Let the ‘wow’ start! Buzzword is really just a word processor, much like Google Docs or some other counterpart. What separates Buzzword from the rest, you ask me?
Heh… almost everything.
You see, I use Google Docs for word processing (sometimes Zoho) only because most of the people I work with use it - it’s become a kind of a standard. Now Buzzword is not you everyday ajax app, it is built on top of Flash, which means teh interface looks much better than your standard web writing application. Now that Preview 7 is available, you can really enjoy the full power of Flash 9 : as Emily Chang wrote, Buzzword is not WYSIWYG, it is WYSIWYP.
And now for my favourite feature, the collaboration support: simply by selecting ‘Share’: now all your friends who have a Buzzword account work with the same version of the document. Neato! More points for web productivity there.
Of course, Buzzword still has a few flaws which I would like to point out: I’m not a big fan of the black interface, black interfaces are not for serious apps in my opinion, let the football manager games keep it. Also, don’t't forget, it’s still Flash. That means you’ll see the loading screen a few times.
That’s all I noticed, in comparison to others, it’s a great choice, especially for Opera users, because it ’s a Flash based app, so it’s not supposed to have any compatibility issues. You can sign-up and try Buzzword by signing up here.
In short, the guys at Virtual Ubiquity (purchased by Adobe somewhere in the beginning of winter 2007) have done a great job. Congrats!
Has anyone else tried Buzzword? How do you feel about it in comparison to other online word processing apps?
When I first found out about e-ink technology, all I could say is: awesome. We web productivity freaks don’t have time for a lot of reading. And ever since I heard about Sony’s e-reader, I couldn’t get my eyes off one of these babies.
There’s a new kid in town, though: the Bookeen Cybook Gen3, and this device is what I want to talk about today.
Unlike Sony’s device, which is pretty expensive and still has ‘coming soon’ status (no changes since summer 2006), including huge limitations, the Cybook is available now.
E-ink enables this gadget to economize in a much larger scale than other palm devices of the same size - with a fully charged battery the Cybook can endure 8000 page-turns (the e-ink monitor, in contrast to other monitors, does not need electricity to show a statical image). Not bad, huh?
It is much smaller and lighter than the Kindle, but the real treat lies inside: The Cybook uses Linux! It has also got a 6″ screen with an 800×600 resolution, you can read PDF, TXTs, HTML Mobipocket and lots of other formats, and not only that, you can listen to music, too (mp3 support) and use the device as a picture viewer. You get 200 Mhz and 16 mb RAM, with an SD card reader and 64 megabytes internal space.
The price is currently revolving around 350 euros… pretty good for new technology, I’d say.
Let’s be clear, the Eee does look neat. It uses GNU/Linux, too (although Xandros). But let’s face it, it’s not that great. It’s more of a marketing thing, much like the gOS computers. And since many people are literally going crazy (thus annoying me in the process) and buying all those laptops, I want to, as a tech savvy person, explain a few things which people wanting to purchase one of them often forget.
I’ve just been in our local tech store, to check out a small black Asus Eee PC. After playing around with it for a little while I noticed the keyboard wasn’t configured correctly (a Slovenian keyboard has a very different layout), actually it wasn’t configured at all. It was really hard to find a friggin’ terminal, and when I finally found it, I successfully set up my new keyboard layout.
I cannot imagine how a non-nerd could possibly manage to do that. It’s not ready for prime time. That’s why I prefer the XO to the Eee. It’s a disgrace. I’d rather buy one with XP preinstalled.
Now secondly, the monitor is way too small. For the price of an EeePC, you can buy an iPhone. And what the hell are 512 megabytes of RAM doing there? You don’t need that much on Linux, plus what kind of powerhouse app are you going to run on a 7 inch screen? I hate the iPhone, but come on, compare them. The EeePC just isn’t your ultimate portable solution, it’s ‘the little portable device that could’.
What are your views on the subject?
While others are fantasizing about Microsoft’s Yahoo offer, I’ve got something that’s even more important to talk about.
I started blogging last summer: a local SEO experiment. Didn’t work. Updating daily wasn’t a challenge, but slowly I lost my passion.
That’s when it hit me: passion is what drives blogging. Only with passion (or 20 Indian ghostwriters, which I sadly cannot afford) can one sustain a certain quality level through a long period of time. And so, The Internetling was born. A blog where I post what I like, and not what I have to. It changed the game a lot. I enjoy writing posts a lot now and always take time to proof-read and improve.
While I was not an active blogger back in 2007, I’ve been following many interesting blogs. I still remember how I gobbled up all of those articles, and the overwhelming desire to guest post. I was aware of course, that for these bloggers you have to write quality stuff and have authority. Well, maybe someday, who knows 
Now, back to the topic. I want to tell you about a few who radiated this passion. And you, loyal readers (and those who hate me, but still subscribe for some weird reason) have them to thank for what The Internetling has become. I like The Internetling as it is, and am not worried about the growth. What drives me now, and this I learned from these bloggers, is the pure joy of blogging.
Oh, and if you were perhaps wondering, John Chow ain’t one of them 
And now, you guys who managed to read all this trash above, I present to you:
1) Martin Reed of CommunitySpark
Promotion sure goes a long way: I first stumbled upon Martin’s blog when John Chow posted a paid review of Martin’s blog, Community Spark. This blog is about community building, administration and marketing. It is very nice to read, his style is very calm and his mind evidently doesn’t skip from topic to topic like mine. Recommended. I still read all the posts, although it’s been eons since I’ve commented. Hope this little review will make up for it.
Now I don’t remember really how I first got to Nate’s blog. It was probably through some blogroll, who knows. Well, I’ve been reading Nate’s blog since the very beginning (end of January, start of February 2007). His blog has seen rapid growth last year and is showing no signs of stopping, but what I really like at Nate’s blog is that you can see how much work is involved: very down-to-earth! Of course, I never met Nate in person but he seems like a very nice person. Be sure to check his popular posts.
And Nate, if you’re reading this, show some love for us who don’t have Cinema displays - I can hardly see teh first post on my 19″ Sony 
3) John Waraas
Well John, you’re famous now!
My first dose of Waraas was his post abotu buying a house (no way guys, I’m waaay too lazy to find it and link it). His blog has got lots of interesting content you don”t find on other sites. I won’t argue about his SEO techniques, let the slogan ‘Evil SEO‘ speak for itself. On John’s blog, you can learn a lot just by reading a few of the posts, plus his writing is really fun to read. Just recently noticed he’s a member of Sitepoint, like me.
4) Darren of Problogger
I think Darren has seen quite a few reviews, I can imagine. I like Problogger for the same reason most people like it: the good design (thank goodness he ditched the old one), the high, consistent posting quality, and frequency. Darren simply pwnz the other A-listers.
Right, Chow wins in the evil category, I admit that
Well, that’s it. Check out these blogs, every single one is very interesting and full of cool content. I hope these blogs gain even more influence - it would be very positive for the blogosphere. Keep up the good work!
