2007 March

Blogging Annoyances

David Peralty has given me enough. His BloggingPro blog is nothing but a waste of his time (counter-intuitive to this post, but relevant), my time, his Web host’s resources, and my computer’s resources. The writings on his blog are worth next to nothing, which makes me wonder why I even read them. It’s almost as if his blog were an RSS reader with a bit of AI built in.

Every day I choke through my already long and distracting list of blog posts in my feed reader, only to see more of his constant quoting and lack of original content. Davey seems to be keeping to the list of The Nine Essential Posts that Every Blogger Should Know, but not actually writing anything of his own for us to quote.

While it is true that the blogosphere is all about networking, Mr. Peralty has gone too far. He also violated my blogging (only) about blogging rule, which I personally think he should take a look at. While he’s reading, he might actually have a sudden brainstorm, but he’ll probably just quote half of my post instead.

Widescreen Mania

This summer, among many summers at camp, I will be officially working for the first time (unlike the fake work I did last summer that some of my friends may remember), which means I will come home with some cash (hopefully). Anyone who knows me also knows that I don’t hold on to money for very long without spending it on something. Since I have to keep up the tradition, my latest addition to my tech wish list is (drum roll please):
Dell’s E228WFP 22-inch Widescreen LCD monitor. Why did I choose that of all things?

It probably began with my visit to the Apple store. Looking at an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD Display really wows you (and warms you too – that things was giving off heat like the steam pipe in my bathroom, although it might have been the Mac Pro sitting next to it that made me sweat). But who on earth can afford something like that? The previous revision of the wish list included the 20 inch Apple Cinema Display, but once I saw the Dell, my jaw dropped, at – you guessed it – the price tag.

This gorgeous display gives you a comfortable 1680 by 1050 pixel resolution, which is plenty of space to do all sorts of things at once. Coincidentally, this monitor costs less (at this point, about $60 less) than its 20 inch brother, but also omits its USB hub and additional video inputs (the E228WFP only supports D-sub VGA and DVI-D, while the 2007WFP also has S-Video and Composite inputs).

But the fun doesn’t end there. If I still have a reasonable chunk of change left over, the next item on the list is a new graphics card. With that, I’ll have a really nice dual monitor setup, with both the current HP 17 inch LCD and the new Dell giving an unimaginable view of my desktop. I’m eyeing Newegg.com’s selection of PCI-interfacing graphics cards, since there isn’t an AGP slot for the purpose (or at least one that is available for use, because it seems that there are contacts on the motherboard for an AGP slot with no connector on them; BTW this is the one trouble with my computer). The plan is to have the Dell hooked up with the DVI-I port, and the HP with the D-sub VGA. It all sounds far fetched, but this idea should work.

Do you have any dual-monitor setups you’d like to share? If so, sound off in the comments below.

Mac Haters

This evening I was chatting with one of my friends from Israel. Apparently, he read my A Mac For Mike article, because this is what I got out of him:

Him: ah you got a mac. Sorry to hear it.
Me: i didn’t get one – i played with one and i was very impressed
Him: I would reccomend beating yourself with razors, it’s cheaper and accomplishes the same thing
Me: not if u put windows on the mac

This guy seems to hate both Microsoft and Apple. A while ago, he was telling me about how Windows and related software (like AOL, which I also hate) are terrible. I’m not even sure if Linux is for him, because I haven’t heard much from him about the open-source movement. Maybe one day the OS wars will come to a screeching halt.

Subway Sounds: R-142A

Continuing my series of New York City Transit sounds, you are hereby being presented with my collection of R-142A subway car recordings. These spiffy new trains run exclusively on the 4, 5 and 6 lines in Brooklyn, Manhattan and The Bronx (their cousins, the R-142 run on the 2 line; the R-143 on the L and M; the R-160A on the A line; and the R-160B on the N and Q lines).

Without any more distraction (my procrastination and/or fake ADD is kicking now), here are links:

• R142A-inout-b.mp3 – succession of several trains entering and leaving what I remember to be 53rd Street on the 6 line
• R142A-interior-d.mp3 – interior recording from Grand Central to 53rd Street
• R142A-weirdin-a.mp3 – slowing down, speeding up, and then coming to a stop in Grand Central
• Siemens.mp3 – very high quality – not recorded by me, but the original site is closed down, and it’s too good for anybody to miss out on – this is a very good recording, probably taken from the outside of the train
  
  If you are the original creator of this file, please let me know and I will respect and copyrights you have associatdd with it, and provide you with the proper attribution.

