Not to be dramatic or anything, but my beautiful Apple keyboard is dead. This evening, as I was sitting down to do some research for my nightly blog post, I set my glass of sugar free tropical punch Kool Aid on the desk where I always keep my drink. Only this time, nefarious forces were at work and caused my pinky finger to catch the rim of my glass, spilling the red stuff everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean on my keyboard.

So I’m writing this post on my brand new Logitech cordless keyboard, purchased on a late-night emergency trip to Wal Mart. It works well, I guess, but my old keyboard was so pretty. Let’s all have a moment of silence.

…

Regular posts resume tomorrow night.

It appears I need to revisit some things from Saturday’s Weekend Web Developer post about Wordpress. The intention of my article was to provide some tips for making the Wordpress posting experience easier for bloggers new to Wordpress.com. As it turns out, two of my tips aren’t viable for Wordpress.com for a couple of reasons.

First, the version of Wordpress available on Wordpress.com isn’t a fully functional implementation of the platform (I still think the tips are worthwhile for folks using the fully functional Wordpress platform). Wordpress.com doesn’t allow plugins or themes created from scratch. I’m sure it’s because of the potential security issues that could arise from users uploading Javascript and PHP files to their servers. This is totally understandable from their standpoint, but in my opinion, it takes away the most alluring aspect of Wordpress: it’s ability to be customized. So, my tip about adding plugins to increase the platform’s functionality is totally wrong when it comes to Wordpress.com.

Secondly, Wordpress.com doesn’t include the theme editor, so my tip about adding a couple of CSS classes to your stylesheet won’t work. There is an option to pay $15/yr for the ability to customize your stylesheet, but this just seems ridiculous. I’m going to do some more research, but based on this, I’m starting to think that Blogger is actually more customizable than Wordpress.com. I’m going to start playing with Blogger some more to see if that’s true.

In conclusion, my tune has officially been changed when it comes to Wordpress.com. (Not Wordpress.org, which is the homepage of the open source community developing the platform. I still love the fully functional platform.) I just assumed that Wordpress.com would be a full implementation of the platform, but it’s not. I tried all Friday evening and all day Saturday to sign up at Wordpress.com, but I was unable to access the site. I should have waited until I had researched the site more before I wrote about it. Lesson learned: always do your homework!

I still believe that the Wordpress platform is the best blogging engine, but Wordpress.com is a bastardized version of it. So, to all you casual, part-time, weekend bloggers, I say stick with Blogger! Wordpress.com just isn’t there yet.

A friend of mine who has been using Blogger for a few years gave Wordpress a try last week. He set up a free blog on Wordpress.com and after a few days of playing with it, decided he prefers Blogger because the posting interface is much more user-friendly than Wordpress.

My friend is extremely computer-savvy, but he’s not an html/css geek like I am. He doesn’t have the time or the patience to mess with the guts of his blog when all he wants to do is produce content. So in the interest of helping new Wordpress users create content that matches their vision, I’ve got five tips to make your posting experience easier.

1. Create your content locally.
I think most Wordpress users will agree that the default WYSIWYG editor is at best sub par. I have actually gone to great lengths to turn mine off completely to write my code from scratch. But that isn’t an option for most everyday bloggers. After playing around with a few plugins that claim to increase the default editor’s functionality, I’m unimpressed with that option. So I started doing some research about desktop applications that are basically blog-centric, fully functional WYSIWYG Web editors. There was a great article over at ProBlogger last year about the advantages of using a desktop blogging client with links to some of the more popular ones.

Unfortunately, I don’t have one to recommend, but in my research, I’ve come across tons of bloggers who vouch for them.

2. Make a plan for using images.
Since Wordpress doesn’t have a native feature to manipulate images, it can be frustrating to upload an image multiple times to get it the proper size. If you know what size your image should be before you start editing it, then this will stop being a problem. For example, my larger graphics within posts are most often 250px wide, and my smaller graphics are 115px wide. But those are just the two examples that One Thing New needs. At the very least, I would suggest determining a set width for horizontal and vertical pictures. Not only will that eliminate the need for uploading your images multiple times, but it will help your blog’s design by giving your images a uniform feel.

