Though it's been a while since I've advertised it here, the Raleigh area blog meetup is still going strong.
We meet twice a month: the first and third Tuesday, 6:30PM at the Helios Coffee Company.
Details at the wiki.
Tonight will be our first meetup of the year. If you live in Raleigh or around Raleigh, please join us! I'd love to meet you in person.
(Dave even has Helios photos)
In Blogging
Posted at 09:00 AM | Permanent link
The next Raleigh Bloggers meetup is today (Tuesday).
However, to prevent my blog from becoming nothing but a huge advertisement for the meetup (which it's been lately, since I've been too lazy to blog anything else), I'm experimenting with a meetup wiki page.
So check the Raleigh Bloggers Wiki for the details on Today's meetup.
Hopefully it won't have been horribly defaced by the time you read it :)
I'm hoping to discuss the Wiki at the meetup, so come out, and let's chat.
In Blogging
Posted at 01:48 AM | Permanent link
No, I'm not dead, but I fully expect to be made fun of for posting two meetup notices in a row :)
More on what I've been up to in a bit, but for now the Raleigh bloggers are meeting tonight.
I don't expect Dave to be there tonight as he'll be speaking at Java One in San Francisco today. Good luck, Dave!
But I'll be there, and hopefully you will too :)
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting and whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, same place, same time.
In Blogging
Posted at 11:25 AM | Permanent link
The Raleigh bloggers are meeting this evening at Cafe Cyclo.
Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, as I'll be flying back from California (more on that later, as it's been a great trip), but others will be there.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, same place, same time.
In Blogging
Posted at 11:02 AM | Permanent link
Woah, hey, look at the time. While I was concentrating on not being a good blogger, two weeks passed, and it's time for the next Raleigh meetup.
Come have a beer and enjoy the beautiful weather with us tomorrow.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, same place, same time.
I'll probably be the guy sitting outside with a glass of wine and a Macintosh Powerbook.
Maybe a Senator or Natalie Portman will show up... or something...
In Blogging
Posted at 10:47 PM | Permanent link
The Raleigh bloggers are meeting tomorrow evening at Cafe Cyclo. Last time, a US congressman showed up, who knows what this meeting will have in store? :)
At any rate, come have a beer and enjoy the nice weather.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, same place, same time.
In Blogging
Posted at 06:41 PM | Permanent link
So, how often does one get to have dinner and drinks with a United States Congressman?
Well, tonight Bill, Dave, and I got to do just that, as U.S. Representative Brad Miller joined us at tonight's Raleigh Bloggers meetup (completely out of the blue).
Apparently Rep. Miller is active on Daily Kos, as seen in this entry and others listed on his website.
Rep. Miller and his campaign manager were seeking to learn more about blogs, both from a perspective of getting the word out to his constituents and building a community of supporters, and also for monitoring what the blogosphere is saying about him and his opponent.
Of course, we were more than happy to inform him about RSS, feed aggregators, group blogging, blogging etiquette, and other North Carolina blogging communities such as Orange Politics and the Chapel Hill meetup group.
On matters unrelated to blogging, it was quite interesting to hear Brad's perspective on the inside workings of the congress, the current leadership of the Democratic party, and "form" letters that are sent to representatives.
We even got to peek at his United States of a America "corporate" charge card... and, no, he didn't use it to pay for his meal.
As for political issues, it would have been nice to have gotten a bit less of a blank stare when I tried to bring up the topic of intellectual property and patent reform... but sadly this wasn't altogether unexpected :(
In the end, I'm still all kinds of impressed that Rep Miller has the foresight to reach out to the blogosphere. He's more than welcome to join us at Cafe Cyclo again anytime.
Update:
Alternate perspectives on the evening from Dave and Bill.
In Blogging, Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 11:29 PM | Permanent link
It's that time again.
The Raleigh bloggers are meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at Cafe Cyclo. Please join us!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, same place, same time.
I have a feeling that Dave may want to say a few words about the ever more ambitious RSS and Atom in Action, while Bill may want to add his two cents about the IBM developerWorks blogs being re-based on Roller.
In Blogging
Posted at 09:02 PM | Permanent link
The Raleigh bloggers are meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at Cafe Cyclo. Please join us!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, same time, same place.
