March 13, 2010

Video: “Melbourne” The Musical

A well known online figure named Mitch Moffit (who ironically I had never heard of) came to Melbourne, Australia and produced this mini “musical” video. He was supported by Tourism Victoria and it is being promoted as “user generated content”. From a discussion I heard this week on our local public radio, the clip hasn’t been received well by Australians. That doesn’t really matter though as the target market wasn’t Australians. Tourism Victoria said the video was aimed at young Americans and/or Canadians and they’re hoping the video will go viral.

So tell me “young” American and Canadian readers; does this video make you want to see the city I live in?

Update: Oh, and like Joanna, let me know what you think even if you’re not American or Canadian.

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WordPress, I’ve Come Home

WordPress LogoIn September 2009 I made a monumental leap (well, at least from my perspective!). I left the world of a WordPress self-hosted blog and opened a Posterous account to begin a “microblog.” I had various reasons for making the change in “format” (microblogging) but my reason for changing the “medium” (Posterous)  was largely due to the appeal of simplicity and ease of use.

But as of March 11th 2010, I’ve come home to WordPress.

But why?

Here are six reasons: I missed comments, I missed the Thesis Theme, I missed being able to use plugins, I missed having control over my posts, I missed having good SEO, and all that I did at Posterous I can do at WordPress. Let me explain.

1. I missed comments

Comments are key to building a community amongst a blog’s readership and especially between the blogger and his readership. Posterous simply lacked the features I wanted and was accustomed to in the WordPress commenting system. I couldn’t edit comments (they could only be deleted), I couldn’t moderate comments well, or make sure all the comments that needed it were responded to, etc.

WordPress, I’ve come home because of your comments!

2. I missed the Thesis Theme

Although I was happy to get away from the continual tinkering of themes as it can become a bit of an obsession, I missed the amazingly coded Thesis theme. I will, when time permits, resume using Thesis here.

Presently, I’m beginning the long process (for time restraint reasons) of developing a custom Thesis theme. I’m more than happy for any coders / designers out there to offer their services though. ;-)

Thesis has wonderful SEO options where Posterous lacked simple features like setting post descriptions, etc.

WordPress, I’ve come home because of the Thesis Theme.

3. I missed being able to use plugins

Unlike Posterous, WordPress allows you to install any number of plugins to achieve any number of purposes. The last 24-hours has only served to remind me how wonderful it is to have the ability to install plugins.

WordPress, I’ve come home because of plugins.

4. I missed having control over my posts

When using a “microblog” format there remains times you’d like to prepare a draft of a post, or maybe schedule a post to publish. This is especially true when I’ve launched a give away or prepared to post a book review. In the end, even though I thought I wouldn’t need these features when I first moved to Posterous…I did!

WordPress, I’ve come home because of the control you give me over posts.

5. I missed having good SEO

Posterous didn’t have very good SEO. It didn’t allow me to set custom “descriptions” for pages and therefore wasn’t Google or search engine friendly in my opinion. WordPress has good SEO, and with the help of the Thesis theme or a simple plugin, you can be Google friendly in no time.

WordPress, I’ve come home because of SEO.

6. All that I did at Posterous I can do at WordPress

I didn’t use the Posterous “email”  feature. When I did all the formatting would break and I’d have to go in and manually fix it anyway. Even if I did use that feature, WordPress allow you to “email” posts.

I did use the Posterous bookmarklet tool, and although it’s probably not as good yet, WordPress does have one called “Press This”.

WordPress, I’ve come home as Posterous didn’t offer me anything extra.

So, am I asking all you Posterous users to install a self-hosted WordPress blog? No. Posterous may very well serve your purposes perfectly. But for me, WordPress, I’ve come home!

How did I do it?

To put it as succinctly as possible:

I created a WordPress.com blog and imported my Posterous database. I then exported the database and imported it into my self-hosted WordPress blog. That was it!

Most of the old posts redirected perfectly thanks to the way WordPress is setup, but for the few difficult posts that gave a 404-error I implemented a simple “Redirect 301″ in the .htaccess file. Some of the embedded images and videos needed a little tidying up, but I’ll do that as I find the time.

While I’m waiting to launch my new theme I installed the Minimous theme. It looks just like Posterous and I hoped it would prevent any shock for my frequent visitors. It must have worked as no one seemed to notice the move back home. I’ll launch a Thesis theme when time permits.

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March 4, 2010

Parenting in Post 2.0


HT: human3rror.com

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March 2, 2010

When You Look At The State of The Internet

…you realise our world is a very different place than it was only a decade ago.

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February 26, 2010

You Been Fishing on Twitter (I Mean, "Phishing")?

