Smithereens: Productivity, Persuasion and Prose

thank you

2009-10-20T01:02:27.308-04:00

thank you

Great

2009-10-10T02:33:00.006-04:00

Great

Great article, Daniel. You make excellent points. ...

2009-10-09T06:49:17.499-04:00

Great article, Daniel. You make excellent points.

Collaborative mediocrity is rampant with large companies in the US, and I'm glad we now have the Internet to at least express our dissatisfaction with them.

That said, neither is perfect but I just felt when...

2009-10-03T04:11:47.784-04:00

That said, neither is perfect but I just felt when the word "web brain" is used; content recovery and not memory recovery should be the forefront.

No matter how well Google Reader is, it's still a RSS Reader and saving posts within it to be searched while unique is still bookmarking. Also, this assumes search is so needed that tags or traditional folders can't make up for it. (I'm not saying they are better but the gap is not that huge.)

Diigo on the other handed (while it has many rough edges) gives a preview of what future semantic web applications can really bring. (Some have even called it the first Web 3.0 service.)

That would be a worthier application deserving of a "Web Brain" tag.

I know... I know...

It seems like I'm just attacking GReader in favor of Diigo.

That's kind of the complication with only referring to one service. Especially when dealing with a multiple-use web service like Diigo. (It would be nice to expand all it's flaws by really expanding it's weaknesses compared to other Web Clippers, Mind Mappers, Argument Mappers and Offline Bookmark Managers and Notetakers and To-do lists and programs with online sync.)

That said, the point is not that Diigo is better than GReader or vice versa. It's that the concept of a "Web Brain" still has a long way to go and I hope bloggers don't oversell it because the concept isn't as marketable yet but it needs to. (For example, I can't believe how some people say Diigo was more complicated than Delicious when Delicious' lack of feature made it much harder to grasp why exactly is it does one need to tag their bookmark online.)

In the end, neither this post nor my reply will really influence how future people perceive what a Web Brain is and I'm not on an agenda to search every blog post in the internet that uses the Web Brain adjective (I found this blog via Copyblogger) but I'd like to at least share an opinion that hopes to tone down these well known bookmarking/lifestreaming/Google products and alert people to the fact that there are many other applications that are rough around the edges but seeks to fulfill the "Brain" mantra that needs some loving and let's not give the more well known applications some more added PR they do not need. (Again, apologize if this sounds spammy because there's a product out there that's actually called the Brain. This isn't actually an advertisement of that product but I omitted "Web" Brain because there are many products offline that can serve as a Brain but part of their flaws are that they are not an online service.)

Really, I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom but just look at the online RSS Reader industry and how unneeded hype for Google Reader killed many quality online alternatives and even FeedDemon moved to Google Reader sync. (Although I'm not saying it's Google's fault entirely. Newshutch for example was an underrated abandoned RSS service that had other issues but it's also pretty damning when a developer abandons their project because "They lost the hunger". Even while it was gaining popularity, Newshutch was rarely listed among the ranks of Rojo, Bloglines, GReader and even Netvibes and IGoogle.)

Unless all I have are "soundbite" level articles, ...

2009-10-03T04:08:33.938-04:00

Unless all I have are "soundbite" level articles, I feel Google Reader is bad at becoming a mind hub.

There are of course many types of hub-like services out there (some even free) but I worry that it can make my post seem spammy.

Instead, I'll try to focus on a service that has been mentioned here.

This isn't Diigo vs. Google Reader.

It's just that Diigo is the most flexible among the services mentioned here. (even better if the bugs are fixed)

Also forgive me if this has been repeated. The Linden blog is open to invited readers only.

Google has the superiority in search but Diigo has the superiority in snippets and skim.

What I mean by this is that even if you're not an annotation kind of person, Diigo separates itself from other highlighters because your highlights get compacted into the actual site.

What this means is that as far as text is concerned, a dedicated highlight is not just a bookmark + highlights. It's actually a manual summarizer and everytime you try to re-read your old bookmarks, it's not a case of returning to that old bookmark and trying to remember why exactly you went there or where exactly is the data you want.

Diigo's home view actually puts the content that interested you originally to the forefront of the bookmark page without even visiting each bookmarks separately or re-reading/force skimming each bookmark. (That is, if you took your time highlighting and annotating the page when you bookmarked it instead of using the highlight feature as a sort of "social bookmarking snippet text preview emphasizer" like I've seen used in many groups.

