internet
I should really be writing up minutes and cleaning the toilet ...
09/09/07 06:49 Filed in: Personal
I should be knuckling down to write up the minutes
from yesterday's meeting, but playing with my blog
instead. I should also be far more upto date with the
usual dull chores, as I even had a day off this week,
but knocked a bit sideways with a bit of a headcold,
so taking it easy, and not being too bothered about
it.
Pleasant enough day off, doing heavy work in the garden, getting rid of the sweetpeas, which were still thriving, and full of flowers, but I needed to make room for the planters that I was putting in.
This year I have grown,
teasel and wormwood from seed, and chamomile from little shoots. I did try feverfew, but it never sprouted. I do however already have plenty in the garden, so it is not a tragedy of the first magnitude.
Anyway, the chamomile and wormwood, were getting a bit unhappy in their pots, so having turfed out the sweetpeas, I put in some large plastic planters, filled them with soil, and put the chamomile in the outside two, and the wormwood in the middle. The wormwood is supposed to like rocky soil, so I topped off the planter with some rocks and grit, and it does look quite atmospheric.
Some other work in the garden, and spent a fair bit of time doing the watering, as it is all so parched. Concerned to find that I might be losing a blueberry to the dreaded dog pee.
After a week of all meetings, last week was a bit quieter, but it will take more than a relatively quiet week to put that particular world to rights. There is a vast amount to do, I probably need to plan more and delegate more. Just being very busy is not the answer. Also having to revisit decisions that were made before I took over, which is taking time, and will hopefully be for the best in the long run.
I am enjoying various forums on the internet, particularly now that I am setting them to log in automatically, and putting the links on my toolbar. With broadband they seem to load pretty fast, and a lively forum is the quickest way to find out stuff. Also intrigued by the ecosystem that is developing on-line. For example with RapidWeaver, the web design software, you can get software for layout - Blocks, by another developer, but even on top of this, you can get an enhancement to that add-on by yet another developer. So you have layers upon layers of independent development. There has probably been shareware as long as there have been PC's but now that e-commerce is so easy, you can buy and sell software without a lot of hassle. So for low volumes it is now worth the trouble. Accordingly, I don't imagine that many of these developers are making a huge living from this, but presumably it is worth their while. Another aspect of how this is an ecosystem, in addition of the interdependence of various developers, is the inter-relationship between developers and customers. Many will have a sustained relationship with their customers, via forums and blogs. That way they can draw upon the experience of customers to improve their products, and hopefully purchase up-grades over time. When you are talking about software costing a tenner here, a fiver there, then it does get to be a bit of an impulse purchase.
I am surprised now, by just how much of my spending is shifting to on line. In addition to the usual iTunes, there has been RapidWeaver, a growing collection of add-ons for that, as well as Amazon, and the Apple Store. A lot of the impulse purchasing is shifting onto the internet, and I do tend to use the internet as a first port of call for researching larger purchases too.
Just yesterday, I added QuickTimePro and some fonts to my wishlist, though not sure that I can justify the expense of any of them.
Pleasant enough day off, doing heavy work in the garden, getting rid of the sweetpeas, which were still thriving, and full of flowers, but I needed to make room for the planters that I was putting in.
This year I have grown,
teasel and wormwood from seed, and chamomile from little shoots. I did try feverfew, but it never sprouted. I do however already have plenty in the garden, so it is not a tragedy of the first magnitude.
Anyway, the chamomile and wormwood, were getting a bit unhappy in their pots, so having turfed out the sweetpeas, I put in some large plastic planters, filled them with soil, and put the chamomile in the outside two, and the wormwood in the middle. The wormwood is supposed to like rocky soil, so I topped off the planter with some rocks and grit, and it does look quite atmospheric.
Some other work in the garden, and spent a fair bit of time doing the watering, as it is all so parched. Concerned to find that I might be losing a blueberry to the dreaded dog pee.
After a week of all meetings, last week was a bit quieter, but it will take more than a relatively quiet week to put that particular world to rights. There is a vast amount to do, I probably need to plan more and delegate more. Just being very busy is not the answer. Also having to revisit decisions that were made before I took over, which is taking time, and will hopefully be for the best in the long run.
I am enjoying various forums on the internet, particularly now that I am setting them to log in automatically, and putting the links on my toolbar. With broadband they seem to load pretty fast, and a lively forum is the quickest way to find out stuff. Also intrigued by the ecosystem that is developing on-line. For example with RapidWeaver, the web design software, you can get software for layout - Blocks, by another developer, but even on top of this, you can get an enhancement to that add-on by yet another developer. So you have layers upon layers of independent development. There has probably been shareware as long as there have been PC's but now that e-commerce is so easy, you can buy and sell software without a lot of hassle. So for low volumes it is now worth the trouble. Accordingly, I don't imagine that many of these developers are making a huge living from this, but presumably it is worth their while. Another aspect of how this is an ecosystem, in addition of the interdependence of various developers, is the inter-relationship between developers and customers. Many will have a sustained relationship with their customers, via forums and blogs. That way they can draw upon the experience of customers to improve their products, and hopefully purchase up-grades over time. When you are talking about software costing a tenner here, a fiver there, then it does get to be a bit of an impulse purchase.
