After more than 2 years, quite a few posts, dozens of themes and a lot of fun, this blog is leaving wordpress.com. The blog’s URL (www.acrossthepod.com) will remain the same, but you will now get sent to our new wordpress installation over at dreamhost. Our feed shall also remain the same (feeds.feedburner.com/acrossthepod). Thanks to the wordpress guys, i have only seen features grow while i was here, not once was this site down, and overall this was the best experience possible to teach me how to use wordpress. See ya!
Author Archive for
22
Mar
08
New Episode in the works!
After a few months work, a lot of emails, and strangely enough, a lot of ichat usage: the next Across The Pod episode is officially in the works. It will be a round-table discussion with me, Alex Lindsay and John Foster. It should be good, we are recording on the 28th march, and the show should be released a few days after that.
21
Mar
08
Scribbling with Scrivener
Word processing is a traditionally utterly mundane task. Just lay out your document exactly the way it will appear on paper, write it, and print it. Microsoft word is the titan of this area, dominating well over 70% of the market. However, a few growing niche alternatives exist, such as Apple’s Pages (’08), which i switched to recently in order to leave MS word behind. It was an easy transition, and the prowess of pages at its job astounded me. Pages is still fundamentally a “word processor” though, and after i discovered a piece of software called “Scrivener”, i have left pages behind too, in favor of Scrivener.
There is something fundamentally different about Scrivener compared to other software products in its class- Scrivener is designed to write content. In many cases, the finished product is not what you see, as i write this, i don’t need to write it in the exact same fashion that it will appear on the site (something which effectively, all word processors do), i just need to have good writing tools. Scrivener offers a variety of templates for novels, radio drama’s and plays, as well as the obligatory “blank”. The key to the operation is the one-window nature of the application. Within one window (and quite importantly, one application) i can store an entire project, its chapters, notes, and even research i have done for the article. This is what sets scrivener apart, scrivener is not a word processor, it is a content processor. Later, when you want your work exported to the required format, scrivener’s export function takes care of producing an exported file to the users specifications. Regrettably, Scrivener can not handle files from Apple’s Pages directly when importing. What is most frustrating is seeing the potential scrivener has, but only being able to access what it has now, to really complete the package, Scrivener could really do with some templates for other types of contents such as columns and online articles, as well as an additional plug-in to directly post Scrivener articles to web-sites (such as wordpress and moveable type) via the XML-RPC standard. Overall, Scrivener is a revolution in content creation, but could do with just a tad more work.
08
Mar
08
Blogging Fluidly
I just started using fluid.app . It’s a small app for mac that makes Web-Kit based SSB’s (Site Specific Browser). In other words it makes a cocoa mac app for your website based on the same great technology of safari. I used it to create a little app for the wordpress admin for the website. This functions perfectly, and works great, because while i love word press’s advanced admin and posting features: i hate that they are confined to the web browser (and don’t really want marsedit). So know i have the desktop blogging app i always wanted. The apps are real cocoa apps with scripting and automator support, and can be handed around just like normal apps if you want. I know some people who’ve used fluid to create desktop iterations of google reader, and before i tried fluid, a friend of mine sent me one, and i didn’t even know it was built with fluid, it even had a custom icon (which fluid supports)
08
Mar
08
The New Direction
As many of you will know, the podcast that goes with this blog has kind of been stop-start for the last few months. That’s mainly because i’ve been experimenting to find our niche in podland (wherever podland actually is). Well, i think i’ve found it. In future the show is probably going to be a round-table discussion of well known tech people (and me) just “geeking-out” and talking about cool stuff we like. This sort of thing has seeped into other shows, but to my knowledge, there is no show dedicated to it. So there you go, our next episode, and the first one as part of our new direction, will be released within 1 month, so head over to iTunes and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it!
23
Feb
08
Spotting the “SLR Shot”
When i take photo’s i like to think of the “SLR Shot”, think of a photo that you would want printed and hung on a wall, having this mindset helps you take much better photos, landscapes and scenery in particular. Also, going through your old photos once in a while helps too, as this can help you realize the value of something that, at the time seemed like an OK photo, was actually a great one!
23
Feb
08
Delayed…
The next episode of the show has been delayed, until my voice chords start working again, i don’t feel as bad as i sound, but its not worth talking like this….
