Vlad

Google Reader added feed trends. Cool!

I’m generally not a Google fanboy. Really! Though, I do think their search is the best thing since sliced bread and Gmail is the greatest free service (just a figure of speech, nothing is free these days). And I love the Reader.

Web feeds (RSS or Atom) are great if you want to track blogs, discussions, news and web sites of all kind. I’ve been using them for some time and I have a strong feeling I’ll stick to them some more. But consuming them is a long story. In time I’ve used numerous systems. Some were desktop apps, others were web services. I’ve had my share of passing OPMLs from one program/service to another. Read more »

If you’re using WordPress to blog chances are you’ll want to see who’s reading your blog and what are the topics of interest. Enter stage left: wordpress.com stats!

The official stats plugin is wonderful and it integrates neatly into your blog’s (or your wp.com global) dashboard. It works great for people with many blogs, it works even greater if you already some wp.com blogs and some private hosted blogs. It’s hot!

But can it do more than satisfying your crave for ego bumping?

Can it help your blog? I believe so.

Here’s how: now matter how people are arriving on your blog (be it from a feed reader, a referrer link or some search engine) changes are they’ll be missing on what’s really important and interesting about your blog. If you could tell them what other people have found if interest maybe they’ll take so time and dive into those posts. Who knows, maybe you could turn them into regular visitors!

And you can do that, and it’s easy! WordPress.com stats plugin is able to give you that info. And this why I developed a stats helper plugin. It’s used right here, on this blog’s Most Visited Posts top panel.

Hope it will help you!

Here goes:

• TechRepublic
  • 11 Ways To Motivate Geeks
  • Outlook 2007 preview & review
• BoingBoing
  • Zotero – Firefox for scholars and infovores (link)
• Engadget
  • DIY HD projector
  • Clear polycarbonate car wheelzzzz
  • Microsoft supports Linux via Novell; Satan phones Gates regarding temperature (loved the title)
• Lifehacker
  • Firefox extension to remote control uTorrent (ok, the uTorrent web interface has been in public beta for a while now, but then there’s the extension)
• Yahoo! Biz
  • Cloudbreak strikes gold in Romania
    
• Google
  • Gmail mobile client (excellent, if only I could use it to get all my mobile email, via POP3)
• CNET News
  • Security hole in Visual Studio
• Google Blogoscoped
  • eBay/PayPal bombed
  • TODOs in Gmail?
• SvN
  • Cooking with comics

There were some more but my ISP ate my homework, that’s all I recovered from Drafts.

Being an avid consumer of feeds I’m dedicating a lot of time to reading through blogs and news. So why not try to sum up, maybe on a weekly basis, what catches my eyes?

Here goes:

• Boing Boing: Bulgarian foreign ministry starts blog, opens content under Creative Commons License
• Lifehacker: DIY magnetic power connector
• Joel Spolsky: The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing v3.0
• Slashdot: BitTorrent tracker admin sent to prison
• Engadget: AllOfMp3′s DRM cracked – all MP3s available for free download
• Engadget: Alienware stylish media center PC
• Techdirt: Get RIAA to drop case: hire a lawyer that defeated them before
• Lifehacker: Firefox 2.0 config tweaks – tip: add to these TinyMenu and MinimizeToTray
• Engadget (hey, I’m a big fan): Run OS X on any x86 PC – all legal but in command line
• Rondam Ramblings: Top ten geek business myths – also read Paul Graham’s 18 mistakes that kill startups
• Seth Godin: Cheaper
• Engadget: UPenn scientist create artificial retina on a silicon chip

I hope these will keep you entertained over the weekend!