Tech Review

I've had a good blogging experience. I've become a better writer, I think. I've met some nice people both in the flesh and the electrons. It may even have been "meaningful" in that some people have found Asymmetric entertaining or persuasive (Good news, the three of you qualify for free psychiatric help.). Most important to me is that I've been able to express myself in a way that's inexpensive, legal, and moral. Indeed, Eliot Spitzer could have saved his job and $80,000 if he spent his evenings on Blogger instead of Ashley Dupre.

Not being an act condemnable to jail or Hell, doesn't mean that blogging isn't without its drawbacks, however. You know how overly sociological people can't enjoy a mall: Leftists get mad at the "consumerism," Victoria Secrets mannequins (and consumerism) get the religious to tsking, people in a mixed relationship holding hands make racists of every color fume. Well, over the last year and a half, I've developed "blogger vision." That is, I've looked at the world and divided it between those phenomena that would make good posts and those that wouldn't- it bugs after a while. Blogging has also changed my behavior: My life would have been as complete had I only watched two Democratic debates, for example, and I wouldn't otherwise have forced myself to experience Alien versus Predator Requiem.

Blogging isn't just writing, either. At first, you have to go through the drudgery of putting your blog on directories, humbly asking for links, and other things nearing the sordid.

Finally, like almost anything fun, blogging can be unhealthily compulsive: Blogging has an "RPG factor." It's not necessarily the game play that makes Role Playing Games like World of Warcraft or it's pencil and paper daddy, D and D, addictive. Rather, one becomes obsessed with improving or "leveling up" ones character. In blogging, one goes to Sitemeter to check his pageviews or Technorati to see how many people linked to his posts.

So, last week I decided to assess any damage, if any, blogging does to my life. Results:

1. I calculated that had I not blogged, I could have completed a biblically-proportioned ark last November.

2. Blogging is inversely proportional to things that some may consider more important like family, career, paying bills, personal hygiene, etc.

My analysis prompted the thought, "Hey, what if I see something interesting and didn't write about it? What if I didn't check to see how much search traffic I had every fifteen minutes? What if I just thought something and kept it to myself? What if I didn't blog and nobody came? Well, I tried it for five days, and it was quite a lovely week. No typing. No nothing. I considered giving it up altogether.

But, now that I'm writing this, I remember how much fun it is. Besides, it's not like I can afford Spitzer's hobby. I'll have some stuff later today- after I work on my car.

Picking blog software is like picking a wife. You can switch later, but it'll cost you half- as in: Some of your posts, comments, hit and referrer logs, formatting, etc. probably won't make the switch, and that's if you can find a converter. It's a potential disaster and a headache at least.

When I started blogging in late 2006, Bluehost, my service provider, had three blog platforms that I could install through Fantastico: Nucleus, Wordpress, and B2evolution. I tried all three before settling on B2evolution. My selection process: At the time, I thought my blog would be a collaborative effort between my friends and me. Although it didn't turn out that way, I still liked the idea of having completely distinct blogs under one domain (I implemented the idea anyways). Wordpress was, by far, the most popular, but it didn't have the ability to maintain multiple blogs.

One could have multiple blogs on Nucleus, but it was bare-bones. I had to insert code just to have a calendar on the sidebar.

That left B2evolution. You might think that blogging software about a million times more popular would be at least twice as good as its competition. You'd be wrong. I'm one of a small but enthusiastic group of bloggers who uses B2evolution. In addition to the multiple blogs, B2evolution has kept up with my needs. I've included Amazon items in my posts, let people rate them, and looked at comprehensive stats in the "backoffice."

Having a minority blog software isn't always a bed of roses, however- less-popular software means less options. Let's take my social bookmarking hack that will let you Digg or Reddit this post (please). If somebody hadn't taken the time to make it, I would have a huge hole in my blog. Same with my in-post music-playing ability. B2evolution is far behind in "skins" or templates and I've never had a rich text editor, although my B2 buddies are on the job.

