Every so often I'll think of an idea for a "Web 2.0" site, which would contain aspects of:

• Sharing
• Collaboration
• Freshness
• Uniqueness

These are some traits familiar to "Web 2.0" sites.

Here are a couple of recent ideas.

"My Ten"

"My Ten" would be a service that acts like a blog, but only features your ten most prominent posts. There would be no "archives."

The benefits of this would be two-fold:

1. It will limit search engines from referencing very old blog posts, many of which are out-dated, irrelevant, and simply forgotten by the author. Sometimes I look back at old blog posts from years ago, and I wonder, "Who was that person?" I know it was me, but I was a different person back then.

2. It forces blog authors to constantly keep their posts fresh, relevant, and about them. After all, a blog post is nothing if it is not you.

There would certainly be a "social networking" side to this service, as I can imagine lots of fun ways to interact with people having similar blog posts, etc.

I imagine a service that lets you pull blog posts from your current CMS. Perhaps you posted an article at another site, as a contributing author. You could somehow "include" that post as well. All of your "ten posts" would then reside on your "My Ten" main page.

(In other words, you wouldn't have to re-write any post. You could just include it using the URL, or something like that.)

You could then write new posts directly in your "My Ten" account, or on another site, and just include the post.

"List It"

"List It" is a service that promotes everything as being a "list." Think about how you organize ideas in your head. You create a list. Everything we do (when organization and structure is important) is practically a list.

And I'm not just talking about mundane lists like a "grocery list." I'm referring to collaborative, extensible, individualistic lists that speak about your every intention.

This is probably harder to explain, but if you use a service like Twitter, you'll understand the importance of brevity when forming ideas and concepts. "List It" would combine brevity with classification with personality.

"List It" would also be a social networking site, where items on "your lists" are compared with similar items on other's lists.

Development of these sites

If anyone is interested in helping me fund and develop these applications, please let me know.

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I am kind of excited because a fellow blogger/twitterer is actually appearing on Conan O'Brien tonight for his persistence/expertise in the wine community.

Gary Vaynerchuk (known as "Gary V") has been hosting Wine Library TV for quite some time, and uses social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pownce to promote his shows, make friends, and talk about wine. Gary also recently acquired the web site Cork'd, started by fellow web standards activist Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits.

When Dan first promoted Cork'd, and then mentioned Gary acquiring the site, I instantly became a follower.

The thing about Gary is... he's no average "videocaster." Gary's intense, and often wacky personality is incredibly insightful and entertaining. Even if you're not a huge fan of wine, you'll enjoy watching his shows. His "no nonsense" approach to wine is refreshing in a world that puts wine lovers on some kind of "intellectual pedestal." One of Gary's goals is to "strip wine of it's stuffiness." He's out to prove that anyone can enjoy and critique wine, and people shouldn't be afraid to try new wines that expand their palate.

I've always been a casual wine drinker, and with a site like Cork'd I can review and try new wines that I never knew about.

Now when I go into the store to look for wine, I'm not intimidated by fancy labels or names. I just try something new - every time.

Gary has already been interviewed by several high-profile publications, such as Time Magazine and New York Magazine.

You can follow Gary V on Twitter and Pownce. He also has a Facebook application called Ask Gary Vaynerchuk.

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It may come as a surprise to some people, that despite my love for The Simpsons, I really have no interest in seeing the movie.

The reason? Because I haven't watched a new episode of The Simpsons in ten years, and the movie is just another new episode, albeit nearly a two hour new episode.

Over the past decade, The Simpsons has grown increasingly repetitive and seems to have lost it's "freshness" that made it one of the most talked-about series on TV. It's clear they've run out of new ideas, and FOX is just keeping it alive because it's a huge money-maker.

Seriously, this is one show that would benefit from being removed from the air. No television show has ever lasted this long, and rightfully so. There's a certain humbleness about ending things as they are.

The Simpsons just keeps stretching it on. And on. And on.

I don't need to notice "The Simpsons, Season 14" on shelves in the DVD section of stores.

In all fairness, there are still fans out there, and they have every right to be excited for the movie. Although I think most fans are "retro fans," meaning they grew up with The Simpsons, like myself. Today's adolescents are watching an "aged show," believing it's relevant, however not realizing that it started airing before they were even born.

Regarding the movie... Some are saying it reveals some long-lost plot secrets, such as the actual geographical location of "Springfield." Personally, I don't care where "Springfield" is on a fictional, cartoon-based television show. Am I going to pay $9 for that answer when I get it on the web?

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I used to have Firefox set to open 10-15 tabs on startup. The sites loaded in those tabs were various communication or organizational tools, such as email, RSS reader, calendar, etc. I needed these sites open at all times, so I'd have quick access to them.

As we continue the shift of maintaining our lives through web-based tools, it becomes increasingly evident that the browser plays the most important role. I spend nearly 90% of my day inside a browser window.

I'd like to cut that down as much as possible.

Lately I've been looking for alternatives to physical web sites, that have to be loaded in a browser window. For example, instead of having my Gmail window open 24/7, I now use the handy Gmail Dashboard widgets for Mac OS X.

Dashboard is a great solution for "porting" existing sites to a much more convenient and comfortable interface.

Not all sites are available as a Dashboard widget, but the collection is growing, as "information at our fingertips" becomes a greater need.

Another way to reduce dependency on the browser is to use instant message or SMS. This is a somewhat premature concept, but services like Twitter are already taking advantage of instant message and SMS as notification options. Rather than constantly refreshing the browser window, I have my friends Twitter updates sent to me directly as instant message or SMS.

All in all, it's one less browser window I have to keep open.

