Disqus - Latest Comments for Sid Savara

Re: Russia vs Georgia

Sid Savara — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:25:23 -0000

Ok, so I don't know all the details about the conflict and who was right and who was wrong, but as far as the chain of events and asking for help I think that cartoon is awesome for laying it all out =)

I'm a new visitor here, and I gotta say, I LOVE your comment form. I may steal the idea for a background for mine =)

Sid Savara - Personal Development and Life Hackings last blog post..Are You Really Working - or Just Using Metawork as an Excuse to Avoid Real Work?

Re: I Need Your Blogs!

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:17:24 -0000

Hey -

I'm late to the party, but I'd love it if you subscribed to my blog if you find personal development interesting. I cover personal development, productivity, and soon perhaps life hacking. I found your blog because someone stumbled mine, and one thing led to another and here I am!

Sid Savaras last blog post..Are You Really Working - or Just Using Metawork as an Excuse to Avoid Real Work?

Re: Standing Out From The Crowd With Posterous

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:19:52 -0000

I saw Posterous somewhere else as well, someone was talking about it. It's cool, and it's amazing how over the years the technical barriers to entry keep getting lowered as people find new ways to make blogging easier. I'm sure that's a good thing.

Sid Savaras last blog post..Are You Really Working - or Just Using Metawork as an Excuse to Avoid Real Work?

Re: What type of Social Network user are you?

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:21:24 -0000

I use SU for finding new sites and cool things to read, and but I like to bookmark things in delicious.

Of course, occasionally I'll forget to delicious something, and it's great to know that I can hunt through my past stumbles and look for sites I enjoyed reading!

Sid Savaras last blog post..Are You Really Working - or Just Using Metawork as an Excuse to Avoid Real Work?

Re: Building Online Friendships The Right Way

Sid Savara — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:04:39 -0000

Hehe, I actually like the posts that are a little "too" intimate as you said, but I agree with you - people who post so often that they down out the rest of the people I am trying to follow are in for a quick unfriending/unfollowing ;)

Sid Savaras last blog post..Leveraging Expertise - On The Shoulders Of Giants

Re: Startup Communities and Startup Failure

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:21:03 -0000

Thanks for pointing these out. I especially love reading post mortems - it's easy to say what you did right when you're a success, but I think we all learn more from reading about critical mistakes made by others.

Re: Startup Fundraising According to Paul Graham

Sid Savara — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:37:50 -0000

Wow a CEO spends 60-70% of his time fundraising? I expected it to be high, but I was expecting more in the range of 30%ish. Although I suppose really any time spent briefing people, evangelizing the product, etc could be considered as fundraising depending on how you categorize it.

Re: Why we bill by the hour

Sid Savara — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:46:00 -0000

I think this depends on the job, and the level of trust the client has in your abilities. If you're talking about multiple man month projects in particular, I agree it's flat out irresponsible to claim you'll do it for X dollars in Y days with Z vague requirements.

Re: WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin

Sid Savara — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:11:28 -0000

Thaya -

First thanks for releasing the plugin, it's awesome!

Unfortunately, I have discovered some incompatibility with the DISQUS javascript plugin, but only in IE7. It works fine in Firefox. SInce I am using DISQUS to power my comments, unfortunately I had to turn off WP-Greetbox,even though it's one of my favorite plugins. Just wanted to let you know, it's quite possible it's not the fault of your plugin but rather DISQUS. I have informed them of the issue as well.

Re: WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:14:48 -0000

Hi Thaya,

BTW, the day after I made the comment, DISQUS released 2.0 of their plugin. So I installed it, and am first making sure that's solid. It appears to be.

I am going to try out WP-Greetbox with it again when I get home today, in case they have fixed the issue. Also, here is the thread where I told them of the issue:

http://disqus.disqus.com/ie_issues_with_wordpre...

Interesting, other people also have had issues

It appears DISQUS and various other plugins also had issues, so I don't think the issue is isolated to WP-Greetbox - it's probably just one of those things where they are doing JS one way, and you (and other plugins) are trying to load another way. Or something - I am not as skilled at JS as you are =)

A feature request also - this may make the plugin more complex, but since we are tracking cookies, would it be possible to show the visitor different things depending on whether they are returning from the same referring domain?

