PowerBook and iBook Field Guide

It's out! The PowerBook and iBook Digital Field Guide is the culmination of some hard work over the spring and summer months, with a great deal of help from my co-author, Dennis Cohen. I've looked forward to writing this book for a long time -- I've been pitching the concept for a few years now -- because I think it's great to have a companion book for your Mac portable that focuses exclusively on what you *need* to know and keeps the size down so that it fits in your bag.

This book skips most of the "basics" of the Mac OS and discusses, instead, issues like data security, working with a portable as your "desktop replacement" and getting acccess to data while you're on the road. There's also troubleshooting info, a guide to portable bags and accessories and more. Plus, the publisher makes it pretty easy to buy this book, thanks to a coupon good for two Audible.com eBooks that are worth the cover price.

And that doesn't even take into consideration the fact that Amazon gives you 32% off!

Slate Has Cred-Gap Bashing Apple Reporting

To be honest, there are some item in this story that make sense. Apple does get an inordinate amount of press when it releases products that others have already released. I think the author of the piece fails a bit in understanding the elegance of the products that Apple makes -- watching Ms. D figure out the iPod, iTunes and Podcasting in the course of about 20 minutes on her birthday last week is proof of some of the power of Apple's interface design. And while Apple doesn't always make the perfect interface choices, the author has to understand that enormous odds _are_ against Apple because the world doesn't want to hear that there's a better way to do things than the Microsoft way.

But the funniest bit is Slate's little ad-copy blurb at the top of the piece, breathlessly touting the fact -- in bold lettering -- that the story is "iPod-ready" and part of Slate's line-up of daily podcasts. ...You know, right before the author bashes Apple's influence on the market as smoke-and-mirrors. Priceless.

Apple Mail Broken

Has anyone else noticed that every since Apple "upgraded" Mail in Tiger, it seems like the "Paste And Match Style" feature is broken? For years this has been something that I always thought was cool about Mail, and it's very useful for a writer, as I'm often correcting or editing small pieces in e-mail. It's handy to copy something that is an e-mail "quote" and then paste it as original text, without the quote levels. Anyway...if anyone knows how to get the original functionality back, I'd appreciate a heads-up.

My New Browser: Camino

I can get a little obsessive about eBay, now and again, as well as Cars.com, Edmunds.com and Autotrader.com -- I end up with a whole little Mission Control of browser windows open when I'm car hunting. And when I'm doing that, I like to use the heck out of tabs in my browser window; command+click a link and it opens in a tab in the same window, preferrably in the background until I switch to it. That way I can keep clicking links (from, say, an eBay results page) and have their pages load in the background until I click over to a tab to check out the resulting auction entry or review.

Put simply, Safari chokes on this little plan. For some reason, opening tabs in Safari windows seems particularly resource intensive, and after I've got about 6 windows open, each with 5-7 tabs, it starts to crawl so much so that I'm waiting for mouse clicks, then I'm waiting for Expose to kick in and so on.

With Camino, I've had no trouble surfing multiple pages with multiple tabs and then switching, say, to a live online game of Texas Hold 'Em. Camino isn't bullet-proof -- it will slow down, too -- but no where near as quickly as Safari. It's also not as buggy as Firefox, in my experience, which tends to go down once every 18 hours or so.

Camino is Mozilla technology based on the Gecko engine, but it's Mac-only, meaning, perhaps, a better product if only because they're more focused than the Firefox team. True, it doesn't sport as many fun features as Safari (for instance, it appears to do nothing native with RSS), but it's sprightly, slim and it gives you that designed-for-a-Mac-and-therefore-just works kinda feeling.

Mastering Mac OS X, Fourth Edition

I actually got my author copies a few weeks ago, but haven't had much time to blog about the book I was working on for a good part of the spring -- the book is out, and it looks great. The Sybex team has done a great job on it, as has Kirk McElhearn, my co-author, who shouldered even more of the burden this time. This is a fun project -- it's only the second book that I've ever had go four editions, and I'm proud of its breadth -- I also hope it's a fun and useful read for those who buy it. Please feel free to ask me any questions about it on the thread.

