November 2005
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Oct   Dec

Feeds I Read

Elvis 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?

 

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Upgraded 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Deleted several old posts from an unpublished category and deleted the category.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.

 

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TypePad 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.

 

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Continued 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.

 

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Yahoo 360 - Disappointing Beta Release
Earlier this month, Dave Winer of Scripting News sent me an invitation to the Yahoo 360 beta test. As you'll see from my test posts, I'm not impressed. 

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Happy Belated Birthday, RSS
And the rest is history...

On this day six years ago Netscape unveiled their feed reader, my.netscape.com, and a format named RSS. [Scripting News]

 

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Happy 9th Anniversary to Steve and Tammy

It appears that Maria and I share an anniversary date with Steve and Tammy Kirks.

9 Years of Wedded Bliss.

Today marks the official observance of my wedding anniversary (9 years this time) and I couldn't be happier. Tammy and I were actually married on "Leap Day", February 29th of 1996, so our real anniversary comes every four years, just like a US Presidential election. There's a long-standing joke that I'm "running for reelection" which means that I've considered taking campaign contributions.

[house of warwick]

 

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Congratulations to Donovan Watts
A well-deserved honor for a gentleman working hard to improve the lives of Radio UserLand clients. Thanks, and congratulations, to Donovan.

Donovan Watts: Radio's Librarian.

This was an exciting day for me. My iChat and Skype call with Steve Kirks was the highlight. I look forward to sifting through the Radio knowledgebase, helping the documentation settle into a helpful, easily accessed entity.

"After watching the many outstanding entries at Donovan's Radio: The Missing Manual, UserLand made him and offer he couldn't refuse: Radio's Librarian

Welcome aboard, Donovan--and thank you!"

(Via house of warwick.)

[Donovan Watts: Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual]

 

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Trouble in RSS Paradise?

I mentioned earlier that we activated RSS feeds at work. I referred our stakeholder to a vendor for implementation before I went on vacation. I hope I don't regret the decision.

I let our stakeholder consider them because the vendor:

1. has an RSS analytics approach that speaks well of their vision
2. already "has a clue", instead of having to purchase one
3. was priced acceptably
4. has a non-trivial showcase customer
5. can use another well-known corporate client
6. is local
7. can be replaced by inhouse implementation if they screw up
8. "yadda, yadda" - Seinfeld

Sadly, beta test issues indicated they might have less of a clue than I'd hoped, or maybe just lacked attention to detail. Teething pains typical of any implementation? Maybe. However, an issue discovered after production release, with a disturbing response from vendor management, has me wondering. 

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No RSS? You're Fired!

"It's medieval to make your customers come to you"
- Martha Rogers
coauthor of "The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time" (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993)

"You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed."
- Robert Scoble, Microsoft

"No Shit, Sherlock!"
- Bruce Zimmer

"Do you have an RSS feed?"

"No, this site is for non geeks."

... That demonstrates an utter cluelessness about how hype gets generated. If you don't have RSS, how will anyone who is a connector build a relationship with your site?

"Why don't you get your non-geek friends to link to it then?"

I think he had heard that lots of press was reading blogs and wanted to get Walt Mossberg or Steven Levy to talk about this marketing site and figured he'd use me to drive traffic.

Sorry, if you do a marketing site and you don't have an RSS feed today you should be fired.

I'll say it again. You should be fired if you do a marketing site without an RSS feed.

Saying that RSS is only for geeks today is like saying in 1998 that the Web was only for geeks...

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

 

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RSS Feed Customization: Audio Interview With Mark Carlson, SimpleFeed

RSS Feed Customization: Audio Interview With Mark Carlson, SimpleFeed. RSS feed customization could become one of the hot RSS topics in the near future, but right now there are just too few companies doing it … and too few providers offering RSS feed customization solutions.
By rss_feedback@lockergnome.com (Rok Hrastnik). [Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips]

 

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