In the very near future, we'll be seeing many more tools that access the internet without the need for a browser.

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I've decided my current approach at organizing my RSS feeds in Google Reader is not productive in a world of information overload.

Whereas it's helpful to use tags to "group" similar feeds, the grouping should be based on priority and frequency, rather than purpose or relation.

In other words, feeds should be organized by how "important" they are to you - rather than simply grouping them together because they discuss the same topics, which is how I used to do it.

Instead of creating tags such as "news," "web development," "tech," etc - I've deleted all tags, and re-created only five: "1", "2", "3", "4", and "5".

These five tags indicate priority and frequency. There is a fine balance between the importance of the feed to me, and the frequency of updates. If importance is high, but frequency is also high, that may "collectively" decrease the feed's importance on the 1-5 scale. Typically my most "important" feeds have minimal updates. That's the nice balance I'm looking for.

To me, a "frequently updated feed" means five or more updates per day. This usually only happens with news sites that have content generated by machines. It also occurs on sites with multiple authors. The content can soon become overwhelming to keep up with.

Here is what each tag means:

1. Possible time-sensitive information. I'd like to be alerted as soon as possible. (Frequency of updates: very light.)

2. I'd like to know relatively soon, but it's not terribly urgent. (Frequency of updates: light.)

3. I don't need to know this stuff, but it may be informative or insightful. (Frequency of updates: light to moderate.)

4. There may be interesting content here, but not very urgent or necessary in my daily awareness. (Frequency of updates: moderate to heavy.)

5. I'm just keeping on eye on these feeds. I should probably unsubscribe to these feeds. (Frequency of updates: heavy.)

Using these "rules," you should be able to re-group your feeds based on priority and frequency. I find it much more helpful when deciding which feeds to read first, and which ones I can safely ignore.

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Amazon Flexible Payment Service seems like an easy solution for including transaction capabilities in your web application.

Amazon's cost to process a payment through a bank account debit is less than our cost via credit card. Our cost for processing an Amazon Payments balance transfer is less still. By exposing different fees for each of these three methods, we can pass on savings from bank account debits and balance transfers, allowing developers to save money. In each case, we take on the complexity of managing security and fraud protection.

This is definitely worth looking into.

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Gary Vaynerchuk's appearance on Conan O'Brien is now available on YouTube.

It's not the entire segment, but still focuses on the funnier parts.

UPDATE: Here is the full version of Gary on Conan.

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I just mentioned Amazon Flexible Payment Service, and here are some more goodies associated with Amazon's new Payments service, which allows customers to use their existing Amazon account to make purchase on your site.

Jungle Payments provides a pre-built package that can be used immediately to generate payment links on your own web applications. No need to write code or access web services - it's all done for you with Jungle Payments.

I'm sensing Amazon Payments will immediately be competing with PayPal for easy online transactions.

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Despite it's social networking capabilities, Twitter is not a community. At least not yet.

Right not it's just another form of self-expression: abbreviated, succinct, poetic. Keep it short, keep it to-the-point. Get in, get out.

Twitter's focus is on short bursts of content, rather than engaging conversation.

You can certainly communicate with people (using the "@[username]" syntax before your update), but it's not a forum. Unless you have a really helpful response, mind your own business, and don't engage others just to be a nuisance.

The best part of Twitter is it should promote freedom of open-minded, individualistic thinking. This means that we shouldn't worry about how others will perceive our Twitter updates.

To promote the need for a "community," some Twitter users have requested a "groups" feature that lets you categorize other Twitter users based on interests, location, etc. I disagree with these wishes. To me, Twitter is unique in that it's not a community like MySpace and Facebook.

Twitter is a micro-blog, and I hope it stays that way.

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A great article by Steve Rubel on Twitter, and the rise of microblogging:

The Case of the Incredible Shrinking Blogosphere

Notice this article is not long-winded, multiple pages, endless dialogue, pictures, etc. It's quick, succinct, and mirrors the exact purpose of the article's very own topic: brevity.

It used to be "content is king." Today on the web, "brevity is king."

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Here are some quick thoughts on what I like and dislike with the latest updates to Apple's suite of iLife tools. Next to each application is a "Yes!", "Hmm", or "Nah", to indicate my interest.

iPhoto '08 - Nah.

List of enhancements from Apple.com:

• Organize by Events
• .Mac Web Gallery
• Powerful Editing Tools
• Unified Search
• Theme-Based Home Printing
• New Photo Books & Calendars

I've used iPhoto before, but not lately. I've found using a "custom setup" has worked better for me. I discussed my new Flickr upload approach, which pretty much sums up the idea.

Here is a breakdown of each area:

• View collections of photos in the Finder.
• Crop, adjust, and edit in my preferred photo-editing application (GraphicConverter or Adobe Photoshop).
• Upload individual photos to Flickr for sharing and printing.

I like using the Finder because it's immediately open, and takes up much less processing power than launching iPhoto.

I think it's obvious iPhoto's image-editing capabilities are inferior to the likes of GraphicConverter or Adobe Photoshop, although the one benefit of using iPhoto is that you wouldn't have to launch multiple applications.

I'm a firm follower of Flickr. It's the most superior image-sharing application on the web, since day one. The new .Mac Web Gallery is impressive, but I can't see myself switching just yet.

iMovie '08 - Hmm.

I've never used previous versions of iMovie. The only reason I may find this product useful is because more devices are starting to support movie recording, such as my digital camera. I can certainly see some possibilities of recording short movies and uploading directly to YouTube, via iMovie.

GarageBand '08 - Yes!

