Webitz - Checking out the Web from an amateur's point of view

[ January 2011 ] [ March 2011 ]

Webitz - February 2011

Chasing readers

February 11th 2011 02:21

My current job finishes up at the end of next month, and it's likely I'll retire completely, and/or pick up odd jobs as they arise. If that doesn't work out in terms of income, then I'll have to go looking for something extra. I'm hoping that won't be the case.

Anyway, in my current job, I've arranged that Outlook should pick up posts from some twenty different blogs each day and collect them for me to read - which I do each day, and often use them as part of my job as a resource person for my boss.

This to me is an ideal way to read RSS, but I can't do the same thing on gmail, which is what I'd really like to be able to do. Google Reader is fine, and I've made sure all those blogs are showing up there as well at the moment, so that come April 1st I'll still be able to get them all.

However, I have to go looking in order to get the items off Google Reader. With the Outlook approach they come to me. It's not a matter of laziness, but of organisation.

I think it was my geek son who told me about a differnet kind of Reader the other day; one that shows up on your desktop rather than having to be found via Google or some other reader. Of course, I immediately forgot the name, and didn't write it down at the time.

I've just been looking at some alternatives to Google Reader, but most of them still require you to go to them rather than having them come to you.

If anyone knows of a reader that shows up without me having to chase it, let me know...

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Mike Crowl - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Amazon listens

February 9th 2011 02:51

In a roundabout way we recently acquired a Kindle. (When I say 'we' I specifically mean my wife.)

Kindle ain't the most beautiful piece of technology on the planet. It has a kind of gray feel about it, as if the sun had permanently gone behind the clouds. However, it does the job, and I guess that's mostly what you can ask of a machine.

One of the complaints about it has been the lack of real page numbers (that is, page numbers corresponding to the original book) - Alan Jacobs was talking about it just the other day on his blog, in fact.

Here's what Amazon have just done:
Our customers have told us they want real page numbers that match the page numbers in print books so they can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class. Rather than add page numbers that don't correspond to print books, which is how page numbers have been added to e-books in the past, we're adding real page numbers that correspond directly to a book's print edition. We've already added real page numbers to tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions and thousands more of the most popular books. Page numbers will also be available on our free "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" Kindle apps in the coming months.

Well, there you go. Amazon listens.

Vote

Comments (1)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Mike Crowl - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Catching up, Python and Facebook security

February 8th 2011 21:02

Yup, poor old Webitz has been suffering a bit of late in terms of new posts, (55 days since the last one, according to Orble admin). It hasn't been helped by my trying to keep up with half a dozen other blogs, life, a musical, learning Python (suggested by my son) and all the other usual things that happen.

I'm finishing up in my current job in about a month and a half, and because I'm already past retirement age, am debating whether I want to keep on working full or part-time - or at all. (Not at all might not be an option, depending on the income flow.) My geek son suggested I might to do a little software development on the side - hence the suggestion about Python. Things have turned around for us: when I was a younger, and computers were first appearing on the general scene (as opposed to being available only in businesses) I taught myself very basic programming on a tiny computer that could only hold one programme at a time. Frustrating, but intriguing.

Then we got an Amiga, and programming became a whole different ballgame, with Amiga basic. I learned it roughly, but never got my teeth into it. My son, who was then nine or ten, took hold of programming with all his energy, and would copy vast lines of text into the computer in order to make something happen. As a result he learned how to program, and now does it for a living. Nothing quite like the self-taught man.

That wasn't really what I started out writing here today. I meant to make a note about The Facebook Setting You Should Change as Quickly as Possible.

Ryan Tate writes that Facebook has finally provided a way to keep any random jerk in the café from hijacking your account. But you have to go out of your way to enable this protection, and you might have to wait. Still: Jump on this.

I'll let Ryan explain the details, since he's a good deal better at it than I am. Check out the link for more information.

[Photo by Arno Meintjes - Python the programme actually has more to do with Monty Python than snakes...]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Mike Crowl - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

3 Posts

1 Posts

3 Posts