Internal Site Searches: Horrible, Useless

Even though SMF is a wonder of a product, its search functionality is almost as bad as the rest of the crowd. This also goes for the majority of sites out there that aren’t searchable through some kind of Google-powered engine (like the MTA’s site). but there’s another twist to it.

Looking for a particular topic on one of my favorite forums, I performed a search using SMF’s search box, but it got me nothing useful (in my first attempt – it seemed to have learned a few tricks since then). Since I am subscribed to the topic, the next best idea is to use Gmail to find it. Lo and behold:

The wonders of the Web amaze me, but not as much as why I have to use my own stuff to get things on another site.

What Is Wrong With Me?

People do make stupid mistakes. That doesn’t mean they aren’t stupid. It means that they either don’t pay attention before they perform the mistake, or ignore the after-effects. I chose the former, by deleting my Technorati claim on Educated.

I thought I was deleting the claim on (one of) my other, totally untouched blogs. But at this point I’d like to thank Technorati for not providing those WordPress-like confirmations that are shown in another page (they use simpler JavaScript popups, which I’ve seen so many of that I could click OK to one thousand of them while in a coma). By the time the claim deleted screen came around, it was too late to realize that I had deleted the actual Educated claim.

The only positive note here is that it doesn’t take too long to get everything (except the blog description) back in order. Just make sure you put in the exact URL to the blog as you had before, or else Technorati will treat the blog as a totally new one.

Remember this, and you’ll save your bottom dozens of times: Look before you click.

Beginner Blogger’s Tips

Ryan decided to start his own blog recently, probably in response to my new blogging obsession. So I ended up giving him the low-down on blogging. Here’s what I told him:

…The key point to success with any type of web site, be it a blog or business portfolio, is content. That means you should post, post and post a lot more. This helps out for the following reasons:

1. Google likes to look through content. Your writings quickly become Google’s friend.
2. Google likes frequently updated content. If it sees that you post more, it will index your site more.

One other thing you need is links from “good neighbors”. This means that you shouldn’t just add your link to a free-for-all page; rather the sites that link to you should have good content and be on good terms with Google.

I would also suggest setting up permalinks now. They will help your site’s rank in Google’s index, and in general you shouldn’t change the addresses of your pages once they are set. If you need help, I am pretty proficient in the workings of WordPress, and surely I can provide help.

Blogging isn’t rocket science, but in order to make your way up the ranks (I have gotten that far yet), you need to put in lots of effort. The effort will pay out with lots of traffic, as you will see in due time.

…

About the part on rocket science, the effort really does pay out. Once you start blogging, you will read other’s blogs, and you will discover many new things (like how I discovered my WordPress static home page technique). Those new things will help you gain traffic, which is many people’s goal in their blogging career.

A Mac for Mike

This lovely vacation day of mine brought me to both my orthodontist, and then to the Apple store in Manhattan (three buses and two subway trains later). I saw the entrance to the store last night, and then decided to come here. I actually began posting this from one of the Macs at the store. The place is loud and a bit busy-feeling. I guess Apple really is that popular.

Once I got past the initial shock, I sat down with a couple of Macs: a black MacBook, a Mac Pro with a gorgeous 30-inch Apple Cinema Display, and a 17-inch MacBook Pro. In particular, the big-screen really impressed me – I could see the entire write post screen without scrolling! All of the machines are beautiful, although they are also all hot – literally. Even on ths 30-something degree day, I think they could use some AC in the shop (forget about summer!).

I was particularly wowed by the speed of these guys. Opening Safari took just a few seconds. When I plugged my Cruzer Micro into the MacBook Pro’s USB port, it was mounted and ready for use about a second later, and preparing it for removal was nearly instant. And even Photoshop CS2 didn’t take so much time to load.

Using a Mac is different. Many of the familiar keyboard shortcuts from Windows (ex. Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, Ctrl + A, Alt + F4, and many others) don’t mean anything on a Mac. I tired taking a screenshot, only to note the absence of a Print Screen key (turns out Grub is the program for this task).

Toward the end of my visit, I got one of the store reps to show me Windows on a Mac. As I’ve read before, the process of booting into Windows is very simple: At startup, just choose the OS to boot into. Once booted up and logged in, the machine acted like a normal Windows XP box, with the same normal apps, and the same errors (I had to add that). To top it all off, the graphics card was running at the 24″ iMac’s native resolution, giving me the same giant-screen feeling that I got with the Mac Pro and then 30″ Cinema Display.

I think I love Macs. I don’t have the money to buy one now, but I will definitely talk about it for my next computer.