[RSS] google breaks my heart

Usually I am excited about new software updates because they ordinarily represent an understandable improvement and flow. I pick up new ideas quickly, and am fast to grasp better methodologys.

Google's new reader upgrade from two days ago has stopped me in my tracks. I havent been able to read any blogs in the last couple of days because their darned new reader has flumoxed me so.

My main gripe is that is is really slow! Sometimes it takes a couple of seconds to get from one blog post to the next when it used to be instantaneous. And I keep getting an error window popping up that says some script has 'stopped running - should I end it now'. I never got that before. It is very irritating.



When I go to its 'Home Page' it shows up 'What's New' it awlays shows the same three blogs every time i visit. I know its not always those three blogs that are the newest. it is bizarre and a waste of space.

Luckily Joy advised me to switch it to using it the old-fashioned way, so hopefully I will be able to catch up a little on my reading.

But really I was hoping I would simply 'get' what google was trying to do with this change. I am really going to have to play with it hard to try and understand the direction they are heading. It certainly didn't align with my own brain this time.

I would have been happy if they had just put a search function in there. That would have been the most useful change I could have thought of.


Anyone else loving it, have some tips for how I can learn to love it too?


*ADDITION SUNDAY OCT 1st:*
I have been playng with it and I love it even less...

Now, at the time when you add a subscription you are no longer invited to "add labels"This is a step backwards in functionality. I have over 800 feeds and unless I add the necessary labels at that point in time, when I actually subscribe, then I have to go and find that blog i just added and give it a label after the fact. This is way too much work for me. This factor alone is enough to make me want to switch back to the old version. I used to love that the labels had little drop downs so you could pick from previously used labels. Why have these disappeared?

OK - so now I am migrating back to the old version forthwith.

This Post was written by sam from Becks & Posh

Problem with my 3 Blogs - I need your help please

Hi
We just came back from Paris and now I can see 3 problems in my 3 BLOGS:
1. In My main Blog :My mom's recipes and more
September is not in the "archives" list
Many photos, I mean older are now with an x instead of the real picture ..
when I click on that picture with an X I get this:
"The page cannot be found "
HTTP 404 - File not found Internet Explorer like this one
2. In my second Blog with 'Selected recipes and photos'- Lemon And Ginger Blog ,
there are No photos anymore.. only X .. the same problem .
3. In my flower Blog : one apple a day, the same problem..
[I don't use the blogger in beta, I use IE]
Can you help me with these please? is this a temporarily problem ?
Thank you very much !
This Post was written by chanit from My mom's recipes and more
This Post was written by chanit from Lemon And Ginger
This Post was written by chanit from one apple a day

[Tools] Video blogging is easier than you think...

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no Orangette when it comes to writing a food blog. I have been preparing a post that involves cooking eggs, and I couldn't for the life of me put my technique into words. So I went and embedded a video into my post. I'd never done it before, and I was surprised how easy it was given a few important tools and web sites.

Here's what I've learned.

1. Take video - Most (if not all) digital cameras take small videos. Since this video is internet-bound, it doesn't have to be hollywood quality. Even a 640x480 video is overkill for embedding into a post. It helps tremendously if you use a tripod or some other stable base to film. This will avoid the dreaded "home movie shakes".

2. Edit video - All Windows XP machines should have Windows Movie Editor. This is an excellent program for beginners. There are a host of fancy transition and editing functions in this free program. This is important to me, since my camera only takes 30 second videos and the video I needed was 45 seconds long. WME allowed me to trim excess video off each clip and splice them together. If you don't have this on your WinXP machine, you can get it by upgrading (for free) to service pack 2.

3. Create a YouTube account - YouTube allows you to post videos for free, and it has html code for embedding the video in your post.

4. Upload the video - YouTube has easy to follow instructions for this.

5. Embed in your post - I use blogger, which had a cow with the HTML code. Don't worry, it's fine. Just check "Stop showing HTML errors for this post" and save as draft or publish. The video won't appear in your composer, but it'll pop up on the preview.

Voila! Video in your blog. Here's the finished product.

This sounds really complicated, but I went from idea to internet video in less than 30 minutes. Once you get good at it, I'm sure it'll take considerably less.

Have fun!

This Post was written by William from Never Trust a Skinny Chef...