3. Learn a little CSS.
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It’s a type of code that tells your Web browser how to display the content on your site. And one thing that Wordpress gets right is giving you the ability to edit this code very easily. I’ll give you a couple of very useful snippets of code that can help your posts do what you want them to.

Go to Presentation > Theme Editor, and your stylesheet should be the default file that pops up. Scroll to the very bottom and add this:

.image_left { float: left; }
.image_right { float: right; }

Click to update the file. What you have done is add two “classes” that can be used to position images within your post and have the post text wrap around them. To make these work properly, you’ll have to place them properly. For example, if you want the image to be at the top right of your first paragraph like the Weekend Web Developer image is in this post you would write in the Wordpress post box:

<p><img src="yourimagename.jpg" class="image_right" />Your post text here...

This is probably a little more code monkey stuff than you were prepared for. But once you’ve created those classes, they can be used in as many posts as you want.

4. Check out Wordpress plugins.
I mentioned that I wasn’t impressed with the plugins I tried to beef up the Wordpress editor, but my search wasn’t extremely thorough. And it was by no means exhaustive. There is a vast network of developers creating free plugins to enhance the functionality of Wordpress. And with a little searching, you should be able to find some that make your life easier.

The first place to start looking is the Wordpress plugin page. There are also lists of plugins at WPPlugins.org and wp-plugins.org. Once you’ve downloaded your plugins, it’s super easy to activate them. Just upload the plugin file to your wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ folder. Then go to the Plugins tab from your Wordpress dashboard, and there should be a list of plugins with the option to activate or deactivate them. Simple.

5. Pick a new theme.
One of the best things about Wordpress is its ability to be customized (something that seems to be a bit more difficult at Blogspot). If you don’t like the default behavior of your blog, the problem might be in your theme’s stylesheet. Check out Wordpress Theme Viewer for a massive amount of themes that have all kinds of default functionality. Chances are there will be a theme out there with the exact set of features you want.

I hope this article has given you some helpful tips about improving your experience with Wordpress. Familiarity and ease of use are strong factors when considering what blogging platform to use, and I understand sticking with what you know. But I encourage all you burgeoning bloggers to give Wordpress a try.

The other day, I mentioned a particular idea in this article by Joshua Porter at Bokardo: Everything is beta. In his terms, he means that his blog is an arena where unrefined or partial thoughts can gel into more cohesive ideas and arguments. I’ve been thinking a lot about that idea this week, and I think that this concept can be applied to everything everything and not just to blogging.

Traditionally, a beta release was a step in the release cycle of software. When the developers of a particular piece of software decided to stop adding new features, they would release a beta candidate for users outside of their development group to kick the tires and make sure everything was working properly. With the advent of the open source movement and the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, a more collaborative, dynamic publishing platform for applications surfaced, and some companies chose to make the software release cycle transparent, leaving their applications in a state of perpetual beta.

Google’s Gmail is a great example of this. Gmail is a fully functional application for the Web, but Google constantly adds new features and refines existing ones. They’ve had the “beta” tag on the Gmail site for years, but the service isn’t unfinished or unpolished. With Gmail, Google has skipped the traditional model of software release and acknowledged that their application will continue to evolve and grow. Gmail will never be finished, and because of the capabilities of Web technology, it never has to be.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. Life is in a state of perpetual beta release, too. Think about who you were a year ago and think about who you are now. Chances are you don’t think of yourself as Me 1.0 and Me 2.0. More likely, you see yourself as the same person now as you were then but with new experiences: Me_beta.

So, how can some of the themes of Web 2.0 help your Life 2.0 in its state of perpetual beta (bullet points are borrowed from this excellent article by Tim O’Reilly)?

1. Trusting users as co-developers
Now more than ever before, humans are constantly connected to each other. We’ve got cell phones and text messages, emails and blogs, and a plethora of Web applications created to keep up the conversation. (I’m looking at you Myspace.) As you interact with people, you learn and grow in ways you never could on your own. So don’t shy away from these services. Start participating and change the folks you come in contact with as much as they’ll change you.