In Blogging
Posted at 11:58 PM | Permanent link
The Raleigh bloggers are meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at Cafe Cyclo. Please join us!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
Yay, I think I can actually be called a blogger again :)
In Blogging
Posted at 11:29 PM | Permanent link
The Raleigh bloggers are meeting this evening at Cafe Cyclo. Please join us!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
Is it still called a blog if you blog about nothing but blog meetups? Hmmm...
In Blogging
Posted at 07:15 AM | Permanent link
11:12:23 PM edawg1701: how can you possible have friends that use myspace
11:12:28 PM edawg1701: oh my god
11:12:29 PM edawg1701: the songs
11:12:56 PM edawg1701: the page is like 5000 pages long and I have this tiny ass scrollbar
11:13:10 PM edawg1701: and I'm frantically trying to find the stupid thing so I can turn it off
11:13:18 PM edawg1701: then I just close the fucking page because I can't find it
In Blogging
Posted at 11:23 PM | Permanent link
I've been on a blogging hiatus lately, but it's time to get back into the swing of things with the first Raleigh Meetup of the year.
Chill with us tomorrow!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
In Blogging
Posted at 10:27 PM | Permanent link
Last Raleigh meetup of the year tomorrow.
Given that the holidays are right around the corner, we're not expecting a huge turnout this time around, but Dave, Bill, and I will be there.
If you have all your shopping done, feel free to stop by, have a beer, and chat :)
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
In Blogging
Posted at 09:21 PM | Permanent link
It's that time again.
Join us for tomorrow's Raleigh bloggers meetup
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
In Blogging
Posted at 07:21 PM | Permanent link
Triangle Bloggers Bash photos are available here.
Posted at 07:49 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow for the Triangle Bloggers Bash at the American Tobacco historic district in Durham, 7-9pm.
Start at new WUNC studios for tour, talk about podcasting and reception with catered food. Short welcome messages from Joan Siefert Rose and Keith Westin of WUNC, Michael Goodmon of ATHD, Stephen Fraser of Lulu. Then move next door to Tyler’s Speakeasy for drinks and socializing. Short welcome messages from John Conway of WRAL.com and Henry Copeland of blogads.
Free food and drinks... Anyone who sees this is welcome to come!
Posted at 11:40 PM | Permanent link
Join us for tomorrow's Raleigh bloggers meetup!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
I have it on good authority that Anton will be there. Will you?
In Blogging
Posted at 07:03 PM | Permanent link
I'm back from Boston, and it's time to see what's happening in the Raleigh tech scene :)
Join us for today's Raleigh bloggers meetup!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
I'll be there, although I may not be able to stay for long. Don't leave me hangin'!
In Blogging
Posted at 08:57 AM | Permanent link
Dave (amongst others) on ConvergeSouth.
Here are some cool people I met during the conference:
I know I'm forgetting a lot of people so if we had an interesting conversation and you're not here, I'd love it if you'd let me know!
In Blogging, Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 09:32 PM | Permanent link
I woke up at 6am this morning and listened to the Gorillaz* all the way to Greensboro, where I'll be spending a day with the "weblogs will set us free" crowd at Converge South.
Just arrived...got wireless access... Got plenty of the "you work for IBM and you use a MAC!?" remarks.... need COFFEE....
* Seriously, I'm beginning to think that they somehow found a way to mix crack with their music. Should I be worried?
In Blogging
Posted at 08:59 AM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 4th) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
Well be talking about Converge South and travel amongst other things :)
In Blogging
Posted at 08:36 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, September 6th) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
I understand it might be difficult to attend immediately following the Labor Day weekend, but I'm planning on being there. If anyone would like to show up and chat, I'd love your company.
In Blogging
Posted at 11:00 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, August 16th) for the second Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Hope to see you there!
Update:
Dave might just demo Roller 2.0 for us if we're lucky.
In Blogging
Posted at 08:35 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, August 2nd) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m. Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St Raleigh, NC 27605 (map) (919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 07:37 AM | Permanent link
Tomorrow (Tuesday, July 18th) we will resume the twice-monthly Raleigh/Cary Bloggers.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
See my (admittedly light) write-up regarding our last meetup to get a feel for the types of things we discuss.
Pass it on and hope to see you!
Dave will be there!
In Blogging
Posted at 07:18 PM | Permanent link
More excellent conversation was had at Tuesday's Raleigh Bloggers Meetup.