See Amazon Page

ML-1710 and Tiger

My favorite little $50 printer suddenly stopped working when I upgraded Donna's Mac to Tiger (actually, I upgraded Donna's Mac completely; she now has the iBook G4 I talked about a few posts down, while I've since acquired a PowerBook G4 12-inch), and went hunting for answers. Found it here:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/foomatic/

a tip I got from here:

http://www.macosx.com/content/faq.php/q4597/Printer-Not-Werking-In-Tiger.html

Once installed, the trick is to set up your ML-1710 (in Print Utility you should double-click the ML-1710 and then select the Print Using menu) so that you're using the Samsung 4500 Foomatic+gdi printer driver. There isn't a 1710 driver, unfortunately, but the rumor is that the 4500 driver works fine.

(Actually, there is a 1710 PPD out there, but rumor has it that it's Windows-focused, and it doesn't actual lead to any printerly behavior...something I learned the hard way.)

Mac Mini Now Worth It?

I made a fool of myself this afternoon in an e-mail to a colleague in which I lambasted Apple for shipping the Mac mini with only 256MB of RAM. If I'd checked the Mac news this morning, then I would have known that I stood corrected.

I've been working this week on my new-to-me PowerBook G4 12-inch 1Ghz model and enjoying the process. (I got it because I needed a cheap portable with a SuperDrive; it's also got an 80GB hard drive which is handy.) The eBay description said 768MB of RAM, which is one reason I jumped on it... when I got the machine, however, it only had 256MB. Grr. Nothing sucks like feeling ripped off on eBay.

My seller has what sounds like a good excuse -- CompUSA had done some AppleCare work on the PowerBook and might have left the RAM out -- so I'm trying to be patient.

Meanwhile, however, I'm in 256MB purgatory, a place that many a Mac mini owner is probably, too. Running Tiger and, say, one or two other applications works OK...any real, regular computing, though, and I get some...pregnant...pauses...when I switch around or even sometimes when I don't.

It's not pleasant, and it makes my PowerBook G4/500 feel like a workhorse by comparison. I need my RAM.

As would a Mac mini owner. I just did this upgrade for a consulting client of mine the other day -- he got a Mac mini and a 20-inch Apple LCD, the lucky guy -- and upgrading that Mac mini is no small feat. I had to wrench it apart with thin putty knives, then pull the 256MB and drop in his 1GB stick. Now he's got a relatively useless 256MB module that I would imagine eBay is flooded with these day.

So I'm happy to see that Apple has not only upgraded to 512MB, but also offers a BTO option for a clean gig of RAM. Good move. Now the Mac mini is enticing enough that I'm starting to wonder if there wouldn't be another machine in our newspaper office that deserves a little upgrade...

Another Widget

I'm using DashBlog right now (on my used-but-new-to-me PowerBook G4 12-inch, I'll have you know) to tell you about The Backpack widget by Chipt. If you haven't yet experienced Backpack, you might want to try it.

Backpack is sort of a riff on the idea of a wiki, but with a number of specialized tools. You can create pages in your Web browser, then add to them using various forms, notes and checklists. You can selectively share your page with others or use it for display to the public. (My book page, clickable at the left, is a Backpack page.) Backpack also has special Reminders that work in a number of ways -- head to the special Reminders page and enter a reminder; you can then have that reminder e-mailed to you, you can subscribe to an iCal calendar file that includes the remind and so on.



Well, with the Backpack Widget, you can also access those reminders right from within Dashboard, and you can add new ones. You can also work with your personal lists and notes from within the widget interface. You can exactly edit full pages but, then again, that would pretty much make Backpack totally redundant.

If you're not using Backpack, check it out. If you are using it, check out the Backpack Widget. This is fun stuff.

