Lars-Christian.com|This is me at the intarwebs.

My post yesterday, “10 reasons why I’m glad I switched to a Mac!” was submitted by someone (thanks, whoever you are) to StumbleUpon. I have never actually used StumbleUpon myself, but from what I’ve seen and heard it’s a sort of social bookmarking feature which lets people reccomend things they read, and it then get picked up by others looking for something similar.

One of the reasons I could never be bothered to try it out myself is that from what I can tell, it requires you to install a plugin for your browser, which is something I’m not really fond of. A lot of people use the service however, and I thought it would be interesting to see the details of how my it affected my stats.

On a normal day, according to AwStats, I receive around 120-something visitors on average. These visitors rack up around 1000 pageviews in total, which definately seems to be slightly overrated, but I’ll get back to that later. Yesterday when my article was picked up by the StumbleUpon service, 1200 people found their way to my blog, accumulating over 6300 pageviews. Not too bad! This actually matches up quite well with my Google Analytics stats like unique visitors do for the most part, but when it comes to pageviews these two stats-trackers seem to disagree. Analytics concistently reports a much lower number of pageviews compared to AwStats, and I believe Google is actually the most reliable party here. The individual pageviews for yesterday’s post match up quite well with the visitor stats, but none of the other pages shot up significantly in terms of views. Sounds odd seeing how high the number of pageviews supposedly was.

All in all, it does indeed seem that the debated myth about people discovering a blog through social bookmarking reading and leaving stands pretty strong. Take for instance the stats for my feed subscriptions. Despite the thousand something people who visited yesterday, only two new people subscribed. Additionally, the comments weren’t exactly flooded. I’m not complaining however! I’m glad that people are even reading what I have to say, and if someone finds it interesting enough to come back at a later time, well then that makes me even happier!

As a small curiosity I’ll add that if you look closer at the left menu, you can see that I added a couple of links. Those very few blogs are the ones that I read on a regular basis, and I would definately reccomend that you check them out. They are for the most part particularly interesting to other bloggers.

It’s been a while since I posted something in the Apple category, but that doesn’t mean my love for Apple has diminished! Quite contrary infact, it has only grown with time, and therefore I thought it was time for me to do this thing that every self-respecting switcher with a blog does - post a list of all things cool about owning a Mac.

As you might or might not know, I took the plunge and switched to the white side for the very first time back in October. A few months have now passed, and I can’t say that since that happy day I’ve felt a single regret about my choice to switch. Before I decided to switch I had been toying with the idea of making my next computer a Mac, partly because I consider myself to be somewhat of a hobby-designer, and from what I had heard, designers were all about the Mac! When I started to investigate the topic more thoroughly though, it quickly became quite clear that a MacBook was infact everything I needed from a computer.

The most obvious reason, and quite possibly the only good one not to switch that I was able to find was that the selection of games available for the Mac is very limited. Excellent I thought, because I never play games on the computer! That is if you don’t count the occasional addictive flash-game I stumble upon, but so far I haven’t had any problems running those on my Mac either, despite the fact that Windows-f@nb0z seem to think that no games what-so-ever can be played on the Mac.

But I digress, this post is supposed to be a list, not a story about all the cool games you can play on the Mac. So here you have it, my list of the top 10 reasons why I’m glad I switched to a Mac in no particular order, and why Windows Vista hasn’t even made me the least bit curious about going back.

