Blogging from the Sky after NASCAR's 2010 Ford Championship Weekend

So I've been in Miami this past weekend. It was my annual pilgramage down to Homestead for NASCAR's Ford Championship Weekend. This year was a good one. Kyle won back to back in the Trucks and the Nationwide Series, and I finally got to see Carl's victory flip in person, while Jimmie gained enough ground, finished section and clinched a record 5 straight national championships. Downside... was for Kyle... I would of like to see him win the sweep this weekend. I really don't like Kyle, but he can drive... so much to the point he didn't want to get out of his car while flame were pouring out the back (he did, but only after completing another half lap.

So typically I wouldn't blog about this weekend, but how can I now... Google is providing me with free in the air wifi, that plus it was a historic weekend. I've been to every one of Jimmie's crowning ceromonies now. I've been to every NASCAR race since 98 at Homestead, starting back when it was only the Trucks. I did miss the first Penzoil 400, but only 1... been to every race since.

But back to the inflight WiFi... really I'm not sure why we have it... you'd think we could stay disconnected for a few hours aboard an airplane... but what the heck. Its here, and its free. might as well use it. Speed... pretty impressive considering I'm how far up....high enough. Via "http://whatismyipaddress.com/speed-test" it doesn't look like there is enough speed, but there is plenty for blogging and email, with a bit of Google reader going. I'm impressed... I don't think I'll ever pay for Wifi in the air...well maybe on an international flight I'd consider it, but... its FREE till Jan 2... check Google for more details.

From FordChampionshipWeekend 2010

update: upload speeds not so good.... trying to upload slideshow via Picasa for this post and its taking forever... flight now about to land and will have to shutdown... I'll finish upload later.

update2: upload complete on second flight... speeds are much faster if you get on early ... as more users connect speeds definitely decrease.

Attempt to move to WP thwarted again

Well I was just considering moving to WP again from Blogger... why.... well a post I imported to WP a long while back has received more comments than any of my Blogger posts so I figure more people are looking there....


anyways... well importing all my post worked fine (my new posts, plus I was going to use a new domain name) but I noticed that all my embedded media posts were no longer embedded.... okay so I know it will work, but I don't have time to hack with it... so once again, Blogger, I'm sticking around.  But for those who are following this blog of random thought.... it may later move to a new URL (still with Blogger, but for more unification between my Twitter,FriendFeed,Delicious names/urls) So in the near future, this blog may move to ckcin.blogspot.com

First Post of the Year.... and why read this blog?!

Well I remember a suggestion that my friend Ben gave while back that any blog should have an 'About This Blog' post... well I did that here. But that post only briefly discussed what you'd find in this blog... and honestly this one will barely touch that topic too.

So why read this blog.... basically why should you read any blog? I know for me I choose to follow blogs for 2 main reasons: 1 they are my friends and I want to keep up to date with what they are up to, and 2, they are written by people that publish interesting stuff that I want to know more about. So why should you read this blog, either A) you are a friend of mine, or B) you find the information I post 'interesting'.

So why is my blog 'interesting'? Well like most things, beauty is in the eye of the beholder... as is I'm assuming information that we as individuals find interesting. So what kind of information will you find here... well occasionally you'll find my rants about whats going on in my life, or rants about things I see interesting around me, but mostly you'll find posts and write-ups about technical stuff I deal with in my line of work, and if you read the 'about me post' linked above... you'll know that my line of work is that of an Information Specialist with the Hurricane Research Division developing software for collecting hurricane data, processing it, and analyzing it... as well as other tropical cyclone related work.... so this means that on occasion you'll find developer related information, weather related information and you'll find random system administration information, typically Linux related.

Also I'm really into gadgets.... so you occasionally will see posts about that subject... I currently am the owner of a HTC G1 on T-Mobile so you'll definitely see posts about it, and if you check the archive of this blog, you'll find information about my old Palm-based Treos. And as time goes by what ever new gadgets I acquire. Possible gadgets on the list for the coming year... a Tom-Tom GPS, Nintendo Wii, and/or Roku Netflix box.

