Yearly Archives: 2013

littleBits

littlebits_starter_kit_open

littleBits is open source library of electronic modules that snap together with magnets for prototyping, learning and fun. We were given a starter kit by a friend who accidentally ordered two during their successful Kickstarter campaign. It’s really great. Especially for kids.

I spent some time playing with it with Beatrix last night and was quite impressed. The packaging and presentation was top notch. What you get are little modules one that magnetically snap together into ious configurations and make little projects. The modules are essentially divided into four color-coded categories — Power , Input, Wire, Output. The possibilities of what to do with these are largely up to your experimentation. The instructions do provide a couple of example projects to give you an idea of how it all works but the rest is up to you. That said, there seems to be an active community of folks sharing their projects ideas. A great resource.

This is a perfect thing to get kids excited about electronic experimentation and making. Beatrix had a blast in the half hour we had to play with it before bed. She insisted in bringing it up to her bedroom so that she could remember she had it to play with in the morning. Which, in Beatrix’s world, is the best vote a toy can receive.

Measure Successful Blogging In Years

There is something I have noticed the past few days that mirrors my own experience. Successful online writing is almost always measured in years. Sure, there is the rare overnight success. But, for the most part, if there is an online writer that you respect or whose name is recognizable in the circles in which you read, it is likely they have been at it for many years. Some examples…

In his wonderful, and I would argue essential, recent post — Designing blogs for readers — by Matt Gemmell, he mentions that he has been blogging for eleven years.

John Gruber, in mentioning his latest round of T-shirts for sale, mentions that he has been writing Daring Fireball full time for seven years. He has been writing online far longer than that.

Jason Kottke has been writing at kottke.org for fifteen years. But I started reading him online well before that, when he lived here in the Twin Cities and wrote a blog called Oscill8.

And, of course, the first post on this site is November, 7 2003 (going on ten years). But the blog had been one internal to my employer at the time for about a year before that.

My point being this, I get a lot of people who are relatively new to online writing asking me what it takes to be successful at it. I think one of the main things is simply showing up and doing it for a long time. Not only are you bound to get better at it from such constant long term practice, but audiences are built reader by reader over the long term as well.

This was just as true of all of the writers mentioned above. They all started with a single post and just kept showing up year after year. If you would like similar success, that is the place to start.

I’m a full-time independent writer who works hard to bring you quality reading and ideas here daily. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

Buy The Books

I don’t do a whole lot of self-promotion here. Largely because I think there are more interesting things to talk about than “me,me,me, sell, sell, sell” all the time. But a recent post about buying the books of your favorite bloggers by Seth Godin really resonated with me. Particularly this:

There are authors and actors who only show up when they have something to sell, who hit the road to briefly entertain us, pitch us and then leave. If you love their work, then by all means, buy it! But the frequent blogger is here for another reason. He or she has something to share and is relentlessly showing up to teach and lead and connect.

If you want that to happen more, if you’re getting something out of it, buy the book.

The majority of my income comes from my writing. My books are a key source of that. Purchasing my books is a direct way to support and insure the work I do here.

Toward that goal, I have recently cleaned up the book page and added all four of the books I have written to date. Please take a look

Perhaps you have purchased one or two but have not purchased the others. First of all, thank you so much. Secondly, please consider buying another if the subject interests you or you wish to simply support the work I do here. If you enjoy the work I do here (almost) daily, I’m sure you will find the value your receive from any of them is at least equal to the amount you give.

But, regardless of whether you buy my books or not, I can tell you there are a lot of great writers posting to their blogs regularly that would benefit from the same kind of support. If they have a book for sale, buy it.