LIVEdigitally

Just finished three days at the San Francisco Fancy Food Show, and I hope (pray) that I’m done with conferences for the year.  The show went great for Cocoa Designs (my wife’s chocolate business), and I had a couple of friendly drop-bys (no hop-ons though).  It’s actually a very fun show, especially in the last hour when virtually every booth is either giving away their supplies, or trading for other wares.  I walked away with oodles of oils, vinegars, jams (and jellies), crackers, chips, and a nice bottle of port. 

Funny coincidence #1: John Dvorak (yes, of PC Magazine fame) was walking the show with his camera.  We talked a little chocolate, but mostly tech.

Funny coincidence #2: I saw a guy walk by with the CES press bag and we chatted for a moment.  He informed me that rather than leave my bag (which I didn’t much care for – two zippers jammed during the show) in my hotel room, I could’ve sold it for upwards of $200!  Oops!

Funny coincidence #3: A woman staffing the booth next to ours actually spends much of her time in tech, working with a consumer electronics distributor.  We talked tech.

Funny coincidence #4: My CES tips were pretty valid for this show.  Ironically, I caught a cold.

Updated: first post said 2006.  that is how out of it I was!

We all know and love the RIAA for their “consumer-friendly” policies and behaviors (an image about which they are trying to pass the buck - and while you are reading on the topic, go check out Ryan’s DRM-free day), but at CES 2007 I got first-hand knowledge of how they feel about consumers.  I dropped by their booth…

ps – if you need can’t guess the title reference on your own click here…

One of my favorite VC bloggers, Fred Wilson, recently posted on removing some widgets from his blog.  Now Fred clearly attempts to try every plugin ever made, and I applaud him for the efforts.  I’ve tried a few from time to time, and the two that I’ve decided caused the most hassle for LD are now gone.

1. Sitemeter
   Why I used it: Built-in server statistics are less reliable than Windows ME.
   What I liked: Seemed to keep pretty decent stats, and the stats views are real-time.  Very handy for determining who is linking in.  Considered mostly reliable for site metrics.
   What I didn’t like: Tangibly slowed down page-loading, occasionally prevented site from loading in single-digit-seconds.
   How I’m replacing it: Google Analytics.  It doesn’t boast the same real-time capabilities, but I realized that I don’t care enough on a day-to-day basis to watch the numbers anyway.
2. My Del.ici.ous
   Why I used it: Very convenient way for me to link to a story I found interesting without having to add a full blog post for it.
   What I liked: Helped keep content “fresh” on the home page.
   What I didn’t like: Extremely buggy, caused really ugly script errors that were all-too visible.
   How I’m replacing it: I’m not.  I’ll keep bookmarking sites I like, and those who care can track them here.  I’ll probably try to add more short-form blog posts anyway, since my unbelievably long essays are a little much for the average reader.

Anyone have any other plugin recommendations that I should check out?  I browse the WordPress codex intermittently, am I missing the boat on anything?