Over the holiday weekend I found the time to knock out several updates to the site that have been on my someday / maybe list for a while now.  The big one was moving the site to a new domain name, kenclark.me, in place of the old one, kenclarksblog.com.  (I know, I am not going to win any major creative points for that one!)

Why bother, you may ask?  It’s pretty simple.  Kenclarksblog.com started to feel dated; as if the site was permanently stuck in 2005, and it finally got to the point where it bothered me enough to make the change.

Changing domains on a pre-existing site can be tricky, but I have to say that it really couldn’t have gone any easier due to both the Wordpress platform and great support from Bluehost, my hosting company.  On the day I made the switch, I spoke with three different Bluehost support reps, all of whom answered the phone on the first ring and were outstanding.  Additionally, their admin tool made setting up all of the 301 redirects quite simple.

Once I got the domain transfer worked out, I took some additional time to tack on the latest WordPress updates and add the Disqus comment engine as well, so I am feeling good that I’m entering 2010 with a minor tune-up complete and in the rear view mirror.

I believe everything is redirecting properly, but if you see anything funky going on with the site or the RSS feeds, please let me know.

P.S.  Here are a couple links that I found useful in the event you are considering anything similar:

• Configure Wordpress for a New Domain / Temporary URL – this is a Bluehost KB document that explains how to configure Wordpress for your hosting temporary URL, but the instructions are equally valid for changing from an old domain to a new domain.
• How to Backup the Wordpress Database
• How to Backup Wordpress Site / Files
• w3 Link Checker – this is a great tool that recursively checks your site for any broken links.
• 301 Redirect Checker – enter a URL and it will validate that it has / doesn’t have a proper 301 redirect

Earlier this week, David Sparks and Katie Floyd of the Mac Power Users podcast released Episode 11: Services and Macworld 2010.  This show featured a discussion about Mac OS X Services and Mac automation and included a mention of my blog post, Using Mac OS X Services to Import Files into Evernote.

Mac Power Users is a really informative show about getting the most out of your Mac, and I always look forward to listening to it every month.  Thanks to David and Katie for the call out.  I encourage you to check it out and subscribe to their podcast via iTunes.

Here's what the rssCloud element looks like in this blog's RSS feed.

The tech story of last weekend was probably that WordPress installations around the world got hit by a nasty worm, so it was nice to see today that WordPress bounced back with an announcement that wordpress.com now supports rssCloud, a real-time update feature of  RSS developed by Dave Winer.  That was quickly followed by Joseph Scott’s release of an rssCloud plug-in for self-hosted Wordpress installations.

Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb summarizes today’s news in a recent post, and in the process has a great analogy of why rssCloud matters:

“This is like the difference between checking your email every once in awhile and using a Blackberry to get new emails pushed to you as soon as they arrive. The subscription method of RSSCloud works more like Instant Messaging than the old method of polling feeds for updates each time you fire up your feed reader.”

I installed the rssCloud plug-in on the blog tonight, and it couldn’t have been easier.  I’m looking forward to see how fast RSS readers adopt this protocol as well as the impact it has on the “real-time web”.

Well as of tonight, I am excited to say there is a mobile version of the blog that uses Apple’s web app API for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Here’s a screenshot of how it looks in mobile Safari:

I used Brave New Code’s WPTouch Wordpress Plugin, which is just a great piece of software that is very easy to configure.  The plugin has no effect on how the regular web version of the site is rendered on your desktop or laptop  and allows you to configure a number of options for the mobile version (including a switch to let a viewer see the “desktop” version of the site if needed).

The next time you are using your iPhone or iPod Touch, please check it out!

You may have noticed that a number of older posts from this summer hit the blog and the RSS feed yesterday. After taking a temporary break from posting on this blog to experiment for the last month or so with Posterous, I decided to merge the majority of the content I had posted there into this site.

Posterous is a very cool service that is only getting better every day, but I’m still debating how I am going to use it on an ongoing basis.  Moving forward this site will be my primary location for content.

I am the process of testing out Posterous as my primary blogging platform. You probably won’t see much here as I give Posterous a test run. Please visit me on Posterous at http://kenclark.me or subscribe to my Posterous RSS feed: http://kenclark.me/rss.xml. Thanks!