1. It just works.
   90% of the people behind a computer out there must be getting seriously tired of hearing this argument by now. It’s one of those things that really can’t be explained or understood before you actually sit down for a certain period of time with a Mac and actually experience this yourself. It’s an exclusive part of the Mac experience, and one of the key things that makes it so great. Everything just works.
2. The desktop experience.
   Even though my MacBook has a pretty small screen (13,3 inches, if I’m not horribly mistaken), switching to OS X has helped me make the most out of the space I’ve got, and made it much easier to work and keep track of multiple programs. As a Windows user, the first thing I looked for in OS X was the maximize window button. To my surprise it doesn’t exist, and this represents one of the more fundamental differences in the two environments. OS X lets you easily size a window to the most appropriate size, as opposed to covering the entire screen. While it seemed awkward at first, I have come to love this, as it makes it much easier for me to keep track of several things at once.
3. Expose.
   This is the most obvious follow-up to point 2 on my list, and another one of those Mac-exclusive things that just can’t really be explained in words, but has to be experienced to really understand how great it is. Expose is a little program that makes it exceptionally easy to switch between several open programs. Just move your mouse to the appropriate hot-spot corner, and minized windows of all the running programs appear. Click on one of them to get into that program. It beats the crap out of the Windows start line, as it is much more intuitive, once you actually get used to it that is. This also seemed a bit awkard to me at first, but now I can’t see how I ever lived without it.
4. The Dock.
   The concept of the dock is so simple and intuitive that it’s pure genius. A friend of me asked why I didn’t have any program icons on the desktop, and how I could find the programs I wanted to open. I didn’t really understand the question, seeing how it’s been a while since I used a Windows computer, and responded by showing him that just pressing the Quicksilver hotkey and typing the first few letters would allow me to easily open any program.He felt that this was much harder that just minizing a program window and clicking on the icon, and I then realized that it’s exactly that operation the dock eliminates. The dock is there all the time, and I have all my most frequently used programs in there, accesible at all times with just a single click. And it’s not very crowded either, like the Windows desktop. And for those programs that aren’t in the dock, I still feel that pressing one key and typing a few letters is more comfortable than minimizing and searching for the right icon. The only time I actually use the desktop is when I drag and drop files that I need for some reason to it, which brings me to my next point on my list.
5. I can drag and drop files to the desktop.
   This is one of those little hidden gems in OS X that for the most part goes unnoticed I think, or at least people don’t use it for what it’s worth. I love the possibility to drag and drop any image I see on any website to the desktop, either because I want to use and modify it in some other program, or just because I want to archive it. It’s also possible to drag any piece of selected text over to the desktop, and it will automagically save it as a text file on my desktop. This is invaluable for me as an amateur HTML and CSS coder when looking at examples of how to achieve a specific effect!
6. No viruses or spyware to talk of.
   You just knew this had to make it to the list. It’s the probably the oldest but still one of the strongest selling points of any Mac. There are no viruses that will damn all your valuable data to eternal hell of zeros and ones, nor is there any spyware that will share all your sensitive information about which girls or boys you’ve got the hots for with the freaky-geeky kid next door. The eternal debate on whether this should be attributed to OS X’s safer architecture, or its relatively small userbase will continue to plague internet discussion forums for years to come, but all in all it’s a moot point. The fact of the matter is that there aren’t any viruses that can infect me and my Mac right now, and as an end user I couldn’t care less about why it is so.
7. The software that came bundled with it.
   If you haven’t really used a Mac, let alone owned one, you won’t know what I’m talking about here, so you can skip to the next point. Are you still reading? Okay, I’ll elaborate then. When you buy a Mac you get a bunch of cool programs bundled with it, software that you most likely have to pay hundreds of dollars for solid Windows equivalents, unless you’re a pirate of course. The most notable programs are those in the iLife package. Of those incuded in that suite, I’d like to mention iPhoto, which is simple but brilliant for organizing your photos, and iMovie HD, which easily lets you create and edit your own videos! Perfect for any new-media-hobby-amateur like myself. I still wish that Apple would include the iWork package as well, but I’ve managed so far with the demo because I never actually had any use for it.
8. Spotlight.
   This is probably not a strong selling point of the Mac anymore, seeing how Vista has incorporated a similar searching technology to the Windows platform, but it’s still worth a mention seeing how I’ve been blessed with it since months before Vista ever came out. If you don’t know what I’m talking about I’ll lay it out in words for you. Hit one key, type in what you’re searching for, and the results come up lightning fast, even as you type! It really did revolutionize local searching, and I can’t see how anybody ever managed without it. Especially those who have as little structure on their files as myself!
9. Word works.
   Just because I switched to a Mac it doesn’t mean that I still have don’t have some love left for Microsoft. You have to give it to them, they do own the text editor market, mostly because Word is a terrific word processor that does everything you need, and a whole lot more. The fact that a working version of Word, and the entire Office package existed for the Mac was crucial for me, seeing how I depend on it when it comes to schoolwork. Microsoft didn’t let me down with this one, and even when it’s emulated through Rosetta on my Intel-Mac it works splendid, and fast enough for me. And should I have any problems, I could always just install Windows on my Mac, because that’s possible these days too.
10. It looks cool!
    What can I say, I’m shallow! But seriously, take a look at any Apple product, and you’ll have to agree with me on this one. They just know what design is all about, and as someone who cares about not only computers, but also puts a little thought into how I dress, what clothes I put on and so forth, I can actually identify with the Apple philosophy on this one. Yeah, yeah, I know I should have stopped at “I’m shallow”.

