Aug
29
2

Scooped by a Source. “‘I think you’re assuming that there is any value left in the scoop,’ wrote Jeff Jarvis, blogger and citizen journalism advocate, in an email. ‘There isn’t. You can’t control the biorhythms of news anymore. The world doesn’t much care who reported what first. Bylines matter to writers, not readers.’”

Aug
28
6

I’ve read two really good books on scaling large-scale web applications lately: Building Scalable Websites by Cal Henderson and Scalable Internet Architectures by Theo Schlossnagle. (Original titles, eh?) Both dispel common myths and misconceptions about scaling. While neither maps directly to the approaches we’re taking at Automattic, they’re both must-read for developers approaching or past the million/day pageview mark. I only wish I had more time to discuss my thoughts on the various concepts in the books—particularly Cal’s.

Aug
21
10

I’m going to be in Austin this weekend for BarCampTexas. I’ll bring lots of WordPress stickers, so find me if you want one. Anyone else going to be in Austin?

9

Scoble has been questioning the claimed numbers of MSN Spaces and somehow the conversation got sidetracked in the technicalities of “what’s a blog?” I’m not sure what Microsoft hopes to gain by inflating their numbers so much, now claiming 70 million “blogs”, but it’s interesting to note back in March they were claiming 123 million blogs users at SxSW (Flickr photo of their booth). Activity (posting, etc) stats would be far more interesting. (This is something we need to expose more, too.)

Aug
16
30

This is silly, but since the Canadians are organizing a campaign, I feel obligated to humbly request Photo Matt readers cast a vote in this poll. (For me, hopefully!) It has been noted that the picture makes me look like I’m 10 years old, when in reality I really look more like 15. You can browse Flickr latest, most interesting, or clusters for further proof. (Link updated for new round.)

5

CNET has a video on “Install a WordPress blog”, this came up at WordCamp and I think more of these would be a great idea. Here are some intro videos from EduBlogs.

Aug
14
12

“Then, when someone wants to see any of the pages on your blog, those pages are created for them dynamically, on the fly.” Sounds familiar… The new Blogger doesn’t make users wait on rebuilding anymore, nice upgrade! (What happened to all those folks saying static was the only way to scale?) That and their other new features show a real respect and sensitivity to their users, the only thing missing is an exporter. Rebuilding is so 2004.

4

Google Strict vs Google Deprecated, where the size of the homepage is reduced using standards-compliant markup. I’m guessing this isn’t a religious issue, just a personal one with whoever owns that code at Google.

7

One of the developers of Windows Live Writer on its release, and also on a WordPress.com blog. As does J.J. Allaire. Hat tip: Blog Herald.