CompUSA...Sucks

I went to our local CompUSA to pick up two things for a very high-end video editing Power Macintosh G5 setup that I've been privileged to be working on recently, and found it woefully lacking in some amazing basics. I wanted two things -- something to translate from a FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 connection (ideally a cable) and a FireWire hub. Well, CompUSA had *none* of the former, even in the Mac section, and only one single FireWire hub; a small Belkin model they were willing to let go of for just shy of $50. In other words, not a great deal, and no selection to speak of.

Most frustrating is how little "computer stuff" seems to be left in CompUSA -- maybe I'm more of a Radio Shack guy or something, but our CompUSA offers three aisles of wireless cards and routers, two aisles of iPod stuff, four or so aisles of DVD movies, but only one Firewire hub and no 400-to-800 translation cables. At all.

Apple Goes Intel

According to Apple PR and reports from the WWDC 2005 SteveNote this morning, Apple is going to make the switch to Intel processors beginning in June 2006. My first thought is that it could make for a very interesting future for the Mac -- in a good way -- it sounds like the transition will work pretty well if they've got their coding ducks in a row.

The question of the year, however, will be this -- with an Intel Mac dual-boot into Windows? If it does, then will application developers continue to write Mac versions of their software?

My assumption is a Mac will still be a relatively-closed-system Mac, just with a different processor. But exactly how different is an Intel-based Mac from an Intel-based PC? Isn't someone going to figure out how to get Windows to run on one?

Of course, there's a flipside to that, too...it's called world domination. What if the Mac OS could run on PCs -- and have many fewer viruses? It's possible, I suppose.

Is Apple taking on Microsoft? Think about it -- all the sudden there's an open source-based, standards compliant, highly secure operating system running on Intel processors...ouch, my head hurts!

Of course, along those same lines is a down-side -- there's the issue of how extremely difficult it's going to be for Apple to justify any price difference from PCs if they all run Intel chips. They'll be selling user experience -- and superior craftsmanship -- on its own.

For so long an Intel-based Mac has seemed like such a bad idea that actually reading about the announcement is hard to fathom. I guess all there is to do this that now is wait and see what Steve's plan is.

It's certainly an interesting world all the sudden.

Testing Dashblog

Dashblog is a Dashboard widget that interfaces with the Blogger API, enabling you to add entries quickly to any blogging solution that supporter that API, including, of course, Blogger itself.

This is cool for two reasons. One, it's always cool when there's a new way to add to my blog, because them I'm more likely to do it...at least for a little while.

Second, I like Dashblog because of the Dashboard's translucent look -- I can see a web page I want to blog about, copy the URL and then switch directly to the Dashboard and start in, while still seeing most of the browser window in the background. In other words, it's a nifty idea that builds on the nifty idea that is the Dashboard in the first place.

Just don't click the Info icon while you're editing; entries don't appear to be saved as you're typing and I don't see a Save Draft option. Nor can you edit existing entries or manage your blog from the widget -- it's strictly about sending up quick and dirty Blogger entries. But the software is still in an early beta, so expect improvements.

Cool Little MiniMate

Just came across the Mini Mate and felt like it was worth saying something about. I've been surfing tonight thinking about (a.) my next video editing machine for home and (b.) a replacement machine for the office that needs to do some light production work but still be affordable. The Mac mini keeps coming up in my head as a possibilities, but then I realize I'd need some additional storage and end up thinking along other lines.

This little add-on is a pretty interesting item. Not only does it look like it's a match for the Mac mini, but it a fairly reasonable price (250GB is $279) and it includes both a FireWire hub and a USB hub, so that you have a few more ports that the anemic little Mac mini offers you.

And I have to wonder if the fact that they're building knock-off peripherals for the Mac mini isn't a good thing -- it suggests this little guy might be here to stay for a while.

Why Apple Should Already Offer a PDA

Apple should have released the LifeDrive before PalmOne did, not because the LifeDrive is going to be much of a challenge for Apple, but because Apple is going to look like a copy-cat if they come out with something similar to it in the next few months or years.

I've said for a long time that what was most interesting about the iPod was the fact that Apple had made it cool for us to carry a hard disk in our pockets or bags. If it wasn't for the whole digital music thing, relatively fewer of us would be willing to walk around with hard disks in our pockets.

