A few days ago I bought a Windows laptop, my first Windows 10 machine and my first Windows computer in decades.  But this is mainly a hardware review, Windows is Windows no matter what it  is running on, so I will save most of my adventures with Win10 for a separate post.

I searched Amazon high and low trying to find something suitable, new, at my price point, that I didn’t have to wait a week to get.  And I was pretty well stymied with every laptop there was always something missing.  Finally out of desperation, I clicked on Amazon’s Choice recommended lineup for laptops.  And that is where I found my Asus Vivobook Thin and Light 14” laptop. (How’s that for a mouthful?)  Frankly, it was a little more than I wanted to spend but it was about the only laptop that had all the features I really wanted and wasn’t on back order or something.  It was in stock and ready to ship.

The computer arrived on time.  The box contained the laptop, two small booklets and the AC power source. That’s it. Frankly that is all you need.  One booklet was a Getting Started guide, fast read, easy to understand. The second, much thicker, booklet was written by lawyers and bean counters so I put it aside without looking at it.  I liked that there was not a lot of disks or loose papers - clean and neat.

Here are the features that made the Asus Vivobook stand out:

• 14” FHD screen. There is more selection in the 15.6” laptop category but I wanted something more portable.
• 8 GB RAM minimum.
• Intel i7 processor.  I really wasn’t picky on this point. It could have been an i5.  This will do the job.  I did want Intel.
• 256GB SSD no more spinning disks for me.
• Backlit keyboard.
• Standard connectors.
• Thin and Light :-)
• Decent battery life for it’s size and weight.

Impressions in actual use:

• Color: Case is metal. A sort of champagne tint aluminum.  Actually looks good.  I’m not picky as long as it is NOT pink, plum, red, etc.  The unit feels very light, lighter than my 13” MacBook Pro.
• Screen: excellent. Nice FHD, bright, easy to read.
• Backlit keyboard: the back lighting is excellent.  About the best I have used.
• Keyboard: Minor thing, I would prefer a little more cupping for the finger pads in the keys.  It’s not a deal breaker but it would be nice.  No problems with key travel and the keys are well placed.
• Fan: the fan kicks in when the unit is downloading a honking big Windows 10 update.  It’s Windows so not unexpected.
• Speakers: they seem clear, I have not tried them for music yet.
• Power Cord: good length.
• Finger Print Sensor: it has it. I have not used it.
• Weight: it feels lighter than my Macbook Pro.

Everything on the Asus seems to be well made.

OEM Software:

Uninstalled:

Silenced Cortana: this is just my personal preference. Cortana is decent, if you like it keep it on, I just don’t like things talking to me.

Games: I’m not a gamer so Candy Crush could go. Minecraft and more went too.

MS Office Trial:  I don’t need it and I’m not going to pay for it. (See below.)

Tiles:  Those things in the Windows menu tray left over from Windows 8.  They take up a lot of memory so I got rid of them.

Google Chrome: Google has this loaded with ways to track you. I got rid of it.

Replacements:

Anti ransomware: Cybereason RansomFree (free).  Always defend in depth.

Office: WPS Office (free) also came on the laptop.  I already have WPS on my Android phone and it seems decent for me as little as I use it, anyway I kept it.  A free heavy duty office suite is LibreOffice which is great if you want more.

Browser:  I installed Vivaldi which is my favorite and takes care of my privacy concerns. Normally I would also install Firefox, to have a backup browser, but Win10 comes with Edge browser which you cannot uninstall so I will use that as a backup for now.

eMail: Win10 comes with a program “Mail” which looks like a modern version of Outlook.  It’s attractive.  Some people have reported problems with it, so I took some advice and installed Mailbird, which I like so far.

That’s it, you have to root around Win10 to change defaults but that is a Windows thing.  None of this software swapping in any way reflects badly on Asus, I would do the same with any Windows 10 computer.

One final thing:  I think this is under Windows Settings >> Privacy, I shut down all tracking and reporting Win 10 sends to Microsoft.   If you use Cortana, you might need some of it but I don’t so I shut it all down.

2018

Bookmark: via NewsGuard Browser Extension Aims to Alert You to Fake News Sites

If this works it’s a great find.

Bookmark via How to Set Up Sync in Vivaldi and Synchronize Your Browsing Data

It’s still experimental but fairly stable.  From MakeUseof.

I added a Guestbook Page (under About) using a Wordpress plugin I found Gwolle Guestbook.