In addition to myself, attendees included:
Despite good intentions, after two beers my interest in taking detailed meeting notes waned considerably, but we touched on your run-of-the-mill pop-culture topics: Java, J2EE Architecture, Open Source, Blogging Software, Google, ontology (or lack thereof), tags, and IT Conversations.
As per the usual first and third Tuesday schedule, our next meetup would be scheduled for July 5th. I, for one, will be out of town that day, and given the proximity to the holiday I'm guessing that others may be busy as well. Therefore I propose that we skip this meeting and reconvene on Tuesday, July 19th. If I'm way off base here, please feel free to pickup this football and run with it!
Comments?
In Blogging
Posted at 11:03 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, June 21st) for the second Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Bill has the details from our last meetup.
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 08:33 PM | Permanent link
Today I'm participating as a tutor at the Chapel Hill Blog Teach-in.
If you live in the Triangle and would like to learn about blogging, please join us 12 noon-2pm at the UNC Health Sciences Library Biogen Idec Classroom.
See the wiki page for details.
In Blogging
Posted at 09:56 AM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, June 7th) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 08:29 PM | Permanent link
Xanga RSS Links is a greasemonkey script for Firefox that adds visible RSS links to Xanga blogs and makes them RSS autodiscovery aware.
Head to the Xanga RSS Links project page for downloads, screenshots, and installation instructions.
In Blogging, Projects, Technology and Software
Posted at 05:48 PM | Permanent link
I'm a little bit late to the party on 'big' IBM blogging announcement. Being an IBMer and a blogger, I'm obliged to opine.
My reaction? "meh.."
So the 'big' announcement is that its 'OK' for IBMers to blog.
Very profound.
(although to be fair, the company never directly claimed this to be the "biggest corporate blogging initiative ever")
The new blogging guidelines are essentially common sense codified. They've drawn the line right around where I expected it to be. I no longer have to assume (when you assume, you...).
Is this better than having no line? Yes. Is it good to know that blogging is finally on the corporate radar? Yes. Is this hopefully a sign of bigger things to come? Yes. Am I ever so slightly more inclined to blog about work-related matters? Yes (case in point - this entry).
So what's the problem?
"If you see a snake, just kill it. Don't appoint a committee on snakes."
~ H. Ross Perot
Tends to touch a nerve with "younger generation" IBMers.
I'd say there's much to be gained by simply opening the floodgates and seeing what happens. Granted, I'm not personally responsible for $119B in shareholder value, but the risk seems to be somewhat mitigated when your competitors (Microsoft, Sun) are already doing this.
Until we get a more daring nudge from above, it doesn't look like we're going to get there.
Baby steps to Big Blue blogging...
As for me, I already use my real name, disclose that I work for IBM, and have had a disclaimer for a while now. Gold star?
Sam Ruby: "If you don’t get your hand slapped at least twice a year, you aren’t pushing the boundaries hard enough."
In Blogging, Technology and Software
Posted at 10:36 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, May 17th) for the second Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 09:21 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, May 3rd) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 08:48 PM | Permanent link
Congrats, Dave! (for winning the Chairman's award)
In Blogging
Posted at 09:49 PM | Permanent link
Why do I blog? Some reasons...
Oftentimes people will ask me questions (sometimes technical, sometimes not), the answers to which I think others would find insightful. Rather than answer one person at a time, why not answer everyone at once?
Sometimes I ask questions of the internet and the internet does not give me a satisfactory answer. In these cases why not patch that hole in the information machinery once I do find an answer and distill it?
Other times, I simply have to capture the hilarity of daily life.
Does blogging make the act of publishing online easier? Yes. But it also gives me an excuse to throw up a bunch of otherwise unrelated writings without worrying (much) about organization or about whether they "fit".
Inspiration:
In Blogging
Posted at 06:29 PM | Permanent link
I'm often asked what blogging tool I recommend for those looking to blog.
For a complete blogging virgin, I highly recommend services such as Blogger and LiveJournal, just as long as it is not Xanga. For the love of god, please don't use Xanga. I'm not sure why my friends seem to have some unholy attraction to it. I had to write my own software just to read their blogs.
Anyway, using these services is dead simple. Just create an account and you'll be blogging within five minutes. They require zero technical knowledge, and don't require you to have your own site (although Blogger can publish your blog to your own site via ftp if you like).
Sometimes I have geek friends who aren't comfortable with their masculinity if they aren't running their own software on their own server. That's cool. I'm simpatico. I can relate. And it's more fun to talk about the personal publishing platform variety of software, rather than the services, anyway.