I am surprised now, by just how much of my spending is shifting to on line. In addition to the usual iTunes, there has been RapidWeaver, a growing collection of add-ons for that, as well as Amazon, and the Apple Store. A lot of the impulse purchasing is shifting onto the internet, and I do tend to use the internet as a first port of call for researching larger purchases too.
Just yesterday, I added QuickTimePro and some fonts to my wishlist, though not sure that I can justify the expense of any of them.
what's cool on the web
09/09/07 06:29 Filed in: Personal
Cool stuff that is on the web
the MP3 for one of my favourite songs ever, so out of print, that you need not feel guilty listening to it for nothing
Swann's Way singing Soul Train
http://www.scarlet-fantastic.co.uk/mp3/soul_train.mp3
FontShop - browsing fonts, and the I am Font - project. A cool idea for graphic designers, or just to make you think about design and fonts.
http://iam.fontshop.com/
The advert for the new shuffle, featuring a wonderful video by Feist, which is well worth downloading. Downloadable via i-Tunes, though like everything else it probably appears on You-Tube too.
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/ads/
The alternative Kitchen Garden pod-cast, which has some splendid stuff, as well as just reminding you of contented garden pottering. One word of advice though, listening to the pod-cast while pruning is not recommended, you might, like me, just find yourself cut off unexpectedly, with a snipped pair of headphones round your head!
http://www.coopette.com/akg
the MP3 for one of my favourite songs ever, so out of print, that you need not feel guilty listening to it for nothing
Swann's Way singing Soul Train
http://www.scarlet-fantastic.co.uk/mp3/soul_train.mp3
FontShop - browsing fonts, and the I am Font - project. A cool idea for graphic designers, or just to make you think about design and fonts.
http://iam.fontshop.com/
The advert for the new shuffle, featuring a wonderful video by Feist, which is well worth downloading. Downloadable via i-Tunes, though like everything else it probably appears on You-Tube too.
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/ads/
The alternative Kitchen Garden pod-cast, which has some splendid stuff, as well as just reminding you of contented garden pottering. One word of advice though, listening to the pod-cast while pruning is not recommended, you might, like me, just find yourself cut off unexpectedly, with a snipped pair of headphones round your head!
http://www.coopette.com/akg
newly on RapidWeaver
30/06/07 07:14 Filed in: Personal
Actually quite an eventful week, so I will need to be
careful not to ramble on unduly. Topics as follows ;
1 Audiobooks and Scott Sigler
2 Re doing my webpage
3 Internet access
and anything else that occurs to me.
Audiobooks,
we are now operating in a totally different world. With technologies like podcasting, there are very few barriers to entry for people that want to create content. Rather than struggling away trying to even get your work read by a publisher or agent, when minor celebrities can attract a huge advance and have their ghostwritten books remaindered a few months later, you can simply make your work available to the world via the internet.
For the old music publishers, a major technology shift is nothing but good news. Suddenly, all these people who stopped buying music years ago, go out again, to buy the same old albums again, but just in a new format. That is why they loved CD, but worried about downloads. They wanted the free hit, of lots of additional revenue, coming off of the same old back catalogue. But the real opportunity lies with the Long Tail phenomenon, where we can now access material that is really specialist with complete ease. For print media there are the same challenges, the old print publishers are simply trying to get more money out of their existing, pile them high, sell them cheap, back catalogue. But do we really just want to read/listen to the same old stuff, in a new format. I would prefer to read/listen to new stuff. I listen to a lot of podcasts, often lectures from universities, etc, and if I really like the speaker, then I just add their book to my Amazon wishlist, and that way I am never short of thought provoking stuff to read. I can read stuff that I find well written and thought provoking, from anywhere in the world.
Another paradigm shift is the degree of closeness between those who produce material, and those who consume it, I can put a comment on my blog about the audiobook I have just read, the author can pick this up on technorati, or google alerts, and drop me a note. Authors are vastly more accessible, and this creates a degree of loyalty. Even just a small degree of contact, increases your overall impression of a producer, and your loyalty to them. Now you can buy material by people you have corresponded with.
I am really impressed with what Scott Sigler has done with his audiobooks, like google and amazon he has clearly decided that the more traffic and awareness he can generate, the better he will do. He is producing a professional quality product, and despite setbacks, has just used the new possibilities to reach and create an audience. Clearly we don't know what the future looks like, but I think it looks a lot more like what Scott is doing, than what it does now. This has to be a good thing.
