Category Archives: technology

I have been getting a few requests lately to post some tips about setting up a blog and/or personal web space. I cover mostly blogging here but most of my suggestions can be adapted for other types of sites as well. Without further ado, here are the tools I use, along with some tips, and what I recommend for those just getting started:

Tools

• Hosting and Registration – I use Dreamhost. They really make hosting fun, simple and cheap. The prices they offer and what you get for that money is simply unbelievable. Their bottom package is only .95 and it gives you 200 gigs of storage and 2 Terabytes of bandwidth. You get one free year domain registration with any new account sign up and additional years or domains only costing .95. It is a steal. Not only that but they have “One Click Installs” for many of the tools you will need to get a blog up an running (more on that later).

• Blogging Software – I use Movable Type as it is what all of the cool kids use (Lifehacker, Kottke, etc.). That being said, I would not recommend it for a fist time blogger or someone who is uncomfortable with setting such things up. The install can be a bit tricky for a newbie but there is plenty of documentation for those willing to take the dive. For an easier path, I would actually recommend WordPress to a first time blogger. It has a more user friendly interface on the back end, a WYSIWYG style editor for posting, and ( here is the kicker… ) Dreamhost offers it as a one click install. Therefore, very easy setup for someone who does not know how to install web based tools. The other good thing about WordPress is that there are literally hundreds of templates out there that are easy to install to give your site a nice look and feel. Which brings me to…

• Template/Look and Feel – I do not use a pre-built template for my site. My site design is original and built from the ground up using inspiration dirived from many sources. I am a big believer and fan of minimalist design and less-is-more functionality. The “look and feel” of my site is part of an overall personal branding that is derived from such ideas. In that vein, this look and feel extends to other personal and public documents as well such as my resumé. I think that in our ever more connected and public world, developing a “personal brand” is all the more important and my website reflects that idea. I was able to do this because I have a good friend and web advisor who is brilliant at code wrangling and pixel pushing. Between my vision and his skill we were able to create something unique. That being said, there are some great books out there that give examples of great web design for inspiration. This is where I started. So if you have the skills or know someone who does, it is worth putting in the extra effort to come up with your own unique design.

• Posting – I actually do not use the Movable Type interface to write and publish most of the posts to my blog. I use an application from Mariner Software called MacJournal. Amongst it’s many stellar features, It has an excellent full screen mode for distraction free writing and I can publish to my blog from my Mac with only a couple of clicks. It is a wonderful tool and now there is even a Windows version. Well worth the money. That being said, there are plenty of other ways to easily push and publish content to your site. Flock, for instance, is a Mozilla based web browser that interfaces with you blog and many other web services such as Flickr and offers a very nice interface for posting what you are surfing directly to your site. The point here is to use tools and processes that make blogging easy because then you will be more inclined to keep up with it.

Tips

• Find your voice – Blogging is a conversation with the reader. Write as if you are speaking to a friend about all of the cool stuff you are doing or finding on the web.

Identify your source – If you are posting about something you actually saw from someone else posting it, make sure to say that. (i.e. “via 43Folders”). Always identify your original source as it is proper “netiquette”.

Be original – Blog about something new and fresh or a new and fresh take on something not new. For example, there are a bunch GTD blogs out there now. The world does not need another GTD blog. What would be good is a blog that focuses on how to implement GTD in large groups and organizations – I have yet to see anyone focussing on that.

Blog what you love – Of course, the other example is a blog like mine. The fact that I mention GTD so much is that it is that much a part of my life. But I also blog about productivity in the workplace, cool Mac applications, Ubuntu, the occasional Windows app, my wife Princess Bethany, etc.. I blog about all sorts of things that I love or otherise capture my imagination.

That is it for now. Not only would I love your feedback in the comments but I would love even more if, when you start a blog or site, post it up in the comments or otherwise send me a link. I would love to see what others are doing.

Note: Many of these suggestions and tips I originally wrote in a response sent via e-mail to my friend Jonathan Cisco. He has since gone on to start a blog of his own detailing his experiences moving to New Zealand – DreamingNZ.com.

Unless you have been living under a productivity rock somewhere, you have surely heard of Highrise – The new contact management solution from the rock stars at 37 Signals. Here are some of my first impressions:

• 37 Signals has once again taken a simple approach by boiling the concept of contact management down to some basic elements. They give you just what you need and nothing you don’t. What does one really need to track communication with a contact? Attach notes? Done. Add some related tasks? Done. Attach other related communications like e-mails? Done. Associate the contact with other related contacts? Yep. Share your contacts with others? That is there too… All of it done with the straight forward simplicity, attention to design elegance and ease of use we have come to expect from 37 Signals.

• The task manager is brilliant and flexible. It allows one to associate tasks with categories (or contexts, if you will). You can assign either “fuzzy” due dates (Today, Tomorrow, This Week, etc.) or specific due dates and times to those tasks. You can even assign tasks to others in your organization.

• If I have any dig against Highrise (and this is more specifically about 37 Signals strategy) it is this – why the mostly walled garden between your ious apps? For instance, I currently use Backpack for my personal stuff and Basecamp for work related projects and now I would like to use Highrise for my consulting business clients. This means that I will have to have three apps open with no real integration between them. What I would love to see is a way to attach projects in Basecamp to contacts or companies in Highrise. What I would love even more is the task functionality in Highrise to be integrated into Backpack.

In all, Highrise is a fantastic application – especially for small business or solo business users who just want a simple and effective way to track communications with their partners and clients.

I am not a hacker. I am not a guy who really needs to know what is going on under the hood. When it comes to technology, I like it to “just work”. I don’t want to have to needlessly tinker with it. This does not mean that I wont tinker if the need arises. I just would prefer not to have to do it unless I want to do so or have to do so, but I prefer the option to be mine. While the words “some assembly required” actually make me a little nervous, increasingly words like “this will void your warranty” or “this will break your licensing agreement” make me even more so.

I am not an open source zealot. That being said, the idea of software that is open source, hardware that is open and standards that are open, garners an increasing amount of weight in my making the decision to use technology. Here are some examples:

• When it came time for me to purchase a new wireless router, I chose one that was based on open source firmware. It works just fine for my needs as it is out of the box. I have no plans to flash it with alternative and more feature rich firmware an time soon. I may never do so. It is just the possibility to be able to do so that appealed to me over other alternatives. The fact that I could add features or capabilities beyond the factory defaults if I wanted to was a huge selling point.

• One of the big selling points in the purchase of my Nokia N800 was the fact that the software platform that drives it is open source and the Nokia’s own developers are really active participants in the open source project. The platform is based on Linux so there are hundreds of applications being ported to the platform. In other words, out of the box the device is very useful but with so many others able to develop for the N800, it can be so much more.

• I have increasingly been using Jabber for IM over iChat/AIM. It is the default protocol in the Google Talk client bundled with the N800. iChat also supports Jabber so it easy for my existing “buddies” to find me there.

• I use GizmoProject over Skype for VoIP. Gizmo is open. Skype is not.

The point is, “open” has become huge for me and I really did not see it coming. I never would have imagined it before recently. Now it is one of the first things I consider when embarking on any technology decision. I suspect I am not alone. I suspect that there are many out there just like me. We are not hackers, makers, zealots or freaks. We don’t want to have to tinker with technology. We just want the option. We just want to be open to possibility.