Jef Raskin dies at 61

Jef Raskin, Mac pioneer, dies at 61

No need for the nav bar

This story from eWeek covers the topic of blogs that "install programs that are widely considered to be spyware and adware onto visitors' computers".

The problem is associated with Blogger's navigation bar, optional for those who (like myself) use the Blogger tools but host our blogs outside of the Blogger network.

What I am wondering is why someone who has a blog, and uses it for commercial/business purpouses, wouldn't host it themselves - and thus eliminate the problem with the Blogger bar. And why would anyone want to display Blogger's nav bar if they didn't have to? I am sure there's a reason, but I just don't know what it might be.

I would under no circumstances recommend anyone to leave a business blog on a free hosted service, or indeed to display a navigation bar for the service. Why? There is no added value for your customers, and it doesn't help your business.

The Chron goes RSS

The San Francisco Chronicle have started offering RSS feeds. There's also the option of adding The Chron to My Yahoo!, and Firefox's Live Bookmarks. Going further than just putting up the standard XML is a good move. Hopefully this nice, albeit in no way ground breaking, thinking will one day lead to a redevelopment of the Chronicle's site. I find it interesting that a news paper covering the tech industry and Silicon Valley is stuck with a very late-nineties online property.

Snow

It snowed in London today. Just 15 minutes before I took this picture it was warm and sunny. I guess spring might not be here after all :)

Click it.

Justin Hall

San Francisco Chronicle (article) writes about how Justin Hall has stopped blogging after 11 years. I rememeber back in the boom days, it might have been 1996 or 1997, when Justin was one of the guest speakers at SIME - Scandinavian Interactive Media Event - in Stockholm.

My employer at the time, Spray (later Razorfish), was hosting and a whole range of digital luminaries (and their hanger-on's) met for two days of seminars and parties.

Justin was one of the speakers, talking about having an online diary, and why he didn't mind being completely open and honest about the ups and downs in life. I remember being surprised about his stamina, this guy was constantly updating his blog (then an unknown word). If I'm not misstaken, Justin might have started experiencing some problems with his wrists (CTS) from all the typing. This made me wonder why writing was so important to him, what was driving him.

And I guess now I wonder what made him stop.

Maybe the answer's are in his posts. Maybe not. I'm not sure that the movie Justin posted on his site provided any answers. Maybe it did. Either way, I hope he is happy, whatever he gets involved in next. One thing is certain, to write about your life for 11 years is a remarkable achievement.

Online Project Management

A friend in Sweden contacted me last week regarding online project management and client collaboration tools. One of the it/tech magazines, Internetworld Sweden, he gets at his company had published a guide to five of them, and he wanted my opinon on them.

The tools on test were:

• Basecamp HQ
• Projektplatsen
• Projektrum.net
• Projectsense.se
• Timelog.com

At Orvet Digital we use Basecamp HQ, a brilliant tool by the people at 37 Signals. We're a very small organisation, but with a large network of contractors and partners: developers, designers, project managers, engineers, etc.

With BCHQ we can provide them, and our clients, with all the relevant, up-to-date, info that's needed to move projects forward, and at the same time not get bogged down in micro managing each project. That is after all what the great people in our network are doing. In my mind, it is in scenarios like ours that BCHQ really shines.

For people who want more detailed control over their projects, a solid service like Projektplatsen is the one to go for.

Google Maps

Improvements to our everyday online services are coming thick and fast at the moment. Last week saw the launch of A9's brilliant Yellow Pages. Now Google brings us Google Maps with click and drag navigation.

There are two good reasons to choose Google Maps over other, similar, offerings:

- Dragging is faster than the standard click-to-reposition.
- Paid advertisers are indicated by small, red, inverted clickable drop-shaped icons, instead of by logos. (Clicking on one brings up a window with advertiser info, and links to info on how to get to/from their location.)

It's a good, fast, simple solution.

The butler did it

Updated February 8, 2005
CNET News has a good roundup of the basics facts on the Ask Jeeves and Bloglines deal.

"Ask Jeeves plans to build a specialized blog search engine and fold the service into its various properties, including personalization product MyJeeves and the portal Excite.com..."

Bloglines CEO Mark Fletcher writes about the "askquisition"

My February 6, 2005 post

How will Bloglines handle it?

If the rumours about Ask Jeeves acquiring Bloglines are true, it will be interesting to see how Mark Fletcher and Bloglines handle the response from its users. Fletcher is a very acomplished entrepreneur with a good track record, both on the business side of things, and seeing his creations happily living on (eGroups) under the care of their new owners.

The reason I am wondering is not because of the weekend rumblings from hard core Bloglines users. It is because of the way MSN's Mike Torres handled the feedback after the company launched Spaces in early december. I've many times mentioned that as one of the best examples of employee blogging that I have come across.

Granted, Bloglines' situation is different from that of Spaces, and Torres' (Program Manager) and Fletcher's (CEO) roles within their companies are very different. But they both had, and have, an opportunity to keep both the industry and their users comfortably informed.

For Ask Jeeves, this is a double golden opportunity. They could potentially get a very large, passionate group of people (the Blogline users and the Blogosphere in general) on their side. Secondly, this will elevate Ask in to a new league when it comes to the interest of the industry.

Fletcher's blog wingedpig.com
Ask Jeeves' blog

Ask Bloglines?

Tomorrow (Monday) might be interesting. Plenty of rumours and indications that the butler did it, i.e. that Ask Jeeves has acquired Bloglines (Mary Hodder's post is the best read). It would be a major victory for the Emeryville company that depsite being inventine, doesn't seem to be able to catch up to Yahoo!, Google et al.

It will be interesting to see how Bloglines is integrated in to Ask.com and what Bloglines users will make of it. Jeeve's brand new blog will no doubt provide some answers over the next few days, as will Blogline CEO Mark Fletcher's wingedpig.com

Radio Crisis

If like me you were a fan of CNET Radio 910AM back in the day, you've probably missed hearing from Desmond Crisis. It's been a while, but he's back on the air, this time with Inside Mac Radio. DC joined as VP of development and, luckily, as a correspondent on February 1.

Going, going...

It's nice to be reminded that I'm not the only one collecting Net "documents and publications" and other IT memorabilia. Maybe one day my collection of old AOL discs, Mac manuals, the complete collection of .net magazine (including the pilot issue) and miscellaneous installer floppys will fetch a pretty penny at Christie's. Or maybe not. Either way, I like my collection and luckily my wife understands my passion for these types of things. Now, where did I put that 1994 HyperCard floppy...?

A piece of Net history on the auction block