I’m serious about this: don’t click this link unless you have several hours of time to read through all of the reviews.
Category: Journalism
On Grandview and Distractions
What I am enjoying about Grandview is the way that it’s getting me to concentrate on what I am currently writing. I know there is a web browser and a Twitter client behind these HUGE words, but I can’t see them. I mainly get distracted because I see a new tweet pop up or notice a tab I have yet to fully investigate and not having that visual distraction is quite useful to me.
‘Page One’
I can’t wait for this film to come out this summer.
Aaron Mahnke, on Writing
This is great stuff from a guy who just published a book.
A book, for Pete’s sake!
Real Journalism, in an Age of Blogs
“Trojan Kitty,” on blogging and journalism:
So, let’s get this out of the way: a blog is something between a personal diary and a newspaper. It’s, entirely incidentally, published online, as it’s the cheapest publishing mass media available. And it allows anyone to join. That’s good in some aspects, but it also lets too much noise in. There is no filter or distinction between a diary and a newspaper online. And people who have online newspapers get confused, and treat their newspaper as an online diary, and launch into personal fights with colleagues from their company and other media.
Wordpress Tip: How to Send Posts to Instapaper With a Simple Link
I get emails pretty often about how I added the “Send to Instapaper” link next to the date on single post pages here on Forkbombr.
First of all, there is a great Wordpress plugin named Instapaper Read Later Links that will add a “Read Later” button to posts. This button’s placement can be adjusted via CSS fairly easily.
However, I couldn’t find a place where the button didn’t seem massively out of place with Forkbombr’s design. After digging through Marco Arment’s documentation for publishers and asking around a bit, I got the text links working.
Ben Brooks: ‘A Very Good Year’
The Brooks Review is a year old today. Here’s what Ben says he has learned:
- I don’t know how to use a comma.
- My readers know how to spell and use commas.
- Positive, interesting, email outweighs the bad 6 to 1.
While Ben’s grammar sometimes makes me bang my head into my Extended II keyboard, without a doubt, he’s become a superstar in our corner of the Internet. Congratulations, my friend.
On Revisions
I really like this photo of Obama, laboring over a speech at his desk. The guy really seems to be a writer, and I love that.
Great Previews in MarsEdit
I’m not sure how I missed this, but I love having a preview within MarsEdit that looks just like the site. It’s worth the time to set this up if you publish directly from MarsEdit, like me.
Dan Benjamin’s Podcast Rig
Dan Benjamin’s 5by5 network of podcasts is simply fantastic. It turns out his podcasting equipment is pretty awesome, too.
‘Above That Minimal Level’
Up until yesterday the income I got from this site was all “extra” income. I had a full-time job and didn’t need the income this site was generating. The Fusion ads and RSS sponsorships covered the hard costs (primarily hosting and my internet service provider) and then what was left over I used to pay for software, hardware, and the other things I write about here.
But now that I’ve quit my full-time job, the income this site makes has a new priority: food and shelter. Or, put another way, the RSS Sponsorships help me buy food to eat instead of software to write about.
Shawn Blanc, on Writing
From his first post after going full-time with his site:
Writing should be about standing behind your work and truly caring about what it is you have to say. If you happen to be good with words then congratulations. Dispassionate beautiful prose, however, is still dispassionate. Or, as Anatole France put it, “a tale without love is like beef without mustard: insipid.”
Emotion, honesty, truth, passion. These are the backbones of writing. And these are the very things that can be the hardest to put into our writing. I often find myself caring more about how I say things than what I am saying. The how and the what are certainly important, but not equally so.