category-1.php, category-2.php, and so on.

When the URL http://mydomain.com/category/coolcat is entered into the browsers address bar, and WordPress sees a category request made, it looks for a category-x.php file in the main template folder. If one exists, that will be used over the default template file. If a template file isn’t found for the requested category, the next file that WordPress looks for is category.php. This is another template default file that can be applied to all categories that don’t have their own template. If a category.php isn’t found, then the default template file is used.

One thing I discovered while trying to get category templates to work, I was entering http://mydomain.com/coolcat and expecting the category template to display. But as you may know, WordPress was trying to find a Page named “coolcat”. I struggled with this for a week, and after ripping out the small hair follicles on my head, it dawned on me I was entering the wrong URL. Remember, /category/ must precede the category name, or it just doesn’t work.

Here is a link to the WordPress Codex explaining category template.

In my opinion the Kindle is a great Green appliance. It allows you to read a book without killing trees and eventually ending up in a land fill. However, I like the ability to resale, or even donate, a book once I’m through. With a Kindle book, you can’t. I’m also at the mercy of the Kindle having a power issue, and then I can’t read a book. And the Kindle doesn’t have limitless storage, which limits my library.

I guess I’m struggling paying eight bucks for a digital book. I believe the digital version should be a lot less. I know many Kindle books have a cheaper price than their paper counterpart, but those books tend to be older. Give us new releases for at least half the cost since it should only take half the effort to produce, stock and ship.

I really like the Kindle. In fact, I love the iPhone version (iTunes link). It’s convenient, and I find I’m reading more because I have the book with me all the time.

If you’re an Author, and I know this may buy me some heat here, urge your publisher and Amazon to reduce the price of your digital works. I know I will.

Share with us your view on Kindle books, and if you have one, either the Kindle device or the iPhone application and how you like it.

As is typical with Google, it’s not a flashy part of the calendaring system. Looking at the image below, you can almost miss it if you weren’t paying attention.

Just like adding a calendar event, when you click on a time line or day box, a bubble window pops up, giving you the ability to add an event or a task. Once you have entered the text for your tasks, you will immediately see the task show up on the day you want the task due. You will also see in the Task pane on the right of the calendar, you can see it in a pane on the right of GMail, and as you can see from my iPhone I was able to see the task immediately.

So as it stands today, Google has basically made tasks available across all the application you would expect to see it, GCal, GMail and in mobile applications.

One feature I hope they implement soon are multiple task buckets. You can create tasks on the iPhone in a sort of bucket, but all calendar and mail task entries end up in the default task list. That isn’t a big deal, but I have tasks separated into groups (like things I do every Monday as an example).

There are several actions available when you have the task list pane open. You can edit, indent, sort, and several more. You will find the actions at the bottom of the task list.

This is a great step for this feature. I use tasks all the time, now I can see them across all my Google apps.

[Update: 05/14/09]I wanted to make a small change to this post. It appears that you can move a task to another list once you have created it. There is a small drop down at the bottom of the bubble form when you are editing a task that lets you move it to a new list. Didn’t see that before. That drop down list should also be on the new entry form. Hello Google?

Today is April 1st. Typically people see today as the start of Spring. A time to renew. A time to access our plan for the year, and make some course corrections.

PodCampSLC 2009 just wrapped up a few days ago. Having the opportunity to meet people I have only interacted with through technology was awesome. I think it is vitally important for people to meet face to face. You can’t hide behind a screen. Venture out. Meet up. There are so many things going on out there, you might even discover some new friends.

Things are sort of back to normal. I don’t think I’ll take on such a huge project again with as little help as I did. The community is bigger than that, and the community deserves to be more involved.

Check out the PodCampSLC website for updates on this past camp and to stay current with upcoming events.

The interesting part is it wasn’t released for the iPhone. It does work on the Android of course, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. But with GPS and mapping so tightly integrated into the iPhone, I’m really surprised this was left out of the initial release. I hardly ever used mapping on my Windows Mobile device.

Is Google targeting a service like BrightKite.com, where I can check in at a specific location, or upload photos and give it a geo tag? I can see better uses for this service than just seeing who around me. I would also like to be able to update my social network too, like FriendFeed or Twitter, with a link to my latest location.

I’m not sure if this was intentional or chance, but the map on the Latitude home page was in my general area. Weird, huh? Stalking at its best.

The simplicity of this product is amazing. You can create and manage separate tasks lists, and create or remove tasks from the iPhone.

Couple of drawback I can see right off the bat:

• Can’t move a task from one list to another
• Can’t set a default list to show
• Tasks aren’t ranked
• Can’t see a list of all active tasks, if you have more than one list

But for basic task management, this is a good first stab. I know Google will release more features as it carefully tracks usage.

Here are a few screen shot from my iPhone

My reason to question this is I have FriendFeed consuming all of my blogs RSS feeds, my Twitter Feed, my Flickr feed and many other. In essence I am posting all of my content in one location which doesn’t require you to subscribe to my individual feeds, only one FriendFeed. So my question is, are RSS feeds becoming a means to display multiple streams of content in a single location, which can also provide a single RSS feed to consume if someone chooses too?

I know RSS has value, but I’m wondering if it has the same value today as it did a year ago. Are you subscribing to as many individual feeds as you have in the past or are you letting social networks help give you the streams you are most interested in?

Here are my reasons. Qik is only supported by a small amount of handsets, unlike Twitter, which supports SMS and the mobile web. If I can’t get to the content easily, or produce content easily, I’m not going to use it, and I don’t think others will either. Most people will have to be logged into a computer in order to see any of the videos created, and that diminishes the purpose of a mobile social tool.

The next issue is technology and infrastructure. Many of today’s handsets don’t have internet access, and if they do it’s not fast enough to handle streaming video. Again this leaves out a vast majority of mobile device owners who can’t participate with their mobile device. I realize you can post a link to the Qik video, but I must be at my desktop to view it.

Next I think there is quality problem. I would assume because the amount of data being transfered the compression gives mobile video streaming really poor quality, sometimes unwatchable. For example, when Apple released the iPhone 3G, Jesse was at the Salt Lake City Apple store recording with Qik, but the quality was so bad it was almost impossible to follow. Nothing Jesse did, it was the technology.

I follow Robert Scoble, who is always Qik’ing video where ever he goes. When I’m logged in to my PC, I like to see what he’s up to. Qik is great for recording video and sharing on the net, but so is YouTube, and it has a farther reaching affect. If you’re lucky enough to have a handset that gives you this power, have fun. For those that don’t, we’ll have to wait for something truly revolutionary.

Maybe I’m wrong about the lack of wide spread use. But I don’t think there are enough techie types at Sundance to give Qik nearly the thrust SXSW gave Tiwtter.

This morning, CNN Live and Facebook have teamed up to bring viewers and interesting mix of video and chat. The layout shows the CNN Live video stream and right next to that your Facebook status updates. This gives viewers who are Facebook members the ability to chat with each other while watching the event. Very cool.

One of the issues facing online news services and social network sites will be capacity. Not only is this an historic day for the United States, it will also be an historic day for online media. There will be more people online, active at the same time, than there probably ever has been.

I would get online early because the closer it gets to the event time the harder it will be to get a feed.