Welcome to September, folks!

As you’ve probably noticed, although Javamancy mini has been humming along with shorter items, Javamancy itself has been fairly quiet last month. Not to say things didn’t happen– and there were things that happened– but there were some items of interest that unfortunately do not really fit the Javamancy model of reporting or style…

Plus, of course, the development work and testing proceeding along with the “mystery project” known as the “mass HTTP downloader”. While it ultimately may not be released to the general public, it certainly has been quite a surprisingly useful product with a lot of potential for use in a variety of different markets.

And speaking of development, we’ll have more to show during the course of this month. So stay tuned, and tuned in!

Matt mentions this interesting tidbit about the Wired blogs that he noticed recently.

It’s very interesting that more sites are converting to WordPress, but an even more interesting question is whether the software or the hosted solutions are being preferred by the converts.

In the past, having a hosted solution took care of the issue of scaling, to some extent, at the expense of flexibility and management. But larger organizations definitely want those latter capabilities and have the resources to manage their own infrastructure. So, is this the continuation of the tidal wave of conversions toward WordPress?

The Setup

Back on July 17, 2008, I had an inkling of an idea… why not make Javamancy more friendly to mobile devices that are able to access the site? The date is significant because I’d recently acquired the Palm [PALM] Centro, and as I was trying out the provided Web browser (Blazer, the NetFront variant used by Palm on its more recent smartphones, not the older separate Blazer codebase) and realized that Javamancy was not quite as snappy on loading and display as I’d prefer. At the time, we were experimenting with AdSense, which given its significant performance degradation and serious privacy concerns, was eventually removed… so it was difficult at the time to determine whether it was AdSense or the underlying blog software, or even our content, that was choking performance.

Couple that with the release of Apple’s [AAPL] iPhone 3G and iPod touch mobile devices, and the burning desire to rush out a mobile-access version of Javamancy was not terribly high. And, admittedly, there was the rush to prepare and head out to the annual medical conference, out in Hawai’i (which was certainly an adventure unto itself).

The Premise

It is a fairly straightforward concept: present an mobile device screen alternative to the traditional Web browser, but continue to present the appropriate content as the user navigates through the blog.

It sounded easy when first proposed during the requirements meeting, but it turned out to be something a bit trickier.

The biggest concern was the continuing proliferation of mobile devices that would hit Javamancy. Ultimately, we realized that we were getting all sort of devices that we had not originally anticipated, with all sorts of different user-driven browsers and automated agents hitting the site. Since the concern is now known to be quite warranted and valid, any sort of solution for Javamancy Mobile would have to allow for some level of flexibility, in terms of quickly and accurately flagging devices that should have access to the mobile-access display.

But we also need to allow people who have the luxury of flexibility to be able to use the traditional Javamancy UI if they prefer.

The Action

At first, last year, there was some investigation that had occurred to see if there were any suitable plugins that would provide the desired features. We had encountered quite a few, including Alex King‘s WordPress Mobile Edition. At the time, however, during testing, something always seemed to break between the plugins and themes we had injected in the test beds. So rather than struggle with multiple variables (which often ends up similar to herding cats) or spin up extra test servers in QA and hack away, it was decided to postpone further investigation until some newer developments would ease the selection process… or we’d get angry enough to begin Coding in Anger.

Alex had recently released several updates to the WordPress Mobile Edition plugin, along with an accompanying Carrington Mobile theme that drives the UI. For our purposes, this seems to make more sense, particularly with the separation of concerns between browser detection/access and the subsequent UI functionality. As a result, after testing, we’ve launched Javamancy Mobile, courtesy of Alex’s fantastic products.

Keep it going, Alex!

The Setup

A few days ago, I’d posted about the recent arrival of the MacBook White. And we’re not even done with that story yet…

But I’m not the only person who has had to agonize on how to advance personal and pro-am IT decisions. Directors, managers, developers, and techies worldwide continue to perform their tech refreshes– some more aggressively than others– and some do them all-at-once while others, such as myself, do some scheduling around staggered tech rotations. 

I have my reasons, some of them direct and others a bit oblique or, to some people, allegedly misty. But there are other people who have been blazing their own paths regarding their tech refreshes…

The Premise

Some of you, especially the bloggers, may know (or have heard of) Alex King. Head of Crowd Favorite, he also continues to blog (and quite often about products and services that his company is launching, thinking about, et al.). He’s recently been thinking about a portable computer to either replace his MacBook Air or act as an adjunct. But rather than aim toward a sub-notebook or a full notebook, he’s decided to go the netbook route. But it takes an even more involved process: he wants to install OS X onto the netbook, too…

The Action

So, a few days ago, Alex discussed his selection process and some highlights of what he’s had to do to get OS X work on his netbook. I’ve mentioned the techniques that some people have detailed about installing OS X onto a Dell Mini 9 netbook before, but Alex also discussed his experience with the Lenovo S10.

If you are in the same situation as myself or Alex, how would you go about your decision, and ultimately, what device or computer would you select? Then, once you have it, what kind of changes would you make to the basic rig?

The Hook

Well, okay, I took a bit of creative license in the title…

But, watching Arianna last night on the Daily Show with John Stewart (yeah, you know the show) promote her new book (which, if you’re interested, you should purchase… ) and talking briefly about the key to being successful in blogging is to write about your passions– well, she didn’t quite say it so succinctly, but I could figure out the gist of her claim– I thought, “Hey, she’s talking about life, love, and the pursuit of blogging!”

Which, obviously, ended up as the title of this post.

