More Google Coolness - Blogger Style

Sometimes Google gets on a roll with getting new features out there.

First, this may have been there for a while, but I finally notice it tonight. You can now check a box after commenting to have all additional comments on a post emailed to you. About time, now maybe commenting discussion can being to improve on a wider scale with blogs. Blogger is at least trying now to go a little ways toward improving the poor blog commenting that some have discussed in the past.

Second, I continue to find good things at Blogger in draft. For those who haven't seen it, Blogger in draft is where Blogger first rolls out new things (primarily for blog site design for now) before giving it to the general public. To see this, just go to draft.blogger.com, rather than www.blogger.com. I noticed today that they now have available any of the literally hundreds of Google gadgets that are already available for places such as the Google personalized homepage. Now, I just have to find a way to wade through the cruft, and find the goodness.

On a separate note, as those who added it to their RSS will already have seen, I finally kicked off my financial advice site tonight. There is a link under my other sites in the sidebar, but the site is http://financiallysimple.blogspot.com if you are so inclined.

Ah, less clutter

Update: Ryan pointed out that my code got eaten

This one should have been obvious to me, but then again, my mucking level on my blog hovers at or around 0. This tip cleans up the overall page, lending itself very much to my goal of letting content (hopefully) rule this blog, rather than lots of formatting or clutter.

Here is the simple way to do this, that doesn't involve editing your stylesheet at all:

1. Go to the template tab on blogger.
2. Click "Add a Page Element".
3. Choose the "HTML/Javascript" type.
4. Cut and paste the following snippet:
   <style>
   #navbar-iframe {
   height:0px;
   visibility:hidden;
   display:none;
   }
   </style>
   
5. Click "Save Changes".
6. Rejoice as the top of your page is now uncluttered.
   

Services, Slick Integration, Score

Somebody started a discussion a while back about how blogs and communities online are not as nicely integrated and connected as they should be. Most places end up being the equivalent of the message board at the local supermarket. Things are posted, glanced at once, and then forgotten until they are completely irrelevant. There isn't much interaction or useful conversation, if any at all.

Lifehacker, that wealth of knowledge, has talked about coComment before as a way to solve some of these issues. I thought it sounded interesting, but still took more effort than I was willing to expend to even check out the site. However, today they throw in the magic words "Firefox extension", so now I have to check it out.

Basically coComment is a way to centrally track the various blogs and conversations that you have interacted with. Now, with the extension, Firefox can even let you know that there is new activity on a conversation in which you have participated. When you post on a supported blog, you can say "track this", and even tag it to create categories of conversations. All very slick.

The Firefox extension is well-written, looks nice, and just plain works. You don't use Firefox all the time and can't make use of this? Wow, how do you keep from the monsters in the closet eating you every night? Go download it and save yourself. Quick.

You don't really care about any of this, think Internet conversations are dumb, and just want things to stay as they are? Go back under your rock.

Testing. I'm in beta, watch out!

I mostly despise computers. Really, I do. I like using them as tools, I do it all day long for work, and often far too much at home. However, I don't actually like mucking around with them anymore.

Case in point, I started reinstalling my main machine last night. Too many years, too many odd things, have made it start to act funny. Plus, I wanted to upgrade a drive in it anyway. Man, I hate reinstalling.

However, despite all that, sometimes I like trying out new, silly software. Today's silly software is a piece of blogging software by none other than Microsoft. I really should find out some day how some of these little side projects actually get released as a Microsoft product. I know how hard it is for me to get a company product released, I'm not sure how they let these slip through.

Anyway, just announced today is a beta of something they call Windows Live Writer. It is of course aimed at their new Live site. However, they have nicely included support for other blogs. Not just for posting either, using the crappy Blogger API they were actually able to pull down my previous posts, and my visual style.

Now, rather than using the horrendous Blogger web interface (Google, you're sleeping at the wheel, yo), I can use a familiar interface. Supposedly this may be a small foreshadowing of the Blog support to be included in Word 2007. I really don't care, I just hope it doesn't have the standard Word annoyances, thus far it hasn't.

Oh, did I mention that now the spell check uses your system dictionary, so all that stuff you have taught it in Word or Outlook is still there. Nice. Plus it actually saves drafts for me, rather than eating them.

Well, if you are reading this, I believe this program has accomplished all that I wanted from it. I'm pleased.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the app. Also, here is a review that has already been written, linked from UneasySilence.

...and a screenshot for Ryan:

Shine on You Crazy Diamond

Syd Barrett died. I had a long post about it, it was open on my screen at least 20 minutes. Blogger ate it. Where is that magical save a draft feature when I actually need it? Grr.

Read Google News instead I guess to learn about it.

Buy these Floyd albums, it's good for ya:
Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Where Here
The Division Bell

Media Fun

I had heard Blogs were dead, but I guess they can't be. Here is my latest blog find. Please Hammer, don't hurt 'em.

Read this article if you are at all interested in Windows Vista. I admit, the writer is VERY pro-Microsoft, but he did introduce several new items I didn't expect. It looks like a solid upgrade to me.