Other updates which we can expect future posts about... during the last few weeks of 2008 I lost a server at work (crashed and to old to repair) so we are replacing it... I'm getting a brand new Dell server that will utilize virtuallization. So expect in the next month or so to start seeing updates as to the setup and progress of that. Also my personal desktop died this past weekend so you will definitely be seeing updates as to what I replace it with... I may actually replace it for the first time with a factory box and not a home built PC.

Also we are getting FiOS.... well we are suppose to be getting FiOS.... but the service acquisition process has been interesting ... assuming we get it finally installed on Friday, you'll see a post about it, and if not.... well there definitely will be a post with presumingly a copy of a letter to Verizon.

So this is what you can expect atleast for the first part of the year.... as for the whole year... I don't ever know that.. and if you want to see my daily going ons.... follow me on Twitter @ckcin or on FriendFeed @ckcin. Also for information on what I'm reading online... check out my Diggs, my Ma.gnolia links, and my Google Reader shares.

PS: check out PalmAddict for my posts about the G1, I try to remember to repost them here on this blog, but I sometimes forget.

2nd day with my G1, first problem

To let you all know, I've been writing for a blog called PalmAddicts for some time now. PalmAddicts started as a blog about Palm's but has grown to discuss almost any device that fits in your Palm. So since I received my G1 I simply felt like the community was the place to post my thoughts. Here is the link to my latest post:PalmAddicts: 2nd day with my G1, first problem

I'll be posting first to PalmAddicts on my G1 and I'll try to remember to post links to them here on this blog. If I can figure out a way to type the posts once and send them to everywhere I will... actually I think that there is a package for that... Spin something...ooh off to Google to search.

test post ignore

as with all test posts... this content should be ignored too!

Google Reader vs Bloglines

Well now that I've been using Google Reader for a decent amount of time, which has included many hours on my Treo 650, and even a trip out of town, I find myself really liking it, and much more than Bloglines of late. Mostly I'm sure that I'm liking it since it is 'new' but since it is newer than Bloglines, it has included many features that lets face it, Bloglines is missing, okay maybe it is not missing, but I sure haven't found them useful.... then again, now that I'm also a big fan of Tumblr and FriendFeed, Google Reader fits in a little better (but again I'm sure that I could figure out the same tricks with Bloglines)... Well I guess I should list the a few of the features that I'm finding GR to be better than BL:

• Sharing: well hmm.... BL has its built in blog and clips, but with GR... it is simply easier... plus the easy intergration with FF just makes it even easier to share.
• Saving for later: well, actually I think BL has this one done better with the beta version. The pinning feature in BL is great, plus articles that have been pinned are always in view with the other articles. GR has its 'Starred' items which I've been using in basically the same manner as 'pinning' but since they are not always in view, well I have to remember to go look at them, but at the same time, the 'starred' tools is a great way to separate articles for later review...
  
• Mobile: Well both the beta of BL and GR have great mobile versions. but I don't know, there is something about the mobile version of GR that is seems more intuitive. Now mind you, I'm on an 'ancient' smart phone (the Treo 650), so if a mobile app works, I'm happy, so first off, I'm just happy that they both work.
  

Now the only aspect that is still up for debate in my mind is the 'order' in which articles are displayed. For a long time I was a fan of the display one feed at a time and in the order I selected (aka the BL method), but now that my list of feeds is well over 100, I'm starting to see the benefit of pure chronological order. I never realized how much 'duplicate' content was out there, but it is nice to be able to read one writers view followed immediately by another's, and in some cases it helps to able to skip articles that you don't need to read multiple times (things like press releases and new products...). Anyways for now I'll be sticking with GR... (I think I posted way back when GR first came out that I didn't like it, but now...)

