Email, Blogging, and Twitter Explained

SVD is documenting his forays into these mediums (where else) on his blog. All of these things mean so many different things to different people. Here’s how I like to describe them…

When I send you an email, it’s the equivalent of me inviting you over to the house for a cup of coffee. We’re sitting at the kitchen table having a conversation. This has a few implications. For instance, “thanks” is not acceptable for an email in its entirety. I wouldn’t invite you over to my house to say “Thanks” and then slam the door in your face would I? Don’t be surprised, however, if I come banging on your door to borrow an egg or some milk though. These are the emails where I ask stupid questions.

When I write something on my blog and people comment, it’s the equivalent of me standing out in my yard and talking to whatever neighbors happen to drop by to talk. I’m lazy, so I’m probably sitting in a chair instead of standing, but you get the idea. Anyone is free to drop by and discuss, even if they don’t live in my ‘hood. This has implications too. For instance, driving by and yelling “F You!” or walking up and trying to sell me Viagra means you’re going to be ignored. Also, my “yard” isn’t as nice or visited by as many passers by as some. See, my yard isn’t near an interstate–it’s more like a gravel road–so there usually aren’t as many people stopping by. On some days, I just sit out there whittling and taking naps all by myself. Other days I just stay inside and nap.  If you stop by, it helps to bring beer.

And Twitter? Twitter is like all of us are piled into a bunch of eighteen wheelers and talking on CBs with antennas so big that the whole world can tune in. Anytime something important happens, it will hit Twitter as fast as news of a Smoky seen setting up a speed trap. Anyone with their ears on will definitely know about it.

Wait, I have a better description for Twitter…

Twitter is like ham radio for people who can get a date.

Great News Story–You Forgot Something

Silence pointed out a story in the Tennessean this morning about political bloggers in Tennessee. Newscoma points out something too.

Not a bad story but it amazes me that they didn’t link the bloggers they were talking about.

Come on ‘Coma…what part of “they don’t get it yet” don’t you understand?  Giving credit where it is due, the KNS is great about pointing out local bloggers when they mention them, and they have been for a long time.

I think that’s a pretty good strategy. Use your assets to become the center of the blogging community, and try not to alienate it.

Twitter “Buys” Summize

The official addition of search–real time search–is definitely going to take Twitter to the next level and offer up monetization possibilities, but at what cost?  I don’t expect Twitter to go on commercial free forever, but is summize going to take the spammy stuff we’re already seeing there to the next level too?  And how exactly does a purchase like this work?

The one thing that remains a mystery is the acquisition price. Twitter hasn’t raised a huge amount of money and Summize had almost a million dollars in funds raised itself. What percentage of its coffers did Twitter just spend on all the Summize technology and five employees? It’s probable that Summize investors saw their investments in Summize turn into favorable investments in Twitter, rather than a pile of cash. When one startup buys another one, though, one always has to wonder. It’s usually a sign of desperation on the part of the acquired company – but that’s not likely the case here.

Confirmed: Twitter Has Acquired Summize – ReadWriteWeb.

WordPress 2.6 Nice

WordPress 2.6 has been released, and there are some really nice features in this version.  The biggest new feature to me is the revision history, which allows you to compare every revision of a post and also gives you the option to revert back to previous versions.   Other really cool features are a live word count, ability to reorder images in a gallery you’ve uploaded, captions for images, and a “Press This” button for your browser that let’s you post right out of an article you’re reading.  Does that mean I have no excuse for the light blogging I’ve been doing lately?  Now I have to pop in a post from EVERYTHING I find interesting?  We shall see.

On the admin side, plugin management has been changed to make things much easier (multiple activation is now enabled) and theme preview is now available without installing a plugin.  I’m sure I’ll write a post later complaining about all of the things that are broken, but I’m pretty happy with this update so far.  These features make WordPress even better for use as a full fledged CMS.

Carnival of Local Political Gaffes #1

Welcome to the June 16, 2008 edition of carnival of local political gaffes. This is the first edition of the carnival, and there wasn’t much notice for submission, so contributions were light overall, but there is plenty of great stuff here, at least if you live in Tennessee.

Christian Grantham presents:

Mt. Pleasant Commissioner charged in brawl at City Hall–“Now calm down, Bobby! Calm down.”

Another drunk Tennessee politician puts lives in danger–“If you’re under federal investigation for perscription fraud, don’t show up drunk down to the FedEx hootin’ and a hollering over a lost package of pharmacueticals.”

