CogBlogged from ‘September, 2009’

I routinely delete those emails (and rarely get to the bottom, the trash impulse comes quickly) that come in requesting me to blog about some software/web site/product… “This ain’t no request line, try WXYZ…” But one came this week that made my drop my routine (it’s got storytelling! web sharing!), because in the first sentence it hooked me. My Teacher, My Hero is a new site that will open soon as a place for people to share stories about their favorite teachers, and a place for people who may think they want to be teachers… to be inspired. My Teacher, My Hero strives to give thanks to inspirational teachers across the country and inspire new teachers to join the profession. We hope to help raise the status of teachers in our society and recognize the integral role that they play in shaping our future. With your help, we feel that [...]

I had this idea to explore and honestly could not find a relevant use to even flesh it out, so am putting it out there in case others do. There are several tools you can use to have your blogs, when they publish posts, to automatically send a tweet out with the link. On this WordPress blog (and several NMC ones) I use the Twitter Tools Plugin. On some other sites I use twitterfeed which does the same thing, but from any RSS feed you want (so I have some drupal feeds that are auto tweeted this way). But what if you wanted some way to “tag” or track such content? Well, with the more recent version of Twitter Tools (and as a feature on twitter feed) you can edit your own lead in text to published tweets… so mine come out as “CogDogBlogged:” and then the tweet: Previously, you [...]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog The cover story of the current issue of Wired must be the weakest, molecule wafer thin piece they ever published. Were the editors all on vacation and they left the magazine to some middle school kids to write? The tragedy of craigslist is that their web design is at the downward end of some web designer’s nose? The tragedy is that Graig Newmark is not greedy or is just odd? Obviously no one on staff ever had to sell an old sofa on exercise machine before, Bottomline craigslist works, who cares if it is not sparkly? Pfffffffft on Wired. Definitely expired on this issue.

I have not even seen a glimpse of MTV for at least 10 or 15 years. I am so old I can remember when the “M” stood for “Music”: I can remember the riveting teen age moment when MTV first launched- it was radical, different, spoke to me– and it felt at the time like a game changer (not that I knew there was a game)- and I was there from the start. It was like maybe how future people will be writing about their first experiences with the web or YouTube or … It was jam packed with media. It had a fast pace, It had edgy graphics, and had I know it was a word then– it had snark. And it felt so personal- the first “VJs” were all young(ish) and unknowns (quick, how many can you remember? I failed too, had to look it up). I think [...]

cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog So Gmail went belly up today for a bit. There was a fart in the cloud computer. Did you reload inbox every 30 seconds? I bet that helped. Did you tweet about it? I did- pulled out a Don McClean: I can’t remember if I cried Reading tweets that Gmail fried, But something tickled me deep inside- The day the email died. But instead of wailing, I made use of the time. I’ve been noticing a few more ants than I prefer to see ambling across my kitchen counter. I did a thorough clean with clorox. then sprayed killer stuff down the crack behind the counter. Then I sealed the gap with new caulk. Who needs email?