One last think... FriendFeed... many have mentioned that it could be the end of Google Reader for them... I don't know, but I will say this... I'm no longer tracking many peoples blogs and other feeds now that I'm following them on FF. So in a way, I kind of like the fact that I can separate some things betweem FF and GR (okay I really don't do that, I actually am subscribed to my FF feed in GR)

Tracking/Reading/Watching/Posting....

Well first off this post is spurred on by my observations of the blogosphere at FriendFeed. First off friend feed is great, I don't remember if it was a Jeremy Zawodny post or a Steven Rubel post that first tipped me off to FF or what, but whatever I started using it and since at the time I was looking for the best way to aggregate all my various web personas into a single feed/source, well it fit the bill. Anyways... as I always do on this blog, I'm digressing from my purpose of posting....

Lately on FriendFeed and since Twitter has been going up and down... not a day goes by when something comes across my eyes discussing how FF will be the end of Twitter or end of this or that... or how basically one 'micro-blogging' site/engine will be the end of another.... Anyways... at the same time I've also just recently started using Google Reader (I've been with Bloglines ever since I can remember, but lately it has gotten 'stale', I've flipped back and forth between both the basic version and the beta version... both are good, but they simply have not kept up with my 'requirements' which aren't much), and while discussing Bloglines/Google reader may seem like another digression, its not... what I want to bring up in this post, is that everything has its purpose..... Twitter, blogging, readers, FriendFeed, SocialThing, social networks sites, and even bookmark sharing tools and photo sharing tools, they all have their nitch and do solve a need.

Twitter: started as a 'status' microblog for many of us. Many of us sync our facebook, plaxo, and other statuses using Twitter. Lately many of use have started using it for posting and sharing links and news or short quick comments about what is on our mind.
Blogging tools: whether it be Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad or any number of blogging tools, this is where we tend to post our long comments... commentary, summary of events in our lifes, and our storys.
Photo sharing: sites like Flickr or Picasa, photobucket... I know there are others... explanation needed, don't think so
Bookmarking tools: sites like Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia.com, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc., I don't know about you, but I use a number of them and each for its own reason. I use tend to use Digg for sharing 'news', Mag.nolia (and before Del.icio.us) for sharing links thatI find useful, and lately GoogleReaders 'sharred' links for stories that I don't know where else to post.
Aggregation tools: sites like FriendFeed or Tumblr or Plaxo Pulse... well here goes the meat of my post, but for this section, of the post, they are aggregation tools!!!!! (sorry those '!' should be for later)

Well let me get to the point... like I stated earlier, I keep seeing post about how FriendFeed will kill sights like Twitter or Digg and how it is replacing sites like GoogleReader... well all I can say is how and why? Yes FriendFeed provides tools like many of these sites do, and in many ways almost better in some cases, but what is and was the primary purpose of FriendFeed?, aggregation. Okay maybe I'm being closed-minded, but similar to Plaxo, I love their Contact management, but why they created Pulse... don't ask me (I do like it, I just don't directly use it, I use it much in the way I started using FriendFeed). The funnier part is that I see all these comments about how FriendFeed is going to kill x web service/app, but then I see these commenters continue to use them. Twitter still seems to be by far the latest source or information connected to FriendFeed, FriendFeed direct post themselves are still only the 4th most common, behind blogs and google reader. So killing off these others... I don't see this happening (with Twitter's down times... they might just do this themselves, but FriendFeed will not be the cause).

So anyways the way I see it... sites like Twitter, blogs, and the various types of sharing tools (bookmarks, photos, news...) are for posting and sharing. Sites like FriendFeed, Google Reader, Bloglines those are for Reading/Watching. And then since I like the service I must put in a plug, sites like SocialThing are for tracking. Now by putting FriendFeed in a category like GoogleReader, one would have to ask me, why use both... well I'm new to GoogleReader, but I'm really liking its abilty to share (so for me, it might actually kill of Digg in my book, not Ma.gnolia (but only since I like separating bookmarks I'll use again from news and stories I want to share), and while you can comment on a share in Google Reader, I don't see a way to 'discuss', and this is the area where I think FriendFeed will grow to dominate the web, Discussion. Most blogs have a comment section, Digg has its too, and some blogs use Disqus, but I've never witness actual conversation like I have on FriendFeed. So this is why I separate Reader for FriendFeed, conversation. So maybe the term discussion is not correct for FriendFeed, the proper word is 'conversation'.

