RobiNZ CAD Blog

9th Anniversary!

March 31st means it is blog’iversary time again. I find it hard to believe nine years have flown by since that first tentative post. To everyone, everywhere, thanks for visiting, reading and subscribing!

Statistics:

Last year broke the million visit mark and in spite of reduced posting from me this year, this is a hobby!, visits held up.

Visits & Subscribers:

The weekly “blog beat” is fairly constant apart from a blip caused by over 300 visits to one post, of only two I made, in April.

In spite of RSS and feed technology not being talked about much and, soon, Google actively discouraging readers subscriptions are still steadily growing.

Location:

As usual the US dominates but nice to see Australasia third behind Northern Europe in the regional list.

Browser & Operating System:

It’s interesting to watch this over the years even if it doesn’t really mean much. Compared to 2012 IE lost 4% and Firefox was also down 5%. iOS Safari also rose to 2.2% from 0.68% last year.

The winner was Chrome up 6% and, for the first time on my blog, overtaking IE.

Windows 8 arrived in my platform/browser stats and, perhaps more surprising, someone out there is still using Windows 98!

Thanks for reading, see you in year ten!

Windows Live Writer - Changing the Drafts/Recent Posts folder location

I’ve been using Windows Live Writer to create drafts for this blog for several years. The, recently decommissioned, Mesh/Live Mesh sync service to enabled me to blog from my PC or Netbook. When I fired up Windows Live Writer all the post drafts, images and other resources would be identical.

SkyDrive, nearly but not quite Mesh

Microsoft SkyDrive is the Mesh replacement. It is nicely integrated in Windows 8/Office 13 but it has one (for me) crucial missing feature. Mesh allowed you to sync any folder, anywhere, to any chosen location on the other machine. I could use Mesh to clone C:\Users\RobinCapper\My Documents\My Weblog Posts to say C:\Users\RCNetbook\My Documents\My Weblog Posts and all the contents sync'd.

With SkyDrive Microsoft chose to follow the Dropbox model and forces you to build a Sync folder hierarchy under the hardcoded User/SkyDrive Folder. Unfortunately Windows Live Writer is hard coded to save drafts in User\My Documents\My Weblog Posts which SkyDrive does not sync. It was one reason I much preferred Mesh to Dropbox.

Redirect Live Writer hack

This hack from LEHSYS allows you to redirect the Live Writer folders, so I can use SkyDrive!

How to change the Drafts and Recent Posts folder in Windows Live Writer 2011 | LEHSYS

Windows Live Writer is a fantastic offline blogging tool with a WYSIWYG editor. It interfaces with just about any blog service [Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress, etc.] If you’re a blogger you’ll find this tool incredibly helpful- and it’s refreshingly free from Microsoft.

One of the things that’s a hindrance to the application; it doesn’t let you choose where you want to put your drafts and recent posts.

But ah-ha! Seems after years of asking, there’s a registry hack for Windows Live Writer that’ll allow you to save your Drafts and Recent posts anywhere you’d like…

Their post has full details and, if you’re not comfortable editing the registry, a utility to do the change for you but these are the basic steps:

• Open up regedit (in Win7, just type “regedit” into the start menu)
• Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Writer
• Right click on the “Writer” folder in the left pane and choose New > String Value
• Name the value PostsDirectory and then double-click on it to edit
  • You can try pointing it to your documents folder, which is normally “C:\Users\<your-username>\Documents\” in Win7
  • Or point it somewhere else.
• Note that Writer will create two child folders wherever you point it: Drafts and Recent Posts

This works on the Windows 7/Essentials 11 and Windows 8/Essentials 12.

8th Anniversary!

I’d like to say it is blog’iversary time again but I’m about a month late posting this as the anniversary was back on Saturday March 31st. I knew this post would be late but will never forget why.

I was on a bicycle heading for Cape Reinga, New Zealand’s northern tip, and was happy to complete that with a bicycle circumnavigation of the iconic (in NZ at least) lighthouse. Things have been a little slow here recently due to the travel but it’s time to finish a whole bunch of Autodesk University (yes still), 2013 Release and Autodesk 360 draft posts. That’s just the CAD stuff!

I find it hard to believe eight years have flown by since that first tentative post. To everyone, everywhere, thanks for visiting, reading and subscribing!

Statistics:

Last year I wondered if 2011-12 would make me a millionaire (visit) blogger? Turns out that happened some time on September 11th 2011.

2011-09-10	257	999,697
2011-09-11	306	1,000,003
2011-09-12	435	1,000,438

Visits & Subscribers:

The weekly “blog beat” is fairly constant apart from a blip caused by over 300 visits to one post on January 25. Quite why the “Love the ribbon” post from 2009 attracted that I don’t know!