21
Feb
08
Drupal-What next
Drupal is a great CMS (content management system), and has some really powerful uses (such as 43folders.com) but it is limited, if Drupal really wants to become the CMS of choice, i think they need to make some changes. Take wordpress as a base, wordpress is the most powerful blogging system i know, and i love using it, and having trawled through blogspot, typepad, moveable type and even vox i don’t want to switch anytime soon. What drupal needs to do is perhaps fork the code, produce an easy to use version of Drupal for Bloggers and podcasters, or perhaps have a “new media mode” which can be turned on and off, this way, it can maintain the power of drupal, but do what wordpress does best, and since WordPress is open source, they could even build a module to turn wordpress themes into drupal themes. I want drupal to become wordpress for those who want to move beyond even wordpress, i want to be able to customise it completely, throw in modules of functionality, make the new media coverage experience easy. Drupal has a lot of this already covered, with a little tweaking and some fresh code, Drupal goes from “great if you can get it working” to “the CMS for power users”- From Good to Great.
Since the tech community is currently buzzing with speculation about acquisition talks with Yahoo, i was thinking…does Yahoo actually need to get acquired? Del.icio.us,Flickr,Upcoming: all web 2.0 properties that Yahoo owns, yahoo is also well liked due to its open source mentality. Yahoo could do very well merely by consolidating into a conglomerate of web 2.0 companies that individually, some make a profit, and some don’t, but together form a profitable enterprise. Flickr for example, a great loss leader, it brings brand awareness but has huge bandwidth costs, but combine that with Yahoo’s other services, and you could, with a lot of tweaking, have a lean, nimble web 2.0 conglomerate. Imagine it, The main yahoo can concentrate on what it does best: Mail, Calendar and Business info, and attached to the sides can be all the amazing web services Yahoo has managed to pick up. Under this scenario, Yahoo might even turn into “Venture Capital without the Venture Capital”. By that i mean, a single company that purchases start-ups, is profitable as a whole, but can afford to wait to let companies truly blossom, unlike traditional VC, and since Yahoo! has already been on the Stock Market for years, people could invest in this new company easily, allowing investors to buy a single share in what is over-all a profitable enterprise, but the combined share approach also prevents Wall Street’s “Get Bent” attitude towards individual companies penetrating deep into yahoo and killing its loss leaders. Yahoo could even sell their search portion to google on a subscription basis, eg. Google pays $$$$ per year to “own” yahoo search, and with a constant flow of google cash pumping into Yahoo, yahoo can continue to fund its acquisitions and become a great company. Sound’s good to me….
15
Feb
08
Comments Welcome!
Just noted a spike in the visitor numbers, first of all: Thanks for visiting! Secondly, please comment, it helps me work out what readers want from the blog….
14
Feb
08
Across The Pod 4
10
Feb
08
Handcoding-the forgotten tool
People often get obsessed with the WYSWYG nature of modern web design, i’m asking them to take a step back from that. With tools like Panics Coda and Mac Rabbits CSSedit using WYSWYG to do basic page layout and then hand coding to fine-tune your site and achieve the look you want, is becoming a very attractive option. None of us like to learn how to code, but a little coding goes a Very Long Way.
25
Jan
08
The Acquired Taste of Twitter
Twitter: i’ll admit it now, i’m hooked. But more importantly, i wan’t to know why, what is it about Twitter that draws me back time and time again. At first, there was a certain learning curve to get over, and then i posted once every week or so, in bundles of posts, but now i post several times a day, enjoy using it, track who follows me and the people i follow, and enjoy the social feel of it. Twitter feels like a club where people are free to say what they want and people will comment accordingly (and most of the time, kindly and sensibly), and because there is no direct comment-to-post features, the fan-people attacks that plague many sites are rare, as people are unwilling to fill their own twitter front pages with angry,irrational spittle filled retorts to other users. This might mean that Twitter has actually shown and helped these peopple calm down and think rationally, and realise the bad image and first impression they are portraying as fan-people. I still can’t lock-down what draws me to Twitter. It’s certainly an acquired taste, but it’s a taste i want to order often…
Being a tech junkie does a lot of things to you. One of the biggest is changing your stances on quality, because after having trawled through hundreds of web services, I’m not willing to put up with anything other than well-written and first-class products (in the realm of web services). That’s why i use WordPress, i have gone through 4-6 Content Management systems and WordPress was the only one which was easy to set up, had a plethora of features, excellent spam protection, was a joy to use, and simply had a slick feel to it. As a result, if i’m investigating a web service, if you can’t make your product seem engaging within 5-10 seconds, i’m gone. If i try your product and its not intuitive and doesn’t have that sense of polish and quality that it should (wordpress and the products written by 37 Signals are examples of that polish) then i’m gone. As something near to a power-user and someone who does actually value their time- I shouldn’t have to learn the tiny intricacies of your product and pound on it for about 3 days to get it working. Basic functionality should be slick and intuitive, and more importantly should work right out of the box. Advanced functionality should be intuitive to access and have an easy learning curve. Taking the time to achieve this is beneficial to you to- because by building a great product that people use, your users will love it, pass it on, and help you along the way
24
Jan
08
Fix Delicious!
