Comments on David Alison's Blog: Learn by blogging about it

@anonymous: There are several. Here's a simplified...

2008-05-18T20:13:25.651-04:00

@anonymous: There are several. Here's a simplified list of the models:

1. Use a service like David does on blogger.com, wordpress.com, and so forth.

This requires nothing of you, except for creating an account with that blogging service, which is usualy free.

Pro: It's fast, it's free, and usually well integrated into an already established blogging community.

Cons: It's simple. Too simple for some.

2. Get a domain, a webhotel, and use browserbased software like Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal etc.

This will cost you the fee for the domain, the cost of the webhotel, and will require you to know how to setup the blogging software (some hotel providers have the install available through a control panel).

Pros: It's very (the most, I think) flexible solution. You can host an e-mail addresses (often lots, actually) on your domain, you decide how things should be on the webhotel. You can blog from anywhere, as long as you have a browser and an internet connection.

Cons: It costs a little, and requires technical knowledge of what you're doing.

3. Get a webhotel, a domain, and use blogging software like RapidWeaver.

Pros: RapidWeaver (and probably its counterparts too), is extremely easy to use. All you need to publish from it, is FTP access. You can customize the looks and behaviour very easily. Publishing is very easy, and the results are remarkable, even for a completely non-techie.

Cons: RapidWeaver costs about $60 I think. So it'll set you back a bit, on top of the fee for the domain and the webhotel.

You can ONLY blog from your own Mac. Which I think kind of defies the whole concept of blogging. I do it from work, from friends places, from my iPhone, from home. I bought RapidWeaver, but I quickly found it too limiting for my taste, since I blog from everywhere.

Feel free to add to the list, everyone. These are the 3 basic models I think exist, and that I always see.

@Anon: My blog doesn't employ any MS technologies....

2008-05-16T13:17:31.615-04:00

@Anon: My blog doesn't employ any MS technologies. I use Blogger, which is free. All I need to write is Safari - all my editing takes place within the editing surface in the Blogger editor. It really is as simple as it gets. Hope this helps...

Are there good resources for those who want to lea...

2008-05-16T12:17:18.130-04:00

Are there good resources for those who want to learn about blogging but want to stay Mac centric in that solution and avoid Microsoft technology?

Well the thing is David, and I think this is a mis...

2008-05-15T02:49:29.120-04:00

Well the thing is David, and I think this is a mistake that WAY too many people make:

To be able to learn anything, you have to be able to expose the things you don't know.

Take me, for example. I'm the kind of guy that can read a tech book, but will fall asleep from it after 20 minutes tops.

MY way of learning, is participating in the community around a given technology (if possible), and discuss things.

That means I have to expose a lot of the stuff I don't know. But it's all good.

Because, it's a personal attitude that I have. I don't mind exposing my lack of knowledge, as long as I learn from it.

Cause in the end, it'll be the mockingbird that remains at his level, and me who evolves.

And I can take (or ignore rather ;) ) a good mocking, especially when I can see that I surpass the one that mocks me.

It's like that at my work place too. We all (I work in an IT department, relatively small, server to it guy ratio is about 100:1) realize that we don't know it all - and that we can't possibly know it all.

So we ask. Each other, other people, and are up front with it.

Honesty is a very good way to disarm malicious people.

"No, I don't know X, but on the other hand... I don't really care what you think about me not knowing X. Teach me or get da steppin'..." ;)

I'm like that on my blog too, if there's stuff I don't know.

So here's from the partly stupid guy, that thankfully doesn't remain as stupid as yesterday... ;D

@Raster: I love the ads but only because I think J...

2008-05-15T01:33:35.283-04:00

@Raster: I love the ads but only because I think John Hodgman (the guy that plays PC) is a comedic genius. From an accuracy standpoint it's hard to say - few of the ads hit concrete issues and quite honestly I find the way they portray the Mac guy as pretty pretentious.

One ad in particular struck me as bogus. It's the one where the Japanese girl walk in representing a new camera and only the Mac can "speak her language". The irony to that was I have a Sony digital Handycam that my Windows machine recognized without installing any software and the Mac had trouble talking to.

Still, I do enjoy watching them. If you want to see something amusing watch the UK versions of them.

David, Here's a question for you and your readers....

2008-05-15T00:16:53.157-04:00

David,

Here's a question for you and your readers...

After using the Mac for these past few months, how do you rate the accuracy of the "Hi, I'm a Mac" television ads?

I realize many folks don't watch that much TV... I'm one of them.

I do manage to "Time shift" a few hours of TV per week and seem to catch the ads regularly.

Normally I would just fast forward thru them, but if it's an Apple ad I've not seen, I'll play it out for curiosity sake.

For those that don't watch much or any TV, here's a link if you're curious.

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Apologies if this post is too off topic for this particular blog entry.

Look forward to your observations!

Cheers!

---RASTER

I'm enjoying the blog very much, thanks for writin...

2008-05-14T18:10:19.973-04:00

I'm enjoying the blog very much, thanks for writing it.

I particularly enjoyed the early posts as you tipped your toe into the Mac world. As a switcher of 1 year, I encountered many of the same moments of frustration, confusion and wonderment.

@Chris S: Thanks for the kind words man - I really...

2008-05-14T16:35:10.611-04:00

@Chris S: Thanks for the kind words man - I really appreciate that.

I want to applaud you for taking the leap into the...

2008-05-14T16:31:41.426-04:00

I want to applaud you for taking the leap into the Mac and blogging about it. I have enjoyed your blog since the beginning and love seeing the journey you have been making with your Mac and the transition from Windows. I too have made the transition around the same time you have, but I have always been a 60% Mac/40% Windows person since 1988. Unfortunately, I have never had the money to buy a Mac until about 2 months ago. I have always built my PC's and upgraded them myself. I really don't want to do that anymore since my Mac works so well.

Keep up the good work and you've definitely have an audience.