It is hard to change computer habits, be it operating system or web browser. I’m a person who doesn’t leave her usual browser without a good fight. I wasn’t always a Firefox fangirl. I was once an IE user like most people and when I first tried Firefox, I hated it immediately, seemed too much hassle to getting used to it, so I uninstalled in 10 mins. Second time I tried, I took it easy to learn my way around Firefox and eventually have become an addict. Now I don’t know how I had lived through the days before tabbed browsing and all that customization.
And I was thinking Firefox and I are great friends and there will be no other browser that will come between us. Chrome is faster ? Well, I love my highly customised Firefox the way it is even it is slower.
Then there is Flock. They call it “social web browser”. I was curious at first, but as soon as I see Facebook in the services list, it was an immediate turn-off. I’m trying not to be a FB hater, I have an account there which I rarely use (For those who use Facebok on daily basis, you should definitely check out Flock. See the video ). I thought “It’s not my kind of social” since I use mostly RSS-reader and no digg, no delicious, no microblogging until trying identi.ca, and Flock doesn’t support identi.ca yet.
When I finally decided to try, I was so sure I would uninstall it in 15 mins. most. And I couldn’t be more wrong. I fell in love with its simple and neat interface at first sight, no need to change any browsing habits since it is basically Firefox with native social web toolbar and fully compatible with Firefox plugins. I can check my RSS feeds, twitter, even youtube videos and e-mails without disturbing my browsing. I’m trying blog editor right now, integrated to browser, makes it so easier to compose a blog post.
Another thing I like about Flock is it developer team seem to undertand social web well. My experience so far, they are so responsive to their users (e.g. via twitter) and have and account on Youtube “How to Flock” introducing browser’s features and how to use them.
Yet they are not without flaws (yet :D ). They don’t have identi.ca integration as I said and friendfeed. I’m looking forward to see them integrated soon.
Well, I uninstalled Firefox, customized Flock to my taste and definitely enjoying the experience. And passionately recommending for those who haven’t try it out yet. Give it 15 mins. and it will steal your heart.
Flock Browser
On Social Media
A couple days ago, on Amy’s Ramblings blog, I read her post on how time consuming social media had become for her due to so many updates and ‘noise’ to deal with. I was thinking on the subject for some time and I agree with her points.
I have an ambivalent relationship with social media. I like it, I encourage people around me to actively use it but I have some problems with it. There are many more or less similar services and catching up with friends on different services is not as easy as it should be.
An example scenerio: I have 3 friends on 3 different microblogging services. To stay in touch, I have accounts all three of them. When I have an update, I have to update three of them so that all friends can see it. Guess what it would do to my friendfeed; one message repeated three times. To avoid it, if I update 3 different accounts with different messages, my 2 other friend on other services won’t be able to see some of the updates and … etc.
This fragmentation and duplication of the messages are the main problem of social media. It is terribly time consuming as well as addictive. Monitoring all your feeds, sorting out and filtering useful information from useless soon makes it tiresome routine. This is the point I end up quitting my social media watch for a while, only to return some time later, baffling immense number of updates I have no way of catching up.
Ok, this is mostly because neatness is not really my forte. And applications I tried didn’t help the situation, either. I use Posty to manage and monitor microblog feeds. It allows me to view only the last 20 message. But I need to see all new messages since I last checked. Posty won’t let me. And I don’t know if any other application that can work on Linux do. Gwibber don’t have a feature to show public timeline, and I love to check timeline for randomness’ sake.
Can I add one last complaint? So hard to follow a conversation if three or more people are involved on a microblogging platform, harder when using microblogging application. It would be lovely to see a conversation among there or more people in a threaded way or something.
I’m searching for one central place to control this wild wild social media beast and more control over what I’m sharing to whom.
DoFollow
I enabled the DoFollow of the comments on Misty Forest. I’ve been meaning to do it for a long time. From now on you comment, I follow.
If you want to learn about DoFollow movement, you can check out: What are DoFollow blogs?
Eurovision 2009
It’s that time of the year again. Eurovision Song Contest 2009 participants are ready to go. Generally, ESC favors the music genres that I don’t prefer to listen/ don’t like. So, Eurovision is not something that is much interesting to me; boring songs, unoriginal music, clone stage performances with some hot boys/girls, cheap lyrics… But every now and then, there are some good stuff. Though , the entries that catch my attention tend to do not so bright in the contest :D.