For example, a delicious user visiting who has visited multiple times or something - they may just have it bookmarked.

Re: 3 Web Design Mistakes That You May Need to Fix NOW

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:20:50 -0000

I really love the new RSS Feed icon as well, it's awesome. Is that creative commons'ed as well? Would totally understand if it's not. Did you create that?

Re: 3 Web Design Mistakes That You May Need to Fix NOW

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:08:36 -0000

Cool! That site is great. I am going to go use some of their other freeware icons =). You did a great job matching the icon with your main logo design - it all looks really good with similar styles.

Re: WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:40:40 -0000

@Thaya

Sure I will try it out tonight and report back by this weekend on the DISQUS issue! I have been using "What Would Seth Godin Do" as a replacement, but I think your plugin is superior - more granularity, and Javascript checking versus server side comparison.

I have not tried SezWho, is that what you are using? I basically use DISQUS because a few blogs I read were using it, and it allows you to reply via email to any new comment or replies, and that becomes a blog comment (which I thought would be great, since I always have my blackberry). That said, SezWho may have the same functionality.

I think that what you and I are talking about are two slightly different features. I think your way would be MUCH more powerful (and might be a little scary for users ;) "I know you like my blog, and you've read these 5 pages, but not this 6th one, Welcome! MWAHAHAHA". What I was suggesting was just a simple counter like "what would seth godin do" where it shows the message the first 5 times, and then stops harassing them =).

I'm sure whatever you put into the plugin will be excellent though - it's super polished. I'll probably write a review of it on my blog at some point. Or maybe I should keep it a secret for myself ;)

Re: WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:27:56 -0000

I actually had a bit of the opposite train of thought regarding the "taking over your comments." It is true, DISQUS has them all on their servers. The new version (2.0) syncs it with both your blog and their servers, however I liked the idea of being able to go to DISQUS.com and seeing all my comments I had made EVERYWHERE and also being able to just reply in thread. That way I don't have to check every blog I comment on.

For example (and this is an example, not trying to convince you) if you used DISQUS, I always have my dashboard open. I would be able to see you replying to my comments there, and reply there. Or, if I am somewhere away from a computer, I can reply via email, even though it's your blog and not mine, because it's all DISQUS powered. Right now, I have to keep coming back here to comment.

My hope is that someday many blogs will be disqus powered, and I won't have to keep returning to the webpage to reply - just reply from my blackberry, or from the dashboard. I also like the fact that anyone can view my profile on disqus and see wherever I have commented (though I am not really taking advantage of that feature much, since few blogs so far are DISQUS powered relative to how many I read)

================
Topic switch!

I agree with making any new features "advanced options" - don't want to make the plugin TOO complicated. Other users may be intimidated by it otherwise!

Another feature request - Is there a way to also have a default "noscript" type thing? Like if someone has JS turned off, I want to always show them a "welcome to my blog, please subscribe!" message. Right now (I believe) the "default" message only shows if it does a cookie check in JS.

I know some PHP, JS, etc - if you would like to give me access to it (you would own everything - it's your plugin) I would be happy to work with you on it. I know I can edit the PHP right now, but if you have a source control system somewhere we could use that - or I can just edit and email you changes. So far I have not done anything to it.

Re: Make Your WordPress 10X faster During Traffic Storms

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:12:39 -0000

Any updates on this one? This is a pretty cool idea. I think wrapping it up in a plugin with a "default lite" theme would probably be sufficient - and maybe at the top a little message telling users hey, this is a optimized theme, heavy load! Come back to see the regular site =)

Re: WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:14:58 -0000

Ahhh! Comment preview ate my comment!

So basically what I said was that DISQUS and SezWho are pretty similar I guess - one big difference is blogs I read already had DISQUS, so I went with them. Also, DISQUS has upmod/downmod versus ratings, and I am not sure which is better/worse.