In spite of RSS and feed technology not being talked about much use in applications has subscriptions steadily growing.

Location:

As always the US dominates but that big spot over Auckland on the city map can’t just be me checking posts? (Google supposedly filters out that stuff)

   

Browser & Operating System:

It’s interesting to watch this over the years even if it doesn’t really mean much. Compared to 2011 IE lost 6.3% but I was surprised to see Firefox also down 4.75%. The winner was Chrome up 7.9%. Maybe the browser battle will settle down with three fairly equal contenders fighting for our eyeballs & clicks. Probably better than anyone dominating. iPhone/Safari doubled, but not really significant numbers, and iPad arrived on my platform/browser stats. Interesting to see both beaten by Firefox running on Linux! CAD Geeks?

7th Anniversary!

It’s blog’iversary time again. I’m actually a day late posting this as just got home from a trip. I find it hard to believe seven years have flown by since that first tentative post. To everyone, everywhere, thanks for visiting, reading and subscribing!

Statistics:

Maybe 2011-12 will make me a millionaire (visit) blogger?

Anniversary Blog Stats					Last Year
RobiNZ CAD Blog	Mar-10	Mar-11		Year	Avg/Month	Avg/Week
Posts	1,702	1,830		128	11	2
Visits	789,970	941,823		151,853	12,654	2,920
Pages **	5	8		3	0.3	0.1
RSS Subscriptions *	3,050	5,050		2,000	166.7	38.5
Trackbacks ***	85	85		0	0.0	0.0
Comments	1,305	1,459		154	12.8	3.0
					Last Year
RobiNZ Personal Blog	Mar-10	Mar-11		Year	Avg/Month	Avg/Week
Posts	1,671	1,808		137	11	3
Visits	254,170	307,582		53,412	4,451	1,027
Pages **	1	2		1	0.1	0.0
RSS Subscriptions *	125	157		32	2.7	0.6
Trackbacks ***	14	14		0	0.0	0.0
Comments	877	937		60	5.0	1.2

Visits & Subscribers:

Regions:

US still dominates but the city view shows some interesting clusters.

Browser & OS:

With similar visits (for the CAD blog) as 2010 IE dropped about 1% but Firefox fell by 8%. Chrome/Windows went from 8 to 17%. I wonder if more users are moving to Chrome from Firefox than IE?

Mac visits didn’t change much in total but again the Chrome/Mac gain seemed to be more from the Firefox/Mac users than Safari/Mac. Perhaps the default browsers are more immune to threats than ones people choose as alternatives?

SAY Media, SAY TypePad, does it have a future?

I don’t usually repost a full blog post but the one you see below is rather important to the future of this blog!

Six Apart (Typepad’s owner) are “joining forces” with “media” (advertising company) VideoEgg. Mergers can bring good or bad. I hope this means a better TypePad but the line “continue to provide support to TypePad subscribers, and evolve the TypePad platform” doesn’t exactly scream excitement. The talk of “monetizing” isn’t a factor for me as the ads that appeared here were just to cover hosting costs, with any surplus going to charity.

Although not without its frustrations I’ve found TypePad a good balance of “hands off, no hassle” hosting with sufficient tools & control to do what I want.

If, as they SAY, that is maintained and enhanced I’ll be a happy TypePad’er.

Six Apart and VideoEgg create SAY Media: a modern media company - Everything TypePad

Six Apart and VideoEgg create SAY Media: a modern media company

Dear TypePad bloggers,

It's been almost a decade since we started Six Apart. With you, the bloggers and creators, we changed the way people expressed themselves online, empowering anyone to publish and build large and loyal audiences. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support and trust as you've shared your worlds and your passions on TypePad.

Today we announced our intention to join forces with VideoEgg to form a new, modern media company called SAY Media. This new company will continue Six Apart's mission to make creators like you more successful. It will continue to help you create powerful and engaging content, and grow and monetize your audience. And it will continue to leave you in control.

Nothing in TypePad changes today, and SAY Media will continue to provide support to TypePad subscribers, and evolve the TypePad platform. You can choose to take advantage of our strong relationships with marketers to monetize your blogs, or you can keep your blog ad-free.

This acquisition marks a new beginning, but SAY Media is also an evolution of how we've already been growing TypePad for the past few years; now we'll be able to do it on a much larger scale. We will be able to better serve you and the advertisers that may ultimately fuel your voice and finance your passion.

As we move forward, we will continue to have active roles in the new company. We hope you will join us, as you always have, in shaping our future.

With gratitude for your continued support,

Mena & Ben Trott
Co-Founders
Six Apart Ltd.

