Twitter is such a fantastic application. I am really beginning to see some interesting uses for it that I doubt the creators had in mind. For example, I now follow my favorite radio station, Groove Salad from somafm.com. They tweet each new song, with artist and title. I have started favoriting songs I hear in Twitter. This way I can go back later and pickup some via iTunes or Amazon that I like. Cool

Cobwebs are forming. That’s what happens when you leave something sit for too long. Spiders know these things. Spiders have some sort of litmus test for usage I think. Or maybe they’re just impatient, like me. They’ve descended upon this blog here in full force. I actually thought once, about creating time based styles that would show age on posts. But then the impatience kicked in, and I didn’t.

It’s not for lack of interest that these things happen. Really, it’s not. This site has been with me, in one incarnation or another, for almost 10 years now. According to the W3C, at least I think, after 7 years you’re allowed some leeway in posting frequency. I mean, even major athletes have to take breaks, don’t they? I guess so.

This blog, and it’s attending index page, are about to go through some changes. It’s time to fire up the cocoon and begin the process once again. For those who run their own website, this will come as no surprise. It’s a common theme among us website owners, and it afflicts bloggers even more so. Lifestyle changes, technology changes, workstyle changes (I just made that one up. somebody add it to wikipedia.), and even that old enemy lethargy have taken hold at one point or another. It’s time for a rethinking of how, why, what and who.

We’ve already begun separating ourselves, with Tim heading out on his own and me running a tumblog. Wallace has gone into the corporate world, and we’ll miss him. We were planning a memorial, until corporate said it was against policy.

A new formation has begun, in slow, cautious ways. A collaboration. A joining of minds. Butter Label. Watch for it. Look out for it.

I’ve been using Backpackit now for a few weeks, on their highest plan. I went that route for project management for my own projects, not Butter Label stuff. The newly redesigned Backpackit is really great.

But for some time now, I’ve also been playing with making my own using ExpressionEngine. Why? Because it’s there. And because I’m a tinkerer. No other reason.

This morning I told myself to stop tinkering if it wasn’t going to pan out into something useful, since it can suck up a lot of my time. So to help, I like to look at cost. Using EE, and since this will be for work, I’ll need a commercial license at $249. Which means 17.78… months before it starts paying for itself.

I’ll be onto the next big thing by then. Thank you Backpackit.

It occurred to me in the shower this morning how much this word means to me. It makes up almost all my thoughts on things, in one way or another.

I critique things based on how functional they are. I drive a Scion xB, because of it’s functionality. I see couches and chairs, and wonder about all the unused space underneath. My clothing, my hardware, my software, almost all things in my life are put up against it’s yard stick.

I differ from most in my family this way. In fact, I differ from most of society I expect. It’s the designer in me. I can’t turn it off, either. Everywhere I look, I begin dissecting it’s usability.

Just a thought.

I’ve been using RSS/Atom feeds for quite awhile now. You don’t have to school me on how great they can be. But one thing I’ve always disliked was that it seems difficult to get the information to me in ways I can utilize well.

I ran across the Google Reader Notifier two days ago, and armed with the latest version of Growl, I’m finally seeing the feeds the way I want them. Now I get sticky Growl notifications (which means they stay until I click them) for server downtimes and issues, as well as various other important things.

Yes, email works for this too. This is just nicer.

After more than two years, I am still using Del.icio.us bookmarks. Amazing. There has been no other website that has held my attention as long, not has any other retained it’s usefulness as long.

One of the things that keeps this so useful is the ability to get at the bookmarks in so many ways. I track my networks bookmarks in Google Reader, I access my own bookmarks at the touch of a keystroke via Quicksilver, and so many more.

Do you del.icio.us?

This is a great article on electric cars, stirling engines, and the (possible)future of the automobile. Covering a Norwegian companies desire to create an almost Web2.0 style automobile, the article also touches on green energy from batteries.

This kind of article gets me excited, partly because the modern car hasn’t really changed all that much in the last 10-20 years. We’re still running internal combustion engines, we’re still pumping out tons of pollution. Yes, cars are safer, and now have built-in DVD players, but come on.

One thing that often gets mentioned in these articles, and does here, is the fear that SUV loving Californians won’t take to this. I disagree. People here in California are not really driven by SUV’s for any other reason than they are hip right now. Bringing out a car that has Web2.0 appeal, on top of being green? Very hip, and therefore very Californian.