List of enhancements from Apple.com:

• Magic GarageBand
• Arrangements
• Multi-Take Recording
• Visual EQ
• Automation
• New Vocals Jam Pack

I'm an pretty regular user of GarageBand, and these enhancements are impressive. Namely, Arrangements and Multi-Take Recording. This should speed up the recording process quite a bit.

iWeb '08 - Hmm.

List of enhancements from Apple.com:

• Web Widgets
• Google Maps & Google AdSense
• My Album Pages
• Enhanced Photo Pages
• Theme Switching
• Personal Domain Names

It appears the iWeb engine has matured greatly. What I disliked about previous versions of iWeb was that although the process was incredibly smooth, there were key drawbacks, such as messy URL's and "Built on a Mac" stamps everywhere. Needless to say, my iWeb pages were anything but personalized for me.

You can't get more personal than using your own personal domain name. The added support for Google applications is useful too.

iDVD '08 - Nah.

I've never used previous versions of iDVD, and I don't plan on using this version.

Overall

It's worth a purchase for GarageBand and the possibility of using iWeb for interesting projects. Remember, you need a .Mac membership in order to use iWeb.

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Here are some quick thoughts on what I like and dislike with the latest updates to Apple's suite of iWork tools. Next to each application is a "Yes!", "Hmm", or "Nah", to indicate my interest.

Pages '08 - Nah.

Apple touts Pages as a "word processing" app, but it doesn't feel like one at all. It feels more like Adobe InDesign or Quark XPress. Incidentally, I don't have much use for it. Much of my word processing is done with online apps such as Google Docs.

Keynote '08 - Yes!

Strangely, I never used Microsoft PowerPoint unless I had to. Keynote is simply a gem. It mimics PowerPoint's capabilities, but it's insanely smart and fun to use. I compare it to Adobe Flash, in that it's a joy to use, and you feel like you're playing, not working.

Numbers '08 - Yes!

How can you not be at least somewhat intrigued by Apple's attempt at Microsoft Excel? In truth, Numbers won't be like Excel at all. It will have far better graphics management and fine-tuned control. It will act more like a "spreadsheet presentation," than a simple list of data. I'm looking foward to using this as well.

Overall

Worth a purchase for sure. Even if you don't use Pages, it's still nice to have a native application that can immediately open Word documents on a Mac - for viewing purposes at least.

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Apple's iDisk recently increased storage to 10 GB, for paid members. A yearly membership costs $99.95.

Despite this increase, iDisk still remains on the "outside" when it comes to serious online storage and backup solutions.

For one thing, that 10 GB is not clean storage space - it's shared with other .Mac services, such as email, photos, and iWeb sites.

Photos, email, and web items can quickly eat up space that would otherwise be reserved for backups or personal storage.

On the other hand, here are some cheaper alternatives:

• For photos, Flickr doesn't count storage space, but rather data transfer.
• A typical web host, such as Dreamhost, offers web disk space in the hundreds of gigabytes. (Over 140 GB for their basic plan.)
• Gmail offers over 2 GB of email storage, and climbing.
• For simple storage and backup solutions, Box.net offers 15 GB for paid members, and Amazon S3 is practically giving storage away.

Without doing a full price comparison of the different monthly and yearly rates, it's still clearly better to "mix and match" differing services, rather than relying on iDisk for everything.

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A while back, I was irritated that a paid membership to Daring Fireball's RSS feed failed to work in Google Reader.

Well, that recently changed. John Gruber recently released his full-content feed to the general public as a non-authenticated feed (albeit with ads), meaning it will work in one of the most popular feed readers, Google Reader.

Since I use Google Reader, I am happy that I can now enjoy Daring Fireball as syndicated content, and also be able to share items through the Google Reader interface.

Already I can feel myself saving time, rather than having to manually open the Daring Fireball web page when checking for updates.

While a Google search for "daring fireball google reader" turns up my original post, I thought I'd make sure to clarify the recent changes.

Another reason why I dislike old blog posts - they eventually almost always become irrelevant or inaccurate. And Google still references them.

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If there's one thing Flickr does right, it's usability. To me, good usability means: "If I expect something to happen, it should." Very rarely do sites focus on the user experience in this manner.

However, there are some common features on Flickr that are very hard to find.

Upload link

The "Upload" link is somewhat hidden. It's available only under You > Upload Photos:

Once you know where that is, it's easy to find, but you still have to click twice just to get there. That extra click is annoying sometimes.

A better solution is to store the permanent URL as a bookmark, and access it that way.

http://flickr.com/photos/upload/

Adding a Contact

Browsing your contacts is easy - the "Contacts" link resides along the top. But how do you add someone else as a contact? This seems like a common request, but the functionality is very hidden.

To add another Flickr member as a contact, first visit their Flickr page. Then, choose Profile from the list of sub-links:

Then, on the far right side, you'll see Add [member name] as a contact.

Again, there's a nice, clean URL for this, but the username changes depending on the person you are adding:

http://flickr.com/people/[username]/relationship/

You can't bookmark a dynamic URL, such as this. Worst case scenario, you manually type it in.

Email notifications

Many Flickr users may not realize that you can receive email notifications for activity on your photos, or when your contacts upload new photos.

Again, this feature is buried.

One way to get there is to view your Recent Activity:

Once there, look for a link along the bottom that says, "Get updates by email":

You'll be taken to your "Email Notification" preferences page, where you can decide when to have Flickr notify you.

(Personally, I prefer RSS for notifications, but it's nice knowing there is an option for email.)

Guest Passes

A very nice feature of Flickr is Guest Passes. I discussed this in detail before.

Problem is, whenever the time comes to create a Guest Pass, I can never recall how to do it.