The LifeDrive takes that concept to another level, adding a nice screen and support for wireless technologies. Now you can have a hard disk in your pocket -- which means you can carry a non-trivial amount of data, documents and multimedia files with you -- as well as your contacts, e-mail, calendar, photos, music and so on. Plus...with the wireless access built in, you've got a big enough display for serious Web surfing using near-ubiquitous WiFi service. (Que Sera Sera, the cajun restaurant and bar across the street from my office, is advertising free WiFi.)

This is a cool trick because it's more than just a gimmick -- it's a near-complete desktop replacement. Right now when I go to a film festival meeting in our local indy-movie-rental-store-slash-coffee-and-sandwich-shop I take my PowerBook in order to connect and look things up. With the LifeDrive, no need. Plus, someone can ping me with e-mail. Very nice.

If it were an iPod, all the better, as I'm constantly striving to replace my current pocket and portable devices with one all-in-one (or, at the most, an all-in-one and a mobile phone), and I haven't gotten there yet. Palm makes good stuff, and the LifeDrive looks like a neat move in the PDA space. Apple could so pull this off, and with a larger disk and more Apple-friendly stuff, to boot. Oh -- and let it stream tunes to an AirPort Express. Yowza.

The only thing would be what to call Apple's version. The iPod PDA? iPod Life? iPod WiFi? The iPod AirPort? The iPod Everything?

Site News: My Books Page, Wikified

I'm constantly struggling with the issue of keeping this site up to date vs. working for a living. You may have similar problems. Obviously, it would help to blog more, but that's not the only issue.

One of the things I fret about it keeping good information about the books I'm writing up-to-date. I've felt for the past few months that if I could get a good-looking wiki solution, I'd do better at the managing-my-books thing. I could log right in and edit the pages, add notes, talking about changes or updates or whatnot. And I'm loving wiki tools right now, for pretty much the same reason that I hate HTML and FTP.

Enter BackPack (http://www.backpackit.com) a very cool service that I've just stumbled upon and will probably start paying real money for here in a little while. What BackPack does is enable you to selectively make wiki pages public or private, using them for a variety of reasons. Already I've got a page for my current to-do list, one for a film festival subcommitee that I'm a part of, one for advertising sales at our newspaper and one where I'm gathering info about my books. That's the only purely public page in my "backpack" -- the others are either my-eyes-only or designed for small workgroups, which can be automatically invited by e-mail and managed by the application.

Let me put it this way -- this is flickr, or Blogger, or MeetUp in terms of the level of Really Good Web Idea that Backpack represents.

I'm not done with my book page(s) -- and knowing me, it could languish a bit now that I've started -- but so far I'm almost giddy over the potential that my Backpack offers. So far. We'll see if that continues...it's up to me, I suppose.

'My' New iBook 12-inch

OK, It's not really mine. One of the reasons I've been slow to post recently is because I'm buried up to my neck in books, which often happens around the time that Mac OS X is ready for a revision. I'm working on some fun and exciting stuff and, along with trying to publish a weekly newspaper, it leaves little enough time for blogging. But you probably don't care.

The iBook in question is a 1.2GHz, 12-inch model that Apple was kind enough to send me as a PR review unit since I'm doing quite a bit of coverage of portables and haven't had much experience with new-generation iBooks. As a long-time PowerBook user/owner -- my current PowerBook G4/500 has been a workhorse for three years now -- I'm intrigued but the possibility that I could switch to something smaller and, yet, more powerful than anything I've had on my desk on a regular basis.

The iBook is small -- I'm struck by that anytime I swing back to my PowerBook, which sits up on my desk on a neat little Ikea shelf that's connected to my computer desk -- you'd have to see it, but it enables me to use the PowerBook as a desktop, will a full-sized keyboard and mouse. The little swivel shelf brings the height of the PowerBook higher so that my ergonomics are a little better. Compared to the iBook, the PowerBook's 15-inch display looks enormous, if much less bright.

