Aarons got a new plug: WP-Macros…..damn fine idea Aaron.

Yep, the first pick of Microsoft’s you-beaut Origami has leaked (photo via Origami Portal)

My question is this? is it left handed? the mouse like device is situated on the left hand side. Now I’m left handed but I use a mouse right handed, but I know other left handed people who prefer a mouse on the left hand side. Why would Microsoft put the mouse style controller on the left? I mean with all due respect to right handed people, they’re hardly known for being ambidextrous now are they?

And people though The Blog Herald was a big sale! Check this out.

– BE is approaching 50,000 members
– We have served 22 million visits via surfing blogs and millions of others across the site
– BE signs up on average 100-150 new members per day
– BlogExplosion has over 1 million listings in Google
– We are ranked #4714 on Alexa and trending in the right direction

Any guesses on numbers? I’m guessing $250k. There’s no mention of revenue though so if they aren’t makeing say $10k a month expect less, although a db of 50k would have to be worth, at a minimum, of $3-$4 per subscriber….

Just moving servers (again) today, I’ve got my nice new dedicated box set up at webnx, and what do I discover? that the new version of WSFTP allows server to server ftp transfers, do I don’t have to download the blog then upload it again…..about time to!

I just noticed it’s the 1st of March. What happened to summer? Sure, a couple of hot days, and a did spend an hour swimming yesterday at the beach (it was mighty fine I’d add), but now it starts to get cold! WTF??? weird summer, weird year 🙂

WSJ via Business Blog Consulting:

My bet: Within a couple of years blogging will be a term thrown around loosely ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and sometimes inaccurately ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ¬ù to describe a style and rhythm of writing, as well as the tools to publish that writing.

Already very true. The stupid Gallop poll these latest “blogs are dead, have hit their peak” stories have come from didn’t actually ask the people if they knew what a blog was, nor tracked what they viewed, where as other polls have found that heaps of people read blogs and yet dont realise they are reading blogs.

I’ve always been a big supporter of concepts such as “the blogosphere”, however in the bigger picture, blogs and blogging is already becoming irrelevant because blogs are going mainstream, and people often see them as just websites and visit them for the content….as they really should.

Of course, unlike that twit CEO over at WebProNews (hmmm, no threatening emails this week Rich, I feel left out!) blogs are not just websites (although of course they are websites), think of them as a supercharged website. The CMS behind blogs, and their general structure makes them different, and yet collectively they are all the same on the surface…in that they are websites. It’s a bit like saying Glenfidich is just another Scotch.

Gotta love this: Technorati v Google. I’ll give it to Dave Sifry, thinking big works, even if Technorati will never be bigger than Google in my lifetime why aim at the bottom when you can aim to be the best.

I called out Steve the other week about being wrong about RSS (and a whole pile of people disagreed with me…) but I’ve got to balance the ledger, so I’ve found something that I couldn’t agree with more: It’s Not About the Traffic.

Writes Steve:

See, anytime a blogger thinks blogging is just about getting more traffic then I really question why they’re in it. I lose my trust in them because I think they’re baiting me (which in this case, Copyblogger did). What’s more, I certainly don’t see any need to establish a closer bond by opting into their feed.

My suggestion is that if you’re blogging solely for building Web traffic and Google Juice, go build a Web site and advertise it on Google instead. Blogs are about being part of a community. Join it, add value to it, but don’t focus on the traffic.

It goes back to sayings such as all good things come to those who wait. There was another saying as well, along the lines of your return is only as good as the work you put in. The work you put in, in blogging terms anyway, includes being part of the community as well. Too many people these days focus on traffic and ignore the other fundamentals of blogging, sure, sometimes you do get a lot of traffic this way, but it’s nothing that will set you up in the longer term.

so it would seem:

From RSF:

Reporters Without Borders said it had obtained a copy of the court verdict against Li Zhi (below), a former official jailed for eight years in December 2003, confirming that US firm Yahoo! collaborated with the prosecution, as did local competitor, Sina.

“The Li Zhi verdict shows that all Internet sector companies are pulled in to help when the police investigate a political dissident,” the press freedom organisation said.

“It is unacceptable that US firms should turn themselves into auxiliaries of a government that systematically tramples on the rights of Internet-users to freedom of expression,” it said.

“Yahoo! should urgently withdraw its content and email servers from this country before further requests of this kind are made of it. The fact that it operates in China through a local partner, Alibaba, does not in any way absolve it of its ethical responsibilities,” said the organisation.

The verdict showed that Yahoo! Hong Kong Ltd and Sina Beijing had supplied information confirming that Li Zhi had set up an email account using their services. It did not however say if the content of messages he sent or received had been handed over to the courts.

It also showed that a local telecommunications agency had helped the authorities find Li Zhi’s address and telephone number, based on the IP address used to access Yahoo! and Sina email boxes.

Some of Li’s emails and transcripts of his discussions on forums on Sina.com formed part of the charges drawn up by the National Security Bureau. The verdict also quoted an article that was posted on his personal website, hosted by Muzi.com, headlined “Why is China lagging behind?”

Chinese police made use of “witnesses” to confirm that Li was putting the Internet to subversive use. One of them revealed that the official had asked his advice on how to get round online censorship.
Li was accused of getting in touch via the Internet with Xie Wanjun, head of the banned China Democracy Party. A membership form was apparently also found on his computer.