Anne Zelenka's blogAnne Zelenka's blog

Getting to Know Your Inner Luddite

March 20, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 11 comments

Julie Meloni of No Fancy Name is one of my favorite authors, and not only because I scored a copy of her intuitive Blogging in a Snap book in a BlogHer contest. She's also a techie-type person who's willing to admit to a less-than-full commitment to the electronic lifestyle: Despite my laptop being on and connected to the Internet nearly 24/7, I really own no other gadgetry (save for a fairly normal cellphone and an iPod Nano). My sticky notes are really and truly sticky notes, stuck on my laptop and scribbled on by hand.

Are You Paying Attention?

March 14, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 0 comments

monkeynotions reports a funny IM conversation she had with a friend about eTech, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference held last week in San Diego: me: i spoke to a friend who just came back from eTech me: he said almost everyone in the room had their laptop open me: and no one was paying attention me: he said there were even two guys who spent all their time on their laptop in the lobby me: heh my friend: wasn't this year's theme in eTech Attention Trust? me: yah me: hahah me: which makes it even more ironic

Women Playing Games

March 06, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 4 comments

Camilla of Popgadget responds to Wired magazine's simplistic classification of women gamers: Wired published an article about women and games, reporting how once again women who like playing games tend to be placed into two distinct categories, the casual gamers and the "rough" gamers. I still have quite a hard time trying to understand why someone even bothers to analyze the women's gamer market so scrupulously if the end result is so utterly lame.

Tech & Web Acronym of the Week: OPML

February 27, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 5 comments

I'm sure you know what HTML is. But what about OPML? BlogHer Hobbies editor Debra Roby says it makes her think of Oompa Loompas. It reminds me of my two-year-old's request for "opa-meal" at breakfast time. OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language, a human-readable text format for managing hierarchical, ordered lists. It's most commonly used to manage lists of RSS feed subscriptions, but it could easily be used for other applications, like to do list management or saving a playlist of music. If you export subscriptions from the Web-based news reader Bloglines, you'll get an OPML file. OPML is big these days because people who read lots of blogs are looking for better ways to manage the information overload that often results from subscribing to too many feeds. OPML is a foundational technology for addressing that.

Kathy Sierra, Creating Passionate Readers

February 20, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 0 comments

If you're not already reading writer and programmer Kathy Sierra's blog Creating Passionate Users, you might want to check it out even if you normally avoid techie talk. Kathy has done time as a game developer and a Java programmer; now she focuses on writing books for the bestselling Head First technology series she co-created. Kathy is especially interested in how the brain works and how to help it learn better. Reading her essays, you can't help but get excited about learning.

Inspired by Lindsey Kildow To Work Harder for Women in Tech

February 17, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 3 comments

Watching Lindsey Kildow's courageous Olympic performance after her horrific crash during a downhill training run this week, I felt inspired. She skied through her pain even though her doctor thought she wouldn't be able to race. When some physical or emotional annoyance gets in between me and my goals as I blog in the male-dominated technology arena, I remind myself of Lindsey, who skied despite the pain.

Our Online Selves

February 14, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 1 comment

Digital identity is one of the hottest and most complex topics in web tech these days. How do we ensure people are who they purport to be? How do we balance the need for privacy against the benefits that can be gained from authenticating identity? How do we ensure that human rights are protected in a world where online activities are increasingly accessible to online scrutiny?

iPods and iTunes Everywhere

February 05, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 2 comments

Join me on a Sunday stroll 'round the BlogHer technology blogroll to see who's been talking about iPods and iTunes recently, ending with BlogHer Elisa Camahort's practical analysis of Apple's approach to digital rights management and my favorite music single to blog by.

Two Women Added to RSS Advisory Board

February 01, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 0 comments

On Monday, the RSS Advisory Board announced its eight new members, two of which were women. Previously, all the members were men. Meg Hourihan, cofounder of Pyra Labs, the company that created Blogger, and Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian, join other new members Loac Le Meur, Eric Lunt, Ross Mayfield, Randy Charles Morin, Greg Reinacker and Dave Sifry. Rogers Cadenhead, a previous board member, will serve as chairman.

Tech & Web Acronym of the Week: CMS

January 31, 2006 by Anne Zelenka in Tech
Comments: 3 comments

As one of two contributing editors in Technology & Web, I hope to share the fun and excitement I feel about technology with you. One way I'd like to do that is by demystifying tech talk with its never-ending stream of acronyms. This week you might find it useful to know the acronym CMS, which stands for content management system, that is, a software package for managing the creation and maintenance of documents and other content. In this article, I'll tell you a bit about the content management system being used here at BlogHer and point you to two BlogHers who are experts in the use of these powerful software packages.

Syndicate content