My blog currently ranks very high on Technorati (#18 on the day of this post), but I think this list is far more relevant. Apparently, I’m the #53 WordPress plugin developer. Largely thanks to WP-Cumulus’ download counter which is well over 50k. Thanks!

Don’t worry. I haven’t switched. But I’ve recently had to alter my perception of Mac users. I used to think of Apple’s clientele as smart, stylish people, who had no trouble parting with substantial sums of money simply to surround themselves with the best-looking devices in the business. But it turns out they’re not unlike me. And I thank a couple of recent iPhone apps for that discovery.

I had a good laugh when I read about iBoobs (see video below) last week. Another app that makes brilliant use of the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer. You need a jailbroken phone to use it, but there are a couple of apps in Apple’s official store as well that prove that their customers are mere humans. In fact, the first statistics released by Apple showed that iPhone users were mostly using their devices to play games. How mundane.

It’s been said that you can not underestimate a target audience. If anything, 2008’s Apple news has made me realize that this is even true for Apple’s user base. So despite the fact that I don’t own a single piece of Cupertino-designed hardware, I feel more like a Mac than ever before.

Now I know that opting for a price-fighter ISP isn’t going to buy me the very best in tech support. But up until now I’ve had no issues, and it’s not that they take a long time to answer questions. It’s that they do not answer them at all. At least not the harder ones.

I guess I’ll have to rely on community support for this one… Anyone else having trouble with Tele2’s DNS being very slow in catching up with changes made to domains?

It’s here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/footer-stuff.

The options page for the plugin is actually a sort of HTML editor that lets you specify the exact output by mixing HTML tags and special codes the represent a comment’s values. This may sound complicated, and admittedly it does require knowledge of HTML, but it is really ultimately flexible. And if it’s all too complicated for you, leave the markup as it is. The default still bests WordPress’ widget.

I’ve set it up on the sidebar of this blog, and I feel the little gravatars look great and the short comment snippets are far more likely to spark discussion than simply naming the commenter’s (nick)name. I’ve also opted to filter out trackbacks, another great feature. Highly recommended.

I’ve had very little trouble with my ISP (Tele2) since I joined them, but their DNS server appears to be… well crap basically. It seems to be very slow to update, and as a result I’ve been unable to see my own sites when everyone else could visit them just fine. For days.

Perhaps I’ve grown cynical but I really didn’t think there would be free alternatives out there. I’ve set up my netbook to use OpenDNS (after which I could instantly visit my sites again). Haven’t notices any speed differences yet, but the typo correction works (adn is graet for me). The phishing filter also sounds like a great idea. It makes more sense to do this at a DNS level instead of say in the browser.

So, anyone want to share experiences? Is this as great a service as it sounds?

Although still a work in progress, I quite like the results so far. It’s cleaner, it uses less Flash(*) and it loads extremely fast. The design still needs work and I definitely need a better tagline (wanna help me out with that one?).

* = I’ve come to believe that using Flash to create fancy titles simply isn’t worth the trouble. For one thing, most mobile phone browsers don’t support Flash, and the old theme looked terrible on those as a result. Flash is great for lots of things, but having 10+ movies on one page just to have specific font is like shooting a mosquito with a cannon (as we say here in the Netherlands).

I’m testing a little plugin I whipped up in 15 minutes on this blog. It allows you to copy paste code snippets into a text area (located on an options page under ‘Design’). That code is then inserted into you blog’s footer without the need to edit any template files.

I can’t believe there isn’t a plugin already that does this. Doesn’t everyone have lots of little code snippets that need to be added between the body tags of the blog? Doesn’t everyone hate having to copy those from one theme to the next when switching themes? Am I missing something?

Would any of you consider using this? Should I try developing this into something worth releasing?

I usually do plenty of research before buying gadgets so there are very few purchases I regret, but this year there’s one that I feel really bad about. My Logitech MX1000 laser mouse. Not because it’s a bad mouse, quite the contrary in fact, but because it lacks a tail.

I’ve probably spent more than half my professional career with a Logitech mouse in my hand. They’re great. Even the cheap Dell-relabeled ones are a pleasure to work with. Except for my last one, an LX3, which had trouble with the smooth white surface of my desk. I looked into high-end mouse pads to solve this but ended up getting an MX1000 instead because it was on sale and the laser sensor would probably solve the problem as well. And it did, but at a cost…

Pros and cons

Most people buy cordless mice for one of two reasons. Freedom of movement and reduced desktop clutter. In return you get the hassle of having to charge the mouse’s batteries and increased weight.

Weight
Because of the batteries, cordless mice are heavier. This one isn’t particularly bad, but some cause noticeably more strain on your arm. I prefer my mice light and nimble, so this was a step backwards from the LX3.

Charging
The MX1000 comes with a cradle, which is very convenient. When fully charged the mouse will work for several days. No batteries to load and swap, so it’s almost as comfortable as working with a regular mouse. Now if only the cradle wasn’t so ugly…

Freedom of movement
I think that most people who have trouble moving their non-cordless mouse around should try two things. One is to clean up their desk and the other is to put a small piece of adhesive tape over the cord at the back of the desk. This will keep the rest of the cord from pulling at the mouse. With that little tweak I’ve never had any trouble with regular mice. So for me the MX1000 isn’t any better because it lacks a cord.

Clutter
The MX1000’s cradle needs wires to be plugged into a power socket and into your computer’s USB port. So instead of a single wire that connects the mouse to my computer I now have two, as well a hideous plastic mouse stand on my desk. If anything it has increased the amount of clutter.

Help, my mouse is killing trees!

But why I really feel bad about getting this mouse is that although it (for me) offers nothing extra over a good cord mouse it does come at a cost to the environment. For one thing it needs the power adapter to be plugged in to charge. In practice this means that it’s plugged in 24/7, and these little power bricks are notorious for leaking power. And when the battery inside the mouse wears out, I’ll need to replace it. Probably the whole mouse in fact, causing toxic waste as the batteries contain all sorts of nasty metals.

So compared to a USB mouse it consumes more power and causes more waste. Probably not a lot by absolute standards, but you have to consider that there are a billion PCs in use worldwide. If all of them would switch to cordless mice the pollution would really add up.

So if you’re in the market for a new mouse, please consider getting one with a tail. Most of us only move the mouse within a couple of square inches and have no real need for it to be wireless. This is even more true for keyboards. There are a lot of instances where a cordless setup can be very handy, but if you, like me, are a regular desktop user, chances are you’ll be just as happy with regular mouse. And the environment will thank you.

In a move that’s somewhat unusual for Google, they released version 1.0 of their Chrome browser today. This probably eliminates the last reason not to try this new browser for people who are hesitant to try beta software. Versions 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 were already pretty stable, and judging from the announcement blog post they’ve managed to make it even faster.

If you haven’t already, your should try Chrome. I’ve used it as my default browser for months now, and it’s a delight. Whenever I need to go back to Firefox (mostly to test client work) it feels sluggish and heavy by comparison. The only key feature currently missing from Chrome is an extension system, but that’s exactly what they’re working on. Let’s hope the find a way to incorporate that and still retain Chrome’s incredible speed.

On a side note: Gmail remains a beta, even though I’ve pretty much been torture-testing it for years now and it hasn’t so much as hiccuped in all that time.