Announcing the TypePad San Francisco Meetup

I’ve visited TypePad, why don’t you!

I called in, travelling by the bicycle* as seen reflected in the front door photo (right), when visiting in San Francisco in 2009 for an Autodesk Blogger event. I went a few days early for some holiday and it was great to meet the people behind the service before seeing the sights from the saddle.

If you’re a TypePad Blogger in the San Francisco Bay area there is now a Meetup for you. It’s hosted by TypePad at their office and managed via the popular Meetup.com site.

Get involved to meet fellow TypePad bloggers, the TypePad team, have some fun and help improve the platform for us all!

Bay Area Bloggers We Want to Meet You! - Everything TypePad

Following suit with our Gotham City office, we've started the TypePad San Francisco Meetup with our very first pow-wow Thursday, June 10th, right here in our Six Apart office!

 Join the Meetup!

 

* Just the first part of an awesome day “Cycling the Bay”, not all the way from New Zealand!

Snagit a blog post…

When I see something which triggers the “could be a blog post” thought I grab a screenshot with Snagit. and save the image. Sometimes I use the Send > TypePad output to post direct from the Snagit Editor. Usually I tick “Post as Draft” as it could be days, weeks, months before the actual post appears but means the idea is captured in a few seconds.

Snagit ships with a selection of Outputs installed and others, including most blog/message platforms, available (free!) from the Download Accessories page or Tools > Accessories in Snagit.

If you upgrade from an earlier version of Snagit accessories will be migrated but you should visit the Tools > Accessories > Accessories Manager to see if updated versions are available. Often this requires user intervention as account based services, like Flickr and TypePad, require you to authorise the initial access. Once done it becomes click & post with Snagit managing the rest.

As seen below the TypePad Output plug-in has basic text edit and layout options so it’s possible to create a simple post with image direct from Snagit. The only thing I’d like to see is support for Categories/Tags to eliminate the need to add these in TypePad. Snag, click, type, post, done!

Hooray, TypePad add Category Feeds

A recent TypePad update included Category Feeds. It’s an item from my wish list that has been a long time coming. They were possible before but required template editing and avoiding that sort of hassle is the reason I use TypePad! Now it’s just a tick to enable them.

How Category Feeds give you control:

This blog has quite a wide range of topics. I use categories to group posts, mostly by application, and Category Feeds make them available as a content source. If you’re just interested in, say, Revit Architecture posts subscribe to that category. The feed will only contain content I tag Revit Architecture and nothing else.

This is similar to the, also recently introduced, Search Feeds but more focused as they will return any post with the keyword in it’s topic or body.

Using Category Feeds:

This shows how to access the feed for my “TypePad” category:

1. Pick a Category from the Categories Cloud/List in the sidebar (you might have to scroll to see it) or Categories Page.
2. The Feed Icon has the feed URL, hovering will display it in the status bar (browser dependent).
3. Right Click > Add or drag the icon into your Feed Reader to subscribe to the feed. It will only include items I post to the TypePad category (but posts can have multiple categories).

Add Category Feeds to your TypePad Blog:

Go to Settings > Feeds and tick Posts by Category

Comments, spam a lot, spam or not?

I usually* don’t moderate comments but do review them and delete obvious spam. TypePad filters most of that (see below) before it reaches the blog but occasionally spam (seemingly human generated) gets through. They can seem valid, often reference the post they appear on, making it a marginal call. If your valid comment is removed by mistake let me know as I will be happy to repost it. Do that via the "Email me" link in the About section in the far right side bar.

* The main exception being when I'm travelling and not able to connect to review what is being posted.

Back to the CAD Blog, the old dog, new tricks?

Ok, that post did go live on April 1 and I admit thought there might have been more reaction to RobiNZ Revit Blog. It wasn’t really an April Fool as it wasn’t all false. I do now own AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite but firmly subscribe to picking the best Computer Aided DESIGN tool that gets the job done.

I can’t imagine not having access to the AutoCAD (actually AutoCAD Architecture) box of tricks but likewise wouldn’t want to be without Revit. However with both (and 3ds Max Design) life is Suite, I mean sweet!*

So the blog name has reverted to CAD and the theme to New Zealand’s unofficial national colours** because, lets face it, all that purple had to go. Alfie, my Mums puppy features on the new banner, isn’t an old dog like me and is slowly learning new tricks***.

 

* Except I also look enviously at Inventor for things like cabinets, shop fittings etc. Maybe they should do an Autodesk Design Suite (Revit, Inventor, AutoCAD, Max, Alias) except imagine the price!
** If black & silver can be considered colours.
*** Like where & when to pee!