You have to select a set first. Then choose Share this set:

The confusion comes with the naming convention. When I think of a "guest pass," I begin looking for a link that says "Guest Pass," or "Create Guest Pass." Flickr still calls it "Sharing."

If I can remember the word "sharing," rather than "guest pass," then I'll remember to go to a set first. Easier said than done.

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I constantly have ideas for new web sites and services. I come up with creative domain names, and check to see if they are available using my preferred extension (.com, .net, etc).

But rather than jumping in and purchasing the domain, hosting, etc - it makes sense to consider the available applications already out there.

Using existing services and applications, you can provide your web presence with minimal setup and maintenance.

For example, if you're looking to start a site that showcases photos and provides community interaction, why not just start a Flickr Group? Everything is hosted, pre-built, and only costs a minimal fee if you are a "Pro" member.

How about a multi-author blog, with a community aspect, and ability for each member to publish various media, such as videos, images, links? Why not start a Ning network? Completely free, customizable, and ready to go.

How about a unique repository of tutorials with a forum-like feedback system? Google Groups. You can create individual "pages," which can house the tutorials, and users can join the group, leave feedback, etc.

A simple blog? Tumblr.

If you're just looking to provide a stream of information: Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku.

I can think of dozens of applications that already do the same thing that most "new" sites intend.

Even better, if you use a "groups" site, or a social network, you're immediately visible to the thousands of existing users.

So stop creating new sites!

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I'm trying to find my current bandwidth usage on Flickr. Just yesterday I mentioned how some features are very hard to find on the Flickr site. This is one of those features.

Then I recalled that Flickr removes the bandwidth limit with a "Pro" membership, which I have. The upgrade page says so:

Unlimited bandwidth? Is that true? If so, why would anyone pay for a Picasa membership, which tracks your storage usage? A post yesterday on the Google Blog talks about how to get more storage for your Picasa account.

When you reach the limit of free storage (i.e., 1GB for Picasa Web Albums, 2.8GB for Gmail), consider this your overflow solution. Plans start at $20/year for 6GB (yes, $5 cheaper than before), with larger plans ranging up to 250GB.

$20 a year for 6 GB? Why not pay the same price for unlimited bandwidth on Flickr?

Despite this theory, something is amiss on Flickr. On the Flickr Forum, members occasionally complain of bandwidth limitations. I noticed messages from both free and paid account holders.

If you're a paying customer, shouldn't the bandwidth limitation be removed? In a sense, you should be able to upload as many images, in any file size, that you'd like - forever!

Another confusing thing is when you visit the Flickr Upload form (the old upload form), there's a notice that says, "(No more than 10MB per photo)".

Uh. Why does it matter what size my photo is, if I'm paying for unlimited bandwidth?

I personally have yet to receive a message about exceeding my bandwidth usage, so perhaps I should not complain just yet. But it's intriguing still.

Would appreciate if someone can clarify these details with me.

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I despise spelling mistakes on web sites. It's not so much that I am perfect, and I never missspell anything - it's because if a site is trying to sell me something, and they can't even spell right, I'm inclined to go with someone who can.

Spelling mistakes stick out like a sore thumb. My eyes become glued to the mistake.

If you're promoting a product or service with a web page, and you don't have enough time to proof-read the content for mistakes, then you shouldn't be promoting yet. You never want the first impression for site visitors to be blatant spelling mistakes. It simply degrades the viewers opinion, before they even read about your product.

One spelling mistake I can almost forgive. But more than one - I'm already closing the window. I won't even consider the product if the spelling is that bad.

In a way, spelling is considered part of the presentation, and almost speaks louder than the actual idea of the product.

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Here are the top posts from Matthom in July 2007.

• Google Docs has folders, but they're still tags. The debate rages on. Should we call it a "tag," or "folder?" How about "label?"
• Why blog comments are useless. It's becoming increasingly evident, due to their high maintenance and low ROI.
• Twitter's impact on blogs. Twitter forces bloggers to be more succinct.
• Idea: No more blog archives. Old blog entries should not be searchable - they are irrelevant and usually inaccurate.
• Google Reader most shared?. Why is this information not available yet?

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I received a notice from Google, stating that my purchased videos (from Google Video) will no longer be viewable.

In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program.

The only video I recall purchasing was game four of the 2006 Bulls/Heat series for $3.95.

To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $5.00.

Might be useful for something. Although I'd rather have my copy of the video in a compatible format.

Makes me wonder if other media, like iTunes downloads, will someday become incompatible, and Apple will just tell us to repurchase everything.

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I've talked before about only pushing content relative to it's domain:

• Avoid using feeds as content.
• Trying too hard to merge content.

Flash and JavaScript widgets are tacky, gaudy, and unprofessional. I've experimented with widgets before, but lately I've been feeling they cause more harm than good.

Depending on what kind of personal site/blog you are running, you may want widgets floating all over the place. Heck, I've seen some pretty effective sites with only one or two widgets.

But in most cases, widgets only "booger up" a web page. It's almost like sticking "Intel Inside" stickers all over your computer.

Widgets promote a cluttered and inconsistent look, often break HTML layouts, and reduce page loading speed.

Oh, and there's plenty more reasons why they suck.

Any ideas on a solution to this problem? Should sites allow API's, rather than widgets?

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It's been a couple weeks since I decided to organize my RSS feeds by priority, rather than similarity.

I can't tell you how much time this is saving me. Trying to read hundreds of RSS subscriptions is a daunting task. Now that I've classified each subscription based on it's importance to me, I can more easily skip over the content that is of no interest at the current time.

In the past, the "of little interest" content would be merged with the important content, and that became a mess real quick.