Well there it is, my list of top 10 reaons why I’m glad I switched a Mac, and isn’t very likely of switching back any time soon, even though I’m hearing some good things about this new kid in class called Ubuntu or something like that. I guess he must be foreign! Anyways, do you have anything to say about my list? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Hate me? Feel free to share it with me and the rest of the world in the comments. Unless you use some really nasty words, chances are I won’t even censor you!

We’re closing in on the March 1st release date of Bloggst, and I thought I’d give those who are interested a heads up on how it’s coming along just that. The short version is that it’s going great, and that I’m optimistic in terms of how it will go at the release! Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a post if I didn’t include the long version as well.

Since the last update on the project I’ve actually spent most of work time on the project adding features, and I still haven’t gotten as far along in the content creation process as I had hoped for. That’s not overly important however, because the nature of the site requires that it has a bit of “features”, in order to make the participants happy. I’m really happy with how the features have been implemented, both when it comes to functionality as well as look and feel. Right now I am almost done with the features, I only have two more things to finish, and hopefully I’ll have those finished by at least Monday. This will leave me with a bit of extra time to focus on the content, as well doing some “polishing” around the site.

Right here and now I’m going to reveal something new about the site, one feature that I hope will give us some decent exposure, as well being a source of inspiration for aspiring bloggers everywhere. We will be featuring interviews with “prominent” bloggers, who have been able to make an impression on the blogging scene with their blogs. I won’t announce any names or something like that, but I can tell you that I’ve already been able to get in touch with a few bloggers who’ve agreed to participate, and I can promise that every bloggers out there will be interested in hearing what these guys have to say, and see if they’re willing to share any of their secrets!

That’s about all I’m going to reveal for now. Infact, I’m not sure there’s all that much left unrevealed, but hopefully this has gotten those who follow the project a little more hyped up about it. We’re going to need all the active members we can get once we launch, because as I’ve pointed out before, active members will be the bread and butter of this site, and it relies solely on those people to ever get anywhere.

First a little history lesson. The “nofollow” is a tag that can be added by anyone webmaster to certain hyperlinks, and it will tell search engines that they shouldn’t visit that particular link. The practice was actually introduced by the mother of all search engines (okay, that’s not true, but it sure looks like it these days) which we know as Google. In light of recent revelations, I have decided that today is the day that I say enough is enough, and that the experiment with the “nofollow” tag was an honest attempt to achieve something good, but it is now time we realize that it has failed. What are these revelations which spurred this post, you might ask? Well, when I think about it, they aren’t all that recent, but they need to be addressed still!

Today it is common for most blogging platforms to include the nofollow tag in all signature links. In theory this isn’t a bad move, because the intentions of stopping comment spam are noble and in theory it should benefit bloggers. The only problem is that it does neither. Comment spam is as big of a thing as it ever was, but fortunately for us bloggers useful tools like for instance Akismet and Spam Karma have been developed, and they both individually or better yet, in collaboration do a great job filtering out trash comments.

Have you guessed yet who’s taking the heat from the nofollow tag? Of course, it’s those honest commenters who are hard at work with their own blog, that has their link to their own blog ignored by search engines. We as bloggers who use the nofollow tag are indirectly saying that comments are worth nothing to us, and that we are incapable of filtering out comments that add nothing to the conversation ourselves. There is of course the fact that human readers will see links in the comments, but in the future perhaps we can find a tag that stops them from seeing them as well? Oh wait, I think.. well never mind. My point stands that if someone comments on my blog, they deserve the “reward” of search engines reading their signature links, which is why I will soon strip out the nofollow tags from comments-links here on my blog.