Summary (again): Twitter, blogs, and sharing tools are for POSTING, Google Reader and Bloglines are for reading, SocialThing is for Tracking, and FriendFeed is for conversation, the fact that SocialThing adds aggregation to the party, simple increases the conversation. So live on everybody, and everybody, enjoy.

Nick's Random Fragmentations - moving to tumblr (at least my feed)

For those of you who are subscribing to my feed via my Feedburner publishing, then you may have noticed additional posts showing up from my various social web cloud. I've started using Tumblr to aggregate my feeds together into a single sharable feed. Blog post are still done through Blogger, Twits through Twitter, News Diggs through Digg, and a few others are also included. The main change is that now my feed includes all of them together, so no more checking my various streams... only one now. This said, if you are interested in consilidating your own feeds, check out Tumblr. If you are looking for an easy way to consolidate your friends various feeds check out FriendFeed or SocialThing. I personally use both but lately I've been leaning towards only using SocialThing... anyways, that is another post altogether.
Nick's Random Fragmentations - moving to tumblr (at least my feed)

test post from ScribeFire

Sorry for this 'fake' post, just found ScribeFire and wanted to test it.

Wordpress... tried it, and I'm back

Well I gave it a quick look... maybe another day I'll look at it again, but for now I'm sticking with Blogger. Currently there is a copy of this blog on wordpress at [http://nickc321.wordpress.com]. But for now I'm staying.

Another day I'll sit down and write why, but indeed there are many features on Wordpress that I wish were on Blogger, but there were enough other issues tat make me want to stay.

Debating Migration?

I'm debating the possibility of migrating from Blogger to TypePad or Wordpress. I'm leaning towards Wordpress since they offer an import feature, plus like Blogger, it is FREE. This all said, this has nothing to do with Blogger or its features, just I like some of the themes provided by Wordpress and some of the client applications offered for Palm OS. Well I'll ponder longer and make a decision in the next week weeks.

Feedburner feed reset

Well that didn't last long.... didn't like the results and now I'm back to the traditional feed at feedburner.... I'll have to continue looking into the best way to mash it all together.

Change of Feed Link

For a while now I've been using FriendFeed. The nice part about FriendFeed is that it allows me to aggregate all my various online entities into a simple single feed. So today I've decided to try feeding that feed as my primary RSS feed. What I am trying (which may work or may not... we will see) is create a FeedBurner feed out of my FriendFeed Lifestream and I've changed the site feed redirect link of my Blogger blog to that feed. My hope is that this way when people decide to subscribe to my blog, it will give them an entire stream of all my feeds. This said, I'm not sure if it will confuse the system when trying to track various posting and also confuse users when some content the see in their RSS feed is not traceable on my actual blog. Well I figure I'll give it a shot for the weekend, and if seems to be going nuts, well then I'll switch it back. So lets see what happens.

Watch Out FriendFeed: Socialthing! Is Even Easier to Use

There is a new social aggregator out there. Socialthing! officially goes into private beta today. It is kind of like FriendFeed or Pulse, but a bit different. It is only in beta, but it is a good start, missing a number of services but it is new so I’m assuming in time others will be added. In comparison to FriendFeed, I see FriendFeed more as a way for me to share with others and SocialThing as a way for me to keep track of others. We will have to watch and see how it evolves.

read more | digg story

Gripes about Blogger

While I don't suspect I'll ever migrate from Blogger (unless they really mess things up), I do have a few gripes. Actually these gripes are not about Blogger but about Google Authentication. For a company that promotes openness and standards, it would be nice if they worked with existing standard instead of pushing their own. I say this mostly because I'm tired of not being able to authenticate and post from services like Del.icio.us(of course I've migrated from them) and Ma.gnolia, or 'claim' my blog on Bloglines. Google is very bent on being almost like a microsoft of the web where users will have to either use only Google services or all services will have to conform to Googles standards. Well if standards already exist, Google why don't you follow them. Or at least develop the bridge so that others can seamlessly connect to you like they would others using Standards. Now that said, I do seem many services working to join the same standards as Google, but in the meantime.... Anyways... enough of my complaining.... otherwise... keep up the good work.

