I’ve been recommending WordPress.
Here is a graphic presentation of the software used by some of the most popular blogs.
Leading Average: Top Blog Trends
Category: product endorsements
what blog software to choose?
As of today, the best choice for most people is WordPress. That’s what I use on this site. It’s open source and free.
I feel WordPress strikes the right balance between simplicity and control of content.
Here’s a good article comparing the pros and cons of the different options:
IMAX – Mystery of the Nile
Another terrific IMAX movie I recommend:
For 114 days, a team of explorers led by Pasquale Scaturro and Gordon Brown faced nearly insurmountable challenges as they made their way 3,260 miles down the Blue Nile and Nile river, traversing three countries in some of the world’s remotest regions. Deadly crocodiles and hippos, the world’s most dangerous whitewater rapids, gunfire from bandits, malaria, and temperatures topping 120°F are just some of the obstacles they faced. See their quest to become the first in history to run the Blue Nile and Nile from source to sea.
the Peanut Butter Manifesto – dumb
Yahoo! is a great company, but one which can do no right lately.
Yahoo Sr. VP Jerry Maguire Brad Garlinghouse seemingly leaked a critical memo now dubbed the “peanut butter manifesto“. He called for radical change in the company.
It’s generating more heat than light.
Even I’m ticked off by his hint of merging awesome flickr with lousy Yahoo Photos. Yahoo! owns both products.
Flickr isn’t just technology. Yes, it’s a great UI with a killer back-end and open APIs. But it’s communities. It’s a sense of place. It’s love. …
I have almost 13,000 pictures on Flickr. I love the company, the people who created it, the fact that they don’t think they own my data, that they have open APIs, and that they have created, single-handedly, with no patents and no (or little if any) IP, a whole new market ecosystem for digital photography. A big high-five and a toast to that.
As a photographer, I have a relationship with Flickr. Not with Yahoo. That’s not to say I don’t have relationships with Yahoo, or that I don’t respect Yahoo. I have lots of relationships with Yahoo, and lots of respect for the company. But my relationship with Flickr predates and transcends my relationships with Yahoo. (In fact, I hate the clunky way I was forced to “merge” the logins for both.)
The Doc Searls Weblog : Monday, November 20, 2006
Whatever happened to Jerry Maguire’s Manifesto, anyway?
Twinings Earl Grey – tea of the Gods
Earl Grey tea is “any blend with the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit.”
I’ve tried every Earl Grey I’ve come across.
Twinings is the brand poured in my castle.
The blend is named after the 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister in the 1830s, who reputedly received the blend as a gift from a Chinese mandarin.
The tea proved so popular in the Prime Minister’s drawing room that his tea merchants, Twinings in the Strand, were given a sample and asked to come up with a close match. Twinings sold the first “Earl Grey’s tea” in the British market. Twinings Earl Grey blend includes China tea, Indian Darjeeling, Ceylon, and a hint of Lapsang souchong, a strong, “smoky” black tea.
Earl Grey tea – Wikipedia
Beatles LOVE – free preview of entire album
Old is new. The familiar reinvented.
A Beatles album — LOVE — is here just in time for Christmas.
I think it will be one of the biggest selling recordings of all time. You can listen to the entire album on-line free as part of the kickoff promotion. (I’m listening to it right now.)
This is part of the astonishing Beatles collaboration with Cirque du Soleil.
A far more eloquent review than I could write:
I’ve been listening to the Beatles’ soundtrack to their Cirque du Soleil project, called “Love,” all weekend and loving it.
… the CD should really be called “George Martin Presents the Beatles in ‘Love.’” because Martin — who produced just about everything the Beatles ever recorded — is the mastermind here with his son, Giles. They’ve taken every bit of existing recorded Beatles material and twisted it — I believe “mashed up” is the new term — into a completely new presentation that every fan will need to have in their collections.
