The Evolution of The Blogger
via reflectionof.me
For the full res version: http://socialmediagraphics.posterous.com/the-evolution-of-the-blogger
Chartered Accountant, Technophile, IT consultant, web 2.0 enthusiast, Mobile technology fan, Travels to drive,
Loves Life and lives every moment...
We know what we are, but know not what we may be...
For the full res version: http://socialmediagraphics.posterous.com/the-evolution-of-the-blogger
I don't know why I am trying out Q10. But I always wanted to write without distraction. And probably Q10 is the best app out there which can do this. Just me and the text on black screen. Nothing else.
Q10 is free. And sadly is only available for windows. But if I wanted to write something, and not be distracted by IMs, tweets, popups, or anything else on the computer's screen.
Very impressive, very minimal. In fact, it brings the mac feel to a windows program. It just does one thing, and it does that well. This is a must have for any writer. As far as minimal notebook applications go, Simplenote is one application which is minimal and yet supports syncing between devices. As a longtime evernote user, simplenote was too minimal for all my online text and images. Now Q10 does not include any sync mechanism to sync notes online to use with other devices. Q10 enables sound by default, and the sound mimics the typewriter; very satisfying indeed, especially if you have used a typewriter before. I learnt how to type on an old Remington (I didn't exactly learn, it was more of fooling around with it)
A workaround
Dropbox ensures that every file created is synced online across all my devices. Creating a folder for all my Q10 files ensured that my files would be accessible from anywhere. pure portability. Now all I have to do, is to attach them and email them across to my evernote mail address or my posterous blog. That makes blogging all the more easy.
» This post was written in Q10.
Download Q10.
Decided that wordmobi was taking too much space on the paltry space I had on my N97's C drive. It turned out symbianguru was also in search of a blogging solution. I turned to the default Nokia browser and the wordpress backend which wasn’t too much to write about. It barely does the job and is almost next to being completely unusable.
I tried out wordpress on both the opera mini and the mobile and both of them wouldn't let me type a single word.
Frustrated, I looked for help on Google and after a few stray results I got a wordpress plugin for the Iphone named the mobile admin, which unfortunately was unsupported with WP 2.5 and above.More searching around got me the Wphone plugin which allowed me to type the content until this point.
But it wouldn't support images or links. And my search continued. Searching on google got me to this blog post on mobile applications I tried out a few java apps until I came across Wavelog from telewaving. Now wavelog had a really confusing interface and it wasn't freeware. I downloaded the 30 day trial and got it to work with a little help from their help files.
The app works well on my symbian v5 device and supports v3 as well. I decided to go ahead and spend the $8.25 on the full version. Now thats the longest post I've made from my mobile phone. Now all I need are a few screenshots and this post is done. I think the search for a good mobile blogging solution is far from being complete. But then I don't have an Iphone. Because we chose to be different.
I got myself a new ASUS EEE PC Seashell netbook last week and have been busy setting it up, customizing it and getting software. Considering that a netbook is meant to run more as an secondary system rather than your only laptop, netbooks are not usually as powerful as laptop (why is why they're called netbooks, duh..)
Even though they're called netbooks , its not exactly possible to ensure that they're always connected to the internet. What if the friendly neighborhood cafe did not have free wifi? And Netbooks without the power of the net are well, just books. Or so we have been lead to believe. Until the making this list that is. My list of perfect software had to make sure it fulfilled two primary needs. Firstly, to be able to run on a machine with limited processing abilities. Secondly, the capability to be used even when you did not have internet access.
Browser: Chrome
Chrome had to be the browser of choice. Light, fast and easy to load. I still am a fan of firefox on my laptop but for my netbook I chose the ultra light chrome with the power of Google Gears. That makes sure I can read my feeds offline, my mail offline, my blog and loads of other Gears compatible stuff offline.
Edited on July 17, 2009: Firefox takes over my netbook. Its impossible not to use firefox especially considering that the internet is the center of your netbook. Plus the font rendering on firefox is much more adaptable to netbooks, which means its much more comfortable to browse the web.
Mail: Thunderbird
I couldn't find a better mail client than this so I had to surrender to the power of Mozilla. Handles multiple inboxes, junk/spam protection, easy to use. Just like all other good Mozilla products you get the power to use extensions just make sure that you are making an application heavier on a netbook. I just have the minimize to tray extension installed.
Chat: Pidgin
This open source chat agent had to take the cake when it came to chat. Lets me run multiple IM services, light and powerful. Though originally designed to run on linux, Pidgin is now available for windows as well. Pidgin is functional, has an interface that's the least distracting and comes with a multitude of options to customize it. I use gtalk considering that its the lightest around, considering I do not need multiple IM support.
Office applications: Microsoft Works
I still am using the Microsoft works, but this section might update once I install the Open office. Still considering this section, so do leave your choices in the comments section.
