Web-HTML Site News at A.P.Lawrence.com

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

Misunderstanding Wave

Web-HTML,Blogging,Advertising 2009/11/02

There are people who don't understand Google Wave. There are people who don't like Google Wave. There are people who do understand Wave, and people who do like it. Most of those who don't like it just don't understand it, but even a few who do understand still don't like it.

Most (maybe even all) of the complaints you'll hear about Wave are gripes about problems that obviously will be fixed as this progresses out if its current "Preview" stage. Most of the complaints are also client-side implementation issues that have nothing whatsoever to do with the underlying concepts. You need to keep that in mind when listening to negative comments.

One of the most important things to understand about Wave is that anyone can create a Wave server or a Wave client. You can go to http://google.com/wave to use Google's web based client, but I and many other Mac users use Waveboard, a third party Wave client. If you Google for "google wave client", you'll find many other clients. Doing a search for "google wave servers" doesn't yield quite so much, but I did spot at least one, and as time goes on there will be more. Although I and others often refer to "Google Wave", in fact the idea is that Wave servers will be like SMTP servers: anybody can run one and your Wave server will happily talk to any other Wave server.

Let's have a look-see at some of the griping.

Interactive Chat is distracting

Google Wave is IM squared. Not only do you see what the other person is typing, but if there are many people involved in the Wave, you see all of them typing, back-spacing, correcting things - the screen jumps around and it can all be very annoying.

The biggest problem there is the jittery screen. That is, of course, a client side issue - nothing says you HAVE to have the screen updated in real time. And nothing says you have to participate in a Wave that has dozens of people actively typing. One of the truly beautiful things about Wave is the "replay" ability - you can come back when all the excitement has died down and run through the whole thing step by step at your own pace.

I have confidence that client-side issues like this will be fixed, and soon.

It's sloooowwww

If a lot of people are in a Wave, it does get slow. That feels like a client side issue to me - just don't try to show all that activity at the same time. Buffer it up and display it when things calm down a bit.

Big Waves Break

Early adopters are finding that large Waves crash and burn. It's not hard to split off and start another Wave, but that needs to be fixed. I don't know if that's client side, server side or a general weakness in the protocol, but it needs fixing. Again: Preview release.

Difficult Contact Management

When I first got Wave, I found my contacts list populated with people who already have Wave accounts. These people were apparently people I know, or at least have had email correspondence with. I use Gmail, so Google probably pulled them from there.

I don't recognize half the people on that list.

The reason is simple enough: their Wave account doesn't match whatever I know them as. Google knows them, and knows the connection between that account and whatever email I know them as, but Google doesn't let me see that connection.

Presently, you can't organize your Wave contacts into groups. Obviously that's a necessary and useful feature and justas obviously it WILL be added. But right now? Nope.

Broken features

Remember, this is a "Preview". Sometimes things that are supposed to work get balky. Sometimes your Client loses contact with its server. Sometimes just plain weird stuff happens. For example, I had marked a Wave as "public", which means that anyone can see it and add to it. The darn thing kept losing its public status. It seems to be OK now, but that's annoying.

You can find my public waves by searching (in Wave) for "with:public creator:pcunix"

Spammers

It's unclear how the problem of misbehaving people will be dealt with. Right now, if you add someone to a Wave, you can't take them off easily or even just block their messages from your view. In a public Wave, any idiot can join the conversation and you can't filter them out. People can add objectionable 'bots to your Waves - somebody added Eliza Robot to one of my public Waves. I was able to delete that, but this kind of nonsense does happen and we will need ways to prevent it.

Unwanted Invitations

The matter of you being added to Waves you don't want to be part of is a common complaint, but there's a simple fix - just "mute" the Wave and it won't bother you again. The mute function moves the Wave out of your inbox and ignores any updates that would bring it back to your attention. If you ever change your mind, you can drag it back to your inbox, but otherwise it has been gagged and silenced.

Just don't understand it

I've talked to people who think Wave is IM. Others think it is email. Still others think it's a Wiki.

It is all of that, and more. Some people, stuck in their false perceptions, may never see the reality. I think as more of us start using Wave, the confused nay-sayers like Robert Scoble will eventually understand.

Just this morning one of my Wave contacts posted a new Wave about using a Wave as a Technical information log. He says:

Trying to visualize how the different elements stitch together is often almost as hard as starting from scratch. The more I play with waves the more it really seems like a one stop shop for interfacing to information.

