So ever since I started this new job, I’ve been very bad at posting to my blog. It’s partially because what I’ve been working on isn’t always ready to share with you all and its partially because I’ve been busier than normal lately. I’ve been to India three times in the last few months, travelled a lot here at home and work’s been crazy.

Anyway, I’m trying (once again) to dust off the blog and start writing more. I constantly get ideas and say “I should blog about that”, so… maybe I should. 😉

To get me in the spirit, I changed WordPress themes to Subtle by Glued Ideas. I debated between this one and Glossy Blue by N. Design, i think I might just randomly switch back and forth from time to time. I like Subtle because it is based on WordPress Sidebar Widgets and incorporates FeedFlare right into it. For the first time ever, I didn’t have to crack the php code in my text editor. While WordPress still isn’t what I’d call “easy” it is getting much better.

I kept the header photo with this theme, although Subtle makes it less bright (losing a little of the luster). I took that photo on my walk to the beach in Provincetown on Cape Cod. I love the green wild grass and the lighthouse in the distance.

Anyway, I look forward to giving this a whirl again.

Well, the votes are in and it was unanimous.   You all want to see more of “angry Scott”.

The funny thing is that now that I vented a little, I’m all better.   No real desire to rant on this blog right now.   I think A-list bloggers have gotten too bitchy and its wearing on me.  I do understand the allure of the bitchy blogger.  It really did feel good to rant and get it off my chest.   As one commenter said “if you can’t rant on your own website, where can you?”.   True — too true in fact.

I want all of us just to be a little nicer, focus a little bit less about getting noticed on Memeorandum, use fewer exclamation points, avoid the phrases “___ sucks”, “if they don’t understand what we want, they’ll go out of business” and “___ is doomed to fail”.  But I can’t be too hopeful.   I am thankful for that unsubscribe button – if only I could turn off all the people who forward me bitchy posts with the obligatory “Did you see this?” intro.

Well, anyway, now back to work and back to blogging.  I’m sure my once again re-found love of positive blogging will wane again soon, and when it does I’ll be sure to share some angry Scott with you all, but until then, I’ll try to keep living up to my original goals for this blog.

 

 

Ok, so I so kinda understand why people would spam blog comments. They hope to drive traffic to their site by either increasing pagerank or getting people to click on the links. But in the last few weeks, I’ve been getting tons of very similar comment spam. They all come from different IP addresses but list a jibberish sentence in the comment:

It’s been a long time since I so enjoyed reading posts in the net. Two thumbs up! thins that excited you at 14, substances that cure you , my parents didnt told me about it

Those last 3 phrases have links that go to Sun, Adobe, Panasonic and Yahoo! None of these companies (I hope) would be hiring someone to increase their PR, so I’m completely baffled as to what’s going on.

The only crazy idea I can come up with is that the spammers are using some sort of learning technique to figure out what will go through filters and what will get blacklist. Once they learn the technique, then they swap the URLS? Does anyone know?

I haven’t been writing for the past few days partly because I’ve been travelling and partly due to a configuration problem with my blog. All my permalinks and friendly URLs were 404’ing, including my RSS feed. All is fixed again…

I’ve been blogging in one way or another for a couple of years, but every blog (until this one) has been a place to keep in touch with my friends and family or simply record things that I would otherwise forget about. My first blog was a travelogue, recording every detail about trips I took and places I visited so I could recall them when friends asked. My second blog is still (kinda) active and lives on Yahoo! 360. That blog is really for my friends and family and of late has focused on the work I’m doing on my backyard patio (exciting huh?).

So now comes this new blog. This time, I’m trying something new – a blog that might actually be read by people I don’t know personally (yet). And I’ll likely focus on more stuff about my professional life and the tech and internet industry at large.

My goals for this blog:

• Write down my thoughts – I constantly am thinking about things, but they are “in one ear and out the other”. I’d like to have an excuse and a place to capture those
• Be a better writer – they say that to become a better writer you need to write more. so there.
• At least two posts a week – ok, so I’m aiming low, but I want to actually make it past my third post

What you’ll see here:

• Things I’m learning about, especially more on being an effective manager
• Things I’m questioning – I’d love to pose questions and get thoughts from you all
• Bragging about my coworkers – there is so much cool stuff happening at work that I would love to share
• Notable stuff in the tech/internet industry – I won’t usually be the first to point things out, but hopefully I’ll add an interesting thought or two.

What you won’t see here:

• Secret stuff about Yahoo! strategy or what could potentially become strategy – I’m a bit paranoid about sharing something that competitors might use to our disadvantage.
• Trashing my company, competitors or other companies – enough people are good at that, I’ll try to focus on the good stuff (although sometimes I won’t be able to contain myself)

Anyway, i’ve written enough, I hope you enjoy what you read here and more importantly, I hope you join the conversation. Use that comment form down there 😉