What's wrong with writetomyblog?

Writetomyblog is one of my favorite blog posting services -- create your post on their website, post it to your blog, and our done; hey, and it's free! So, here's the problem: it hasn't been working for me at all lately. When I publish, I get this: Post Entry Successfully Published (Post Entry as Draft, has no URL). What the hell does that mean? It thinks that it's posting to Blogger, but by not getting a URL, there is no unique blog entry and, despite what it says above, the post doesn't go into my drafts folder on Blogger. I have not idea if this is a Firefox 3 issue, some sort of permission issue with the Google API, some issue with the new version of Blogger, or something I haven't thought of, but I miss using the service and hope they fix it soon.

Do you need your own personal domain?

I don't know, do you have an extra $0.83 per month? It's not really a matter of affording it anymore -- you can probably find offers that will get you domain hosting for free; I reference the cost of registering through Google Apps and using Google Pages.

If you want people to be able to find you, it seems like a good idea. If you want an e-mail address that you'll keep forever, it seems like a better idea.

As the cost approaches zero, I think the better question is: Why wouldn't you have a personal domain?

Link -- here's mine (took about 5 minutes with Google Page Creator)

Kinetic phone cahrgers . . . about time

Ok, it's big and ugly and not built into the phone, but Orange is testing this out:

Named as the "Orange Dance Charge," it's similar to the sort of strap you might use for an iPod when you're working out. A series of magnets and weights very similar to the systems used in kinetic watches is used to generate electricity.

I want to see this built into the phones, but it's a step in the right direction.

Link

Tights are not pants

This kind of stuff cracks me up: Imagine how hard this would have been just 5 years ago . . . and how expensive it would have been. Go read the manifesto. Link

Tags: tights+are+not+pants, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

BlackBerry Flickr App

Not sure what more I can tell you about it as it does exactly what the title suggests: provides you with a native BlackBerry application to upload pictures to your Flickr account. Download here

Wine

Lots of people that know me think that I know a lot about wine and I guess that spending a lot of time in the Napa Valley while growing up and being acquainted with family and friends that greatly enjoy wine helps a lot. However, I'm going to share my advice about wine with everyone:

• Drink what tastes good to you at the time. Sure, there are all kinds of "rules" about what to drink with what, but if you really want a glass of white wine with your steak, by all means drink a glass of white wine.
• Don't care about what others think. This is especially true if you're ordering bottles based on price -- the only person in a restaurant that is likely to care about how much you spend on a bottle is the waiter that's watching his tip go up geometrically.
• Hold a sip of wine on your tongue and taste the flavors, but don't announce them. If you think your wine is earthy and peaty and has notes of currant, keep that stuff to yourself -- think in terms of it being undrinkable, crap, ok, good, or awesome.
• Don't be intimidated. If you find yourself in situations where you are frequently choosing wines, go spend an afternoon at a good wine bar with a wide selection and make friends with the bartender. Find a couple of mainstream whites and reds that you like that are likely to be on most wine menus and find a couple of lower production whites and reds that are less likely to be on most menus, but will seem impressive if you dig them out of a menu.
• Don't get upsold. If you get the sense that a waiter, sommelier, dude at a liquor store, etc. is trying to upsell you into expensive bottles, go somewhere else or order a beer. Knowledgeable waiters, sommeliers, etc. know that if they find you a solid bottle at a reasonable price, you are likely to drink more than one and you are likely to come back to their establishment.
• High price is not always directly related to good taste. I once was able to view one of the oldest bottles of wine in the world at the Graycliff restaurant in the Bahamas from 1726 that sells for $200K -- I have to imagine that stuff probably tastes like straight vinegar at this point.

Let me share this quote from Richard Betts, Master Somelier of the Little Nell in Aspen (this is from a recently published article in 5280 Magazine):

"My philosophy? Wine should be fun. People get all freaked out about ordering the right wine, but there is not such thing. The right wine is the wine you like. That's it. So find what you like and go for it."

Easy enough. Picture from glovsky225

Cisco holographic videoconferencing

You've just got to watch the video to believe it. Link

Tags: video+conferencing, holographics, Cisco, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

Do you still have a landline phone?

I haven't had a traditional landline phone since I left college; in college is was provided for free where I was living, but I think the only people that called me on it were my parents. For a few years I had a phone from Vonage that was $15 per month for 500 minutes of long distance and everything else, but after reviewing the usage, the $15 was a better incremental spend for more minutes on the cell phone.

What's the value proposition in having a landline anymore? If you still have one and swear by it, let me know why.

Picture from Darwin Bell.

Tags: landline+phone, phone, Strategize, Ross+Hollman

In memorium

So, I had to put one of my dogs down last night, which is a totally miserable experience if you've never been through it. The temptation in these situations is to think about all the things that you didn't do, focus on all of the bad stuff, all the times you didn't take them for walks, etc., so I'd like to remember a few of the good things:

• He was never left alone overnight. Any time that everyone was out of town, there always was someone that stayed at the house with him.
• He got to come to more concerts than many of you have probably been to -- I used to bring him to work at the amphitheatre with me. For that matter, he's probably met more artists than many of you have.
• He got to play in deep snow.
• He got to live in Venice, CA 8 blocks away from the beach and walk on the strand and play in the Pacific Ocean.
• He got to watch my daughter grow through her first 2.5 years and to be her protector.
• He got to lay on the couch (frequently) even though he wasn't supposed to.
• He got to sleep on the bed (frequently) even though he wasn't supposed to.
• He was fiercly loyal and protective and absolutely hated mailmen and trash collectors with a passion.

I found this great excerpt from "The Best Place to Bury a Dog" by Ben Hur Lampman:

The one best place to bury a dog is in the heart of its master.

It was my great pleasure that he was my friend for 8 years -- I can count on 1 hand the number of real friends I've had for that long.

I'll miss you.