Blogs aren’t the only online sites that make use of the nofollow tag however. It has also come to my attention that the good folks over at the internet monstrosity Wikipedia have decided that the nofollow tag is added to each and every external link throughout the site, in an attempt to reduce link-spam. Again we see honest intentions coming in the way of common interest. By doing this, Wikipedia is effectively saying that “OK, this is great and valuable information, we’ll pay you half of what it’s actually worth to use it on our site”. I am appalled by this move that Wikipedia has made. It says that the links to their sources are worth nothing, and if you look at the signals it sends it the fact that it demotes the value of the sources far outweighs the benefits of discouraging link-spam.

Like I said before, the nofollow tag was invented and introduce by Google themselves. What strikes me is the fact that even though blogging software developers have managed to develop systems that seperates spam (which shouldn’t be rewarded) from useful comments (which definately deserves the reward of search engines crawling their links), but Google haven’t and need us to tell them apart for the search engine? Sounds fishy, but we still have the power in our hands at least, and now it is time that we use those powers vested in us by the state of Google to declare death over the nofollow tag.

Update: Thanks to Andy in the comments and his list, I am now certifiably nofollow free! Be sure to check that list out to find your preferred solution for how to get rid of the nofollow tag.

I have now used MyBlogLog long enough to give some impressions on it, and unfortunately I can’t say that I’m impressed. Infact the first thing that comes to mind “what’s the point?” The idea seems to be pretty simple and straight forward. In addition to tracking stats for your blog, it offers some basic networking features. This involves creating a “community” for your blog, that other members can join, as well as a basic list of friends, or contacts as they are called there.

Now I must admit that the tracking of various data for your blog, which I guess was the original idea behind MyBlogLog, can be pretty useful. The idea of publically displaying the latest blog readers also is a good one. Unfortunately when I tried it out, it was pretty hard to customize so I couldn’t make it fit in to the design of my blog, and it also seemed to slow down my blog.

But that’s where the list of positive things I have to say about MyBlogLog ends. The other on-site features unfortunately seem to be halted by the fact that they have been thrown on top of the site, in an attempt to expand it with some extra features. Messaging between members for instance is quirky at best, and quite unorganized and hard to keep track of.

The lack of intutivity in the setup isn’t the worst part of it however. No, that has to go to the members of the site, who in my oh-so-humble opinion have turned it into a haven for spam of all types. Within a few hours of joining the site, I had around five “admirers”. That is people who added me to their list of contacts.

Now I am all for networking and making new contacts and all that which has been standarized with “Web 2.0″. What I don’t like however is having a list of contacts who I’ve never even exchanged as much as a single word with, which pretty much seems to be the norm over at MyBlogLog. A MySpace-esque contest about making as many friends as possible as quick as can be, and you will seem important, or something like it at least. And of course, let’s not forget the possibility that your contacts might even check out your blog, and hopefully even join its MyBlogLog-community, which would be the ultimate utopia!

This seriously represents all of what is wrong with the web currently. All of these possibilites to make new acquaintances seems to have come a little prematurely, as people are overwhelmed with it and wants to have as many new friends as the possibly can. Nevermind the actual purpose of it, which should be communication, exchanging thoughts, ideas, favours and all that goes hand in hand with actual networking.

Of course all of this can’t be blamed on MyBlogLog, but rather accredited to the way users think about networking. Are we putting too much emphasis on these possibilites, making users overly excited about it to the point where they just abuse the system? As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t actually have the answers to all of these questions. I will definately be investigating it though through my own experiences with my own projects, and hopefully I’ll eventually have some useful information to share with the lot of you. Until that is a reality however, let’s just hope that the people over at MyBlogLog can take some measures to limit these flaws of the community, because if they do, it would definately have the potential to be quite a pleasant place to kill some time.