The other quibble -- and it took me a while to figure this out -- the trackpad on the iBook is too big. Seems an odd thing to say since everything about the iBook is small, but the problem is that the trackpad is just large enough that I end up with a second finger (my middle finger) often poised just on the edge of the trackpad and, if I accidentally touch the trackpad with both fingers, the mouse pointer goes shooting off wildly. I've never had that problem before with a PowerBook, and it took me a while to stop simply blaming the iBook for having a "cheaper" mechanism. That may or may not be the case, but it's the size that's the problem. (The trackpad button is also a little "clunkier" than my PowerBook's, but it works fine.)

Aside from that, the iBook is a wonder to me. It's definitely easier to pull in and out of my bag, it's got AirPort Extreme built in (something I'm not used to with my PowerBook) and Bluetooth, which I haven't yet used -- although I just remembered that I have a Bluetooth headset hanging out in a box around here somewhere. Hmm.

One of the most amazing little details to me is burning CDs from a portable. Like I said, I've had my PowerBook -- with a CD/DVD reader only -- for a long time. I'm used to thinking that burning is something that desktops do, then you transfer to your portable. Having this little iBook whir up and start burning a CD was fun to watch.

I find myself squinting at the screen a bit and, for the first time ever, I set a Microsoft Word document to 125% to see the text (something I always used to make fun of PC owners for doing because their display resolutions had no relationship to WYSIWYG sizing the way Macs, er, used to). But overall it's a fun, powerful little package and I like that it feels a bit more rugged than my PowerBook ever has.

I don't know yet if I can live with the 12-inch display and the trackpad drives me a little nuts, but after this little loaner period, I may just find myself with a new 14-inch iBook G4 as my next generation desktop replacement. Stay tuned.

Rick and Dave - Head2Head

I just came across the Blogger site featuring Rick and Dave, two guys that I've occasionally written with. Dave and I used to do a radio show together in Denver that Rick was a featured guest on; we all wrote for the same magazine in Colorado Springs.

All that is to say, it's depressing to think how old these guys are getting now, and they're still at it, fighting over things like Battlestar Galatica vs. Enterprise.

In public, no less. :-)

Rick and Dave - Head2Head

Apple Should Buy TiVo?

I've felt for a long time that a natural extension of Apple's current success with iTunes, the iPod and AirPort would be some sort of "home" server. That server would most likely be located near your television and your stereo, so that it could serve video and audio to those appliances. I also envision it being an AirPort base station and being able to stream audio and video to your Macs.

The trick to the iPod is simple -- Apple got us to carry a hard drive in our pockets by making it cool looking and getting it to play music. So, what benefits could be derived from getting us to put a hard disk with a broadband Internet connection near our home entertainment system?

It looks like the dwindling fortunes of TiVo have some pundits calling for Apple to buy TiVo figuring that TiVo has great technology that needs Apple's genius and marketing muscle. It seems to me that the mere fact that industry analysts are calling for Steve Jobs to do something means he definitely won't do it, but it's an intriguing prospect.

Somehow I think Apple has to get a box onto the television -- and at the "heart" of our homes and maybe even small businesses -- and the Mac mini seems like a good start. And there's no question that Apple needs to pioneer a $9.99 movie purchase solution (or whatever) for downloadable movies they way they have for downloadable music. Frankly, I'm not sure they need to buy TiVo to make it happen, but I'm still waiting on my iHome or iHub or whatever it's going to be called.

Firefox for Mac? Works for Me.

It was with skepticism that I first used Firefox -- a similar skepticism to when I first used Safari -- because my experience with third-party Web browsers for years has been that it doesn't feel like they really work. The Mac's third-party offerings have always had something enticing about them -- iCab, Mozilla, Omnipage, Opera -- but I would also gravite back to Internet Explorer, because it offered fewer hiccups, even if it was slower.

Then came Safari. Written and published by Apple, it seemed like Safari stayed on top of things better than any "non-IE" browser since IE had taken the crown from Netscape. Since somewhere around Mac OS X 10.2, I haven't looked back.

