Tag: Scottish Blogs

bookmark_borderCombine & Conquer

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Combine and conquer

It’s been so long since I started this whole ‘oneman’ thing, combining all my online ‘identities’ into one amorphous mass, that it was quite good to take a break, step back and make sure that it’s working for me.

Ultimately the creation of onemanwrites.co.uk was to stop the build up of “work” related thoughts and allow me somewhere to expand my musings on Technical Communications and explore web design theories in a little more depth than I have here.

That leaves Informationally Overloaded as my “pop culture/diary/splurge” site. Simple.

Of course running two personal blogs, maintaining a side job (onemandesigns.co.uk – which started the whole “oneman” thing), and keeping on top of Scottish Blogs means I need to stay pretty well organised and, as I don’t tend to plan my blog posting that far in advance, I have been relying on a pen drive and a scattering of text files to store various drafts of posts for both blogs, as well as other items to be tracked for Scottish Blogs and one man designs.

It’s a clunky system which leaves me completely stuck if I forget my pen drive or, god forbid, it dies on me but it stops me having to login to two different WordPress installs everytime I want to re-visit a draft post before publishing it (ohh yes, and sometimes I edit them too). Admittedly this issue has become more prevalent since starting the new blog (onemanwrites, do keep up) as I’m actually making the effort to edit what I write before posting over there and, as you’ll no doubt have noticed, I tend to just dump stuff on this site without too much editing beforehand… yeah yeah I know, it’s THAT obvious.

My “system” for coping with all this isn’t ideal and largely evolved by accident, it’s quirks are known and unfortunately it’s starting to creak at the edges. I’ve hunted around for a better way, of course, and hadn’t really found one until I stumbled across this post on Matt Haughey’s new blog where he outlines how he is using various Google Apps (and others) along with Google Browser sync to maintain browser sessions across multiple computers allowing him to “work” from anywhere. It was like being slapped around the chops with a damp halibut.

Now I know there are naysayers that say that Google is harvesting our souls and we’ll all end up as slaves to lucifer but, frankly, I stopped listening to them when I purchased www.gordonmclean.co.uk (something else I was advised to be ‘careful’ about). It’s easy to be flippant when nothing has happened to you, but I’m a pretty easy going guy and file most of the frantic rhetoric on this issue in a big folder called “yeah… I guess…”. Don’t get me wrong, I value my privacy as much as the next person but I also quite enjoy living my life and not worrying the stuff like that too much. Shit happens, and gets dealt with as and when.

So, after noodling about a little I now have Google “Docs & Spreadsheets” as a central place to hold draft posts for both my blogs and a simple to do list, Google Calendar which syncs with Outlook at work, Google Mail for.. well.. all my personal email, and Google Reader to check what you lot are posting.

I now have one place for draft posts, one place to maintain simple To do lists (until such times as Thinking Rock goes ‘online’ that is), and one place for my calendar and email. I still ‘backup’ my email to Thunderbird, and I still use Outlook at work as my main desktop calendar app (syncing with Google Calendar) but, in the main, I am now solely using web apps for all of my personal information needs.

The key advantage to drafting posts in Google Docs is that it allows you to publish straight to your blog. It comes with a stack of APIs so most blog platforms are covered and it also handles having more than one blog. I’ve been using it this way for the past few weeks, and it is smooooth. Of course there are some quirks and funnies and I really do wish they had done something smarter with photo handling (in other words I wish Google had bought Flickr rather than Yahoo) but I can’t fault it on many counts.

The major, and obvious, gotcha is that I’m now solely dependant on the internet as part of my “workflow” but that really hasn’t changed. Sure I used to work offline but I still need to be online to post, or send/check email and so on and on.

All in all it’s working for me, and I have to admit that, privacy concerns aside, Google are pretty damn good at creating web apps. Or at the very least, buying the successful ones and adding their own little tweaks.

bookmark_borderI'm like a bird

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But no, I’m not going to fly away… instead a quick update and a couple of questions.