Also, heavy subscriptions, such as news sites, produce dozens of posts each day. Higher frequency subscriptions automatically have less priority. I can't keep up with the rush of content, and expect to keep my job, and have a life.

I think all heavy RSS users should take the time and prioritize each subscription. It's an extremely efficient way to read lots of content.

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Andy Atkinson launched the newly redesigned Pain in the Tech over the weekend.

The most difficult challenge had to be migrating from a Drupal-based system to a WordPress-based system, while keeping embedded images, comments, and categories intact. I can't imagine it was easy.

I'll be curious to hear his thoughts on this.

The appearance is a drastic update from the old, blocky, centered look. Now there's much more white space, which promotes a clean, unconfined look.

The use of all CAPS for certain headers has never been a favorite of mine, but it works well, with minimal distraction surrounding the headlines.

Also noticeable is the lack of the old brand logo, although the new WordPress theme acts as a brand in itself.

UPDATE: Quick notes from Andy on the redesign:

The original blue/orange color scheme will be retained.

... The current black and white theme is temporary.

I guess I was critiquing an "interim design."

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From Kevin Keating:

The best restaurants have the smallest menus. ... Whatever the chef wants to cook is what they eat.

Kevin is referring to restaurants (more distinguishably, brands) that constantly expand their menu items in an effort to increase sales, or attract new customers. His theory is that by getting away from their true "bread and butter," they are somehow damaging the brand image itself.

... then we have Dunkin Donuts offering pizza and hot dogs and selling Sobe and Gatorade and Snapple, Subway introducing their own version of pizza-to-order ...

If you're not careful, Kevin warns:

... you'll turn your business into a convenience store.

He even goes on to say:

Add value, not menu items.

I'm gonna stop here because I'm in full disagreement. In fact, I can't be more adamant.

Brands have to expand their product line - in this case, their menu items. How else can they compete? Nobody can survive forever selling the same product. Eventually change must happen.

There's nothing wrong with expanding your product offerings. In fact, a good brand adapts to your products and services - not the other way around. Your brand consists of your products and services. Your products and services don't consist of your brand.

It doesn't matter if Subway starts selling Apple computers, for example. It's still under the Subway brand. It's their brand and they can mold it how they please. A brand is not going to suffer because it is expanding it's product offerings.

Using Apple as an example - they started out as a hardware company. Now they are in the music industry. How is that not a complete transformation?

Lowes sells groceries, for crying out loud. Groceries at a "home improvement" store.

The point is - neither of these brands are suffering because they began selling other items, different from their "bread and butter."

UPDATE: I meant Menards, not Lowes. I've verified that Menards sells non-perishable goods. Perhaps Lowes does too. I've honestly never been in a Lowes.

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I talked yesterday about brands expanding their offerings, and how it's a good thing - not bad.

There is one situation when it is bad, though. It's when brands adjust their brand, or create sub-brands.

Such is the case with Arby's Market Fresh. "Market Fresh" acts as a sub-brand to Arby's.

I'm also thinking along the lines of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. In this case, the product Photoshop becomes a brand.

In both cases, the brand image becomes blurred or inconsistent.

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I've been blogging longer than Daring Fireball?

I didn't know this, but it's true. I started this site in 2001, so I'm older than Daring Fireball - in web years anyway.

Do I want an award? No. Just thought it was an interesting tidbit.

Actually, I didn't start actively reading DF until recently.

And if you consider the impact Daring Fireball has on the web community, I'd say he's used his time much more wisely.

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One thing I love about Twitter is it's mobile notifications. I get updates through instant-message, as well as SMS. Rather than constantly refreshing the web page, or following the delayed notifications via RSS, I get instant updates as soon as they happen.

I can also post via instant-message or SMS. Since I have instant-message running all day, it's much easier to send a quick message to Twitter's IM robot, and my update immediately appears on the web.

However, one thing missing when posting via IM is the character count visibility, which is present on Twitter's page:

Since I'm using an IM client, I need a plug-in that shows the character count. Luckily, this is easy when running Meebo in Firefox, and installing the Firefox Text Area Word Counter, by Gina Trapani.

After installation, checking the character count is a simple right-click:

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I'm always in search of balance in my life - filtering out the good from the bad - the stress from the joy. I'm beginning to wonder how physical and mental forces interact to produce either agitation and anguish, or relaxation and inner peace.

As we get older, our lives become more hectic, as we surround ourselves with work, family, and personal issues that never seem to go away. Our inner spirits become deflated easily.

"Complete relaxation" is a foreign phrase to most individuals living in this high-tech, "always on" society, where it's hard to get away from the office, since the office is no longer a single location. These days, we carry our "work" with us everywhere. More specifically, it's our burdens that never float away.

We take vacations or long weekends, and somehow go back to the office more agitated than before we left.

Activities expected to re-energize and re-charge the mind often fall short. After all, you can be physically sedentary and still stressed out. It seems that true "inner peace" is a combination of both physical and mental relaxation. A sense of well-being; a higher purpose.

So what is it specifically that creates "inner peace?"

Is it movies, video games, or hanging out with friends?

Perhaps it's religion, and attending mass each week - believing in something "bigger" than our daily tribulations.

Maybe it's love, and being with that special person.

Perhaps work itself is what relaxes us. Or... the absence of work.

Maybe it's simply getting away from our technical "gadgets" that always have our attention: computers, cell phones, etc.

Perhaps it's exercise, or extra-curricular activities, such as joining common-interest groups and exploring your creative side.

How about reflection and self-expression?

Maybe it's going out and getting drunk.

Sleep?