What I like about this guestbook plugin is it has multi layer protection against spam, plus a final human review before anything goes live.  Also, it does not try to use the Comments part of Wordpress.  Somehow it just seems tidier to keep Comments, which in my mind are about posts, as comments and guestbook entries separate.

Heck it’s all part of an experiment: can you have old things like Guestbooks, will anybody know what they are, will they be useful, in 2018?  The only way to tell is try it.

And it might lead to discovery of new websites for viewers.

The idea came from @vega Weird Indieweb Idea of the Day Guestbooks.  Many thanks Vega.

I updated my On Blog Design post to include many links to give examples as they exist on this blog of what I’m talking about.  I think it works better or maybe less muddled.

In reply to: Ticker Tape Parade.

What no black background with with neon green text?  😀

Seriously, I really like this.  At first I was disoriented for a second because I was expecting rigid and flat.  But then it just all clicks and makes so much sense.  The threading and the different sub styles for different post types all work really well together.  Colors are good.  Most important, it’s highly readable.  Very cool.

Previously we discussed how to make your own blog search engine for free.  Why can’t you use those same instructions to make a niche search engine (ie. Star Trek, book reviews, recipes, tech, science fiction, fountain pens, Tolkien etc.)?  Well, you can.

1. Follow the instructions in the link above.
2. Pick out a bunch of good sites all in one niche.  You want sites about the topic with lots of content that are established.  It’s fun to mix some lesser known sites in with the mix.
3. I don’t know if Duckduckgo has a limit on how many domains you can put in a site search so start with six domains, then test, and adjust up or down.
4. Test you results.  You may have to swap out some domains if their stuff never appears in the results.
5. Copy paste the final code on a page on your website. Label it.
6. Tell your visitors about it. People will think you are cool.  You’ll get dates. You’ll get invites to dinner.  People will listen to you when you speak. Your cat will quit ignoring you.  😀

A project of Web Directory Reviews Org, the topics under discussion include directory reviews, editing, administrative issues, SEO, hosting, & related subjects.

Update:  The place is abandoned, a ghost ship.  With some spammers running around as the most recent posts.  To bad they once had some decent discussions.  Never mind.

This was also posted to /en/linking.

Indiepaper is a read-later service built for the open web. Save your articles, and …

This is a great how to guide.  I use Indiepaper myself and highly recommend it. I’m replacing Pocket with it.

Like: افكار و احلام » Can We Ever Reset the Field?

Lots of valid points here.  And they are so well put.  I think we lost a lot during the time when the big silos held sway.  We forgot our independence.  We forgot how to make our own blogs, how to promote our own sites.  We need to relearn these.

Some quick thoughts nowhere near complete.

It’s sort of a rule in room design, that it is hard to make a big, wide open room cozy and inviting.  You do this by adding odd, warm, interesting alcoves and inglenooks around the perimeter.

Likewise, modern open plan designed homes are practical in a sense, you can survey the home from front door, through the great room and kitchen to the dining area all at a glance.  But what gets lost is the delightful sense of exploration and being surprised when opening a door and seeing what is beyond.  Old homes had parlors, withdrawing rooms, nooks, turning hallways with many doors, sunny window benches for reading, surprise unexpected seating alcoves.

I kinda look at a Wordpress blog the same way.  You have all these plugins and pages, so can you make areas, spaces if you will, that surprise, hopefully delight and entertain.  Odd bits of eccentric whimsy that capture interest.  These are not quite an easter egg but are not in your face either. You don’t want to take away from what you have written but you want to add value.  Navigation is there, easy to find if one does more than helicopter in on a search query and then helicopter out.  They are there if one explores.

These spaces can have utility too. An oaken paneled library, provides knowledge, entertainment, quiet refuge and a sign of what the owner finds interesting.  A bookshelf full of books in a guest room provides interest for insomniacs.

And it may be that these virtual spaces get little used, but if they bring pleasure to you knowing that they are there and to the odd visitor then all to the good.

Needless to say, I’m not a minimalist.

I fear that our technology, search engines delivering you to individual pages you are looking for, while efficient has robbed us of a sense of wonderment and adventure. Can a website or blog be both an effective conveyor of information with an optional dungeon crawl like D&D?

Feel free to comment.

Today I made an Exit page.  So many people end their visit by hitting the Back button on their browser.  The exit page is a last attempt to get them to explore the Blog Directory to find an entertaining blog.  Or failing that to try a search on a search engine they may have never tried before.

A directory isn’t much good if it does not provide traffic to the sites listed in it.  So I’m obliged to drive traffic to it.  As for the search engine, I’ll probably rotate different search boxes every few weeks.  Exploring the Web needs to be fun again. We can make it so.