I was very lucky then that when I needed to upgrade my blog from the aging 1.85 to the very superior 2.4, Ed stepped in and helped me out. Since the upgrade last month, Asymmetric has gotten more search hits because Google bots now read the main posts ahead of the sidebar. In addition, I can now use one skin instead of nine (one for each blog) and some other neat stuff.

Anyways, try out B2evolution before making a decision. As long as people are dedicated to its success, B2evolution will continue to improve.

This out-dated chart compares blog software.

Watch out Kos, here I come. Traffic is up 650% for the year. At that rate of increase, I should surpass Daily Kos in two years and Yahoo in about six years with over 4.9 billion page views per month.

It's never good to get less attention unless you're Britney Spears and you're exiting a vehicle. On the other hand, it's important to interpret data. With that in mind, this:

Unless we’re just not hearing about it, there seems to be almost no voter-generated activity occuring on behalf of McCain. Yet the anti-McCain Yes We Can parody has been viewed more than 700,000 times. On our charts, McCain has so many fewer Facebook supporters, YouTube views, and blog mentions than Obama (or Clinton) that it’s hard to even compare them. We wonder how well this lack of online enthusiasm bodes for him.

That may be so, but it also seems to me that Obama supporters are the kind of people who get teary-eyed at Black-Eyed Peas mouthing Obamagrams, chuckle (sometimes hatefully) at photoshopped pictures of the uncool, and enjoy youtube, Facebook, and other sites where cleverness, sarcasm, meanness, and charisma are the currency of choice.

Most conservatives are talk-radio and, along with the left, blog-oriented. That's how we communicate, not through Twitter posts ("I'm here at an Obama rally: People are fainting left and right!).

I agree that McCain's Space or whatever isn't too great, but it's meant to raise money (mine's below) not facilitate hookups.

Finally, I hope an organized and quality McCain forum does materialize. I'm part of this one. I'll join the Facebook one, I guess.

There should be some good ebay deals on HD-DVDs this week. Toshiba is ready to throw in the towel on HD-DVD, ceding to Blu-ray and Sony in the splendid little format war noticed by .05% of the population (I didn't invest in either, so I don't care). One interesting question is: what will happen to the X-Box 360 (Microsoft went with HD-DVD;)? Will Microsoft sell a Blu-ray drive for its game console?

Free internet at Starbucks! This is great news. I've actually bought time to use T-mobile wifi. Now, I can get me some gratis wifi when I'm on the road, going someplace for lunch, or just getting a cup of joe. Since there's a Starbucks every 400 feet, I'll never be without access. If you factor in the cost of the coffee, you can get internet for only $4700.00 a month.

That's one less thing Obama will have to do for us.

Story here.

Cujo (Signet) by Stephen King

Cujo

Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Working: Rare Performances 1968-1978

You may have noticed a dash of semitic spice on the normally Cuban-flavored Asymmetric. It's our own little blogging blend that we like to call "Cujew." It's similar to "Mojo" in it's virile, magnetic je ne sais quoi but it's also an attempt at ecumenism- proof positive that nerdy people like Matt can peacefully co-exist with cool guys like me. Anyways, enjoy.

Story here.

These kinds of deals baffle me. What, exactly, can Yahoo do that Microsoft can't? Do they have some secret search or IM technology that Microsoft engineers can't duplicate? Microsoft can't find any yodelers?

Yahoo has servers, but 44 Billion dollars can buy a bunch of desktops.

I'll assume that Microsoft isn't made up of a group of blithering idiots and think it's a good buy. The only thing I can think of, then, is that Microsoft is buying the most expensive client list in history. Microsoft wants all of those email accounts, home pages, and the traffic from the number one site in the world, according to Alexa.

There's nothing like a sense of victimhood to get that community-based motivational juices flowing. I suppose it's a matter of time before we get "Blogger and proud of it" bumper stickers. They might be right on a couple of things, but that's not my point.