Blogging from Live Mail - Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary

I just got done noodling with the Microsoft Mail Live Beta's integration with Spaces.live.com. The new 'outlook express replacement' has an option to write a blog post (or simply blog an email) directly from the mail client. Google docs offers similar functionality so I thought I'd give that a test drive too (this post was made using Google docs).

The Live Mail (beta 12.0.1184) to Live Spaces integration had a couple quirks:

(1) The title of the blog entry is changed on publication from whatever was typed (like 'thoughts on dogs') to be prefixed with the phrase "talking about...". So the post ends up as "talking about thoughts on dogs".

(2) The body of the entry, typed within a Live Mail editor much like the e-mail editor is changed on publication to be a quoted text block.

(3) The publish to blog link simply opens the browser to the web-based Spaces blog editor with the text filled in (with the changes noted above).

Maybe nice for transferring an email to a blog entry, but that can easily be done with copy and paste. Overall first impression: evolutionary, not revolutionary. That seems to be the tag line for tech this year.

Over on the Google Docs / Blogger front, there were some quirks too.

(1) Sending a document to blogger involves clicking the "Publish" tab. The user must preconfigure their blog target. If that is not done, clicking the 'publish to blog' button activates the blog target configuration dialog/webform. But you aren't done! Finishing the dialog simply configures the settings. You have to push the same button again to send off the blog post. This is all written on the screen (sort of) so if you are into reading directions, this double-pump shouldn't be a problem.

(2) Google docs offers to use the title of the document as the blog post title, or at least implies that is what it is going to do. Google docs has a 'feature' of using the first line of text in your document as the title. If you rename your document then publish, the new document name is disregarded and your post is untitled. Wierd, hard to follow, and just plain quirky.

(3) No labels support. Labels can be applied by opening the post in the blogger editor and tagging.

Bottom Line: both of these are preliminary editing tools. Some post-posting clean-up will still be required.

I Can Has CheezBurger - Code Edition

I don't know why I find ICanHasCheezBurger.com so funny, I just do. If you can read the following code, you know what I mean. If you can't, you might want to check out the site.

From another blog...

HAII
   HAS A CHEEZBURGER ITZ 1
   IM IN YR LOOP
      VISIBLE "I has dis many: " N CHEEZBURGER
      IZ CHEEZBURGER BIGGER THAN 11 O RLY?
      YA RLY
         GTFO
      NO WAI
         UP CHEEZBURGER!!1
      KTHX
   KTHX
KTHXBYE

And the book http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/lolcode.jpg

Yenching Palace closes

From an article in the Washington Post in January:
Tucked between Engine Company 28 of the D.C. fire department and a 7-Eleven known for having a mural painted across its brick wall, Yenching Palace has been a Cleveland Park landmark for more than 50 years, a place where -- in its heyday, in the 1960s and 1970s -- diplomats and movie stars dined, secrets were told, international crises were mediated.
Sometime this year, if all goes as expected, the art-deco restaurant with the lopsided "Y" in its famous neon sign on Connecticut Avenue NW is going to get a makeover. It's going to become . . . a Walgreens.

Then NowPublic.com Posted this:
One of the most notable and historic restaurants in Washington, DC, Yenching Palace, will be closing for good on June 10th. Yenching Palace opened in 1955.

Yenching Palace, located on Connecticut Avenue, NW just south of Porter Street in the Cleveland Park neighborhood, is the secret location where President John F. Kennedy's negotiators met with representatives of the Soviet Union in 1962 to prevent a war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also at Yenching Palace, Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, discussed better relations with the Chinese. After that, Yenching Palace became a popular restaurant among the diplomatic community. Kissinger dined there regularly.
Although Yenching's culinary skills and offerings haven't kept up with newer Chinese restaurants in Washington, DC, it's still very popular among Washington residents, and has a very busy delivery service. It is a much loved family restaurant among neighbors.

Yenching still boasts about their now historic reviews: "In Washington, the China watchers, basking in new found esteem, are acknowledged experts in Chinese restaurants. Their honorable selection; the Yenching Palace," wrote Time Magazine in 1967.

The inside of Yenching Palace is something out of time. There are beautiful Chinese decorations all over, and even a phone booth in the restaurant's lobby. (How many full phone booths are there left?) The booths are classically spacious and comfortable. According to rumor, these booths were bugged by the FBI.

Walgreens, the drugstore chain, has purchased the space from Yenching Palace. The storefront will change; it will be made to look like it did in 1945, or at least as much as possible. Walgreens' design is based on a single photograph from 1945. The diamond windows will remain, as will the art deco glass panels. As for the neon sign that's nearly become a Washington trademark -- that may end up in a museum.

Twitterpaited - Follow vs. Friend

Twitter is new to me and some of my clan, so here's a how-to tip on "Follow" versus "Friend".

To follow someone without making them a friend you can send “follow {username}” from your phone. On twitter it is a bit more complicated.

Here’s an example: You want to follow Fred. Fred is a friend on Janet’s page. If you go to Janet’s page and click the blue “Friends” link, you will see a list of actions (twitter calls this the ‘action menu’). One of those actions is “Follow”.

So what’s the diff between friend and follow?
Friends show up on your twitter me+friends list of tweets. When you make a friend, twitter sends an email to the person you befriended to let them know you’ve declared them a friend.

Follow messages only show up on your phone or IM client, and do not show up on your own “With Others” tweet list. The person does not appear on your friends icon list, and no email is sent to the person you are following.

Sounds creepy, why follow instead of friend?
Mainly because you may not know the person very well and just want to keep up with them for a little while to get to know them. After you’ve had a chance to get to know the person you can always make them into a friend.

Who is following me?
Send the command “followers” from your phone. Twitter will respond with a follower list.

I followed and don’t like what I see, how can I stop?
Send “leave {username}” from your phone. This works for friends too- it doesn’t “unfriend” them, it just stops their tweets from going to your phone or IM. They are still listed on your friend list.

Business Cards as Art?

Business Cards as Art?

Found on the web: A website dedicated to the art of business cards. The site describes business cards as "...little tokens of identity, with their everyday and ephemeral nature but also as a keepsake - a token of remembrance".

Decide for yourself at http://dailypoetics.typepad.com/photos/business_cards_and_other_/index.html

How to fix the blog post editor's title field.

Odd...The blog editor won't let me type in the 'Title' Field. What is up with that?

The fix seems to be to click on preview. That magically heals the unresponsive title field.

A sucky blog post, but good to know.

Follow up: It seems that the title field gets randomly disabled when blogger automatically saves a draft of the post. I've only seen it happen in FireFox, but haven't done thorough testing in other browsers.