I'm not sure that any of these activities or ideals are enough to coerce the mind and body into complete relaxation. Each person is different. What works one time may not work every time. Perhaps it's a mixture of everything. I don't know.

I'm never going to stop searching though. Searching for that one thing, or group of things, that relaxes me, and provides inner peace.

And maybe that is my answer. It's the quest for inner peace that ultimately creates inner peace.

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Mac OS X Dashboard widgets are extremely useful for checking information "at a glance." And what better utility to check at a glance than an RSS feed?

Using Apple's SampleRSS widget, you can modify the existing code to have the widget pull any RSS feed.

This tutorial is for beginner widget developers, who don't want to go as far as setting up a full-scale development environment with XCode tools, but would like the ability to quickly create Dashboard widgets from any RSS feed.

The widget example here is very basic, and only demonstrates how easy it is to modify an existing widget. If you'd like to learn how to create new Dashboard widgets, Apple's tutorial on developing Dashboard widgets is a good start.

Download, unpack, and install

First, download the SampleRSS widget, unpack it, and install the widget to your Dashboard.

By default, the widget will appear with a sample design and headline:

We're going to modify this so it pulls our preferred RSS feed, and we'll be able to adjust the colors and design as well.

View the widget files

Once the widget is installed, go into the Widgets folder in the Finder, which is located at: \Users\[username]\Library\Widgets. Once there, Control-click on the Sample RSS.wdgt file, and choose Show Package Contents:

Each widget is really just a bundle of files, merged into one. You'll notice an HTML file, CSS, JavaScript, and a few more. We can edit any of these files, to customize the sample widget.

Open the widget in Safari

To view changes that we make to the widget, it's best to view the widget in Safari. Open the SampleRSS.html file in Safari. After we make changes, we can simply refresh the page to view our progress.

Change the RSS feed source

To change the RSS feed source, open the SampleRSS.js file in a text editor.

Scroll down to line 70, which starts with: var feed = {.

Change the part that says url:"http://rss.mac.com/imasample/iWeb/Site/Blog/rss.xml" to reflect your preferred RSS feed. For this example, we'll use an RSS feed for this site: http://www.matthom.com/feed/matthom.xml.

Save the file and close it.

Refresh your Safari page, and you should immediately see the latest posts from the RSS feed:

Change the title

To change the displayed title of the widget from "The .Mac Example Blog,": open the SampleRSS.html file in a text editor.

On line 84, you'll see this:

<div id="feed" onclick="clickOnFeedTitle(event);">The .Mac Example Blog</div>

Change the text to whatever you'd like:

<div id="feed" onclick="clickOnFeedTitle(event);">matthom Latest Posts</div>

Save the file and close it. Refresh the widget page in Safari.

Other modifications

At this point, you can get as creative as you'd like. Depending on your knowledge of editing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, the sky is the limit.

You can also edit the individual PNG files, in order to alter colors, shading, etc. Perhaps put in a logo for your company, make the widget smaller or larger, etc.

Here's an example widget I created for Pain in the Tech:

Please note

This example modifies already distributed code by Apple. If you reproduce, modify, or redistribute this example, you must keep the original disclaimer intact.

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Many readers may have noticed that I now include advertisements on this site. Currently they're in the right-hand column, towards the bottom. I've also started to insert inline ads within blog posts - but only rarely.

I thought it worthy to post on my reasons for doing this, and my thoughts on ads in general.

First off, it took me a very long time to finally decide to include advertising on this site. The reason was I didn't like the thought of ads cluttering up my design or intentions. This is a personal blog, and to keep it personal and unique, ads never seemed like a good idea.

However, lately there have been some great advancements in ad systems, namely the ability to display ads that are unobtrusive and relevant. This allows me to quietly display ads without causing interruption to readers, or affecting my overall design and layout of the site. (If you can call this a "design.")

My reason for displaying ads is the same as anyone: money. But I don't expect to get rich. If it just covers my hosting costs, I'd be happy. And truthfully, I spend a lot of time writing for this site - why shouldn't I earn at least something for my efforts?

So, as it stands now, there are three spots you may see ads:

1. My sidebar content contains a section titled "Advertisements," which appears on every blog post.

2. I've also included select ads to reside inline, amongst the actual post content. This is only for posts that are no longer important to me. In other words, if the post content is outdated or irrelevant, but is still being referred to from search engines, I'll accept ad offers. An example is here: Cell phone tips, or tricks?. This entry is so old, I don't even recall writing it. But somehow it's attracting attention at search engines, so this is a perfect example of the type of posts that may have ads. I most likely won't include ads on newer, more relevant posts.

3. The third spot may eventually be the RSS feeds for this site.

In all cases, the ad content is textual, and is usually related to my own content.

I decided to go with Text Ad Links, because I like how they blend in with the site. This is attributed to the ability to remotely "call" the ad code, via an XML feed, rather than embedding JavaScript or Flash code.

Overall, this is largely experimental. If things become too cluttered, or if I decide on a different approach, I can remove the ads any time.

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I still notice a lot of web sites that are solely developed for 800x600 screen resolution.

An example is ChicagoSports.com.

Notice the layout flush-up against the left side of the screen, the narrow columns for content, and that large gaping white section on the far right of the screen.

No offense to the designers and developers, but this is ugly. The site is extremely unattractive, especially on a 1280x800 screen. It appears it was designed in 1996, and not changed since. It's in dire need of a face-lift, which it's parent site, ChicagoTribune.com, recently received (and very nicely I might add).

Ten years ago, it was important to develop sites that fit the lowest common denominator. These days, not so much. Larger monitors are the norm, and 800x600 resolutions are becoming more rare.