It’s fairly obvious if you meet me, that I have a mobile phone fetish. I’m not able to meet the stringent demands this sort of fetish has, financially speaking. There are just too many handsets released, too often. Couple that with the high price of switch carriers, and it’s an expensive habit to have. So I buy when I can justify(read convince wife) it, and when I can’t I spend my time trying to optimize the mobiles that I do own.

Awhile back, I got caught up in the Palm Treo. My father had one, and I just couldn’t help myself. It was a decent phone, but not much more. It was large, cumbersome, and when it came to it’s ability to synchronize with my Mac, it fell short. This wasn’t necessarily Palm’s fault, but also the fault of Apple. I ended up passing the Treo on to another soul, and bought myself a Nokia N80 with the Symbian OS on it. It was my first Nokia, and I was lured by it’s sexy black finish.

I’m happy so far with my purchase. As a mobile nut, I know there are trade-offs with handsets, but this one has done well so far. Not top-notch, but well. I enjoy the web browser immensely, and the camera takes smashing photos when I can hold a steady hand. Drawbacks on this model are speed, and memory issues. Not enough of either. Still, this Nokia suffers the same fate that most mobiles do, poor synchronization with a Mac.

Two days ago, Nokia released a bit of kit that may help gap the divide that many of us Mac users feel on our mobiles. Their Nokia Media Transfer is a bit of software for the Mac that allows you to synchronize your Nokia and applications like iPhoto and iTunes. It’s really quite a nice application, and still in development as this release is a beta. I’ve posted some screenshots of the install process. I’m totally tickled that this was released.

I expect this will spur me to take more and more banal shots of my life, only to be shared on Flickr. For those who are annoyed by such drivel, my apologies. I also think it’ll be nice to have my podcasts available whenever and wherever I go. Since the N80 does video, and many of my podcasts are actually vidcasts (video podcasts), this should work nicely. My favorite part of the application is it’s use of Bluetooth. I hate the cords. Burn them all.

Grab the Nokia Media Transfer if you own a Nokia, and if you don’t, well….go buy one. What do you have now? A Razr? Egad!!

Stop, look around, and realize that there are people who love you. Appreciate this for what it is, not what it might be.

Well, yesterday seemed like a big day for updates. Apple updated their Macbook Pro line, NetNewsWire 3 was released, Camino 1.5 came out, and a few others I’m too lazy to go Google for. While I may have to wait on the Macbook Pro, I grabbed me some updated software via NewsGator. Interestingly enough, I had recently stopped using both NetNewsWire (henceforth referred to as NNW) and Camino, both for different reasons. Since I’m writing here about NNW3, I’ll avoid the Camino drivel.

NNW has always been a great Mac application. The user interface is very slick, as well as customizable. There are very few things that I missed from Bloglines, and syncing across Macs was top on that list. Then Ranchero was bought out by NewsGator and, and not long after, syncing via NewsGator Online became possible. Now I could have my anywhere access (mobile as well!), and keep my beautiful Mac application.

But there were issues here. The syncing was just not working. No matter what, my feeds always ended up out of sync. This becomes terribly frustrating when you are on your mobile. Having to weed through a ton of feeds that you’ve already read makes you want to pull out your hair. Thankfully, I’m already bald. So I ended up ditching NNW for Google Reader.

Now, NNW3 is out, and I’ve been giving it my all for the past day. My first impression? Meh.

This update looks to be mostly cosmetic. The new NNW has a whole new look from the previous version. A much nicer look I’ll say. And while I always thought that NNW was a bit drab, it worked and it worked great. So now, it looks nicer, but does it work better? Not really.

Some items that are in this new version are Spotlight access, new tabs, Growl, synced clippings, and others. So Spotlight I couldn’t care less about. I don’t use it much, but I don’t find myself searching my feeds that much. Tabs are all done a bit nicer, ala Opera. They look great, and on a large monitor they are nice. On a Macbook, no thanks. Growl? Should have been in there sooner. Synced clippings sounds kind of cool, but really only if your a NewsGator user. Syncing across Macs still doesn’t seem to be right. I end up clearing out too many items I’ve already read.

I’m bummed about this. I was really looking forward to this release a lot. Maybe too much. I’ve got more I could write about this, but I won’t. I have a lot of respect for Brent Simmons and the work he’s done on this application. I paid my money, and I’m glad I contributed. But for now, I think I’ll be sticking with Google Reader, sadly.