on using Windows Live Writer

I was going to write about using the brand-spanking-new Windows Live Writer blog editor, but as you can see it requires the .NET framework. I refuse to install that on my machine. My Windows laptop is fast, runs smoothly, and has crashed exactly twice in four years (knock wood)—and I am not messing with that by installing some bloated framework just to test a blog editor. Sorry. It would be unlikely to sway me from using Performancing for Firefox anyway.

So as not to be all negative nelly on you, I will say that when I first saw the announcement about Windows Live Writer the first thing I thought was "cool, I'll try it and write about it!" I don't talk lovingly about Microsoft, and have great internal conflict about having a Windows-based laptop, but lookee here—Microsoft made a product that supports a whole host of blogging platforms besides their own, right out of the box: Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, LiveJournal, even Radio Userland and so forth. They get a gold star for that. Also, it's free. Another gold star. Sure sign of the apocalypse, don't you think?

Since I won't be discussing it, let me point you to people who are:
- at Digital Inspiration, here (basic) and here (tips and tricks)
- a post at Freshblog rounding up some other posts
- a review of WLW at Performancing , including user comments

[cross-posted at No Fancy Name]

technorati tags: windows live writer, blogging

Amazing New Blogger Things!

More on this later, but via Blogger Buzz comes the Blogger in beta announcement.

There are SO MANY lovely things being added to Blogger, which dovetails nicely with discussions about refreshing this book.

I am not one of the lucky few who could migrate their existing account with the new and improved Google accounts login (hey guys, pretty please could you sneak me in there?) but I created an account on the beta site and can test that way. I'm stoked!

technorati tags: blogger

blogger in a snap: en español!

Sams Teach Yourself Blogging in a Snap has been translated and published in Spanish!

If you pay attention to blog metrics such as David Sifry's State of the Blogosphere reports, or if you are just a worldly and generally aware kind of person, you'll know that English is the primary language of only a third (or so) of all blogs. Personally, a good 15% of my blog traffic comes from countries in which Spanish is the primary language—and most of that traffic goes to my how-to posts. So, while the author is never involved in things like securing translation rights for books, I found it to be an incredibly appropriate choice for the first translation of this book.

I don't get one red cent from individual purchases, but that really makes no difference to me. I just want a gajillion people to have a good, basic book on using Blogger, and in their own language! The book can be found online at El Corte Inglés, Librería Hispano Americana, Casa del Libro, ALIBRI Llibreria, Agapea, and probably a ton more places but I'm not hip to Spanish booksellers online. Despite the fact that my name is misspelled on the cover, I think it's a cool book.

[cross-posted at No Fancy Name]

technorati tags: blogger