| May 2007 | ||||||
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
| Oct Jun | ||||||
...by the inmates...for the inmates...
Saturday, October 22, 2005Laura Winterbottom Update
For information regarding the March 2005 murder of Laura Winterbottom in Burlington Vermont, see my consolidated index page on the new Redwood Asylum TypePad site.
Monday, October 17, 2005Elvis Has Left The Building
Let the word go forth to all my Radio weblog category sites. And let the word likewise be cast upon the RSS waters that those both near and far may hear the news.
This incarnation of Redwood Asylum has been retired. But let not the news weigh heavily upon thee. Know ye that nonsense and drivel spring forth anew in these TypePad locations:
- Redwood Asylum: same old stuff with a new RSS feed
- Random Analytics: web analytics and a new RSS feed
Oh, and the Elvis expression?
Thursday, October 13, 2005Upgraded TypePad Trial
Upgraded my TypePad trial account from Basic to Plus.
Spent a lot of time troubleshooting problems with Radio UserLand post exporting. Finally decided the issue was probably not in Bill Kearney's exporter tool, but in the Radio UserLand database.
Deleted several old posts from an unpublished category and deleted the category. Deleted several other old categories which were no longer needed. Ran the TweezerMan script to rebuild internal category story lists. Used the Radio application option to save a new copy of weblogData.root. Shut down Radio, swapped in the new copy of weblogData.root and restarted. Bill Kearney's exporter ran fine, dumping over 1700 posts into a Movable Type format file.
Re-worked the TypePad test site several times, dumping the earlier partial import and loading the full 1700 post file. TypePad isn't nearly as flexible as Movable Type, but I don't think I need extensive customization. However, I do have an account at Total Choice Hosting where I could test Movable Type.
Many have moved to (perceived) greener pastures after Radio UserLand. Will I follow The Shifted Librarian, TweezerMan and Phil Windley to Movable Type? I watched Ernie the Attorney move from Radio to TypePad. If my TypePad testing proceeds without major incident, maybe I'll buy the first year. If I don't like the Project Comet evolution, I can always jump to Movable Type later.
Time will tell.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005TypePad Trial
After three and a half years with Radio UserLand, I'm testing something new. I opened a 30-day free trial TypePad account this evening, starting with the Basic version. Using Google, I located Bill Kearney's exporter tool for Radio UserLand. Although I'm having problems, I was able to export enough Radio posts to test the TypePad import feature. Time will tell.
Saturday, September 24, 2005Continued Radio Pain
I have not posted personal items here for a long time. There are many things I could mention, and back-date to their proper position in the weblog, but I won't. The Radio UserLand software does not provide this feature out of the box. A workaround exists, which I've documented before, but it is fragile and annoying.
When shut down, Radio still crashes 50% of the time. My hopes for increased stability in the new version went unanswered. This is probably an issue with the underlying Frontier kernel, since Dave Winer's OPML Editor does the same thing.
Although UserLand recently updated the Radio software, the company is getting by on a wing and a prayer. Much of the coding is now done by volunteers. On the other hand, the software is reasonably priced. A painful tradeoff.
When Six Apart releases Project Comet in 2006, I'll have a hard choice to make. I would not be the first to leave UserLand for SixApart, and certainly not the last.
Recent Events
Misty (our chihuahua) turned 10 on 9/23/05. Congratulations to Crystal and Nate, who celebrated their third anniversary on 9/21/05. Crystal and Nate moved back in with us last month. Bryan recently bought his first new car, a blue MINI Cooper, and attended the Black Hat and DEF CON gatherings.
Mesquite and the Skunk Dance
Not to be outdone by Dave and Oka, Mesquite (the chow-lab) decided to dance with a skunk while Nate walked the dogs late last night. Life in the redwood forest isn't always a bed of roses, nor does it smell like one.
And Turbo Makes Four
On Wednesday, Crystal and Nate brought home a 6-week old jack russel terrier, which they named Turbo. They will housebreak and train Turbo before delivering him to Nate's grandparents in Nevada.
