Sure many of these feeds are pretty much dead where the author hasn’t posted something in months like my friend Dan hasn’t had a post since March. But others make up for them with many posts per day like Boing Boing and TechCrunch.

The question is “How do you manage all this data?” Right now, I manage it by having all my feeds broken up into category folders so I can go in and read the high value categories first and if I have time go through the more interesting ones. The second thing is I don’t actually go through all the items, rather I just scan the titles, read the ones that catch my eye then hit “Mark All As Read”. The problem with this is I’m constantly feeling like I’m missing important stuff. I’m sure I’m missing stuff when I scan over the 110 items in the “Technology and Geek Culture” folder. Other times, once I go through the big folders I’ll just open up “All Items” and glance at the rest pulled together.

A metric that I’d like to use, but currently have no easy way to generate is the comparison between volume and quality. If there is a feed where I get three posts a year it doesn’t really matter if it’s high or average quality. If I get 400 messages a day from a feed then I’d better be getting some real value from it. The question is, how do I determine if a feed is of a high enough value to me to keep it around? There are some very interesting feeds that I’ve unsubscribed from in the past because the volume to quality ratio was way out of whack, like the feed from “Hacker News”.

One metric I could use is the number of starred pages I have from that feed. However that doesn’t paint the whole picture because of how I use starred pages. I typically star pages if I want to come back to it later. For instance, if I’m going through my feeds from my iPhone (very important for keeping my unread numbers in check) and I see something interesting that is not going to be pleasant to view on an iPhone (links to video, really long articles, etc) then I’ll just star it so I can get back to it when I’m at a computer.

I could create my own reader or at least some sort of feed filter. I could thumbs up or down items that I’ve read and keep track of all the metrics I want. However this would probably take more time then I’m willing to put in to the task.

What I’m leaning towards is abandoning my rigorous categorization of feeds on topic. Perhaps I should try to start grouping them on other criteria. Maybe they could be “Low Volume”, “High Value” and “Low Value” with a few special groups like “Friends & Family” thrown in for good measure. That way I won’t miss the once in a while posts in the “Low Volume” category and I can ignore the “Low Value” feeds most of the time, or at least not look at them as closely as the feeds in “High Value”.

UPDATE: I’ve just reordered and cleaned out my feed reader. I now have 4 folders, the three I mentioned above and an additional “Humor” folder for a couple random comic strips. I also reduced my feed count from 90 to 58. Let’s see how this works.

Last year before I was preparing to move to California I decided to cancel my cable and TiVo subscription. I did not plan to have cable when I got to San Mateo. My subscription was very difficult to cancel. First, I had to call them because there is no way to cancel TiVo online. Then the person I got on the phone acted like if I canceled TiVo they were going to get beaten. This wasn’t the normal “Here are a list of reasons you should stay a subscriber” routine, it was more of a “please, please, please don’t quit or they will cut my fingers off” routine. Odd, right? Regardless, they canceled my subscription and that was that.

A couple months ago, now back in Madison, I decided to get cable again and of course I reactivated my TiVo subscription. Apparently that was a big mistake.

Last week, I got AT&T U-verse installed. Part of that package is I get a DVR which for no extra cost per month does 95% of what I used my TiVo for. In addition to that, it can record four shows at once, does not require any IR cables and if I subscribed to them, it would record HD content. Pretty sweet deal, eh? The closest way to match that setup with TiVo would be to get the new TiVo HD which only records two shows at once, and if I want to avoid IR cables I’d have to get two CableCards so it could decode the signal. One of those boxes cost $299.99 plus $12.95/month for the data feed that tells it what shows are on and when.

When I had cable, I had considered buying one of these. My existing TiVo does not record HD and does not support CableCard. $299.99 would not have been that bad of a deal. However with U-verse that doesn’t seem like that good of a deal anymore.

So since I have U-verse, there is no sense in continuing to pay for cable and TiVo. I call Charter and tell them I want to cancel, they have their methods to try to keep me, but generally it’s offering me a discount, or switching me to a different plan. When I say “no thanks, I just want to cancel” they do it and that’s it.

TiVo was another story. First when I tried to cancel I got the pleading person on the other end again.
TiVo: Wha.. wha.. why would you ever want to cancel your TiVo?
Me: I don’t have cable anymore (technically true)
TiVo: You can use it with an antenna to record over the air broadcasts
Me: Yeah, I don’t watch network TV
And it goes on and on. Eventually I get him to agree to cancel it with one caveat. I’m going to get charged in one lump sum the remainder of my one year contract, something like $140. Are you kidding me?

I can understand having a minimum contract if I got a discount when buying my TiVo “Save $100 on a new TiVo with a one year subscription” or something like that. This is an old TiVo that they have gotten more then a years worth of subscription out of. Just because I reactivated it two months ago and now want to cancel they are going to screw me.

I’m sorry but this isn’t the way to keep customers. Yes, I was canceling my service, but I still had a positive image of TiVo. If I ever got cable again I would probably buy the HD TiVo and they would get more money out of me. Instead, they played hardball in order to not lose the $140 for my one year of subscription and in exchange just made an enemy. I understand that TiVo is going out of business, they are having a real hard time competing with the DVRs from the cable and satellite providers. This however is not how you compete. You don’t keep customers by making it harder for them to quit, you make it so they don’t want to quit.