Hey everyone!  As you may have noticed, I have been in a mini-hiatus over the last two months.  Personally, I fell short of my expectations for updating the site, and in the process I missed a lot of topics I like to think I could have had some good posts on: iLife ‘09, the Twitterization of America, some personal productivity forays… wait… scratch that.  We definitely didn’t need any additional blog posts talking about Twitter!  Maybe my break was a good thing after all!

Put simply, I had a really crazy start to 2009 across all fronts and something had to give.  That said, I’m back — or at least I think I am. I am not sure that things have slowed down all that much, but over the last several weeks I have been focusing on getting my GTD processes tighter, and while I am far from becoming the next David Allen (I still have a tough time with those Weekly Reviews…), I have been able to clear the decks enough to get the blog back on the radar.

As a mini-kick-off, I just finished wrapping up some loose ends that were still hanging from my Wordpress transition two months ago.  While the changes were nothing that you will notice, it was a relief to get the work out of the way so I can keep my focus on writing some good content as opposed to lingering open loops with the back-end of the blog.

I expect to get back on a regular posting schedule next week; which for me means two to four posts a month.  Thanks again for the patience, and I will see you all very soon!

Despite my best intentions, it has been exactly a month since my last real content-driven post (How to Name a File and Regain Control of your Documents).  That is not too good — particularly when I had set a New Year’s goal to get a post a week on the blog!

So I quickly just wanted to say thanks in advance for the patience and not unsubscribing from the RSS feed   I do have some fairly significant stuff happening right now in my work and personal life (in a good way!), but I still hope to get into a better groove of more regular updates in the upcoming weeks.  I have a good list of topics that I think will be of interest and intend to get some new posts up soon.

Thanks again!

Ken

Over the last week, I took a hiatus from writing my weekly post and have been preparing to migrate the blog platform from TypePad to WordPress.  I am very excited to say that the change went live about 45 minutes ago, and so far it looks like everything went to plan.

Even though this is a pretty small site, there were still a fair number of details to consider to ensure that all of the content got transferred over OK without breaking any links, affecting my search engine rankings, etc.  I still have a couple of minor loose ends to tie up, but all things considered I think it went pretty well.

Why did I make the move?  TypePad is a great platform, but I wanted more flexibility and customization and you really can’t beat what WordPress offers in that area.  So far I have to say that I think WordPress rocks, and I know I have barely scratched the surface.  I am really excited to see what else it can do.  (And as far as the blog’s content is concerned, I plan to write in more detail about the transition as well as my ongoing experiences using WordPress.)

So now that the heavy lifting is completed, my focus will get back to producing some new content for ya!  Barring any unforeseen issues, you should see a new post later this week.

Thanks!

Ken

Hi everyone.  Welcome and thank you for reading my inaugural post!  As the first order of business, I would like to take a moment to talk about why I am starting this blog.

Over the last several months I have had an ongoing desire to share and discuss some of the ways I have been using technology in my day-to-day life.  My ideas have spanned everything from how to better leverage websites like delicious, Flickr, and LinkedIn, to my impressions of productivity software like OmniFocus, to talking about why I finally made the switch from Safari to Firefox.  Sometimes I would have an idea that I believed was unique, while other times I simply had a thought that I wanted to share with friends, family, and colleagues in a more structured setting than just a simple email or conversation.

So today I got started.

My intent in starting this blog is to provide content that helps all of us become smarter about how we use technology.  To put it into a mission statement of sorts — the goal is to share and provide ideas about innovative and creative ways to better leverage technology, websites, and software applications in our daily lives.

My initial posts will focus on the platforms and systems that I am using now.  These include: Apple products and Mac software, what I consider to be some really great Web 2.0 applications, and my explorations into digital photography and related software.  From there, I expect the content to naturally evolve based on my ongoing experiences and the feedback I receive.

On a personal level, I view this blog as the natural evolution of what has been a passion for technology over my entire life.  My interest in technology started back when I was just a kid and my Dad, a pioneering “gadget guy” in his own right, would bring home and un-box the latest and greatest gadgets.  We used — and loved — some of the early classics of our era such as the Atari 2600, the original Apple II computer, a 512k “Fat Mac”, and even a “top-loading” Pioneer Laserdisc player (now that was bleeding edge!).  Learning to appreciate technology at that young age led to an interest that has become a consistent theme across both my professional career and personal endeavors.

So what’s next?  It’s simple — I need to get writing!  I expect to publish several articles in the upcoming weeks.  In the meantime, please let me know any ideas or comments.  Thanks again, and I will be talking to you all very soon!

–Ken