Great WordPress Templates
Just a quick note that this guy is doing some really fun work with WordPress templates, creating some exciting magazine and “conversation” driven templates. One of his templates, Arthemia, I intend to use for BOOM Jackson magazine; another is Platformate, which is a really interesting layout for a site that offers lots of comment and conversation (not unlike the JFP). I might need to borrow some of these ideas for the JFP; that’s a very “2.0″ design, particularly for a personal blog like this one. (In fact…hmmm. If you’re reading this and you notice I’m using that theme, then, well, I’ve changed to it.)
BuddyPress = Very Interesting
I just came across BuddyPress, which is (or will be) a collection of plug-ins for WordPress MU (multiuser), that makes turns MU from what it is — a blogging platform for multiple users — into what it could be — a full social network.
The plug-ins allow you to create relationships between the blogs — for linking friends, messaging between one another, creating groups and, of course, collecting your photos into albums that can be shared. BuddyPress isn’t out of development yet, but it’s worth watching if you’re interested in a WordPress-based social networking solution…which could be interesting if you’re using WordPress for a CMS platform or for a groups site already via bbPress forum software.
It’s fun watching WordPress grow like this. For the past six months or more I’ve explored the possibilities with social networks; a white-label social network is tough to come by; that fact that one may soon be built on such a robust platform is an exciting testament to the power of open source.
Five More Gripes About My iPhone
In the past week I’ve found myself spending a little too much time after work on my AT&T customer page (now that I’m, regrettably, an AT&T customer) wondering if there’s a handset I’d like more than my iPhone — even if I have to pay to upgrade. (Or, once selected, I might surf to eBay for a new solution…perhaps a Palm Centro?) Not that I actively dislike the iPhone — there’s a lot to like, such as Safari, SMS, iCal integration and visual voicemail — but there’s still some stuff that keeps iPhone from being the killer deal that it really should be.
It’s almost bad enough that it might be worth parting with if something better comes along.
Of course, I probably wouldn’t gripe as much if AT&T’s network didn’t suck so bad in my neighborhood. The fact that 50-75% of the time I can’t use my phone as a phone probably makes me more willing to criticize other features that I could live without. (But, frankly, even when the AT&T signal is good, I still seem to get a lot of drop-out from the iPhone>)
Still, beyond signal and service there are some flaws Apple needs to address. Arguing from the specific to the theoretical, those include:
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‘Showcase, Dank Showcase’
I was logging in to moderate comments this afternoon and accidentally clicked on the link to Dave Johnson’s blog in my blogroll where I found that sometime in the past year — much to my amazement — he had actually published a page of old audio clips from the “Peak Computing Hour,” a call-in radio show that he and I did ten or so years ago in Colorado. I hadn’t heard the clips in a quite a while and it was a fun little trip. (He was smart enough to keep the clips rather limited.)
We did have fun on that show, despite the fact that — to this day — Dave suspects that I “never really liked” him. Well…I’ll leave the answer to that question to your imagination.
Let’s just say the pay was good.
(Oh, and gas was only like 8 cents a gallon at the time, so I was more than happy to commute up to Denver from Colorado Springs for a two-hour radio show once a week. In a Jeep Cherokee. Can you imagine?)
Dave focuses on old clips of “Dank Showcase, Cyberspy” because, well, he wrote them. (So, BIG surprise there.)
Truth told, though, Dank Showcase was the best part of the show…that single experience has caused me to occasionally yearn to do a little “real” radio theatre at some point in my life. The fact that no one would listen it — just as they did then — is somewhat beside the point.
But he captured the high points — the megadingos, the callers, the silly stuff we would do. Almost makes me want to do it again.
Hmmm.
Whatdaya say, Dave? We could use uStream or similar to put together a show like TuesdayNightTech, but not so…juvenile. Heck…using Skype or something we could take callers. (Do you still know anything about computers? I might have to brush up a bit on PCs. Yuck.)
Maybe you could get us a sponsor from up there in the techie Northwest? If we got enough of a following, we could write books together again. Maybe they’d even put us on ZDNet. TechTV. TechTV G4. PBS!
Dave?
No?
You never liked me, did you, Dave?
Enjoyed the Pic, Beer Dude
I was surfing Ning sites and came across this guy’s profile page and pic. If I’d have been drinking Coke, it would have come out my nose. (I love that he’s shooting from a little Heineken mini-keg.) He’s a member of Bobalicious in Canada, which is apparently a social network supporting an online online magazine up there.
I didn’t get too deep into social networking in HTDE/Web 2.0 Blog in part because services like Ning weren’t quite in full swing. But the truth is, as these services mature, Ning-like social networks offer a great way to mash up a blog and a forum to get a community of folks focused on getting to know one another better and having a little fun.
You need to have some momentum in terms of readership (three nerdy guys hanging out on a Ning is just about as exciting as three nerdy guys hanging out at one of their mother’s house without a Ning site) and it REALLY helps to have a reason to bring folks together, whether it’s regional or topical. (And if you can get people together IRL based on their social networking, all the better.)
But, that said, Ning is cool, and it can be “blogging” if you want — you can set up a Ning so that it’s very much like your personal blog (or a group blog) except you surround yourself with pictures, events and blog entries by others as well.
Anyway, if you’re reading the book and want to see if thing’s have gotten any further toward the “next big thing,” check out Ning and see if maybe it qualifies.
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