Moving On From Carolina Day

In early June I’ll wish my 7th graders godspeed and wrap up my time at Carolina Day School. It will be a bittersweet day (and next few months) but I’m excited about the remaining time I have with my students and colleagues to learn and grow in the halls (and on the many stairs) of Stephens.

I have so much love for my two years of students there. Both my current 7th graders and the now 8th grade group have taught me more than they’ll ever know about life and I’ll be eternally thankful to have spent a couple of rotations around our closest star learning about the universe with them.

Similarly, my colleagues are amazing people and teachers. I love our Middle School team and am so thankful to have been in their presence the last two years (smelly “workhole” and all). Our 7th grade team is the best group of folks I’ve ever worked with and their daily inspiration and talent is beyond words. It’s hard to think of leaving at this point because we’re firing on all cylinders and really hitting harmonies and resonant frequencies as a team. I’ll never forget the real excitement that they make me feel for teaching and especially learning.

However, it is the time for me to move on professionally. As I told Peggy Daniels, our Middle School Head, today, “I’m really good at working with people but not so good at working for people”.

My views and philosophy on education necessitate that I follow a different path. I’m not exactly sure what that looks like (“the woods are lovely dark and deep”). Yet I know that drive will take me and my career down a road that is still covered in snow because I have miles to go before I sleep (beg pardon of Robert Frost there).

So what’s next? I have a couple of interviews at exciting local schools but I also have the nagging persistence of StudiesLab.

It’s a business plan and educational model I’ve had written for years in my head (and on paper) of decentralized, cooperative and authentic education based not on 19th century content delivery for Victorian factory workers but on current research aimed at producing world changers. A place for round pegs in a world of square holes. A prayer for hope and humility and learning.

Or something like that.

Regardless, it’s time to plant sequoias.

Chrome Over Android

This is the main impetus of Google’s recent moves with Android and Chrome… it’s not about user experience or trying to slim down.

It’s about control. Google has lost control of Android to Samsung, Amazon etc and knows its future is with ChromeOS (especially given that Windows 8 is a flop and Apple is stumbling in the cloud region):

Is Android Vs. Chrome A Metaphor For Apps Vs. Mobile Web?: “If Wilcox is right, and Chrome is a stand-in for the browser and Internet, while Android represents an app-centric mobile experience, then it makes sense Google would favor and promote Chrome over Android in the longer term. That’s their bias.”

Changing Platforms Like Socks

Sounds like something I would write…

Change platforms: “Windows Phone 8 is my personal favourite smartphone operating system, as it fits my usage patterns and visual preferences perfectly. Yet, I will still move to an entirely new, unproven, and untested platform later this year (if Sailfish is out by then). The reason is simple: always try to broaden your horizon. Never get stuck in one place. Never become lazy. Never settle. Never let the same set of neurons fire. Never come to rely on any one company.”

Better yet, I try to be platform agnostic and focus as much as I can on using web-based utilities that work on any platform. It’s not always easy or pretty but it works.

Google Reader Sharing Replaced by Feedly

It’s insanely interesting to me how quickly people are replacing the “sharing cred” feature that once made Google Reader very valuable with Feedly…

Tips for Google Reader users migrating to feedly | Building Feedly: “When you hover on an article or inline it, you should see a bookmark icon. We call it the save for later icon. It functions similarly to the Google Reader star mechanism.”

When Google Reader was in its prime, one of the most fascinating features was seeing how many times an article had been shared or favorited etc… now Feedly is picking up that slack and it’s really going to take off as a result.

Google missed a huge opportunity by shutting down Reader.

Updates to My RSS Feed and Feed Reading

NewImage

Now that Google has officially killed Google Reader, I’ve decided to make sure my feed here doesn’t get borked in a similar fashion when Google decides to kill Feedburner.

So, my RSS feed is back home at http://samharrelson.com/feed. I’ve got about 800 people who are subscribed to the RSS feed, so if you’re seeing that through the old link, you’ll need to resubscribe to get updates. Sorry. Pull the band-aid and all.

It’s only a matter of time before Google kills Feedburner now that it has officially divorced RSS.

Some folks on Twitter have asked what RSS reader I’m going to be switching to now that Reader is dead (dying quickly) and if I’m using Feedly.

I’m not using Feedly although it looks pretty nice. I’ve actually switched back to Fever. I’ve been an on-again-off-again user of the service for years since it launched and have it installed on this service. It’s fantastic and all but definitely not something for everyone (or most). For one, it’s a server side install and for two it’s not something that looks anything like Google Reader or a snappy web app in 2013 and for three it’s not being heavily developed.

That being said, it’s located on my server, does a great job and delivers an awesome experience whether I’m on my Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Chromebook or Macbook. So, for those things and more, it’s perfect for me. If you’re geeky, go try it out.

All that to say, RSS is insanely important to me. Google Reader has been the hub of my web experience over the past six or so years since I decided to invest myself in it as my main feed-reading platform over the likes of Bloglines or NetNewsWire or Netvibes. I’m sad to see it go and I fear the worst for the once-beloved and under-developed Feedburner platform as well.

I need a solid and reliable RSS reader to navigate the 256 sites I currently subscribe to and try to religiously read through each day. It’s something I do that is evidently old fashioned and antiquated now, but oh so incredibly valuable nonetheless.

Search for Affiliates via Geolocation on AvantLink

Now we just need to get this narrowed down to states (and eventually zips):

AvantLink Launches Geolocation Affiliate Tool – Affiliate Marketing Blog: “AvantLink has announced an update to their affiliate recruitment and application management tools.
Merchants can now search for affiliates based on the originating country for the majority of an affiliates traffic.”

Twitter and Facebook Are Not Google Reader Replacements

I have to solidly disagree with this:

RSS still matters a great deal.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ (even Tumblr)…these social gardens with their nice walls are fantastic but social “curation” isn’t the right path ahead for establishing a real presence on the web because you’re always serving a master that could go away.

There’s nothing like having a namespace that identifies and/or reflects you.

It’s something I try to get through to students, clients, friends and family.

That’s why I like the idea of dogfooding the open web and encouraging others to do so. Eventually after the social web bubble pops, we’ll get back to the realization that having yourname.com or some iteration thereof is insanely powerful and needed.

Now that Google Reader is dead, I’m switching back to Fever for my RSS reading. I literally live in my RSS reader and it’s a beyond-valuable piece of technology that drives everything from my business to my research to my studies to my obsessions to my love of history etc. Having a reliable, synced and powerful RSS reader capable of handling the 500 or so feeds I (try to) read on a daily basis is important.

Yes, Fever is a pesky self-installed piece of software that is definitely not for everyone. I’d suggest something like Feedly or Pulse or Flipboard for 99% of people.

However, for those of us who were there when blogging was The Social Network and RSS feed reading was the Newsfeed back in 2004, something like Flipboard just doesn’t cut it.

Fever is fantastic for my needs. Again, it’s a self-install and has minimal amounts of developer involvement, but it’s a fantastic program. The fact that it is self-hosted on my server that I pay for and have to keep up makes me like it even more for some Google-Reader-backlash-lizard-brain reason.

Since I’m mostly on my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 these days when I’m not using my Chromebook or this Macbook Pro Retina, I’ve been testing out Meltdown app as my mobile interface for Fever. It seems to be doing the job just fine at the moment and is a great Android experience for Fever. It’s a no-frills and minimalistic take on feed reading, but that’s exactly what I was looking for.

Maybe Marco is right and it is excellent news for the RSS reader industry (and RSS in general) that Google Reader is shutting down.

Regardless, this is just painful to watch now.