Realistically you want to go this route if you the likes of Blogger and LiveJournal aren't flexible enough for you. Perhaps their templating system doesn't allow you to customize the design of your blog to your liking, or perhaps you don't like the way such services handle comments. Whatever the case, running your own blogging software may be for you.
The contenders:
I use Movable Type for my site, although this has caused me enough hassle that I would use something else if I had to do it over again. The main pain involved with using Movable Type is having to rebuild your site every time you edit a design template. If this were easy then there would be no problem (if there were a way to trigger a rebuild from the command line, for instance), but no... As of Movable Type 3.15 rebuilding your site still involves having to login to Movable Type via your browser and navigate a web UI that involves popups in particularly inconvenient spots.
In theory Movable Type provides a way to dynamically generate the pages on your site so that you don't have to deal with rebuilding nonsense. In my experience, this is messy. It involves Movable Type hijacking your .htaccess file, and in the end doesn't work very well anyway.
Overall, I've been less than impressed with Six Apart's development of the standalone Movable Type software, ever since they became fixated on TypePad.
And, of course, unlike the other systems mentioned here, Movable Type is not free as in speech.
So Movable Type is out. I may migrate to another platform someday, after I can adequately abstract my permalink urls.
I use Blosxom for my work blog, and have been quite impressed with it so far. The nice thing about Blosxom is its simplicity. It's essentially a single cgi script, written in Perl. If you know anything about programming, you can read and understand the whole thing in about ten minutes, which makes it very easy to customize and extend. It's the epitome the "Try to solve 100% of the problem or 40%?" principle outlined by Philip Greenspun here (scroll about 2/3 of the way down the page to read what I'm talking about, although whole chapter is worth reading).
The downside to this minimalist philosophy is that a blosxom blog lacks many of the features that you want out of the box (search, comments), but the upside is that plugins have been written for nearly any feature you could possibly want (and if not, it's easy to write your own - see above).
Very clean, very zen, very good.
If you're looking for solution that is a bit more complete out of the box, I've heard good things about Wordpress, though I've never used it myself. The nice thing about Wordpress is that, because it is a complete opensource blogging solution, a lot of web hosting companies can install it for you with the click of a button, making it easy to maintain and keep up-to-date.
Typo is an excellent choice if you like being on the cutting edge. It is minimalist, like blosxom, and is built on top of the Ruby on Rails framework, which almost makes it cool by default. Again, I haven't used it, but I've heard very good thing. If your server supports rails, I'd give this one a hard look (unfortunately mine doesn't :().
In Blogging
Posted at 06:18 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, April 19th) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)
Optionally RSVP at the Meetup.com Raleigh/Cary Bloggers Meetup page (I'll be there at 6:30pm, like normal, even though the meetup page currently says 7:00pm).
See the notes from our last meetup to get an idea of what we talk about.
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 09:44 PM | Permanent link
In my first half-hour of playing with Yahoo 360°, I reported seven bugs and/or usability problems. Three of these issues were with the feedback form that I was using to report the bugs.
Hmm, I suppose it is a beta.
In Blogging
Posted at 08:22 PM | Permanent link
I have 98 Yahoo! 360° invites burning a hole in my pocket.
Email me if you want one.
In Blogging
Posted at 07:16 PM | Permanent link
The latest Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup took place earlier this week. In attendance:
The only truly new face this week was Chris, who is an IBM Extreme Blue intern, and also a Senior at Case.
Owing to the beautiful weather, we decided to park ourselves outside at a sidewalk table in front of Cafe Cyclo.
Dave and I observed that there is currently a fairly clear contrast in the type of crowd that frequents the Raleigh meetup vs. the Chapel Hill meetup. Thus far the discussion our discussions in Raleigh have been almost exclusively technical, while those taking place in Chapel Hill tend to put a greater emphasis on journalism and social activism.
It's interesting to observe the different "cliques" that are attracted to blogging for different reasons, but why the clear split between the towns thus far? Most likely, we can simply chalk this up to luck of the draw with two techies primarily promoting the Raleigh meetup thus far...
Here are a few topics, and links that we discussed during the meetup:
Please feel free to note any omissions or corrections in the comments.
We will be meeting again in two weeks, same place, same time: Tuesday April 19th, 6:30pm @ Cafe Cyclo.
Stay tuned for an rsvp link.