When TiVo came out it was an incredibly innovative product. Now it’s just another DVR, albeit a DVR with a really great, easy to use interface. My U-verse DVR took me about 10 minutes to figure out completely. It’s actually a pretty easy to use interface, especially with all the on demand stuff built in.

Maybe TiVo is doomed. It certainly is if they keep trying to do what they are currently doing. They are trying to innovate by tacking on all these half baked extra features that frequently don’t work and certainly don’t feel like a part of the whole interface. I had been really excited when I found out Rhapsody was coming to the TiVo. I’m a huge fan of Rhapsody despite its flaws. However the TiVo client rarely works. It might play one or two songs before crashing. I tried using TiVo to go which should allow me to move my recordings over to my computer to play when I’m not at home. Why then was it all crippled with some odd DRM? I should have just been able to copy an MP2 or MP4 off of the box and do what I wanted with it.

I’m not sure what they can do to become innovative again. Needless to say I don’t plan on continuing to care. They have completely lost me as a customer and as an advocate.

UPDATE: I just got a call from TiVo and since I was only 10 days outside of my 30 day cancellation window they are allowing me to cancel without the fee. Thanks TiVo!

As you can see Drupal blows them all out of the water with the only ranking greater then 50%. Number two on the list Expression Engine is the only commercial CMS I have listed.

Why do you think Drupal has such a high commercial intent?

If you don’t use a framework of some sort (I’m using a loose definition of framework) you would have anarchy. I’ve seen a lot of anarchy in PHP code. No consistency, code all over the place, probably insecure.

There are Libertarian frameworks, that provide some structure and common libraries but generally leave you to your own devices. They are lightweight, so they don’t use up too many resources and they are flexible. A Libertarian framework will probably not force you to use an ORM to connect to the database.

On the other end of that spectrum are the Fascist frameworks. They tell you how to lay out your code, how to write your controllers, how to write your templates and don’t even think about writing a line of SQL because you’ll be using ActiveRecord. These work because you don’t have to think much. Everything just works, you don’t have SQL injection problems, everything is filtered properly and forms are a piece of cake (as long as you don’t care how they look.)

Where does your favorite framework fall on the political spectrum?

1. I’m an ordained minister in the Church of the Subgenius. “Eternal salvation or triple your money back!”
2. In 7th grade I went to Space Camp.
3. My favorite band is Oingo Boingo.
4. I’m not Jewish, even though I subscribe to Heeb: The New Jew Review.
5. I block most application requests on facebook.
6. I don’t think I’m very smart.
7. I fantasize of moving out to the middle of nowhere to live off the land possibly in a hobbit hole.
8. I have never been David Bowie.
9. I was vegan for 3 months.
10. I have considered becoming Buddhist.
11. I own a pinball machine.
12. I scored an 8 foot long subway (the restaurant) sign for my dining room, breaking my cars muffler in the process in a sort of semi-high-speed getaway.
13. I love apple turnovers but shouldn’t eat them because they make me fat.
14. My favorite pair of boxers are from Ralph Lauren and have little polo players on them.
15. I don’t practice what I preach, because I’m not the kind of person I’m preaching to.
16. I feel overwhelmed because I don’t know what I want from life.
17. I want a shiny silver vintage Airstream travel trailer.
18. I don’t like scary movies and I love chick flicks.
19. I own a pith helmet and a straw boater.
20. I’m nostalgic for the internet of the late 1990s.
21. I thought First Band on the Moon by the Cardigans was such a good album I was afraid to listen to any of their other albums because I didn’t think they could measure up. I’m glad I finally broke down.
22. My favorite TV show is the L Word, favorite character is Alice.
23. I’ve ordered CDs and Vinyl from England and Germany because I couldn’t find them state side.
24. I had a major crush on the same girl from 3rd grade through graduation and I never asked her out.
25. I love black licorice, green NyQuil and Jägermeister.

Today I signed up for the Beginning Rock Climbing course at Planet Granite. I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen of the place so far. I start my first of 4 weekly classes on February 4th. I’m not sure how this will work out long term since even at the club to do the regular climbing I’ll need a partner. I’m hoping I’ll find someone in the same boat during the class that I can partner up with going forward. They also offer yoga classes. I think I’ll plan to attend two classes a week. If I do the Ashtanga yoga on Mondays and Wednesdays to start I can expand to a third class on Saturdays in the future. I haven’t checked it out but they also have a fitness center which sounds like a regular gym there. I have a membership at Gold’s Gym but I haven’t gotten out there too much because it’s kind of out of my way. Planet Granite on the other hand is very close to me. I discovered I can walk there in 15 minutes or so.

I haven’t progressed with learning Russian. I started with the Rosetta Stone program but then I got sick and haven’t gotten back in the flow with that. I also decided to hold off on taking Russian classes at the moment. I think starting out with the rock climbing and yoga I’ll be pretty busy. I’m still thinking about taking art classes, but like I said last month, it’s not something I’m planning on pursuing immediately.

