Have used the free blog available on Bloglines to set up a link blog. Basically for stuff that catches my eye and I might want to see later, but which I can’t be bothered to comment on properly over here.
Dave
Blog Client?
One thing I would like to have in my ideal blogging tool is a client that sits on my PC, enabling me to write posts and things, which could then be uploaded when I connect to the internet. WordPress doesn’t offer this, sadly, but given that I spend all day at work, where I can’t install software anyway, it’s academic. Oh, to work from home!
Anyway, I have come up with a modest solution, which is to have a Notepad file open all the time called ‘blognotes’. I type in my posts as I think of them, along with the time that I wrote it. It’s then a case of copying and pasting them into WordPress when I get the chance, altering the timestamp as necessary.
This also has the advantage that posts get reviewed, which means I don’t end up posting something really stupid. Possibly. One thing I have noticed though, is that when copying and posting from Notepad, turn off word wrap before you do it (from the Format menu). Otherwise your line breaks can go a little crazy.
Portable PCs
I am really getting settled down now with the various systems I have put together. I really like using gmail for, duh, my email, and the Yahoo! calender is coming in very handy. I am pretty confident, having thought about it, that I am going to put the webmail notes hack into place, and of course I really like WordPress as a blog engine, and am settled into Bloglines for my RSS feeds for now.
The only difficulty with all of this is the fact that none of it is available without a PC. I really need to get some sort of handheld device, if only to take notes and things whilst offline. But even better would be if I could email, access my calender and post to here from an online PDA type device. Is this possible? I don’t know much about them. Plus, I haven’t any money for this kind of thing. Perhaps I should just forget about it all…
More Wasp Factory
10.15 Am now on page 132 of The Wasp Factory now, roughly the half-way point. It isn’t getting any more normal! Banks’ writing, though, is superb. He keeps it full of dark suspense, and the black humour is hilarious and horrific. I wanted to read this partly because I knew it to be somewhat macabre and it certainly hasn’t disappointed. I can imagine it being a book I would want to re-read, though obviously not exactly for pleasure…
Gmail Journal
Interesting post here on using a gmail (or indeed any free webmail account) as a journal or note-taking system. The great thing about using Gmail is of course the labels which means you can organise your notes easily. I might try using this, although I do tend to use this blog to make notes of things.
Perhaps I might use my spare Yahoo! email address for this, becuase at least then it is in the same place as my online calender and stuff. It would be easy enough to set up folders on the email account for each type of note, which I would then put in the subject header, meaning that stuff can easily be found.
I have 50 Gmail invites to give away, by the way.