In Blogging, Technology and Software
Posted at 10:24 PM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday April 5) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)
Optionally RSVP at the Meetup.com Raleigh/Cary Bloggers Meetup page.
See the notes from our last meetup to get an idea of what we talk about.
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 08:53 PM | Permanent link
The latest Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup took place tonight.
In contrast to the sparse attendance last week, we were able to draw a fairly nice crowd this week, with some new faces in attendance. Participants in addition to myself included:
Interestingly, both Vincent and Martin happen to be IBM Extreme Blue interns, although this was my first real correspondence with either of them.
Given that everyone who attended this week had a technical background, the discussion immediately took on somewhat of a technical flair. My memory can't possibly do justice to all the topics we covered, but here is my best shot:
Please feel free to leave a comment if I left out anything important or got anything wrong.
We came to a consensus that bi-weekly would be a good frequency to meet. Given this, I propose that we meet on the first and third tuesdays of the month.
Hopefully this will keep my readers from lynching me for having to hear about a Raleigh meetup every other entry...
Time to sleep...
UPDATE 2:
UPDATE 3:
The next Raleigh/Cary meetup will be Tuesday, April 5, 2005.
Details:
When: Tues, April 5 2005 @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Informally RSVP at the Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup.com page.
We will meet on the first and third tuesdays of the month, at the same time thereafter.
In Blogging
Posted at 01:56 AM | Permanent link
In an effort to curb the trackback spam I've been receiving, I've installed the MT-TrackbackAntiSpam plugin from James Seng (the same guy who brought us the scode captcha plugin for Movable Type).
Installing the plugin is very easy. Just drop the script in your plugins directory, make sure it's executable and you're good to go - no additional steps necessary.
It's been a few days and so far I haven't received any new trackback spam and genuine trackbacks are still getting through. We shall see what the future holds.
In Blogging
Posted at 12:06 AM | Permanent link
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday March 15) for the third weekly Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog
Optionally RSVP at the Meetup.com Raleigh/Cary Bloggers Meetup page.
Amongst other things we will talk about this week is the frequency of future meetups.
See notes on our last meetup.
Hope to see you there!
In Blogging
Posted at 11:09 PM | Permanent link
Is the post calendar that appears on the front page of many a blog really all that useful?
Let's think about our blog reading habits. Does anyone say to oneself "I really must know what the Philip Greenspun has written on the ninth of this month vs. the previous Wednesday"?
The most useful feature of the blog post calendar is that it gives a succinct overview of what an author's posting frequency. Is he a diurnal poster or a twice quarterly poster?
Regular readers will already have a fairly good picture of an author's posting habits.
The calendar is therefore much more useful to the new visitor, who stumbles upon one's site and wonders what it is all about. It logically follows that calendars should be relegated to the "about" page of a blog, rather than chew up screen real-estate for all users (who haven't yet accepted an RSS reader as their lord and savior) on the main page .
Indeed, most prominent bloggers that I read have long since ditched the calendar idea altogether.
Something to consider for the redesign of joshstaiger.org.
In Blogging
Posted at 05:03 PM | Permanent link
The second Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup went down earlier this evening.
Present were Dave Johnson, Rick Ross, and myself - an impressive concentration Java geeks if I've ever seen one. Sparse though the crowd may have been, there was no shortage of excellent conversation.
We convened at 6:30 at Cafe Cyclo (where, unfortunately [or perhaps not], the wi-fi didn't flow quite as freely as the wine, coffee, and beer) and talked for slightly more than three hours.
Topics included:
and many more that I can't recall off the top of my head.
Dave and I wondered aloud on perhaps making the Raleigh/Cary meetup a monthly event (as opposed to weekly), given the level of interest thus far, and also on possibly moving the meetings to Wednesday. Comments on these matters would be greatly appreciated.
In Blogging
Posted at 01:10 AM | Permanent link
Join us, tomorrow (Tuesday, March, 8 2005 ), for the second weekly Raleigh/Cary Bloggers' Meetup.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog
Anton Zuiker
Andy Wismar
Grace
I'm noticing that we don't yet have an entry in the blog together wiki. I'm hoping to remedy that when I get home from work this evening.
UPDATE:
The wiki entry has been created. Check it out for further details and feel free to add your own!
In Blogging
Posted at 09:25 AM | Permanent link
I've been playing around with Movable Type dynamic rendering templates. Currently I'm using Movable Type 3.15, installed via the standard upgrade path.