Looking at my stats for this site, only 3% of my visitors are using an 800x600 resolution.

This is not to claim that my own site is any less ugly. I think this needs a facelift too.

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A recent quote here went like this:

A new application should have me yearning to return to it, like a mother to her child, or an alcoholic to the bottle.

This is absolutely true in all realms of software development and deployment.

A link on Daring Fireball yesterday provides more evidence on my own theory:

If you want to do something that's going to change the world, build software that people want to use instead of software that managers want to buy.

This quote comes from this essay on the subject of "groupware". I couldn't help but be inspired by much of the essay.

When words like "groupware" and "enterprise" start getting tossed around, you're doing the latter.

The "latter," meaning: creating software that managers want to buy.

With that kind of motivation, nobody will ever find it sexy. It won't make anyone happy.

... with a groupware product, nobody would ever work on it unless they were getting paid to, because it's just fundamentally not interesting to individuals.

And the most standout quote that is now ingrained in my head:

So I said, narrow the focus. Your "use case" should be, there's a 22 year old college student living in the dorms. How will this software get him laid? "How will this software get my users laid" should be on the minds of anyone writing social software (and these days, almost all software is social software).

As the essay says, it's kind of crude, but also insightful.

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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Google Video sending me a Google Checkout bonus for videos that will soon cease to exist.

I didn't realize that a full refund (to my credit card, and not for an arbitrary Google Checkout purchase) might have been a more considerate approach.

An update to the Google Blog discusses this "oversight" on Google's part.

We planned to give these users a full refund or more. And because we weren't sure if we had all the correct addresses, latest credit card information, and other billing challenges, we thought offering the refund in the form of Google Checkout credits would entail fewer steps and offer a better user experience. We should have anticipated that some users would see a Checkout credit as nothing more than an extra step of a different (and annoyingly self-serving) kind. Our bad.

Apparently a lot of former Google Video users wrote-in to complain. I wasn't one of them, but I see their point.

So now, here's what I get:

• A full refund to a credit card of my choice.
• The Google Checkout bonus.
• An extended viewing period for all Google videos purchased.

This is great, and I appreciate the customer service explanation, but I really just want the video in a compatible format. I'm sure there are dozens of licensing bullshit issues involved, so I'll just leave it be.

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A tough reference to find is keyboard shortcuts within Mac OS X Dashboard. I'm not talking about launching Dashboard - everyone knows you can set "hot keys" or mouse corners to trigger that. I'm referring to keyboard shortcuts once your in Dashboard view.

Some would think a "dashboard" is for viewing only, so what actions would I need keyboard shortcuts for?

Here's a couple that might be useful:

• "Refreshing" a widget.
• Quickly adding or removing widgets from the Dashboard.

Although it's not widely documented, these things can be accomplished with keyboard shortcuts, to some extent, without additional software or plug-ins involved.

Refreshing a widget

To refresh a specific widget, click on the widget once, and hit Command + R. You'll notice a very cool "swirl" effect, which almost looks like a hurricane on a radar screen:

Every widget you refresh will perform this "swirl" action, and subsequently refresh the widget content.

If you're wondering what widget this was that I refreshed, it's the basic weather widget from Apple:

Adding new widgets

If you manually click the "+" icon in the lower left corner of Dashboard view, your "widget toolbar" will appear along the bottom. Here you can add or remove widgets from display.

To open this "widget toolbar," you can also hit Command + "+". That's Command and the "+" key at the same time. Hitting it again will close the "widget toolbar."

Removing widgets

This is not so much a keyboard shortcut, but a keyboard adjustment. If you hold down the "Option" key while in Dashboard view, and hover over a widget, you can manually remove the widget by clicking the "X" in the upper left corner of the widget. The "X" only appears when you move the mouse over each widget. This is quicker than opening the "widget toolbar" first, and then removing.

Keyboard shortcuts needed

I'm making a list of additional shortcuts that would be useful:

• Much like hitting Command + R refreshes a widget, hitting Command + I should provide info on the widget. (Only applicable for widgets that have a "back side" info panel.)
• Some way of removing widgets without having to manually click the "X". (I'm thinking Command + W or something similar.)

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I've discussed Flickr unintentionally burying features, and something else they don't offer enough of is RSS feeds.

Here is the list of available feeds on Flickr:

• Public photos
• Friends' photos
• Group discussions
• Group pools
• Forum discussions
• Recent activity on your photos
• Recent comments you made
• Flickr News

Here is a list of feeds I would like to see:

• Friends' Favorite photos.
• Most "Favorited" photos for all Flickr users.
• Recent additions to Interestingness.
• Recent additions per camera model.
• Recent additions per zip code, state, or region, using the Flickr map.
• Recent additions to a specific set or collection.

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If I was ever inclined to include a blog "disclaimer" here, or anywhere else, it would sound something like Chris Lott's recent post:

This is a blog. That fact means nothing. It is not a peer-reviewed journal, a final archive of my writing, a sponsored publication, (n)or the product of gatekeeping and editing.

... while the ideas and thoughts are often vital and the product of a long gestational period, the writing itself is not. It is essentially as it came from the keyboard: spontaneous, unproofed, unrevised, and corrected afterward only when necessary to address mistakes that grossly effect the intent. Where such changes have been made they are explicitly noted.

Opinions and characterizations of fact here are my own and represent no one else. ... In fact, it's quite possible that by the time you read the words here they won't even represent me. ... If I contradict myself, very well then, I contradict myself. ... Catching me in a contradiction is probably not the result of your steely grasp of logic and it's almost assuredly not a product of hypocrisy. I'm a human being and my blog reflects that humanity.

