Oct 25, 2006 | blog
I’ve been trying the RSS reader in IE7, Onfolio, Firefox, and others for the last day or so. I keep coming back to Google Reader.
You can’t beat it’s simplicity, speed, and ease of use. There are more features in a number of readers, but all I need is to have an aggregator that simply lets me read the news that I’m interested in as quickly as possible. I also can manage one OPML list and access it from anywhere. Nothing else compares in the same way.
Combine GReader with hosted GMail, and Docs & Spreadsheets, and a common login. This makes all these features of Google work well together. Yes, they need more integration work, but that will happen over time.
I’ve yet to try the rating or sharing features, but will get to those soon. They look fairly interesting, and may be of use linked from my blog.
Give GReader a try!
Oct 19, 2006 | blog
This post at The Wireless Report talks about Detroit leading the nation in wireline telephone replacement with wireless. It also points out that Minneapolis/St. Paul is at about the same wireless penetration rate for wireline replacement.
I’m not surprised, I’m one of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area residents that dropped wireline service about 5 years ago. While it seemed a little ahead of its time back in 2001, many of my peers, and more importantly, parents, have followed suit.
Both my parents and mother-in-law have gone wireless as well, in addition to my sisters, cousins, friends, and many business associates. Its rare to run across someone who has a home phone any longer.
Most people I know actually saved money by switching to a mobile phone plan in place of a landline phone. With the wide selection of minute plans, included long distance, roaming and such, a $50 cell phone plane for a single user is much more cost effective than a $35 phone plan plus add-on services line long distance, voice mail, caller id, call waiting, etc…
Moreover, most of my family is on the same carrier (T-Mobile) so we all benefit from unlimited calling between each other. Landline service can’t compare.
Are you still using a landline? Why?
Via The Wireless Report – Want to ditch the landline and go all-wireless? Move to Detroit
Oct 18, 2006 | blog
I’ve stopped using Pluck a few weeks ago, and finally have removed the last vestiges of it from my machines. Did IE7 cause this? Not exactly.
While the RSS/ATOM support in IE7 and Firefox contributed to this, it really is Google Reader that drove home the last nail in the coffin. The simplicity, performance, and accessibility of GReader just can’t be beat for my needs at this time.
So, it is with sadness that I am currently removing Pluck from my last machine before installing the IE7 gold release. I’ve used Pluck for 2 years and will remember it fondly.
Oct 16, 2006 | blog
This is one of those products that I believe will help move blogging into corporate America. With software features like LDAP authentication and enterprise-class support contracts, Six Apart is positioning it’s Movable Type blogging platform to fit into corporate-minded IT shops.
Corporate IT is usually religious in its zeal to secure and “normalize” any technology. Don’t get me wrong, the IT departments that do it right usually have less down-time and increased productivity from their IT systems. They just suck the soul out of a product in the process.
With a made-for-enterprise approach from one of the top blogging software purveyors, corporate blogging can begin to be rolled out in the traditionally controlled environments. Hopefully, MT will be able to bring even more conservative types into the blogosphere.
Read more at the link below.
Via: Read/Write Web – Movable Type Enterprise 1.5 Launched
Oct 16, 2006 | blog
Early last week, I decided to try using the River of News format that Scoble and Winer both rave about so much. You can enable this type of view in Google Reader by selecting All Items in the selection panel on the left, and then selecting Sort by newest the view settings.
I have to say that this view simply is the greatest way to consume RSS/ATOM feeds. While I had thought I would miss my more interesting feeds because they would be “buried” inside a bunch of other non-critical posts, that simply isn’t the case.
The “river of news” view has allowed me to make another leap in both the quantity and quality of news I consume. Today I’m able to follow many more stories, much more quickly.
Thank you Dave Winer!