But right after that, I began to wonder: “If she can put together a book which tells the reader about blogging and how to try to be successful with it, maybe I can, too!”

The Rub

Hmm… all right, maybe I can…

After all, I’ve been blogging for quite some time, especially when you consider my past history of corporate and professional blogs over the years. And toss in the portals and wikis as well, and I’ve amassed quite a library of virtual documents that I’ve produced over more than a couple of decades of development and publishing.

But the problem that I perceive is that, frankly, what is a better platform to inform and educate readers about blogs than a blog itself? If you’re going to assemble all the meaty details about blogging into a single source so that people who are curious about the delivery vehicle and the blogosphere and all things weblog-ish can get to it, wouldn’t a blog (or maybe even a wiki) be the way to do it? Most physical books (as far as I know– except for the looseleaf binder types that masquerade as “bound” books) lack the ability to be continuously updated and corrected. And let’s not forget that Arianna herself already has a blog (actually, she has more than one) and is certainly capable of spinning up several more as needed.

How about a concession, then? Produce a book, and then offer a site with updates. A lot of other authors have gone this route, and it works, after a fashion. Some readers wonder whether the tone of the online text matches the book, which they may enjoy quite a bit; frequently, the sites tend to have additional contributors, which would change the writing style and attitude.

But what would I have to contribute that many hundreds of others have already done or said? Perhaps something less bloggish and more development-ish? An erudite exploration of the bloody innards of the Web services and apps that comprise a blog and its ilk? How to create your own blog from scratch?

The Conclusion

Me-too-isms abound in the publishing industry, as various people keep trying to cash in on all sorts of crazes and fads. Rather than add to it, I should probably just refrain and stick to what I’ve been doing: just blogging (oh, and other stuff).

A Little Bit:

Mentioned on Mashable yesterday, Six Apart bought up Pownce, but announced yesterday that the service is being shut down and the staff sucked into the rest of Six Apart to work on other projects. If you’ve been using Pownce, you may be considering Twitter more than ever…

In their company blog post about the imminent closure, the service is expected to be lights-out on December 15, 2008. Time to get a-hopping (and a-shopping), Pownced-folks.

Yep, folks, just like I mentioned earlier, Javamancy got its scheduled upgrade.

In addition to several color changes, the multimedia box (that’s the “picture box” in upper right hand side) has gotten a few new images that may interest you.

Compared to the previous Javamancy upgrade, this is not as dramatic, but it does provide additional theme elements that improve customization capabilities and sets a pathway for further expansion.

Hi, folks!

It does seem unusual to read about a Javamancy upgrade ahead of time, doesn’t it?

But that’s exactly what this is about: a Javamancy upgrade being announced before it occurs…

And no, this is not going to be the new process going forward, but we’re going to be updating the theme elements a bit, including changing the selection of random images that you currently see in that lil’ “picture box” at the right-hand side. It’s not the only thing that will be changing, however; if you’re observant, you’ll notice some other visual tweaks.

The upgrade is planned for November 25, 2008 in the wee hours, with an expected outage time of about thirty (30) seconds or so. Registered users entering comments should not be impacted dramatically by the upgrade; unregistered visitors and automata should also not be impacted negatively.

After the upgrade, however, we’d like to hear from you about any issues you may be experiencing with Javamancy, particularly with regard to load times or the layout.

N.B.

If you’ve been keeping up with our operations posts, you may have noticed this previous mention of an upcoming UI update. And you’d be correct in thinking that this post is referring to the same event.

Jane says that WordPress 2.7 development is rolling along fine, but the original November 10, 2008 release date has been pushed back toward the “end of November” (2008).

In light of the upcoming (and there’s no reason at this time to believe otherwise) WordPress 2.7 release, Javamancy will not be undergoing any vast middleware or back-end upgrades for at least 1-2 weeks after the WordPress 2.7 software is fetched, tested, tested again, tested some more, and then deployed here.

However, there is a UI update that we will be formulating. Nothing major, but don’t be surprised one day soon (definitely before the end of this month) if you notice something a bit– well, different.

Folks: you’ve clamored for it, and we’ve listened: the FeedBurner RSS feed for Javamancy has been officially killed.

After receiving so many E-mails and IM’s about the poor performance of the FeedBurner-generated RSS feed, Javamancy has returned to the original RSS feed mechanism.

Why is Google Hurting the Technology?

Several people have mentioned that part of the problem involves all of the running Google [GOOG] ads in the FeedBurner RSS feed. Unfortunately, since we were unable to yank the offending Google ad code out of the ‘feed itself, it was decided that the best route for all concerned would be to just kill the entire ‘feed. After all, why deal with the mess when all it does is drag everybody down?

Is Google Falling Apart?

Oddly enough, this is in contrast to all of you who have written in, asking for the Google ads to be re-enabled on the blog itself. Apparently, the majority of people who seem to enjoy the ads were clicking on the informational sites that advertised through Google AdSense; I surmise that it was a convenient way of learning about the latest and greatest in technology, gaming, fashion, food, etc.

And let’s face the simple truth: it is just easier to come to Javamancy every day and use it as your daily info-portal, and just click through to these other sites. But unfortunately, given that the ads are “random”, you may not always get to the same destinations that you were encountering the day before. I’ve seen screenshots sent in by several of you demonstrating that, across several months, the exact same ads show up on the same blog posts, but there was some variability, however tiny. Yes, it was often just a reshuffling of the same ads in a different order, but once in awhile, there would be one or two new ads.

The Current State

So, folks, thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas about this matter. Keep ‘em coming!