[Blogger] Importing to TypePad

I'm seriously contemplating moving my site from Blogger to TypePad and switching to teaguyspeaks.com, which I'd registered some time back.

I see that TypePad has instructions for importing from Blogger. Has anyone tried this and what was the result? My site's been up for about a year and has about 600 posts. I can't help thinking that there would have to be some hitches in this process.

This Post was written by Bill from Tea Guy Speaks.

[Typepad] Make your own book

FYI for Typepad users--I'm not one but I thought I'd just pass this along...

This morning Blurb, the creative book publishing service, released its Blog to Book beta service to 200 SixApart TypePad bloggers. As a blogger, thought you’d be interested in hearing about this. Blurb thinks there are hidden books in many blogs, and that you don’t need Simon & Schuster to get your work out there in a professional-quality format. They’ve made a product that makes it easy for bloggers to do that, and we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Blurb looks at this beta release as a great opportunity hear from its users, and they’re putting their money where their mouth is – literally, with free books for everyone invited to try the service. With this beta release, Blurb hopes to get some quality feedback from a key audience before the company distributes Blog to Book more broadly.

The full press release is pasted below, and following are a few highlights:

- Each TypePad blogger will be invited to test the new service that enables them to convert their blogs into bookstore-quality books.

- In return for some honest feedback, each beta tester will receive a complimentary copy of their first book.

- They’ll also have an opportunity to invite a fellow TypePad blogger into the program (who will also receive a complimentary copy of their first book).

More information follows below. If you’re using TypePad, let me know and we can look into adding you to the beta list. If not, we’ll be sure to give you the heads-up for the full release after Blurb works out some of the kinks with its beta testers. If you’d like to chat with someone at Blurb about the product, let me know and I can set that up as well.

Best,
Mike

Mike Barash
Senior Director
Atomic PR
415.402.0230 (office)
650.520.0120 (mobile)
mike@atomicpr.com

Blurb Introduces Blog Slurper in New Blog-to-Book Program Blog Slurper Automatically Creates Draft Book

San Francisco, Calif. — September 27, 2006 — Blurb, the creative book publishing service, today announced that its new BookSmart™ blog-to-book beta is now being released to a select number of SixApart TypePad™ bloggers. These TypePad bloggers have been invited to test the new service that enables them to convert blogs into bookstore-quality books automatically, using Blurb’s new Blog Slurper.

“We’ve met with many, many bloggers, and a surprising number expressed a desire for the technology-free permanence books provide,” said Eileen Gittins, founder and CEO of Blurb. “In some cases, bloggers just want an archive of their work. Others want to share with their off-line friends and family, and many would like to sell their books for profit to the audiences they’ve amassed.”

Blurb’s Blog Slurper allows each blogger to identify how they want their blog slurped — by date or topic — and whether to include pictures, comments, and links. Blurb’s BookSmart application then inserts the slurped blog directly into a professionally designed book template, producing a draft book in minutes. The blogger can publish the book as is, or embellish it with more pictures and text, different fonts, borders and backgrounds, and other design details.

In return for their feedback, each beta tester is offered a complimentary copy of their first book, as well as an opportunity to invite a fellow TypePad blogger into the program. Support for additional blog services including Moveable Type, Blogger and WordPress will follow, incorporating feedback from this first beta release.

BookSmart™ runs on a Mac or PC and is free to try; users pay only when they publish. Each book is then printed on demand, in any quantity – whether that’s one for a gift, a couple dozen for family members, or several thousand to reach a wide audience. Besides blog books, popular book types include conference books, portfolio books, travel books, cookbooks, and photo books. Books cost as little as $29.95 for a single copy of a 40-page hardcover 8”x10” book, custom dust jacket included.

About Blurb
Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the power of books: making, reading, sharing, and selling them. Blurb’s creative publishing service is simple and smart enough to make anyone an author — every blogger, cook, marketer, photographer, traveler, entrepreneur, poet, everyone. Founded by Eileen Gittins in 2004 and funded by Canaan Partners and Anthem Venture Partners, Blurb is bringing book publishing to the masses. For more information about Blurb and the Blurb BookSmart™ software, visit www.blurb.com.
# # #

This Post was written by Amy from Cooking with Amy

[photography] SF Chron on taking pics in restaurants

From today's SF Chronicle an article on foodbloggers taking pictures in restaurants. Becks&Posh, Chez Pim, Bunrab, Gastronomie and My Epicurean Debauchery are all mentioned. It gives some good tips on taking unobtrusive photos.

