I’m noticing that the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress is kind of a black box. Maybe it’s working, maybe not. You post and hope something shows up.
Of course if there was a dialog that came up confirming what was done it wouldn’t help much if nothing showed up on the other end.
↬mastodon.social/deck/@prealpinux@500.social/113272822696914698
While I don’t mind using the built-in editor, I have to say Ulysses App was a game changer on several levels. I’m not sure I can articulate why, but it gets me writing when I otherwise wouldn’t.
↬mastodon.social/deck/@james@bne.social/113271504378614171
Once in a while I get the bug for shortwave listening. But the pragmatic side of me clobbers the nostalgic side with “Why are you listening to this iffy signal when it’s just web click away?” Of course, not everything on the radio is on the web.
This morning, really a few times over the last few days, I’ve had this rush of nostalgia for the days when I was leasing a Rackspace server.
For some reason it’s really attractive…the freedom & possibility of being able to put up whatever site or idea came to mind. Want to make something in Ruby on Rails? Just install it & build it!
Of course as I said the other day, I could turn my back on it for maybe a month or so (it felt like) before one of the WordPress sites was down, but the server itself didn’t get clobbered. I think I’m not remembering all of the nuisance work I had to do.
Having just signed with WordPress.com there’s a voice in my head that’s saying that putting sites back on a self-hosted server is like wanting to get back together with an old meth-addicted girlfriend not because of the sex but because she managed the finances so well.
So this morning as I was trying to figure out which day I’d made a recording on an went looking through the various directories of files I’d pulled off the Deity PR-2, I realized that the lack of dates in the file names it creates are a real problem.
It’s not a unique problem, it’s common on equipment made for the film industry where everything is apparently named “scene name”-“take number” stuffed into a directory with a date name. The problem is for us who aren’t filming scenes and takes, it’s all too easy to end up with multiple directories filled with files with the same name. Sure, it’s no big deal for the film people but it get’s confusing as hell when you:
a. Dump the files into iTunes, or
b. Look at them in Soundly, or
c. Pull several of them into an editor
Ugh. Do the people who make these products ever use them?
I’d chosen the Deity PR-2 over the Zoom F2-BT because it seemed like a nicer unit, but the Zoom not only has the ability to add notes to files but also allows them to have date names. And film types can also do word+index.
The SoundDevices MixPre recorders have the same problem, but at least there you can easily change the filename from the bluetooth app, and you can do it while it’s recording or after the fact. Deity’s app is nowhere near that capable.
Went for a walk and recorded my thoughts on the blogging tools available in 2024, and how well they fit for folks doing a general purpose personal blog.
How do they handle multiple topics, integration with the Fediverse, Value 4 Value?
Is WordPress still the best option?
Hey Mastodon people – what is the best practice when one has a blog, which is connected to Mastodon via ActivityPub, and one also has a regular user?
The user came first, so I have a few followers. The blog is newer. I would just send everything via the blog, but there’s no way to respond to someone else’s toot via the blog. So I still have both accounts. That seems silly though.
How are other folks handling this?
A while back I got a LOM Geofon, which is a contact mic with a few attachments. It came as a kit and I got it assembled (really, just soldering a few connections) and it was fun to use. Except for the stiff, noisy cable.
I replaced it with Mogami 2552, and I get less handling noise now. Nice! There might be thinner, limper cable out there, but this stuff was an improvment.
Is there such a thing as Value 4 Value blogging?
If you haven’t heard of it, but you probably have, Value 4 Value is a monetization method where you simply ask the consumers of your content to contribute back in one or more of three ways: Time, Talent, or Treasure. The amount is what they feel the content is worth.
This is gaining traction mainly on YouTube and Podcasting, but I don’t see why it couldn’t work in blogging as well. Except that it requires a slightly different form & call to action from a normal subscription.
Anyone know of a blog that’s doing Value 4 Value?
Anyone else found themselves in this vicious cycle?
I think about sharing what I’m doing, what I’m learning, or whatever.
So I think about how – where, what site, what channel. Then I feel pressured to “create value” and to make it worth my viewer/visitor’s time. Because, only the best is good enough for them.
So I do nothing instead.
In the “good old days” I didn’t care a wink. Just wrote and published and had fun. Somehow I got infected and the fun went away. How did that happen?