Whatever... [Deepak Alur's Blog]: Deepak Alur's Blog @ Sun

Thanks to Richard for pointing this out. Being a long time Jakob Neilsen fan, I am happy to see him share his thoughts on blog usability.
I found it interesting that the #1 and #2 on the list is about the identity of the blog/blogger. I have ranted about anonymous blogging before, see this and this, so I am really glad that someone this issue get attention from someone who is an authority on usability.

Anyway, looks like I personally am guilty of #8 ("Mixing Topics"). But, I am not sure I can keep my blog focussed on one topic alone. I don't really feel like having multiple blogs and I do really want to write on several topics. That is why I named this blog "Whatever..." because I could not decide (still cannot) what the singular focus of this blog should be. So the question is if a blog is about personality or an idea/profession. If it is about the latter, then it is easier to keep the blog focussed to a single or related topics. Professionally speaking, I am passionate about software architecture, design, analysis, patterns, refactorings, programming and related stuff. So I have created these categories on my blog, which I hope will provide the necessary focus for the only 3 people across the world reading this blog anyway.

Blogging

Dilbert Blogging

Rich Burridge gives some very useful blogging tips. In one of the tips he points out how he embeds a image at the top of most of his postings. He uses a HTML table to do that. As you will see on my blog, I too provide images to most of my posts and I do not use tables. I prefer to just provide the HTML IMG tag at the beginning of the paragraph and use the "align" parameter to specify if the image should appear left or right and the text automatically wraps around the image. No Tables Required. So the blog post HTML to use an image looks like:

<IMG ALIGN="right" SRC="http://your_image_url_here">
Your blog post text/paragraphs go here...No HTML tables required.

If you want the image to show on the left side, use ALIGN="left" above.
For example, in this post, I show an image of a car and a building. My HTML for the blog entry looks like:

<IMG ALIGN="right" SRC="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/AutoBuilding.gif">
What does architecture mean to you? Do you care about architecture? If not, should you care? ...

This reminds me that I have to update my other blogging tips related to Technorati pinging and tagging...My old tips still work, but Roller has introduced some new features that make this even easier. Oh, well, some other time.

Roller Blogging Blog

Richard Veryard (an analyst with CBDI Forum) responding to my earlier post has some interesting comments. I totally agree with what he says on vendors falsely posing as independent experts.

You can't hide (forever) in Blogosphere. So be honest and true, my friends.

Read Richard's interesting blog here. He also mentions a couple other analyst blogs in this entry.

Blogging Blog

Whenever you add a new entry in your blog, Roller does not yet automatically ping Technorati yet. There is a Roller feature to ping weblogs.com, but not Technorati. So now I manually ping Technorati. I have bookmarked the following URL:

http://www.technorati.com/ping.html?url=http://blogs.sun.com/alur  

You could do the same, except that instead of my blog's URL, replace it with your blogs URL, bookmark it and hit the bookmark anytime you make an update to your blog.

Roller Blogging Blog

Technorati tags are cool. This link on Technorati site explains all about them. Here is how I tag my blog entries:

For each blog entry you make in Roller blog, I put a simple link at the end of the entry to categorize that post with one or more tags. For example to tag an entry with these 2 tags: Software, and Patterns, I just include the following HTML at the end of my post.

<A HREF="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Software" rel="tag">Software</A>
<A HREF="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Patterns" rel="tag">Patterns</A>

It's that easy! Give it a try and your entries will start showing up under Technorati tags soon. Make sure you ping Technorati everytime you make a new entry to your blog.

Roller Blogging Blog

Here are some instructions to leverage the benefits of Technorati from your Blog:

1. Go to www.technorati.com and become a member.
2. Update your profile with the correct information and a picture (optional)
3. Once you become a member, claim your blog.
4. You will receive an email from technorati with instructions on updating your blog to include Technorati scripts and links so that it can be watched. The script looks something like:
   

   <script type="text/javascript" src="http://technorati.com/embed/9xyxyabcde.js"></script>

5. Include this script in your weblog. It will result in link to your Technorati profile being displayed in your blog where you put the script. I put this script in my side bar so it looks like the picture shown here. Take a look at my blog's sidebar to see what it looks like.

How to add Technorati Cosmos Link

I couldn't really add much to what Todd Fast and Pat Chanezon have said about this topic. So I will just include those two links here.

1. Todd Fast on How To Add Technorati Cosmos Links
2. Pat C's suggestions adding on to Todd's instructions

But if you want to be lazy I think I have condensed those instructions to the following 2 steps for b.s.c bloggers:

1. Download and upload the cosmos.gif to your blog
2. Edit your _day template and insert the following HTML lines at the end of the #foreach loop (i.e. just before the #end macro)
   

   #set ($permalink = "$absBaseURL$entry.permaLink")
   #set ($encodedpermalink = $utilities.encode($permalink))
   <a href='http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&url=${encodedpermalink}'>
   <img align='top' style='border:0px' alt='Technorati cosmos' src='${absBaseURL}/resources/${userName}/cosmos.gif'/></a>
   

Now isn't that easy?

