TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

Web 3.0: Using GPS, Google, Satellites to Track Falcons from Chile to the Arctic

A friend sent me this story today from the Falcon Research Group: they’re using solar powered, GPS locator bands to track migrating Peregrine Falcons. The bands report in by satellite every 10 days - that location is automatically publicized with a nice Google Map on each bird’s tracking page.

Its a very Web 3.0 application - using several satellites, the interenet, people, digital photography, and a bunch of different technologies to tell these bird’s stories.

You can follow this particular project on the FRG blog (each bird has a Blogger label - here’s #7, for example, and here’s Houdini) - spread the word!

falcons, gps peregrine

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Planning a Hike

Never mind the crazy Google Ad placement, just scroll down and check out this great methodological way of planning a hike. BTW, I’m going to be off hiking & mountain biking starting June 29th. First a 4 day backcountry traverse across the Canadian rockies around Banff, then down to Montana’s Glacier National Park and Flathead regions. Good times!

How to: Plan a Hike

hiking howto

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FYI: The history of CSS

I’ve been doing some CSS stuff for the new version of AllergyCards.com that I’m working on. Along the way, I got curious as to where CSS actually came from: its simple and powerful, who was responsible? The short? A lot of people, iterating each other’s ideas over time.

For the long, visit: CSS Early History by Arve Bersvendsen.

css history

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Back in Business

Good morning - I’m back from chilly Vancouver Island, having returned to equally chilly Winnipeg late Monday night. I spent yesterday catching up, and will be spending most of today doing the same, but you can expect posting to slowly pick up steam again.

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Heading out of town…

I’ll be in Victoria, BC from 2:00 this afternoon ’till midnite on Monday, so don’t expect much (any) posting. And have an awesome weekend!

-R

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Staying on TechMeme

Huh. Looks like I’m de-listed from TechMeme - again. TechMeme seems to drop sites from its “to-index” list if you don’t link to other stories that get on TechMeme regularly. To be honest, I don’t really like that - it increases the feedback loop that clusters blog posts around whatever the two or three hot topics of the day may be. That decreases the breadth of stories that get written as writers are encouraged to write on TechMeme’d topics and discouraged from writing on others. Of course it also decreases the breadth of stories that hit TechMeme.

Of course no one should be writing “for” TechMeme - but TechMeme to some degree has come to define what’s “topical” in the tech blogosphere. I think Gabe R. would state that TechMeme just chronicles the discussion taking place, but I’d argue that by virtue of existing, TechMeme is influencing. The traffic that TechMeme can deliver provides motivation to write on stories that are on TechMeme - making it an active part of the blogosphere - not an impartial observer. I’ve certainly written posts on TechMeme-listed news expressly to get traffic - and have been rewarded for it with nice spikes.

Over the past two weeks, however, I’ve been actively trying to read TechMeme less, so as to get out of the topics that bloggers flock to and focus writing on what really interests myself and hopefully TechFold readers. The hope is that in creating a blog with a personality of its own, as opposed to just a reflection of What’s Hot on TechMeme, will in the long run garner this site more & more dedicated readership.

Thoughts? Please share.

blogging, blogosphere techmeme

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Awesome mod_rewrite / .htaccess Tutorial

Found an awesome Apache mod_rewrite via .htaccess tutorial tonite at yourhtmlsource. For those in the know, mod_rewrite is a killer way to get “clean urls” - i.e.:

“foo.com/bar”

…as opposed to:

“foo.com/index.php?pageid=bar”

I’ve previously used .htaccess “ForceType” commands to get the job done, but this time around I needed to rewrite from the root, i.e.: “foo.com/bar” where “bar” can be any alphanumeric string which serves as a unique content id.

Anyway, that’s it. Just sharing a great tutorial. Enjoy!

apache, htaccess, mod rewrite tutorial

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Zooomr on Uncov: Ouch.

I’ve always stayed out of Zooomr related discussions, as yes, I think it borrows to much from Flickr, and yes, I think its only success factor is some clunky “features” and the “heartwarming underdog” status of its underage, two person team — yadda yadda yadda all of which has been repeated ad nauseam elsewhere.

