Blogging: 1 Year On

Well, It has been almost 13 months since I started Wear & Tear. I am shocked that I haven't been "discovered" and made a web celebrity. What have I learned over the past year?

• The Internet's a big place- Don't expect people to stumble upon your posts unless you actively market yourself, or write about the hottest topics of the day.
• Trackpoints- People apparently see the light and want Trackpoints for their Macs. I have actually lost interest in Macs since writing about them last August. That Trackpoint posting has been far and away the most viewed & commented on post on this blog. I actually did point to my posting on several other sites and it is a pretty easy to drive traffic if you really want it.
• DVORAK- I am a now a proficient DVORAK typist. I am not sure if I have fully returned to the speed I had with the QWERTY keyboard, but I am close and I don't think I make as many mistakes as I used to. Would I recomend making the switch? It depends. I love DVORAK on my home and business computer, but am very frustrated when I show people how to do things on their QWERTY keyboard. At this point I am focusing all effort on DVORAK so I don't go back and forth and I have essentially lost all memory of QWERTY aside from using my Treo keypad (remember, I hate the Treo keypad so I am likely to use Graffiti input.
• Google Street View- My photo captures from Google street view are popular with the Euros... Some spend 10's of minutes laughing and laughing at the kid falling off his bike, or the wrecked Mercedes.
• Abarth- The logo I have posted for Abarth gets almost as many hits as anything else.

I really enjoy putting thoughts up here and I am going to try to do it more frequently.

Mac Power Books & TrackPoints

In the last few years, I have been interested in Mac PowerBooks. I like the OS and thought I might change things up from my trusty T series Thinkpad. I borrowed a small PowerBook from a friend for a few weeks and never got used to the touchpad.

I have suggested to several people mildly associated with Apple products (Apple Store Employees) that they should consider adding a TrakPoint. They looked at me like I raped their mom. They made statements to the effect, "I don't see them ever doing that." or "It doesn't fit with the brand image".

What am I missing. Touchpads are great if you don't know how to type. If you do know how to type (I am guessing <10% of the US falls within this category), you don't want to constantly reposition your hands on and off the keyboard.

Hell, I would actually like to have a Trackpoint on my Destop's keyboard at work. They did make keyboards with Trackpointers for some time in the 1990's, but they never caught on.

Apple, if a televised meeting between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs is possible, Please, Tear down the Trackpoint wall!

I know there is probably only a small % of customers that use these Trackpointers, but they are a much more elegant solution than the Touchpad and are very important to people who know how to type. Right now, I am forced to continually purchase Thinkpads and I am slightly worried Lenovo will not carry on the tradition as IBM intended...

At least one person agrees with me: David Berlind @ ZD Net