…well there have been many people Phishing on Twitter lately, and sadly, many people taking the bait.

If you don’t know what I’m referring to, here are the words from the sometimes helpful Wikipedia:

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

If you’re on Twitter* or you’ve had reports that your account has been sending out SPAM direct messages, I suggest you read Ed Stetzer’s article, How to Avoid (and Apologze for) Falling for a Phishing Scam and Sending Out Spam.

* Even if you’re not on Twitter the article may be helpful as Phishing Scams target users of Internet Banking for example, and basically any online service that requires a username and password.

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February 16, 2010

Tweology (@tweology) Launched

Approximately 10 hours ago Tweology (@tweology) had its first official tweet.

“What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. (WSC.1)”

I’m thankful to all who are following so far and for all those who have re-tweeted or given shout-outs to @tweology.

For the first week I’m testing how helpful it is to repeat two of the daily tweets at differing times to help cater for those in the USA as well as my fellow Australians. If you’re in the USA it shouldn’t bother you (unless you’re on Twitter when you should be working) and if you’re an Aussie it shouldn’t bother you unless you’re awake really early in the morning.

If you’re not already you can follow @tweoloy on Twitter and/or find out more at the official website, Tweology.net. Presently a new web site and an official Tweology logo is being developed. Stay tuned!

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February 11, 2010

Preparing to Launch Tweology (@tweology)

A fellow Aussie, Andy Tan, contacted me not too long ago asking if I had any ideas for a Twitter account he had registered (@tweology). I responded with several ideas. He liked them and agreed to pass the account over to me. I’m preparing to launch @tweology next week once there are a few more followers and I’ve prepared some more content. This is the temporary description from the official Tweology website:

“Tweology is a new Twitter account that will be ‘bringing theology to Twitter.’ Daily providing a mixture of theological tweets, including theological terms defined, quotations (or tweet summaries) from Reformed theologians and Reformed confessions.”

So if you’re a tweep (that is, one who’s on Twitter) please follow @tweology and let your friends online know about it.

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February 2, 2010

I've Taken an Unplanned Break

via flickr.com

It has been quiet around here for the last few days. Although not planned, I’ve jumped out of the blogosphere (and the Twittersphere) and it’s possibly going to continue for several more days.

This unplanned break began due to a hectic schedule as I’m prepared to resume my studies for 2010 and my desire to catch up on some reading and spend some quality time with my wife and girls. We are also all heading away on a short holiday for the next week or so before the bell rings in the middle of February.

I’ll be back soon, but thought you might like to know about this short, unplanned break.

 

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December 28, 2009

The State of my "Microblog" and the Blogosphere

Since moving to this new format several months ago I’ve learned many things (some of which I may post about another time). I’ve slowly moved the sites focus and attempted to align it more centrally with what I’m thinking, doing, reading, and experiencing. I’ve not done this because I believe there is anything particularly interesting about “me” but more so to encourage transparency. I’m not using this domain to manipulate readership growth, or supplement an income, so I don’t see the need to force my writing and microblogging to a particular niche.

That said, I’m also convinced more and more each day that I am unworthy of offering comment yet alone writing full articles. There is so much God glorifying, theological rich, Bible saturated and history attested material, that I’d rather post a quote from a book and pray the Lord blesses you instead of attempting to “re-invent the wheel.”

This move has cost me readers. A lot of those readers were “dead” anyway and had only subscribed to enter give-aways. Some were not. It has brought along new readers and new commenters. You’ve had a chance to see a fuller picture of who I am. My workload has been reduced “online” and has allowed me to do more where I am needed most…”offline.” The biggest downside I’ve seen since the move is interaction on comments; my intereaction. Posterous is not the best in that area nor is it anything like WordPress was.

So that’s a quick update on the state of my “microblog” (from my perspective anyway) and now you may be interested in Trevin Wax’s thoughts on the state of the “blogosphere” in general. He has some interesting thoughts and has made some interesting observations.

I look forward to seeing what happens in 2010. As always, there are a lot of ideas ticking over inside my head.

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November 21, 2009

Google Wave Update: Theory vs. Reality

I’ve had my Google Wave account for just over six weeks now. I posted asking for your contacts so us Reformed folk could connect. Despite not wanting to feel like this about Google Wave (I had high expectations), at the moment I’m left agreeing with Steve Rubel who asked, “What problem does it solve?”

Earlier today Jason Smathers tweeted the following graphic which I think sums up Google Wave ‘in theory vs. in reality’ rather nicely.

In all honesty, I think there is potential for Google Wave and I look forward to seeing what the future brings for it. Presently though, I log-in about once a week for less than a few minutes. Don’t sweat if you don’t have an invite yet.

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