2. Software above the level of a single device
Don’t be limited by one track. For example, I’ve got an English degree, and I’ve managed to become a Web developer. Specialization is still necessary, but let yourself become conversant in other disciplines. Become cross-browser compliant!

3. Lightweight user interfaces
At its most basic, Google is a logo and a search box. But beneath that simple surface is a devastatingly complex core. Translation: don’t be lured in by the trappings of the superficial. Look beneath the surface of things for their value. And conduct yourself in the same way. Be direct. Be simple. And be amazing.

4. The Perpetual Beta
This one is simple: try new things. You are you. That is your core service. But you should continually add features. Develop a love of French cinema. Learn how to sail. Start lifting weights. Or, in a business context, voluntarily add skills to your basic skill set. The beta testing of your life should continue until you die (Me 3.0?). Otherwise you’ll wind up just another stale version of MS Office languishing on a shelf at Staples.

Life is a precious gift, but it’s also a responsibility. If you live in a state of perpetual beta, you’ll be able to squeeze every ounce of worth out of it.

Once upon a time, I was a cool kid. My days revolved around finding new music and playing new music and learning about music. But those days have taken a back seat for me recently as I try to get my adult life in order. The realities of a mortgage and a car payment and all that goes along with both sort of preclude a 100% return to that lifestyle, but I’ve been thinking that it’s time to freshen up my music tastes a bit.

I’m coming off the heels of a massive classic rock phase that started when Rolling Stone released their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list a couple of years ago. At the time that issue came out, my then roommate and I read through the list ticking all the albums we owned. My list came up woefully short.

For instance, I didn’t own a single album by The Clash, The Who, David Bowie, Public Enemy, Elvis Presley, or Elton John. These were pretty egregious omissions for someone who considered himself a music lover. So I focused most of my music time since then on filling in those gaps. I’m glad I did, but I missed out on several years of new music that I’d like to catch up on now.

To do this, I’m going to turn to what I always turn to when I need to find information: the Web. There are tons of great, free resources to use to find out about new music. Here are a few.

1. Pitchfork Media
This is the granddaddy of indie rock Web sites. And while I don’t always agree with their opinions, just visiting the site will give you an idea of what people are listening to and talking about. Plus, they broke the news about Tom Waits’ last tour. An act for which I will always be grateful.

2. RollingStone.com
If Pitchfork is the granddaddy of indie rock Web sites, RollingStone.com is their daddy. Rolling Stone reviews tend to be descriptive rather than critical, and that will give you an idea about an album you might like, even if they give it a bad star rating. But my favorite part of the site is the videos section. They have performances from big names, but they’ll throw in some lesser known, more cutting edge acts, too. Only problem is, you have to have RealPlayer to watch them. Thumbs down on that one, Rolling Stone!

3. iTunes
You would think I write enough about iTunes on One Thing New already. But it is an excellent resource when you are looking for new music. Say you’ve read a few blogs that mention a band you’d like to check out. If their music is on iTunes, you can stream 30 second clips from their songs to get a feeling for their sound. (I used to do this on Amazon, which has the same feature, but the iTunes interface is much more user friendly.) And if you like them, downloading the album straight from there it typically cheaper than buying it in a store.

4. Blogs
I’m still checking around for the best new music blogs, but I’ve found a couple that might be of interest. I Guess I’m Floating won the 2006 Weblog Award for Best Music Blog (Maybe that’s a dubious distinction, but that’s how I found them). They have a ton of great content: reviews, mp3 downloads, links to videos, and some really good writing. I also check out largehearted boy from time to time. And I can’t let this post go by without linking Tug’s blog, indierocket. He and Patrick are really good writers, and they know their stuff.

I spent a long time listening to great, cutting edge music (can I be forgiven for my Dave Matthews Band phase?), and I think with the help of these terrific online resources, I can get my indie cred back in no time.