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Tuesday, August 5, 2003 |
TypePadTypePad has just gone into public release. It's an evolution of MoveableType, which is one of the best weblog systems I've used (pMachine is the other).
I don't think I'll be renewing Radio when my year is up, as it doesn't seem to be in active development, and support is only provided by one very busy guy in a Yahoo group. Radio is too slow and quirky, and it's underlying Manila system is just weird - you never know what it's going to do, or when.
TypePad has the elegance and performance of MoveableType, but it's a hosted service and is therefore much easier to use. There are many compelling features, including domain mapping (disabled in the preview release), photo albums, moblogging (posting from mobile devices), customizable designs, pre/post dating, and more.
A 30-day trial is available - check it out!
ps - I have some 20% lifetime discount codes for the asking.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2003 |
T-Mobile SidekickI upgraded my cel phone to a Sidekick over the weekend
I've tried the Motorola Talkabout, Blackberry 850 and a couple of "internet-enabled" cel phones; all of which were disappointing either because reception was lousy (Blackberry-also too expensive), couldn't keep below the included message limit (Talkabout), or couldn't deal with typing text on a numeric keypad (cel phones). I even had a Visorphone, but it was too bulky.
The Sidekick has a $19 unlimited GPRS data plan (need to have a voice plan on top of this) with speeds similar to a dialup connection. The cost is less than a voice plan with T-Moble Internet service, which you need if you want to use your phone as a laptop modem.
It's absolutely perfect for e-mail and instant messaging (genuine AIM client built-in). RF reception is pretty bad indoors, but I'm always near a phone or computer inside anyway. It will pull messages from 3 separate POP accounts every 15 minues, in addition to pushing your tmail.com Sidekick account messages almost instantly. I've found the reception issues are not a problem, because as the GSM signal fades in & out, my messages are blasted into the Sidekick before I even realize. There's enough speed and storage to quickly download and hold dozens of mailing list digests for me to read on the Metro.
The PIM applications are good (Contacts, To Do, Notes, Calendar), and can be accessed via a web interface. The forums reveal that many people are unhappy about the lack of sync features (other than the desktop web client), but I don't really care because I carry the thing with me all the time anyway - my data doesn't NEED to be on other devices.
The phone application is very good, but dialing is awkward as you need to swing the screen closed after dialing to hold it to your head. Using the supplied earbud solves this problem, but it's actually not bad holding up to your ear - much better than the Visorphone.
The keyboard is perfect, and overall ergonomics are excellent. The color screen is bright, the backlight turns on & off automatically depending on ambient light levels, and text is highly legible. At $300, it's no wonder T-Mobile's having trouble keeping them on the shelves. All that's required for the Sidekick to be "the ultimate Internet device" is 802.11 support.
Wait a second... doesn't T-Mobile already have all those hot spots? ;)
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Friday, July 18, 2003 |
Move Items contextual menusI drag lots stuff to my desktop for later viewing, but usually put off moving them to the appropriate location on my hard disk because it's a real hassle to open a new finder window and navigate to the desired folder each time.
Narattaphol Charoenphandhu has developed Move Items, a terrific set of contextual menus which make this task incredibly simple. Control-clicking any item on the desktop (or anywhere else) gives you hierarchical menus, allowing you to move the selected item anywhere you like with one mouse click.
He has many other utilities, including Launch Items. I bought the Move Items + Launch Items bundle for $20.
http://www.naratt.com/
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Monday, June 30, 2003 |
CompuTrace is workingAbsolute Software has the MacOS X installer working for CompuTrace. My PowerBook is now checking in with Absolute's servers once a day, leaving a trail that can easily be monitored through their website.
$50 per year seems quite reasonable for the peace of mind and remarkably simple, centralized inventory management provided by CompuTrace.
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Friday, June 20, 2003 |
CompuTrace for MacOS XAbsolute Software sent me the OS X beta client for CompuTrace, which installed without a hitch. Unfortunately, due to a bug in the Mac installer, the ESN (Electronic Serial Number) it generated can't talk to Absolute's servers.
They were proactive about spotting the problem, and are working on a fix. Kudos to Absolute for providing clear uninstall instructions - Mac users are often left in the cold on such "trivial" matters.
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Monday, June 16, 2003 |
pMachineThe latest weblog, I mean Content Management System that I've been trying is pMachine.
It's very nice - it has the power of MoveableType, but site management is more like a regular website running PHP.
It was a breeze setting up 48 sub-blogs for smaller components of a large organization, with all users neatly managed from the pMachine Control Panel, and I'm getting more familiar with the granular customization possible using the built-in PHP-based macro system ("granular" is rather overused for describing extensive low-level configuration options, but it fits here).
It's $5 more expensive and far more powerful than Radio.
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Friday, June 6, 2003 |
iBolgI use NetNewsWire for reading RSS feeds and posting to MacIT, a Radio-hosted weblog. I've also used MoveableType, which I find to be much better than Radio (but complicated to set up), and Blogger, which I found too amateurish.
Which brings me to iBlog. The last MoveableType upgrade hosed one of my other weblogs (couldn't rebuild - 500 error that I didn't have the time or patience to figure out), so I downloaded iBlog with rather low expectations.
I was wrong - iBlog is more elegant than any other weblog system I've tried. It's integration with .Mac is as seamless as Apple's own iApps, and it can post to an FTP server as well.
The developer is very responsive, and has a talent for creating software that is both aesthetically and programmatically excellent.
It's exciting to see software development elevated to an art form, as is being done by people like iBlog's Sarat Kongara, NetNews Wire's Brent Simmons and others.
People can do amazing things given the right tools.
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Microsoft Remote Desktop ConnectionI'm in the process of setting up a ColdFusion server, and was just about to purchase yet another Timbuktu license when I saw Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection.
RDC is about $100 cheaper than Timbuktu (it's free:), and it works very well for controlling any of the professional-level Windows machines.
Setup is very simple, and performance is great.
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