Added:

It’s not that I’m inviting people to leave.  This was always one of the worries about webrings, that you were inviting people to leave.  That is a false worry. Visitors leave when they are done with your site.  Like a webring, the exit page, if they chose to use it, is intended to make their exit more productive by sharing traffic with other blogs or introducing them to a search engine other than Google.  With the directory link it’s a chance to reintroduce “surfing the web” as in bygone days.  And maybe it gives the act of leaving a small element of - adventure.

It’s a bit of whimsy that uptight corporate blogs and blog magazines wouldn’t dare.  😈

The un-celebrity president: Thirty-seven years after leaving office, Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly in his Georgia hometown

I was not a fan of his as President, but I respect the man.  He practices what he preaches.  In an age of phonies he’s the real deal.

Like: I am completely baffled why some people seem to be choosing Mastodon over Micro.blog

Bookmark: Mastodon, Twitter and publics

A thoughtful analysis of Mastodon social network.

Source: XXIIVV Webring

I like it.  It’s unconventional and neat.  I think with a ring of personal diaries and wikis emphasizing the Random navigation makes sense - like a teleporter.  All the other points you made: classy, sophistication, minimalism are all valid.  Good webring. Good find.

Syndication (crossposting) to:

Facebook: (change) - I no longer post to FB and quit that long before the recent FB API rules change.  Brid.gy had problems and I didn’t care enough about FB to try and fix it.

Twitter: (changed) - this blog now posts to Twitter via Wordpress Jetpack.  I made the change because I can control what goes out to Twitter on each individual post.

G+: (same) - via Jetpack.

Mastodon - (same) - via Mastodon plugin

WP Reader - (same) via Jetpack.

Micro.blog - via Micro.blog and RSS.

Indieweb.xyz - this is manual, on a post by post basis.

I get quite a bit of traffic from all the above.

Fetch recommendations from threads at micro.blog. Explore links from Discover.

This is for exploring and discovering conversations at Micro.blog and intended mainly for Micro.blog users.  However, non-users can utilize part of it’s capability.

Users and Non-users alike can explore many of the sub-category topics on Micro.blog.  Users can find people to follow or conversations to join in on too.

Bookmark: ADN Finder

This is a social network username directory.  If you know your friends username on Twitter, Micro.blog, Mastodon or (defunct) App.net you can find their handle on the others.  Very handy if someone you follow has left Twitter, or if you are migrating to some new social networks and want your friends to find you.

The Boston Globe has invited newspapers across the country to stand up for the free press today with editorials. …

Yeah!  I think the national politicians need to get out of their marble temples and see what the real America is like. The Chesterton Tribune is about as even handed and mild mannered as you can be, but they can be feisty when they want to be. But they show us what democracy, stewardship and civics are really about.

Maersk Supply Service has signed on to support The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch non-profit that is developing technology to clean the ocean of plastic waste. For their role in the project, Maersk Supply Service will provide its AHTS, Maersk Launcher, to deploy and support the first cleanup system, known as Cleanup System 001, in the […]

WordPress has taken down a handful alt-right blogs, according to several complaints from affected blog owners and readers who claim the sites were removed from WordPress.com, despite not being in violation of the company’s Terms of Service. Some site owners also said they were not notified of…

I like that this policy is written narrowly so as not to open the door to corporations using copyright claims to shut down any criticism.  This fixes a specific wrong.

In reply to: Blogs in the Wild

I think the Indieweb is aware of the search problem but they have been focused on getting the essentials for individual blogs and stuff you can do with it up and running first.  I’m excited about their outreach to students and educators because I see students and academics seeing the utility for them straight off.

I don’t see mass adoption happening until Wordpress builds it into Wordpress.com, then lookout world!

But that’s okay. I think what you and I are doing will go like this:

1. We hunt for homegrown blogs, sites, wikis and such just as we are right now.

2. We build directories, webrings and syndication services that map out this world.

3. The thing becomes a self-sustaining flotilla of: a) Talking, pitching in with each other’s projects. b) Experimenting with the format—I like to think that we’re developing an alternate timeline, as if blogs had replaced Friendster/Myspace rather than these other derivative networks. c) And customizing these directories and projects for subcommunities.

Those social network silos did a couple of good things even if they are going sour now. 1. They broke Google’s stranglehold on the web and getting found, 2. They offered an alternative advertising choice besides Adsense and Adwords.  This is something even Microsoft/Bing and Yahoo before it could not do.  They proved to the rest of Silicon Valley it could be done and Google was not invincible.  So I’m not anxious for the social silos to crumble too fast, I also get a fair amount of traffic from them.