I use the service “Delicious” (at del.icio.us) a lot to bookmark interesting stories and tidbits from the internet (you can see my 7 most recent posts in our website sidebar), and love it. Its ease of use, sense of community, utility for podcast workflows and more make it one of my must haves. Unfortunately when i want to see who else has saved a story of mine (which i’m interested in to find like-minded people, find out if people saved my stories etc) i am increasingly finding myself on the recieving end of a “999 Error”-Which to put it bluntly means i am denied of a large chunk of Del.icio.us’s social functionality. Yahoo! should realise that buying del.icio.us was a great acquisition and that it is one of the well used and modern parts of their portfolio, but if i keep seeing errors and can’t use del.icio.us as i should be able to, I, and probably most of the del.icio.us community, will leave.
These day’s i listen to a ridiculous amounts of podcasts, by that i mean gigabytes a week (it’s what happens when you get disillusioned with TV), and as such, have an opinion that (at least i hope) is based on a lot of experience. Recently, i have noticed how more and more podcast’s are moving away from the Geek-side of technology coverage, and are moving towards “subtitling” every topic they cover, i disagree with what they are doing. While i may be biased, the geek-side is what i, and the huge geek audience out there-enjoy. For example, take the show macbreak-tech (at macbreaktech.com), i listen to this show and enjoy it due to its geeky side, and it’s willingness to stay there. If it moved the other way, i wouldn’t subscribe to it, but i do, just a note to you podcaster’s out there.
20
Jan
08
Across The Pod 3: Rode Trip
In this episode of Across The Pod we discuss:
- Rode Podcaster
- Inquisitor
- Macheist
- Bento and more
There’s just minutes to go, so i’d thought i’d get my totally “out of left field” prediction out there, since no one quite can put their finger on the Steve-Jobs-Keynote Pulse this year-I am predicting a mock funeral for PowerPC, much like the one held at the WWDC keynote in 20002 for Mac OS 9. Prepare for the coffin to rise from the floor-PowerPC is dead! Long Live MacIntel!
The Macheist Bundle, a bundle of Mac software, offering $368 of fairly good mac software for just $49 ($39 if you enter their “heists” and get special codes), has just gone fully unlocked, previously people would have to wait until the bundle raised $100000 for charity to get ALL the software ( See Below) to be available for download, but its ready now.
| 1password | $29.95 |
 CoverSutra |
$22.00 |
 Cha-Ching |
$40.00 |
 iStopMotion |
$49.00 |
 Awaken |
$12.95 |
 Speed Download |
$25.00 |
 AppZapper |
$12.95 |
 TaskPaper |
$18.95 |
 CSSEdit |
$29.95 |
 Snapz Pro X |
$69.00 |
 Pixelmator |
$59.0 |
09
Jan
08
Newsgator goes free!
Newsgator, the company that produces a myriad of RSS based products announced that as of today all of it’s products for individuals are now: free! Every single one of them. Did i mention that also includes their cross-service synchronisation? So now you can have your feeds where you want them, how you want them, when you want them. Crucially, this means that Newsgator’s critically acclaimed RSS reader for the Mac-Newnewswire, is available free-of-charge. This is excellent news, and when you add in the free syncing, Newsgator is now putting on an offering that you simply can’t refuse to try. Newsgators free products for individuals are available here
Across the Pod 