Blogging: Blogdesk
For the first time, I've considered the use of an offline blogging tool and after trying quite a few of them, I've decided that Blogdesk, albeit its limitations is the winner. Blogdesk has support for most common blogging platforms. I would have recommended the use of Scribefire extension if I were using firefox, but since this is a list, Blogdesk is a blogging tool with a functional interface, but lets you write blogs offline, save them and post them later.
Antivirus: AVG
This is really easy. You would want to keep the resource usage to a minimum and still ensure protection. Stick to AVG . Does a good job and is light on the processor as well.
Desktop enhancements: Launchy
Well, just because its a netbook doesn't mean you shouldn't dress up your desktop. How about a OSX styled dock? Rocketdock is only of the fastest and lightest docks out there. I would recommend using Launchy , the keyboard based program launcher especially since it works wonders when the super fast chrome is your default browser.
Scribefire's blogging extension for firefox was featured on thunderror.com a while ago.
I always had the press this bookmarklet on my bookmarks list, but had never bothered to use it until now. But I soon came to realize what a valuable tool it was. Instead of sending those weird bits and pieces of the internet to your tumblelog or your twitter, why not blog about them on your primary blog? Twitter as always has been a major distraction to my blogging activities. So get back to microblogging on your own blog. Thanks to Press this!The bookmarklet allows you to post to your wordpress blog from anywhere on the web, which is as good as scribefire. All it takes is a click off the button. Like something you see on the web? Click on the bookmarklet and share it with your blog visitors.I know most of you would already have used this tool if you own, or have owned a WP blog at some point of time. But this post is for all those people who wish to come back and blog more than they tweet!If you have a wordpress blog, go to your tools page and you should find your press this button right there, waiting for you!
Posted from a mobile phone: This post is to commemorate the success of mobile royale, the completely mobile maintained blog. I came across his blog through one of my google reader entries. You can read his account here. All the more appreciable is his effort considering that it is hosted on a free domain name and attempts to keep it alive inspite of the tough times. My passion for mobile tech has ensured that I read most blogs relevant to the subject..Is it possible to completely eliminate the use of computers? After all, what you have in your pocket is not one thing. It is manthis post comes from my mobile phone as well. from my trusty e66. I use the Wordpress mobile plugin to make blogposts from my mobile phone. The plugin barely does its job if you ask me. It is good enough to provide a mobile interface for your blog but not for making blog entries from your mobile phone. Which is why, I had to complete this blog post from my PC, since the plugin kept moving the cursor around and didn't even let me complete the blog post. Yeah! I said trusty e66 and a not so trustworthy plugin. Try out ready.mobi to check whether your blog is truly mobile web ready!
I have been using twitter fox for a long time now..for the uninitiated, twitterfox is a firefox extension for twitter. But, firefox was acting all weirdly in the morning and I had to close it down for sometime. I downloaded twhirl, the desktop client for twitter meanwhile. Adobe AIR based Twhirl has one of the best interfaces out there and really makes me want to use it just for that...This got me thinking, why plurk which was more closer to chat did not have a desktop client and there I was searching for a client for plurk and I found 3. Both the applications require Adobe AIR which can be found here. Plurkair
Goodness Gracious I just noticed I have not updated this since the 21st... You would not believe I spend all my time in front of a computer. Seriously!. I am distracted with work, personal projects, just generally being a companion to my partner, my day is full to overflowing from lunchtime to midnight. I am not complaining though. life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. I go, my lords and ladies; just I will make more of an effort to blog more often. Truly! I mean it!.That was an automated post generated by the lazy bloggers post generator. This post is dedicated to all my friends who tell me they have no time to make a blog post and haven't cleaned up the dust and cobwebs on their blogs. Go to the site and create your own automatic lazy blog in less than 5 minutes. No typing required. Guaranteed. On a serious note, if you wrote a post on your own, it would take lesser time. But once in a while, it does a neat job...
I wanted to review Plurk when I started using it..but never got around to writing this post...Plurk basically took the idea of using status msgs/microblogging to the next level by a little bit of social networking features as well. Plurk allows its users to update their current status using 140 characters (just like twitter does) But, their similarities end there..Plurk uses a concept of a visible timeline (all your posts are chronologically arranged on an animated timeline) This is in contrast with twitter's way of presenting your (and your friends') posts in a fashion similar to an RSS feed. A follower is someone who is informed of every update of yours and a friend is a follower whom you follow as well. The most talked about feature of plurk is the karma feature which tracks the level of your interactivity and assigns a number to it. Higher karma allows you to unlock more smileys, more interface changes etc. Karma could very well encourage people to interact more, but would also make them very well spam to increase karma. Plurk is soon revamping its karma system..so that should be taken care of.. Another much appreciated feature is the ability to carry out entire conversations over an update. This allows users to interact more freely and responses are chronologically ordered and grouped with the original status message allowing users to follow a complete conversation from beginning to end. For the first few days I used plurk, I completely ignored twitter..but after the new shine washed away...I use it alongside twitter. Plurk unlike other web 2.0s does not share its API..However, there are many sites such as hellotxt, lifestream, ping.fm which already support integration with plurk. Join me at Plurk!
