At about this time I do a Blog related review of the year so here goes…
Best Blog Discovery:
Twitter. Really! It’s not going to kill blogging as just enhances it. Although initially skeptical I have found Twitter slotted into my on-line life in a way no other social network has managed. I never MySpaced, barely tolerate FaceBook (because TypePad support it and friends use it), don’t use chat/messaging apps much but love Twitter. It is great for events, witness the flurry of #AU2009 tweets around Autodesk University, and coordinating with others, especially when you travel.
I must admit that Twitter didn’t really work for me until I found TweetDeck. Using Groups (now Twitter Lists) makes the tweet stream manageable and TweetDeck enables that across all my devices; PC(s) or Phone.
So how do blogging and Twitter relate? I can only quote myself:
"Blogging is for what you can’t say in 140 characters, Twitter shows how much you can!"
Best Comment:
A comment from Tod, and another from Dad of Tod, who saved my old 1 Litre Ferrari from the dismantler and gave it a new life as his daily drive. Long live the mighty Uno!
Biggest Surprise?
Arriving home in February to find an invitation to a Autodesk hosted bloggers event in San Francisco in my Inbox. Such a surprise I checked it hadn’t been sent to the wrong person by mistake and then had to scramble to update my passport. I knew it expired sometime in 2009 but didn’t think I would need it until later in the year for Autodesk University, if then. Which leads to…
Best Blog Event(s):*
It has to be that AutoCAD Backstage Pass Event which focused on the AutoCAD 2010 release. We got to see the launch webcast live! That was a little strange but it was impressive to see the effort that goes into these productions. It takes much more than just a microphone and webcam folks!
It also signalled the arrival of the AutoCAD Exchange Community. We got to meet some of the people who create AutoCAD and learn a more about it’s future. It was awesome to meet other CAD bloggers (some for the first time), talk to the Autodesk AutoCAD platform team and see the amazing venue: Autodesk Gallery.
I extended my stay and met with a few other bloggy contacts in the San Francisco area, including Mindjet and TypePad. I also got on a bike to visit the stunning California Academy of Sciences. The exhibits are as impressive as the building which sets an extremely high standard to match. My flight home coincided with the 40th anniversary of the first Boeing 747 flight and I spent most of the evening in one somewhere over the Pacific!
* So why the (s) on Event? There was another great blogger event at Autodesk University. I haven’t blogged about it yet and it deserves a separate post so will keep that for the new year..
Best Podcast:
It's not strictly a podcast, more a radio re-broadcast, but that’s how I hear Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4. Best served fresh, it alternates between “The News Quiz” and “The Now Show” which both offer topical comedy based on the news.
Best Blog Decision:
Just write what I feel like. I worried this CAD Blog doesn’t really have enough CAD/BIM content. In part this year that was because I’ve was stuck on 2009 app’s at work, waiting for Windows 7 64 before deploying 2010, and had my own 2010 licences running on a very very old slow machine at home. That has changed so my CAD blog should become a bit more “caddy” and relevant in future. Strange thing is it seems the “not really cad but sort of related CAD blog” seems to attract and audience an nobody I’ve asked about it seems to care, so I’ll stop worrying about it! I'll just extend the definition of CAD to anything Computer related that Aids Design!
Blog Related Concern:
It was sad to loose one of my favourite blog tools this year. Changes to TypePad meant BlogJet became incompatible. It still worked but wasn’t honouring the TypePad folder structure for my various blogs. I hoped for a BlogJet update but there has been no sign of one yet.
I switched to Windows Live Writer which works fine, has more features than BlogJet but is also strangely crippled. It insists on working in a My Documents hosted folder which is a pain for me. I use Live Mesh to sync blog resources (images and drafts) across a number of devices and would rather have a consistent path. That’s not easy using My Documents and various machines/logons.
Maybe 2010 will bring an update (to Writer or BlogJet) that works for me.
Best New Blog Tools:
My perfect computer doesn’t exist yet so the best blog tool I got this year was a phone. It’s not the phone bit that’s important (except when wireless is out of reach) but the iPhone running TypePad Mobile, TweetDeck, LinkedIn and (to a much lesser extent) Facebook has made my blog/social media world totally portable. Which leads to…
“Doh!” of the year:
I’m the guy who posted “iPhone, not MyPhone” in 2008 then got one and awarded it best new blog tool in 2009!
The only excuse I can offer is that the iPhone 3GS is quite a different beast to the original and it’s all about the app’s, which weren’t there in 2008. Anyway, being a skeptic doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind!
Boring Blog Stats (for me!)
TypePad Community: 39 Following | 53 Followers [New in 2009]
Twitter: 608 Following | 473 Followers | 24 Listed [New in 2009]
RobiNZ CAD Blog [2008 figures]
Posts: 1654 [1395] | Comments: 1241 [938] | Pages: 5 [5]
Page Views: Total: 750,905 [579,216] | Average Per Day: 358.09 [335.39]
FeedBurner Subscribers: 2652 [814]
Most visited post of (and from) 2009: AutoCAD Architecture 2010 - A fresh new look tied with a ribbon
RobiNZ Personal Blog [2008 figures]
Posts: 1637 [1,446] | Comments: 840 [714]
Page Views: Total: 243,794 [200,877] | Average Per Day: 138.52 [144.52]
FeedBurner Subscribers:: 98 [48]
Most visited post of 2009 was posted in 2005: Auckland City for Microsoft Flight Simulator
It was a pity Microsoft killed Flight Simulator in 2009, wonder if that is related?
Most Popular Post from 2009: A Fiat Bravo touched by his noodly appendages
Flickr:
The Bravo interior still seems to fascinate, Lynn and Steve (McEnroe) hang on for second but the real Google Map Pin in San Francisco has zoomed up the list..