Oddly enough, Rogers is now s facing a simular pro...

2009-07-26T13:05:18.560-04:00

Oddly enough, Rogers is now s facing a simular problem with the 3Gs. They are out of stock nation wide.

Ordering online tells you that the phone is back ordered 6-8 weeks. Of course, being Rogers, they don;t tell you that untill AFTER your credit card gets billed for the phone.

I ended uyp getting a HTC Magic due to the above.

It's cuios the ROgers lanched the andorid phones a week or so before the iphone. Could this be a Rogers move in the Apple/Rogers chess match?

I was trying to decide whether to use wp or blogge...

2009-06-18T10:04:23.531-04:00

I was trying to decide whether to use wp or blogger and not only was your post super funny, but it was quite useful as well! Blogger it is!

One thing I truly love about blogger is the option...

2009-05-19T10:11:00.000-04:00

One thing I truly love about blogger is the option of using Classical templates or the easier to use Blogger v2. I love to express my creativity not only through writing, but also through designing my own theme. I've learned so much of CSS on my own thanks to Blogger's Classical Templates. If you're new to blogging and want to get things done easily and have all sorts of cool widgets, then Blogger v2 is for you. If you're a professional in CSS and want more freedom of tweaking, choose classical templates like me.

In classical blogger, I'm able to hide my sidebars or whatever I want by adding MainPage, MainorAchivePage and ItemPage tags and closing them. This is important for me if I want to make the pages in my blog. Its not hard to do actually. Just create a post, put the oldest date for it and you're done. If you want an example see my blog. www.sirAdib.com.

After doing my best to simplify my blog look, I definitely don't plan on moving to Wordpress. Sure Wordpress might have sleek templates, static pages, password protected posts, but if you use classical templates, there are ways into tweaking the blog to suit your needs.

Great post and keep thinking of more reasons to leave Wordpress! >-D

The only words I know of with both double Cs and...

2009-04-12T22:03:00.000-04:00

The only words *I* know of with both double Cs and double Ms is "accommodate" and "accommodation" (and related variants!) :)

I have a friend of mine who blogs about domestic v...

2009-04-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

I have a friend of mine who blogs about domestic violence and abuse issues on wp. Her site was shut down on the basis of a court order that wp refuses to show her, and she complied with the request even though they refuse to show her this "alleged" court order, AND they have yet to turn her site back on.

She is leaving wp as well. And leaving them a nice little surprise :-)

Thanks.I am feeling the peer pressure to go to Wor...

2009-03-24T19:55:00.000-04:00

Thanks.

I am feeling the peer pressure to go to Wordpressure, but ....

Thanks for this very useful post, Mr Daniel.I am c...

2009-03-22T05:13:00.000-04:00

Thanks for this very useful post, Mr Daniel.
I am currently a Wordpress.com user. So far I have no real problem on WP, but as time goes by, some little stuff starting to tickle me. Lack of customization and mobile blogging are two top stuff that disappoint me from Wordpress.com. I were thinking to switch to Blogger, and then I came through this post.
Thanks for sharing what your thought about this 2 blogging platform. ^^

Alex Rodriguez,the playerwow goldwho would restore...

2009-02-16T19:17:00.000-05:00

Alex Rodriguez,the playerwow goldwho would restore integrity to baseball's homewow goldrunre cord,admittedwow goldMonday towow goldusing performance-enhancingwow gold wow golddrugs himself.

Alex Rodriguez,the playerwow goldwho would restore...

2009-02-15T19:24:00.000-05:00

Alex Rodriguez,the playerwow goldwho would restore integrity to baseball's homewow goldrunre cord,admittedwow goldMonday towow goldusing performance-enhancingwow gold wow golddrugs himself.

Hey all, I just wanted to add my two cents.. I sta...

2009-02-12T16:52:00.000-05:00

Hey all, I just wanted to add my two cents.. I started blogging in Dec 08 - since then i've done a few. Now the beauty of it for me is that their is no cost. And as far as I am able to tell, very little restriction. I've tried to make each of my blogs look different than the last:
http://reptipost.blogspot.com/
http://catch-a-toad.blogspot.com/
http://crashtestblogdummy.blogspot.com/

Etc..and as far as I can tell, this is just impossible with WP. If you really want to learn a little code, and you want to add some functionality that YOU can control, I would suggest Blogger. But then so many sites recommend WP - (funnily enough they then offer to sell you a template for it too). That for someone new - it's all a bit of a headache. Me, I'm gonna stick with what I'm doing - okay, it's going nowhere - but i've got nowhere to go... peace-
Crash

welcome to the wow gold, cheap WoW Power Leveling,...