I’m also a regular reader of Uncov - the snarky, technically competent tech blog that offers biting reviews. Well, today Uncov took a swing at Zooomr, and I think I’m going to have to un-read, and unsubscirbe from the uncov.

There’s writing honest pithy reviews in an entertaining tone, and then there’s making a personal assualt on others. Uncov attracted me for the first, and has lost me for the second. Who cares if Kristopher is spelt with a “K,” Ted, or if Thomas Hawk is a bit of a goof (referring to the comment stream here). If you really loathe the site, tear apart its functionality and rip-offs and leave it at that. Personally, I like to read entertaining, interesting posts on technology - not character assasinations.

flickr, uncov, unsubscribe zooomr

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Another Suggestion for Google Analytics - “Link Event” Alerts

Yes, sharing Analytics would be great, but that’s not my only suggestion.

As a new blogger, I’m particularly attuned to “Link Events” - those anomalies where traffic spikes like crazy due to a mention on another site, getting Dugg, or whatever. Often I don’t find out about these till the next day when Google Analytics has updated; that’s a big missed opportunity as I try to capitalize on link events by putting out a custom message targeted to visitors from a specific page.

So - here’s what Google could do for me: based on Analytic’s knowledge of my average daily traffic, send me an SMS and an Email when there’s a link event and traffic is surging. Tell me:

1. The time it started.
2. The referrering domain and page.
3. How much traffic I’m getting per minute.

Do this in real time. I don’t care if the main analytics readout doesn’t update for a few hours, but use your datastores to make time-sensitive info available when its needed.

Theoretically other services could provide this as well - whos.amung.us, for instance, or MyBlogLog, or the WordPress Stats plugin. Maybe this service is being offered already somewhere? If so, please let me know.

analytics, google, linkevent, mybloglog, suggestion., techfold wordpress

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A Suggestion for Startups: PRESS/BLOGGER KIT

Here’s a suggestion for startups, based on two months of writing reviews. Provide a “Press Kit” for bloggers, MSM, whoever. In it include:

1. A succinct description of each section/function of your site/application in a clearly organized, bulleted form, with links.
2. Clearly link to the press/blogger kit from your front page.
3. A blog post sized version of your logo (200px wide max) in a transparent PNG format. You have no idea how much photoshopping this would save bloggers…
4. Screenshots of core functionality and actual usage of the site/app.

This list is intended to provide a starting point for reviewers in exploring your site. There’s few things I find as frustrating as spending a bunch of time trying to figure out what a given site offers or what the key points of its value proposition are; just tell me up front what you (as the builder of the site) intend audiences to be looking at.

I’d like to reinforce the “starting point” element of this: however much of the site you describe in the above format, its a good reviewer’s mandate to go beyond your bullet list and plumb the depths of your site - providing a list just helps the reviewer get through the core stuff so they can focus on digging and providing insight. As a reviewer, I’ll start with what you tell me I should see, and report on what I actually see.

Similarly, a good review will involve taking screenshots as the writer actually uses your site/app. The “canned” screenshots in your Press Kit provide guidance, however, and let you display your achievement how you hope it will come across.

Final Notes:

1. In an ideal world, a well-designed site shouldn’t need a bulleted list; hopefully the contents of your site present themselves well enough that the can be parsed out without spoon-feeding bloggers. If you’re in alpha or beta, however, your presentation may not be as refined as it might be. Writing the list may help crystalize your design as well. Even if your past beta, you may have non-obvious (for whatever reason) functionality that you want to highlight.
2. A Press-Kit is subtly different than what you may have there for users - i.e.: welcome pages, demo videos, etc. A critical blogger writing a review is a fundamentally different audience than the general public: speak to each audience in their language and tell them your story contextually.
3. This shouldn’t be a big deal to put together. One page, a few paragraphs of copy, a few graphics and screenshots. Done.

reviewing, reviews, startups, suggestions writing

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