Current Events
I considered posting more on the “Cho shootings” but really can’t be that bothered. I seem to have fallen into a “you made your bed, lie in it” frame of mind. Which isn’t really a good thing but there’s just too much else going on so I’ll skip it right now. Today’s headline is tomorrow’s … what IS the completion of that sentence? “tomorrow’s budgie cage liner?”

Scottish Blogs
Over on Scottish Blogs I’ve been caught out, big time. I recently asked for some volunteers to help me go through the entire directory and weed out the dead, moved and unwanted sites. I figured I’d get 3 or 4 people and it’d take us a couple of weeks to get through a few batches at a time.

10 people volunteered, and after sending out the first batch of 30 URLs to be checked at the weekend, some are already onto their second batch. I can’t keep up!!

It’s great though, and has the additional bonus of restoring my faith in humanity. The downside is that I’ll need to buy them all a drink at the next blogmeet (most are coming I think) and you know what they say about us Scots. Yup, that’s right, we DO have big hands.

Vrroooommm
The new car, which I’ve not mentioned for.. ohhhh.. DAYS now, is still motoring along very nicely. I’ve finally stopped trying to turn the key to start the ignition, and the automatic windscreen wipers have stopped freaking me out. The only niggles I have include a weird clunking from the rear suspension when I first reverse the car out of the drive (fairly common in most cars apparently but was a first for me) and the fact that the automatic lights go from OFF to DIPPED, rather than staging up from OFF to SIDELIGHTS to DIPPED. All minor annoyances though, I’m still loving the fact that people are looking at the car as it drives by, another unique experience!

The Running Man
Still running, and last night saw, finally, a good run. It wasn’t that fast, or that far, but I felt really good. I’ve not had that feeling for several weeks now so here’s hoping it continues. I’m about to book my place in the Balloch 10K in June so I have a firm goal as well. Onwards and upwards.

The “other” me
Work continues on my other blog and on the re-vamping of my “online presence”. At some point this blog will move to a new host, and possibly a sub-domain, or new domain itself. Yes I’ll lose some visitors, yes it’ll piss people off but I’ve considered all that and can live with the consequences. It’s quite exciting to be starting a new blog as well, especially as I’ve a much better idea of HOW do it this time around.

Questions
Finally, a couple of questions.

1. I’m looking for a bag that will hold a 13″ laptop. Something functional with additional pockets, without being too clunky, and it can’t be a “black laptop bag”. Something with some style, some verve and that won’t break the bank. I’m off to a conference in June and my current option is the bog standard (huge and ugly) DELL laptop briefcase thingy.

2. Anyone got any tips for digging out a bamboo? It’s been in for a couple of years and I cannot even get a spade or fork into the ground near it, completely solid. I’m thinking a heavy dose of water to loosen things and a pickaxe. Alternatives?

bookmark_borderOnce upon a weekend

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Washed car. Chopped down small tree. Sun came out. Chopped down some bamboo. Dug over sideborder. Parents visited. BBQ.

Went for run. Hot. Legs still tired. Cut grass. Cleared out garage. Went to dump. Watched football. More BBQ. Scottish Blogs stuff. Design skills ‘stuck’, still. Slept like log.

More later.

bookmark_borderMiscellany

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Quick one today, things to do, people to see.. etc etc.

Despite my recent plaudits First Scotrail aren’t happy to rest on their wotsits and have updated their notification system to include further updates on a set timescale. So, I can ask for an email to be sent to my work address with any problems of the evening train home AND then have text messages sent to my phone for the next 20 minutes after that in case of any late breaking issues. Top stuff indeed.

I really must get along to one of their “meet the manager” sessions and congratulate them in person, although I’m sure my post will have been sent round and they are all patting themselves on the back already.

