I once was a Blogger, but now I see

Blogger is for those people who look at an awesome picture and think, wow, that photographer must use a really nice camera. It's for the kind of person that buys a Honda Civic cause it's time for them to get a real car. It's the wardrobe from Marshall's, Mervyn's, JCPenney. It's what people use because they don't know what to use.

"I heard about this new thing people are doing – posting their thoughts about life, their travel plans, and pictures of their dog, Rover. Sounds like fun, I think I want to try it out... but let's see, how do I do it? Hmm... let me Google it..."

And, of course, Blogger.com shows up first. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Google owns Blogger, but that's irrelevant. The point is that most people don't look around to see what is available, whether it's because the big wide world of blogging is too scary, confusing, or they're just ignorant, I have no idea. But Just like a swell of sewage, they take the path of least resistance.

In other words, it's cliché. It's a pack mentality. "Oooh, so and so is using blogger and it looks cool, so I'd better too."

So few people make the extra little effort to find a tool that fits the use case.

I'm not saying Blogger sucks and that you should start using Tumblr. It all depends on your use of the tool. Tumblr (or Posterous, my preferred blog engine) is known as a microblog. Or, as Garr Reynold's puts it (http://garr.posterous.com/) "somewhere between a tweet and a blog post." In fact, it's very similar to the share feature no Facebook – include a picture, video, link to a site, and share a few thoughts about it.

Unfortunately, Tumblr gets the wrap that it's just for creative types. Probably just because it has hundreds of gourgeously designed themes. (and they are awesome!) Tumblr isn't exclusive to creative-types, its just happens that creative types tend to recognize the need for a simple and beautiful way to share information (something blogger just does not offer – I mean for the love of Pete, would you stop using Courier New?!).

And how many real serious bloggers use Blogger anyway? Lest you cite seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com, let me correct my punctuation. How many REAL, SERIOUS bloggers use Blogger? Prac-ti-cully zero! Just take a look at their very own "Blogs of Note" list (http://blogsofnote.blogspot.com/) Ha! Not much going on, now, is there?

No, real, serious bloggers have avoided – or at least graduated from – Blogger altogether. They've found the more powerful engines such as Wordpress.com or host their own install of Wordpress. Or, if you're real tech savvy, like Ben Crowder you go and write your own blogging engine (which he minimalistically, and somewhat ironically, named Ink). If you're looking for a complete package, try Squarespace.com which hosts your site and provides a pretty slick interface for designing your website and/or blog.

Alas, I am fully aware that my efforts to encourage people to use a more efficient tool  – that is also more user-friendly and actually looks better and provides sweet, easy to use tools like autoposting to Facebook and Twitter – will, sadly, go unheeded, as evidenced by the still painfully high number of friends who still blindly type on the default QWERTY layout instead of the hands-down superior Dvorak layout.

NATHAN : 
______________________

The perfect cold opening

Stop wasting time at the beginning of a talk to introduce yourself, explain why you were asked to give a talk, list an agenda of what you want to talk about, make a poor attempt at a joke. Instead, jump in and get on with the content.

This video, of a very short TED Talk, is a perfect example of how a cold opening can grab the audience's attention right from the beginning. You'll always have time to do those other things later in your talk, but the first 30 seconds are so precious, why waste them?

Sebastian Thrun: Google's driverless car | Video on TED.com
http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car.html#

Sebastian's talk has all the elements of a great opening, and follows Garr Reynolds' instructions to start your presentation with PUNCH. It was a personal story of his interests as a boy, an unexpected turn of events when he lost his good friend to a car accident, a novel way to look at the challenge of automobile travel, presented a challenging problem to overcome, and was humorous in its delivery.

NATHAN : 

______________________