone believe that it isn’t after conquering the portable document market. The same behavior has been seen before on numerous occasions and Adobe has every right to be worried – Acrobat & PDF are one of its most visible brands that define the company.
So how do these partners move forward? How will they resolve this in the best interests of the customer? Microsoft’s Word development team had the right idea in making it easy for their customers to create PDF documents from Word documents. The XPS document format is interesting, but why create another portable format when PDF is already entrenched? What “enhancements” could Microsoft bring to the table in a service pack and render the Adobe Acrobat unable to read the new file format? Who’s to say that’s what would happen? Why wouldn’t it?
The simple thing for both companies to do is for Microsoft to abandon its XPS format in this case, actually enter into a licensing agreement with Adobe with verbiage to explicitly accept that Adobe is the sole developer of the PDF format. Adobe would generate royalties from licensing and both companies customers would gain from the agreement.
Of course the reality is that PDF may be an open standard, but Adobe’s Acrobat Pro is a $125 shipping product, and simply having PDF creation capabilities in Word virtually eliminates the need for this product, regardless of who develops the file format going forward. Add to that – if Word usurps Acrobat’s creation abilities, what incentive is there for Adobe to expend resources to develop and distribute a free reader for it?
Also, don’t forget that competition is the lubrication of innovation. Interesting stuff will develop because of this little riff.
May 19, 2006 | blog
So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I’m doing blogging. Over the last 7-8 months, it has become one of my top interests and yet the last few weeks I have been having a really hard time with it.
The problem, as usual, is me. I’ve been holding back, not really sure how to express my views or ideas. The problem stems from my discomfort of conflict I think. While I shy from it, I also don’t hold back once the ‘mud’ starts flinging. More often than not, I end up getting frustrated, mad and sorry that I was not able to communicate effectively.
But that discomfort has held me back, and I want to talk about more than I have in the past. I want to discuss things, be a real part of the conversation rather than parroting others, which I feel like I’ve done. I want to posit my opinion and viewpoint on a topic rather than simply put a link to a cool post somewhere.
My limited exchange of posts and links with a number of bloggers has really whetted my appetite for real interactive communication. I’ve found a lot of great blogs, with a lot of great viewpoints. I’ve learned a lot in the last few months, most of it from blogs I’ve followed from the A-List to the Z-List (that’s me!), and everywhere in between.
All the concepts on blogging, the ideas for revenue generation, the fun stuff, the serious stuff – its really moved me down the road to a point where I thought I already was. For quite awhile I thought I was participating, but looking back I think that I’ve only been ‘lurking’, if you will. Kind of participating around the edges, though not enough to really provoke much response, or to start a thread.
This is where you’ll see a difference in what I write – this is where I’m going to let my passion for blogging, mobile communications (and more) explore to its fullest.