Some of the songs remain in their intact state, and some are merely tweaked. The majestic “Hey Jude,” for example, is shortened to good effect and made into a bit more of a rave up. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” however, is totally reborn from an unreleased demo and newly recorded strings which Martin brilliantly added. Ringo’s “Octopus’s Garden” and “Good Night” are laid on top of each other like a collage, with “Garden” getting a dramatic staging.
Martin is also clever adding in little bits of trivia. Since the Beatles were the first group to get fans playing records backwards for messages, he reverses “Sun King” from “Abbey Road” and calls it “Gnik Nus” as a transition into “Something.” And the “She Loves You” outro from “All You Need Is Love,” which was always an understated extra, now gets major emphasis.
Did I mention the sound? Most of the Beatles CDs were made by Martin in 1987 and never touched again. The “White Album” was re-equalized at one point, and “Yellow Submarine” was remastered for its DVD re-release, but most of it has remained the same … until now.
On “Love,” the sound is gorgeous and warm, clearly remastered. And the deluxe package comes with a DVD-Audio disc for home theater enthusiasts. A lot of fans may wind up switching their DVD players into their stereo systems just to hear this version. It’s that good.
blogging – WordPress or Typepad?
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
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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.
Latitudes – best on-line travel magazine
Wow!
This is by far the best translation of the magazine experience to the internet I’ve seen.
Click the corner of the page and it rolls over. But with some interactivity.
Latitudes makes other on-line magazines look dull.
Lusciously photographed Latitudes Magazine has got a new issue out today and I take seriously my responsibility to let others know about this superb travel magazine. I hardly ever hear other people talking about Latitudes, and that is a shame. It is a lovely magazine with an Internet version that crackles with color and impresses with clever hidden “easter eggs” inside each online issue. … in Windows you can actually download a full, bursting version of the magazine to your laptop so as to carry and read when wireless and on the road.
This month’s issue features jaw-dropping images from Amsterdam, Thailand, Los Roques (“An Eden in the Caribbean”), Slovenia and more. I’d link to the specific stories, but the whole thing is in Flash (one of the format’s drawbacks) and there’s no bookmarking function. But look at it this way: now you’ll have to browse the magazine yourself and to savor all the wonderful visual surprises inside.
Luscious Latitudes Magazine – Gadling
mixed reviews on the Zune
Pogue and Mossberg both agree that the screen on the Zune is great, and that the UI is comparable, or better than, the iPod in most cases. It also sounds just as good as the iPod, but that is where the praise ends. Pogue wonders why you can’t use Windows Media Player to sync with your Zune (you must use a new software program called, oddly enough, Zune). Mossberg was disappointed in the battery life, and he thought the entire product felt more like a prototype than a final effort.
They both pan the wireless sharing, which is supposed to be one of the Zune’s major selling points. You can share, via WiFi, songs from your Zune to another person’s Zune. They can only play them 3 times in the next 3 days before they go poof (leaving behind a note of what the track was in case you want to buy it at the Zune Store). Though here’s the rub, even if you only listen to 10 seconds of the song that counts as one ‘play.’
Overall it seems like the Zune is a typical Microsoft effort, acceptable with some odd omissions and oversights. I’d expect the Zune to give the iPod a run for its money when it is on its third version (but we may very well have a direct neural interface with our iPods by then).
Mossberg and Pogue on the Zune – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
I listen to Rush Limbaugh
Only in the States (feeling the “vibe“) and only in rent-a-cars. And only on white trash AM radio.
But I have to admit — the big, fat idiot makes the miles fly by.
Rush Limbaugh – Wikipedia
He is a master Republican defender. And gutsy. I even heard him spin the absolutely indefensible Mark Foley and make it sound like Bill Clinton’s fault.
Limbaugh’s an intelligent guy, obviously. I can’t imagine he believes everything he spouts. Perhaps he does. There is a consistency to his line of argument.
Those who listen only to Limbaugh, watch only Fox News, should check out the anti-Limbaugh — Al Franken.
Rick McCharles 