Editing CSS for your blog...

So since we've been talking about customizing our personal blogs by changing the css for the page, Firefox has a very sweet, wicked awesome (yes, I'm from NH and wicked is a word) plug-in that you can download at their site called FireBug... what makes it cool is that it allows you to view all the source of the page you are currently viewing and you can change it and it will update the look of the site on the fly which saves you a lot of copy and pasting as well as time.

Enjoy,
- Jake

Assignments for 02/05/07

• Modify blog template
• Post, post, post!
• Subscribe to an audio podcast for next class

Robots battle!

IMG_2162.JPG
Originally uploaded by ravijain.

It was a true childhood dream come true to see... Robots Battle!

Reluctantly and with much bitterness, I’ve surrendered my blogging virginity. My presence has now been earmarked in some lonely, dark corner of the web for all the world to ignore. All cynicism aside, I would like to explore the dynamics of this blogging phenomenon by poking at the bee’s nest, so to speak. I’ve created my mighty anti-blog as a tool for wreaking havoc on the blogosphere, which I will attempt to dominate with an iron fist of disparagement, until I realize that nobody cares, at which point I will crawl back to my typewriter and spend the rest of my days pecking out copy for a no-budget local news broadcast on public access cable in Wapakoneta, Ohio.

I think I've died a little inside.

Mobile Web 2.0 Hitlist

Hello everyone out there in our little blog-o-sphere! I ran into some really cool sites that showcase web 2.0 and even some gossip into web 3.0. I ran into these sites:

Web 2.0 Audio Feeds These feeds are related to AJAX technology which is quickly becoming a standard in web 2.0 applications. The next site speaks for itself: Web 2.0 Workgroup This site is a virtual link to everything that is web 2.0 and more. I found this to be a real awesome site for useful "non-crap" information on what type of technology is popping up around our sweet little earth.

Last but not least comes the link to the ever popular google mobile. Everything you want to know about Google and More! - As the link says, and so I say, this link will tell you everything that is going on around mobile web and Google's new applications that help you get there.

Well I am out for now. See everyone bright and early.

-Scott

Link to a great blurb about Bloging and Social Networking

Social Media Too Sweet For Websites This is a real great article about why everything media related ends up in Digg or Reddit. I just wanted to share this with everyone. Thought it might be some good food for thought. Plus, if anyone wants this is a great blog in general for web updates on everything from apple to "web rumors" to live video blogs from conferences. Well that is all for now. I am trying to find more substantial blogs to get excited about.

-Scott

I've arrived

Hey yall. I bit the bullet and resigned up with for an Old Blogger account. After a little googling it seems if you're already a new blogger member you can't join an old blogger blog. At least I can blog with Flock, which doesn't have new blogger support yet, so that will make it less confusing then switching between two blogger names.

Something else I found out while poking at blogger was that they offer a mobile blog service. I'm not sure how this would be different then simply emailing in posts via SMS but I imagine it has built in support for image tags MMS'd right from your mobile phone. I already do this with flickr, and it's cool here too, but why does it have to create a separate blog for all that? I'd most likely just write a script into my current page that automatically blogs my flickr stream via RSS feed. but anywayyyyy...

My Blogger status culminates in the Mofo Radio page. I use this to provide supplemental info to my weekly radio show on wzbc (since I don't talk on air a lot). Some mp3's, videos, extra research on old crusty records and the like.

I'm also keeping a personal wordpress page for my "experiential" co-op. There I'm required to keep track of my co-op goings on, this class included, so I think I'll use that for future homework references etc. I'm hiding the link because I do not want this google searchable! I vent my frustrations about clients and projects I'm working on and wouldn't want the wrong people to stumble upon it. Not that I say anything nasty but If they found it I might have some splaining to do so keep that one under wraps.

Glad everyone likes flock. I'm going to start sharing my favorites with my completely underused delicious account. Perhaps then if you are on flock on another computer you can set it to retrieve them? You can always just go to your delicious in any case.

Interesting law suite on the Second Life hatred. True anything that addicting can be evil, but recognize the positives. Where else can I visit a 3D model of the ancient pyramids or attend a lecture in Belgium from home? Not saying I do any of that yet, but I will, someday.

On my todo list: share favorites in flock. syndicate Mofo with Digg etc. customize wordpress. buy domain for secret project.

I've switched!

Hey class. I've made my blog about my musical moniker Katomusic seeing that my website will never get done. I'm gonna give updates about releases, my life, and my thoughts (seeing that's what blogs are for). Also by accident I have switched to the new blogger. Gotta be honest, I really can't tell what the difference is. All I know is my spellcheck stopped working in the new version, hmm. Anywaysss here's the link to my blog: KATOMUSIC!!

Also using my google customized desktop today I realized they released some really cool upgrades. Each link for each RSS feed can now be expanded showing a blurb from the article as well as pictures. It's nice for Digg and Reddit stories (or any article for that matter) with bland names and is just nice that I no longer need to steer away from the homepage if I don't need to.

Also Flock is F'ing nice. Great for blogging and great for RSS. I can't say the news section is going to replace my google desktop, but it is tempting... I would like them to update the engine to the Firefox 2.0 one, but 1.5.0.9 still works flawlessly. It's just me being osd about having the most recent version.

In other news, my web 2.0 company has began lawsuits against www.getafirstlife.com. Apparentlly they don't want there users switching over or competing with the other lives they lead.

That is all!

Homework Assignment

This is the homework assignment for next week's class on January 29, 2007.

• Make a personal blog
• Post on personal blog and on the class blog about your new blog
• Subscribe to three different blogs (consider bloglines or Flock or in-browser options)
• Make sure one blog has audio, so you can start thinking about audio
• Dig around in the template CSS to customize your own blog; blog about that!
  

01/22/07 -- *live* notes

thoughts on Steven Johnson:

Scott:
"...pure crap"
strategies: social bookmarking, Digg
Hard to filter:
Pros and Cons: What if your stuff is deemed "not good enough"

Ryan:
in old days there was filtering -- knowledge required to post

Scott:
All about links.

Jake:
Facebook.

Scott:
WebPro News.

Mike:
Job posting.

Scott:
Random path. Going through connections of blogs -- leaving comments. Yahoo -- in the beginning, "dead ends."

Jake:
outside.in -- "bland", more pictures

Ryan:
Subscribe to feed.

Smart Phones
Ryan: Download 3gp videos.

[break]

Ryan: Shiftspace
Jake: GroupHug
Ryan: Flock

Jake is FLICKR

I chose flickr... so no one else touch it

Billy's Choice: Second Life

I will be exploring the vast Second Life. I'm going to load this up on my iBook and see how addicting it really is.

mike's researching last.fm

I'm going to explore last.fm for Monday.

-Mike

Scott Haines Makes Claim

Good Morning everyone,
I guess no one has gone ahead and made any sort of claim to the topics yet, so I will choose first...haha! I am going to take a stab at Technorati. I have never even heard of this so I find that it might be exciting to see what it is all about. See you guys in a week.

-Scott

First Post

This is the blog for the Special Topics: Creating for Convergence 2.0 class at Northeastern University.