~

One personal bug-bear of mine is bad communication, and of course this has come back to bite me in the bum as it seems that I’ve been the cause of some “tension” over on Scottish Blogs. My reply to a slew of emails and comments over the past months is on the site now. Hopefully it’s little more than a storm in a teacup.

~

I’m not sure what type of tree it is that lines the path outside my office window but it’s suddenly started showing the first hints of green. The bark is a dark grey colour at the moment, slick and wet with rain, with tiny light green shoots vividly bursting forth. Spring has sprung, so can we stop with the snow and hailstones please…

~

I need some tips to improve my memory. Last night Louise and I had a wonderfully surreal conversation about.. um… something… and whilst I can remember thinking “must blog that” I can’t actually remember what we were talking about. I’d rather not become some sort of notepad-wielding blog-psycho, jotting down every encounter and conversation in the vague hope it may be interesting or humourous, yet I fear that may become my only option.

On the other hand, I’ve seen books that promise to IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY IN… err… a few days I think it said… See. Hopeless.

Suggestions please!

bookmark_borderWhat I didn't do…

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Apparently I have two musical memes that I should been doing. I should also be pushing on with a couple of site designs, I did a little for one but not much else. I should be outlining some more ideas for the whole Scottish Blogs/BritBlog thing. I should.

But I haven’t.

Instead, yesterday, we visited my sister-in-law and had a lovely meal and evening with my parents. Today I’ve pottered about, cleaning, tidying, and generally meandering around the house doing chores.

Then we watched 24, then Planet Earth (which was wonderful), and now… now I’m off to bed.

Memes be damned!

bookmark_borderBlogging Announcement

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A day earlier than planned but glad that this is now out in the open. Cross-posted on Scottish Blogs, with a similar post on BritBlog.

BritBlog and Scottish Blogs Join Forces
Some of you may be familiar with the British Blog Directory, a site similar to Scottish Blogs that focuses on (as the name suggests) British bloggers. Mark, who runs the site, and I have been in discussion for some time and we are both pleased to announce that we will soon be joining forces.

The reasoning is simple: combining resources means we can offer our members (and web users at large) more.

Because of the group-focus that the new BritBlog will have, existing members of Scottish Blogs will become part of a similar Scottish Blogs group. With the Scottish Blogs website remaining the focus for that group.

Why join forces?
As BritBlog continues to grow and the number of blogs in Scotland and across Britain rises, the opportunity to offer a better web site and better set of resources increases. There has been a lot of work going on in the background, all aimed at bringing better functionality and more features to the BritBlog web site, so here, for your comments, are our current plans for the future of BritBlog.

The main goals are to improve the community feel of the site, to allow special interest groups and communities to form, and to develop more resources for British Bloggers.

New features will include:

  • A focus on groups and communities – enhanced features to allow communities of bloggers with similar interests or geography to form and grow.
  • RSS feeds galore – allowing you to keep up to date with new blogs and posts from our members. Feeds will be available for specific groups.
  • Improved searching and blog classifications – to make it easier to find blogs that may be of interest to you.
  • Multiple blogs can be registered per user.
  • An open database – developers will be able to integrate BritBlog with their own projects using our web services API.

As you can see, there will be lots going on.

So when is this all going to happen?
Timescales are still to be confirmed, and there’s a lot of planning to do and code to write. We’ll be re-writing the whole site from the ground up, so don’t expect to see too many obvious changes straight away!

Needless to say there will be a lot more on this as the idea progresses but we’d appreciate your thoughts, positive and negative, and any other questions that spring to mind.

My reasoning is simple. I don’t have the technical knowledge to take Scottish Blogs forward any further, but I do have a good understanding of blogging and think the new site will be beneficial in connecting people. Interesting times lie ahead and Mark and I would really appreciate your thoughts.

So, leave your questions, thoughts and ideas in the comments. Mark and I will be collating them all from our sites and I’ll post a response/update sometime next week. Remember, this site will only be successful if people use it.