If you missed the announcements, Skype has released a new beta version for Linux (1.30). It has a long expected ALSA support, which can solve a whole lot of sound problems. Also, there are now many options in the Sound tab of Configuration menu. It is possible to set your favourite WAV files as notification alerts and even a ringtone. Hopefully, one day there’ll be an option to set per contact ringtones… There are a few other small changes here and there, which might be more imoprtant to you, than they are for me. So, you should check it out yourself too.
Year: 2006
Bloglines freedback
Bloglines are asking for some freedback. If you are too lazy to click through and read their post, “freedback” is basically your regular feedback, but which can be found in blogs by Bloglines stuff. If you want to complain about something, just blog about it and use “bloglines” and “freedback” words in that post. They’ll catch it. Or so they say.
As much as I like the concept of coining a term for this type of feedback, I hate this implementation. “Freedback” doesn’t really mean anything to me, and thus hard to remember and long to type. Maybe that’s because English isn’t my native language. I don’t know.
Now for some real Bloglines freedback… Things that I think need improvement:
- User interface. I have a few problems of my own, but I’ve added a few things to the list after pushing one of those regular users (read: non-technical) to use Bloglines. I can elaborate on this if anyone wants to hear (let me know).
- Feed fetching intervals. I’ve blogged about it a few times already. Almost none of my feeds are updated once an hour. Only the most popular (like Slashdot, and del.icio.us/popular) are close to that mark. Everything else lags behind. Sometimes for days.
- Little things. There are a whole bunch of little things that aren’t worth the whole post, but which are annoying when confronted over long periods of time. Tags is one thing. It’s 21st century already, and I just can’t live without tags. I am dying. Better integration with other webservices. Like LiveJournal for example. Why can’t my friends list be automatically synchronized with my Bloglines account? Things like these…
But despite all the changes that I wish to see made to Bloglines, it’s still the best alternative out there. I’ve tried them all (and keep trying) and none other service or application provides this level of quality, integrity, and stability. Seriously, keep it up guys!
Daily del.icio.us bookmarks
Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2006-06-27
- A – Z of Professional Blogging — A list of services and applications that are useful for bloggers.
Considering BlogTalk
As I said earlier, I am thinking about visiting BlogTalk in October. The more I think about it, the more I want to go. And, although the whole thing is rather cheap and I can probably afford it myself, I can already see about three ways to make others pay for me. I love having a choice.
Career path
All three of my primary Computer Science professors have left the college and are working for the public sector (read: goverment schools) now. That’s like being retired (not to be confused with “retarded”. Not just yet, at least) – shorter working day, much less load, and much better benefits.
I personally don’t feel like I could ever work like they are doing now, but I am much younger than they too. I wonder if my views on this particular issue will change with time.