I realize that doing a blog in HTML would require me to edit the RSS file manually, which in once sense seems like a stupid thing to do, but if I’m only posting once or twice per week and editing the RSS file only takes me about 2 minutes then it’s not an issue (and the same argument goes for manually formatting the HTML). My guess is that writing a decent post will probably take me an average of about two hours to write, so an additional 4 or 5 minutes of formatting RSS and HTML is just a rounding error and shouldn’t be a major consideration. Now if someone could teach me how to write a quality post in 15 minutes, then you got my attention! 😉

Now with regard to using AppIgnite to generate the blog app, we could probably come pretty close to doing that now except for a few specific features like generating the RSS feed. Guyon thinks we should do this for the same reason you mentioned, which is the importance of eating your own dog food. While I agree that this would be ideal and is something that’s worth considering, I don’t think however that rerouting our development road map just to be able to generate the blog app would be a wise thing to do.

Ultimately, I’m just trying to remove any excuses for not blogging because writing is something I tend to procrastinate about. Also, I figure that we could generate the blog app later on if we wanted to and import into it whatever posts have been written up to that point.

I fully understand where he’s coming from, but one of the features a blog engine gives you is the ability to produce alternate renderings of the content in different formats (e.g. RSS). If you’re doing it all by hand will you maintain an RSS feed by hand as well (duplication of effort), or not offer one at all? I’d read the AppIgnite blog regularly, but only if I can get a feed into my Google Reader (where I read everything).

It also struck me that a simple blog engine should be something AppIgnite should do easily and I wondered why Jason isn’t using his own product??? Maybe it’s just not stable enough yet, but I was curious.

Jim.

Whenever you guys come up with a name for the show let me know you have my email.

Thanks for a nice show you guys put up.

Another reason NOT to do an HTML blog is that you will have to work even harder to make the blog SEO-friendly in terms of keeping the metadata up-to-date, publishing updated site maps with new pages, creating cross-references for the topics, and so on. The search engine are pretty good at recognizing blog engines and sucking the right data during indexing. So you would probably be at a disadvantage by going pure HTML.

I admire your need for a challenge and want to build things yourself but believe me, making a site in static HTML will definitely be quicker at first but will DEFINITELY take longer to maintain in the long run. That’s the whole reason these blogging tools were built in the first place – to avoid all the same problems that you will face and that every programmer has solved a hundred times before.

To think that’s it’s “quicker to do it HTML” and that learning to change a WordPress theme “is complicated and will take too long” is COMPLETELY backwards!! All you will need to do is take the time to create a theme – HTML & CSS which you will do ANYWAY – plug it in to WordPress (simple to learn, simple to do) and then you don’t need to worry about anything ever again.

If you are doing this for your company/product blog then you would be doing your customers a disservice NOT having tools like “search”. However, for a personal blog then obviously you can do what you like because you are answerable to no one but yourself there!

(end rant)

Maybe I can explain my reasons to you better on your show 😀

Jason :
@Robin Police

Also, I thought “AppIgnite” was actually “Appic Night”. I think I understand the show a lot better now.

Now that’s funny!

Actually i’ll agree with that, took me about 3 episodes to here App…. Ignite, not Apic Knight

I’ve signed up for a paid Github account, And setup SmartGIT on my machines. But I’ve been looking for a way to deploy them easily, Too much of Commit changes, FTP Sync, Hope that it doesn’t miss anything cause it’s just going off of timestamps.

So i’ve found This,
http://philsturgeon.co.uk/news/2010/02/Deploying-websites-with-Git
and this
http://zackbartel.com/?p=24

I’m hoping to have this working this afternoon, The master Branch would be the LIVE site, and you can make a testing branch for a testing server. Which would be great. Also means no more filtering the uploads through my crappy connection when there’s a server available and willing.

Repost for Jason

Also, I thought “AppIgnite” was actually “Appic Night”. I think I understand the show a lot better now.

Now that’s funny! 😉

I totally agree with the big software thoughts, but oftentimes building a small solution can become complicated. I’ve had a few small projects blow up on me before, but I think it’s a good experience regardless. The great thing about the pre-built software is empowerment for non-coders, and not everyone needs to be able to write complicated software if their best asset is writing.

Also, I thought “AppIgnite” was actually “Appic Night”. I think I understand the show a lot better now.

Maybe I need the remedial class!

@Neville – yup I use something like that at both source and also during mix but it still doesn’t get rid of the noise my setup makes because the DB is above a sensible gate threshold

Btw, how about adding a Like button? May help with the marketing..

I agree it would take longer then expected to build a blog engine and I say this because I actually built one a few years ago called Loudmouth that has tags and archives and search and that all that stuff. 😉 So, yeah, I wouldn’t recommend doing either unless you just wanted to do it for fun, or as a learning experience, or if you wanted to try a whole new approach to the blogging concept.

Anyway, I was just thinking of making simple HTML pages by hand and not worrying about all the other stuff. I haven’t decided yet, so we’ll see.

Before starting my new blog (http://www.aorsi.com/wb/) using WordPress, I started a blog with a friend. And I decided to build it myself too. Interface, comments, feed, last articles, ecc.

We still post there (http://www.anakedview.com/) articles on psychology, media and society: is in Italian so beware 🙂

There are a couple of things I want to point out:

1.It will take you longer than you think, because you won’t be satisfied with the basic, because your basic will be different from Paul Graham’s basic.

2.Wordpress gives you the possibility to write and save draft version of your post online, in the same platform, without saving a text file, copying in the ftp local folder, formatting it with your html/css, ftping and previewing it online before submitting the post to the public. Following the WordPress’ way you will definitely post more stuff.

3.Wordpress’ plugins. They will save you a lot of time, when you’ll start asking for more or different functionalities.

Cool, I’m glad you liked it. I sort of thought of it, or at least the term “luck surface area”, during the show. I’m thinking it could make for a decent blog post. I just need to flesh out the concept a little and maybe think of an illustrative story.

* RSA Animate – The Secret Powers of Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg&feature=channel

* RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

* RSA Animate – Crises of Capitalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0&feature=channel

Disclaimer: Thus far I’ve only had time to watch the first video “The Secret Powers of Time”, but the other two are on my short list.

Jason :
@Bopinder Abu Morpalinder Singh I’m starting to feel left out of this whole DVCS party. I think I may have to take a hard look at it as well.

If you are using SVN, then yes. If you are not using source control, then hell yes!

Glad you liked it. But man, we almost went two hours in this episode and it wasn’t even an interview! The funny thing is that I could probably have talked for four. Maybe I should seek professional help. 😉

Android Tablets are becoming quite popular and extremely useful, We’re using them for service based industries for Job Systems so their staff don’t need to come back to the office between jobs. JSON data from sites, Appcelerator App and 7 Inch Touchscreen.

Also you may want to look at still using the Freemium model for Swarm, As I make a decent amount of money through adsense advertising. The Android Market doesn’t support developers in Australia yet (No Paid Apps), So all of our apps have to be free.

That being said, SVN is retarded compared to DVCS. Checking in offline is fucking ridiculous.