Now there's Firefox. And it's the first time I've been to a true third-party browser that I felt I was likely to stick with. I was reading this Your Tech Weblog entry the other day and shaking my head -- so far, I feel that Firefox is quite a bit faster than Safari in my day-to-day use. It is slightly more crashprone (every once in a while the interface seems to give up and quit responding to mouse movements) and I've not yet utterly tested it with multimedia plug-ins and so on. But there seems to be enough of a groundswell around the product that I think it'll be a player and get the attention it needs so that those plug-in type things work.

I'm also impressed at the Mac-like feel of the browser; even though it's a crossplatform application, the Mac version seems to use Mac interface items very nicely, and I rarely feel like I'm in an app that's not a ground-up Mac app. (As far as I know it is -- I haven't really studied the way the different platforms were versioned and coded.)

That Your Tech Weblog entry did have one fun clue that I've taken advantage of -- apparently Firefox has been built into a few different versions that are specifically optimized for the G4, instead of the G5. Those versions can be found at http://homepage.mac.com/krmathis/ -- I've installed one and so far I'm pleased with the performance on my PowerBook G4/500 -- it feels faster than Safari.

One thing I've grown to like about Firefox I've never used in other apps -- a tabbed interface. I guess the default [cmd]+click opens into tabs (instead of new windows), which is what got me to switch. In a way it's like going from Classic Finder to Finder windows in Mac OS X. Tabs make a lot more sense than a mess of windows under almost any circumstances.

So FireFox has grabbed a coveted spot on my Dock and home and on my PowerBook, and I've even switched it to the default browser. We'll see how long that lasts -- from what I've read on Apple's site, I might switch back to Safari for the RSS reader that's coming in Tiger, or maybe Camino...which is downloading in the background as a write this...will be worth a look.

Apple Announces Two-for-One Stock Split

Interesting news from Apple. I figured that with the price of their stock heading upward so precipitously that it would likely split in the next little while, although I didn't imagine it would happen so immediately. While buying Apple now probably isn't a "grandma bought shares of a company called IBM in the 1930s" proposition (or whatever), it certainly doesn't seem like a bad idea. Not that I can afford it (nor do I or have I ever owned any Apple stock).

Choosing My Wiki Way

Just a few weeks ago I decided to spring something new on the staff of our newspaper -- a wiki. Currently, communication around our office is a mish-mash of e-mail and iChat, with an FTP server and posted signs on the wall completing the picture. While we use blog technology extensively for the site that we offer the public, internal blogs have failed as a way for us to communicate with one another.

After only about a day of explaining what a wiki is (everyone liked that it was based on the Hawaiian word for "quick"), I set one up for them to use. The idea with a wiki is that you can easily create and edit simple website simply by typing into HTML forms.

On the editorial side, they took to it like wildfire. All of the sudden we had an entire quarter year of issues tracked, with special entries for the office supplies they needed, the phone numbers and e-mail messages of the photographers and a few angry missives from the editor about how everyone is missing their deadlines and needed to stick to the style guide.

The wiki was a hit.

The problem was: Swiki, the service that I decided to use because it was (a.) free and (b.) offered secure wiki sites, only available to people with a password. Apparently Swiki is notoriously unreliable, and, soon after the editors had taken to it like flies on spit (yes, I know the real saying) Swiki up and disappeared.

Since then I've been looking for an alternative, but the editors haven't quite taken to a new wiki with the same gung-ho attitude. In particular, I'd settled in with XWiki, which the salespeople and I have been using to track our calls on advertisers and to note what ads need to be designed. XWiki is great stuff and getting better all the time. In particular I like that you can turn pages into PDFs with the click of a button, and I like the way each page could handle comments.

Then, today, I finally got my codes for a beta test site at Jotspot, the "latest and greatest" think in wiki-stuff. I'd have started with Jotspot if they'd have gotten me a beta site sooner, but apparently they're doing it by hand. (JotSpot is a cool startup that's got original Excite developers involved.) The reason I wanted to try it so bad is that Jotspot is going further with little WikiApps than anyone else so far, enabling you to create forms and accept input, keep track of events in calendars, track your contacts and generally do some cool stuff. There's even a Customer Relationship Manager, which is a whole other quest I've been on for our sales office.

