rc3.org Rafe Colburn on software development (and other topics)

Posts Tagged ‘meta’

Tweetbacks installed

In Commentary on 9 July 2009 tagged meta, Twitter with 3 comments

I’ve installed the Tweetbacks plugin to try to capture tweets about blog posts as comments. We’ll see how it works out.

Feed breakage

In Commentary on 27 April 2009 tagged meta with 2 comments

I didn’t migrate my feeds to my Google account in time and have caused some breakage. The problem is fixed but it’ll take a few hours for the DNS change to propagate. Apologies.

Not migrating to Disqus

In Commentary on 24 January 2009 tagged meta with 8 comments

I’ve switched over to Disqus for comments. Let me know if you hate it.

Update: I changed my mind. I’m going to dig into some other options that provide features I’m interested in without taking over the whole comment system.

10 year anniversary preview

In Commentary on 19 January 2009 tagged 10 years, meta with 6 comments

I haven’t really mentioned it yet, but I’m celebrating the 10 year anniversary of this blog this year. I consider the birth date of the blog to be December 18, 1998, but I didn’t really get going until January 1, 1999. Here’s one of the first posts, from January 2:

See original at archive.org.

Live debate blogging meta-post

In Commentary on 27 September 2008 tagged meta with no comments

The live debate blogging yesterday was great fun, and the Cover It Live software worked really well. Thanks everyone who participated. I did it mainly as an experiment, and I consider the experiment to have been a success. I’ll definitely be live blogging the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday night as well. Please join me.

I learned about Cover It Live from the Houston Chronicle. Their beat writer for the Houston Cougars uses it to live blog football games from the press box. I was impressed with the functionality and wanted an excuse to try it myself, and after Twittering my heart out during the political conventions, I thought using Cover It Live to discuss the debates would work out well.

The only thing I’m not entirely sure about is how happy I am with archiving items in Cover It Live, but it works better than any other tool I’ve seen for managing real-time conversation.

Levels of candor

In Commentary on 11 September 2008 tagged meta with 2 comments

I was just thinking this morning about the various levels of candor I employ when I think something potentially offensive and consider talking about it, stated as the questions I ask myself. (The calculation is different if privacy is the issue.)

1. Would I say it on my blog?
2. Would I say it in front of my grandmother?
3. Would I say it on Twitter?
4. Would I say it at an all hands meeting at work?
5. Would I say it in email?
6. Would I say it to my mother?
7. Would I say it to the coworkers who I know well?
8. Would I say it to my close friends (in front of their spouses who I know less well)?
9. Would I instant message it to a close friend?
10. Would I say it to my close friends?
11. Would I say it to my wife?

You can infer from this that I am not as funny on my blog as I am in other settings. The other thing you can deduce from that list is that I’m a bit cautious about what I say when it’s going to live forever on a hard drive somewhere.

Busy busy

In Commentary on 8 June 2008 tagged meta with no comments

Sorry for the lack of activity here. I have a bunch of posts percolating but none seem to be finished, and I’ve been insanely busy for the past couple of weeks. I’m not a fan of “why I’m not posting” posts, but I thought some people might be starting to wonder. Of course, as soon as I post this I’ll find ten things I can dash off posts about and will be back on my usual pace.

What I seek to find and perhaps provide

In Commentary on 2 April 2008 tagged blogs, meta with 2 comments

Paul Kedrosky on what he looks for in the blogs he reads:

I don’t want volume or comprehensiveness; I want surprise and interestingness. And to be even more clear, I don’t want surprise or interestingness in a Digg sense of the word, with naked nonagenarians or raccoons with their tongues stuck to metal poles, etc. I don’t want an information freak-show. I want things that I would have normally read, but wouldn’t have found, nor would have most people that I read. Something that changes the way I think.

I think that’s a pretty good description of what many people are after in their blog reading. It’s one of the big reasons that I love blogs that are outside my areas of professional expertise and outside of my usual interests. Reading about topics that I don’t already know a lot about is intellectually stimulating.

On the road

In Commentary on 27 March 2008 tagged meta with no comments

I’m going to be traveling for the next few days, so there probably won’t be any blog posts. Stay out of trouble in my absence.

Comment preview

In Commentary on 22 February 2008 tagged meta with 1 comment

To satisfy the clamoring from some commenters, I’ve installed the Ajax Comment Preview plugin. No longer will you have to wonder how WordPress is going to mangle your comments, just click on the “Preview Comment” button to find out.