Well, WordPress 2.0, anyway. Don’t look for the yellow fade just yet.
The upgrade is done, as far as I can tell. It’s time for all you Spotheads (and I do mean both of you) to pitch in and do some QA. Bang on the site and see if anything breaks. If it does, let us know.
Thanks, and happy Spotting.
In the interest of staying on the bleeding edge, Colaspot is being upgraded to WordPress 2 this morning. Things are going to be wacky for up to an hour. If I was smart, I’d throw out a temporary “under construction” page, but where’s the fun in that?
I’ll post again when the upgrade is done.
Google dropped its long-awaited calendar application, cleverly named Google Calendar, on April 13. We’ve done writeups of online calendars before, and swear by other Google offerings like Mail and Reader, so taking the new kid for a test drive seemed like the thing to do.
Last week’s Joel On Software explains why the traditional top-down management model (make decisions, create work units, assign Coder #12 to complete work unit by Friday) breaks down when applied to software development. Joel Spolsky, founder of a wildly successful software startup, keeps a blog in which he shares insights he’s learned along the way. Joel On Software is just about the best recruiting tool a software company could have. Advice to startups: if you want to hire great developers or designers, start a blog and talk about how you’ll pamper them.
The post is long, but well worth reading for nuggets like this:
“Microsoft does such a good job [eliminating administrivia for developers] that Microsoft alumni have a notoriously hard time starting companies. They simply can’t believe how much went on below decks and they have no idea how to reproduce it.”
Last week’s issue of Free Times featured a cover story called Weaving a New Web, in which they purport to have uncovered the “trends that define today’s Internet”.
Author Dan Cook highlighted MySpace, Wikipedia, and the iTunes Music Store as examples of the movement toward personalization on the Web. I read all four pages, and missed any mention of Web 2.0 buzzwords like tagging, AJAX, or (dare I say) Google.
Not bad for a local publication, though.
“So,” as Vizzini would say, “it is down to you, and it is down to me.”
For now, Colaspot has one editor — one editor who’s been rather scarce lately.
Where have I been?
I’ve left a full-time job, which turned out to be a busy transition. Since then, Colaspot had to take third priority. I’ve focused mostly on freelance work (stupid food won’t just jump on the table), and on my writing blog, which has also languished. I decided to spend more time talking about writing than actually doing it; a characteristic common to most writers.
It also turns out that it’s as hard to talk about high-tech topics in this town as it is to get a tech job in Columbia that doesn’t do insurance. Matthew did a great job holding up the entertainment and gaming front. But there’s more stuff to talk about if we look hard enough.
Where is Colaspot going?
For my first act as Supreme Commander, I’ve opened the site up to comments. Many of you have asked for this since the beginning, but we chose to lean more towards the magazine format and less towards the blog format. It’s become obvious that the editors have had trouble keeping activity up on their own; now it’s time for you to pitch in. Yes, you. If you have thoughts about anything you read here, punch that comment button and exercise your right to free speech. A word of warning, though: the editorial “we” will exercise our editorial right to K-line your comment if it is obscene, flameworthy, off-topic, or dumb.
Four days from now, Colaspot will celebrate its six-month birthday. (That’s also your fearless editor’s birthday, but please, no gifts.*) Kind of a lot’s happened in those six months. Of the three editors who started Colaspot, none of us is in the same job situation as when we started. One of us added a new family member. We’ve had a few regular and semi-regular contributors. We’ve had no readers, regular readers, and occasional readers.
Enough with the history lesson already.
On the Web, traffic comes and traffic goes. There could be three of you reading this today. I haven’t checked stats in months, and frankly, I don’t care what the stats say. Tomorrow we could get dugg and three thousand might show up. That’s the magic of the Interweb, people. It’s fickle, and it’s honest. If you have something interesting to talk about, people will read it.
Eventually Colaspot will come up with something interesting and relevant to say. Stick around, you’d hate to miss it.
*I said no gifts, but if you want to bring me a gift of a dozen weekly posts on a given topic of interest, we’ll talk.
If you like your Easter celebrations a little grungy, stop by Shandon Baptist Church tonight at 7:00. If you’re a David Crowder fan, there will be no Indian wrestling match, but a few of Crowder’s tunes may make it into the set.
Rumor has it that a Colaspot editor can be found somewhere on stage amid the smoke machines and effects pedals.
I’ve been kicking this post around in my head for quite some time, mostly because it’s hard to write (as in finding the right words AND having to force myself to write it). This will be my last post for Colaspot. I’d say this is the end of Colaspot, but Jonathan has assured me he will do his best to post from time to time. In other words, it’s not the end of Colaspot, but it is the end of a regularly updated Colaspot that you’ll want to visit on a regular basis (though I suppose those days have been over for several months).
To fully understand my departure, we must go back to the fall of last year. Having lots of free time on my hands due to the inability to find a job, I needed an outlet. My job search led me to the discovery that there isn’t a Columbia publication designed for a guy like me. You know the demographic I’m referring to – the 20-35 year-old young professional who is interested in the downtown Columbia scene including music, restaurants, and entertainment. At the same time, I wanted this publication to appeal to my friends outside of the Columbia area, which is where pop culture happenings and media reviews (movies, DVDs, TV, music, and video games) fit in. The closest publication I could find to fit this niche was the Free Times. And while the Free Times is a wonderful publication, it is still a little too newsy for my tastes. Not to mention it’s nowhere near geeky enough.
[Editor: the juxtaposition of this post and the following one is a complete coincidence. We swear.]
Maybe it’s because he’s lost weight. The Beat-Dead Beatnik Brokeback Dad turned up on ABC Columbia’s 11 pm news tonight. It seems he’s been seeing a hypnotist and has lost fifteen pounds in just a few short weeks. Congrats to you, sir.
[Editor: the fact that Bryan built their web site (with a little help from yours truly) has absolutely nothing to do with this post either. Not convinced? Just watch the flashing light, listen to the sound of my voice, and repeat after me: “I need a new site…”]
Sorry for my absence lately. I’ve spent my free time reminding myself how poor I am. You see, my wife and I have decided to become homeowners. Because as much fun as it is to throw money into a paper shredder rent an apartment, we figured we’d see what it feels like to actually own something you pay for. While the process isn’t 100 percent complete, we’re (hopefully) on the right track. My crash course in the world of real estate has left me with a plethora of newfound knowledge. For instance, did you know that the average house in Lexington costs $956,000,000? Another helpful tip - If you see a house with a “For Sale” sign in front of it, and it has no info tube with a handy sheet inside that lists the features of the house and a price, you should immediately drive home, print out your own info sheets, and drive back to the house to leave your freshly printed sheets. Make sure the features you list include “asbestos-filled walls,” “small rats,” and “charming meth lab next door.” It’s up to you on the asking price, but a good rule of thumb is to estimate what it would sell for if it were made of solid gold. If the homeowner(s) spot you dropping off the sheets, abort the plan, snatch the “For Sale” sign out of the ground, and get out of there immediately. You might find having Andre Bauer as a wheelman to be particularly helpful. I’m kidding, of course. Andre walks and go-karts everywhere now.
I’ll keep you updated on my exciting real estate venture.
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