I've gotten less wimpy about taking pictures in restaurants, but still somewhat dislike doing it, especially in a quiet, dark spot (and then the photos don't turn out anyway!). Also, sometimes I just want to focus on enjoying my meal and my company--though I'm often with my husband or close friends, I worry it's a bit rude to my dining companions if we're not as close. Anyone else have tips for getting good photos in restaurants? Or thoughts on whether or not you like to take the pictures?

PS--Thanks to Sarah from the Delicious Life for passing on the article.

This Post was written by Erin from Erin's Kitchen

[Comments] Commenting from your web-enabled phone

Hi!

I have a Sidekick phone and I use the internet feature mostly for reading food blogs while I should be doing something else. (Like paying attention to the road. Doh!)

The bit that frustrates me is that if the comment anti-spam thing (you know, that part where you type a bunch of random letters) is enabled I can't post comments because it (the phone) doesn't have flash or java or some such.

Does anyone else have a Sidekick and if so, do you have a suggestion or solution?

Random, I know...but hey...


This Post was written by RACHAEL from FRESH APPROACH

[Members] Spring Cleaning Invites

Hi Everyone

I just did some spring cleaning in the members section of this blog. There were dozens and dozens of food bloggers who had asked to be pupils but who had never ever completed the signup by accepting the invitation. Some of them dated back a year and a half. So I removed them all and wrote to each individual to tell them what I had done. Everybody is welcome to reapply for membership, of course. I think some people thought they were memebers because a link to their blog appeared in the pupil's blogroll, but the truth is I would make the link before double checking they had finished the signup process and I want to try and stop this from happening going forward. So, in addition to removing the links of the pupils who never finalized their sign-up there will be a new two-week window going forward for new pupils to accept the invitiation. Only after that two weeks will the new pupils be added to the blog roll. Hope that all makes sense.

"This invitation is only guaranteed valid for two weeks from now. If you do not accept this invitation to join the school within that time period, the invite could be removed and your blog will either not be added to the blog roll,or it runs the risk of being removed if it has already been added."

This is all fairly time consuming, so if anyone has any better ideas of how to handle this, please don't hesitate to suggest alternative methodology.

Thanks


This Post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

[Members] signing up members

New-members-to-be...
thank you for your patience.
I currently can't get to the members section of this site in order to sign you up.
This has been a problem for several hours and I am not sure when I will regain access.
Rest assured it is on my list of things to do as soon as I am able.


This Post was written by sam from becks & Posh

[Events] Hosting Etiquette

When hosting an online blogging event, I always try to make sure I visit and comment on the blog of every single entry I recieve. I feel very lucky when having the opportunity to host such an event and the very least I can do is to thank those that entered for their efforts.

But a lot of hosts don't seem to do this. Or they comment on a select number of the entries, but say nothing to the others.

What do you think about this?

Do you feel a little bit slighted if you join in an event and don't hear anything back from the host?

Do you think that I am being oversensitive and that a general thank you to everyone on the hosts blog is enough.

Or do you prefer a more personal touch?

Or do you prefer an email? Some people do this, but I always felt the comment was the best place to thank participants. Maybe I am wrong? But I think an email and comments are both equally acceptable forms of thanks accoring to the hosts preference.

Some new bloggers never even get a single comment despite their participation in an event. This is not a good welcome to the community in my opionion.

Please weigh in on this subject. What is your experience, what are your feelings?


This Post was written by sam from Becks & Posh

HTML: What is nbsp

For several weeks now I've been getting an error message about half the time when I publish my blog. It says "error" and if you click on more details it says "file not found" but if I hit the back button it takes me back into the post and I've always been able to publish.

It is freaking me out, so I took a look at the template in Firefox web developer, where I hear that things show up in red when there are errors. The only things I have in red are two places where the letters nbsp show up red. Both places they are inside brackets where text should go like this:

>nbsp<

(Even to my totally html challenged brain, they don't look like they should be there.)

I have no idea what nbsp is and why it is there. Can anyone tell me if this could be what's causing the error message, and what I should do about it. Should I just delete them?

(I'm seriously html challenged, so speak slowly and use small words if you can.)