What positively attracts my attention when I first hear ESC entries are mainly three things:
Language of the Song: +1 points for the songs in their native language. Because, some songs in English honestly make me wish to forget all the English I know, so that I won’t be hearing the terrible, cheesy lyrics. Besides, while the increasing trend is English lyrics, songs in native language sacrifices the lyrics’ chance to be understood and relies on the universality of music to convey feelings and atmosphere of the song is some challenge to be rewarded.
Stage Shows: Participants discovered the power of the flashy stage shows in the last years. This still causes poor entries (with cheesy lyrics and overall lack of originality) accompanied by a pack of dancers on the stage. So, another +1 point for the songs that doesn’t rely on dancing hot girls/boys on the stage as its sole strength.
Originality: “I feel like I heard it somewhere before” is a sentence I don’t want to utter for an entry. This year, some entries I will define as “Disney movie music” are plenty and despite my good intentions to give them a chance, I feel like I’m hearing the same song. I’ll leave that group of entries to fans of the genre to evaluate.
I have two favourites this year. One is Bistra Voda by Regina from Bosnia, and the other is Fairytale by Alexander Rybak from Norway.
Regina’s entry is in their native language and although you don’t understand the lyrics, expressive vocal draws you into the melancholic mood of the song. They definitely don’t need a flashy show for this song, just go there and sing. It reminds me of last year’s Turkey entry Deli quality-wise. So I expect Bistra Voda will be overlooked while some boring song gets all the points.
Rybak’s song on the other hand tells a light-hearted story and is supported with a show where Rybak dances around playing his violin accompanied by a group of dancers . His performance reminded me of a wandering bard performing his song at an inn tavern. Ok, I admit I read too much fantasy novels :) but title of the song’s itself is fairytale, so I’m not the one to blame for my winding imagination…hehe.
And there are some amusing entries, too. Serbia for one I can remember and enjoy. Czech’s gypsy themed entry is another one, fast paced and catchy. And Belgium’s Copycat gets all sorts of negative comments as a weak and repetitive song, but I really like the humour of the song (minus the cartoon character on the video).
I gotta mention Israel’s entry. Not one of my personal favourites, yet noteworthy. Seems like song has some sort of mission, considering the everlasting conflict on the land that it was born, a reminder of agonizing struggle over years and a call for peace and harmony. It contains Hebrew, Arabic and English lyrics mixed. I don’t think song with a message will bring them much points but I appreciate their peace seeking efforts through music.
Some other notes of my first impressions on other entries:
Turkey: To my great suprise, this year’s entry appears on people’s top 5/top 10 lists. I really don’t like the song, lousy and Shakira-like, nothing interesting (likewise Greece entry). I loved last year’s entry very much.
Macedonia: Finally, it is time for some rock’ish sound in the competition, since Finland betrayed my hopes for some good metal song this year, this one have to do. But wrong side of the rock for me.
Now to mention it, after Lordi’s improbable-but-true victory with a very metal song and heavy make-up, Finland sent another one last year with no such success. Therefore this year they decided to try one with electro-rap hybrid (which is catchy). Since I tend to favor rock/metal sounds, I kept my expectations high for such song considering Finland is like a homeland to metal genre.
Russia: If they make Plushenko skate at the background this year too, they may have a chance :P
Estonia and Slovakia: tries symphony idea this year. Among two, Estonia is better at it.
Consequently, I’m rooting for Bosnia and Norway this year.
A Minimal Look
Misty Forest may seem deserted and quiet, but there still are wandering souls inside coming and going as the Mistress watches them from far, greeting them silently.
MF is ready for mid-autumn and coming-of-winter by its newly picked theme; Daydream the original source. But the one I prefer widget support added version. It has a minimal and clean look and still elegant. I’m vastly happy with Daydream theme which perfectly fits my mood; it widens the looks of the forest and adds a refreshed atmosphere just as I’m cleaning out all unnecessary burdens that narrows my living space greatly. Besides, “daydreaming” is one of the words that I favor much.