We now have four dogs on the property. Misty, the long-haired chihuahua, stays in the house with Maria and me. The new jack russell terrier (Turbo), the shitzu (Bebe), and the chow-lab (Mesquite) live downstairs in the garage and adjoining bonus room. Now that the rear retaining wall is finished, Nate can finish fencing a small area behind the house for Mesquite.
Friday, September 23, 2005Basecamp adds authenticated RSS feeds
From Donovan Watts
I've been a Basecamp user and believer from the start. One of the things I like best is that I am notified via my news reader and RSS every time there is activity on my project site. The only problem is that the feeds were not authenticated. Ugh. Now they are. 37 Signals is improving Basecamp all the time and I'm a very happy customer.
We could use authenticated RSS feeds at work to publish secure content from our extranet with the side benefit of improved web metrics for the RSS feeds.
Perking Up Interest in Web Analytics
Last time, I discussed the gap between overall corporate strategic goals and the goals typically assigned to the Web channel. Most basic Web metrics aren't as important as establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) tailored to your business. Management must receive and evaluate those reports on a regular basis.
Thursday, September 22, 2005Content Syndication Conference - RSS HackFest
Don't miss the Syndicate conference, produced by IDG World Expo, scheduled for December 12-14 in San Francisco. If content syndication via RSS is on your roadmap, plan to attend.
Sunday, September 18, 2005How to Use a Podcast to Promote a White Paper That Generates New Business Sales Leads
While I'm on the podcast topic, one last MarketingSherpa item.
Paul Dunay, director of Global Field Marketing for BearingPoint (NYSE:BE), needed to market their Sarbanes-Oxley white paper to top executives in the Global 2000. He added a podcast to his standard marketing toolkit. Did he like the results? Maybe you should visit MarketingSherpa for the details.
Hint? There are now podcasts on Data Security and Operational Risk available at BearingPoint, with a quote from Christopher Formant, executive vice president, Global Financial Services.
Will this happen at my company? Well... I can dream, can't I?MarketingSherpa Podcast
As mentioned before, I don't post much about podcasts. They "just work" and, as with RSS, you either "get it" or you don't. Earlier this month I celebrated my one-year podcast listening anniversary. BFD. This isn't one of those "I've been listening longer than you have" prick-waving contests. However, since I've been lax about posting MarketingSherpa items, I wanted to note that Anne Holland plans a podcast for this fall.
Hurry up, Anne, I'm ready when you are.MarketingSherpa's 10 Best Blogs for 2005
While looking through MarketingSherpa archives, I noticed their marketing blog awards post from June. Although I mentioned it personally to several people at the time, I never posted a link here. Now I have.
The Surprising Truth About PDFs & Audio Downloads
PDF marketing tips from MarketingSherpa
PDFs may not be that new, but they are new enough that some executives in corporate America are still confused by them. So, now we've begun automatically shipping a printed copy with most Sherpa Guide PDF orders, even though it costs us more, to make sure customers are happy.Read the details. Go on. Shoo.
Top Three Search Marketing Trends to Watch in 2006
Executive summary, free from MarketingSherpa
If search marketing is a significant portion of your budget (or you suspect it may be soon) this new MarketingSherpa Executive Summary is a quick and useful read.
Saturday, September 17, 2005RSS Vendor Space
From Rok Hrastnik at MarketingServices.net
Richard MacMannus takes a good look at the RSS vendors space, giving special attention to the search category.
I was especially interested in reading his break-down of the RSS publisher services vendors:
Publisher Services
Sub-categories: Content; Analytics; Feed Mgmt; Advertising Examples: Feedburner; Nooked; Pheedo; SimpleFeed; Syndicate IQ
Friday, September 16, 2005Web Analytics Newsletter - September 2005
The September edition of Hurol Inan's Attuned web analytics newsletter is available. Hurol's site has a new section dedicated to understanding RSS metrics and analysis.