Thanks for any help anyone can give!!

This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen

by request: how I got a book deal

The other day, I put up a thank you to everyone, explaining that I have a book deal. In the comments, Sam asked if I could comment on the process, how this happened, and how someone else might learn from what I experienced. Of course. I wrote a lengthy comment and was happy to share.

Sam asked me this morning if I might make a new post out of this, in case anyone missed it. Gladly, Sam. Here you go.


"The first part is getting the agent. In some ways, that's the hardest. I was lucky. I made friends with someone who is also a writer, but not a blogger. We were friends for a good six months before she suggested that she introduce me to her agent. I didn't ask -- I thought it would be crass -- but I did send her the URL of my website, early on. It was through reading my blog that she was convinced I was a strong-enough writer for her to introduce me.

Then, I had to pitch myself to the agent. This was back in December. SHe was intrigued, immediately, because I have a blog.

Here's what I have learned: the publishing world is fascinated by bloggers. More than other first-time writers, who sit at home and write for themselves, we bloggers have fervent fans and a built-in audience. Marketing is king in publishing. Use your blog to market yourself.

So I did. I pitched myself to the agent. She wanted a two-minute pitch, and I gave her one. Work on this, to hone what your vision is, before you ever talk to an agent.

She asked for a book proposal. This took six weeks to write. Ay. It's a different language. If anyone here is writing one, let me know. I'll be glad to offer some broad suggestions.

When I sent that in, late in January, it took the agent until March to sign me. Everything moves slowly in publishing, until they want something from you, and then it's FAST.

After I signed with my agent, I did a dance in the hallways. And then I revised the proposal. Then, revised it again. I worked with her, closely, to make every word count. We weren't done until July.

Because I had that spot on the Food Network -- an opportunity I found out about on Food Blog S'Cool -- and it is still running there, twice or three times a day, the agent was able to send out dvds of my spot with the proposal. I'm sure that helped.

At this point, I did nothing. I had to just sit back and wait. The agent took care of it all.

I'm lucky. My agent is very well connected. She sold my proposal in under two weeks. And then, after we looked at a couple of offers, we decided to go with this one at Wiley and Sons.

And then, they said, "We need the entire manuscript in four months." YIKES!

So, it's a lot of work, a lot of waiting, much luck, and then a mad dash to the end. It's amazing."


This Post was written by Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl

[wordpress] Hacked!?

Our blog has apparently been hacked. Our login page is redirecting to a page with a nasty piece of javascript on it. Also, when you view the blog, sometimes it looks fine, sometimes it's missing photos, and other times the entire template and formatting is missing.

Anyone else seen/seeing this kind of behavior?

This post was written by Anita & Cameron from Married ...with Dinner

Dear Fellow Bloggers,

Recently, I was so proud of myself for "burning" my feed, being the technical ignoramus that I am. Then it took me another week to figure out how to make my full posts, as opposed to excerpts, come through the feed. Now, my problem is that many--most, actually--of my photographs don't show up on the feed. You just
get a box with a little red "x." Some of my photos are from Flickr, and these pop up just fine. Of the ones uploaded from my computer, a few come through but most don't. I haven't a clue why this is--let alone how to fix it. Does anyone know what the problem might be? Thank you so much! --Sarah

My blog: http://www.avenuefood.com

My feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AvenueFood

This Post was written by Sarah from Avenue Food

(Misc) HELP with PHP ASAP

I am having major site issues with our Well Fed Network. The main site works/loads fine. Some of the offshoot sites, i.e., Wine Sediments, for example, only the left sidebar and banner load, not the center articles or the right sidebar.

The PHP designer we use threw it back on the site host. This is what the site host says. Any idea what I'm supposed to do? This has been going on since late morning yesterday, right as I signed on a big advertiser ... not helping.

Help?!

Your site's IP address has been blocked by a Sysadmin. This is done when an address performs a large number of concurrent connections. Opening many connections at once overloads the server.

It seems that your web pages is including parts of itself using PHP includes over the web server. This unnecessarily loads the server with HTTP connections that can be easily avoided by including the PHP code directly in your scripts.

For example, in /home/wellfed/public_html/skins/Wine/_main.php, instead of:

require( 'http://www.wellfed.net/_contrib_WineSediments.php' );

you should use

require( '/home/wellfed/public_html/_contrib_WineSediments.php' )

good god -- a book deal.