So there I was, tooling around in Jotspot, when I got an inspiration to check Swiki. Lo and behold, it was up again! I quickly cut and paste page after page from the old EditWiki to a new one I'd established at JotSpot. Then I created accounts and invited the editors to the new incarnation of their old wiki. So far, they're pretty excited.

The question at this point will be -- JotSpot or XWiki? Jot is slick -- you can add to a wiki page by e-mailing to it, which is interesting for, say, adding items that editors should read from the local paper or for writers to send in stories. It's also not clear how much it's going to cost when they get out of beta mode. It'll probably be more than a few pennies rubbed together.

XWiki, on the other hand, is more home-grown, but it offers page commenting, attachments to pages and other impressive features. It's still one of the better-looking wikis, and in a few short days I've gotten used to its syntax and some of its idiosyncracies. (It's one of the few wikis I've come across which doesn't use WikiWords. WikiWords actually lose their charm after a while, but they are handy for quickly creating new links and pages.)

More than likely it'll boil down to cost. If JotSpot ends up too expensive, or if the applications simply aren't worth it (so far I'm actually less than dazzled by the CRM, although there isn't one that has dazzled me enough to keep using it) then I'll probably switch back to XWiki. But I'm going to play with Jot for a little while longer and see if it takes with the rest of the crew.

Regardless, there's something to this wiki thing. If you've got a reasonably tech-savvy group that needs to share some text, plan projects and track changes to things, then a wiki might be worth a look.

Bloggies Posted

So, I'm already thinking that the lack of categories in Blogger sorta sucks. I should have noticed that -- I mean, really thought about it -- before switching over. Because I like categories. This entry, for instance, would be in the "Blogging" category instead of one of the Mac-related (or politics or beer-related) categories. Ah, well.

So, the 2005 Bloggies Finalists have been posted and announced -- I just came across them, actually. Some interesting options. The winners will be announced in March, but, for now, you can page through the finalists and see the prizes that each category can bring.

Man, I could really use "A large olive oil gift set from Alejandro & Martin." Seriously.

Back in the Saddle

I've been humming that song for the past few days now, but didn't fully realize it meant I was going to be working to put my blog back up. It's been down for a while -- after a blow-out with pMachine (not the software's fault, but a bad upgrade and not enough of a backup strategy on my part), I've decided this is as good a time as any to play with some other solutions. If you've stopped by in the past few weeks you saw a iBlog-based site. I enjoyed that (and the idea of killing of my current ISP and putting that $99 .Mac space to good use) but got sick of the idea that I had to use iBlog from a single computer to make my updates.

So, I'm going to try Blogger for a little while. There's almost no guarantee that I'll stick with it -- I'm already feeling the crunch of limits in terms of categories and layout -- and I'd like to included a forum feature here on the site, but I'd prefer to have the whole system integrated.

But, in the meantime, it'll give me a chance to play with Blogger and let you know my reaction. And I can get back to talking about some Mac stuff!

Blog On

"This is a truly remarkable book. It is both a detailed primer for weblog novice and serves well as a reference for the experienced blogger or one desiring to attain that level." - Jerry, via Amazon.com

"I wish I'd had this book when I was building wilwheaton.net!" - Wil Wheaton, actor/writer



Blog On! is a comprehensive look at how-to create and maintain your own blog. It takes a look at the basics of blogging and the phenomenon that has been created by the tools, then walks through both hosted and server-side solutions for creating your own blog. Blogger, pMachine, Movable Type and others are covered. The book concludes with chapters that discuss HTML, style sheets and a final chapter on using blogs in organizations for project management and for capturing knowledge.

Amazon includes a sample chapter and a look at the front and back cover. If you bought and like the book, please post a review!

Update: 2/25/05
I've moved this page into Blogger for quick access and, hopefully, to make it a bit more handy and accessible.