Blogger alternatives. I love blogger. I love the fact that so many people are doing useful things with it.

But it is clearly a tech-weenie experience. Stability is poor. There is often disagreement between blogger and me about what has been really published. I often have to whack blogger upside the head to get it to correctly publish my content. I have recommended blogger to many people but my non-tech-weenie friends find it daunting.

So I am on a mission to find alternatives. Looked at Movable Type – but don’t really want to install server software, I am very wary of installing even scripts on my server that come from sources I don’t know. I played with Radio some more. It shares some of the stability and tech-weenie nature of blogger.

Next up is citydesk from Fog Creek Software. OK I have citydesk from fogcreek installed. The article management UI is nice. Including pictures is easier than blogger. Stability seems fine so far. I will have to do some initial setup for my buds so that they don’t have to learn {$x.barf$} syntax. A possibility…

Windows Update. A friendly reminder – if you are running a win98 or better system and aren’t checking windows update periodically, you should be. the number of critical security fixes flowing thru win update is high and some of these are pretty important. you can ignore all the optional components but the critical security fixes seem like goodness.

Wildseed. Wow they are making great progress. I received a real sample of one of their skins last week – first manufacturing run. Very very cool. I am very proud to be associated with these guys. Check out coverage at USA Today and Forbes.

Boating. The great weather makes me want to get out on a boat. And we live in a great area for it. Thankfully there is no reason to actually own a boat. There is a great market of charter options. We’ve used Ledger Marine here in Seattle and had great luck. Other options I’ve noticed are Penmar, CNI Charters, Bellingham Yacht Sales, ABC, Starellit, and Anacortes Yacht Charters. A huge range of pricing, amenities, crew options, etc. Waaaay cheaper than actually owning a boat.

Someday I’d like to do a charter in other parts of the world. From some of these sites you can see the market for charters in other areas, and clearly the mediterranean and caribean are active markets. I have a dream of doing Australia by boat someday…

Mt Rainer. Man it looks good today. A day like today reminds me why we live in Seattle. Time to hit the trails…

Small Camera. Here’s a cool small camera.

Makes me wonder about the limit to size of a camera. As moore’s law drives down the size of necessary circuitry, I guess the limits to size are a) batteries, b) lens structure, and c) control surfaces. I would have in the past said storage media was a driver of size but no more, not with solid state media. Lens structure is a feature decision – how much optical zoom, size do you want. I bet batteries can get very small as designers go to low power circuits. These cameras are going to get very very small….

Tech segment news. A variety of newsletters I read to get news on particular tech segments. Consumer Electronics – TWICE. Nano – Small Times. Wireless – w o w - c o m and WirelessWeek. Storage – searchStorage.

Spam Stoppers. Great article in pcmage re Spam Stoppers. i am trying out spamgourmet right now. I love the idea of disposeable addresses.

Aviation Safety. A site I like to look at occasionally for statistics on aviation. By airline, by class of aviation – Aviation Safety Network.

Relatives. A fun game to play on the net is to see what you can find out about your relatives. Extra points for obscurity. Not an exhaustive list below but some fun things I found out about my relatives:

Grandfather Cleo is a great supporter of the 4-H organization: “4-H gave me an opportunity for accomplishment, boosted my ego and brought me out of my shell of shyness and unworthiness.” – Cleo Ludwig, Founder, L & K Restaurants.

Sister Laura is easy to find – tons of mentions due to her job at the Ohio Department of Public Safety. Ditto Cousin Carolyn.

Cousin John had a stint with the Reds! Cool.

Cousin Susan’s efforts are apparently appreciated by the Franklin Country Democrats. While her husband Erick is a member in good standing of the Buckeye Beemers.

Brother-in-law Garry Curren is on the all-time all-OAC team! And is a heck of a dog trainer. Speaking of dogs, Aunt Carrie is a huge dog lover too.

Check out the high school/middle school photo of Dad – Pictures, near the bottom of the page, open the one named Paul Ludwig (if you can’t find it there, try here). And the high school pics of Rosemary and Garry!

No picture for Mom, but she and dad are appreciated by the United Way.

Cousin Rob is well known in Norwalk – home of the Hen House.

Reed. Visited Reed yesterday. Bright kids. But wow are they left of the mainstream. But bright. An interesting contrast to some of the other places we visited. It is certainly a free thinking place!

Whitewater. Time to book those summer trips now. North Cascades River Expeditions and River Riders have worked for us in the past. The Tieton and Wenatchee runs were the most fun. The Nooksack and Suiattle are beautiful but can be a bit cold and damp.

Eaglecam. A local bald eagle next – cool! WDFW - WildWatchCams

College entrance exams. Rant. Kids these days are expected to take the PSAT in their junior year to qualify for National Merit honors. SAT in the spring of their junior year for the first time. Followed by prep work, and then the SAT again in the fall of their senior year. AP tests for appropriate classes at the end of their junior year, which could mean as many as 4 more tests. SAT II tests in 3 subject areas at the end of their junior year, followed by retesting in their senior year if they feel appropriate. Some people recommend the ACT test as well as it biases in slightly different directions.

Issue A. The amount of time and work spent on these tests is huge. And if you want to do any prep at all, it really eats up time.

Issue B. The notion that a small set of numbers somehow measures a person’s potential is of course nuts.

Each of these tests also has all kinds of scoring options – extra cost options for faster score reporting, more detailed reporting.

Issue C. The system explicitly favors higher income families – retesting, prep, scoring options all add up. I guess I shouldn’t complain as this biases the system towards us but it is not right.

Disturbing.