My dear fellow food bloggers,

I just published the post on my website announcing this, but I'd like to share the news here too.

Wiley and Sons, in New York, has offered me a book deal, to write a narrative cookbook. It's a book about becoming a gluten-free gourmet after growing up on bad junk food and never feeling well. It's filled with stories and recipes that anyone can cook. It really is a life-long dream come true for me.

I'm putting up a little notice here, not to brag, but to thank all of you. When I started my blog, I had no idea the community that was awaiting me. You have all sustained and inspired me. Many of you have become friends. When I started my blog, I had no idea that anyone other than my friends would be reading it. I certainly had no idea that it would lead to a book deal.

Among all the other stories and guidelines and ideas for how to make great food, I will be talking about the joy of reading food blogs, about this community, and profiling some of you for all the readers to see. I may be calling on you soon, for quotes and images, if you would like to share. The manuscript has to be finished by January 2nd, so I'm up against the wall. But I know I can do it. Keeping my blog has taught me how to meet deadlines, day after day.

Thank you again, everyone. And if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Or, any ideas about writing jobs after January. My school decided to not hire me back, once they heard I needed four months off. Politics -- too entangled to tell -- also played a part. In some ways, the administration was always nervous about my blog. Ah well. I don't miss the 6 am alarm clock, anyway. But let me know if anyone has ideas for that too!

Thank you, thank you, my fellow food bloggers. You are a mighty community.


This Post was written by Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl

[Write for Money] in Europe

Just spotted this on Noodle pie's blog, click this link for details and his email address

"Are you a food blogger? Based in a European city - but not UK, Madrid, Stockholm or Paris? Want to earn some cash writing for a big name food magazine and you can knock out 350 words to a very tight brief by this Friday, then [email HIM now...] "



This Post was written by sam from becks & posh

Promoting Your Blog: Cute Little Cards

Boing Boing just posted a bit about business card company, Moo, that is hosting a special variety pack of mini business cards specializing in using your Flickr photostream of images on the cards.

Cory of Boing Boing fame is really taken with these mini cards: "It's hard to convey just how cool-ass these cards are. They feel like a fetish object, the thick card and soft laminate finish create a great hand-feel, and they're visually stunning -- playful and intensely personal."

Currently, FLickr Pro members can get 10 free mini business cards, and an order of 100 cards is $20 dollars.

Using a variety of yummy photos really appeals to me with this deal, as does the description of the card texture. Just noted: you specify the crop to make your photo fit their card format.

Links:
- Boing Boing post on Moo
- Moo's FLickr Offer

This Post was written by McAuliflower of Brownie Points.

[Blogger] Firefox crashing

Hi. I just posted an entry and wanted to add a few more photos I found afterwards and everytime I tried to switch from HTML to Compose in Blogger. It crashes my firefox browser. I just updated the browser and it is crashing more but only in a preceived pattern with blogger. ANy suggestions?

This post was written by Chrispy from Experimentation of Taste.

Share the Love

Hello, classmates.
I have an idea for a fun food blog project. This is not a promotion for an event on my own blog; I want to learn how to make it universal.
The idea is that we all might occasionally have something extra in our pantries to share. Something that doesn’t really take more space than a first-class envelope. A little too much imported pepper; some special home-grown herbs (I have tons of Turkish laurel leaves); things like that.
I was thinking of calling this project Share Package – after the ubiquitous Care Packages of our college days, when mom would send much-needed provisions.
So here’s my question: Would this idea spread out if we all tagged our occasional share-posts with a Technorati tag saying “Share Package”? For instance, if I put up a post about a glut of wild fennel seeds in my area (now’s the season), I’d tag it “share package” and I would hope – wonder – if anyone might go check the Technorati tag once in a while and notice that Cookiecrumb has fennel seeds to offer. Then you could e-mail me with your address and I would mail you an envelope.
Is this the way Technorati works? (Provided, of course, that I ask you to send me a request.) I’m really not interested in starting some clearinghouse that needs an administrator; I want us all to participate on an ad-hoc basis. I would also like to know how to get a ripple effect so this idea spreads, but I’m cool with it being a lazy development… if at all. (I really don’t want to bother people with memes.)
Love to hear from you.


This Post was written by Cookiecrumb from I'm Mad and I Eat