:Running Down the Way Up

Watching the city come alive in the morning is a special treat that I often get to enjoy. Viewed from my balcony, or from walking the empty streets, it is an experience most people up at this hour take for granted. But who can blame them really? Too busy to smell the flowers. Rushing for that one streetcar that will get you to work on time. Feeling the drudgery of yet another day. Hugging that warm cup of coffee that will give you the first of many boosts. Is it Friday yet?

Yet the sun reflects from the office towers to the east with its first rays touching the surface of the city. A warm and welcoming pink glows from the clouds. Birds start their songs and take to the skies from their sleeping places in groups, feeling the sharp morning air and looking for their first meal. The noise level on Queen Street West is at first quiet. Then slowly it raises as more streetcars travel on the steel tracks, and the cars start to come awake with their masters at the wheel heading towards their destinations. A city man with its bright reflective yellow jacket, sweeps the sidewalk. Construction cranes are already moving their heavy loads. The beeps from a truck backing up can be heard echoing and bouncing off the faces of the buildings. Car horns. Metal pipes hitting the ground. Screakie streetcar breaks. It is a slow cadence that if one listens for it, can give you the feeling of a city waking up. But it’s not just a feeling. The city is waking up. And somewhere out there, some lucky pigeons are enjoying a fat piece of banana bread.

I’ll be part of this process in a short little while. I’ll be just another human, following the daily routine that gets one to work. It sounds boring yet not always. You do the same thing every day. Some days its easier then others. Some days you don’t want to leave the warmth of your bed, the softness of your pillow, the tender touch of your partner. You hit snooze a few times hoping for a little more blissfulness, the return to the dream you were just having. One more sweet embrace…

But you get up. You belong out there too. You have a place to take, a part to play. Soon you’ll be in it. Soon you will struggle to remember what right now feels like. Soon you will be standing in the crowded street car, reading your book, listening to your ipod or alone with your thoughts. Soon you’ll be at your desk, or behind your counter, saying good morning to your co-workers or customers. Knowing that they too have gone through their own struggles to get up and be here in their own way. Different yet the same.

The day has started. There is new hope in the air, a smile on your face. Get out there.

When I was around 16 and just really getting into playing guitar, Ibanez released the JEM 777v series. I wanted one badly but could not afford the then $3K price tag. Fast forward to today, a store bankruptcy, a forum post, a loss of hope and a few emails.

Can’t fucking wait!

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been noticing that my friend thebigjc has been leaving me links in my del.icio.us. Of course i wondered how it was done. Nothing was right away obvious, so i gave up after 2 minutes (that’s my attention span these days). But today I figured it out.

First, add a friend to your network, then when you are tagging just add “for:YOURFRIEND” just like any other tag, and voila.

Sutori is in beta! and I got some feedback/bugs These will be in somewhat random order.

Stories

• Having the story ID on the post name doesn’t read well. I would lose the ID on the post. I understand why it is there, but why not do what WordPress does on duplicate titles for example?
• There is no “next” link on a story listing page.
• Can’t preview a story before posting (at least it appears so, i haven’t posted a story :))

Profile

• Can’t change password in edit profile.
• Can’t see email address when signing in. The field is not long enough, I would suggest a more traditional approach here.
• When editing profile, there is a web site name which needs to be filled in if you give a link or the link will not render. I would say, render the link if no site name is available anyway.
• Can’t add links to the profile description or html. Some limited html would be good, like simple formatting, maybe links.

In General:

• The tag cloud on the top right seems to stand out too much. The section bellow it is not really visible. No real suggestions here yet.
• What about sending out sutori invites? ya just like gmail, except the more love the more invites?
• It would be nice to see a list of my recent comments and voted for them.
• When posting a comment, have the agree/disagree option as it relates to the story in question. It kinda ruins the flow to have to go back to the top of the page to “vote”, but make it not mandatory.
• I love the default monkey icon. He looks somewhat familiar
• Not sure if “remember me” functionality is planned, but its handy to have.
• Needs “forgot password”.
• The text font used in the images, apart from the logo is hard to read and looks “messy”. A font that small and chubby just doesn’t alias well.
• ATOM/RSS feeds - be l33t and just offer ATOM
• What’s the default session time out? I just got logged out
• How is the featured story chosen?

That is it for now. It has been interesting reading the stories posted so far. I need to go out and buy something so I have something to post. Great Job guys! And be sure to stop by the Sutori Blog for news on the site.

Tim Bray is by far one of my favourite bloggers. Always full of insight. Today is no different, and it is about something that hits home. I’ll just post here verbatum what the post is since it is so short, but do go visit:

“User-Generated Content” is an irreparably ugly and broken phrase. First, we’re people, not “users”. Second, people write and speak and design and compose and sing and play and build and earn and pay; machines “generate”. Third, it’s words and pictures and sound and money, not “content”. The trouble is, we need labels; short ones that still say something. Say, contribution and experience? The Net (really, truly) is the sum of billions of contributions from millions of people, and that’s all that’s interesting about it. People contribute at the edge, and experience the contributions at the edge. (Experience, not consume; the difference is obvious). The Net itself’s a contribution, by humanity to humanity, the engine of future contribution and experience. The Net’s not finished of course; contributing and experiencing, both of them, are too hard and awkward and slow.