Well, that's a record. Four months between posts. A third of a year. Sorry. So I thought it would be nice to post an update on what's what with this blog, as I don't intend to let it go stale.
That said, I am genuinely too busy to update it very often these days, and my usage model has changed since back in the day when blogs were the new, exciting thing. This blog has been running since February 2002, so it's over six years old now, but back when it was wet behind the ears a blog was a fantastic way to publish links to interesting stuff on the net. I used to check in regularly on other blogs to find links to new and wonderful things and people used to use mine the same way. That was how it worked.
Of course, over time, the links to fun stuff on this blog got interspersed with techy work links and personal views, rants, monologues and diatribes. The work stuff got broken off as you couldn't search a blog way back when, so I put all that gear into a personal Mambo site which has a searchable MySQL database on the back end. I still use that, although it's just for my personal reference now. I just can't be arsed to move it back to an online site at the moment, although I'd be happy to share the knowledge.
So that leaves the fun and interesting links and the personal views and rants.
Trouble is, these days it's just so much easier to use Digg or del.icio.us or any one of a number of other tools for finding and bookmarking content. I've just recently really started delving into del.icio.us, and am really liking it as a way to bookmark interesting stuff. Perhaps I'll post more on how I use it another time, as it's really handy for someone like me that might use any one of three or four computers, depending on where I am and what I'm doing. I've also been a long-time user of Digg, which I use more for discovering content rather than bookmarking it, but whatever works, you know?
Then there's MySpace (don't hit that too often any more), FaceBook (still check in on that fairly regularly), Pownce (developing nicely recently - might be really useful soon) and Twitter (inane for the most part, but still occasionally somehow absorbing). There's also other stuff which is more peripheral that I use, like Flickr and YouTube.
The thing is, I have no need to post links on a blog any more - del.icio.us is way easier and more useful. I wouldn't post pictures here either, as Flickr is so accomplished, so really that only leaves the personal views and rants.
So, that means that this blog is going to slow down, at least for a while. If I find something that I feel really have (or want) to discuss a bit, it'll appear here, otherwise please check me out on all the other online tools using the "Me" links on the right - they're just quick posts and links and such, and not written like this blog, but they're updated way more often. Oh, and my tumble log at Tumblr does nothing much other than aggregate my activity from this blog, del.icio.us, digg and twitter, but that's probably a good way to check in on what I'm looking at or doing online.
I guess that's symptomatic of the (online) times in which we live - too much easy, quick and thoughtless linking and commenting, not enough creative writing and thinking. Tags and shorthand are taking over from proper, human language online. Bummer, huh?
I promise that when the personal and work lives calm down a bit, I'll start posting more here. Even if that's in six months.......