Roller Blogging Blog

In my blog, I display a list of badges to show my affinity to various projects and communities. If you wish to display it on your blog, just cut and paste the following HTML in your side column or whereever you wish to display these badges. Alternatively, you can download these badge images (GIF files) to your blog and display them in anyway you wish. If that is too much work, just use all or portions of this HTML, I will assure that I will leave those images unharmed so just linking it using this HTML will work.

<a href="http://www.java.com">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_java.gif" border="0"></a>
<a href="https://mustang.dev.java.net/">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_mustang.gif" border="0"></a>
<BR>
<a href="http://www.jxta.org">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_jxta.gif" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://www.jini.org">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_jini.gif" border="0"></a>
<BR>
<a href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_solaris.gif" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://www.opensolaris.org/">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_opensolaris.gif" border="0"></a>
<BR>
<a href="http://www.netbeans.org">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_netbeans.gif" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/username/username.jnlp">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_bscchat.gif" border="0"></a>
<BR>
<a href="http://www.getfirefox.com">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_firefox.gif" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_thunderbird.gif" border="0"></a>
<BR>
<a href="http://sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/insidejack.html">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_insidejack.gif" border="0"></a>
<a href="http://www.corej2eepatterns.com">
<img src="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/alur/badge_cjp.gif" border="0"></a>

Note: For JXTA blogs chat badge, you have to upload your own JNLP file to your blog and link it. Replace username with your blog id/user name.

If you do end up using any, I would appreciate a link to your blog in the comments so I can feel happy that someone is using this!

Roller Blogging Blog

Here are some instructions for adding a Favicon to your blog:

1. You need an Icon (.ico) file that is 16x16 pixels in size. If it is not this size, the browser might ignore your icon.
2. If you have an image file (JPEG/GIF) that you want to use as the favorite icon for your blog, you can use this online utility to generate an ICO file: http://www.html-kit.com/favicon or you can google favicon to find a similar resource. The utility creates a favorite.ico file and the cool thing about it is that it converts any size image into a 16x16 ICO file, but there will be a loss of resolution as it shrinks so it may not look alright. Check and see.
3. Once you obtain the favicon.ico file for your blog logo, upload it to your blog and add the following line to the header so that it shows between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> section of your blog. In the URL below, substitute username with your blog user name to make this work.
   

   <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/username/favicon.ico"/>

Watch Out For This:

I first tried to use a JPEG or GIF or PNG file for the favorite icon. This did not work or worked inconsistently. For example, when I used GIF, the favorite icon would show up only in the URL field in the browser, but not in the bookmarks list or shortcut bookmark button. Once I switched to .ico file, it works fine. Also, favorite Icon does not display in Internet Explorer.

Roller Blogging Blog

I have been wondering a bit on why IT industry analysts are not yet blogging. Like many in my field, I occasionally look at what the analysts and pundits are saying about different trends in the industry. I remember early days in my career when I paid great attention to many different reports from many analyst reports on any topic from CASE tools to RISC vs. CISC to CAD/CAM to RDBMS to almost anything I could get my hands on. Since these reports were exorbitantly priced, the company I used to work for could only afford to buy a select few and that too when the reports were slightly older and probably obsolete. They were certainly entertaining and sometimes enlightening. Am I glad the internet came around when it did.

Anyway, I wanted to check out how my analyst brethren are doing in the blogging world. And here is what I found. Almost no one really blogs in the analyst world. Or if they do, I could not find them. I did a preliminary search to find any blogs out there from any analysts and here is what I found so far:

• Forrester: This was the only analyst site that prominently featured their bloggers (there are 7 bloggers).
• Gartner, IDC, Yankee Group, Patricia Seybold Group, Burton Group: NO BLOGS!
  With the exception of Richard who has been blogging before joining the Burton Group (no link to his blog from Burton Group site though).

To make some sense of this, I had a brief session with HAL 9000 and he came up with the chart shown here. According to HAL, the more inclined you are to be an Analyst, the less probable it is that you are going to blog because you already have a full-time job publishing your analysis that makes money for your company. But then, I could have given wrong input to HAL (GIGO, remember), in which case if you know of an analyst blog(s), please provide the link(s) in your comment so HAL can compute.

Blogging Blog

Interesting indeed. From James Snell's blog:

As these guidelines were being drafted, we drew heavily upon our own experiences as bloggers and the excellent prior art in this space graciously provided by Sun, Microsoft, Groove and many others who have drafted policies and guidelines for their employees.

As you know, I have ranted before on anonymous (when-there-is-no-reason-to-be-anonymous) blogs before. So I find the following excerpt from the IBM Blogging Policy relevant and interesting to note:

Be who you are. Some bloggers work anonymously, using pseudonyms or false screen names. IBM discourages that in blogs, wikis or other forms of online participation that relate to IBM, our business or issues with which the company is engaged. We believe in transparency and honesty. If you are blogging about your work for IBM, we encourage you to use your real name, be clear who you are, and identify that you work for IBM. Nothing gains you notice in the "blogosphere" more than honesty -- or dishonesty. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out. But also be smart about protecting yourself and your privacy. What you publish will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully and also be judicious in disclosing personal details.

For a somewhat funny outtake on this, check this out.

Dear IBMer's, Welcome to the Blogosphere!

Blogging IBM