He has the right idea. Robert Scoble may not understand yet, but others do. The Waves are coming!

Comments: Click Here.

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

My first Waves

Web-HTML,Blogging,Advertising 2009/10/31

Thanks to one of our readers (thanks again, Donal) I got a Google Wave invitation Friday morning. By the way - if someone says they have sent you an invitation, you may have to wait: Donal said that he had sent that invitation on Monday. I don't know if Google is just slow in processing these or if they are deliberately doling them out slowly (probably the latter), but once you actually get your invite, you can be up and working in minutes.

I started out using Wave in my Firefox browser, but quickly switched to Waveboard, a Mac Wave client. It's not that it's all that much better than running Wave in a browser; it's just that I like having it in its own Dock icon.

I created a few waves and soon had a few conversations going with other Wave users who I added to the Waves. My contacts as supplied by Google seem to be people from my Gmail contacts who also have Wave accounts. I recognize only about half of them, though: probably because they used a different name in email than they do in Wave.

My first conversation was with Donal, thanking him for the invitation. That could have just as easily been done in email or chat, of course; there was no specific reason to use Wave. However, in the next conversation, Wave was useful.

I had started a Wave titled "Until everyone can use this, sure is useless :-)", in which I lamented my inability to bring in people who don't currently have Wave accounts. I have uses in mind for Wave, but without being able to add in non-wave users, I can't do anything useful. I added in everyone in my Contacts list and a few comments soon came.

One of the people happened to be someone I do business with and his appearance reminded me that there was something I wanted to talk to him about. We started doing that in a "private" conversation within the existing wave, but then realized that it was better to spawn it off to a new Wave. That's very easy to do and is an advantage of Wave over Mail and Chat - not that you can't peel off from either, but it's easier in Wave.

I also started a "public" Wave. That's a Wave that anyone can join (assuming you have already been blessed with a Wave account). You create a public Wave by adding "public@a.googlewave.com" to the list of people you want to be able to read the Wave. With that, it's now open to the world. Presently, there is no way to post a link to a public Wave; you have to search within Wave to find them. For example, to find my Wave, you'd search for "with:public Tony Lawrence's Unix, Linux and Mac OS X Tips".

Click for larger image

Note that it's perfectly possible to insert advertising into your Waves. I did that here with simple text links, but you could put in Javascript with a Wave Gadget. How long before there's an Adsense Gadget? I'd guess not very long.

I started another Wave called "Will Wave replace Email?". I opined:

For SOME email conversations, Wave is much better. The problem (for mail) is that you don't necessarily know ahead of time that a conversation would be better in Wave. So... once this is ubiquitous and we all understand that, we might just start using Wave instead of email at the beginning of a conversation?

Two people have commented on that so far. One said:

If Google is going to succeed with this they're going to have to do two things.

1. Make it so user@googlewave.com is a real e-mail address that can be used by anyone. Regular e-mails sent to these addresses will automatically turn into Waves for the Wave user.

2. Make it so that a Wave user can create a wave and add people to it that use regular e-mail. Waves will get sent to standard e-mail users as regular messages and get sorted into threads the way their e-mail client chooses to do it.

I suspect that's exactly what will happen. A Wave isn't always better than email, but sometimes it is and you don't necessarily know at the beginning of a conversation that it would be better as a Wave. For example, suppose that halfway through a long back and forth email discussion you need to bring someone else in. With email, you'd have to forward all the prior messages - that can be tough for the recipient. With Wave, you just bring them in and they can replay the previous messages step by step if they want to. That's a powerful advantage over email and it's why, if this does become ubiquitous, many of us will probably just use Wave instead of email.

That could really change things, couldn't it?

Comments: Click Here.

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

Help, I'm disappearing!

Web-HTML 2009/10/29

When we first moved here, our address didn't exist in Google Maps, nor could anything but dirt be seen in the satellite images. That changed soon enough and for some time now I've been able to plug in my home address as a starting point for directions.

A year or so ago, I started having a little trouble with that. The reason was because someone I do business with added me to a user generated map. From that point on, Google saw my address as a business address, and would react by asking "Did you mean A.P. Lawrence?". I'd just click on that and everything would be fine.

The other day I noticed that I couldn't do that. Google Maps insists that my address simply does not exist. Indeed, if I summon up a map of the town, the whole street has disappeared! It's still visible in the satellite view, as is my house and even the golf cart parked in my driveway, but the map view shows empty space.