Otherwise I’m keeping busy. Work is going well and I’ve met some cool new friends to hang out with. I’ve had an surge of freelance work lately that has kept me off the streets. Hopefully some of the extra money I’m making will go towards building myself a new computer.

Lately I’ve been in the midst of a lot of self reflection. I guess moving across the country and starting a new life does that to a guy. So I don’t really think of the following “resolutions” as anything more then I would at any other time of the year. My focus lately has been trying to identify places of unbalance in my life and try to come up with changes to become a more well rounded individual.

I’ve been very pleased with my weight loss but so far it’s been most because of dieting. I need to start exercising if I’m going to continue to lose weight and make the change permanent. It’s all about changing my lifestyle to be healthier. Not having a car in CA is certainly helping but I want to do something more deliberate. I’m thinking about learning rock climbing. This has been something on the back of my mind for a while but because I don’t have any friends that are particularly active let alone rock climbers it’s not something I’ve felt like I can just pick up. I’ve been doing some research and I’ve found a place called Planet Granite in Belmont which is pretty close to me. It’s an indoor climbing gym which looks pretty cool. They have classes so I figure this is a good way to start learning, plus hopefully I might meet some friends who are also interested in climbing so if I want to do actual rock climbing I’ll have people to do it with. Planet Granite also teaches yoga which is something I’ve wanted to get into as well so maybe I’ll try that as well.

I also would like to learn Russian. I’ve recently purchased the RosettaStone program for learning Russian and although it seems good I think I need to take an actual class. I’ve found a place called ABC Language Exchange that have weekly classes starting end of January. So I think I’ll probably try that out.

Lastly I have been toying with the idea of getting a degree in illustration for a while. I had looked into the Academy of Art University which has online degrees. They are based in San Francisco so now that I’m in the bay area I’ll see if I still want to do online or if I’ll be able to take classes on campus. Maybe a combination would be best, as I do like the classroom environment where I can interact with my classmates.

So those are the three things I’ve been thinking about doing lately. The Academy of Art University will not be something I pursue immediately. I’ll probably start calling and talking to them in a month or so with the intention of starting classes in the fall. I initially didn’t sign up because I didn’t think I could swing it financially but now I’m in a different boat and don’t think it will be much of an issue.

I think this will be an interesting year.

I decided to attempt to lose weight, not really sure how I was going to do it. I started out with the South Beach Diet which got me down to 245 lbs before I plateaued. I was losing my motivation. Then my friend Jori who used to be a personal trainer got me doing what I’ve been doing since and it’s working pretty well. The key parts are to eat every two hours and I try to eat more protein. There were other similarities with the South Beach Diet like avoiding white carbohydrates.

Before I moved to San Mateo, I sold my car and have been relying on my two feet to get me around out here. This has also helped with my weight loss and allows me to cheat on my diet once in a while (how I do love Cinnabon.)

Well, I recently reached a milestone. I just dropped below the 220 lbs mark. Not too bad. I’m not sure how much weight I’m going to try to lose total. Right now I’m looking at 200 lbs as a goal. Mostly I just want to look better, get rid of the gut. Still a long way to go.

I had been tracking my weight in a notebook but I wanted to be able to do more things with that data so I recently got the app FatWatch for my iPhone. One of the neat features of this app is I can import and export my data. So I took an export today and wrote a little script to create a graph from it and posted it here on my site. You can view it here.

It is really easy for me to update it, I just upload a current export from FatWatch. So if you’re interested in my progress feel free to check out the chart. I’ll try to update it often.

There are two lines on the chart. One is what my weight is from day to day. This line can be misleading because my weight fluctuates from day to day. The way FatWatch takes this into account is by calculating a moving average. So every day the moving average is calculated by taking 90% of the previous days average and adding it to 10% of today’s weight. So even though you can see that I had a huge spike the day after Thanksgiving the moving average shows that I’ve been doing really well and that other then the 28th I’ve been making progress. Nothing to get bent out of shape about.

If I try to lose 1 lb a week, my next milestone (210 lbs) will be around February 22. Let’s see if I can do it.

PBwiki is really great. Everyone I work with has been super good about making me feel at home. I’m starting to get into some more complex projects. I’ve been meaning to get some photos posted but haven’t gotten around to taking any. Hopefully in the next couple days I’ll post some pics of my apartment and neighborhood.

Last week I attended the San Francisco PHP Meetup where Terry Chay talked about frameworks. In particular he discussed how off the shelf frameworks suck because of the consequences. He definitely was coming from the point of view of someone who writes very large highly scalable websites and in that context I very much agree with him. He did say that these frameworks are good for toy projects and enterprise software which I’d agree with.

I’ve really wanted to find a good framework to use and I’ve come pretty close with Solar and Kohana but I’m never satisfied with the trade-offs. I feel like I can use libraries from Solar or Zend if I need to as long as I code things properly on my end. I follow the same naming structure as Solar and Zend where my file names and classes match up and I use a parent “namespace” to keep my code from polluting the global namespace.