(And that maybe part of the lack of wider uptake of our directory, webring, blogroll strategy, everyone is getting some traffic now by syndicating to the silos so they don’t see a problem.)

Anyway, I’m not willing to go back to Google being the sole Gate Keeper of the Web. I’ll fight that, no matter how puny my efforts might be. There is a story behind this: you have never been carpet bombed until Google has carpet bombed you.  I’ve been collateral damage in that.  It was things like webrings, directory listings, and a huge network of hyperlinks from little websites that kept my directory on life support until I could rebuild elsewhere. That’s kinda why I started reminiscing about them when the topic came up.  No I’ll never go back to Google controlling the web. I’ll never take traffic for granted again.  Part of the reason I’ve been posting so much is to try and build a reader base before syndication gets shut off.

So yeah, you and I are experimenting with versions of these guerrilla search tools.  We will see if there is any life left in them.

I can roll out a directory ready for submissions in a few weeks if I have to.  All the old directory scripts are a little long in the tooth but I already know the one I would use and how I would use it.  I can roll out webring hosting too since I found that Ringlink perl script. Or you can or we both can.  Again, if need be.

Public uptake is the key, uptake by bloggers and webmasters.  If they are not willing to list themselves, if the public is not willing to to use these to browse, then we have little chance.

Marketing plays in here. I just put up a little advertising banner for the blog directory.  Early signs are it has more visitors checking it out. We’ll see if that’s a temporary blip or a trend.

Anyway it’s fun.

LEECHING AND LINKING IN THE HYPERTEXT KINGDOMi

Heh, well everything not on your own domain is a silo, or at least I can make that argument.  Not all silo’s are bad we’ve all just gotten sloppy talking as if they are.  Silo’s become particularly bad when they become monopolies: ie. Facebook, Twitter, Google.  But what you are trying to do with Indieweb.xyz is exactly the opposite, that is create another independent outlet for both articles to be found and also blogs to be found.  We need more of these not less.

Indieweb et al.: Commendably, you have built Indieweb.xyz using Indieweb tech.  But I’m not sure if the Indieweb, as it sits right now, is the best audience.  I mean, we Indiewebbers all “got ours”, we can talk to each other directly anytime we want, we have: webmentions, chat rooms on Indieweb.org, Slack, IRC and maybe other places, we have Twitter, we have our own Indie News self serve aggregator, newsletters and most of what we talk about with each other is Indeweb related.  And there is nothing wrong with any of that, it’s just that, maybe Indieweb.xyz gets overlooked by that audience.  I see you have opened things up so that more diverse non-indieweb equipped blogs can syndicate and I think this is wise.

There are blogs and bloggers out there, basically talking to themselves because nobody can find them.  They don’t know if anybody is reading or appreciates what they post because nobody comments and they have no clue about Indieweb.  They want to reach out but they don’t know how, maybe they aren’t techie, maybe they majored in English at Uni.  How do we reach them?  How do we get them to get off their duffs and nailing manifestos on Indieweb.xyz?  I have to confess, there are times when I forgot to syndicate to xyz because my post was not linking or Indieweb related.  I’m getting over that.

Difficulty: I think it is best if we have to do a little work to syndicate to xyz.  I’ve thought about what if we could syndicate via RSS but that would spam xyz out.  It does not need all my drivel, only my better (or longer) posts.  And if you incorporated RSS then the real spammers would take over sooner or later.

There is a generational thing here too.  I’m not talking about the Indieweb, but others on the web.  They have become passive, or at least it seems that way to me.

Keep at it.  You are experimenting with something good.  When all the massive silos like FB and Twitter go down or wall themselves off, people will discover the need for places like Indieweb.xyz.  They just don’t know it yet.

Once upon a time, when there were actually a bunch of search engines to compare results from, we had Parallel Search Forms.  I won’t call them an “engine” because all they did was display the results from several search engines side by side.

You had one form to enter your search terms and the site would query 2 or 3 search engines simultaneously, displaying the  results side by side for comparison.

Example: You can see the remains of one here (opens in new tab) as an illustration.

I would love to have one of these today, setup like this:

Privacy Search engine #1: Duckduckgo - DDG uses Bing as the backbone of their search.

Privacy Search engine #2: Startpage - SP uses un geolocated, un personalized Google.

Privacy Search engine #3: Mojeek - uses their own index.

This would make it easy to compare search results of the first couple of pages of each AND how many ads are on those pages all in real time.

This was also posted to /en/search-engines.