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I’ve typed some variation of this sentence dozens of times over the past few hours, yet typing it again still feels very odd: Today is my last day at Laptop Magazine. Yep, I’m leaving my post as News Editor after almost exactly two years in that position. No, I am not going to This Is My Next like all the other cool kids.
I’ll be writing for Notebooks.com/GottabeMobile as well as Android Central and some other media outlets as the opportunity arises. Still covering the same stuff: mobile technology, accessories, apps, all that. Not going far, really. I’m really excited about these new opportunities and can’t wait to get to know the communities around these sites even better.
Moving on from Laptop wasn’t an easy decision. Over the past 3+ years I’ve had the chance to meet and work with some wonderful people. And I’ve learned so much about writing and what it means to be a journalist from my editors and fellow writers.
When I started there back in 2008 I thought I had the best job in the world: creating and producing web content all day? Blogging for a living? Getting to try out every new laptop, phone, and other mobile gadget that came through the office? Sweet! What I didn’t realize at the time was that I would get the chance to do so much more, with constant encouragement from everyone around me. I will forever be grateful to the folks at Laptop for giving me the opportunity to grow, particularly Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer and Online Editorial Director Avram Piltch. Thanks for all the fish :)
Today I turn in my final review and write my last blog post. Tonight I party with my friends. Tomorrow I sleep in. Next week I move on to the next big thing. See you there.
I know that I’ve neglected this blog for a long time. It’s mostly due to being so busy at work. But since it was time to dump my old theme — which was pretty, but a complete mess code-wise — I decided to reinvigorate the blog and get a new design going.
I can’t take credit for all of this as I’m using a pre-made theme, but I’ve added some of my own flourishes to it and brought over a few elements from the old theme. I think this is much cleaner, though, and more readable. The last thing I need to do is get the front page sorted so it’s static, then move the blog part to it’s own section. A friend is helping me set that up now.
I also added a new theme to my Tumblr blog (yep, back to using that again, too). It doesn’t match what’s here, but I think it’s spiffy enough. I’m also going to start crossposting between Tumblr and the blog again now that I understand better how Tumblr works. I won’t crosspost everything, though. Just a few posts that I want to highlight. I still wish there was a decent Tumblr crossposting plugin.
Other than that, I’ve got my Twitter all set, my Facebook in order, and even a profile over at GDGT. Once the front page of this site is done I think I can stop with the fiddling and finally get down to posting some content.
Web design is hard.
I was having a conversation with a co-worker recently about different kinds of laptop roundups we might do in the future similar to what we did here for web designers. One of the roundups I suggested was Laptops for Writers, which was met with some skepticism. What would make one laptop or another better for a writer? she asked. The first thing that came to mind was portability. I only bought my first netbook because I wanted something I could write with that didn’t weigh too much so I could carry it around all day.
Beyond that, what other attributes does the perfect writing laptop have? Good keyboard is a given. Anything else?
This Christmas I gave my niece a netbook[1] and talked to her about how to care for it and online safety and stuff. What I forgot to mentioned was how to sit while using one. I’d completely forgotten about this post on GottaBeMobile about these 9 bad netbook postures. In fact, I think we were both doing that first one while chilling on the sofa and watching Animaniacs[2]. I’m a bad example, just like always.
I wish this study came with 9 good postures for using netbooks, as it would be helpful to know.
Notes
It’s Friday. Have a meta picture of me holding a laptop with a picture of me holding a laptop with a picture of me holding…
And no, Photoshop was not involved. Well, except for cropping.
I thought that when I left my job working for a fashion magazine behind I wouldn’t have to care about Fashion Week anymore. But given that tech companies seem to think that FW is a great time to introduce new gadgets to the world, I’m starting to fear that I’ll be covering events over at Bryant Park in the near future. The increasing partnership of fashion and mobile tech isn’t completely unwelcome, but I have little patience for the number of waify models lying around on couches wearing tons of makeup and holding netbooks like works of art. Yes, it’s pretty, but can I use it?
The idea of a netbook as an accessory to your busy or even not-so-busy life is a fine one. But the Samsung promo video I posted over on LAPTOP’s blog today has me truly mystified.