Yahoo still knows we are here. I don't LIKE Yahoo maps, but I'm stuck with them for now. It's not all that critical; I only use these as a failsafe for my car's GPS, but it is a bit unsettling to have disappeared.

Interestingly, one of my neighbors ( who also runs a business from his home) does appear in the business listings. He's at the top of the page, even though our street no longer exists. Why is he still there but I am not? Who knows? Why does google show addresses in other States when I have specifically given both a town, a State and a zip code? How can Google have maps of a street for several years and not have them now? I do not know.

Perhaps Google knows something I do not. We are on the amorphous edges of the supposedly spooky Bridgewater Triangle ; perhaps we are slowly being sucked into another dimension? If so, it's been grand and I will write if I can.

There is a "Report a problem" link at the bottom of the Google page. I clicked on that and explained the vanishing of my street. We'll see how long it takes for Google to find us again.

Comments: Click Here.

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

I don't WANT the Internet to forget!

Web-HTML,Blogging,Security,Opinion 2009/10/23

I was listening to an NPR show about internet privacy and the "worrysome" fact that internet information lasts forever. The very forgettable guest being interviewed was harping on "forgetting" - he apparently wants us to be able to set retention dates for things the Internet knows about us. Callers chimed in with stories of real and potential embarrassment from discretions and more serious actions that their boss, their children or their spouses might accidentally discover while bumbling about the Internet. SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

I don't agree.

If you want to go digging around, you can find some "embarrassing" stuff about me on the Internet. That is, you'd find stuff that you might THINK would embarrass me and probably would embarrass whoever that "let's forget it" guy is and apparently could upset some of the people who called in all worried about something they said or did in 1994. As for me, I don't care. If you aren't smart enough to realize that EVERYBODY has skeletons in their closet, that EVERYBODY has been petty, vain, jealous, stupid, dishonest, and worse, why would I care what you think about me?

Wouldn't we all be better off if we stopped pretending that we are perfect or even close to it? I'm not saying we shouldn't strive toward not being jackasses, not doing dumb things. I'm saying we should accept that we are human, we do screw up and we and everyone else just need to get over it.

Maybe if everyone's "dirt" was always easily dredged up we could dispense with this fantasy of saintly people passing through their oh-so-perfect lives without any stain of error. Maybe if nobody could hide their indiscretions and mistakes, our children would better know how to avoid or mitigate their own?

Say it with me now: I can be a jackass and so can everyone else. I have done stupid things, cruel things, idiotic things and so has everyone else. Anyone who presents a perfect facade to the world has dirt behind the curtain and is lying to us overtly or by omission.

If I'm trying to find out what kind of person you are and I come up with nothing, what have I learned? What are the possibilities? Either you've been really sneaky and secretive or you are such a timid, inactive and uninvolved person that you've never had an opportunity to screw up. Do I really like either of those? No.

Let's stop being phony. People screw up. Maybe there are a few untainted people somewhere, but most of us wouldn't like them because they probably have no fire, no spark, nothing to make them interesting. They walk through life so carefully, so fearful of error - what clods!

So no, I don't want the internet to forget anything about me. I want it all preserved forever. I want my future relatives to be able to learn things about me that I can't learn about my ancestors. I want future historians to have a treasure trove of data that will tell them societal secrets that are almost never known about past generations. I don't WANT the Internet to forget!

Comments: Click Here.

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

How to Make Money (for me) Blogging

Web-HTML,Blogging,Advertising 2009/10/17

I was reminded of my rather strong opinions of Blogging Gurus by a recent Twitter conversation where The Deep Friar contrasted paying $5,000.00 to fix his roof with paying the same amount to some Internet Guru for 10 hours of "advice". I kindly offered to spend 10 minutes with him for the same amount, which is an astounding 98.33% savings of his time!

Needless to say, he hasn't taken me up on this. Why should he, when he can find everything I have to say right here for free? Oh, I do sell a book - Hard Truths about Easy Money on the Internet - but there's nothing in there that you can't find somewhere here for free. NOTHING. The only difference is that the book is organized better, and for that I charge a whopping $14.95.

According to many of the Internet Gurus, I should charge much more (after all, THEY do!). There's even one guy who makes a living teaching you how to OVERCHARGE for whatever you happen to be selling. Of course he overcharges for his advice about overcharging and actually tells you that he is doing just that!