Mobile Posting

Ever want to post to multiple blogger blogs at once? Well if so take a look at using the mail-to-blog option in your settings. Besides being more flexible than the go@blogger.com as typically used. Besides that, on my treo, I'm limited on the size of an image I can send via MMS, but no Email. As a suggestion, send via BCC that way there is a very slim chance that the address will get viewed. Also the beauty of email-to-blog is that you can actually send the post to people who don't typically view your blog by including them in the cc or bcc line.

Anyways... just thought I'd share the tip since I just used it. I sent a post to both my blog (the one you are reading) and to the blog that Lauren and I share.
http://nickc321.blogspot.com/2008/02/working-from-hotel-zaza.html
http://laurenandnick.blogspot.com/2008/02/working-from-hotel-zaza.html

Follow me on...

Last week I posted an update to my blogger template, what I didn't mention was anything about the buttons up top. On the top you'll notice a number of links: 'photo' is my flickr page, 'music' is me on Last.FM. If you like and belong to one of those services feel free to connect to me. As for the others... well you've got Twitter, a great service to keep track of my goings and comings and other microblog like things I wish to post (also sync'd with my status on Facebook and Plaxo). That said, there is my Plaxo public profile, which also has a running Pulse of my various blog/twitter/bookmarks/etc combined in one. If you are a Plaxo member check me out and connect, if not take a look. Along the same lines as my Plaxo profile, check out my Friendfeed page. FriendFeed is another great service similar to Plaxo Pulse except that is doesn't integrate all the other feature that Plaxo is founded on like contacts and calendar. FriendFeed is strictly a way to combine all your feeds into a single feed for sharing with friends. The nice part about FriendFeed is you don't have to be a member to follow me, it provides a simple RSS feed, but kind of like Twitter, you can add friends and see all there post integrated with yours or just integrated together. So if you belong to any of these services... look me up.

Links:
http://twitter.com/nickc321
http://friendfeed.com/nickc321
http://nickc321.myplaxo.com
http://flickr.com/photos/nickc_321
http://last.fm/user/nickc321

if you didn't notice the pattern.... nickc321..... as in http://nickc321.blogspot.com

Del.icio.us out, Ma.gnolia in

Well as I posted this past weekend (post) I found a way to migrate from Del.icio.us to Ma.gnolia. Actually the process is built in to Ma.gnolia (smart for them). So I did the migration and you know what, I like it. I find the interface much more modern and useful. I still can't get my daily post to appear in Blogger, but that never worked with Del.icio.us either.... so I think it is a Blogger problem with there GData API and Blogger API. But for now I won't worry. (I'm partially thinking getting a web-host with a virtual server so that I can host my own system (probably would use Trac, which provides wiki, db storage, version control and various other tools that are all developer happy). Anyways for now I'm on Ma.gnolia. I won't be deleting my Del.icio.us but don't expect updates. My Ma.gnolia link blog can be found at:
http://ma.gnolia.com/people/nickc321/bookmarks

New look for blog

I decided it was time for a new look for my blog.... So what do you think? I like this '3-column' look. Let me know.

Thanks to http://www.geckoandfly.com and Andreas for a great design. I'm not fully up2date with all the XML and stuff in today's HTML/Web world, but these templates were easy to work with and modify. The current template I'm using is Andreas04.

Rebirth of a blog....

Well I've decided that there are many things that I want to blog about that just don't belong on the 'Lauren and Nick' blog. Therefore, I will now be posting my random 'crap' to my blog once again.