Re doing my webpage -
I have finally found some software that I like, and can afford, so I have started to update my webpage. Currently running the old site and the new site, in the same directory, with the new going by index.html, and the old by index.htm, so it is probably pot luck which site you will get. However putting together a site with RapidWeaver is hugely easy, so I don't think it will take too long to put most of my content onto the new site, and then delete the old one. I cannot really be bothered archiving the thing, because I would need to rewrite all the links to the homepage. The bulk of the site was coded using a text editor, which means that all the coding was done by hand. It is a pretty good way of getting to know html, and actually quite fun, in a puzzle sort of way, but now that blogging is so easy, who has the time.
Anyway, I absolutely love Rapidweaver, and the revised website is coming together pretty quickly.
Internet access -
listening to a podcast from the iTunes University, someone was explaining how the current internet capacity was built up, and from his explanation it sounds as if the current reliability and resilience of the internet may come to be seen as the exception, rather than the rule. We are currently enjoying a massive overcapacity in the network, largely built from people building capacity, going broke, and their assets being bought out by others very cheaply. Clearly not a model for building major infrastructure that is likely to work twice!
And finally,
I really don't get the iTunes University, why don't they just podcast like everyone else, why does the content need to be badged over at some virtual university, when they could simply set up podcasts that people subscribe to, great idea, but a complication too far for many I suspect.
1 Audiobooks and Scott Sigler
2 Re doing my webpage
3 Internet access
and anything else that occurs to me.
Audiobooks,
we are now operating in a totally different world. With technologies like podcasting, there are very few barriers to entry for people that want to create content. Rather than struggling away trying to even get your work read by a publisher or agent, when minor celebrities can attract a huge advance and have their ghostwritten books remaindered a few months later, you can simply make your work available to the world via the internet.
For the old music publishers, a major technology shift is nothing but good news. Suddenly, all these people who stopped buying music years ago, go out again, to buy the same old albums again, but just in a new format. That is why they loved CD, but worried about downloads. They wanted the free hit, of lots of additional revenue, coming off of the same old back catalogue. But the real opportunity lies with the Long Tail phenomenon, where we can now access material that is really specialist with complete ease. For print media there are the same challenges, the old print publishers are simply trying to get more money out of their existing, pile them high, sell them cheap, back catalogue. But do we really just want to read/listen to the same old stuff, in a new format. I would prefer to read/listen to new stuff. I listen to a lot of podcasts, often lectures from universities, etc, and if I really like the speaker, then I just add their book to my Amazon wishlist, and that way I am never short of thought provoking stuff to read. I can read stuff that I find well written and thought provoking, from anywhere in the world.
Another paradigm shift is the degree of closeness between those who produce material, and those who consume it, I can put a comment on my blog about the audiobook I have just read, the author can pick this up on technorati, or google alerts, and drop me a note. Authors are vastly more accessible, and this creates a degree of loyalty. Even just a small degree of contact, increases your overall impression of a producer, and your loyalty to them. Now you can buy material by people you have corresponded with.
I am really impressed with what Scott Sigler has done with his audiobooks, like google and amazon he has clearly decided that the more traffic and awareness he can generate, the better he will do. He is producing a professional quality product, and despite setbacks, has just used the new possibilities to reach and create an audience. Clearly we don't know what the future looks like, but I think it looks a lot more like what Scott is doing, than what it does now. This has to be a good thing.
Re doing my webpage -
I have finally found some software that I like, and can afford, so I have started to update my webpage. Currently running the old site and the new site, in the same directory, with the new going by index.html, and the old by index.htm, so it is probably pot luck which site you will get. However putting together a site with RapidWeaver is hugely easy, so I don't think it will take too long to put most of my content onto the new site, and then delete the old one. I cannot really be bothered archiving the thing, because I would need to rewrite all the links to the homepage. The bulk of the site was coded using a text editor, which means that all the coding was done by hand. It is a pretty good way of getting to know html, and actually quite fun, in a puzzle sort of way, but now that blogging is so easy, who has the time.
Anyway, I absolutely love Rapidweaver, and the revised website is coming together pretty quickly.
Internet access -
listening to a podcast from the iTunes University, someone was explaining how the current internet capacity was built up, and from his explanation it sounds as if the current reliability and resilience of the internet may come to be seen as the exception, rather than the rule. We are currently enjoying a massive overcapacity in the network, largely built from people building capacity, going broke, and their assets being bought out by others very cheaply. Clearly not a model for building major infrastructure that is likely to work twice!
And finally,
I really don't get the iTunes University, why don't they just podcast like everyone else, why does the content need to be badged over at some virtual university, when they could simply set up podcasts that people subscribe to, great idea, but a complication too far for many I suspect.