Entries Tagged as 'blog'

The New FeedBurner Blog

June 19th, 2006 · 4 Comments

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Redesigning the FeedBurner Corporate blog, Burning Questions, was the first project since I’ve been at FeedBurner where I took the reins and lead the project and actually did most of the work involved with redesigning the site and recoding the templates in Movable Type myself. I think the new design (above) is so much better than the old site (below), but of course, I’m biased! I like that it extends the brand from the FeedBurner site I helped relaunch a couple weeks ago. Our blog looks like our corporate site. Imagine that! But at the same time, it’s not all stiff and corporate-y. Our personality definately comes through on our blog. On the old site we didn’t really have an archive, all the posts were just listed down the side of the page, which doesn’t really scale well. .. and I thought in general, it felt like a Movable Type default template from about 3 years ago, with the popups for comments and the calendar. I know this is because there wasn’t a lot of time to spend on the blog before, but now that I’m here, it’s one of my main responsibilities, along with the FeedBurner.com site, so hopefully I can keep it looking and functioning good and can add cool new features in the future.

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Vox

June 6th, 2006 · 7 Comments

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Walt was nice enough to share an invite to Vox with me last week. Today I finally went in a little bit and customized and made a few posts. It’s nice. Vox, if you haven’t heard, is the latest brainchild of Six Apart, who also have Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal under their umbrella. Vox isn’t available to everyone yet, it’s still in Preview mode, but later this year it should be.

What struck me was how simple it is to create your blog.. and not just boring text on a page, but a blog with tons of photos, video, and audio. Also cool is how integrated it is with Amazon, Flickr and YouTube. You can pull in content and link to their sites without ever visiting them. Also, changing the design of your site is done lickity split. I can think of several friends and family members who send around a lot of photos and videos who could totally get into this. And did I mention it’s free?

My Vox blog is here. I’ll probably play around a bit for a while, but it won’t become my main site.

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Late Night Late Show

July 3rd, 2005 · 1 Comment

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Backstage :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Green Room :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

mr_t.jpgMr. T :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Audience :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

I was pretty nervous to appear on the Late Night Late Show. I mean, radio, newspaper, even TV.. they’re all edited before anyone sees them. And this was a live show, taped and distributed online. If I tripped and fell and landed on my face or said something retarded, the whole audience would see it AND it would probably be distributed like crazy online.

Once I got to the theater and met with everyone backstage I calmed down a lot. I really didn’t know what to expect or what they were expecting from me, but Jordan, who plays the host Mark Luge, took me aside to explain how it all worked. Basically the show loosely models the late night shows you know – Letterman, Leno, Conan – except that they are improvised and have a theme. The theme for last night was internet/e-/the tech boom. It opened with Luge as the host chatting and talking to his musical sidekick, Mr. T. Then their were some other characters coming on and kind of a running story throughout the show. Andrew Huff and I appeared as the show’s guests and our spot was really only 5-10 minutes (thankfully!).

Before the show the performers were really nice and went out of their way to talk to me, to tell me they checked out the site, and to comfort me about the performance. Everyone was just there to have a good time and to have the audience have a good time. And Nick, the booking agent, was there to get us drinks, make sure we knew what was going on, tell us where to be and when, and basically just hold our hands the whole time. It ended up being a ton of fun.

I think it’d be fun to go back and see a performance that I’m NOT in. They do the show every Saturday at midnight and it’s only $5 to get in.

Also, all week I’ve been like “How many people are really gonna show up at midnight on a Saturday night on a holiday weekend to hear some dorks talk about their websites?” The answer is “about 70.” I took the audience photo while I was on stage and said I was going to blog about it.

See also:
» Erin’s Flickr photos (lots of photos of us on stage)
» Gaper’s Block Flickr photos
» “Late Night” Photos by Justin Sondak at Chicagoist
» e-Likeability (.mov, 38 seconds, 713k)
» e-Duck (.mov, 60 seconds, 1.2mb)
» Musical Guest (.mov, 40 seconds, 664k)

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ABC7 Interview

July 2nd, 2005 · 2 Comments

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Andrew, Jason, Jackie :: The Loop, Chicago

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Andrew & Jason :: The Loop, Chicago

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Scott, Erin, Justin, Benjy :: The Loop, Chicago

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Scott, Erin, Benjy, Justin, Julene :: The Loop, Chicago

Yesterday, Jason Knowles from ABC7 interviewed Chicagoist for a special report he’s doing on Chicago blogs. We met up with him and his camerawoman, Jackie, at Bank One Plaza on the corner of Clark and Monroe. I was super nervous before the interview, but Jason and Jackie were really nice. . .and I had to keep in mind that if I messed up or said something stupid it would most likely be edited out and would never see the light of day.

I was interviewed first. Then Jackie took some group shots of us walking and talking. Next Andrew was interviewed, then Scott and finally Benjy. After the shoot in the Loop, Jason and Jackie went to Andrew’s office with him where they filmed him working and talking with some of his coworkers. Later on in the afternoon they did the same at my office.

Barely anyone was in the office because of the holiday, so when they were like “pretend like you’re talking to your coworkers” I had to grab Muffin and go into our Creative Director, Steve’s, office. Jackie got the camera set up and was like “ok, and go!” Muffin and I walked in and I totally didn’t know what to say. I was like “hey, dude, what’s up?” and Steve responded by saying “What’s up with Client X” and I was like “AHHH! we probably shouldn’t say our client’s names!” Good point. After that Steve saved the day, though, by asking Chris and I somewhat real questions and we were able to maintain a conversation. I hope it doesn’t look too forced. Real interviews are easier than faking conversations with coworkers!

The segment is going from the prospective that Chicagoist isn’t our jobs, it’s something we do in our spare time. I think the segment will first show us at work in our boring cubes and depressing, dimly lit offices.. then will cut to all of us out in the sunshine in the Loop talking about Chicagoist. I’m just guessing here. It will be interested to see the final product, which is supposed to air July 18 or 19. Jason is going to let me know when he’s sure.

Now, bring on the live audience!

See also:
» Erin’s Flickr Photos

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If You’re Not Doing Anything Tomorrow Night

July 1st, 2005 · 9 Comments

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Just make sure you drink a lot before you go. I’ll be funnier that way!

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