2009-02-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

welcome to the wow gold, cheap WoW Power Leveling, service site,wotlk gold buy cheap wow gold,wow gold,world of warcraft power leveling buy wow gold

your article was really helpful! i was contemplati...

2009-01-06T03:52:00.000-05:00

your article was really helpful! i was contemplating shifting my blog to wordpress but one look at this and im sticking to blogspot! its so simple and straightforward which makes it perfect for beginners like me.

LOL... thanks for listing out all the reasons for ...

2009-01-01T14:51:00.000-05:00

LOL... thanks for listing out all the reasons for leaving wordpress so that i can save some of my time writing the exact same thing

Problems with video embeds from anything other tha...

2008-12-12T07:49:00.000-05:00

Problems with video embeds from anything other than YouTube is also a problem and a high level irritant.

ネットショップ構築

2008-12-11T04:09:00.000-05:00

ネットショップ構築

I'm a blog-o-holic and proud of it! :-P

2008-12-08T20:52:00.000-05:00

I'm a blog-o-holic and proud of it! :-P

[url=http://www.vipwarhammergold.com/][b]warhammer...

2008-12-06T12:34:00.000-05:00

[url=http://www.vipwarhammergold.com/][b]warhammer gold[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.vipwarhammergold.com/news/news.html][b]buy warhammer gold[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.bestwarhammer.com/][b]warhammer gold[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.bestwarhammer.com/news/news.html][b]buy warhammer gold[/b][/url]

Very nice post. I too had some of the same problem...

2008-12-03T21:11:00.000-05:00

Very nice post. I too had some of the same problems you had when I was looking for a place to blog after Y350 announced it was closing.
In fact I was the object of attack in the WP.Com forums when I first started there: I would ask innocent questions and get insulted and beat up about it and still have no answer.

But unlike you I stayed with Worpress.com since I found it far easier to blog with after trying Blogger first and having trouble getting it to look the way I wanted it. I avoid the forums and try to solve my problems on my own in most cases or eventually someone else will have the same problem I have and they will get an answer that I can use.

Eventually I think I will move my blog to my own domain -- starting a whole new learning curve. Hopefully it will be easier next time around.;-)

great post! I hate Wordpress.com with a passion to...

2008-11-28T18:18:00.000-05:00

great post! I hate Wordpress.com with a passion too. Unfortunately, I have written quite a lot there and i cannot move the posts to Blogger 'cos Blogger just won't import wordpress xml file. GRR. have you found a way to solve this problem?

Fantastic! Can't wait to check it out.Before I sp...

2008-11-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

Fantastic! Can't wait to check it out.
Before I spread the words about it, got to try.
But thanks for your great post...very entertaining!

Smithereens: Productivity, Persuasion and Prose

thank you

Great

Great article, Daniel. You make excellent points. ...

That said, neither is perfect but I just felt when...

Unless all I have are "soundbite" level articles, ...

Oddly enough, Rogers is now s facing a simular pro...

I was trying to decide whether to use wp or blogge...

One thing I truly love about blogger is the option...

The only words *I* know of with both double Cs and...

I have a friend of mine who blogs about domestic v...

Thanks.I am feeling the peer pressure to go to Wor...

Thanks for this very useful post, Mr Daniel.I am c...

Alex Rodriguez,the playerwow goldwho would restore...

Alex Rodriguez,the playerwow goldwho would restore...

Hey all, I just wanted to add my two cents.. I sta...

welcome to the wow gold, cheap WoW Power Leveling,...

your article was really helpful! i was contemplati...

LOL... thanks for listing out all the reasons for ...

Problems with video embeds from anything other tha...

ネットショップ 構築

I'm a blog-o-holic and proud of it! :-P

[url=http://www.vipwarhammergold.com/][b]warhammer...

Very nice post. I too had some of the same problem...

great post! I hate Wordpress.com with a passion to...

Fantastic! Can't wait to check it out.Before I sp...

The only words I know of with both double Cs and...

ネットショップ構築