My comments and observations of the robotic world for the next 4 weeks

Frederick Giasson

In the next month I will rediscover one of my old loves: robotics. I will help Darren Rowse with his blog about robotics breaking news. He asked to his readers if some could help him to take care of some of his blogs for his 4 weeks vacation. When I saw the robotics blog, I was not able to resist the temptation to help him with this one.

So, I will do what Darren was doing: posting breaking news on robotics. However I am not a great fan of copy/pasting breaking news on a blog so it is why I will add my personal touch to each of these pieces of news I found. I will add my comments and observations on each post I will publish in the next 4 weeks. I hope his readers, and mines, will enjoy reading the pieces of news and my comments and observation.

I am not the alone guest blogger, Andy Merette is also on the team.

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What is the most important: a high traffic or high number of subscribed feed readers?

Frederick Giasson

How should we consider if a blog is a success: by analyzing his incoming traffic or by his subscribed feed readers? The traffic is defined by the number of unique visitors or page views per day. On the other hand, the number of subscribed feed readers is defined by the number of unique reader who asks to read the content of the blog’s feed each day.

Someone could say that they are same. The more you got traffic, the more people subscribe to the feed. In most cases, I think that this reasoning is good. However, what if the blogger is an ace when come the time to increase his search engine ranking but that his content is not so interesting? There is the difference when come the time to analyze the meaning the two numbers. The meaning of the two numbers is independent and tells the blogger two different things.

What is the most important: a high traffic or a high number of subscribed feed readers? It is definitely the high number of subscribed feed readers. This number tells me that I have 103 people that open their computers every day and check if I said something interesting that day. They have an interest in my writings. It makes all the difference in the world.

The FredOnSomething blog do not score high in traffic. To tell the truth, I have approximately 30% more subscribed feed readers than unique visitors every day.

So, I would like to take this time to thank you all of you for your support. I reached the symbolic number of 100 subscribed readers yesterday and it is the reason why I wrote this post today. I hope you always enjoy reading it and that I will be able to keep you as a reader in the next months/years.

I would have a question to ask to my readers. Why are you reading this blog considering the not so good English writing? What make you keep reading it?

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Tagging for Getting Things Done – What could be an application of tagging for me

Frederick Giasson

Some days ago I was questioning myself about the utility of tagging everything we find. Today I found a good application of tags when I was reading Getting Things Done. There is what David Allen wrote in his explanation of “The Next Actions List(s)”:

“[…] If you have only twenty or thirty of these, it may be fine to keep them all on one list labeled “Next Actions,” which you’ll review whenever you have any free time. For most of us, however, the number is more likely to be fifty to 150. In that case it makes sense to subdivide your “Next Actions” list into categories, such as “Calls” to make when you?re at a phone or “Project Head Questions” to be asked at your weekly briefing”.

There is a good utility of tags: a way to dynamically categorize or multi-categorize resources.

  • Resources. Anything; in this case the resources are items list.
  • Categorize. A way to classify a resource under a tag, a keyword or a folder name.
  • Multi-categorize. A way to classify a resource under multiple tags, keywords or folders names.
  • Dynamically. The system, and not the user, will put the resource in the good categorize(s)

GTD software that manages “Next Actions” lists would probably benefit by implementing a tagging system to handle this feature. The users’ experience would be enhanced. They would only have to put some keywords to a “Next Action” and this “Next Action” would by classified automatically by the GTD system. This is, I think, the good way to use tags. However, I beg you not to share these tags over the Internet. I do not think that I really want to know what is the most popular “Next Action” that Internet users have to do today or yesterday.

However, it is just the perception I have of this tagging hype. Am I right or totally off the track?

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I write this blog like a Calcuttan that write poetry

Frederick Giasson

“Calcutta is, above all, a city of scribblers. It seems that all Calcuttans feel that they have a right to see their opinions and prejudices in print. “There are two things you will find in the middle-class Bengali characters,” claims Nirmalaya Archarya above the din of ceiling on Bankin Chatterjee Street just off College Street. “They try to write poetry, every Bengali considers himself a poet, and they try to bring out one little magazine.”” — Travelers’ Tales India: True Stories

Calcuttans seems to be born bloggers

I am seeing myself as a Calcuttan when I am writing this blog. I do not have a particular talent in writing, but I am “self-publishing” them. Good or not, I only do what I started to like: writing. I like to write, like Calcuttan scribes. Am I a blogger or not? I do not know, but I am seeing myself as it, like Calcuttans that are seeing themselves as poets.

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The best waterproof pouch for your Moleskine notebook

Frederick Giasson

I am considering to start a travel blog for my next trip to India. However, given the Internet infrastructure there (I am not talking about the major cities), the challenge could be interesting. It is a back to the future with their 33,6k and 56,6k phone modems.

It is why I bought 2 large Moleskine notebooks some months ago. I do not think that I will have the luxury to have a computer for 4 or 5 hours in a row to draft, correct, publish and talk with my readers. It is why I will draft all my posts in the notebooks before publishing them. However, what if I get caught by the rain? No worry, I found the best waterproof travel pouch for these Moleskines notebooks! My Moleskine perfectly fit into the pouch; it seems that it was specifically created for this purpose.

What is interesting is that when I will get them out of my backpack, people will think that I am pulling out some type sailor gears. No, it is not, it is a heavy duty Moleskine waterproof pouch.







I found this pouch in a local CAA service center for only 3.5$CAN. This product is manufactured by Coghlans, a Canadian company. I do not know where you can find such pouches in your Country, and unfortunately you cannot buy them on the Internet from them their website. However, there are some Internet retailers that sell them. Do not search anymore for a waterproof pouch for your Moleskine notebook, you just found it.

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