Brad Linder claims that it’s supposed to highlight the netbook’s all-day longevity. Could have fooled me. All it seems to highlight is that model’s ability to stretch her lanky body and possibly to warn young ladies from trusting that their boyfriends will pick them up at the train station as promised. Seriously, go look (and please comment there, I am eager to watch you all apply your creative minds to the plot and message).
When I compare that video to this one Nokia did for their new netbook, I find myself much more drawn to the Booklet 3G. This video tells me what this device is, what it does, what makes it special, and even includes some heart-tugging music that somehow makes me want it even more.
But if we must have models, here’s what I’d like to see: women actually using netbooks in some way that shows off what netbooks are good for while providing the eye candy that someone is convinced consumers need. That way it appeals to those of us to buy tech for what it does and those of us who buy anything because hot women are peddling it.
I was reading this piece at the Financial Times (registration might be required) about the Microsoft/Yahoo alliance. Toward the bottom the Yahoo folks explained how turning their search technology over to Microsoft would yield benefits for both companies:
For example, a search for Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez might return the standard Microsoft results but also up-to-date batting statistics from Yahoo’s leading sports site and tabloid stories from Yahoo News partners.
Personally, I would find this annoying. But then I think I do less random searching and far more targeted searching than the people this kind of thing is aimed for. I’m less likely to search for a celebrity because I want to see what’s up with them lately, I usually hunt for specific information. So if my search for George Clooney turns up a whole bunch of random stuff — the latest tabloid headline about him, reviews of his newest movie, and stats for how many women he’s slept with — I’m going to be annoyed at that search page.
This is why I think Google dominates more than anything else. Yes, the adwords ads and paid search results can be annoying (and also hilarious), but otherwise the search pages are just results, which is what I want. I don’t want a web of inter-related information.
I wonder if I’m alone?
Comparing the Google approach to the one Yahoo will offer, which do you prefer? Is one more helpful in your everyday searching than the other?
I was just obsessively checking my stats (I do this often) and saw one of my incoming links was from a surveymonkey survey. Clicking the link, I came to a U of Florida master’s student survey on how blogs impact brands. The brand in question? Samsung laptops. At one point, the survey links to this blog and asks participants to look through it. Then participants choose answers that reveal whether what they read here impacted how they felt about Samsung laptops.
Huh.
I don’t know why I find this weird. Perhaps because this blog is not that well trafficked and doesn’t have that much to say. Still, I guess it’s a compliment? Not sure.
Take the survey yourself. You’re biased, yes. But it still might be fun.
Okay, not exactly new skillz. I’m just proud of myself because last night I figured out how to add a sidebar to WordPress that only shows up on static pages. I’ve been trying to get that to work for weeks. (And now I have to go back and implement it on the resume page.)
I also updated my design portfolio with the site I implemented the sidebar on: raven.fluidartist.com. Some readers have already seen today — jewelry and such. I should have updated that site with WordPress a long time ago, but I was having trouble letting go of the design. I was actually quite proud of it – my first time implementing lists as header navigation using CSS. True this was over two years ago now, but I’m still proud. I could have used a bare-bones theme and made it look almost exactly like the site I designed, but I had to admit that it would look better with a new design that looked a bit more 2.0.
It may not escape your notice that my portfolio is not dynamic. I don’t see a reason to shove yet another wordpress install on my server for that — it’s just a couple of pages. Plus, I am proud of that design, too! Plus., I like that there’s some evidence of my roots in “old school” web design. Remember when most pages were plain-old HTML? I even had a Blogger blog at one point that I had publishing to my own domain and a custom template. I had mad skillz back in the day.
And I still do.
Mine kinda does. Spent part of yesterday tweaking the template for that page so I could stuff a resume in there. I’m quite proud of it, as it required me to put all of the various PHP elements in one file so I could make the sidebar do what I wanted. I also had to clean up the resume CSS a bit, so now it’s much more streamlined and probably a lot easier to change around without having to touch the HTML.
Every time I build something new I learn something new. It’s one of the things I like about web design.
All the content isn’t there (most notably my recent job and my freelance stuff. Not quite sure where to put that right now.) but the design is mostly set. What do you think? Have any suggestions for tweaks or changes?
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