This is how it has worked so far:
After performing these steps, I browse to a permalink for one of my entries and am greeted with the following under the Comments section of the page:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: translate() in
.../mt/php/lib/function.MTCommentFields.php on line 23
:( :(
After doing some investigation, it seems that as of MT 3.15 the <MTCommentFields> template tag is broken out of the box for use with templates that are being dynamically rendered.
Unfortunately it doesn't look to be an easy fix.
I tried doing the following:
Around line 23 of <mt_home>/php/lib/function.MTCommentFields.php we see:
$allow_comment_html_note = (($blog['blog_allow_comment_html'])
? $ctx->mt->translate("(You may use HTML tags for style)") : "");
I replace the call to
$ctx->mt->translate(...)with
$ctx->mt->translate_templatized(...)(not sure if this is strictly correct, just guessing after looking at the methods contained in <mt_home>/php/mt.php).
So afterward this line looks like:
$allow_comment_html_note = (($blog['blog_allow_comment_html'])
? $ctx->mt->translate_templatized("(You may use HTML tags for style)") : "");
Now after navigating to an individual entry permalink I see:
The requested page could not be found.
No comment available
Under the Comments section.
:( :(
This new error seems to be unrelated to the previous change. Now the offending line of code seems to be:
$comment_author = encode_html($ctx->tag('CommentAuthor')) || "";
Around line 49 of the same file (function.MTCommentFields.php).
I can see that the error is being caused in the function smarty_function_MTCommentAuthor in <mt_home>/php/lib function.MTCommentAuthor.php.
I'm not sure how much deeper the problems go, but unless I'm missing something it doesn't look like Six Apart fully tested dynamically building the individual archive template.
Unfortunately, I don't have time to keep looking at this now and trying to find a way to submit bug reports through Six Apart's website only results in useless clickflailing about.
UPDATE:
Apparently the way to report bugs to Six Apart is through the Bugs and Odd Behavior section of the Movable Type Community Forum. I stumbled across this by pure happenstance as it is not indicated anywhere else on Six Apart's site.
At any rate, I have created the following topic:
Problems dynamically building individual archive
In Blogging
Posted at 01:49 PM | Permanent link
The mighty edawg has finally arrived on the blogging scene, after much prodding and poking by yours truly.
19:59:21 joshstaiger: where do you come up with this stuff?
19:59:39 joshstaiger: I think that may just have to go into the blog
19:59:51 edawg1701: that would be cool
20:00:01 joshstaiger: oh, it's in buddy
20:00:09 edawg1701: its like I get all the random shit of being on drugs without having to take the drugs
Another notable addition is Andy, who I discovered was a much bigger dork than I could have possibly imagined, when he showed up at the blogger's conference this past weekend. Life's full of pleasant surprises. Andy has a much more entertaining account than I could possible muster.
Unfortunately I was feeling a bit under the weather today and wasn't able to make the Chapel Hill meetup, but from the looks of the notes, Andy, I'm thinking that we may just have to throw together a Raleigh blogger's meetup if nobody else steps on up this side of the Triangle. We can't let Chapel Hill'ers have all the fun.
In Blogging
Posted at 10:53 PM | Permanent link
Today marks the end of a very busy weekend compounded with very little sleep. Overall, it was great though.
The Triangle Bloggers Conference on Saturday was pretty awesome. A lot of interesting ideas were discussed which have really got me thinking, and I was able to meet a lot of really awesome people. Anton, you did an excellent job. Thank you!
On Sunday, I went to Dive Winer's Scripting News Brunch in Chapel Hill. Unfortunately it just so happened that I was seated at a side table away from Dave and the main crowd and conversation, but I got to have a nice conversation with Dereck Lane, anyway.
In both cases I think that I probably could have been a better participant if I had gotten more sleep the night before, but it happens.
One of the really exciting things that came out of this weekend is the organization of a regular meetup of Triangle bloggers (thus far, organized by Anton) in Chapel Hill. I'm planning on attending as I can and am really looking forward to it.
In Blogging
Posted at 11:23 PM | Permanent link
Dave Slusher is tossing out the possibility of possibly organizing a regional Bloggercon in Myrtle Beach after the holidays. I, for one, would certainly be down with that. Looks like Dave Winer is also down.
Add a comment to Dave's post if you're also down.
In Blogging
Posted at 11:34 PM | Permanent link