Category: blogs

Canada, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

On By Rick McIn blogs, economics, governmentLeave a comment

Dana tipped me to the blog of “enviro girl” in Sweden.

Hey — it’s none other than Adrianne Begg, one of her former gymnasts and coaches at Marian Gymnastics in Saskatoon.

begg-sm.jpg

Regarding Canada and Kyoto …

I am embarassed and ashamed of Canada’s New Government today. This is bordering on changing the way I feel about being a Canadian… I really never thought that I would say that, not in a million years, but I feel so let down by our government that I feel completely separate from it. The New Canadian Government has been working counter to the best interests of the people in our country on the issues of the Environment and Climate Change in particular. …

It is absolutely appalling that Canada will be the only country to BACK OUT of the Kyoto Protocol. …

I am absolutely shocked at the action taken by the Environment Minister Rona Ambrose at the Kyoto Negotiations in Nairobi. Her statements at the UN meetings have embarrassed Canada, and shown disrespect to the rest of the international community, as well as the Canadian people themselves. …

Canada, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Adrianne’s pretty ticked at Rona Ambrose. But who is she? I don’t know the name.

OH NO! She’s a controversial politician from … Alberta.

Yeesh. Another right-wing politician who takes Ayn Rand too seriously. Named Minister of the Environment?

The press looks almost unanimously negative about what she is doing for Canada internationally.

I’d better add Rona Ambrose to my death watch list, along with that crook Bev Oda.

And I’ll subscribe to Adrianne’s blog. She’s following this issue closely.

I don’t know enough about Kyoto vs. alternatives to have formed an opinion myself.

Lastly — I sent this blog post to Rona Ambrose’s office.

blogging – WordPress or Typepad?

On By Rick McIn blogs, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Just had my first experience trying to customize something using Typepad software.

Forget it!

For me WordPress is far superior.

While Typepad looks more professional, it takes forever to get anything done. WordPress is far more graphic. You can SEE what is happening. The two software platforms remind me of Windows (Typepad) vs. Apple (WordPress).

Plus WordPress is free, Typepad starts at about $50 / year with plenty of ways to try to force you to upgrade.

Comparison of WordPress and TypePad – Emily Robbins

====

UPDATE:

Finally resolved a small issue with TypePad.

First, we had to upgrade to $150 / year in order to change the sidebar navigation.

Then, when I submitted a request for HELP, the reply was quick — but they did not email me. After waiting around for 24hrs, I finally checked the account. My reply was there. (My WordPress host would have sent me 2 emails in that time.)

For the geeks out there, here was my final comment to tech support at Typepad:

“Enter your code

Copy and paste the code into the Notes field of the TypeList item. The Label field is optional, if you add text here, it will display on your blog.”

This is the problem. I cannot find any “note field”. It has only description field.

Ahhh … after much searching and reading multiple pages of documentation I find I must “Add a New Item” to My TypeList.

Now — who ever decided to use these cryptic terms? “Typelist item”? Who would guess that was what we now call a “widget” or “gadget”?

In WordPress you click on a “text widget” and it opens. Put in code or whatever you want. In your system there are too many steps. The process is not graphic enough.

You need to redo your site with drag and drop AJAX.

Yeesh.

I’ll advise people use WordPress until you do.

What are online RSS feeds?

On By Rick McIn blogs, internetLeave a comment

RSS.jpegIf you have not yet tried an RSS reader, I recommend it.

Of many good options, Google reader is recommended. It’s easy to set up, simple for you to see how RSS works.

Q. I keep hearing about RSS feeds on Web sites. What are they and how can I use them?

A. RSS feeds are a very simple and convenient way to receive updated items from Web sites that you like, so you don’t have to go trolling around to each site to see what’s new. Think of it as a Web page that does your surfing for you.

RSS — which stands for “Really Simple Syndication” — … that allows you to “subscribe” to various Web sites, which will then send you new headlines and blurbs soon after they’re posted. …

The updates will all appear in one place, which you can organize the way you want. The material from each site you subscribe will usually appear in its own section as short headlines with little blurbs describing what the item is. They’ll also contain links you can click on to go to the actual site.

… You’ll start by setting up a place to collect your RSS feeds — these are often called RSS “readers” — and choosing the feeds you want to get.

… “RSS brings the Web to you, rather than you having to go out and find things on the Web,” Holston said.

Column: What are online RSS feeds? – Yahoo! News

Economist magazine losing it?

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, blogs, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

economist_logo.png

I have the greatest respect for Economist. They sell a million issues a week.

But Economist hasn’t done much lately. Have they?

No blog. Relatively poor audiocast. No improvement to their website in years.

You’d think those UK free enterprise advocates would innovate.

Sometimes criticized for being too right wing, Economist (for the record) supported Bush in 2000 but not in 2004. They supported the coalition of the willing going into Iraq — but now call for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation.

hiking Mt. Shasta California

On By Rick McIn blogs, hiking, photos, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

Thanks to Tom Mangan, a hiking blogger from San Jose, I travelled to the first annual outdoor bloggers meetup. Tom put together a nice photo report on the weekend.

Tom first collected myself and Szu-ting Yi (a Taiwanese blogger living in Philadelphia) from the airport, then drove us 5hrs to gorgeous Mt. Shasta to rendezvous with the rest of the gang.

bloggers-small.jpg
larger version

Though strangers, we had much in common — the outdoors and the internet.

Russ the Wine Hiker supplied us with great reds and prepared gourmet Thai food. The best meal I ever ate around a campfire. Though he knows the lyrics, I am quite sure he never actually toured with the Eagles.

Tom Chandler (Trout Underground) and his wife Nancy provided the local information — they live in Shasta — though we did not find time for Tom to teach me to fly fish. Perhaps he was worried I might be a natural Brad-Pitt-River-Runs-Through-It-type and make it look too easy.

The hard-core hiker amongst us was techie John Fedak who lives down the street from Apple Computer (but works mostly for Intel). John’s a blogger — but his forte is photography. Check some of his favourite pics.

Lastly, Adam and his almost-3-year-old son kept up to the rest of us on the trail. Adam is a climber who loves Mt. Shasta. He blogs as climb_ca on GoBlog which supports the GetOutdoors.com — everything you need to GetOutdoors.

Photos of camping, fishing, drinking, dining and even some hiking on Flickr.

» next travelogue post on this trip – San Francisco?

everybody loves the Scobilizer

On By Rick McIn blogs, videocastsLeave a comment

For some reason Robert Scoble is one of the most respected bloggers in the world.

He has become a minor celebrity among geeks worldwide, who read his blog religiously. Impressively, he has also succeeded where small armies of more conventional public-relations types have been failing abjectly for years: he has made Microsoft, with its history of monopolistic bullying, appear marginally but noticeably less evil to the outside world, and especially to the independent software developers that are his core audience.

Economist magazine, Feb. 2005

He has since left Microsoft but his posts are still scrappy. Unprofessional. His Scobelizer blog does not even use his own domain.

Perhaps content is not king. “Rather, conversation is king. Trust is king.”

People trust Scoble. They like him.

Unlike professional PR efforts, amateur bloggers may gain your attention because their opinion is personal. The amateur’s opinion has more credibility with some.

Check his newest venture, tech videocast The Scobleshow.

Podtech__photowalking_hawk4_2006-09-29_Robert_Scoble_scobleshow_big.jpg