Blogging: A Reason for Existence
It’s almost 3:00 AM. In a moment of insomniac epiphany, I found the meaning of life …
… in a Non Sequitur sort of way!
Will ScribeFire Work for my Blog?
As I search for a decent blog editor, I am re-visiting ScribeFire, a brower extension which I used back in the Windows days before I found LiveWriter. It seems to do a decent job, but I can’t find support for Technorati tags or Twitter messaging. Image management is limited.
I am posting this via the ScribeFire extension to Google Chrome. We’ll see it the Safari extension works any differently.
Why Is Blogging So Much Harder Using a Mac?
A real surprise for me when migrating recently from Window to Mac is the dearth of good blogging clients on MacOS. I have tried Ecto and MarsEdit, both of which are drastically inferior to the LiveWriter blog client for Windows by Microsoft. Particularly, I miss the great image handling capability, with built in sizing, borders and alignment GUI that helped make blogging fast and effortless.
I am posting this note with Qumana, hoping it provides some relief. Its image handling is a bit better, but it doesn’t appear to handle WordPress tags correctly.
Blogging with BlogPress on my iPad
Well, let’s see how this blog client works. I can embed a photo, but couldn’t figure out at first how to put it on the right side of the page, despite a tool that should do just. I’ll keep at it. It does appear to have a location feature.
Post from my new iPad
Tis is my first attempt at using my new iPad to author a blog post. I am using the WordPress blog client
Sorry, there doesn’t appear to be a way to embed a photo in the post.
Test Post from MarsEdit
This is a test of the MarsEdit blog client. I hope it is better than the previous ones I have tried. I find it ironic that Windows-only Microsoft Live Writer seems to be head and shoulders above blog editors I have seen on the Mac.
But MarsEdit looks like it will be sufficient for the fairly simple formats I use.
GigaOm: Is Blogging Dead? Like the Web Is Dead.
Can you hear the solitary bugler playing Taps across the cold, forlorn blogging graveyard, just as I am making a valiant effort to rejuvenate my blog?
GigaOm reported this week:
Blogging is on the decline, according to a New York Times story published this weekend — citing research from the Pew Center’s Internet and American Life Project — and it is declining particularly among young people, who are using social networks such as Facebook instead.
However,
according to the figures used by the New York Times itself, blogging activity is actually increasing, not decreasing. And as the story points out, plenty of young people are still blogging via the Tumblr platform, even though they may not think of it as “blogging.” What blogging is really doing is evolving.
… So what we really have now is a multitude of platforms: there are the “micro-blogging” ones like Twitter, then there are those that allow for more interaction or multimedia content like Facebook, and both of those in turn can enhance existing blogging tools like WordPress and Blogger. And then there is Tumblr, which is like a combination of multiple formats. The fact that there are so many different choices means there is even more opportunity for people to find a publishing method they like. So while “blogging” may be on the decline, personal publishing has arguably never been healthier.
I like that final observation … that personal publishing has never been healthier. So, as I rejuvenate my blog, I will also try to leverage Twitter and Facebook to engage people out in my corner of cyberspace. If you are so inclined, feel free to come along for the ride.
Velocity! To Friendship! To Success!
Tonight I was honored to participate in a delightful dinner at Hotel Monaco in San Francisco, hosted by our friends from PwC. Ironically, the first topic of conversation around our table was started by Danielle Butke, whom I have known for several years. Back in June, 2006, I posted on this blog a less-than-flattering photo I took of her taken at the Catalyst Identity Management conference. I later posted a better photo, but apparently, Danielle has been the subject of a lot of ribbing over the years from her PwC colleagues because of those photos, so she requested tonight that I remove the photos from my blog. I am pleased to report that all photos of Danielle have been successfully removed from this blog and my Flickr account. All that remains are mysterious frames where Danielle’s face used to grace the pages:
But around the dinner table, we agreed that I needed to replace the photos. We chose Rex Thexton, PwC Identity Management guru extraordinaire, to replace Danielle on my blog. So here is Rex on the left, striking his best “Velocity” pose.
Plus, for good measure, on the right is my Oracle colleague Joe Palastro, who happened to be sitting next to me and somewhat reluctantly agreed that I could post his photo.
Sorry about the the grainy photos, but what more can an iPhone offer?
Thank you, my good friends, for a delightful evening and memories!
Here is to a great year ahead of us!
New Feature – “Source Doc”
I have added a new feature, “Source Doc”, to the Discovering Identity blog.
I frequently come across source documents on the web that are relevant to the Identity Management / Information Security community. I don’t have time to blog about each in detail, but want to provide a way to announce that I have found the documents and provide a way to easily find them again.
A new category “Source Doc” has been added to the blog, so these documents can be easily selected via the “Select Category” drop down list box. They can also be found by searching for key words.
My previous post is an example of a Source Doc post. It references a presentation I stumbled across this morning. I hope you find it useful.
Testing Facebook Integration – With Wibiya
I have begun to experiment with methods for integrating this Discovering Identity blog with Facebook and Twitter, using the Wibiya toolbar, which appears at the bottom of the screen. This is a WordPress plugin, which was easy to configure and install.
Feel free to use the toolbar to become a fan of our Facebook page and join our Facebook community. You can also use the toolbar to join my Twitter conversation.
Please let me know what you think.
Note: for those who see this on the blogs.sun.com version of the blog, please visit us at DiscoveringIdentity.com to see the Wibiya toolbar.