Could not have said it better.

I often get feedback correcting my unintentional use of contradictions, and I think to myself, "What does it matter? This is just a silly blog. This is not meant to be the 'final word' on anything. That was my 'sudden thought' at that particular moment in time. I'm well past that already."

Much like buying a car, as soon as a blog post is "posted live," it already begins aging (losing relevancy and value). I'm talking about the second it's posted - it's already old.

This is why I feel blog archives are useless. Pick ten of your most relevant, and keep them fresh. (I haven't yet solidified this idea, which is why I still have blog archives here.)

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I just needed to get this off my chest.

It goes without saying that every blog post here is open to discussion, opinion, observation, or disagreement. I don't like leaving footnotes, such as: "Discuss in the comments," or "What do you think?"

It's not necessary. If you see comments are available, it's obvious that you are able to include your thoughts. Did I forget something? Did I misspell something? Are my facts wrong? Please let me know. That's why there's comments.

Occasionally, I'll close comments on a particular post because it's either no longer relevant, or I've just chosen to have readers reflect on it, rather than discuss it. This is more rare, and there will clearly be a notice stating the comments are closed.

I welcome and appreciate all feedback left here.

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"I have some content that I'd like to share with others using the web."

"What are my options, and what are the benefits and drawbacks to each?"

Consider yourself

First, double-check to make sure you really want to share this content.

• Is it personal or private information?
• Would you want potential (or current) employers to find this information?

Make sure there's an endless supply

Next, make sure you won't ever (at least, in the foreseeable future) run out of ideas. This can be tough to gauge at first, since inspiration is at it's highest during the peak of a new idea. You don't want to start content, then abruptly end it, with the sole reason being your sudden lack of interest. And let's face it - almost everything eventually loses it's luster. So make sure it's really something that's almost ingrained within you.

• Is your content a new (and possibly temporary) interest?
• Is this an interest or concept that has been with you for a while, and which you're assured will be with you for a long time?

Consider your audience

How involved do you want your audience to be? There are various levels of involvement that go along with web content.

Do you want feedback for your content? If so, to what extent can readers post responses?

• A typical "blog" allows for comments on individual posts, which are somehow displayed on the page alongside the original post. Some systems allow anonymous comments from anyone, and other systems require you to have an account with the specific blog system.
• Social networks like Ning allow "members" to create their own posts, alongside your posts. This gives the audience greater freedom to express their own opinions, under the realm of your content subject.
• A stream of "micro-content," like Twitter or Pownce, can be replied to by other Twitter or Pownce users, but not by non-users.

It all depends on how much freedom, and to what priority, you want to give your readers responses. If you're a "PhD" in your chosen content topic, you may have enough clout to disallow any form of feedback. However, most authors prefer some form of communication with their readers.

Personalization and data

How unique do you want your content stream to be?

• Do you want to use your own domain name?
• Would you prefer a custom design, or a template?
• Do you care if your "data" is maintained by you, or locked down in a third-party system?

Your choices

Based on your considerations from above, you should be able to choose one of these:

• Blog
• Social network
• Micro-blog
• Group or forum

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I rented my first Redbox DVD the other day, just to see what the service has to offer. I like the idea of not waiting in lines or dealing with people. I walk up to the machine, swipe my credit card, and out comes the movie. It's spontaneous, private, and quick. (And only a dollar.)

I've been a Netflix subscriber for over three years now, and I've seen my interest decline. As a "power user," I rented seven at a time, and was feverishly addicted to movies from all eras and genres. That behavior soon declined, and now I only rent one at a time. It's just enough to stay involved with my favorite TV shows on DVD, of which Netflix has an extensive collection.

It's not that I lost interest in movies. I simply lost that "hunger" for the Netflix service. That... as well as the time and money involved - it wasn't adding up to a very diverse lifestyle for me - always sitting in front of the TV and spending my paycheck on movies.

With Redbox, I've regained a sense of inspiration. I can rent only when I feel the urge, and it doesn't cost a whole heck of a lot. Plus, as with any new technology, I like trying something different. With so many Redbox locations in my area, I like the idea of picking up a movie at the grocery store, or McDonald's, or wherever I happen to be.

The only drawback is I've also regained two things I don't like to do, when it comes to renting movies:

1. Physically having to go pick it up, and return it.
2. Late fees.

Regardless, I'm interested in the service simply because it's something different.

Overall, Redbox will meet the needs of movie-watchers that are more spontaneous and don't want a flat monthly fee. If you're a higher-volume renter, and more active with movie-watching, stick with a service like Netflix or Blockbuster. You'll probably get more for your buck.

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This morning I received an invitation to try Google's GrandCentral. I promptly wrote about it on Pain in the Tech, after dissecting some of it's most prominent features.

I've been waiting for this day for a long time, ever since I included my email address to be alerted when I can try the service. The ability to archive and download voicemail matches my acquisitive nature. I can also consolidate all of my phone numbers into one.

To my surprise, there are a dozen more unique and exciting features that I didn't even know about, such as:

• Switch phones during calls. (Leaving the building and the connection to a land line? Switch the current call to your cell, and hit the road!)
• "Live" voicemail. (Listen to a voice message as it's being recorded, like a home phone. Is it important? Interrupt their message and talk to them right away.)
• Record calls. (At any time during a phone conversation, hit a button and the conversation starts recording. The recording can then be archived and downloaded.)
• Web call. (Provide an immediate way for web users to call you, without revealing your number. Perfect for eBay auctions or business sites.)

These features just scratch the surface. You get complete control over how GrandCentral handles your callers.

GrandCentral has the potential to be a very useful service.

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