Rep. Rob Briley threatens and blames the media–“He clearly hasn’t even gotten past the first step in his 12 steps out of the drunken hell he’s inflicted on the rest of us.”

TN House Majority Leader Gary Odom to get hitched–“He’s older than her parents, and she’s younger than his children, but at least the 56 year old House Majority Leader waited for the Capitol Hill intern and beauty queen to turn 24 before marrying her.”

SVD presents Arnett pays overdue taxes : posted at Hayes Hickman–“Is being the CLERK really that difficult…Before you run for the office that collects taxes…make sure yours are paid.”

So next week should be a little more extensive with submissions outside of TN as well. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of local political gaffes. To submit an article just click here. Submissions are due by Sunday.

Pouring The Coals

It doesn’t seem like very long ago that The Missus and I would spend way too much time watching something boring on TV or being distracted from writing by some other excuse.  But for the last week or so it seems like we’ve been doing very little but writing.  Last night we had to actually set aside some down time–a break from writing–so that we could watch a movie and relax.  I love when projects get that kind of momentum, but it’s a little tough when you’re working on a project like that from home–you’re always at work.

Tonight I’m taking another break to catch up with some reading (and commenting).  I’m sure I’ll be spending a lot more time here once Ron Paul announces he’s going to run on the Libertarian ticket though.  😉

Found–Another Good WordPress Resource

I’ve been spending the last few days working on a couple of new projects that I plan on launching later this week or early next week. On Monday I put my first WordPress plugin out for the world to, uh, bash. Just kidding (not really).

I’ve been lucky enough to find a few people who are willing to run it through the wringer and show me the problems and what can be improved. The unexpected bonus is that these guys have great resources on their own websites, and I may not have discovered them otherwise. For example, I was checking out Leland’s site, themelab.com, and ran across a really good article on improving on existing WordPress themes which instantly solved a problem I’ve been having on one of my new projects.

It’s really encouraging to find people who are willing to help out and make these projects go more smoothly, and it’s really cool when you find a resource like themelab.com that you can refer to again and again down the road!

RSS Awareness Day

RSS Awareness Day May 1st has been declared RSS Awareness Day by, uh, some folks who want to raise awareness about RSS. I was actually surprised to learn that only 5.4% of internet users are currently using RSS. I’m pretty vigilant about watching my subscriber numbers, so I would LOVE to increase RSS usage to somewhere closer to 15%…that would theoretically triple my readership.

So for those of you who read this blog regularly and don’t use an RSS reader, let me again emphasize how cool of a technology it is, and how it will change the way you read on the web. For instance, using RSS, one could gain the ability to subscribe to and read a site from work which has been blocked by their company’s IT department, if one were so inclined.

And for those of you who are bloggers and/or webmasters yourself, help spread the word by promoting RSS Awareness Day on your own site. I truly believe that together we can make a difference in the way people surf while looking super-smart in their eyes at the same time. 😛

The Blogosphere Is Going to Implode? Nah.

According to Gawker’s Nick Denton, yes.

Gawker head honcho Nick Denton explained to Silicon Alley Insider that the decision to sell the sites was based on the economy, lack of advertising, and his desire to get lean before the blogosphere implodes.

Wait.  Don’t panic.  One prognostication does not a bubble burst.  Don’t rush out to the nearest convenience store to trade in your shares of www.itfrom.us for beef jerkey and (used) scratch of lottery tickets just yet.

Any reasonable person knows that the blogosphere is not going to implode, at least not until someone invents a cheaper and more efficient way than blogging to waste time and money.

HT–Michael Silence

Write It All Off

Cosmo KramerKramer: They just write it off.

Jerry: You don’t even know what a write off is, do you?

Kramer: Do you?

Jerry: No, I don’t.

Kramer. Well they do, and they’re the ones writing it off.

Jerry: I wish I had the last 20 seconds of my life back.

HT to Auramae via Twitter for this article on Wired. When you’re making a living blogging about your personal life, can you write off personal expenses like condoms? That’s what Soccergirl is attempting to do, and I for one am all for it.

In an age when bloggers and podcasters are making a living — or trying to — by blogging and podcasting about their personal lives, what exactly is legitimate? And if writing off your personal life is as easy as writing about it online and getting some Google ads, why doesn’t everybody do it?

Well, it turns out that you can’t write off things that you buy if you’re using them primarily for personal use, which makes sense. But just for laughs, I thought about all of the things I could write off since I’ve been blogging:

Cable TV (lots of blogging about The Wire, Lost, and Rock of Love), internet access (obviously), gas to drive around town, running shoes, and my taxes themselves.