If you are going to pitch a book or a course, you are also supposed to have a "ramp-up". That's where you tease your followers with what is to come, and give them special, early-bird discounts (discounts off your overpriced book, of course). Long before this, you've been slavishly sucking up to bigger bloggers and making back-room deals with some Big Names. Those deals might be as crass as a cash payment or as simple as a few dozen guest posts on their blogs in exchange for the Big Name helping to whip up the suckers - umm, faithful readers - into a buying frenzy. Make a really good deal, and the Big Name might even co-author your work! Wow, THAT should jack up sales!

And what is your book/course about? Why, how to sell a book or course on how to sell a book or course, of course. Very recursive and almost Zen-like, isn't it? It's the circle of life, my friend, and you can be part of it!

Where to start? Well, you COULD buy one of those over-priced books or courses. If I can be serious for a moment (and it's hard to be so when discussing such a snake-oil business), you actually CAN find good advice that way. You'll find nothing that you could not find for free, but like my book, it will be packaged up and will save you time. Is it worth it?

Ah, there's the question, isn't it? I'd guess that you could get a pretty good basic education on Making Money With Blogging in a couple of hours on the Internet. All free stuff. Since you happen to be here right now, I invite you to click on the "Advertising" index at the top of the left column accompanying this page. You should also scan through the "Blogging" index. You can Google (or Bing if you must) for "Make Money Blogging". Unfortunately, that's going to give you a lot of people who want to make money by telling you how to make money (circle of life again), but there will be free stuff mixed in.

If your time is worth a few thousand dollars an hour, then you should feel free to snap up a few of the over-priced books and courses. THEY ARE BETTER THAN THE $14.95 books like I sell. Better in that they are undoubtedly prettier, have more charts and pictures and may even come with notebooks and DVD's! Very exciting stuff, indeed.

Also, you'll pay a lot for them, so they MUST be worth more. Pay no attention to what I said about the guy who teaches bloggers how to overcharge. No, the stuff YOU bought is worth it!

If your time is worth a bit less, but still valuable, you might want to seek out a few books like mine. There will be tremendous overlap, of course, but we all tell stories in different ways, and a particular work might just grab you and be more helpful than another. Or a chapter from here, a chapter from there and a sentence or two from the other might all add up to great inspiration for you.

Just remember this: Nobody is going to tell you anything you can't find for free. I don't care if they are charging you $50,000 or $5.00, whatever they have to say is sitting out in plain sight for you to read.

So there it is. Feel free to read more, or if you'd like to help keep me off Social Security a few more years and thereby leave more for yourself later, you can buy my book. Or send me $5,000.00, your phone number, and when you'd like to have our 10 minute conversation. Ask about reasonably priced additional 10 minute blocks when we first talk because sometimes I forget to mention that.

Comments: Click Here.

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

Misunderstanding Wave

Web-HTML,Blogging 2009/10/15

I'm still waiting for my Google Wave invitation, but I have been reading blogs and posts from people who have gotten theirs (#@!*#$!!), and I'd say most of them have failed to see what the value is here.

Wave is NOT going to replace email. Some people have fretted about that and even become quite upset. That's not what it's for.

Wave isn't going to replace blogging either - although it could become important as a discussion tool. It could replace comments in some situations.

Wave is a collaboration tool. For example, I might start a Wave for our community computer club. I'd post announcements, pictures, and members could comment and add material. Any club could use Wave in the same way - it's an electronic club meeting.

Obviously small groups working on projects could use a Wave to swap ideas, even to actually work on the task. By the way, LifeHacker groks Wave and that link has many good examples of how groups are using Wave right now. Reading those should give you ideas about the real value of Wave.

I think that certain subjects here could benefit from a Wave approach, too. I'm looking forward to experimenting - whenever I finally can!

Comments: Click Here.

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.

Confirmation of Adsense Theory

Advertising,Blogging,Web-HTML 2009/10/13

I always have wondered how Google Adsense reporting really works, and suspected that multiple machines gather data and report it back to a central location in batches. A recent website crash helped confirm that theory.

What happened is that APLawrence.com crashed today for 90 minutes. The last entry in the logs prior to the crash was 13/Oct/2009:14:14:18 (GMT) and the first after that was at 13/Oct/2009:15:45:23 - we were completely down during that interim.

And yet, checking Adsense reports during that time period showed an increasing number of page impressions. There's only one explanation for that: multiple machines are tracking and reporting in batches. That's hardly unexpected - I can't imagine how Google could do this any other way - but it is interesting to confirm it.

Keep that in mind when looking at Adsense reports - they aren't necessarily current and there may be more data to come even if your website is dead.

Comments: Click Here.

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them.