Cool, if I make any changes I will send them to you and let you know =). I probably won't get to anything for quite a while as I'm working on my content for my blog and have a hectic schedule for the next few weeks, but this is my favorite new plugin!

Re: WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin

Sid Savara — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:34:28 -0000

So, happy to report back - success! It appears it must have been a DISQUS issue, as it is all working now that I've upgraded. Was considering emailing you, but I felt it would be good to have it in a comment for anyone using DISQUS who might be concerned. It works great.

I will report back if there are any further issues. So far, so good.

Also, FYI, there is del.icio.us and now there is delicious.com. I went ahead and added it manually in my plugin, perhaps you may want to consider adding it as another default entry.

Re: The Lack of Value in Blog Value Calculators

Sid Savara — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:14:32 -0000

Ok, so maybe they're not accurate, but they're still a lot of fun =). I love putting different websites in and seeing how they compare.

Although nothing comes close to the TechCrunch/BoingBoing behemoths!

Sid Savara - Personal Development and Life Hacking's last blog post..Are You Really Working - or Just Using Metawork as an Excuse to Avoid Real Work?

Re: High PR Link Directory List

Sid Savara — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:14:59 -0000

Personally, I would rather see it on a separate links page. You could turn it into a resource with some of the other links you have posted in your blog as well =)

Sid Savara's last blog post..The Curse of the Worst Acceptable Solution

Re: 2008/08/19/online-note-taking-applications/

Sid Savara — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:37:42 -0000

Interesting that delicious didn't make the list - I know it's not strictly note taking, but I basically tag my notes with a specific tag (if the note is a task or something to do with the website) and then process them every couple days - filing them away as needed, or in some cases just leaving the note on the site itself as reference.

Re: 2008/08/19/powerset-advertising/

Sid Savara — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:53:07 -0000

Personally, I think you need to be able to offer both. As an advertiser, I don't care whether you're figuring out the searcher's intention, or whether based on keywords I can figure out their intention - all I care about is when I get 1 buying customer for every X dollars I spend on ads, am I making enough to justify bidding on the ad - whether it's a "concept", keyword, or whatever. I think at some point though with all the data being collected about surfing habits, there will be amazing granularity - like, show my ad to someone who just visited Nike.com and now is searching for "running shoes" - because as an advertiser, perhaps I know that that's where I can make a sale.

Re: 2008/08/20/gmail-security/

Sid Savara — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:11:52 -0000

I noticed that as well, I always use SSL - so much of my life is controlled by email. I recognize that the risk might be minimal, but the prevention is equally painless - so why not just leave it in SSL mode all the time and at least make it challenging for someone to steal it.

Re: Tweet From the Command Line

Sid Savara — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:50:00 -0000

I wonder how many other developers have built their own little app to do the same thing. Now all you need is a way to grab tweets into a log and tail it, and you're in business...

Re: Tweet From the Command Line

Sid Savara — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:50:00 -0000

I wonder how many other developers have built their own little app to do the same thing. Now all you need is a way to grab tweets into a log and tail it, and you're in business...

Re: Ruby on Rails Hosting for Your New RoR Super App

Sid Savara — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:47:43 -0000

Cool! Any experience with Heroku? Have heard very good things about htem too, not sure if their service is similar/comparable.

Re: Webside Chat with Darren Rowse, ProBlogger

Sid Savara — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:16:16 -0000

Wow Jack! I am a huge fan of Darren Rowse and of your site as well. This is amazing. I was just thinking myself, if I had a half hour of Darren's time what would I ask him. I haven't had a chance to watch all of it yet, but I'm planning on setting aside some time this evening to do so!

<abbr>Sid Savara - Personal Developments last blog post..Are You Really Working - or Just Using Metawork as an Excuse to Avoid Real Work?</abbr>

Re: News I Choose

Sid Savara — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:30:16 -0000

Thanks for searching all over and finding the best posts! I had skimmed the copy blogger one about online marketing success, but after your recommendation I decided to go back for a deeper look, and you're right - it was definitely worth a read.

