constructive nonconformist

What is constructive nonconformist?

When I graduated high school I was awarded the Anne Peters scholarship which is given

“to a graduating senior who intends to further his education and demonstrate the qualities of independent thought and activity that identify the constructive nonconformist.”

Raganwald and Obsession Times Voice

Daring Fireball - Obsession Times Voice
43 Folders - 43f Podcast: John Gruber & Merlin Mann’s Blogging Panel at SxSW

I continue to be inspired by Reg’s raganwald blog. Thank you Mr. Braithwaite. But Reg has moved on and is no longer actively posting to raganwald.

I miss his blog but if I’m serious about my own blog (and there’s doubt about that) then I’m glad my blog is not competing with an active raganwald (and I don’t compete with raganwald in any literal sense.) In the audio of Mann and Gruber’s talk, Merlin says something like your blog needs to be better than 80% of the other blogs that are focused on the same obsession. I recall Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, writing that he greatly admired Gary Larson’s The Far Side and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes and was consequently very glad when those strips ceased and ‘left the field.’

My blog, this blog, is not raganwald but like John Gruber’s New Yorker, it is a point of inspiration.

Now go read raganwald and see what you missed.

What are your great machines?

Scott Berkun asks “What are your great machines?” Here are the three machines I thought of when I finished Scott’s post:

Apple LaserWriter 4/600 PS

Scott lists his HP 4L printer. I have an Apple LaserWriter 4/600 PS from 1995 — nearly the same vintage. To date it has never needed repair service. Sadly compatible toner carts are getting rare and expensive.

Five or six years ago I purchased a Farallon EtherMac iPrint Adapter LT, which is a LocalTalk/Ethernet bridge. At the time Farallon was capitalizing on Apple’s decision to drop support for LocalTalk ports on new Macs. The 4/600 is a LocalTalk printer and doesn’t support Ethernet. Thanks to the iPrint the 4/600 is accessible to all the machines on our home network, Macs and Wintels.

KitchenAid K5SS 5 Quart Stand Mixer

The KitchenAid was an engagement or wedding gift circa 1994. It remains a reliable workhorse in our kitchen.

Do you know how most cookie recipes start by directing that the butter should be allowed to soften before creaming with the sugar? Not a concern with the KitchenAid. The butter can go straight from the refrigerator to the mixing bowl.

1991 Honda CRX

In December 1991 I purchased a red Honda CRX with a 5 speed manual. It was the first car I ever purchased new. The CRX was sporty and fun. My wife and I drove that car across the country twice.

I miss it.

But it only sat two. In 2003 we used the CRX as a trade-in on a mini-van. Life changes.

So there you have it: three great machines with over a decade of service (plus an honorable mention for the iPrint).

Link: Three great machines and innovation limitation.

Blogging for a Better Career

A recent Boston Globe article described blogs as a career asset.

Link: Blogs ‘essential’ to a good career - The Boston Globe.

A not-so-recent O’Reilly Network article offered advice on writing.

Link: 10 Journalism Tips For Bloggers, Podcasters & Other E-Writers - O’Reilly Digital Media Blog.

Maximizing Amazon Referral Fees

If you plan to buy his book, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, from Amazon, Steve Krug would like you to purchase the book by clicking through his referral link because, he says, the Amazon referral fee is more than the book royalty.

Link: ACS - Help the author, buy the book.

Amazon’s referral program is named “Amazon Associates.” TypePad has built-in support and many bloggers, including myself, have Amazon Associates accounts. There’s a tool on the Amazon Associates site that given an ASIN or ISBN will generate a referral link.

Last Summer someone clicked through one of my referral links and later asked me if I saw any money from it.

“Ah, no.”

Amazon didn’t credit the referral. It wasn’t an error. Under the terms of the Amazon Associates program there are a number of conditions that must be met for a referral to be counted.

If you’re planning to shop on Amazon anyway, you might want to spread some extra holiday cheer by clicking through your favorite blogger’s Amazon referral links. If that sounds like a good idea, then read on. You can benefit from my experience. Having learned the hard way, I have some guidelines to share for maximizing the referral fee an associate will receive.

1. Direct links pay the best.

   A direct link to a specific item earns the highest referral fee.

2. There can be only one direct link.

   Re-entering Amazon via another referral link cancels the previous referral.

3. The item must be added to the shopping cart.

   There’s no referral if the item is already in the cart. Note that items in ‘save for later’ are still in the cart.

4. The referral doesn’t last forever.

   There’s an expiration. The item must be purchased within 24 hours of the initial click-through.

Tell Stories

In college one of my required writing courses was with a professor who emphasized that writing should be personal and human. Human beings are social creatures and we like to read about ourselves.

At first I thought his advice was limited to creative writing types of subjects. Surely it didn’t apply to serious technical subjects, did it? Yes. His advice applied to all writing. He explained that if the purpose of writing is to engage the reader and communicate an idea (and when isn’t that the purpose?) than the writing has to be interesting and the easiest way to be interesting is to write about people. Tell stories.

Joel Spolsky just made nearly the same point in a post publicizing his new book: Introduction to Best Software Writing I. And there is a similar meme in the mix for O’Reilly’s Head First Series.

Making Some Noise

If you go to Google and run a search on “prevent objects copied c++”, my blog, constructive nonconformist, is on the first page of results.

Why would I search for “prevent objects copied c++”? I didn’t. TypePad reported the Google search result page as a referrer.

Cool! Someone is reading my blog. It’s not just a tree in an unpopulated forest. It’s making a sound.