Re: Webside Chat with Heather Armstrong, Dooce.com

Sid Savara — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:38:02 -0000

Great post! I am very surprised at the level of success she has, not because I doubt her, but because it is very very hard to get people involved in a personal blog of someone they don't even know. At least you and me have a common interest - reading your blog is educational, I learn things I can apply. But I don't even read my some of my friends' personal blogs, they're terrible ;). Kudos to her!

BTW, your footer appears to not be working anymore, it says:

We are planning to write more posts about "" next week. Subscribe to the RSS feed for getting informed about it. (nothing inside the quotes - I'm guessing it should show either a category or a tag)

<abbr>Sid Savaras last blog post..Why 3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined</abbr>

Re: The Ultimate Guide on How to make Flock or Firefox Run Faster

Sid Savara — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:37:18 -0000

This just in - Sid Savara registers mindfox.com

Kidding ;). I think it's definitely a tradeoff - I constantly curse at my FF and/or Flock for running slow and bloated, but at the same time I really love all the extensions I use. For me, the instability, the occasional "white tab of nothingness" etc is worth it to be able to customize my browser as much as I do.

<abbr>Sid Savaras last blog post..Why 3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined</abbr>

Re: Michel Fortin: People Do Judge Authors By Their Covers

Sid Savara — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:12:09 -0000

Sadly it's so true - if someone visits a site and is turned off by the design, they'll never read the content. On the other hand, I think this is good opportunity to succeed where your competitors don't - building a slick, functional, and easily accessible website automatically puts you ahead of many people.

The "halo effect" is particularly interesting - I wonder whether this also affects you if you have been visiting a blog for a while, that you enjoy for information alone, and the design is just ok - and they then update their design. Perhaps you'll start to take them more seriously, and assume they've become more successful.

<abbr>Sid Savaras last blog post..Why 3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined</abbr>

Re: What to do When Your RSS Subscribers Disappear in FeedBurner

Sid Savara — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:37:20 -0000

Interesting. I had one day where I dropped to virtually no subscribers, and I had a similar thought. Initially I panicked - had I just offended everyone and alienated my reader base?

Fortunately it turned out to not be the case, and all is well ;)

<abbr>Sid Savaras last blog post..Why 3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined</abbr>

Re: The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

Sid Savara — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:40:48 -0000

Dave -

I used to have a website years ago where I collected writings I would find online that inspired me - like this one. Eventually maintenance of it got the better of me, and like so many things we love in life I no longer was motivated to keep it up.

I am glad I found your site. I no longer have to maintain mine, since in the future I can just point people here. Thanks for sharing this, and please keep up your blog =)

Re: Gaining self confidence

Sid Savara — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:25:24 -0000

David, I agree we need to set outside our comfort zone to grow. I wonder if perhaps there are exercises or strategies that you would recommend for some very specific situations (such social anxiety, fear of rejection, etc) that might be useful for people who want to gain self confidence, but perhaps lack direction, and specifics of how to do so? It's easy to say "Well, step out of your comfort zone!" but perhaps some people would like some specific recommendations (e.g., talk to 5 people a day, etc).

Sid Savara's last blog post..Are You Really Working - or Just Using Metawork as an Excuse to Avoid Real Work?

Re: Randy Pausch – stories on how to live

Sid Savara — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:14:13 -0000

David -

Thanks for sharing this with your readers (although you're right, it has been around for a while) and also for your summary. While he doesn't discuss confidence or self esteem directly, I think watching it is still related to the broader picture of who you are and developing a complete understanding of what you want and how to get it. I think those messages still resonate with anyone working on their confidence and self esteem.

Sid Savara's last blog post..Leveraging Expertise - On The Shoulders Of Giants

Re: How to Deliver a Criticism Sandwich

Sid Savara — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:24:25 -0000

While I can't argue whether the exact approach is good or bad, I love the comic. And in general, I do think it is better to provide praise and "sandwich" the criticism in the middle, so you begin and end on a high note.

<abbr>Sid Savaras last blog post..The Curse of the Worst Acceptable Solution</abbr>